First Annual Cinco de Mayo Turkey Hatchathon- Join us! Set Day: Easter

[dsqard]

Just went and checked on my second egg getting ready to hatch and found a third egg pipped!

It is another one of birdguy's Royal Purple Palms or BS. I don't know what that makes me giggle every time I say it.

 

[HappyAcresKY]

Hey, Peeps! I have a question. Will turkey hens use a nest box inside like chicken do? What size and configuration will a turkey need in a nest box. Open, concealed, low ceiling, high ceiling, shavings, hay, what?

I just bought 4 doz turkey eggs from a guy who's been raising turkeys a while, he uses 50 gallon drums on their side for nest boxes, he keeps them in the coop. The hole was in the middle between the top and the side so the hens could see if anything was coming from the front or above. I wish I would have taken a picture. He had 3 broody hens in one barrel and 2 other barrels for the rest of the hens. He read about it in an article from the early 1900s on archive.org called Turkeys and how to raise them (or something similar) they used to use old whiskey barrels. He said he has had great luck with them. I haven't had a chance to find the article yet or I'd post a link. I'll see if he will email me a picture.

I have 5 Narragansett x Sweetgrass poults out and at least 4 more pips that I can see
Sorry haven't been on here much, busy time of year on the farm, I love it but it doesn't leave much time for socializing. We have 6 lambs on the ground and 3 more ewes to go, woke up to find one of last years ram lambs dead (don't know what happened), built and moved the pigs to their outside enclosure, 75 laying pullets and 30 poults came in the mail last week plus 2 guineas, 1 turkey and 5 chicks hatched a week ago and I've been doing all of this while 6 months pregnant and chasing our 21 month old around... and it's derby week here in kentucky which means late nights for my DH, thank god for the 12 year old down the road! Yeehaw, I wouldn't have it any other way!

 

[gryeyes]

Linda if you have a nest box that is fairly large that the chickens use, then turkey hens will use it too. I don't have a special nest for Lurkey, she lays in the bigger nest box I have for the chickens. In fact, poor girl, usually winds up with a dark Brahma girl on top of her when she is laying because the box doesn't have a top and the Brahma likes that nest to lay in. No panicing allowed at least not yet.

Whew! Thank you for talking me down. I have several large nest boxes (covered kitty litter bins designed for "hefty cats"). They are the most popular nests. Two of them are currently occupied by TWO broody hens apiece.

I'm not sure I was so much freaking out about accommodations for turkey hens, it was just the sudden realization that if *I* - that's me, myself and all my foibles, hmm, okay, the realization that we could be building a flock of turkeys. Nah, just hatching some eggs ... kinda like my hatching out Trader Joe's fertile eggs just to see if I could do it. Absolutely loved TJ the rooster and his three Josies in my flock.

So, some of these eggs, if they hatch, could be either hens or toms. Hmmmm. I'm so good at hatching cockerels I never even imagined I might have a turkey hen.

Color me "silly." (It's okay - it washes off. I've worn that color many times!)

 

[HappyAcresKY]

Hey, Peeps! I have a question. Will turkey hens use a nest box inside like chicken do? What size and configuration will a turkey need in a nest box. Open, concealed, low ceiling, high ceiling, shavings, hay, what?

forgot to mention one of our turkey hens is using an old dog house that had hardly any bedding material, once she starting laying in it I added straw, which she seemed to like bc she would cover the eggs with it when she left.

 

[Arielle]

Quote: WHat is the measurement on this crate--it doesn't look square.

OMG - I'm hatching Turkey eggs because I got sucked into this by some pretty persuasive enablers, and now somebody asks about NEST BOXES for the hens! AAAUUGGGH!!!

I'm just trying to get these eggs to hatch - what an idea to drop into my brain right now: not all turkeys are toms, DUH, which means some turkey poults could be hens, and they're gonna grow up! And lay eggs!

My goodness, why had I not thought this through??!?!?!

My green house turned into a coop for BBW which became home for the BR quad. ( 1 tom = 3 hens) Young toms free range all day; and get put in AMerecuna pen at night while the AM are in coop for the night. Turkey math.

Quote: CRS = Can't remember "stuff"

 

[NotAFarm]

Are Bourbon Reds seasonal layers? Remember, I'm not where the weather is warn all year.....

I have number two out!!

More are pipped!! One of the tutors is pipped!

 

[Arielle]

Are Bourbon Reds seasonal layers? Remember, I'm not where the weather is warn all year.....

I have number two out!!

More are pipped!! One of the tutors is pipped!

If you live in a warm climate, they lay all year; if you live in the north, they are seasonal layers. THey adapt to the climate. My girls started laying the week we set our turkey eggs for this hach a thon.

 

[yinepu]

WHat is the measurement on this crate--it doesn't look square.

14" X 17"
I believe they are about 9" deep

 

[HappyAcresKY]

Advice please...

I am borrowing a brinsea octagon 20 eco, it has 21 eggs in it... so far 6 poults have hatched and it's starting to look crowded, when is it safe to move them to the brooder? This is my first time using it & only second time incubating, last time i used a homemade one and it wasn't nearly this exciting

There were 4 in it when I went outside and 6 when I came back, they're like popcorn

 

[gryeyes]

Umm, with CHICKENS, as soon as the chick is fluffed up and dry, I try to take them out of the incubator. I say "try" because if there are any pipped or zipping eggs, I don't open the incubator. Chicks can stay in it as long as 48 hours or so.

With that said, I understand the concern about space inside the thing as more and more hatch. If there are THAT many piling up inside, I close my eyes, do a very quick little incantation, then snatch out the fluffiest and driest chicks as quickly as I can.

So I am waiting for a turkey expert to respond. My turkey eggs are in two MiniAdvance EX incubators, with even less room inside than the Eco models!.