28 



TURKEYS— THEIR CARE AND MANAGEMENT. 



before she should, looking for food. We must remember 

 she leaves her nest only three or four times in twenty-eight 

 days. If she does not appear inclined to move to get the 

 food, do not disturb her, as it is a very easy matter to find 

 out whether she has hatched any young, for as a rule, 

 broken egg shells will be seen near the nest. At the expir- 

 ation of thirty days, if you see no signs of the young tur- 

 keys, it will be well to investigate the matter by raising the 

 turkey off the nest and ascertaining whether the eggs are 

 fertile or not. If they should prove to be infertile, shut up 

 the female for four or five days in a coop large enough for 

 her to get a little exercise. Give her food and water and a 

 place to dust herself and in three or four weeks she will lay 

 again. 



One of the best places in which to let the hen turkey 

 run with poults is a field where the grass is short. As a 

 rule, a pasture is very good; woodland is also suitable. Keep 

 them out of long grass and grain fields when there is a 

 heavy dew or it is rainy, until after the grain and hay are 

 harvested, because the wet vegetation is bad for the young 

 poults. It chills and sets them back in their growth and 

 often is fatal. You will always find the largest and finest 

 turkeys where they have free range. As a rule, turkeys will 

 wander some distance from home during the day, but will 

 come back to their home every night. Under proper man- 

 agement you can place turkeys anywhere you wish on the 

 farm, and by teaching them to roost in one particular place, 

 they will come to regard this as their home, and will know 

 no other; you will always find them wherever they have 

 been taught to roost. This can be done by watching them 

 a few nights in succession and driving them to the place 

 where you wish them to stay. Just before dark they will go 

 up in the trees or on a roost that has been put up for them. 

 With the right kind of breeding stock turkeys at Thanks- 

 giving time should weigh about as follows: Toms, sixteen 

 to twenty pounds; hens, twelve to fourteen pounds. I have 

 dressed at six months old, turkeys weighing twenty-four 

 pounds, but they are rare. 



FEEDING THE BREEDING STOCK. 



There are two things which have to be done in order to 

 have success in breeding. One of them is to get the right 

 kind of breeding stock, and the other is to feed them prop- 

 erly. These are the two main things. The proper way to 

 feed breeding stock is to be careful not to overfeed them. 

 After your breeders are selected, feed almost entirely on 

 oats (scalded). I find they do better on oats than on any 

 other food. E'or a change, feed whole corn about twice per 

 week, and at no time feed more than they will eat clean. 

 Where turkeys have a barnyard to scratch in, you will have 

 to be careful not to get them over-fat, and as a rule, it is 

 only necessary to feed them at night. A good accompani- 

 ment to the food for turkeys is charcoal ground coarse. Put 

 it in a box where they can find it. They also need shells — 

 oyster shells are the best. On a farm they can ordinarily 

 find all the grit that it is necessary for them to have. If 

 the hen turkey has not enough lime to properly supply the 

 egg shell, it will be porous. I have known many germs to 

 die on this account. 



DISEASES AND INJURED STOCK. 



Under no consideration breed from a diseased turkey. 

 It is much safer to kill a sick turkey than to let her among 

 your flock of healthy birds. 



When the males mate with the females and they are 

 extra heavy and clumsy, it is well to see that the male does 

 not tear the female or hurt her back. A very good way to 

 prevent this is to file down the toe nails of the male. I have 

 seen them many times silp off of the female and rip open 



the hips or side. It is very easy to discover an injured fe- 

 male by her actions, more especially the next day, as she 

 will be lame and her wings will droop. It is best to catch 

 her at once and examine the wound, as generally they can be 

 saved by sewing up the tear. This is not a very difficult 

 matter. Let one person hold the turkey and another do the 

 sewing. Pull all the feathers from the edges of the wound, 

 and with warm water moisten them so they will stay back 

 while you are putting in the stitches. Before sewing, the 

 wound should be washed thoroughly with castile soap, using 

 a small, soft sponge; then take a long, fine needle and with 

 white silk thread draw the edges of the skin around the 

 wound so that the parts meet as they were. Commence at 

 one end of the wound and gradually draw the edges of the 

 skin together over the wound as you stitch, until the tear is 

 all closed up. Many times I have taken as many as fifty 

 stitches in one wound. Bathe the wound with witch hazel 

 every day for four or five days. It is well to keep the hen 

 in a small pen or coop for three or four days where there is 

 quiet, and where you can catch her without running. If ycfu 

 gave her free range she might tear out the stitches. The 

 period of confinement depends entirely on the size and 

 nature of the wound, but as a rule, after three or four days 

 she can be liberated with the rest of the flock. 



FOOD FOR YOUNG TURKEYS. 



As a rule, many young turkeys are killed by over-feed- 

 ing. On large farms where the hen turkey and her poults 

 have plenty of range, it is best to feed them only twice each 

 day, once in the morning and again at night. Young turkeys 

 can live on insects and many little grasses which they relish. 

 You will always find that food they get in the fields will keep 

 them in better condition than anything you can give them. 

 During the berry season, especially when wild strawberries 

 are ripe, it is a pleasure to watch the little turkeys pick and 

 eat them. In seasons when there is a good supply of grass- 

 hoppers, the turkeys will live almost entirely on them. 



When young turkeys have to be fed the best food I know 

 of is stale bread, but be sure the bread is not sour. By stale 

 bread I mean wheat bread three to ten days old. Moisten 

 the bread with sweet milk, but do not get it too moist. I 

 usually press out all the milk that I can with my hands. 

 Clabbered milk is also good for young turkeys. Put it in a 

 dish on the ground where they can get at it easily. During 

 the warmest weather of summer it is best to keep all tur- 

 keys, young or old, on the hungry side, for if you do not, 

 there is great danger of their having bowel trouble. 



I have told you how to care for turkeys on a large range. 

 If you are on a limited ragne, or for any reason you have to 

 keep your birds confined, I mean young poults, take three 

 boards twelve or fourteen inches wide and ten or twelve feet 

 long and make a triangular pen. In this pen put the old 

 turkey and her poults. Do not confine the hen. She will 

 jump out and in over the boards and will not leave her 

 poults. It is best to leave the poults in this pen for fifteen 

 to eighteen days, and then let them range with their mother. 

 Many persons think it is necessary to put the hen turkey in 

 a coop to keep her near her young, but this is not the case, 

 as the mother will stay with the poults; you could hardly 

 drive her away. When the young poults are confined in a 

 pen as above described, it is necessary while so young to 

 feed them four times a day with stale bread moistened with 

 milk. If the weather is rainy and wet, it is sometimes well 

 to use red pepper enough to make the bread quite warm. 

 If any of your poults are drooping it will tone them up. 

 Clabbered milk is also good for them. Should you find that 

 the young turkeys are drooping and do not seem to pick up, 

 the very first thing to look for is lice. If your poults have 

 lice or ticks they will not do well, and it is almost impos- 



