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

on the caterpillars, of which they were so fond that in a few days they devoured them all, without touching a single grain of the corn. Mr. Dickson observes, that "biscuit-dust from ships' stores, which consists of biscuit mouldered into meal, mixed with fragments still unbroken, would be an excellent food for poultry, if soaked in boiling water and given them hot. It is thus used for feeding pigs near the larger seaports, where it can sometimes be had in considerable quantity, and at a very reasonable price. It will be no detriment to this material if it be full of weevils and their grubs, of which fowls are fonder than of the biscuit itself." There is not any food of which poultry generally are so fond as of earthworms; but all fowls are not equally fond of them, and some will not touch them. They will not eat dead worms. Too many ought not to be given, or they will become too fat and cease laying. When fowls are intended for the table worms should not be given, as they are said always more or less to deteriorate the flavour of the flesh. A good supply may easily be obtained. By stamping hard upon the ground, as anglers do, worms will rise to the surface; but a better method is to thrust a strong stake or a three-pronged potato-fork into the ground, to the depth of a foot or so, and jerk it backwards and forwards, so as to shake the soil all around. By going out with a light at night in calm, mild weather, particularly when there is dew, or after rain, a cautious observer will see large numbers of worms lying on the ground, gravel-walks, grass-plots or pastures; but they are easily frightened into their holes, though with caution and dexterity a great number, and those chiefly of the largest size, may be captured. Mr. Dickson advises that cottagers' children should be employed to imitate the example of the rooks, by following the plough or the digger, and collecting the worms which are disclosed to view; and also to collect cock-chafers, "and, what would be more advantageous, they might be set to collect the grubs of this destructive insect after the plough, and thus, while providing a rich banquet for the poultry, they would be clearing the fields of a most destructive insect." Fowls are very fond of shell snails. They are still more fattening than worms, and therefore too many must not be given when laying, but they do not injure the flavour of the flesh. Some will eat slugs, but they are not generally fond of these, and many fowls will not touch them. One great secret of profitable poultry-keeping is, that hens cannot thrive and lay without a considerable quantity of animal food, and therefore if they cannot obtain a sufficient quantity in the form of insects, it must be supplied in meat, which, minced small, should be given daily and also to all fowls in winter, as insects are then not to be had. Mr. Baily says: "Do not give fowls meat, but always have the bones thrown out to them after dinner; they enjoy picking them, and perform the operation perfectly. Do not feed on raw meat; it makes fowls quarrelsome, and gives them a propensity to peck each other, especially in moulting time if the accustomed meat be withheld." They will peck at the wound of another fowl to procure blood, and even at their own wounds when within reach. Take care that long pieces of membrane, or thick skin, tough gristle or sinew, or pieces of bone, are not left sticking to the meat, or it may choke them, or form a lodgment in the crop. "Pieces of suet or fat," says Mr. Dickson, "are liked by fowls better than any other sort of animal food; but, if supplied in any quantity, will soon render them too fat for continuing to lay. Should there be any quantity of fat to dispose of, it ought, therefore, to be given at intervals, and mixed or accompanied with bran, which will serve to fill their crops without producing too much nutriment." It is a good plan when there are plenty of bones and scraps of meat to boil them well, and mix bran or pollard with the liquor before giving them to the fowls, as it makes the meat easier to mince, and extracts nourishment from the bones. When minced-meat is required for a large number of fowls, a mincing or sausage machine will save much time and prepare the meat better than chopping. They are as fond of fish, whether salted or fresh, as of flesh. Crumbs, fragments of pastry, and all the refuse and slops of the kitchen may be given them. Greaves, so much advertised for fowls, are very bad, rapidly throwing them out of condition, causing their feathers to fall off, spoiling the flavour of the flesh; they cause premature decrepitude, and engender many diseases, the most common being dropsy of an incurable character. Where there is no danger from thieves, foxes, or other vermin, and the run is extensive, it is the best plan to leave the small door of the fowl-house open, and the fowls will go out at daybreak and pick up many an "early worm" and insect. The morning meal may be given when the household has risen. A constant supply of fresh clean water is indispensable. Fountains are preferable to open vessels, in which the fowls are apt to void their dung, and the chickens to dabble and catch cold, often causing roup, cramp, &c. The simplest kind of water vessel is a saucer made of red pottery, containing several circular, concentric troughs, each about an inch wide, and of the same depth. Chickens cannot get drowned in these shallow vessels, but unless placed behind rails the water will be dirtied by the fowls. They are sold at all earthenware shops, and are used for forcing early mustard in. A capital fountain may be made with an earthenware jar or flower-pot and a flower-pot saucer. Bore a small hole in the jar or flower-pot an inch and a half from the edge of the rim, or detach a piece about three-quarters of an inch deep and one inch wide, from the rim, and if a flower-pot is used plug the hole in the bottom airtight with a piece of cork; fill the vessel with water, place the saucer bottom upwards on the top, press it closely, and quickly turn both upside down, when the water will flow into the saucer, filling up the space between it and the vessel up to the same height as the hole in the side of the jar or flower-pot, therefore the hole in the side of the rim of the vessel must not be quite so deep as the height of the side of the saucer; and above all the plug in the flower-pot must be airtight. This fountain is cheap, simple, and easily cleaned. Water may also be kept in troughs, or earthenware pans, placed in the same way. The fountains and pans should be washed and filled with fresh water once every day, and oftener in warm weather; and they should occasionally be scoured with sand to remove the green slime which collects on the surface, and produces roup, gapes, and other diseases. In winter the vessels should always be emptied at night, in order to avoid ice from forming in them, which is troublesome to remove, and snow must never be allowed to fall into them, snow-water being most injurious to poultry. CHAPTER V. EGGS. During the natural process of moulting, hens cease laying because all the superabundant nutriment is required for the production of the new feathers. Fowls moult later each time; the moulting occupies a longer period, and is more severe as it becomes later, and if the weather should be cold at its termination they seldom recommence laying for some time. But young fowls moult in spring. Therefore, by having pullets and hens of different ages, and moulting at different times, a healthy laying stock may be kept up. Pullets hatched in March, and constantly fed highly, not only lay eggs abundantly in the autumn, but when killed in the following February or March, are as fat as any one could or need desire them to be, and open more like Michaelmas geese than chickens. When eggs alone are wanted, you can commence by buying in the spring as many hens as you require, and your run will accommodate, not more than a year or eighteen months old. If in good health and condition, they will be already laying, or will begin almost immediately; and, if well housed and fed, will give a constant supply of eggs until they moult in the autumn. When these hens have ceased laying, and before they lose their good condition by moulting, they should be either killed or sold, unless they are Hamburgs, Brahmas, or Cochins, and replaced by pullets hatched in March or April, which will have moulted early, and, if properly housed and fed, will begin to lay by November at the latest, and continue laying until February or March, when they may be sold or killed, being then in prime condition, and replaced as before; or, as they will not stop laying for any length of time, the best may be kept until the autumn, when, if profit is the chief consideration, they must be disposed of.[3] But Brahmas, Cochins, and Hamburgs will lay through the winter up to their second, or even third year. If you commence poultry-keeping in the autumn you should buy pullets hatched in the preceding spring. The best and cheapest plan of keeping up a good stock is to keep a full-feathered Cochin or two for March or April sitting; and, if necessary, procure eggs of the breed you desire. The Cochin will sit again, being only too often ready for the task; and the later-hatched chickens can be fattened profitably for the table. But if you wish to obtain eggs all the year round, and to avoid replacing of stock, or object to the trouble of rearing chickens, keep only those breeds that are non-sitters, as the Hamburgs, Polands, and Spanish; but you must purchase younger birds from time to time to keep a supply of laying hens while others are moulting. Warmth is most essential for promoting laying. A severe frost will suddenly stop the laying of even the most prolific hens. "When," says M. Bosc, "it is wished to have eggs during the cold season, even in the dead of winter, it is necessary to make the fowls roost over an oven, in a stable, in a shed where many cattle are kept, or to erect a stove in the fowl-house on purpose. By such methods, the farmers of Ange have chickens fit for the table in the month of April, a period when they are only beginning to be hatched in the farms around Paris, although farther to the south." It is the winter management of fowls that decides the question of profit or loss, for hens will be sure to pay in the summer, even if only tolerably attended to. It is thought by many that each hen can produce only a certain number of eggs; and if such be the case, it is very advantageous to obtain a portion of them in winter when they are generally scarce and can be eaten while fresh, instead of having the whole number produced in the summer, when so many are spoiled from too long keeping in consequence of more being produced than are required for use at the time. When the time for her laying approaches, her comb and wattles change from their previous dull hue to a bright red, the eye brightens, the gait becomes more spirited, and sometimes she cackles for three or four days. After laying her egg on leaving the nest the hen utters a loud cackling cry, to which the cock often responds in a high-pitched kind of scream; but some hens after laying leave the nest in silence. Some hens will lay an egg in three days, some every other day, and others every day. Hens should not be forced. By unnaturally forcing a fowl with stimulating food, and more particularly with hempseed and tallow greaves, to lay in two years or so the eggs that should have been the produce of several, the hen becomes prematurely old and diseased; and it is reasonable to suppose that the eggs are not so good as they would have been if nature had been left to run its own course. The eggs ought to be taken from the nest every afternoon when no more may be expected to be laid; for if left in the nest, the heat of the hens when laying next day will tend to corrupt them. When the shells of the eggs are somewhat soft, it is because the hens are rather inclined to grow too fat. It is then proper to mix up a little chalk in their water, and to put a little mortar rubbish in their food, the quantity of which should be diminished. We give the following remarks by an experienced poultry-keeper of the old school, as valuable from being the result of practice: "The hen sometimes experiences a difficulty in laying. In this case a few grains of salt or garlic put into the vent have been successfully tried. The keeper should indeed make use of the latter mode to find out the place where a hen has laid without his knowledge; for, as the hen will be in haste to deposit her egg, her pace towards the nest will be quickened; she may then be followed and her secret found out." "Though one particular form," says Mr. Dickson, "is so common to eggs, that it is known by the familiar name of egg-shaped, yet all keepers of poultry must be aware that eggs are sometimes nearly round, and sometimes almost cylindrical, besides innumerable minor shades of difference. In fact, eggs differ so much in shape, that it is said experienced poultry-keepers can tell by the shape of the eggs alone the hen that laid them; for, strange to say, however different in size the eggs of any particular hen may be occasionally, they are very rarely different in form. Among the most remarkable eggs may be mentioned those of the Shanghae, or Cochin-China fowl, which are of a pale chocolate colour; and those of the Dorking fowl, which are of a pure white, and nearly as round as balls. The eggs of the Malay fowls are brown; those of the Polish fowl, which are very much pointed at one end, are of a delicate pinkish white; and those of the Bantam are of a long oval." A very important part of the egg is the air-bag, or _folliculus aeris_, which is placed at the larger end, between the shell and its lining membranes. It is, according to Dr. Paris, about the size of the eye of a small bird in new laid eggs, but enlarges to ten times that size during the process of incubation. "This air-bag," says Mr. Dickson, "is of such great importance to the development of the chick, probably by supplying it with a limited atmosphere of oxygen, that if the blunt end of the egg be pierced with the point of the smallest needle (a stratagem which malice not unfrequently suggests), the egg cannot be hatched, but perishes." An egg exposed to the air is continually losing a portion of its moisture, the place of which is filled by the entrance of air, and the egg consequently becomes stale, and after a time putrid. M. Reaumur made many experiments in preserving eggs, and found that, by coating them with varnish, it was impossible to distinguish those which had been kept for a year from those newly laid; but varnish, though not expensive, is not always to be had in country places, and it also remained on the eggs placed under a hen and impeded the hatching, while in boiling them, the varnish, not being soluble in hot water, prevented them from being properly cooked. He tried other substances, and found that fat or grease, such as suet, lard, dripping, butter, and oil, were well adapted for the purpose, the best of these being a mixture of mutton and beef suet thoroughly melted together over a slow fire, and strained through a linen cloth into an earthen pan. It is only requisite, he says, to take a piece of the fat or butter about the size of a pea on the end of the finger, and rub it all over the shell, by passing and repassing the finger so that no part be left untouched; the transpiration of matter from the egg being as effectually stopped by the thinnest layer of fat or grease as by a thick coating, so that no part of the shell be left ungreased, or the tip of the finger may be dipped into oil and passed over the shell in the same manner. If it is desired that the eggs should look clean, they may be afterwards wiped with a towel, for sufficient grease or oil enters the pores of the shell to prevent all transpiration without its being necessary that any should be left to fill up the spaces between the pores. They can be boiled as usual without rubbing off the fat, as it will melt in the hot water, and when taken out of the water the little grease that is left upon the egg is easily wiped off with a napkin. Eggs preserved in this manner can also be used for hatching, as the fat easily melts away by the heat of the hen; and by this means the eggs of foreign fowls might be carried to a distance, hatched, and naturalised in this and other countries. The French also find that a mixture of melted beeswax and olive oil is an excellent preservative. Eggs may also be preserved for cooking by packing them in sawdust, in an earthen vessel, and covering the top with melted mutton suet or fat; as fruit is sometimes preserved. They are also said to keep well in salt, in a barrel arranged in layers of salt and eggs alternately. If the salt should become damp, it would penetrate through the pores of the shell and pickle them to a certain extent. M. Gagne says that eggs may be preserved in a mixture made of one bushel of quick-lime, two pounds of salt, and eight ounces of cream of tartar, with sufficient water to make it into a paste of a consistency to receive the eggs, which, it is said, may be kept in it fresh for two years; but eggs become tasteless when preserved with lime. It may be as well to mention here that eggs are comparatively wasted when used in making a rice pudding, as they render it too hard and dry, and the pudding without them, if properly made, will be just of the right consistency. "Another way to preserve eggs," says Mr. Dickson, "is to have them cooked in boiling water the same day they are laid. On taking them out of the water they are marked with red ink, to record their date, and put away in a cool place, where they will keep, it is said, for several months. When they are wanted for use, they are again put into hot water to warm them. The curdy part which is usually seen in new-laid eggs is so abundant, and the taste is said to be so well preserved, that the nicest people may be made to believe that they are new laid. At the end of three or four months, however, the membrane lining the shell becomes much thickened, and the eggs lose their flavour. Eggs so preserved have the advantage of not suffering from being carried about." "It ought not to be overlooked," says Mr. Dickson, "with respect to the preservation of eggs, that they not only spoil by the transpiration of their moisture and the putrid fermentation of their contents, in consequence of air penetrating through the pores of the shell; but also by being moved about, and jostled when carried to a distance by sea or land. Any sort of rough motion indeed ruptures the membranes which keep the white, the yolk, and the germ of the chick in their proper places, and upon these becoming mixed, putrefaction soon follows." If the eggs are to be kept for setting, place a box, divided by partitions into divisions for the eggs of the different breeds, in a dry corner of your kitchen, but not too near to the fire; fill the divisions with bran previously well dried in an oven; place the eggs in it upright, with the larger ends uppermost, as soon as they are laid, and cover them with the bran. Mark each egg in pencil with the date when laid, and description of breed or cross. They should be kept in a cool place or a warm place according to the season. Airtight jars, closed with airtight stoppers, may be used if the eggs are intended to be kept for a very long time. In selecting eggs for setting, choose the freshest, those of moderate size, well-shaped, and having the air-vessel distinctly visible, either in the centre of the top of the egg, or slightly to the side, when the egg is held between the eye and a lighted candle, in a darkened room. Reject very small eggs, which generally have no yolk, those that are