Eggs in Washington State NOW WITH EGGS!

[Dogfish]

So my 4 hens were hatched last spring and they are maturing nicely. The tom struts for them, but to date I don't see them taking an interest in the boy. I have 2 naragansetts and 1 nara/bronze cross, a blue slate hen, and the tom is a bronze, all heritage birds. So my questions are this:

1. When might I expect heritage birds to start laying in Western, WA?

2. From the time they start laying, when should I start collecting eggs for incubation? I assume it takes a few eggs to get their system dialed in.

3. How long should I try to collect eggs for prior to tossing them in the incubator? Looking for max shelf life, storage temp range.

Many thanks!

 

[mbnewby]

im out near shelton and my hens are all laying i have a light in there building that i have them in on all time there is a amount of day light they need before they will lay reseacher candle light hour and egg leying you can find it on line

 

[Thomasturkey]

A lot of people that free range there turkeys will not be finding eggs, even though they are laying everyday. If your turkeys are locked up, and you do not have any eggs yet, you should be seeing some in the next month if your feeding correctly. Make sure they are on a good Turkey Breeder feed. They should never be out of food or water. I up there protein (turkey starter) if they need a boost and feed them all the extra eggs (boiled) and grated carrots.

Your first eggs are going to be small. Early in the year, many toms are not fertile even if they do the deed. Fertility increases as the year goes on, and then declines again in the fall if your hens are still laying. I don't hatch the small eggs. But that is up you. The small eggs hatch out poults that will never reach there genetic potential that their siblings will reach. You can still eat them or sell them to someone that wants a pet. They will cost you more because their feed conversion will be poor. They are also not a hardy as turkeys from eggs from older turkeys. Your best breeders are going to be from second year or older birds.

I use my wine cooler set at 55 to store my eggs. I turn them daily and have a pan of water to increase the humidity. Hatching eggs should be collected soon after lay and maintained at 50-65o F. The eggs must not warm to above 65o F. unless they are being prepared for immediate incubation. Relative humidity in the storage facility should be maintained at 70-80 percent and daily egg turning or repositioning is recommended to prevent the yolk from sticking to the inside surface of the shell. Normal refrigeration is to cold and pulls moisture from the eggs. Some people bag the eggs to help keep them from drying out. Humidity should be kept as high as possible during storage, but not so high as to promote moisture settling on the eggs or eggs "sweating" once they are removed from the cooler for transport. Both of these issues encourage bacterial growth. Most coolers can be maintained at a humidity of 75% without the above concerns taking place. Storing eggs for more than 1 week is known to increase embryonic abnormalities and mortality. Some turkey eggs will survive for 4 weeks. Eggs stored longer than 1 week also show reduced hatchability and an increase in the amount of incubation time required to hatch. For each day stored, add one hour to the hatching time. Post-hatch growth and quality of chicks and poults from eggs stored for long periods also suffers. The poults will also need to eat sooner than eggs that are not stored longer than a week. Most will need to eat within 24 hours instead of the normal 72 hours. In both chickens and turkeys, research on incubation ( pre-warming) of freshly laid eggs prior to any storage has helped to reduce the negative effects of extended storage.

 

[Steve_of_sandspoultry]

Eggs stored longer than 1 week also show reduced hatchability and an increase in the amount of incubation time required to hatch.

How does that work? If hen lays one egg a day or one egg every other day and waits until she gets 15 to 20 eggs before starting to sit.

Steve​

 

[birdbrain5]

Quote:
How does that work? If hen lays one egg a day or one egg every other day and waits until she gets 15 to 20 eggs before starting to sit.

Steve

i wondered why people always say not to store eggs longer than 7-10 days too, i figure the hens, whether it be chickens or turkeys etc wait until they get more than just 7 eggs before they sit. so if turkeys wait for 15 eggs, thats roughly 30 days because to my understanding they lay every other day. so why couldnt they be stored for 30 days before incubating?

not trying to argue, im new to all of this, but im just asking if the hens wait that long, why cant we?

 

[Dogfish]

MB, I'm in McCleary. Got my poults from a heritage breeder out on Lynch Rd.

My birds return to roost, and they don't like to roost inside under cover, but once they start laying I have a few pens I can store them in.

 

[Thomasturkey]

Eggs on a nest would give similar results of pre-warming fresh eggs for storage if the storage temperature and humidity are optimum. In nature a hen probably compensates for cell death. A hen lays eggs in a clutch, and every time the next egg is laid the previous laid egg is incubated for a short time. During that short time the embryo is able to develop a little bit further and the cells will multiply, replacing the dead cells. In practice, this can be achieved by pre-storage incubation. Without knowing more information I can't answer your question as to how much hatchability will go down but you can look it up on line, if you want to know exactly to your own temperatures and humidity. Anything over 21-30 days, even stored at optimum temperatures, will have little chance of hatching. The oldest eggs will have the weakest poults and will be one hour later per day that they stored. They are most likely left when the Hen turkey takes them out for there first outing.

 

[Steve_of_sandspoultry]

Quote:
Carol, Where are you finding this information? When a hen is laying an egg she is on the nest for a short time, not enough to bring a cluctch of eggs layed up to incubation temp. The nest is cold, the eggs are cold - it takes time to bring that to 99.5. In any egg other than reptiles if it starts to grow and stop it dies. If it is true that eggs hatch one hour later per day then a clutch of eggs would still hatch within a 24 hour period, but I have a hard time with that, since when a hen starts to sit all the eggs are started at the same time

Steve

 

[Steve_of_sandspoultry]

Got my poults from a heritage breeder out on Lynch Rd.

That wouldn't be Wes would it.

Steve​

 

[birdbrain5]

Im not saything thomasturkey is wrong, because I dont have enough knowledge to make that judgement. Steve, I agree with you on this because it is what makes sense to me. What is the longest you have stored your turkey eggs and still had success hatching?