12 PARADISE VALLEY POULTRY RANCH 



INCUBATION. 



Turkey hens and chicken hens are ordinarily used to incubate turkey 

 eggs, altho incubators are quite generally used where turkeys are raised 

 on a large scale. During the early part of the laying season it often hap- 

 pens that there are on hand a number of eggs that should be set before any 

 of the turkey hens are thru laying their first litter and become "broody". 

 In such case, and also when it is desired to have the turkey hens lay a 

 second or third litter, some of the eggs have to be incubated under chicken 

 hens or in an incubator. About a week before the .poults are to hatch a 

 sufficient number of turkey hens should be allowed to set to take all the 

 poults hatched. They can be given a few eggs from the incubator or from 

 under the chicken hens and allowed to hatch the poults themselves, or at 

 night a newly-hatched poult can be slipped under each turkey hen that is 

 to be given a brood of poults and by morning they will take them. 



Turkey hens are very close sitters, and if managed properly they are 

 the surest means of hatching turkey eggs that can be used. Incubators, 

 however, are quite as successful with turkey eggs as with chicken eggs. 

 Poor hatches are a very frequent cause of complaint among turkey raisers, 

 and this is quite often due to crowding more eggs under the hens, than 

 they can properly cover. One egg too many means that every egg in the 

 nest will probably become chilled at some time during the four weeks of 

 incubation. Turkey hens cover from fifteen to eighteen eggs and in some 

 cases more, depending on the size of the hen. Chicken hens of the general- 

 purpose breeds cover from eight to ten eggs. The turkey-egg capacity of 

 an incubator is approximately three-fourth's of the chicken-egg capacity. 



Nests for setting turkey and chicken hens are best made on the ground 

 by hollowing out a little earth, so that the center is deep enough to keep 

 the eggs from rolling out of the nest. A thin covering of clean straw or 

 hay can then be used to prevent the eggs from being directly on the ground, 

 and a large roomy coop should be placed over the nest to keep the hen 

 from being disturbed. When a number of hens are to be set, a long row r 

 of nests can easily be made on the ground, separating them wit'h board 

 partitions. If this is done care must be taken to see that when the hens 

 come off the nests each returns to the right one, instead of crowding into 

 a nest with another hen and leaving some of the eggs to become chilled. 

 With only a few hens it is better to set them some distance apart, as they 

 will then require less attention. 



When a hen becomes broody and shows that she is in earnest by re- 

 maining on her nest for two or three nights, she may safely be trusted with 

 the eggs, provided she is allowed to sit in that nest. If she is to be set in 

 another nest, as is usually the case, then she should be removed to the new 

 nest, preferably after dark, given a few nest eggs, and shut in to prevent 

 her from returning to the old one. If she sits quietly on the nest eggs 

 she should be taken off on the evening of the following day and the eggs 

 to be incubated placed in the nest. On being freed, she will probably re- 

 turn to her old nest; if so, she should be carried back and set quietly on 

 the eggs, when she will immediately feel them beneath her and settle down 

 to cover them. She should be handled in this manner until on being let 

 off she returns to the new nest rather than to the old one. It sometimes 

 takes but two or three days, and seldom more than a week, to break a hen 

 from returning to her old nest. Turkey hens do not ordinarily come off for 

 feed and water more than once every two or three days, but when con- 

 fined they should be given an opportunity to come off every day. Occa- 

 sionally a turkey hen does not come off at all, and in such case she should 

 be taken off once a day, as otherwise she will die on the nest. 



On coming off her nest the first thing a turkey hen does is to stretch 

 her wings, step gingerly for a few steps, and then she often takes a run- 

 ning start and flies for a short distance. Exercise of this sort helps greatly 

 to keep a sitting hen in good condition, and for this reason it is not well 

 to confine her to a small space. A dust bath is greatly enjoyed by sitting 



