TURKEY TALK.

Globe, Volume XXII, Issue 2073, 15 October 1880, Page 4

TURKEY TALK.

There is no doubt but that the chief cause of the mortality among young turkeys is their exposure to wet before they are fully feathered. The ordinary turkey-raiser trusts a good deal to the instinot of the mother turkey, and the mother turkey, if left to herself, squats down just where night happens to ovartoke her, gets up early in the morning and wanders around in the wet grass in search of food, and, as a natural consequence, more than half of her brood die of chills and cramps before they are a month old, and more than likely the other half is gobbled up by some four-footed prowler. Dew is about aa fatal as poison to young turkeys before they are fully feathered, and if you expect to raise your turkeys and make the rearing of them profitable, you must keep them out of the grass when it is wet with dew, until they are about two months' old. I have a large well lighted gravel floored shed, where I can confine my young turkeys in the morning until the sun has dried the dew off the grass, and on rainy days th«y are kept in the shed all day. The mother hens are confined in slat coops placed along the rear of the shed. When one raises turkeys in large number, I think some such arrangement would pay, but the ordinary farmer who only raises a few dozen for market each year, would not care to go to the expense of patting up such a building ; and for their benefit I will describe a pen that I have found very useful.

For a family of a dozen or so of yoHng turkeys, we make a square pen by placing boards sixteen inohes wide, and six feet long, on edge, and fastening them in position. At one side is a large slant-roofed, tight coop, the front of which opens into the pen. There is no floor in this coop, but as it is perfectly tight, except the augur holes for ventilation, and we always set it in a dry spot where the rain cannot wash under it, and move coop and pen often, tho young turkeys are always dry and comfortable. But whero the ground is damp, and the rain would be likely to wash under the coop, there should be a board floor, covered with gravel, which should be cleared out and renewed often.

For a few days after the poults are hatched, whether you raise them with a hen mother or a turkey mother, they must he confined to this coop and pen; then if all appear strong and well, and the weather favorable, open the pen and give the young liberty after the sun has completely dried the dew off the grass. Should a sudden shower come up while your young turkeys are out in the fields, you must turn out and drive them to the coops. If any are ohilled, take to the house, dry and warm them thoroughly, give them a good feed with plenty of ginger or red pepper in it, and then return to the mother hen.

See that your turkeys come home every sight. At first, if you raise them with a turkey mother, you will have to hunt them up and drive them home, but if you feed them regularly every morning and always at sight they will soon learn to come home as regularly as the cows. After they are fully feathered, and have thrown ont the red on their heads, whioh usually occurs at about three months, young turkeys are hardy, and may be allowed unlimited range at all times; and from this time on as long as the supply of insects lasts, they will thrive on two meals a day. Kesp your turkeys growing right straight from the shell, and you will find that it will pay when pay-day_ comes. Some farmers as soon as as their young turkeys are feathered up, turn them out f:et their living the best way they can until a ew weeks before Thanksgiving ; then they •tuff them for a few weeks, and wonder why they do not equal in weight those of their neighbour who has kept his turkeys growing all the time from the day they were hatched. Where insect forage is abundant, turkeys will piok up the greater part of their living for three or four months, and in such localities it will do to turn them out after they are three months old—without any breakfast, but I think they should always have a handful of grain at sight, even if they come home with full -crops. . .