Today is Day 9 of ‘Operation Chickabator’ and the suspense is bordering on obsession now. Not knowing if the George’s are even developing is sheer torture. I diligently turn them 5 to 6 times a day, monitor the temps, try and keep the humidity up – but not too much, because that’s just as bad as none at all – and I do a lot of staring. Ugh.

I’ve scoured the internet for clues and advice on how to check for a developing embryo and after hours of reading most every quail breeding page there is and learning more than anyone would ever need to know about hatching and brooding game birds, I’ve come to the conclusion that I’m insane. If I were my friend, I’d tell me to get a hobby but that’s what got me here in the first place.

The most obvious method for checking embryos is candling. I tried (day 7) this but because of the brown patches on the shell and a thick blue membrane inside, this didn’t go so well. From what I could tell, one seemed really clear, or at least much clearer than the other 3. The second was just kind of cloudy, but this could be due to a thicker shell. The last two gave me a bit of hope – I couldn’t see anything. These two either have particularly dense shells or, hopefully, they are developed to the point that light can no longer pass through. But overall I know no more than when I started, really.

Then I tried weighing them (day 9). I read somewhere there would be weight differences in a developing egg. Ok, but I didn’t weigh them when I got them so I’ve got nothing to compare them to at this point. So, then I Google the average weight of a Cortunix egg. 10 grams. Hmm. Well, 3 of mine weigh in at 9 grams and the last is only 8. The optimal overall weight loss is around 12% but this can be affected by humidity and fluctuations that slight probably wouldn’t be detected by my scale, certainly not yet anyway. Grr.

So. 8 days to go. Maybe 11. This would be fine if I could just put them out of my mind until the due date, but I can’t. Because they have to be turned to prevent sticking to the shell (and rupture at hatching) I *have* to think about them every few hours, every single day. I remember thinking that waiting for the baby fish to be born was difficult. Ha. A cake walk. The George’s are like being 5 and waiting for Santa. No, worse. Even the 5 yr old knows Santa won’t bring empty boxes.

I found this video on YouTube (yes, I even searched YouTube for quail videos). This little girl has the same set-up as I do, so that’s encouraging.

[video removed]

A couple of weeks back I ordered a Chick-bator from a poultry and game breeding supply in Georgia. Well, I thought I did anyway. I never received a receipt or confirmation email and I had been meaning to call and confirm but as usual, I kept forgetting. Today it showed up! woot!

Everything seemed to arrive intact, though I am a little concerned about the temperature. The eggs seemed rather cold when I unwrapped them. I’ve assembled the incubator and I’m letting the eggs warm up just a bit before I turn the heat on. The success rate for this particular set-up isn’t that great, only 25-50% of the eggs reportedly hatch. Hmm…we’ll see.

Evidently, they’ve sent me Pharaoh (Cortunix) Quail Eggs and they should hatch in 17 or 18 days. That puts them just about my birthday on May 16th! Coolness!

So, ummm…turn eggs 3 to 5 times a day, keep water in the humidity reservoir, temps to stay at 100 degrees, +/- a couple of degrees is ok. Turn them 3 to 5 times a day. Every day. Ugh. Oh well, 3 weeks of my life dedicated to 4 eggs that traveled 4,000 miles in the cold with a minimal to no success rate…sure, it’ll be worth it.

Here’s what came in the box:

Here it is assembled and ready to go:

I’m thinking about turning the web cam I had for MJ the spider to broadcast the incubator instead. Then, when the chicks hatch, it can be a world wide web event!

If any of them hatch, that is. I’ll be so mad if I don’t get at least one chick outta this deal. Awww… just look at the little chick on the guide book. So cute! Damn thing better hatch.