Only after all of the eggs are laid willthe female begin to incubate her eggs. One egg is laid eachday until the entire clutch of ten to twelve eggs iscompleted. The hens on theother hand are not bullied into this mating ritual andonly breed at a time of their choosing or when theyare in the mood, just like most females.Īfter mating, each hen leaves the group to find asecret location to lay her eggs. The other toms only matewhen the dominant male is "occupied". The dominant maleis the first one to mate. The meeting of the two groups doesn'tturn into some kind of wild orgy. The turkey world is more sophisticated than youwould think. Like you said, the males fan out their tails,fluff out their feathers and strut around like TonyManero in Saturday Night Fever.
Oncethe two flocks find each other, the toms start showingoff. The toms gobble in aneffort to find a hen and the hens do the same. When spring arrives, the length of day, combinedwith improving weather, causes the turkeys' hormonesto kick into breeding mode. They hang out all winter, just countingdown the days until the breeding season begins. Jakes are the young hotties of theturkey world. As themother hen's young males (jakes) get older, they leaveher flock and join up with a fourth flock made up ofother jakes. The third flock is a true family, consisting ofthe mother hen and all of her offspring. These spinsters wander thecountryside feeding and talking about how rotten menare. Mature females (hens) who eitherdidn't successfully mate or who have lost their brood,also form a flock. Mature males (toms)hang out together and have little to do with thefemales or the kids. Idon't think they can actually be called a "family"since these birds are trying to mate with each otherand, except for certain parts of this country, matingwith family members is not encouraged.įor most of the year turkeys can be found in one offour different kinds of flocks. That is prettyneat how you have a flock of turkeys in your yard. Evidently, it's ahard life living there in Hopkinton.
Do you know her? She is kind of like me,only she looks quite a bit older. Is the male turkey the onlyone that fans out its tail feathers? Recently two males have been fanning outtheir tails, but the females seem to ignore them andnever fan their tails. We have a family of turkeys coming toour yard. Bird Watcher's General Store Bird Watcher's General Store Turkey Family - 04/18/03
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