The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Livestock => Poultry & Waterfowl => Topic started by: Declan on January 06, 2013, 08:27:34 pm
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Heres one for you. A farmer friend of mine had a dozen or so turkeys left over from Christmas- Some were too small and some just didn't make the grade for killing/selling. They have now started to lay and they have been with a turkey stag. He doesn't know but suspects that the stag has been having his way with the turkey hens. He knows I have an incubator- a wee octagon 20.
Whats the chances of being able to hatch these eggs for him and if ordinary hens hatch in 21 days give or take how long does it take for turkeys.
Surprisingly enough the eggs he is getting aren't any bigger than the ones my ordinary hens are laying.
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At my work we have 6 hens and 2 stags, we were advised that fertilty wont be at its best until the 2nd year of lay, i would be interested to know if others have heard this to be generally the case with turkeys as 2012 was their first year laying and none incubated, Ours are crollwizlers, The eggs are only a tad bigger than the hen eggsand hard to pick out when we collect apart from colour. Incubation is 28 days.
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I would wait until the eggs are full-sized, maybe later in the year, or next spring if the birds survive December :turkey: Meanwhile the eggs are delicious to eat and to bake with :yum:
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I think I am the opposite and recon what have you got to lose but a few eggs and a little electricity if you bung them in the incubator.
I think the thing that would put me off is that these are the runts of the litter so to speak from what you said in that they are the ones that didn't make the weight or grade to kill.
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I'd echo what beeducked says, sounds like breeding from the poor stock? Turkeys can be prone to dying early at the best of times! Also agree the eggs have a good flavor and are probably based enjoyed on toast!
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I think I am the opposite and recon what have you got to lose but a few eggs and a little electricity if you bung them in the incubator.
Except if you then hatch a few in late January you would have quite a bit more on electricity costs to rear them in a possibly cold February?
I would also agree not to breed from what is probably sub-standard stock, and also not at this time of year.
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We have Narragansetts and the eggs are more than twice as big as a hen's egg. The stags don't usually begin mating until late January, when the hens will start to lay in earnest. We don't normally run a stag with more than 4 hens and expect at least 80% fertility. We raise our indoors under an electric broody for the first three weeks. We don't begin to incubate until the end of lambing, however (usually early April), so the weather is mild enough for them to do without additional heat when they move into a growers coop under cover in a farm shed.