Best breeding set up for heritage turkeys?

[kfelton0002]

Also, little dog houses for small dogs make good nest boxes for turkeys. The little plastic ones. You may be able to find some at yard sales or on FB marketplace. You can position the entrance of the nest kind of close to the fence or another structure in the pen so the hen almost has to squeeze into the opening. But that will help keep the tom out of the nest if that is ever an issue. I kid you not, my friend's tom would go in the nestbox and sit next to his hen while she laid. As cute as that sounds, toms are too big for keeping company in the nest and many eggs got broken because of that.

 

[R2elk]

Also, little dog houses for small dogs make good nest boxes for turkeys. The little plastic ones. You may be able to find some at yard sales or on FB marketplace. You can position the entrance of the nest kind of close to the fence or another structure in the pen so the hen almost has to squeeze into the opening. But that will help keep the tom out of the nest if that is ever an issue. I kid you not, my friend's tom would go in the nestbox and sit next to his hen while she laid. As cute as that sounds, toms are too big for keeping company in the nest and many eggs got broken because of that.

I had a Bourbon Red tom that would seek out the nests and stomp the eggs to get the hens back to breeding mode.

There is a reason that wild turkey hens hide their nests from the toms.

 

[kfelton0002]

I had a Bourbon Red tom that would seek out the nests and stomp the eggs to get the hens back to breeding mode.

There is a reason that wild turkey hens hide their nests from the toms.

Aww what a jerk. lol That makes sense because if a tom in the wild wants to further his genes he would sabotage a nest to make the hen receptive to breed again. Like how male lions will kill another male's cubs when he takes over a pride so the females go back into heat again.