Confused on when to stop turning eggs

LONDON HENS said:

Can there be any damage done if eggs are turned till day 20?

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No harm, but I would stop turning them. I had marked the wrong week on my calendar and the chicks started hatching. I turned off my auto turner and put the eggs in the hatcher and all was well. I think most people quit turning at day 18 but often times I have waited until day 19.

susanland12 said:

I have eggs in my incubator that were put in over about a 10-day period period the early ones are ready to hatch and I stop turning them. The later ones still need to be turned but I'm afraid to open the lid because the humidity will go down. What do I do?

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This is a time where it is advantageous to have a second incubator to hatch in. Don't take the chicks out until a few have hatched then you won't have to open it as much and you can also mist the remaining eggs with warm water when you do open the incubator. Remember this, a broody will get off of her nest usually at least once a day for 15/20 minutes to eat drink and poop and the eggs hatch out fine.

I put a clutch of Barred Rock chicken eggs in a new incubator I purchased that automatically maintains both temperature and humidity. This incubator doesn't have a day countdown programable timer like my other incubators do that require manually maintained humidity levels by adding appropriate quantities of water. Therefore the egg turner must be shut off manually on the appropriate day within the hatching cycle.

Since I could afford to be more complacent about monitoring humidity levels with the new automatic incubator, time got away from me and I had eggs hatching before I realized I hadn't disabled the egg turner which rolls the eggs on their sides rather than tilts them from side to side. I was used to my other incubators that shut off their turners automatically at the pre-programed date. I also neglected to increase the humidity from 55% to 70% for the same reason.

I won't let this happen again as I plan to stick with the recommended protocols, but it may be encouraging for some to learn that might have missed the right day also, that I still had a 100% hatch rate anyway.

Day 18 you should see a slope- and no light at the pointed tip. If this is the case, it can go in to lock down.

I put the egg on heavy duty cord, (This is a rope used for stringing fish- but brand new) to set my egg on so the hatching chicks cannot roll it about...

I place all eggs on the rope-in the position below...

I would put it in. I have had chicks hatch before I thought were quitters. It doesn't matter really if the chicks roll the eggs around. It may inspire others to hatch. Just keep an eye on them. I always put an X on the eggs I think are quitters. They may still hatch a day or two later.

Flashy2003 said:

Sorry. I had it backwards. LOL. The bator stops turning two days prior to hatching. With is day 19. But allot of people say stop on day 18. Post edited

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My chick started hatching on day 19. It was being turned. When it pipped I just set it to the side.

is it bad to stop turning in day 17 becaus i candles my eggs for the last time which is today to see and one of them you can’t t
see anything. can i stop turing on day 17?

no no no said:

is it bad to stop turning in day 17 becaus i candles my eggs for the last time which is today to see and one of them you can’t t
see anything. can i stop turing on day 17?

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Hi, welcome to the forum from Louisiana, glad you joined. This is an old thread. I have not read all of it so I'll start at the beginning.

Can you stop turning on Day 17? Short answer, yes you can. Now the long answer.

Turning eggs early in incubation helps improve hatch rate. Turning helps keep the yolk and developing embryo centered and helps in the development and hatching process. This does not mean that no eggs will hatch if you don't turn them but a higher percent will hatch if they are turned. The benefits of turning are over around 14 days after incubation starts. You get no benefit for turning them after two weeks, but it also does no harm if you turn them.

Are you counting the days correctly? That is a very common mistake when you start. It takes an egg 24 hours before it has a day's worth of development, so you say "one" the day after you start them. People want to say "one" on the day they start but it doesn't work like that. An easy way to check your counting is that the day of the week you start them is the day of the week the 21 days are up. If they go in the incubator on a Thursday the 21 days is up on a Thursday.

We typically go into what we call lockdown after 18 days of incubation. Humidity is what drives that. During hatch we want a higher humidity in the incubator to help the chicks hatch when they pip. Since chicks can sometimes pip a couple of days early we just use 18 days. And since it is convenient to increase humidity and stop turning at the same time, we just set 18 days as when to do that.

That 18 days is not set in stone either. To hatch, an egg needs to lose a certain amount of humidity. Nature was kind enough to give us a fairly large window of humidity loss that works. This is not as definitive as turning because different people lose different amounts of humidity during incubation, but most people will be fine increasing humidity a little early or late. The goal is to increase humidity before you see pips. Even if you don't manage to do that before you see pips you are often still OK. It's one of those things that increases your chances of success, it does not condemn you to failure if you don't do it.

You want to get the conditions as close to correct as you reasonably can to improve your odds, but you don't have to be that precise to be successful. Good luck and let us know how it goes,