CHAPTER XI 



MANAGEMENT OF TURKEYS 



The turkey is almost exclusively a farm product. It is possible 

 to grow a few good turkeys in confinement, but this is rarely 

 done except in experimental work or by persons who grow a 

 few for amusement and for an opportunity to study some of their 

 characteristics. A few adult turkeys may be kept on a small farm 

 and remain about the homestead as other poultry does. The 

 turkeys themselves may get along very well, but they are likely 

 to abuse the fowls, and as they can easily fly over any ordinary 

 fence, they cannot be controlled except by putting them in 

 covered yards. Turkeys kept under such conditions cause so 

 much trouble that, after the novelty of watching them has worn 

 off, the owner soon disposes of them. It is where the farms are 

 large and there is a great deal of woodland and pasture through 

 which the turkeys may roam without strict regard to farm bound- 

 aries, and large grain and grass fields where they can forage after 

 the crops are removed, that turkeys in large numbers are grown 

 for market with good profit. On such farms, too, the farmer, if 

 he is a good breeder, can produce the finest exhibition specimens. 



Size of flocks. The number of turkeys kept on a farm for 

 breeding usually depends upon the number of young it is desired 

 to rear, but the difficulty of keeping more than one adult male 

 with the flock tends to restrict the annual production to what can 

 be reared from one male. Experience has taught that it is not 

 advisable to have more than ten or twelve females with one male. 

 Sometimes a much larger number is kept with one gobbler, and 

 the eggs hatch well and produce thrifty poults ; oftener an ex- 

 cess of females is responsible for poor results which the breeder 



190 



