Redwing Posted April 18, 2009 Share Posted April 18, 2009 Having raised chicks from a day old I now feel confident enough to hatch my own chicks both for meat and for pets depending on the type and the whole boy/girl situation obviously! Manual incubators are a lot cheeper ( sorry) than automatic ones I have read conflicting accounts on the number of times the eggs need to be turned people say anything from twice a day to eight times a day, I have done some rough sums and figure we can turn the eggs three or four times a day but the times will not be equally spaced Please could anyone answer the following if possible Do the eggs need to be turned at the same time each day? Has anyone had sucess with only turning twice daily? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Griffin Posted April 18, 2009 Share Posted April 18, 2009 I bought an automatic Corti but the automatic turning fingy was faulty. While waiting for it to be replaced I we hatched two lots of eggs There is a pushy pully bit on the Corti that you push or pull to turn the eggs if you haven't got the automatic bit so we needed to do that several times a day. I never really counted how many times a day we turned the eggs, at least four I'd say. When I got up, mid-morning, after lunch, dinner time and once or twice in the evening was about average. Apart from first thing in the morning, the time they were turned varied. We did once go out for the day and the eggs only got turned three times then but that's the least they ever got turned. It was easy for us because if I'm at work then my OH is at home, when he's at work I'm at home. There's nearly always someone here so we managed fine. The automatic turning fingummyjig is sat in a box downstairs. I hope it works! We're getting more eggs in a few weeks but I suspect we'll still turn them manually unless we're going out because the automatic turning fingummyjig is noisy. I'm hoping to sell the two Light Sussex girls from my last hatch and that money will be going towards a new incubator Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lewis Posted April 18, 2009 Share Posted April 18, 2009 You need to turn an odd number of times each day, so that the eggs are on a different side each night so that they don't stick to the shell I'd say either 3 or 5 times a day. They don't need to be turned at exactly the same time - I did morning, lunchtime'ish and tea time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Charlottechicken Posted April 19, 2009 Share Posted April 19, 2009 I had 83% success with a Novital Covatutto 7 from Ascott (£30 plus p+p) The booklet said to turn twice a day, so I wrote AM and PM on the eggs and turned at 6.30 morning and night, with varying degrees of accuracy The eggs got pushed around a bit and I wasn't that bothered, I don't think a mother hen would be that accurate with her eggs! I also didn't realise I had to stop turning at day 18 To be honest, had I seen all the info before hatching that I have seen since, I would have been too scared to try it. I have 5 beautiful, amazingly healthy and well developed 19 day old chicks, currently chirping away in the kitchen, full of life and curiosity! If you want to do it just do it, and good luck! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Poached Posted April 19, 2009 Share Posted April 19, 2009 hi if you only want to hatch 3 eggs at a time then i would go for the r-com automatic here: http://www.pandtpoultry.co.uk/product/categoryid/84/productid/836 this is a great incubator! i have hatched chickens and ducks in it and would not go for another incubator as it does everything for you apart from putting the water in and you can see the eggs realy well which is also great. josh Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bronze Posted April 19, 2009 Share Posted April 19, 2009 My first incubator was a manual lwescotts right, as long as its an odd number of times. I did 3 and it worked fine. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Redwing Posted April 19, 2009 Author Share Posted April 19, 2009 Thanks everyone for taking the time to reply, lots of useful info here P&PO I do want an Rcom but only having three eggs to hatch doesnt leave you much room for any not hatching out, I don't want a situation where I have several pens of pairs of chickens all at different ages. I think Rcom have missed a trick here as a 6 or 10 egg model would sell very well but as far as I can see it goes from 3 to 20 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Poached Posted April 19, 2009 Share Posted April 19, 2009 Thanks everyone for taking the time to reply, lots of useful info here P&PO I do want an Rcom but only having three eggs to hatch doesnt leave you much room for any not hatching out, I don't want a situation where I have several pens of pairs of chickens all at different ages. I think Rcom have missed a trick here as a 6 or 10 egg model would sell very well but as far as I can see it goes from 3 to 20 i thought the same when i got it and i also think they should make a larger one Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Plum Posted April 19, 2009 Share Posted April 19, 2009 Don't know anything about hatching and eggs but why not turn them morning, when you get home and last thing at night, or get up in night You are just turning day to night because others leave them all night? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Redwing Posted April 19, 2009 Author Share Posted April 19, 2009 Yes, that seems to be the agreement we have settled on chez Redwing of course all of this is theoretical as we haven't 'agreed' on getting the incubator - "nothing else we have to plug in" is the rule in our house...............until payday that is I love married life, so many compromises.....on his part Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Plum Posted April 19, 2009 Share Posted April 19, 2009 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chickvic Posted April 19, 2009 Share Posted April 19, 2009 Sounds familiar! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Griffin Posted April 19, 2009 Share Posted April 19, 2009 Yes, that seems to be the agreement we have settled on chez Redwing of course all of this is theoretical as we haven't 'agreed' on getting the incubator - "nothing else we have to plug in" is the rule in our house...............until payday that is I love married life, so many compromises.....on his part If you don't mind waiting five or six weeks then you're quite welcome to borrow mine, a Corti 25 with the automatic turner for when you're not at home. I'm regularly in Milton Keynes which isn't too far from you and you could meet me there to collect it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jules. Posted April 19, 2009 Share Posted April 19, 2009 We turned our eggs 5 times. 7am 11am 3pm 7pm 11pm or there abouts I read that 3 times a day is sufficient, but a better ahtch rate is obtained if the eggs can be turned 5 times. I marked "x' & "o" on each efgg on opposite sides, with arrows leading from these letter pointing towards each other, so that the egg always gets "rocked" rather than twisted round & round, which would kill the chick inside. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Redwing Posted April 19, 2009 Author Share Posted April 19, 2009 ahh, clever thanks Jules Thanks for the generous offer Griffin, I will discuss this with my hubby (or pretend to ) We are looking to rear table birds on pretty much a constant basis though so we might invest now, if we find we need to do a test run I will be in touch, thanks again Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jules. Posted April 20, 2009 Share Posted April 20, 2009 ahh, clever thanks Jules All down to something I read about, not my own ingenuity Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
