Turkeys raising other birds?

Turkeygirl66

Hatching
9 Years
Sep 29, 2010
4
0
7
my turkeys have been laying eggs and some how my guineas fowl and banties have been laying eggs in their nests. i have no tom so the turkey egg aren't fertilized, so i was wondering if somehow it was possible for my turkeys to hatch chickens or guineas and raise them as their own chicks:/?
 
My turkey hens steal duck, goose and chicken eggs and will sit on them all the time. Dont let the hen hatch chicks unless they are large ones because the hens smash them. I will put muscove duck and embden goose eggs under them and let them hatch.
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My turkeys have hatched chicken eggs. But they would not raise them past 2-3 days. It took about that long to figure out they where strange and then they killed them. I seen other on her have luck, but not me.
 
Does the reverse work well: a chicken hen raising poults? I'm wondering if we keep a couple of female BRs through the spring if I can put their eggs under one of my perpetually broody chickens to hatch out and raise.

My hens usually brood their chicks in a 6X8' covered doggie pen. They have a pet carrier for shelter, but the grass (maybe 1/2" to 2") is quite dewy until 10 or 11 in the morning. It has never bothered chicks, even when the temps were in the 30s. Would the dew affect the outcome as far as poults are concerned? (I'm thinking of Steve's "a cold, wet poult is a dead poult," specifically.)

Or can I trust my turkey gals to do a good job?

Thank you.
 
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My very broody hen hatched 2 Bourbon Red and 1 BR/royal palm cross this summer. I also had my Bourbon Red pair hatch 5 at the same time. I tried to take the pure BR's from the hen and give them to the turkeys. They took them no problem, a few days later I let everyone out to free range and the chicken took back her original 2 babies. I thought great, now I have 2 confused poults. Sometimes during the day they would be with the turkeys, but every night they went in the hen coop with the hen and the rest went in the turkey coop. In a few weeks they were all together, momma chicken, momma turkey, tom and all the babies during the day. It was the only chicken the tom let near them. I guess he figured if she had turkey babies she must be ok. What a site they were, little momma chicken had a hard time as they got bigger. Seeing her run across the yard to keep up with them was a funny site. She would hold out her wings to let them under and they were half her size. They free ranged together all summer, until momma chicken decided they were big enough to be on their own. Now all the turkeys are together, until last night. The BR/RP cross was in the chicken coop.
 
When I find a turkey sitting on eggs, I cover her with a box. She raises the poults in this box protected for the first few weeks. Most of the time I take the poults from her. I do a better job brooding poults. If your brooding skills are not good then let the hen do it.

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I love it, does the cover open? My hens do a better job at hatching. I have no luck at all with the incubator. I was very impressed with the turkeys this year and their parenting. It was the first for both and they were marvelous. Loved watching them interact with each other and teach the babies. My tom would walk around with them on his back and when they got to big for all of them to go under the hen, he let them sit under him at night.
 
The top opens up so i can feed, water and do whatever I need to do. I also have some with bottoms. They are easy to make and protects them from wind and rain. I am going to put some roof tiles on some and see how that works. We are not handy so this was great for us.
 

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