If you’ve followed our turkey woes this season you already know that our turkey hen, Jenny, had a tough start to spring this year. A number of her eggs were either damaged or destroyed while our always-struttin’-his-stuff Tom turkey tried to defend her nest from intruders, and then inexplicably killed Jenny’s two chicks that hatched.
Jenny
We pride ourselves on trying to provide the best possible care for our animals here, but we couldn’t help but feel that we’d completely failed Jenny this spring.
Not sure if we were done for the season, all we could do was watch and wait…and occasionally scowl at our Tom, Jake, in disbelief.
Jake
However, about two weeks after the loss of Junior, and removing the last of the failed eggs, Jenny started to lay another clutch!
We are thrilled that Jenny has a second chance at nesting this spring, but knew that if Jenny’s eggs had a hope of successfully hatching this time we’d have to make some changes.
Jennys new clutch of eggs
We could pull Jenny’s new eggs, and put them in an incubator, but Jenny has already proven herself to be a good mother, she’s not the problem. She has excellent instincts, providing Jake isn’t repeatedly running her off the nest, and we’d like to give her a second chance to raise her own.
Jenny had no trouble incubating the last clutch, so we expect she'll do just fine the second time around
As of this morning, Jenny now has 10 beautiful new eggs in her nest, and is starting to show signs of early incubation. She’s not sitting on them full time yet, mostly at night, and for short spells during the day, but it does seem this second clutch may almost be complete. The first spring clutch is usually the largest, and she laid 19 eggs then, so we’d expect there to be a few less in this second clutch.
So this week we cobbled together a somewhat inelegant, but functional, solution to Jake reaching the nest.
Jake is now in solitary confinement
We have plans to make a more permanent partition in the turkey pen, but for now, we’ve simply divided the pen using some wire garden fence between the posts. We did overlay some special narrow-width fencing on the bottom section of the wire fence using the hog-ringer we’d used join sections of our deer fencing.
This 16-gauge fencing has narrow runs of horizontal wire toward the bottom
Our intent is to ensure that when the chicks hatch, as they’re so small, they can’t inadvertently scrabble into Jake’s side of the pen. We already know how that will turn out.
We set the narrow wire section on the bottom of the partition, to keep the poults from entering Jake's side of the pen
It’s not an ideal or permanent solution, but should hopefully improve the odds of keeping the poults safe when they first hatch, without completely jeopardizing Jake’s safety. Chasing a pack of coyotes away from a sure-fire-turkey-dinner, sans dressing, in broad daylight ONCE is enough for anyone. I’m NOT doing that again, and our coyotes here are lean, hungry, and tenacious.
Even though he can't reach the eggs, Jake can still keep his eye on Jenny
Jake’s not a bad Tom, he’s just…well, a Tom. Not the brightest spark, and only interested in one thing, but 80% of the time he does have the right idea, and good intentions, and Jenny seems to like him. He seems slightly frustrated that he can’t reach Jenny at the moment, especially when one of us enters the pen and he wants to see us off, but overall they both seem very content with the new arrangement. Not much has changed, they can still see each other, and Jenny seems to like to reach in and steal the water on Jake’s side of the fence.
Does the water taste sweeter on the other side of the fence?
We have no intentions of getting rid of Jake, not even once the chicks hatch. For one, despite his occasionally misguided ways, we’re actually quite attached. Also, from those we’ve spoken to, more experienced than ourselves, having a mature Tom on the farm, once the poults are older, can actually help decrease sibling rivalry. We had quite a lot of bluffing, and fighting among the young Jakes last year, but a mature Tom can supposedly help to prevent that. After last year we welcome that idea.
Jenny is up to 10 eggs this morning, but may still lay a few more
As Jenny is showing signs that this second clutch is almost complete, we’d expect to have poults hatching around the first week of July. We’re crossing our fingers that this time she can successfully hatch, and raise, her own brood. It makes management overall much easier, and honestly she’d probably do a better job than us anyway. If necessary though, we will intervene and house the poults in a brooder as they hatch, but only if conditions (weather/predators etc.) at the time warrant it. Otherwise, we’ll leave them be.
We're so looking forward to a repeat of this scene in the turkey pen very soon
Think good thoughts for Jenny, especially while she hunkers down for this weekend’s late-season storms, and in a month, if all goes well, we’ll have a thoroughly adorable Fowl Friday follow-up!
I’ll be sending good thoughts and positive vibes to Jenny for sure! And hopefully the coyotes and other predators will leave them alone this time, not that you can ever trust a coyote for a minute. It would seem the younguns stand a better chance with Jake close by, but not stomping all over everything. Thanks for a great Fowl Friday story!
Hopefully now we’ll have better control over Jake’s feet, and without a potentially easy meal loose in the yard, the Coyotes will leave us alone for a while. Not it’s a guarantee though, they’re rather curious creatures.
I’ll definitely be thinking good thoughts for Jenny! I think we’ve got one hen and two toms. One tom will be for supper and I’m thinking we should keep the other two for breeding. I want to breed birds and the ducks appear to be all drakes 🙁 and we can’t have a rooster so the turkeys are my last option. LOL
To bad about the ducks all being drakes. I was half afraid last year we’d ended up with four Toms, but fortunately we have Jenny. The three Jakes by about 3-4 months of age became quite a handful while they were figuring out their hierarchy. I did have to use the garden hose more than once to break up a fight, although one male in particular was the instigator, and also the guest of honor 😉
Ha ha, not drakes but hens. I guess I could keep them for eggs, but our main goal was to have them for meat.
How wonderful that you have a second chance…
I’m thrilled. I know it happens with hens with failed nests, but she nested a little later than most here to start with, so I’m glad it wasn’t too late for her try again. Not liking this weather though, this much rain and damp is not good for the eggs, but we’re trying to help her keep them dry.
And maybe our scrub jays will get a second chance, too.
Hi CV,
Poor Jenny, I do hope she’s successful for you 🙂
I hope so too, I’m having chick withdrawal this spring as we didn’t raise any chickens this year either 😉
Clare, Your photos of Jenny and her chick made me tear up the first time~Now I feel joyful that she will have a chance to prove her mom mettle! gail
That was a very rough week here, for us mostly, I’m not sure she even really noticed, but I’m looking forward to seeing her with a few peeps in tow too.
oh how wonderful…our robin laid another clutch too and they hatched…one day later they are all gone and were are in shock…you will have a bit more control for Jenny to help her and I am excited to see the little ones…
Sounds like our Flycatchers last year. Seeing the empty nest was so sad, even if it is Nature, in the raw, and unscripted. I keep finding myself with binoculars in hand checking on the finch and flycatcher babies this spring to make sure everyone’s still there. At least Jenny’s chicks will be easier to see without looking like I’m a voyeur in my own garden! 😛
I’m so glad Jenny has laid more eggs!! When I read in a previous post that you had plans to isolate Jake if Jenny laid again, I was hoping for the best. Good luck!! Jr was really cute.
It’s not perfect, but the partition should be enough to keep him from accidentally running anyone over this time. If we end up with chicks, once they’re a little older we’ll make the partition more permanent, and build a better door, that we can leave the door open or closed depending on what time of year it is. In the wild, once Jenny started nesting, the Toms would all congregate elsewhere and that’s difficult to accommodate on the farm.
Passing along good thoughts Jenny’s way. Poor Jake though as a jail bird. Little turkeys are really cute, hope to see them soon. Do you ever incubate a portion of the clutch, or does the mom always do the full job?
We did consider taking half of her clutch and incubating them separately to help increase her odds of success. With this weather I’m hoping I don’t regret the decision not to do that. One other thought we had, as we have FOUR broody hens at the moment (a Black Australorp, and three broody Buffy Orpingtons) was to put a few turkey eggs under them. That though was mostly so the hens could hatch something out and maybe break their broody cycle. Ultimately though, we decided to give the Jenny the opportunity to raise her own. If it doesn’t work out this time though, next time we will hatch some ourselves.
This is exciting news. I’ll keep my fingers crossed that all goes well this time.
Crossing mine too…although it makes it a bit tricky to type 😉
Hoping for the best! Your blog is reading like a novel. Can’t wait for the next chapter!
LOL, “The Life and Times at Curbstone Valley” perhaps, with a spiffy photo of our handsome rooster, Frodo, on the cover? I can see it now. We’re certainly not short on drama around here for a novel 😛
I’m so happy to see she’s laid more eggs. I hope you have lots of little babies running around soon.
That reminds me…I still need to replace the video camera that drowned in the winter storms. Just in case we get chicks, we have to be able to shoot a little video 😉
I do enjoy your narratives. I hope Jenny is successful this time around. She is probably more aware of what she must do; and you seem to have Jake under control now. Looking forward to seeing a new brood. cheers. ann
Oh this is great news Clare – I really thought that it would be another year before there would be another clutch.
Can Jake poke his head through the fence the same way Jenny is able to do so on her side – do you think he would try and peck at the new brood once hatched?
Jenny can reach straight through, but that’s a good 18 inches off the ground because of the narrow wire toward the bottom of the fence. Jake’s head is so big it doesn’t seem to fit through the wire, and even if it did, his chest is so big it would probably get in the way. I am considering adding some metal window screening, like mosquito screen, to the lower part of the fence though so he cant get his beak through if one of the chicks gets too curious over there. That or maybe a 2″x12″ board on its edge. Just enough to prevent any potential mishaps.
I am so excited for y’all that Jenny gets a well deserved second chance! You are really like parents referring the children 🙂 Love that Jenny thinks the water on the other side of the fence is better. So cute!
Isn’t that funny? It’s exactly the same water as she has on her side, but his must taste better 😉
Now that we have chickens I’m feeling the bug to expand into all types of poultry… but I don’t want to test the patience of our city neighbors. I’m glad Jenny had a second chance, too!
Your post on pysanky is delightful, I stumbled across it when I was looking at your new site layout. Making batik eggs is why we decided to get our 2 leghorns (white layers) but it looks like your brown eggs turned out great, too!
Glad you enjoyed the Pysanky post, we had a blast doing that. The lighter brown eggs worked great, and in fact, in some designs it was completely un-noticable. Some though (I think the koi egg on that post) did want to use the white shell as part of their design, so it’s nice to have a mix of eggs. If they were as dark as Welsummer eggs they many not have worked as well, as least not with the lighter color wax, but the blue Araucana eggs work great too, as you can use that greenish blue to your advantage while building up your pattern.
I’m holding thumbs for Jenny and sending “good luck wishes” on Angels wings her way 🙂
Awe! From one almost mommy to another, Go Jenny Go!
Good luck to you too Lauren, it can’t be long now! 🙂
Good thoughts for Jenny…
I hope she does better than the nesting Flycatchers and Finches here, it was a rough week here with the recent storm for nesting birds. Although Jenny’s now up to 13 eggs!
Good luck with this bunch. How will you house the whole lot of them if you end up with 10 new turkeys?
We’d see what we have after they’re a couple of months old. Turkey poults are generally more delicate than chicken chicks, and there can be significant mortality soon after hatch. However, if we do end up with a full house, we have some friends who’d like to take some this year, and that should help make some space in the pen. If we need to though, while we’re remodeling the pen later this summer, we can also expand it to accommodate a few more. They’re quite fun to have around 🙂
How wonderful! I hope and pray all goes well for Jenny. I’m stilling chuckling at the “solitary confinement”. Clare, that last photo is a special one!
Memory of dear lil’ Junior lives on! Best wishes to Jenny and I will be eagerly following things. You do a lovely job, Jake just needs to be restrained and you are doing a good thing. Funny – not the sharpest tool in the shed!! Tee-hee. All look glossy and well-cared-for, and they certainly are.
Such good news. I can’t wait to see how things turn out.