A
ashleymarie06
Guest
Okay, so I really am in need of help and I cannot seem to find any answers anywhere so you guys are my last hope!
I have been incubating 15 turkey eggs over the last weeks and the have started to hatch, well... Kinda. Of the 15 I had; 2 hatched naturally, one hatched half way and died during the process, upon inspection he had a strange "growth?" coming from his stomach, about the size of his head, yellow/brown in color with visible blood vessels inside of it- no idea what that was about, and two died in their shells, after poking small holes to the outside, about 5 hours into hatching. So needless to say, this hasn't been a super fun process. I have hatched turkeys once before with much better results. I do not keep the turkeys once they're a few days old, I give them back to my friend who gives me the eggs to incubate... Don't really know how I ended up volunteered for this debacle, but I'm trying to take it in stride lol. My incubator is a standard white styrofoam egg incubator which I keep at 99.0 degrees, and I fill the water wells, and monitor them daily. I do not have any humidity meters or anything else. I turned them twice daily for the first 25 days, and then stopped turning on the 25th day to let them prepare to hatch. As for the eggs left in the incubator, I no longer hear or see any signs of life. Two of the eggs had been making some sounds and slight movements, no shell breakage, but I no longer hear or see anything happening in there. It's really heartbreaking! I'm not sure how long I am supposed to wait for them, or if there is any more I can do for them at this point.
Now, on to my two sole survivors. My first egg to hatch, Chatty Cathy is doing -okay- Named accordingly, she was very cheepy when she was hatching, and for some time after that! She hatched very quickly, within a half hour when she got going. She is up walking, however even with many attempts of my teaching, I do not see her getting food or water. So I am not sure if I just haven't caught her yet, or if she's not eating or drinking. She -seems- fine otherwise. My second to hatch, I named him Last Chance... He's not doing so well, and he is my main reason for posting here. Chance is weaker. He took about 5 hours to fully hatched. I helped him -a bit- at the end (I know, I know) Chance cannot stand by himself, when he tries he wobbles over onto his back or side. He doesn't appear to have any leg deformities. He just seems weak overall. He sleeps more than Chatty and he seems very lethargic and over exerted. He doesn't peep, at all. He did at first while hatching but since then has been very quiet. Sometimes, he seems as if he may be gasping. I cannot get him to eat or drink either. He mostly just lays on his back. His legs seem to have a tremor to them sometimes as well. Is he just taking a bit longer to get up and moving? He does seem to try to get himself up. He can roll onto his stomach, and he will roll around if you touch him. He does open his eyes occasionally, but they're closed more than Chatty's.
Any advice is so appreciated. I feel terrible, like I haven't cared for them properly.
How long should I keep the others in the incubator before losing hope completely?... How long to I let Chance go on this way before he needs to be put out of his misery? (I hate that phrase...) I do not know anything about their breed, at one point I heart my friend say something about "Reds" to my boyfriend, referring to the turkeys... All I can say is that they were born yesterday, Chatty at Noon and Chance around 2pm. Can I try to feed/water them manually with a dropper or some other method? My first batch last year was a breeze. The only ones who didn't hatch appeared to have never been fertilized and everyone who did hatch did so on their own fully and ate and drank by themselves by the morning after they were born.
Thank you all so much in advance for any advice.
I have been incubating 15 turkey eggs over the last weeks and the have started to hatch, well... Kinda. Of the 15 I had; 2 hatched naturally, one hatched half way and died during the process, upon inspection he had a strange "growth?" coming from his stomach, about the size of his head, yellow/brown in color with visible blood vessels inside of it- no idea what that was about, and two died in their shells, after poking small holes to the outside, about 5 hours into hatching. So needless to say, this hasn't been a super fun process. I have hatched turkeys once before with much better results. I do not keep the turkeys once they're a few days old, I give them back to my friend who gives me the eggs to incubate... Don't really know how I ended up volunteered for this debacle, but I'm trying to take it in stride lol. My incubator is a standard white styrofoam egg incubator which I keep at 99.0 degrees, and I fill the water wells, and monitor them daily. I do not have any humidity meters or anything else. I turned them twice daily for the first 25 days, and then stopped turning on the 25th day to let them prepare to hatch. As for the eggs left in the incubator, I no longer hear or see any signs of life. Two of the eggs had been making some sounds and slight movements, no shell breakage, but I no longer hear or see anything happening in there. It's really heartbreaking! I'm not sure how long I am supposed to wait for them, or if there is any more I can do for them at this point.
Now, on to my two sole survivors. My first egg to hatch, Chatty Cathy is doing -okay- Named accordingly, she was very cheepy when she was hatching, and for some time after that! She hatched very quickly, within a half hour when she got going. She is up walking, however even with many attempts of my teaching, I do not see her getting food or water. So I am not sure if I just haven't caught her yet, or if she's not eating or drinking. She -seems- fine otherwise. My second to hatch, I named him Last Chance... He's not doing so well, and he is my main reason for posting here. Chance is weaker. He took about 5 hours to fully hatched. I helped him -a bit- at the end (I know, I know) Chance cannot stand by himself, when he tries he wobbles over onto his back or side. He doesn't appear to have any leg deformities. He just seems weak overall. He sleeps more than Chatty and he seems very lethargic and over exerted. He doesn't peep, at all. He did at first while hatching but since then has been very quiet. Sometimes, he seems as if he may be gasping. I cannot get him to eat or drink either. He mostly just lays on his back. His legs seem to have a tremor to them sometimes as well. Is he just taking a bit longer to get up and moving? He does seem to try to get himself up. He can roll onto his stomach, and he will roll around if you touch him. He does open his eyes occasionally, but they're closed more than Chatty's.
Any advice is so appreciated. I feel terrible, like I haven't cared for them properly.
How long should I keep the others in the incubator before losing hope completely?... How long to I let Chance go on this way before he needs to be put out of his misery? (I hate that phrase...) I do not know anything about their breed, at one point I heart my friend say something about "Reds" to my boyfriend, referring to the turkeys... All I can say is that they were born yesterday, Chatty at Noon and Chance around 2pm. Can I try to feed/water them manually with a dropper or some other method? My first batch last year was a breeze. The only ones who didn't hatch appeared to have never been fertilized and everyone who did hatch did so on their own fully and ate and drank by themselves by the morning after they were born.
Thank you all so much in advance for any advice.
