TURKEY RAISING 



general, the management of the poults in the brooders is 

 just the same as that given to chicks. It is best not to 

 place more than 25 or 30 poults under a hover large 

 enough for 50 chicks. In some cases it appears that the 

 hovers provided for baby chicks are not quite high enough 

 for turkey poults, with the result that they are inclined to 

 develop a leg weakness due to their backs being too close 

 to the source of heat. The common stove brooder with 

 hovers which can be raised can undoubtedly be adapted 

 to raising turkey poults artificially to very good advan- 

 tage. At first the temperature under the hover should 

 be about 90 to 100 degrees and is gradually reduced as 

 the turkeys grow older until it is down to 70 degrees in 

 about three weeks' time. After the poults are six to 

 eight weeks old they no longer need heat as a rule. 



A successful example of rearing turkeys artificially is 

 that of the College of Agriculture of the University of 

 California at its farm at Davis, Cal., where turkeys are 

 run at the rate of about 300 or 400 per acre in yards, 

 Here they are hatched and reared artificially with good 

 success. The newly hatched poults are started upon a 

 moist mixture of equal parts of chick grain and chick 

 mash in which there has been mixed a considerable quan- 

 tity of very finely chopped tender greens such as onions, 

 etc. A power driven meat chopper or sausage cutter is 

 used for grinding the green stuff and the juice which is 

 extracted in this grinding is used to mix a crumbly mash. 



At first the turkeys are fed four times a day, but after 

 a few weeks the feedings are reduced to three a day and 



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