Will a turkey lay on eggs not fertile?

[melissa826]

My female Royal Palm was not laying on her eggs for the first couple weeks after she first began laying. So I would collect the eggs and put them in the incubator just in case. Then I skipped collecting them for 2-3 days and all of a sudden she has been staying on them since. Do I assume she knows that there are fertile eggs under her...or is is possible the poor thing is just laying on duds? (yes, we have a Tom...however, anytime I have seen him try to mate her, she runs away so I don't know if anything was ever accomplished). Should I just let her stay on them...or should I candle them....or?

 

[nchls school]

My female Royal Palm was not laying on her eggs for the first couple weeks after she first began laying. So I would collect the eggs and put them in the incubator just in case. Then I skipped collecting them for 2-3 days and all of a sudden she has been staying on them since. Do I assume she knows that there are fertile eggs under her...or is is possible the poor thing is just laying on duds? (yes, we have a Tom...however, anytime I have seen him try to mate her, she runs away so I don't know if anything was ever accomplished). Should I just let her stay on them...or should I candle them....or?

The hen would not know if they are fertile or not. If the hen is calm enough you could candle them in a few more days or wait and see.

 

[Ol Grey Mare]

My female Royal Palm was not laying on her eggs for the first couple weeks after she first began laying. So I would collect the eggs and put them in the incubator just in case. Then I skipped collecting them for 2-3 days and all of a sudden she has been staying on them since. Do I assume she knows that there are fertile eggs under her...or is is possible the poor thing is just laying on duds? (yes, we have a Tom...however, anytime I have seen him try to mate her, she runs away so I don't know if anything was ever accomplished). Should I just let her stay on them...or should I candle them....or?

Broodiness is in no way related to whether or not fertile eggs are present - a broody female will set on an empty nest, rocks, fertile eggs or infertile eggs (she isn't even choosy about the species of egg). As to what you should do, that is up to you.

 

[Sabz]

Yeah but isn't there something that makes them lay on the eggs only when they are done laying all of them?

Not sure if I'm clear.. but I thought they would lay 1 eggs, continue to go outside and live normally.. then a second.. etc.. until they reach the magical number (not sure how they decide?).

So when she reaches 6 eggs as example, then she'll start to lay on them. That's why the babies hatch almost all on the same day. Otherwise, if they started laying down on the first egg, there could be a 7-8 days difference between the first hatching and the last one!