[Connor]

I have bought my very first incubator yesterday its a brinsea mini eco and was just wondering what do i do about turning eggs when  do i do this and how often also any other info on incubating egg??

[Clansman]

Hi Connor.

The more the better turning wise, commercial incubators can turn eggs every 30 mins or hour.

but you can get away with turning eggs just twice a day, with very little reduction in hatchability,  say 8am and 8pm or whatever suits.

An odd number of turns is better, say three, 8am, 5pm and 11pm might be workable for you and alternates the longer period between turning each night.



I mark the eggs with an X and an O on opposite sides and join them on one side with a solid line.

The benefit of this method is that you turn them in the direction of the line every time so the egg is never turned more than 180 degrees from its initial position.

The yolk is held in place by rubber band like Chalaza, if the egg were say rotated to the right every time, these chalaza can tighten up and break just like a rubber band



Your incubator should have water trays to keep up the humidity, make sure they are kept topped up especially at hatching time, if the shells dry out the chicks will struggle to get out.

The only other thing that may be worth mentioning is overheating.

The incubator will regulate the temperature from the low end of the scale but if its in direct sunlight or near a boiler or heater the eggs can overheat and die.

Other than that its easy

[Steph Hen]

You may also like to try candling them after about 5 days. This is a way to see if the embryo is growing. In a darkish room, hold the egg over a bright torch. If its growing, you'll see a dot and veins spreading out accross the inside of the shell. If its clear, with only a shadow in the middle it was never fertile or died very early on.

You can also see if the incubator is humid enough - Google for diagrams of the air sack - there are many and you can check that its progressing approximately as it should be.

I was very uncertain when I started candling. Rather than binning them I just marked the ones I thought were clears with a pencil and put them all back in. Then repeated around Day 14. By this time it was really obvious and I found I had marked all the clears correctly and am now much more confident.

Its useful to know if your eggs are clears early on, rather than being disappointed on Day 21. I also now squeeze 50 odd eggs into my 42 egg incubator (and have to manual turn for 4 or 5 days) then candle, discard any clears and set the rest as normal - means I can get bigger batches out.

Don't have them out of the incubator/ballanced on a hot torch for too long!