No Autoturner, Need Advice on Tipping Entire Incubator

[latebloomer]

hi.

i need advice of someone who has experience with tipping their entire incubator as opposed to reaching in and turning the eggs three times a day

here are the facts:

i just started my second hatch this morning
there are twenty two bbs orpington eggs shipped from two different locations in this hatch

i have a hovabator 1602N to which i've added a circulating fan
in the incubator i have a bunch of stones to act as heat sinks
i am the autoturner for this unit

my eggs are in cut down cardboard egg cartons

i'm attempting a "dry" hatch

my last hatch had ten eggs, i could turn them over pretty quick and get then incubator lid back on really quick
now, it's taking (go figure) more than twice as long, and i'm concerned about the heat loss
i'm considering trying the incubator tilting method but searched around and can't find anything that is very instructional

if you know how to do this, and can tell me your experience with this method and how to do it, great
if you know a thread and could point me to it that would be great too

thank you

 

[bargain]

If you mark the eggs with a large x on one side and none on the other, a quick roll by your clean hand is more gentle and complete than a roll of the incubator...It could be too rough on the eggs and cause embryo issues...Even if you have to roll with your pinky finger, I would hand roll them. Remember in the chicken world, Mother gets off the nest at least once a day to take care of eating and business.

Hope this helps...Have a blessed hatching...Nancy

 

[secuono]

I only rotate the eggs 2x a day by hand. If you do not have water in the bator and the rocks are secure as well as the eggs to their tray, you can add pretty much anything to one end over the day. Add one thin, 1/2in board every few hours, I wouldn't go more than 6in.

 

[Elite Silkies]

You could use egg cartons and put a sponge or something under one side and just rotate the sponge to the other side. That way you rotate them all at the same time. You can fit at least 3 egg cartons in an incubator.

 

[Delmar]

Quote:
I had not heard of tilting the incubator, but it seems to me like it should work fine. I am on my first hatch and I was planning on trying that method, but when I was messing with getting the temp adjusted, I measured the humidity as just 19% With a wet sponge I was only able to keep the humidity at around 30% So I ended up adding a cup with water. This took tipping the bator out of the equation for me.

I am very interested to find out how this works for you.

 

[latebloomer]

thanks for all of the input,

i'm thinking that i'm just going to continue doing what i'm doing
just changing one variable at a time
this time, the dry hatch

next time, well, we'll see

 

[kimshimert]

I was going to do the tipping method. Does it really matter if the water stays in the little wells? If I tip & some spills out, won't it still evaporate anyways?

 

[GotGame]

Quote:
I wouldnt recommend it, its not the amount of water you have in your incubator, its the surface amount of water. You could have 1 inch of water or 1 foot of water, it is the amount of surface that determine the humidity, not the depth.

 

[creepinturtle]

I just do what my farrier recommended, i just gently roll them around with my hands like momma hen would. so far it's working great, we have 12 babies on their feet and one on the way out. we put new eggs in daily and have been doing it since early march. they started hatching on the 29th of march and have been hatching from 2~4 chicks a day since, hopefully they will until we can run our local feed store out of the chick business ... lol

 

[rebelcowboysnb]

Tilting works fine with a circulated air incubator. It does mess with ventilation a little but not enough to really matter. Water spills is the only big issue.

Never tilt a still air incubator an never tilt any incubator with a mercury switch thermostat.