hatching turkey and chicken eggs together

[vtgirls]

I have 11 eggs in and plan to put one more tomorrow (hoping a hen cooperates!) They are narragansett. I am thinking of adding a row of chicken eggs in a week, giving them all the same hatch date. The timing would work well to fill out my layer numbers this way a bit more too. Has anyone tried this and with any success?

 

[Steve_of_sandspoultry]

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[vtgirls]

Thanks - this is exactly what I needed to know - I will collect some eggs from the chickens today and add them, they will then hatch about 6 days before the turkeys.

 

[vtgirls]

Update: My chick eggs and turkey eggs are all turning nicely in the Brinsea Octagon 20 in the kitchen. After candling them, we have 5 fertile turkey eggs (there were 11 but this is actually excellent since I think only one of the three hens has accepted the tom they are with) and all 4 chickens eggs are fertile. The chickens are due a week before the turkeys - with reguard to the time frame - I plan to shut the self turner off for a couple days before when the chicks are due and hand turn the turkey eggs ... Do you think it will this mess with the chickens eggs (I know folks are pretty strict with the "lock down")?

 

[Steve_of_sandspoultry]

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[Thomasturkey]

As you can see below, I have some experience at hatching with different dates. I just stop turning during lock down. Does not seem to effect them when it is just 3 days.

 

[Steve_of_sandspoultry]

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[Thomasturkey]

Yes they are all different ages. I would say there is at least 6 different ages in this bin with the youngest just one day old. That is the point. When I lock down I don't turn eggs for 3 days, and I still have good hatches. I cover the bin with hard wire and their heat lamp on top of that. I thought you could see them better with the top off to take the picture. As you can see, everyone gets along and are healthy.

 

[vtgirls]

This is the love/hate for me of this forum! Some say yes and others no - and both sure seem to know what they are saying! So still I must decide to keep it turning or stop it and whether to open and hand turn or to LOCK DOWN> Any more opinions out there?

 

[Jocasta]

The amount of people I've heard recount how their chicks hatched early and hadn't gone into lockdown yet... I'd probably be tempted to just keep turning... I guess for me it'd depend on the set up. If you've got the eggs fat end up (as opposed to laying on their sides), then I don't suppose it matters as much as if they were on their sides - the turning shouldn't hinder them getting into a hatching position as much. I'd probably stop the automatic turn when I noticed the first pip and then start again when I was confident all that were going to hatch had done so. I'm no expert though!