Success in turkey raising depends mainly upon the combination of feeds given the young poults. Poor-quality feeds, lack of vitamins, and shortage of proteins, especially if the poults are closely confined, are the more common causes or failures. Some difficulty may be experienced in getting artificially brooded poults to eat, as a young poult is much less active than a chick; but if several small troughs are provided there should be no serious trouble from this cause. Dipping the beaks of backward poults in milk or water, or feeding oatmeal flakes may induce them to eat. Poults brooded with hens, of course, do not need this special attention. After the poults are from 6 to 8 weeks old they may get some of their living from a good range, but the use of additional feed, preferably a balanced ration of mash and scratch grain, will give better growth and result in early maturity and greater returns above feed cost. In natural brooding the turkey hen, while confined to the coop, should be fed mash and given some tender green feed. Water and gravel or grit should, of course, be kept before her all the time. In feeding the hen and her brood it is advisable to feed the poults outside the coop and the hen inside in order to prevent the hen from wasting the feed intended for the poults. For the first 24 to 72 hours after hatching, poults can live without feed, the yolk of the egg which they absorb before hatching being sufficient to maintain them for that length of time. As soon as they are put into the brooder house or with the hen they should be fed. If they are not fed for the first day or two they should be kept in a darkened coop or incubator. However, leaving the poults in a darkened incubator for only 12 to 24 hours and feeding them as soon as they are removed to the brooder seems to be better and is now becoming a general practice. [Illustration: Figure 12.--Cross section of trough feeders for turkey poults of various ages; _A_, Lath feeder for first week; _B_, feeder for second to fourth weeks; _C_, feeder for fifth to twelfth weeks. Feeder _C_ will give better results if equipped with a reel, at the top, similar to that shown in figure 14.]