MANAGEMENT OF MALAYS. 



335 



So far as I know it is some years since any 

 importations from abroad have been made, and 

 there is more danger to be apprehended from too 

 close in-breeding than from too violent a cross. 

 Useful typical Malays are to be purchased 

 cheaply enough, but there has never been a time 

 in my experience when a 'flier' would not 

 command a bit of money. The best are of course 

 the cheapest in the end, and in no breed within 

 my knowledge is so little danger incurred in 

 claiming high-class exhibition specimens, pro- 

 vided they have not been overshown ; still it may 

 sometimes be within the power of a friendly 

 breeder to give the beginner a cheap as well 

 as a good start. 



"With regard to housing and feeding, Malays 

 will stand confinement fairly well, but under such 

 conditions all varieties require special treatment, 

 such treatment in fact as has already 

 Management y^^^^^ advised and described in this 

 Malays. work for fowls so situated. But 



those in the enjoyment of perfect 

 liberty to roam over field and plantation are 

 content with a simpler regimen. For roosting- 

 [ilace nothing beats a roomy shed, constructed 

 if you please with ash poles and gorse faggots ; 

 a few galvanised sheets on top of the gorse 

 roof will render it absolutely watertight. If no 

 danger is apprehended from foxes, or other 

 thieves, a door can be dispensed with. The 

 perches should be placed about 3 feet from the 

 ground, and the floor should be well littered 

 with brakes or fallen leaves, otherwise the feet of 

 such heavy short-winged fowls are sure to suffer. 



" The feeding of the stock birds gives little 

 trouble. A small handful of sound wheat per 

 bird early each morning, with nearly as much of 

 the same grain as they will eat shortly before 

 they go to roost, and of course access to clean 

 water, will meet the case. Should the hens in 

 early spring prove chary of their eggs, a hot 

 breakfast composed of sharps and liverine, or 

 an occasional ration of cooked meat, will usually 

 bring them to a sense of their duties. 



'• With regard to selection, it is of course 

 desirable to weed out the wasters as early as 

 possible, but owing to the fixity of type before 

 alluded to, this weeding is with very young 

 Malay chickens not an easy task for a tyro ; so 

 for a season or two he will do well to keep 

 nearly all his youngsters until they attain the 

 age of sixteen to eighteen weeks, when he will 

 readily see which are likely to make the tallest 

 and finest birds. 



" But we must hatch our chickens before 

 we can count or cull them, and at once crops 

 up the question, broody hens or incubators? 

 Personally, after giving the latter a fair trial, I 



have returned to my allegiance to Dame Nature, 

 though a machine always running throughout 

 the season proves a capital receptacle for for- 

 saken eggs or chickens. Malay hens 

 Hatching ^^^ steady sitters, but it must be 



and . -^ . . , ' 



Rearing. borne m mmd that they require a 



very large amount of nest room, and 

 must be kept free from all disturbing elements. 

 They are also good mothers to their own 

 children, but under no circumstances will they 

 go in for baby-farming, so if coops are used 

 they should be placed wide apart. My own 

 broods are never cooped for more than forty- 

 eight hours after hatching, each hen when set at 

 liberty going her own way and minding her own 

 business. The first food my baby Malays 

 receive consists of Spratts' chicken meal, 

 broken wheat, and a little canary seed. For 

 the necessary animal addition to their diet I 

 had for many years depended upon crissel, but 

 last season resorted instead to freshly cut fresh 

 bones, with very satisfactory results. As the 

 birds grow older, if on a free run, plenty of 

 sound grain with a small allowance of the 

 crushed bone is all that the pullets will require 

 to bring them to maturity. But the cockerels, 

 from the time they are separated from their 

 sisters (and the sooner this is done after their 

 mothers desert them the better) require a more 

 forcing treatment, if their ultimate destiny is to 

 shine in the show pen. Mine get daily a liberal 

 ration of ground bones, also a hot dinner con- 

 sisting of equal parts of coarse sharps, Sussex 

 ground oats, and liverine. I am also a great 

 believer in the efficacy of a daily dose of 

 I'arrish's chemical food. 



" From all specific diseases Malays seem 

 wonderfully free, but the cockerels during their 

 fifth, sixth, and seventh months are e.xtremely 

 liable to leg-weakness. As a remedy for this 

 trouble, the pills recommended in the first issue 

 of The Illustrated Book of Poultry [these will be 

 found in the final chapter of this work] have in 

 my experience proved almost infallible. This 

 complaint must not be confounded with either 

 cramp, gout, or rheumatism, in the first of which 

 there is contraction of the toes, in the others 

 heat and swelling of the parts affected. Leg- 

 weakness is rather a form of nervous paralysis, 

 a simple loss of power usually unaccompanied 

 by any constitutional disturbance. 



" The exhibitor of Malays starts with the 

 great advantage, that no trimming is recognised 

 or required in the preparation for the show-pen. 

 Certainly I have seen birds plucked at breast, 

 hock, and hackle, but seldom with beneficial 

 results in the way of prize money. Chickens of 

 course need a little training before making their 



