In our case, the turkey! We keep a breeding flock of heirloom Unimproved Standard Bronze turkeys. These birds have had no significant cross breeding and can mate naturally. They are the purest of the Bronze line in terms of their heritage.

These birds are very entertaining to watch. The toms will put on quite a show to impress the hens of the flock!

The turkey hens lay one egg every day in wood nest boxes lined with wood shavings or straw. The eggs are collected daily and held in a cool basement for 1 week. We then put a large batch of eggs in the incubator.

After 24 days, the eggs are held in front of a bright light, as Lois is doing here. This is called 'candling' the eggs, since in the days prior to electricity this was done with an actual candle flame. If light glows through the egg it was never fertile. But if the egg shows black, or no light coming through, we know there is a turkey chick, or poult, inside!

These eggs are placed in trays in the hatcher, and over the next few days, the poults begin peeping as they work their way out of their shells.