How to Preserve Heritage Turkey Hatching Eggs

You can preserve the endangered heritage turkeys by raising your own for eggs and meat.

A heritage turkey is a domestically bred turkey that retains characteristics not typically found in birds raised by the large commercial farms. Since the early 1920's turkeys have been selectively bred to make the broad breasted baking turkeys in demand by so many people in the United States. Hatching your own heritage turkey eggs will help populate an animal that is on the endangered species list, not due to hunting, but due to the lack of commercial interest in raising heritage turkeys. Auburns, Buff, Bourbon Red, Narragansett and Blue Slate are heritage turkeys.

Things You'll Need

• Incubator
• Digital Thermometer
• Digital Hygrometer
• Brooding box

Instructions

1. Specify upon ordering your turkey eggs that you wish to purchase heritage turkey eggs. Some farmers breed the commercial broad breasted turkeys only because of the demand for these types of turkeys. A heritage turkey has three main qualifications to be considered a heritage turkey. First, they must be able to reproduce naturally. Many of the commercially raised birds cannot. Second, a heritage turkey must have a long life ranging from three to seven years. And third, they must have a slow to moderate growth rate; 28 weeks is a minimum for a heritage turkey to reach marketable weight for slaughter.

2. Choose the breed based on your particular needs. If you are wanting a mothering hen to help raise a future generation of turkeys, the Narragansetts is known for having a calm demeanor and good maternal instincts. They also mature earlier than some of the other heritage breeds. If you prefer the white meat of commercial turkeys but want to help preserve the heritage breeds, a Bourbon Red may be ideal for you if you plan to eat some of them. If you are more concerned about helping repopulate critically rare breeds, a Blue Slate or Black Spanish Turkey may be right for you.

3. Turn on the incubator about 48 hours prior to the eggs arriving. You will need to make sure that the temperature hovers between 99.5 and 101.5 degrees Fahrenheit. Check the hygrometer to ensure that the humidity is between 50 and 60 percent. Temperatures below 99.5 or above 103 can kill the turkey embryo so keep it in the middle range to be safe. Humidity can be increased by setting a small tray of warm water in the bottom of the incubator.

4. Place the egg turner inside the pre-heated incubator. Plug it in and make sure the turner moves. If you do not have an egg turner, you will have to manually turn the eggs every four hours to simulate the natural instinct of the mother turkey to "exercise" her young.

5. Set each turkey egg into the turner with the large end up. Close the incubator and wait for 24 days. Remove the eggs from the turner and remove the turner from the incubator and set them inside the incubator for the remaining four days. This period is known as the "hatching period."

6. Add more warm water to the bottom of the incubator and increase the humidity to at least 80 percent. Decrease the temperature to about 98 degrees to compensate for the increase in humidity.

7. 

   Poults need constant heat for the first weeks of their lives.

   Turn on the brooding box heat on about the 27th day. The brooding box will be where you place the new poults (baby turkeys) to dry and begin exploring their territory.

8. 

   Poult hatching from egg on incubator grate.

   Remove the poults from the incubator and place them in the brooder box as soon as they begin walking around. There will be those who will prefer to keep the birds in the incubator until all have hatched. If you are using a cheap foam incubator, the ammonia smell coming from small birds defecating in a small area for two days can be quite overwhelming. Foam incubators are also hard to clean when the feces has been baked onto the walls and floors of the unit.

References

• Porter Turkeys: Porter's Rare Heritage Turkeys
• Sustainable.org: Heritage, Heirloom and Traditional Breeds
• Sycamore Spring Farm: Preserving Heritage Breeds