Duck eggs in hova-bator egg turner

[katharinad]

Ok, this may be a little bit off, but I'm having trouble with my turner. It worked fine with 35 quail eggs, and now I'm using the goose rails with 15 duck eggs. I triple checked the placement of the rails and had even my husband check it too. It is all according to the drawing on their website. The turner seems to get stuck when hitting the left side. All the motor does is clicks and gets hot. I've disconnected the motor and the mechanism moves freely. It seems that the motor does not have the strength to pull it back once it hits the outer left side. Has anyone encountered a similar problem and what was the solution. I did buy it from the manufacturer and it is still under warranty. For now I'm turning the eggs by hand.
Katharina

 

[katharinad]

Forgot to mention they are Saxony duck eggs.

 

[bigdawg]

bad motor. i keep a spare motor on hand.

 

[FenDruadin]

Sorry to hear about your trouble! I use the chicken egg turner, by the way, with the duck eggs. I've never tried the goose egg turner. Sorry I'm not more help--I hope you get it figured out!

 

[katharinad]

Are bad motors quite common, or just bad luck. I did google it, but did not find much about it.

 

[kingpincray]

Might actually work for your favour. I have read in many places and threads that hand turning duck eggs give better result than a turning rack. Turn from top to bottom of egg rather than side to side and mist everyday from day 10 with mister kept beside the incubator.

However i am no pro though.

all the best.

 

[4-H chicken mom]

Are the racks in the right side holes? I had one rack in the wrong hole and it got stuck and flipped over the top of the other rack. It almost broke the eggs in the next row. I have to agree with kingpincray on not using a turner with duck eggs. Last year I incubated ducks and turned them by hand and if they were growing on day seven, they hatched. This yr my DH bought my an egg turner and I have started 4 staggered hatches and each time I lost at least two from each batch late in incubation. So I took this last batch our of the turner and laid them on their sides and I'm now hand turning and so far all six are still alive and we are on day 21. Good luck.

 

[katharinad]

Thanks for the hand turning advise. I think I will stick with the hand turning. This is my first duck egg incubation. How often do you turn yours? I was going to do it 3 times per day.

 

[4-H chicken mom]

Three to five times is what most people do depending on when they can do it. I do mine five but that's because I have help and did read that duck eggs need to be exercised to relieve stress. I label the sides of the egg with an A, B, C, or D on each 1/4 of the egg. Keep good notes on what letter is up at night. That way the egg is not in the same position each night.