Domestic bronze turkey?

[sfgwife]

Yesterday we picked up two adult hens but didnt get the tom. :/. This mornin we had an egg. I am pretty sure i know which gave us the egg cause her throat is more red... if this workes like chicken hens? Will she only lay so many then go broody? Or if we pulled the eggs will she keep layin for us? Also. Incubate or let her do it? How long might she lay fertile eggs since we have no tom but she was most likely in with the tom we missed?

Eta. Both hens are layin. We had an afternoon egg also.

Any tips on gettin them more comfortable with their new surroundings? And feeders and waterers? They have an old calf barn for security and a roost. And a pen to free range in. But they are mostly sayin in one place. They have eaten a small amount of food and drank water with nutri drench. I put out some scraps of fruits and beggies earlier and they didnt mess at them while i was there. Last night i picked greens from my garden for them and they havemt touched those at all. Today hubby picked up layer pellet and oyster shell for them.

Then we also picked up two poults of the same breed... one is light and one dark. So might we have a tom and hen? Or does color not matter with these as to sex?

Sorry for the seemingly silly questions with the hens... we weren't expectin to get grown birds and haven't researched grown birds more than to just peek at them.

 

[sarcasm]

If they're eating and drinking, I'd give them a few days to get used to their new home. Turkeys don't really like change, so mostly what they probably need right now is time to acclimate.

Turkeys are kind of like chickens, they need a certain amount of eggs in a pile in order to go broody (how many depends on the hen). Until they hit the "right" amount, they'll keep laying eggs during laying season (lots of factors determine when "laying season" is, including your location/climate and each individual hen). So if you want them to keep laying, just collect the eggs (they'll move their laying spots if the eggs keep disappearing so be ready to look around more than with chickens).

I'm not sure exactly how long the eggs will remain fertile from them previously being with the tom, but since you have 2 laying I'd personally just collect for a week or two right away and feel pretty confident that a good portion of those eggs will be fertile. This is assuming the hens were actually in with the tom, and the tom is fertile (and they're not the broad-breasted variety, which have trouble mating naturally).

Using an incubator or letting the turkey hen do the work is something you'll need to decide personally based on your preferences, time, and equipment. I personally like not having to worry about any of the specifics and just letting a hen do the work, but my husband gets concerned about how much weight the hens lose while sitting on eggs (also, getting no turkey eggs from a broody hen while she's sitting is a significant downside).

I'm not aware of any auto-sexing turkey varieties. You can tell some varieties apart once they have their full adult plumage, but assuming your poults are fairly young, the light vs. dark coloration probably isn't a way to determine if they're male or female.

 

[sfgwife]

feedman77

I saw you answerin a few turkey questions similar to mine.... can you possibly help me?

 

[sfgwife]

Thanks so much! We got their outside pen done yesterday late and they seem to be more happy. They are forragin, eatin a d drinkin. They did drink quite a bit sun when we got them home but not much foodwise. I gave them fresh greens and fruits and veggies yesterday to see if maybe they had any favs... but they really didn't mess with that. Today i am gonna just dump it in the ground and see if. Ay e they will eat it that way.