Question About Egg Turning

[HeatherN]

Hello,

Recently, i decided to buy an incubator to hatch some possibly fertile eggs my quail laid. i bought the simple still-air hovabator without an egg turner. i read that hatching can still be done in that very simple model, but it requires a 100 degree F temp and manual egg turning. i read that a mother quail will turn her egg every 30 mins and that you cant keep turning in the same direction. i also read that turning twice a day should be sufficient, but the more the better.

My question is where is that happy medium between turning as often as possible and keeping the incubator-opening to a minimum to prevent temp fluctuations? also, i dont quite understand exactly how far one should turn the egg. do you turn it completely onto the opposite side, or turn it in "quarters"?

Thanks for reading, and any additional tips would be much appreciated!

 

[GrandmaBird]

What I do is give them a half turn to the right then next time a half or so to the left. I did this at breakfast, lunch, dinner and bedtime. worked like a charm. Good luck with your hatch.

 

[TwoCrows]

Imagine turning the egg like a ship rocking back and forth, one side to the next and never turn the egg completely around. Turn them a minimum of 3 times a day, more if you can. What you are doing when turning the egg is to offer up a new area of nutrients for the embryo to feed on. Make sure the large end of the egg is slightly pointed upward so the air cell develops properly.

 

[HeatherN]

thanks guys, that makes a lot more sense. i spend a lot of time in class normally, so ill try and make a schedule for egg turning.

 

[HeatherN]

ok, as of this afternoon, theyre officially in the incubator! only 5 eggs, but id be happy if one hatched

 

[kenazzo2000]

Hope some hatch for ya

 

[HeatherN]

update!

I have had the 5 eggs in the incubator for almost five days. i have been turning them every hour on the hour while i'm home. the average ends up around 8-10 turns a day, since my bf and I have different work/school schedules. just now, i candled the eggs the ghetto way: with a mag light, using my hand to focus the beam. i saw faint veins in all but one! obviously, button quail eggs are not the easiest to candle, and this is maybe my second time candling eggs in my life, but i am relatively certain about those veins. i also saw the air cells developing on the round side of each of the veined eggs. however, they were not really centered on that side, they all seemed to be pretty off-center towards the side facing down. is this normal? am i turning the eggs wrong?

Just to report what i saw on the non-veiny egg, it was clear this egg was different immediately when candled. the light seemed to shine through it in a different way. as mentioned, no veins were visible, but there was also no air cell developing that i could see.

 

[TwoCrows]

Sounds like your eggs are right on track. The blood veins can be faint, and from your descriptions, you are seeing them.

Make sure the large end of the egg is tilted upwards all the time during incubation. The air cell will not develop evenly at the large end, but will be somewhat on a slant. Similar to this drawing...(this is a chicken egg, and am only using it as an example of air cell development)

 

[HeatherN]

thanks for the insight and confirmation (im sure you know that it can be a huge relief

). the reason im a little uneasy about the air cell is because it's a bit more angled towards the flat part than in all the similar diagrams ive seen. but im tilting the eggs as far as i can one the mesh floor. is not a large degree of difference, but enough to be noticeable to a person who sweats all the tiny details, like me.

 

[TwoCrows]

It is best to check the position of the air cell before incubation as sometimes they are off kilter to begin with. Keep going with the eggs and see what happens. And good luck!