Turkey Talk for 2014

[chickadoodles]

All the turkey and poult pic's are so adorable! I love them all. I just got my third bator today so that I can use one for a hatcher and two for incubating. I already have one bator full of turkey eggs and a dozen waiting to go in. Gotta love those turkey! I have to make some adjustments to the bator I got from TSC a new thermostat with a digital setting on it like my two Genesis 1588's. I love them they are good bator's.

 

[zach91]

Just got two baby white breasted yesterday and still looking for turkey eggs for my bator so my daughter can watch them

 

[WalnutHill]

It all depends on the weather. I'm in Michigan, so putting poults in the coop before mid-April is risky. But because my post-hatch box is a plastic tote in the guest bathtub, I move them out as soon as I can, no longer than two weeks after hatching and ideally around a week. This lets me ensure that they are eating, drinking, and their lungs are matured enough to handle the temperatures, dust, and breeze in the coop. While they are inside, they are handled a lot.

Once they are in the coop, I try to spend at least three 15 minute sessions a day feeding, watering, and observing. While they are relaxed, I pick them up and handle them. With this treatment, I end up with mature turkeys that I don't have to chase, that don't freak out when I come in the coop even at night, and that I can pick up and handle with no problem even as mature toms during breeding season. And my husband and daughter, who don't spend much time handling them when they are little, can also pick them up and handle them with no issues.

Before I started this handling program, I had birds that were hard to catch and pen, that would slash with their wing tips, that would kick and peck, and that were just plain dangerous when scared. I don't want the turkeys to imprint on me, but I want to develop a trust relationship early. That way, they act like turkeys but are socialized with people as well, much like a horse is once trained.

 

[WalnutHill]

I hatched in a pair of Little Giants last year, refitted with digital controllers. This year I am building a cabinet incubator that will incubate and hatch up to 80 turkey/160 chicken eggs, in one setting or in progressive hatches, with automatic egg turners, digital humidity control, fresh air control, and ceramic heating element with ducted forced air.

For this year while fine tuning I am enclosing it in pink foamboard insulation, but the goal is to build a cabinet similar to the redwood incubators. The general design is similar, heating element and fan top rear, pull out drawers with turners, and more. The entire electrical load is currently less than 200 watts but once enclosed I will need to ensure that I can recover from temperature loss in a reasonable time frame.

The hard part will be keeping it full!

 

[SilkieSensation]

It all depends on the weather.  I'm in Michigan, so putting poults in the coop before mid-April is risky.  But because my post-hatch box is a plastic tote in the guest bathtub, I move them out as soon as I can, no longer than two weeks after hatching and ideally around a week.  This lets me ensure that they are eating, drinking, and their lungs are matured enough to handle the temperatures, dust, and breeze in the coop.  While they are inside, they are handled a lot.

Once they are in the coop, I try to spend at least three 15 minute sessions a day feeding, watering, and observing.  While they are relaxed, I pick them up and handle them.  With this treatment, I end up with mature turkeys that I don't have to chase, that don't freak out when I come in the coop even at night, and that I can pick up and handle with no problem even as mature toms during breeding season.  And my husband and daughter, who don't spend much time handling them when they are little, can also pick them up and handle them with no issues.  

Before I started this handling program, I had birds that were hard to catch and pen, that would slash with their wing tips, that would kick and peck, and that were just plain dangerous when scared.  I don't want the turkeys to imprint on me, but I want to develop a trust relationship early.  That way, they act like turkeys but are socialized with people as well, much like a horse is once trained.

I know how this goes. There is a definite diference in my 4 older breeders that were adults when I got them & the 4 that I hand raised this past year. All 4 young ones will walk right up to me. The 3 hens let me pick them right up. The tom tries to dodge me a little if I reach for him, but isn't hard to actually catch & calms quickly when I pick him up. If I need to catch the 4 older birds I either need to corner them in a small area & get beat with wings or pull them off the roost at night.

 

[chickadoodles]

I hand raise my poult's so that I can handle them when they are older. When family or friends come they think it is so much fun to hand feed my turkey and chicken and cows. One lady asked me if this was a petting zoo. lol
But I feel like you Silkie that way I can go out and have my birds come up to me and not be afraid of me. I can pick them up and check their feet or any part of them if I need to tend them. We do our cows the same way we hand feed them from the day they are born so they will come to us and not fear us.

 

[SilkieSensation]

My chickens & turkeys are so spoiled that they will walk right in the house with us if we don't close the door quickly enough. I have very few birds that we can't pretty much reach down & pick up whenever we want.

 

[chickadoodles]

That is how I raise my birds Silkie. I had some come yesterday and buy some turkey, turkey hatching eggs and poults he asked me how do you make pets of them then process them. I told him I don't, I barter for chickens or turkey in exchange for a neighbor to process some for me. He laughed so hard! But I can't do it.

 

[SilkieSensation]

That is how I raise my birds Silkie. I had some come yesterday and buy some turkey, turkey hatching eggs and poults he asked me how do you make pets of them then process them. I told him I don't, I barter for chickens or turkey in exchange for a neighbor to process some for me. He laughed so hard! But I can't do it.

I butcher my own, but the breeders are spoiled babies. I decide pretty early which are keepers, which are sellers & which are dinner. Having them tame also makes catching my dinner easier...lol

 

[AmericanMom]

I have a BBW turkey hen who lays a nice speckled egg every evening and she jumps up about 2' to squeeze into position to deposit her egg on the chicken eggs.

Oh yeah, she weighs about 40 lbs too

Well, Thankfully Mrs Hen got her act together as their were two eggs in the box set up for the Turkeys yesterday!! With 52 layers I was worried about her in the main coop, it seems it was a bit to crowded and noisy in there for her

Candled the first set of 8 eggs last night, day 9 and all fertile although 2 had developed into the hated blood ring... 6 little embryos dancing.... So excited!! second set (10) on day 3...