Hi Barnswallow I just had something similar happen so can only tell you what I did.
Mine (Sweetgrass) had nested next to the border fence in the pasture right behind the machine shed at the edge of the feed ground......with one of her sisters. When the eggs started hatching, the sister grabbed the first two and quit the flats, going out past the buildings to the open pasture where the other turkeys and chickens only visit...don't hang out much. The one left refused to leave....had hatched out 5, but still clinging desperately to the nest. I put a waterer and feeder near her so the poults could drink and eat if they wanted to.
When 3 days had passed, and I found one of the first born poults dead, I took the rest of the eggs, peeled the crushed shell off one that was cheeping madly (no blood showing anywhere in the shell...he'd been at it a while), stuck the new poult under the hen, gathered up the rest of the unhatched eggs......nine of them.....put them in a feed bag and added them to the burn pit. (I'd already incubated and hatched over 60 turkey eggs, so you might not want to do that if this is the only hatch you've had. They could have gone into an incubator and finished hatching, but I really do not need any more turkeys, and was letting the hens set simply to see how/if they would/could handle raising a family by themselves with no help from me....for future reference.)
The hen still refused to leave the nest, so I occasionally went out and pestered her to make her move. After about a day and a half, she finally started moving along the pasture fence. That evening, while I was feeding, noticed the five remaining poults had taken matters into their own hands , had gone thru the hog wire into my driveway, and were busily hunting for something to eat. The hen was frantically running the fence, trying to get to them. I opened the gate to let her into the yard with them, then eased them across the yard, opened the south gate into the part of the pasture where the other hen had gone, and let them work their way into it while finishing my chores.
That was 3 days ago. This morning, the hen had her poults next to the yard fence, and all five were still alive. Later saw her sister who also still has her pair.
If there are other turkeys ...or chickens....in the same area as the nest....especially juveniles....they will try to kill newborns. The adult turkeys and laying hens paid no attention to either mom or poults, but the younger birds became a major PITA until I turned the garden hose on them when they went to that area. They soon decided they had business elsewhere and don't bother the little birds now that they are out in the bigger part of the pasture.
Along the same line....another hen (also Sweetgrass) who set earlier, and I'd been kind of ignoring, brought in 13 poults and when I checked the nest, all had hatched....only zipped halves left there. That was over a week ago, and she still has all 13. Excellent mother. Because there is no running water in that pasture, I've put some regular waterers at various places in the pasture that the Moms and their kids seem to pass through. Birds on the feed ground have big pans, which don't work for little guys.
I now have two Beltsville Whites walking the fence looking for a place to nest, and will need to figure out some way of discouraging them. I DO NOT need more turkeys.
All eggs are crossbreds.....head tom is SG; I did not get them separated when they should have been 'cause I seem to have developed a tendency to develop phlebitis at the slightest excuse, and having to lay in bed a lot with one leg in the air cuts down on what you get done. Since they were going into my own freezer/canning jars anyway, it really doesn't matter that they are not pure. Will be trying to sell some breeding pairs....they're nice birds.....pretty, too; I just don't need that many....they're way too prolific!!!
Hope this helps a little and you can save your eggs. Any questions, I'll try to answer them. Good luck. Old Bat
