Clutch #2 Struggling a bit

[Deep Roots]

We are on our 2nd clutch of turkey eggs. At day 28 nada. But we could have written down the wrong date. So we gave them two more days. 4 hatched within 20hrs. All eggs pipped. Now we are two full day past the first lil guys. Number 5 poult really struggled to get out of the shell. The membrane right under the shell seems way more tough than our last clutch. Troubleshooting for the last three clutches which are right behind these guys... and how long should we wait after pip? Ive heard from other turkey folks the range of early to late eggs can be 5 days! That seems long.

A day later it seems as thought the humidity was too low in the still air incubator. We move them into a normal incubator for lockdown and hatch which has really high humidity. I'm keeping the humidity a little higher in the still air, but is there a better way? Not exactly the best judge of it and I have two diff humidistats One says 65 the other is 50. Both are digital. I also threw a couple reptile ones in there just to see if I'm nuts.

After 100% hatch on the first clutch, we were pretty taken aback.

 

[Molpet]

https://www.porterturkeys.com/egghatchingtips.htm

 

[Bo Garrett]

Make sure the temperature on your incubator and hatcher are staying constant at 99.5, cooler temperatures will cause later hatches, difficulty hatching and improper moisture loss.

Blessings,

Bo

 

[Deep Roots]

We have books, magazines, and lots of info on the web and no one location as the scientific approach of logging weight, percents, temp, etc... So frustrating to hear from so many different authors and folks online there isn't really a comprehensive source. Most of the articles and how to are within a ballpark but we are well within the ballpark on everything except the humidity and tracking the weight loss which we are starting on this last clutch. The current clutch in lock down for hatch we have dialed in the humidity to 65% and 98.5 (lowered from 99.5 yesterday) but they are still within 24hrs of hatch. One pip so far. If they are slow to pip/hatch is there anything else we can do to help them along? The last late poult from clutch #2 is going to still be in the brooder when this next batch hatches. He just hasn't gained weight like the first 4 poults of that batch. Any suggestions are great. I'm starting a massive spreadsheet log of all the information as well as all our logs to help track this to dial it in. I just can't believe we "accidentally" had a 100% hatch rate the first clutch and now can't replicate it...
Thanks all.

 

[Bo Garrett]

In Oklahoma our ambient humidity is such that for the first two and a half weeks you shouldn't need to have any added humidity in your incubator otherwise your eggs will not lose enough moisture and the poults will not have room to hatch. Secondly, remember the hen turkey does not turn her temperature down when her brood begins to hatch, I keep my hatcher the same temp as the incubator, 99.5 degrees. You may try removing the eggs from the incubator after the second week and letting them cool each day for about 15 to 20 minutes, this is the normal cycle the hen would do if she were incubating them.

Blessings,

Bo

 

[Deep Roots]

Clutch 3 started lockdown on day 26... they are still hatching now. I'm hoping this is the last one. It's day 34... Yeah... We thought we had half duds and yet every morning there is another poult. Any ideas why this is happening? Low temp during first three weeks maybe?