TURKEY RAISING 



keep up on account of being very fat. Where the flocks 

 are driven over a period of several days it is necessary 

 when night comes on to pick a spot in a grove or some 

 similar place where there are plenty of trees for the birds 

 to roost. When darkness comes the turkeys will start 

 going to roost wherever they may be and it is necessary to 

 select a place where they can be kept together and easily 

 guarded. When the drive arrives at the killing station 

 the birds are weighed up and driven into pens from which 

 they are drawn for killing or to fill cars for shipment alive. 



Killing and Dressing 



Turkeys should be killed and dressed as soon after they 

 arrive at the killing station as possible. On account of 

 their free roaming nature turkeys do not stand confine- 

 ment well and when shut in coops under conditions to 

 which they are not used, they shrink in weight rapidly. 

 It is to avoid this shrinkage that the killing should be 

 done promptly. 



Practically all turkeys are dry picked. This is done 

 partly because the market demands dry picked birds and 

 partly because the feathers are valuable and are saved to 

 sell. Scalding injures the feathers. Turkeys are loose- 

 feathered birds and are easier to dry pick than any other 

 class of fowl unless it be pheasants. In this connection 

 it is interesting to note that experienced pickers always 

 seem to choose the dark-colored turkeys in preference to 

 the white ones as being easier to pick, claiming that the 



no 



