4» 



THE BOOK OF POULTRY. 



all mash, rightly prepared, will be hard enough 

 to be rolled out with a roller into a sheet, if 

 required. Some good feeders prepare it thus, 

 rolling it out and cutting the sheet into small 

 finger pieces, which are thrown to the fowls ; but 

 when mixed "short" as above described, it will 

 break up easily without this trouble. We should 

 advise all mash being mixed with boiling water, 

 so as to " scald " the ingredients, but it should 

 only be given moderately warm. The warmth 

 greatly promotes health and laying, especially 

 in cold weather ; and the food being a little 

 swelled, and in fact really half-cooked before it 

 is eaten, it goes farther, leaving less husk in the 

 excrement. Where hay or clover chaff is used 

 it must be scalded over night, for the reasons 

 already given. The most celebrated and success- 

 ful poultry superintendents we know always 

 mix with boiling water ; and where the contrary 

 plan had been followed, and by their advice 

 changed for this method, a marked improve- 

 ment in the condition of the birds has invariably 

 followed. We are not now considering prize 

 poultry, it is true ; but these men have spent 

 their lives in studying the management of fowls, 

 and what they find best for birds worth a score 

 of pounds each will also be best for commoner 

 fowls, such as can be bought for a few shillings. 



Grown fowls never require more than three 

 meals per day, and are often better with two, 

 but which really is the best depends 

 Number of upon what care and attention can be 

 per Day. given. With even a fair open run 



to tempt them to walk about, and 

 still more with a grass run, the birds will not get 

 lazy with a fair breakfast : if the proprietor sees 

 them standing about afterwards he may be sure 

 they had too much. Such a breakfast, however, 

 with the green food and etceteras they will 

 either pick up or have given to them, will carry 

 them on comfortably till the evening, when 

 they should have a good feed of grain. Un- 

 doubtedly, however, it would be better to give a 

 more scanty breakfast, such as would leave a 

 tolerable appetite behind, and to give a very 

 slight sprinkle of grain at mid-day ; the mis- 

 chief is, that the majority of those who give 

 such an extra feed give it in addition to what 

 is really an ample breakfast, and so the birds 

 get overfed. 



To keep fowls entirely confined in a shed in 

 good health and laying, however, demands very 

 careful attention to the considerations already 

 referred to, drawn from American experience, 

 where keeping them in a shed is necessarily 

 practised wholesale. Here a scanty breakfast 

 of mash is indicated, to be supplemented by a 

 scanty feed of grain, well hidden under litter, so 



that it may occupy hours to find and eat all 

 of it. The litter, for which straw, shells of grain, 

 etc., are used in America, is, however, a difficulty 

 in England, where there is no space to dispose 

 of it when soiled, and material is not so avail- 

 able. The best plan seems to tti to adhere to 

 the scanty breakfast, and add a scanty noon- 

 day feed, but to work a little grain well into 

 the loose material on the floor, well burying it, 

 so that the birds may be kept scratching mean- 

 while : other expedients are mentioned presently 

 in considering the question of green food. Let 

 us repeat once more, that while a slight mid-day 

 feed is better in itself, it must always be 

 deducted frotn the breakfast, and the effect of the 

 total always checked by now and then exam- 

 ining the birds at night, as already remarked. 



Grain is better not mixed. The fowls get 

 more change if fed only one kind of grain at a 

 time ; and if two or three kinds are needed to 

 balance the dietary, the same effect 

 Choice ^^m ]-,g produced, in practice, by 



Grain. gi'^'iig one at a time on two or 



three successive days, or a different 

 grain for the noon-day feed. It has been already 

 indicated, that on a really wide range fowls will 

 thrive and lay well on grain alone. 



The quality of all grain should be carefully 

 looked after. Barley should be fair malting 

 quality, not the narrow husky kind. Of oats, 

 mixed horse-meat is useless ; only heavy white 

 oats, 40-42 lbs. per bushel, are good for fowls. 

 Much buckwheat offered is either old dried-up 

 grain, or kiln-dried ; it is the fresh dark grain 

 that is wanted. Of maize, the small round sort 

 is best. " Poultry mixture " should be reli- 

 giously avoided. It generally consists of the 

 poorest samples, and prevents the birds getting 

 any change. " Sweepings " sometimes contain 

 poisonous substances, and should never be seen 

 in a poultry-yard. Fresh brewers' grains are 

 sometimes beneficial as a stimulant, are cheap 

 and liked by the fowls, and have a food value, 

 but of course are only obtainable in the neigh- 

 bourhood of breweries. The respective food 

 values of the different kinds of grain, on an 

 average of good samples, will be found in the 

 preceding chapter. Fowls rarely refuse any 

 kind if kept in proper condition ; when they 

 do, they have probably been overfed. 



What is termed " cockle-seed," which is not, 

 as might be supposed, the seed of the plant of 

 that name, but the refuse screenings of wheat, 

 has been much recommended by a certain 

 County Council lecturer, who is also noteworthy 

 for the statement that 700 fowls may be kept foi 

 profit and in health in one house, upon two acres 

 of land, for years in succession. At Liverpool 



