130 MRS. BASLEY'S WESTERN POULTRY BOOK 



and die, till only one was left- The other turkeys under turkey 

 mothers were doing well, so I took the lone little one one night 

 and put him under a mother turkey out in the meadow and saved 

 his life. The old hen had overfed the others. Chicken hens are 

 too anxious to feed the little turkeys. They scratch for them, coax 

 them to eat, and the little turkeys are such greedy, voracious little 

 things that they overeat and in consequence die. I prefer to bring 

 up little turkeys under a turkey hen or even in a brooder, rather 

 than under a chicken hen. The best way of managing a hen is 

 to keep her in a coop, letting the little turkeys run outside or else 

 tie the hen under a tree by her leg- I only feed the little poults 

 three times a day just what they will eat up clean in ten minutes. 

 With a turkey hen I can leave wheat in a trough always accessible, 

 and she will never overfeed the young. The turkey mother will 

 take a few mouthsful herself and then move slowly and deliber- 

 ately away and her babies will follow her, having only taken one 

 or two grains each. This is more like the nature of the wild tur- 

 key, and the nearer to nature one can keep in raising turkeys, the 

 better will be our success. 



Nature's wild turkeys are only hatched in the spring when there 

 are grubs and worms in abundance, with plenty of green grass and 

 tender leaves and no grain but what is sprouting, and, above all, 

 Nature never mixes mashes to turn sour and ferment on the little 

 stomachs. The hard-boiled egg and the curd take the place of the 

 bugs and the grubs, for we cannot supply the turkey with anything 

 like the amount of grasshoppers, grubs, worms, larvae of insects 

 which Nature provides in the haunts of the wild turkeys. Another 

 lesson we may learn from Nature's book: Wild turkeys are only 

 to be found where there are springs and streams of pure water, and 

 they never wander away from the water. Give the young turkeys 

 plenty of clean, pure water to drink. 



There are two chief causes of mortality in little turkeys lice 

 and overfeeding. Before giving the little turkeys to the mother to 

 care for, dust them well with "buhach," and continue to do this once 

 a week until they are too large to handle. Look for lice on the 

 head and on the quill feathers of the wing and rub the powder 

 well into them. Lice and overfeeding kill thousands of little tur- 

 keys. Overfeeding kills more than lice, and if it does not kill them, 

 it stunts their growth, and unfortunately until they begin to die 

 at about six weeks of age, one scarcely realizes that they have been 

 overfed. 



Little turkeys have voracious appetites, and if allowed to do 

 so, will eat too much, and it only takes a few weeks for them to eat 

 themselves into their graves. If they hunt for their food, as the 

 wild turkeys do, they take it leisurely, just what they can easily 

 digest, exercising between each mouthful and just enough is di- 

 gested and goes into the circulation to keep them healthy. I never 

 feed little turkeys all they want, only what they need, and I always 

 keep them a little hungry. 



