346 FARM ANIMALS 



the addition of hard boiled eggs and finely chopped 

 onions. Cheese curds also give good results. 

 Later on oat meal, rolled oats, stale bread, onion 

 tops, corn meal, middlings, etc., moistened with 

 skim milk with a little black pepper may be fed 

 as the appetite increases. For the first five weeks 

 turkey chicks should be fed four times daily and 

 later three times. By this time they are able to 

 range for their food with the mother turkeys. 



While turkey eggs may be hatched under hens, 

 turkeys or incubators, it is common on farms to 

 allow the hen turkey to do her own incubating. 

 The turkey is an excellent sitter and in fact may 

 sometimes be induced to sit the year round, being 

 used in such instances as a natural incubator. 

 They have a tendency to steal their nests and some 

 attention must be given to this point to prevent 

 weasels and other vermin from destroying the eggs. 



Turkeys naturally show more wild tendencies 

 than other farm poultry. For this reason they have 

 to be allowed a wider range. At any rate from the 

 age of five weeks to that of fattening in the fall they 

 are perfectly capable of finding their own living if 

 allowed free range. Their food consists of grass- 

 hoppers and other insects as well as grain and 

 herbage. When the fattening period begins in 

 the fall it is best not to confine the birds but to 

 allow them free range, merely feeding grain two 

 or three times a day. For this purpose corn is 

 excellent and may be adopted in relatively large 

 (quantities since the turkeys themselves will find 

 insects and other material to supply the nitrog- 

 enous side of the ration. As a rule wheat and corn 

 L-re fed in combination and this seems to be as good 

 as any mixture which can be fed for this purpose. 

 Turkeys cannot be confined closely during the 



