To raid or not to raid

[Nagogx]

Well, after posting a few days ago about the odd behaviour of one of our hens it seems we now have eggs! Very exciting. She has just laid them on the ground under a leaning post. Never having had turkey eggs we would like to take a couple but are worried that the hen might stop laying or be scared away from the laying site. Any suggestions?

Also, how many eggs can we expect? Will the hen eventually sit on them and hatch some? I don't understand how, if she lays say 20 eggs before deciding to sit on them, how the first few can be viable, having just layed on the ground for all that time with no protection or warmth.

 

[R2elk]

Well, after posting a few days ago about the odd behaviour of one of our hens it seems we now have eggs! Very exciting. She has just laid them on the ground under a leaning post. Never having had turkey eggs we would like to take a couple but are worried that the hen might stop laying or be scared away from the laying site. Any suggestions?

Also, how many eggs can we expect? Will the hen eventually sit on them and hatch some? I don't understand how, if she lays say 20 eggs before deciding to sit on them, how the first few can be viable, having just laid on the ground for all that time with no protection or warmth.

If you want to take the eggs, it is okay as long as you put at least one fake egg in the nest or mark the first egg and always leave the marked egg. As long as there is an egg in the nest, she should not abandon the nest.

If you keep taking the eggs, your hen may lay into the fall. Mine start laying here in March and will often continue laying into October. If you leave the eggs in the nest, she will eventually reach the point where she will go broody. Only the hen knows how many eggs she needs to go broody on. It can be as high as 20 but is usually in the 10 to 12 range. The later it is in the season, the fewer eggs are required to cause the onset of broodiness. late in the season it may only take one fake egg to get a hen going.

As long as a hen is laying, when she sits on the nest, she turns the eggs that are there plus the already laid eggs get her warmth also. There have been studies done trying to understand why the slight heating of the previously laid eggs does not cause them to start growth and why the following lack of heat does not kill them. Suffice it to say that poultry can get away with doing things that would not work in an incubator.

Once she goes broody and starts sitting tight, any eggs laid after that point (not uncommon for other poultry to add to an established nest) will have a later hatch date than the group that were already there when she went broody.

 

[sarcasm]

I've heard that the first few eggs a hen lays in a season aren't as likely to be viable as those laid a bit later. So in your situation, I'd collect eggs for human consumption at least until the size, general coloration, and shell thickness are relatively consistent.

 

[R2elk]

I've heard that the first few eggs a hen lays in a season aren't as likely to be viable as those laid a bit later. So in your situation, I'd collect eggs for human consumption at least until the size, general coloration, and shell thickness are relatively consistent.

It is my experience that the first egg laid is usually infertile.