Broody success

[longranger]

I have a few day old poults under a Beltsville hen. This was a first attempt at using a broody turkey hen. Not sure how many exactly but at least 2, maybe up to 8 if all eggs made it. Pulled clear eggs and quitters up to a week ago. Will take pictures in a couple of days once she settles in. She is alone in a 5x7' coop so they hopefully all will do well.

Won,t let them into adjacent runs until they are big enough not to get through chainlink. Is that being overprotective??

Now I am tempted to put eggs under a couple of other girls that want to go broody since I am now overloaded with eggs that would be too old for optimal fertility if shipped. Was this just beginners luck or do turkey broodies usually make good moms?

 

[Steve_of_sandspoultry]

Congrats on your hatch.

Just about all our breeders are from hen hatched eggs now. I think it makes a stronger/better/faster turkey overall.

We keep ours in a covered "maturnity" pen with then hen for 3 months or more. Once again that is feed driven for the protien.

Most turkey hens do very well raising poults when they are confined to a pen by themselves. If you have hens that hatch around the same time you can put them together and they do a good job sharing the mother hen role. With hen raised you are going to loose a couple - that's the only downside I have ever seen.

Steve

 

[ziggywiggy]

I have 9 being raised by a broody hen and she is a good mom. They are very nervous so keep her isolated form everthing else as much as possible. On the other hand, I have a hen who is a great setter but can't finish the job. As soon as the poults start hatching, she smashes the eggs. It's like she tries to turn the eggs while they're hatching. I have to time her hatches and take the eggs at 25 days. So I guess you never really know how a hen is going to turn out until the hatch is complete.