How long can eggs go without turning them?

[MysteryChicken]

Fun Factoid: Did You Know A Broody Hen Turns Her Eggs 69 Times A Day?
Crazy.

 

[nchls school]

I'm a retired science teacher. Many years ago my students built an incubator as a Education Fair project. The incubator was made using a foam bait bucket and a 25 watt bulb. Being small, it only held 5 eggs. At any rate the students were thrilled when 4 of the eggs hatched; normal, healthy chicks. With no one to turn the eggs on the weekends, it surprised me that the eggs hatched and were healthy. From this it seems that the number of turns per day may not be as important as one might think. When using an incubator at home, I manually turned the eggs 3 times a day and would not suggest that people not turn the eggs even for a day. The student's project does show that if we miss a day, for whatever reason, it's quite likely chicks will hatch anyway.

 

[Shadrach]

Fun Factoid: Did You Know A Broody Hen Turns Her Eggs 69 Times A Day?
Crazy.

When I've timed hens turning their eggs in my house nest box it's about every 20 minutes.
What I don't know is how many in the clutch get turned at that time interval.

 

[Ridgerunner]

I had no idea???
What hours should I turn them then?

The hours you should turn them depends on your work or school schedule. Turning them helps body parts to form in the right spots and helps keep the yolk or developing chick from coming into contact with the inside of that porous shell where it can become stuck. There are some other benefits too. Turning early in incubation is more critical than late.

The general idea is to give them the same amount of time in each position every other day and try to keep the intervals about the same each day. It's not that critical that you are exact, just reasonably close. Mother Nature was not that mean to us that we have to be exact, but she does expect us to make some effort.

If your schedule is such that you could turn them on a two, three, four, or six hour schedule then an even number of turns a day would be good. But most of us sleep at night and are gone during the day. So an odd number of turnings a day at approximately the same time works out well. Most people use 3 or 5 time a day and do well.

I'm not a commercial hatchery that might be hatching 1,000,000 chicks a week, have everything automated, and hire people to be there 24/7 in case something goes bad. With them a tiny percentage difference in hatch rate adds up. Plus they are hatching regularly so they can really compare averages. I don't hatch that many or that often. Some of my hatch rates are 70%, some are 100%. I don't always know why there is that much difference from one hatch to another. There are a lot of things going on other than turning.

The general recommendation is a minimum of three times a day for a good hatch rate. The studies I've seen generally say more often is better, but the difference between a good hatch and a better hatch is probably pretty darn small. If five times a day is convenient go with that.

 

[Jemima Duck]

The more times you turn the better according to studies... truly... with 3 times being the minimum suggested. There's a difference between always having chicks hatch and having your best hatch possible. Overkill for you maybe, probably good for your embryos.

Even turning # not usually recommended as it would leave the embryo resting in the same place every night... I suppose the exact 12 hour thing probably at least leaves the embryo at those locations for equal periods of time... but you will not get your BEST hatch doing that... we all have different goals... mine isn't just hatching but getting the maximum number of live chicks per setting.

I also use a turner now, but got my best hatches when hand turning. I think they got more attention somehow. And there has been evidence showing the slight cooling (temp fluctuation) might even increase hatch rate. I used to worry about opening my top before realizing that I'm competing with a hen who goes of for a good 15 minutes everyday, depending on weather. I usually aim for 5 times, more than the minimum of 3, but not over kill. And I have lost count or forgotten... just start again and do your best... life is a miracle and it finds a way!

Have you candled to see if you have development yet? Are these eggs from your flock? What breed/color egg? What bator are you using and where do you have your temp and humidity set?

One of my favorite hatching resources, bookmark it if you like..
Incubation guide


Do you know... compared to what?

Some links on turning...
https://academic.oup.com/ps/article/85/8/1433/1524893

https://dev.biologists.org/content/develop/5/3/293.full.pdf

This one suggest that turning frequency is more important with older flock or reduced quality eggs than young flocks...
https://www.poultryworld.net/Eggs/Articles/2017/5/Turning-frequency-during-incubation-137498E/

Hmmm... this makes me wonder now if side turners are better than upright turners... All eggs were on their side when I turned by hand and are now upright. Always good to try and help others so you can expand your own thought process as well!

I have read some scientific reports that the more times you turn an egg, the better for the chick as well if I'm being honest. I know I'm giving anecdotal evidence here, but she was saying for her that: dry incubation, turning the eggs three times a day as well as spraying the eggs when you turn them worked better for her (90% hatch rate) than turning 5+ times a day wet incubating without spraying the eggs (50% hatch rate). Though she was hatching runner ducks, and not chicken chicks... She has also said she forgot to turn the eggs for an odd day during the incubation and still got great results. It might be location affecting the best incubation method or something though, as she and I are in England.

 

[dougieee]

My assumtion (scientifically) is that if you didnt turn the eggs then gravity becomes the problem, the developing embreyo would not only sink to the bottom of the egg but the embreyonic growth would be hampered by having to fight gravity to force itself upwards acrosss the egg (to spread out)?
I really dont think you can turn the eggs too much unless doing so causes to many drops in incu temperature and certainly not turning for as little as 12 hours wouldnt make much difference.
I did a hatch of shipped eggs this spring and hatched upright because of really poor air cells, i only turned them slightly side to side for the entire hatch and still hatched 9 of 12.

 

[EggSighted4Life]

I have read some scientific reports that the more times you turn an egg, the better for the chick as well if I'm being honest. I know I'm giving anecdotal evidence here, but she was saying for her that: dry incubation, turning the eggs three times a day as well as spraying the eggs when you turn them worked better for her (90% hatch rate) than turning 5+ times a day wet incubating without spraying the eggs (50% hatch rate). Though she was hatching runner ducks, and not chicken chicks... She has also said she forgot to turn the eggs for an odd day during the incubation and still got great results. It might be location affecting the best incubation method or something though, as she and I are in England.

Sounds like she changed the method completely and turning was not the only factor. She might get even better hatches with the new method if turning was equal or increased. As ridgerunner stated, the difference may be minimal to home hatchers verses hatcheries, but I am here to do my BEST not my okay-est.

I don't buy differences in location adding up to anything more than how many wells you need to fill to get your desired humidity level adjusted, except when altitude comes into play. I do buy that we are all individuals with different overall goals for our flocks but one common goal of sharing our information to help others!

 

[nchls school]

My serama hens are very tame and I have observed nesting/brooding behavior often. Egg turning looks to be random when the hens turn their eggs; they run their beaks through the nest causing the eggs to turn, most often egg turning is a few wiggles, shuffles of the hen's body. What seems the most important is that the eggs move-a little-a lot. Overall I doubt it matters if each time the "turn" is exact.

 

[pennyJo1960]

you said there is an automatic turner then you do not need to turn them

 

[Ridgerunner]

As ridgerunner stated, the difference may be minimal to home hatchers verses hatcheries, but I am here to do my BEST not my okay-est.

I'm not saying don't try, every egg that goes into the incubator or under a broody hen becomes precious. But I think you should concentrate on things like temperature, humidity, taking care of the air cell, taking care of the health of the breeding flock, and handle and store the hatching eggs correctly. That's where you will get the bang for the buck. If you get those things right I don't think you will notice a difference in turning them 3, 5, or 15 times a day.