A Comparison of Several Treatments on Terminating Broodiness in Broad Breasted Bronze Turkeys

Abstract

DUE to the relatively short egg producing season of Broad Breasted Bronze turkey hens, a condition such as broodiness which tends to decrease egg production is a serious problem to breeder flock owners. A treatment which would both rapidly and economically return broody hens to production would therefore be of great value to the turkey breeder. For many years, workers have been attempting to terminate broodiness in both chickens and turkeys by what might be considered as shock hormone treatments. Blakley, Anderson and MacGregor (1951) reported that at least 200 mg. of diethylstilbestrol were necessary to bring broody turkeys back into production in a time comparable with the broody coop. Whereas, Carson, Eaton and Bacon (1956) found that in chickens, 25 mg. of diethylstilbestrol were equally effective as the broody coop in terminating broodiness, but that birds thus treated returned to production at a significantly slower rate than those in …