Turkeys For 2013

[kuntrygirl]

Well, still no baby poults. The one is still just pipped. Candled the other and it quit. Fully formed, yolk absorbed, just never internally pipped. :/

Sorry to hear that. Any updates?

 

[kuntrygirl]

12 fully hatched (had to help one a little that got stuck ... always the big ones seem to get stuck) and 2 more pipped and zipping. I had 2 quit in the last two days and there are 3 more that are a few days behind the others. They are still moving so that's good. I'm not sure what we are doing right exactly to have gotten good hatches lately but I'm glad we have. We got a new bator at Christmas which helps keep the temp and humidity more stable than we could in our homemade ones but even so we had them all developing just fine before, we just couldn't get them to hatch. The only real change has been that we are keeping them with the air sacks up until they are fully zipped by placing them in egg cartons when we take them out of the turner instead of just laying them down in the tray. We're still ending up with a couple in each batch that seem to quit the day we take them out of the turner. Guess that's just the way of it sometimes.

Congrats on the hatches!!!! Sorry about the ones that didn't make it.

 

[kuntrygirl]

Mine have started laying I will probably try to hatch them in the incubator this year.


I won't get off topic and talk about geese, since this is our turkey thread. But have to ask, have you hatched goose eggs in an incubator before. I'm studying and reading and I have a HEADACHE !!!!!!!!!!!

I hatch goose eggs in the incubator. Go to the stickies on the duck thread and find Pete55's Waterfowl Incubation guide. Follow that and you can't get it wrong. I hatched 9 of 11 I set last year from my pair. I have 17 in the bator right now and am showing growth on six of them!

I printed out his guide last week and have been reading it but I'm still nervous. The temps, humidity, cooling and misting is scaring me. It looks like my little incubator will only hold about 6 or 9. If it can hold 9, then I will try 9 goose eggs.

 

[kuntrygirl]

I GIVE UP  DON'T KNOW WHAT'S GOING ON!!!

Happens to me when I post on the my phone and the message reads "Submitting". I hate that.

 

[1MrsMagoo]

This is why I'm nervous.

The cooling, misting and high temps is making me crazy just thinking about hatching. When you say that the temp is a little different, what do you mean?

I will have mine in auto turners and they will turn all day, so do I still need to do the 3 times a day turn as you mentioned?

Thank you for commenting on our similar work schedules and giving me tips and pointers. That helps A LOT!

I have printed out Pete's Guide and have been studying it for about a week.

Temps for geese are a bit lower. Around 99 to incubate and 98.5 or so to hatch for forced air units. As to the whole misting thing, if you just make it part of your routine when you make dinner, or get morning coffee it is a breeze. I do mine after I am finished with the animals outside every morning. I pop open the incubator and take out the egg tray, candle the eggs, trace the air sacs to be able to monitor moisture loss, then put the egg tray back in, mist them and close the incubator back up till the next day. If the cool down period isn't exactly 15 or 20 minutes it isn't a big deal: I have never seen a goose with a watch to keep track of how long she is off her nest.

Using a auto turner you don't have to manually move the eggs every day; That is for folks with no auto turners. Typically, I dry incubate the goose eggs and don't add water till hatch time. I have found that the humidity stays right around 40% on its own due to the eggs evaporating moisture as they incubate.

Also, I have found that using a still air incubator to hatch works better. I take them out of my Brinsea when they internally pip and put them into the still air unit. I had way too much shrink wrapping trying to hatch in the forced air unit. This also allows you to do staggered hatches, so you can add new eggs when you boot bad ones out of the main incubator.

Additionally, if you stand the eggs up in the Brinsea, or at least lean them at an angle, you can fit more in. Laying down you can get between 9-12 depending on size and how you arrange them. Standing them, I can fit 17 plus 5 or so duck eggs as well.

 

[1MrsMagoo]

I GIVE UP DON'T KNOW WHAT'S GOING ON!!!

Darned computers and smart phones. They are great when they work right but when they don't....

 

[kuntrygirl]

This is why I'm nervous. The cooling, misting and high temps is making me crazy just thinking about hatching. When you say that the temp is a little different, what do you mean? I will have mine in auto turners and they will turn all day, so do I still need to do the 3 times a day turn as you mentioned?


Thank you for commenting on our similar work schedules and giving me tips and pointers. That helps A LOT!


I have printed out Pete's Guide and have been studying it for about a week.

Temps for geese are a bit lower. Around 99 to incubate and 98.5 or so to hatch for forced air units. As to the whole misting thing, if you just make it part of your routine when you make dinner, or get morning coffee it is a breeze. I do mine after I am finished with the animals outside every morning. I pop open the incubator and take out the egg tray, candle the eggs, trace the air sacs to be able to monitor moisture loss, then put the egg tray back in, mist them and close the incubator back up till the next day. If the cool down period isn't exactly 15 or 20 minutes it isn't a big deal: I have never seen a goose with a watch to keep track of how long she is off her nest.

Using a auto turner you don't have to manually move the eggs every day; That is for folks with no auto turners. Typically, I dry incubate the goose eggs and don't add water till hatch time. I have found that the humidity stays right around 40% on its own due to the eggs evaporating moisture as they incubate.

Also, I have found that using a still air incubator to hatch works better. I take them out of my Brinsea when they internally pip and put them into the still air unit. I had way too much shrink wrapping trying to hatch in the forced air unit. This also allows you to do staggered hatches, so you can add new eggs when you boot bad ones out of the main incubator.

Additionally, if you stand the eggs up in the Brinsea, or at least lean them at an angle, you can fit more in. Laying down you can get between 9-12 depending on size and how you arrange them. Standing them, I can fit 17 plus 5 or so duck eggs as well.

Great. This is definitely a little different than turkey eggs but it sounds doable. So standing them up is ok? WOW! Great to know.

So how many days does it take for your goose eggs to hatch and what day is lock down for you?

 

[Marengoite]

Immunity is an interesting thing.

First, we (aniumals)have an immune system with a memory. THat once exposed, specialized cells go into storage to wait for the next exposure. THese cells vary in how long they are viable. So think about how we are vaccinated for tetnus. It lasts a good 10 years, then you need another one. If you get a puncture type wound with in 5 years you are good, if you get a puncture in years 5-10 you need a booster. At 10 years you need a booster no matter what. With other vaccines, the duration may be batter than this, or not. In the case of the influenza vaccines, annual injections are designed to keep up the the most likely latest strains running around, so annual vaccination is necessary. THere are some things I don't vacinate my horses for because they are not around other horses that might have the disease. So I don't vaccinate for the flu/rhino every THREE months like they do in the big barns with horses out to shows, and going here and there. So . . . . immunity in a specific bird can be aquired by exposure thru vaccination, or thru disease exposure.

For offspring, they cannot benefit from the immunity described above. What they will benefit from is when a parent has a genetic immunity. For example, when the , oh I can't remeber if it is the black plque or the bubonic plague, shoot, well my point is that during this plague a stunning number of humans became sickened and died. Like 25-40% of the human population. BUt some people did not even get sick despite exposure. ( NOt all peole that were exposed [should be] sickened died either. ) THe people that survived had the genetics to fight the bug. ANd when these people reproduced, they passed on the ability to fight the bug. So the next generations were not suseptable to this disease. This is also applicalbe to the birds. Basically, don't keep a sick bird. Eliminate it from the breeding pool.

Hope this makes sense. ONly in mammalian animals which drink their mother's milk can specialized cells be passed to the infants/babies. ANd then the time is limited. These are BIG molecules and the intestinal lining allows these to be abosorbed only with in the first 24 hours. Colostrum is sticky as it is made up of these sticky proteins. My children do not get ear aches because they acquired passive immunity from me. My body copied all my stored immunity and made that available to my children in the first milk.

Chickens can't do this because they don't feed their babies milk. So technically they can't acquire immunity from the parents this way, only genetic immunity.

Here endith the lesson.

Arielle,

Do young poultry not acquire immunity by eating feces? I know they all do this. Was wondering if this was why.

rick

 

[Bettacreek]

My remaining egg was a poult this morning. She's in the brooder with the others now.

 

[r4eboxer]

This is why I'm nervous.

The cooling, misting and high temps is making me crazy just thinking about hatching. When you say that the temp is a little different, what do you mean?

I will have mine in auto turners and they will turn all day, so do I still need to do the 3 times a day turn as you mentioned?

Thank you for commenting on our similar work schedules and giving me tips and pointers. That helps A LOT!

I have printed out Pete's Guide and have been studying it for about a week.

Mist when you cool, take the top off and keep a spray bottle of water by the bator, give them a couple of shots of water and then start your timer for 20 minutes, I did the misting and cooling when I came home from work and did the 2nd turn. I had the auto turners too that was suppose to turn 9 goose eggs. I have just a cheap bator any only paid an added 30.00 for the turner, it did not have the umph to turn those big eggs. I hope you have better luck than I did. So if your turner works then no, you do not need to worry about turning. I did read though that goose eggs incubate better on their side not blunt side up. Yes the temp is only a degree off, I don't recall what it is but it's in Pete's guide.

My remaining egg was a poult this morning. She's in the brooder with the others now.

Hip Hip Hooray!! Cograts on the baby!!