What to do with a brooding turkey in an emergency.

[JaeG]

Oh my goodness - adorable! I was hoping you'd post a picture.

 

[nchls school]

Thank you. I think so too. I am wondering how they will do when the weather gets colder.

We now have another hen brooding----In December...hatching in January!!!

 

[nchls school]

We sold the poults for $10.00 each; is that a fair price for midget white poults????

Several days ago we found the second hen's nest disrupted and some of the eggs scattered away from the nest. We moved the hen to the whirl pool tub in the bathroom as we did with the first hen. Candling tonight showed that four of the eggs were DIS, but thirteen are alive and developing. It seems apparent that brooding hens will have to be separated from the flock in the future. Is that normal with turkeys??

 

[R2elk]

We sold the poults for $10.00 each; is that a fair price for midget white poults????

Several days ago we found the second hen's nest disrupted and some of the eggs scattered away from the nest. We moved the hen to the whirl pool tub in the bathroom as we did with the first hen. Candling tonight showed that four of the eggs were DIS, but thirteen are alive and developing. It seems apparent that brooding hens will have to be separated from the flock in the future. Is that normal with turkeys??

It is not normal for other hens to destroy one hen's nest but it is not uncommon for tom turkeys to destroy a nest. With the tom it is an attempt to break the hen from being broody in order to get her back into breeding mode.

Some hens can try to steal eggs for themselves and it also is possible for a fight over a nest to cause problems. It is even more likely that a tom took the hen setting on a nest as an invitation to breed which at the least ends with broken eggs and the worst an injured or dead hen. Toms should be separated from hens that are sitting on nests.

 

[nchls school]

Thank you for replying. My first thought was the Toms. Observation of the situation however showed otherwise. The other hens are forcing the broody hens off the nest and pulling the eggs from the nest and making a mess of the nest. In both cases the hens causing he problem were younger or the same age but not laying.

 

[nchls school]

For the third time this winter we have a turkey brooding eggs in the bathroom. We had thought having a turkey in the house would be very messy and noisy; not so. Each hen has yelped when they wanted to defecate. Easy enough to put them outside and bring them in when the duty had been accomplished. No noise either beyond the daily yelps to go outside. BUTTT, our turkeys are very tame and trusting. They've been pets from day one. I'm not so sure this will work with our bronze hen which we bought half grown and is not tame. Spring will soon be here and an outside cage will work better than the whirlpool tub!