Part 6

1. Always use as breeders turkey hens over one year old. Be sure that they are strong, healthy and vigorous, of good medium size. In no instance select the smaller ones but do not strive to have them unusually large.

2. The male may be a yearling or older. Do not imagine that the large, overgrown males are the best. Strength, health and vigor with a well proportioned medium size are the main points of excellence.

3. Avoid close breeding. New blood is of vital importance to turkeys. Better send a thousand miles for a new male than risk the chance of inbreeding. Secure one in the fall so as to be assured of his healthy and vigorous constitution prior to the breeding season.

KIND OF HENS TO SELECT

No matter what variety of turkey may be selected for keeping, they should, above all things, be strong, vigorous, healthy and well matured, but not akin. Better secure the females from one locality and the male from another to insure their non-relationship rather than run the risk of inbreeding. In all fowls it is well to remember that size is influenced largely by the female and color and finish by the male. Securing an over-large male to mate with small, weakly hens is not wise policy. A medium size male with a good size female of good constitutional vigor and mature age will do far better than the largest male bird with the smallest females.

The wise farmer always selects the very best corn or grain of all kinds for seeds. Equal care should be given the selection of the breeding stock in turkeys. The best raised on the farm should be reserved for producers and the fact should be kept in mind that turkey hens of the best quality after their second and third year make the best producers. Keep your best young hens with this in view. Undersized hens that lack constitutional vigor are not the kinds to select for successful turkey breeding. When you stop to consider that the male turkey is half of the entire flock in the matter of breeding, we may be led to greater care in the selection. None can be too good for the purpose. Constitutional vigor is of the first importance. Without this he can have no value whatever for the purpose intended. Plenty of bone, a full round breast and a long body are important. No matter of what stock or breeding the hen may be, the male should be selected from one of the standard varieties. If the hens are of the same standard variety the male of the same variety should be selected so as to maintain the stock in its purity. Well selected individuals of some one of the several standard varieties will give better results than can be secured by cross breeding, which has a tendency to bring to the surface the weak points of both sides of the cross. Proper crosses may improve the first issue but if followed up they rarely prove successful.

NUMBER OF FEMALES TO ONE MALE

The best rule for mating is to confine in yards, using eight or nine females to one male; some say twelve, but all I ever mate to one tom is eight females. The result of this number is that all my eggs prove fertile.

When they are yarded and from eight to ten females are kept, it is better to have two toms and keep one shut up while the other is with the hens, changing them at least twice a week. When they run at large on a farm they will naturally divide into flocks. Under such conditions use one male to no more than six females.

CARE TO BE GIVEN BREEDING STOCK

March and April are the two months of the year that the breeding hen should have particular care. In the first place, I keep them warm and comfortable, with a box of sand where they can dust themselves every day. There is no bird that takes such pleasure in dusting herself as the turkey. She will roll on the sand for hours at a time in the sun, and this makes her happy and contented.

At this time I feed plenty of Margaret Mahaney’s Turkey Feed with Oyster Shells always within reach and a mixture of wheat, oats, barley, a very little cracked corn and beef scraps fed three or four times a week. Give plenty of drinking water and three or four times a week put a drop or two of tincture of iron to a gallon of drinking water. This keeps the bird healthy and strong. Take half lime and half sand, make a mush of it and spread it on a board to dry. When it is hard, place it in a box and leave it where your turkey hen can get it to eat at her own convenience. That helps to mature the eggs. She is very tender at this time. All through the laying season she must be kept warm and comfortable. It all goes towards making a successful season of turkey raising.

MATING

March is the proper time to mate up your pens of turkeys. I put one tom in a pen with eight hens. I watch my turkey hens very closely to see that they are not injured in any way by the spurs of the tom. If the turkey hen goes around with one wing down, you will know that she has been hurt, and if you take her up you will probably find that her side has been torn by the tom. Wash her carefully with a disinfectant, and if the wound needs a stitch it had better be taken as it will heal quicker.

FEEDING DURING BREEDING SEASON

In February and March do not feed your turkey hens too rich food or too many beef scraps or food of any kind that will force the hens to lay too early. You do not want any young chicks hatched out before the first of May or the last of April. When my turkey hens start to lay I feed a ground feed that is put up under my formula by The Park & Pollard Company of Boston, Mass., which they are putting out under the name of Margaret Mahaney’s Turkey Feed, and which can be procured of them all ready for feeding. Have plenty of beef scraps and oyster shells within easy reach. Twice a week put tincture of iron in the drinking water, four drops to a gallon of water; allow one gallon of water to each pen. The tincture of iron keeps the birds strong and in good condition, as a young turkey hen is very apt to weaken after her first litter of eggs is laid. Sometimes they die if not properly cared for.

Keep on hand within easy reach, constantly, a mixture of half sand and half lime made into a soft mush. When dry crumble up and leave it where your turkeys can get it to eat. They will eat this ravenously and it helps to harden the shells of the eggs.

NESTS AND NESTING.

When the turkey hen is ready to lay she will start in first by looking in all the corners, for if she is yarded up, it is her nature to look for a dark and secluded spot in which to lay. I place to eight turkey hens four good dark nests. I make these by using packing cases with the cover on and the opening turned towards the wall of the house, allowing just enough room for the bird to enter. I put good, clean hay in the box. The turkey hen will be very happy when she finds that nobody can see her in her nest. It will make her very contented, and as we are now breeding turkeys in the domestic state, almost the same as the common hen, why not give them just the same care? You will find in the long run that you will raise many more turkeys if a turkey hen is properly housed and kept warm during the cold months of winter. The turkey hen begins to grow her eggs three months before she begins to lay, and as we all know that the turkey is a very cold bird, it is only natural that she should be kept warm. My houses are comfortable, tight and dry, but well ventilated from the south side.

When the turkey hen has laid about eighteen or nineteen eggs she will show signs of wanting to sit. Very quietly take her off the nest, remove her to another coop, give her a good range to run in with plenty of Margaret Mahaney’s Turkey Feed. In the meantime set the eggs under two good common hens. I find that Plymouth Rocks make good mothers. I put eleven or twelve eggs under a good Plymouth Rock hen, and make a good round nest in a half bushel box, stuffing the corners well so that the nest will stay in shape, as a good nest is half the hatching. In the meantime the turkey hen having had her run has forgotten all about sitting, and has started to laying again and I put her back in the mating pen. This process can be repeated three times during the season as a turkey hen will lay three litters in succession. I let my turkey hens sit on my June eggs and these hatch about the tenth or eleventh of July. These make good hardy birds for the coming cold weather. Disinfect the hen with Margaret Mahaney’s Salve, per directions, before setting on the eggs.

HATCHING

To go back to the hatching of the turkeys; the eggs that are right under the breast of the hen will hatch first. Sometimes I do not wait for them all to come out of the shell, taking them away, say four or five at a time, thus giving the outside eggs a chance to hatch. The eggs which I take away I put in an incubator which has previously been regulated to the right heat. When they are all hatched, I have my coop well whitewashed and about six inches of good clean straw on the bottom. I place my biddy in the coop and put the little turkeys all around her. Be very careful in giving them drink or water that the little turkeys do not get wet, for they often take cold in that way.

FIRST FEED

The first feed that I give them is common sting nettle, chopped fine, with a hard boiled egg and a little shake of red pepper. You will find that they will eat the green stuff ravenously, and this acts on the bowels as a regular physic.

When they are three days old I begin feeding them the prepared ground feed,—Margaret Mahaney’s Turkey Feed—with a little wheat bread soaked in milk, squeezed dry and mixed with the egg and nettle. As the Park & Pollard Company carry this ground feed it can be easily had there. I keep this always before them. In the morning I give them nothing but the Margaret Mahaney Turkey Feed with a good feed of lettuce. At night I give them the sting nettle again with bread soaked in milk and squeezed dry and a little chopped onion, if convenient. You will find that the birds you feed the sting nettle to will throw the red three weeks before the ones that do not have it fed to them.

AVOID VERMIN

When the little chicks first come out, before you put them in the coop, you must remember to disinfect with my salve on the head and under the wings; also give the foster mother the same treatment with the salve, for if there are vermin on the hen they will leave the hen and go to the little turkeys and unless cared for the little birds will sicken and die. If affected with lice the bodies will become very red and irritated. You will find the lice especially under the wings or in the fringe of the wings. When the feathers do not grow evenly on a little turkey (some growing long while others are short) you will know that the turkey has lice, and you should at once “get busy.” One or two doses of my salve will make a marked improvement. I always disinfect the hen when I put her on the eggs, but never disinfect her after the fifteenth day for at that time there is life in the chick, and you are very apt to kill it, as they breathe through the air cells of the egg.

THE SETTING OF THE TURKEY HEN