202 POULTRY FOR PROFIT 



the opening, for a turkey is not trained to sit quite 

 as easily as a hen and must have a dark, quiet place. 

 China eggs are put under the turkey, and after a 

 day or so she is allowed to come off and eat. 



When the poults have hatched and are dried off, 

 two or three are put under her at night, or she may 

 be given part of the eggs to hatch. She will usually 

 take all the poults and mother them without further 

 trouble. The turkey hen, as well as the chicken hen, 

 should be thoroughly dusted with lice powder so that 

 there may be no lice when the poults are hatched. 



Some breeders allow the turkey to hatch her last 

 clutch of eggs; others prefer to have all incubation 

 done by chicken hens. A turkey can cover from 

 sixteen to eighteen eggs, a hen from eight to ten. 

 Turkey eggs hatch as well in incubators as they do 

 under hens, but raising poults in brooders is rarely 

 a success. When the incubator is used for hatching, 

 either turkey or chicken hens should be used for 

 mothers. 



All my hatching and raising of turkeys has been 

 done with chicken hens, and I have found them 

 entirely satisfactory as mothers if they are managed 

 a little. A hen cannot be allowed to run at large 

 with poults, for she will drag them out in the wet 

 grass in the early morning and very likely forget, in 

 her zeal for finding the early worm, that her charges 

 need hovering; neither can she be allowed to feed 

 them, for she will feed them to death; but it is not 

 necessary to permit her to do these things and she is 

 otherwise an excellent and devoted mother. A Buff 

 Orpington hen of mine last spring hatched and 

 raised ten turks from ten eggs ; even a turkey mother 

 could have done no better. 



In dry weather it is sometimes best to sprinkle 

 the eggs with warm water once or twice the last 



