Turkey Talk for 2014

[austinbndr28]

My tom showing off. He is getting mean and attacks me now.


Have any of you guys ever have your hen strutting??? Yes its a hen not a jake.

 

[R2elk]

How do you tell if humidity is to high during incubation? How big should the air cell be by lockdown time?? Is that what causes fully developed poults to not hatch when they were moving when placed in lockdown?? Any advice greatly appreciated. Incubator has been running with water pan having humidity at 42-50%. Hatcher was at 70%.
Second question: any damage to be done by decreasing humidity/switching to dry incubation, when I have quail, chicken and turkey eggs 1/3 to 2/3 if the way to lockdown???

Almost everything that you want to know about incubating can be found in Sally Sunshine's Hatching Eggs 101. I do remember seeing drawings showing the size the air cells should be at different stages. Of course the best way to determine if you are using the correct amount of humidity is by weighing the eggs at the different stages and determining the percentage of weight loss. If the weight loss percentage is too low, you need less humidity and if the weight loss percentage is too much then you need to increase the humidity.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/a/hatching-eggs-101

Dry incubation is an often mis-used term. For someone with a native humidity of 40%, not adding water in the incubator is what they consider dry incubation. For someone like me who has a native humidity of less than 10%, not adding water to the incubator would be a disaster. From what I read of the early proponents of dry incubation, the original idea was to try to maintain the incubator humidity between 20 to 30% and upping it to 45% at lock down.

I do not have experience with quail eggs but do know that chicken eggs and turkeys eggs can do well under the same conditions. Guinea eggs do better with a higher % humidity but I have had good hatches with chicken eggs incubated under the same conditions as my guinea eggs. Good luck with whatever you decide to do.

 

[R2elk]

Have any of you guys ever have your hen strutting??? Yes its a hen not a jake.

Yes it is very common for hens to display especially around breeding season and also when establishing or re-establishing the pecking order.

 

[austinbndr28]

Yes it is very common for hens to display especially around breeding season and also when establishing or re-establishing the pecking order.

Okay she was purring too at me and would grab my finger and hold it. She must be putting me at the bottom of the pecking order.

 

[NewToFarming]

My tom showing off. He is getting mean and attacks me now.


Have any of you guys ever have your hen strutting??? Yes its a hen not a jake.

They are both gorgeous!!

 

[Momhunter]

I weighed both if the turkey eggs I got today to start watching the dehydration. I also candled and marked the air cell on the three groups of eggs in the bator. One groups is due for lockdown tomorrow then they skip a week and another week. There did seem to be a good difference in the air cell size.
I pulled out two of the vent plugs, it dropped the humidity from 50% to 35%.
I'll set the next group of turkey eggs on Wed and keep weighing them. Any other suggestions????

 

[Arielle]

Quote: Yup-- farm animals are a good first lesson to introduce the activity and the language.

My kids are good at reporting back when something is off around the farm!

Quote: And oh so pretty!!

 

[Arielle]

How do you tell if humidity is to high during incubation? How big should the air cell be by lockdown time?? Is that what causes fully developed poults to not hatch when they were moving when placed in lockdown?? Any advice greatly appreciated. Incubator has been running with water pan having humidity at 42-50%. Hatcher was at 70%.
Second question: any damage to be done by decreasing humidity/switching to dry incubation, when I have quail, chicken and turkey eggs 1/3 to 2/3 if the way to lockdown???

Here is my suggestion=
1. Find a printable air cell guide for turkeys, days 7th, 14ths, etc. This is your best freind when candling. Or you can weigh the eggs. I have oppsy hands so candle instead of weighing. The air cell guides are around, you can google for them on line, asking for turkey air cells day 7th, 14th, or something like that. I candle often until the eggs are on track.

2.Go for drier asap-- you will loose them anyways if the aircell is not large enough at hatch time. For my first hatch, I put a fan over mine and used a/c to dry the air in the room. My LG is styrofoam and takes days to dry out. So IMO go dry immediately until you can make an informed decision ( have candling info on those eggs.)


THis is the biggest problem most people have = getting the eggs dry enough before lock down. In my first hatch I delayed lockdown to get the eggs a bit drier-- got 50% hatch rate my first try!! I learned my lesson--I dry hatch and rarely add water now-- I let the eggs tell me.

 

[Momhunter]

Here is my suggestion=
1. Find a printable air cell guide for turkeys, days 7th, 14ths, etc. This is your best freind when candling. Or you can weigh the eggs. I have oppsy hands so candle instead of weighing. The air cell guides are around, you can google for them on line, asking for turkey air cells day 7th, 14th, or something like that. I candle often until the eggs are on track. 

2.Go for drier  asap-- you will loose them anyways if the aircell is not large enough at hatch time.  For my first hatch, I put a fan over mine  and used a/c to dry the air in the room. My LG is styrofoam and takes days to dry out. So IMO go dry immediately until you can make an informed decision ( have candling info on those eggs.)


THis is the biggest problem most people have =  getting the eggs dry enough before lock down. In my first hatch I delayed lockdown to get the eggs a bit drier-- got 50% hatch rate my first try!!   I learned my lesson--I dry hatch and rarely add water now-- I let the eggs tell me. 

Thanks. I'll find one of the air cell guides.

 

[SilkieSensation]

I have good news!
Of the 4 eggs I put in the incubator, three are developing!  The 4th was cracked and porous so I am not surprised it didn't develop.  I just don't know if my Red or the previous owner of the hen's Narragansett toms are the sires.

Other good news...
While my son was doing chores he said the one girl that the other girls were pecking out wasn't walking and the boy was pecking at her.  I told him to leave them be.  He came back to tell me he was standing on her.  Again, leave them be.  That's fine.  He came back again all worried because she seemed like she couldn't get up.  Well, I decided to check in case they did injure her since they've been pecking her off and on while she lays her eggs and has a bald spot on her head and neck because of it.  She was fine.  He was just doing his job and she was more than ready for him.  So, I had to give my 12yr old a G-rated turkey version of the birds and the bees.

We have the chicken dance, ducky dance, turkey dance, quail dance & goosey dance. My youngest is 7 so all he knows is that they are making eggs that will hatch babies. My 10 yr old understands a bit more but still on a child level.

How do you tell if humidity is to high during incubation? How big should the air cell be by lockdown time?? Is that what causes fully developed poults to not hatch when they were moving when placed in lockdown?? Any advice greatly appreciated. Incubator has been running with water pan having humidity at 42-50%. Hatcher was at 70%.

Second question: any damage to be done by decreasing humidity/switching to dry incubation, when I have quail, chicken and turkey eggs 1/3 to 2/3 if the way to lockdown???

Almost everything that you want to know about incubating can be found in Sally Sunshine's Hatching Eggs 101.  I do remember seeing drawings showing the size the air cells should be at different stages.  Of course the best way to determine if you are using the correct amount of humidity is by weighing the eggs at the different stages and determining the percentage of weight loss.  If the weight loss percentage is too low, you need less humidity and if the weight loss percentage is too much then you need to increase the humidity.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/a/hatching-eggs-101

Dry incubation is an often mis-used term.  For someone with a native humidity of 40%, not adding water in the incubator is what they consider dry incubation.  For someone like me who has a native humidity of less than 10%, not adding water to the incubator would be a disaster.  From what I read of the early proponents of dry incubation, the original idea was to try to maintain the incubator humidity between 20 to 30% and upping it to 45% at lock down.

I do not have experience with quail eggs but do know that chicken eggs and turkeys eggs can do well under the same conditions.  Guinea eggs do better with a higher % humidity but I have had good hatches with chicken eggs incubated under the same conditions as my guinea eggs.  Good luck with whatever you decide to do.

I hatch quail all the time. You can incubate them with chicken eggs but don't raise humidity above 40-45% for hatch in still air (50-55% in forced air). They need very low humidity for hatch.