22 



hover of the brooder. A small amount of finely crumbled 

 boiled egg is given from twenty-four to forty-eight hours after 

 hatching, and three times a day thereafter for at least a week. 

 The floor of the brooder should be covered with a few hand- 

 fuls of clean hayseed or similar material, uncontaminated by 

 poultry. After the second day a supply of clean water and a 

 small dish of sour milk should always be available. If the 

 weather is mild and sunny the young turkeys may be let out of 

 the brooder onto clean grass, which they will soon learn to eat. 

 A sprinkle of fine chick feed should be given along with the 

 crumbled egg, since grain will later on form a part of the diet. 

 An ample supply of fine grit should always be available. 



After the turkeys are a month or six weeks old, mixed grain 

 should be added to the chick feed, and after the turke^'s are 

 found to take this it may replace the latter altogether. Only as 

 much grain as will be cleaned up at each feeding should be 

 supplied. This is important, as it lessens the chances of infec- 

 tion from unclean food. Coarse grit should be supplied as the 

 turkeys get older. If green forage runs low, it may be supple- 

 mented by lettuce or cabbage. These should be hung on a nail, 

 for turkeys do not accept loose green material until quite large, 

 but prefer to tear oft' pieces. 



The diet of the growing turkey thus consists of sour milk, 

 mixed grain, green forage, water, grit, and what insects it is 

 able to catch. 



Housing. — Young turkeys must be provided with clean sur- 

 roundings. The incubator must be thoroughly cleaned before 

 each hatching, and the brooder, if it has been used before, 

 should be preferably painted over, or at least whitewashed 

 thoroughly inside. The hover, if not new, should be thor- 

 oughly washed with soap and water and provided with clean 

 flannel. It is well to so arrange the hatches as to have an 

 interval in which the brooder may be thoroughly cleaned. It 

 has been our experience that it is bad practice to mingle suc- 

 cessive small batches of turkeys in a brooder. The dosage of 

 certain intestinal parasites, which are apparently always present, 

 and which are practically harmless if acquired gradually, is so 

 great that very young turkeys are likely either to succumb or 

 to have their growth somewhat checked.^ 



