06/09/2026
Do YOU leave your turner off the 1st few days or longer on shipped eggs? I’d love to hear YOUR personal thoughts…I’ve had chicks stuck malpositioned and didn’t use the turner for the 1st 5 days—- was it the culprit? Def worth discussing.
𝐓𝐔𝐑𝐍 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐓𝐔𝐑𝐍𝐄𝐑 𝐎𝐍 𝐅𝐅𝐒!
At this point I feel like I’m screaming into the void.
I keep getting updates from people who had fully developed chicks die during hatch because they were positioned wrong, wrapped wrong, stuck wrong, or simply couldn’t maneuver themselves into a hatchable position.
And every single time we start digging through incubation practices...
We end up right back at the same place.
The eggs were rested INSIDE the incubator without turning.
I don’t know who started this. I don’t know where it came from. I don’t know why it’s become so widespread.
Air cells don’t magically glue themselves back into place.
What they DO do is settle.
That’s why we rest shipped eggs pointy side down. You’re allowing the contents of the egg to stabilize and encouraging the air cell to remain where it belongs, at the top of the egg.
Turning and air cells are two completely different conversations that somehow got merged into one giant piece of bad hatching folklore.
Once heat is applied, my turner is on.
Always.
Especially because i’m already working with heavily dark egg and heavy bloom focused. These chicks already have a more difficult job than most. Thick shells, increased pigment, heavy cuticle, reduced gas exchange... they’re already working harder to get out than your average white egg layer.
Why on earth would I then make it harder by increasing the chances of them getting stuck developing in a poor position?
The number of late-stage deaths I’ve seen associated with this practice is honestly becoming hard to ignore.
Could some still hatch?
Of course.
People successfully hatch eggs doing all sorts of things I wouldn’t personally do.
But when I keep hearing about fully developed chicks unable to pip correctly, unable to rotate, positioned wrong, shrink wrapped, or dead at lockdown and the common denominator keeps being eggs rested under heat without turning...
At some point I have to ask:
Who started this?
And more importantly...
Why are we still doing it?….. end rant, sorry for yelling 😅.
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