A turn takes seconds, but a missed turn can cost a whole tray. Here is what turning does inside the egg, how to do it well and when to stop.
Halaal Farms Ghana team10 August 2026 · 10 min read
Turning eggs looks like the simplest job in the hatchery. You tilt a tray, close the lid and move on. Because it looks so easy, it is often the job that gets rushed, skipped on a busy day, or done carelessly by whoever happens to be nearest the machine.
The eggs do not care how easy it looked. A turn that is missed or badly done can leave you with a hatch that looks normal from the outside, and then turns out to have stuck chicks, weak chicks or eggs that never got going. This article explains what turning does inside the egg, what happens when it is neglected, and how to turn eggs well on a small farm or in a hatchery room.
Inside an egg, the yolk is lighter than the white around it, so it tends to drift up toward one side. Left alone, the yolk settles against the inner membrane of the shell. The embryo grows on top of the yolk, which is why it must stay free and not fixed to one spot.
Turning keeps the yolk moving and stops the embryo from settling in one place. It also helps the embryo take nourishment evenly, and it keeps the membranes from fixing to one side of the shell. You cannot see any of this from outside, which is why turning often feels like a chore with no visible reward. The reward shows up at hatch, when the chicks either come out strong or do not.
Think of each turn as part of the growth rather than a separate task. Every tilt is a small step that the embryo depends on across the whole run.
Skipped turning is the obvious problem, but rushed turning causes its own trouble. A tray tipped too roughly, or left half-tilted while someone is called away, shakes the eggs and can crack shells or disturb the embryo. Eggs handled with cold, dirty or wet hands can pick up bacteria, which is why hygiene and turning belong together.
When turning is neglected for long, the embryo may stick to the membrane. That can show up as chicks that die in the shell late in the run. Some chicks that do hatch are weak, slow to stand and poor in the first days. Other eggs never develop properly at all. Any of these outcomes can be blamed on the eggs, when the real cause was a set of tray movements nobody recorded.
Turning is one of the few hatch jobs you can do well every single time. That is worth remembering when the trays look neat and the machine is quiet, because a quiet machine is the easiest moment to forget a turn.
Eggs need turning several times a day through the early and middle part of the run. The exact pattern depends on your machine, and the manual should say how many turns it expects. If your machine has an automatic turner, set it to the pattern in the manual. If you turn by hand, plan the times so you do not forget them in the middle of other work.
The last part of the 21 days is different. As the hatch approaches, the chick moves into its final position inside the shell, and moving the egg can disturb it. Know when your manual or our team tells you to stop, and then stop. Leaving the eggs untouched at that point is part of the job, not a lapse in it. A good hatch depends as much on the turns you stop making as on the ones you keep making.
Tie your turning times to fixed points in your day. When the times are linked to something you already do, such as opening the shop, coming back from the farm or the evening feed round, the turns stop depending on memory. A tray turned at the same hours every day is far more likely to be turned well than one turned whenever someone remembers to.
Keep a simple log beside the machine, with a tick for each turn. The log is not paperwork for its own sake. When a hatch goes wrong, it is the first thing you will want to look at, and a gap in the ticks will tell you more than any guess made afterwards.
When you turn by hand, it is easy to lose track of which eggs have been moved. A simple mark helps. Draw an X on one side of each egg and an O on the other. Each time you turn the tray, the marks should flip. If you open the tray and find the same mark facing up, you know that egg was missed, or turned the wrong way, and you can correct the pattern before it costs you a hatch.
Use a soft pencil, and write lightly. Ink can seep into the shell surface, and you do not want anything on the egg that could help bacteria get in. Wash your hands before you mark, and keep the pencil clean.
Turning by hand is a skill that improves with practice. These steps keep the eggs safe and the work quick.
Many incubators come with an automatic turner, which tilts the trays on a timer. These are convenient, but they fail in quiet ways. A turner can stall after a knock, a worn part or a power cut. Because the cabinet keeps some warmth for a while after the lights go out, nobody notices that the trays have stopped moving until the chicks show the result.
Check the turner at each visit. Look at the tray angle, watch it move once if you can, and compare the marks on the eggs with the time on the clock. After a power cut, turn the eggs by hand as soon as the power is back, and keep turning by hand until the turner is confirmed to be working. Dumsor is a reality here, and a turner that depends on power is only as good as the last time you checked it.
A turner that tilts too far or too hard can knock eggs against each other or against the sides of the tray. If you see cracked shells or eggs jammed in a corner, the turner needs adjusting before the next run.
A hatch tells you a lot about how the eggs were turned, if you know what to look for. The table below matches common patterns with the turning mistakes that often lie behind them. As with any table of this kind, it is a guide to where to look, not a verdict on one batch.
| What you see at hatch | Likely turning problem | What to check |
|---|---|---|
| Many dead chicks stuck to one side of the shell | Eggs not turned enough, or left in one position for long | Turning frequency and how each tray is tilted |
| Chicks that cannot get into the right position | Turning carried on too late into the run | The day you stop turning, against your manual |
| Uneven hatch across one tray | Some eggs missed, or always turned the same way | Marks on the eggs, and whether every egg moves |
| Turner stopped during the run | Power loss, a knock or a worn part | Turner movement, and the timer after each outage |
| Cracked shells or eggs jammed in corners | Rough tilting, or a turner set too far | Tray angle, handling, and the tray's edges |
If the same fault repeats on every tray, look at the routine rather than the eggs. If it shows up on only one tray, the tray itself may be tilting differently, or someone may have been turning that section by hand and missing a few eggs.
Turning is also a point where bacteria move. Hands carry dirt, dust and droppings from the floor into the cabinet if they are not clean. Shell debris from a broken egg can sit in the tray and spread to the others. A damp cloth wiped over the trays between runs helps, and so does keeping the room where the incubators stand clean and dry. Our salmonella guide covers the wider hygiene picture, and the same habits apply here.
If an egg breaks during turning, remove it at once, clean the tray, and check the eggs around it. Do not leave a broken egg in the tray while you finish the rest. That small delay is how a single crack becomes a problem for the whole batch.
Follow the pattern in your manual from the start. The early days are when a regular routine begins, and eggs that are not turned early cannot be made up for by turning extra later. If the manual is unclear, ask us before you begin.
Turn them as soon as you notice, then keep to the normal times for the rest of the day. Do not turn the tray twice in quick succession to catch up, because a rushed double turn can do more harm than the missed one. Mark the eggs, check the time and carry on with the routine.
Yes, if they will be kept for a while. A gentle turn while they wait keeps the yolk from settling against one side. Storage is covered in our guide on storing eggs before setting, which goes through the small end down position and the other habits that help.
It reduces the work, but it does not remove the need to check. Look at the turner at each visit, watch it move, and turn by hand after a power cut until you are sure it is working again.
Every hatch we run depends on the same small habits: steady heat, clean hands, regular turning and a clear plan for when to stop. If you want chicks from a hatchery that keeps those habits every day, send the order form or call 024 915 1503. An order starts with a message, not with money. We confirm the price, the hatch date and the delivery cost before you pay. The minimum order is one box of 50 chicks.
For the stage before this one, read our guide on how incubator temperature and humidity work. For the eggs themselves, our guide on storing eggs before they go in the incubator explains how to keep them in good condition while they wait.
Written by the Halaal Farms Ghana team. We hatch and import day-old chicks at Opeikuma, Kasoa, and deliver to all 16 regions. This article is general guidance for farmers. For diagnosis and treatment of sick birds, speak to a vet or your district veterinary office.
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