ANY LUCK WITH TURKY EGG INCUBATIONS?

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HI ALL, does anyone out there had any luck with turkey egg incubation? i have a turkey that has laid about 10 eggs, i placed some under our banty hen, and bought a small incubator. just want to know if it's worth the trouble. this turkey had no idea what to do, she wasn't setting. apparently that instinct has been bred out of them. anyway, any suggestions would help. jeannie

-- jeannie (mistymt@theofficenet.com), May 12, 2001

Answers

I have a friend hatching some out for me. 1 has hatched so far & more on the way. It can be done! My hens did set last year, but not this year.

-- Wendy (weiskids@yahoo.com), May 12, 2001.

We incubated about 40 turkey chicks year before last. It was not easy keeping the humidity right, we had to mist the eggs along with providing the water in the well. Also the temp has to be just right as the chicks will hatch early and be "mushy" if it is too high and not hatch at all if it is too cold. We used a hoverbator with an automatic turner. You MUST teach the babies to eat and drink, we just dunked their beaks right in the water and kept them under heat lights. We used colored marbles in the water dishes and in their feeders as they love bright shiny objects and will learn to peck at food by pecking at the marbles. We fed turkey starter (not chick starter as it doesn't have enough protein)for the first two months then switched them over to grower rations. All in all we had fun, but wasn't worth the extra effort as it was much harder to maintain the humidity in the incubator than with chicks. The last two years the hens raise their own with about equal success as we had with the incubator based on the number of eggs set and hatched. Some hens are good moms and others are really dumb, but they will not set until they have laid all the eggs they think are necessary. Some will set on just seven or eight, but most of ours laid between 12 and 16 eggs. We even had one older hen that laid 21 and then set. There has been about a 75% liveability rate with the hens left to do their own thing. Your hen may not have set as she wasn't ready to quit laying. They will leave their nest to feed, come back and lay again, and drive you nuts thinking they just aren't going to set, then one day they just start. It takes 28 days in the incubator to hatch. We've learned alot about turkeys by trial and error and with the help of good books and of all folks, Gold Kist hatcheries. Now we are just letting the birds free range and keeping an eye on who goes "missing" and carefully watch the hen. She will dilly dally around and not go to the nest if she thinks we're watching. Our turkeys are bourbon reds, bronze and Royal palms. We don't raise the broad breasted whites as they are aren't good breeders. Good luck with your birds. Try Raising Poultry the Modern Way which is a very good book.

-- Cindy (colawson@mindspring.com), May 13, 2001.

hi all, glad to report that our banty hen hatched out 6 turkey eggs for us...great setter and brooder hen! the turkeys live on. easier than an incubator...she gladly adopted the turkey chicks and taught them to eat, drink, everything...we had to take them away from her as she didn't want to set on the other eggs that didn't hatch yet. so we took the babes away as soon as they were able to eat and drink on their own and she went back to setting. jeannie

-- jeannie (mistymt@theofficenet.com), June 21, 2001.

I use a G.Q.F. sportsman incubater and hatcher and then I have a 5 tiered grow off brooder (heated). I probably have about a 95% hatch rate. You can do it but you have to do ALL the steps. (and when I started all this I started with a styrefoam incubator!)

-- Susan K. Lyons (slyons@pbtcomm.net), October 21, 2001.

Hello department of turkey’s eggs I have some quotations about this subject I need to know the price of the Eggs and from where can I Find it and what I need to do to order it Thank you

-- haitem gashir (gashir77@yahoo.com), March 20, 2002.


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