Hello everyone,
We have in the past allowed our Royal Palm turkey hen and tom to hatch and raise their own clutch of poults. But we have found in the past, the second clutch of eggs in the same year usually get ignored by the hen, especially during hot summer days and the hatch rate is either very low to none at all. She currently has three poults about 4 weeks old and has started laying again. So, as a preemptive action, I have removed her first five eggs, and plan on removing all others and use an incubator to hatch them. My question is will the hen recognize and accept her own poults, or will I have to keep them separate ( we have a separate shelter with a screen between in two areas) until she and her current family get use to them?
We have in the past allowed our Royal Palm turkey hen and tom to hatch and raise their own clutch of poults. But we have found in the past, the second clutch of eggs in the same year usually get ignored by the hen, especially during hot summer days and the hatch rate is either very low to none at all. She currently has three poults about 4 weeks old and has started laying again. So, as a preemptive action, I have removed her first five eggs, and plan on removing all others and use an incubator to hatch them. My question is will the hen recognize and accept her own poults, or will I have to keep them separate ( we have a separate shelter with a screen between in two areas) until she and her current family get use to them?