Effects of Setting Eggs Small End up on Hatchability and Embryo Mortality in Japanese Quail {Coturnix coturnix japonica)

It was reported that the hatchability of chicken eggs incubated with their small ends up was 16 to 27% lower than eggs set with their large ends up. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of setting eggs with small end up on hatchability and embryo mortality in Japanese quail. A total of 240 fertile quail eggs was collected from commercial Japanese quail flock at the same age. Eggs were divided into two treatments in four replicate: 1) Groupl or setting eggs large end up 2) Group2 or setting eggs small end up.Eggs were incubated under usual conditions. Incubation results showed 86.6 and 84.4 % total hatchability for groupl and 2, respectively. Early, mid or late embryo mortalities were 3.3, 2.7 and 7.3% for groupl and 3.3, 3.3 and 8.9% Group2, respectively. In this study, small end up eggs had lower hatchability as compared with large end up eggs. Mid and late embryonic mortalities were higher in small end up eggs. It was concluded that setting eggs small end up, has significant effects on hatchability and cause higher embiyonic mortality at late incubation period in Japanese quail without any effects on body weight of hatched chicks.