Car roof turkey nest

[Gobblestone]

Our Blue Slate hen is nesting for the first time. She has chosen the roof of one of our cars in our garage as her preferred location. Thankfully we have other cars so we don't need to move it! I put a towel in a box in her spot that she has started to use. Three eggs so far, one was cracked which I removed. Any advice or anything to look out for??? First time turkey parents here.

 

[Kiki]

Is she broody?

 

[Gobblestone]

Is she broody?

She laid her first egg (ever) right at dusk and set on it all night, leaving the egg early the the next morning. She took a day off from laying and did not visit the egg. The next day and day after she laid then almost immediately left the eggs. It is my understanding that turkeys don't set until all her eggs are laid, so I believe this is normal behavior.

 

[SarahGfa]

Turkeys and chickens don't start sitting until all the eggs are laid. But why don't you move the nest? A car roof is not really a good place for nest (eggs might roll off)

 

[Gobblestone]

We made a nesting box for her that we can move and the eggs won't roll out

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[78753]

Will be a challenging place to raise the poults. Can you move it to the front of the roof one day, then down to the hood for a day or two, then down to the floor, then keep moving until its in a good spot to raise poults? She'd like it to be off the floor a little- like 18 inches in a dark corner, not 4 feet, so the poults can get down without breaking a leg. We had a chicken choose a high place to lay eggs but it turned out there was a gap in the wall nearby, and once the chicks hatched one fell down the hole. We still have a hole in our kitchen wall where we had to drill a circle out to retrieve the chick from the wall! Best of luck!

 

[Gobblestone]

Will be a challenging place to raise the poults. Can you move it to the front of the roof one day, then down to the hood for a day or two, then down to the floor, then keep moving until its in a good spot to raise poults? She'd like it to be off the floor a little- like 18 inches in a dark corner, not 4 feet, so the poults can get down without breaking a leg. We had a chicken choose a high place to lay eggs but it turned out there was a gap in the wall nearby, and once the chicks hatched one fell down the hole. We still have a hole in our kitchen wall where we had to drill a circle out to retrieve the chick from the wall! Best of luck!

If/when the poults hatch I think we'll move them to a stock tank with a heat lamp that we have used to raise chicks and poults the last couple of years. We only have one hen and one tom, so we're not sure if the eggs were fertilized or not. She is a little producer, 18 eggs so far!

 

[Gobblestone]

Our "car roof" hen ended up laying 21 (!) eggs, only four hatched over the weekend, and one poult survived the first day before the hen moved off of the car. We're going to let our hen raise the poult "naturally". I assume the first few weeks will be the most stressful, she has to protect it from Montana cold nights, foxes, raccoons, house cats, hawks, owls, eagles, and who know what else so we're not being super optimistic right now. But she is doing a great job so far!