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TURKEYS— THEIR CARE AND MANAGEMENT. 



no such thing as luck in the poultry business. It is all good 

 common sense rightly applied, with labor, pluck and per- 

 severance to help crown your efforts with success. The old 

 adage, "Anything is easy if you know how," is a good one. 

 However, you must reinem'ber there is no business that does 

 not have its obstacles to be met. 



I should advise any one who has not raised turkeys to 

 get the cheaper • grade of some thoroughbred variety you 

 fancy, and learn with them. Then if you have losses it will 

 not bankrupt you, and when you have mastered the details 

 necassary to raising these successfully you can invest in 

 birds of fine plumage and other fine points possessed by 

 fancy fowls, to the extent of your much enlarged purse — 

 never forgetting, however, that there is always something 

 to bo learned. 



For those who have had success in raising common tur- 

 keys and who wish to start with some special variety of 

 thoroughbred turkeys, I should advise them to get a pair, 

 trio or pen of the best your purse will afford and apply to 

 them your knowledge of care and feeding gained while rais- 

 ing the common birds. 



BENEFIT TO GROWING CROPS. 



Turkeys by nature are prone to wander over the fields 

 for a great share of their living, thereby gaining a healthy, 

 robust constitution and at the same time ridding the fields 

 and meadows of grass and weed seeds, grasshoppers and 

 other insects that are harmful to growing crops. This cer- 

 tainly is converting evil into good. They will do this in 

 the fall of the year when the corn is ripe and never disturb 

 the ears of corn. Mine do, but I always feed my turkeys at 

 home some. 



My reason for selecting the Bronze variety was on 

 account of their beautiful plumage, large size, hardy consti- 

 tution and their ability to obtain a great share of their liv- 

 ing by foraging. 



The Bronze turkey is more generally bred than any other 

 variety of turkey, but there are other beautiful and profit- 

 able varieties that are growing in popularity. 



From those first seven pullets that I raised, mated with 

 a torn not akin, I the next year raised 170 — a number I have 

 never been able to quite reach since, because then I did not 

 sell eggs. I closed out everything that year and bought 

 fancy birds for the season's breeding stock. In no year have 

 I fallen below the one hundred mark. 



I have never had those heart-rending scenes of disaster, 

 with losses and crosses in raising turkeys that some record 

 they have had. For which success I am very, very thankful. 

 I attribute it to a great extent, as I said in the beginning of 

 this chapter, to posting myself upon the raising and man- 

 agement as given in our poultry papers, and to one turkey 

 book. 



ITEMS OF INTEREST. 



I find it no harder to raise a large flock than a small one. 

 It means simply a little more setting of eggs, a little more 

 feeding, all at the same time, and a little more dusting. 

 When I raised the 170 I had no better conveniences for rais- 

 ing them than a farmer's wife usually has who tries and 

 raises hundreds of chickens, but I immediately set about 

 having separate roosting coops, or houses, made from odds 

 and ends that were otherwise going to waste on the farm 

 and I succeeded wtih the assistance of a large dry goods box 

 or two, and grandpa as carpenter. These coops I have used 

 ever since and they are good for years of service yet. 



I now keep my breeding pens of ten to fifteen females 

 and one torn in yards inclosing from one and one-half to 

 three acres of land, which is mostly covered with orchards. 

 All that can be plowed of these pens is sown to rye every 

 fall, though I am trying clover this year. I mark the breed- 

 ing hens of one yard by clipping the right wing, and another 



yard by clipping the left wing, and the outside pen, which I 

 train to nest in the barn, I leave unmarked on the wing. 

 This is far preferable to the old method of allowing the 

 stock to run at large. The turkeys do fully as well or better, 

 more eggs are saved, besides a great deal of labor in hunting 

 the eggs. There is one objection to clipping the wing, for 

 me, and that is it gives the wolves a better chance at the 

 turkeys when they are turned out of the pens. Dogs also 

 are more liable to catch them. 



CARE OF SITTING HENS. 



1 set my hens in goods boxes turned side down out in 

 the turkey pen, or bring the hen to a similar nest prepared 

 in one of my adjoining poultry sheds, using oats straw or 

 clover trash for nesting material, being careful that too 

 much is not used to prevent the eggs from turning and that 

 the nest is not too concave, causing the eggs to roll together 

 and become broken. They have easy access to feed, water, 

 grit, charcoal, lime and dusting box. I prefer for some rea- 

 sons having each hen shut in her respective nest box and 

 opening it regularly each day for her exit to feed, watching 

 till she returns. If the nest boxes are always open, often 

 two or more hens will return to one nest, breaking some 

 eggs, perhaps, and leaving other eggs to chill. When set in 

 the pen she needs attention, as the laying hen may disturb 

 her and break the eggs. 



My experience has taught me that my sitting and brood- 

 ing hens should have some grain, especially the pullets, in 

 order that they may develop into larger hen turkeys. 



I have discarded the barrel for a sitting nest box unless 

 it be a large barrel or a small turkey. Too many eggs are 

 broken or shuffled out of the barrel. 



CARING FOR THE YOVNC. 



It would not be a turkey article if I did not say dust your 

 mother turkey while sitting two or three times with some 

 good insect powder, and the little poults at least every two 

 weeks, oftener if by examination you see it is necessary. 

 You will find the lice on the wing quills, around the vent 

 and on the head and throat. 



I feed the little ones stale light bread softened with 

 water or sweet milk and squeezed dry, alternating with hard 

 boiled eggs and clabber cheese after they are a few days old, 

 and I always put in fine chick grit till they are ten days or 

 two weeks old, old enough to pick grit from the box them- 

 selves. I give a little pepper once or twice a day with the 

 food, occasionally onion or garlic tops, and lettuce if I have 

 it. They greatly enjoy picking the lettuce heads tied to 

 something in their little pen or run. I feed five times per 

 day, just what they will ciean up, gradually diminishing to 

 three meals per day, and by the time they are three weeks 

 old I begin giving them cracked Kaffir corn, wheat or other 

 small grain, adding cracked corn later, and whole Kaffir 

 corn. When old enough to go to the range for the day I feed 

 but twice — an exclusively grain ration at night. 



I do not feed what I call the "baby turkey feed" so long 

 as I did a few years ago. I begin the grain earlier and find 

 they develop just as rapidly and with less expense and 

 trouble to me. Keep them growing, not fat, the first year 

 of their lives and the weight will be all right. Heavy feed- 

 ing to fatten for heavy weights when the birds are six to 

 eight or nine months old is detrimental to having a large 

 turkey when older. As a rule, those heavily fatted toms and 

 pullets that were stuffed to meet the demands of the show 

 room and the trade for thirty-two and thirty-three pound 

 toms in early spring never develop into as large 'birds as 

 those that were simply kept growing during this period. If 

 one is raising for market then begin to feed for fattening as 

 soon as the range runs low in September and October and 

 keep it up till they go to market. MRS. F. A. HARGRAVE, 

 Secretary-Treasurer of the Western Turkey Club. 



