Broody TOM!

[ElizabethAz]

Has anyone ever had this happen to them?? Lol

My Royal Palm Tom is about 3 years old, and his hen (also royal palm) is about a year old and this will be her second clutch (the first clutch I hatched out to check fertility) and I really wasn't expecting her to lay more eggs... she kinda stopped for a while there, and now has surprised me with batch 2-- a total of six eggs.

The funny thing is that she hardly ever sets on the eggs...Everytime I check on the turkeys, or walk by I notice that the TOM is always setting on the eggs, while the hen is always walking around and doing her turkey thing without him. She doesn't act broody at all--the Tom on the other hand is very protective of "HIS" eggs... I have never seen anything like this, and will hopefully have pics--if I can sneak up on the Tom while he is sitting there--he always gets up when he sees/hears someone comming.

Should I just be glad that my Tom likes to be "Mr. Mom" or should I worry about him crushing the eggs and put them in the incubator???

 

[lynn1961]

Too funny, I posted last week about my tom setting on eggs, he is still at it, along with one of the hens, the smaller hen has be thrown off the nest and he has taken over, he even hisses and puffs up when I go near the nest, should be having a hatch soon, if the eggs survive his big feet and all. the little hen has almost given up on getting her nest back, she chatters and calls to me when i go outside, paces the fence, like she wants me to make him get off of her eggs. i have tried to move him out of the nesting area, he won't budge, he is too big for me to get under their shelter and pick him up, not even sure I would want to try it if I could.

 

[ElizabethAz]

LOL--My Tom does the same thing! The hen gets her nest back when I am out there (because he wants to eat, and see if I am impressed by his feather display), but she doesn't want it... she will happily lay another egg, or inspect them in the nest..but she won't sit on them. He doesn't chase her or anything, but he certainly will not let any human touch his babies! Lol..I just hope when they hatch he is as good with them as he is now....then again, I may regret that...he does have spurs.....hmm.

 

[ElizabethAz]

The hen laid another egg today..in the middle of the coop, and good ole "Papa Tom" rounded it up, and put it in the nest...How silly is he??

 

[NovaAman]

How funny! That is cute.

 

[ElizabethAz]

Alright, so the hen has started to lay eggs in the water bucket, and SET on the submerged eggs!...weirdo.
So I went into the coop today and added another nest box, hopefully she will decide that straw is more suitable for eggs than the water bucket....