TURKEYS.

Auckland Star, Volume LX, Issue 133, 7 June 1929, Page 13

TURKEYS.

VALUABLE FARM RANGERS

BREEDING AND OTHER HINTS

Turkeys should certainly be kept in far larger numbers than is the case in New Zealand. Unfortunately, it seems the prevalent idea of a certain type of so-called sportsmen that turkeys are game if the owner is uot in sight, but there must be certain districts where this idea is not prevalent. Turkeys are adapted only to the farmer who has an unlimited range for them, but on such a range they will do a vast amount of good during the summer season by destroying grasshoppers and other insects, turning these pests into flesh which Avill always command a high price. It is quite probable that on many farms a pound of turkey flesh could be produced at the same price at which a pound of pork could be grown, and on some runs the cost would be much less. If the thinking sheep breeder were to study the habit and natural food of the turkey he would soon find that a flock of a hundred or so of turkeys made a vast difference to the grass in his paddocks if they were at all infested with grasshoppers, crickets, etc. " When connected with the Australian Department of Agriculture I on one occasion carried out experiments by enclosing a given quantity of grasshoppers on a measured piece of grass, and calculated the destruction of the grass. It was alarming. A grasshopper does not climb to the top of a blade of grass and consume the whole blade, but bites through the blade, leaves it and bites through another. It must be admitted that one's knowledge of raising chickens, no matter how extended that knowledge may have been, is not of much value when it cornea to raising young turkeys. Their nature and the method of caring for them are so different that one must learn it as a distinct and separate business from chickenraising. One mav take a brooder full of chickens and, provided they are well hatched and vigorous, can, by the usual care and attention, raise the majority to maturity, but not so with turkeys. The eg<rs can be hatched in an incubator with good success, as turkey eggs are usually better fertilised than hens' eggs, but one cannot confine the chicks in brooder runs, and unless you have broody turkeys or hens to mother them when hatched you may lose the greater portion. They must be given their liberty at a very 'early age, as the will-instinct, especially in the bronze variety, is so strong that, unless given their freedom to roam and forage over paddocks, they will sicken and die. Turkeys are more creatures of habit than any other of our feathered fowl, yet, while they roam all over the paddocks in search of food, they will always come home at night if one will make a practice of feeding them, however lightly. It pays even on large runs, where practically "no care is taken of the birds, to throw out for them each evening a few handfuls of maize or wheat. This keeps the birds somewhat tame, enables one to have more or less a check on the flock, and renders it a comparatively easy matter to drive or lead the birds by means of grain into a netted enclosure, so that the surplus birds may be disposed of. If the turkeys are allowed to just take care of themselves, all that is necessary is to thin out hawks and other vermin. See that the stock is robust, the hens not less than two years old, and that they have a small quantity of grain «iven them about the laying season. But a far better plan, and one which can be made profitable, if carried out by the womenfolk or the younger members of the family, is to keep the turkeys partly domestica'ted. As the laying season comes on increase the food, so that the birds do not have to range for it. Either supply nests or watch turkey hens and track them to their nests. The turkey hen makes a far better mother for the rearing of turkeys than does the ordinary hen. When the turkeys, which are termed turkev poults, hatch "out, do not give any food for at least thirty-six hours. The turkeys should have been encouraged to make their nests in or near a paddock in which the grass will be short at the time the turkey poults appear, otherwise a number of them will be lost and die in the loner W ct grass. If you have the turkeys sufficiently tame to handle, prepare a foomy coop with bars in the front, so that the turkeys will have ample room to move about inside the coop without being crushed under the big feet of the mother. Thev can also obtain liberty, but the mother cannot, therefore she cannot take them on a long range and tire them out, so that they are left in the wet grass. The first feed may consist of milk curds or bread softened with sweet milk. Feed sparingly at first. Cut onion tops verv fine and mix with the bread, and if the weather is cold season with a little black pepper. Feed sparingly three times a day. In about four or°five days the turkey hen may bo given her liberty, as the young poults will do much better on a free range and will by now have gained sufficient strength to follow a hen turkey in her wanderings. Thev should have access at all a good grit and, if possible, crushed charcoal. In a very little while it will be necessary only to supplement their natural food by giving a small quantity of grain when the mother turkey brings them home at night. As they range further and the natural food increases with

the coming of the summer weather, the grain can be practically discontinued, except it be just sufficient to bring them home. Some may think it will mean a great deal of trouble to induce the_ birds to lay and incubate their eggs adjacent to the homestead, but if a little tact and thought be exercised it will be found quite an easy matter. If boxes_ or small barrels or pieces of galvanised iron bent over are placed near hedges or other natural shelters, the more secluded the better, and some nesting material, straw or hay, placed in the bottom of these receptacle, the turkey hens will invariably use them. Some runholder3 do not keep turkeys for the reason that the flocks become mixed with those of their neighbours, and there is doubt to whom the birds belong, but that trouble can be easily overcome. There is a number of varieties of .turkeys, and if one runholder were to keep all bronze birds the next man could run white male birds with hia flocks, and another buff male birds. The male bronze turkey, which we seldom se'e in its pure state, can be grown to an immense siz>. Specimens have been known to scale fifty pounds and over. The white, or. to give it its true name., the White Holland turkey, is not as large as the bronze, but it is a compact, meaty bird, and in many cases would improve the birds that we know as bronze. The Norfolk turkey is a black turkey and has been crossed with the

bronze to a considerable extent. The plumage is a metallic black and the shanks and feet are lead in colour. It is reputed to have flesh superior in flavour to that of the bronze. Buff turkeys were originally sports, but have for some time been bred true to colour.