Heritage Bronze Turkeys are laying - what now!?

[mjsjr]

I have a small flock of heritage bronze turkeys (1 tom, 4 hens). The hens are laying now and have been for about 14 days (an egg a day/nest is pretty much the pattern). I have 26 total eggs in two nests right now - they laid yesterday.

I do have an incubator, but would prefer to have the hens set the eggs. How long should I wait before that happens? At what point should I pull the eggs and try to incubate them myself?

Thanks,

Mike

 

[desertchicks]

I have a similar situation- 1 Tom with 3 hens. I was delighted when I saw the first eggs during their first week of laying and gathered them, since I did not know if they were fertile. I really wanted to see how they tasted

. Then I left them alone to let nature take its course. I am assuming that like chickens they know if the eggs are fertile and will be able to care for them once hatched. I am on the lookout since I've learned that the Tom shouldn't be around the babies and I did not keep track of when the actual sitting started. As with the chickens, I think the other hens also deposited to the nest and soon there should be a bunch of little turkeys around. I'll see if I can keep you posted. Another thread by a BYC member convinced me to try it the natural way.