Turkey laying while sitting?

[Southernchickens]

My turkey hen has been sitting on her three eggs for about three weeks now. And when I checked the last couple days she has started laying again! Now she is up to 5 eggs with her original three set to hatch soon. Anyone else ever have a hen do this?

 

[sourland]

Are you certain that another hen is not adding eggs to the nest? I have never known of a broody fowl of any species to continue laying.

 

[Southernchickens]

I'm sure it's not another hen because she's the only one I have. She's just now laying at almost 2 years old. Last year she sat on chicken eggs and had never laid an egg herself. Then she began to sit with only 3 eggs.

 

[ShannonR]

Just to get the second hen question completely out of the way: do you have wild turkeys around by chance? And is your hen securely penned against this possibility?

K, moving on now. I have one or two hens who do this, and it makes me nuts!!! When the poults start to hatch only one will hatch per day so you have to take the first hatched poults out of the nest and feed/water them and also brood them so they don't starve out underneath Mama or get stepped on in the nest by accident while the rest are hatching. I have had turkey hatches last a week or longer...idiot birds.

Still, I feel any ability to brood their own eggs is worth selecting for. And in all honesty, in my own flocks this behavior is a marked improvement over having to incubate all of their eggs myself.

 

[Southernchickens]

It's definitely her eggs. She's in a completely covered pen. Even the top is enclosed. She has always been a little weird. She goes broody if the chickens lay eggs and I don't take them immediately. She sat on one chicken egg last year and now has a rooster who thinks he is a turkey

 

[ShannonR]

It's definitely her eggs. She's in a completely covered pen. Even the top is enclosed. She has always been a little weird. She goes broody if the chickens lay eggs and I don't take them immediately. She sat on one chicken egg last year and now has a rooster who thinks he is a turkey

Is it feasible for you to gather her eggs as she lays them and put a bunch under her@ once? I promise, it will save you headaches at hatch time lol

 

[Jrose]

Your options are to either take away the poults when they hatch and let her keep sitting the new eggs- give them to another broody or brood them yourself; or once all the poults hatch take away the newer eggs and put them under a different broody or incubate them yourself.

I have a poor bantam hen I sat on 4 regular chicken eggs. She's close to lock down and now has 8 full-size chicken eggs! The hens just sat on her and added eggs, and I don't know hich are which!


Birds!

 

[OzarkCountryGirl]

My turkey hen has done the same thing. She went broody, stopped laying, then started laying again while still being broody. Then she stopped again after adding another 5 eggs and hasn't laid another since - and she's refusing to budge off the nest. I don't know if she feels like she needs a certain number of eggs under her or what. Luckily I have a few Silkie hens of which there is always at least one broody, so various hatching dates of any poults won't be an issue. I have a single poult that hatched out just over a week ago and was adopted by a little white Silkie and it's growing like a weed. I have another poult zipping away in an incubator as we speak (from a few eggs of which I collected before the turkey went broody) and as soon as it's out and is fluffed up a bit, it will probably go under the Partridge Silkie that went broody a couple of weeks ago.