Day 18 or 19? Not a who's right or wrong,, just curious.

[MysteriaSdrassa]

I'm just curious as to what day people set there eggs for lockdown. I have set them on day 18 and 19, and personally tend to get slightly better hatches if I let them turn for the full 18 days and then set them in the hatching tray on day 19. This is not a right or wrong thread so please don't turn it into that,, I'm just curious to see if others have had better results one way or other.

 

[WalnutHill]

With turkeys I generally take them out of the turner at day 24 of 28. I don't raise the humidity until I see an internal pip.

Your observation is interesting. What type of incubator do you have?

 

[MysteriaSdrassa]

Built it myself. Yes, girls use tools too

LOL Similar in principle to the GQF Sportsman but on a smaller scale. It has 2 turning trays and a hatching tray. It can do either full 82 egg hatches or rotate thru 3 sittings (41 each week) with 123 eggs in constant rotation.

Haven't hatched turkeys in it yet,, it has been some time since I hatched turkeys

 

[WalnutHill]

I built mine too, 200 egg capacity with three turning trays (3 x 41) and two hatching trays (2 x 60 or so), or about 2/3 of that with turkeys. I am going to split off the hatcher to a separate unit for several reasons.

I stop turning my turkeys earlier because they tend to grow too large for the shell and don't have room to maneuver into position. I lost a lot more when turning until T-3. Now I take them out, lay them on their sides, and ensure that the big end is just a little higher and the air cell dip is up. While I still do some assisted hatches due to size, I lose fewer due to malposition.

I am breeding large toms to much smaller hens, so the poults truly are too large for the shell.