Have just set eggs for the first time! Hold my hand?

[Jocasta]

Hey.

A broody hen hached a clutch of chicks for me last year. This year I've decided to raise my own Christmas turkey so bought an incubator and have just set 12 eggs to hatch. They are Norfolk Bronzes (I'm in the UK) which I believe are very similar to the Standard Bronze in the States.

I'm so excited and will likely have tons of questions. The first of which is about humidity and weighing eggs. It took me a good few minutes to weigh all the eggs before I set them. Is it ok for them to be out of the incubator long enough for me to weigh and candle them in the future? I'm guessing it'll be fine as mama birds get off the nest every now and then to eat and drink a little etc. How long is too long? The t'interweb has suggested incubating at 37c is this right?

TIA

 

[snazzyboots]

i know nothing about turkey eggs. i'm sure someone will answer. good luck!!

 

[llaaadyel]

Turkey eggs take 28 days which means that lockdown is at day 25. You have the temperature right 37C should be about 100F. If I remember correctly the humidity should be about 60% and up to 75% for lockdown/hatch. Turn the eggs 3 to 5 times per day if you don't have an auto turner and then stop turning at day 25 and don't turn after. I don't know about weighing but after a week you can candle the eggs to see if they are fertile. Shine a bright light on the fat end of the egg and you should see veins developing and the embryo (a little dark spot). Those found to be infertile should be discarded so that you don't have any problems with bacteria in the incubator. Some bad eggs will explode. I usually candle eggs again in another week to weed out early quitters. Remember that once you are in lockdown, you should only open the incubator if absolutely necessary. Humidity is very important for a successful hatch and if the humidity goes down after the pip, you run the risk of shrink wrapping and a dead chick.

 

[Jocasta]

Aw thank you.

I've not got a hygrometer so am a little concerned regarding humidity. The incubator is a Brinsea Octagon (Eco 20? Or something like that lol). I'm hearing great reviews on them and the instructions suggest that if you fill one chanel with water, and set the ventilator at the half way point this is often all that's needed for a successful hatch. I'm just very new to this and am a little concerned because a) they are turkey eggs which require a very slightly higher humidity than chicken eggs and b) the incubator isn't "full" (12 turkey eggs out of a possible 20) which can affect the humidity. The instructions recommended weighing the eggs every two days and plotting their weight on a line graph with a control line drawn between starting average weight and average weight set at 13% loss on day 28. I've set my chart up now and will weigh them tomorrow. Will hopefully give me a clue as to whether or not humidity needs to be played around with before it's too late.

I'm so ridiculously excited about these eggs, I'll be devastated if I don't get some poults lol! I'm hoping to put some chicken eggs in with them after six days to hopefully tie in hatch day, although not sure what this will mean for lock down. Chickens lock down two day before expected hatch right? With turkeys I've read it's three... Any ideas?

Thanks for the comments guys. I do tend to get a little over enthusiastic so would very much appreciate some company on this journey

 

[Wild Trapper]

I hatched eggs (chicken) only twice in my hova-bator, so I'm no expert, but both times I went in lock down on day 18. Hatch rate was better the second go around, but both times I had humidity issues by day 21 and should have opened long enough to add some water. Out of 36 eggs this time, only 2 were not fertile and 5 late eggs got shrink wrapped because of humidity problems. I understand this is a common complaint with my type of incubator, but the Brinsea is a much better bator than my type, it is what I'd like to upgrade to before next time.

If you plan on adding chicken eggs to your hatch, I'm guessing you could do it on day 7 and come out fine, but maybe someone else might know better on that. Candling done a few times during your hatch, should not take very long and should not effect the hatch. I have an auto turner, so I only open long enough to add water and then candle on lock down day, but if you are turning your eggs manually I don't see how it would hurt to candle a few each time and then you could look much closer at each egg than I do when I'm going with 36 or more eggs at a time.

 

[Jocasta]

Thank you. I can't believe it's only day 2! I'm so impatient!!! Argh!