I made a mistake with my incubator
We have a half dozen chicks in the brooder, but they all weren’t able to hatch on their own because of my mistake.
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In an earlier post about raising quail I mentioned that I planned to add genetic diversity to the covey this fall. I no longer have blue egg layers (although the gene remains recessive) after an incident with a pet sitter last summer, so I decided to add back pure Celadon quail. My husband and I had a week off in the mountains of Western North Carolina, and on our drive home we stopped in Black Mountain where I met up with Julie from Sadie Girl Farm.
I shuttled a little more than a dozen blue quail eggs home, then I let them rest (pointy-side down) for about 10-to-12 hours. Later that night, I placed them in the incubator. I use an induced airflow incubator with an automatic turner and a digital display for temperature and humidity. (I’ve also successfully hatched with a still air incubator using a manual thermometer, no humidity detection, and manually turning the eggs 4 times per day.) One of the things I like about the (paid link) Manna Pro Harris Farms Nurture Right 360 is the air flow vent and humidity display. I can quickly see if I need to add more water to the reservoir.
With this incubator, during the first part of incubation the egg turner moves a few times each day, the air flow vent stays halfway open, and you only use one of the two water reservoirs. A few days before hatch day (about 2 or 3 days for quail), you remove the egg turner, open the air flow vent completely, and fill both water reservoirs to the max. I made a mistake at this step. Even after hatching quail for 3 years and managing 6-to-8 hatches annually.
My mistake came from forgetfulness. When I remove the egg turner, the entire dome has to come off the incubator. This creates an immediate drop in humidity, so I act quickly. I also keep the incubator in the guest bathroom, so before I do this, I’ll run a hot shower for a few minutes to help get the bathroom humidity up, which keeps the eggs at a more stable humidity while I remove the egg turner. Once the dome goes back on the incubator, you’re supposed to fill both water reservoirs and open the air flow vent all the way. However, I usually close the vent and stay with the incubator until I see the humidity come back to the right level, then I open it entirely and let it stabilize. I only did half this step. I closed the vent all the way and forgot to stay and open it. I removed their turner around 4:30 p.m., then carried on with all the other evening critter care. We went out to run some errands and get dinner. When I got home around 10 p.m., I checked the incubator and saw that it was at 80 percent humidity and moisture was collecting on the dome, which has never happened. (It should remain in the low 70s.) I immediately opened the air flow vent all the way, like I was supposed to do earlier—and that was the mistake.
Opening the vent while the incubator was at such high humidity dropped the moisture so rapidly that it shrink-wrapped the chicks inside their eggs. This is exactly what this type of incubator helps to prevent, but because I followed my own steps and forgot to open the vent, all the chicks suffered a difficult hatch.
Most of the chicks were able to start hatching—I could see a single pip crack through—but the membrane that coats the inside of the shell (sort of like a placenta for humans) was too rubbery for them to break through. I gave each of them about 24 hours to try hatching on their own, and then I intervened.
If you ever experience a chick getting stuck inside their shell, carefully crack the crown of the shell all the way around, just like the chick would do. Then tear the membrane all the way around too. That’s usually enough to let them finish hatching on their own. Independent hatching crucially impacts their physical development. The final movements they make in escaping the shell help to properly form their legs. I have an earlier post about why you need a shot glass when hatching quail, in the event your chick hatches with splayed legs.
We hatched 6 beautiful chicks with no leg issues. One is a runt and struggling to thrive. Overall, the hatch was a success on several counts. One, I was concerned that if I have a high hatch rate that I’ll overwinter a lot of quail. I typically keep 10-to-15 over the winter and I have 10 birds in my current covey. Since I had 6 chicks hatch, overwintering 16 total will be perfect. I candled the unhatched eggs and only 1 other had developed close to full term. It appeared to have stopped developing a few days earlier—potentially caused by my fault with the air vent. All of the rest never started to develop, and two had hairline fractures.
The incubator moves to storage today. The new chicks move outside next weekend. And I’ll move to Hibernation Mode…soon.