10 PARADISE VALLEY POULTRY RANCH 



United States, a good daily feed of grain, preferably oats or wheat, is suf- 

 ficient to keep the birds in good condition. The natural feed of turkeys 

 at this time of the year consists largely of grass, tender buds, young leaves, 

 insects, and nuts and seeds of various kinds. During the winter northern 

 turkey raisers usually feed twice a day on equal parts of oats, wheat, and 

 corn, with vegetables such as potatoes, turnips, beets, and cabbage as a 

 substitute for green feed. Animal feed at that time of year is essential 

 to the best results, and can be supplied by feeding meat scrap, beef livers 

 and lungs, or skimmed milk, either sweet or sour. If confined in a breed- 

 ing pen, green feed can be supplied by sowing the pen to grass, oats, 

 wheat, barley, clover, alfalfa, or some such crop. Wheat and hulled oats 

 are the best grains to feed, corn being too fattening unless fed in con- 

 nection with other grains. Free access to grit, charcoal, and shell-forming 

 material, such as oyster shells, is necessary thruout the breeding and 

 laying season. 



HOUSING BREEDING STOCK 



During cold winter weather, such as prevails in the northern States, a 

 few turkey raisers provide roosting sheds, but the great majority allow 

 their turkeys to roost in the open, usually in trees thruout the year. There 

 is little need of a regular turkey house, but during damp, icy weather and 

 during stormy winds the turkeys should be driven into a barn or shed. 

 They can stand a reasonable degree of dry cold, but they should not be 

 exposed to dampness and cold at the same time. 



LAYING 



Soon after mating, turkey hens begin to look for nesting places and 

 usually commence laying in from a week to ten days after the first mating. 

 One mating is sufficient to fertilize all the eggs of one litter, but the hens 

 ordinarily mate three or four times before beginning to lay. All turkey 

 hens, of course, do not begin laying at the same time, and in a flock of 

 about fifteen it may be six weeks or more from the time the first hen 

 begins to lay until the last begins. Pullets usually commence laying a 

 little earlier than yearlings or older hens. The average number of eggs in 

 the first litter is about eighteen, altho in individual hens it may vary from 

 twelve to thirty. Hens that do not have to be set can be broken up on 

 becoming broody and made to lay a second or a third litter. The number 

 of eggs laid in the second litter averages about twelve, and in the third 

 about ten, altho there is considerable variation in the egg production of 

 different hens. Some turkey hens can be made to lay four or five litters, 

 but this is not usually advisable, as poults hatched later than June do not 

 not have a chance to develop for the Thanksgiving and Christmas markets 

 and are not sufficiently mature by the following spring to be used as 

 breeders. A hen that begins laying in the middle of March will usually 

 finish laying her first litter about the third week in May, depending upon 

 the number of eggs she lays and the promptness with which she is broken 

 up on becoming broody. Hens that are allowed to hatch and raise a 

 brood of poults after laying their first litter often begin laying again in the 

 fall, but poults hatched at that time are of little value, as they require 

 too much care and attention to carry them thru the winter. Fall-hatched 

 pullets begin laying late the following spring, but they are immature at 

 that time and poults hatched from their eggs do not develop into large, 

 strong birds as do poults from mature stock. 



Turkey hens can easily be broken of their broodiness by confining 

 them for two or three days to a coop with a slat bottom. They will mate 

 soon after being let out of the coop and begin laying in about a week. 

 The first two or three eggs of a litter are usually laid at the rate of one 

 every other day, after which the hens ordinarily lay every day until they 

 are broody, altho sometimes they skip one day before laying the last 

 egg of a litter. There is no particular time of da}^ when a turkey hen 

 lays, but most of the eggs are laid in the morning. 



