200 POULTRY FOR PROFIT 



It is best to buy a new torn of entirely different blood 

 each season. 



The best mating is that of a two-year-old hen with 

 a yearling cock, or vice versa. Some breeders prefer 

 to use an old cock with pullets because the pullets 

 lay more eggs than hens, but two-year-old hens will 

 have larger, stronger poults. A turkey is not fully 

 mature till it is from two to three years old, and a 

 good breeder may be used for breeding for several 

 seasons after it has become mature. 



One torn will take care of from eight to twelve 

 hens and sometimes suffices for fifteen or twenty. 



Size is of prime importance in breeding stock, for 

 size is what every customer wants and what every 

 judge cuts most severely on, but it is not desirable 

 that breeding birds should be oversize, for a forty- 

 pound bird is a drug on the market. 



Size does not mean weight; it means frame. In 

 selecting breeders from a flock of young birds, pick 

 the tall, rawboned, rangy ones. They may be little 

 heavier at six months old than the short, chunky 

 ones, but they are the birds that will put on 

 weight later. Fat is never desirable except in a bird 

 that is ready for market. 



In breeding for size select a female that is tall and 

 rangy with a deep, long body, broad back and full- 

 rounded breast, and mate her with a male that is 

 fully up to standard weight. Sometimes good re- 

 sults can be secured from a female that is under 

 weight, but it is never safe to use a small torn. 



It is poor policy to sell off the early-hatched birds 

 because they are larger at Thanksgiving time and 

 to keep the late-hatched birds for breeders. Early- 

 hatched birds are almost alway^ more vigorous. 

 Especially unwise is it to use a late-hatched, small- 



