CHICKENS N EARING MATURITY. 



209 



the Norwich chiefly is affected by cayenne, and 

 not all alike among even these. The patchy or 

 local effect on the white fowls will also be 

 noticed, and corresponds with what we found 

 amongst buffs. 



Leg feather requires care, else it will be 

 worn off or broken. The grass in runs for 

 feather-legged fowls should be mown short 



and frequently, so as to keep it not 

 Care of only short but soft and lawn-like in 



Leg Feather, condition, and the shedding should 



contain nothing but absolutely fine 

 and dry material. We do not think the plan 

 adopted by some of allowing no dusting 

 material at all, and depending upon insect 

 powder or other treatment to avoid vermin, a 

 good one. The vermin may be avoided, we 

 admit, but it is not good for either feet or 

 carriage to keep a heavy fowl on a hard floor, 

 and here again we have a cause of the recent 

 increase in crooked toes. We found a mixture of 

 either fine dry sand or finely sifted coal ashes, 

 with plenty of finely cut straw chaff, several 

 inches deep in a large shed, keep both the 

 plumage and leg feather of our Brahmas in 

 admirable condition, and they never had any- 

 thing else except their grass run or outer yard. 

 Long dry straw, on the other hand, does wear 

 away the feathering if allowed continuously. 



The age at which chickens mature varies 

 from less than six months to eight or nine, 

 large Asiatic cockerels being the slowest to 



mature, and pullets and smaller 

 Nearing breeds requiring less time. As it 



Maturity. approaches, the taller birds may 



suffer from some leg weakness if 

 they have grown fast, though the bone dust 

 already spoken of is a great preventive. Should 

 it occur in spite of this, its direct treatment 

 must be sought amongst that of other ailments. 

 W'hen near maturity, meat or other stimulating 

 food should be withdrawn from pullets which 

 it is not desired should lay early, and laying 

 may also be postponed somewhat by changing 

 them every two or three weeks to a fresh run. 

 The too free use of meat with pullets leads to 

 premature laying and to permanently small 

 eggs, through over-stimulation of the ovary 

 and consequent injury to that organ. In ex- 

 periments conducted by Mr. F. J. Broomhead, 

 the editor of Poultry, he found that by meat 

 feeding buff Orpingtons and Plymouth Rocks 

 were induced to lay at 16 weeks old. Their 

 eggs, however, were no larger than those of a 

 pigeon, and no subsequent method of feeding, 

 even when the birds were in their second laying 

 season, and weighed 9 to 9 '2 lbs., had the 

 slip'htest effect on the size of the egg. As 



exhibition birds, pullets hardly ever look so 

 well as just before they lay. Cockerels are 

 better rather older, as already hinted. As they 

 attain the final stages every possible care 

 should be taken to avoid any accidental injury. 

 The holes into the houses should be of ample 

 size, every door that is open be left wide open 

 and fastened so, and care taken if they perch 

 that neither tails nor bodies come against a 

 wall. Every night they should be visited to 

 see that all are right and none squatting in 

 dirty corners. They should never be driven 

 about or frightened, and, if anything has to 

 be done, be taken from the perch at night. 



All through let the chickens be kept tame. 

 A grain or two of groats or hemp every time 

 of passing will establish pleasant relations ; so 

 does waiting in the run whilst the 

 Tameness food is eaten. Stillness and quiet- 

 and Docility, ness of manner soon remove fear, 

 and with an occasional titbit they 

 soon lose all dislike of being handled, and 

 may be taken up out of a run with perfect 

 unconcern. 



There is one danger to which the larger 

 Asiatic breeds are particularly liable during 

 this maturing period, and which often dis- 

 figures an otherwise fine bird. We 

 Slipped allude to what poultry men call 



Wings. " slipped " or " turned " wings ; the 



primary feathers, or those which 

 ought to be nicely tucked away out of sight 

 when the wing is closed, protruding in more or 

 less disorder outside the others. The tendency 

 is to some extent hereditary, no doubt, and it 

 mars the beauty of a bird completely. Pullets 

 are far less liable to it than cockerels, and 

 therefore when it occurs in the female sex it is 

 proportionately more serious in character. In 

 the most aggravated form the flight feathers 

 appear actually twisted, so that the proper in- 

 side of the feathers becomes outside, and in this 

 form the affection is both strongly hereditary 

 and, we believe, incurable. But when it merely 

 amounts to failing to tuck the flight feathers in, 

 without any great disorder among those feathers 

 themselves, it may generally be cured if taken 

 in due time. The usual cause we believe to be 

 the buffeting of cockerels by their stronger 

 neighbours, which causes rapid flapping, 

 followed by imperfect closing, and after a few 

 times this becomes habitual and the mischief is 

 done ; at least, it more rarely occurs in a wide 

 run, or in the master-bird of the yard. 



The treatment is simple. As soon as any 

 displacement of the new feathers is observed the 

 wings should be carefully tucked up every night 

 at roost ; but nothing further can be done till 



