Hatched poults

[EvansFamilyNH]

Can incubator hatched poults be returned to hen and siblings? Siblings are 1 week old, new poult is 2 days old. Will Mama turkey reject it?

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

The hens will not recognize them and they will attack them more than likely.

 

[R2elk]

Can incubator hatched poults be returned to hen and siblings? Siblings are 1 week old, new poult is 2 days old. Will Mama turkey reject it?

It depends on the hen and her temperament. I personally would not try it with a 2 day old poult but have been successful with adding younger poults when they were a week to two weeks old. I do it with an experienced hen that takes good care of poults.

I recently had a hen adopt 10 poults for me. Two weeks later she took on an additional 18 poults bringing the total to 28. The 18 additional poults were a week behind the first 10. After selling some, she was down to 13 poults that ranged in age from 4 to 5 weeks old. One of the two week old poults was escaping from the brooder and joining her little flock out in the general population. I would catch it at the end of the day and return it to the brooder. A couple of days later it would repeat its escape.

Not all hens are this accommodating. I have had hens that would kill any poults that weren't theirs. I have also had hens that wanted babies so badly that they would steal poults from other hens. Poults can get accidentally killed in the process.

 

[EvansFamilyNH]

Thank you I figured as much. They are two that didnt hatch amd when Mama left the nest we cleaned up her area and got things put in A bag for the dumpster. I decided to candle the eggs first and found the two eggs full of life. Put them in the incubator and 3 days later the first one hatched. The second one pipped this morning so were still waiting for it to hatch completely. I saved their lives and now they are destined to become spoiled pets

 

[EvansFamilyNH]

“Phoenix “ has risen woke up at 5:30 this morning and watched her hatch out at 6:06. What a great way to start the day so happy knowing both lives were saved