A century of Turkey talk 2000-2100.

[R2elk]

Boy doesn't it! Which is why I think I will get clear doors, then I would have noticed the problem sooner. I do not open the doors all that often, only to add water. I just go down, check the gauges and come back up. With clear doors I would have seen they were not moving.

I am glad to see you think the lack of turning most likely caused the mess too. I had heard not turning the eggs would make for a bad hatch. I know that now.


Thanks for the sympathy..

BTW what do you think I should do with Ethel, the other 2 hens now and the stolen eggs? Should I move them and give them other eggs? Or just move them and make them lay new ones?

You know your "boss" hen better than I do and so do your younger hens. Let Ethel do what she wants to and try to relocate the other 2. Just relocating them to another pen may get them laying again but if they have already been broody, they will need to be exposed to a tom again to get fertile eggs.

It really isn't that hard to cut a section out of your current doors and glue a piece of plexiglass on each side of the hole in the door. It is by far less expensive than buying a replacement door.

 

[memphis]

There you go Ralph. R2elk & I are in agreement. Toss the two young girls & let Ethel do what she wants. I'm still advocating for you to give Ethel her own private suite.

 

[R2elk]

Hey folks. I should finally be home this afternoon. Having turkey withdrawal.

Ralph, I personally think you should let Ethel do WHATEVER she wants. Toss the other girls off the nest & move Ethel to your spare bedroom. You can sit & keep her company while she's brooding!

Sorry about the hatch...bummer.

Now that Ralph is NPIP, the powers that be seriously frown on poultry (other than properly processed poultry) in the house. Even if Ralphie were so inclined, Judy would not permit Ethel to be processed.

 

[duluthralphie]

R2elk I have thought about both of those already..

However, I did not know going broody would kill the sperm. I guess JJ gets lucky again!

I will move them this weekend..thanks.


I will add the plexiglass before I fire it up again.

 

[Finnie]

I have just finished the worse hatch in history,
I had around 40-50 eggs,

I had 5 live hatches 2 were weak and had no chance, they died another is nearly dead. So my success rate is around 4%.
This is from the 1202 were the turners stopped working. I have no idea when, I would open it and it would be at an angle. I did not notice it was not working until near the end.

Then I tried hatching in it. All in all the worst experience ever, in hatching!

Sorry about your bad hatch, Ralph.

I'm not up on all your incubators. I know you got some new huge ones, right? Is this 1202 a new one/first time using, or an old one you have been used to? It'll be interesting to see if the next batch in it goes better with proper turning.

In my current hatch, which is supposed to be due tomorrow, but in which 5 are already out and in the brooder, I turned the turner off for about a week on purpose*. I've been hoping that won't hurt anything. Guess we'll see. There are still 3 turkeys and 8 chickens to go in there. I can hear some cheeping as I sit here typing.


*(Reason why I turned the turner off is a little complicated. I had too many eggs I wanted to set (in my Incuview), so I added a few to my styrofoam incubator, hoping/assuming that some of them would be clear, and then after candling, what was left would all fit into the Incuview . But my thinking was faulty, because the other incubator needed to go into lockdown before it was time to candle. So the excess eggs had to get squeezed into the Incuview and overcrowd it. So then I turned off the turner so none of them would get cracked into each other. It was off for about 5-7 days before I remembered and candled them. As I suspected, all the eggs from a certain hen were clear, so those got tossed and the rest fit.)

 

[R2elk]

Sorry about your bad hatch, Ralph.

I'm not up on all your incubators. I know you got some new huge ones, right? Is this 1202 a new one/first time using, or an old one you have been used to? It'll be interesting to see if the next batch in it goes better with proper turning.

In my current hatch, which is supposed to be due tomorrow, but in which 5 are already out and in the brooder, I turned the turner off for about a week on purpose*. I've been hoping that won't hurt anything. Guess we'll see. There are still 3 turkeys and 8 chickens to go in there. I can hear some cheeping as I sit here typing.


*(Reason why I turned the turner off is a little complicated. I had too many eggs I wanted to set (in my Incuview), so I added a few to my styrofoam incubator, hoping/assuming that some of them would be clear, and then after candling, what was left would all fit into the Incuview . But my thinking was faulty, because the other incubator needed to go into lockdown before it was time to candle. So the excess eggs had to get squeezed into the Incuview and overcrowd it. So then I turned off the turner so none of them would get cracked into each other. It was off for about 5-7 days before I remembered and candled them. As I suspected, all the eggs from a certain hen were clear, so those got tossed and the rest fit.)

There have been lots of studies done on the effects of turning and hatch rates. Turning is most important in the early days of incubation. The later in the hatch that turning is stopped the less effect there is on the hatch. In your case shutting off the turner would have been okay if you had hand turned the eggs.

The studies also showed that the more times the eggs are turned, the better it is for the hatch. The original 1202s would turn the trays every 3 hours. The hew Sportmans turn the trays every hour.

 

[Finnie]

Oh, so there are photos to share, from the 5 early birds on this hatch that is due tomorrow, and had pips in a few when I candled at lockdown (Thursday night). The first two hatched Friday afternoon (two days early), and three more overnight. One I assisted on Saturday morning because it quite zipping on Friday before bed with an inch to go, and made no progress overnight.

Four turkeys and a mentor:


I think this yellow one must be that Royal Palm female I'm keeping my eye out for:


So she will be Snowflake.

Then here is what I am assuming is a Sweetgrass brother to her. He will be my Poppyseed replacement, and since my daughter always told me I should have named Poppyseed Cornbread, but I said no, I like Poppyseed, I will name this new guy Cornbread in honor of his mother and my daughter:


Then these next two ought to be Narragansett's. They came from Muffin's eggs. So they should be visual Narris, and split to the remaining Royal Palm genes.



And here is the first of the mentors. "Her" mother is my Olive Egger.

 

[Finnie]

Quote:
OK, thanks. Hopefully then it was late enough in the incubation, since I didn't hand turn.

 

[dgibson0604]

my red burbon hen layed down in front of my gobbler and he tried to breed her is that her letting him know that she wants to breed

 

[duluthralphie]

Uh Huh... Yeppers...