CHAPTEE VIL 



LAYING AND HATCHING. 



As the laying season approaches, we find that four 

 hundred years of domestication have not changed the shy 

 nature of the turkey, nor robbed her of her love of secrecy. 

 From the middle of February to the middle of April, ac- 

 cording to the latitude and climate, she begins to seek 

 hiding places in which to lay her eggs. Here the watch- 

 fulness of the keeper must begin, and not cease until the 

 young are able to take care of themselves. The essays 

 given in this book are some of the most valuable contribu- 

 tions to turkey literature ever published. Being the sim- 

 ply told tales of varied personal experience, they are 

 invaluable in the details they give of attention to little 

 things. 



The hen turkey begins to make that peculiar, musical, 

 craking noise, and the torn is more assiduous in his at- 

 tentions to his wives. He grows prouder and more gallant, 

 and "gobbles" and displays the beauty of his plumage 

 more than ever. In her wild state, the hen turkey lays 

 her eggs on the ground, the nest being made of dried 

 leaves. She selects dense shrubbery on a dry soil for its 

 location. Your domesticated turkey will do the same, if 

 allowed the chance. But the danger from foxes, skunks, 

 weasels, minks, coyotes and other obstacles to success, com- 

 pels you to assist nature a little. The saving of the eggs, to 

 you, is an important matter. One Vermont woman writes, 

 "As soon as I hear any of them making that peculiar 

 craking noise, which they always do before they begin 

 laying, I drive them into the horse barn, where I have 

 prepared nests in the hay, with nest eggs in them. Some- 



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