First time incubation advice

[Sophia2010]

I’ve acquired a Brinsea Polyhatch incubator (still air) from my dad and am looking at hatching some Japanese quail eggs. This is my first time so was wondering if I could get some advice on the following:
It has 2 water reservoirs, do I have them dry until lockdown
or what do people recommend?
What is the best way to check the built in analogue thermometer is reading correctly?
It has rollers that can be set at different spacings on the egg tray for turning, do I have these set just slightly wider than the egg?
Thanks in advance, I can’t wait to get going!

 

[Marigold]

Hi Sophia and welcome. I haven't used a Brinsea Polyhatch for coturnix but if you dont have the handbook and are concerned about how to best set it up and check it you could try the Brinsea online helpline. I found them very helpful when I was using a Brinsea Advance for quails.
If you look back through this section of the forum you'll find quite a lot of archive posts about hatching coturnix. Yes basically they do seem to do better in a dry incubator until 24 hours before hatch is due and are inclined to drown in shell if the humidity is too high in the early stages. Possibly because the egg is so small that it has a greater ratio of surface area to contents compared with a bigger egg so can absorb more water through the delicate thin shell? I was told this by a friend who had hatched thousands of coturnix and she always incubated dry.