Through the looking glass

[A.T. Hagan]

Well, I put the Dickey together tonight. The turkeys have laid a dozen eggs so far which means the time has arrived to get on with it. Tomorrow I'll start the adjustment phase of getting everything just so. Once it's the way it should be and has held steady for a few days we'll start setting the eggs aside. I'm hoping to set at least twenty five turkey eggs for the first hatch. Seven days after they've started cooking I'll put in some chicken eggs so they should (in theory anyway) all hatch at the same time twenty one days later.

Towards that end I started work on another grow-out tractor this afternoon. Gotta have some place to put them once they're out of the brooder!

Things are never going to be the same around here after this....

.....Alan.

 

[Ridgerunner]

Out of curiosity, what breed are your turkeys? I've heard that some that have been bred for the big body size are too big to do the deed so you have to use artificial means to get fertile eggs.

Good luck on your mixed hatch. I'll be watching for the results since I was considering doing the same thing next year, after I get some practice hatching chicken eggs. My first 27 in the incubator now.

 

[nivtup]

A.T. Hagan :

Things are never going to be the same around here after this....

.....Alan.

Especially the feed bill............

 

[A.T. Hagan]

Quote:
I'm raising White Midgets. I wanted something that gave a more manageable meat package than the larger breeds. So far I'm very happy with them.

Good luck on your mixed hatch. I'll be watching for the results since I was considering doing the same thing next year, after I get some practice hatching chicken eggs. My first 27 in the incubator now.

I've done a lot of reading in this forum which convinced me that mixed hatches were doable. It's the turkeys that I most want, but I've got a customer that wants some Easter Eggers so I figured why not?

.....Alan.​

 

[A.T. Hagan]

It is maddening using a digital thermometer to set a wafer thermostat. I'm trying to set the backup thermo which is supposed to cut out at 102. I have been undershooting or overshooting all evening by a lousy two tenths of a degree. I think I'm up against the precision of the wafer so if I don't get it in the next fifteen minutes I'm going to settle for 101.8.

Tomorrow I set the primary thermostat. The auto-turner has cycled twice now so I think it's good to go.

.....Alan.