- Sep 21, 2022
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Creative / brainstorming solutions welcome!
We hatch ducklings and turkey poults in our bator
We are newish to incubating, and want to have higher success rates so I’m hoping those of you with more experience can help -
- we have two forced air HovaBator bators (1588 for incubating and 2370 for lockdown, both with Humidikits, plus extra thermometers and hygrometers)
- we are staggering hatch dates ~ 10 days apart. Hatch rates have been ok (maybe 70% or so- not nearly where we would like them to be, obviously )
- we have been mixing the duck and turkey eggs in the same batches to meet local requests.
Rates of success in incubation / eggs ready for lockdown is 90+%
And about 70% of those apparently viable eggs are successful in the end.
The ducklings are fine.
They seem to just mess with each other.
The turkey poults like to play roller derby w the ducks, as well as any eggs that haven’t hatched.... and everything else
I pull the poults (quickly) from the lockdown bator to the prepared brooder as soon as the poults are dry.
But. Even in that 12-24hr time frame, they have pretty much rolled all the other eggs a few times
I could be wrong, of course, but I feel like at least a decent % of the eggs that have been developing well and don’t hatch in the end, have more to do with the babies being positioned to hatch and then getting rolled by the poults.
I do mark the “top” when I put eggs into lockdown, but I have no way to know if the mark has moved because the baby is trying to get positioned.... or because the poults rolled it :/
So. I don’t think that splitting up the duck and turkey eggs in relation to our hatch schedule will solve my issue with the poults being. Baby turkeys it might improve my hatch rates for the ducks- but tbh the turkeys are my priority to get the hang of hatching more consistently.
I am thinking about getting some of that plastic “grid” that ....most of us who are old enough to have gone through any old school summer camp used to “cross stitch” at camp
Something like this (but I’d rather get it locally if I can find it)
https://www.amazon.com/Plastic-Embr...2lkZ2V0TmFtZT1zcF9waG9uZV9zZWFyY2hfbXRm&psc=1
And make a 4 way divider (x shape, I’m thinking...) in the lockdown bator, so the turkeys have less of an ability to roll as many of the other eggs / make it harder for the chicks that have gotten into a proper position to hatch.
But it isn’t firm enough (hopefully) to be an entrapment hazard....
But I would have to open the lid a lot higher to pull babies from the “other” side of the dividers.
My other thought was to come up with a way to make a ....grid “base” of sorts, so the eggs can move a little bit as the babies are trying to get into position and hatch, but the turkeys that hatch first can’t easily
-completely- “toss” the other eggs.
Has anyone else come up with a solution for this problem?
Or, anyone with more experience that can tell me that my theory is just wrong, and 25-30% of babies that are active at lockdown should just be expected to fail?
That last question seems unlikely.
At least I’m unwilling to accept that.
There has to be a better way!
Thank you in advance for sharing your thoughts
We hatch ducklings and turkey poults in our bator
We are newish to incubating, and want to have higher success rates so I’m hoping those of you with more experience can help -
- we have two forced air HovaBator bators (1588 for incubating and 2370 for lockdown, both with Humidikits, plus extra thermometers and hygrometers)
- we are staggering hatch dates ~ 10 days apart. Hatch rates have been ok (maybe 70% or so- not nearly where we would like them to be, obviously )
- we have been mixing the duck and turkey eggs in the same batches to meet local requests.
Rates of success in incubation / eggs ready for lockdown is 90+%
And about 70% of those apparently viable eggs are successful in the end.
The ducklings are fine.
They seem to just mess with each other.
The turkey poults like to play roller derby w the ducks, as well as any eggs that haven’t hatched.... and everything else
I pull the poults (quickly) from the lockdown bator to the prepared brooder as soon as the poults are dry.
But. Even in that 12-24hr time frame, they have pretty much rolled all the other eggs a few times
I could be wrong, of course, but I feel like at least a decent % of the eggs that have been developing well and don’t hatch in the end, have more to do with the babies being positioned to hatch and then getting rolled by the poults.
I do mark the “top” when I put eggs into lockdown, but I have no way to know if the mark has moved because the baby is trying to get positioned.... or because the poults rolled it :/
So. I don’t think that splitting up the duck and turkey eggs in relation to our hatch schedule will solve my issue with the poults being. Baby turkeys
it might improve my hatch rates for the ducks- but tbh the turkeys are my priority to get the hang of hatching more consistently. I am thinking about getting some of that plastic “grid” that ....most of us who are old enough to have gone through any old school summer camp used to “cross stitch” at camp
Something like this (but I’d rather get it locally if I can find it)
https://www.amazon.com/Plastic-Embr...2lkZ2V0TmFtZT1zcF9waG9uZV9zZWFyY2hfbXRm&psc=1
And make a 4 way divider (x shape, I’m thinking...) in the lockdown bator, so the turkeys have less of an ability to roll as many of the other eggs / make it harder for the chicks that have gotten into a proper position to hatch.
But it isn’t firm enough (hopefully) to be an entrapment hazard....
But I would have to open the lid a lot higher to pull babies from the “other” side of the dividers.
My other thought was to come up with a way to make a ....grid “base” of sorts, so the eggs can move a little bit as the babies are trying to get into position and hatch, but the turkeys that hatch first can’t easily
-completely- “toss” the other eggs.
Has anyone else come up with a solution for this problem?
Or, anyone with more experience that can tell me that my theory is just wrong, and 25-30% of babies that are active at lockdown should just be expected to fail?
That last question seems unlikely.
At least I’m unwilling to accept that.
There has to be a better way!
Thank you in advance for sharing your thoughts
