Hatching Turkeys in Brinsea Eco?

[serinat]

I'm picking up a dozen Bourbon Red hatching eggs from a breeder this afternoon (wheeee!) and will be putting them in my new Brinsea Octagon 20 Eco. I have never incubated anything, chicken, turkey, or otherwise, as we've just used broody hens. Any tips on incubating turkey eggs? Anything Brinsea-specific for me? How many chicken eggs will I be able to fit in with the dozen turkey eggs?

Thanks for any help!

 

[Stacykins]

I wish I could provide you advise, I have some blue slate and Bourbon reds in my eco 20 for the first time too! I was just going to treat them like chicken eggs with a slightly longer incubation time.

Today I will be finishing up some Brinsea tetris. I have 10 turkey eggs in there, and will try to fit 18 chicken eggs in there too. Hopefully they all fit! I expect by hatch time, some quitters who never developed will be tossed, so there will be room for hatch. My chicken eggs and turkey eggs will go into lockdown and hatch at the same time.

 

[serinat]

Good luck with your hatch! I'm doing the same thing (starting chicken eggs 7 days later) and I'm hoping for success. Have fun playing Tetris; I have a feeling I'll be doing the same thing.

Will there be enough room in the Brinsea 20 Eco for the turkey poults? It looks so small.

 

[debilorrah]

Quote:
It LOOKS small but I have had eggs in there and had ducks hatch and be ok (with the eggs in there while the ducks hatched). Turkeys will be fine in there, 28 days, same temp and humidity as chickens.

 

[Jocasta]

Wow, me too!!! I set my turkeys (also a dozen - Bronzes for me), on Friday and will be setting chicken eggs this Friday

I've never hatched anything either! Had a broody hen hatch a clutch last year but that's the extent of my hatching experience. Fingers crossed for all of us

 

[serinat]

Stacykins, did you fit all the eggs in there that you wanted? I have 13 turkey eggs and 5 Buff Orpington eggs, and that's with two partially stacked. If you got 18 chicken eggs in addition to you 10 turkey eggs, I will be very impressed!

 

[Jocasta]

I got 12 turkey eggs and 12 chicken eggs in mine without stacking. It took some re-arranging though as the turkey eggs varied hugely in size, as did the chicken eggs so it was a case of lining up all the huge turkey eggs with the smallest chicken eggs etc. I was impressed with that tbh - would be even more so with 28 total, incorporating 10 turkeys!!!

Am chuffed so far - all 12 turkey eggs have dancing embryos (although number 12 is lagging behind the others and I'm not terribly optimistic for him). Candled chicken eggs and had to toss four - they were out of the shipped ones. I'm actually relieved to have tossed some as I was beginning to worry about space issues if they all hatched!!!

Now I can go back to worrying if any will hatch lol.

 

[serinat]

Awesome, Jocasta! Good luck with your hatch!

What are you candling with, btw? My turkey eggs don't really fit in the Brinsea OvaScope I'm borrowing from a friend. I can get it partway shut, which is enough to sort of see something. So far, I see nice air spaces, and moving embryos (I think) in all six that I hastily candled two days ago (day six). I will try again in a dark room without the cover in a couple of days. Have no idea what I'm looking for, but it will be fun to take a look, anyway.

 

[serinat]

Another question: Will there be enough room in there? The poults are going to be so squished...

 

[Stacykins]

I am personally candling with a high powered flashlight, a surefire. It can see into turkey eggs really well! I think a small, bright LED flashlight could do the same. By day 5 I was able to see development, and now after nearly two weeks of cookin' in the bator, there are avtice, bouncing embryos.