Hand turning eggs Vs auto turners?

[duckyfromoz]

Althought I have rasied ducks and geese for 25 years, I only bought an incubator this season. I bought most of the eggs I set, some being posted and others picked up by myself from local farms.

I had many mixed results from 4 different settings, and had done things a little different each time as I tweeked my machine and gained experience.

I was placing most of the eggs into an automatic turner where they sat with the fatter end- air sac facing upwards. However the last hatch- I decided to hand turn after one breeder told me she has more sucess this way, as the eggs are in a more natural possition.

I am certainly glad I did as I had the best hatch rate of all my settings.

I was just wondering if anyone else has ever found that hand turning eggs has resulted in a better hatch rate- or if you get better hatch rates with them up right in an auto turner.

Would love to hear from anyone who has tried both ways- and had better hatch results from either.

 

[giffy]

I always used hand turning, end over end, at least 3 times per day..............many of the auto turners just rock them.

giffy
---------------

 

[giffy]

Also, if you ever watched a setting duck, they do alot of shifting and moving of the eggs.

Over the years I have taken video in different nest boxes of a few wild breeds. In the link below you can view video of a Wood duck setting in her nest box and see the amount of moving/shifting that she does on her clutch.

http://www.giffsfarm.com/nestbox2.html

giffy
--------------------

 

[deerman]

Call me crazy, i use auto turners for most eggs. Now my peafowl eggs, I lay them on their side in the turners, and also hand turn them too. better hatch rate.


The turners on my roll- X and turn- X , eggs are layed on their side. They just dont hold that many eggs for me.Great hatch rate.
The GQF turner egg are ment to be large end up. Works ok for most, guess you got a better hatch hand turning because eggs were on their side. So if you have the time to turn them, incubator will hold more eggs, without the turner with a good hatch rate.

 

[seminolewind]

Since I can't lay them or sit on them, I hand turn. I like being involved. I think one other important thing is that I also rotate the outer eggs to the inner so that the same eggs are not on the outside the whole time.

 

[CityChicker]

A lot of the big waterfowl breeders swear by hand turning. I have only just tried it recently (through an entire incubation and without an auto turner I mean). I have to say, when I did it, I had 100% development in the eggs. Unfortunately, then the last last week of incubation we had a couple of extended power outages and I lost some of the eggs late in incubation. The fact that all developed though was very encouraging.

I am still confused though about how most people that only hand turn do it. Maybe Giffy can elaborate. I tried to roll mine. I would roll them about a half a turn one direction and then the next turn, I would roll them back the other way. How exactly do you do it, Giffy? Do you just flip them end-over-end, like 180 degrees each time? or do you flip them one way, then back the other way? Do you still also use an auto turner as well? I will definitely try exclusively hand turning more in the future. I wish I would have had a better hatch so that I know whether or not how I did it resulted in any malpositioned chicks.

 

[CityChicker]

Quote:
Grumbach incubators work on the same principle as the roll-x. The eggs are placed on their sides on top of rollers. The turner pushes the eggs on the shelf and they basically roll on top of the rollers about 6 inches or so, then the turner slowly rolls them back the other way. We used a Grumbach for our large parrots with great success, but I only ever did one waterfowl hatch with it because of the concern over cleanliness. I do know of a few waterfowl breeders that use the roll-x as well and have great luck with it.

 

[deerman]

Quote:
Myself when hand turning, i mark a X on one Side an O on the other side. so all Xs up Then next time all 0s up

 

[deerman]

Quote:
Grumbach incubators work on the same principle as the roll-x. The eggs are placed on their sides on top of rollers. The turner pushes the eggs on the shelf and they basically roll on top of the rollers about 6 inches or so, then the turner slowly rolls them back the other way. We used a Grumbach for our large parrots with great success, but I only ever did one waterfowl hatch with it because of the concern over cleanliness. I do know of a few waterfowl breeders that use the roll-x as well and have great luck with it.

Yep saw those incubators, also. Think the rolling works great, I use the turn-x and roll-x for parrot eggs. All my water fowl use the GQF sportsman with eggs in the turner large end up, will good hatch rate. May get a better hatch doing them like my peafowl eggs..

 

[seminolewind]

I just give each one a twist in the same direction, and once a day, move the outer eggs towards the middle.