For All You Turkey People, I Have a Stupid Chicken Q in Turkey Form.

[PepsNick]

Once we introduce ourselves as owning chickens, we are all farmiliar with the egg question. About a hen only laying an egg if it has a rooster. Well, here goes. Does a turkey hen need a tom to lay eggs, or does she natrually?

I have never heard much of turkey eggs...








Nick

 

[PepsNick]

Oh, and if a hen lays natrually, are the eggs edible?

And how often does she lay them?

Sorry!

 

[ColbyNTX]

Chicken and turkey hens will lay with or without a Tom or rooster. You can eat the eggs but turkeys lay seasonal starting in the spring and stop in the late summer for the most part.

 

[Steve_of_sandspoultry]

yes they will lay without a male if fed a high enough protien level feed. A very interesting thing about turkeys is they have been known to lay self fertile eggs. It's called Parthenogenesis, in turkeys the offspring is 100% male.

Steve

 

[ShadyHoller]

Quote:
Parthenogenesis? Wow, no way! I only know that term in context of vegetables (able to self-pollinate.) That's wild! How often has that been known to happen?

 

[PepsNick]

Quote:
Then how are there hens?

 

[terri9630]

Quote:
Then how are there hens?

There are hens from natural breeding. He is saying that the 100% males occur when the egg fertility isn't caused by a tom but the parthenogenesis.

 

[Steve_of_sandspoultry]

Quote:
Parthenogenesis? Wow, no way! I only know that term in context of vegetables (able to self-pollinate.) That's wild! How often has that been known to happen?

Yes way, lol We did a test a few years ago and the % is low to develop and hatch. We took 3 mature Beltsville hens and put them in a breeding pen and fed 20% protien layer (our standard feed for them). We incubated all the eggs they layed, it was close to 100 eggs and 4 or 5 developed but only 1 made it to hatch. That was one of the things the USDA was working on with the Beltsville Small White turkey, they were trying to raise the % to hatch. I was talking to an old time turkey breeder once and he told me that when you start getting alot of clear eggs and you hatch alot of toms your breeder tom is on the way out and dropping in fertility. It has always amazed me how much the old timers knew without modern science to put a $10 name on something.

Steve

 

[marytoast]

WOW! That is amazing! I learn something new everyday here on BYC!

 

[Maryallison]

That was amazing! I just went and told my whole family about it!