Turkey Talk for 2014

[nanclapper]

I just call all of ours "S***heads"... they come running when I call them...

LOL!! Too funny!

 

[Quailsong]

I just call all of ours "S***heads"... they come running when I call them...

True that. I don't think chickens care what they're called so long as we've a bucket of treats in our hands.

 

[Sydney Acres]

Quote:
How long you should store them before putting them in your incubator depends on your setup. If you only have one incubator that doubles as your hatcher, then timing could get complicated if you try to hatch all eggs that she produces over the next month. On the other hand, if you have an incubator plus a hatcher you could set eggs once a week, then transfer eggs from the incubator to the hatcher at the right time easily. If you had multiple incubators plus a hatcher, then you could set eggs once a week, or more often, into separate incubators so you wouldn't have to have eggs in the same incubator at different stages of incubation. It depends on how staggered you want your hatches, and what kind of set up you have. If you set an egg every day you might have a difficult time keeping track of everything and poults would all be different ages, which would also complicate brooding them.

 

[Nickeyo]

I just call all of ours "S***heads"... they come running when I call them...

hahah thats what I call my chickens when they bugger off at shutting up time

 

[austinbndr28]

How long you should store them before putting them in your incubator depends on your setup. If you only have one incubator that doubles as your hatcher, then timing could get complicated if you try to hatch all eggs that she produces over the next month. On the other hand, if you have an incubator plus a hatcher you could set eggs once a week, then transfer eggs from the incubator to the hatcher at the right time easily. If you had multiple incubators plus a hatcher, then you could set eggs once a week, or more often, into separate incubators so you wouldn't have to have eggs in the same incubator at different stages of incubation. It depends on how staggered you want your hatches, and what kind of set up you have. If you set an egg every day you might have a difficult time keeping track of everything and poults would all be different ages, which would also complicate brooding them.

i have 2 incubators i will set eggs every week.

 

[Theprussia4]

We have a 8 month old Blue Slate hen that is nesting in the woods next to our chicken coop. She has 6 eggs out there now. She doesn't sit all day like our chickens would, is that normal? She spends time with the flock and then goes and sits. Should we move her inside her own pen or just leave her? Will the eggs still hatch with how much she gets up? We are located in NEPA so right now our temps vary from 35 to 65. Any advice. This is our first time with the Turkeys.

 

[Sydney Acres]

We have a 8 month old Blue Slate hen that is nesting in the woods next to our chicken coop. She has 6 eggs out there now. She doesn't sit all day like our chickens would, is that normal? She spends time with the flock and then goes and sits. Should we move her inside her own pen or just leave her? Will the eggs still hatch with how much she gets up? We are located in NEPA so right now our temps vary from 35 to 65. Any advice. This is our first time with the Turkeys.

How much time is she spending on vs off the nest? Does she spend the night on the nest or roost with her flock? If she spends the night with the flock, then she's probably not brooding yet. Is she still laying eggs, or has she stopped? If she's still laying eggs, then she's probably not broody yet. She may just be building up egg numbers before getting serious about brooding. Or being young, she may think she's brooding but just not have her brooding hormones set up right yet.

If turkey eggs are the same as chickens, which may not be true, the 35 degree nights will damage the embryo and the eggs won't hatch after prolonged exposure to that temperature.. For chickens in this situation, if you want your hen to brood, you would need to collect the fresh egg that is laid every day and replace it with a marked, substitute egg or ceramic egg. The collected eggs would need to be stored for a short time. (The eggs have to be stored pointy end down, at between 50-60 degrees, and turned about 45 degrees from side to side three times daily until incubated. Ideally incubate eggs that have been stored only up to a week. Some may hatch after 10-14 days of storage, but hatch rates drop quickly after one week.) If you don't replace the collected eggs with substitute eggs, the hen won't think she has enough to eggs to brood on, and will keep laying. Once she decides that there is reason to brood, let her brood a few days on the substitute eggs to be sure she'll hold her brood, then replace the substitute eggs with the ones that you've stored for brooding. This should ideally be done at night, or when she's off the nest getting something to eat. If she's out in the woods, you should put a predator proof fence around her, or try to move her to a safe area, which sometimes works and sometimes breaks their brood (at least in chickens, I'm not even sure if it can even be done in turkeys). There are details of how to move a broody chicken on post 20048 of this thread: https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/...n-hatch-a-long-and-informational-thread/20040.

 

[BullChick]

Thanksgiving and Dinner escaped the brooder this morning. Apparently they weren't told that BBW can't fly well.

 

[wild flocks]

I'm new I got my birds how do I make the faces????

 

[wild flocks]

Thanksgiving and Dinner escaped the brooder this morning. Apparently they weren't told that BBW can't fly well.