Infertile eggs...

[Fivehollers]

Maybe I should have named this thread, what makes eggs stop developing? We had about 300 eggs ready for the hatcher hubby candled them last night and we are lucky to have 40 good eggs. What is going on. Most of them did not have anything, not even a dot inside them. And some were just half developed. We have been having almost 100 percent of the eggs that are good hatch but that is not enough when you look at the numbers of eggs produced daily and weekly. WE do not have a large flock of quail but we are getting about 200 eggs every 5 days from 15 breeding pairs. Does anyone have any suggestions? or is this just something we have to deal with?  Our birds are about 3 years old give or take, cause we replaced some of the non layers last year with 2 year old birds. Any advice would be appreciated. :shock:

[britguy33]

someone with more experience please correct me or back me up on this.

Possibly could your male to female ratio be too low. I have heard 4 female to 1 male will produce more fertile eggs than 1 to 1 for some reason.

Also have heard birds 3 and older will produce less fertiles/

[Fivehollers]

We have the birds 1 male to two females in 17 cages. We are trying to replenish the stock with new birds next year. My husband thinks it is the way we are storing the eggs. I don't know I just hope that we get enough new birds to make a difference next year. We are also going to buy eggs from somewhere else to get new blood into the group. I will tell him about the 3 to 1 thing.  :lol:

[coveyrun]

How are you storing the eggs? Are you turning them? What is the temp where you are storing them and how old are the eggs when you put them in the incubator? Are you giving the eggs enough air when incubating?
Lots of questions huh? Coveyrun

[Fivehollers]

Well lets see...we have been storing the eggs under the house to keep them out of the 74+ degree weather. We had them in the fridge outside in the pole barn because it was running around 55 degrees but the eggs were getting too much condensation on them so under the house was the second choice. We turn the eggs 3 times a day even when they are in the hatcher and store them in the little egg cartons we purchased from Murry McMurry. I cut holes in  the bottom where each egg goes so they could get more air. Every 5 to 7 days the old man starts another batch in the incubator. We have a cabinet type (old) forced air incubator. And I was wrong about the birds ages they are a little over 2 years old. My bad. Anyway...It is frustrating. The next batch of eggs are the ones that we started to keep cooler so maybe that will end up being the difference. I think I answered all your questions, and thanks for asking.  

[Don McGowan]

I have read your post and still confused, you sound like your set up is like mine. I also have 17 pens 1 male and 2 female per pen.  Most of my breeder I hatched last July. so they are about a year old  I tray my egg as I gather them and set egg every Friday morning.  I store my eggs in a small  refrigerator  about 3 ft by 20 inches inside the house set at 58 degrees and I don't turn mine during storage. so I am also confused about your problem.  I am going to forward this to a couple friends of mine and see what they say

[CHARLIE]

MY QUESTION IS WHY ARE YOU TURNING THE EGGS AFTER YOU PUT THEM IN THE HATCHER ?>?? I PUT MY QUAIL EGGS IN MY HATCHER ON THE 19TH DAY AND THEY ARNT TOUCHED OR TURNED ANYMORE / THE CHICK HAS TO HAVE TIME TO GET IN POSITION TO PIP AND IN MY THINKING DOES NOT NEED TO BE TURNED .
            CHARLIE
            BACKYARD GAMEBIRD FARM
            DELAWARE

[shagomatic]

Charlie is correct you should not be turning the eggs in the hatcher.  They need those days to get into proper position.  It sounds like the biggest problem is infertility.  If there is not even a speck of a dead embryo then they are infertile.