Turning eggs by hand.

[JoAnn_WI_4-H_Mom]

When I hand turned, I did so at 6 am, 5 pm and 10 pm (I work outside the home, best I could do. Recorded temps and humidity when I turned.

I had them on their sides in the incubator with the big end only slightly raised.

X on one side in pencil so I could keep track.

I had a mix of home SS eggs and shipped Buckeye eggs. Got only 30% hatch from the shipped eggs, got 90% hatch from the home eggs, which were also two days earlier than the shipped eggs.

 

[abhaya]

before work after work and bedtime seems to work well

 

[Justuschicks]

My 2 "hand turned" eggs just hatched on Thanksgiving. I turned them at least 4 times a day. No set time really. I just turned them when I happened to look in the direction of the incubator. I did not turn them at night. My chicks are happy and healthy! I purchased an egg turner for next time so it will be one less thing that I will have to remember.

 

[secuono]

Can you not just keep the incubator closed and place the whole incubator on an incline? It's just like the egg turners, tilted right, tilted left. It keeps the heat and humidity, since you do not open it.

 

[Baralak]

I have a brisnea Oct 20... I hand turn my eggs. My personal reasons, due to the size of the bator rolling it back and forth, and the limited space I have it in. (anyone turning a brisnea knows the Clunk, Clunk) Yes.. I wouldn't turn 40 eggs by hand at a time, but I don't EVER hatch out 40 eggs..lol. My wife would commit me. With 40 - 80, 300 , 500 eggs in a bator, you don't like loosing 2-3 % but that is acceptable. When you have 10-20, loosing one or two eggs is a lot. So that is another reason I like the hands on approach.

How do you do it? Well, when eggs are sitting under a hen, they are all sitting on their sides. And infact if you read you will find the best turners rotate eggs on their sides instead of sitting up. Also that poor Broody hen has to eat and drink over 21 days. Now she won't get up for long, my mine always got up 2 or 3 times to eat, poo, you know.. things chickens do. She would be quite made at me if I tilted her broody box back and forth. Nature I guess knows a little better.

I mark my eggs with a No 2 pencil, for me... I put egg type (BR, RIR) ect, and I put an X on one side, and a O on the other. I turn them when I get up, after lunch, and before bed. So.. for me that is 6am, 1pm, and 11pm. I candle after 7 days to look for development. I print out a 25 day calander with my pull days listed, lock down, and instructions Just in case I'm not there to turn. I record my temps, RH, and candle information and if I make any adjustments on the calender.

I do use the rails though. I use them for seperators between the questionable eggs, and the good to go eggs. Also after day 14 I use them to seperate breeds. Stack them and when the chicks hatch they can't make it through their little chicken jail.

On day 7 if I see some development, but questional, I , with my No 2 pencil, put a question mark on the egg in question. If the development is right on, I put a checkmark on the egg. on day 14 is my first pull date, any eggs that are not developing, I pull em. I check the question mark eggs, if they are good then, the get a check, if not, pull. I check again on the end of day 17. On day 17 all you should see is the Air sack, and black. ( I can't lie, I candle a LOT but those are my decision days)

My turning schedule is as follows... Set X's up at night before bed. In the morning I roll them to O, after lunch I roll to the X, before bed Back to the O, next morning to the X, lunch O, Bed X. So it will be X Set
O X O End Day 1
X O X End Day 2 O X O ect..

It's just the way I do things. Or as my kids would say.. That's the way I roll.

Home Made bator of a friend with my serama eggs. (hatched Sept 23)

My Brisnea LOADED (hatch date Dec 4th)

 

[Justuschicks]

I don't know about tilting the incubator, my eggs were just laying on the mesh. Tilting the eggs would cause them to roll. You could put the eggs in egg cups but it you are incubating the max amount of eggs your incubator can handle, I would assume you are a gung-ho chicken person and would have an egg turner.

I am small potatoes here. Some day I hope to have a ton of chickens but for now I am happy w/ my flock of 8.

 

[ksf59]

I turn mine by hand, twice a day, have hatched 97 out of 100 fertile eggs this fall. The 3 that did not hatch were all BCM and don't know why they did not. they did not pip, and were fully developed. I just put 44 in on Sunday. I do not turn for 3 days, then turn at 630 am and 630 pm. If we are out of town for the night they will get turned before we leave and when we return. I did the tilt a bator thing last spring, and hatched in cartons. Was a mess. I think to much is made out of opening the incubator. I belive a shot of fresh air twice a day, will do more good than harm, and the one time I had a bad egg, I could smell it when I opened the bator. I like to incubate on thier side and hatch on ther side. Much better results for me.

 

[Seeing Silkies]

I am making my own incubator and this is a great idea for turning eggs & I will be using it

Egg carton & Pvc make's it easy to turn, & fast rather then 1 by 1 - So you dont let ll the heat out.



https://www.backyardchickens.com/web/viewblog.php?id=19548-homemade-incubator
Good luck

 

[BeccaB00]

3 times a day

I'd turn them once when you get up in the morning, once at lunch, and once right before you go to bed.

 

[OkieChickenDad]

My daughter sucked our whole family into the chicken addiction this summer. Still air hovabator from 1985, turned by hand...all sets...all spring,summer, & beginning of fall. 8 sets of no less than 10, no more than 18 with an average rate in the 90's, with a few 100%'ers. Once we set 12 or 13 guinea eggs and put them into lockdown 1 week early...my fault I put them on chicken schedule. So we panicked when we found out and by then we turned them for 1 more day then into the normal lockdown for guineas and they all hatched like popcorn the next day within an hour. We had a few sets that we only turned twice per day, but mostly we stuck with 3 times a day...keeping a log, and usually sticking to before school, after school and then I would turn them at 11pm. A buddy of ours doesn't turn at all and has hatch rates in the 60's.

Anyway we decided, because we did this all summer, that hand turning just sucked out loud. So we designed a dowel system where the eggs fit between dowels nailed to 2 small square lengths and we would pull one way and the eggs would turn...problem, one size does not fit all. So we messed around with some ideas until we decided to mount our hovabator on a 2x4 with rounded edges with a clip on each end of the bottom of the 'bator and the eyelets for the clips on the table. Then you set your eggs in cartons and push one side of the 'bator down and clip..bam..eggs turned.