- Nov 25, 2014
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We have two full grown Royal Palms- A female we raised from 2 weeks old (now a year old), and a male we adopted this spring (just over a year), Our female never really appeared to like the male much--any time I witnessed him trying to mate with her, she would shrug him off and run away. However, I suppose it's possible he did the deed without me knowing.
Anyways, they are free range (in about an acre or more fenced in area) with our chickens and ducks. The female had been laying on eggs for about a week or so. My husband was thinking that they were not fertile and she was wasting all her time sitting on them...when she could be roaming in the nice weather and possibly working towards actual fertile eggs.
My kids went up to the pen when she was eating the other day and brought all the eggs down to the incubator. For another day and a half she remained in her nest laying on her "eggs" that were no longer there. Then she finally seemed to realize they were gone. For another day or so she roamed around seemingly "PMSing"....picking on chickens worse than I have ever seen...and getting mad at our male.
She has always liked people, and will sometimes fly out of the pen to hang out with me....and if I wander inside she may go visit the neighbors...but she always came back. The other day she was visiting one of my neighbors and the neighbor brought her back three times, but "Jewell" kept returning to her house. Then the neighbor went inside, and she proceeded down the street....and we havent seen her since.
Her wings are not clipped, so she can fly. We live "in the woods" but on a street with a handful of other houses facing away from the woods. It's likely she could survive in the nice weather since we are in the woods and near a river....but my question is, would a turkey just get ticked off and "run" away per se? I read something about sometimes they like to go off to lay eggs and come back once there are babies....is that true? and by go off....like away where we cannot see or hear her (she always whistles back in response to my whistle when she was in the yard) and not come back at night or for food?. What if she is laying on infertile eggs....will she know that eventually and just leave them? Are they good with directions knowing how to get home....or could she wander off and get lost?
Another big question--- Can you have ONE tom and ONE female? Or do you really need to have a few females per male?
Just trying to figure out what might have caused my friendly beloved turkey to up and run away from home! And if I might expect her to return in a month....or should assume she's dead or doing her own thing. I've already warned the neighbors when they are out in the woods and come across the wild flock of about 40 turkeys....if they see one beautiful white one....bring her home! hahaa
Anyways, they are free range (in about an acre or more fenced in area) with our chickens and ducks. The female had been laying on eggs for about a week or so. My husband was thinking that they were not fertile and she was wasting all her time sitting on them...when she could be roaming in the nice weather and possibly working towards actual fertile eggs.
My kids went up to the pen when she was eating the other day and brought all the eggs down to the incubator. For another day and a half she remained in her nest laying on her "eggs" that were no longer there. Then she finally seemed to realize they were gone. For another day or so she roamed around seemingly "PMSing"....picking on chickens worse than I have ever seen...and getting mad at our male.
She has always liked people, and will sometimes fly out of the pen to hang out with me....and if I wander inside she may go visit the neighbors...but she always came back. The other day she was visiting one of my neighbors and the neighbor brought her back three times, but "Jewell" kept returning to her house. Then the neighbor went inside, and she proceeded down the street....and we havent seen her since.
Her wings are not clipped, so she can fly. We live "in the woods" but on a street with a handful of other houses facing away from the woods. It's likely she could survive in the nice weather since we are in the woods and near a river....but my question is, would a turkey just get ticked off and "run" away per se? I read something about sometimes they like to go off to lay eggs and come back once there are babies....is that true? and by go off....like away where we cannot see or hear her (she always whistles back in response to my whistle when she was in the yard) and not come back at night or for food?. What if she is laying on infertile eggs....will she know that eventually and just leave them? Are they good with directions knowing how to get home....or could she wander off and get lost?
Another big question--- Can you have ONE tom and ONE female? Or do you really need to have a few females per male?
Just trying to figure out what might have caused my friendly beloved turkey to up and run away from home! And if I might expect her to return in a month....or should assume she's dead or doing her own thing. I've already warned the neighbors when they are out in the woods and come across the wild flock of about 40 turkeys....if they see one beautiful white one....bring her home! hahaa
