POULTRY: A PRACTICAL GUIDE TO THE CHOICE, BREEDING, REARING AND MANAGEMENT OF FOWLS TEXT

back; this greater slant of the roof being made in order to confine her movements, as otherwise she would move about too much, and trample upon her brood. When they have grown larger they must have a larger coop, made of open bars wide enough apart for them to go in and out, but too close to let in fowls to eat their delicate food, and the hen must be placed under it with them. A large empty crate, such as is used to contain crockery-ware, will make a good coop for large poults; but if one cannot be had, a coop may be made of laths or rails, with the bars four inches apart; it should be about five feet long, four feet broad, and three feet high. Keep her cooped for two months, moving the coop every fine, dry day into a grass field, but on cold or wet days keep them in the outhouse. If she is allowed her liberty before they are well grown and strong, she will wander away with them through the long grass, hedges, and ditches, over highway, common, and meadow, mile after mile, losing them on the road, and straying on with the greatest complacency, and perfectly satisfied so long as she has one or two following her, and never once turning her head to see how her panting chicks are getting on, nor troubled when they squat down tired out, and implore her plaintively to come back; and all this arises from sheer heedlessness, and not from want of affection, for she will fight for her brood as valiantly as any pheasant will for hers. When full grown they should never be allowed to roam with her while there is heavy dew or white frost on the grass, but be kept in till the fields and hedgerows are dry. They will pick up many seeds and insects while wandering about in the fields with her, but must be fed by hand three or four times a day at regular intervals. They cease to be chicks or chickens, and are called turkey-poults when the male and female distinctive characteristics are fairly established, the carunculated skin and comb of the cock being developed, which is called "shooting the red," or "putting out the red," and begins when they are eight or ten weeks old. It is the most critical period of their lives--much more so than moulting, and during the process their food must be increased in quantity, and made more nourishing by the addition of boiled egg-yolks, bread crumbled in ale, wheaten flour, bruised hempseed, and the like, and they must be well housed at night. When this process is completed they will be hardy, and able to take care of themselves; but till they are fully fledged it will be advisable to keep them from rain and cold, and not to try their hardness too suddenly. Vegetables, as chopped nettles, turnip-tops, cabbage sprouts, onions, docks, and the like, boiled down and well mixed with barley-meal, oatmeal, or wheaten flour, and curds, if they can be afforded, form excellent food for the young poults; also steamed potatoes, boiled carrots, turnips, and the like. With this diet may be given buckwheat, barley, oats, beans, and sunflower seeds. When they are old enough to be sent to the stubble and fields, they are placed in charge of a boy or girl of from twelve to fifteen years old, who can easily manage one hundred poults. They are driven with a long bean stick, and the duties of the turkey-herd is to keep the cocks from fighting, to lead them to every place where there are acorns, beech-mast, corn, wild fruit, insects, or other food to be picked up. He must not allow them to get fatigued with too long rambles, as they are not fully grown, and must shelter them from the burning sun, and hasten them home on the approach of rain. The best times for these rambles are from eight to ten in the morning, when the dew is off the grass, and from four till seven in the evening, before it begins to fall. Turkeys are crammed for the London markets. The process of fattening may commence when they are six months old, as they require a longer time to become fit for the market than fowls. The large birds which are seen at Christmas are usually males of the preceding year, and about twenty months old. All experienced breeders repudiate "cramming." To obtain fine birds the chickens must be fed abundantly from their birth until they are sent to market, and while they are being fattened they should be sent to the fields and stubble for a shorter time daily, and their food must be increased in quantity and improved in quality. Early hatched, well fed young Norfolk cocks will frequently weigh twenty-three pounds by Christmas of the same year, and two-year-old birds will sometimes attain to twenty pounds. When two or more years old they are called "stags." The domesticated turkey can scarcely be said to be divided into distinct breeds like the common fowl, the several varieties being distinguished by colour only, but identical in their form and habits. They vary considerably in colour--some being of a bronzed black, others of a coppery tint, of a delicate fawn colour, or buff, and some of pure white. The dark coloured birds are generally considered the most hardy, and are usually the largest. The chief varieties are the Cambridge, Norfolk, Irish, American, and French. The Cambridge combines enormous size, a tendency to fatten speedily, and first-rate flavour. The tortoiseshell character of its plumage gives the adult birds a very prepossessing appearance around the homestead, and a striking character in the exhibition room. The colours may vary from pale to dark grey, with a deep metallic brown tint, and light legs. The legs should be stout and long. The Norfolk breed is more compact and smaller-boned, and produces a large quantity of meat of delicate whiteness and excellent quality. The cocks are almost as heavy as the Cambridge breed, but the hens are smaller and more compact. The Norfolk should be jet, not blue black, and free from any other colour, being uniform throughout, including the legs and feet. All the birds in a pen must be uniform. The American wild turkey has become naturalised in this country, but being of a very wandering disposition is best adapted to be kept in parks and on large tracts of wild land. It is slender in shape, but of good size, with uniform metallic bronze plumage, the flight feathers being barred with white, and the tail alternately with white, rich dark brown, and black, and with bright pink legs. The wattles are smaller than in the other breeds, and of a bluish tinge. They are very hardy, but more spiteful than others, and are said to be also more prolific. Crosses often take place in America between the wild and tame races, and are highly valued both for their appearance and for the table. Eggs of the wild turkey have also often been taken from their nests, and hatched under the domesticated hen. The flavour of the flesh of the American breed is peculiar and exceedingly good, but they do not attain a large size. CHAPTER XXI. GUINEA-FOWLS. The Guinea-fowl, Gallina, or Pintado (_Numida Meleagris_), is the true meleagris of the ancients, a term generically applied by Belon, Aldrovandus, and Gesner to the turkey, and now retained, although the error is acknowledged, in order to prevent confusion. It is a native of Africa, where it is extensively distributed. They associate in large flocks and frequent open glades, the borders of forests, and banks of rivers, which offer abundant supplies of grain, berries, and insects, in quest of which they wander during the day, and collect together at evening, and roost in clusters on the branches of trees or shrubs. Several other wild species are known, some of which are remarkable for their beauty; but the common Guinea-fowl is the only one domesticated in Europe. The Guinea-fowl is about twenty-two inches long, and from standing high on its legs, and having loose, full plumage, appears to be larger than it really is, for when plucked it does not weigh more than an ordinary Dorking. It is very plump and well-proportioned. The Guinea-fowl is not bred so much as the turkey in England or France, is very rare in the northern parts of Europe, and in India is bred almost exclusively by Europeans, although it thrives as well there as in its native country. It "is turbulent and restless," says Mr. Dickson, "continually moving from place to place, and domineering over the whole poultry-yard, boldly attacking even the fiercest turkey cock, and keeping all in alarm by its petulant pugnacity"; and the males, although without spurs, can inflict serious injury on other poultry with their short, hard beaks. The Guinea-fowls make very little use of their wings, and if forced to take to flight, fly but a short distance, then alight, and trust to their rapid mode of running, and their dexterity in threading the mazes of brushwood and dense herbage, for security. They are shy, wary, and alert. It is not much kept, its habits being wandering, and requiring an extensive range, but as it picks up nearly all its food, and is very prolific, it may be made very profitable in certain localities. The whole management of both the young and the old may be precisely the same as that of turkeys, in hatching, feeding, and fattening. This "species," says Mr. Dickson, "differs from all other poultry, in its being difficult to distinguish the cock from the hen, the chief difference being in the colour of the wattles, which are more of a red hue in the cock, and more tinged with blue in the hen. The cock has also a more stately strut." They mate in pairs, and therefore an equal number of cocks and hens must be kept, or the eggs will prove unfertile. To obtain stock, some of their eggs must be procured, and placed under a common hen; for if old birds are bought, they will wander away for miles in search of their old home, and never return. They should be fed regularly, and must always have one meal at night, or they will scarcely ever roost at home. They will not sleep in the fowl-house, but prefer roosting in the lower branches of a tree, or on a thick bush, and retire early. They make a peculiar, harsh, querulous noise, which is oft-repeated, and not agreeable. The hens are prolific layers, beginning in May, and continuing during the whole summer. Their eggs are small, but of excellent flavour, of a pale yellowish red, finely dotted with a darker tint, and remarkable for the hardness of the shell. The hen usually lays on a dry bank, in secret places; and a hedgerow a quarter of a mile off is quite as likely to contain her nest as any situation nearer her home. She is very shy, and, if the eggs are taken from her nest, will desert it, and find another; a few should, therefore, always be left, and it should never be visited when she is in sight. But she often contrives to elude all watching, and hatch a brood, frequently at a late period, when the weather is too cold for the chickens. As the Guinea-fowl seldom shows much disposition to incubate if kept under restraint, and frequently sits too late in the season to rear a brood in this country, it is a general practice to place her eggs under a common fowl--Game and Bantams are the best for the purpose. About twenty of the earliest eggs should be set in May. The Guinea-hen will hatch another brood when she feels inclined. They sit for twenty-six to twenty-nine or thirty days. When she sits in due season she generally rears a large brood, twenty not being an unusual number. The chickens are very tender, and should not be hatched too early in spring, as a cold March wind is generally fatal to them. They must be treated like those of the turkey, and as carefully. They should be fed almost immediately, within six hours of being hatched, abundantly, and often; and they require more animal food than other chickens. Egg boiled hard, chopped very fine, and mixed with oatmeal, is the best food. They will die if kept without food for three or four hours; and should have a constant supply near them until they are allowed to have full liberty and forage for themselves. They will soon pick up insects, &c., and will keep themselves in good condition with a little extra food. They are very strong on their legs, and those hatched under common hens may be allowed to range with her at the end of six weeks, and be fed on the same food and at the same times as other chickens. The Guinea-fowl may be considered as somewhat intermediate between the pheasant and turkey. After the pheasant season, young birds that have been hatched the same year are excellent substitutes for that fine game, and fetch a fair price. They should never be fattened, but have a good supply of grain and meal for a week or two before being killed. The flesh of the young bird is very delicate, juicy, and well-flavoured, but the old birds, even of the second year, are dry, tough, and tasteless. CHAPTER XXII. DUCKS. Ducks will not pay if all their food has to be bought, except it is purchased wholesale, and they are reared for town markets, for their appetites are voracious, and they do not graze like geese. They may be kept in a limited space, but more profitably and conveniently where they have the run of a paddock, orchard, kitchen garden, flat common, green lane, or farmyard, with ditches and water. They will return at night, and come to the call of the feeder. Nothing comes amiss to them--green vegetables, especially when boiled, all kinds of meal made into porridge, all kinds of grain, bread, oatcake, the refuse and offal of the kitchen, worms, slugs, snails, insects and their larvae, are devoured eagerly. Where many fowls are kept, a few ducks may be added profitably, for they may be fed very nearly on what the hens refuse. Ducks require water to swim in, but "it is a mistake," says Mr. Baily, "to imagine that ducks require a great deal of water. They may be kept where there is but very little, and only want a pond or tank just deep enough to swim in. The early Aylesbury ducklings that realise such large prices in the London market have hardly ever had a swim; and in rearing ducks, where size is a desideratum, they will grow faster and become larger when kept in pens, farmyards, or in pastures, than where they are at and in the water all day." Where a large number of geese and ducks are kept, water on a sufficient scale, and easily accessible, should be in the neighbourhood. [Illustration: Toulouse Goose. Rouen and Aylesbury Ducks.] Ducks, being aquatic birds, do not require heated apartments, nor roosts on which to perch during the night. They squat on the floors, which must be dry and warm. They should, if possible, be kept in a house separate from the other poultry, and it should have a brick floor, so that it can be easily washed. In winter the floor should be littered with a thin layer of straw, rushes, or fern leaves, fresh every day. The hatching-houses should be separated from the lodging apartments, and provided with boxes for the purpose of incubation and hatching. In its wild state the duck pairs with a single mate: the domestic duck has become polygamous, and five ducks may be allowed to one drake, but not more than two or three ducks should be given to one drake if eggs are required for setting. Ducks begin laying in January, and usually from that time only during the spring; but those hatched in March will often lay in the autumn, and continue for two or three months. They usually lay fifty or sixty eggs, and have been known to produce 250. The faculty of laying might be greatly developed, as it has been in some breeds of fowls; but they have been hitherto chiefly bred for their flesh. They require constant watching when beginning to lay, for they drop their eggs everywhere but in the nest made for them, but as they generally lay in the night, or early in the morning, when in perfect health, they should therefore be kept in every morning till they have laid. One of the surest signs of indisposition among them is irregularity in laying. "The eggs of the duck," says Mr. Dickson, "are readily known from those of the common fowl by their bluish colour and larger size, the shell being smoother, not so thick, and with much fewer pores. When boiled, the white is never curdy like that of a new-laid hen's egg, but transparent and glassy, while the yolk is much darker in colour. The flavour is by no means so delicate. For omelets, however, as well as for puddings and pastry, duck eggs are much better than hen's eggs, giving a finer colour and flavour, and requiring less butter; qualities so highly esteemed in Picardy, that the women will sometimes go ten or twelve miles for duck eggs to make their holiday cakes." A hen is often made to hatch ducklings, being considered a better nurse than a duck, which is apt to take them while too young to the pond, dragging them under beetling banks in search of food, and generally leaving half of them in the water unable to get out; and if the fly or the gnat is on the water, she will stay there till after dark, and lose part of her brood. Ducks' eggs may be advantageously placed under a broody exhibition hen. (_See_ page 88.) A turkey is much better than either, from the large expanse of the wings in covering the broods, and the greater heat of body; but if the duck is a good sitter, it is best to let her hatch her own eggs, taking care to keep her and them from the water till they are strong. The nest should be on the ground, and in a damp place. Choose the freshest eggs, and place from nine to eleven under her. Feed her morning and evening while sitting, and place food and water within her reach. The duck always covers her eggs upon leaving them, and loose straw should be placed near the house for that purpose. They are hatched in thirty days. They may generally be left with their mother upon the nest for her own time. When she moves coop her on the short grass if fine weather, or under shelter if otherwise, for a week or ten days, when they may be allowed to swim for half an hour at a time. When hatched they require constant feeding. A little curd, bread-crumbs, and meal, mixed with chopped green food, is the best food when first hatched. Boiled cold oatmeal porridge is the best food for ducklings for the first ten days; afterwards barley-meal, pollard, and oats, with plenty of green food. Never give them hard spring water to drink, but that from a pond. Ducklings are easily reared, soon able to shift for themselves, and to pick up worms, slugs, and insects, and can be cooped together in numbers at night if protected from rats. An old pigsty is an excellent place for a brood of young ducks. Ducklings should not be allowed to go on the water till feathers have supplied the place of their early down, for the latter will get saturated with the water while the former throws off the wet. "Though the young ducklings," says Mr. W. C. L. Martin, "take early to the water, it is better that they should gain a little strength before they be allowed to venture into ponds or rivers; a shallow vessel of water filled to the brim and sunk in the ground will suffice for the first week or ten days, and this rule is more especially to be adhered to when they are under the care of a common hen, which cannot follow them into the pond, and the calls of which when there they pay little or no regard to. Rats, weasels, pike, and eels are formidable foes to ducklings: we have known entire broods destroyed by the former, which, having their burrows in a steep bank around a sequestered pond, it was found impossible to extirpate." If the ducklings stay too long in the water they will have diarrhoea, in which case coop them close for a few days, and mix bean-meal or oatmeal with their ordinary food. A troop of ducks will do good service to a kitchen garden in the summer or autumn, when they can do no mischief by devouring delicate salads and young sprouting vegetables. They will search industriously for snails, slugs, woodlice, and millipedes, and gobble them up eagerly, getting