rolling vs turning

chicknadventure

Songster
7 Years
Apr 3, 2012
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Hi all. I have a pretty roomy incubator due to only being half full and dont have an auto turner so i started turni ght eggs by hand but they started rolli g....so i figured i woild help :)and so instead of meticulously turning each egg by habd for the x and o i just gently roll rhe eggs arou.d the incubator kind of lime dominos.

Is there any reason that this is a bad idea? Obviously i am careful not to let them bump at all.
 
A lot of commercial incubators are using rolling for turning eggs if this answers your question
 
Just try and make sure the eggs aren't laying on the same side for to long a time. I've been hand turning for years and always make sure the eggs rest on a different side each time. I turn 3x a day.
 
So if i am using an lg and i turn them individually how do i keep them from conrinuing to roll?

I expect that if i turn multiple times a day that the x and o do t matter so much....unless hens DO actually turn theirs exactly halfway everytime and not just adjust them frequently?

Thanks for the input. I know that there are so many "this is the way its done" ideas here but if i like to know the why of how it works as well.
 
There are a lot of things that turning affects. One of the big ones, especially early in the incubation, is that if an egg spends too much time on the same side, the chick's body parts might not form in the right places. These chicks don't live to hatch. Experiments show that these usually die in the third week of incubation.

Just because something might happen does not mean that it will each and every time, but some bad things can happen if you don't turn them. Turning them the suggested way does not guarantee a perfect hatch. It just improves your odds of a good hatch. You can just turn them helter skelter and many will probably still hatch fine. Probably. Many of them.

No a hen does not turn them exactly halfway each and every time she turns them, but she turns them a lot. On average, they spend about the same amount of time in each side.
 
you have a very good point there and i am with you but rules are made to help the beginners to avoid mistakes and give them a starting guide when you have the experience then you discover there is a lot of tolerance to the rules and adapt them accordingly

we posted together
 
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Thanks for this interesting discussion :)

So how do i keep them from rolling if i am going to go ahead and turn the xo style? I am definitelya beginner and dont wanr ro screw up a hatch but the screen isnt flat and it takes a lot of open air time to turn them xo and even then they roll.

So how do i stop that?
 

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