should I feed my eggs to the garbage?

My dad and I decided to go into quail together, so friday night I picked up one of his bators (never used one before) and 120 quail eggs that he had collected from me. Saturday morning I get it plugged in to warm up, and left for town to take the kids to the fair...later on that afternoon I decided I should call hubby and get him to check the temp, so eggs can get put in sooner than later. He tells me that it's sitting at 116..so I tell him to cool it off and wait until it's at correct temp, then put my eggs in. I get home about 3 hours later and my eggs are in and the temp was at 115!! I of course was not a happy camper! My dad will be collecting a new batch for me, but my question is being that they were just put in and it was only for around 3 hours that they were at that high temp, should I garbage them all? Or will they be okay? Breaks my heart to toss all those eggs!

If they were chicken eggs I'd say not to worry and carry on and wait and see, since a chicken egg, with more mass, does not heat up so quickly.

However quail eggs are that much smaller, heat up faster and are at a higher risk for overheating.

I'd still say wait and see. Since the eggs have not yet started to develop and there are no half baked chicks to kill, you might be okay. You have nothing to lose by carrying on with your fingers crossed. There might be the chance that the eggs will survive. If you toss them out there is a 100% chance none of them will survive! So...onward and upward!

Also, I have learned that with most incubators, at least the smaller cheaper types, you can't really trust the thermometer that comes with them. I hatch in a Styrofoam incubator (and other things too!) and usually have at least 3 thermometers placed at different spots to give me a true picture of what is going on in that bator. The accuracy of the thermom, the placement of the thermom all affect the reading...and it might not be the whole picture. Perhaps your eggs didn't reach 115. Let's hope so.

Thanks Uno! I am going to continue on with my eggs, and hope for the best...meanwhile I think i am going purchase my own incubator and start a new batch just in case. And you're right, if they get tossed then I am guaranteed to have nothing out of all those eggs.

I was googling last night to see if I could find any info from anyone else that may have had the same experience on day one of incubation, and how their hatch turned out.....and I came across something about a frybator...hmmmm....hahaha

I agree - get a good reliable thermometer - you may not be as badly off as you think!

You could always candle them...if they are solid inside then they are hard-boiled, and then you know you don't have a chance.

I use 3 thermometers in each bator, including one with a humidity meter.

Last year I had a heat spike to 108...I can't remember how long it was, but I had chicks hatch from that bunch. And since there is a possibility of them not being fully warmed it's worth a shot.

You know what's going to happen, don't you? They are ALL going to hatch and then you'll be wondering what the heck you're going to do with all these babies!?

Thanks heda and islandgal99!

Islandgirl99- I actaully had a couple extra that wouldn't fit on the racks, so I opened one up that night, it looked really good still...so here's hoping!

Uno- if that were to happen I would have some very hard decisions to make! I would have to weigh all my options.... Should I use dry rub, maybe a soak in marinade and then bbq sauce. Do I want to bake them, maybe stir fry....and then of course, do I want an omelet, fried egg, or perhaps scrambled! All very hard choices! That would be a quail daydream come true! But I guess I'll have to be realistic and be happy with anything that comes out of either hatch..lol. One quail hatch out is one more then I had before (don't be a roo, don't be a roo, don't be a roo)

*oopsie, I meant to write islandgal99 on the second line too...not islandgirl99....it's too early to remember what I typed 2 seconds before and even harder when you have the mind of a goldfish! Lol

Well, they won't boil at 115 degrees! 210 is boiling point. I say keep them until they are ready to candle and they you can see if they were in too long. This will give you some time to collect and if the eggs are ruined you can put some new ones in right away.

Hmmmm....good point sue! Lol. Speaking of "cooking eggs" I'll share a story at the risk of looking like the biggest dummy ever. I plugged my dad's bator in, like I said, saturaday morn to start heating it up, and I take the thermometer out to make sure it's all good to go, and it's set on fahrenheit, well hmmm, better fix that and switch it over to celcius. So before I left it was sitting at 43 degrees...thought, wow, this is gonna take a while, and ooh, better increase the heat output too (yup, total newbie). So when I called hubby to check the temp to get eggs started I tell him I need it to be 99.5 C. He's like uuuh, do maybe want to rethink that. Then I instantly realized the error of my ways..lol. Hence why it was running so hot and I asked him to cool it down before putting eggs in...taking off the lid to cool it off and throwing them in doesn't count though! Although to his credit, I think he "tried" to turn it down and thought it was good enough.

My dad said he has a really hard time candling those quail eggs, but I'm going to give it a whirl and see if I can see anything. If I can't then I guess they'll just ride the rails until hatch day and hope something, if anything, hatches

At least it's a quick hatch. 16 days?

16-18 days...so not too terrible. This will be one of those that feels like an eternity I'm guessing though..lol