Wild turkey eggs... cookin'

[Duckles]

Last week a friend of my husband's ran over a female turkey while mowing hay

he called up my MIL to tell her and she suggested he bring them over to us to add to our incubator

So here we are, 7 wild turkey eggs developing and wiggling around in our incubator (set 6/18). We have one goose egg in the bator as well, which is pipped so the humidity is at 80% for now.

Are we even allowed to have these eggs? If they were just found in a field I would say no way, but he only found them after he realized he ran over the mama so the eggs would have had no chance...

Also what are the best conditions for incubating turkey eggs? If they hatch, what do I do with the poults? I will keep them if it's legal in MA...

Thanks in advance!

 

[ColbyNTX]

No, you can not have them. They belong to the state. That being said, I think most of us would have done the same thing. When they hatch, feed and water them! 80% will drown them. Should be more around 50%. 80% is good for lockdown but you don't know when they started incubating.

 

[Arielle]

THough it's not legal to own wild turkeys in Mass, I'm glad you rescued the eggs. Poor momma. We would have tried to incubate too if it was us.

Here is is thought. I live close to Tufts, the Grafton campus. And I know they have a wildlife dept that rehabs all kinds of wild animals, everything from turtles run over by cars, to eagles injured for various reasons.

Perhaps contacting the wildlife dept might be useful regarding the future of these poults.

 

[CoyoteMagic]

Quote:
That sounds like a good idea to me as well. If that doesn't work, I would limit contact with the poults as much as possible. Food, water, etc, but not handling like you would chicks. Maybe raise them in an out of the way place until they are old enough to fend for themselves. As little human contact as possible will make them wary of people, dogs, etc when they are bigger.

 

[Duckles]

Thanks or all the replies! I will definitely try to find a wildlife rehab

ColbyNTX- Thanks I will start lowering it to 50% now, it's at 80 because I had a goose egg cooking and it was on lockdown, but it's hatched now. Is 101 degrees good? It's a still air incubator, and actually I have a good idea of how long they've been incubating because when we got them they were just starting to develop. Also, how long is the incubating period?

sorry for all the questions, I've never hatched turkeys before

Hopefully these little guys can hatch out and find a home

 

[ColbyNTX]

Not sure of the still air? You can google it and find out. 99.5 in a forced air. If that is the temp you have been successfully hatching goose eggs then it willl be fine for the turkeys as they take the same temp.

 

[Alexander]

Its 101.5 for still air.

Good Luck with your eggs!

 

[Duckles]

Thanks!

 

[denise70]

Duckles: just wondering how you made out with the wild turkey eggs. Just curious if anything came of it!

 

[Duckles]

Funny you should ask... A friend of mine came over at about 5am one day last week to exercise, she walks over to the eggs and starts talking to them a whole lot. By about 7am, all of the eggs had pipped but one! It's crazy how much of a difference talking to the eggs makes... I hadn't at all really, but I sure started after they pipped. They hatch so fast! All but 1 ended up hatching. We gave them up once they were all fluffy... but what a fun experience