My name is Tristan and I am 10 years old. I go to Jasper Elementary School in Jasper Arkansas. My science fair project is to study the effect of turning chicken eggs when you hatch them. Countryside once had an article on this. Does anyone have this issue? Can you send me the article?

I am also collecting peoples opinion on this so please write your opinion. I will submit my results to Countryside Magazine.

Thank-you Tristan Cooper

-- Tristan (fleece@eritter.net), March 07, 2001

Answers

My opinion is that the turning of the eggs keeps the inner membrane of the egg coated with moisture from the albumen, thus preventing air infiltration into the embryo area.

Once read of a university test, and it may have been the one in Countryside, and they found out that they had a greater hatch rate with unturned eggs, but not by much.

Sorry, but I don't know that I still have the Countryside with the article you mention.

-- Notforprint (Not@thekeyboard.com), March 07, 2001.

hi Tristan, I still have that article. If you e-mail me your address privately, I will send it to you. I am interested in how your study turns out. I tried not turning with not very good results, but then I tried turning with not very good results, too. :-) I think my problem was not controlling the humidity. mary

-- mary, texas (marylgarcia@aol.com), March 07, 2001.

Hi Tristan, I have hatched chicken eggs each way many times, had about 75% hatch rate every time no matter if I turned the eggs or not, proper humidity however, does make a big difference! I don't bother turning them anymore since it doesn't appear to make a difference.

Good luck with your science fair project!

-- Annie Miller in SE OH (annie@1st.net), March 07, 2001.