HELP!!!!! 1st time hatching turkey eggs

Hello Everyone!
This is my first time hatching turkey eggs and it was a disaster! After 4 weeks of diligently candling the eggs and tossing the fertile ones it was hatching time. Out of 12 eggs only one pipped, but it didn't hatch. Now a week later they have all been thrown away. On closer examination of the eggs all of them had fully developed poults. Many of them had very large unabsorbed yolk sacs. The eggs started in a forced air incubator at 99F and 50-60% humidity, they were automaticly turned and were moved to a still air incubator 3 days before hatching at 101F and always 50-60% humidity. i further examined the dead eggs and found them very hard to crack open.Another odd thing i found was a very large unabsorbed yolk sack. If you have and ways you can help please do.
sincerely,
frizzlelove83

frizzlelove83 said:

Hello Everyone!
This is my first time hatching turkey eggs and it was a disaster! After 4 weeks of diligently candling the eggs and tossing the fertile ones it was hatching time. Out of 12 eggs only one pipped, but it didn't hatch. Now a week later they have all been thrown away. On closer examination of the eggs all of them had fully developed poults. Many of them had very large unabsorbed yolk sacs. The eggs started in a forced air incubator at 99F and 50-60% humidity, they were automaticly turned and were moved to a still air incubator 3 days before hatching at 101F and always 50-60% humidity. i further examined the dead eggs and found them very hard to crack open.Another odd thing i found was a very large unabsorbed yolk sack. If you have and ways you can help please do.
sincerely,
frizzlelove83

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@WalnutHill might be of help. She raises turkeys.

Porters Heritage Turkeys has instructions on their website that are very helpful. I believe you had the humidity too high for the first 25 days. Until lockdown, I incubate at 20 - 30% humidity, then try to get it up over 80% for lockdown.

I only get about 1/3 of the fertile eggs to actually hatch, so maybe you should get a second opinion.

dheltzel said:

Porters Heritage Turkeys has instructions on their website that are very helpful. I believe you had the humidity too high for the first 25 days. Until lockdown, I incubate at 20 - 30% humidity, then try to get it up over 80% for lockdown.

I only get about 1/3 of the fertile eggs to actually hatch, so maybe you should get a second opinion.

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I was thinking the same thing because I am pretty sure that chicken/turkey/duck and quail all hatch under the same conditions, just different incubation periods and for chickens that is high. I use 30%. But I didn't want to say that and steer them wrong. I also understand that cabinet incubators don't run as well with the lower humidity and I don't know what kind of incubator either.

I think the humidity was to high.

I as others stated shoot for 20-30 percent during incubation.

I had terrible hatches on my early eggs last year. I had 40 going into lock down with good movement and only hatched 4. All died within the 3 day lock down period.

But as I got later in the year my hatch percentage went up. Turkeys hatching can be frustrating.

My latest batch got 3 of 14 to lock down none hatched. Ebay eggs.

We're these your eggs or shipped?

Sometime the parent nutrition has an effect on the eggs.

Sorry none hatched for you.

i really don't think the humidity was the problem. i do a lot of staggered hatches in two cabinet incubators, one i dry incubate in for the most part and the other i run around 50% because i do all my quail eggs in it and around here they'll dry out on you if you don't. i've incubated quail/chicken/duck/turkey/peacock eggs in that same incubator and never had any issues with hatch. my first thought was air exchange in the incubator you used for hatching in.

JetCat said:

i really don't think the humidity was the problem. i do a lot of staggered hatches in two cabinet incubators, one i dry incubate in for the most part and the other i run around 50% because i do all my quail eggs in it and around here they'll dry out on you if you don't. i've incubated quail/chicken/duck/turkey/peacock eggs in that same incubator and never had any issues with hatch. my first thought was air exchange in the incubator you used for hatching in.

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Cabinet incubators do run successfully at 50% humidity, however the styros and smaller bators generally need a lower humidity, so a lot of it depends on the type of bator.

AmyLynn2374 said:

Cabinet incubators do run successfully at 50% humidity, however the styros and smaller bators generally need a lower humidity, so a lot of it depends on the type of bator.

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Granted I don't have an excessive amount of experience incubating in the styrofoam incubators I do have one that is used mostly for small hatches and on occasion incubation too and I don't find it to run any different as far as the environment goes. An egg incubating at 50% rh @ 99.5° knows not if its in a cabinet or a styrofoam incubator I'd think. Can you further elaborate on what the difference is??

JetCat said:

Granted I don't have an excessive amount of experience incubating in the styrofoam incubators I do have one that is used mostly for small hatches and on occasion incubation too and I don't find it to run any different as far as the environment goes. An egg incubating at 50% rh @ 99.5° knows not if its in a cabinet or a styrofoam incubator I'd think. Can you further elaborate on what the difference is??

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Why is 50F in the summer cold but 50F in the winter is warm? Why can I run my bigger styro bator at 75-80% with no condensation but many hatchers with a mini or cooler bator will have swamp like conditions at the same percentages?

Don't get me wrong, it's a good question, I've pondered it myself and have never found a solid answer. I believe it has something to do with the material the incubators are made from and or the amount of space. I can't tell you the science behind it and not going to pretend I know. But I know this: the few people I know that use cabinet incubators tend to run humidity in the 50's for successful hatches, and don't have as much success with lower humidity methods. More than 90% of regular styro bator hatchers that I know (which is a lot greater than cabinet granted,) have found greater success (except in the cases of high altitude) with a low humidity method after having very bad hatches with the bator recommendations of 50% or higher. For some reason in a big majority of the cases I've seen 45%+ in the styro bators prevents the eggs from loosing the amount of moisture it needs to. Could it be the air in the smaller area at 50% is more dense than a larger area at 50% preventing the moisture from being drawn out? I would assume that if you were enclosed in a small area at 50% (with the same equivelant air circulation,)that it would still be harder or feel different breathing than in a bigger area at the same humidity level. I know the smaller the bator the less humidity it takes to produce condensation. Also I have to question, say your cabinet incubator is made of wood, does the wood draw in some of the moisture from the air? It would still attribute to the humidity, but the moisture would be in the material and not in the air? Styro bators don't absorb moisture, it hangs in the air. I honestly don't know the exact whys. I just know from what I have noted, for some reason, the differences in bators do make a difference as to what will work for you versus what might work for others.

thanks so much! when i try in a month or so i'll lower the humidity. another problem i had was the hard eggshells. when i went to go throw them out i threw them as hard as i could and none cracked. i had to find a rock to crack the eggs open on to examine the dead poults.