Out of season breeding

[brandywine]

Today I saw one of my bourbon red hens crouch down for an extended and inept copulation (attempt?) by one of the BR toms.

They were hatched June 15, so just five months old.

So what gives? Is she going to lay eggs out of season? Or was this just recreational turkey sex?

 

[sandspoultry]

That is kind of young, but if she lifted her tail for him and he was successful then yes it is possible she could lay. I don't really think turkeys have recreational "fun". Keep an eye on them and see if they mate again.
Sharon

 

[ccrawf]

I have a very similar situation. I have 11 Bourbon Reds (2 hens, the rest Toms) that hatched 4 June of this year, 2 Spanish Black Toms and 1 Blue Slate hen, which are 2 weeks older. I keep them in with my chickens. In the winter, I put a light in the coop to help keep the chickens laying.
I noticed the Slate hen acting receptive, and have witnessed one of the bog Black toms mount her successfully. She moved her tail, and on more than one occasion, I was right there to witness it. Like with in 3 feet of them. I’m rather confident he was successful. Then last week I started finding turkey eggs in the nests. It has been one week and I now have 5 eggs. Borrowed an incubator from a friend today, have it set up and tomorrow I will put the eggs in it.
They are pretty young I know. Hoping, but won’t be too disappointed if I get poor results. I really believe the light int he coop played a big role in all this. Neither of my BR hens shrow any signs of being receptive to the toms.
My plan is to keep 2 pairs for breeding next year, a pair of the BR, and the largest black tom and the slate hen. I’ll try to get back on here and update how my eggs go. This will be my first attempt at hatching eggs of any kind in an incubator.
Also wondering if any one has ideas about how to decide which Tom to keep for breeding? Plan to keep the larger one, but should I keep the most dominant one, or the one that goes after the hens the most? Or do you think it matters? The big black on that mounted the slate used to be what I would consider the dominant tom, but now the others are ganging up on him. Guess I’m gonna have to harvest some of them soon!!

 

[dutchhollow]

Mine have been breeding (I have two rp toms and a blue slate hen). She had a nest in October, I found her on it, after I noticed her missing, was going to take half the eggs and put them in the bator. I was a week off in time, came home late one afternoon and found her in the driveway with about 13 little ones (It had been 22 degrees that am, and snowed the am before!). I knew they wouldn't make it so tryed to round them up, no going she dissapeared with them into the switch grass (wet and cold) the next am, she had 8 with her, I fed and grabbed up 6 of them (they were all chilled and wet, I could not believe any were alive). I left two with her feeling bad for her, but they were gone the next morning, then I was mad at myself for that. The six I picked up I lost two that never got over the chill, I have four doing well at 4 weeks. I still see the Tom's breeding her so try to keep an eye that she doesn't dissapear on me again. Interesing all the chicks were blue or black, not a rp marked on in the bunch!

 

[ccrawf]

plugged in the incubator last night, checked it several times and the temp is right at 98 degrees. Not sure if I should bother trying to adjust for that extra degree or just let it go. Coud be just thermometer placement so I plan to leave it as is.
Marked my eggs on one side witht he order they were laid, 1-5, and put a big "X" on the other side. THis morning about 0615 I put all five eggs in the incubator. Now I just watch, wait and count the days!