About our August hatch,,,
I know this sounds really silly and improbable, BUT my older turkey hen, Spring of 2013 hatch, has disappeared. We were gone for about 5 hours today, when we came home for beer and chicken time, (this is were we drink a bottle of beer, feed the chickens treats and enjoy them, Ethel, my turkey hen did not show.
This is odd, Ethel is usually one of the first ones there. She chases the chickens away from the best pile of seeds and keep them for herself. Today she was a no show, It appears all my other birds were there. ( I have 10 turkeys and about 85 chickens we feed treats too so it is hard to tell. BUT Ethel was not there.
She is a blue slate that has attempted to sit on eggs 2-3 times this summer, but fails to sit well or long. I did notice her chest was nearly bare yesterday but assumed it was just fall molt. My wife walked the homestead and could not find her, I walked it after her and found no sign of her and no sign of fowl play, feathers blood etc.
Do you think it is possible for her to go broody and half a clutch of eggs somewhere? We did see her and JJ mate about 3 weeks ago but have not found an egg since then. We assumed it was just JJ being bad.
I am open to ideas? How can a turkey hatch eggs in Sept?
I hope this is not too far off topic, and If it is I will gladly move it. I just figured you were the smartest hatchers in the world!
I can't accept the "smartest hatcher in the world" compliment myself, but...
I do hope she comes back!
And I don't think your hope would be misplaced to mark your calendar for however long turkeys brood and hope to see her then with several little ones in tow.
Please explain this to me, What is egg-topsy?
It's an autopsy done on an egg to find out why the chick died (or what color it was, if you're working on genetics, or when it quit, if you're tweaking your incubation practices, etc.)
My Muscovy went broody at the end of the summer last year, so it is all possible.
Eek!

i would be so panicked that it isn't going to make it.
Child #3 and I braved the Muscovy ducks to retrieve all of the left over eggs. One had pipped and died(but it had pipped more on the side, instead of in a normal spot, and there had been a good deal of bleeding), then five or so rotten eggs, and one clear.
Very nice hatch for them! I know they have 20 ducklings...maybe a few more.
Yeah, I'm sure not holding my breath, but I'm trying to help it make it if I can.
I think it's in the wrong position. I took some pics and I'd like to know what you think and what you would do at this point:
This is the view I'm usually looking at it from.
Then I just turned it about 90* and took pics of it from different perspectives hoping that might give someone a better idea of what is where.
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Please help me. I've killed two chicks this hatch b/c I thought they were dead already.
My new definition of a dead chick is that it hasn't hatched by day 28, and I'm not doing anymore egg-topsies.
Glad you we able to get the eggs from your duck. I hope whatever's viable hatches!
AHHH Egg-topsy like an autopsy!!
I was thinking topsy turvy.....It's been a long day and my missing Ethel has me not thinking right......
I KWYM. I'm running on no caffeine so far today.
That reminds me, I have some in the m'wave.
I learn so much here...however, improper usage or not, I will probably still call them autopsies. I am too old to change too much now.... and the word necropsy sounds gross.
And I am happy to report ETHEL is home, Which means I have a nest to find somewhere, sigh,
Yay for learning!
Yay that Ethel is back!
Yay for egg hunts! JK. Hope you find it though.
Glad Ethel made it home. Hope you find the nest.
On a sad note, I found my little runt chick dead this morning. I had noticed a couple days go it seemed to have a distended vent. I had soaked it, massaged it (I thought maybe it was impacted), made sure the vent looked to be working, but I had also noticed it had a bad smell so I figured something internal was going on but its behavoir was fine. I just think it was never propperly developed. Too bad. It was my only blue.
Condolences on your loss..
I have always had a livestock rule. "the more rare or valued the animal, the higher the chances of losing it."
Not that I an a glass half empty guy, It just seems every time I have an animal I really want to keep, something goes bad.
I just came in from traipsing around the woods. Ethel is gone again, and I cannot find her or the nest.
Guess the only thing to do now is start a Sept 9th hatch-along thread...sigh
Babies in winter will not do well here.
Hope things go better than you expect.

g