Post by nina on May 28, 2017 20:50:27 GMT -5
I have two hens that have been sitting forever. They hatched one group which I stole from underneath them but they still had eggs and kept sitting. Meanwhile there's a good laying chicken hen in their coop that has been adding eggs to their current nest, and I'm not sure if the turkeys added eggs or not. Originally they put about 20 eggs in a nest sat on it for about 10 days then moved to another nest another turkey hen had been filling. Which incidentally I collected and hatched the abandoned eggs, about 12, in my incubator. It was a strange staggered hatch with chicks hatching every couple of days or so. Now for the problem, the turkey hens are starving, some eggs are obviously cracked and rotting and the coop desperately needs cleaning but I have no way of knowing when the last egg was laid. All of the original turkey poults that I didn't sell died when I put them out in the coop. They lasted a week and then slept against the chicken wire one night and just let themselves get eaten one by one. ugh. I'd like to get replacements poults and don't want to kill any viable eggs but think the hens are wore out. Is this normal for a turkey hen to keep sitting till she dies and the eggs are no good? I didn't keep good records because the there are 3 turkey hens and 1 chicken hen that seem to be adding eggs here and there. If I clean up the coop and throw out all the eggs will I have to wait a year for them to lay again? The really good sitting hen that is skin and bones is a slate. I throw mealworms near her but she only will eat a couple. I really want her to abandon the nest on her own but the slate and bourbon hen are glued to their stinky nest.