What are turkey moms like?

[Black Feather]

Ok, I have three...count'em THREE Beltsville White turkey hens all brooding on the same nest. They will not come out and get quite offended if I take them out and scuttle right back in.

The only problem is, there are no eggs under them, I took them and put them in the incubator as they were being laid. I'm thinking of taking the eggs out of the incubator just before they are due to hatch and giving them to the hens. The only problem is I was planning to allow a few bantams in the same enclosure with them. Will the new turkey moms attack the bantams? Are they generally aggressive, or pretty easy going? The tom is also in the enclosure and all of them were raised with chickens while they were growing up.

Thanks
Urban Coyote

 

[Black Feather]

Anyone care to respond? The eggs are starting to hatch so I have to decide if I should put them under the hens or not??

 

[Wildsky]

I would be worried about a turkey mom with bantams running around. All moms are protective and a bantam couldn't really stand up to a turkey!

Perhaps someone with experience will come along - I don't have turkeys!

 

[luvsmycritters]

i would be worried about the chicks . are the chickens older . if so i would keep them apart . and i also think that it would be less stress on
the new mama . better to be safe than sorry . good luck

 

[FarmGirl01]

I had the same thing happen to me. I had a hen sitting on 5 eggs and 18 in the bator. I let the hen raise her brood and everything was fine for awhile. Then she kept leading the babies off far away from the rest of the flock. She wasn't really aggr. towards the others at first. The only chickens she would attack were the bantams.
If you have a place were the hen can raise her family and keep here pinned up I would do it. But I think she would go after the bantams. Just try it out and see what happens.
I just wonder how the hens would react to each others poults. I have had hens fight over the babies. I is just trail and error to see what works for you Good luck and keep me posted on your decision.

 

[austinhart123]

i think u should give the eggs to the eggs, and try to move the bantams elsewhere

goodluck
Austin

PS. show us pics

 

[Black Feather]

Thanks for the advice!

I left the eggs in the incubator last night and three of the six hatched by morning. I think I'll have to try and kick the hens off the nest that they have as they've been at it a while. I was hoping they would loose interest on their own, but it doesn't look like it.

I did some prying under them the other night and there actually is one egg in there. At this point I may take it away and hatch it out in the incubator so the poult can be with it's brothers and sisters in the brooder.

I'm surprised at how well the turkey eggs hatch though. Almost every egg is fertile and almost every one hatches. From my three hens I've hatched almost 30 poults!

Urban Coyote

 

[FarmGirl01]

Thats great. I had 100 % with my turkeys. Like you, I was suprised of the fertility rate and hatch ratio.