Turkenstein25's Turkey Talk for 2015

[CowboysAngel]

Hello everyone! I find myself an accidental turkey caretaker...

A Turkey wandered into my property from my back treeline yesterday, I thought it was a Jake...that shows you how much I know about turkeys...

I penned her up because I didn't want her to risk crossing the treeline again (there's coyotes in there, or wander to the road, a lot of cattle trucks and onion trucks travel it).

She laid an egg last night, and I was wondering what chance I would have trying to incubate them...I know that she would have had to have been exposed to a Tom, but how frequent does that have to be? If she was covered in say the last week...would only that one egg be fertile? Does exposure have to happen every day? I don't have a Tom...

Should I put the egg in the incubator wait 4 Or 5 days and candle it? Or wait a few days and put a few eggs in and try my luck...

I've been checking craigslist to see if she's been listed as lost...if her owner comes looking for her I'll gladly return her...

I Fed her some all breed poultry layer...and she has water and a nice enclosure to keep her safe...

Looking forward to hearing your suggestions...

 

[feedman77]

First congrats on turkey.

2nd what variety of turkey is she.

If you think she has been around a tom. Give incubating the egg a shot.

Does anyone around you have turkeys. I free range mine. The farthest I have had them go is about 3/4 of a mile.

 

[CowboysAngel]

First congrats on turkey.

2nd what variety of turkey is she.

If you think she has been around a tom. Give incubating the egg a shot.

Does anyone around you have turkeys. I free range mine. The farthest I have had them go is about 3/4 of a mile.

Its been suggested to me in another thread, the eastern Washington one, that she is a bourbon red...she is just the one solid color...and tamer than my chickens!

I live on a short dead end dirt road...we all know each other...a couple of years ago one of my neighbors gave me a Jenny because they didn't have a Tom and decided they couldn't eat her...I had a small flock of 3 then, but stray dogs killed them...

There is only one place on the other side of treeline, they don't live there but keep guinea hens, and I've heard roosters...they are kinda anti-social...

My husband is out of town and I won't go over there by myself to ask if they are missing a bird...

 

[feedman77]

I'd keep her fat and happy and enjoy the eggs. Unless someone comes looking.

 

[CowboysAngel]

I'd keep her fat and happy and enjoy the eggs. Unless someone comes looking.

That's what I intend to do... She is just the sweetest bird!

 

[feedman77]

Final tally. Outta my first 5 eggs that went to lockdown 3 hatched. 1 internal pipped and died. The last one was just dead in shell.

1 looks spanish black.
1 black/red feathers
1 pure yellow. Guess one of my palms laid in nest. After I penned them didn't get an egg for 2 weeks.

So I'm happy. First batch outta my birds.

 

[Beefcake15]

Found some chocolate poults today. Are they any good for meat? I like that they are natural breeders and good layers, but what about meat?

 

[Beefcake15]

That mystery turkey looks like a Chocolate. Which is a rare heritage turkey breed that is known for being very sweet.

 

[CowboysAngel]

That mystery turkey looks like a Chocolate. Which is a rare heritage turkey breed that is known for being very sweet.

she is very sweet and tame, she has laid an egg every day but one... No one has come looking for her...she watches her eggs very closely, I wonder if she left home looking for a secure place to lay? She sleeps next to them every night, but hasn't begun to sit...I have to debate now whether to incubate them or let her do it when she is ready...I can always pull them out and candle after she sits and if they aren't viable give her some chicken eggs to hatch...I hear turkeys can be good mothers...I've heard the opposite too, but I like to be optimistic...suggestions are more than welcome!

The girl at Ranch & Home (while trying to sell me a turkey poult) tried to tell me there was no way they'd be fertile or that she'd hatch her own.. :-(

 

[Nivek]

My turkeys have not begun to lay yet. Do some breeds lay only in Summer? I got a hen and tom last year in July. The second day I had them, the hen started laying in the coop, then ran off and layed somewhere in the woods. She came back around Labor Day with poults. Not sure their breeds, but I think the tom was a Bronze or Spanish Black and the hen is probably a Slate. I moved in January and kept them in a coop until about March, then let them free range. Spring hunting season started a couple weeks ago, so I corraled them back into the coop. I currently have 3 hens and 3 toms (mother hen and her kids.) While they were free ranging, I'd watch where the went and checked their normal hangouts for eggs and haven't found any. They are not laying in the coop now either. I've got several nesting boxes in there with them. Wisconsin DNR web page says that wild turkeys in this area lay from March to late April, so I am assuming that if environment is the primary initiator of laying, mine should be laying right now. Is there something that I should do to get the girls started with laying? Do the toms need to go away, since they are cooped together right now? I thought maybe they need more daylight, so I made a makeshift small run outside the coop to contain them. Also found some white plastic eggs in the Easter isle at the grocery store and dotted them up with a marker and put them in the nesting boxes. they look like turkey eggs but are hollow and very light. Should I make them heavier so the turkeys think they are live eggs, or get rid of them?