Incubating Quail in a tabletop incubator

Hatching Quail Eggs in the Meef Incubator

Box Contents

1. Styrofoam cover - top and bottom

2. Meef Incubator - bottom unit, lid, egg turning tray, water guards, power cord

3. Humidifier Unit - humidifier, reservoir bottle, and short cord.

4. Four sponge pieces

5. Round shelf liner

Set Up

1. Incubator Bottom Tray

-        Align the incubator tray handles with notches in the bottom styrofoam cover.

-        Place turning tray into the incubator.

-        Adjust water guards around the perimeter of the incubator into place to avoid overlaps and gaps - four per side.

-        Place a calibrated glass thermometer and a digital thermometer/hygrometer sensor into the bottom of the tray that will be used to verify settings at a later step.

2. Incubator Lid

-        Place the incubator lid onto the bottom tray, careful to align the teeth of the turning motor fit between the three notches in the center of the egg turning tray.

-        Set the Styrofoam cover on top of the incubator lid, ensuring that the top cover seats snug into the bottom cover with the large hole centered around the lid display and the small hole centered around the humidifier opening.

-        Remove the water reservoir bottle from the humidifier and fill to the top line with room temperature water.

-        Place the humidifier back on top of the reservoir and press down gently until the bottle seats securely into place.

-        Check that the humidifier was placed properly by turning the humidifier right side up and observing the water level - a decrease in level may indicate a leak.

-        Insert the humidifier into the small hole of the styrofoam cover, then use the short cable to plug the humidifier into the incubator.

3. Incubator Settings for Incubation Phase

-        Plug the power cord into the incubator.

-        Using the “Set” button, adjust the temperature to 99.8 degrees Fahrenheit and the humidity to 45.

-        Allow the unit to heat for several minutes until the temperature and humidity readings have stabilized.

4. Setting Verification

-        The glass thermometer should be calibrated before use by placing it into a glass of ice water and verifying an accurate reading of 32F.

-        Compare the reading of the glass and digital thermometer to the incubator display setting, if the incubator is functioning correctly all readings should agree to a temperature between  between 99.5 and 100.5 F, and between 45-50% humidity.

-        If there is not an alignment within the above parameters, make small adjustments in incubator settings after placing the eggs in the incubator until alignment is achieved.

Incubation Phase

-        Once incubator settings have been verified, place eggs carefully into the incubator and then monitor for any setting changes that might be required after a stabilization period of 2-3 hours..

-        The day eggs are placed into the incubator is considered Day 1.

-        Eggs remain in the Incubation phase until Day 15 with the settings described above.

-        Regularly verify temperature settings by repeating Set Up step 4.

-        Monitor the water reservoir bottle daily and fill as needed.

Lock Down Phase

-        On Day 15 the eggs enter lock down, which prepares the incubator for chicks to hatch between days 16 and 20.

-        Remove the incubator cover and lid and carefully move each egg from the incubator.

-        Remove the egg turning tray from the incubator and replace it with the round shelf liner.

-        Carefully fill the water troughs around the perimeter of the incubator with warm water - approximately 4-8oz of water at 99 F degrees.

-        Check that the placement of the guards is sufficient to keep chicks from falling into the water.

-        Place the eggs back into the incubator on top of the shelf liner.

-        Ensure eggs are away from the center of the incubator where the teeth of the egg turning motor could accidentally damage the egg.

-        Replace the incubator lid and cover carefully and reinstall the humidifier.

-        Increase humidity setting to 68% and monitor thermometer and hygrometer readings to ensure the incubator is between 65 and 70% humidity once the readings have stabilized.

Hatching Phase

-        Quail chicks should hatch between days 16 and 19.

-        Monitor daily for pipping in the eggs and newly hatched chicks.

-        Allow a minimum of 12 hours of drying time from the hatching of the last chick to ensure that chicks are complete dry before moving to the brooder, with a total drying time of 48-72 hours for most chicks.