I was a week ahead on putting my latest batch of eggs in lockdown and out of the turner and they seem to be ok when they hatched today. Is the turner/being turned all that important? I figured that they're so light that sticking to a side may not be a big deal. OTH, they have more surface proportionally to stick to... Mind you my batch is only 3 eggs. Only one girl was laying till lately.
My experience is the turning is much more important when you store eggs, and during the first two weeks of incubation. On this last batch of chicks, I had forgotten what day I started them. So I guessed on the lockdown date, and I was about five days ahead. I had candled the eggs before putting them in lockdown, and I thought I was close. Anyhow, all but one egg hatched, so it didn't hurt anything that I had quit turning. But I started out with twice the eggs, and I lost alot of embryos early on, which I believe was my fault because I didn't turn them during storage. Oh well, live and learn, I guess. Take care, Sharon
I try to turn 3x a day, but if i can only do it twice or even once because i'm busy that day, no big deal. As long as they are turned frequently in the beginning, i kind of slack off towards the end and havnt had a problem.
It is important for eggs to be turned, especially in the first week of incubation, as this is the time the embryo is starting to develop. As the embryo grows in the egg, it feeds/absorbs on the yolk where ever it started growing. But after feeding in this area for several hours, the egg needs turned so it can feed in a new area of the yolk. So by turning the egg, you are giving the embryo a new place to get nutrients from where it may have consumed all it could from another area. As the chick nears the time of lock down, turning becomes less important and they say you can actually stop egg turning up to 5 days before hatch.
