Incubating chicken eggs with turkey eggs..

[adubsroit]

Is this a viable incubator mix: turkey and chicken eggs incubating together? With both you stop turning 3 days before the scheduled hatch date, but turkeys this is day 25 - four days after the chicks should have hatched. I know that chicken eggs and duck eggs set together in an incubator can be problematic (I have experienced this first hand) but are turkey's all that different? The two require almost identical conditions, and note that the turkey eggs in question will be Beltsville Whites - not exactly a breed of standard size.

I also posted this in the BYC Turkey forum, I hope this is not a problem. I just want to make sure I can get educated/experienced opinion from hobbyists who know their stuff.


Any help, and or suggestions are greatly appreciated. This is my first round of turkeys in a 'bator and I want to try my best to ensure a health incubation and hatch.

 

[stallionhawk]

I wouldn't think it would be a problem if you set the turkey eggs 7 days before you set the chicken eggs, so they both go into lockdown at the same time.

 

[bigdawg]

yes wait seven days then add the chicken eggs. that way the chicks will teach the dumb turkey poults how to eat and drink. i do it this way all the time. works for me......

 

[adubsroit]

LOL, are turkey's actually that dumb?? I have heard that you need to make sure that when it rains they go under cover because they will actually straight at the sky/rain and drown on the spot. True??

 

[Kovalciks Chickens]

y is it bad to have duck eggs in with chicken eggs....I have 4 duck eggs and 48 chicken eggs in my bator and im putting the chicken eggs in lockdown tomarrow

 

[adubsroit]

Quote:
I wouldn't say that it is anything that is horribly detrimental to the eggs, but the fact that ducks and chicks require different conditions during incubation it can throw things off. I had an experience with it not even a month ago. What happens is that chicks hatch at 21 days, and ducks at 28. Since you need to adjust temp and humidity around hatching times it can throw the duck eggs off. In all honesty, if you set the duck eggs a week before the chicks then by all means they should be fine. Setting chicken eggs before the duck egg is when you run into issues. Not trying to scare you, in fact, our Welsh Harlequin did just fine! She and the chick are actually completely inseparable.

 

[Kovalciks Chickens]

Okay lol its just 4 eggs and I put them in there as an eggsperiment sooo

 

[adubsroit]

Eggsperiments are always fun. I'm sort of new to the whole hatching thing but you learn soo much so fast.