46 



LL55ON5 IN POULTRY KEEPING 5LCOND SERIES. 



Turkey's Nest Protected by Coop. 



Whether a mash is used or not, yarded turkeys must be fed liberally, and with a good variety 

 of food, grains, vegetable food, meat and bone; shell, grit, and water must be furnished in 

 abundance. 



Hatching the Turkeys. 



In the rearing of turkeys natural methods are used almost exclusively, and as the hen turkey 

 }ays so few eggs it is customary to use chicken hens to hatch and brood the earliest turkeys. 

 The general opinion is that the turkeys reared with hens never do so well as those hatched and 

 reared by turkey mothers. One writer who had had a good deal of experience both ways, 

 said of the relative advantages and disadvantages of chicken and turkey hens as mothers: 

 " I have found the advantages of turkey hens as mothers as follows: They are more quiet 

 with little ones; are better protectors from hawks and animals; will not wean their turkeys 

 so soon as chicken hens; are kinder to little turkeys other than their own broods; are better 

 foragers; will take their little ones to the range where they can pick insects, grass seeds, etc. ; 

 the little ones are not subject to so many lice as when running with a chicken hen. The main 

 objection to turkey hens is, they are troublesome about coming to the accustomed roosting 

 place with the brood and getting them sheltered for the night. 



"Advantages of a chicken hen are that the little turkeys will be more tame as a rule than 

 when mothered by a turkey, and the hen always takes her brood to the coop in the evening 

 and puts them to roost, but as the hen is more restless, she keeps the little ones on the move the 

 first few days, when they ought to be very quiet. -This can be overcome by confining her to 

 the coop. I endeavor to set eggs under some chicken hens and some turkey hens at the 

 surne time, so when the chicken hen weans her brood they will take up with the turkey hen 

 and her brood and all go together." 



When chicken hens are used to hatch turkey eggs the nests are made and the hens during 

 incubation handled just the same as for chickens. The period of incubation for turkey eggs is 

 twenty-eight days, is occasionally as long as thirty days, and the same precautions suggested 

 in regard to the selection of hens to hatch goose eggs should be observed. Nine to eleven 

 turkey eggs are enough for a hen. When turkey hens are used for hatching they may if 

 <iocile be set wherever the keeper wishes, but if wild must be set on the nests where they 

 have laid. A turkey hen can cover fifteen to twenty eggs. 



