letting a hen sit on her eggs...what do do? What to expect?

[ma2babygurl13]

I have a Blue Slate turkey hen and I am hoping to let her sit on the nest. She has been laying about every day, and I have been adding my bronze hens eggs to the nest too. Right now it has been a week since the first egg and there are 10 eggs total. now for my questions...
1) How long should I expect to wait until she lays on them, if she is going to?

2) How many eggs can she handle sitting on?

3) Is she or the other turkeys in the pen going to get aggressive?

4) Any special care she needs while she sits?

Any other tips or info would be appreciated!

 

[Steve_of_sandspoultry]

They normally gather 15 to 20 eggs in a clutch before they will sit. If she is a first time sitter she may or may not have the whole process down, some times they will leave the nest part way thru.

Where is she laying the eggs? in a safe place?

One thing we do is mark the eggs in the nest, once she starts sitting you will be able to tell if any new eggs are being added. Once she is sitting solid you want to take any new eggs.

Steve in NC

 

[chickenannie]

Quote:
Don't you mean "old eggs", not "new eggs"?

 

[ma2babygurl13]

The people I bought the slates from said they had raised a clutch this spring. I'm not sure which of the 3 is the one laying. They are not free ranging, so yes the eggs are in a safe spot. Should I just mark them with a pencil like I do the ones I incubate? I sure hope this goes good as I have just ordered guinea and silkie eggs which will fill my bator... If not I guess my homemade bator will hopefully do the trick but I will have to handturn them. So if by next week she hasn't started sitting on them, should I assume she isn't going to and collect the eggs and try to incubate them?

 

[OSUman]

Quote:
Don't you mean "old eggs", not "new eggs"?

I think he means new eggs because if you dont take the new eggs then they nest will get bigger and bigger and she wont be able to cover them all so they will all die.

 

[ma2babygurl13]

yeah new eggs make since to me too. that and they will develop later than the rest, and when the others hatch she would probably leave the nest to tend to the hatched ones, thus killing off the "new ones"

 

[Steve_of_sandspoultry]

Once she is sitting hard they eggs will start to develop and hopefully hatch in 28-ish days. Any eggs laid after that will hatch later - day 29, 30, 31 and on and on. The hen more than likely won't leave the nest while they are still hatching so the first ones hatched will become weak and die from lack of food and water. The poults have about 3 or 4 days after hatch while they are still absorbing the yoke and don't need to eat or drink (that's how a hatchery can ship them). Also, the first poults to hatch will the the strongest and most viable - those are the ones you want to keep if you plan on breeding them. On the other side if she does leave the nest you would have eggs almost ready to hatch that will get cold and die in the shell.

Steve in NC

 

[Struttn1]

Also...if one rotten egg explodes under her the entire clutch will be ruined and won't hatch.

 

[ohiofarmgirl]

Also...if one rotten egg explodes under her the entire clutch will be ruined and won't hatch.

and then there is a lot of crying. well i'm not sure if Struttin did ...but i did!

the other thing i learned from all these turkey guys is to make sure that no other hen - and especially not the tom - can get in the nest with her!

wow what a disaster. the other hens will try to take over the nest - and she might leave. and the tom can actually hurt (or kill!) her or the eggs. we finally had to move everyone but the settin' momma out of the pen. this also gives her a good and safe place to have the babies run around.

one of our turkey momma's hatched in the brambles. as soon as they hatched (she left a couple eggs and was up) we put her and the babies in another pen. we heard that they will drag their little ones all over creation - the little ones might get lost of chilled in the wet grass. we thought folks were being overly cautious. but yesterday i was out chasing a passel of them thru the poison ivy! when i got them rounded up i marched them back into the pen until they are a little bigger.

good luck!
ps turkey poults are cuter than baby chicks but sshhhhhh......​

 

[Struttn1]

Ditto !!!

A nest brooding hen really needs to be penned alone. Toms as well as hens will cause problems.


More gagging and cussing went on than crying.