Unfortunately, the experiment was only a partial success. The addition of the humidifier seems to have been a positive. There is every indication that the humidity stayed within the appropriate range the whole time the eggs were in the incubator.
On the negative side, none of the eggs hatched.
I always do an autopsy on the unhatched eggs to diagnose problems and help improve the process for the future. When I opened the eggs I found that none had even started to develop. It makes me think that our male quail is not doing his job. I suppose the problem could be on the female side, but she was laying eggs regularly and they all had yolks.
As soon as it is convenient, I’ll harvest the remaining adult quail. There is no reason to continue feeding them. Only one female is laying eggs and two females and two males are freeloading.
I ordered some hatching eggs and will put them into the incubator as the last chance for the winter. If they don’t hatch, we’ll be done with quail until there is a good enough reason to try starting over.
