Hatchling Turkeys - why such a wide time range?

[cassiadawn]

So I’m on my second batch of turkey eggs right now. The first batch, I moved all 27 eggs to my hatcher for lockdown when I saw internal pips in some of the eggs on candling. 3 pipped and zipped within 2 days. Most of the rest pipped day 3 or 4, and then a few took another day.

Second batch is in the hatcher now. Same thing, I moved them when I saw one with an internal pip. I locked them down on the evening of the 26th, and had one egg hatch late on the 27th, and another early yesterday. They were dry and only one other egg had pipped, so I moved them to a brooder last night. This morning 9 of the 10 remaining eggs have pipped.

What gives? Why do I keep getting a couple of “early birds”, the majority coming on time, and then a couple stragglers?

Incubating temp is 99.5F and humidity around 50%. Hatcher is 98.5F and around 75% humidity. I’ve only opened the hatcher once each time, to pull the early ones out.

 

[R2elk]

So I’m on my second batch of turkey eggs right now. The first batch, I moved all 27 eggs to my hatcher for lockdown when I saw internal pips in some of the eggs on candling. 3 pipped and zipped within 2 days. Most of the rest pipped day 3 or 4, and then a few took another day.

Second batch is in the hatcher now. Same thing, I moved them when I saw one with an internal pip. I locked them down on the evening of the 26th, and had one egg hatch late on the 27th, and another early yesterday. They were dry and only one other egg had pipped, so I moved them to a brooder last night. This morning 9 of the 10 remaining eggs have pipped.

What gives? Why do I keep getting a couple of “early birds”, the majority coming on time, and then a couple stragglers?

Incubating temp is 99.5F and humidity around 50%. Hatcher is 98.5F and around 75% humidity. I’ve only opened the hatcher once each time, to pull the early ones out.

You probably have hot and cool spots in your incubator. You can use a calibrated thermometer to check different spots in your incubator. It is really common in still air incubators which is why it is recommended to move the eggs around in the incubator.

The effect would be more pronounced on eggs that take longer to hatch (turkeys 28 days) than on eggs that hatch sooner such as quail or chickens.

 

[cassiadawn]

It’s a forced air sportsman cabinet. But I suppose it’s possible?

 

[R2elk]

It’s a forced air sportsman cabinet. But I suppose it’s possible?

The new forced air Sportsman are notorious for having different temperatures at different levels. In my opinion they do not have as good an air flow pattern as the old versions have.

 

[cassiadawn]

Mine's an old one - 1202 I think? I've had it for over 8 years, and bought it used. First time using it in about 3 years though.

 

[R2elk]

Mine's an old one - 1202 I think? I've had it for over 8 years, and bought it used. First time using it in about 3 years though.

That is what I have and would not trade it for the new models.

 

[casportpony]

Food for thought... I think the number of days is meant to be a guide. Now while I don't hatch turkey eggs, I do hatch peafowl, and I think they are similar to incubate. The first time I incubated pea eggs I set them under a turkey hen and would it surprise you to know that all internally pipped on day 24 and hatched on day 26? Then just a month ago I set four under a chicken and ten under two ducks. The ten under the two ducks internally pipped on day 24, and hatched on day 26, but the four under the chicken were a day behind.

 

[R2elk]

Food for thought... I think the number of days is meant to be a guide. Now while I don't hatch turkey eggs, I do hatch peafowl, and I think they are similar to incubate. The first time I incubated pea eggs I set them under a turkey hen and would it surprise you to know that all internally pipped on day 24 and hatched on day 26? Then just a month ago I set four under a chicken and ten under two ducks. The ten under the two ducks internally pipped on day 24, and hatched on day 26, but the four under the chicken were a day behind.

Turkey eggs in my incubator normally hatch on day 27 with a rare straggler on day 28. Under the turkeys the hatch is extended because eggs are added after the incubation period starts for the first eggs.

The pea egg thing is normal and what I would expect based on the individual hens doing the hatching. I had a great broody chicken hen that I used as an automatic incubator. She would hatch all guinea eggs given to her on day 26. Her daughter would hatch all guinea eggs given to her on day 28. The difference was that the daughter spent longer periods of time off of the nest. In the incubator my guinea eggs would begin hatching a few on day 26 followed by the majority on day 27 and a few stragglers on day 28.

 

[ShannonR]

I used to frequently have this happen to eggs my turkeys were hatching too. I always figured the hen was too dumb to lay a full clutch before starting to incubate the eggs. Interesting that this happens in bators too!!

 

[cassiadawn]

Nothing ended up being late in my second batch, just the two early birds. And 11 out of 12 eggs hatched. I’m wondering now if the outside temp when I collected the eggs maybe made a difference. My first big batch I started collecting when they first started laying for the year, and the temperature was swinging pretty wildly some days.