Hatching under Turkeys in France. 
67 
in summer and winter. In this room a number of boxes, two feet long, one foot wide, and 
one foot six inches deep, are ranged along the walls. These boxes are covered in with 
lattice or wire-work, and serve for turkeys to hatch any kind of eggs. Similar boxes, but of 
smaller dimensions, are provided for broody fowls. The bed of the boxes is formed of heather, 
straw, hay, or cocoa-fibres ; and the number of eggs for turkeys to hatch is two dozen, and one 
dozen for hens. At any time of the year, turkeys, whether broody or not, are taught to hatch 
in the following manner : — Some addled eggs are emptied, then filled with plaster of Paris, then 
placed in a nest ; after which, a turkey is fetched from the yard and placed on the eggs, and 
covered over with lattice. For the first forty-eight hours she will endeavour to get out of her 
confinement, but soon becomes reconciled to it, when fresh eggs are substituted for the plaster 
of Paris ones. They will then continue to hatch, without intermission, from three to six months, 
and even longer ; the chickens being withdrawn as soon as hatched, and fresh eggs substituted. 
After the third day the eggs are examined, and the clear eggs withdrawn, which are then sold 
in the market for new-laid ; but as they may be soiled or discoloured from having been sat 
upon, they clean them with water and silver-sand to restore their original whiteness. The turkeys 
are taken off their nest once a day to feed, and to remove their excrements from the nest ; but 
after a while they cease self-feeding, when it is necessary to cram them, and give them some 
water once a day. 
“ Amongst some places I visited, in company with two of your shareholders, may be 
mentioned the farm of Madame La Marquise de la Briffe, Chateau de Neuville, Gambais, near 
Houdan, where we observed twelve turkeys hatching at the same time ; here, also, we witnessed 
the rearing and fattening, which will be alluded to hereafter. In another place, that of M. Auche, 
of Gambais, a hatcher by trade, we observed sixty turkeys hatching at the same time ; and we 
were informed that during winter and early spring he had sometimes upwards of one hundred 
hatching at the same time, and that each turkey continued hatching for at least three months. 
At the farm of M. Louis Mary, at St. Julien de Faucon, near Lizieux, in Calvados, I saw a 
turkey that was then sitting and had been so upwards of six months. I was informed that it 
was of great economical advantage to employ turkeys to hatch, as they eat very little and get 
very fat in their state of confinement, and therefore fit for the maiket any day. 
The turkeys are also successfully employed for foster-mothers, as also are capons. “ When 
a turkey has been hatching for some months, and shows a disposition to leave off, a glassful of 
wine is given her in the evening, and a number of chickens aie substituted foi the eggs , on 
waking in the morning she kindly takes to them and leads them about, strutting amidst a tioop 
of seventy to one hundred chickens with all the dignity of a drum-majoi. 
6 
