1st Batch of Turkeys Hatched!

 The first batch of turkey eggs I had in the incubator hatched! I love sweet little baby turkey-heads! Out of 18 eggs, 4 of them weren't fertile (I'm thinking Tabby's first eggs. She has since started allowing the toms to do their thing), 1 quit around the time I added the 2nd batch (I'm thinking the temp flux was too much for it), and 1 quit a day or two ago (not sure what happened there). So 12 out of 18 isn't a great hatch rate but the 2nd batch appears to be turning out much better so far. Lets hope that this batch didn't shake them up too much! I knew that was going to be an issue when I started but I had a ton of turkey eggs and only 1 incubator!

Tallow's (Blue Slate hen) eggs had a perfect hatch rate and all of her eggs hatched first (a day early)! I believe that I ended up with 7 pure Bourbon Reds and 5 Bourbon/Slate mixes. Poor Yellow, my self blue tom, doesn't get mating privileges since he is toward the bottom of the pecking order so I didn't get any pure slates. I'm planning to work on a make shift breeding pen for them so I can get some slate babies this year. The coloring of the mixes surprised me! Two of them look like I would have expected. They look like slates with a little bit of a red tinge.
The other 3 are black tinged with red with a red belly and yellow around their eyes! I guess the slate (black) gene is stronger than I thought. They are so pretty and sweet!

 I have been planning to sell this batch since I set them but they make it so difficult! I get attached to them! The first batch of eggs that I sold hatched well! I heard from the new proud turkey-momma and she said that out of 12 eggs 9 pipped and 8 hatched. I'm not sure why the one pipped but didn't hatch but sometimes those things happen. That is a pretty darn good hatch rate for shipped eggs! She said she is already addicted to turkeys and was asking about buying more eggs already! I'm glad that she decided to wait for a little while and see how she does once they get bigger. She didn't get any black chicks. I need to look into the genetics. I'm really excited to see what these babies look like when they get bigger and feather out! I also sold 2 dozen more turkey eggs tonight so I hope that I can keep in touch with her and see how they turn out! I love keeping tabs on my grand-turkeys. I'm also a scientist at heart and like to know hatch rates and coloring. I will never make money raising and selling eggs, chicks, and poults, but it helps to pay for the feed and allows me to keep them and I REALLY enjoy it! I love sharing what I enjoy with other people! <3

Edited to add:
I had a second batch of turkey poults hatch out on 4-30-13 :)
14 total: 3 black, 3 blue, 7 bourbon reds.
All sold... I guess I need to start another batch in the incubator so I can have some! I really want some more blue slate hens! I need to start on a coop for Yellow and Tallow so I have a chance at getting some before the stop laying for the season.