Hello! I'm going to start this out by saying that these are not chicken eggs. Instead, they are turkey eggs.
I was away on vacation and allowed all of my hens to lay a nest and go broody. However, the one hen decided to lay her nest in a muddier area. Now her little nest of eggs are very muddy. Someone told me to never clean the eggs, even if they are muddy because it can damage the membranes covering the egg shells, open up the pores on the eggs and invite dangerous pathogens into the eggs. However rare it is that this happen, I was told to not even risk it. Another person said to take a baby wipe and wipe the eggs down a little bit. What should I do? The hen is broody and is taking care of her clutch very well. She even has a second hen that comes over and "helps" sit on the eggs with her (I'll just walk by and both hens are sitting in the nest box).
Now, onto my next question. I have a Brahma cockrel that does not crow or anything. However, while I was away on vacation, he started to take a liking to some of my turkey hens. Should I be weary of this? He is the sweetest rooster I have ever seen and runs up to me to greet me, however, I want to make sure that he does not try to defend the hens from my two bigger toms and gets hurt in the process. Right now, he stays clear of the toms (they are also very sweet) and the toms stay clear of him. I think all of the turkeys think that he is just another hen turkey. So, should I be worried if he is hanging out with a few turkey hens a lot more than just doing his usual chicken things he does?
Last question! I have two groups of turkey eggs in an incubator at my friend's house. I wanted to try to incubate my eggs, but I recently watched a documentary on turkey behavior and their life stages. I now kind of regret my decision of allowing these to be raised in an incubator as opposed to allowing them to fully experience being a turkey (this is the hippie side of me now) and allowing the hens to incubate the eggs. Is there a way that, when they are hatched, that they can be fostered with another hen? Or is this a toss up? I have heard countless stories of motherly hens (mostly chickens) tossing babies that they find are not theirs and killing them. The baby turkeys will be and and two weeks older than the ones hatched under hens (there was two groups of them collected). Of course, I do not want to risk their lives, so what is the best option?
I was away on vacation and allowed all of my hens to lay a nest and go broody. However, the one hen decided to lay her nest in a muddier area. Now her little nest of eggs are very muddy. Someone told me to never clean the eggs, even if they are muddy because it can damage the membranes covering the egg shells, open up the pores on the eggs and invite dangerous pathogens into the eggs. However rare it is that this happen, I was told to not even risk it. Another person said to take a baby wipe and wipe the eggs down a little bit. What should I do? The hen is broody and is taking care of her clutch very well. She even has a second hen that comes over and "helps" sit on the eggs with her (I'll just walk by and both hens are sitting in the nest box).
Now, onto my next question. I have a Brahma cockrel that does not crow or anything. However, while I was away on vacation, he started to take a liking to some of my turkey hens. Should I be weary of this? He is the sweetest rooster I have ever seen and runs up to me to greet me, however, I want to make sure that he does not try to defend the hens from my two bigger toms and gets hurt in the process. Right now, he stays clear of the toms (they are also very sweet) and the toms stay clear of him. I think all of the turkeys think that he is just another hen turkey. So, should I be worried if he is hanging out with a few turkey hens a lot more than just doing his usual chicken things he does?
Last question! I have two groups of turkey eggs in an incubator at my friend's house. I wanted to try to incubate my eggs, but I recently watched a documentary on turkey behavior and their life stages. I now kind of regret my decision of allowing these to be raised in an incubator as opposed to allowing them to fully experience being a turkey (this is the hippie side of me now) and allowing the hens to incubate the eggs. Is there a way that, when they are hatched, that they can be fostered with another hen? Or is this a toss up? I have heard countless stories of motherly hens (mostly chickens) tossing babies that they find are not theirs and killing them. The baby turkeys will be and and two weeks older than the ones hatched under hens (there was two groups of them collected). Of course, I do not want to risk their lives, so what is the best option?
