A century of Turkey talk 2000-2100.

[memphis]

Wow Dheltzel! I love Moma! She's gorgeous, and so are her babies!
You've seen our sliding Turkey Temperament Scale? Sounds like Clarice is a Lapper!
Are you setting up breeding pens already, since the girls are laying? Do you incubate of let the girls brood?
Thanks for the pictures. Seriously beautiful flock!

 

[OneMountainAcres]

One mystery solved and another begins. Someone else has started to lay. There was a smaller, whiter egg on the floor this morning note to figure out who laid it lol

 

[memphis]

Another hen laying! Wow. You'll have that incubator full in no time!

Have you eaten one yet?

 

[memphis]

I have another dumb turkey question. Do ALL turkey hens go broody? Or are they like chickens, some do and some never do.

 

[duluthralphie]

My crazy Midget White youngsters started laying last August and have not stopped since. Usually an egg or 2 every day - they lay better than many of the chickens! They started when about 6 months of age, too, I wish my chickens were so consistent. This past week I started getting eggs from the young Black Mottled or Royal Palm hens, not as consistent as the MW's, but earlier than I was expecting from them.

Maybe it's the spring-like temps we have been having.

2 eggs in 1 day?

All of you with egg laying turkeys have me in a quandary. I am jealous of you, but I am not sure I want my Turkey hen to start laying now. My worry is they will stop laying before I want them too if they start now?

Are you supplementing calcium now?

 

[duluthralphie]

The one with the most distintive markings is the hen I call "Momma Turkey" (she is the oldest of this group and the mother of all of the mottled and RP's). She is from Porters and will be 3 this spring and true to the description, is getting more white with each molt. The other 2 hens are her daughters and I think they might be "mottled silver dappled", she has 2 other daughters that are clearly pure black mottleds. All the younger ones were sired by a Royal Palm that has since passed, but you can see his sons in this next pic.


Pure white ones are Midget Whites, the others are sons of Momma Turkey and a RP I got locally. The black tom is patterned like the 2 hens that look like mottled silver dapples. His is to be my main breeder male in 2016. I like the mottleds and the silver dappled ones a lot. My favorite is one of those MSD hens that I named Clarice (after the doe-eyed mate of Rudoph). She is very attached to me and seeks out my company whenever I show up. I think it miffs the toms somewhat, but they seem willing to take advantage of her infatuation with me and the black tom is quite tame also and moves in quickly when Clarice starts coming on to me.

Turkeys are so much fun!

Beautiful turkeys!

I need some of them too!


Memphis, I could get rid of the Creamettes with no problem. but getting rid of turkeys is hard to do, it is like selling a dog, I am worried I will have thousands of turkeys running around here in a couple years.

 

[duluthralphie]

I have another dumb turkey question. Do ALL turkey hens go broody? Or are they like chickens, some do and some never do.

All of mine went broody last summer, BUT they did not do so until they had 10-12 eggs under them. With as many hens as I have I am going to have to make sure I collect at least once or twice a day to try and keep them from going broody. I found in the first day or two they are easy to break, compared to a chicken. Especially the BA's, They refuse to break.

 

[R2elk]

I have another dumb turkey question. Do ALL turkey hens go broody? Or are they like chickens, some do and some never do.

All of the turkey hens that I have had to maturity have all gone broody every year. I delay it as long as I can by taking their eggs but eventually every one of them has gone broody.

 

[memphis]

Thanks guys. I'll just keep collecting eggs & hope I can stall the inevitable broody. However if all you guys get certified I want eggs from everyone! LOL!

Ah....Ralph. ...yet again you've put it into perspective. Rehoming a turkey is like placing a dog. My dogs are not for everyone. I heavily screen a new potential owner. I can see the similarities in placing a turkey.

 

[duluthralphie]

A turkey discovered he can jump on the garbage cans and get into the old oak Tree we keep our cans by...



Then he found he could even go higher...



The two on the garbage cans spend 5 minutes trying to figure out how to get up, into the tree. They never did figure it out.



I feel so lucky to have the room for my turkeys and to be able to look out the windows and watch there shenanigans without my influencing them. If I go outside the shenigans stop and they follow me, to make sure I am doing things to their specifications as has been pointed out here.