Questions about fertile Turkey eggs.

[Pearlescent]

My ladies have been laying well, and I have around 17 fertile (I’ve seen the Tom mate both of ‘em) eggs.
Here’s the thing, it gets down to 40F here at night. Is that cold enough to cause issues for the eggs? One of my hens sat on them one night, but other than that they’ve been on their own. I have started collecting fresh ones and storing them in an egg carton inside, because the box is crowded with eggs. It is currently around 45F, and it’s only 10PM. So it may go down a bit more. I’ve read that anything lower than 57F can be dangerous for Turkey eggs, which feels odd because I trust my hens instincts and doubt they’d breed too early for the eggs to live. One thing I’ve noted, is that a huge % of eggs laid by my 8 month old hen are “mottled” on the inside, I know this from shining a flashlight into them. I heard that’s a bad thing in chicken eggs, but am unsure about Turkey eggs.

Should I start taking more eggs inside? Or would it be fine to just let them sit outside until one of my hens starts brooding?

Additionally, how long will fertile eggs stay viable? I really don’t want to set up my incubator again, but it’d be a shame if my hens just didn’t brood and I wasted all the eggs. One of my hens is a proven brooder, and great mother, so I’m hoping she starts brooding soon.

And last of all, how many eggs can I expect to be fertile after a successful breeding? So I know when to start eating them, without wasting a fertile egg.

Please and thank you
I’ve done this before, but last time it was summer, so it was warm at night.

 

[R2elk]

Theoretically it has to get below 27°F to kill fertile eggs. I have had fertile eggs left out overnight when the temperature got down to 20°F that hatched fine but just because the air temperature was that low does not mean that eggs laying on the ground got that cold.

It has been said that a turkey hen can lay fertile eggs for up to 6 weeks after a successful mating. Once a hen goes broody and stops laying, she will need to be bred again to be able to lay fertile eggs.

Many people collect the eggs and give them back to their hen after she has gone broody.

I’ve read that anything lower than 57F can be dangerous for Turkey eggs, which feels odd because I trust my hens instincts and doubt they’d breed too early for the eggs to live.

Don't know where you read this but it is totally false. My turkeys start breeding in February and start laying in March. I have had temperatures down in the teens this month. Turkeys do start breeding and laying when it is early enough for the temperatures to kill their eggs.

Their laying cycle is controlled by daylight length not by temperature. This is why people who want their turkeys to lay earlier or later after their season is normally over, supply supplemental light to artificially increase the length of the daylight hours.

 

[ChickenCanoe]

The temperatures you speak of isn't a problem. If they were to freeze to the point of crystalizing the yolk, that would cancel anything from them.

 

[Pearlescent]

The temperatures you speak of isn't a problem. If they were to freeze to the point of crystalizing the yolk, that would cancel anything from them.

Yeah. I assumed they were false, but was curious about the temps they could stand.

 

[ChickenCanoe]

Safely from above freezing to about 80F. Above 82F cell division starts. That isn't the end of the world either but any pre-incubation development should be well controlled.
Ideally around 50-60 degrees and steady. Also, the best condition is 2 temperature changes prior to incubation.The first is when the egg is laid, then steady temp until slowly elevating temperature till placing in the incubator.

 

[Pearlescent]

.The first is when the egg is laid, then steady temp until slowly elevating temperature till placing in the incubator.

I wonder if the same happens under a broody. The girl I suspected was trying to brood has been consistently sitting for the last few days now, and she’s doing great so far. When I did incubator hatch I kinda just threw them in there and hoped for the best it worked out fine, and I only had 2 that didn’t hatch but slow temp increases never occurred to me.

 

[ChickenCanoe]

What I meant by slowly increasing temperature is to prevent a rapid rise for a cool egg that can result in condensation coating an egg and possibly contributing to bacterial growth.
For instance, if they are held at 50F, take them to room temperature for a couple hours, then 85 or so, then 99.5.

In a nest without a broody, the eggs are frequently warmed when hens lay eggs throughout the morning and less frequently all day. In those instances, the eggs will usually come up to above 80.6F. The temperature cell division begins. But only briefly. It has been discovered that pre-storage incubation can preserve eggs making them viable for hatching a couple days longer than normal but I wouldn't play with that knowledge if avoidable. The idea is that if you know you are going to be storing eggs longer than let's say a week. They may benefit from pre-storage incubation. I don't remember the numbers exactly but I think it is something like coming to incubating temperature for 2 hours or so.