TURKEYS— THEIR CARE AND MANAGEMENT. 



6-5 



got a very fine trio of Buffs from a reliable breeder in our 

 own state and those with the trio of the best of, my Bronze 

 birds made a shipment that any turkey breeder might be 

 proud of. The honor did not all belong to me, however. 



I am in receipt of a very interesting letter from a lady 

 in Ohio in regard to the Bourbon Red turkey. She has bred 

 them only one year. Her torn and hen were both young 

 and to that she attributes the weakness of the poults, but 

 as only one died a natural death it goes to show they are 

 quite hardy. They were very large when first hatched and 

 very pretty. They are about as hardy as the Bronze when 

 raised under similar conditions, and make beautiful birds 

 when grown. They are marked something like a peafowl, 

 are very quiet and not much inclined to wander and want 

 to be left entirely alone to attend strictly to their own 

 business. My correspondent thinks that for a market fowl 

 a cross of the Bronze and the Bourbon Red would give good 

 results. 



If any one knows the origin of the Bourbon Red I should 

 be glad to obtain a knowledge o£ the subject. 

 MATING AND HOUSING. 



I am often asked which is the best way to mate tur- 

 keys — young toms with hens or old toms with pullets. I 

 like an old torn, but sometimes one suffers a serious loss 

 among the hens, resulting from injury caused by a vigorous 

 male. I always make cots for the spurs the same as a finger 

 cot, and wire them on the legs with a fine copper wire. If 

 the spur is very sharp we saw the sharp point off and cut 

 the toe nails very blunt. I find this an indispensable treat- 

 ment if one expects to escape loss. 



A correspondent asks how many turkeys she ought to 

 keep, and how many hens and toms she should buy to begin 

 breeding on forty acres of land. She is building a house for 

 them. I wrote and told her not to build a house for turkeys, 

 an open shed is all they ever need. A high shed covered 

 with prairie hay or anything that will keep out rain and sun. 

 I think when the ever ruling hand made turkeys He made 

 the sky their covering. I really do like an open shed for 

 rainy or stormy days and when the terrible blizzards sweep 

 over the country, but you might as well try to chain the 

 lightning or hold a cyclone in the hollow of your hand as 

 to attempt to make turkeys break the laws of nature that 

 made a roost on the topmost branch of the tree an ideal 

 place for them to spend a cold night. While we cuddle 

 down in a warm bed, they are taking a constitutional on the 

 tree top, swaying in the blast and they come down full of 

 vigor and with an appetite that almost equals the ostrich. 

 I never try to control them as to their quarters for the night 

 unless we have a severe ice storm, or one of our terrible 

 blizzards. The rest of the time they are left to "paddle their 

 own canoe" at night. When the Creator put into turkeys 

 the instinct to sleep in the open air He knew more about 

 raising turkeys than I do. 



As to the number of birds my correspondent should be- 

 gin with, I would under no circumstances get more than ten 

 hens and one torn. I started with three thoroughbred hens 

 and a torn, even though I had raised turkeys for some years 

 before this. I always advise inquirers to 'begin upon a 

 small scale in any branch of poultry raising. One may 

 work into the business and will not then lose the money 

 invested, nor think the business is unprofitable. One turkey 

 hen will lay two litters of eggs in a season, and this is all 

 it is profitable to have her lay, for if she laid a third litter 

 it would be too late to bother with them. She usually lays 

 about thirty eggs in two litters, sometimes more, some- 

 times less. If this lady raises one hundred and fifty tur- 

 keys from ten hens she will be doing well, as the eggs will 

 not all hatch and the poults will not all live. There are 



always some that are weak when first hatched. One hun- 

 dred and fifty turkeys will be as many as should be kept 

 on forty acres, for they are not like chickens, they must 

 have range and must hunt for the larger portion of their 

 food if it is desired to raise them to perfection in size, vigor 

 and plumage, and of course it is. 



Turkeys raised on a large range are best to use as breed- 

 ers, as they develop on nature's plan — bone, muscle and 

 frame, and that is what we want instead of heavy weights 

 and small frames. Some people think weight is the criterion 

 of excellence in turkeys. I wish I could take them out with 

 me in my morning rambles and show them the points of ex- 

 cellence my birds are developing by roving around and pick- 

 ing up the food that nature contributes so lavishly for their 

 benefit. The large, long legs and well proportioned bodies 

 with the morning sun glancing from their brilliant plumage 

 make a sight worth seeing. Exercise and the right kind of 

 diet go a long way towards making a perfect turkey. 



The Bronze turkey does not develop until four years 

 old, and it stands to reason that a bird which develops slow- 

 ly and healthily will make a better breeder and produce 

 healthier and larger stock than those which are pushed to 

 maturity, and which attain great weights simply by over- 

 feeding and lack of exercise. First secure good health and 

 a large frame, then let nature put on weight at maturity. 

 If this course were followed we would not hear so much' 

 abuut diseases and non-success in raising turkeys. They 

 were created for a special purpose and intended to be 

 healthy, and when we undertake to run against nature there 

 is war at once and we have to pay the penalty. 



YARDING AND TRAINING TURKEYS. 



I raise turkeys and like the business and attribute much 

 of my success to keeping my turkeys yarded through the 

 breeding season. People generally think it a great expense 

 to build a fence that will keep turkeys in, though I do not 

 find it so. A three-foot woven wire fence with barbed wire 

 above to make the fence four or five feet high will keep 

 them confined if the flight feathers of one wing are cut. I 

 keep the young turkeys yarded in the same yard until they 

 are six weeks or two months old, which makes it conven- 

 ient to protect the young poults from the wet and I can 

 look them over once a week for lice, and never have to ba 

 hunting up my turkeys. 



People ask me if they are not hard to raise. I raise 

 a larger per cent of those hatched than I do of chickens. 

 For the last two years I have raised over 95 per cent of all 

 turkeys hatched. 



I have found that fifty turkeys in a yard or field are 

 enough to do well. If you keep more than that together they 

 are apt to pile in together and smother after they are about 

 a month old. When I get a flock of fifty I start another 

 drove in another field. I set four or five turkey hens and 

 at the same time give to domestic hens as many turkey eggs 

 as I think the turkeys can take care of. If possible I sot 

 an incubator with chicken eggs. When they all hatch I 

 give the turkeys all the poults and the domestic hens all the 

 Incubator chicks, and that makes business lively all around, 

 and keeps me very busy. 



I raise from three different flocks of turkeys, ten hens 

 and one torn, in each flock. We have from one acre to three 

 acres fenced in with a three-foot wire netting, three-inch 

 mesh, with barbed wire at the top, making the fence five 

 feet high. Turkeys will never try to fly over a barbed wire 

 fence. They will crawl under if the wires are not close 

 together, but they will never try to fly over it. If they ever 

 attempt it they are almost sure to run a barb through their 

 foot and one experience of that kind is generally enough. 

 I have had them caught that way and hang until dead. I 



