Can't turn eggs on weekends...hatch rate?

[MaryZoe]

Hello,

I am a teacher, and I decided to bring a chicken program into the school where I teach. I have some incubators with auto-turners that I'll loan the school, but I thought it would be great to have one 'bator that the kids themselves turn several times a day (washing hands before and after, of course). The only problem with that is weekends.

Does anyone have experience hatching at a school or some other time when you could not turn the eggs every so often. Was there a large effect on the hatch rate? I've hatched plenty of eggs, but I usually use automatic turners or hatch them on my kitchen counter, so I remember to turn the eggs regularly. I have definitely had eggs hatch when I did not turn them toward the end (I thought they were not viable or some such thing, so I just left them in the 'bator for a week and they hatched, to my great surprise). But I don't want to set up the kids for failure or deformed chicks due to insufficient turning.

Thoughts?

Thanks! MZ

 

[woodenfarm]

@KikisGirls any advice?

 

[MichelleBelle]

Is it possible to have a volunteer be responsible for turning the eggs a couple times during the day on the weekends?

 

[llombardo]

What are the plans for these chicks after they hatch?

 

[dpenning]

I don’t know the answer to your specific question but you could turn it into an experiment to get the answer. Use an auto turner bator as the control the track the turning on the manual and see if there is a difference. My understanding is that it is more important at the beginning than at the end. Stop turning both at the same point for lockdown. Would be interesting but you would have to set the expectations up front With the kids.

If they are too young you could take the bator home with you on the weekends to continue manually turning.

 

[MaryZoe]

You mean I need plans for AFTER the chicks hatch?! Haha. Just kidding. Our Lower School kids hatch the eggs, then we have brooders set up for the Middle School kids to tend, and we built a gorgeous three-bay coop for the adult chickens. We'll keep all the hens and several roos. The roos we don't need we will give away or sell for cheap on Craigslist. We started the program last year and it was successful. But last year all our 'bators were auto-turn.

I think we will try to have someone come in and turn the eggs at least one day each weekend until perhaps the final weekend (close to lockdown). Though I also like the idea of treating it as an experiment. Perhaps we'll do that for our second hatch and ask the older students to keep track. Of course there are so many other variables that we won't be able to make any real inferences. But it would be interesting. I used to think the auto-turner gave better hatch results, but my hand-turning this summer surprised me with equally good or better rates than my auto-turner.

 

[MaryZoe]

Oh, and during the second half of the year (when the hens should be laying), I will teach an elective class in the Upper School--chickens as a small business. So the high school aged kids will care for and sell our eggs and chicks/chickens.

 

[Egghead_Jr]

Why do you need to hatch so many? You have auto turners so there is no reason why you can't put one in the manual egg turning incubator over the weekend. Eggs only need to be turned to day 14. Few days early won't matter. If you start on a Monday that's one weekend you need to put an auto turner in the manually turned incubator.

 

[MaryZoe]

Why do you need to hatch so many? You have auto turners so there is no reason why you can't put one in the manual egg turning incubator over the weekend. Eggs only need to be turned to day 14. Few days early won't matter. If you start on a Monday that's one weekend you need to put an auto turner in the manually turned incubator.

Sorry, @Egghead_Jr, I should have specified. We have 3 of the little Brinsea mini 7-egg incubators and 3 of the Brinsea maxi 14-egg incubators. We use the small Brinsea so we can have eggs hatching in several different classrooms. Five of the 6 'bators have the auto-turners, but the 6th does not. It's that one I'm worried about.