Bad turkey egg hatch rate, what went wrong?

[JuliannaM06]

Hello! I’m wondering if some people can help me out with what went wrong during my hatch of turkey eggs. The hatch rate was only 50%. I had 26 eggs in the incubator, I took out 5 at day 14. 3 were infertile and 2 just looked like they died early on and turned into goo. Now at day 28 of hatch, 13 hatched out of the 21. A little disappointing but I’m happy with my healthy turkey poults. Here’s what I did during the incubation period:



I am using a hovator 2370 model paired with a Incuturn egg turner.

Eggs were clean and fresh, collected from my own flock.

Temperature: 99.5° using a calibrated thermometer

Humidity: I had a little trouble getting large enough air sacs by day 25. Humidity was around 40-45% but I went dry for 5 days to speed up the air sac process to get ready for hatch. During the dry period it stayed around 25-33%.

Lockdown: started lock down day 25, humidity at 70% and turned egg turner off. Small air vent is left opened for increase oxygen flow. Once I saw the first pip I decreased the temp to 98.5, I read this allows more oxygen to the poults, from a post on this forum.



Some of the turkeys I believed to be mal positioned, 2-3 of the dud eggs pipped towards the pointy side of the egg. What is the cause of this?

Also, one pipped on the correct side of the egg, beak sticking out but unfortunately died too. Any reason why?

Feel free to ask me any questions if I’m leaving anything out. I would like to figure out if I did anything wrong for next time.

 

[Debbie292d]

Hi,

You didn't mention, but I would expect you had the eggs pointy side down in the incubator.

Malpositioned embryos are usually from the parents. I had one hen that consistently had eggs with air cells on the side.

Those making it to hatch then dying, I'd attribute to the parents as well. These were too weak to finish.

If you could narrow it down to who the hens were of those that didn't make it, you'd have a better hatch next time.

 

[JuliannaM06]

Hi,

You didn't mention, but I would expect you had the eggs pointy side down in the incubator.

Malpositioned embryos are usually from the parents. I had one hen that consistently had eggs with air cells on the side.

Those making it to hatch then dying, I'd attribute to the parents as well. These were too weak to finish.

If you could narrow it down to who the hens were of those that didn't make it, you'd have a better hatch next time.

Thanks for the reply. Yes the eggs were collected from my own hens that are 2 years old. The specific egg turner I used allows the eggs to lay on their side.

I candle all the eggs before placing them in for any cracks or malpositioned air sacs. All air sacs were on the bottom fat side of the egg.

I’m thinking it has to do with the feed they eat. I get it from a local feed mill but it’s filled with corn, soy, and other fillers. Meanwhile, my organic chickens who eat pricey organic, corn & soy free feed, I have gotten 96-100% hatch rate from the two times I incubated their eggs.