there are six varieties of turkeys: bronze, white holland, bourbon reds, black, buff, slate and narragansett. but the three first are the ones most worth raising specially for market, as they are large birds and the most popular varieties. so it is easy to get good stock, to start with, which is of paramount importance.
a trio of any one of the three varieties will cost from fifteen to twenty dollars, and if only twenty birds are reared the first year for market, they will bring at least sixty dollars. that is placing the average weight at twelve pounds and price twenty-five cents a pound. this is, however, absurd, when you consider that young toms weigh twenty pounds and pullets fifteen, feed could not possibly cost more than ten dollars, which would leave thirty dollars’ profit the first year.
a successful turkey-raiser told me he had kept his birds in yards for twelve years, so i felt safe in adopting the plan. i suppose i ought to have said inclosures, for they covered about half an acre each. the land was shaly, with a rocky background, but there were plenty of clumps of scrub brush and ferns, from the rocks to the top of the two acres they used. 64 the ground sloped to the south; a spot of no earthly good for any other purpose, but perfectly ideal for turkeys.
however, as our farm had no such place, i utilised a strip of poor brush land which had good natural drainage and made three inclosures, each one hundred feet wide and three hundred feet long. an open-front shed twelve feet long and ten feet wide was built in each. they were just rough shelters built out of slabs and the only fittings were perches made out of sassafras poles, none of them less than nine inches in circumference. this is one of the important items in fixing a place for turkeys. being heavy, large-footed birds, they are uncomfortable and positively suffer if condemned to balance themselves on slight perches such as chickens use.
it took four loads of slabs to make the three sheds, and they cost seventy-five cents a load at the sawmill. wire netting cost forty-eight dollars, perches and posts were cut in our own woods, and the home help did the work.
i got ten female birds from the massachusetts farm for fifty dollars and two toms from long island for twenty dollars. we sent for the birds early in december so that they should have time to get thoroughly at home in their new quarters before the laying season. before they arrived, the front of the sheds was covered with wire netting, so that we could keep them shut up at first, but after two or three weeks it was removed and they were allowed the range of the 65 yards. the wire around the inclosure was only four feet high and one wing of each bird was cut to prevent them flying over it.
a flock of turkeys
early in march a half-barrel was secreted among the brush, in both the occupied yards, so that the hens would be accustomed to their appearance and, we hoped, consider safe hiding-places for their eggs. the plan answered splendidly. about the middle of the month we commenced to keep a lookout for eggs in the half-barrel and for stolen nests. when an egg was found, it was purloined, and a china one put in its place; ditto when the second egg was taken, but after that, no more china eggs were dropped, for two always seemed to satisfy mrs. turkey.
unlike common hens, turkeys are not attracted to a nest by an egg. in fact, they retain so much of the wild bird that they will not adopt a nest that has been used by any other bird, so never distribute nest-eggs as decoys, but only as substitutes for those abstracted.
the matter of feeding the old birds is of great importance and is the rock most farmers founder on. too often the birds are left to forage for themselves or, at the best, are given uncertain quantities of corn, which means that they are miserably thin and dilapidated or outrageously fat. in either case they lack the components which the egg for hatching should possess. result, weak youngsters which are doomed to die, no matter how much care is lavished on them.
i once heard an old poultryman say that the care 66 of the chick must commence when its mother is hatched. this may seem ambiguous to the amateur, but it is literally a fact and one which my massachusetts friend had made me understand was most potent when applied to turkeys. so our turkeys are fed with special reference to supplying the ingredients to be converted into bone and vigour in the birds to be. breakfast: chopped clover-hay, steamed overnight, two quarts; corn and oats ground together, one quart; beef-scraps, half a pint. at noon, one quart of oats, kafir-corn or barley scattered broadcast in the yards. at night, whole corn when the weather is very cold, but as it moderates in the spring the amount is decreased and wheat is used in its place.
these are their regular rations from december to april, when the beef-scraps and corn are entirely omitted. water and grit is before them all the time. we buy screenings from the stone-crusher and, as it is cheap, dump a lot into each yard twice a year.
i generally steal the first ten eggs from each nest and set them under the hens. however many a turkey lays after that, she is allowed to keep and hatch them. it takes them twenty-nine days to hatch, and large, motherly old hens should be chosen from the chicken-house to do the incubating. it is not safe to put more than five such eggs under an ordinary hen.
when the hatch is over, put the hen into a brood-coop and, in front of it, put a box about nine inches deep and large enough to form a yard for the babies to exercise in. it is, of course, necessary to remove 67 part or the whole of the end of the box which joins the front of the coop, so that the little ones can run in and out. cover the bottom of the box with coarse sand and put a small drinking-fountain in one corner. thus the babies will have a safe place to play in the first few days of infancy, when they must be kept dry. after that the box can be removed and the coop moved a few feet every day for the sake of cleanliness.
when mrs. turkey’s brood hatches, we treat them in the same way, only the brood-coop is specially made and is much larger than the ordinary hen-coop. the first feed the babies have is stale home-made bread soaked in scalded milk, which is squeezed out of it before it is fed. like little chicks, they must have nothing for twenty-four hours, then little and often must be the rule.
never leave food in front of little turkeys, for they are very apt to overeat. after two weeks they need only be fed four times a day; after the fourth week three times a day. after the first two days add a little hard-boiled egg which has been chopped fine, without removing the shell, and a few days later, pin-head oatmeal and ground charcoal; about a teaspoonful of the latter to a cupful of bread and oatmeal.
by the end of two weeks gradually reduce the bread and increase the oatmeal, which should be cooked about half an hour and allowed to dry out, so it is easily crumbled when cool.
after the fourth week, ordinary ground oats, just 68 moistened with scalding milk, may be used. half-boiled liver, chopped fine, is the best animal food to give. when that is not practicable, use the best brand of commercial ground beef, one teaspoonful to a quart of meal, because it is very strong and liable to produce diarrhea, a disease which attacks young turkeys almost sooner than any other young bird. watch carefully and at the first evidence of any looseness of the bowels give boiled rice to eat and rice-water or cold tea to drink.
watch newly-hatched babies for a few days at feed-time, for there is often one or more that needs to be taught how to eat. this is especially so when they are with common hens. but a little patience in crumbling close in front of them and coaxing them to pick it up will overcome the difficulty. after they are eight weeks old we take them from the hens and put them into the third yard, which is kept exclusively for young stock.
at night they are driven into the shed, the front of which is always kept covered with wire netting, so that they can be closed in until they get accustomed to roosting. of course, the perches in this shed are put nearer the ground and are much smaller than those intended for grown birds. about october 1st they are allowed the free range of the farm and are fed on corn at night and given all the milk they will drink, to get them into good killing condition before thanksgiving, when they are all sold off, except perhaps a few extra good ones, which we may keep for stock. 69 the old birds are also allowed free range from october until february, but they are fed in the yards at night and are shut in so that they don’t form any bad wandering habits.
in buying stock, be generous and get the very best, from some well-known turkey-raiser. ordinary farm stock is so apt to be inbred that, although the birds may look all right, it is not safe to buy them for breeding purposes, as a want of stamina will surely show in the youngsters.
for the same reason it is best to get the hen-birds from one place and the toms from another. if you are going to keep bourbon reds or bronze, it is advisable to buy half-wild toms. these are the result of crossing wild gobblers with domestic hens, which is done by large breeders to infuse new blood and keep up the vigour of their stock. personally, i like the white holland turkey best, as they are domesticated and bear confinement well.
if you are only going to keep a few birds, say a trio or five hens and a gobbler, large yards are not necessary, but a shed over which netting can be put, should always be set apart for their use, so that they can be fed and shut up at night. never, under any circumstances, keep any of the pullets you raise, unless you change your gobbler. don’t let two gobblers run with the flock at the same time. if you want to increase your number of birds, you must either put up inclosures or alternate the gobblers every two days.