The Poultry Keeper

A Life Less Simple · Joined: 01 Jul 2008 Posts: 4 Location: Gloucestershire

Ok, I plan to put a load of quail eggs on to hatch on the 2nd of Sept from my own birds.

My plan was to start saving the eggs on the Saturday before (the 2nd is Tues) and then once they are in the incubator keep adding more eggs until 4 - 5 days later, but as was pointed out to me by my boyfriend (who only knows anything about any animal other than dogs from me, so was a bit nift that he rained on my plan) I will need to stop the eggs turning a few days before the first eggs are due to hatch and up the humidity.

Will this harm the other eggs/chicks if this happens early? My thinking was our chickens hatch eggs days apart (or a week and a half this spring) and they do OK.

Anyone ever tried this? I'd be grateful to know what people think, or what happen if they have tried this.

anni · Joined: 03 Jul 2008 Posts: 25 Location: UK

I would just tend to collect all the eggs over 4 or 5 days til you have enough and put them all in together - anywhere from 1 to 6 days is fine to rest the egg between laying and starting to incubate (though I hatched 4 out of 6 not realising they were 10 days old before setting - oops! Shocked

).

Having run an incubator with staggered hatching days - i can tell you its VERY confusing! I think its better for the chicks to be due to hatch at the same time too - they wont get lonely and early hatchers' cheeping encourages the rest to break free.

good luck!

NannyP · Posted: Fri Aug 22, 2008 3:04 pm Post subject:

If you have already started incubating, then don't worry about leaving the turner on for hatching. If you haven't started already, wait until you have all you need, keeping the eggs in an egg box, pointy end down, and turning daily to prevent the yolks from sticking to the side of the egg. Once clutch is complete (in your eyes) add all to incubator in one go.

Pekinout · Joined: 29 Apr 2008 Posts: 1191 Location: Cornwall

The higher humidity for the first hatch could damage the subsequently added eggs. I'd store the second hatch eggs for up to a week then add them, or even better get a cheap second incubator and use as a hatcher, I use one from Ebay that was £19, think it was web_puppy who sells them. Only small but ideal as a hatcher.

A Life Less Simple · Joined: 01 Jul 2008 Posts: 4 Location: Gloucestershire

thank you!

Love the website too Smile

Pekinout · Joined: 29 Apr 2008 Posts: 1191 Location: Cornwall

Thanks, we dont get many visitors cos we can't afford advertising lol Glad you like it. There's lots of info on there.

Oops just realised do you mean this one or my Pekin Heaven one? LOL