A century of Turkey talk 2000-2100.

[feedman77]

Memphis post a pic of your walker pup sometime. Since you said his sire may be on bench at westminster. Assuming he's a tri-color not a clover. That's what I ran when I had hounds years ago.

Woke up to light snow, wind and cold this morning. Ready for winter to end.

Headed to bird sale later today. Was gonna take a several extra toms, quail, and some cornish x chicks I was given. But with weather turkeys may get a reprieve as the crowd may be lessened there.

 

[memphis]

Feedman, he's a 7 month old blanket back. I'll pm you a pic. They pulled his dad at Westminster. But are showing his older brother. I'm heading up tomorrow. Will be showing Aussies and will be watching those coonhounds!

 

[R2elk]

There they are, I doubt they are pure breed, if anyone has any ideas about their actual heritage it would be interesting to know. I will put netting around the nesting area to prevent the tom from entering, that is a genius idea, thanks @R2elk. After that you recommend just letting nature take its course? Should I return the eggs I have removed from the nesting area, once it is sealed off from the tom? And should I be lucky enough to have some poults from the nest, do I continue to let the mom take care of them, or do they do better with intervention at that time?

Your tom is one of those varieties for which there are no reference photos. I suspect that it is one of those Semi-Color, Semi-Gray types. You can try contacting the the Turkey Color Genetics group for their opinion. The hen appears to be some type of Tri-Color.

This is my Royal Palm tom.

Since you have already taken those eggs, go ahead and eat them. Your hen will continue to lay more eggs until she reaches a clutch size that is large enough to stimulate her to go broody. The amount of eggs that is depends on each individual turkey and how late it is in the laying season.

I remove poults from the hens for several reasons. The first reason is that I try to sell the poults as day olds so that I have the least amount of cost in them. The longer you raise them the more money you have in them and it is much easier to collect sold poults from a brooder than it is to collect them from a protective mother.

Another reason is that poults are very fragile during their first two weeks of life and it is just easier to keep them alive in a brooder than allowing them to be exposed to all the dangers that can befall them.

Because I have multiple hens and all don't go broody at the same time, I usually have a hen whose newly hatched poults were removed from her that I can give any two week old poults that I need to grow out. It is convenient to let the hen raise them once they have survived the early dangers.

If your poults hatch during the rainy season I strongly recommend that you place them in a nice warm, dry brooder rather than let the hen raise them. Lots of spring rainfall around here greatly reduces the survival of the wild hatches.

Good luck.

 

[duluthralphie]

I need coon hounds!!!
I have coon that deserve to die...


I agree and disagree with R2elk...

Eat the eggs you took. They are likely contaminated by your touch.

Let the hen hatch the eggs in a protective area, Cover her nest if need be with a cage where ever she places it.


I let the hen raise the poults. Just make sure they have room and do not spend time looking at the poults. Mother hens can be very nervous and clumsy. Be aware first time mothers will many times fail. Second time mothers seldom fail.

 

[dheltzel]

Sorry...back to turkeys...no eggs from my slackers yet! Last year they started laying in December....

Not a single egg here yet either. 2 years ago I ran a nightlight in the turkey shed. My peafowl would not go inside without a light, and I thought the turkeys might have a similar issue. That year I was trying to sell poults in mid-January -- big mistake, no one want them then. So last year I did not light them and didn't get eggs until very late. So, this morning I setup the light to come on from 3 - 7 AM. Hopefully eggs will start appearing in a few weeks.

 

[dheltzel]

This is my Royal Palm tom.

Gorgeous tom there!

 

[sfgwife]

Sounds like a wonderful time! Did you get me and quiltin cottons while you were in paducah? Lol! I miss all those lil quilt shops up there!

 

[memphis]

Sfwife....the Coondog Classi was in Mississippi. "Duke of Paducah" is an old saying...
But I too LOVE the quilt museum & shops there!!

 

[memphis]

Ugg!!! In the midst of a 4 inch rain! Kept the poor turkey girls in their pen. It's just totally gross out there!

 

[rjohns39]

This front runs from houston to ny. I'm at 5.2 for the month and 2.2 today. Mud pit is what I used to call pasture.