180 
THE RURAL* NEW-YORKER 
February 10, 
RAISING TURKEYS IN CONFINEMENT. 
Is it possible to raise turkeys in an en¬ 
closure? Last year I had one hen who had 
17 little turks; of these I raised five, but 
they were a great care. This year I have 
four hens and a good gobbler, and I am 
thinking of making a large enclosure, about 
100x15 or 20 feet and keeping the hens in 
it until the little poults are two or three 
months old. Most of the books I have 
read say it is impossible to keep them 
shut up, but I would like to know what 
you think of it. It seems to me a safer 
way, for the little turkeys get so tired 
running after the old lien. 
Virginia. mrs. w. o. h. 
I am very r glad to say that turkeys 
can be raised in an enclosure and that 
after four years of “trying,” we—or 
rather my mother—had the good luck 
and patience to raise 17 out of 22 
hatched in a fireless brooder. Of these, 
rats got three, a thunder shower soaked 
one to death, and one died of black¬ 
head, which has been quite prevalent 
with us. I attribute their health entirely 
to the good care and management they 
received. None but a women, and a very 
patient woman at that, could have 
raised that lively bunch by hand. To 
anyone inclined to stoutness and in need 
of frequent and violent exercise to re¬ 
duce her weight, I could recommend no 
occupation more profitable. Otherwise, 
if I had any respect for my piece of 
mind or longing for rest, I would leave 
turkeys alone and let them raise them¬ 
selves. But I suppose the very element 
of chance in the proposition makes us 
willing year after year to give them our 
best feed, our best attention, only to 
have our hearts broken at frequent in¬ 
tervals by their untimely death. And 
they are beautiful when you get them 
grown large and thrifty and handsome. 
Mother trained hers to roost on the limb 
of a maple tree under her window, and 
every night she would go out to watch 
them climb the ladder to their roosting 
place, counting them one by one. Every 
morning she called them to her and fed 
them, and if even one was missing, what 
a fuss! The whole establishment lost 
an hour’s work one morning hunting for 
a missing bird and we found it calmly 
reposing under an inverted wash tub! 
But I cannot say that I blame my 
mother after all the pains she took with 
them, nor wonder at her pride when 
they would come swooping up to her at 
meal time, white as driven snow and 
contented as turkeys rarely are. 
But how did she do it? That is more 
interesting to an inquirer. To go back 
to the beginning, we started four years i 
ago with a setting of White Holland 
turkey eggs, and have stuck to the breed 
ever since. We have found them much 
more domestic than the colored strains 
of our neighbors. They seem quite con¬ 
tent to stay within a reasonable dis¬ 
tance of home, and when they do steal 
a nest in a briar patch are easily tracked 
and found by their color. They weigh 
less, but we find a good market for 
small, fat turkeys here, and are satis- 
lied with a smaller carcass if the price 
per pound averages higher, also they 
can be fattened in confinement to better 
advantage than the wilder strains. As 
to whether they are hardy or not, 1 must 
say that I do not believe them any more 
liable to disease or exposure than 
others; they die quite as quickly and 
get the blackhead quite as hopelessly, 
but are certainly not more susceptible 
than the Bronze. We had great luck 
our first year, raising our little brood 
by hand. The next Spring I went into 
them heavily and raised a splendid lot 
up until they were six or eight weeks 
old. Then the rains came for a space 
and in a short time I had a full grave¬ 
yard. The next season 1 hatched 43 
little turks out of 45 eggs set under 
hens, and kept them under cover in an 
open shed. Again they did splendidly, 
and again at about the same age they 
started their sad march to the boneyard. 
I gave up trying the following year, 
selling a few eggs and letting the hens 
run and raise their own young. I man¬ 
aged to raise a dozen this way, or rather 
the hens did it for me. Anyway, I made 
up my mind that turkey raising and gen¬ 
eral farming didn’t go together. So 
when mother undertook them this past 
season I was very thankful but still very 
doubtful as to the outcome. We were 
raising our chicks in fireless brooders, 
so when the first lot of little turks came 
they were given a fireless outfit to them¬ 
selves, the little box of a brooder and 
a pen 3x6 feet to run in with a wire 
frame over one end and one of muslin, 
3x3 feet, to lay on top of it cold morn¬ 
ings until the sun came out. And in 
addition, .she took one of my hotbed I 
sashes to lay atop of the wire on rainy 
days, instead of closing the wooden 
cover over them. This last was a great 
addition, and I soon fitted part of my 
chicken runs up with sashes, too. On 
rainy days they had plenty of light and 
air, and were still warm and dry inside. 
Plenty of sunshine is I honestly believe 
the one greatest factor in brooding suc¬ 
cess. No matter how carefully you feed 
or tend them, chicks and little turks 
will not thrive through a long wet spell, 
and you cannot shut them up in a house 
with any great success, for that is liable 
to shut off their supply of fresh air, and 
there you arc! And until they were well 
feathered out, mother kept her pets in 
this one pen, with plenty to eat, but al¬ 
ways hungry for more. They were fed 
on a cake baked out of bran, two parts 
by measure; cornmeal, one part, and 
beef scraps, one-half part, with a pinch 
of salt added. This cake was crumbled 
up and mixed with curds that mother 
made up every day. She gave them a 
little at a time and between whiles fed 
some chopped-up green feed, as kale and 
New Zealand spinach, which I think 
helped their digestion like everything. 
Both kale and New Zealand spinach can 
be planted at the very earliest and are 
vigorous growers. As they grew older, 
she mixed cracked corn and cracked 
wheat with the crumbs, and by the time 
they were six weeks old they were being 
fed three times a day only, and were 
getting grain and curds only. 
By this time, too, they were allowed 
to run at will about the yard after the 
grass was dry, but were gathered in as 
quick as might be any time a thunder 
shower showed up. We were very care¬ 
ful to keep their little run covered with 
fresh, clean and always dry sand. I kept 
a pile on hand under a shed and after 
every rain the run was moved and a 
new layer of sand put in. This last I 
consider very important as our land is 
badly affected with both gapes and 
blackhead, and the only cure for them 
is prevention —namely, dry clean quar¬ 
ters and a steady vigorous growth from 
the time of hatching through sensible 
feeding. I sincerely believe that for a 
woman who has the patience and love to 
care for them properly, turkeys raised 
in this fashion are profitable. I would 
not try to fool with turkey mothers; let 
them or rather make them keep on lay¬ 
ing and sell the eggs if you don’t want 
to hatch any more. You have got to 
mother them like your very own; if you 
haven’t the strength and time, don’t 
break your heart trying to. R. b. 
The 
• • • A Uv • § • 
Roofing Question 
As a farmer you know that some wire 
fences will rust into strings in five years. % 
Right by its side there will be wire 
having seen 15 years of service and 
still in Perfect Condition. Now the 
Dickelman roofing is made like that old 
wire. We know it cannot rust. When 
a manufacturer of galvanized roofing ad¬ 
vises you to paint his roofing he is confess¬ 
ing his product is not worthy of the name. 
Dickelman “Dex 15-Year Guar¬ 
anteed Brand” Galvanized Roofing 
needs no paint, and it is guaranteed to 
last with¬ 
out paint 
for 15 
years. 
Send 
for 
fr«o 
sample of 
our “guar¬ 
anteed 15 years' 
Dex”roof ing, 
also catalog 
showing other styles 
of roofing we manu¬ 
facture : 
GALVANIZED CORRUGATED ROOFING 
GALVANIZED 3-V. CRIMPED ROOFING 
GALVANIZED ROLL ROOFING 
GALVANIZED SHINGLES AND TILE, ETC. 
Dickelman Manufacturing Company 
58 Gormley St., Forest, Ohio 
Poultry EXPERTS 
SAY 
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Gentlemen:—I have just examined your new catalogue. 
This is one of the best things oi the kind 1 have seen. 
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125 Egg IncubatorQ 
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MacKellar’s Charcoal 
For Poultry is best. Coarse or fine granulated, also 
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Mandy Lee 
The incubator that is making chick 
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Write today for full description 
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ADVANCE MFG. CO. 
Box 424. GREENVILLE, O. 
rii 
MAKE HENS LAY“| 
more eggs: larger, more vigorous chicks} 
heavier fowls, by feeding cut bone. 
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IY1ANN O BONE CUTTER 
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k Tlio original silica grit. 
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Box J New Brunswick, N. J 
GRIT 
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B. H. GREIDER, Box B 8, Rheemn, Pa. 
if 
FUKIA 
39 km* Prairie Bogs, 
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a n d G r a i n Insects. . 
“The wheels of the gods 
grind slow but exceed¬ 
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EDWARD K. TAYLOR, Penn Yan, N. Y. 
HI Accept Your 
Time as Money 1 
Give me 10 minutes and I’ll split 
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Improved JEWEL Incubator 
Don’t pay anyone a cent until 
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The M. W. 
Savage Factories 
Minneapolis, Minn. 
the greatest and most liberal incubator offer made. 
My Incubator Book illustrates and describes the finest line of incubators f 
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^Name. 
M. W. SAVAGE, President 
M. W. SAVAGE FACTORIES, Inc. < 
Dept. 157 Minneapolis, Minn^^r 
Address. 
14 ' 
a Winner Naiion&I Incubator Contest 
Both For 
Mrs. J. B. Stevenson, Lockney, Texas, with a 140 E"g Ironclad Incubator, wins in Big National Hatching Contest held by Mo. Valley Farmer and 
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■s* 143 eggs set, tested out 6, hatched 133 chicks. Then think of getting a prize winning 
7 40 
if ordered 
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u - B< 
IRONCLAD INCUBATOR CO., 
lox 1*0 
this paper about us. ^ 
RACINE. WIS. 
30 
Days 
( 4 -j Free Trial 
