Incubator Turkey Peeps

It's a nice thing to watch these little guys peck their way out of a shell. Egg shells are porous and chicks are heard chirping & peeping as they start pecking away fron the inside out.
Something nice to know~ turkey eggs taste exactly like chicken eggs but are SUPER JUMBO in size & then some !

An alternative is to incubate , hatch & raise turkey peeps yourself.If you buy them they will cost a minimum of $4.00/peep.As fragile as they are you can lose a lot.Last year I lost 60+ baby turkeys . Probably to Coccidiosis,a very common poultry ailment, enteric, that wipes them out.So, I prefer to incubate my own eggs from my own turks.Not all incubators are a good buy, in fact, the ones you DON'T want are the most commonly found incubators on the shelves. The best have a little fan inside,wells on the flooring to hold water for humidity,an automatic thermostat & you must purchase an egg turner seperately for a 24/7 slow turn of the eggs. All poultry mamas know about turning their eggs.God has placed that instinct in them.

Here is a Bourbon Red peep .Sweet little thing.Most turkey heritage breeds were near extinction 30 years ago.This year I will raise them on wire flooring so their poopsies falls thru the floor and doesn't accumulate around their feet and little bottoms.

What is this crack in this egg? Can it be~~~ SATAN ??? No~ I stuck around instead of running away & looked again -- it was a baby turkey.A Bourbon Red turkey peep~cedar red colored in adulthood but yellow peep downe now. Turkeys are not the most intelligent mamas.Last year my Bourbon Red turkey hen hatched her little clutch of 3 peeps & tended to them beautifully~ until nightfall.It was time to roost~ so, she roosted 15 feet up in the barn rafters.I happened to be checking the barn people when I heard her peeps chirping loudly.They were alone on the ground.I scooped them up and placed them quickly in the brooder with the chicken peeps but they died within a few days.