96 The Business Hen. 



have free range with their mother, but see that they come home at night 

 if you are obliged to bring them a few times. Feed liberally when they 

 come home, and always have grit and fresh water where they may have 

 free access to it. Keep their house and pen clean. A turkey will not live 

 in filthy quarters, nor if lousy. If you are making a success of the dry- 

 feeding system with chicks you will succeed with the turkeys by the same 

 system. Pinhead or flake oatmeal, dry bread soaked with milk or water 

 and squeezed dry, curds mixed with chopped onion or dandelion tops are 

 all good foods. Sometimes we are able to buy through our grocer break- 

 fast food or pinhead oatmeal that has become wormy (not musty) at 

 greatly reduced prices, and they make excellent food for turkeys or chicks. 

 Feed no sloppy foods and not too much at one time. 



BANTAM BREEDING.— Bantams need but little room, and little feed. 

 They are very attractive and useful, not merely pets, as they are good 

 layers of good-sized and rich eggs. I have used an incubator for hatch- 

 ing, but prefer hens. If I have Bantams that I can spare I use them, but 

 usually common hens. If large hens are used their nests should be in a 

 low box six inches deep, the nest made but little dishing, as the eggs will 

 move more readily as the hen steps among them. For this reason the 

 fewer eggs under a hen the better. The eggs are quite as likely to be 

 fertile and hatch as any larger breeds. A box should be placed over the 

 hen after she has been fed and watered each day. This not only secures 

 her from being disturbed, but prevents her from coming off many times 

 a day, as some will, each time endangering the eggs. I do not find the 

 chicks quite as hardy or as easy to raise as larger breeds until feathered. 

 They feather so young and fast that they need good feed and care at this 

 time. For a few days when first hatched, hard-boiled eggs and bread 

 crumbs chopped fine are best for them ; later cracked wheat, millet and 

 ground beef scraps, and some whole grain.- For head and throat lice and 

 around the little cluster of feathers in front of the vent use a little grease. 

 Fresh butter is good; sweet cream is still better, and will not injure if used 

 liberally on turkeys or chickens. This will do little good, however, if the 

 hen has lice. This season I have taken a feather, and with a liquid lice 

 killer touched the hen under and above in many places. If this is done 

 in the morning when the chicks are a few days old, and the hen in an 

 open coop, so the chicks can get plenty of air, it will not hurt them, but 

 will rid both hen and chicks of lice for a long time, if not for the 

 season. 



THE DUCK.— The principal breeds are Pekin, Rouen, Cayuga, Mus- 

 covy and Aylesbury. The Pekin is most extensively raised. The follow- 

 ing are the methods of a successful commercial breeder. For the first 

 four days after hatching they have a mixture of two-thirds bread crumbs 

 and boiled eggs, in the proportion of four parts of bread to one of egg, 



