Greetings, I am new here, and coming to the collective knowledge of the community to help me with successful hatches of artificially incubated Narragansett turkey eggs.
I have several challenges:
1. I live in Michigan, and the eggs I've gathered for the past several weeks have all been subjected to very cold temperatures between the time they have been laid, and the time they have been collected. Some have probably been frozen.
2. I have one hen and one tom, and they are both around 10 months old, so this is a "first time" experience for them. Mrs. Turkey has no broody tendencies right now, she lays her egg on a high shelf in the coop, above the chicken nest boxes, and walks away.
3. With only one hen, the eggs have been collected for a week or more at a time before setting.
4. I am using untried, cheap Little Giant foam incubators. One with forced air and turner, the other just the wire grid and cheesecloth (for lockdown).
The first batch of six eggs was collected over two weeks, and set in a cool bathroom 62* F. I wasn't aware at that time that turning the eggs during storage was recommended. I candled each egg for cracks and then set them in a refrigerator egg tray, pointy end down. A few of the shells had uneven calcium deposition, with very evident thin and thick spots.
I set those first six eggs on February 15th. Five were active at 10 days. Three were active at 14 days. Two were active at 21 days and again at lockdown. One is now active, and the hatch is one day overdue and counting. Incubator temps showed at 99-100 with a dual probe meat thermometer, and weight loss at each candling was consistent with air sac expansion and a total 14% loss over 24 days. Instead of filling the bottom water reservoirs, I used a tilesetter's sponge sliced in half thickness-wise, and resoaked in warm water about twice a week, at which time they were fairly dry. These rest on the turner bars.
The next set of five eggs were all gathered within a week. Three made it to 21 days and will be locked down on Tuesday.
The next set of four eggs show three active at 14 days.
The following two sets of four eggs each are too early to be sure with the thick and spotted shells of turkey eggs.
Only two eggs showed absolutely no sign of embryo development, they were probably frozen. Three have shown the blood ring, and the others showed visible embryo development but just quit moving and growing.
Eggs suspected as not developing are removed to the far corner of the incubator. So far, none have been "smelly" or they would have been removed immediately. My dog's nose confirms, as he is a big fan of stinky things to roll in. As eggs are removed, the eggs are shifted to fill the empty spaces. The egg racks are filled sequentially, every other space
I don't know why my first poult is so late to come into the bigger world. I hear no pipping, no peeping at 29 days. The lockdown box is at 98 degrees at egg height and is nice and moist but not quite tropical sogginess.
Out of 16 eggs where development can be confirmed, I've lost 6. What may I be doing wrong, and why is my hatch so late?
Thanks in advance!
P.S. I just did an egg-topsy on the egg that has shown no activity since I last candled at day 21. The poult was well developed, had all external body parts in the correct proportions, was properly positioned, had consumed a good deal of yolk and had left behind a considerable amount of waste. I would be happy to share the photo outside this forum if anyone would care to comment and suggest upon it.
Live streaming egg cam here: http://tinyurl.com/lmd84g8
I have several challenges:
1. I live in Michigan, and the eggs I've gathered for the past several weeks have all been subjected to very cold temperatures between the time they have been laid, and the time they have been collected. Some have probably been frozen.
2. I have one hen and one tom, and they are both around 10 months old, so this is a "first time" experience for them. Mrs. Turkey has no broody tendencies right now, she lays her egg on a high shelf in the coop, above the chicken nest boxes, and walks away.
3. With only one hen, the eggs have been collected for a week or more at a time before setting.
4. I am using untried, cheap Little Giant foam incubators. One with forced air and turner, the other just the wire grid and cheesecloth (for lockdown).
The first batch of six eggs was collected over two weeks, and set in a cool bathroom 62* F. I wasn't aware at that time that turning the eggs during storage was recommended. I candled each egg for cracks and then set them in a refrigerator egg tray, pointy end down. A few of the shells had uneven calcium deposition, with very evident thin and thick spots.
I set those first six eggs on February 15th. Five were active at 10 days. Three were active at 14 days. Two were active at 21 days and again at lockdown. One is now active, and the hatch is one day overdue and counting. Incubator temps showed at 99-100 with a dual probe meat thermometer, and weight loss at each candling was consistent with air sac expansion and a total 14% loss over 24 days. Instead of filling the bottom water reservoirs, I used a tilesetter's sponge sliced in half thickness-wise, and resoaked in warm water about twice a week, at which time they were fairly dry. These rest on the turner bars.
The next set of five eggs were all gathered within a week. Three made it to 21 days and will be locked down on Tuesday.
The next set of four eggs show three active at 14 days.
The following two sets of four eggs each are too early to be sure with the thick and spotted shells of turkey eggs.
Only two eggs showed absolutely no sign of embryo development, they were probably frozen. Three have shown the blood ring, and the others showed visible embryo development but just quit moving and growing.
Eggs suspected as not developing are removed to the far corner of the incubator. So far, none have been "smelly" or they would have been removed immediately. My dog's nose confirms, as he is a big fan of stinky things to roll in. As eggs are removed, the eggs are shifted to fill the empty spaces. The egg racks are filled sequentially, every other space
I don't know why my first poult is so late to come into the bigger world. I hear no pipping, no peeping at 29 days. The lockdown box is at 98 degrees at egg height and is nice and moist but not quite tropical sogginess.
Out of 16 eggs where development can be confirmed, I've lost 6. What may I be doing wrong, and why is my hatch so late?
Thanks in advance!
P.S. I just did an egg-topsy on the egg that has shown no activity since I last candled at day 21. The poult was well developed, had all external body parts in the correct proportions, was properly positioned, had consumed a good deal of yolk and had left behind a considerable amount of waste. I would be happy to share the photo outside this forum if anyone would care to comment and suggest upon it.
Live streaming egg cam here: http://tinyurl.com/lmd84g8
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