TURKEYS AND HOW TO RAISE THEM 117 



The way I feed and have fed for years is as follows : When the 

 little turkeys are twenty-four hours old I put freshly-laid eggs into 

 cold water and boil them for half an hour; chop th<yn up fine, shell 

 and all ; add equal parts of bread crumbs ; feed dry, taking away 

 what they leave, feeding the mother separately. 



The next day I feed the same, adding very finely chopped lettuce 

 or dandelion leaves or green young mustard leaves and tender 

 young onion tops. This is their breakfast and supper. For dinner 

 they have a little curd made from clabber milk, cottage cheese 

 some call it. In a few days I add cracked or whole wheat to their 

 supper, and if I am short of bread crumbs I add rolled breakfast 

 oats to the egg and bread crumbs. I always chop up an onion a 

 day with the egg, and bread crumbs unless the onion tops are 

 very young and tender. Onions are an excellent tonic for the liver 

 and kidneys, and prevent worms and cure colds; so I use onions 

 freely both for turkeys and chickens. In a few days I commence 

 to add wheat to their food and at two weeks of age I gradually 

 arrive at giving them wheat and rolled oats for breakfast; in the 

 middle of the forenoon a head of lettuce to tear up and eat ; at noon 

 cottage cheese, and about four or five o'clock their supper of egg, 

 bread crumbs or rolled oats, lettuce and always the chopped up 

 onion. | ^ ^ ; 



I give them clean water three times a day in a drinking fountain" 

 or if I have not a fountain I make one out of a tomato can. Make 

 a nail hole in the can about half an inch from the top, then fill the 

 can up to the hole with water, invert a saucer over it, and holding 

 the saucer tightly to it, turn it over quickly. This makes a good 

 fountain, for the water will come slowly out of the nail hole into 

 the saucer. I give the turkeys a similar fountain of skim milk, 

 also. A word about the cottage cheese. I am very particular in 

 making it not to allow the clabber milk to become hot. I use either 

 a thermometer, letting the heat only come to 98 degrees, or I keep 

 my finger in the milk, and as soon as it feels pleasantly warm I take 

 the milk off the fire, pour the curd into a cheese cloth bag and leave 

 it to drain. If the milk scalds or boils, the curd will be tough, hard 

 like rubber and indigestible enough to kill turkeys or chickens. 



Overfed Little Ones 



When I lived in the home of the wild turkey, Oklahoma and 

 Kansas, I learned much about the care of tame turkeys. There 

 "corn is king," but I was cautioned never to give corn to the young 

 turkeys until after they "sport the red." That is, until their heads 

 and wattles become red, which happens at about three months of 

 age. It was said that corn always sours on their stomachs. It 

 was there I heard of a man who brought up his turkeys on nothing 

 but onion tops, curd and grit, and they did well. 



One of my experiences in the land of the wild turkey may serve 

 as a warning to others. I had a good old Buff Cochin hen who 

 was mothering a brood of nice little turkeys. She was most as- 

 siduous in her care of them; she clucked to them all day; called 



