A century of Turkey talk 2000-2100.

Quick question for the experts here. my hens are now laying, yay!!! They are s year old, been laying a couple months now. NY question is, two hens are really truly body ... On the sane nest. They cram themselves in there, and only one leaves at a time.
One is a palm, one is a Bourbon. Is this common behavior?
Very common. Last 2 pairs of my bourbons were on the same next and they were fine. They even hatched and raised them together just fine. Right now I have 20 hens but they only use 2 of the 4 nests I have with this odd behavior.
 
Stephencraig.....I don't have a tom. Or a rooster. Its pretty zen here in the convent.

MountainBourbons....I have one bourbon hen. Its like living with a two year old! She has to be in the middle of everything. "Curious" is an understatement. She's downright nosey! And has to comment on everything! She is quite a character! She is so funny! Always up to something! I can't imagine having 30 babies or 20 bourbon hens! You must have your hands full!
 
Morning all.

I have two broody Royal Palms, BUT I take every egg out from them everyday. The other hen and the CLB's just crawl in with them and keep filling the nest.

I would not let two turkey hens share eggs or poults. While it might work it is just as likely in one of them becoming a dingbat and killing them while fighting off the other Mother. Turkeys as a whole are not very liberal and do not believe a Poult can have 2 Mommies.
 
400
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Last year, I had a pair of hens, Rosabelle (palm) and Annabelle (burbon) hatch and raise 15 poults together. Only lost 2. turkey team raising seems to be very successful!
 

Last year, I had a pair of hens, Rosabelle (palm) and Annabelle (burbon) hatch and raise 15 poults together. Only lost 2. turkey team raising seems to be very successful!

You got lucky. That is not the normal outcome when hens share a nest. The normal outcome is broken eggs and squashed poults as they hatch from too many big feet moving around in too small of a space.

While many turkey hens can be very tolerant of the poults from another hen, the other result can also happen. I had two hens nesting in the same room and not even next to each other. The first hen to hatch her poults didn't pay much attention to her poults and they spent a lot of time crawling in around an on top of the other hen and her nest.

When the second hen's poults hatched, the first hen would kill any of those poults that ventured out away from their nest. Eventually I banished the first hen and the second hen adopted all of those poults and took care of her own as well.
 
Sounds like hen one isn't mother material. I did have one hen try last fall who had a hard time. Ladybird tried brooding. Between the dog or chickens snatching her eggs when she would get up to poo, only one poults hatched. She smooshed it. She was pretty broken up about it, moping around the yard a few days. It was her first time.
 
Speaking of mama turkey hens, I have Pebbles 2 cream legbar cockerels to raise up. She couldn't be happier! I know that with her, she'll accept whatever I hand to her. I just never let her keep them long enough raise them out. I allways took them once she left the nest. I just might let her go ahead and raise them this time though.
 
You folks scare me. I think I'll stick to the bator, tractor, introduce through protective cover method. Turkey's seem devoted in their first 8 weeks to finding the most creative way to commit suicide... But after that they seem pretty indestructible. That said, I had to move the top tom out of the boys pen yesterday as all the underlings formed a revolt. The poor guy was in total panic when I picked him up, but seemed happy that I put him in the girls pen... My girls have pretty much quit laying so it really doesn't seem to matter anymore. None-the-less, he seemed to be very happy with his exile... I'll have to watch close when they all go back out to pasture... well that is those who aren't going to freezer camp.
 
Stephencraig.....I don't have a tom. Or a rooster. Its pretty zen here in the convent.

MountainBourbons....I have one bourbon hen. Its like living with a two year old! She has to be in the middle of everything. "Curious" is an understatement. She's downright nosey! And has to comment on everything! She is quite a character! She is so funny! Always up to something! I can't imagine having 30 babies or 20 bourbon hens! You must have your hands full!
Same here

My 22 hens run after me whenever I walk in their 1 acre field. Best birds in my opinion. Some of the time my hens are so curious that they fly over my 8 foot fence yet they still don't know how to get back in. It can get a little annoying. At least they don't run off, they just stay around running up and down the fence.
 

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