Survival Rate for Free Range, Hen Raised, Poults?

[Florida Bullfrog]

I’m attempting to create a self-sustaining flock of turkeys in the manner I have already created with my chickens. I am allowing a mixed heritage-breed hen to sit on a clutch of 11 eggs. The hen is 2 years old. I let her set last year and she lost her clutch the night they hatched between heavy rains and fireants.

What’s a typical survival rate for hen-raised, free ranged, poults? Is it almost always a failure, or is it your experience that some domestic hens consistently get large percentages of poults to adulthood?

 

[R2elk]

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I’m attempting to create a self-sustaining flock of turkeys in the manner I have already created with my chickens. I am allowing a mixed heritage-breed hen to sit on a clutch of 11 eggs. The hen is 2 years old. I let her set last year and she lost her clutch the night they hatched between heavy rains and fireants.

What’s a typical survival rate for hen-raised, free ranged, poults? Is it almost always a failure, or is it your experience that some domestic hens consistently get large percentages of poults to adulthood?

My neighbor usually gets about a 50% survival rate but that is using multiple hens. With a single hen you may get a 0% survival rate including the loss of the hen.

 

[Florida Bullfrog]

My neighbor usually gets about a 50% survival rate but that is using multiple hens. With a single hen you may get a 0% survival rate including the loss of the hen.

Is it fair to say his poult retention may vary above or below 50% in a given season depending on the hen?

 

[R2elk]

Is it fair to say his poult retention may vary above or below 50% in a given season depending on the hen?

Below, yes, above, no. What survive the simple reasons rarely survive the predators.

 

[Molpet]

1st year 6 hens, ..cold rain , coccidiosis and raccoons wiped out 30 poults that I hadn't sold. Some renested and I forced them in the coop until they were 6 months.

Next year weather was better , I used corid as needed , removed many racoons and opossum. Tried to keep in coop. Lost about a quarter.
Last 3 years the GH Owls have been taking a lot. They even got a 4 year old Tom last Dec. Not sure why they pick him .. they hadn't gotten all of the jennies ...he was the last one they got. Maybe the owl was injured or just moved on.

 

[Florida Bullfrog]

I just realized that there’s probably lots of studies on wild turkey poult retention rates, and domestic turkeys when left to their own devices are rarely likely to do better than a mature wild turkey mother.

Seems like the going rate of retention for wild turkey poults is around 25%. Therefore, domestic turkey hens that do that much or better are doing well indeed. One could argue that chances of predation should be lessened in a proper free range environment where the caretaker takes reasonable steps to discourage predation immediately around the farmyard. But that advantage may be balanced out by diminished instincts and athletic abilities of domesticated turkeys.

About 20 years ago when I first took up turkey hunting, the land I hunted had a resident wild hen I could discern from others because she had a soft-ball sized knot on her breasts. She was already grown when I observed her for the first time and I got to watch her a lot over the course of about 5 years. She always seemed to get most of her poults to maturity. Rarely did she ever seem to combine her broods with other hens, as many wild turkey hens often do. I’d guess she consistently had a 75% or better retention rate.

 

[Florida Bullfrog]

Last 3 years the GH Owls have been taking a lot. They even got a 4 year old Tom last Dec. Not sure why they pick him .. they hadn't gotten all of the jennies ...he was the last one they got. Maybe the owl was injured or just moved on.

I have read studies that indicate that in some states, GHOs are the dominant predator of mature wild gobblers. They take the gobblers off the roost. It is a mystery to me why I don’t lose many of my gamefowl to GHOs, as my farm is covered up in GHOs. The going theory has been its due to my free range dogs, but this past weekend I visited a gamefarm with multiple free range dogs that has lost several birds to GHOs recently.

 

[Molpet]

I have read studies that indicate that in some states, GHOs are the dominant predator of mature wild gobblers. They take the gobblers off the roost. It is a mystery to me why I don’t lose many of my gamefowl to GHOs, as my farm is covered up in GHOs. The going theory has been its due to my free range dogs, but this past weekend I visited a gamefarm with multiple free range dogs that has lost several birds to GHOs recently.

Could depend on the dog.
I wonder if the availability of other prey makes a difference. I probably took their food supply when I got rid of the racoons and opossum. I would rather feed owls though... they usually just eat the neck and head and I can salvage most of the meat LOL

 

[Florida Bullfrog]

Could depend on the dog.
I wonder if the availability of other prey makes a difference. I probably took their food supply when I got rid of the racoons and opossum. I would rather feed owls though... they usually just eat the neck and head and I can salvage most of the meat LOL

I would guess the GHOs would take what was easiest first, so I would expect them to take domestic poultry before wild prey, and then avian prey over tooth-and-claw mammalian prey.

Could be the specific dogs. I have not seen my dogs interact with an owl, but my dogs ignored bald eagles for years until they woke up one day and didn’t, and now they run off eagles that they’re aware of anywhere on the 40 acres. I don’t know what changed.

 

[Florida Bullfrog]

Ladies and gentlemen, time to make it weird.

I candled eggs tonight. None were fertile. Too bad.

I had an abundance of gamefowl hatching eggs and no open incubators or broody hens. Therefore, I gave he ganefowl eggs to the turkey hen. Let’s see what sort of mayhem ensues.