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Thread: turkeys hatching

  1. #1
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    Default turkeys hatching

    so far one turkey peep has hatched out with a couple more piping the shells.
    am hoping I do better this year as last time I tried I killed all the babies from lack of enough heat. I talked with a breeder who told me to keep them hot!

    I got skunked on the broiler eggs, not a one hatched and that is a mystery, we typically have a very good hatch rate with chicken eggs.
    Our roo is quite the busy boy with his hens, and the eggs we use for eating show fertility..
    Goatlady I sure hope yours do better!

    we have Black Spanish and Narangasett eggs in two incubators, so maybe this year we will have our own turkey to roast in the fall.

  2. #2
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    Good luck. Baby turkeys can be hard to keep alive. Never underestimate their ability to find new and inventive ways to kill themselves.

    My incubator died. I know what's wrong with it, but it will cost $70 to fix it. Luckily I have two first time momma hens on eggs and found someone else with an incubator to split a hatch. Although she's a first time egg hatcher, so I'm not counting on a giant hatch.

    And this would have to be the year that I signed up in advance at the poultry butcher to bring birds in for thanksgiving.

  3. #3
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    we found out last year how easy they die off, so am going to watch them like a mama hen with a bit more knowledge under my belt.

    we had one more turkey peep hatch out a couple minutes ago, and have another incubator full of them and guinea eggs.

    the incubator I put the broiler eggs in is brand new and seems to be holding temp, humidity, so not sure why none of them hatched, but am happy to get the turkeys.

    we must have 12 hens out in the barnyard with broods of peeps, hard to walk out there between them and the bottle baby goats, lol

    found a broiler peep that no mama would claim, brought it in as a companion to the sole turkey hatchling and the turkey peep "ran" right over to the chick to snuggle up, happy to have a friend.
    I have read to not keep turkey and chickens together due to black head, but they all mingle outside and we have been lucky so far I guess.

  4. #4
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    IN the past, when I have ordered chicks and turkey poults, they are shipped together in the same box, and I brood them together, feed them all the same stuff, and they coop together(until the turkeys get too big to fit through the small doorway) and I have never had any problems with disease or any turkeys dying. I think if they have adequate room and clean facilities they do just fine together, but that's just my personal experiences. YES, surely hope I get some hatch, gal.

  5. #5
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    I HAVE seen blackhead in turkeys... it seems to be much more common in the giant, broadbreasted breeds. It's carried by chickens, who get it from ingesting earthworms, IIRC...

    It isn't pretty, but it's curable if caught early.

    If you're going to keep turkeys and chickens on the same place (it doesn't even have to be "together"... mine were mostly in separate pens), get some acidified copper sulfate and keep it on hand.

    I'd have to look up the dosage, but you add it to their water and as long as they aren't TOO far gone, it cures them in a day or so.

    Summerthyme

  6. #6
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    thanks for the tip about the copper sulfate ST, our feed store should have it on hand.

    Our turkeys do have their own pen and coops, but the free range chickens love to visit as the turkeys have feed available all day.

    now have 3 turkey peeps, and another couple rockin and rollin in the incubator, but I won't count em until they are hatched and lived through the week at least, lol

  7. #7
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    as of this morning we have 6 turkey hatchlings and 1 broiler peep, glad to have the chick in there as it can show the turkeys to eat and drink, lol

    have 2 more turkey eggs trying to hatch out, so if we get 8 out of 10 eggs, that won't be too bad.
    our turkey hens are laying quite a bit now and one Narangesett is broody, I have read it's better to raise the turkey chicks in a brooder than let the hen do it, anyone have experience with pro's and con's?
    will the Tom's kill the babies?

  8. #8
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    Doing really good on the turkey hatch, gal. Is about even on the 2 different breeds or is 1 hatching more than the other? Or can you tell the difference yet?

  9. #9
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    I had a hen raise a dozen chicks last year. She was a good momma, you should have seen her dive bomb every cat who dared to look at her babies.

    My biggest problem with her is that she liked to sneak her brood into my neighbors yard to hide under her bushes. Sadly, my neighbor is one of those city people who hates anything to do with the country, so I got frequent calls that she could see a turkey in the distance hiding in a bush.

    I don't have problems with toms harming babies, but my turkeys are used to hanging out with chickens with chicks. I wouldn't trust a tom that has never seen a chick around those precious turkey poults.

  10. #10
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    goatlady, most of the turkeys hatching out are the Narangasetts, as I knew the eggs were purebred in their pen.
    am really happy that we had at least one broiler peep hatch, lol
    we have an egg eater in the broiler pen and I haven't been able to catch her, they look so much alike, but some of the eggs had bits of yolk on them so am assuming that caused our low hatch.
    the one's you got weren't affected, in fact I got one egg within seconds of her dropping it, (now that's fresh, lol)
    So far we have one black spanish peep, but the Nag tom had access to the black spanish hens after we locked up the spanish tom, so not sure if a mix or pure.
    I caught the Black Spanish tom strangling our Nag tom and he had killed our back up tom already. DH has gotten the pens separated now, so we can keep the breeds pure and no fighting.

    NS, our chickens and their peeps go into the turkey pen everyday, the toms don't bother them, but the turkey hens chase them back out.
    guess i will go ahead and let the Nag hen hatch them out and watch her and the peeps real close.

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