224 PO UL TR T- CRAFT. 



in the coldest parts of this country, they will be contentedly comfortable in a 

 fairly tight, but unlined building. A shed or house for turkeys should be 

 somewhat higher than for chickens. The roost should be placed further from 

 the ground. The droppings should not be allowed to accumulate beneath 

 the roosts. 



331. Yards for Turkeys. As may be inferred from what has been said 

 of the conditions of profitable turkey growing, turkeys are rarely yarded. 

 Some breeders yard the breeding stock during the breeding season ; some 

 confine the laying hens until after the eggs have been laid each day, thus 

 preventing them from laying in hidden or distant nests. This latter method 

 recommends itself to those so situated that the breeding stock can have liberty. 

 It is absurd that so many turkey keepers should spend hour after hour and 

 trudge many rough miles in locating the nests of hen turkeys at liberty to nest 

 where they please. The enclosure for laying turkeys shut up only a part of 

 each day, need not be large. A yard fifty by one hundred feet will do for a 

 flock of a dozen to twenty hens. A five-foot fence of woven wire or wire 

 netting will keep the hens in bounds. Indeed, heavy hens will hesitate long 

 before attempting a four-foot picket fence, and often refuse to try it. 



332. Keeping Turkeys in Confinement. While for business turkey 

 keeping fairly large range must be considered a necessity, a person who wishes 

 to keep and rear a very few turkeys for pleasure, may do so on quite a small 

 piece of ground on a village lot of, say, an acre. The semi-confinement is 

 not necessarily injurious. The task of keeping them within bounds will be 

 easy, or difficult, according to the individual dispositions of the fowls and the 

 relative force of attractions inside and outside of the home grounds. Keeping 

 them healthy is principally a matter of keeping their quarters clean, and using 

 good judgment in feeding. Old birds are much easier to handle than young 

 ones. If there is nothing special to induce the old ones to leave home, they 

 remain there apparently well contented. The young ones, unless prevented, 

 will wander orT as soon as they are able. They can, however, be kept 

 yarded, fed about as chickens are, and make good growth, develop into really 

 fine specimens. 



Handling turkeys under such conditions furnishes amusement until the 

 novelty wears off. To one interested in such matters, the experiment is 

 interesting as showing how far and in how short a time, the habits of the 

 fowls can be modified. But not many who may try this kind of turkey keep- 

 ing will continue it beyond a second season, for it would hardly be possible 

 to undertake anything in the poultry keeping line that would give as meager 

 results for the expense and trouble incurred. 



333. Kinds of Turkeys. The Standard recognizes six varieties of 

 turkeys, classifying them as sub-divisions of one breed. The so-called 



