Homesteading is hard... my poor turkey hen

[turkey girl 0964]

2 Timothy 1:7

 

[Dottie the Chicken]

For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.
2 Timothy 1:7

Amen! What a wonderful verse!

 

[Wyorp Rock]

Today we found some devastating news... I went outside to the turkey coop to check on our turkey hen that is broody, she is on day 26 and had 13 eggs, when I saw a trail of red fire ants leading under her...I lifted her up to find 2 dead poults still mostly in their shell squished. We looked around and found the other egg about 20 feet from the nest half eaten. Dolly Pardon ( the turkey hen) looked kind of anxious and some of her feather on the legs and tail were torn out. I think it was some sort of mice or rat... she would never do something like this...We are so dissapionted that this happened so close to the hatch day.What does it sound like to you? Predator or the hen? I hope the rest of them make it! HELP US!! What should we do? Move her to a totally enclosed area or keep her in the nest?? Please reply! Thanks! @R2elk @Bigtom Turkey @Ridgerunner @Kiki @HeatherKellyB @Overo Mare @MissE @Chiknoodle @cmobley @CHlCKEN @RosemaryDuck @JacinLarkwell

Ok! Right now she is in her nest right next to the barn so there is a lot of mice in the barn, I am thinking the mice got the her. I will move her to the garage. We only have a medium dog cage not a large one will that work? Or is it too small?

Could be the fire ants are biting her and she's ripped out her own feathers trying to rid herself of them. Are the ants gone?
I don't know anything about Turkeys, but would make an assumption that fire ants could kill Poults since they can kill chicken chicks (with their bites).

If ants are the issue she may have trampled eggs, some got kicked out of the nest, then something came along ate it (mice/rats/another bird/her?)

All of this is speculation of course - just thinking how I might act if I had fire ants crawling up underneath me.

Do you have any Permethrin dust? Have you done anything about the ants, if you have I missed it somewhere...might want to dust around to at least get rid of most of the ants.
Even if you move her, she may have ants on her so give her a looking over if possible.

Just my 2¢

 

[turkey girl 0964]

Could be the fire ants are biting her and she's ripped out her own feathers trying to rid herself of them. Are the ants gone?
I don't know anything about Turkeys, but would make an assumption that fire ants could kill Poults since they can kill chicken chicks (with their bites).

If ants are the issue she may have trampled eggs, some got kicked out of the nest, then something came along ate it (mice/rats/another bird/her?)

All of this is speculation of course - just thinking how I might act if I had fire ants crawling up underneath me.

Do you have any Permethrin dust? Have you done anything about the ants, if you have I missed it somewhere...might want to dust around to at least get rid of most of the ants.
Even if you move her, she may have ants on her so give her a looking over if possible.

Just my 2¢

They weren't hatching yet. So I don't think the ants bit the poults. I don't think we have any permethrin dust we do have DE? Would that kill the ants? I am going out right now to check on her.

 

[Wyorp Rock]

Right, but if the ants are biting her, then she is possibly trampling eggs - hence you finding some squished and kicked about.
Sadly, I don't think DE will kill the ants.

 

[turkey girl 0964]

Right, but if the ants are biting her, then she is possibly trampling eggs - hence you finding some squished and kicked about.
Sadly, I don't think DE will kill the ants.

There was definitely some sort of predator in there because one of the eggs was very far away from the nest and I found a bit of shell near one of the mice holes so the mice are getting in the nest.

 

[turkey girl 0964]

We are such beginners that we should have made a better nest site and give her some more protection. I feel so bad that this happened. Next time we know: not to let hens nest on the floor without a nest box, to have a better plan on what to do if this happens, and to not let the mice overrun the barn.

 

[BigBlueHen53]

I am sorry this happened. I am not an expert either, certainly not about turkeys. But two things come to mind. One, i agree that if the hen was under attack by ants it's possible she might have inadvertently damaged the eggs and then instinct would have caused her to remove them from the nest so they would not contaminate the other eggs. Or two, the eggs might not have been viable in which case she would have rejected them, possibly breaking them, which would have lured the ants and/or mice. In either case she and the remaining eggs do now need to be removed to a safe place. There is no need to fault yourself for what has happened. Best wishes going forward for a successful hatch!

 

[turkey girl 0964]

Thank you for all your guys' kind words and encouragement. I am going to hit the hay. I will update in the morning.

 

[Wyorp Rock]

We are such beginners that we should have made a better nest site and give her some more protection. I feel so bad that this happened. Next time we know: not to let hens nest on the floor without a nest box, to have a better plan on what to do if this happens, and to not let the mice overrun the barn.

There was definitely some sort of predator in there because one of the eggs was very far away from the nest and I found a bit of shell near one of the mice holes so the mice are getting in the nest.

Don't beat yourself up.
Come up with a plan to help her finish this hatch.
Do you have a way to construct a wire barrier around her to prevent the mice from getting to her?
Not ideal to move a broody but moving her may be a better option. Somewhere more secure from the mice and ants. If DE is all you have try dusting her, it may help kill any that's on her. If she's got bites, she's probably miserable. But the less you mess with her the best.

Do the best you can. Take care that the mice traps are where birds and pets can't get to them. I found some traps that I can put in or around my runs that adult bird don't mess with. I still wouldn't use them if chicks had access to them. "Dog proof" rat and mice traps on amazon. Of course, they were way cheaper last year (go figure!) I have a variety of traps and mix it up. For the regular snap traps, I made "covers" out of spare pieces of hardware cloth so a bird didn't inadvertently get in it, but even at that I usually disengage the trap during the day when birds are roaming about. Cage traps work so/so for me. Some do use poison too and if you are overrun it may be something to consider. I think @cmom may have some tips she can share as well.

I'm really sorry.