28 w. cook's turkey, goose, and pheasant book. 



them, and he should only be let in to them occasionally. 

 The attendant can easily tell when it is time to put the 

 male birds with the hens, as the latter lie down on the 

 ground in quite a different way to any other variety of the 

 feathered tribe, and if they co-habit once that is sufficient 

 for a batch of eggs. A good strong turkey cock when 

 treated in this way, if only put with the hens when required 

 will manage thirty hens just as well as he will eight. In 

 country districts, where a person only keeps three or four 

 hens, they do not keep a male bird, but take them to a 

 neighbour who keeps one. This sort of thing is often done. 

 Some people charge i/-, and others 2/6 for each hen which 

 is put with the male bird, but there are many neighbouring 

 farmers who do not charge anything ; they merely oblige 

 their neighbours. 



After a turkey hen has laid her batch of eggs and comes 

 on broody the operation should be repeated. I would 

 rather put a turkey cock weighing from 23 to 281bs. with 

 hens their fiist year than I would a two year old bird 

 weighing 35lbs., because the eggs as a rule are more fertile 

 when the younger and lighter cock is used. 



Many turkey breeders force young birds on with stimu- 

 lating food to get them to a greater weight, but when this 

 is done the progeny of these birds are no larger than those 

 at the same age which were bred from birds that had not 

 been fed up. 



Suppose for instance a man has two turkey cocks-hatched 

 about the same time, and equal in weight at three months 

 old, he commences to feed one on stimulating food to get 

 it up to a good size, say 34lbs. the first season, while the 



