Hens first time setting question

[Body Thief]

These are my first Turkey hens and they are a year old and both setting on one big nest together. They have been setting for about 3 weeks now.

A friend of mine has wild turkeys and he says he has to take the chicks out when they hatch or the parents will kill them. Is this common?

My hens however are not wild. They are both Royal Palms and our tom is a Spanish Black. He is very aggressive with people as he was raised for food by his previous owners but when my beloved Blue Slate died I needed a tom fast to take care of my girls and he is very friendly with them, just not me haha

When the poults hatch(if they do) should I remove them or leave them with the parents?

I have raised my hens from poults so I already have all the equipment and the knowledge as far as that goes I just don't know what to expect from domestic turkeys and them raising their own young


Thanks for the help

 

[ivan3]

Deformed, blind, etc. poults in a clutch are usually killed by the their hatch mates. Hens will carry bad eggs (some with partially developed poults that didn't make it) to some distance from nest so as to prevent contamination of nest: Sometimes, if a bad tempered tom has access to brood, it might stomp or shake the life out of a few (our RP tom lets the poults hop up and ride on his back - has never even accidentally squashed one). Would like to know what sort of set up your friend is using. Insofar as True `Wild' Easterns - not Easterns raised in a domestic setting? Have found a few dead poults in woods over years but those hadn't been predated by anything at the time I came across them. Not too much of this sort of thing must happen, in the wild, considering how many sometimes show up to visit with our guys: Our hens have been very good mothers with no `poulticide' to speak of; have brought in a few puny poults for treatment but, the hens pretty much had been ignoring them (poults recognize their mother's vocalizations, but hens don't differentiate vocalizations of their poults, as compared to another hen's poult's vocalizations - probably has something to do with it).

 

[Body Thief]

Thanks for the response! I have no idea how my friends setup is. He is actually my dad's friend and my dad is the one who talked to him. When they hatch I'll just look in on everyone and see how they are all getting a long. If there are any problems I'll just raise them myself but from what you said I'll most likely have no problems. They are in a good size enclosure as well