Still a little confused on temps

[SpiritedFarm]

Good luck, keep us posted!

 

[judsenn]

Good luck, keep us posted!

Thank you...I will. I REALLY hope this hatch goes better than the last (4 eggs-no hatches

) But I am doing EVRYTHING right...even bought a new incubator. So...

 

[tenman]

good luck ....

 

[FarmTillURdead]

I have incubated over 100 eggs this year. …I have no idea what I am doing. This is my first year for it. From my first experience with hatching turkey eggs with a Bantam who sat on 4 wild eggs for me… and my inability to not mess with them nearly every day… I came to the conclusion that as long as temperature and humidity were relatively close - most chicks will hatch - like these 4 did.

My humidity bounces around in my incubator. 45-65. I aim for 55.
I am in there every 4-5 days for an hour candling all of my eggs and moving out the ones about to hatch to my homemade hatchery cooler. I turn them all upside down after candling to be sure they aren't stuck and so I know what ones I have checked. Then I flip them back over to continue on cookin'.

I taped an indoor/outdoor thermometer remote job onto my egg turning tray so I could monitor the temp from the kitchen. I have to incubate in a closet for a steady temp here - so this prevented door flapping.
I figured I was sure too much heat kills so I never let it hit 103. My thermometers have bounced around from 95 to 101. Don't forget the temp of the egg doesn't change as fast as the thermometer… it's kind of an average.
I like to think about how it works in the wild. If it were really cold and a turkey was sitting on eggs… a few might roll to the outside and get less heat. If it were crazy hot out and the hen got chased off the nest and the sun beat on them for a few hours… they don't all die!
I have only had 4 quitters and 5 or 6 not hatch - a few of those were my fault for not realizing that a skinny egg doesn't give the chick enough room to turn around. One did make it.


You can see it's beak is at the wrong end of the egg. Proper timing helped me free it from it's shell. …but I don't recommend helping your chicks.
Study air sacks! Study how to regulate your humidity by looking at the size of the air sacks by the dates. You will get familiar with knowing if they need more or less humidity. I find this more important than an exact on the dot temp.
I have had 2 chicks drown/sufficate after pipping. Small amounts of fluid bubbled out of the pip. I have also had 2 chicks that couldn't upright themselves. This is also due to high humidity in the incubator. Don't quote me - but I think I read that it causes big stomachs and can't get right with it.
I have decided to stop helping the chicks if I don't get the humidity right for this reason. I'd rather them die in the hatch than make worry, pray, fuss with and mess with a bird that will do nothing but suffer until it finally passes away or as to be culled.

All in all - I find them kind of tough. I will be hatching my own chickens next year. I hope it goes as well as turkeys. I have only lost about 8 this year. I am sure it's beginners luck… because I TRY to do it just a little sloppy for birds with some vigor.
I don't want any sissys.

 

[FarmTillURdead]

oh… I aim for 99.8 on temps. But I don't think a degree or two fluctuation effects hatch rate.

 

[Morgan87]

So wouldn't that be cooking my eggs??

I was kind of thinking the same earlier. I only have 1 thermometer right now, and I have it on the side of the incubator about 1/2 inch above the wire grate. My first batch got up to 105 (The day before that happened our power went out and they went down to 75..If it was 105 at the bottom just imagine the temp at the top..) All of them quit. This batch I think the highest they got up to was 103 (I say I think because I went to look at min/max temps and it wasn't switched on to save them..) Didn't see any veining at all, only little black dots, and no improvement by day 14. These are eggs from my grandpas farm so I can keep getting more and keep trying without wasting a lot of money!

 

[judsenn]

Well I don't know how the spike to 104 affected them, probably none considering I caught it right away and all are still alive and moving. I went into lockdown , and they are due to hatch this wednesday. A few that i candled were already internally pipped, so who knows, I may get some external pips tomorrow. I followed Porters rule on upping the humidity and lowering the temp, but AGAIN I find myself a little puzzled. My humidity is at 72% (can't seem to get it to the recommended 80% no matter what I do!) but my digital thermometer says 99*, my standard thermometer that is laying on the bator floor says 97* and a standard thermometer that I propped up to egg height reads 100*. SO I don't know if I'm at the right temp for lockdown right now, b/c I have 3 different temps to chose from. LOL. From what I've read on here I should be going off of the egg height temp...which is 100* ( i hope that's not too warm for lockdown) UGH...I wish my new Hova Bator Genies wasn't completely loaded with other eggs right now, b/c I'd soooooo feel better with these eggs hatching in there than my stupid still air!!!

 

[judsenn]

I gotta PIP!!!!

 

[FarmTillURdead]

HOORAY!!!

I'm so happy for you!
Be patient! Mine would pip and usually take 10 hours or so to hatch.

I set 20 eggs last… and because I had been doing so well I quit monitoring the temp on the incubator… figuring I hadn't touched it… it should stay the same. Something went wrong. I have no idea what ….other than maybe I got lazy or spoiled and should have checked this daily.
None have hatched.

It was my last batch I had to set.
I had given away 12 eggs for a school to hatch from the week before and they also had zero hatches. WHat the heck?

It was a batch to sell… but still. They have been in there for 33 days. I can still see movement in most of the eggs but I have no hope. Next year I will be more diligent. A new incubator and hatchery should be built that is more dependable than this goofy flimsy styrofoam thing. I just don't feel they are insulated well and we have huge temperature swings each day.
Turkey poults are selling for around 12-20 bucks in my area.

Twenty of them would have been a nice prize!
I set a few big heavy jars in my hatchery. Open, FULL of water with sponges sticking out of them like wicks. I also dump water on a towel I set the eggs on but only in the corners so the eggs don't get wet. …but I put a 6 dollar walmart fan in there that kicks butt… so it goes dry quick.

I didn't like the idea of a still air incubator either. I ordered the 50 dollar fan. It was built very well and solid metal. Easy to install. Sell 5 birds. Paid for! I will use it the next hatchery or incubator we construct.

 

[judsenn]

I have 5 that hatched out, 4 are in the brooder, 3 I'm still waiting to hatch, and 1 is stilling the incubator ... Seeing that you're the turkey master here, lol, have you had one with a bloody protruding navel? Should i keep that little one in the incubator until it closes up? I still have the 3 that haven't hatched but are real close ..id say within the next hour or 2, but I have 7 silkie eggs in there that have all pipped. I don't want to keep opening the bator and put those eggs at risk. But the one poult that is in there is flopping all over them and rolling them from one side to another. On the other hand I don't want to put him in the brooder with its tummy being the way it is BC I've heard the other ones might peck at it. Any suggestions or personal experience with any of the above? :/