Broody heritage turkey with 1 egg?

[brainfog]

We have a Royal Palm that is spending the 2nd night in the nest she made. Whats odd is that there is only 1 egg in the nest. Could she have gone broody? Or could it be that she senses that her egg would freeze overnight and is just keeping it viable? She also seems to be protective of the nest as she hisses at us. Before spending the night she didn't seem to care if we got close to her. If she is broody I want to give her a nice clutch of eggs....
TIA.

 

[Lagerdogger]

Sounds broody. The hissing is a very familiar noise.

 

[jlynnp]

I would slip her a few more eggs.

 

[brainfog]

You're right - she was / is broody.

I let her continue sitting for a while - then I slipped her some chicks that she adopted. A fisher visited and now the remaining chicks and hen have been moved to the 2 week - 6+ week pin. At night - she allows the older birds to nest w/her too. (5 @ 2 to 3 weeks in her feathers, and 5 @ 5 to 6 weeks beside her on the floor!)

Now there are more turkey hens doing this nest sitting. Whats really odd (for me) - is that this broody nesting behavior hasn't actually stopped them from laying eggs. With 1 egg they'll sleep on the nest and then in some cases, lay an egg the next day....

There's one that has been nesting 23 hrs a day in a safe area, so I slipped her 11 chicken eggs yesterday. She'll get a lot of little surprises in a 4 days!