Egg Positioning

[Ranchhand48]

Greetings! I set some eggs a couple of days ago. I have a cabinet style bator, and the shelves turn/ In order to keep the eggs from rolling about I used some egg cartons and put the eggs on their sides instead of standing up. However, in the turning a few eggs are now at small angles with the small end pointing slightly downward. Should I re-position them? Or will there be no affect? I have thought about quickly taking them out of the bator and putting them all straight up in the carton with the pointy end down. As they have started laying on their sides will their growth be affected? Thanks in advance!

 

[loveourbirds]

i have had them fall over and still hatch, so your probably fine. are you using a sportsman or similar cabinet? if yes do you have the metal trays?

 

[sumi]

As long as the pointy end is lower than the fat end they will be fine, especially around day 14 when the chicks get into position for the later hatch. I always incubate and hatch eggs on their sides, it just seems more natural that way. Unless you have air sac issues, in which case it is better to incubate and hatch them upright, with the pointy end down.

 

[Ranchhand48]

The trays are metal with hardware cloth bottoms. As I said, the eggs are in egg cartons to prevent rolling around as the trays turn.

 

[loveourbirds]

with those trays, I put them at a slight angle and just put the eggs in pointy end down. after they are "stacked" full I pad between the eggs with newspaper. If you pad them well, you shouldn't have a lot of breakage or fall overs. I tried the egg carton thing too, and didn't have a lot of luck. they eggs would roll over a lot like your talking about, I even had some fall out of the rack.

 

[Alex Coffey]

I would put them in the cartons like they normally would pointed end down first and then turn your automatic turner on and let them go. Then take them out on the last three days for hatching!

 

[loveourbirds]

i do occasionally use cartons when im not doing a large hatch. in Styrofoam i didn't have great hatches and had a lot of roll-overs. for a disposable "spacer" i found these cardboard flats to work the best. if you need the spacing the plastic racks are a lot better, they hold the egg a little farther up and a lot more secure. if your paying for your eggs the plastic will pay for their selves in a few hatches.

link to what im talking about, check around for best pricing.
http://www.eggcartonsonline.com/ecom-prodshow/13.html

ive seen them on ebay in small lots for just a few bucks.