Janoel Incubation Experience

[WVduckchick]

i can't tell a whole lot from the angle in the pic but i'm guessing it is a hen. If the down on its neck is coming out at 5 weeks it should be a tom...a pic from the front would be better but by 2 months you should know for sure....Toms will also start displaying as young as 4 weeks old.

Awesome, thank you! It is now 6+ weeks old (hatched 3/21). I haven't taken a good pic since the other one I posted, and it was 5 weeks in that pic. I just noticed its neck down really starting to come out this week. Is that a hen or tom indication? And I haven't seen it display, but wasn't sure if that was because of not having any other turkeys around.
This was taken at the same time, more frontal view of the head. So in a couple of weeks, I should know for sure?... what will be the definite sign? Thank you so much! This is exciting for me LOL

 

[WildfireSmitty]

Awesome, thank you! It is now 6+ weeks old (hatched 3/21). I haven't taken a good pic since the other one I posted, and it was 5 weeks in that pic. I just noticed its neck down really starting to come out this week. Is that a hen or tom indication? And I haven't seen it display, but wasn't sure if that was because of not having any other turkeys around.
This was taken at the same time, more frontal view of the head. So in a couple of weeks, I should know for sure?... what will be the definite sign? Thank you so much! This is exciting for me LOL

What a beauty!

 

[misfitmorgan]

Awesome, thank you! It is now 6+ weeks old (hatched 3/21). I haven't taken a good pic since the other one I posted, and it was 5 weeks in that pic. I just noticed its neck down really starting to come out this week. Is that a hen or tom indication? And I haven't seen it display, but wasn't sure if that was because of not having any other turkeys around.
This was taken at the same time, more frontal view of the head. So in a couple of weeks, I should know for sure?... what will be the definite sign? Thank you so much! This is exciting for me LOL

Loss of the neck down is indicitive of a Tom but since hens also lose their neck down at a slightly older age it could still be a hen...usually toms will start losing it at 5 weeks. The waddle and snood should develop sooner and be fairly large for a Tom...by 7-8 weeks the Toms will be developing the caruncle buds on the base of the neck and their heads will flush a very very bright pink or red when their excited at that age as well. give the age, the leg size and later loss of neck down i would still guess its a female but thats always hard to guess in a photo.

 

[WVduckchick]

Loss of the neck down is indicitive of a Tom but since hens also lose their neck down at a slightly older age it could still be a hen...usually toms will start losing it at 5 weeks. The waddle and snood should develop sooner and be fairly large for a Tom...by 7-8 weeks the Toms will be developing the caruncle buds on the base of the neck and their heads will flush a very very bright pink or red when their excited at that age as well. give the age, the leg size and later loss of neck down i would still guess its a female but thats always hard to guess in a photo.

Great! Thank you, that is exactly what I needed. I think I will be able to tell very soon! I just never was quite sure what to look for early on!

 

[Heron's Nest Farm]

Keep trying, you will get it! What kind are you trying? I had a 48-hour power outage on day 14-15, but got the incubator hooked up to a generator after 18 hours. It got to below 0F that night. Incubator went down to about 65F. And my little turkey survived, along with 4 ducks. 2 ducks hatched, then the turkey, then 2 more ducks lol.

Here's a pic from last week - 5 weeks old self-blue slate. (My ducks were mean to the turkey, so I bought 2 golden comets to put with it). I tell you, she is the sweetest thing. (Not acutally sure if she's a she, or he's a he LOL)

I am going to do turkeys next year. We will raise them and sell for thanksgiving. I am a bit daunted as so many folks talk about how they die so easily when young. This being said, an acquaintance swears by raising her turkeys and chickens together. She claims that turkey carry mareks and the chicks raised together build chicken immunity. She has never had blackhead. I will have turkeys in teh front field as there will be 50. How loud do you think that will be?

Are you eating your sweetie?

Thought I would show you guys my meaties. They will spend a week in here, then into the main barn. From there they go outside to enjoy the sunshine and greenery. They will be happy, lots of ticks and flys this year for em to eat.










Typical broiler, sleeping as close to the food as possible HAHA!

Nice set up. How often do you get in there and clean? My last birds were a little rangy tasting. I would like to fatten them a bit. Anyone with ideas for fattier broilers?

Wow Smitty, That's alot of birds!!! What do you do with all of them?

Heron's Nest Farm did you go into lockdown today? Hows it going?

I set my eggs yesterday in the still air. I had 4 of the lemon laced orpington project that made it past the power outage, 2 of the black over silver laced, some EEs and a few OEs. I am hopeful this will work. HOPING they hatch. ONe had the saddled air sac and it is ridiculously tight in there. It may be an assist, but I am hoping not! Anyone had this happen?

My plan is to find a fan for the bator between this hatch and the next on the 14th. I will be doing something for the bottom. I don't like the machine cloth even though it is removable. I bought this bator used and it smelled terrible. I bleached it, vinegared it, solarized it., but it still smelled like old barn with essence of cat pee. FinallytI used straight bleach and turned it all the way up for 2 days and regained the freshness! That is one thing I like about the Janoel; it's plastic and cleans up great. I worry about bacteria in the styrofoam.

As Misfit recommended I will be candling my other bators at 5 days to remove and replace eggs.

 

[misfitmorgan]

I am going to do turkeys next year. We will raise them and sell for thanksgiving. I am a bit daunted as so many folks talk about how they die so easily when young. This being said, an acquaintance swears by raising her turkeys and chickens together. She claims that turkey carry mareks and the chicks raised together build chicken immunity. She has never had blackhead. I will have turkeys in teh front field as there will be 50. How loud do you think that will be?

Are you eating your sweetie?


Nice set up. How often do you get in there and clean? My last birds were a little rangy tasting. I would like to fatten them a bit. Anyone with ideas for fattier broilers?
I set my eggs yesterday in the still air. I had 4 of the lemon laced orpington project that made it past the power outage, 2 of the black over silver laced, some EEs and a few OEs. I am hopeful this will work. HOPING they hatch. ONe had the saddled air sac and it is ridiculously tight in there. It may be an assist, but I am hoping not! Anyone had this happen?

My plan is to find a fan for the bator between this hatch and the next on the 14th. I will be doing something for the bottom. I don't like the machine cloth even though it is removable. I bought this bator used and it smelled terrible. I bleached it, vinegared it, solarized it., but it still smelled like old barn with essence of cat pee. FinallytI used straight bleach and turned it all the way up for 2 days and regained the freshness! That is one thing I like about the Janoel; it's plastic and cleans up great. I worry about bacteria in the styrofoam.

As Misfit recommended I will be candling my other bators at 5 days to remove and replace eggs.

When compared to other birds(roosters, guineas, ducks) turkeys are not really very loud...now 50 in one place would probly be a bit noisy but it all depends on your tolerances for bird noise...we have around 40 ducks and over 100 chickens including 8 roosters all within about 150ft of the house and the noise doesnt bother us, we just tune it out.

For fatter birds....shell corn....corn makes a lot of the golden yellow tallow fat that melts easy. The downside is exspect to be coated in melted tallow with slippery hands come butcher time. We found it best to have one person do the cutting and another person doing the cavity cleaning.

Yep i get a lot of shipped eggs like 100s and i have seen several that saddled so bad i wasnt sure how there was a live chick in there, most of those i did have to assist.

A good replacement for the hardware cloth might be plastic canvas mesh i know we plan on replacing ours with it if we need too.

When you candle at 5 days make sure you look all the way around the egg because candling so early the veins are often only formed on one side of the egg, its a good time to be able to see the heart pumping and moving too btw if your candler is bright enough.

 

[WildfireSmitty]

I am going to do turkeys next year. We will raise them and sell for thanksgiving. I am a bit daunted as so many folks talk about how they die so easily when young. This being said, an acquaintance swears by raising her turkeys and chickens together. She claims that turkey carry mareks and the chicks raised together build chicken immunity. She has never had blackhead. I will have turkeys in teh front field as there will be 50. How loud do you think that will be?

Are you eating your sweetie?


Nice set up. How often do you get in there and clean? My last birds were a little rangy tasting. I would like to fatten them a bit. Anyone with ideas for fattier broilers?
I set my eggs yesterday in the still air. I had 4 of the lemon laced orpington project that made it past the power outage, 2 of the black over silver laced, some EEs and a few OEs. I am hopeful this will work. HOPING they hatch. ONe had the saddled air sac and it is ridiculously tight in there. It may be an assist, but I am hoping not! Anyone had this happen?

My plan is to find a fan for the bator between this hatch and the next on the 14th. I will be doing something for the bottom. I don't like the machine cloth even though it is removable. I bought this bator used and it smelled terrible. I bleached it, vinegared it, solarized it., but it still smelled like old barn with essence of cat pee. FinallytI used straight bleach and turned it all the way up for 2 days and regained the freshness! That is one thing I like about the Janoel; it's plastic and cleans up great. I worry about bacteria in the styrofoam.

As Misfit recommended I will be candling my other bators at 5 days to remove and replace eggs.

I hate to say this but turkeys are deff not the smartest bird around, hence the tendency to die young. I know of too many people who lost turkeys due to BH from raising with chickens. Ideally if you could throw a chick in with turkey chicks for a bit to show them how it's done, then take em out.

As for cleaning my brooder room, I clean it out twice. I will just bed on top of the old bedding till I get the meat birds out. I clean it, then I will start another batch of 200 in there for a later butcher. I clean it out after that then close it off until winter. I winter my hens in the same room.

As for fattening them up, corn does the job. It's not the healthiest way to do it for your birds, but it works.

 

[misfitmorgan]

I hate to say this but turkeys are deff not the smartest bird around, hence the tendency to die young. I know of too many people who lost turkeys due to BH from raising with chickens. Ideally if you could throw a chick in with turkey chicks for a bit to show them how it's done, then take em out.

As for cleaning my brooder room, I clean it out twice. I will just bed on top of the old bedding till I get the meat birds out. I clean it, then I will start another batch of 200 in there for a later butcher. I clean it out after that then close it off until winter. I winter my hens in the same room.

As for fattening them up, corn does the job. It's not the healthiest way to do it for your birds, but it works.

Turkeys are definately not very bright, alot of the "die young" are the non-heritage breeds though.....heritage breeds even are not real intelligent either though and literally can drown when it rains ive seen it happen. i was told they can drown in the rain and thought people were nuts but no they do..because they wont get out to the rain and keep looking up when raindrops hit them in the head.

 

[WildfireSmitty]

Turkeys are definately not very bright, alot of the "die young" are the non-heritage breeds though.....heritage breeds even are not real intelligent either though and literally can drown when it rains ive seen it happen. i was told they can drown in the rain and thought people were nuts but no they do..because they wont get out to the rain and keep looking up when raindrops hit them in the head.

Yeah, that exact thing had happened to brother in-law. The eggs I set were Naragansets, which I believe are heritage. Kind of worries me, where I live when it rains it pours.

I think I found a solution. If I could make these but a bit smaller.

 

[WVduckchick]

So I took some more pics of my turkey last night. Hen??? And @Heron's Nest Farm -- don't think I'll be eating this sweetie, although you never know in a few years...