Just a quick reminder that early eggs are an indication of early breeding. So, make sure that your birds are paired up before breeding starts. Most important to remember is that a hen visited by a fertile stag can remain fertile with his ‘deposit’ for the rest of that season.
The fertility from the initial deposit will diminish as the season progresses, but essentially any subsequent poults from that hen cannot be guaranteed even when they have been paired correctly at a later stage. This is because turkeys unlike other poultry do not flush out the previous deposit.
So, the lesson here is to pair up your birds as soon as possible after Christmas, and essentially your turkeys should be paired up by now or being kept separate until you do.
The research on this issue was undertaken by Marsden in America in the 1940’s.