Reproduction

Mating

Mating begins with the first warm days of spring. Male Turkeys, “Toms”, will begin to gobble signaling to the hens that the mating season is about to begin. The gobble is a sound a male turkey makes. It is named after the way it sounds... gobble... gobble... gobble... Toms will gobble to locate the position of hens that may be ready to mate. If hens are ready, they will usually respond with a cluck, or yelp. The sounds a hen makes during mating are much more diverse then what a Tom bird will make.

After the Tom bird has located the hen that is ready he will begin the “mating ceremony”. The mating ceremony consists of what is called strutting and drumming. Strutting is when the Tom fans out his feathers by spreading his tail and letting his wings drop to the side. Drumming is the sound the Tom makes as he is doing this. It consists first of a sound like a puff of air expelled sharply, then it is followed b

Quick Fact!

a hen can store sperm for several weeks in the body, therefore repeated mating is not necessary!

y a faint hum of increasing pitch.

While fanned out, the Tom will then move in a small circle in front of the female to try and persuade the hen to comply. The hen determines when she will mate and if she is happy with what she sees she will sit on the ground. The Tom will then mount her, and copulation usually takes four minutes or less.

*If you would like to view a short clip of the turkey gobble and strut you can view this YouTube Video!

Nesting

Hens go through a very interesting nesting period completely on their own. The males have no part in the nesting or raising the poults. The nests are always located on the ground and are usually found in dense brush, vines, deep grass, or fallen trees. The earliest of the eggs that are laid are usually at the beginning of April and the latest are at the end of May. Each hen can lay anywhere between 6-17 eggs making an average of 11 eggs per clutch. Incubation of the eggs takes anywhere from 25-29 days.

When a hen is ready to lay her first egg she finds a spot that looks safe lays her first one. She then covers it up with leaves and does not come back for two days. She finally returns on the third day to lay her second egg. She again leaves for a day and comes back two days later to lay another egg. She again leaves, however this time she will come back everyday to lay one egg until she has laid them all. Once she has laid them all she remains by the nest to incubate her eggs and protect them. This is a common pattern found in all turkeys, however it may vary slightly.

The hen will rarely leave the nest more than once and day for no longer than an hour until her eggs are hatched.

By the 24th day, the poults inside the egg begin making noises. These noises are believed to stimulate the younger eggs’ development. When the eggs are ready to hatch they have a very interesting way of doing so. The poults begin to break the egg with what is called an “egg tooth”. This is a temporary sharp pointed deposit of calcium on the tip of the beak. Once they are out of the egg the poults lose this “egg tooth”. Hatching of the entire clutch takes about 30 hours.

Brooding

Once the eggs have hatched the poults spend 14 days on the ground learning from its mother. They learn how to fly, what to eat, and many other important tasks from their mother. The poults begin to fly between 7 and 10 days, however they can only fly a few feet. Around the 14th day all the poults are able to fly and from now on will roost in trees with its mother. Male poults will stay with their mother until the first fall and females will stay with their mother until the next spring.

to learn more about adaptations and interactions with other species click here!