BROODING AND REARING YOUNG STOCK 



turkeys or young chickens, but this is not very common. 

 Where a gobbler shows such a disposition, he must, of 

 course, be kept away from the poults until they get older 

 or else must be disposed of. On the other hand gobblers 

 will occasionally help to brood the young. 



Rearing Poults by Artificial Means 



When the effort is made to brood turkey poults artifi- 

 cially some people experience difficulty in getting the young- 

 sters to eat, as they seem to go about with their heads up 

 in the air and not to see the food on the ground or floor. 

 To teach these youngsters to eat, a baby chick or two is 

 sometimes put with them and serves by its example to 

 teach the turkeys where to find the feed. It is probable, 

 however, that in most cases where artificial methods are 

 employed there is too great an eagerness on the part of the 

 turkey raiser to get the poults to eat, as they should have 

 nothing until they are two days old. The yolk of the 

 egg which has been absorbed just before the poults 

 hatched furnishes all the feed they need during this period. 

 There is a grave tendency to over-feed poults -whether 

 raised by natural or artificial methods but, of course, this 

 is particularly true under artificial conditions where all of 

 the feed for the first two or three weeks at any rate is 

 supplied by the person looking after the youngsters. 



Where the effort is made to rear turkey poults by arti- 

 ficial means the usual course followed is to make use of 

 heated brooders such as are used for little chicks. In 



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