Quail egg incubator characteristics:

1. Multi energy source: Electricity or coal;
2. Fully automatic in temperature and humidity control, automatically alarm when parameters going abnormal, automatic in eggs turning;

3. Dual-purpose, suitable for both incubation and hatching;

 Quail egg incubation technique

 Quail incubation technique

1. Choosing fertile eggs and sterilization during storage period

1)        Select eggs from areas free from epidemic, make sure that the eggs are fresh and healthy. The eggs should be medium in size, normal in egg shape and egg color. Any eggs which are over large, over small, dirtied, misshape, or shell-cracked should not be chosen as hatching eggs.

2)        When eggs are stored for 7 to 10 days, the temperature should be set at 15-16℃, under humidity of 70%-75%, with good ventilation. The eggs should be put with the large end up, on the egg trays. When stored for more than 7 days, they should be turned at least once per day, to prevent sticking of egg yolk to shell membrane.

3)        Sterilization should be made before storage when the eggs are selected as hatching eggs, and before incubation. One of the method is to fumigate the eggs in a surrounding condition with porcelain or glass container filled with formalin and then added with potassium permanganate. Use 25 g of potassium permanganate and 35 ML of formalin (40%) for each cubic meter of incubator space. In forced-draft incubators, leave the fan running and the vents closed during fumigation; open the vents after 20 minutes. In still-air incubators, open the incubator and vent after 20 minutes. The other method is to directly spray 0.02% potassium permanganate solution or 0.1% Bromogeramine solution onto the hatching eggs.

2. Incubating quail eggs

1) Warm up the eggs and adjust the quail egg incubator. When the eggs are taken out from the storage room, they should be warmed up naturally to room temperature until the egg surface temperature matches room temperature. Furthermore, the quail egg incubators must be disinfected, adjusted and warmed up before setting quail eggs.

2) Temperature and humidity. Follow the temperature and humidity values setting as mentioned in incubation chart during the early phase of incubation, and then lower the temperature but increase humidity when the quail eggs are due to hatch. Also remember that higher humidity is needed if the quail egg incubator has a strong forced-air circulation fan.

3) Turning eggs. During early phase of incubation, depending on different quail species, quail eggs should be turned once per 2-3 hours and 8-12 times per day, each time turned at a 90 degree, so as to enable the eggs to get even heat and to prevent egg yolk sticking to shell membrane. If there is a temperature discrepancy of ±0.5℃ between different eggs trays, the egg trays position should be exchanged in such a way that the egg trays above exchange position with the egg trays below and that the eggs around exchange position with the eggs centered, to minimize the influence from temperature difference.

4) Candling eggs. About incubated for 5 days, quail eggs should be candled for the infertile eggs and dead eggs to be picked out, according to candling instruction, illustrated in other part of this website.

3. Hatching and transferring to hatcher

During hatching, do not help the young quails from the shell. Prematurely helping the quails hatch could cripple or infect the quails.