80 



THE GAME BREEDER 



water. After the water has all seeped 

 away, and before the mud has dried I 

 make a dry nest with hay in which I 

 place about twenty quail eggs. Upon this 

 little nest I put a very small, gentle ban- 

 tam hen. 



The young quail are hatched on the 

 twenty-third day — the dearest, tiniest, 

 fluffy bits of birdies, only a trifle larger 

 than a bumble-bee ; yet how active they 

 are, always running, always hungry, al- 

 ways busy little bodies. 



Great care and thoughtfulness must 

 be used to prevent the escape of the wee 

 birds from the nest when hatching. They 

 are left undisturbed in the nest until 

 twenty- four hours old. After which 

 they with their foster mother are re- 

 moved to small coops about three feet 

 square in which they are kept three or 

 four days. The floor of this coop being 

 kept well supplied with crushed wheat, 

 fine grit, charcoal and a shallow dish of 

 water. Three times each day I feed 

 them a small amount of hard boiled egg. 

 On the fourth day they are removed to 

 inclosures about six feet square where a 

 goodly supply of crushed wheat, grit, 

 charcoal and water is kept before them 

 constantly. I feed them three times 

 daily a small amount of hard boiled egg. 

 At the beginning of the fourth week 

 all food is removed from the coops after 

 which they are fed four times each day, 

 just the amount they clean up nicely, 

 three feeds of crushed wheat and one 

 small feed of boiled egg at noon. 



Grow! does not begin to describe the 

 rapidity of their development into the 

 most charming of American game birds. 

 After two months old they are fed 

 sparingly morning and night on crushed 

 wheat ; at noon a small amount of boiled 

 egg. About twice a week a very little 

 green food. Occasionally a small feed 

 of ripe figs, of which they are exceed- 

 ingly fond. How many of my readers 

 can pick delicious ripe figs fresh from 

 the tree upon which to feed their much- 

 treasiired game birds? 



Only a few short years ago my home 

 was east of the Rockies where the drift- 

 ing snow storms blow in winter and the 

 drenching rain and electrical storms rage 

 in summer. Such climatic conditions 



cause many ailments among the feath- 

 ered tribe. There I made a special work 

 of raising turkeys, raising hundreds of 

 them each season. I find my past ex- 

 perience with turkeys of great value to 

 me in the rearing of game birds as they 

 are constituted so nearly alike. We find 

 a complaint among quail, known as the 

 quail disease, similar to the disease, 

 known as black-head among turkeys. In 

 handling young turkeys I observed they 

 could be kept vigorous and thrifty by 

 feeding them each day a bran mash in 

 which I had mixed a poultry tonic. Dr. 

 'Hess' Poultry Panacea, mixed according 

 to directions on the package giving the 

 best result. 



Quail are very hardy ; they have won- 

 derful vitality until they are almost 

 grown but at this age, for a few weeks, 

 they are very susceptible to the com- 

 plaint known as quail disease, for which 

 in the last stages there is no known 

 remedy. But I find by keeping the 

 growing birds thoroughly vigorous and 

 thrifty this disease can be entirely 

 avoided. When my quail are about half- 

 grown I commence (and continue there- 

 after), mixing about one-fourth of a 

 level teaspoonful of the above men- 

 tioned tonic into about seven hard boiled 

 well ground up eggs. This will be suf- 

 ficient for the noon-day meal for about 

 seventy-five quail. 



A very important rule to ever remem- 

 ber after quail are three months old, is 

 to feed very, very sparingly, always 

 knowing a hungry quail is never a sick 

 quail. 



How well they enjoy a "hike" around 

 the place with their dear little bantam 

 mother of whom they are very fond. 

 And how proud she is to rear these popu- 

 lar game birds. 



They become very gentle on account of 

 my method of capturing them when oc- 

 casionally' an almost full grown bird 

 escapes from his yard, I simply throw 

 feed on the ground around me to which 

 my dear little quail friend comes de- 

 lighted and I quietly stoop and pick him 

 up returning him to his yard. 



After they almost reach maturity they 

 are placed in a large inclosure where 

 they enjoy more liberty. This inclosure 



