Poultry Talk Ontario (pto.ca)

So, we set 100 eggs from our 23 hens that were lost to a predator 20 days ago. Today is official hatch day (Day 18), but hatching actually started on Day 16, with most hatched yesterday on Day 17, one straggler overnight, bringing the total hatched to 50. I don't know yet how many of the eggs still in the incubator were viable, or how many DIS. One egg had cracked and leaked into the incubator and one chick pipped at the wrong end of the shell.
DH had to scramble to make a bigger brooder last night, because the big tote we normally use is not big enough.
Noon update: Checked on things and all hatchlings have been moved to the brooders, with the exception of one who hatched some time this morning and is still drying off. The count is now 51. Have I mentioned how great it is to be working from home during a hatch?
One interesting observation: quite a few of the chicks that hatched yesterday in incubator #2 had red eyes. I've never seen a quail with red eyes before, and now we have at least half a dozen of them. Curious what would cause so many to have red eyes.
Anyway, a few photos to follow later.

Interesting, I wonder if the eye colour will change. Beltsvilles hatch with blue eyes and they change to brown.

Congrats @Jaye !

Congratulations!

Thanks for the congrats, @Killerbunny , @Happy and @kenya .
Here's a couple of pics of the wild bunch in the big brooder and one red eyed chick photo bomb of my poor attempt at photographing the bunch under the electric hen in the smaller brooder.

Cute!

Update: 52 as of 4:00 pm.

Update #2: I was cleaning out the empty shells from the incubators this morning and came across an egg where it looked like the chick had made good zipping progress around about 2/3 of the way but didn't make the final little bit. The membrane that was showing looked dried out. I was about to put in aside with the other pipped and quit eggs, when I noticed movement; i.e., breathing, and then I noticed the little protruding beak moving. So I got out the tweezers and a q-tip, started taking little chips of shell off, then peeling back exposed membrane carefully after wetting it with the q-tip. It only took moments for the chick to join in by pecking and pushing. It was out in less than a minute. I left it to dry off in the incubator (still on) and transferred it to the temporary observation brooder box with other more recent hatch-outs and chicks that don't yet seem very strong yet. Sadly, we did lose one little red-eyed chick overnight. I wasn't really surprised because it was one of the ones that didn't seem to be getting the whole "this is water, drink it" thing and I heard it cheeping loudly on and off throughout the night. It couldn't have been cold because I found it under the electric hen this morning. Total now: 53 hatched, one didn't make it. I will leave the incubators on until this evening and then do a check which of the remaining eggs were were fertile/viable. The gang in the main brooder box are doing very well; drinking well, and eating like little piggies. This bunch goes crazy for feed soaked in vitamin water. Our last batch didn't care for it at all. Go figure.

They grow so fast and move so fast too, fun to watch.

The final stats are in, but I need to correct my first post, where I stated that 100 eggs went into the incubator. I actually only set 45 in each incubator, for a total of 90. I'm really not sure why I said 100 initially ... maybe because between the two incubators I had capacity for 100?

Incubator #1:
45 were set
28 hatched
10 infertile
6 early quitters
0 DIS
45 set - 10 infertile = 35 viable
hatch rate = 80%

Incubator #2:
25 hatched
9 infertile
1 exploded
4 early quitters
5 DIS (some maybe shrink-wrapped)
45 set - 10 infertile = 35 viable
hatch rate = 69%

Overall hatch rate = 76%

Unfortunately, one more chick died overnight in the main brooder in the main brooder, and mid-morning one of the chicks in the special needs brooder also died. That reduces the total number of survivors as of today to 50. Still a big bunch that needs bedding changed more frequently with each passing day.