POULTRY— CARE AND MANAGEMENT. 



271 



HENS, How to Hake Lay in Winter. 



Give a portion of minced meat, mixed 

 with their other food, every day, or as 

 often as convenient, and see that they 

 have a plenty of gravel, old plastering, 

 or powdered egg-shells. The latter may 

 be mixed with their food. Without some 

 substance of this kind, which cannot be 

 obtained when the ground is frozen or 

 covered with snow, there will be nothing 

 to form the shell. 



TURKEYS, To Rear.— Choose a quiet 

 hen for a sitter, and give her a quiet place 

 for her nest while sitting. This is im- 

 portant. The usual number of eggs that 

 a hen will cover is from 15 to 18; while 

 .sitting the hen should not be disturbed, 

 and should not be taken from the nest 

 after hatching for at least 24 hours, and 

 if she appears contented, allow her to 

 stay longer. The young chicks gain 

 strength very fast by being kept quiet for 

 a day or two at first. It is best to watch 

 the hatching process, and if a chick is 

 not likely to come out strong, the shell 

 may sometimes be broken, and the chick 

 saved. After the hen and her brood is 

 taken from the nest, give her a large, 

 airy coop, where the grass is closely 

 mown off, where the chicks can bask in 

 the sun at pleasure, and a chance to run 

 at pleasure, and the picking up of bugs 

 and insects. 



The feed should be mostly curd, made 

 from sour milk heated, and the whey 

 drained off and seasoned with pepper. 

 After a few days, if they are strong 

 enough, they should have the range of 

 the farm for a few hours a day. They 

 should be housed at night, and not let 

 -out in the morning till the dew is off the 

 grass. Then by liberal feeding, whenever 

 they come near their roosting quarters, 

 they will be healthy and grow very fast, 

 especially if grasshoppers are plenty, as 

 they are some years in most sections of 

 the country. When it is the time for the 

 fattening seasons, they should then have 

 all the good food they can eat, of a 

 variety such as corn, buckwheat, boiled 

 potatoes, chopped cabbage, etc., and if 

 kept where they can get what they will 

 -eat when they want it, they will fatten 

 very fast. 



An experienced farmer gives his ex- 

 perience as follows : Let the mother of 

 the new-born brood choose her own time 



to leave the nest. Taking off is always 

 bad policy. As soon as the nest is left, 

 make a yard, twelve feet square, by set- 

 ting boards edgewise. Remove the turkey 

 and her brood into this little pen, wherein 

 they should be kept for at least six days, 

 after which they may be let out in the 

 middle of the day, and permitted the 

 range of an acre; but they must always 

 be gathered at least an hour before sun- 

 down into the pens to remain until the 

 dew is off the next morning, and all the 

 day, if there is the least appearance of a 

 storm. The time the mother leaves the 

 nest, wash the naked parts of her body 

 thoroughly with tobacco juice, to kill the 

 inevitable lice ; and at the same time dust 

 thoroughly the young with some vermin- 

 destroying powder. No one thing kills 

 as many young turkeys as these parasites. 

 As a preventive, sulphur and snuff, mixed 

 in equal quantities, and dusted on the 

 nest after the turkey has been sitting two 

 weeks, is recommended; but nothing 

 should prevent the Avashing of the 

 mother, or the dusting of the young, the 

 day the mother leaves the nest, and two 

 days after the young have left the shell. 

 Young turkeys require but little food, but 

 they need to be fed as often as once an 

 hour for the first week. Coarse-ground 

 Indian meal, mixed with sour milk curds, 

 and fine-chopped hard boiled eggs, is the 

 best feed for the first month. After that, 

 the eggs may be left out, the meal ground 

 a little coarser, and the curds, if you 

 have them, used in larger measure than 

 at the first. As soon as they can swallow 

 whole grain, give them that, and then all 

 trouble in this direction is at an end. 

 Until they are two months old, they must 

 be driven to some shelter every night, 

 and never be allowed to remain in the 

 fields through a long and heavy rain. 

 Even when one-quarter grown, they will 

 die from exhaustion, trying to follow the 

 vigorous and unreasoning mother, if wet 

 with but a very heavy dew. Three rules, 

 then, must be observed, if those who 

 attempt to raise turkeys would secure 

 success : First — Be sure to free both old 

 and young from lice immediately upon 

 the old ones leaving the nest. Second — 

 Feed frequently at the beginning with 

 strengthening food. Third — Never let 

 the young turkeys get wet, either with 

 dew or rain, until their feathers afford 



