Raising poults
This year, I decided to invest in incubators to help hatch turkey eggs. In 2011, I borrowed incubators for eggs the setting turkey hens could not handle. Some from a crowded nest and some because of heavy rain in an outside nest. The poor results of those hatchings were probably a combination of temperature changes during development and the young age of the parents.
So this year I started with the incubators. The success rate was huge and I ended up selling day-old and some started poults to four people. We also had ten to butcher. The black banded hen hatched and raised three poults (she started with six, but half died) and two hens raised one poult together, for a total of four that we added to the flock: little tom and three young hens.
Some of the poults hatched in the incubator.