Incubating eggs needs patience and attention, you need to make sure that the temperature is just right, you need to make sure that the humidity is just right, and you need to make sure you turn the eggs on a regular basis.
But what if you forget to do this? This article looks at the consequences at each stage
If you forgot to turn the eggs in your incubator, after the first week of incubating, then the eggs will still be alright, simply turn the eggs when you remember to. Forgetting to turn the eggs in the first week can be fatal to the embryo in the egg
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Forgot to turn eggs in an incubator
Turning eggs is very important, it is recommended that you turn the eggs in your incubator quite often. If you’ve forgotten to turn your eggs, this may or may not be fatal to the chick depending on how far along the chick is in its development.
To understand this, we must first know why egg turning is important:
Do you need to turn eggs in an incubator?
Turning eggs is a very important part of incubation. Parent birds turn their eggs when incubating them, you would need to turn them manually, or, you can use an incubator that turns eggs automatically.
As the yolk develops in the growing egg, it becomes lighter and starts to float to the top of the egg.
If the egg is not turned, the embryo will be pushed up by the yolk towards the shell of the egg. If this is left to continue for too long, the yolk will squeeze the embryo against the shell and the embryo will stick to the shell, this can be fatal to the embryo.
When the egg is turned, the yolk will float to the other side of the egg preventing the embryo from being squeezed.
Consequences and what to do:
One week in:
Eggs (from day 1 to day 18) need to be turned on a regular basis, this will give the embryo the best chance to develop with no issues.
The first week is the most critical point where you really need to get your turning right, the weeks after have more room for error. The embryo that grows in the first week is very fragile and the yolk pushing against it can cause severe damage.
More developed chicks, chicks who are about to hatch, can have trouble hatching if they attach to the eggshell, but they likely won’t die. An embryo, that is under one week old and is still developing may die if it becomes attached to the eggshell.
If your eggs are at this stage of incubation, turn the eggs as soon as you remember to. The eggs may still hatch chickens at the end of the incubation stage (hopefully).
Post one week to day 18:
If the egg has been incubated for over a week then the embryo is more resilient. Some say that they only turn their eggs twice a day at this stage (we don’t recommend this)
Some say that they’ve left their eggs for 24 hours without incubation. We don’t recommend this either but knowing this may give you reassurance if you’ve forgotten to turn your eggs.
If you realize that you’ve forgotten to turn your eggs, and they are over a week old, turn them as soon as you can, they will likely be fine.
If your egg is farther along the incubation process then you have less to worry about, but it is important to still turn the egg as soon as you remember to.
Days before they hatch:
If the eggs aren’t turned three days before they’re meant to hatch, from day 18 to day 21 this is good. In fact, you should not be touching or turning the eggs at this point. This is the lockdown stage of egg incubation where the bird will get into the hatching position.
The lockdown stage is when a chick will turn to face the air pocket in the egg, they are able to breathe air from the air pocket when in this position.
If you turn the eggs at this stage, then you can throw the bird off and the bird may not be able to breathe. If it can’t breathe, then it won’t be able to hatch and will die in the egg.
How often do you have to turn eggs in an incubator?
It is recommended that you turn eggs in the incubator three to five times a day. When turning, make sure that you’re turning the eggs at regular intervals, turning the eggs at irregular intervals can cause the chick to stick to the eggshell
Also, turn the eggs an odd number of times. This keeps the chick inside from spending their nights on the same side every night
If you enjoyed this article then you may also be interested in other bird related articles. Here are some articles that you may be interested in: Chicken Leaking Clear Liquid, Yellow Stuff Coming Out Of Chicken, Chicken Vomiting White Liquid,