46 DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE GEORGIA. 



while others still confine the hens daily until they have laid, thus 

 requiring them to lay in the house where they are to sit. 



The hens are very close sitters and, if not disturbed, usually 

 hatch well under any of the three plans. 



The chicks are apparently stupid when first hatched, and inex- 

 perienced breeders become impatient of their delay in taking food. 

 A few hen eggs should be put under each turkey hen six or seven 

 days after she commences to sit upon her own eggs. The chickens 

 will soon teach the young turkeys, which are quite imitative, to 

 eat if such teaching is necessary. 



The young turkeys are very tender and delicate when first 

 hatched, and require very careful housing and feeding for several 

 weeks. If many hens are kept a number of them should be set at 

 the same time, so that the young turkeys hatched by the whole 

 number may be given to a few hens, and the remainder set at lib- 

 erty to lay another sitting of eggs. 



If only a few hens are kept, and it is desired to secure the maxi- 

 mum number of eggs from them, they need not be allowed to sit at 

 all, but the eggs hatched under chicken hens. 



A larger per cent of the young turkeys will generally be raised in 

 this way than by the turkeys themselves, and they will have, when 

 grown, less propensity for rambling. 



Again, under this system the turkey hens will lay twice as many 

 eggs as when allowed to sit. Young turkeys-are so sensitive to cold 

 -and dampness that the hen carrying them should be inclosed for 

 some weeks in a well sheltered pen in which there is a plank floor. 

 The young ones may be allowed the liberty of a small run in dry, 

 pleasant weather, but must be scrupulously protected from rain and 

 not allowed to run in grass which is wet with dew or rain. 



The floor of the pen must be kept clean and drv, and pure, fresh 

 water kept constantly within their reach. The vessel in which 

 water is given them must be so shallow as to avoid all risk of 

 drowning the young. 



For some weeks after hatching the young turkeys are very sub. 

 ject to diarrhoea and hence the utmost care must be exercised in 

 feeding them. Hard boiled eggs, or curd, pressed every day, 

 will prove the safest food for the first two weeks, after which bread 

 soaked in just enough milk to soften it, may be used to advantage. 

 The tender tops of onions, garden fennel, purslane or dandelion 

 chopped fine and mixed with the other food, will be found beneficial 

 contributing materially to the health of the chicks. 



