What age do turkeys lay eggs?

[Lu King]

What age do Black Spanish turkeys begin to lay eggs? We allow our turkeys to roam, and I am wondering if the girls might be laying eggs elsewhere. They are around eight months old. Also, we have on girl mating....does this mean that she is laying eggs already?

 

[gaviota]

Well I do not know about yours but mine (rio grande) start to lay in their first spring and that will be a ways off yet.
Where you are located as well as the breed are both issues here.

 

[Buck Creek Chickens]

mine always start in early spring, even had an egg laid on the porch in a late snow storm and it hatched, but I also had a weird one this year a BBW I was raising for my brother started to lay eggs in late Aug this year and she was a chick from this year mid march, I blamed it on the cool weird weather we have had this year

 

[Boggy Bottom Bantams]

yep,
All hertiage/wild breed will lay their first year, usually March - August will be the heaviest period. year 1-3 is their best production years, after 3 their production and fertility will begin to fall off. They arent laying right now, I can assure you of that though, still a bit young, and wrong time of year.

 

[Lu King]

I thought she might be laying because she goes off by herself to the woods and only comes back home once a day. I have no idea where she goes, but when she comes home she flies in like a duck. She can fly at least 200 feet at a time. She flew in the other day and almost hit my husband on the head. At first we thought it was a hawk, but no....it was her.

 

[Boggy Bottom Bantams]

probley just out feeding and checking things out. Could be laying, but I'd only give it about a 10% chance. And yep, they fly very well, better than folks give them credit for!

 

[RAREROO]

Yep, mine have stopped laying for the season too. I think I read somewhere that turkeys start laying the spring after they turn six mos, I didn't plan it. but I got my first poults in the summer and they were 6 mos old and laying by spring. But if say they were to turn six mos old now, I would have to wait until around March for eggs. But be careful when she does start laying, because sometimes they will lay in the woods, sometimes my turkeys would find a nest in the bushes that the ducks had started, and she would lay in it too. So you may want to shut her up when she starts untils she learns where to lay, and even them she may still lay on the ground, but mine for the most part were good about laying in their fnesting crate and even going to it when they were free ranging.

 

[ivan3]

Lu King wrote: I have no idea where she goes, but when she comes home she flies in like a duck

Watch her direction when she's flying back to the flock, then walk out along the flightpath. I'll bet she's got a nest and, if anything like ours, will fly straight up off it and come in directly from the hideout to the yard. Change of season probably has something to do with this behavior (like mock mating in other species of birds in the fall).

This thread, about the same behavior, was posted the other day: https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=270426

Not a `serious' nest, just practice (might get some eggs out of it).​

 

[erinm]

my palm takes of to the woods and I found her nest. ther were 12 eggs she was tying to hatch but they are not ferile so i threw them. did not know how old they were. she is not let out of the kennel every day. They were in a very open spot i am surprized nothing ate them.

 

[Hvntdunthis4yrs]

My females are 4.5 months old. How soon should I expect a few eggs? TIA