Hatching eggs

[foux003]

I had Narraganset Tukey eggs that I put in a new Hova-bator Geneesis. The temp. is good and i kept the humidy between 30% and 50% for the first 24 days and then increased it to 70%. My son noticed one chick had started to .peep We took the eggs out of the turner and waited. The chick that began to peep never made it out of the shell. I took that egg out and peeled off the egg shell. The chick was stuck to the shell at the belly. None of the other eggs did anything. After about 33 days I broke one open and the chick was fully developed put dead. I didn't check the other eggs.

Anyone out there know what i did wrong?

foux003

 

[Shaun]

I had similar luck with a Hova-Bator with turkeys - could hatch dozens of chicks, but only 1 turkey out of - oh I don't know - in the past three summers - probably 60-80 eggs?

Finally bought a Brinsea Octagon 20 with the humidity pump. Put in 8 turkey eggs, and 2 chicken. All developed and pipped. All but one, who pipped out the wrong end of the shell hatched. That's 100% development and 90% hatch. Will never, ever try to hatch turkey eggs in anything else again. Found my Brinsea on Craig's list used. Worth every penny.

I tried everything I could think of to improve my hatch with the Hova-Bator - according to the thermometer/hydrometer, my last batch of eggs had the exact same conditions as the batch in the Brinsea. Only not one hatched, only half even developed all the way.

Wish I had known this 3 summers ago, we'd be selling turkeys for holiday dinners by now.

 

[jenjscott]

I have hatched a lot of turkey eggs out of my hovabators, but I've also had a lot of late losses. However, I think many of them were due to operator error, I have better hatches if I take them out of the turner about day 24. The worst hatches were the ones I missed and didn't get moved until the first one pipped. The ones that died appeared to have pipped the internal membrane. I think moving them late messed up their hatching. Don't know, just guessing. I'm going to be a lot more careful in the future with my dates.

 

[foux003]

I checked my
turkey eggs and all had developed but they were all dead. My Narragansett hen laid one more egg and I am trying again.
Any sugestions?

foux003