Anson County Farmer Developing Successful Turkey Business, 1945

By F.H. Jeter, Extension Editor, N.C. State College, Raleigh, as printed in the Wilmington Star on October 10, 1945

In the fall of 1944, H.P. Tice of Marshville, Route 1, Anson County, built a turkey laying house of cinder blocks costing about $1,000.

This house is 30 feet wide and 100 feet long with a wire enclosed front and with windows in the rear. It will take care of 500 turkey hens and 70 toms. In front of the house, Mr. Tice seeded Italian rye grass for winter grazing and allowed the turkeys access to this grazing crop all through the winter. The nests, roost poles, feeding hoppers, and other equipment are all arranged conveniently within the house and lights were kept burning during the night all of last winter.

During the month of January, Mr. Tice gathered about 250 turkey eggs each day and was able to sell enough eggs for hatching purpose to almost pay the entire cost of his new house with that month’s output of eggs alone. They sold for an average of about 30 cents each.

This leads Roy Dearstyne, head poultryman at State College, to say that producers of turkey eggs should give consideration to the use of lights this winter. Early-hatched poults are much more desirable in this section of the country than the late-hatched ones, and this emphasizes the need of following any practice which may aid in bringing about early production of hatching eggs.

The Poultry Department has done some careful research work in the use of lights with its turkey breeding flocks. The results seem to indicate that egg production can be stepped up by as much as 60 days as compared with where no lights are used. The Station has turned on the lights beginning about December 1, starting them one-half an hour before natural daylight each morning. After about 10 days time, the lights are then turned on each morning at 4 o’clock and this is followed throughout the remainder of the hatching season. The Station has found that the use of the lights does not increase the total egg production but that it does cause the hens to begin to lay earlier in the season and since this earliness is a primary objective, the lights have been rather profitable.

The amount of light to use will, of course, depend upon the size of pen or house and its construction. Enough light must be used to illuminate the pen rather thoroughly, especially around the roosting area, so the birds may be led to leave the roosts early in the morning and begin their active hunt for food. It is also important to protect the lights, because turkeys are sometimes very foolish birds and may fly against them.

Dearstyne also says that the Experiment Station has done some interesting work in developing families of turkeys which lay more eggs than normal. Most growers know that a turkey hen lays very few eggs. That’s why they are so expensive. I visited turkey growers last winter who were securing 50 cents each for every hatching egg that they could supply, and even as late as April or May the eggs were bringing 30 and 20 cents each.

For the past six years, Mr. Dearstyne has conducted what he calls “family testing of turkeys,” and he reports that definite progress has been made in developing a high quality, broad-breasted Bronze bird. For example, this progress can be seen in the performance of one hen, bearing the designation A230. This hen was mated for the third year this past season. She laid 111 eggs her first year; 108 the second year; and 108 the third year. Eight of her daughters hatched in 1944, were trapnested during the past laying season and up until September 1 had produced an average of slightly over 140 eggs each. The range of production up until September 1 ran from 120 to 156 eggs and five of the eight turkey pullets are still laying.

Mr. Dearstyne set 387 of the eggs produced by these eight sisters and 311 out of the 387 were hatched. In other words, not only did these turkey pullets lay many more eggs than the average turkey hen, but the eggs were of a high fertility. The per cent of the fertility for all eggs was 86.8 per cent, and the hatchability of all the fertile eggs was 92.5 per cent. That’s almost perfect.

Not only did the hens lay well and produce eggs that would hatch but the eggs were large, weighing 70 grams per egg. The turkeys qualified for the rigid. Record of Performance standard which calls for at least 46 eggs in the first 91 days of lay and high hatchability.

This is not the only high producing family which Mr. Dearstyne and his associates have developed, however, because he observes a general improvement among the flocks as they are bred for higher productivity and better health. He trapnested some 213 other young turkey hens this past season and 70 of them produced over 100 eggs per bird. The highest in this general lot laid 180 eggs and three others of the pullets produced over 170 each.

This is certainly a decided improvement over the production of the average turkey hen as she is found generally on the farms of North Carolina. I am not an authority on this subject but I would say that such hens certainly do not lay over 40 eggs per bird in a season. The average I believe would be lower than this. Three dozen eggs per turkey hen before she becomes broody would probably be a nearer figure.

At any rate, we are at long last able to make a start in the breeding of better turkeys for this state. Mr. Dearstyne said this morning that he had 125 fine young toms selected and saved from those produced during the past year. All of these have been engaged by Jimmy Cameron of Anson County and will be placed with the progressive turkey growers of the White Store community in that county. The people have decided to make turkey growing the leading farm industry of that section and they are building better flocks year after year.