Im just incubating my first batch of quail eggs in a Hovabator Still Air Incubator and im still confused at about the right level of humidity and correct level of ventilation. Im in the last few days and from what i have read you are supposed to get the humidity higher to prevent sticky chicks. It has been at about 45-55 % all along. The room temp is about 79F and Humidity of 17% . I have trouble getting my humidity above 50-55 %. I cannot add more water as the trays are full of water already. I tried putting it in a mini green house to up the humidity but im now worried that the level of ventilation willl drop.
Any tips on what works here as regards the humidity in the last few days. How do i know if i have proper air exchange. I have all the vent holes open on the incubator. Is it all trial and error ?
Replies
If you don't have a humidifier you can add a wet sponge and make sure it isn't touching any eggs. You can put it on a small ramekin full of water, which will both add more water and raise the sponge up so it isn't touching any eggs. You can re-wet the sponge by opening the air vent on the top and adding water through it. I use a needle-less syringe and a bendy straw to get water through there-- this also works to fill up your water trays.
How have your temps been throughout the incubation and how many eggs do you have in there? Glad you have the Hovabator instead of the Little Giant. Hovabators are much better and the price is the same, so good call! Are you turning by hand or using an auto-turner?
Another important thing to have (I think) is some kind of mesh on top of the 1/4" hardware cloth the incubators come with. You will be amazed at how tiny the quail are when they hatch, you don't want any quail parts slipping through. I use that drawer/shelf liner (kind of like this: http://www.stacksandstacks.com/shelf-liner-grip-it?id=176&sku=1...). When you put that down it tends to lower the humidity a little in my incubator because the air can't circulate down to the trays as well, but since mine is forced air, the effect may be different than in yours.
After you take them out of the turners/stop turning them on day 14 it's a really good idea to not open the incubator again until your first round of chicks is fuzzy (maybe 12 hours or so after they hatch). Some people are pretty hardcore about not opening it at all until all of the birds are dry and fuzzy, but I find that sometimes my hatches will stagger out over 36 hours and I'm not comfortable leaving them in there that long.
Finally, you have probably read a lot about baby quail drowning. This happens, but I would say it's not as big of a threat as them getting chilled by falling into water and dying. For that reason I give them water out of gatorade-sized bottle caps for the first night in the brooder. This usually means one trip out in the middle of the night to refill the water. By the end of the second day they are usually coordinated enough to not stumble into the waterer and you can replace it with the quail-sized auto waterer.
Hope this helps!!
It sounds like your adventure is about like my first time incubating! My incubator is in my pantry and I put down a little yoga mat on the tile and slept on the floor the night they started hatching so I wouldn't miss anything! I think my husband thought I had lost my mind.
I hope you get a hatch that gives you what you're looking for, but if you end up needing more (eggs or quail chicks) I usually have some, so you won't have to worry about shipping. :) I'm actually waiting right now for the postman to bring me a new batch of quail eggs to refresh my bloodlines.