Turkey Mating

[owensthh]

Hello I'm new to all this, and we have 3 black hens and one bourbon red tom, someone told us they will not mate is this true?
We have had eggs about 15 all together, they run loose but have 2 nest areas they like. I have seen different ones laying on the 2 nest. But they do not lay on them for long that I have seen during the day about a hour at a time give or take. Just wondering if they will hatch. We just got them one month and they are under a year old.
thanks Mary

 

[turkey guru]

you only need one tom and yes its much harder on the hen with two toms she is getting bred twice as much with two toms!! remove one tom or split hens up! lots of hens break -down from toms being to big, I would seperate toms, dived hens, so tom each has 1 or 2, I have lost some really nice hens with to many toms, happens fast!! good luck tom!! mary ,all heritage birds will breed, most of the time it takes a clutch or group of eggs to get a hen to sit and when she does we call that broody, hen went broody today ,meaning she now wants to sit on her eggs! tom!!

 

[KOTurkeyRanch]

Quote:
How is it harder on the hens? If they are hurt they wont mate. You do know its hens choice right?

 

[AVizcaya]

I haven't bothered saying anything until now but this is my original post that has been hijacked and I am tired of the bickering. If anyone has ever bothered to read the rules:

DONT'S
3. No Flaming (verbally attacking people or groups of people - e.g. a profession, an organization, a company.)
4. No Trolling (posting to provoke others, luring them to flame or rant). Trolling is sometimes done involuntarily, so please be considerate when posting.
5. No teasing, mocking, ridiculing, or otherwise making fun at other member's expense.
6. No Spam. Spamming is posting the same thing several times. "Bumping" (posting to move a thread up on the forum list) and cross-posting (posting the same thread in several forums) are examples of spam.
7. No Fighting. Taking a personal conflict to the forum is unacceptable. "I'm right, you're wrong" threads and posts will be edited or deleted.

Just about every single post on the turkey forum is being hijacked and no longer useful to people like me who just want to socialize and learn. I will step off my soapbox now. Thank you. Alex.

 

[Enchanted Sunrise Farms]

Interesting.

i've been reading through this thread and have found a lot of good information being shared . . . until this last post by the OP. Personally, i see no bickering, nor any of the other violation of rules that the OP listed. i just saw people socializing and sharing information.

i'm confused.

 

[KOTurkeyRanch]

Quote:
agreed

 

[AVizcaya]

ok.... moving on... should have taken my mydol this morning.

Guess it was just me.

 

[Enchanted Sunrise Farms]

Well, i'm awfully sorry if you feel as though the thread didn't progress the way you wanted, or that your issues weren't addressed. i've had the opposite problem quite a lot, where no one responds to my thread at all. i feel really bad when that happens.

Hope you will keep posting.

 

[AVizcaya]

Quote:
Oh I most certainly will keep posting. Sometimes it just feels like people are so very catty and opinionated and won't accept that other people might have a method that works just as well. And I most certainly know how you feel when you don't get a response or it feels like you are pulling teeth for an answers... Don't know what makes the difference of which questions get answered or not.

Now back to the original question of this post. Now that some time has passed and I have observed my turkeys, only one tom is going to mate the hens, the alpha tom, so my girls are not getting mated twice as much but there is a lot of fighting among the toms which might prove to be a problem in the long run. If the lower tom keeps fighting with my alpha tom every time he mates my girls aren't going to be fertile. Because my flock free ranges and I don't think it is fare to pen up my lower tom, every so often I grab one of my hens and my alpha tom, close them in the coop, hens lays down for him, successful mating without my lower toms pestering. Should I have two toms? Probably not, life would be more peaceful with one. But when we butchered the rest I promised my husband we could name these and let them live a naturally long life. We are hopelessly attached now.

 

[owensthh]

Hello again, I think my post got lost in all the others.
I got one quick reply to one of me questions but no other comments to the rest. I could really use some help.
Here is most of my first post.
We have had eggs about 15(2o now) all together, they run loose but have 2 nest areas they like. I have seen different ones laying on the 2 nest. But they do not lay on them for long that I have seen during the day about a hour at a time give or take. Just wondering if they will hatch. We just got them one month and they are under a year old.
thanks Mary