TURKEYS— THEIR CARE AND MANAGEMENT. 



51 



sired in the same yard, is a troublesome one. The most sat- 

 isfactory way in which I have managed it is to let only one 

 torn in the yard at a time. Let one stay in the yard several 

 days, keeping the other where he cannot he seen or see the 

 turkeys in the yard. Then change, putting the one in the 

 yard in confinement and letting the other out. Some advo- 

 cate changing toms every day where changing is practiced 

 at all, but I prefer letting each torn stay in the yard several 

 days at a time. Where more than twenty hens are kept, two 

 toms should be used as above directed if all the hens are kept 

 in the same pen. After the hens begin laying one torn may 

 be disposed of if so desired. After the first clutch of eggs is 

 laid I find that all the hens never lay at the same time dur- 

 ing the season. Some are sitting, some stop laying and 

 begin again, and some carry turkeys, so that one torn is suf- 

 ficient after the first fertilization. But it is always safe to 

 have the second one at command if one should die. 



How long can a torn be used, or when is he too old for 

 service? I do not know. I use them two years and have 

 sold yearlings that were kept three years. I never go to 

 extremes in mating, that is, do not keep too old or too 

 young breeding stock. 



FEEDING THE BREEDING STOCK. 



The breeding stock should never be excessively fat. All 

 stock raisers will agree with this assertion. There is noth- 

 ing more productive of soft shelled and infertile eggs than 

 over-fat hens and toms. 



What to feed for the production of eggs has been a ques- 

 tion. I confess that I have lost faith in hot mashes for 

 either chickens or turkeys, and I never feed hot food to 

 either young or old. Neither do I give hot drinking water. 

 I was first forced to adopt the cold feed from sickness. I 

 could not get anyone to prepare a mash that did not, make it 

 sloppy and I soon learned whole grain was far more health- 

 ful than sloppy food. If turkeys have free range during lay- 

 ing season they eat very little that you feed them. Keep 

 grit and lime on hand in abundance and sow wheat for them. 

 If it is laid in a pile they often leave it, but if scattered 

 broadcast they will pick all day. Turkeys in their normal 

 condition do not sit around during laying season; they are 

 active and want to roam and pick as they go. I often scatter 

 the food after they go to roost, as they are early risers and 

 begin picking before I have time to give them their break- 

 fast. One thing you may depend upon and that is, to have tur- 

 keys lay well, and lay fertile eggs, they must have an egg 

 producing diet in some way. If they run at large they will 

 get this without any trouble to the owner, but if they are 

 confined it must be given them. One year I fed soaked oats 

 with excellent results, but I would not give oats without 

 soaking them. I mix shipstuff with them so they are not so 

 wet. Wet food sours in the crop. 



When should turkeys begin to lay? The rule in my 

 yards is, about the middle to the last of March. I have once 

 had turkeys lay the last of February. My mother told me 

 the "old-fashioned turkeys".— -by that she meant the com- 

 mon ones — laid earlier than the Bronze. I think the climate 

 may influence the habit of earlier or later laying. In a 

 southern climate they lay earlier than in the northern. 



If you want many eggs, you must breed from yearling 

 hens and pullets. Old hens do not lay as many eggs, and 

 extra large ones do not lay as many eggs as smaller ones. A 

 tall turkey will lay more eggs than a short one. Why? I 

 do not know. I think the last eggs laid by the hen before 

 sitting sometimes produce poults with less vitality than the 

 others. 



Will the eggs from yearling turkey hens hatch as well 

 as those from pullets? I think they will, the greatest dan- 

 ger of infertility lying in getting them over-fat. They must 



be kept vigorous and healthy, but do not overfeed in order 

 to get weight. 



I am often asked how many eggs a turkey hen will lay. 

 One of mine last year laid eighty, which is the largest num- 

 ber I ever could vouch for. Of course she was not allowed 

 to sit. 



One asks, "Do you think July too late to hatch turkeys?" 



We have two toms which weighed in March twenty-eight 

 pounds without having been fattened; they were hatched 

 July 3. 



July and August hatched turkeys of large vigorous stock 

 make good breeding birds the first year, and excellent ones 

 the second year, but unless scarce of breeding stock we 

 usually farm out the late hatches the first year, and put 

 them in our breeding yards the second. From these late 

 hatches we give our turkey dinners during the winter. 



I dispensed with the barrels this year, having only one. 

 I put straw in the hollows and covered them over with 

 brush, allowing the turkeys to think they were stealing .their 

 nests. From twenty-six hens I got seventeen eggs per day, 

 showing that confining the hens as I do does not materially 

 lessen the egg yield. When the eggs are removed as they 

 are laid, and I think it should be done every day, either nest 

 egg gourds, china nest eggs or real eggs should be put in the 

 nest. Few turkeys will continue to lay in a nest after all 

 the eggs are removed from it. I usually put three or four 

 infertile eggs in the nest as soon as I find a a turkey has laid 

 in it. This often saves much trouble, and yet with all my 

 care every year I lose both hens and eggs, for either a rain 

 washes out a hole, a wind blows down the fence or they fly 

 our. after their wings grow out and steal nests. 



CARE OF SITTING HENS— EGGS— NESTS. 



How many eggs will a turkey hen lay before she sits? 

 Some lay more than others, but I never had a hen that laid 

 more than fifteen or sixteen eggs before she wanted to sit 

 and I have many more that lay only twelve than I have that 

 lay fifteen. A turkey hen may easily be broken from sitting 

 if she is taken in time, and by this means I often get twenty 

 to thirty eggs before I allow a hen to sit. A hen will lay in 

 ten days after she is stopped from sitting and sometimes in 

 shorter time. 



If you do not wish to make the nest as suggested above, 

 then use not a flour nor lime barrel, but a salt barrel. I 

 turn the barrel down on the side, putting it under a tree or 

 in a shady place. The turkey will scratch the nest up for the 

 first few days, but the barrel is a temptation she cannot 

 resist and she will lay in it. I always put down several bar- 

 rels, though I find the turkeys all like to lay in the same one. 



If the hen is thoroughly dusted with a good insect pow- 

 der when set, and the top outside of the barrel lightly 

 painted with a good lice killer, she will be free from lice 

 when the hatch comes off. Be sure in using this that 

 you do not put it where it will touch the eggs or feathers of 

 sitting hens. If you do you will in all probability fail to get 

 a good hatch. 



I set from seventeen to nineteen — never more. If the 

 hen is large and the nest well made, nineteen eggs may be 

 put under her safely. 



Usually I have a turkey and domestic hen hatch the 

 same time and give all the turkeys to the turkey hen. I 

 have not been as successful with domestic as with turkey 

 hens until this season. I know two other breeders who 

 raise turkeys altogether with domestic hens, and they are 

 very successful indeed. As a rule, however, the turkey hen 

 is the better mother, especially after the poults are seven 

 weeks old, for other hens wean them too early. I think 

 a very good plan is to let both chicken and turkey hens 

 have young turkeys the same age, and when the chicken, 



