Figure 8.—Breeding flock of Bronze turkeys on free range.
The soundest breeding program is one of using yearlings and 2-year-old hens which have been selected as breeders alter they have passed through one full breeding season successfully. However, if pedigreeing can be done, it is practicable to use well-matured pullets selected from parents that lived through their first breeding season and showed good production, fertility, hatchability, and poult livability. The breeding males may be young or old but, in general, well-matured young toms give better results. Proved sires, of course, are valuable and can well be used so long as they will breed. Reserve breeding toms should always be kept, especially when older toms are used, as the latter are sometimes sterile. The spurs of a yearling or older tom should be trimmed smooth, as should the toe-nails of all breeding males, regardless of age, to avoid needless tearing of the backs of the females.
All breeding hens and toms that are not to be used for another breeding season should be marketed about June 1. If older hens are used in breeding, it is advisable to replace 3-year-old females with young birds, since egg production decreases rapidly after that age. Immature stock should never be used but, as mentioned before, well-matured young toms and pullets make good breeders especially if trap nesting and pedigreeing can be carried on, thus enabling the breeder to cull properly and sell as market birds the offspring of all hens that die during their first laying season.
It is not advisable for the average producer to inbreed turkeys, as this practice has been found to lower the vitality of the stock. When only one breeding pen or flock is kept, it is advisable to obtain new blood every season from a reliable outside source.
EGG PRODUCTION
The time of year at which turkeys naturally lay depends largely on the climate of the region in which they are raised, being earliest in the South. However, climate need not be permitted to hold back egg production as artificial light can be used to obtain early eggs, as with chickens. Soon after mating begins, the female looks for a nesting place, and about 10 days after the first mating she begins to lay. One nest should be provided for every 3 or 4 hens. The number of eggs produced per bird depends on the breeding of the stock as well as on management. Under ordinary circumstances in the Northern States, young turkey hens should average 35 to 40 eggs and yearling hens 25 to 30 eggs each during the normal breeding season if they are broken up whenever broodiness occurs. By normal breeding season is meant the time between the date the first egg is laid (late in the winter or early in the spring) and June 1. If artificial lights are used, starting about February 5, the breeders should average 50 to 55 eggs each, or an increase of about 15 eggs by June 1, due to the lighting. A few turkey raisers have used lights in December or January, thereby securing very early hatched turkeys and further increasing turkey-egg production.
Turkeys are not extensively trap-nested, but the practice is carried on by producers who wish to pedigree the poults and carry on selective breeding. One trap nest is needed for each two hens. The hens should have free access to the trap nests before they start to lay, and they should be carefully watched to see that they do not lay their eggs anywhere except in the trap nests. Secluded places in the house or yard should be eliminated. A simple form of trap nest is illustrated in [figure 9]. The turkey enters at the front, through the trap door, which closes automatically when the turkey is inside. The door at the top of the coop is opened to release the bird from the nest.
When incubators or chicken hens are used to hatch the eggs, the turkey hens may be broken of their broodiness so that they will continue laying. Breaking the hens of broodiness by confining them to a wire-floored coop is very desirable because it permits the hatching of a relatively large number of early turkeys and a larger number from each hen. The birds hatched no later than June are the ones that grow and mature most satisfactorily and therefore attain the best size for the Thanksgiving and Christmas markets. Early hatched birds should be marketed at Thanksgiving or before, and those of later hatches can be used to supply the Christmas and New Year demand. There is some demand for freshly dressed turkeys at all times of the year. To meet this demand turkeys may be hatched from eggs laid during summer and fall. By the use of artificial light and proper feeds, hatchable eggs can be produced in the winter and early in the spring.