Do nesting hens roost at night?
05-15-2003, 08:37 AM
#11
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Join Date: Feb 2003
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RE: Do nesting hens roost at night?
TineHunter_Jay -- I don' t think a nesting hen turkey (or any turkey, for that matter) relies on scent for anything, so I do not believe human scent at the nest will scare off the hen. I don' t think they have a very well-developed sense of scent. I do believe that a nesting hen is usually not likely to return to a nest she has abandonded due to pressure from a human, but I have no empirical data to support my assertion. The only reason I even believe what I believe is because I know a nesting hen that loses her (early) nest to a predator will often lay another clutch at a different site.
What I am impressed with in the nesting process is the fact that in the early stages, according to what I have read, the hen lays an egg a day, and evidently spends much of the rest of the day with other turkeys doing their turkey thing--i.e., feeding, wandering around in the woods and fields, etc., and then, the next day, returns to her nest and lays another egg, and keeps doing this until she has a full clutch of eggs and begins the incubation process. I once accidentally left a seat cushion in the woods at a place I' d set up while turkey hunting. I' d marked a nearby roost site on my GPS so I knew approximately where I' d been sitting. It took me three trips in two days to find my seat cushion (although I will admit, I did not spend any length of time looking for it, just when I was in the area, according to my GPS, I' d take five minutes or so, trying to find the tree I' d sat against.) How a hen can find her well-concealed nest 23 hours later is impressive, to me.
What I am impressed with in the nesting process is the fact that in the early stages, according to what I have read, the hen lays an egg a day, and evidently spends much of the rest of the day with other turkeys doing their turkey thing--i.e., feeding, wandering around in the woods and fields, etc., and then, the next day, returns to her nest and lays another egg, and keeps doing this until she has a full clutch of eggs and begins the incubation process. I once accidentally left a seat cushion in the woods at a place I' d set up while turkey hunting. I' d marked a nearby roost site on my GPS so I knew approximately where I' d been sitting. It took me three trips in two days to find my seat cushion (although I will admit, I did not spend any length of time looking for it, just when I was in the area, according to my GPS, I' d take five minutes or so, trying to find the tree I' d sat against.) How a hen can find her well-concealed nest 23 hours later is impressive, to me.
05-16-2003, 03:11 PM
#12
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Join Date: Feb 2003
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RE: Do nesting hens roost at night?
Just a follow-up, from the Refuge, attributed to Lovett Williams:
Some interesting hen information from Lovett Williams, nationally recognized Turkey Biology expert:
Hens lay one egg per day and in large clutches will typically skip at least a couple of days during the laying cycle. Laying two eggs a day is all but impossible due to the lack of room inside the oviduct for two eggs to form and also due to the huge calcium requirement for the egg shell.
Hens need to be bred only once to insure that not only the first clutch will be fertile but a subsequent re-nest as well should the first nest be destroyed. The fact that the hens are bred multiple times and often by multiple Toms insure genetic viablity.
Hens never sit on a nest until the entire clutch is laid. Embryo development does not start until the incubation starts so if she sat at any time prior to the entire clutch being laid and development started then those embryos would die from exposure while she is away from the nest.
Hens return to the nest only once during the day and while laying and are very sneaky in the process often flying to and from the nest. Multiple visits to the nest are not made as that would leave additional scent as well as visual clues to the whereabouts of the nest.
Hens cover the nest with leaf litter after laying and during times away from the nest after incubation starts, as camoflauge, but they do not line the nests with feathers to keep eggs warm.
Prior to incubation Turkey eggs can withstand low temperatures with no damage. In fact they can actually freeze and some will still hatch although hard and prolonged freezes will destroy their viablility.
Once incubation starts the hens do not return to trees to roost at night.
Hens sit the eggs with only very brief time off for feeding, rarely more than 2 hours a day and in the case of older, more experienced hens, not even that long. Experienced hens often spend 24 hrs a day on the nest for as much as 2 to 3 days before taking a feeding break.
Turkey hens are very susceptible to nest abandonment when flushed from the nest by a predator. Intentional flushes of known nests shows that upwards to 50% of all hens abandon their nests after only one contact, (this does not include sneaking off of the nest to avoid a predator), where either eye contact is made or direct approach to the nest causes the hen to flush at close range.
Hens that don' t abandon after the first event almost never, as high as 85%, suffer more than (2) flushes from the nest. (what this means is that if you ever find a nest and flush the hen off of it at close range that you should never return to it to " check on it" as you will all but guaruntee that the nest will be abandoned).
As in Ducks the older the hen the more experienced she is and the better choices she makes in nesting areas and the more likely she is not to abandon the nest. Older hens are also more likely to renest after an abandonment or a loss of their clutch.
Some interesting hen information from Lovett Williams, nationally recognized Turkey Biology expert:
Hens lay one egg per day and in large clutches will typically skip at least a couple of days during the laying cycle. Laying two eggs a day is all but impossible due to the lack of room inside the oviduct for two eggs to form and also due to the huge calcium requirement for the egg shell.
Hens need to be bred only once to insure that not only the first clutch will be fertile but a subsequent re-nest as well should the first nest be destroyed. The fact that the hens are bred multiple times and often by multiple Toms insure genetic viablity.
Hens never sit on a nest until the entire clutch is laid. Embryo development does not start until the incubation starts so if she sat at any time prior to the entire clutch being laid and development started then those embryos would die from exposure while she is away from the nest.
Hens return to the nest only once during the day and while laying and are very sneaky in the process often flying to and from the nest. Multiple visits to the nest are not made as that would leave additional scent as well as visual clues to the whereabouts of the nest.
Hens cover the nest with leaf litter after laying and during times away from the nest after incubation starts, as camoflauge, but they do not line the nests with feathers to keep eggs warm.
Prior to incubation Turkey eggs can withstand low temperatures with no damage. In fact they can actually freeze and some will still hatch although hard and prolonged freezes will destroy their viablility.
Once incubation starts the hens do not return to trees to roost at night.
Hens sit the eggs with only very brief time off for feeding, rarely more than 2 hours a day and in the case of older, more experienced hens, not even that long. Experienced hens often spend 24 hrs a day on the nest for as much as 2 to 3 days before taking a feeding break.
Turkey hens are very susceptible to nest abandonment when flushed from the nest by a predator. Intentional flushes of known nests shows that upwards to 50% of all hens abandon their nests after only one contact, (this does not include sneaking off of the nest to avoid a predator), where either eye contact is made or direct approach to the nest causes the hen to flush at close range.
Hens that don' t abandon after the first event almost never, as high as 85%, suffer more than (2) flushes from the nest. (what this means is that if you ever find a nest and flush the hen off of it at close range that you should never return to it to " check on it" as you will all but guaruntee that the nest will be abandoned).
As in Ducks the older the hen the more experienced she is and the better choices she makes in nesting areas and the more likely she is not to abandon the nest. Older hens are also more likely to renest after an abandonment or a loss of their clutch.
