Turkeys For 2013

[kuntrygirl]

Do you slaughter them after you shoot them?

I haven't gotten lucky enough to get one yet. If I do, he will be sent to the freezer: I don't like wasting things, especially things you can eat.
The neighbors that have gotten them dress them and either have a hog roast or throw them in a chest freezer whole. After they are frozen they use a sawzall to cut them down into more manageable pieces.

That's gonna be some good eating . I hope you get one one of these days. Take a pic when you do. I would love to see one of them.

 

[kuntrygirl]

Trouble with geese eggs already. Humidity was at 30 this morning with sponges in both trays and both trays filled with water. The little thing-a-ma-jig (tray) that I bought last time for the turkey eggs is not working this time because the goose eggs are so heavy and for some reason, the top of the bator is not fitting. I guess I will have to go buy more sponges?

I DO NOT ADD WATER to the goose eggs while they are incubating: Our atmosphere and the moisture they are losing is humidity enough. If you add water they may not lose enough weight/moisture to hatch properly. After day six, you will start taking off the top of the incubator to let the eggs cool and then use a spray bottle to mist them with water. As to the top not closing......The top of the Brinsea has some little fins on the inside: One of those is probably hitting the top of the eggs. If the eggs are standing up they may be too tall, so you will have to slant them. Watch the underside of the lid when you are trying to close it and see where it is hitting.

Ok. I'm reading all kinds of different humidity numbers.

They are laying down. So, I guess I need to remove the water. I need to find a simple guide 1, 2, 3, etc. for incubating goose eggs. I think I saw one on the internet somewhere. Some of the instructions are too lengthy which makes it confusing. I just need simple simple simple. :/

 

[r4eboxer]

Ok. I'm reading all kinds of different humidity numbers.

They are laying down. So, I guess I need to remove the water. I need to find a simple guide 1, 2, 3, etc. for incubating goose eggs. I think I saw one on the internet somewhere. Some of the instructions are too lengthy which makes it confusing. I just need simple simple simple.

I can just tell you what I do kuntrygirl and it worked 100 % for me. I lay them on their sides, marked an X on one side an O on the other.(the plus and x look too much alike to me on an egg) Weigh them on day 1, do not mist or cool for the first 6 days, keep humidity at 30-40 %, if you get that with your atmosphere without water great, if not add water to 30 or 40%. Turn them when you get up, go to work, come home from work, turn them again (mist and cool if you are after day 6) keep the lid off for 10 min, make sure you set a timer. Right before you go to bed at night turn them. Wake up do the same thing until day 14 then increase your cooling time to 15 minutes. You are going to know about shadowing and all that internal pipping etc when you see it.

Read all about that and look at the pics Pete shows. It's easy to recognize when you see it. You already know what an air cell looks like and how it gets bigger, If i were you I would not worry about weight loss and all the other technical stuff until or if you are having poor hatches. Have fun with it and learn as you go with them.

 

[kuntrygirl]

Ok. I'm reading all kinds of different humidity numbers.


They are laying down. So, I guess I need to remove the water. I need to find a simple guide 1, 2, 3, etc. for incubating goose eggs. I think I saw one on the internet somewhere. Some of the instructions are too lengthy which makes it confusing. I just need simple simple simple. :/

I can just tell you what I do kuntrygirl and it worked  100 % for me. I lay them on their sides, marked an X on one side an O on the other.(the plus and x look too much alike to me on an egg) Weigh them on day 1, do not mist or cool for the first 6 days, keep humidity at 30-40 %, if you get that with your atmosphere without water great, if not add water to 30 or 40%. Turn them when you get up, go to work, come home from work, turn them again (mist and cool if you are after day 6) keep the lid off for 10 min, make sure you set a timer. Right before you go to bed at night turn them. Wake up do the same thing until day 14 then increase your cooling time to 15 minutes. You are going to know about shadowing and all that internal pipping etc when you see it.

Read all about that and look at the pics Pete shows. It's easy to recognize when you see it. You already know what an air cell looks like and how it gets bigger, If i were you I would not worry about weight loss and all the other technical stuff until or if you are having poor hatches. Have fun with it and learn as you go with them.

Sounds good to me. Thanks!

All the info about air cells and things like that just confuse me. I have no idea what all of that means and not sure I ever will. If I can do the basics and get them to hatch, them I have won the lottery.

 

[Sally8]

2 funny things happened today... Delisha remember when I was asking about the incubating egg that was getting flat on both sides? Turns out the hen laid another flattish one again today. Detail orientated, I'm not apparently.

DH decided to clean off the screen porch. Inside the grand kids toy box was a humongous pile of eggs.

2 new babies overnight. My advice? Don't take eggs out of a semi broody hens nest. My Wrinkles is definitely a studly roo!
Over a 3 week period I've had 11 babies born. I read how careful you need to be, don't over handle, definitely don't open after lock down.. The last 3 were already pipped when I candled them and I didn't notice until after. I put them back in the incubator and by morning, a bouncing baby chick! Now, the 2 doz eggs I bought and were shipped are due to hatch starting this week end. I believe only 3 were viable out of the 1st doz and 6 out of the 2nd. My shipping luck is not good. Curious to see anyway.

Have any of you heard about some hatcheries unable to ship eggs or chicks to certain to zip codes? Mine is one of them and I spoke to my post office and they knew nothing about it. He said that someone usually will stay at the post office until 7pm to be sure that the chicks don't have to stay over night. I guess if I ever ordered chicks or eggs I'd have to call first.

 

[1MrsMagoo]

2 funny things happened today... Delisha remember when I was asking about the incubating egg that was getting flat on both sides? Turns out the hen laid another flattish one again today. Detail orientated, I'm not apparently.

DH decided to clean off the screen porch. Inside the grand kids toy box was a humongous pile of eggs.

2 new babies overnight. My advice? Don't take eggs out of a semi broody hens nest. My Wrinkles is definitely a studly roo!
Over a 3 week period I've had 11 babies born. I read how careful you need to be, don't over handle, definitely don't open after lock down.. The last 3 were already pipped when I candled them and I didn't notice until after. I put them back in the incubator and by morning, a bouncing baby chick! Now, the 2 doz eggs I bought and were shipped are due to hatch starting this week end. I believe only 3 were viable out of the 1st doz and 6 out of the 2nd. My shipping luck is not good. Curious to see anyway.

Have any of you heard about some hatcheries unable to ship eggs or chicks to certain to zip codes? Mine is one of them and I spoke to my post office and they knew nothing about it. He said that someone usually will stay at the post office until 7pm to be sure that the chicks don't have to stay over night. I guess if I ever ordered chicks or eggs I'd have to call first.

Some smaller hatcheries won't ship to my address: I just tried to order French White Muscovy ducklings and they wanted me to get the airport or the sorting facility in New Orleans. They require overnight shipping and that takes 2 days to me, so I just buy hatching eggs instead. I've never had anyone refuse to send hatching eggs to my zip code.
I know their are a couple states that people list on their eBay auctions that they cannot ship hatching eggs to certain states. I believe it has something to do with those particular states regulations regarding incoming poultry and fowl.

Kuntrygirl--

I did get pictures of one of the smaller wild hogs that came to my yard last summer. I was out with the camera taking pictures of the ducks and all of a sudden it came trotting out of the horse paddock a few feet from me. I froze and only moved the camera slightly to get the picture.
I was never able to get good pictures of either of the boar hogs. The huge one that put a hole in the neighbors horse fence is a fierce looking critter. I am not sure I want to get close enough for the zoom to work on the camera....

 

[r4eboxer]

Sounds good to me. Thanks!

All the info about air cells and things like that just confuse me. I have no idea what all of that means and not sure I ever will. If I can do the basics and get them to hatch, them I have won the lottery.

I was confused too, but when you see it you know it. The Shadowing etc, candle your eggs every so many days so you are familiar with the air cell, where the gosling is etc, when shadowing takes place it is very obvious if you are familiar with the way the air cell looked before.

2 funny things happened today... Delisha remember when I was asking about the incubating egg that was getting flat on both sides? Turns out the hen laid another flattish one again today. Detail orientated, I'm not apparently.

DH decided to clean off the screen porch. Inside the grand kids toy box was a humongous pile of eggs.

2 new babies overnight. My advice? Don't take eggs out of a semi broody hens nest. My Wrinkles is definitely a studly roo!
Over a 3 week period I've had 11 babies born. I read how careful you need to be, don't over handle, definitely don't open after lock down.. The last 3 were already pipped when I candled them and I didn't notice until after. I put them back in the incubator and by morning, a bouncing baby chick! Now, the 2 doz eggs I bought and were shipped are due to hatch starting this week end. I believe only 3 were viable out of the 1st doz and 6 out of the 2nd. My shipping luck is not good. Curious to see anyway.

Have any of you heard about some hatcheries unable to ship eggs or chicks to certain to zip codes? Mine is one of them and I spoke to my post office and they knew nothing about it. He said that someone usually will stay at the post office until 7pm to be sure that the chicks don't have to stay over night. I guess if I ever ordered chicks or eggs I'd have to call first.

Ha ha I bet he was surprised with all those eggs! I have not heard that about the Post office, I sure hope they don't start that!!!

 

[RachelM]

Want to grow the flock. We had a few bad run-ins with multiple predators, leaving us with only 6 left: 3 Blue Slates, 2 Small Whites and a Black Spanish. We've decided we want to focus on teh Blue Slates as a heritage breed, and get some Bourbon Reds going. The other 3 are really just hang arounds.

 

[erinszoo]

Well, heated the baby turkeys last night with hot water bottles. We lost power because of a snow storm so no heat lamps. They came through just fine. Several had crawled inside the towels and sprawled across the surface of the bottles when I got up this morning. It was interesting because they started screaming not too long after the power went out, as they do any time something changes in their world. Once we put the bottles in with them and they cuddled up to them, silence prevailed. It was amazing. They all zonked out, warm and happy, I guess. Glad to know it's possible to keep them warm without worrying in the event of a power failure. Just glad I didn't have eggs in the bator again yet.

 

[1MrsMagoo]

Well, heated the baby turkeys last night with hot water bottles. We lost power because of a snow storm so no heat lamps. They came through just fine. Several had crawled inside the towels and sprawled across the surface of the bottles when I got up this morning. It was interesting because they started screaming not too long after the power went out, as they do any time something changes in their world. Once we put the bottles in with them and they cuddled up to them, silence prevailed. It was amazing. They all zonked out, warm and happy, I guess. Glad to know it's possible to keep them warm without worrying in the event of a power failure. Just glad I didn't have eggs in the bator again yet.

Great idea and some very quick thinking on your part! Even those of us with generators have to be careful about running all the heat lamps when the power goes out (in my case I have 4 of them going at all times).

Last spring, my husband cut down a tree that ended up having a nest of tiny baby squirrels in it (no fur..eyes not open). The heat lamp wasn't enough to keep them warm so I ended up using of the 72 hour heat packs I had left over from shipping goose eggs. Before we had our generators, if I had eggs in the incubator and we lost power for a long time, I took the bator to my car: It has a 110 outlet in the dash. Yes, I had to run the car for like 6 hours on idle, but the temp didn't really drop in the incubator!