Part 5

Now I will tell you in as concise a way as possible, the method I consider proper in raising turkeys. In the first place, it is necessary to have a good, strong two-year-old hen to breed from with a tom that is no relation whatever to the family. One of the foremost things you must be particular not to do is to inbreed. I much prefer a common hen to put my first hatch of eggs under; that will give the turkey hens a much longer time to lay. I consider it better to put my turkey hens on my June eggs. I put fifteen eggs under a turkey hen, and eleven under a common hen.

When the little turkeys come out, I disinfect their heads and under the wings with my own salve. Have you ever seen a little turkey that has a cold in its head wipe its beak under its wing? I have many times found the feathers under their wings matted as a result of this ill-bred habit of theirs. That, of course, is not a healthy state for a young bird that is growing, and that is the reason that I disinfect with my salve under their wings and on their heads, and they always seem brighter afterward.

I have good, strong runs, 5 feet long and 4 feet wide, with high coops and thorough ventilation from the top, which carries off all the impure and overheated air, and keeps the temperature normal at the bottom of the coops for the little turkeys. On hot days I cover my runs with burlap.

The turkeys must be kept clean and dry and their straw must be well aired every day. Once a week, I wash out the bottom of the coop with disinfectant, and put in clean straw.

I give them all the lettuce they can eat three times daily, as the secret of raising turkeys is to keep their bowels in good order, and the droppings a bright green. Just as soon as I see a little turkey with its wings drooping, I take it away from the others and treat it as described on page 82.

I have invented my own pills for the cure of blackhead and they are now being largely used by turkey raisers all through New England.

When my little turkeys are about three or four days old, I give them Margaret Mahaney’s Turkey Feed, and a little skimmed milk with a good solid feed of lettuce—all they can eat. At noon, I feed them lettuce again and clean water containing tincture of iron, 4 drops to each gallon of water. At night, I feed them bread soaked in milk and lettuce cut up fine with an onion and a shake of red pepper. After having dry feed all day, they relish the soft feed at night. There is no reason why, if you use my method in raising turkeys, and have your runs on high ground, you cannot be successful.

If the turkeys are raised in the right way, they are no harder to raise than chickens. When the pullets are about four months old, they should be given epsom salts twice a week (a small teaspoonful to a gallon of water). This keeps the turkey in good condition and the blood cool. Also a tablespoonful of sulphate of iron in a pail of water should be left in some place where they can drink it. Keep them good and dry until they are ready for shipment, for turkeys are subject to blackhead until they are one year old.

I will be only too glad to give any information in my power to people who are interested in this subject. While the Experimental Colleges have put out some bulletins on the care of turkeys, the person that is going to issue a report on the raising of turkeys must get out in the field and be with them from the time they are baby chicks until they are ready to be disposed of, and then it will be many years before he will know all there is to know about turkey raising. I have spent years on my turkeys, and I think that I am now in a position to give any information that any grower may require in regard to this matter.

BRIEF OUTLINE OF MY METHOD OF RAISING TURKEYS

In the first place I select a good quiet hen that has been setting two or three days and put her in a deep, warm nest, not too far from the top of the box, so that when she goes to feed, the hen will not break the eggs by jumping on them when she returns to the nest. Twelve eggs seems a great number of turkey eggs to put under one hen, but that is what I put under every common hen, and I sometimes hatch out all the eggs. I spray the nests well with sulphur and also use my salve on the hen up until the sixteenth day. I never put any disinfectant on the hen or on her nest after that because there is life inside the eggs by that time, and the disinfectant is very apt to kill it.

When the eggs begin to hatch, some will hatch out before the rest; these I take away, placing them in a good warm box wrapped in flannel and keep them good and warm until all the eggs are hatched out and the mother able to receive them. When they are two days old, I put the young turkeys in a good clean coop, well whitewashed and waterproof. My runs are 5 ft. long and 4 ft. wide. I shut my little birds up in the coop for the first four days, until they become good and strong. After that, if the weather is fine and warm, I let them out about ten o’clock and put them in about three o’clock.

Their first food consists of a hard boiled egg, a shake of red pepper and three parts dandelion, cut up fine. You can give them all the green food they will eat, and also powdered charcoal and fine grit. After they are 3 or 4 days old, I give them bread and milk squeezed dry, and the Margaret Mahaney Turkey Feed.

The young poults are kept in runs which should be moved to a new spot each day and care taken that they are kept clean, dry and warm, and the straw must be taken out of the coops and thoroughly aired and kept good and clean, as the sanitary condition is half the battle in raising turkeys. Place your runs on a side hill, facing the south. On hot days, cover the runs with burlap.

Let them out into the runs for two hours or more every afternoon that is pleasant and dry until the time the birds are nine weeks old. Do not let them out in damp weather before they are two years old, for they are very susceptible to dampness and should be kept housed and warm in rainy and damp weather. While the little birds are out, watch carefully for hawks and pests.

Give the turkeys all the milk you can afford to give, as this will keep them growing. Plant a good field of lettuce and give them all this vegetable they can eat, and you will find that they will eat lettuce three times a day with good relish.

One of the secrets of raising turkeys is to keep the droppings a bright green; that, of course, keeps the liver in good condition, and goes a long way in keeping blackhead out of the flock. Take some lime, slack it, put half sand with it and make a sort of soft mush out of it. Place this on a board and dry it; then crumble it up and leave it around where your little turkeys can get it to eat.

Keep them in dry, tight houses with the south side open so that they may have an abundance of fresh air without draughts.

When it is time to let them out of the runs, you can let them out for three and four hours at a time; you will find that they will want to go back to the runs when they become tired. Do not give them much feed at night; give them plenty of time to digest everything in their bowels, and they will then be ready for a good morning meal.

THROWING THE RED

When they show signs of throwing the red, put four drops of tincture of iron to a gallon of drinking water three or four times a week. If it is cold, rainy weather, put a drop of aconite in the water every day while the wet weather lasts. This will prevent their taking cold, and, as cold is the first sign of blackhead and diarrhea, it can be easily seen that a little precaution is worth more than a pound of cure.

In regard to keeping lice off the little turkeys—you must disinfect your hens and the turkeys very frequently. My salve for that purpose is a convenient and effective remedy.

If you will do as I have instructed you in the above paragraphs I do not think you will have much trouble in raising turkeys. Keep them dry by all means until they are five months old.

BREEDING

SELECTION AND TREATMENT OF BREEDING STOCK

There are some rules that must be followed in the selection of turkeys for breeding if it is hoped to succeed. Careless indifference has given no end of trouble to turkey raisers. In some instances which the writer has investigated all the turkeys owned in one locality have descended from the one original bird purchased many years before! In one case it was said that for twenty years no new blood had come into the neighborhood. If this foolish procedure had been continued it would have resulted in the destruction of the constitutional vigor of the turkeys.

RULES FOR THE SELECTION OF STOCK

A few plain rules which may be observed to advantage are as follows: