Question First error... that didn't take me long! Egg rotation question

[Reboot]

So despite trying to do it all correctly the first time I spent too much attention on the temperature and humidity to realize my egg turning tray wasn't moving since last Friday evening when I started to incubate 40 eggs in a Hovabator. The tray only moves 1 revolution in 4 hours but I noticed I never saw it in a different position since 3 days ago. I understand eggs need to be turned 4 times a day every day but clearly I blew that until now when I noticed after testing the tray to be certain it did move outside the incubator it wasn't moving since I placed it into operation. I forgot to plug it in.... oh well lesson learned and this situation is why I started now as opposed to waiting another month for warmer weather. I make mistakes but I do learn from them. Question: have I blown this first attempt right off the bat (as the eggs haven't moved for at least 3 days) or can I hope for the best and continue on with this first batch of 40 eggs? The incubator temperature has stayed around the 37 C mark; my thermometer doesn't have a decimal readout but I have determined what a turn of the Hovabator temperature disc gives me and have set that for the 37.5 ideal temp. Humidity is between 45 and 50% so far.

[Killerbunny]

If it was me I'd hope for the best.

[Reboot]

I tend to lean toward your thinking as well thank you. The longest these eggs were out of our birds was 5 days from being collected from the nest boxes. They were in the functioning rotating tray outside of the incubator until I had 40 in total which took the 5 days. From my reading a clutch may sit several days before enough eggs are laid to start brooding by a hen. The fact the tray was motionless in the incubator and my temperature was up and replicating brooding for 3 days was my concern but I think its worth a try. I obviously have a lot to learn yet though so I'm open to any and all suggestions.

[Ontario Chick]

You will know more after the first candling, it should be fairly obvious by then if things are "developing" or if things have gone off the rails, so to speak.
Incubating is a bit like juggling, a bit hard to keep all the balls in the air

[Reboot]

That is a great point. I had mentioned to my wife that the first candling at 7 days would likely tell me how bad my error was so your confirmation was a great help. I don't mind waiting a few days if it means I can salvage the batch. I know what I did now though I re-positioned the incubator in a room that was more controlled in its temperature and after moving it I forgot to plug the tray in. It went so long as I kept checking the tray at 4 hour intervals so the tray would have been in the same position. Its when I checked after 2 hours and it hadn't moved that I knew I had screwed up.

[Killerbunny]

I think quite a few of us have done the exact same thing at one time or another.

[WLLady]

you have no idea how many times i have forgotten to turn on turners or plug in turners......you'll be fine. it's worse if it's in the middle of development about day 10 or so, then i find they can stick pretty badly. but the first few and last few, not so bad. fingers crossed!

[Reboot]

I have to tell you folks this website is terrific for a beginner to ask questions and get real constructive help quick. I think I'll try and candle my new eggs our hens give us now as a baseline to determine how large an air sac should be at the start and then at 7 days. I suppose I should see some embryo development by then too. I don't want to deal with exploding rotten eggs in our incubator so once I determine what is viable and what is not viable then this may not be as bad as I feared. My hands are full at the moment building a new brooder box from plans I found in this website forum to replace the one I had to burn due to our initial day old chick fiasco last year. Thank you everyone!

[Kbr42]

I would leave them! I had the same darn thing happen to me as well. Cause the turner never looks like it moves. I started hand turning the eggs. Got 100% hatch!

Good luck !

[Home Grown Poultry]

Egg turning is important so that the embryo dosent get stuck to the egg. during the first 3 days the cells are dividing and turning into a tiny embryo that will eventually turn into a chick. So I wouldn't worry at all.

I have a theory that if i set eggs after 6pm i count the next day as day one, so if you set them after 6pm they were only 2 days in when you realized they were not turning.

Dont sweat it,

Good luck!