so sorry you lost some of your clutch. So frustrating after four weeks incubating them! I think next hatch I would raise the temperature of your brooder. It is too cold for turkey poults. Some made it, and that is good, but maybe next time start them out near 100F and go very slowly to lower the temperature. You will not hurt the nude neck chicks by having a warmer area, if they can get away from the heat if they want to. It is possible also they did not learn to eat quickly enough. When I have a hatch, I spread a very thin layer of starter feed on the whole floor of the brooder, so even before they can walk good, they can peck and learn to eat. Another poster recently in another thread suggested that you get your finger wet in the water and touch your wet finger tip to the fine chick food and offer it to the turkeys and they will peck your finger and learn to eat that way. I have never tried that, but I have not hatched any of my own. I have brooded poults (baby turkeys) that were hatched by my friend and they did very well with the above setup. I put rough textured paper towel under the thin layer of feed the first several days so they have no trouble when they try to stand and learn to walk. Hope your next hatch goes better. Do you have more in the incubator? Please do keep us posted on how it goes. Love the photos!
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Yes, you are right. But I cant imagine this being the problem with the poster's poults. It is usually the older birds that has been exposed to the same ground that the chickens occupy. incubator/brooder? That doesn't make since to me. Gotta be something else.
We usually start ours out in a large plastic tote with some special tops (sorry no pictures at the moment). We place an old blankets or paper towels in the bottom for the first few days. We spread the feed on top of that so the can find the feed easily, also dip there beaks into the water so they know where the water is. After about a week or less, we move them to larger brooders with shaving.
Others put a couple of Chicken Chicks in with the turkeys to help teach then how to drink and eat.
A chicks eye sight is not the best the first few days it is alive and they will eat anything small in there brooder.