Leaving the egg turner in and turning after day 18?

[Beanzie]

I am doing staggered hatches, so I wanted some experiences and opinions on leaving egg turners in during lockdown? How about leaving them turning? I have heard people have plenty of success with it, but plenty people say it is something that should be avoided at all costs. Thoughts? I am not in the position that I absolutely have to, but I am just weighing my options. Anyone else do staggered hatches often here? I have two incubators, so one can be a hatcher and one for incubation strictly. Anyone have any suggestions as to when I should move eggs to the hatcher? I would love to not have mistakes to learn from, so let me have it. But I am very open to different ways of doing things.

 

[Fred's Hens]

Everyone has different ways of doing things. I incubate in an incubator and hatch in a hatcher. The hatcher has no need of a turner. My hatcher is home made and cost a whopping $30 to make.

 

[cluckerkeeper]

If you can, use a separate incubator for hatching without the turner. The chick can get stuck or squashed with the turner in there.

 

[ILuvsChicks]

If you can, use a separate incubator for hatching without the turner. The chick can get stuck or squashed with the turner in there.

I'm still trying to learn about this. My first two tries did good. Over 50% success rate. Some might not think that was so good. I just tried the most eggs ever in my turner. 48 I believe. only 7 hatched and 4 of them died. But I confess I made a beginner mistake and had the small end up. I'm learning. Question is, Should I turn the egg turner off after 18 days? First I heard this. Should I turn it off and leave them in the turner or move them into egg cartons?

 

[cluckerkeeper]

I take the turner out at lock down and I hatch in plastic yellow hatching trays that I picked up cheap online somewhere. You can use egg cartons though.

The yellow trays are easy to clean and sterilize between hatches and I also store the eggs that I want to incubate in them.

I prefer to incubate at 20-30% humidity and then around 60-65 at lock down. This scares many hatchers but it really improved my hatch rate.

Someday try it with some eggs you aren't going to be too upset about if it doesn't work for you but I bet you will be happy with the results.