A lost turkey and five fat ducks

Turkeys lay their eggs in clutches, so they will lay for a few weeks and then go broody. As we have quite a lot of turkeys at present we are letting them out to free range from early in the morning until dusk. That means i need to keep an eye on where they are laying their eggs so I can find them if they go broody. They like to sit in sheltered, overgrown spots so it can be quite a challenge. What I usually do is watch them when I let them out and the ones that are laying will rush off on their own squeaking loudly, if I follow them I can find their nest and then when its time to put them away if I cant find one I go and look there. So last night when i went to put them away one of the white turkey hens was missing. I was pretty sure i knew where her nest was so went and looked there, tucked under one of the cedar trees, sure enough there was a nest with three nice eggs in it, but no turkey. Our place has lots of places for a broody turkey to hide so after looking in all the usual spots we had to call it a day and hope she came back this morning. She didn't and i have had another big look to no avail. I hope she has tucked herself away safe somewhere where the fox wont be able to get her and that we find her soon.
In the meantime I have never seen anything grow at the rate the baby ducks are growing. Someone told me you need to eat them at about eight weeks old as they get too hard to pluck, I don't know if that is true or not but based on the other poultry I thought no way would they be big enough to eat at eight weeks old. Looking at them this morning maybe they will be. They are about three weeks old now and about half the size of their mother already. At first they were completely disinterested when I few them and were just free ranging in the garden  but now they appear to be very hungry little fat ducks indeed. 

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