TURKEY RAISING 



alight and this leads them to fly upon the fence and then 

 over. With the wire fence they see no such handy alight- 

 ing place and will not as a rule attempt to fly over. For 

 the same reason steel posts in the fence offer less of an 

 alighting place than wooden posts, and if the latter are 

 used, the tops should be sharpened to a point. 



If any difficulty is experienced in the hens flying out of 

 the enclosure provided for them, this can usually be 

 checked by clipping the flight feathers of one wing. It is 

 not as a rule necessary to clip the wing of a torn except in 

 the case of wild birds for he will not leave the hens. It 

 must be remembered that clipping the wings of hens ren- 

 ders them somewhat helpless against the attacks of dogs 

 or foxes and will also make it necessary to provide easy 

 means for them to get up on the roosts high enough to be 

 out of reach of foxes or coyotes. Clipping the wings of 

 hens also injures their usefulness to some extent for 

 brooding as they cannot hover as many poults to as good 

 advantage. Occasionally, also, clipping the flight feathers 

 may render a bird unfit for showing since the wing may 

 not grow out in time for the show. Turkeys can be pre- 

 vented from flying by tying a piece of light board across 

 the back over the wings. Such boards are called paddles, 

 or shingles. The paddle should be about 4 inches wide 

 and may be from 8 to 15 inches long. Two holes bored 

 over the base of each wing allow a strip of soft cloth or a 

 soft string to be passed through there and around the wing 

 at the base, thus securing the paddle in place. This must 

 not be tied so tightly as to cut off the circulation. When 



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