POULTRY. 1099 



The breeding stock secured and mated (one gobbler to every 

 ten or dozen hens), which should be by the middle of January 

 at latest, feed sparingly from that time until March. I do n't 

 mean starve them, but only give food enough to keep them in 

 " good working order." Fat turkeys will not lay so well as 

 those that are thinner in flesh. Give green food and meat of 

 some kind as often as four times a week after the first of Feb- 

 ruary, and the hens will commence laying quite as early as it is 

 desirable to have them. 



It is natural for turkeys to hide their nests, and while I be- 

 lieve in humoring their whims in that respect, I do not believe 

 that it is necessary to allow them to wander a mile from the 

 farm buildings and deposit their eggs where no living thing 

 except, perhaps, crows and foxes can find them. Long expe- 

 rience with turkeys has convinced me that it is possible to in- 

 duce them to lay pretty much where one wants them to. By 

 much petting of our turkeys, and by never allowing them to be 

 frightened and driven about by either man or beast, we have 

 made them so tame that they will generally go into the hen- 

 house and lay in nests like any other sensible biddies ; but all 

 this takes time and patience, and the average poultry raiser had 

 better fix up nests in secluded places, not too near or too far 

 from the farm buildings. Do n't make " nice " nests ; turkeys 

 have a prejudice against "nice" nests that are prepared espe- 

 cially for them. An old barrel turned on its side in some se- 

 cluded fence-corner and partly covered with brush, brush thrown 

 carelessly around an old stump, and other such arrangements, 

 suit turkeys; and also delude them into the belief that they are 

 hiding their nests. 



If the eggs are not allowed to accumulate in the nest the 

 turkey will lay from thirty to forty eggs before offering to sit. 

 The eggs first laid should be set under hens. When the turkey 

 has laid from fifteen to twenty eggs, and the danger of chilly 

 nights is past, the eggs may be left in the nest as laid, and when 

 the turkey gets ready she will go to work and hatch every one 

 of them. If she concludes to sit before she has a nest full of 

 eggs, fill it up with some of those that you have taken from her. 



