Some Observations on Fertility in Turkeys

THE Nebraska Agricultural Experiment Station (1930) and Abright and Thompson (1933) demonstrated that artificial light was effective in stimulating early egg production in turkey hens. Wilcke (1939) reported that fertility was low during the early part of the season in lighted pens, due to preferential mating. Milby and Thompson (1942) reported the results of two years’ work, comparing all night lights and morning lights for Bronze turkey hens. The birds responded to all night lights by coming into production in three weeks, morning lights requiring four weeks to initiate egg laying. No consistent trend in fertility and hatchability was apparent. Margolf (1940) reported that turkey hens (32 weeks old) responded to lights more quickly than toms and suggested lighting the toms five weeks before the hens. He stated that there was little evidence of preferential mating, but the turkeys were mated four toms to a pen of 20 hens. This . . .