Morgan County Democrat. (McConnelsville, Ohio) 1886-1943, 1933-04-20
VIM. II. Stokes Has Mammoth Plant
For Raising OF Turkeys

VIM. II. Stokes Has Mammoth Plant
For Raising OF Turkeys
Mr.. VIM. r. Stokes of Gerber,
Calf, renewed his subscription to
the Democrat, and in a note accom-
4 panying referred to the turkey busi-
ness he is engaged in. He also en-
| closed an article relative to the
/ same, taken from the Sacramento,
/ Calf. Bee Mr.. Stokes marketed a
! little over 100000 pounds of dress
ed turkeys last year, and hopes to
| increase his business to $4,000
birds each year, if the new method
! he has undertaken is a success. His
! letter written April 10 said the
birds were beginning to hatch, and
| it all looked good.
The article referred to as being
| taken from the California paper, OF
| March 4, is headed --latest Word in
Turkey Raising Plants" and a pic
! ture of the plant accompanies the
article which is as follows:
Completion of a steam-heated tur
key brooder house with a capacity
for 10000 growing turkeys, is ex-
pected by tomorrow on the w. r.
Stokes ranch, two miles north Of
Gerber. It is believed that this is
one of the largest turkey brooding
houses in western America 1t is
| the last thing in modern cOnyen-
! ience. and it represents a decided
turkeys from that followed every
where until now Merrill Dunlap
and Jack Denver will operate this
brooder which is expected to brood
1900 turkeys for the Thanksgiv-
ing and Christmas markets of 1893.
This number brooded in 1882, un-
! der the direction of w. r. Stokes,
! by the prevailing method, required
the services of nine men, five auto
mobiles and g truck operating from
four itinerant camps. Operating
costs of the new turkey plant are
! expected to be such as to realize a
great saving over the old method Of
brooding, and if the project sue
ceeds in the first year, ii is planned
that four more similar brooders be
| constructed in units on the ranch,
| the capacity output to be around
! 10000 birds per season. The brood
! er now being completed is ESQ feet
| long by 80 feet in width, with a six
/ foot alleyway in the middle 1t con-
sists of fifty compartments, eight By
/ l ; feet each, with a brooder hover
! three by eight feet To each of
j these so compartments is attached
an outdoor runway with a raised
screen floor six by II feet in dimen-
sion Water is piped to each COM
partment. Underneath the six-foot
runway is network OF pipes under
valve control, and through these
pipes is a constant flow Of hot water
which regulates the temperature in
the brooder units, the water being
| heated by means of an oil furnace
An incubator room is a part of the
plant AS weather permits, the
young turkeys after ten days or SO
from Matching will be permitted to
use the outdoor runs. Experiments
have shown that the artificially
brooded turkey will not range as
far as those raised by hens. During
stormy weather the turkeys seek
hoyers until the weather moderates.
The mother hen takes her young
turkeys through wet grasses, result
ing in many losses. There are 842
bronze breeding hens and rs toms
on the river ranch here of C. Fred
Holmes, which are providing the
eggs for incubation. Specially train /
ed dogs guard these prize turkeys,
rounding them from the fields to
proper pens, under direction of the
men in charge. At the ranch north |
of Gerber, where the brooder house
Is located, WOrK is uHueT way IN =
cultivating IA acres of land, three
and a half of which will be planted |
to ladino clover which is adjacent |
to the outdoor runways. The crop
will provide green feed as well as
grazing space in fair weather. Ten
acres will be planted to barley and
oats for feed On the river ranch
there will be so acres planted to
wheat and oats. When the baby
turkey first peeps through it's egg
she'll it can flap its tiny wings and
shake it's downy feathers until
dried; it's first ten days will be ten
derized with steam heat, balanced
food mashes and absolute cleanli-
ness, and thereafter, for two Or
three weeks as the weather permits,
it may venture to the germ-proof
runways in the sunlight BY that
time it has arrived at the chirping
age, and rather than have to bow its
head down to peck at some Elusive
grasshOpper in the foothills, it may
nonchalantly feed in green mead
ows and walk back to its h0vers in
the event OF rain, rather than seek
shelter from a manzanita limb or