How often do I turn chicken eggs in a manual incubator?

rabbit assassin

Hi guys,

Just received my 18 fertilised chicken eggs today and I am about to put them in the incubator. I am just wondering how many times a day I have to turn them. I have one side marked with an 'x' and the opposite side marked with an 'o'

The incubator does not have an automatic turner so I have to turn each egg individually. I have found online that some people say you need to turn them a minimum of 3 times and a maximum of 5 times a day. When I incubated pheasant eggs I just turned them twice. Would 3 times a day be enough for the chicken eggs or would I get away with 2 ?

Thanks

Git101

I turned mine 3 times a day and had 100% success with the last batch (7 from 7)
I think turning the eggs twice a day is probably not enough.

darrcow

i turn my eggs twice a day but i know people who turn them 4 times a day. i stop turning them 2 days before they are ment to hatch

Eo1n8wrd

I do it twice a day, 7AM & 7PM, ties in with my day and i have never had problems, success is always in the 90% area.
I stop turning three days before due day.
AND WHATEVER YOU DO. DO NOT OPEN IT WHILE THEY ARE HATCHING!
It is tempting to fish out the ones already out, but leave them alone as humidity will drop like a stone and the rest will stick to their shells and not make it out, just make sure their is plenty water in your tray to keep the humidity up for the final stretch. School of very hard knocks there!