Narragansett Breeding Behavior

[BaldwinCreekFarm]

I've never raised turkeys but bought a trio of Narragansetts with one hen already broody. She has been on the nest for a couple weeks now and the tom is displaying some strange behavior. He seems to have pulled his breast feathers and I often find him alongside the hen and when he gets up ( after some hissing ) there is an egg or two under him.

Does the tom take some role in the nesting or rearing of poults or is he having an identity crisis ?

[Mary]

Sounds strange to me. I could understand him hanging around outside the nest protecting. Never heard of them taking part in the brooding.

[BaldwinCreekFarm]

I have spent the last three days trying to figure out how to keep him off the new clutch of eggs. No matter what obstruction I put in the way he will race to get on it. It even went so far as to pull the branches I put to keep him out away. Its utterly ridiculous, he should be on the hens, not the eggs.

All this and the fact the last clutch the hen set was not fertile, I think this tom is going bye bye.

[Altair]

All this and the fact the last clutch the hen set was not fertile, I think this tom is going bye bye.

No one will fault you for that reasonable decision.

[Patrick]

Narragansett behavior in general is no different from other breeds.
It is not unheard of for a tom to try to set occasionally. I'd be very surpised to hear of one that went full term and set tightly enough to actually hatch a clutch.
Bare breasts on toms in the breeding season is not unusual at all. Sometimes even the hens will be the ones who are plucking his feathers.
There are several possible reasons for a tom to be infertile, not all grounds for culling after only one infertile clutch.

[BaldwinCreekFarm]

Thanks Patrick.

For me the biggest frustration was he was screwing up the nest, and eggs were getting broken.the hen is back on the nest and able to set now undisturbed, and it looks like he was, in fact, fertile as I'm seeing a hint of embryo on candling. So maybe getting rid of him was a mistake, maybe not, but certainly less frustration with the eggs remaining intact.