EGG TURNER QUIT! Can I save these eggs?

[MROO]

I have eight Nankin Bantam eggs in a Nature Right 360 incubator with an automatic turner. The turner has quit. It is only a month or so old and has been used successfully once, to finish off abandoned eggs. I have contacted the manufacturer, but have not yet heard back.

These eggs are on Day 14. Humidity has been good - hovering at about 49, except for the first day, when it dropped to 29 overnight. DD noticed that the pencil marks on the eggs looked like they hadn't moved, so she manually tested the turner. It worked fine. The next morning, the eggs looked in about the same place, so we tested again. Fine. This went on for about three days, until I happened to be filling the water reservoir when the turner motor kicked in. Nothing moved. I tested it manually. It worked FINE! We are now manually turning the eggs at least three times a day by using the auto-turn tester buttons on the outside, but the internal mechanism does not work on its' own.

I have NO IDEA how long this has been going on! I candled the closest egg. There are active signs of life, veining and an embryo, but there is also a large dark spot on one side that looks like something is attached to the side of the egg. Can these babies be saved? Fingers Crossed!

 

[annanicole18]

You are past the halfway mark so I would definitely try. There is no way that hens manage to turn every single eggs perfectly every time so there is a likelyhood that they will be fine.

 

[Zinjifrah]

All you can do is try. Just be prepared for the risk that they might not make it... but trying and having them not make it is better than not trying at all!

 

[MROO]

You are past the halfway mark so I would definitely try. There is no way that hens manage to turn every single eggs perfectly every time so there is a likelyhood that they will be fine.

That's my train of thought, too, but I wonder if there's anything else I could or should do to give them a better shot. I am so ANGRY and frustrated over this! Bators are NOT CHEAP!

 

[Zinjifrah]

That's my train of thought, too, but I wonder if there's anything else I could or should do to give them a better shot. I am so ANGRY and frustrated over this! Bators are NOT CHEAP!

Personally, what I'd do is arrange them so that the 'dark' part is to the side, so that when you're turning them that's never the side they're pushing toward. However, it could also just be that the chicks are developing and have gravitated to that side of the egg as they turned... it always startles me to candle and see one side of the egg look 'empty', the other side 'full', when the 'empty' side is just where all the yolk is. Don't give up on them!

 

[MROO]

I refuse to give up on these babies! They are critically endangered Nankins. If they don't give up, neither will I!

 

[Mosey2003]

Should be fine, as long as you're past day 12. Might be a slightly lower hatch rate, but it's not catastrophic like it would be if it wasn't working from the start, like the one I had once (sigh).