Turkenstein25's Turkey Talk for 2015

[feedman77]

Tonight I set 16 turkey eggs in an incubator. Here's Hoping some are fertile.

So how did your hatch turn out.

 

[feedman77]

My turkey hatching seems be back ti bad luck.

First hatch 3 of 5.

Hatch day today for a dozen. Candled at day 20 all vaiable and movement. Went to lockdown one pipped wrong end and dead. Candled the rest only saw movement in 3. One hatched last night a palm. Have 1 externally pipped now. Nothing from the rest.

Went to check on broody hens and my chocolates hens nest was destroyed. Egg shells scattered found 2 not busted put those in incubator. Repaired damage built them a new nest area took 2 viable eggs that should hatch on 2nd placed there and hens went back to setting.

Just put 10 chocolates eggs I collected early for viability test on lockdown today. Hopefully get a few poults from them.

I have 12 hens on known nests. 2 on hidden nests. Hope hens have a better hatch ratio than Iam in incubators.

 

[feedman77]

External pipped chick is out. Looks like a bourbon red cross. So far 2 out of 11 that made it to lockdown.

 

[CowboysAngel]

Pics?!?

 

[Mochadlik]

I have Narragansett turkeys. I bought 4 poults on a whim last August. They were all toms so since by then I was obsessed I found two year old hens. We did 2 toms, dressed out at 10 bs, at Thanksgiving. I did one more end of January and he dressed out at 14 lbs. Lots of delicious dark meat, very moist, and I have more rich fatty broth than I knew what to do with! I freeze it and use it for soup base.
My two hens finally started laying this spring. The eggs are good, love them poached the best. I just hatched 4/5 in an incubator. The hens hatched 4/5 on a nest they are sharing. This is my first time hatching eggs and it has been very exciting. I can't say what my plans are, as it all started with a spontaneous purchase at a poultry swap!

 

[Bowslayer2]

We just got done incubating 30 turkey eggs. We had about 15 turkey eggs hatch and 11 so far survived. I was hoping for a better hatch......
We had previously had an 86% hatch rate on chickens using the same incubator....so not sure why the turkeys did worse.

We have another 22 turkey eggs that should start hatching this Tuesday.

 

[WalnutHill]

Where did you find digital controllers equivalent to STC-1000 that read in Fahrenheit?

I just had a really horrible turkey hatch following a successful chicken incubation. I also don't know what happened. I was dealing with 100% shipped eggs, but I can't say that was the cause as they showed great development up to day 21 in 2/3 of them.

 

[Bowslayer2]

I got the digital controllers from amazon. This is the link to it. I have been happy with it. http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00F05UI8O/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o04_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I was bummed my turkey hatch did not do better, I had been picking them up daily from my turkeys....as seen in the above pic.

 

[WalnutHill]

Thanks for the link. I have a batch of shipped eggs set to hatch Wednesday, then more on May11-13 along with a few of my own. I can't do much worse, so I hope for better!

 

[Bowslayer2]

Ok.... I have another question. Our
turkeys are laying eggs in our pasture. However a couple of turkeys have been jumping our fence and laying their eggs near the creek where there is good cover. The problem is something has been eating those eggs and a couple days ago kill the turkey pictured below.
We have foxes, coyotes, raccoons, weasels, skunks and aerial predators. I am Not sure what killed this turkey because I think a Fox would have eaten more of the meat and it seems like something stripped much of the meat around the neck and the guts but did not necessarily strip the breasts off like I would assume a bigger predator would. Does anyone have any idea what could have killed this turkey? Could a raccoon or skunk really kill a turkey?