New to Turkey Breeding

[BONNIE2020]

Hello... my son has turkeys he raises for 4H. He has decided to breed his two broad breasted hens and we have a black heritage tom. The hens are about 5 months old and are laying eggs. We put the Tom in yesterday and he is about 7 months old. So my question is.....when do we stop gathering the eggs each night? I was told they will only mate seasonally and usually in March. How will we know the eggs are fertilized and to stop gathering?

Any guidance is greatly appreciated.


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[R2elk]

Hello... my son has turkeys he raises for 4H. He has decided to breed his two broad breasted hens and we have a black heritage tom. The hens are about 5 months old and are laying eggs. We put the Tom in yesterday and he is about 7 months old. So my question is.....when do we stop gathering the eggs each night? I was told they will only mate seasonally and usually in March. How will we know the eggs are fertilized and to stop gathering?

Any guidance is greatly appreciated.


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You can check the eggs by cracking them open and inspecting the yolk for the blastoderm condition. The bull's eye means a fertile egg.

http://www.backyardchickens.com/t/16008/how-to-tell-a-fertile-vs-infertile-egg-pictures

I strongly recommend that you do not use the hens to hatch the eggs and definitely not for brooding the poults. Broad breasted hens are not capable of the delicate foot movements that heritage hens use while setting and brooding. You risk having eggs broken and poults getting stepped on and killed during and after the hatch.

 

[CindyinSD]

Is your tom strutting for the ladies and do they seem receptive? You'll likely see him breed them unless you're from home most of the time. Once they're successfully bred, the eggs will be fertile for a couple weeks. He will keep them fertile (once he figures out how it's done.)

I've heard of BBW hens successfully hatching eggs but if you want to be sure you have poults for your son's project, it would be better to collect some to incubate yourself before you allow the hens to sit (if they're inclined to do that.) BBs are especially bred with fast growth and big heavy breasts in mind. From what I've read, they can have difficulty sitting on a clutch without breaking the eggs.

You'll want to make sure they each have their own nest. Too many mamas tend to clumsily tread on babies. I haven't had real good luck with heritage turkeys raising poults, either. They sit faithfully and hatch their broods but they've not been especially good at taking care of them. I have one who ended up sharing a nest with a chicken. Five poults & no chicks hatched (chicken eggs were not fertile). Between the two of them they've managed to keep two poults alive and that's mostly thanks to the chicken, I think.

So... if you're invested in live poults with the turkey hen providing care, you'll want to give her a lot of support and be careful not to fall in love with the babies.

BBW mamas are a very cool project. They're such sweeties. Alas they don't live very long. If you'd like to keep them alive as long as you can, you'll need to restrict their feed. Sitting on eggs, they naturally won't eat much—which for their health, is likely a good thing. Best of luck with your endeavor!

 

[R2elk]

You'll want to make sure they each have their own nest. Too many mamas tend to clumsily tread on babies. I haven't had real good luck with heritage turkeys raising poults, either. They sit faithfully and hatch their broods but they've not been especially good at taking care of them. I have one who ended up sharing a nest with a chicken. Five poults & no chicks hatched (chicken eggs were not fertile). Between the two of them they've managed to keep two poults alive and that's mostly thanks to the chicken, I think.

Nest sharing, no matter what kind of poultry it is, usually ends badly for the hatchlings. Too many feet moving around at the same time.

Each turkey is its own individual. Some heritage hen are excellent mothers while other aren't. In my experience, most heritage hens are good mothers if they are allowed to raise their brood out of the general population. With newly hatched poults there are just too many things that can go wrong in the general population.

This year's designated mother was given poults as they reached two weeks old. At one time she had 28 poults of three different age classes at the same time. The only poults that she doesn't currently have are the ones that I sold. Fortunately for me she is down to 13 that are a little over 2 months old.