turning eggs

[speckledhen]

I'll try to get exact measurements tomorrow, if you want. Its in the bsmt right now. I know it's around 24" square or close to that, bigger than the turner requires. The height may be 9 or 10" or so, but I'm not sure on that part.Yes, the red hanging storage bins are where I put my sponges and one pic shows my DH using a meat flavor injector syringe to put water in through plastic tubing.

 

[Poison Ivy]

OK Thanks if the measurements for the turner will fit my cooler I'm ordering me one!

 

[speckledhen]

Hey, Ivy, I measured the bator this morning and it's about 22.5" inside measurement and since it is one course of pine log siding, it is not as tall as I remembered. It's about 7" tall. There was plenty of room for the Hova turner-I used it in there once and there was room around it to spare. It worked very well. I used it as a bator and as a hatcher.

 

[pipermark]

Effects of turning duration during incubation on corticosterone and thyroid hormone levels, gas pressures in air cell, chick quality, and juvenile growth.
Tona K, Onagbesan O, De Ketelaere B, Decuypere E, Bruggeman V.

Laboratory for Physiology and Immunology of Domestic Animals, Department of Animal Production, Faculty of Agricultural and Applied Biological Sciences, K. U. Leuven, Kasteelpark Arenberg 30, B-3001 Leuven, Belgium. [email protected]

Two peaks of embryo mortality have been identified during incubation of chicken eggs (the first and the final phases of incubation), and both are linked to egg turning. Turning in the first week enables proper formation of extra-embryonic membrane and in the final week avoids embryo malpositioning. The hatchability of the eggs, however, may depend on physiological parameters (e.g., hormone levels or gas pressures) that turning may influence to ensure proper embryo development and survival. It is not clear how long turning should continue during this second phase to ensure these conditions, but it is general practice to turn eggs until 18 d. This study describes the effects of turning chicken eggs for different durations during the last days of incubation on embryo physiological parameters that may be linked to embryo survival, hatchability, and broiler posthatch performance. Cobb eggs were incubated for 21 d under standard incubation conditions but with varying turning durations. Eggs were turned until 12, 15, or 18 d and left in a horizontal position until transferred to hatcher baskets on the 19th day. Blood samples from embryos were analyzed for corticosterone at d 15, d 18, internal pipping (IP), and hatch. Triiodothyronine (T3) and thyroxine (T4) were measured at IP and at hatch. Partial pressures of CO2 (pCO2) and O2 (PO2) in the air cell were measured at d 18 and at IP stage. Hatchability of fertile eggs, incubation duration, weights of 1-d-old chicks, chick quality, and their growth potential determined as absolute weight and relative growth (RG) to d 7 were recorded. Corticosterone levels increased in all treatments with embryo age until hatch, but there were no significant differences among treatments. Eggs turned until 18 d had higher pCO2 and lower PO2 at IP than those turned for 12 or 15 d. T3 and T4 were higher at IP in eggs turned for 18 d compared with the other two groups in which T3 and T4 were not different. T3/T4 ratio in 1-d-old chicks was also lower in eggs turned until 18 d. Incubation duration, and weights of 1-d-old chicks were similar for all treatments groups. Hatchability and percentage of high quality chicks were lower for eggs turned for 15 d compared to the 2 other groups, which were not different. However, 7-d-old weights and RG decreased with increasing duration of egg turning. We concluded that although turning until 18 d benefited hatchability and chick quality, it depressed potential posthatch performance of the chick to 7 d of age.


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