The Call Again Farm Journal

This morning, when I went out to do my morning chores, I was going to let Rosy out of the nest box to eat, drink, and do her business.  She was nicely settled on the eggs, though, and refused to get off.  Maybe she was going to be a good broody after all!

After lunch, I again went out to the barn to let Rosy off the nest box, because broodies need to get off the nest once a day.  At first, she wouldn't get out, but she "sneakily" got off once I was two-third the way across the field.  She at some grain, drank some water, and began foraging.  I gave her a good ten to fifteen minutes to do as she pleased, and then tried to herd her back to the nest box.  She wouldn't go in.  I gave her a little more time, and she still wouldn't go.  I suppose she may be feeling like a human mother with a young baby, who longs to get out of the house.  Generally, turkeys have good instincts, and I might trust some of my turkey hens to know how long they could be off the nest without hurting their eggs.  Rosy isn't one of them, and seems to feel that she can just sometimes be broody.  It doesn't work that way.  A hen has to be completely committed to broodiness, as the eggs need almost 24/7 incubation.

After my second unsuccessful attempt at getting Rosy to go back on the nest, I went to look at her eggs.  While I'd been trying to get her back, they'd caught my eye.  Something about their color wasn't right.  As I got closer, I realized they were kind of yellow.  Somehow, one egg had gotten crushed.  Things happen.  I know that.  Two years ago, when Rosy's  mother, Pink, was broody, she would have never have gotten off the nest if I literally hadn't pulled her off.  She struggle some, and one time an egg got cracked in the proccess.  Cracked, not crushed.  I have no idea how a broody hen could have flattened an egg.

Well, when I saw the crushed egg and the yolk from it all over most of the other eggs, I ran inside to get the paper towels.  I wiped the yolk off the other eggs best as I could, but egg yolk is pretty sticky stuff.  Usually, when I'm collecting eggs to store for incubation (which, in the right conditions, can be stored for one to two weeks before incubation), I wash then if they're soiled.  However, I was afraid that the water would be too cold and reduce the temperature within these eggs, which had already been incubated for two days so needed to keep a constant temperature around 99 degrees Fahrenheit if their growth is to continue.  I then threw out the crushed egg and cleaned out most of the yolk-y hay from the nest box and replaced it with clean hay.

After I did all that, I made a third attempt to get Rosy to go back to her nest.  She entered the nest box... and stood there... and stood there... Finally, she sat down - as far away from her eggs as she could.  I gave her a little privacy, and when I looked again, she was starting to move some of her eggs under her body.  It occurs to me now that it is possible that there could have been some wet hay that I missed, and she didn't want to sit on that.

Still, my hopes for Rosy are pretty low.  I told Dianna that I'd be surprised if she goes all the way with those eggs.  Even if she does surprise me and stick with those eggs, I'd be more surprised if any of them hatch.  I suspect there will be more fiascoes like the crushed egg episode of today.  Also, I'm still afraid that the yolk on the remaining twelve eggs is going to attract bacteria, some of which may penetrate the shells and potentially kill the embryos.

I guess I've been spoiled by my previous broodies.  Rosy's mother, Pink, was a good one, very protective.  She went broody at a young age and hatched 8 out of 12 eggs, despite the frigid cold March and early April weather.  One of her poults (a poult is a baby turkey) died, but that was my fault.  There was a crack in the cardboard enclosure Bob and I made for Pink and her babies, which two poults got through.  Once out, they couldn't find its way back into the warmth of their mother, and one of them got too cold and died before we discovered the problem.  We returned the other poult safely to Pink, and she never lost any more babies.  Unfortunately, I was out one evening later that year, so Bob and Dianna brought the turkeys in for the night.  They didn't realize that Pink had wandered away into the raspberries.  An owl got her.

The year Pink went broody, Blue did, too.  It was in the late summer, and we'd butchered both of the toms because I'd read in Raising Your Own Turkeys that toms were only good for one year of breeding.  (Later, I learned that this only applies to Broad-Breasted toms, not the heritage turkeys like I have.  Heritage toms are good breeders for three to five years and heritage hens are good breeders for five to seven years.  Unfortunately, I didn't know that at the time.)  Since we had no males, the eggs Blue was trying to brood were not fertilized, so they'd never hatch.  Her nest site was outside, in an overgrown part of our yard.  We brought Blue into the barn every night because it isn't safe outdoors after dark for a turkey.  Still, every morning she'd return to her nest.  We took away her eggs.  She adopted egg-sized rocks to brood.  We took away her rocks.  She still sat on that nest.  Occasionally, a another turkey would lay an egg in the barn at night.  She'd hop down from her perch and brood that egg.  Finally, after almost two months, we decided enough was enough.  Blue was so busy being  a broody she wasn't doing anything to take care of herself, including eating.  We locked her in the barn.  After a few days away from her nest, she was no longer broody.

Last year, I was thinking of keeping the tom (Big Guy) after spring breeding in case a hen went broody in the summer like Blue had the year before.  Then, I learned about heritage turkeys being productive breeders much longer than Broad-Breasteds, so I was definite in my decision to keep Big Guy.  Low and behold, Blue went broody in the summer.  Since there still was a tom around, the eggs were viable.  Unfortunately, we'd been putting all the eggs we'd gotten in the refrigerator for eating eggs, because we were done with putting eggs in the incubator for the year.  Just around that time, one of our hens had stopped laying for the year, another one our hens, Rosy, actually had also gone broody and wasn't laying, Blue was broody so she'd stopped laying eggs, so we only had one turkey laying eggs so we could only give Blue five eggs.  (I decided to let Blue incubate eggs instead of Rosy because Blue was easier to get into the nest box.  Plus, she'd proven the year before with the rocks that she was capable of being a good broody, and I'd felt bad for her, desperately trying to be a mother.)  Blue was another turkey I literally had to yank off the nest.  I also had to prevent her from going back on, because she'd always try the second I'd get her out.  She was so devoted, and she hatched all five eggs!  I've never had a 100% hatch rate before!  One poult again managed to get away from Blue when it was young, got too cold, and died.  The other four thrived under her care.  She was less paranoid about her babies safety than Pink was.  She generally knew when things were okay and when the babies were in real danger.  Two of the babies she hatched that haven't been butchered yet, both hens, are still running around with their mother, laying eggs and making trouble.  I hope Blue will go broody again this year, because I know she'll again do a wonderful job incubating and raising some more turkeys.

Gray is one of Blue's babies.  Genetically, I mean, from an egg Blue laid and I put in the incubator.  She is now also broody in the corner of the unused Northwest Stall.  We didn't realize that eggs were being laid there until she went broody, so those eggs did not have ideal storage conditions by any means and many are very, very old.  Therefore, I don't expect any of them to hatch, but I'm letting Gray try anyways.  Unlike Rosy, she's a broody I trust.  I let her come and go at her own will.  I only see her come outside to eat and drink every two to four days, and she's only out for a couple minutes.  I trust her instincts.  I'm really starting to hope she hatches some eggs, because she's been working so hard and seems like she'll do as good of a job as mother as Blue did, if not better.

Changing the topic, I received my first two chicken orders of the year this morning!  A few days ago, I sent out a letter to everyone who'd expressed interest in purchasing chicken or who had purchased chicken from me last year, asking for their orders for this year.  It was so great to here from these two returning customers.  My favorite two parts of keeping poultry are taking care of babies and dealing with customers.