Happy News! She's Laying!

This past week has been a blur, and in that blur, our hen turkey began laying.  This is her first ever egg.  Isn't it beautiful?  Unfortunately, we have had temps in the low teens at night, so this egg was frozen...and cracked.  That's why it looks a little shiny - it's sweating because it's warmer in our house. 

Since it had cracked, I went ahead and opened it up and left it in a bowl to thaw out.  Tell me...do you think those spots are where it's fertilized?  I know our tom has been mating with her, but I'm not sure if this is a fertility spot or something else. 



The dark shadow behind the yolk to the upper right is a spoon.  I couldn't get the angle right to photograph the spots without the spoon in there.  But what do you think?  Could it be?  Was it fertile?  Because it was frozen, we know it wasn't viable, but we are excited all the same.  Because of our very cold temperatures at night right now, I'm gathering her eggs as she lays them and holding them at about 55 degrees (our basement) until I have a few, then I'll put them in the incubator. 

We are hopeful that our hen will set her own brood as well, but we will also do some incubation to maximize the number of poults we are able to get.  So...what's 'cookin' (har har) at your homestead?

Happy happy,
-Laura at TenThingsFarm