Turkey is hatching first clutch in January

[uptown hens]

I have a ten month old pair of Black Spanish heritage turkeys. She has been setting a nest of eggs and to my surprise, they began hatching today, middle of January.

My question is whether momma will be able to keep them warm enough underneath her. Temperatures are 40-50 during the day and 30s at night.

It seems quite warm under momma, and it was warm enough to hatch the eggs, so should I be worried. The nights were much colder during incubation than they are currently.

This is our first experience with hatching turkeys. We have always raised the large meat bird variety, and just this year were lucky when we bought the last two heritage turkeys and ended up with a male and female.

Any advice would be appreciated.

Thank you

 

[R2elk]

I have a ten month old pair of Black Spanish heritage turkeys. She has been setting a nest of eggs and to my surprise, they began hatching today, middle of January.

My question is whether momma will be able to keep them warm enough underneath her. Temperatures are 40-50 during the day and 30s at night.

It seems quite warm under momma, and it was warm enough to hatch the eggs, so should I be worried. The nights were much colder during incubation than they are currently.

This is our first experience with hatching turkeys. We have always raised the large meat bird variety, and just this year were lucky when we bought the last two heritage turkeys and ended up with a male and female.

Any advice would be appreciated.

Thank you

She will be able to keep them warm enough without any assistance. I recommend that you separate her and the poults away from any of your other poultry.

 

[Anne02]

I have a ten month old pair of Black Spanish heritage turkeys. She has been setting a nest of eggs and to my surprise, they began hatching today, middle of January.

My question is whether momma will be able to keep them warm enough underneath her. Temperatures are 40-50 during the day and 30s at night.

It seems quite warm under momma, and it was warm enough to hatch the eggs, so should I be worried. The nights were much colder during incubation than they are currently.

This is our first experience with hatching turkeys. We have always raised the large meat bird variety, and just this year were lucky when we bought the last two heritage turkeys and ended up with a male and female.

Any advice would be appreciated.

Thank you

She should be able to keep them warm just fine.

 

[uptown hens]

Thank you. She is separated except the male partner has access. He only hours to to her at night. Should I be concerned about him and block his access.

I have placed a watering and food source for the babies up in the coop.

 

[R2elk]

Thank you. She is separated except the male partner has access. He only hours to to her at night. Should I be concerned about him and block his access.

I have placed a watering and food source for the babies up in the coop.

Yes, keep the tom out too. Toms can seem to be devoted fathers and then suddenly start killing poults for no apparent reason. If it happens, it is too late to change anything but if you deny him access to her and the poults, it won't happen.

When I let a hen raise poults, I keep her and the poults out of the general population until the poults are at least 2 weeks old.

 

[uptown hens]

Yes, keep the tom out too. Toms can seem to be devoted fathers and then suddenly start killing poults for no apparent reason. If it happens, it is too late to change anything but if you deny him access to her and the poults, it won't happen.

When I let a hen raise poults, I keep her and the poults out of the general population until the poults are at least 2 weeks old.

Thank you. She worked so hard I would hate to see her lose them now.

 

[Anne02]

Yes, keep the tom out too. Toms can seem to be devoted fathers and then suddenly start killing poults for no apparent reason. If it happens, it is too late to change anything but if you deny him access to her and the poults, it won't happen.

When I let a hen raise poults, I keep her and the poults out of the general population until the poults are at least 2 weeks old.

Yeah, a friend of mine let her poults in with the father, and he stepped on one and killed it. Other than that he was a good dad.