MANAGEMENT OF TURKEY HENS. 



543 



Domestication has greatly modified the lay- 

 ing and prolificacy of turkey hens. About half- 

 a-century ago the hen usually laid twelve or 

 thirteen tggs, in March, April, or May, 

 more than eighteen being seldom 

 g recorded, and such second sittings as 



were occasionally produced being too 

 late to be profitably reared. Two or three years 

 ago we heard of a poult laying her first egg on 

 December 22nd, and batches of twenty up to 

 twenty-five are not at all uncommon, so that 

 many birds have laid fifty eggs in one year, even 

 a hundred having been occasionally recorded. 

 The second batch is now often early enough 

 to rear to profit in favourable seasons. It is 

 very usual to set some of the earlier eggs under 

 common hens, giving the last fifteen to the 

 turkey herself, and adding those from the hen 

 to the turkey's own brood. 



There are different ways of managing the 

 breeding stock, according to national custom, 

 number kept, and range at command. One 

 of the most successful American raisers — a lady, 

 vfho rears 95 per cent, of all she hatches — 

 usually keeps three pens of breeding birds, 

 one tom and ten hens in each, and each pen 

 having a run of one to three acres fenced in 

 for them, and secluded nests arranged about 

 the runs for the hens, easily kept under observa- 

 tion. Though these pens are used later for 

 young birds also, such a plan requires room, 

 and supposes that turkeys are the chief object 

 of the ground thus occupied. This number 

 of hens to one gobbler is found a good average 

 everywhere ; but on many farms on'y a pen 

 of four to six birds may be kept, allowed to range 

 at liberty, which answers very well for a few 

 breeders, provided they are not shut in at night, 

 and not overfed. But in such a case there 

 must be a close watch kept upon the laying 

 and sitting, for it is often very difficult to get 

 hens which are left at large to lay in a house, 

 the older breeds being in this respect better 

 domesticated than the more wild-bred Bronzes. 

 When about to lay, which may be known by 

 the hens poking about in corners, they may 

 be shut in till mid-day ; then if their shed is 

 dark on the floor, and the nests are contrived 

 and so arranged that they look secluded, they 

 will be induced to lay there, and once they 

 have laid a few eggs, will continue in the same 

 place, if not disturbed by unwise interference. 

 Or a number of barrels and other contrivances 

 may be arranged about the grounds outside, 

 in secluded corners, well concealed, and watched 

 to see if any of the birds resort to them. Now 

 and then one will steal a nest right away, and 

 generally does well in such a case, but there 



is great risk from weasels, foxes, and other 

 vermin. When Bronze turkeys are kept " wild " 

 in wooded parks, they are best left entirely to 

 themselves ; while on the other hand some of 

 the older and more domesticated breeds will 

 lay in a house as sedately as a Dorking hen. 



The laying nest will very often settle the 

 question of the sitting nest ; but turkeys are 

 such close and attentive sitters that there is 

 no difficulty in setting them in any sitting house 

 if more convenient. As they are very shy, 

 none but the one regular and well-known at- 

 tendant should visit them during incubation ; 

 nothing interferes so much with a good hatch 

 as the hen being startled in any way, and failure 

 of the eggs rarely occurs from any other cause. 

 But the regular attendant can do anything in 

 reason with all except the wilder birds. If a 

 broody bird be set on a {&\v nest-eggs at night, 

 and an attractive-looking nest be prepared close 

 by and filled with eggs, she will generally take 

 possession of it next day, and in another day 

 the real eggs may be given her ; but if she does 

 not, she can be placed on and shut in, and taken 

 off daily, providing food (for which Indian corn 

 answers very well) and water and dry earth 

 close at hand. Plenty of grit should also be 

 within reach. As already mentioned in a pre- 

 vious chapter, many turkeys could even be kept 

 hatching for months continually, as in France, 

 removing them daily to feed and to clean the 

 nests. Some Bronze hens, however, could not 

 be so treated, and the individual character of 

 the stock may have to be studied, in the manner 

 here indicated. On the whole it is generally 

 least troublesome, when feasible, if the turkey 

 hen sits in the nest which she has chosen 

 herself, and where she has laid. 



Insect vermin must be carefully guarded 

 against. While dusting material should be 

 provided, many hens rarely if ever make use 

 of it. With outside nests on a free range this 

 will matter little ; but when set indoors, both 

 nest and hen should be thoroughly dressed with 

 insect powder : or the nest may be well painted 

 over inside with one of the volatile liquid 

 vermin-killers so popular in America (see final 

 chapter), and the hen confined in such another 

 nest before being placed in the permanent one. 

 Insect powder may also be dusted on the nest 

 when the hen is off, or even on the hen herself, 

 when she is tame and knows the attendant well. 

 A very large consensus of American experience 

 agrees that success in rearing the poults after 

 hatching depends as much upon these pre- 

 cautions, or more strictly, upon a vermin-free 

 condition of the hen at the date of hatching, 

 as upon any factor whatever, and that many 



