Before putting the eggs in the nest it is well to disinfect the hen with turkey salve under her wings. It will prevent vermin of any kind.
If any of the eggs get fouled with the yolk of a broken egg before or after setting, the shells should be carefully cleaned with warm water to secure their hatching. Two or three turkeys will sometimes lay in the same nest. This will do no harm in the early part of the season, but they should be separated before setting, allowing only one bird to a nest. This may be done by making nests nearby and putting porcelain eggs into each new nest. Turkeys are not liable to crowd onto an occupied nest when there is a vacant one nearby. The group of hens that sit together, and bring off their young at the same time, will naturally feed and ramble together, and this will save time in looking after them.
The turkey is a close sitter and will not leave her nest for several days at a time. Grain and water should be kept near the nest all the time. When the turkeys begin to hatch I take the little chicks out just the same as I do when under a common hen, and give the ones that are not hatched a chance to do so.
When they are all ready to go into the coop, I lift the hen very gently and carry her to the coop, generally putting the little turkeys into the coops first as the turkey hen is a very nervous bird and will scratch around and sometimes walk on the little birds.
TURKEYS SHOULD BE TAMED
That is why I like to have them good and strong before they go into the coop with the mother. The little fellows seem to understand that the mother should not step on them for they will crowd over towards the side of the coop out of her reach. She will soon get used to them and to being fed and will settle down to taking care of her babies in good shape, as the turkey hen is a very devoted mother. She will watch out for those who feed her and take care of her little babies. They will run to meet me when they see me coming, that is, of course, if they are out in the field. I have had them come home themselves when I let them out for a ramble, and when I have gone to feed them the mother would be in the coop with all her little babies.
I give the same treatment to the turkey chicks that are brought up by their mother as I do when they are brought up by a common hen, only the common hen will leave them long before the turkey hen will think of forsaking her babies. I have gone into the turkey house when they were five or six months old and would find a young turkey pullet nestling close to her mother. You do not find this in any other domestic bird that I know of.