Hatching shipped turkey eggs...Any advice?

[WVduckchick]

Candled my turkeys today and one of the 4 was infertile but I see good movement in the others. Day 9.
I'm watching weight loss, shooting for 14% by day 25. Does that sound right to you guys? They hadn't lost enough by day 7, so I've decreased the humidity and weight loss is improving. Is there a humidity level that is too low?

 

[KelseyBoxer]

I'm interested in any advice on humidity too. Do you weigh the eggs individually or as a group? So far I haven't added any water to the incubator. I'm only on day 1!

 

[Book Em Danno25]

Good Luck with the hatch!

 

[WVduckchick]

I'm interested in any advice on humidity too. Do you weigh the eggs individually or as a group? So far I haven't added any water to the incubator. I'm only on day 1! 

This is my first try with turkeys, so I'm not offering advice. Just trying a method that seemed the most logical to me, since humidity is such a huge debate. I keep reading that all bird eggs need to lose 13-15% of their weight in order to hatch, so weighing seems to be the most consistent thing to check. Along with air cell size, which comes from the weight loss.
Since I'm doing a small batch, I did weigh every egg and put the info in a spreadsheet and calculated target loss by day 7, 14, 21 and 25. Too little weight loss means too much humidity so I'm adjusting down. I have read weighing every 3-4 days makes adjusting easier. But weighing the entire set and averaging weight loss appears to work for others.
Also according to Storeys Guide, turkeys are better off with low humidity for the first 25 days, then up it for the final 3.

Best of luck to you and keep us posted!

 

[KelseyBoxer]

Thanks to everyone for the replies and good vibes. I am comfortable with dry hatch, and I am going to weigh each egg. I tried to mark air cells, but they were moving so I stopped. I'm moving these eggs in with my chicken eggs since I disconnected 3 rails on the turner this morning. I feel comfortable with that LG incubator. I like the idea of a full incubator for stability. Thanks again for the well wishes. More to come....

 

[WVduckchick]

So what's the latest on your turkeys @KelseyBoxer

 

[KelseyBoxer]

Today they go on the turner. I am going to candle them. I am also going to set a few chicken eggs today so they hatch at the same time. I have read that chicks will help turkeys with eating and drinking. I will post results soon. Come on veins--no clears!

 

[KelseyBoxer]

Turkey eggs are out of the carton and on the turner. I candled and weighed the eggs as I moved them. It seems that 5 eggs are clear. I still put them on the turner. It was hard to see veins, but I could see the other eggs were filling in with something. They looked different from the very clear eggs. It seems as if the eggs lost about 5% of weight. The clears lost a little more than the others. I am going to add a little water in the incubator.The air cells have seemed to stabilize in the eggs. They are staying fixed in the shell. Does anyone see a problem that I am over-looking? I did not see any "embroys" but maybe a few dark areas within the fat end of the shell. This will be day 8.

 

[WVduckchick]

I think it was around day 10 that I could really see good movement inside the egg. Mine are really difficult to see in now, I still can't see much veining, but movement is really obvious! Candle again on day 10 or 11. Its so exciting!

 

[KelseyBoxer]

I think I will candle in a few days. I was going to wait until day 16 to get a weight but I will candle at least a few just to look for something. I am excited and nervous too. I never paid for eggs before or tried to hatch shipped ones so the pressure is on! My lonely bourbon hen has been acting strange these past couple of days. This morning i heard wild gobblers in the field behind my house. I wonder if she hears them too?