Working on 1st turkey hatch in incubator, is this normal? HELP!!!!!!!

[purosaviparos]

Got about 12 eggs in my LG. First 25 days, temps 99-100, humidity between 50-55%, all embryos grew and every time i candled them there was a lot of movement, even though sometimes they didnt react right away, after watching them for a few minutes they all moved. Now I have reached day 25 and I have them on lock down, still in the egg turner but the turner now is unplugged, i have read that if they are incubated upright then it is best to hatch them upright and vice versa, so im now into day 26 and I sampled six eggs very quickly by candling them and there is only movement in two, one of which is pipped and is currently breaking the shell, the other is moving somewhat but has not pipped, The other 4 i sampled didn't move at all as where in days prior to lockdown they were moving around pretty good. i didnt want to sample the rest, i was trying to avoid having them out for too long, i just popped one of the view windows open and grabbed 3 from each side to test and closed the window, the temp nor humidity changed much. Can i chalk this up under the fact that they are trying to position themselves and they may be tired and aren't moving a lot or at all (or at least not in the small timeframe in which i candled them) does this all sound normal?, i would hate to lose the hatch. I have the humidity now between 75-80% and the air sack seems a lot bigger that a chickens in comparison to size, I am overcome with worry, turkey people, is this normal? is there a noticable lack of movement when hatching?, i know lockdown means "lockdown" like dont open the incubator, but i did it really quickly i had to know what was going on, are they going to be ok? HELP!

 

[HallFamilyFarm]

You should know in a few more days.

 

[CarolJ]

It is my understanding that since the egg is so crowded at this point, you won't really see much movement - if any at all. I'd leave them alone and wait and see what happens.

 

[ColbyNTX]

Leave them alone! They should be fine. I hatch 25-50 turkeys a week from March-July every year and do lay mine flat for hatch and its not a problem. It will be OK to leave them in your turner since you already have. I would not do it next time. The problem is they will have no footing after they hatch and you could get leg and feet problems. With the LG's and other table tops, they are too small to open any during a hatch because it takes so long for the heat and humidity to come back up.

 

[purosaviparos]

Quote:
Well im pretty sure i lost the entire hatch! Grabbing the eggs, two at a time over a few hour period through the view windows, i was able to candle them rapidly without opening the entire unit and this did not affect the temp/hum drastically, i have three thermometer/hum gauges in the unit and it only varied 1 degree and quicky returned every time i took some out. Just letting you know that i dont think this was the cause of my problems. I don't know what happened! 25 days of 99.5 degrees with 55% humidity and lots of movement. On the night of the 25th (because i placed them at night and also have read that you can be somewhat off on this, but i was pretty exact) I kicked the humidity up to 75% and left them alone for a solid 24 hrs. On the night of the 26th day i grabbed 6 eggs through the view window and candled them (2 at a time, then waited about 20 minutes before grabbing 2 more to make sure the levels stayed the same) and one had some movement but had not pipped and one indeed had pipped (making me think that the hum was good enough to allow them to break the "thicker turkey membrane") so i left them for another 24 - 36 hrs. The morning of the 28th day (today) i grabbed the one that had pipped and checked him again, dead! no movement. I opened it up and it appeared normal, only dead. It broke through the membrane and when i checked it on the 26th day it was pecking at the shell, but only got that far, didnt even have any hairline fractures when i candled it on the 28th morning. Took him completely out of the egg and he was lifeless. Continued to candle the rest and nobody had broken the membrane and all were lifeless. I still have them in there and am going to wait until tomorrow night, the night of the 29th day to open them and investigate. I have had real good success with chickens they just seem to be much more resistent to things, but these turkeys are killing me! (Actually they are killing themselves, or im killing them not sure which) They take longer and seem to be so much more delicate. What happened? I also lowered the temp when i kicked up the humidity because i have read that this helps as a temp spike with so much humidity can kill the poult, i feel i did everything right according to alot of what i have read here on this site (and i have read many, many posts on incubating chicken and turkey eggs). Could this be due to mal-positioning? Should i have laid them down to hatch? Also i feel that i should have helped my only pipper when he was still alive, i should have opened the shell for him, gave em a hand. All three of my females are currently laying eggs and in about a week or so ill be ready for another batch, but ill have about 30 eggs! I dont want the next hatch to fail, help!!!

COLBYNTX ---- I live about 20-22 hours from woods to the south, i feel we may have the same outdoor temp / humidity, what is your method? Temps/hum? how many days? Lockdown? You hatch laying down right? Did you notice if i was missing or did soemthing wrong? Hatching chicks really boosted my ego but now with these turkeys im feeling quite the failure, help me please.

 

[Frosty]

I am not an expert... I just thought I would point toward the tips Kevin Porter has on his site in case they help. http://www.porterturkeys.com/egghatchingtips.htm

 

[purosaviparos]

Quote:
Thanks, i have followed all of what it says there to a T, only my humidity at hatching was 75%, there it says 80 and above, maybe this has something to do with it, next time ill kick the hum up to 85, thanks

 

[ColbyNTX]

Quote:
Well im pretty sure i lost the entire hatch! Grabbing the eggs, two at a time over a few hour period through the view windows, i was able to candle them rapidly without opening the entire unit and this did not affect the temp/hum drastically, i have three thermometer/hum gauges in the unit and it only varied 1 degree and quicky returned every time i took some out. Just letting you know that i dont think this was the cause of my problems. I don't know what happened! 25 days of 99.5 degrees with 55% humidity and lots of movement. On the night of the 25th (because i placed them at night and also have read that you can be somewhat off on this, but i was pretty exact) I kicked the humidity up to 75% and left them alone for a solid 24 hrs. On the night of the 26th day i grabbed 6 eggs through the view window and candled them (2 at a time, then waited about 20 minutes before grabbing 2 more to make sure the levels stayed the same) and one had some movement but had not pipped and one indeed had pipped (making me think that the hum was good enough to allow them to break the "thicker turkey membrane") so i left them for another 24 - 36 hrs. The morning of the 28th day (today) i grabbed the one that had pipped and checked him again, dead! no movement. I opened it up and it appeared normal, only dead. It broke through the membrane and when i checked it on the 26th day it was pecking at the shell, but only got that far, didnt even have any hairline fractures when i candled it on the 28th morning. Took him completely out of the egg and he was lifeless. Continued to candle the rest and nobody had broken the membrane and all were lifeless. I still have them in there and am going to wait until tomorrow night, the night of the 29th day to open them and investigate. I have had real good success with chickens they just seem to be much more resistent to things, but these turkeys are killing me! (Actually they are killing themselves, or im killing them not sure which) They take longer and seem to be so much more delicate. What happened? I also lowered the temp when i kicked up the humidity because i have read that this helps as a temp spike with so much humidity can kill the poult, i feel i did everything right according to alot of what i have read here on this site (and i have read many, many posts on incubating chicken and turkey eggs). Could this be due to mal-positioning? Should i have laid them down to hatch? Also i feel that i should have helped my only pipper when he was still alive, i should have opened the shell for him, gave em a hand. All three of my females are currently laying eggs and in about a week or so ill be ready for another batch, but ill have about 30 eggs! I dont want the next hatch to fail, help!!!

COLBYNTX ---- I live about 20-22 hours from woods to the south, i feel we may have the same outdoor temp / humidity, what is your method? Temps/hum? how many days? Lockdown? You hatch laying down right? Did you notice if i was missing or did soemthing wrong? Hatching chicks really boosted my ego but now with these turkeys im feeling quite the failure, help me please.

20-22 hours south of me, are you walking or taking a boat or in Central Mexico?

I'm only 2 hours drive from the Gulf! I hatch all of mine on their side. I candle 1X at 2 weeks and then when I move them to lockdown on day 25. I don't touch them or open the bator again until they hatch. I run my incubators at 99.5 with 45% humidity. I only run my humidity at 65% and 98.6 in my hatcher.