Cottonwood report. [volume] (Cottonwood, Idaho) 1893-1901, 1898-07-22
DAIRY AND POULTRY.
INTERESTING CHAPTERS FOR
OUR RURAL READERS.
How Successful Farmers Operate This
Department of the Farm-A Few
Hints as to the Care of Live Stock
and Poultry.


Hints Turkey Raising.
S. B. Johnson, in American Poultry
Journal, gives the following hints on
turkey raising:
1. Never let the young turkeys get
wet. The slightest dampness is fatal.
2. Feed nothing the first "a hours
after they are Matched.
3. Before putting them in the coop
see that it is perfectly clean and free
from lice, and dust them three times
a week with Persian insect powder.
4. Be sure the hen is free from lice.
Dust her, too.
B. Look out for mites and the large
lice on the heads, necks and vents.
Grease heads, necks and vents with
lard, but avoid kerosene.
8. Nine-tenths of the young turkeys
die from lice. Remember that.
z. Filth will soon make short work
OF them. Feed on clean surfaces. Give
water in a manner so they can only
wet their beaks.
8. The first week feed a mixture OF
one egg, beaten, and sifted ground oats
or rolled oats, mixed with salt to taste,
and cooked as bread, then crumbled for
them, with milk or curds, so they can
drink all they want. Feed every two
hours, early and late.
8. Give little raw meat every day;
also finely chopped onions, or other
tender green food.
10. After the first week keep wheat
and ground bone in boxes before them
all the time, but feed three times day
on a mixture of cornmeal, wheat mid
dlings, ground oats, all cooked, and to
which chopped green food is added.
II. Mashed potatoes, cooked turnips,
cold rice and such, will always be in
order.
IL. Too much hard boiled eggs will
cause bowel disease.
13. Remove coop to fresh ground Of
ten, In order to avoid filth.
IA. Ground bone, fine gravel, ground
shells and dust bath must be pro-
vided.
Is. Give them liberty on dry. warm
days.
Is. They must be carefully attended
to until we'll feathered.
IL. Finely cut fresh bones, from the
butchers, with the adhering meat is ex-
cellent.
Is. A high roost in an open shed,
which faces the south, is better than a
closed house for grown turkeys.
10. A single union of a male and
female fertilizes all the eggs the hen
will lay for the season, hence one
gobbler will suffice for twenty or more
hens.
20. Two-year-old gobblers with pull
lets, or yearling gobbler with two
year-old hens, is good mating.
81. Turkeys can be Matched in an in
cubator and raised to the age of three
months in a brooder, but only in lots
of twenty five, as they require constant
care.
20. Capons make excellent nurses
fol turkeys and chicks.
%. 1t is not advisable to mate a
forty-pound gobbler with common
hens, as the result will be injury. A
medium-size gobbler is better.
"a. Young gobblers may be distin-
guished from the females by being
heavier, more masculine in appear
ance, more carunculated on the head,
and development of the "tassels" on
the breast. A little experience may be
required at first.
rs. Adult turkeys cannot be kept in
confinement, as they will pine away.
By feeding them in the barnyard a
little night and morning. they will
not stray off very far, but they cannot
be entirely prevented from roaming,
and the hen prefers to make her own
nest.
26. Gobblers and hens of the same
age may be mated, but it is better to
have difference in the age.
q. Pullets may lay small eggs at
6rst, but the eggs will gradually in
crease to the normal size.
rs. Keep these rules and read them
over two or three times.