**~~>>Second Annual Cinco de Mayo Turkey Hatchathon<<~~**all poultry welcome!

[superchemicalgirl]

Anyone with turkeys - when do they stop laying? Mine are still laying, and going broody.

Normal?

 

[debs_flock]

Anyone with turkeys - when do they stop laying? Mine are still laying, and going broody.

Normal?

Wow, mine stopped laying about 7 weeks ago. I think I last got one egg about 3-4 weeks ago.

It was a good thing though, my DH was convinced that ALL turkey eggs needed to be hatched. I have around 75+ turkeys. We are going to start eating more and more of them. The first one was very small, but the boys are really growing now.

We butchered and ate one of last years birds. It was around 14 mos old and still very tender, not the least bit stringy.

 

[superchemicalgirl]

Wow, mine stopped laying about 7 weeks ago. I think I last got one egg about 3-4 weeks ago.

It was a good thing though, my DH was convinced that ALL turkey eggs needed to be hatched. I have around 75+ turkeys. We are going to start eating more and more of them. The first one was very small, but the boys are really growing now.

We butchered and ate one of last years birds. It was around 14 mos old and still very tender, not the least bit stringy.

It's chaotic here with 6 turkeys (they are rather stupid). My two from last years CdM have figured out that they sleep in the chicken coop and usually don't fight it, but the 4 from this year still fight it every evening. I try to round everyone up and they're trying to sneak away to roost somewhere else. However, now the two oldest sneak away to lay on their secret nests, so we have to find them, too, and break up the nest and wrestle the hen back to the coop. It's exciting. I can't imagine 75 of these. Don't judge (I don't weed):




My two toms are starting to fight amongst themselves, too. I think one of them needs to go soon. I was feeling up their drumsticks yesterday, I think they could be worthy of butchering now.

 

[HEChicken]

Anyone with turkeys - when do they stop laying? Mine are still laying, and going broody.

Last year was my first with turkeys and I got juveniles so the hen didn't start laying until this Spring. She laid enough for me to incubate some for CdM, then laid a clutch for herself, that all went bad. After I kicked her off that nest, she resumed laying but only laid enough for another clutch. Since her first clutch went bad, brooded in my hoop coop, her second time brooding I let her pick her own spot and all was going well until 3 weeks in when a fox got in and got her. Sigh. So now all I have left are the ones I hatched this year (all of her progeny).

It's chaotic here with 6 turkeys (they are rather stupid). My two from last years CdM have figured out that they sleep in the chicken coop and usually don't fight it, but the 4 from this year still fight it every evening. I try to round everyone up and they're trying to sneak away to roost somewhere else. However, now the two oldest sneak away to lay on their secret nests, so we have to find them, too, and break up the nest and wrestle the hen back to the coop. It's exciting. I can't imagine 75 of these.

My two from last year also always slept in the coop but sadly both have now passed and all I have left are the dozen juveniles (CdM hatch so about 4 months old). Two of them go into the coop religiously every night. The rest roost outside, around the coop and have to be encouraged to go in every night. I've found if I wait until after dark, most of them will eventually go in by themselves but I have several that resist even with me there herding them. Since my adults have passed, I need to pick a trio to keep, and the rest will be butchered. I decided to band the ones that go in at night (they all look the same and I can't tell them apart) and keep them. Survival of the fittest.....or in this case, survival of the ones that make my life the easiest.

 

[HEChicken]

It was a good thing though, my DH was convinced that ALL turkey eggs needed to be hatched.

What are you saying???? They don't all need to be hatched????

I confess I find it hard to do anything but hatch turkey eggs myself. After all, by the time I purchased my original breeding pair, then fed them for 8 months from time of purchase to first egg, those first few eggs were pretty expensive eggs. I have more chicken and duck eggs than I know what to do with so didn't need them for eating, so I saved up the turkey eggs and started hatching. In my incubator I had super hatch rates - 100% of everything I set. I've sold a bunch and had to cull a couple that hatched with defects, but still have a dozen left. My turkey hen didn't have such luck hatching and in fact failed to hatch any of the 33 eggs she brooded (in two batches). I did wind up eating one egg that she laid on the ground and it was cracked, but other than that, my understanding of turkey eggs matches your DH's

 

[debs_flock]

Quote: Keep in mind, I had seven turkey hens laying nearly every day

I did sell a few poults, a few eggs and one of my hens. Beyond that, if we don't eat it, they are running in a huge flock!

 

[superchemicalgirl]

Survival of the fittest.....or in this case, survival of the ones that make my life the easiest.

 

[NotAFarm]

Quote: This is so how I choose plants for my garden...

...now to see if I can make it work for the flock

 

[SilkieSensation]

Anyone with turkeys - when do they stop laying? Mine are still laying, and going broody.

Normal?

My 2 hens are still laying!

Quote: If you have a blue slate or lavender tom I would be VERY interested in him. I just lost my gorgeous boy to the heat & a lazy man who lied about watering them.

I need an unrelated boy to join my girls for next year.

Quote: This is so how I choose plants for my garden...

...now to see if I can make it work for the flock

This is how I chose what birds stay (and what man gets to stay). Become a pain in my rear, go bye-bye! Behave yourself & do what you are supposed to, live a long, happy life on my little farm.

 

[debs_flock]

Quote: If you have a blue slate or lavender tom I would be VERY interested in him. I just lost my gorgeous boy to the heat & a lazy man who lied about watering them.

I need an unrelated boy to join my girls for next year.


I do have slate boys from this year and last. Although the big boys would be difficult to ship (two of them have recently been butchered, but we still have two).