50 



TURKEYS— THEIR CARE AND MANAGEMENT. 



impress on my flock. I think young turkeys get size from 

 the maternal side, even more than from the paternal. Never 

 should a fancier use a iate, small-boned torn, or a poorly 

 marked one. As a rule toms get very thin in summer if 

 mated with hens, and they do not eat a great deal until cold 

 weather. I have known a torn to weigh twenty-six pounds 

 in November and thirty-five by January. Turkeys will gain 

 two pounds a week in cold weather, unless there is snow on 

 the ground, then they will stay on the roost and will not eat. 



I once had a red legged turkey pullet. She was not large 

 when young, but her legs were almost too deeply colored to 

 be called pink. I bred from her as long as she lived, or, I 

 should say, until she was stolen. I could tell the turkeys 

 from her eggs. They were a good size and invariably had 

 pink legs when young, though not as deeply colored as were 

 hers. From this hen I got that line of breeding which gives 

 in some of my yards pink legs in young stock. I can tell it 

 wherever I find it. But this is the only female I ever kept 

 that was undersize after she was a pullet. The rule is that 

 the shanks are dark when young. Some of the best hens in 

 size have dark shanks always, while others get very bright 

 pink — I prefer the pink legs, other things being equal. But 

 I am candid when I say that I make size and not weight the 

 first consideration in breeding stock. 



Never breed from a turkey with a natural deformity. I 

 once bought a sitting of eggs from one of the foremost fan- 

 ciers I know. The only pullet raised had a crooked toe, but 

 she was so fine I felt I could breed from her. Every year 

 there would be a lot of turkeys with crooked toes, and these 

 were the very best otherwise. It took several years to get 

 entirely rid of crooked toes. 



While there are fewer culls among turkeys than there 

 are among chickens, it is also true that under the present 

 standard some of the very best breeding birds are not first- 

 class exhibition turkeys. For instance, all turkey raisers 

 know that there is a tendency to brown edging on tail cov- 

 erts in some specimens, and it is a notable fact that these 

 specimens are usually very strong in wing barring and that 

 they are decidedly larger boned than those which possess the 

 standard gray and white edging. Now such a bird cannot 

 be sold for exhibition, but if one is raising turkeys for mar- 

 ket and selling toms to other market breeders, what better 

 breeder would he want than this same brown tailed turkey, 

 for as the market poultryman pays for pounds, it is the torn 

 with size that one raising for market must get. Again, one 

 may be poor in wing for exhibition and fine as a breeder. 

 Yet I am sure that at least ninety per cent of the best bred 

 Bronze turkeys can be put on exhibition when fully up in 

 weight, and whether they win a prize or not they do credit 

 to the owner. The main thing in breeding is to select 

 healthy, vigorous breeding stock of good size and shape, 

 with the very best markings possible. Don't expect perfec- 

 tion, but try to attain as near it as possible. Patience, per- 

 severance and knowledge will bring success. 



CARE OF BREEDING STOCK— ECCS. 



When once you have your stock, be sure that you get 

 your turkey eggs. To do this I keep my turkeys penned. I 

 would prefer letting turkeys run at large if I could do so 

 with much convenience to myself. But to follow from twen- 

 ty-five to thirty turkeys to their nests is too great an under- 

 taking for me, and I keep them in a large pen until after 

 they have laid. Each afternoon about 4 o'clock I turn them 

 out in an orchard of blue grass. After a few days they will 

 come to the gate and call to get out. If I forget, they do not; 

 but they always go back to the pen to roost. I find grass 

 very essential both to the fertility of the eggs and to increase 

 the number, and also to keep the turkeys healthy. If I were 

 so situated that I could not let them out to eat grass, I would 



feed wheat bran with flowers of sulphur in it every other day 

 in small quantities. There must be sulphur to insure fertil- 

 ity, but the grass supplies it. Plenty of lime, gravel and 

 grass, with wheat twice a day, is all turkeys need. If too 

 closely confined turkeys will not thrive and I believe that 

 the freer the range the more eggs the turkey will lay, but 

 when they lay where you cannot find the nest and you lose 

 both hen and eggs, as I have often done, you will prefer to 

 get the eggs they do lay in the pen. 



My turkey house is sixteen feet long, eight feet wide and 

 has two partitions, making three rooms in it. It is made of 

 barn boarding sixteen inches wide. Two of these boards are 

 put together at the bottom, but as they go up cracks are left 

 so that the air can pass through; however, they are too close 

 for animals to get through. It is one-half foot high in front 

 and three feet in the back and is set out in the orchard 

 where the poults will have a seven acre range of their own. 

 This turkey shed has proved a success, and my young tur- 

 keys have seldom failed to come up at night. I think the 

 lavge, airy roosting place provided has had something to do 

 with their coming up, for in small roosting places I was al- 

 ways compelled to drive them in, while all I do now is to 

 turn them into the pen and they go to roost themselves. 



The fence is the best I have ever used. II is made of 

 straight farm fence wire, with stays and locks. The wires 

 are only three inches apart at bottom, and the distance apart 

 is increased as they get higher. 



I do not like to cut the wings of large turkeys for they 

 often get up in trees and when they fly down they hurt 

 themselves.' My show birds are often spoiled by cutting the 

 wings. They do not always grow out in time for the show. 

 I do not cut the wings of the toms because they will stay 

 with the hens. 



The natural instinct of the turkey is tp roost high and 

 in ordinary weather I think it is best for them to be out of 

 doors. My experience is that the first turkey to get droopy 

 is one roosting low in the same place night after night, un- 

 less the droppings are either removed frequently or the im- 

 purities counteracted by frequent applications of either air 

 slaked or quick lime. 



I am often asked if one living on a small place can be 

 successful with turkeys. If by small place is meant a town 

 lot, certainly not. If an eight, ten or twenty acre place is 

 meant, you may be successful with a limited number; and if 

 you trespass on your neighbors and they allow it, you may 

 be successful with a larger number. 



It is no longer a question whether turkeys can be kept 

 on small space successfully, for so many overworked women 

 are penning the birds and so getting eggs with much less 

 labor, proving that with proper care the stock will be just as 

 vigorous. We do not claim they lay quite as many eggs, 

 but we get more of them. 



My experience has been equally divided between a farm 

 and a small place for raising turkeys. I have lived seven 

 years where my turkeys had unlimited range and seven 

 years on an eight-acre place. I give the farm the preference 

 after the turkeys are grown. Until they are six or seven 

 weeks old they do as well on a smali place, but from that 

 time until they are grown the larger the range the better for 

 the growth of the young turkeys, and yet the finest turkeys 

 I have ever raised were raised on the small place; but this 

 is not an argument in favor of it, for they could have been 

 raised with much less labor and expense on a larger one. 



HOW MANY HENS TO A TOM? 



I make twelve hens the number for one torn, as a rule, 

 but once I kept twenty hens with a torn that was two years 

 old in May or June, and never had eggs hatch better. The 

 question of how to manage when more than one torn is de- 



