14 



TURKEYS— THEIR CARE AND MANAGEMENT. 



in carriage and color of plumage as it is possible to get. He 

 should be of medium size and of good vigor. In my opinion, 

 the standard makes a mistake in calling for larger birds, as 

 this detracts from their profit as egg-producers. A good, 

 vigorous torn will mate with eighteen or twenty hens. As 

 to the best age for breeding fowls, I use a two-year-old male 

 and female one year old, or vice versa. Yearling turkey 

 hens will lay more eggs than an older hen, but the two-year- 

 old hen's eggs will hatch stronger poults. Hens are profit- 

 able as a general thing until they are four years old. I have 

 kept some good layers until they were six years old. As a 

 rule turkeys are not profitable after they are four years old. 

 Three to four-year-old torn turkeys usually become cross 

 and irritable and are dangerous to have about where there 

 are children. 



I have the best success with pullets from sixteen to 

 twenty pounds, and old hens from eighteen to twenty-three 

 pounds. They lay more fertile eggs than larger hens, are 

 more active and healthy and make better mothers. Turkey 

 hens do not all commence laying at once, and generally by 

 the time the first layers want to sit the last ones to lay are 

 ready to begin. Turkey hens should be carefully fed at the 

 laying season if fed at all, as they will pick up on the range 

 nearly all the food they need. If allowed to get too fat they 

 will not lay until late. It is a good plan to feed meat two 

 or three times during the month before you want them to 

 lay, as it will have a tendency to make the eggs more fertile. 

 Turkey eggs as a general thing are sure to hatch. I have 

 had hens lay as many as four clutches of eggs in a season. 

 Turkey eggs will hatch in twenty-eight days, but with me- 

 dium sized turkeys it usually requires twenty-nine days, and 

 eggs from very large hens frequently run over to thirty days. 

 I have an eight-foot fence around about two acres on my 

 home place that I use for the laying turkeys in the spring. 

 I use boxes and barrels turned on the side for nests. 



AT HATCHING TIME. 



One should be very careful in setting turkey hens, as 

 they are of a wild nature. It is best to try a hen, if one has 

 valuable eggs, by giving her a few nest eggs for a day or so, 

 then at night taking the nest eggs out and putting the good 

 eggs in. Be careful to have the bottom of the, nest firm and 

 solid, so that the eggs will not roll about. Have the nest so 

 formed that it fits the shape of the hen. In this way the 

 eggs will all be the same distance from the hen's body and 

 receive the same amount of heat. Sprinkle the eggs at sit- 

 ting time and two or three times during hatching time with 

 Lambert's Death to Lice, or some other good insecticide. If 

 your hen is gentle you might take the poults out of the nest 

 as they haitch. This leaves more room for those that are to 



hatch. If the hen is inclined to be irritable, it is best to 

 leave her alone, as she may get excited and trample on the 

 poults. I have successfully used incubators for hatching 

 turkey eggs, but when it comes to putting the poults in the 

 brooders it is another matter. It is all right to hatch them 

 in an incubator if one has hens to which he can give the 

 young poults to be raised. I never feed my young turkeys 

 until they are twenty-four to thirty-six hours old. They are 

 first given grit, then some oatmeal or groats. I use very lit- 

 tle soft food. When giving soft food it is best to mix it with 

 sweet milk and give only what they will eat up at one meal, 

 as turkeys should never have sour food. Give table scraps 

 and any green food you may have. Cottage cheese is a good 

 food for poults and is particularly good with cut onion tops, 

 salted and peppered to taste. Oat groats are highly recom- 

 mended as a dry food for poults. Give millet seed, kaffir 

 corn, wheat and then cracked corn. Feed these grains alter- 

 nately. 



AT MARKETING TIME. 



I have found that winter feeding differs from summer 

 feeding, as in cold weather poultry needs corn on account of 

 its heating and fat-producing qualities. Turkeys on the 

 range in warm weather do not require much corn. If one 

 has a large range the turkey crop is almost clear profit. Tur- 

 keys intended for market should not be fed heavily until 

 within about two weeks of selling time, when they should be 

 given all the corn they will eat, with a change of food as 

 often as possible so that they will not tire of the corn before 

 they are fat. Make corn their main food. 



The average price for turkeys on the market is eight 

 cents per pound. When stockmen get five cents per pound 

 for hogs and cattle they make a good profit. It does not take 

 anything like the amount of food to produce turkey meat 

 that it does to produce cattle or hogs, and it is very seldom 

 that the turkey grower gets less than eight cents per pound. 

 On the other hand, it is seldom that the cattle grower gets 

 more than four cents per pound for his beef or pork. When 

 turkeys are properly raised they are a benefit to the crop, 

 instead of a waste, as they destroy numerous insects. In 

 California turkeys are rented out to men who have vine- 

 yards, who turn the turkeys loose among the vines to de- 

 stroy insects. Turkeys do not require to be fed on a grain 

 ration until within a few weeks of marketing time, as they 

 get their living from the gleanings of the field. In this way 

 they get a large frame, which the grower can fatten when 

 seliing time comes. Turkeys should be fed away from other 

 poultry. Sandy or gravelly land is the most suitable for 

 turkey raising. Low, swampy land is not desira'ble, as it 

 creates rheumatism, to say nothing of the filth. 



S. B. JOHNSTON. 



