MIXING AND FEEDING. 



47 



much bran is used, and on any symptoms of 

 chronic diarrhoea the food should be changed for 

 a while. It is quite possible that only special 

 samples may be in fault. We have already 

 said that some addition of malt-culms adds a 

 great deal to the digestibility of such materials. 



How the soft meat is given will depend on 

 circumstances. Supposing a yard to be toler- 

 ably dry and clean, and that the 

 Feeding proprietor or his servant can spend 



Vessela. ^ fg^ minutes over the fowls, it will 



be best to scatter it freely over the 

 ground. Properly mixed, little dust or dirt will 

 adhere to it, and every bird will get its share. 

 But if the weather be wet this will hardly do, 

 neither will it if the birds are confined in the 

 shed, floored as this is with loose dust or sand. 

 In such cases any common dish will do to put 

 the food in, the quantity which the fowls need 

 having been found by previous observation. A 

 large garden saucer will answer, but if a dish 

 can be procured with straight sides (as in Fig. 15) 



Loose covers are best, supported on vertical 

 bars or wires, as in Fig. 17. These can be 



Fig. 17. — Loose Cover. 



obtained of appliance manufacturers in great 

 variety, to fit loosely over various forms of 

 troughs. For a rather smaller number, troughs 

 with a cover hinged so as to fall back (Fig. 18) 

 are more convenient. Something of this sort is 

 better than an open trough whenever more than 

 five or six fowls are fed together, for the reason 

 that if they are properly hungry, they are too 

 busy getting their own heads through the wires 

 to pay much attention to driving others away. 



Fig 16 



it will be better, as the .*bwls cannot then turn 

 it over when they step on the edges, as they are 

 apt to do with a dish wider at the top than the 

 bottom : also they cannot rake the food out so 

 leadily with their beaks. A useful vessel for 

 feeding a few poultry is one (Fig. 16) designed 

 by the late Mr. E. Jones, a celebrated Spanish 

 breeder of Bristol, which would be readily made 

 in quantities of a dozen at any pottery. This 

 dish is circular in shape, and of the section 

 represented, thus presenting a saucer at both top 

 and bottom, the size being about eight inches 

 across, and five inches deep. If the wide face 

 be placed on the ground, the saucer with up- 

 right sides contains the soft food (which cannot 

 be scratched or raked out), stands perfectly firm 

 and steady even if perched upon, and is suffi- 

 ciently raised to prevent dirt being scattered into 

 the food. When turned the other way it forms 

 a water vessel, also raised from the ground, and 

 which, from the slanting sides, does not touch 

 the combs of Minorcas or other large-combed 

 breeds, for which the ordinary poultry-fountain 

 is not suitable on account of the size of that 

 appendage. 



Troughs or vessels for larger numbers of 

 fowls — such as twenty-five birds kept in one lot 

 for laying purposes — often need to be protected, 

 to keep the birds from walking over the food. 



Fig. iS. — Hinged Cover. 



Such a trough, whether covered or not, must be 

 large enough for all the fowls to get to it at 

 once. A plain open dish, however, does per- 

 fectly well for a few fowls. 



The proper mixing of the soft food is impor- 

 tant. By far the larger number of servants tvill 

 mix it too wet and sloppy, to save 

 Mixing a few seconds additional time ; and 



Soft Food. give 't: as a sticky, porridgy mass 

 which clings round the beaks of the 

 fowls. Such feeding often causes diarrhcea, and 

 in any case will rarely produce a proper egg- 

 return. It is a universal rule that soft food 

 should be so mixed that while none of the meal 

 be left in powder or dry, the whole be so firm 

 and "short" that a mass of it will break into 

 fragments if thrown upon the ground ; not on any 

 account sticking with a " smack" as when a boy 

 throws his lump of clay against a wall. All 

 meal can be mixed this way if properly done, 

 which is by stirring the water first well in with 

 a spoon or stick, all remaining apparently too 

 dry to mix thoroughly, and then kneading 

 and squeezing it together in the hands. Food 

 so mixed does twice the good, for the simple 

 reasons that it is both more wholesome in itself, 

 and more enjoyed. Meal combined with turnips 

 or potatoes need not be mixed quite so dry ; but 



