Broody Turkey Question

[RAREROO]

For those of you who have had broody turkeys and allowed them to set, how well did they do and are they bad about breaking their eggs ? It seems like such a large bird would break their eggs sometimes. Anyway, one of my turkey hens has found a duck nest and is now setting in it and I am thinking about letting her set some chicken eggs that are kinda important to me and I dont really want to take the chances of her breaking them as I have never let any of my turkeys brood before. But if you all think they will be OK, I may go for it. And how many chicken eggs do you think a broody turkey could cover safely ?

Thanks in advance.

 

[HawaiiHorseGirl]

My Hen just hatched out 5 of her 6 eggs the last one was a dud. She didn't have any issues at all.

 

[lengel]

Our broody hen, Thanksgiving, is incredibly dedicated and has never broken an egg. We don't have any fertile eggs but if we did, I would happily stick any of them under her.

 

[Steve_of_sandspoultry]

I wouldn't risk high value chicken eggs under a turkey, chicken eggs are much thinner shelled than turkey eggs and I think at least some would get broken. on the number I would think she could cover 20+ easy.

Steve

 

[Mommi3130]

My broody bourbon red sat and hatched out 5 baby turkesy on Dec 17, 2009 with no issues in the snow and all. And she is sitting again on 16 eggs.

 

[ziggywiggy]

Mine did fine with chicken eggs. I put them under her 7 days after she started setting on turkey eggs. She hatched chickens and turkeys and was a great mom to all the youngsters. I only have a still air incubator so anytime I have a hen setting I take advantage of it.
Just keep in mind, some hens do a better job than others and you never know until they've set how their going to do. I would not trust high value eggs to a hen I did not know from experience could set them.

 

[OmaBird]

Personaly I never had to much luck with turkeys raising anything but turkeys. But I also hatch most of my eggs myself. Of my turkeys that have hatched out there own eggs they have had pretty big clutches. I have had a few turkeys hatch over 20 babies and coved even more eggs than that. I took the eggs from one hen when I found her nest in my dry pound. Out where she was sitting made her prime eating for coyotes. I hatched them myself. I think there was 23 that hatched.

 

[byoung14ever]

I hatched 14 out of 16 chickens under my turkey this spring. They are all doing great.