Are turkey hens good moms?

[mandi427]

I have two hens who are sitting on eggs right now and I want to let them hatch their eggs. But I have a million questions because I've never done this before. Are turkey hens good moms? Will they raise their young? Will the other turkeys kill the babies? Do I need to move moms and eggs to a grow-out pen, and if so for how long? Any other advice?

 

[ColtHandorf]

@R2elk has had turkey hens that brooded and raised their own young.

 

[Molpet]

They tend to not be as good as chicken moms especially at first couple of weeks. Poults get lost and chilled.
That said I let mine raise them....

 

[R2elk]

I have two hens who are sitting on eggs right now and I want to let them hatch their eggs. But I have a million questions because I've never done this before. Are turkey hens good moms? Will they raise their young? Will the other turkeys kill the babies? Do I need to move moms and eggs to a grow-out pen, and if so for how long? Any other advice?

It depends on the individual hen whether she is a good mother or not. Experienced hens tend to do better than first time hens.

If possible to isolate the hen and her nest from the general population, the chances of her being successful raising the poults dramatically increase. There are just too many bad things that can happen to poults raised in the general population. I would keep them isolated for as long as possible but definitely for the first two weeks.

All that said, I have a hen that I give poults to after I steal her newly hatched poults. I tend to not give her any before they are two weeks old and she gets to stay with them in the grow out pen for at least 2 weeks. Last year she successfully raised 28 poults that were of at least three different age groups at the same time. The last few were only a week old at the time I gave them to her while the oldest she had with her at the time were already 4 weeks old.

 

[Bcoz18]

I just had my first year hen (black) sit on 15 eggs.. went on vacation. Came back 5 days later and she ate all but 2 I have another hen (gray) that started laying and thr black one was laying on them so I'm taking all the eggs to place in incubator so they don't get eaten again

 

[R2elk]

I just had my first year hen (black) sit on 15 eggs.. went on vacation. Came back 5 days later and she ate all but 2 I have another hen (gray) that started laying and thr black one was laying on them so I'm taking all the eggs to place in incubator so they don't get eaten again

It is possible a predator got the eggs. I have had skunks take eggs right out from under sitting hens.

 

[ColtHandorf]

I know my Bourbon Red hens killed their babies last year after getting some to hatch out.

 

[LovedMyAlydar]

My sweet lady was an excellent mom and raised 18 babies. We kept one of the girls and sold a few, then a nasty racoon broke into the coop and killed the rest of her babies. Momma walked around the yard with her one baby crying for several days looking for her children. She was heart broken I think. It was really very sad. But yes, I think from my experience they can be excellent moms.

 

[Anita Scott]

Lil Annie had a nest in the woods last year and got hit one of the first nights out there. She cane in the barn and had a nest in a box with a tarp over some stuff. She sat there nearly 3 months and kept breaking her eggs.
This year, we bread her to a friend's blue slate tom and she found a place in the barn. She started hatching the poults on Mother's Day. We don't know how many she has, but there were about a dozen eggs under her. She seems to be a pretty good mom this year.
We would like to get her in the large brooder box in the garage, but not sure how to go about it. We know there are at least 6, 3 black slate and 3 blue slate. I put a drip container against the side and she seems to be showing them how to use it.