Free press. [volume] (Hays, Kan.) 1888-1908, 1899-06-17
Turkey Talk

From Farmers Review: As was
stated before all the turkey eggs were
set under chicken hens and the first
eggs were set the oath Of April, 1893,
on the 18th another was set, and again
on the 18th, no more was set until the
6th day OF May, and the last were set
the 10th OF June, making a wide diff
ference in the ages Of the poults
Promptly on the 18th day the poults
were out, every egg Matched, nothwith-
standing the Oldest eggs were almost
a month old.
Boards IA inches wide were used to
which the brood coop was placed, and
after the hen had been literally busted
with insect powder, she, with the
poults, were put in the coop. A dish
of warm water was placed near them,
also some wheat bread that had been
| soaked soft in sweet milk; in two days
the other hen Matched every egg, and
the next day the third hen, but she
! mashed one poult in the nest. The
| poults were all given to the one hen,
and she had thirty-fye poults, more
than I will ever give one hen again.
This was a serious mistake as newly
! Matched poults require to be almost
constantly lowered for "a to 36 hours,
and as the poults 8 days old were
quite lively the mother hen decided 1t
was not necessary for her to hover all
the time. The poor little things would
hover in the sun in little bunch until
I felt ashamed of myself. After one
had gotten mashed during the night
removed them to a box, covering
with a cloth during the night The
first "a (the oldest ones) grew finely,
and all lived to be grown but two, but
the eleven dwindled until but four
grew up.
The next hen Matched in ten days;
saved every one, and another pen sim
liar to the first was built along side.
The last batch of poults Ghe orphans)
were given to her together with her
own hatch, and here was another mis-
take, although not as serious as the
fHst. The poults were fed on bread
softened in milk, cheese made from
clabber milk, and bread such as was
made for the ducklings, part corn meal
and part shorts. One did equally as
well as the other, so far as could see.
Once each day chopped onion tops
were mixed in their feed, and how they
did eat it! If you intend turkey rails
ing don't neglect to speak for supply
of green onion tops, OF else raise them
yourself.
The next matches were given to the
hens that did the Matching, and all
Matched well except the last hsn, all
Of these eggs were rotten, they were
also put in separate pens, but as soon
as the turkeys were large enough to
fly over the plank they were allowed
to follow after the hen. The hen will
not go far from the pen while the little
ones cannot fly over. We did not let
the hens out Of the coop until the dew
was of the grass.
The third mistake was in removing
the eggs from the turkey hens to sci
under chickens, substituting chicken
eggs, for although they were set al
the same time and in a good place
but two chickens did we get from
them. They stole off with two so q
total of four chicks were what we re-
ceiYed from between four and five
dozen eggs, which was far from en-
couraging, to say the least, especially
after we had built castles in Spain
on the outcome of our natural incu'
bators, so much less bother than ma
chimes, you know.
Lay in an unlimited stock of pa
thence if you contemplate turkey rails
ing, also be prepared to jump and ruI
at every chirp from the turkey coop
but the reward will come in cartwhee
dollars when the market calls for tur
keys.