Quails Hatches Batch 1 to 10

First Attempt at Hatching Eggs (February 2018)

First Attempt at hatching eggs, in a very crappy make shift incubator. Live and Learn.

Our first quail Horhay died. She crawled through the fence one day and was wandering in our backyard. She was our inspiration to start brooding quails.

Chicks in a brooder Batch 2.0

Batch 2.0 (2018 April) (mail eggs and own eggs ended up with 23 birds, 10 reach adulthood)

1. We might have ended up with a few more chicks if we had waited a few days.

1. Also, I think the fan was being blocked by containers could have affected the relative humidity inside.

1. Don’t keep opening incubator prepared brooder better.

• Thrown out 1 egg infertile,

• After 1 quail which was isolated to determined gender got nervous and flew away over 2 houses adult

• quite a lot infertile 4-6 mail eggs don't order from that guy anymore. 

• Candled eggs most of them developing.

• Removed 8 more infertile of the 24 mail. 10 of 24 eggs in mail infertile don't order that guy again. Maybe get a refund.

• Candled overall out of the 24 mail eggs + 32 my chics eggs set 22 infertile so that leaves 34. about another 5 were 50/50

• Set 34 eggs on a towel, plastic box blocking temperature had to move and mix eggs. 

• The temperature outside only 11 degrees, so the incubator went down to 34 for a few hours. put a blanket on it to raise it too hard to keep the temp up in winter not doing that again. 

• Humidity raised 55-70

• 37.5 consistent / Humidity 67

• No Activity

• Egg autopsy. Used a pencil to prick small in the egg. Checked inside. I used gloves. Paper towels and lots of newspapers this is a disgusting process.

• Opened Remaining 28 eggs 

1.  Brown - brown gunk in egg bacteria? early death

1. Yolk not fully absorbed. Chick way too big to hatch. Late death. Brown

1. Fully developed tried to peep. Failed. Brown 

1. Fully developed in yolk, Brown

1. Infertile

1. Green bacteria fully developed

1. Mainly yolk. Small Embryo. early death

1. Infertile

1. Interfile

1. Too big for egg not in the right position. Large haematoid developed underneath the bird

1. Alive but bleeding (put in the incubator but later bled to death)

Infertile
Infertile

1. Infertile
2. Infertile
3. Almost developed green gunky bacteria like #6
4. Infertile
5. Infertile
6. White Quail. overgrew. fully developed
7. Infertile
8. Might be breathing. Put in the incubator. Not breathing after a while
9. Infertile
10. Mid-Death
11. Fully developed
12. Mid death
13. Infertile
1. Infertile
1. Green Gunk like 6 and 16.
• Of the remaining 28 / 13 were infertile.
•  That means of my 56 set eggs 35 were infertile. So that leaves 21 eggs.

Batch 3.0 (June)
6 of 21 eggs hatched or a hatch rate of 28% with 5 surviving chics has one had hemorrhoid and it burst and the chic bled to death. One of the 5 survivors has the same thing but seems to be healthy and growing in the brooder. 

Of the eggs that came in the mail of 30. Only 2 were fertile. 1 died after being assisted in the hatch and the other had a terribly large homophobe and died in the egg. This burst in the brooder when other chics pecked at the homophobe. Also, I suspect there are issues with the humidity measurements in the incubator soi am placing a second humidity measurement inside. Its also very difficult to keep the temperature high as its like 8 degrees sometimes in the winter and when that happens the Incubator usually only goes to 36 degrees Celsius, not to the recommended 37.5.
Right now we have 5 very healthy birds in the Brooder under the heat lamp which are beginning to feather out after just one week.
Day 0 Start of Incubation 37.5 45-60 humidity, no spraying or washing eggs
Day 8 Removed 18 of 34 infertile. Down to 16. I will check in a few more days. According to Redneck Quail man, it might be more due to temperatures in the incubator than the infertility of roosters. 
Day 10 Removed further 9, that brings it down to only 7 eggs left. I am now taking the temperature with a second thermometer on the advice of a redneck quail man.




Here are some useful links for Incubating Quails
https://www.oremountainquails.com/quail-hatching-calculator/wachtel-bruteier.cgi?lang=EN




Batch 5.0 (September 2018) Incubator Running Cold

Rianne the Loneliest little bird in the world

Batch 6.0 (October 2018)
Video
Batch 6.0 33/46 71% hatch rate NEW RECORD

• 3 died as needed some assistance

• Oddly enough one that survived didn't even pip its egg and the egg was hard and had to still absorb some yolk but now running around the incubator

• Only 2 straddle legs this time a lot less than 2nd batch

• Bleached incubator before use unlike previous times

• Put AC Fingers in drinking water as Fungi growing in one waterer after washing it out with white vinegar. 

• Used a second thermometer which also takes temperature got it for cheap like $3 on eBay.

• 13 Chics didn't hatch about half of them already dead I had a temperature spike on one day from 37.5 to 39.6 for a few hours one day which may have killed some of them.

• I minimized helping with hatching this time but waited till Day 21.

• Too early to tell but I'm guessing A Manchurian, Italian, mainly Pharaohs and maybe the odd Rosetta quail in this batch.

Batches so far and rates

• 30 eggs just kept on adding. 

• Nothing, not even embryos.

Batch 2.0 - 23/39 -  58% hatch rate

• Got my own Chinese no-name incubator

• 45 degree, 55-75 lockdown.

• 27  eggs from mail, and 12 eggs from own stock. 

• Hatched day 16-18

• Got my own incubator only 10 birds survived to be adults. 

• The 16 birds that didn't make it most of them drowned in the shell during a lockdown or late-stage prior to lockdown. 

• Pharaoh, Italians, Manchurians, Golden Manchurian, Rosetta

• 5 Males, 5 Females survived to adults

Batch 3.0 - 6/21 28% Hatch Rate

• Dry Hatched 25-40, lockdown 55 up

• Hatched day 17-19

• 5 Survived to adults

• Probably temperature fluctuation problems but not confirmed

• Sanitized eggs with Listerine watered-down won't do that anymore

• Difficult to hatch during winter

• Pharaoh, Silver Pharaoh, Rosetta, and Manchurian

• Oddly enough 4 Males and 1 Female to adults. A lot of which got eaten by us.

Batch 4.0 0/1 0% Hatch Rate

• Nothing hatched but then again all I found was a small embryo in one leading me to believe thermometer on the incubator was inaccurate as advised by Redneck Quail man. 

• There was about 40-50 eggs and all had no development which seemed unlikely.

Batch 5.0 7/25 28% Hatch Rate

• Standard 45 Humidity, then lock down 55+

• All eggs hatched late 20-22

• 1 survived past the first week

• a lot stuck in eggs.

• Def, I knew as I used a second thermometer first 3 days incubator running at 34.5 on the second thermometer when incubator temp said 37.5 Hence delaying hatch and less healthy birds.

• 1 Rosetta

x

2nd Attempt Hatching (Feb-March 2018)

Feb 27  Day 0

Incubator had been running for a few days. The first attempt at hatching several eggs collected from our stock of 6 birds at the time was a failure. As tried to use normal light. None hatched and all mainly were yolk or solidified eggshell. Combination of relatively young hens and unmeasured temperature and humidity levels. Brought a proper Incubator for $80

1.15PM – Eggs collected 11 from current birds and marked with a pencil some of them. (pencil had no effect on fertility. Also, I did not spray eggs this also had no effect on infertility. 11 eggs were 7-8 days old. And placed in the right row. Eggs placed at 37.6 degrees with Humidity 45-60 degrees. Placed straight in turner. Recommended not to turn for the first 3 days, and 35-45 but we ignored this as I didn’t know the settings.

Feb 28 Day 1

4.45pm After waiting 12hrs-14hrs added mail eggs. In the future maybe wait up to 24 hours. 30 Mail Eggs. Rows 1-5. This is Day 1 for first 11, and Day 0 for the mail eggs. Eggs kept on turning.

March 6, Day 7

Horhay died. Not sure but he was lying in the second cage. Very weak and unable to move. Brought inside tried to warm and then she passed away. Added 2 egg from clutch brings total to 43.

Candled eggs some had red veins.

March 10, Day 11

Added 1 egg bring total to 44.

March 13, Day 14

1 (nest batch) and 2 (mail) infertile. Thrown out. 41 eggs total in an incubator.

Candled eggs no red veins but dark black blob (later found out this appeared to be a chick).  12.75

days for mail eggs 13.5 days for the original lot.

March 14, Day 15

3 eggs manually turned the ones added later. No more eggs to be added. Humidity being raised.

March 15, Day 16

69 Degrees, raise 37.4-38.1 more hot water added. No movement or peeping.

March 16, Day 17

No movement or peeping

March 17, Day 18

Hatching occurred around 5.45pm. The first chic one yellow hyperactive fell down the ventilation shaft and drowned. 3 more hatched unassisted.

March 18, Day 19

More attached some had to be assisted.  Do not assist in the future as they usually end up dying.

March 19,  Day 20

Broke open remaining 18 eggs. 23 of 41 hatched. All except 1(10 march nest batch) had a chick inside it. 4 live chics hatched but bled to death in the incubator. The remainder 12 were fully developed. 

The chic in the white egg belonging to Horhay was an underdeveloped fetus. Possibly due to Horhay age or it may have been outside the incubator too long after being laid.

In hindsight, the main reason is because the brooder was not well prepared. The Waterer kept leaking and chics got wet and had to be dried in incubator which affected the hatch rate. As humidity solidified some chics inside the membrane.

Incubator switched off. Unfortunately, 3 more chicks died. Which brings us down to 19 chicks.

Brought container and Thermometer $20 to get temperature in brooder.

March 20

Need to buy a red light, and waterer. Now down to about 17-18 chicks. 1 can’t walk. Bought red light $18 enfield and 2x5 jr waterer birds seem happier. 3 died. Including weak ones. Do not allow straddle legs to survive too weak, hatch out all eggs. Brooder no probs next time main issue waterer and light. Plan next incubation and cage. Several died now down to 15.

Agreed Celia we will collect eggs starting today and incubate on Tuesday 27.03.18, will order some cheap eggs, and we will label eggs by date.

NOTES QUAILS

Days to Hatch 18

Temperature 37.5 Degrees

Humidity 50-55% until last 2-3 days (day 15 or 16)

Humidity 70-75%

March 28, 2018

11 healthy quails and 1 sick quail

Hair dryer saves wet chics

Taped foot of one quail seems ok now

1 quail weak and hardly able to walk

April 14, 2018 2 weeks later

I had set 44 eggs, 30 mail + 14 post. 

5 Infertile

1 Under developed

15 Fully developed (11 stage death and 4 alive but died soon after)

23 Hatched

Of the 23 - 10 survived to adulthood in this video.

13 died mainly due to inproper used a desk lamp. I paid for and got an infrared lamp and then i brought proper waterer. The issue was not drowning (first one died cause she ran into the water duct of incubator and drank her way to death), it was the home made waterer kept on leaking and getting quails wet and they died of cold. 

Thats why it better to buy the proper equipment

Heat Lamp

Small waterers with marbles

To increase mortality.

I look forward to better results this time.

23/44 about 59% hatch rate

10 of 23 = 43% survival to adulthood

4 Italians

3 Manchurians

2 Browns

1 Rosetta

Video of the 10 that reached maturity

[embed]https://youtu.be/h014KNprjOc[/embed]

3rd Attempt to Hatch (June 2018? ) Dry Incubation

Continuation from here. Last time 23 of 39 hatched or 58% which I

felt was a rather low hatch rate. Detailed explained.  Of that 10 survived to adulthood.

This is my 3rd Hatch attempt. I have collected 29 eggs from my Current Quails (10 new + 4 original). I also purchased through the mail 24 eggs a mixture of Jumbo's and Texas A&M as I need to restock that coloring.

We have 2 of our 4 original we found out where roosters and were difficult to determine gender. And advised not to breed as it causes difficulty identifying chicks later on. So we have tagged those two roosters for the barbecue.

So here is my initial video regarding my current birds.

[embed]https://www.youtube.com/edit?o=U&video_id=i1c57X9Byz0[/embed]

Now that the  24 mail eggs, arrived I waited 24 hours. And have now set them with 29 eggs which are 1-10 days old. Usually, 7 is recommended but I wanted to fill up the incubator to maximize electricity use. That is 53 eggs. Last time I set 44, and of 39 had a 58-59% hatch rate, then 10 survived to be adults. I'm hoping more survive to adulthood this time I'd be happy from anywhere from 20-30 making it to adults this time.

[embed]https://youtu.be/k3Aei2ZFMYk[/embed]

Day 0 - 

25 - 40 Humidity

Set at 1PM 27/06/18

Added 3 new eggs at 5pm

replaced the gray egg.

30 Humidity, 38.1 Day 1

Day 9 - 

Day 11 - 

Day 12 - 

Day 14

Day 15-16

Day 17  

7pm 2 chics hatch brown x2

8am 1 chich hatches (so now 3 chics in brooder)

Day 18 1 chich hatches 1.30pm

1 hatch with hemorrhoid, hemorrhoid bursts, and chic dies

Day 19 - 1 chic hatches but has same hemorrhoid issue, not burst chic seems to do ok in the brooder (5 chics in brooder)

remaining 29 eggs no hatching. will candle now.  

End of Day 19 - 

  

• Dates
  So 27.06.18 is Day 0 of the Hatch. Stay tuned. 
  10th July - start collecting for next hatch
  11th July - Lockdown no more egg turning. Separate stock quails and new quails into different baskets in Incubator.
  17th July - Day 20 all eggs should hatch by then.
  18th July - Clean Incubator
  19th July - next hatch

These Are The Results (pictures to come later)

Notes

Evaluation 

32 of these eggs came from my stock, and the other 24 Texas A&M came through the post. I counted before incubation at least 10 of these Texas A&M Eggs were infertile. One Texas A&M hatched but died of Haemoroid the other Texas A&M developed fully and died. I could tell as that was a white chic. That leaves 12 more eggs. So possibly a high number of the 13 infertile were from the guy i ordered from. I know not to order there again and may even request a partial refund.

While I'm happy to have 5 little birds in the brooder. It's not what I hoped for initially, I was aiming for 25-30. When I found out I had 34 only fertile on Day 10. I lowered my expectations to about 20. That would have been impossible if there were only 21 eggs viable. So I think 15 would have been a better number.

So what's the problem could be a number of things.

1. None of the eggs were really shrink wrapped they were more watery so maybe not the humidity

2. I think as I incubated at 38.1 degrees (100.5)instead of 37.5 (99.5) that might have made them develop too big to get in the right position to hatch.

3. On Day 14 after setting I had to move them to cause a container was blocking the fan from circulating

4. Its winter so as noted on one day my incubator struggled to get past 34 degrees. on an 11 degree day.

5. The incubator itself might be struggling to function in winter humidity drops and rises as well as temperature.

The issue seems to have come around Day 14 or 15.

I am considering next time using a Broody Hen, or I saw my quails building nests and putting eggs in those nests. This incubation kind of might is a waste of electricity. I will test later to see how much these five little birds cost in terms of electricity. It might be cheaper for me just to get a broody hen of some sort.

4th Attempt to Hatch (July 2018)

About set my 4th round of quail eggs. This time I will do a normal non-dry hatch 37.5 degrees Celsius, not 38.1 degrees. I found the chics grew too fast with this setting. We will not be washing the eggs as I felt washing the eggs in Listerine caused bacteria as it damaged the shells. Regarding humidity, we will not be doing a dry hatch this time. Although the poor hatch rate 6 of 21 or around 28% is a terrible hatch rate. The chics seemed to all developers to late embryo stage but failed to pip, some had gunk inside which may have been caused by the Listerine.





http://www.quails-in-essex.co.uk/tips_on_hatching_quail_eggs.html

https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/eggtopsy-what-happened-to-my-egg-graphic-pictures.363717/

After 5.0 which I prefer not to mention was an odd and staggered hatch. With the temperature miscalibrated at 34 degrees Celsius for the first 3 days. The eggs hatched 20-22 which is extremely late as usually 16-18. Because of late hatching and having birds stuck in eggs. Maybe grew too big and couldn't break through the cause of temperatures. 3.5 weeks later only 1 bird survived from this batch.

She is now the loneliest little bird in the world. In this hatch, I had 7 hatches out of 25. And only one survived the first 3 days.

After finishing the hatch on October 5, I started a new hatch on October 7. Due to the failed hatch, I had to pull eggs from the batch we were due to eat. Some had sat there for 3-5 days and then gathered some more. All the eggs like Batch 5.0 were entirely from my own stock. Most noteworthy is I did a float test on 5 hard shell eggs that sunk, and when I opened them 3 had dead chicks, and 2 had live chicks that I peeled out. One survived and is in the brooder now the other one didn't. Both had not fully absorbed the yolks but as it was already day 21 I opted they probably wouldn't hatch themselves anyway so used some egg scissors and tweezers to carefully remove them.

Spraying with hot water was effective and I kept the temperature as high as 90 at some stages to soften eggs making it easier to hatch chicks. I also found once you remove chicks eggs which had no activity started to crack open I guess cause this allowed more oxygen to go to the chicks still in the eggs when the already hatched chicks were taken away.

Batch 1.0 - 0/30 0% hatch rate

None made a makeshift incubator with no temperature and tin foil about

Hatch 7.0  (January 19)

I began by setting 53 eggs, after candling on Day 14 51 of 53 was viable. So no issues with Hatch 6.0 with 31 of 41 and another guy I sold to with 21 of 32 hatchings.

The first Chicks started hatching on Day 17, But then I had a  lot of Chicks pip who weren't making it. It wasn't a very good hatch I ended up with 5-6 healthy chicks, 6-7 I had to help out (1 died). And then I had around 12 other eggs pip but then stop for ages. So I checked them out and all were dead in shell. I still have 25 eggs left in the incubator. I am willing to wager they all have dead fully developed chicks in them.

I was able to sell off all my chicks, bar 2 that hatched later (of which 1 died). I got 14 of 53 at the end, not a good outing.

But I realized the problem is I put too much water in before lockdown so next time I won't be adding any water at all until lockdown. Chicks were a sticky and drowned cause of too much water in the air sack when they pipped.

Luckily I had one guy who bought 11 chicks off me for $20.00. I'm very happy to see the Chicks are now happy with there new mum.

Next up for me will be a 154 egg hatch. It might be time now to buy a new incubator. I just want to add I lost 4 hens in the heat. So I'm down to 14 hens. I built these cages but its way too hot for them. Planning on getting meat rabbits at some stage.

Birdtastic Hatch #8 in New JN 5-60 Hexabator

Got a new Janoel for $80 the guys endorsed it as he had 118 of 120 hatches. I wanted to try it myself as I had never got a hatch rate better than 70% in any of my previous hatches. I suspected it was the Oxygen as I had a lot of dead fully formed chicks on eggtopsy. Anyway, I decided to buy the Janoel and it arrived very quickly. The Hexabator I noticed had no auto turn so I was skeptical as I would have to turn manually. The other thing the guy who recommended it to me (I didn't buy it off him though), was not to add any water first 14 days I was skeptical but I tried it.

The Other thing I noticed with this was it didn't really have a humidity reading but humidity could be adjusted. But as I was advised not to add any water for the first 14 days. I didn't worry too much about this. I a manual Hygrometer and humidity stuck around 35-38.

It's hard to say but I laid about 84 eggs at 11.35m on 26 February.

I just left the eggs didn't open the incubator except to turn by hand, which involved me rolling my hands through them (not one by one), I added no water. And I just made sure I calibrated the temperature with a manual thermometer, sometimes it was 1 or 2 degrees out nothing more than that. I covered it with a towel to insulate heat. But made sure I didnt cover the 2 air holes. 2 Air holes way better than the cheap Chinese incubator I was using before.

I didn't do anything until Day 14 which was the 12th of March. At this point, I candled the eggs. And found 18 were infertile. Which left me with 66 eggs.

Of the 66 eggs that were fertile, 3 or 4 I was unsure of. and 62 definitely had chicks. I then filled both the water trays right up at the bottom. By Day 15 I was already hearing chirping one day after lockdown.

Near the end of Day 15, 16 quails hatched. It was my earliest ever about 15.75 days, the previous record was 16.75 days. On Day 16 another 25 hatched. Then on Day 17 7 hatched (3 of which I had to assist as they got stuck in the shell), 1 bird was dead in shell. Day 18 March 16, there were still 12 eggs remaining in Incubator. Day 19 still 12 eggs remaining. One quail looked sick like it had been trampled so I put it in the incubator to get some rest. It probably won't make it and made be one of the 3 runts i assisted out of the egg. I still have 47 rather healthy quail left in the incubator.

17 March (Day 19) 1 weak chick dies. now left with 51.

18 March - Switched off incubator, cleaned, opened all remaining eggs.

1 More chick died, it was probably one of the chicks that I helped hatch, it looked healthy yesterday but wasn't eating. Today it was skinny and rolling on the ground almost dead. I tried giving it electrolytes to no avail. So I euthanized it. I am now down to 50 chicks.

Eggtopsy - Ripped Open the remaining 13 eggs - fortunately no live chicks still crawling around

• 1 Egg Exploded when as it had yellow gunk oozing out of the shell when I dropped it in the bin
• 3 mid-stage Fetis covered in yolk
• 4 eggs infertile so subtract from total
• 1 encased in the inner membrane
• 1 late-stage wet
• 2 early stage 
• 1 big egg (20g) had 2 early-stage embryos inside.

Stats

66 eggs - 4 infertile = 62 viable eggs.

62 Total

10 including 1 dead in shell

52 birds (1 died as weak)

Hatch 9.0 (April 2019)

This was my 2nd hatch in the Hexabator JN-5-60. Again it came out as a very successful hatch with 66 of 75 eggs hatching. (3 assisted)
Unfortunately, the heat lamp I was using (the black reptile light) caught fire. Luckily none of the birds were hurt. But I now switched back to a normal halogen light bulb 80w. To prevent fire hazards. For the first time, I have used pine shavings and put them underneath tissue paper. For easier cleaning. In a few days, I will remove the tissue paper and have the birds on pine shavings.

Here is a summary of the 9th Hatch. I noted there was actually a hatch I forgot to cover which is now titled 7.5. So theoretically this is my 9th Hatch in just under 2 years.

Hatch was started at 5.30pm on March 27 (Day 0) 90 eggs were collected and set. The oldest ones were about 8 days old. This was the last hatch I was reluctant to do it as the weather had got colder event though its just Autumn. But I had a lot of eggs I had not sold. And after getting 52 of 62 hatch rate record of 83%. So I wanted to test the consistency of the new Incubator. 

On April 8 (Day 12) I candled the eggs and I dis guarded 14 (3 of these were actually cracked from me auto turning them). On April 10 (Day 14) I put them into lockdown. Again I used no water until lockdown. After lockdown, I flooded the water chambers at the bottom. 15 hatched before 6 am on Day 16. In the last hatch, 15.75 hatched. This time as it was a bit colder it was harder to keep the temperature to 37.5-37.8. So it was more around 37.0. We will see if there is now more hens as It was suggested by redneck quail man that the lower -.5 from 37.5 is more favorable for hens. 

The last quail hatched on April 15 (Day 19) leaving just 9 eggs remaining. I checked the remaining eggs no pips or sounds coming from them. I did not want the incubator continuing to waste electricity for the sake of 9 more eggs. So I threw them out and emptied the incubator and cleaned it with Hospital grade disinfectant just a small amount. Rinsed in hot water rinse with a hose and let wash outside.

Of the 76 eggs, I now have 63 living quails, 1 hatched and had a haemotobe so died in the incubator. 2 I assisted dying. The other I assisted is doing OK. The birds had already pecked but seemed to be a bit shrink-wrapped. I had 9 not pip, 1 pipped but was dead in shell.

So I got 66/76 or 86% which beat the previous record of 83% hatch rate. I have a variety of colors from this. Browns, A lot of Italians (i got more browns than Italians last time), Rosetta, Manchurians, Tuxedos, Possibly fawns, and some Recessive or Albino whites.

Originally at 11 days, they were going to go into the shed April 28-29, but I now adjusted this to April 23-26. The birds will now be sent to grow out on May 3-6.  

Hatching 10.0 (July 2019)

81 eggs set.

• Candled and removed 28 infertile at the start. Total of 35 infertile at end of the incubation
• 20 Chicks Hatched
• 5 Chicks Hatched Assisted
• 25 Chicks out of 46 Fertile Eggs

21 Fertile Didn't hatch

• 16 Dead in shell late stage (1 pipped)
• 3 Early Fetis Death
• 1 Mid-Stage Death
• 1 Exploded in the egg - fetus absorbing bacteria.

A lot of Infertile eggs 35 of 81. Due to winter. I also segregated my birds into 1 male to 4 female in separate cages rather than combining.

A lot of Chicks were wet, meaning maybe too much humidity after lockdown I dry hatched from the start with no water and maybe added too much water at lockdown. Need to buy a better Hygrometer.

There was a really tiny egg. Not Surprisingly that was infertile and just had yolk.

Hatch Started July 5 (0) Lockdown July 19 (14) temp may have fluctuated. Thermometer screens are damaged and need to be replaced. Might consider using a Temp sensor type setup. But won't address Hygrometer issues.

The number of Tibetan, chicks in this batch indicates my older male Tibetan (Boris) is still very productive among the roosters. Despite being a lot more gentler and less proactive than the other males. That's unless my 5 big Italian roos carry recessive or a majority of my hens carry the Recessive Tibetan gene.

Day 17 - 13 (July 22)

Day 18 -  5 (July 23)

Day 19 -  4 (July 24)
Day 20 -  3 (July 25)

= 25.

Hatch rate is only 49% which is poor compared to my last 2 rates of 85% and 88%. 

As suggested by a fellow quailer. I should increase temp to 37.7% on Day 18 to increase hatches.

As for my brooder, I had a standard Halogen warm heat bulb there. But it conked out after 3 Days in the brooder. So I replaced it with a 250w Heat Lamp. Which is attached to a temp control timer. Which is set to switch off if Temp reaches 38. And switch back on if it's 37 or less.

As for the dead fetuses and eggs, they will be cooked up and fed to my chickens. Plus any Chicks that don't make it or I consider too weak or defective.

I'm reluctant to do another Hatch but winter will be over in 6 weeks. I will probably make sure I have the fixes like temp and hygrometer in place before attempting another hatch. Plus prob a sensor for temp.

On a plus note one of my Italian hens. I have named Giant Muriel is 402 grams. My first hen over this weight.

**Chicks seem to be healthy I just culled a straddle leg today, so now down to 24.

Jul 27 - straddle - 1 down to 24
Jul 28 - runt died down to 23
Jul 30 ok
Jul 31 - 1 died down to 22 temps 35-36
1 Aug - Biggest chick 35g
2 Aug - 1 died trampled, 1 straddle culled, 1 weak culled
6 Aug biggest wt 50-60 grams temp down to 33-34
9 Aug biggest 101g
11 Aug biggest 110g
(Recessive white below Italian variety)