airedale

Man the power has gone out here three times in the last two weeks having to get out the generator for power and making me paranoid to go anywhere. In the home stretch now, the eggs will be going into what is called the lockdown stage. The automatic egg turners are shut off and the humidity cranked up to 70% and the incubator is not opened until the hatching is over. The first batch are Asil eggs, they are pipping now and should be all hatched out on Tuesday by the end of the day. On day 20, the chick pierces the membrane into the air chamber. The chick breathes air for the first time, and you may hear the chick peeping inside the egg. This is called pipping. On the 21st day, the chick begins to break out of the shell. Indian Asils are probably the toughest chickens alive pound for pound. The next large hatch of eggs in a different incubator will start sometime toward the end of the week. They are all gamefowl of some type except for 6 Jersy Giant eggs. It will not be until the middle of next week the Turkey eggs and Goose eggs start hatching. Al

Way to go Charlie, congratulations. I went out and poked around in the rain this morning, saw three Deer, One Squirrel and two Turkey hens, no Toms were seen or gobbling heard. Wore the new Frogg Togg suit and it kept me dry. Al

When I was a young fellow I would hunt in any kind of weather and it did not bother me much, today I am pretty much a fair weather boy when it comes to hunting especially in downpours. Now that being said, having to do farm chores every day there are times like today when I have no choice and am out there getting them done in a downpour. I have some pretty fair rain gear that does what it is supposed to do but it is heavy and made from some type of rubber that when temps are hot you will sweat bullets wearing it. Last fall I decided to try a suit of light weight Frogg Toggs for when the weather got milder, got the Real Tree All Sport rain suit and today I put it to the test for a couple of hours in pouring rain doing my chores. I really like this suit especially it's light weight and roomy fit that does not constrict movement at all. When all said and done my clothes underneath were totally dry, it worked great. How long it will hold up under hard use I can not say so time will tell. The camo looks good and if I have a mind to go for a Turkey hunt sometime this rainy week I would have no problem wearing it. All and all a thumbs up. Al

They will come out of the woods and hang in open areas when it rains hard, the noise of the rain and windy conditions work against their senses for spotting or hearing danger. Out in the open I believe they feel more comfortable. Al

Some nice Toms and quite a feat, I am impressed, congratulations. Al

What was found about hatchery raised birds be they Turkeys, Pheasants, Quail etc. that they missed learning from experienced wild mother hens basic critical survival skills. Finding food and avoiding and evading predatory birds and varmints is learned from mother hens, without that training they are easy pickings and do not last long in the wild. The catch and release program worked great, the wild birds propagated and the population basically exploded. Some of the very first wild caught birds were released just a couple of miles away from where I live and I got to see their numbers take off first hand. There was no hunting season for a few years and another big factor was a huge booming fur market especially for the demand of nest raiding type varmints like Coons, Fox, Possums and Skunks, their pelts were all worth big time money and trapping and hunting was going strong. Then add in the Raccoon rabies which affects all the above animals, as someone that hunted those animals I can say their populations went way down which in turn was favorable for the Turkeys, it was the perfect storm. Al

A tip on incubators for anyone looking to give this a try. As always you will get what you pay for, a top notch incubator will regulate temperatures and humidity and will give much better hatching percentages with all else being equal. A good incubator will have a small fan to circulate the air keeping the temperatures even throughout with no cool spots. You also want an automatic egg turner that turns the eggs on regular intervals. An accurate thermometer and also an accurate way to keep track of humidity which is important especially in the last three day lock down period. I use the little incu-therm models shown below, they have worked well for me so far. Size is also something to consider, large eggs from Geese, Ducks and Turkeys require a bit more room inside and headspace for the little ones when they hatch. The big white Hova-Bator pictured above is great for large eggs. Al

Congratulations, an accomplishment for sure of goals held by serious Turkey hunters. I love the look of the Merriams with those white tipped feathers. Al

More Iowa Barn Burners, those folks have told me they have huge Coon populations. Al

Took another walk back to this same spot talked about above and saw 5 Turkeys, 3 Hens and 2 Jakes, looks like the LC Smith double may see some action. Al

I would have loved to have a rig like that back years ago in my Rat hunting days at local town dumps that were crawling with them. I used my car lights and a 22 rifle shooting shorts, after the shot the Rats would duck and cover, turn the lights off and within a couple of minutes they were back out grubbing through the garbage. It was a blast. Al

You are pretty much on the money as far as pressing the muzzle to the head, I have had quite a bit of experience shooting Rat shot out of revolvers, both 357 and 44mag, the shot is small and the patterns are good for only a few feet. There are revolvers that can fire 410 shells and Thompson Center made a 410 barrel for it's Contenders, I suppose with TSS - Heavy shot it would be possible at short range to kill a Turkey but a lousy choice in my opinion, maybe in a survival situation but for sport hunting a solid no for me. Like you I did not know a handgun was legal for Turkeys????? Al

Last fall while Deer hunting I found a group of mast trees that were untouched by the Gypsy Moth blight that hit this area, these trees, Beech and Oak had a decent production of mast and getting hit hard by both Deer and Turkeys. I checked it out a couple of days ago and when walking in I spotted a parade of eight or nine Turkeys moving up the side of a hill away from me, they had been in that mast grove and had the ground tore up scratching out mast. With my binoculars could make out at least two Jakes and a boss Tom so I am encouraged. There is an ideal spot where I can setup behind a big old tree trunk smack in the middle of that feeding area. So if I decide to get my ass out and hunt I am thinking if I have an opportunity I would kill a Jake over the one boss Tom I saw and leave him for breeding purposes. If I happen see more than one mature Tom in that flock I would take one if a shot presented itself. Al

A disaster was averted, my power was out for 10 hours and had I not had a generator for electrical power I would have lost all the eggs. I am a huge believer in the Boy Scout saying of being prepared, I have a second generator to backup my main generator in case that happens to fail. Seems like every time I am incubating eggs I have a power outage. I will be candling the eggs later this week to see what is going on as far as development, a bright light shined through the shell will reveal what is going on inside and the eggs that are doing nothing will be removed from the incubators, I have my fingers crossed.

I was hoping to check out and buy the new ATI Turkey model over and under shotgun, I did not find any vendors that had one. I did see some interesting stuff but abstained. Found some reasonably priced large rifle primers, a mint Thompson Center Aristocrat single shot caught my eye but was in the wrong chambering. Also got to check out the new Henry Homesteader 9mm autoloader made legal by welding the barrel thread protector cap so it can not be removed. I might have bit on that one but it was priced a bit high in my opinion. Al

I am going to try and abstain Al

Man, sucks is putting it mildly, glad nobody was hurt. Al

A friend of mine out in BC Canada used his Airedale for a recovery of a wounded archery hunt Bear that ended with the Bear holing up in a cave. Al

The auctions are the best place to find hard to get fowl, if one is just looking to get some hatching eggs from fairly common birds I would say Craigslist can be a good source. There are some good deals to be found there and if the seller is local that is an advantage as you can pick them up yourself foregoing the rough postal service handling, your hatch percentage will rise significantly. Al

Can say I do not have any first hand experience with that particular club but it sure sounds like it is a pretty good setup, a local range is well worth joining in my opinion. Al

The price range for hatching eggs is determined for the most part by rarity, common Chicken's eggs can be purchased very reasonable, start getting into birds that are rare I have seen asking prices of $100 for one egg. Shipping will add to the cost as the eggs have to be protected very well from the rough handling they get from the postal service, the sellers go through some very elaborate ways of packing and protecting the eggs. Most sellers add an egg or two to cover possible breakage. Out of the 80 plus eggs I received I had three that were broken but was covered by extras sent. Purchasing hatching eggs is sometimes the only way to obtain certain breeds of fowl. You can get an idea on prices by going over on ebay and searching hatching egg auctions by breed or types. Al

That kind of hunting is right up my alley. Al