**~~>>Second Annual Cinco de Mayo Turkey Hatchathon<<~~**all poultry welcome!

[dsqard]

OK have to rant just a little. Have I said how much I LOVE living in Utah today? Pretty place but my goodness we lose power at the drop of a hat. We lost power yesterday evening for a few hours and now I am trying to get my bator back up to temps. I am going to be so mad if I lose this batch of eggs because Utah can't figure out how to keep the power on. When I lived in Maine as a kid we didn't lose power this much and that was back when all power lines were still above ground and many years ago. On top of that we have winds blowing and snow falling. So much for spring.

UGH!

 

[superchemicalgirl]

OK have to rant just a little. Have I said how much I LOVE living in Utah today? Pretty place but my goodness we lose power at the drop of a hat. We lost power yesterday evening for a few hours and now I am trying to get my bator back up to temps. I am going to be so mad if I lose this batch of eggs because Utah can't figure out how to keep the power on. When I lived in Maine as a kid we didn't lose power this much and that was back when all power lines were still above ground and many years ago. On top of that we have winds blowing and snow falling. So much for spring.

UGH!

My power lines are still above ground here in Maine

Don't worry, your hatch should still be fine. Low temps are much, much better than high.

 

[dsqard]

I completely agree SCG just mad because this always seems to happen at least once during one of the hatches I do. Silly Utah. I know they will be OK I just hope the bator isn't going wonky on me because of any power surges we may have had while they were working on the problem.

 

[HappyAcresKY]

Learned so much from everyone last year! I'm a day behind but setting 5 doz turkey eggs today it's a mixed bunch. Our toms are 2 bourbon reds, a sweetgrass cross and one I'm not sure what you'd call him but he's beautiful, he's a buff and slate color. Our hens are bourbon reds, slates, sweetgrass crosses, narragansetts. calico, black spanish, mottled and some other mixes. Can't wait to see what hatches! Have another 5 doz already in the incubator

 

[Wisher1000]

Still in!!!! .... it's just chickens. Amazing chickens though!

Just chickens? They are NEVER just chickens!

Quote:

Happy Birthday!
Quote:
Originally Posted by ceocka

Incubator that has over 40 dozen eggs and brooder and found
4 baby chicks they are not due to hatch till Friday
.

Wow and I thought my incubator held a lot at 24 dozen!!

I want an incubator that holds that many eggs!!

The poults are all different. I was told could be- Royal Palm, Blue Slate or Narganset cross. One is almost a solid yellow but in some places has very light silver tint-blue slate splash (not sure of the term in turkeys)or Royal Palm? . The other two look like a Naraganset poults when I looked up the pics but one has dark chocolate lines/spots and the other one has much lighter almost a grey brown lines/spots. Does this mean one is a hen and the other a tom? I guess I could just always ask the person I got them from.

Gosh they are just so darn cute I don't remember the meat turkeys ever being this darn cute and BTW what is up with no node on it's nose?? Never seen another breed of turkey poults except for the BBWs so all this is new to me. They also seem so fragile it took 2 days for them to find their legs. They are so quiet too. I have another pen of chicks who are a week older who are so LOUD and active, they are like mini adults putting shavings all in their food and water EVERYWHERE. I have never had such overactive chicks before! But this hatch is soooo QUIET! Just moseing around sleeping here and there not many peeps at all and no running at all. The quiet ones are now 3 days old I had two rocks hatch 5 days ago but they are in the NOISY pen! I have two extremes it's kind of funny to see it all. I am going to have to combine them next week I wonder what's going to happen. I wanted to wait untill all the new chicks and poults were able to run before putting them in with the "big boys". But they are so quiet and subdued. I am getting some day old chicks in a few days plus there is more hatching I might just leave them in the "hatchling" pen until next week maybe the other chicks will "teach" them how to run! I knew about haveing a teacher chick for eating and drinking but for running too? I wonder if maybe it has to do with the lighting even my super rambuntious "teacher" chick has really quieted and calmed down. The light in that brooder is redder and seems warmer even though it is at the same height as the other one.

I will take some pics tomorrow and try to load but no promises having some issues with my phone company so may not have internet tomorrow, but I will try to load pics! I will stop rambling he he

Make sure to keep them under the brooder light and don't let them run around with the older chicks. I made that mistake with my first two and lost them both. They are still babies and not as likely to keep themselves at the right temp or sleep when they need it (like chicks do.) If I had younger chicks hatching, I think I would swap them out and keep the newest chicks in with the poults all the time.

Can't see anything on candle today.

Maybe later when I get home from work?

My palm is twitching.....

Learned so much from everyone last year! I'm a day behind but setting 5 doz turkey eggs today

it's a mixed bunch. Our toms are 2 bourbon reds, a sweetgrass cross and one I'm not sure what you'd call him but he's beautiful, he's a buff and slate color. Our hens are bourbon reds, slates, sweetgrass crosses, narragansetts. calico, black spanish, mottled and some other mixes. Can't wait to see what hatches! Have another 5 doz already in the incubator

I would love to have some of those!

 

[Wax Myrtle]

Oh, can it be...? I think I have a broody chicken! My first one. She has good timing for this hatchathon, but.... What do I stick under her? I have already blown my hatching egg budget for the month, really can't afford to extend it. As to the flock, I hadn't planned on collecting anytime soon since my duck-loving bantam Cochin is also a LF lover, too. What to do, what to do... Hate to just leave her on the wooden dummies... Oh, if only all problems were this fun.

 

[cuppycake]

Isn't it a bit cold in Michigan for hairless dogs? What do you do in winter? Or are they like turkens and are very hardy and don't notice the cold?

They wear sweaters if we're going to be out for more than a few minutes when it's very cold, wet or windy. If it's just to go potty they just run out and hurry up. They also wear sunscreen if they'll be in the sun for a while. They remind me of cats in the way they find the warmest place in the house and snuggle up there. They really like to lay in front of the fireplace or in a sunny window.

 

[wife2abirdman]

Is it odd for turkeys to hatch 2 days early? I am pretty sure I did not miscount and I am pretty sure I had written down the correct dates. I was so worried when they started

Gosh they are just so darn cute I don't remember the meat turkeys ever being this darn cute and BTW what is up with no node on it's nose??
That is called the snood. When the toms display it extends down quite a bit. Both boys and girls have them but only the boys will extend.

A snood huh, sounds like something from Dr. Seuss! I guess what I was really stating was that it was somewhat weird that these guys didn't have one at all. All the day old BBWs had it.

Quote: Thank you I will do that.

 

[HappyAcresKY]

Oh, and for you veterans who free-range: How do you find the turkey eggs? I have mine in a covered run and giant coop, but I suspect they'd love to sleep in the trees...I just don't know how I'd find the eggs or whether the owls & raccoons are a threat. Should I let them out? Will I ever find the eggs?

Ours are 100 % free range, they come into the barn to roost and don't get locked up. We haven't lost any to predators (knock on wood) and we are surrounded by woods, we only had that one raccoon attack last year but that was my fault, rookie mistake, I didn't have a door on the doghouse when she was broody, now I make sure they are secure and we haven't had an issue since. Of our 16 hens all but 1 are laying in the nesting areas I set up for them. They have 2 55 gallon drums on their side, a bench in the driveway with 2 tires in front of it, an old dog house, a couple of corners in the barn that are covered and a nest box with 3 compartments. I enticed them with golfballs or wooden eggs, it seems like 3 was the magic number. Only one bourbon red decided to make her nest in the blackberry brambles so hopefully she goes broody, there's no way I can get in there to get the eggs unless I do some serious trimming. At least she picked a good spot, so it seems.

 

[Gardeningmama]

HI EVERYONE!!!!

I'm in!! I'll be setting some of Sally's awesome Blue/Gold Partridge Brahma eggs and some of her Blue/Splash Cochin eggs that put out those gorgeous chicks!! YAY! I'm so excited, you'd never know I just hatched out chicks for the Easter Hatch-A-Long!!