Subject: Re: Turkeys

From: [email-masked] (audior1)
Date: Thu, 01 Aug 1996 02:17:19 GMT

Karen Purser <[email-masked]> wrote:

>I wonder if anyone can help me with a really silly problem. We have 
>raised our first pair of Turkeys from young and were very excited when 
>the hen started laying. Everyone told us that they were hopeless mothers 
>and we would need to put the eggs in an incubator or under a broody hen 
>as turkeys never sit on thier eggs, but to our surprise she started 
>sitting once she had a clutch of 15 eggs (admittidly I had to keep 
>finding the eggs and putting them together for a while before she got 
>the idea of laying them in a nest).
>Our problem is that, as this has taken us by surprise, the eggs are 
>actually on a bench some 3 foot off the ground. What do we do - can we 
>move her and the eggs before they hatch, like you can with broody hens 
>or will this tip her over the edge so to speak?
>Do we wait for 15 little baby turkeys to land on their heads?
>Has anyone got any advice?????????????
>PS. We are not all this silly in Australia, we are just learning.
leave her alone til she hatches out. Even a three ft fall will
probably not hurt the chicks. She'll probably have a few eggs that
won't hatch in time before she moves but no big deal. 
Ren Heard
Lake Farm
Bedford Va.