HELP!!! Late hatching quail eggs!!

[Random0524]

This is my first time hatching quail eggs. It's day 18 and there is no sign of piping. My temperature is around 95° Fahrenheit (I can't seem to raise it up higher) and my humitidy is around 40% which I know is really low but I can't seem to raise it at all!! I've tried wet towels, adding more water bowls, I've even tried attaching a humidifier in the incubator but the humidity won't go up!!

Any help will be appreciated!!!

 

[JaeG]

They can take up to 21 days so just be patient (don't worry - I know how hard that is). There may have been a bit of a temperature dip that set some back, and they will pip internally and wait until they know enough of them are going to hatch at a similar time. If there are no external pips you could take a few out, one at a time, without turning the egg at all (or the chick may get confused and try and turn around) and candle to see if you can see any little shadows in the air cell. Good luck!

 

[Random0524]

They can take up to 21 days so just be patient (don't worry - I know how hard that is). There may have been a bit of a temperature dip that set some back, and they will pip internally and wait until they know enough of them are going to hatch at a similar time. If there are no external pips you could take a few out, one at a time, without turning the egg at all (or the chick may get confused and try and turn around) and candle to see if you can see any little shadows in the air cell. Good luck!

I just candled them and sadly 7 out of 12 had died, the rest of the eggs i could not see through but I could see the air cell. I didn't see any shadow like you mentioned but I guess I'll just wait until Tuesday (day 21) and see what happens! Thank you so much for the advice!!!

 

[JaeG]

They may just be a day or two behind 'schedule'. I've had them hatch early, I've had them hatch late all in the same incubator, so it happens! Hopefully you'll get a few little hatchlings. I've got my fingers crossed for you.

 

[Random0524]

They may just be a day or two behind 'schedule'. I've had them hatch early, I've had them hatch late all in the same incubator, so it happens! Hopefully you'll get a few little hatchlings. I've got my fingers crossed for you.

My temperature went down to 91° for over 2 hours but thankfully I got it to rise up again. Turns out there were many small holes asking my incubator (it's homemade) and the air was escaping though those holes. I just finished patching them up and the temperature is now 99° and the humidity is 48%!!!!

Do you think the temperature fluctuation might have killed the remaining eggs?

 

[JaeG]

It takes quite a long time for the egg temperature to cool down enough to kill the chick and towards the end of incubation they are actually producing heat for themselves, so I think they'll be alright. Humidity is affected by the surface area exposed to the air to the larger the surface area the better. Try and get it up to at least 60% but make sure there is some ventilation, although for the small number of eggs you are now hopefully hatching (fingers crossed) you won't need much, just a little gap somewhere that fresh air can sneak in.

 

[Random0524]

It takes quite a long time for the egg temperature to cool down enough to kill the chick and towards the end of incubation they are actually producing heat for themselves, so I think they'll be alright. Humidity is affected by the surface area exposed to the air to the larger the surface area the better. Try and get it up to at least 60% but make sure there is some ventilation, although for the small number of eggs you are now hopefully hatching (fingers crossed) you won't need much, just a little gap somewhere that fresh air can sneak in.

So I was trying to raise the humidity by misting the incubator and my bulb broke!!! I put in a 40 watt bulb as a replacement but my 60 watt lightbulb had a hard time getting the temp up so I doubt the 40 watt is going to work but hopefully the temp will at least stay in the 90's until I get a new replacement. The good news is I got the humidity up to 54%!!!

 

[Random0524]

Update:

I got the humidity up to a whopping 84%!!! The temp is 95 which surprised me considering it's doing better than the 60 watt lightbulb!!! Hopefully I'll get some hatching tomorrow or Tuesday!!!

 

[JaeG]

Sorry about your bulb troubles but sounds like the 40 watt is doing ok for you. I like the humidity quite high. I aim for about 80% as that means I can open my cheap incubator and remove chicks that need it without drying any that have pipped out.

We hatched our first coturnix chicks in a homemade incubator. We set 8 eggs and 6 hatched but one just didn't seem to recover from hatching and died soon after. It's not unusual to lose the odd chick so don't beat yourself up if that happens. But hopefully it won't.

It is always agony waiting for them to hatch. I don't think I'll ever get used to it.

 

[Random0524]

I think I might turn off the fan to increase the temperature (my sister told me it was 100° when the fan was off) and just make it a still air incubator for the last couple of days-or until the eggs hatch (there is some vents/holes so I don't think oxygen will be a problem).

What do you suggest?