Where do turkeys nest?
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The Turkey Nesting Process
Before turkeys lay eggs, they need to find a mate and build a nest. Turkeys naturally breed in March or April and start constructing their nests at around the same time. Turkey nests are simple. Mother hens scratch out a shallow depression in the ground to lay eggs in. After that, mother turkeys lay 10-12 eggs over the course of about two weeks. Each egg is bigger than a chicken egg and covered in brown speckles. Once all the eggs are laid, they keep the nest warm for about 26-28 days until the eggs hatch.
The nesting period
It takes hens about two weeks to lay a full complement of nine to 13 eggs. Hens will only visit the nesting site long enough to deposit her egg for the day. The rest of her time will be spent elsewhere feeding and roosting.
At the end of the laying period, incubation starts. During this time, the hen puts herself in danger to stay on the nest day and night for about 28 days. She needs to bulk up prior to nesting and may take a brief recess period around mid-day to feed on protein-packed insects.
Where Do Turkeys Sleep?
Turkeys in the wild sleep in trees at night, while domesticated ones sleep in brooders. Turkeys sleep by tucking their head around their neck and hiding it under their feathers. This mode of sleeping often makes people wonder if they are dead.
Wild turkeys have poor night vision, so they prefer to sleep/nest in trees where they will be safe from predators. These birds are pretty lazy and dumb, and they won’t move from their nest unless they have to.
Wild turkeys don’t stay in the same tree nest for long. Depending on the weather condition and availability of leaves on the tree, they change their nest to larger trees with more leaves to block out strong winds and keep them safe from cold breezes.
The only time wild turkeys don’t sleep in trees is when they have eggs to brood. A nesting female will stay on the ground until all her eggs are hatched. After that, she stays for a little more time to allow the hatchlings to grow up enough to fly independently and sleep in trees with her.
Poults of about 14-30 days old can fly up to trees and sleep, but they usually don’t stay long in the trees. Even though they are old enough to sleep in trees, they love sleeping under the feather of their mother to keep them warm and safe from predators.
Because domesticated turkeys are larger than wild turkeys, they can’t fly as well as wild turkeys. So, unlike their wild cousins who fly up to sleep in trees, they have to sleep in enclosed pens prepared by their owners. Domesticated turkeys have been known to occasionally fly out of their pens to rest on surrounding trees on the farm, but they always return to the poultry pen at night.
Where Do Baby Turkeys Sleep?
Baby turkeys depend on their mother upon hatching, so they usually stay with her for a few weeks after birth. They sleep in nests with their mothers on the ground. They are often tucked under the feathers of their mothers because they need the heat to stay alive and for their feathers to grow.
The main reason newly hatched poults don’t sleep in trees is because they can’t fly at such a young age, so they have to sleep on the ground until they are old enough to fly.
Where do turkeys nest and lay eggs?
Correspondingly, where do wild turkeys have their nests?
Nest Placement Wild Turkeys nest on the ground in dead leaves at the bases of trees, under brush piles or thick shrubbery, or occasionally in open hayfields.
Additionally, what is a nest of turkey eggs called? A turkey hen lays one clutch of eggs per year, these clutches can as small as four to as large as 17 eggs per nest.
Likewise, do hen turkeys sit on their eggs at night?
The nesting period It takes hens about two weeks to lay a full complement of nine to 13 eggs. During this time, the hen puts herself in danger to stay on the nest day and night for about 28 days.
Do wild turkeys lay eggs on the ground?
The fact that wild turkeys nest on the ground and require a total of 6 weeks to lay and incubate eggs makes hens and their nests vulnerable to predation and human disturbance (destroying nests by burning, mowing, and discing).
The Wild Turkey Nest
Last June I was walking through our field when I flushed a wild turkey hen. She emerged from the raspberry patch just a few feet away from me. I parted the thorny canes to reveal a nest on the ground lined with dried grass and containing nine large, creamy eggs, speckled with brown. Since we were planning to have the field mown to control invasive wild chervil, I set stakes topped with orange flagging near the nest. The man we had hired to mow was a turkey hunter, and he was happy to give the nest a wide berth.
The hen returned to her nest, and in the following weeks, as I worked in the vegetable garden nearby, I could make out her brown figure through the brambles as she sat on the nest. This hen had mated with a strutting tom turkey in May (one of several females to mate with the polygamous gobbler). But she made the nest and incubated the eggs for almost a month alone.
Where do wild turkeys make their nests?
Wild Turkeys nest on the ground in dead leaves at the bases of trees, under brush piles or thick shrubbery, or occasionally in open hayfields.
Where do wild turkeys sleep at night?
Although turkeys spend most of their time on the ground during the day, they sleep in trees at night. Turkeys cannot see well in the dark. Sleeping in trees provides protection from predators that roam and can see at night. They fly up to roost at dusk, and fly down at dawn to begin their daily rituals.
Where Do Wild Turkeys Lay Eggs?
Wild turkeys look for a place to nest that is sheltered but gives them a good view. Mother turkeys raise their heads high to look for predators, so their nest needs good sight lines. If it is breeding season and you are constantly seeing a turkey sitting in the same place, there’s a good chance it is on a nest. Since turkeys want to see predators approaching, you can usually see them as they are in their nests.
Turkeys don’t usually nest completely out in the open. A little bit of underbrush is good protection against all the many predators that raid turkey nests. Fewer than half of wild turkey nests will successfully hatch. They are at risk from foxes, opossums, dogs, skunks, and many other animals. That’s one reason why turkeys lay so many eggs at a time.
10 things to know about Tennessee’s wild turkeys
Here are a few things you may not know about Tennessee’s wild turkeys:
1. Tennessee estimated population of wild turkeys is 300,000.
2. The harvest during hunting season was 34,620 for the spring season and 686 for the fall; this is up from 32,301 in the spring but down from 1,058 in the fall of 2016.
3. The average weight of the male turkey was 16.2 pounds and the female’s was 9.2 pounds.
4. The average number of eggs laid, the “clutch size” was 11. The egg incubation period is 27 to 28 days.
