Why are my Eastern Turkey Hens Eggs 2 different colors?

shellys

Hatching
6 Years
Apr 9, 2013
5
0
9
I only have 1 hen and 1 Tom both Eastern Turkeys. She is laying white eggs and brown spotted eggs. I have the first 3 in the incubator (don't know if fertile--didn't want to lose them in case). She has started a nest and it contains white eggs as well as the brown spotted eggs. I'm new to turkeys; any advice?
 
I have three eastern hens that just started laying, Some eggs are creamier colored with big spots and some are more toward the white with hardly any spots and some are in between.Originally I I had only one hen laying and there were 2 different colored eggs, now that they are all laying I presumed that the different colors were from different Hens. Waiting to hear what others say, but maybe it's just a color variation in the spectrum of what they lay kind of like a chicken whose egg is sometimes lighter or bigger or smaller.
Mine are between 1 yrs old and 1-1/2 yrs old. we've just had them for a month now.
were yours domesticated or are they pretty skittish?
The Jake goes bonkers and makes this coughing noise if I close the coop door and I'm inside, the hens are more tame.
In the past 2 weeks they've laid 23 eggs. Ten I think are from the same hen before the others got in the game, Guess I just have to wait and see if any will set on the nests.

My Jake must have been in a big fight for dominance when younger because a lot of his tail feathers are broken off so when he fans out I don't see the pretty colors that would have been there.

Question for someone out there: do they ever loose their tail feathers say in a moult and grow back new ones or is this Jake always going to have bent or broken off tail feathers.
Didn't know if I should cut them off or leave them. He can be caught but it really stresses him out, he tries jumping out of his enclosures when there's no where to go.
 
were yours domesticated or are they pretty skittish?
Mine are also about 1 year old and I got them about a month ago---domesticated the lady raised them from babies. My male also makes a noise but resembles more of a rumble and followed like someone tapped on a drum; he also gobbles a lot. Most of the time he struts around with his feathers all standing up (it's too impress her). I go in and they won't come to me although they do not act skittish. Now if I'm outside and lean down they'll come up to the fence. I just keep talking to them and eventually I think they'll get used to me enough to pet them??? Maybe. The eggs she lays are either almost totally cream or tannish with dark spots.
 
My Jake must have been in a big fight for dominance when younger because a lot of his tail feathers are broken off so when he fans out I don't see the pretty colors that would have been there.

Question for someone out there: do they ever loose their tail feathers say in a moult and grow back new ones or is this Jake always going to have bent or broken off tail feathers.
Didn't know if I should cut them off or leave them. He can be caught but it really stresses him out, he tries jumping out of his enclosures when there's no where to go.

When they molt they will shed all of their feathers (just not all at once) tail feathers included. He will eventually grow a new set of tail feathers. My toms molt annually in the fall.
 
When they molt they will shed all of their feathers (just not all at once) tail feathers included. He will eventually grow a new set of tail feathers. My toms molt annually in the fall.
Thanks for that info, I'll be glad when the new tail feathers come in.
 
I only have 1 hen and 1 Tom both Eastern Turkeys. She is laying white eggs and brown spotted eggs. I have the first 3 in the incubator (don't know if fertile--didn't want to lose them in case). She has started a nest and it contains white eggs as well as the brown spotted eggs. I'm new to turkeys; any advice?
don t worry out of the egg will come turkey
celebrate.gif
 
About the egg colors: as far as I know all external eggshell pigmentation if present (i.e. spots, streaks, etc) comes from internal glands in the hen, regardless of species. My hens usually lay white eggs to start with and later eggs in the clutch are bigger and have pink spots that turn purple after about 3 days and go brown after about 2 weeks. The white ones stay white.

Just a random note, open to suggestions so I'm just throwing it out there: I have a white hen who lays eggs whose spots have been scratched clean off in a line from tip to base, about a centimeter wide; I thought she had an obstruction in her oviduct but her daughters produce the same. It looks for all the world like someone's scratched a line of pigment off the eggshell. They hatch fine, and this hen and her daughters lay fine; but maybe there's a genetic malformation causing a misplaced something in there...

Oh and about chook eggs, I've had some hens lay purple-spotted pink or rose-color eggs, or even white-spotted dusky mauve. Very pretty.
 

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