How much movement when turning is needed?

[Hootrvil]

Hello! First time incubating these small eggs (silky). When the auto turner does it's thing, they seem to just get jostled...not really turning. The top part of the egg doesn't really change position much, but they do move during the turn. Is that enough for healthy hatch? Thanks!

 

[Debbie292d]

It's just movement needed so the embryo doesn't stick to the inside of the egg. They actually don't need turning after they're halfway done because they move around in there enough, but we still do it to make sure. I do lockdown at 5 days though so no turning. I've had silkies pip at 18 days so don't take chances anymore.

 

[Hootrvil]

It's just movement needed so the embryo doesn't stick to the inside of the egg. They actually don't need turning after they're halfway done because they move around in there enough, but we still do it to make sure. I do lockdown at 5 days though so no turning. I've had silkies pip at 18 days so don't take chances anymore.

Oh wow! Thanks for that information....I will be sure to lock down a little bit earlier! I appreciate your help...these little eggs are so new to me and I want to treat them well!

 

[Ridgerunner]

Turning not only helps stop the yolk or embryo from settling and sticking to the inside of the shell, it helps body parts form in the right places and helps move some fluids around that aid development. The cups like you are using are designed to rotate to a point 45 degrees from vertical to the right, then go through a full 90 degree turn to a point 45 degrees to the left. The eggs should be set pointy side down so the air cell is on top so when the chick internal pips it pips into the air cell where the air is. If you put them pointy side up the air cell can possibly move during incubation.

When you go into lockdown it looks like those cups come out. I think you already know this but just lay them flat on the incubator floor. The air cell should stay in place.

Those Silkie eggs look kind of small for those cups. As long as they don't flop around but move with the cups you should be OK.

Chicken eggs do not need to be turned after about 14 days of development. The body parts have formed. They are big enough that the fluids are available where they should be. And a membrane has formed around the chick to protect it from touching the inside of the shell. The embryo is big enough that it is going to touch.

Some eggs hatch early, some hatch late. There are different reasons for that. My full-sized fowl eggs tend to hatch a day or even two days early, whether under a broody hen in in an incubator that I've calibrated the temperature. Average incubating temperature can affect when they hatch. If it is a bit low, they can be late. Warm, and they can be early. Supposedly size can have an effect with smaller eggs hatching earlier but when I hatch small pullet eggs with full-sized older hen eggs I have not seen a difference. Some people do. I think mine hatch early because of heredity since it is pretty consistent under a broody as well in my incubator.

What I'm getting at is to not be surprised if they do hatch early. But don't panic if they don't. There are plenty of stories on here where small Silkie eggs and other bantam eggs did not hatch until the full 21 days or even a bit later. There are several different things that contribute to that.

Good luck! And let us know how it goes.

 

[Hootrvil]

Turning not only helps stop the yolk or embryo from settling and sticking to the inside of the shell, it helps body parts form in the right places and helps move some fluids around that aid development. The cups like you are using are designed to rotate to a point 45 degrees from vertical to the right, then go through a full 90 degree turn to a point 45 degrees to the left. The eggs should be set pointy side down so the air cell is on top so when the chick internal pips it pips into the air cell where the air is. If you put them pointy side up the air cell can possibly move during incubation.

When you go into lockdown it looks like those cups come out. I think you already know this but just lay them flat on the incubator floor. The air cell should stay in place.

Those Silkie eggs look kind of small for those cups. As long as they don't flop around but move with the cups you should be OK.

Chicken eggs do not need to be turned after about 14 days of development. The body parts have formed. They are big enough that the fluids are available where they should be. And a membrane has formed around the chick to protect it from touching the inside of the shell. The embryo is big enough that it is going to touch.

Some eggs hatch early, some hatch late. There are different reasons for that. My full-sized fowl eggs tend to hatch a day or even two days early, whether under a broody hen in in an incubator that I've calibrated the temperature. Average incubating temperature can affect when they hatch. If it is a bit low, they can be late. Warm, and they can be early. Supposedly size can have an effect with smaller eggs hatching earlier but when I hatch small pullet eggs with full-sized older hen eggs I have not seen a difference. Some people do. I think mine hatch early because of heredity since it is pretty consistent under a broody as well in my incubator.

What I'm getting at is to not be surprised if they do hatch early. But don't panic if they don't. There are plenty of stories on here where small Silkie eggs and other bantam eggs did not hatch until the full 21 days or even a bit later. There are several different things that contribute to that.

Good luck! And let us know how it goes.

Thanks so much! I've been watching and the silkie eggs do move with the cups, just not as completely as the bigger eggs if that makes sense...I have read to take silkies out of turning 5 days before hatch date, so I think I will be doing that. We will see. My last hatch of barnyard mix was very good with 24 out of 25 hatching. So I bought these little silkies to try...I sure hope to get at least a few out of the 15 I have. Added 10 barnyard mix--can't leave empty bator space!

 

[Altairsky]

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/2622816/
Tilting is not optimal but still better than nothing.

 

[Hootrvil]

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/2622816/
Tilting is not optimal but still better than nothing.

Thank you for the link--I'm anxious to see how this goes.

 

[Ridgerunner]

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/2622816/
Tilting is not optimal but still better than nothing.

Have you seen the results of that study? How much difference did it actually make? I've seen some results on how many times a day you turn them. More is better. If you hatch a million chicks a week then the difference is noticeable. But if you hatch the numbers most of us do the difference is not going to be noticeable over a year.

I have not seen the detailed results of rolling versus tilting. I don't want to accept the cookies to try to dig deeper into that study. From what I've seen the difference in not turning at all to tilting is significant. Several percentage points. I haven't seen anything on the actual difference in tilting versus turning.