OCR Text |
Show Turkey Raising Methods (Letter to Mr. Funk) Dear Sir: Received your letter some time ago In regards to our method in turkey raising. It seems that we are unable to follow any one method long enough to write It down. We are quite sure we will nt follow the methods used this year next season. So if you will get the turkey growers of this county o st.i:)dy turkeys and the way to raise them you will succeed best. However, If any of the methods used by us will help some one, we will be glad. The biggest thing we did this season sea-son was to make plenty of hoppers and keep them well filled with a good laying niash for the breeding stock. Emphasize this and start feeding as soon as rid of the February birds, they will get a lot of good fertile eggs. Then when the poH8 are "hatched there are no weak ones among them and they are prepared to put up a good .fight for life. We decided last spring to keep our hens confined while setting, so wemade pens 8 by 8 feet out of net wire, covering cov-ering the top so the hens could not get outt, made a nest in one corner and it was fixed so the wind could not get to the eggs. These pens were placed In the .field where the hens could have plenty of green feed while setting. Before setting our hens we would take a corn cob about one inch long, drop a few drops of Black Leaf Forty on it and place It in the nest under the straw. We never have seen a louise on them. After the poults were hatched we did not feed them for 72 hours, here tofor we have killed more turkeys the first week than the rest of the summer. sum-mer. We have had best results feeding oat. meal and sour milk Ihe first week, after that we feed equal parts of ground Barley oats and wheat, five Iunds bran meal, five pounds ojster shell and one pound salt to one hundred hun-dred pounds mash. We raised the pens so that the poults, had their freedom and could have plenty to eat. We always feed them outside of the iHns! After they were about 10 weeks old we took the mothers moth-ers away from them and got them to roosting. We would put these pens close together, to-gether, put straw on top for a shelter and build roosts out of willows. We feel that we have been quitt successful this year. This year we think that we have not lost over eight percent but do not know whether It was our method or good luck. Hoping this will be of some good to you, I remain as ever. MRS. IRA A. PACE. The Paces are considering artificial hatching and brooding for the next year. We will have more to say about this matter. In considering the above letter it Is well to keep in mind that they have three hundred and twenty turkeys from a breeding flock of twenty-one. |