14 PARADISE VALLEY POULTRY RANCH 



coop for a week or more, provided she is properly fed and watered, and 

 the coop moved to fresh ground every day. 



If the weather is warm and dry, as frequently happens when the poults 

 are hatched late in the season, no shelter is required, as they do better in 

 the open; but it is advisable to keep them within a fenced inclosure for 

 the first three or four days until they are strong enough to follow the 

 mother. 'Weather conditions being favorable, the hen and brood can be 

 given free range after the third or fourth day, but care should be taken 

 to keep them out of heavy dews and to protect them from rain for the 

 first two or three weeks. After this, early morning dews or light showers 

 followed closely by warm sunshine will do little harm, as the poults soon 

 become warm and dry. If cold, damp weather sets in, however, they will 

 need to be kept in dry quarters, for nothing is more fatal to young poults 

 than wet and cold. 



THE TURKEY HEN AS A MOTHER 



For poults the turkey hen is the best mother that can be found. She 

 knows their needs and can talk to them in a language that they soon learn 

 to understand. While on free range she keeps her brood together by 

 talking continuously in a contented, purring tone, so th'at the poults al- 

 ways know where she is. When her poults become widely separated, or if 

 some become lost, and she hears their peep, she calls them with the char- 

 acteristic yelp heard so frequently during the laying season. They soon 

 learn to find their own feed, however, and range out ahead of the mother 

 hen in search of whatever they can find. 



Young turkeys usually remain with the mother hen until about October 

 or November, when the males ordinarily separate from the females and 

 range by themselves. When two turkey hens with broods of about the 

 same age are turned out on free range together they will remain in one 

 flock, and as this makes it easier to hunt them up and care for them it is 

 advisable to turn out two or three hens with their broods together when 

 they are given free range. It is not a good plan to have more than this 

 number of young poults in one flock, however, as they may all try to 

 crowd under one or two hens to be hovered. 



FEEDING THE POULTS 



Improper feeding, combined with close confinement, has been the 

 cause of many failures in turkey raising. When on free range the poults 

 are busy searching for feed most of the day. Here there is no overfeeding 

 and lack of exercise, such as the poults are often subjected to by those 

 ignorant of their wants. If the range is plentifully supplied with green 

 feed, grasshoppers, and other insects, and if the weather is favorable, then 

 the best plan is to allow the poults to feed themselves. It is usually advis- 

 able, however, to have them come home at night, and if driven up and fed 

 at a certain place every night they will soon learn to come up themselves. 



When, on account of rainy weather or unfavorable range conditions, 

 it is advisable to raise the poults by the coop method, more care must be 

 given to their feeding. For the first two days after hatching, poults re- 

 quire no feed, the yolk of the egg which they absorb before breaking out 

 of the shell being sufficient to maintain them for that length of time. 

 Access to clean drinking water and a little coarse sand and green feed to 

 pick at is all that is needed until the third day. Beginning With the third 

 day, the poults should be fed according to the quantity of natural feed 

 they arc able to pick up outside the coop. They should always be hungry. 

 To feed all they will clean up several times a day removes the cause of 

 searching for feed, so that little exercise is taken and indigestion is sure 

 to result. When natural feed is scarce, or when the poults have to be 

 kept from ranging outside, they should be fed lightly about five times a 

 day. If allowed to run outside the coop where they can find insects, seeds, 

 and green feed, they need not be fed oftener th^n two or three times a day. 



