What are the chances that I have fertile eggs

[mrbuch]

Here is my story I have a turkey that for a long time we that was a boy until she laid an egg( ha ha) she is the only one we have we did not know what she was doing she would disappear during the day and spent one night away from us and one late afternoon we heard her making noise at the fence we opened the door to see what was going on only to find her talking to the wild turkeys in the cow pasture so my question is she is sitting on 11 eggs what are the chances of any of the eggs being fertile

 

[chooks4life]

If you give her a week, take an ordinary torch out to the nest at night and have a look, you'll know if they're fertile.

I don't think there's a great chance people can offer any sort of meaningful prediction. Even turkeys from the same breed sometimes fail to mate, never mind wild ones and domestics. Only time will tell. Unless you've seen her associating with them, or heard them answering her vocalizations?

 

[mrbuch]

She been sitting on them since mar 26th is it to early to do that she had been doing the mating thing with us she always squatting at our feet

 

[chooks4life]

Fertile eggs develop rapidly, so it's not too early at all by now. I'd be more concerned by her showing sexual attraction to humans. Female turkeys select their mates, and sit in front of them in invitation; if she's confused enough to sit for humans, she may not be sitting for male turkeys. But, if you check the eggs you'll know.

Best wishes.

 

[mrbuch]

She sits for the whole family not just me this is her 2nd time laying eggs the first time we gave her 8 baby chickens to raise

 

[Lagerdogger]

If the father is a wild turkey, you need to ask yourself if its really a good thing to hatch these birds or not. Wild turkeys are not domestic turkeys. Crossing wild and domestic turkeys make inferior wild turkeys if they should mix with the local breeding population. As much fun as it is to hatch eggs, turkey breeders owe it to the wild stock not to allow their birds to mix with the locals. I hate to be the bearer of ugly advice, but if you can't keep your turkeys from breeding with the local wild turkeys, you really should destroy those eggs.

If you want to know if the eggs are fertile, either candle them or crack one open and see what's inside. I hope they are not fertile simply because then you don't need to make a decision.
Please think about what you may have, and consider making the responsible choice. Sorry for the soapbox.

 

[chooks4life]

Lagerdogger's got a good point there, as harsh as it may possibly sound to some...

If they're fertile and you're determined to keep them you may want to invest in a good cage system to ensure your birds don't genetically help eliminate what is left of the wild population. There's also the chance they may be unfriendly or flighty towards humans as a result of their partly wild heritage. Chances are also high that they would be weaker against most common diseases of domesticated poultry.

With some breeds of turkeys, natural fertilization/mating is impossible, so we propagate them via artificial insemination, and have done so for many thousands and thousands of generations, as with some other species. Instincts must adapt to environment, within each individual's lifetime, they are not immutable as some seem to think (after all we've bred maternal instincts out of some breeds, as one of many examples) and we have altered some breed's sexual instincts by becoming identified as their mates and sources of sexual pleasure. So now we have males and females whose sexual instincts are bonded to and triggered by humans, not their own species.

If you hatch partly wild ones with partly human sexual attraction instincts, they could become quite aggressive; after all you are going to be considered 'one of them' as species boundaries have been blurred in animals that are sexually attracted to humans. The most human-aggressive chickens, cattle, and other species of livestock are usually those in which humans are heavily involved in artificial breeding, because to them we are either mates, competition for mates, or both.

Anyway, best wishes.