To incubate or not to incubate

[Annie17]

Hi everyone. Im new to turkeys, and brought a breeding pair 3 months ago. I live in New Zeland, so just going into winter now. In the spring (September) will they hen start laying 1 egg a day that will be fertile? And should I incubate or leave the mother to look after the eggs till they hatch?

 

[feedman77]

As long as the tom does his job the hen will lay an egg a day or every other. That should be fertile.

As far as whether to incubate that will be a personal choice.
Most hens are good mothers and excellent brooders.

Depending oncwhat you want to do I would incubate what you want to try and then let the hen hatch a round.

Once she goes broody egg laying will usually cease.

I don't know if you have the room might want to look for another hen as a tom will pester one hen constantly.

 

[brittanimck]

What breed of turkey?

 

[Annie17]

I have standard Bronze turkeys

 

[callieisspooky]

I'm relatively new to turkeys, too (only 4th year) and in my experience the younger hens tend not to be as devoted mothers, i.e. they won't commit to sitting on eggs long enough for a successful hatch. Since you only have one hen, and you want babies, it might be a better idea to incubate or be ready to incubate should she leave her nest for longer than 10 minutes.