young hen has just started to lay, when can I start hatching eggs?

[chickengr]

a friend of mine has royal palm turkeys. one of his young hens started to lay. her first 5 eggs were small so he boiled them. the next 2 eggs are bigger than the first 5. would they be good for hatching? if not, how many eggs should a turkey hen lay before we start collecting them for hatching?

 

[589205]

a friend of mine has royal palm turkeys. one of his young hens started to lay. her first 5 eggs were small so he boiled them. the next 2 eggs are bigger than the first 5. would they be good for hatching? if not, how many eggs should a turkey hen lay before we start collecting them for hatching?

How old is the hen and how long ago did she first start laying eggs?

 

[589205]

Also, are you sure that they are fertile? Is there a Tom around who mated with her recently?

 

[589205]

I personally would not recommend hatching turkey eggs from a poult/hen that is less than a year old.

 

[R2elk]

a friend of mine has royal palm turkeys. one of his young hens started to lay. her first 5 eggs were small so he boiled them. the next 2 eggs are bigger than the first 5. would they be good for hatching? if not, how many eggs should a turkey hen lay before we start collecting them for hatching?

In the spring I collect all of the turkey eggs whether from first time layers or older hens and incubate all of them. It is normal for the first egg laid to not be fertile but any following eggs usually are.

It is not normal for a Royal Palm hen to start laying in the fall in the northern hemisphere. If the turkeys are being supplied with supplemental light it can throw off their normal laying times. If the hens are being supplied with extra light but the toms aren't, it is highly unlikely that the eggs would be fertile as the toms also need a certain amount of daylight to be capable of fertilizing the eggs.

Good luck.

You can incubate the eggs. The worst that will happen is that they won't hatch.

Personally I do not hatch anything this time of the year due to the difficulties of keeping the little ones warm enough until they are acclimated to the ambient temperature.

 

[chickengr]

How old is the hen and how long ago did she first start laying eggs?

she was hatched this year and just started to lay. 7 eggs total.

 

[chickengr]

Also, are you sure that they are fertile? Is there a Tom around who mated with her recently?

there is a tom.

 

[chickengr]

In the spring I collect all of the turkey eggs whether from first time layers or older hens and incubate all of them. It is normal for the first egg laid to not be fertile but any following eggs usually are.

It is not normal for a Royal Palm hen to start laying in the fall in the northern hemisphere. If the turkeys are being supplied with supplemental light it can throw off their normal laying times. If the hens are being supplied with extra light but the toms aren't, it is highly unlikely that the eggs would be fertile as the toms also need a certain amount of daylight to be capable of fertilizing the eggs.

Good luck.

You can incubate the eggs. The worst that will happen is that they won't hatch.

Personally I do not hatch anything this time of the year due to the difficulties of keeping the little ones warm enough until they are acclimated to the ambient temperature.

we have mild winters and winter chicks here are much healthier than summer chicks. we have brutal summers when chicks don't eat much due to heat.

 

[Molpet]

Look for a bullseye

 

[chickengr]

Look for a bullseye

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I am more concerned about the age of turkey. I don't hatch pullets eggs and I am not familiar with turkeys. I did hatch a few turkey eggs in june but my bronze turkey hen started to lay in march.