Best results in mating are obtained when from 10 to 15 females are mated
to 1 male, although as many as 18 hens can be mated to 1 young tom under
favorable conditions. As a rule good fertility will result when several
toms are kept with a flock of hens. However, if the toms are quarrelsome
and mating is seriously interfered with the males must be alternated, 1
tom being allowed to run with the hens 1 day and another tom the next
day. Surplus toms should be penned out of sight of the breeding birds.
[Illustration: 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.