TURKEYS RAISED WITHOUT HOUSING. 



Confining and Housing Turkeys— Turkey Eggs— Care of Poults— Feeding Corn— Diseases— How to Begin. 



By B. F. Hlslop. 



FEW years ago when we finally concluded to 

 try turkey raising, we had already decided 

 that the Bronze was the variety which suited 

 us best, and we bought a trio in the fall in 

 order to be ready for business the following 

 spring. We had no experience, so we began 

 to read up on the subject and to question 

 our neighbors about their methods of caring for the young. 

 We found that most of the neighbors allowed the turkey 

 hens to do all the work, and when winter came, if there was 

 a large flock of turkeys the farmer's wife claimed all the 

 credit, but if the turkey hens failed 

 to raise large families.they had all 

 the blame. At first we raised the 

 poults with domestic hens and later 

 decided to try the turkeys, but 

 found the old ones so unruly that 

 we again gave the poults to the 

 domestic hens. We worked accord- 

 ing to rules, kept the coops well 

 scrubbed, etc., and we succeeded 

 fairly well, raising as large a per- 

 centage of poults as we have ever 

 raised since, but the work we did 

 that year, if applied to some other 

 calling, would have obtained us 

 far more money, and we concluded 

 if raising turkeys required so much 

 work we had better quit the busi- 

 ness. The time we wasted doctor- 

 ing colds that season would have 

 discouraged most amateurs. We 

 were afraid these colds might de- 

 velop into roup, and so labored 



most patiently. We wish to say that we do not believe 

 turkeys ever have roup as chickens do. We think the 

 birds become debilitated from injudicious treatment from 

 the time they are hatched, and when autumn comes the 

 birds take cold, which develops into chronic catarrh. We 

 do not believe it i3 contagious, but a flock will be more or 

 less affected, as all the birds are exposed to the same causes. 

 It is hard to cure such colds, for if a man does not know how 

 to prevent his flock from taking cold he is hardly likely to 

 know how to cure them. There may be flocks that have 

 the roup, but we have never seen any, though we have seen 

 birds whose owners thought they had roup, but which we 

 believed to be suffering from a severe cold. 



This year not one of our turkeys has a cold, although 

 this is the season for it, and we think we understand why 

 they have escaped. In the first place, we changed the blood, 

 as we believe inbreeding produces weak stock, although one 

 does not need to make too great a change. We do not think 

 that turkeys are as liable to be off in color as chickens are, 

 and so we have no hesitancy in putting a fine torn at the 

 head of our flock without tracing his pedigree. A torn will 

 do a large part in elevating a flock, but he cannot do it all, 



First Prize Young Tom, Chicago and Indiana State Fair, 

 1900, owned and bred by B. F. Hlslop. 



because much depends on the females. The male, so our 

 experience teaches us, has much to do with the size, with 

 the length of the bones, markings of the tail and wings, and 

 also the shape of the body, but if the females are too small 

 and poorly marked, one cannot expect anything first-class 

 from such a mating. A large percentage of judges are very 

 particular about the markings of the tails and wings of 

 turkeys, so one has to look after these sections. Some 

 judges are very particular about having a good bronze, al- 

 though shape, size, etc., will help one out, but the best 

 judges want a bronze, not a black or brown. Many breeders 

 cannot see bronze in any but their 

 own birds, but when the birds are 

 all together in a show room, a per- 

 son, if he has an eye for beauty, 

 can select the bronze birds, and so 

 can the judge — which is one good 

 point for comparison judging. 



CONFINING AND HOUSING TURKEYS. 



We do not think turkeys can be 

 raised in large flocks without a 

 large range, although we have 

 never tried raising them in con- 

 finement. A turkey is naturally a 

 forager and in roaming about pro- 

 cures its proper food. Even if a 

 person has solved the food prob- 

 lem (we do not think we have) 

 and confines his turkeys, intending 

 to feed them, he would prevent 

 them from talcing the proper exer- 

 cise which they require as much 

 as they do food, if they are to at- 

 tain the greatest possible size and vigor. We find that the 

 lack of size and vigor is to be seen in poults raised by do- 

 mestic hens. We have been asked if it is best to house 

 turkeys. We have never housed them ourselves. They have 

 always roosted at night in the trees and lived around the 

 buildings during ihe day, but we intend to try housing them 

 sometime because from what we have learned we think it 

 would be a good plan. We shall use sheds open to the 

 south, with trees for protection on the open side. We have 

 a grove that is a great protection to our flock, but we think 

 they need more. When a bird stands around on a cold, bleak 

 day, all drawn up and then goes to sleep on a naked limb, 

 with the wind blowing a blizzard around him all night, we 

 cannot see that it is of any benefit to him. He has the same 

 sort of body that other stock has and if he has no shelter to 

 keep him warm, his food has to do it. Plenty of fresh air 

 does not mean that birds must be out of shelter. We ao not 

 think that over seventy-five turkeys in one flock will do well 

 and we prefer fifty or less. It does not matter how early 

 turkeys are hatched. The hens in this climate will not com- 

 mence to lay much before the first of April, and the later 

 hatched will lay about as soon as the early ones, unless 

 very late hatched. 



