How and When You Should Candle Your Quail Eggs 

i'm now on day 4 and i hope they will all hatch

Thanks for showing this! I never candle my quail eggs but I should. I do my chicken eggs only at lock down. But I appreciate seeing it done.

If you don't candle, when do you throw them out the ones that don't hatch. and what are the chances of a stinky explosion? This thing is in my house.

do you still eat the non fertile egg that has already been incubated????

Hey I watch your videos weekly man I've got a question for you my daughter unplug my egg roller to charge a phone I found out 48 hrs later so no rolling for 2 days what do you think the possibility of any hatching are?

I always candle my eggs at day 7 and 15 to get rid of any infertile or ones that stop developing, so that after 24-48hrs of the fist hatch I can check for struggling chicks. I really stacked the odds against myself for my next hatch, I've only got 3 males and 21 females (I only wanted the quietest pretty males) and its winter so they're not breeding or laying much. 80 ish eggs and I got 7 fertile hahaha luckily I got 2 from my biggest eggs that are 13-15g so hoping to breed up some nice big jumbos soon!

Great video. You have been my go to man for doing quail. This is first time doing quail and you have helped me so much. Thank you for sharing.

It’s my first time hatching them, I’m on day 3 or 4 and I don’t really see anything in them, I’m trying 48 but I haven’t candled them all

This was a great video and the "lightbulb" eggs showed up very well. I didn't candle eggs this round but I may do it next time. I ended up with 15 infertile/never developed eggs. I had 83 eggs, 15 infertile and hatched 56. I think I did decent for my first time hatching. Thank you for sharin', excited for your hatch. :)

Can you show inside of the discarded eggs please? If any development was seen?

I love that you respond to most of the comments. It makes it easier for me to know more! thank youuuuu

I am not turning my eggs once every 4 hrs, 2 days after only did it

Getting ready to take the plunge into quail... I appreciate your sharing of information and experience... Shortly after quail it'll be time to start raising rabbits...

I use a wet paper towel to regulate humidity and have 0 issues so I can't see cardboard being a negative

Do I have any chances of hatching a slightly cracked quail egg? Or should I simply dispose it? I know it sounds stupid but I'm trying to hatch store eggs as I'm unable to get fertilized ones during the lockdown.

Hi, very guide I read seems to disagree, some say you need to incubate at 30-50% humidity then raise to 60% and up from lockdown whilst others are saying START ats high as 50% and go from 65-75% during lockdown/I have had mine at closer to 30-40% up to day 11 and now don't know if increasing humidity too much prior to lockdown will be a shock to the system. 5 out of 6 looked like they ere developing today. I might check them again at the end of day 13 because I don't want to mess with them to much from day 14 onwards

Hello Chris thanks for your videos , 15 of my quails died 6 hours after hatching , I knotice a bad smell coming out of the incubator.

might want to redo this one, the camera is having a problem focusing and your hand was out of camera shot.

👍good luck with your hatch!

How long after “lockdown” do you wait for all the eggs to hatch. Most hatchabout 2-3 days later, but will others hatch 4-7 days after lockdown? Or should one discard the unhatched eggs 4-5 days after lockdown? Or sooner?

One of my quail eggs rotted and cracked by day six. Big surprise! I took out the remaining eggs, laid them on a heating pad, and wiped everything down with a wet paper towel. The smell is atrocious. It’s more or less back to normal. Hopefully the remaining eggs will still have a chance.

Thanks for all your content, Chris! I've learned so much about quail from you, and I have my first round of quail eggs in the incubator right now! Keep on keepin on.

What does it mean to go into lockdown? As opposed to just being in the incubator?

Good informative video as always

how do you hold onto the eggs before you incubate. do you have to put them in the refrigerator or do you just hold them out on countertop. how long can you keep it out before you have

Good video and we saw how some were fertile and others not fertile. Duck eggs are very easy to check after about 4 days and great to see the heart beating away and swishing about. I have 10 quail eggs in a small incubator for a friend, as I have done all sorts over the years. 73's Andy M6APJ

i managed to make a chicken accept quail eggs... everything was going good but then some were braking... spoiled, and now they are 2-3 days after the 18days and the ones that had an embryo developed a dark goo ... what could have gone wrong?

Hey Chris I’m incubating celadon eggs and am on day 3. I candled them and can see quite a few with veins however I have maybe 5 eggs that look like they have bubbles in them and I can’t see veins. With those eggs being blue will it glow green and not yellow? I will candle again at day 15 before lockdown to throw out duds at that point. Thanks for any input.

Hello Chris, this is great to show. I should candle my hen eggs. I haven't. Thanks for sharing.💕 NonnaGrace

Oh no, I need some advice please. I did this before watching your videos. I have 40 eggs in the incubator but there are only about 10 that are coming to the day 15. The rest still have a day to 4 day until they get to day 15. I. Any go into lock down cause I still have to turn eggs twice a day. What should I do.

😅😅😅 in few days my first hatch 🐣

Good Egg, and Bad Egg's get the good old Willy Wonka.

I have a very poor hatch of mixed chicken eggs off ebay. Just one chick out of 14. The eggs lit up like light bulbs when I candled them today. had a lot of broken eggs in the box, The eggs were wrapped individually, with a piece of bubble wrap and put into a box. I am in Alaska so had a tough trip I imagine.I have 50+ quail eggs going into lockdown today.. Hope the quail hatch is better.Thanks for the great info.

Thank you for your channel! I took the plunge and now have 29 chicks 🐥. First order 11/13 hatched (2 infertile) but I killed two out of anxiousness to take out of incubator .... just so damn cute and helpless, I took out too early and they died. Incredibly, the rest hatched, I think because they hadn’t pipped (sp?) so the humidity/temp change didn’t effect them - lucky. 2nd order of 32, I was at 21 hatch after 3 days of lockdown and I removed them to brooder. A few more hatched but my incubator bottom has some larger holes on the sides and 3 ended up getting their heads stuck and subsequently drowned. Anyway! Thank you - I have watched your quail videos more than once and have learned so much! Most of your advice, I heeded, and the advice I didn’t, splat - I lost chicks 🤔. Thank you!

I'm in the process of incubating quail eggs for the first time that I ordered though Ebay (about 100 total). I'm on day 12 and I candled my eggs on days 5 and 10. It seemed to work out for me because I found a couple on day 5 that were leaking from tiny cracks. I pulled those out and sanitized where they were at. I assume it could've been disastrous if I left those bad eggs in the incubator for much longer. On day 5, I also moved the ones that showed little to no development on the front egg turner rail. In doing this, it made it easier to check them again and hopefully lessened the spread of any potential bacteria. On day 10, I only checked the ones on the front rail and discarded all the ones that were glowing as shown in the video. I know the main things key to a successful hatch rate are proper temperature / humidity control, turning the eggs, cleanliness and removing bad / infertile eggs, but I was wondering what else could help. I've read on some forums that people put dilute oil on their eggs to mimic oils that would come from the mother hen sitting on them. That supposedly softens the eggs, which makes it easier for the chicks to hatch. I was thinking of covering a piece of paper as wide as the incubator with quail feathers and leaving it on top of the eggs for a day or two while they're on the egg turner. I don't know if that'll do anything, but I'm just trying to mimic nature as best as I can. I've seen videos of mother quails in nature with tons of chicks around them that all look healthy. They must be doing something right to have that many hatch.

Since you are a hunter you probably have some old scope rings laying around. They fit great on the end of one inch LED flashlight. Makes a nice egg candler for quail eggs. I like to candle the eggs at lock down since I like to incubate as many eggs as possible and my separate hatcher is smaller than my incubator it gives the chicks a bit more room to hatch.

How long can you keep them out if the incubator without harming the chicks? Was going to check mine on lockdown day.

Just finished my combination grow out and breeder cage. your channel has been very helpful in getting me started glad to see your a handgunner and bow hunter as well

Thanks for sharing this video, omg that’s a lot of quails to hatch, hope they all do. God bless you and your family!

I just canddle mine today too i got 20 out of like 80 eggs kind of figure i only have one rooster for eight hens which i lost two today do to heat nd bucket was low on water another one was week i hope she makes it

I’m currently on day 2 of hatching quail eggs but my diy incubator’s temperature doesn’t go up and stays around 88 f .Is that a No or a Maybe?

Thank you for another great video with great advice

I can candle mine, now issue. I find looking for airsack is easiest

Thank you 😊 for the info

HI Chris what would be the lower to higher level of humidity level we have to maintain during quail eggs lockdown period.

Is it normal for baby chicks to have watery diarrhea or white foamy diarrhea? I am feeding them Game bird show bird feed and they have a quart water feeder, I also added a half tablespoon of apple cider vinegar to their water I heard it stops their diarrhea.

Do the quail eggs still need to be rotated? Thanks, Chris.

Its my first time hatching quail and i am on day 10 all i can see is a darker patch in most of my eggs i dont know whats ment to happen anyone who can give me sugeation would be greatly appreciated

nice ammo reloader

We got quail eggs (by got i mean someone gave us them unexpectedly) so we are doing research and we cant get our incubator below 39°C is that heat to hot or is it good

5 minutes to start candling 🤷🏽‍♂️

so how many actually hatched considering they were cooling down the whole time you was candling them ect.

I have two eggs that are dark. The bigger end of the egg has a good size air sac. I'm not sure what days they are because I found them in a carton at the market. Could the babes still be alive? I've been incubating in my bra. I have no incubator so I improvised as best as I could. 😆

What is lockdown?

How long will you leave the chicks in the incubator after they hatch.. THANKS

Hello I I run my incubator about 3 days with 120 quail egg today I come back home I notice the second thermometer show around 97 but the thermometer from the incubator show 99.5 is been 3 day u think my hatch is ruined . I turn up the temperature on the incubator already

How long does for Quail eggs for Quail eggs to hatch

Hi Chris, if 5 of my eggs are glowing bright, I know so can’t hatch them but can I eat them or not?

if they are in lockdown on day 15 can you still candle them or would it threaten them

The cardboard getting wet might increase the humidity by acting like a sponge and providing more surface area for water to evaporate.

Great video Chris as always. I plan on making my next hatching egg purchase based on the results of your experiment with Pharoh vs Meatmaker. Right now I have about 45 mixed colored coturnix in my birdroom in my basement. I keep that room cleaner than most people clean their houses. I've been eating about five a week due to the birds fighting and injuring eachother. Once the ratio of rooster to hen goes bad the only thing to do is cull them rather than just have one or two left in a cage. I've learned that trying to introduce adult birds into an adult flock is pretty disastrous. I didn't know what to do with all the eggs I was getting anyway. Thankfully my husband just loves to eat quail. I watched your video on your garden. I felt bad that you will have to replant part of it due to slugs. I hate slugs!!! Crazy weather. It was in the 40's at night here near Boston and its 80 degrees today. We have had a lot of rain too. I am very tempted to put some of my indoor started plants out now. I think I will wait another week just to be safe. Wild rabbits got under my floating row cover and ate all my red cabbages that were doing really good. Gardening sure has its ups and downs. Candling looks like a lot of fun. I've rigged my incubator so I usually don't open it at all during the incubation process. I may open it the next time at lockdown to candle when I do a small hatch just for the fun of it. Best wishes to your wife and hope she is feeling okay.

You talk too much....... Unnecessarily