A COMPLETE SYSTEM RAISING TURKEYS, HENS, GEESE, &c., rHE RESULT OF Forty Years Experience. By W. A.“Brownina. NORW PRINTIAD AY COR 1573 ICH, Ms A GOMPLES@E SYSTEM RAISING BURKEYS. HENS, GEESE, &c., Forty Years @empericoce. By W. A. BROWNING. 76 as é i>" 3 an , ‘ * — NORWICH. we PRINTED BY GORDON WILCOX. 1873. hy =a Wee a TH I have been a farmer all my life. Iamnobook farmer. I have raised and help raise Turkeys for over forty years; I have watched their habits closely ; I have got what information I could, and put it in practice, until the raising of Turkeys has hecome to me al- most a perfected science ; and having been very strongly solicited by many of my friends to put my knowledge of the art in print, I have reluctantly consented. Andif by the printing of this little book, the farmers can be informed how to raise Turkeys to eat the bugs, worms, grasshoppers, &c., and thereby convert those pests of earth into good nourishing food, it will afford lasting comfort to THE AUTHOR. Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1873, by W. A. BROWNING, In the office of the Librarian of Congress at Washington. RAISING TURKEYS. BIRDS. Almost all kinds of beasts and birds that are wild are one and the same color: that is, the same species are of the same color, the male of some kinds of birds differing as to color from the female ; while almost all kinds of domestic (or tame) beasts and birds are of different colors. TURKEYS. Turkeys in their wild state, in the western. forests, are a very light bronze or brown, while the domestic or tame turkeys, as every one knows, are of various colors. The wild turkeys are very hardy, while the domestic or tame tur- keys, when young, are many times very tender, requiring much care. The way I would recom- mend, to raise them successfully, would be some- thing in the following manner : 4 YARD, There should be a yard of one-fourth of an acre, in which nothing but turkeys should be al- lowed to go during the early part of the season. A yard set to pears, peaches or currants (what every farmer should have,) is Just the place; and in trimming the trees or bushes, leave the brush in heaps, for the turkeys love to get into the brush out of sight to lay. In the latter part of March suitable nests should be made, and the turkeys watched and made to stay in the yard till they all lay. Or, by building a picket fence eight feet high, and putting brush on top, they are not apt to get out, and by putting them in during the fore part of the day, when they usu- ally lay, they may be let out towards mght and put in again in the morning. Then in this yard they will be out of the way of hogs, cattle, &c. TO MAKE THEM LAY. Where there is a spring or a brook near the house, where the turkeys can get green grass in the month of March, they usually lay” ear- her; and early spring turkeys will (with proper care) be carly fall turkeys. A good piece of a a winter rye near the house is sometimes very ben- eficial to turkeys about laying early, for they need something green. When turkeys roam in the fields during e the summer season, they pick the grass and w -eeds : they also eat grasshoppers, worms, and bugs; they eat vegetables. and they eat meat; feed them with warm dough, and mix into it scraps or bits of meat, and a little Cavenne pepper. NESTS. Nests made on the ground are better than in barrels ; for in barrels, when the turkey sets, the boards under the turkey many times become so heated that the eggs will die. The egos of all birds that lay and set on the eround are contin- ually being cooled from the ground, while they are hered. from the bird; so a birds that lay in nests on trees, the air circulating under their nests serves to cool the eggs to a certain extent. Nests should be made of the proper size and cov- ered, to protect the turkey from the rain, and Haile so tight that, when the eggs are hatched, and the farkey i is being taken off with the little ones, that the little ones cannot get into the wall or brush, and thereby be lost. A very good way to make nests is. to cut your boards two feet lone, 6 and nail one end of each piece to a billet of wood or bit of a joist two feet long, and spread at the other end two feet, so that it will be a kind of gable shaped coop ; then board one end tight, and nail a bit of a board across the top of the front, so that the turkey can get in and out. This may be kept for years, and moved from place to place when needed. A quicker way to build a tur- key’s nest (and perhaps equally as good) is to put boards on three sides of a nest of a proper length and hight, supported by stubs drove in the ground, with a board on top large enough to cover the nest, and a stone on top of the board, so that when the turkey is taken off she cannot flutter and knock the board off, and get away. If you can, always have your nests open to the south, for the turkey will be better protected from the cold storms of April and May. When a turkey lays in the brush, and you fix a nest for her, put back some of the brush around the nest, or she may forsake it. TWO OR MORE TURKEYS LAYING TOGETHER. When two or more turkeys lay in one nest, let them lay half a dozen eggs to a turkey; then a ‘ build other nests each side, and put addled or chalk eggs into them; for where there is a good nest with eggs in it, a turkey is not apt to crowd on to a nest with another turkey. I have had five set in a row, and all did well; but they need watching when they are setting, as they will sometimes go on to a nest with another turkey, and the eggs get cold and die. One or two chalk eggs should be kept in each nest while turkeys are laying. EGGS. The eggs should be brought in every night, to prevent their freezing or being destroyed by ver- min, (unless they are in a warm secure place, ) and put in a basket or dish, to the number of seventeen or eighteen, as many as you want to set under one turkey, the baskets being marked 1, 2, 3, &.: and when you set a turkey, set her on the eggs in one basket. The reason for this is, old eggs are longer in being hatched than new layed eges—probably takes one day longer to hatch eggs ten or twelve days old than new ones, and about in that proportion, as they become older. When turkeys lay, and the eggs are left 8 in the nest, the turkey going on every day to lay and setting an hour or so, warms the eggs and they will all hatch together. The eges should he covered with a cloth, (the turkey covers with straw or leaves,) it keeps them warm—they do not die so quick,—and they should be turned over once a week, or the yelks may settle on one side; the turkey going on and coming off from her nest, stepping her feet among the eggs, moves them.