TRAILING TURKEYS TO SIT AT ANY TIME. 61 



be bandied in any way, and seldom break any of the eggs 

 entrusted to their care. They will breed with the same 

 tenderness all sorts of eggs, be they of geese or of pheasants. 



" Last year I received from England a few sittings of 

 Bantam eggs. Having no broody hens ready, I got three 

 in my neighborhood. At the sight of the small eggs, so 

 different from their own, the broody hens got quite 

 wild, and would have destroyed the lot had we not taken 

 them away. I sent them back from where they came, and 

 immediately began to train a few turkeys. My flock con- 

 sisted of three large birds, which get broody after twenty- 

 four hours' training. Two days later, I gave all the eggs 

 to one of these, which brooded them without breaking a 

 single one. 



" Turkeys are very attentive mothers, and protect their 

 chickens well. I never had one taken by vermin or birds 

 of prey, which abound in the grounds around, because of 

 the proximity of a forest, although my turkeys, with their 

 young ones, are free to run where they like, and go some- 

 times three or four hundred yards from the house. If 

 they know each other, several may be allowed to run 

 together without danger of fighting. These goodies will 

 accept any change or addition of chickens, and brood the 

 newcomers as tenderly as their own. I often saw turkeys, 

 whose chicks had been joined to others, adopt large chick- 

 ens more than two months old, which had been forsaken 

 by the hen. 



" Training turkeys to force them to sit does not take 

 away their laying qualities, when they are properly 

 managed. Therefore, allow them to lay their batch of eggs 

 after they have brooded and raised your early chickens. 

 They will ask to sit immediately they have finished lay- 

 ing; you may let them, and have no fear of overworking. 



"And now, if my readers will believe in one who speaks 

 by experience, and not upon hearsay, they will give my 

 favorite brooding machines a trial, and admit afterwards 



