I took a chance and suceeded. Woohoo!!!

[Tony]

I hatched 10 out of 12 eggs without turning them at all, not even once. Why? You ask???
I had bought eggs from 3 different people, by the time they arrived including the extras they sent, my bator was full.
My egg turner holds 42 eggs, so I really had no room left for the last 12, so I figured instead of tossing and wasteing them, I would just set them in an egg carton wedged where ever I could find room in the incubator. I figured it was worth a try and it worked out pretty well.
The lesson to be learned here is: Never count your eggs before you receive them, due to the wonderful generosity of these 3 sellers sending me lots of extras, I almost had to waste a dozen eggs.

 

[Apprentice_egger]

I think the better lesson to take from this is to be thankful for a good hatch. It sounds like a small miracle that you have healthy birds.

 

[cluckcluck42]

grats. Just curious though, why didnt you turn them by hand?? I do, 4-5 times a day.

 

[chaneg78]

 

[Tony]

Apprentice, I don`t know about a miracle, I like to think I got SKILLS, the Midas Touch you might say. lol j/k

Cluck, you`re right, I could have turned them by hand. But I think my curiousity got the best of me and I wondered if they`d hatch without being turned. Of course I candled them along the way and saw they were developing, so I just left them alone to see what would happen.

Thanks Chaneg78

 

[duckyfromoz]

After reading about all the defects improper turning during incubation can cause I wouldnt dream of not giving my eggs the best chance to hatch and use both an automatic turner- and turn some manually when needed. You should count yourself very lucky that you didnt end up with DIS and deformed chicks.

 

[Chic Chick]

Congrats on the good hatch Tony!
I think you tilted the egg carton around into different positions and got the same effect of the egg turner.
That's what I'm experimenting with right now - I have over 50 eggs in my new homemade incubator without turners and I just have them in egg cartons and am tilting them different directions 2-3 times a day. I just set them on the 19 so I will know how good that is in a few days when I candle.

 

[Tony]

Chic, Thank you for the congrats.
I placed them in the egg carton, but didn`t tilt it at all. The eggs stayed perfectly still except for the 3 times when I candled them on days 7, 14 and 18.
Good luck with yours.