Turkeys For 2013

[Sally8]

I don't have any idea. I hatched the 2 out that I have last year this time. My first experience with turkeys. Hopefully, someone else can help.

 

[Chickenjocky]

My two Bourbon Red turkey hens have each been laying an egg a day for a month. I incubated 6 eggs, four died fully formed without pipping. One I helped hatch after it pipped and it is doing well. The last egg is still alive but not pipped yet - four days late. I'm frustrated, and saddened by the loss. I have 35 more eggs in the bator and have been studying how to improve the hatch rate. The problem is, I added two eggs a day for a staggered hatch. Starting tomorrow they will begin hatching two a day. What should I have the humidity at? 50% or 80%?

 

[chicken pickin]

So in the past few days my toms have started to come at me. Im guessing they feel threatened by me maybe because the hen squats for me and also maybe because they see me as a sparring match because a few days ago the toms were going at it bad and I was concerned one might loos an eye because they had there beaks intelocked in eachothers mouths and the beak was at the eye So I forcfully used my feet to try to seperate them obviously silly of me because they are determined little buggers. But their behavior toword me these past 2 days is ver unacceptable One has sealed his fate and will be joining us for Easter Dinner. Any tips for me?

 

[frank53061]

I am having smilier things happen with my Turkey Hens I have around 7 Hens and over a 9 day period of time I have gotten 8 eggs 2 were cracked or down right smashed.
I have 6 eggs in the cooler and no more eggs have been lay ed for many days I don't know if its there first year laying or the weather or both.
Any way I was hoping that they would hold off till warmer weather any way its Sunday and I woke up to a dusting of snow on the ground.
I Finlay got my 48 egg Incubator that I ordered and I have had it on a test run no eggs for the last few days and after calibrating it it seems to only have about 1.5 degree temp swing at the max and the water trays are great for getting the right humidity.
The digital controls and the read outs are great coming from the home made Incubator I had.
The automatic egg turner is working well also the egg holders are universal so I can put 48 chicken eggs in it or 48 turkey eggs or a mix.
I hope to get enough to fill it up and have eggs to trade as well.
Here is a picture of it while its being being tested any one else have one like it that they use.

 

[erinszoo]

My two Bourbon Red turkey hens have each been laying an egg a day for a month. I incubated 6 eggs, four died fully formed without pipping. One I helped hatch after it pipped and it is doing well. The last egg is still alive but not pipped yet - four days late. I'm frustrated, and saddened by the loss. I have 35 more eggs in the bator and have been studying how to improve the hatch rate. The problem is, I added two eggs a day for a staggered hatch. Starting tomorrow they will begin hatching two a day. What should I have the humidity at? 50% or 80%?

Sorry for your losses. We had quite a time getting eggs to hatch too and spent nearly a year in frustration with only an occassional hatch. Now we hatch at 60%. I've only lost one that made it to hatching and it pipped but never zipped. All of my others have hatched great. Some of the bigger ones partially zipped and got stuck so we finished zipping for them but made them get out of the shell on their own still. I don't stagger my sets. I just keep eggs until I have a bator full and then set them. The ones that are fertile hatch just fine. We keep them at room temp (65 - 70) in our kitchen in a basket until we set them. We've done eggs a month old even without issue and we date our eggs as we bring them inside so we can compare what hatches and what doesn't and dates seem to have no bearing on hatchability or how soon they hatch at all. Our last hatch we set eggs from 28 Dec through the 21 Jan, out of twenty five eggs, five weren't fertile, two quit part way through incubation, two quit the day of lockdown, and one pipped but never hatched. We run our bator between 98 and 100 (still air) with a turner and at 40% humidity. At lockdown we keep temps to the lower end and up the humidity to 60 - 65%. We have also tried smaller hatched but they never seem to do as well as bigger hatches, not sure why. Hope things improve for you.

 

[erinszoo]

So in the past few days my toms have started to come at me. Im guessing they feel threatened by me maybe because the hen squats for me and also maybe because they see me as a sparring match because a few days ago the toms were going at it bad and I was concerned one might loos an eye because they had there beaks intelocked in eachothers mouths and the beak was at the eye So I forcfully used my feet to try to seperate them obviously silly of me because they are determined little buggers. But their behavior toword me these past 2 days is ver unacceptable One has sealed his fate and will be joining us for Easter Dinner. Any tips for me?

Use a hose to seperate them. That's the only thing we've ever had luck with when we've gotten aggressive roos or toms. If you spray them with a jet stream, they don't much like it. It may take a few times to get them to settle down but ... as for fighting with each other.

No idea. We figure that's just what they do and don't worry about it much. We try not to keep too many toms though. Maybe you could seperate them for a while ...

 

[Celie]

Sorry for your losses. We had quite a time getting eggs to hatch too and spent nearly a year in frustration with only an occassional hatch. Now we hatch at 60%. I've only lost one that made it to hatching and it pipped but never zipped. All of my others have hatched great. Some of the bigger ones partially zipped and got stuck so we finished zipping for them but made them get out of the shell on their own still. I don't stagger my sets. I just keep eggs until I have a bator full and then set them. The ones that are fertile hatch just fine. We keep them at room temp (65 - 70) in our kitchen in a basket until we set them. We've done eggs a month old even without issue and we date our eggs as we bring them inside so we can compare what hatches and what doesn't and dates seem to have no bearing on hatchability or how soon they hatch at all. Our last hatch we set eggs from 28 Dec through the 21 Jan, out of twenty five eggs, five weren't fertile, two quit part way through incubation, two quit the day of lockdown, and one pipped but never hatched. We run our bator between 98 and 100 (still air) with a turner and at 40% humidity. At lockdown we keep temps to the lower end and up the humidity to 60 - 65%. We have also tried smaller hatched but they never seem to do as well as bigger hatches, not sure why. Hope things improve for you.

IMO. full incubators work better than partially full is because they are designed to operate with that amount and the amount of eggs hold the temps and humidity in check better. I have also noticed, I can be getting pretty much a 100% hatch rate for a while, then all of a sudden, for no apparent reason, doing all the same things and the hatch rate will fall off to 85 or 90%! I guess it'd just the way things go?

Use a hose to seperate them. That's the only thing we've ever had luck with when we've gotten aggressive roos or toms. If you spray them with a jet stream, they don't much like it. It may take a few times to get them to settle down but ... as for fighting with each other.

No idea. We figure that's just what they do and don't worry about it much. We try not to keep too many toms though. Maybe you could seperate them for a while ...

I am afraid they will get sick by hosing them in bad weather, so what I do is hold them or pin them down, if they don't recognize me as Alpha ! It always seems to do the trick. Toms are just going to fight between themselves whenever any one of them challenge the Alpha tom. It's just survival of the fittest for reproduction an nature! I have never seen it go to bloodshed yet !

 

[Chickenjocky]

Sorry for your losses. We had quite a time getting eggs to hatch too and spent nearly a year in frustration with only an occassional hatch. Now we hatch at 60%. I've only lost one that made it to hatching and it pipped but never zipped. All of my others have hatched great. Some of the bigger ones partially zipped and got stuck so we finished zipping for them but made them get out of the shell on their own still. I don't stagger my sets. I just keep eggs until I have a bator full and then set them. The ones that are fertile hatch just fine. We keep them at room temp (65 - 70) in our kitchen in a basket until we set them. We've done eggs a month old even without issue and we date our eggs as we bring them inside so we can compare what hatches and what doesn't and dates seem to have no bearing on hatchability or how soon they hatch at all. Our last hatch we set eggs from 28 Dec through the 21 Jan, out of twenty five eggs, five weren't fertile, two quit part way through incubation, two quit the day of lockdown, and one pipped but never hatched. We run our bator between 98 and 100 (still air) with a turner and at 40% humidity. At lockdown we keep temps to the lower end and up the humidity to 60 - 65%. We have also tried smaller hatched but they never seem to do as well as bigger hatches, not sure why. Hope things improve for you.

Thank you for the information. I too use a still air bator. The humidity has been 33% constantly with a 98 to 100 temp. I will raise the humidity and hope for the best. I agree that setting eggs all at once would have been better. I have a lot to learn.

 

[flocksalot]

We've rarely had the Tom aggressiveness, but when we do we grab them, pick them up and carry them around a bit. They soon figure out we won't tolerate their silliness. I have had to do thing hand by the feet only once.

I recently had a Tom go after my 9 year old. He grabbed him and held him down. When he let the tommy loose he just strutted around. Not a single problem since. We have three toms and 8 hens.

 

[frank53061]

Quote:
Everything Celie said x 2