In the first place I select a good quiet hen that has been setting two or three days and put her in a deep, warm nest, not too far from the top of the box, so that when she goes to feed, the hen will not break the eggs by jumping on them when she returns to the nest. Twelve eggs seems a great number of turkey eggs to put under one hen, but that is what I put under every common hen, and I sometimes hatch out all the eggs. I spray the nests well with sulphur and also use my salve on the hen up until the sixteenth day. I never put any disinfectant on the hen or on her nest after that because there is life inside the eggs by that time, and the disinfectant is very apt to kill it.
When the eggs begin to hatch, some will hatch out before the rest; these I take away, placing them in a good warm box wrapped in flannel and keep them good and warm until all the eggs are hatched out and the mother able to receive them. When they are two days old, I put the young turkeys in a good clean coop, well whitewashed and waterproof. My runs are 5 ft. long and 4 ft. wide. I shut my little birds up in the coop for the first four days, until they become good and strong. After that, if the weather is fine and warm, I let them out about ten o’clock and put them in about three o’clock.
Their first food consists of a hard boiled egg, a shake of red pepper and three parts dandelion, cut up fine. You can give them all the green food they will eat, and also powdered charcoal and fine grit. After they are 3 or 4 days old, I give them bread and milk squeezed dry, and the Margaret Mahaney Turkey Feed.
The young poults are kept in runs which should be moved to a new spot each day and care taken that they are kept clean, dry and warm, and the straw must be taken out of the coops and thoroughly aired and kept good and clean, as the sanitary condition is half the battle in raising turkeys. Place your runs on a side hill, facing the south. On hot days, cover the runs with burlap.
Let them out into the runs for two hours or more every afternoon that is pleasant and dry until the time the birds are nine weeks old. Do not let them out in damp weather before they are two years old, for they are very susceptible to dampness and should be kept housed and warm in rainy and damp weather. While the little birds are out, watch carefully for hawks and pests.
Give the turkeys all the milk you can afford to give, as this will keep them growing. Plant a good field of lettuce and give them all this vegetable they can eat, and you will find that they will eat lettuce three times a day with good relish.
One of the secrets of raising turkeys is to keep the droppings a bright green; that, of course, keeps the liver in good condition, and goes a long way in keeping blackhead out of the flock. Take some lime, slack it, put half sand with it and make a sort of soft mush out of it. Place this on a board and dry it; then crumble it up and leave it around where your little turkeys can get it to eat.
“GIVE THE TURKEYS ALL THE MILK YOU CAN”
Keep them in dry, tight houses with the south side open so that they may have an abundance of fresh air without draughts.