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TJie Country Gentleman's Magazine 



for eating, hens will eat often and but little at 

 a time — never too much. Chickens should 

 be furnished with plenty of limestone gravel. 

 Some say pure water is essential to laying hens; 

 I prefer to give them milk, as that fluid not 

 only serves to moisten their food, but also 

 contributes albumen, which goes far to the 

 formation of the egg. 



Of course the kind of food, when there is 

 not much variety, will have a special effect on 

 fowls, animals or men ; but we doubt whether 

 this rule of selecting fatty or oily grains to 

 produce fat, and other grains containing 

 "albumoids" in abundance to obtain eggs in 

 preference to fat, is a rule which sagacious 

 poultry breeders will generally heed. A far 

 better rule, in our judgment, is to let the flock 

 select their own food as much as possible — 

 that is, let them have access to such food as 

 is known to suit them ; let them have all they 

 Avant of it, and the "albumoids" and the 

 " fatty and oily substances" which it is deemed 

 they should possess, will not be slow in form- 

 ing part of the chicken economy. The idea 

 of feeding wheat as a speciality for eggs, is 

 probably about as correct as feeding egg-shells 

 to produce other egg-shells. Some think it 

 extremely important that lime, in the form of 

 oyster or clam shells, or of pounded bones, 

 should be given to fowls, or they will lay soft- 

 shelled eggs. These substances make good 

 grinding materials in the operations of the 

 gizzard, but whether if digested, they take on 

 form of egg-shells more readily than they as- 

 similate to flesh and feathers, and bone, is 

 not yet demonstrated in our judgment. But 

 if one article of food is a speciality for a cer- 

 tain part of the fowl — the egg-shells or the 

 albumen for instance — then we should know 



what to feed to produce feathers, or the horny 

 material which enters into the beak and claws, 

 or the skin, or the eyes, or the intestines. 

 Some Brahma chickens have a ridiculous 

 habit, after parting with their down, of running 

 about several weeks stark naked or nearly 

 so ; cannot something be fed them to produce 

 feathers at the right time, or something else 

 to protect them against the heat or the cold ? 

 The answer of course is in the negative, and 

 we strongly believe that the same is true 

 as to what food will operate as a speci- 

 ality for eggs or fat. A fowl's gizzard is 

 a chemical laboratory in which the nature ot 

 things is very materially and rapidly changed, 

 and appropriated for purposes which we can- 

 not know very definitely. Fowls eat some 

 things, which if they consulted our tastes, 

 they would be sure to discard — things which 

 cannot be mentioned always to ears polite? 

 but it will embarrass chemistry to discover any 

 trace of them in the eggs or the flesh. The best 

 rule is to feed them with what they like and 

 plenty of it, and that of course includes a large 

 variety. Let them choose their food where 

 it is possible. They certainly tire of special 

 articles when confined to them week after 

 week, just as human beings do, and it is then 

 that they go to eating eggs, or feathers, or 

 even each other's flesh, and disgust their 

 owners by refusing to lay eggs, or to grow 

 large and fat. It is more science than they 

 can stand ; but give them a variety to choose 

 from, and consult their own tastes to an in- 

 telligent extent, and that wondrous internal 

 manufactory to which their food is consigned 

 will, as a rule, not fail to build up the hen in 

 all her departments to the full gratification of 

 her owner. 



