TURKEYS 423 



backs, legs or toes, blindness or lameness, should never be 

 used as breeders, unless the deformity is known to be the 

 result of an accident and will not impair the breeding powers. 

 There is a tendency among turkey breeders to breed as large 

 in size as possible. Bronze toms have been known to weigh 

 as much as 50 and GO pounds. This tendency to breed large 

 sized birds is because the large-sized birds appear best at 

 shows and weigh most on the market. 



The market for large birds for meat purposes is limited, 

 as the popular family weight is from nine to eighteen pounds, 

 which will be the weight of a well-grown pullet and cockerel 

 in the fall of their first year. Besides this, large toms are 

 hard on the hens and usually do not make successful breeders. 



Number of Hens Per Tom. — One torn will serve from twelve 

 to twenty hens, a good number being fifteen. It is well to 

 have more than one male in each flock, as but one mating is 

 required to fertilize a clutch of eggs, and if one hen does 

 not mate well with one tom she may with another, thus 

 avoiding infertility in her clutch. Most turkey breeders use 

 early hatched, well-grown young toms (cockerels) as breeders. 

 Care should be taken where more than one tom is used to 

 see that they are docile and will not fight with t-ach other. 

 If they are quarrelsome they should be used alternately. 

 The toes and spurs should be blunted and rounded, if neces- 

 sary, before the breeding season, in order to pre\ent torn 

 backs in the hens; especially is this necessary with extra 

 heavy toms. If any backs are torn the cuts should be 

 carefully washed out and the edges sewed together with a 

 needle and thread, the hen kept in a separate pen for 

 three or four days, and the wound bathed with a creosote 

 disinfectant or rubbed with vaseline or lard and sulphur, to 

 aid in rapid healing. Birds affected with torn backs may be 

 detected in the flock by being lame and stiff in their walk, 

 the torn skin being hidden by the surrounding feathers. 



Incubation of Turkey Eggs. — Turkey eggs may be success- 

 fully hatched in incubators and the poults raised in brooders 

 in a similar manner to chicks. It is the usual custom, how- 

 ever, to allow the hens to raise their own poults. 



When a turkey becomes broody, as evinced by her remain- 

 ing upon the nest at night and becoming angry when dis- 



