Surrogate chicken hen with turkey poults

[gmendoza]

Could this possibly work out,for even a short time?

 

[tonini3059]

Possibly, but you are not giving enough info. Do you plan on having the hen set the eggs and hatch them out or are the eggs hatched already and you just want to have the hen start taking care of them. If it is the former it should not be a problem. I had a buff orpington hen hatch out a clutch of turkey eggs last year and she took good care of them. However if it is the latter I do not think it would since neither the turkeys nor the hen would bond to each other.

 

[gmendoza]

I just want to know if a surrogate chicken hen will get close to day old turkey poults.We have a hen (Gruesome) Barred rock who is our surrogate.She was mom to our overflow chicks last year and our guinea keets.Maybe she might work out for day old turkey poults.We still have two guinea (hen and roo) that still act like her chicks but they are about 7-8 months old for heavens sake.

They wont leave her.She will be put into the surrogate coop this weekend with the 3 dark cornish chicks we are getting.

Just curious given the facts about Gruesome and her unique mothering abilities.

 

[Stacykins]

If started with eggs, sure. I had a friend who reared a clutch of peafowl eggs under a broody bantam because the peahen would not set on them in a safe place (she didn't want the peahen becoming coyote chow out in the woods). The one thing you need to be aware of is turkeys can get blackhead from chickens (so can peafowl). The bantam took great care of the chicks, though, and raised them up as her own. It was rather hilarious when I did some chores for her, going into the coop and seeing the bantam try and set on and cover all the chicks once they started growing! She couldn't cover them if her life depended on it, but she sure did try! All grew up to be healthy.