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Wild Turkey Poults
Laura Bell
© March 2007
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 Every spring a female turkey, often called a hen, will lay one egg a day for up to two weeks. Before the hen begins laying eggs she finds a place where food and water is near, so she won’t be leaving her nest unattended for a long period of time to feed. Along with food and water, the hen needs a place where she feels safe and has enough cover for herself and when her poults (baby turkeys) are hatched. Although, most birds make a nest high in the tree tops, a turkey will nest on the ground; typically a hen will nest by a downed log or at the base of a tree and instead of a wooded area the hen may go to a nearby field and nest along the brush grown edges.
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Pictured is a Nesting Site.
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Once the hen picks a place to nest, she begins finding small twigs and leaves and sometimes her own feathers, to make the nest. Unlike other birds that weave their nests together, the hen will make a pile of what she has gathered and will dish it out slightly, so to not let the eggs roll out. Once the nest is completed, she begins laying eggs. She lays one egg daily, mostly in the morning or early afternoon hours, until her nest is full, which is usually seven to twenty eggs. The eggs are tan in color and speckled with chocolate brown dots, though varied in sizes, they resemble chicken eggs. The hen won’t set on the nest until she has finished laying all the eggs, until all the eggs are nested, the hen will continue to sleep at night in a near by tree, this is called roosting, and then fly to the ground the next morning to check the nest.
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Pictured is a Nest which is partially hatched.
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When the hen lays the last egg, she begins setting on the nest, this starts the nearly 24-hour care to keep her eggs warm. Her fear of predators, such as coyotes and fox, make her leery of making her presence known, which is why she often sits tight to the nest without moving when danger is near. If she hears the approach of something, the hen will spread her wings slightly and try to flatten her body out over the nest to help blend in and often stretch her neck out in a snake like motion towards the approaching sound. As long as she feels the predator doesn’t know she’s there, she may even let them approach within a few feet of herself. If the predator happens to find the hen setting on the nest and begins hunting her, she will run and try to get the predator to follow her away from the nest, in order to keep it safe. She will lead the predator a distance away from the nest and then circle back to the nest when she feels it’s far enough. When the night time hours arrive, instead of flying up into a tree to roost, the hen stays on the nest all night, if she doesn’t her eggs would get cold. This is her biggest risk factor, as turkeys have poor night vision and rely on the height of the trees to keep them safe while they sleep. It’s her motherly instinct that tells her to stay and fend for her eggs at all costs. This may even cause the hen to sleep very little as she must stay alert for danger. Predators are not the only thing that can destroy the nest, if heavy rain brings a flood, it could easily sweep the nest away, and it’s this reason that has been said to cause a good blow to the turkey population in some states.
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Pictured is a less then day old Turkey Poult.
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Though she must keep the eggs warm, she needs to feed herself. This is why she makes the nest near a food and water source. Her feeding times range between five to twenty minutes long, as she must keep them short to ensure her eggs don’t grow cold, and she only takes these breaks a few times during the daylight hours, never at night. Upon her return to the nest she will rotate the eggs around to make sure they stay equally warm. The hen keeps this routine until the poults are hatched, which is close to four weeks from when the last egg was laid.
When the poults have hatched, the hen will move them away from the nesting site. The smell of the poults hatching from the eggs would attract predators to the area otherwise. Poults typically hatch one by one within 24-hours, and the hen will take the newly hatched poults’ a few feet away from the nest where she’ll keep it warm next to her and wait for the next poults’ to hatch. Eye’s open, slightly damp and able to walk immediately, the poults resemble farm raised chicks, with the exception of the brown coloring they have for camouflage purposes, and they even make the same ‘peep’ sounds as chicks.
Poults will grow quickly, but it will be a few weeks before they grown feathers that allow them to roost high in the trees like adult birds, but they need to make it to that age first. A hen can only do so much to protect her poults, if they don’t use their own instincts they’ll never survive. For those that do make it, they’ll grow to be jake’s (young males) and jenny’s (young females) the next spring.
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