Hatched or predation?

[pass-thru]

I noticed a patch of grass uncut in a hayfield cut last week. I walked over and the farmer left it because of a turkey nest. The eggs were broken. Does this look like they hatched or something got them?

My thought is that they hatched as they are still in the nest with what looks like a hole punched out. Interesting if that's the case....I always thought it was futile to leave a patch of hay around a nest.

 

[SKFOOTER]

The majority of the time when a small patch like that is left because of a nest, predators will patrol the perimeter of the patch and find the nest.

 

[8 POINTS OR BETTER]

The majority of the time when a small patch like that is left because of a nest, predators will patrol the perimeter of the patch and find the nest.

yep and usually lose the nest and the hen.

 

[pass-thru]

Any nest I've found that a predator had got to, the eggs were all over the place and broken completely apart. I have never found a hatched out nest before....but this is what I would have imagined it to look like: eggs in place with a hole punched out.

 

[Boll Weevil]

Usually a predator-ized nest is trashed with eggs toted off and inconsistently cracked open or smashed. A poult more often pecks a circle out of one end of the egg and pushes out. Maybe Megalomaniac will chime in as he raises turkeys and I'm sure has seen it many many times.

 

[megalomaniac]

Hatched.

The only one that looks odd is the bottom one... looks to have pipped in the center of the egg. That only happens rarely when the chick is disoriented in the egg.

Predators will have scattered the shells everywhere and would be in smaller pieces.

What is surprising is that there appears to only be 5 eggs in the pic... there should have been at least double that in a normal clutch.

I've hatched out several in the incubator this year. Cute little bugggers In fact, one of my hens is still setting on a clutch which sh (ould hatch any day. Believe it or not, I still have one hen that is still laying almost daily (started laying Apr 1)

 

[Andy S.]

Good first hand data Mega, thanks for sharing.