Well, it’s that time again. I’ve had so many requests for fertile quail eggs that it took a couple of months to get enough together for a hatch. I wanted to do a dual hatch with some chicken eggs in there, since I’ve never hatched out any chickens before.

I have a Hovabator with an automatic egg turner and both quail and chicken-sized egg holders. I naturally assumed I could have both holders in the turner at once and set it and forget it (sort of). Well, after many agonizing attempts to fit both sizes in I concluded that it is impossible to use the egg turner with both chicken and quail eggs. You can have chicken, you can have quail, but you can’t have both. The egg holder attachments are different sizes and the very flimsy plastic arms that actually effect movement will not work with both. Whose idea was that? Not that the rest of the turner is much better. I see these things selling for $89.99 and they are a huge piece of junk. The plastic is cheap and breaks easily. The only thing holding a tray of eggs are two thin plastic spokes that you could snap like a dry twig. The whole unit consists of a small motor and some poorly-formed plastic parts and shouldn’t cost any more than $20. I doubt it will last for very many more hatches.

Anyway. So this means, in addition to keeping the temperature and humidity monitored I have to turn my Ameraucana chicken eggs at least three times a day. To me that seems like a lot of work and a lot of opportunities to break eggs. Luckily it’s day 11 and I haven’t broken any yet. I’m starting to feel a lot like a mother chicken though. How long has it been since they were turned last?