Eastern Wild Turkey Hatching Eggs

[rtebo865]

Hello! Sorry for the potential cross posting as I already submitted this exact post in the New Member Introductions section but figured this may be a smarter category to post in. I am a Masters student doing research on wild turkey response to prescribed fire management in Illinois. A major component of my project is going to be assessing the ability of wild strain turkey poults to feed in grassland areas versus poults that have come from a commercially raised source. To do this, I will be collecting eggs from birds in the wild, incubating, and raising them for feeding trials at around 2 weeks of age. I will be doing the same for eggs collected from a commercial source, and then comparing the 2 groups in their abilities to feed and navigate grasslands in the wild. I am looking to see if anyone has any input and where to find breeders that offer the sale of "eastern wild turkey" strain eggs for hatch. I have found few sources online, and many seem to not have them available. One thing that will make this endeavor hard is trying to time my wild bird hatches with the commercially acquired eggs. So if there is a way to have a rough estimate on when eggs from a breeder would be hatch, it would be ideal, but I understand this may be kind of hard to judge.

If anyone has any input or ideas, that would be great. As I am new to this, any direction would be a blessing!

Thanks so much,

Ryan

 

[ccshambhala]

Hi - sounds like an interesting project!

I don't know if you found this or not yet but it is a helpful link :
https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/285981/breeder-and-hatchery-index

feathersite is always a good source of info :
http://www.feathersite.com/Poultry/NDG/BRKWildTurkey.html

and ebay is worth checking out (altho you might want to see if you can find the seller on here if only via feedback). I don't know if you've incubated anything before or not - but if you can pick the eggs up rather than trust the postal service that is best - with close being the next best option if shipped.

I don't know if the state you are in has one - but you might want to check and see if there is a local/state group for chickens/fowl. Virginia has pet chickens of va (which includes turkeys) and a separate fb group.

Best of luck to you!
~gwen

 

[rtebo865]

Thank you very much for this information. I will be researching and making plenty of calls today!

Cheers!

Ryan