TURKEY QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS 



207 



one heaping tablespoon of saltpeter 

 Mix, keep in a bottle, shake before us- 

 ing. I think this will cure them. Be 

 careful not to give them any corn or 

 com meal, and give plenty of lettuce 

 and onion. 



them grass or alfalfa to run on and they 

 will do well. 



General Care of Turkeys — I would 

 like to ask a few questions about tur- 

 keys. You mentioned raising them in 

 a brooder. 1. How warm should one 

 have the brooder when the poults are 

 first put in? 1. At the end of the first 

 week what should the temperature be 

 lowered to? 3. Is alfalfa meal neces- 

 sary or of any benefit to little poults or 

 to little chicks if they have all the green 

 barley they will eat, cut fine? — A Be- 

 ginner. 



Answer — The heat under the hover 

 should be about 95. The reason I say 

 "about" is that on a very warm, sunny 

 day it might be a little lower, but should 

 the outside temperature be cold or the 

 weather damp and gloomy, it might be 

 up to 95 for the best results. 2. About 

 85, depending somewhat on the outside 

 air and weather. Gradually lower the 

 temperature till you get it to 70 or 80, 

 according to the weather. 3. No ! Lit- 

 tle turkeys require the succulent green, 

 not the dried hay, ground up. Give 

 them lettuce chopped up at first with 

 every meal; then either lettuce, dande- 

 lion leaves, onion tops chopped fine, 

 or cabbage or the tender leaves of beets. 

 Any green vegetable that you would eat 

 yourself will do and also the green bar- 

 ley as long as it is succulent and tender. 

 Barley soon gets tough and hard and 

 then it is not suitable for the little tur- 

 keys. 



Keep Separate from Chicks — Will 

 you kindly give me some information 

 concerning newly hatched turkeys? We 

 have two hens and a torn. Would you 

 advise keeping them away from chick- 

 ens?— Mrs. C. B. 



Answer — Little turkeys do much bet- 

 ter when kept away from chickens. They 

 require, or do better, on different food, 

 and when very young require to be kept 

 quiet, whilst the chicks like to scratch 

 and rustle. Turkeys move more slowly 

 and need rest and quiet. Then, again, 

 corn, kaffir corn and corn meal suit 

 chickens, but ferment inside the little 

 turkeys and give them diarrhoea, which 

 is often fatal. Let the turkey mothers 

 "take care of the little turkeys and give 



Turkeys — I am glad if I have been 

 able to help you with your turkeys, and 

 will try to reply to your questions, but I 

 wish you could give your turkeys free 

 range as they are the Bronze, for that 

 most beautiful breed is nearer to the wild 

 than any other and, therefore, need 

 more than any, a good wide free range 

 to keep them healthy. A turkey on the 

 range eats a few seeds, then sees an in- 

 sect, maybe a grasshopper, and chases 

 after that, which is good exercise. Af- 

 ter a run he finds perhaps a nice little 

 pebble or a few green leaves or twigs, 

 and so on. He only eats a very little 

 at a time and exercises between each 

 mouthful and this is the way a turkey 

 should eat. The nearer we can come to 

 copying nature in feeding turkeys, the 

 better success we shall have. Now. with 

 this prelude I will try to answer your 

 questions to the best of my ability. 



1. How much grain and what kinds 

 should I feed? 2. Should I give them 

 bran and beef scraps? 3. Or do you 

 prefer granulated milk? 4. How much 

 of the milk should they have ? 5. Should 

 I feed more than twice a day? 6. Is 

 there any food which should be always 

 before them?— Mrs. C. F. S. 



Keeping twenty young three-month- 

 old turkeys yarded is a very seriou-- 

 proposition, unless your yard is an un- 

 usually large one with plenty of shade 

 and sunshine. 1. Wheat is the best 

 grain for turkeys until about two or 

 three weeks before you want to kill 

 them, then you can add corn. 2. You 

 can give bran and beef scraps, but, 3, I 

 prefer granulated milk and bran, as it 

 seems to agree better with the turkeys. 

 4. About an ounce each per day. 5. 

 Twice a day is considered about right 

 for yarded turkeys. 6. Turkeys need 

 plenty of fresh, green succulent food, 

 such as clover, lawn clippings or lettuce, 

 Swiss chard, beet tops, cabbage or the 

 curly kale. They must have green food 

 to do well and should have all they can 

 eat of it, and grain only twice a day. 

 Almost any kind of fruit or nuts or 

 olives suits them. If you want to leave 

 any food always before them you might 

 leave a box of granulated milk and an- 

 other of bran. Always keep charcoal, 

 grit and granulated bone before them. 

 If you had a walnut orchard in which 

 they could roam I would say leave a 

 box of wheat where they can get to it 



