Need Some Advice?

I've ordered eggs, now what?

Congratulations on purchasing your hatching eggs! Hopefully, by this point, you already have an incubator that you have verified works and holds a steady temperature. When your hatching eggs arrive, leave them in their carton, pointy end down, for 12-24 hours to allow the air sac to reform at the larger end of the egg. Doing this helps prevent chicks from getting stuck in the smaller end of the egg during hatching.

Can i check development during incubation?

Yes! You absolutely can check the development of your eggs during incubation through a process called candling. Candling is when you shine a bright light into the egg and assess the development based on the shadow and movement that you see. If the egg lights up completely, it's likely that it hasn't developed or wasn't fertilised in the first place. By day 7, you should be able to see a defined air sac, veins, and a dark wriggling dot. If you aren't sure whether an egg is viable, it is always best to incubate until there is no doubt. By day 14 (lockdown), the egg should appear completely dark apart from the air sac, which will glow.

What if none of my eggs hatch?

There are a handful of reasons that eggs don't hatch, and most of them are due to errors during incubation. The most common being sudden drops in temperature or humidity. If development started and suddenly stopped, it's likely a heat issue. If the chicks fully developed but failed to hatch before or after pipping, it's likely a humidity issue. Sudden drops in humidity can cause the membrane to dehydrate and effectively 'shrink wrap' the chicks so they cannot hatch.

What is Pipping and zipping?

Pipping and zipping are terms used to describe the different stages of chicks hatching. Pipping is the first little crack in the shell that a chick makes with their beak. It's often a very small circular/triangular hole that allows the chicks to get some air. Zipping is the next stage of hatching, in which the chick expands the pip around the egg in a line, like an opening zipper, allowing the chick to escape from its shell.

Hatching is a very strenuous and exhausting process, and long pauses between stages are perfectly normal. It can take up to 48 hours from first pip to fully hatched, so patience is key.

If you are concerned that there has been no progress in 24 hours after pipping, you can give them some gentle assistance. Taking some sanitised, rounded tweezers, you can carefully widen the pip to give the chick some extra space to move. You can also try increasing the humidity further to help soften the membrane and shell even more. If there is still no progress, you can open the shell a bit more. However, sometimes it is better to let nature take its course and allow the weak to pass, but that is a decision only you can make for yourself.

Something to remember

All of this being said, sometimes chicks just die. Without warning. Without fault. You can be doing absolutely everything right and still lose a baby or two. If you lose a whole batch of chicks, though, you might need to check your setup in case there is an issue that you haven't noticed. While incredibly sad, death is an inevitable part of raising any animal. All we can do is what we believe is right for the animals and hope for the best.

What do I need to know about incubation?

Firstly, there are many different types of incubators that work in different ways, but ultimately they all need to have the same functions. They need to be able to generate and maintain accurate heat; they need to have the ability to rotate the eggs (either mechanically or by turning them yourself), and they need to be able to hold a method of humidifying the chamber (water reservoir, sponges, water tank).

For beginners, I would recommend an incubator that does most of the work for you. You can find relatively inexpensive models online that include a water reservoir and a motorised egg turner.

After letting the eggs rest, place them in the incubator on their side so that the mechanical turner can roll them during the process.

You need to keep the incubator at a steady 37-38 degrees Celsius and at a relatively stable humidity of around 50% for the first 14 days and then raise it to 70% for the 'lockdown' phase. The lockdown phase is important because it allows the chicks the best conditions to hatch. It involves disconnecting the turning mechanism, increasing humidity, and putting the eggs on a flat, grippy surface to hatch.

What is dry hatching?

Dry hatching is a method of incubation where you dont do anything to control the humidity of the incubator. Some people have great success with this method but, personally, I find it causes too many issues during hatching. In my experience, chicks are more lickely to get stuch in the egg shells or get bound to the egg membrane. This can depend on the average humidity within your home. If you're household humidity is on the higher side, this method might work for you.

my eggs hatched, now what?

Congratulations! All your hard work has paid off! Now, youv've just got to keep them alive which is the easy part (said noone ever!). Firstly, you'll need to leave the chicks in the incubator until they're all dry and fluffy which will help keep them warm as they move around. You'll need to have their brooder set up, tested and brought up to temperature before moving any chicks over from the incubator. The essentials for a brooder are a heat source (heat lamp or brooder plate), chick safe subrate (newspaper, paper towel, puppy pad, pine pellets or shavings), and a chick safe feeder and waterer. There are upsides and downsides to every method or choice when it comes to brooders and I have tried a variety of combinations until I found things that worked best for me. Personally, I use a heat lamp with a thermostat to control the temperature, shallow gravity chick feeder and waterer and paper towel for the first week and then pine pellets from week 2 until they move into the main aviery.

The brooder heat source temperature needs to stay around 35c for the first week and then gradually reduced by 2-3 degrees each week until the chicks are fully feathered (around 4/5 weeks old) and can maintain their own body temperature.

Water sources should be readily available in the brooder as well as their main enclosure. Chicks are particularly prone to drowning or getting wet and cold so its advised to keep water sources very shallow or have marbles or smooth rocks in the dish to help the babies get out if they do fall in. Once the chicks are about 2 weeks old, you can take the marbles/rocks out but I leave them in until the quail move into the regular enclosure.

The ideal kind of feed for baby quail is a high protien chick crumb or starter feed with around 30% protien to support their rapid growth rate. After 6 weeks, they can be fed a range of different types of feeds as long as theyre around 20% protien and small enough pieces for them to handle. I use Haygates Quail Layers/Breeders 2mm Pellets which my birds enjoy greatly alongside the occasional leafy green treat and small seeds and grains.