Reintroducing poults to hen?

[esavvymom]

We had one of our Royal Palm turkey hens surprise us and hatch 15 poults!
but where she set up the nest was not a safe place on our property. We had hoped to move her (bad mistake on our part really). It didn’t go so well. I wanted to do it at dusk, but my husband was impatient. Long story short, we ended up scooping up the scattered 15 poults and couldn’t get mom to settle down and join them. So we had to put them in a brooder in the coop where it was safer for them, I sold half of them. I’m wondering if I might be able to reintroduce the poults to the momma hen, or would she kill them?

I have one other hen who has been sitting on eggs longer than the first one,and none of them hatched. Any chance we can get her to safely adopt a couple of these poults? With two hens who wanted to be mothers, i’d much rather they raise these poults than me.

the poults are 10-11 days old now.

thanks

 

[R2elk]

We had one of our Royal Palm turkey hens surprise us and hatch 15 poults!
but where she set up the nest was not a safe place on our property. We had hoped to move her (bad mistake on our part really). It didn’t go so well. I wanted to do it at dusk, but my husband was impatient. Long story short, we ended up scooping up the scattered 15 poults and couldn’t get mom to settle down and join them. So we had to put them in a brooder in the coop where it was safer for them, I sold half of them. I’m wondering if I might be able to reintroduce the poults to the momma hen, or would she kill them?

I have one other hen who has been sitting on eggs longer than the first one,and none of them hatched. Any chance we can get her to safely adopt a couple of these poults? With two hens who wanted to be mothers, i’d much rather they raise these poults than me.

the poults are 10-11 days old now.

thanks

In the future if you try to move a hen with poults, have a pen set up ahead of time. Move the hen and poults into the pen, back away and let her call them to her.

Do it in broad daylight so she can see and understand what is going on. I have done this in the past and it works best if the hen will follow you as you take the poults into the pen. It can also work well if you move the hen to the cage first and then bring the poults to her.

I normally take poults away from hens as they become dry and move them to a brooder. I do this because it is much easier to show and sell poults from a brooder than getting them out from under an angry hen.

The other reason I do this is because there are just too many things bad that can happen to poults that are in the general population during their first 2 weeks.

Once they are two weeks old, if I have a hen that I have just stolen poults from within the past day or two, I will give the hen a chance to adopt the older poults. I place the poults in my grow out pen and let the hen in with them. I stay in the grow out pen with them and watch what is happening. If the hen starts cooing to them and trying to round them up, I will leave her in with them. It can sometimes take a couple of days for the hen to convince the poults that she is their mother.

If the hen starts pecking at them, I immediately remove her from the pen.

Last year's success story at one time had 28 adopted poults ranging in age from one week to three weeks old. She did a great job raising them.

You could try putting the mother hen in the pen with them. If she has not been with them for 10 days or so, do not be surprised if she starts pecking at them. The only way you will find out is by giving her a chance to accept them.

You might have better luck with the broody hen that is on infertile eggs. The problem with her is that she may not want to give up her nest. Try putting her in the pen with the poults and see how she reacts. I do not recommend trying to slip the poults under her at night.

 

[Molpet]

I agree with r2elk
At night works with most chickens but not turkeys.

 

[esavvymom]

Thanks guys! Very detailed info. I didn't figure the slip-at-night trick would work with turkeys. They don't seem to have the same level of night-time-stupor that chickens get.

R2Elk - your suggestions about moving the hen/poults...that was how we had PLANNED to do it. We had a dog kennel with chicken wire around it (which we learned is still too big..so need to change that out for the next time) ready to go for transporting. Our problem was we couldn't get the hen easily. She had put her nest under a large fallen branch that was against our fence. So by the time we got close enough to her with a sheet (we were going to cover her and grab...that was the plan), she had gotten up and took off. The poults started following her, and then they just slipped through the fence ot the other side into the woods. THAT was what we didn't want to happen. Most of them came back on their own, but we had to coerce the other half. In the meantime, the hen was PISSED. We tried grabbing the babies and putting them in the kennel (and then a bucket after we realized they could slip through the wire), and that didn't work well. With 13 of them running all over the place, it was hard for us to gather them up and then get out of the hen's way. SHe would charge at us before we could. It was complete chaos and I felt so bad!! Both for her and the poults. The little poults were just exhausted and they were scattered all over and would just sit down to rest. So one of us would keep the hen away (with the sheet), while the other two gathered the poults so they could rest. After that, we tried moving the babies into our coop make-shift "nursery" area and hope mom would follow. She did NOT. I couldn't leave them without heat too long, so they ended up in a tote with a lamp. Momma had gone back to the nest, so we thought she was just upset and sitting on the empty nest. Thought we'd try to grab her a second time without babies around. When she got up to run away again, that's when we learned there was a 14th poult that JUST hatched, and a 15th egg. WHAT?! I had only seen 13 eggs before. She slipped 2 more in on us when we weren't looking. The hen ended up getting her self stuck on the outside of hte fence in the woods (we were going to just leave her be with the last two, but then she got stuck outside the fence and it's not easy getting them back over (plus we end up covered in ticks!). So we left her there, and rescued the newly hatched poult and the egg and got them into our incubator right away. #14 recovered nicely and was put with brothers and sisters the next day. #15 hatched two days later, surprisingly! I was able to introduce him to the gropu as well. He was the runt, being so many days behind the others.....and got picked on a bit as I expected might happen (pecked in the eyes repeatedly but a couple of the bigger poults). But after a few minutes, he started pecking right back. (Heck yeah!! You go!! haha)


Anyway....not how we planned it, and next time I will move the nest sooner I think. We did that with the first hen. Moved her eggs and eventually coaxed her into the coop nursery area. I don't know if that is what happened to the eggs though. It did definitely make it easier to sell off half of them so far! And being heritage birds, I got a good price for them.

I'll have to try the pen idea as they get a bit older. We have 7 left, and they'll be hitting the 2 week old mark after we get back from a travel weekend. We'll see what happens!!

Thanks!!

 

[SarahGfa]

I agree with r2elk
At night works with most chickens but not turkeys.

Is it usually the poults who reject the hen, or does the hen reject the poults?

 

[Molpet]

Is it usually the poults who reject the hen, or does the hen reject the poults?

The hen tried to kill the poults

 

[R2elk]

Is it usually the poults who reject the hen, or does the hen reject the poults?

It can be either. If the hen rejects the poults, you have to get her out of there before she starts killing them. If the poults reject the hen, give her time and she will win them over but it can take days.

 

[R2elk]

Thanks guys! Very detailed info. I didn't figure the slip-at-night trick would work with turkeys. They don't seem to have the same level of night-time-stupor that chickens get.

R2Elk - your suggestions about moving the hen/poults...that was how we had PLANNED to do it. We had a dog kennel with chicken wire around it (which we learned is still too big..so need to change that out for the next time) ready to go for transporting. Our problem was we couldn't get the hen easily. She had put her nest under a large fallen branch that was against our fence. So by the time we got close enough to her with a sheet (we were going to cover her and grab...that was the plan), she had gotten up and took off. The poults started following her, and then they just slipped through the fence ot the other side into the woods. THAT was what we didn't want to happen. Most of them came back on their own, but we had to coerce the other half. In the meantime, the hen was PISSED. We tried grabbing the babies and putting them in the kennel (and then a bucket after we realized they could slip through the wire), and that didn't work well. With 13 of them running all over the place, it was hard for us to gather them up and then get out of the hen's way. SHe would charge at us before we could. It was complete chaos and I felt so bad!! Both for her and the poults. The little poults were just exhausted and they were scattered all over and would just sit down to rest. So one of us would keep the hen away (with the sheet), while the other two gathered the poults so they could rest. After that, we tried moving the babies into our coop make-shift "nursery" area and hope mom would follow. She did NOT. I couldn't leave them without heat too long, so they ended up in a tote with a lamp. Momma had gone back to the nest, so we thought she was just upset and sitting on the empty nest. Thought we'd try to grab her a second time without babies around. When she got up to run away again, that's when we learned there was a 14th poult that JUST hatched, and a 15th egg. WHAT?! I had only seen 13 eggs before. She slipped 2 more in on us when we weren't looking. The hen ended up getting her self stuck on the outside of hte fence in the woods (we were going to just leave her be with the last two, but then she got stuck outside the fence and it's not easy getting them back over (plus we end up covered in ticks!). So we left her there, and rescued the newly hatched poult and the egg and got them into our incubator right away. #14 recovered nicely and was put with brothers and sisters the next day. #15 hatched two days later, surprisingly! I was able to introduce him to the gropu as well. He was the runt, being so many days behind the others.....and got picked on a bit as I expected might happen (pecked in the eyes repeatedly but a couple of the bigger poults). But after a few minutes, he started pecking right back. (Heck yeah!! You go!! haha)


Anyway....not how we planned it, and next time I will move the nest sooner I think. We did that with the first hen. Moved her eggs and eventually coaxed her into the coop nursery area. I don't know if that is what happened to the eggs though. It did definitely make it easier to sell off half of them so far! And being heritage birds, I got a good price for them.

I'll have to try the pen idea as they get a bit older. We have 7 left, and they'll be hitting the 2 week old mark after we get back from a travel weekend. We'll see what happens!!

Thanks!!

In my opinion your first mistake was the sheet. The second mistake was not having someone on both sides of the fence.

If I had been doing it, I would have gotten down on my hands and knees, crawled close slowly and grabbed the hen's legs. The poults would still have scattered and hid but at least momma would have been captured. Rounding up poults can be tough when they hide or have a fence to escape through but it can be done.

If you plan to move a turkey nest, it can often end with the hen abandoning the nest. I let my hens go ahead and hatch unless the nest is in too dangerous of an area. In that case, I destroy the nest. I seed potential acceptable nest sites with fake eggs before they even start laying.

As the poults hatch, I take them and put them in the brooder..