Hand turner ?s

[jimi79]

I am hand turner eggs for the first time, I am using a styrofoam hova-bator style incubator. I have 8 eggs6 goose and 2 duck in the incubator with a couple thermometers. As there are slight temperature variances in the incubator should I rotate the eggs position when it turn them?

 

[nuthatched]

Yes, that would help

 

[Celeste Villegas]

I am curious what your hatch rate will be with your rotating hand technique. I also have a cheaper incubator but decided to get an automatic egg turner this time. The last time I tried this incubator, I tried the book method. I placed a1-2 to 3/4 inch thick book under one end of the incubator and then moved the book to a new side every 6 hours. I have holes in the bottom of my incubator, so I set it on top of the box and place the book under the box being careful not let the eggs roll too much but letting them roll a little. I had good looking embryos in all my eggs until day 14 when our power went out for 5 hours and I lost them all. The heat fluctuations were pretty minimal with the book technique because I didn’t have to open the incubator. I also used tubing and a syringe to introduce water through an air hole into the bottom reservoir for humidity. None of these ideas are original as I borrowed from much more experienced posters. I am a novice so take may advise with a grain of salt. I am responding because of the concern over moving them to overcome the heat fluctuations might make the problem worse if you’re opening your incubator frequently to rotate because of the constant switching on of the heating element to raise the temperature. I also have a super drafty house, so maybe you don’t need to worry as much.