Turkey breeding

[zzGypsy]

at least some of my hens have been laying for about a month now too.

 

[MamaHutch06]

So my husband and I decided to take the first 22 eggs that we numbered all on the same day and open them to see what was going on....

Well about 3-4 looked like eggs, nice yellow yolk...a couple had little spots in them...but most of them where green and moldy looking, they smelled so foul I almost lost it. 1 was so bouncy that when I poked a tiny hole in the membrane green nasty stuff came squirting out...Oh it was gross and my house smelled nasty for quite some time

I am extremely happy that we decided to check them, that would of been one nasty mess to clean up in the coop had they exploded or gotten cracked somehow.

We have 2 eggs in the fridge that we know for sure she laid yesterday and today and we have the 3 from the 3 days prior to that under neath the broody hen...So I guess we just wait and see what happens with them. I will be candling them at day 14 just because I dont want her sitting on eggs that arent fertile...The thought of her sitting on rotten eggs and them breaking, scares me to death

 

[Smiles-N-Sunshine]

Quote:
We eat them. These are small eggs from jennys, and I'm pretty sure they're not fertile. Come spring, they will be incubated, and the poults raised for meat.

 

[elizmartin]

Hello Everyone....I have had a trio of White Midget Turkeys for a couple of years now....Last spring, both hens laid and brooded their eggs with success. After the poults and hens were moved to a pen of their own (without THC (Thinks He's Cool), the younger hen started acting like a boy.... fanning her feathers out and acting like a tom. Fall, the young hen started to again act like a girl....Wellllll, i took a look at her today and she is now growing the black tassel on her chest.has some head deco, but definently looks like a hen........ She and the Tom are 2 years old.....the older hen is 3 years. The older hen has a clutch of eggs that she is setting on..... So has anyone seen a turkey change sex rolls before????? This was really surprising to me.
Thanks, eliz

 

[MamaHutch06]

A turkey thats more confused than we are, now thats funny! lmao

 

[MamaHutch06]

We decided to candle the eggs every saturday throughout the process. I know it is really early but this is what we saw:

unlabeled egg:

egg 23:

egg 24:

Any thoughts?

 

[mamawolf544]

Quote:
All of my Midget White hens have a beard.

 

[MamaHutch06]

Do you know when the best time to let her keep her eggs? When she will know when to set? Is there a certain age I should wait for, month, etc...?

 

[Smiles-N-Sunshine]

Mamahutch, I would wait until warmer weather where you are. From what I've read, the best storage temps for hatching eggs are 50-65 F. Even if you store the eggs in the house, you still have to put them in a nest at some point, and hope your hen will want to set.

Not that I'm an expert, but here is what I've done with some success. I leave old golf balls in strategic nesting locations to encourage our turkeys and ducks to lay there, then when a hen goes broody I replace the golf balls with hatching eggs. I have a turkey hen setting on 14 chicken eggs now. I hope she'll brood them, and set on a clutch of turkey eggs later this year also.