broody turkey hen

[bravevline]

wow! this is my first broody ever!!! (except for my goose, who kept getting her eggs stolen and gave up this year)!!! now that the birds are in a safer area, she has found an old abandoned dog house in our yard and made a nest and laid fourteen eggs in it and has now now went to sitting. i discreetly grabbed an egg and shined a light on it real quick and put it back (i didnt want her to sit there for close to a month for absolutely nothing, you know!!!). good news, the eggs are fertile!!! the opening is one to two feet above the ground, so the poults will not be able to return to the nest after she removes them from it. i dont know what to expect when the eggs hatch. her and my tom are both bourbon reds!!!

 

[HEChicken]

Can you lower the dog house to ground level? If so, do it. Then, if you can create a temporary pen around it with chicken wire, that will give her a nice place to raise them for the first couple of weeks. Add a feeder and a waterer and you're all set - the hen will do the rest.

If you can't turn her chosen spot into a poult-safe area, you'll need to move her after the poults hatch. She will continue to sit from the time the first hatches until she thinks the last has hatched. I've had them sit 2-3 days after the first poult peeked out from under her. What you don't want happening during the time she is sitting, is for the already-hatched poults to fall out of the dog house, so if you can't lower it, you'll want to keep a really close eye on them when they are hatching and be prepared to return to the nest any poults that falls out. (Since the hen won't leave the nest during hatch anyway, you might attach chicken wire to the front of the dog house after the first poult hatches so they can't fall out.)

Moving is an anxious time. What I do is gather up the poults and place them in a box, then grab the hen and carry her so that she can see the box of poults. Even then she will be anxious and struggle to get away from me, but its worse when she can't see the poults. I set up the new area ahead of time so by the time I am transporting, as soon as I get there, I can set the hen down and lift the poults out of the box and she is good to go. At that point she is usually ready to stretch her wings and let go a poop she's been holding during hatch, and her next priority is to get something to eat and drink. The poults will watch and copy her, and she will frequently sit down to let them warm up under her. As the days go by they will spend less and less time under her and more time out exploring.

I keep the mother and new poults in a safe pen by themselves until the poults are about two weeks old. At that point, the mother is usually pretty sick of confinement and ready to get out and start teaching her offspring how to free-range. At that point I let them out during the day and they return to the pen at night, quite willingly.

 

[Postman617]

I was told that turkey hens make bad mothers (stepping and killing the poults) Is this true of all turkeys or just some? I have a eastern wild and she is setting on 6 turkey eggs and 12 of my chickens eggs. The chicken eggs will hatch first of course but will she continue to set on the turkey eggs even after the chicken eggs have hatched? I am of course going to be removing the baby chickens once hatched.

 

[HEChicken]

In my experience turkeys are excellent mothers. I've never had one kill her poult!

 

[soydo]

I wouldn't mess with the nest location if it's safe until the eggs are hatching.

The only thing to worry about is if some of the poults follow her out then she goes back in, the ones outside would be stuck and possibly lost if she sits for a good while. When most of the eggs are hatched and the poults are dry, get all of them out if they aren't able to and close off the dog house so she can't go back in and is 'forced' to stay on ground.

also my experience the light weight turkeys are great mothers. It's the heavier ones that get a little iffy due to their weight and clumsiness due to said weight.

 

[Postman617]

Thank you all. This helps a lot I was thinking she was a great mother for taking all the eggs and she guards them with her life. If you get anywhere near her she will HONK at you and gets very angry. Now I am less worried about all this.

 

[soydo]

Hope the poults are able to all get out without assistance. Or it will be a fun day for you!

p.s.if you are sure the poults won't be able to get out, don't worry about it until they are hatched out.

 

[ivan3]

Definitely be thinking about how to expand and `level' the brooding `field'. At three days, or so, the poults will be able to hop up on the top of a 24"-36" `gate/fence. At two weeks they'll be able to fly/climb/fly up 6 ft. fencing and flap on down on the mama-less side. They are the most `active' in the mornings (here). They don't get `flighty' this early as a rule, but we've had a few pretty precocious poults over the years. We use an old infant/toddler folding fence to keep the poults with hens - food/water close enough to hen so she can reach and teach - pretty much without leaving late hatching eggs.