Can't turn them, they need a VERY high humidity (70-80%), must stay around 80 degrees, and DEFINITELY try not to touch them! Reptile eggs are HIGHLY pourous, and don't actually harden at all. They stay at a rubbery texture, and the high humidity helps keep them that way. When they dry out, they actually shrivel up. If you see one where the middle seems punched in, it's dead. But the real challenge isn't keeping them alive, but actually just finding an egg that is fertile! If a box turtle has infertile eggs, they will often lay it on top of the ground with little or no covering at all, or they will put it in a very shallow pit, and barely attempt to cover it. The good, fertile eggs, are typically buried very well, and they do such a good job covering it, you would NEVER know there was a nest there.
That is probably what leads to such bad luck with box turtle eggs. Apparently most of the eggs people find either in the wild, or from their own box turtles inside of an enclosure, weren't actually fertile at all. I know my own female laid six eggs last year, and none of them were fertile. That's part of why I'm so happy to see a successful mating!
