Teacher's Leaflet. 1187 



Lesson XXXIIL 

 nesting habits and care of the young. 



Pitrpose. — To impress the minds of the pupils with the importance 

 of good care at the beginning of the turkey-chick's life if they would 

 have many survive that trying early period and make a flock of vigorous, 

 well-grown birds. 



Observations by pupils. — 



(i). How early in the spring does the turkey hen begin to lay? 



(2). Does she nest about the poultry-yard and bams or is she likely 

 to seek some secret and distant spot where she may hide her eggs? 



(3). Describe the turkey's egg, as well as you can, as to color, shape 

 and size. Can one tell it by the taste from an ordinary hen's eggl 



(4) . About how many eggs does the turkey hen lay in her nest before 

 she begins to " get broody " and want to sit? 



(5). If her eggs are removed from the nest as they are laid, does she 

 continue to lay in that nest or does she desert it and find another? 



(6). How many days of incubation are required to hatch the turkey 

 chick? Is it as downy and pretty as other little chicks? 



(7). Is the turkey hen generally a good mother? Is she cross or 

 gentle when sitting and when brooding her young? 



(8). How often should the young chicks be fed, and what food do 

 you think is best for them? Are turkey chicks as hardy as other chicks? 



(9). Is it possible to keep the mother turkey as closely confined with 

 her brood as it is with the mother hen? What supplies should be given 

 to her in the way of food, grits, dust-baths, etc. ? 



Facts for teachers. — Turkeys usually begin to lay in April in tliis latitude and 

 much earlier in more southern states. At nesting time each turkey hen strays 

 off alone, seeking the most secluded spot she can find to lay the large, oval, brown- 

 speckled eggs. Silent and sly, she slips away to the place daily, by the most 

 round-about ways, and never moving in the direction of the nest when she thinks 

 herself observed. Sometimes the sight of any person near her nest will cause 

 her to desert it. The writer has spent many hours when a child, sneaking in 

 fence comers and behind stumps and tree trunks, stalking turkey's nests. Some- 

 limes one might be enticed by a straw-filled barrel under a brush-heap, but usually 

 the site for her nest was of the bird's own choosing, unless she were too closely 

 confined for her own good health or her owner's profit. 



The turkey lays a clutch of fifteen to eighteen eggs usually, though the writer 

 saw one ambitious mother who filled her nest with twenty-two of the freckled 

 beauties before beginning to sit. Incubation takes four weeks. The female is 

 a most persistent sitter and care should be taken to see that she gets a good supply 

 of food and water at this time, for the writer has known at least one young turkey 

 hen to " stick to her job " so closely as literally to starve on her stolen nest. Good 



