THE BOOK OF POULTRY. 



season for first laying is of use where large 

 numbers of laying hens are kept to supply the 

 market, as they keep up the succession of eggs, 

 which are scarcest of all in the autumn. But 

 for a small number, our rule will be the sound 

 one. One third the stock in late summer should 

 consist of pullets hatched the March or April 

 previous ; another third of hens a year older ; 

 another third of hens to be killed or sold as soon 

 as they stop at moult. The old hens are thus 

 regularly replaced by pullets six months old, 

 which begin to lay almost at once, and are 

 followed in laying by the hens as they finish 

 moulting. Even if only half a dozen fowls are 

 kept for laying, this is the plan to be followed ; 

 each autumn the three oldest should be killed 

 or sold, and three pullets bought. With fairly 

 good layers there will then be a nearly constant 

 supply of eggs.* 



We have next to consider the practical 

 feeding of our fowls, on the principles ex- 

 plained in the preceding chapter. 

 Quantity j,^ regard to quantity little need be 



Food. added. It has already been shown 



why any fixed quantity must be 

 more or less injurious ; we do not even know 

 very definitely what is the bare necessary " sub- 

 sistence " quantity for a fowl. German experi- 

 ments place it, for cattle, at about one-fiftieth 

 part of the animal's weight, and some writers 

 have taken that proportion ; but other experi- 

 ments show that the smaller the body, the 

 larger fraction of its weight is needed for food, 

 and the greater activity of the fowl must also 

 be considered. As a lule, we are satisfied that 

 most farmers' fowls get too little food, and other 

 people's, except those of e.xperienced breeders, 

 too much. The only safe general rule on this 

 head is to give food as long as the fowls eat 

 eagerly, and no more. That is not nearly what 

 they would eat, or even eat with readiness : it 

 means that as soon as they seem to be thinking 

 about anything else than eating what is nearest 

 them as fast as possible, or to choose amongst 

 the food before them, the supply should be 

 stopped. Many people, at first, will not think 

 this enough, when they see the birds run or fly 

 as if starving when feeding time comes round ; 

 but that is the sort of appetite that means 

 health and vigour, in full-grown birds. To eat 

 to repletion is always bad. 



* These remarks apply chiefly to the average climate of the 

 British Islauas, and would be modified in other countries. In 

 North America the best month for hatching, for general purposes, 

 is May, up to the end. The weather before that is often severe, 

 and the warm dry season enables the birds to make more rapid 

 progress ; so that an American fowl hatched in May is often as 

 forward as a British specimen a month older, by the end of 

 the year. 



While this is a general rule, however, there 

 may be exceptions, due to ill-health or other 

 circumstances : for instance, a good and gallant 

 cock would never get enough on this system. 

 The condition of the birds should therefore be 

 always kept watch upon, by occasionally feeling 

 them at night. The fair " condition " weight for 

 birds of their size should be estimated, and if 

 they are found too heavy, or poor and light, the 

 necessary modification should be made. In 

 practice, the average quantity per meal for the 

 whole pen or each pen of birds, will be known 

 very soon by any intelligent person. 



The nature and time of each meal also needs 

 consideration. Beginners who are not instructed 



often believe still, that grain is the 

 Soft and Only proper food for fowls, as it is 



HardFood. the most "natural." Even people 



who ought to know better, harp 

 upon this idea of " natural " food. It is true 

 enough that Nature makes no mistakes in her 

 own domain, but this is not her domain exactly. 

 If we are to follow Nature, we must follow her 

 altogether, and we must be content with her 

 results. In this case Nature intends her fowl to 

 be at perfect liberty, to get grass and herbs and 

 insects and worms ad libitum, as well as seeds, 

 and to lay either one, or at most two nests- 

 of eggs in the year, in the warm season. She 

 also makes her subject find its food grain by 

 grain, with abundant exercise, and never dis- 

 tending the crop. The result is splendid health, 

 and hard condition, but no profit. We keep our 

 birds in more or less confinement, even fair 

 grass-runs yielding few insects ; and we want 

 either tender flesh, or many times the natural 

 number of eggs. Such a copious product de- 

 mands quicker digestion, and a greater amount 

 of food. This we provide for by grinding up a 

 considerable portion of the grain into meal, and 

 mi.xing this with water into a paste, usually 

 called soft food or mash. It is best, as a rule, to- 

 give this soft food in the morning. The birds 

 have passed a whole night since they were last 

 fed ; and it is important, especially in cold 

 weather, that a fresh supply should as soon as 

 possible be got into the system, and not merely 

 into the crop. Now, if grain be given, it has to 

 be ground in the gizzard before it is digested ; and 

 on a cold winter's morning the delay is anything 

 but beneficial. But, for the very same reason, at 

 the evening meal grain forms the best food 

 which can be supplied ; it is digested more 

 slowly, and during the long, cold nights affords 

 support and warmth to the fowls. Let the 

 sceptical reader make one simple experiment 

 Give the fowls a feed of meal, say at five o'clock 

 in the evenincr : at twelve visit the roosts and feel 



