The Little Giant and HovaBator automatic egg turners work the same way, that is they both use an extremely slow turning motor (1/240 RPM to be exact)to gently rock the eggs back and forth. That means that for you to see the motor make any movement you would have to stare at it for about twenty minutes. Many customers do not realize that this is the case and assume that their turner is broken because it is hard to see any movement.
So how do you determine if your turner is working or not? The answer is simple; first make sure the turner is plugged in (sounds like common sense but it has happened before) and then check it every hour. The automatic turner completes one back and forth rotation every four hours so in one hour the turner should have completed a quarter turn and in two hours a half turn and so on. If you check the turner for several hours and it has moved than you can breathe a sigh of relief. If it has not moved over a couple of hours and you have verified that the turner was plugged in and noticed some other signs that it is not working like a grinding noise or a stinky odor coming from the motor you most likely need a replacement motor.
So your motor is defective, what do you do in the meantime while you wait for the replacement motor to arrive? First off all if you have eggs in the incubator or need to start some eggs you are going to need to temporarily turn them by hand while you wait. The easiest way to do this is to remove the defective motor from the egg turner, place all of the eggs in the turning racks, and then use your hand to take place of the motor and turn the turner linkage by hand. This allows you to not have to touch the eggs individually each time and to turn them all at once making the process quicker and a little less painless. Once the replacement motor arrives simply install it (remember to plug it in once it is installed) and let the turner turn the eggs automatically.