330 QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. [1 Nov., 1902. 
Poultry. 
TURKEYS, GEESE, AND POULTRY. 
No. 1. 
Rearing TurKEYs. 
Where the owner has a good run for his birds, turkeys are as easily raised, 
and as hardy as, indeed hardier than, any other denizen of the poultry-yard. 
The young chicks require a considerable amount of care and attention until 
they are about three months old. After that they are, regardless of rain or 
storm, roosting out in the open, with perfect immunity from disease. Hence 
they are, without doubt, the most profitable class of domestic poultry. It 
should, however, be noted that dry soil is an important requisite for successful 
turkey-raising. Where there is only a cold, damp soil, it is mere waste of 
money to attempt to rear these birds. 
Given suitable land and a wide range, the intending breeder should begin 
with half-a-dozen good hen turkeys and the best cock bird obtainable. As soon 
as enough eggs have been obtained, start setting them, so that you can test the 
eggs early to see that they are fertile. Set the eggs in boxes with no bottoms 
somewhere out in the field. All the cover the sitting hen requires is shelter 
from the hot sun, heavy rain, or cold westerly winds. 
As soon as the young birds are hatched, shut them up in coops for a day 
or two to let them get used to the hen’s voice. A good plan is to put them in 
a pen enclosed by boards about 18 inches high. As soon as they can fly over 
the boards, you may let them all go free. They need never be shut up again, 
no matter how bad the weather is. Tor the first week, feed the young turks 
eyery two hours on chopped, hard-boiled eggs, or custard also chopped up very 
fine, and mix with this some fine biscuit-meal. For the next few weeks, feed 
them five times a day with eggs and medium biscuit-meal, and give them in the 
second week some finely chopped green stuff—nettles for preference, if you 
have them. In good seasons nettles are plentiful in many parts of Queens- 
land. Mix this with some grit amongst the other food. When the birds are 
four weeks old, mix with the same food some home-ground meal, composed of 
two-fifths oats and one-fifth each maize, wheat, and barley. You may now also 
start a little meat diet, such as finely chopped liver, greaves, &c. This meat 
must be well cooked and mixed with the other food. Give a last meal about 
5 or 6 o'clock of oats or wheat. This diet must be supplied four times a day 
until the red colour and excrescences appear on the neck, when you may use 
more ground meal, less biscuit-meal, and no eggs. After maize, wheat, or 
bariey have been harvested, the birds will practically keep themselves in the 
fields. 
When they are three months old is the time to look out for diarrhaa and 
indigestion. These troubles will reach them if they are allowed access too 
early to growing oats and corn in the milk stage. They should never get any- 
thing but old grain. The best remedy for indigestion, which trouble you can at 
once detect by their lagging behind the rest, and by the unnatural colour of 
the head, is to give a half-teaspoonful of castor oil and keep them away from 
the rest of the flock till their appeiite returns. After this stage of indigestion 
is passed, all there is to do is to feed plenty of cracked corn. For roosts, let the 
poles be broad. This will prevent the deformity of crooked breast. 
The best all-round turkey is the Bronze, especially for size and stamina. 
The largest turkeys fetch the highest price. Turkeys do not arrive at full 
maturity till they are three years old. Therefore, see that your stock birds are 
two years old or more; otherwise the chickens will be delicate and difficult to 
Tear. 
