turkey nesting box

[kristirose125]

Thanks Bryan! sorry it took so long, i have been busy trying to outprocess my base to move on to bigger and better things. i finished my schoolwork for my veterinary certificate and now have to go through the process of finding a job because the place that said they would hire me after i finished my program "isnt hiring at this time" and i still have bills to pay. Do you know of any people in louisiana that are raising chickens and would allow me to come by and see how they do it?

 

[zekii]

My 1st year having turkeys, right now I have midget whites that will be 10 weeks old.
Quick question since this thread is about nesting boxes...How soon do turkey hens start laying eggs? Since some turkeys are seasonal layers, what time of year do they usually lay?

 

[A.T. Hagan]

With my breeder tractors I made one big nest box about three feet wide by about twenty inches deep by about eighteen inches or so high. Filled it with hay and let the girls decide how to work it. They made two nests out of it and sometimes lay in both, sometimes only in one, and as others have noted sometimes won't lay in it at all but choose to lay on the ground. They seem to want a lot of nest litter (depth) and they scratch it around a lot. I need to put more hay in mine this weekend.

 

[kpowers0422]

ok so I am new to the turkey situation. We though one of our chickens was laying eggs cause it was in the coop. Come to find out from the internet it was turkey eggs. I feel bad now for taking her eggs. She is still sitting everywhere she can but we took her eggs. I put them in the fridge. Will it work if I give them back to her? (first question). Second if I have an empty plastic tote (very large) and put it somewhere with hay in it will that work for a box and do i show it to her? I want to protect her. She quit laying in the coop with the chickens because as I read on the internet she moves around if we take her eggs cause she sees they disappear. How do I get her to lay again, is it too late etc. My mom suggested I put the tote with hay and put a couple golf balls in there and show her. Any suggestions. Did I mess my turkey up.

 

[njduck]

go ahead and eat them, they probably wont hatch and no it did not mess her up. turkeys are like chickens they keep laying eggs until they molt. mine layed for 4 months and each 1 had a molt in that time period and went right back to laying. they finally stopped laying after I quit taking the eggs. then they each layed about 18 eggs and sat on them. I hatched out about 350 turkeys from 5 hens.

 

[coopqueen]

My little turkey hens all wanted to lay on eggs, except for 1 of them. I had 6 hens and sometimes three would be on each nest. We had two boxes and the birds were very excited to have their own turkeys. They seemed to share raising them and share taking care of them. When they were little I put them in a nursery with the moms and then when they got a little bigger I took them all and put them back with the group., spent alot of time over mother-clucking, but it was fun. I liked letting them sit on the eggs , but we had a disappointing number of babies not hatch and or die, especially towards the end of the nesting season. Now the wild turkeys are coming with their babies and visiting our babies for a playdate . It is about the cutest thing ever. the turkey hens are the greatest moms.

 

[turkey lover]

this is my first year with my turkeys as well an im so exited,cant wait for eggs to come,my tom gets a little up set when he cant be a round my hen,then i feel bad ,

 

[Scottingitup]

I built nest boxes that are 24" x 24" with an opening only large enough for the girls to get in an out of - works wonders.

 

[Clover Run]

I built nest boxes that are 24" x 24" with an opening only large enough for the girls to get in an out of - works wonders.

Can you show us pictures - will be getting White Midgets this year and building an attached coop to the barn -

 

[Scottingitup]

Sorry I forgot about this post - here is an image of them. I can get more detailed if you need, its a 2' cube. The bottom is 1x6 and i used 4mm plywood painted and 2x2 to build the frame inside.