Incubator egg turner???

[CBDean]

I see that there are several different types of egg turners when it comes to incubators. Some with mats that roll the eggs one direction, some with tray that rolls them forward & back, while others with cup holders(?) that just tilt the eggs back & forth. What is the advantage of one systems over the others. Which do you think is best?

 

[SnackMeat]

My stance is a little different but maybe it will help you with the egg turners.

I have incubated a lot of eggs this spring and started out with a DIY setup that I still use for a couple parts of the incubation.

I started out laying them on their side and then rotating them 180* three to five times a day. Now, there have been hiccups so I'm not saying that the egg orientation is the reason for it, but I seemed to have slightly more chicks who were mispositioned when I did horizontal position than when I switched to vertical positioning.

I now use a mixture of sand and milk husks (there probably a better option out there it's just what I'm currently settled on) to keep the eggs mostly vertical and then rotate them at an angle.

I took out my egg turner in my bought incubator to turn an 18 egg incubator into a 29 egg incubator (I could probably fit more but that's what it comfortably holds without playing Jenga games.)

The difference is slight but might mean the difference of one extra egg every couple of hatches being positioned wrong. But, it could be other variables.



The other upside to vertical incubation is, if you think you are every going to do shipped eggs, you will have to likely plan on vertical incubation for at least the first 72 hours, and sometimes long-- doing the slight angle lean rotation once the veins start forming around the egg. The damaged air sacs make horizontal incubation (as far as I understand it. I am new to shipped eggs and the once I got I would never horizontally incubate), if not an automatic death sentence then at least a big dent in hatch rate.

If I was to buy one that was hands off, I would buy one that held the egg vertical and then leaned it back and forth without going horizontal.