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| | |-+  One hatched this morning - are the rest of the eggs any good?
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Author Topic: One hatched this morning - are the rest of the eggs any good?  (Read 4941 times)
yarnlady
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« on: May 17, 2006, 08:06:13 PM »

I told this story over on the Brooding forum, but here it is again in more detail (aka with dumber n00b questions, sorry!!) -

A few weeks ago I set out to hatch 11 button quail eggs in a chickbator (I know, I know.)  Everything was going fine, but about a week into the incubation period, a relative who wasn't aware of the temperature regulating issues turned off my AC while I was out of the house. I came back home to find the eggs had been sitting at nearly 104 degrees for hours.  I figured most, if not all of the eggs were dead, but I kept turning them and incubating them and refilling the water and such.

Today is day 20 of the incubation period. They were supposed to have hatched on Saturday night.  We decided to crack one open to see if it was just a rotting yolk or what. It was, so we decided to throw the other ones out and try again with a new batch. We turned off the incubator, and I went to throw out the eggs an hour or so later.  When I picked up the incubator, one quail hatched right out of its egg! It's doing great and it's HUGE. =)  The temperature inside the incubator read 75^F, though!!! I was amazed it hadn't frozen - it had been at that temperature for nearly an hour!

I quickly turned the incubator back on and covered the dome in tinfoil to raise the temperature so that the chick would be safely warm.   I was hoping a few more would hatch in the interim - the little chick has been pecking at the other eggs, like it's trying to help them hatch, too. But it's been nearly 9 hours, and none of the other eggs have hatched.   The one chick, whom we're calling Lucky, is almost fully dry and ready to go in the brooder.  Should I just keep them in there?

The thermometer is very cheap. Could it be wrong? Should I try lowering the temperature - was it too hot for it to hatch before?  Or are the other 9 remaining eggs duds too?  How can you even tell?  How long do I keep incubating them before I give up? I tried candling and couldn't see anything.

Thanks in advance!
« Last Edit: May 17, 2006, 09:05:06 PM by yarnlady » Logged
La.bowhunter
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« Reply #1 on: May 17, 2006, 09:53:36 PM »

i was going to refer you to the post "How hot is to hot" but i see that you already posted  in that thread.

as far as the thermometer, i didn't feel good about the one that came with mine, so i grabbed the digital from the kitchen. I've seen some at the bigger pet chain stores for use with reptiles. combo sets, for humidity and temp. digital as well. i think most i saw were put out by fluker

http://www.flukerfarms.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWPROD&ProdID=76
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pamike
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« Reply #2 on: May 17, 2006, 09:54:57 PM »

Give them a few more days. If your temp was low for the majority of incubation your hatch could be late.

mike
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yarnlady
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« Reply #3 on: May 17, 2006, 10:07:30 PM »

Thanks, y'all. It's definitely late, I think the temperature was a degree or two too low for most of it after the 104degrees scare we overshot it in the other direction. Our one egg hatched today and it's the 20th day of incubation.
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sp2207
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« Reply #4 on: May 17, 2006, 10:10:38 PM »

You can candle  the eggs too   see if they are fertile or not, Just get a box  and a light  and cut a small hole about the size of the egg.  and put the light inside the box  and then turn off the lights in the room and turn on the light in the box  and put the egg into the hole of the box and look if there is life or if the egg is clear Best of luck with your eggs
Scot
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yarnlady
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« Reply #5 on: May 18, 2006, 01:55:53 AM »

Thanks, Scot. I've tried that, and the shells are completely opaque. You can't see anything through them. I've seen other posters on this forum be told to candle their button quail eggs and they've said the same thing, so I'm assuming candling just doesn't work on them.

We're at about 14 hours and we still have just the one, but maybe overnight, who knows =)
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ChrisCarreiro
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« Reply #6 on: May 18, 2006, 09:03:04 AM »

YarnLady,

I just got finished using the Chick-bator last week, nothing hatched. opened up the eggs and i think maybe one looked like it could have been fertile but no advance development. I Did not have any luck with that incubator although after searching the internet and this forum, i found that some people do, to spite what i have herd about the product. My advice to you is give it another day, then open up the eggs, if the chick was going to die from brief 104 degree conditions it would not die a day or two or even three before it hatches. It would die during the intial and early development of the embryo.

Chris

P.S I am newbie at this correct me if i am wrong anyone!
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Chris Carreiro
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yarnlady
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« Reply #7 on: May 18, 2006, 11:17:21 AM »

Yeah, the one little guy had a cramped up foot for its first half a day of life outside the egg; I've since read that it's due to being in the shell too long.  We named hHe's doing great so far, but he hatched 24 hours ago and he's still the only one.  I'm pretty sure either the other ones were infertile or they've all died.  The temperature only rose slowly to 103.5 for about 2 or 3 hours and it was steadily kept between 99 and 100 at all other times. The guy from whom I bought the eggs swore that 103.5 was enough to kill all the eggs and that's why none of them hatched, but now that I have broken open 2 and found nothing but yolk inside (eww), I think it's likely he's just trying to cover his you-know-what for having sold a batch of mostly bad eggs. My son was hatching them to keep them as pets and he was already resigned to none of them hatching, so at least we got the one out of it.

Thank you all for your insight and advice. I've been lurking for weeks around here. =)
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Babs_MN
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« Reply #8 on: May 18, 2006, 12:55:43 PM »

Next time your wondering and they are due to hatch, hold one up to your ear. The peeping chicks encourage each other to hatch while still in the egg. You can hear them moving around and peeping.

Babs
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yarnlady
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« Reply #9 on: May 21, 2006, 06:13:31 PM »

Thanks all. I found that it was impossible to candle those button eggs. The shells were completely opaque. Nevertheless, on day 19/20 of incubation, one hatched, so we opened the other 10 up 2 days later just in case. All infertile duds except for the one that hatched. Trying again with a new batch this week, from a different seller. Thank you all for your advice.
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buttonquail
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« Reply #10 on: May 26, 2006, 05:10:37 PM »

Last year we hatched several buttonquail.  Although they are beautiful with their different coloring and small size, if they are not paired, they can be very aggressive and hurt each other continually.  You may be forturnate to have had just one! We do have one pair in a large cage and enjoy them very much.  Good luck!
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