Memorial Day Weekend Turkey Hatch...We have a hatch!! Pics Heavy

[java girl 2]

It seem to be that way but I do not know if this is true, I am just saying that when I uped the humidity they seemed to hatch out batter then the 1st hatch. I also keeped the eggs in the tuner the whole time too!! I do know that some kinds of birds need higher humidity than other!!

 

[megshenhut]

Turkeyrangler, you mentioned that you think your low ratio of hatching turkeys may be due to the parents and nutrition. What are you feeding and what are you thinking of changing to? I'm thinking because I've had the
same problem this year. I have 11 poults, but it took me three hatches to get that many. I'm feeding a standard turkey grower/finisher which is 20% protein. I don't have any other options are far as turkey feed goes around here. But I'm wondering if I would special order some type of breeder feed with higher protein. What are your thoughts? My bator is running perfectly.

 

[Saltysteele]

updates on the tuesday hatch?

 

[Turkeyrangler]

Quote:
OK, I'm a complete idiot. I rechecked my dates and I put them into the hatcher a week early. I put them back in the incubator last night. They were in the hatcher for 2 days at 60% humidity. They were all moving when I candled them last night. My hatch should be until next Monday night or early Tuesday morning...I hope. A couple days at 60% humidity may or may not hurt them. I'm just as worried about them not being turned for a couple days. Somehow I marked my calendar wrong. With the low hatch rate I have already they really didn't need this.

 

[Turkeyrangler]

Quote:
I'm using the same. I mixed about 1/4 turkey starter to 1 part grower with free choice oyster shell for now. I'll see if that helps. I'm also starting electrolytes with vitamins in their water again and apple cider vinegar. I used to give them that when they were young and they did really well with the extras in the water.

 

[Saltysteele]

that short amount of time shouldn't make a difference, from what i'm told.

the fella my dad bought the incubator from has been hatching for years with very expensive eggs/birds, staggering multiple hatches in this same incubator. keeps the humidity 55%, then bumps it up during lockdown, then back down to 55% after the chicks have hatched.

he (my dad) just purchased a brooder from another guy north of here, who hatches a crazy amount of eggs, doing the same thing.

we'll find out how the staggering hatches works, we've got the first batch due this weekend, then another the weekend after, and a third the weekend after that.

we weren't expecting them to all make it this far (the only ones we've lost were infertile, except a red ring of death in one). i'm sure not all will hatch fully, but everything keeps going as has been the course, we'll have a lot of birds (approx 35 eggs working and moving)

 

[Saltysteele]

the incubator had been cheeping all day. my dad called to tell me he had to quick put some water in this evening, and there are 2 turkey chicks already (tomorrow around midday will be 28 days).

looking good so far!

 

[Turkeyrangler]

Quote:
Congrat, sending good hatch vibes your way. Let us know how it's going...with some pics if you can.

 

[Saltysteele]

as of 6 pm, we had pulled 6 out of the incubator. one was having trouble righting itself, and he needed to turn some others that are hatching at a later date. nice thing about these redwood incubators, is the wood retains the heat and humidity, and just like an oven that is heated up, almost immediately is back up to temp. misted some water in, and it was a momentary drop of humidity, we were back where it needed to be in less than a couple minutes.

5 are doing great, the 6th is doing better, but i don't know. we'll see. seems a bit off balance.

1/2 hour later there was another egg about 1/4 of the way zipped. you could see the chick inside breathing while taking a rest.

i'm working on the pictures, uploading them to photobucket right now

while i'm waiting, a pic of the candler i built to check on photo posting on this site. the hole actually goes up. when setting the egg on the foam, it seals around the egg to prevent light from leaking out around the egg.

incubator

chick trying to see where the light is coming from

chicks resting

just ran down, 5 more are out, one died trying to get out, another had pipped, and a chicken pipped (due tomorrow)

 

[Saltysteele]

went down to my dad's to check on them this morning. when i arrived, we had 11 chicks, 1 died during its escape from the egg, and 1 egg had yet to hatch. before we left, we heard a new chirping in the incubator, and the last egg hatched. i could have swore we started with 15 eggs, but my numbers add up to 14. i suspect the one that was off balance either died during the night, or my dad finished it (they were gone for the day when i went this morning.

so, at this point, out of 15 eggs, we have 12 chicks. one of the chicks is a hunch back, so don't think he'll make it.

2 chickens that have hatched, but a couple getting zipped right now. they were exactly 21 days at 11:30 this morning.

not to bad for the first time hatching eggs for either one of us

it was hot and slightly humid here yesterday, so their AC was running, and it took down the humidity in the incubator to 55% after the first 5 had hatched. the 2nd 5 started zipping, pierced the membranes and weren't progressing. we had to take them out and help them out of the shells. peeled the shell away from the membrane and carefully took the membranes off the chicks. yolks were all absorbed, and the membrane was stuck onto the back of one of them. had we not helped, they would have all died in their shells, they were becoming cemented (each one has cement on their backs, and one of the other chicks pulled off the bit of membrane that had been cemented onto the back of the one, while i was there this morning). we managed to get the % back up to 70 right after putting the turkey chicks back in the incubator; added water to another tray and closed vents more. with the use of a misting bottle we were also able to keep the % up while putting the chicks in and out during the assist.

the chickens and the turkey this morning all hatched on their own with no problems, so even despite it being warmer again and the AC running we're doing well. humidity was 69%.