Any good tricks for manually turning eggs?

[bellah1]

I wanted to see if anyone has some good ideas on how to easily manually turn eggs in a bator. Like if u have them in egg cartons what's a good way or even if they are just laying on the bottom. Ideas??!!!

 

[Fred's Hens]

I'd probably do what we do with gathered eggs in preparation for incubating.

I have a block of wood, about 4" thick. I prop up one end of the egg carton with that block, tilting the entire carton. 3 times a day, I move the block of wood, end for end. This alternates the raised end and, in effect, tilts the egg carton one way, then the other.

I guess I'd just tilt the entire bator, one end, then the other, over and over and over.
That is the way our Brinsea Octagon works.

 

[rosemi78]

I rotated mine 1/4 turn 7 to 9 times a day. The lay on the floor of the incubator, not in an egg carton.

 

[Egghead_Jr]

I do the block of wood and egg carton. I use a 1 inch block and tilt side to side not end to end. We collect for two weeks prior to setting eggs so tilt in egg cartons those two weeks then same cartons and wood inside incubator for 18 days. For last three days of hatch I lay the eggs on side and take out the cartons. I also only turn twice a day, morning and night, get over 80% hatch rate.

 

[thasista]

I like to touch each egg. I had rotate twice a day.

 

[bellah1]

I do the block of wood and egg carton. I use a 1 inch block and tilt side to side not end to end. We collect for two weeks prior to setting eggs so tilt in egg cartons those two weeks then same cartons and wood inside incubator for 18 days. For last three days of hatch I lay the eggs on side and take out the cartons. I also only turn twice a day, morning and night, get over 80% hatch rate.

What kind of conditions do u keep your eggs while u collect? Also do u sterilize the block of wood somehow, everyone always talks about keeping everything clean that u put in the bator? Thanks

 

[bellah1]

Thank u all for ur tips!

 

[Fred's Hens]

By tilting the entire incubator, you do not have to open it every day to manually turn each egg. Each time you open, there is humidity and heat loss, to some degree. Each time you handle, you risk dropping an egg or introducing some bacteria. In the absence of an auto turner, tilting the entire incubator seems the next best option.

 

[Egghead_Jr]

I don't clean the wood, figure as long as it's not a moldy piece from outside it's alright. I've some scrap rough cut 1x4 laying about this year, last year I had a piece of quarter round. Ya know, whatever is lying about. Heck in a pinch if I was worried about cleanliness I could use a few kids Lego blocks. Which I did use last year to split incubator in half during hatching to keep different breeds of same color separated.

Conditions I have for storage as collecting is right on a counter in dinning room. It's still heating season so the warmest it will get for me is 65F. Come setting time I fix the house thermostat at 65F, now it auto's down to 58 at night then stages up to 65F at 7am.