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Yesterday morning while working a Gobbler at Dawn...............I inadvertently flushed a Hen off her Nest of 16 eggs. The nest was in a well concealed hiding spot in the middle of a grassy meadow. I did not disturb the nest in any way, but merely took a photo from 5 feet and departed the area. My question is......Will the Hen come Back and Sit on her Clutch of Eggs? Any information appreciated, and Thank You for Your Time in Advance.

Yep hens come and go. The actually will only lay a couple eggs a day. At first the hen will only visit the nest to lay eggs and not incubate them at all.Once she is done laying then she will get down to incubation for 28 days. Then she will leave the nest very little. Maybe for a short period during the heat of the day or if she is disturbed. But she will come back. In your case sounds as if she is already incubated. Unusual for a hen to have much more than about a dozen or so eggs. A lot of times their nest sights seem to be very random or make no sense. There is a method to it though. Predators can recognize that perfect spot for a nest, when there is only that one perfect spot. Now turkeys have figured out to nest in an area that gives them cover. But at the same time looks all the same to predators. Such as middle of fields or randomly in pine needles in a pine plantation.

Thanks Mike..................................I appreciate your insight.

yes she will be back

Did she pull the "injured turkey" trick to draw you away from the nest? I've had hens drag a wing and act crippled as they scrambled away on the ground trying to draw me away from the nest. It's a cool act. Walk away and don't disturb the nest and it will be fine.

never saw a hen lay more than 1 egg a day and some will skip a day depending on age.

About pissed on a nested hen one time.

Had just started to turn it loose when she got up about 2 foot to my left. No clue how I didn't see her. Was very well hidden.

mogc i had one do that with little chicks .wish i had a camera

An Update...........................I was back in the area this morning working the same Old Stubborn Gobbler (another story) and I saw the hen back on her nest, tucked up under the bush. I did not disturb her and merely looked at her through binos. Wish there was a tree in the area to put up a game cam.

When I was about 10 I found a grouse nest . the mom did the fake injury trick. I watched it from afar until it hatched, there were about 10 tiny babys that left the area. I never saw them again..

I flushed one out of my alfalfa field a while back, about two years ago. We staked it with lath and cut around it on the first cut. She would leave when the tractor went by but always came back.

I worked on a turkey research project in college where we put radio transmitters on hens. If the transmitter didn't move for 11 hours it went into mortality mode. We could find the dead bird and try to determine cause of death. There was one hen that sat so long on nest she went into mortality mode until we went in and flushed her. It happened twice and she returned both times and eventually brought off the clutch.

I've also seen a hen flushed off a nest once and never return. You just never know with critters.

Drive a t-post in the ground wherever you want the camera.