We raised Narragansett last year and are doing our first hatch. We had two broody mamas each with a clutch a clutch plus an incubator.
One of our mamas gave up halfway through and we split the eggs between the other mama and our already near full incubator.
We've hatched far less than we normally do with chickens. The mama also has lost three fully born chicks (we find them dead) despite a fully enclosed safe run. We don't know if she kicked them out or if they just got lost and exposed.
So far it just seems way harder than with chickens, where we get a high hatch rate and almost none die, and here we have a fairly low hatch rate and more early deaths. Are we doing something wrong? Or is this just how it is? We found an old mother Earth News article which mentioned a particularly high failure rate for turkeys, but it seems like they should be hardier than chickens.
We feel particularly bad because we gave Mama a few of our incubator turkeys last night and despite her happily taking them in one of them died overnight.
One of our mamas gave up halfway through and we split the eggs between the other mama and our already near full incubator.
We've hatched far less than we normally do with chickens. The mama also has lost three fully born chicks (we find them dead) despite a fully enclosed safe run. We don't know if she kicked them out or if they just got lost and exposed.
So far it just seems way harder than with chickens, where we get a high hatch rate and almost none die, and here we have a fairly low hatch rate and more early deaths. Are we doing something wrong? Or is this just how it is? We found an old mother Earth News article which mentioned a particularly high failure rate for turkeys, but it seems like they should be hardier than chickens.
We feel particularly bad because we gave Mama a few of our incubator turkeys last night and despite her happily taking them in one of them died overnight.