Joaa 25, less. 1 



JO0BNAL OF HOBTIOULTUBB AND COTTAQIS OAttDENKB. 



463 



being placed on a perfect eqnality, both as to caps and prizes, 

 with the Dark Ilrabmaa. 



Managers of uhowa are ueually observant of and anxious to 

 meet the wanti of the public. Thoy may rest well assureil of 

 two simple facts — Brot, that no classes are more popular than 

 those for Crnbnias ; secondly, that where equal prizes are offered 

 to each variety there will be an equal if not a larger entry of 

 Light Brabmas. At Winchester the number of entries was, 

 Park, ten ; Light, twelve! — Odservkk. 



GHICKENIIOOD. 



" Early chickens, or, iuJoed, chickens at any period of the 

 year, are all vevy well for those who can have them, and for 

 those who have patience to see after them," said a farmer's 

 wife; " but patience is a rare thing now-a-days, not one girl 

 in ten will take the trouble, ' bother ' she calls it, to see to 

 them. Why ouly last February I had eight Brabmas batched 

 as fine and strong and likely to live as any May birds ; what does 

 the housemaid do but stir up the kitchen fire in a temper. 

 They none of them like birds, no, not one of them. I half 

 fancy we should not, if we were in their place. Well, the 

 chickens were never seen after that vigorous poke of the fire. 

 Hot cinders tumbled out in profusion, fell into the basket, 

 burned up blanket, and birds, and everything — nothing but a 

 few charred embers could be found on the hearth." 



Most people complain of failure in the rearing of chickens, 

 and no wonder ; very few know how to do it sucecBsfully, even 

 of those who have tried tor years. There are so many things to 

 consider, so many chaptors of accidents to pass through, and 

 then the chickens are usually left to the care of men or boys, 

 and the latter are no more fitted for the task than they would 

 be to polish Dresden china. Then some owners of poultry do 

 not let those in charge have the least chance of success. I am 

 not speaking of the hatchiug of expensive eggs, or the rearing 

 of chickens for show purposes — these are often ovcrcared for, 

 but of such as are kept in country homes for household use — 

 reared, in fact, as an article of food. 



Now, there is Squire Bentley ; he delights in eggs and 

 chickens, would have fresh-laid eggs on his breakfast table 

 every day in the year, and chickens never come amiss to him, 

 however dished up. He io quite sure his poultryman fails far 

 oftener than he succeeds ; they have few eggs, and half the birds 

 hatched never attain any size. A few years ago he made con- 

 siderable alterations in bis grounds near the poultry-yard, and 

 raised the adjoining road a foot higher than the yard, so that 

 all the surface rain water from a large garden drained into it, 

 consequently keeping the soil cold and damp, even when it 

 had the appearance of being dry. No amount of generous feed- 

 ing could overcome this evil, or in the matter of success, com- 

 pete with indifferent food on a dry warm soil; and "yet," 

 said the man, "master never thinks that a poor hen must 

 provide herself with flesh and feathers, before she can think 

 of eggs, or anything else. The poultry would soon pay the ex- 

 pense of raising the yard a few inches higher than the sur- 

 rounding ground." But this Squire Bentley does not under- 

 stand; it is an economy of Nature he has never studied, and, 

 therefore, would not believe, and he looks upon the matter of 

 raising the yard as ao much useless trouble and expense. 



There is also Mrs. Martin ; she keeps poultry, not for the love 

 of it, but from necessity, for living far away in the country 

 she could not otherwise easily provide her household with eggs 

 and chickens. The fowls are there as it were only on suf- 

 ferance, for shi does not wish them to be seen or heard. If 

 there had been a kind of fowls, doing their work in silence, 

 puUets that laid eggs in plenty, without rejoicingly proclaiming 

 the news to equally noisy partners, they would have been the 

 very sort for Mrs. Martin. As it is she has removed them as 

 far as possible from her abode. Their roosting place is every- 

 thing that can be desired, their run a fine largo one covered 

 over with wire, so that the smartest Hamburgh could not pos- 

 sibly escape; they are well fed, and have green food in abund- 

 ance, yet they do not succeed. The chicks die off in numbers 

 before they are a month old, and the henwife says she " cannot 

 think how it is, for they have everything heart could desire." 

 Two long rows of elm and beech trees interlace their branches 

 over this poultry-yard, and make almost perpetual shade, so 

 much so, that the fowls try in vain to catch a glimpse of the 

 summer sunshine, so spend their days fretting when they 

 should be nursing chickens. 



Then there is Mrs. Thornton ; she often loses her chickens 

 not from the want of aanshine, or from the effects of a damp 



soil, bat from an injudicious mode of feeding. She is quito 

 sure the little things can want for nothing when they roam at 

 large with their mother, and feels no apprehenpion when the 

 sloppy bread and water is eaten up but slowly, or when the 

 meal stirred up with cold water settles down to the dish bottom, 

 and after standing days must be thrown away. To scald their 

 meal with milk, or to boil young chickens a few eggs now and 

 then, just to carry them safely through a cold time, when some 

 bitter east wind is turning the green grass brown, such would 

 be an extravagance Mrs. Thornton would not submit to. So her 

 birds fail, they have not strength to face adverse winds. They 

 might live on through some summer of exceptional mildness; 

 but cbickenhood in England must encounter various gradations 

 of warmth and cold, of damp and dryness, all extremes of which 

 are injurious to them. 



Now, there are some things, and they are very simple and 

 inexpensive, perfectly indispensable in the successful roaring 

 of chickens. They should have a good shelter from wind and 

 rain, a run over fresh clean grass, and be kept close to the 

 person who feeds and cares for them, and one person and one 

 only should be responsible ; divide the responsibihty and you 

 increase the chance of loss. They should be near so that they 

 may be frequently fed, and the food should be taken away when 

 they have eaten their fill, not left to be trodden into the grass 

 or gravel, or stolen by birds. Now, if the chickens are reared 

 a long way from the house, they will often be forgotten, will 

 have to wait for their dinner until some storm is over, or it 

 may be go supperless to bed. To leave food standing might 

 seem to avoid this evil, but then it is wasteful to do so ; it 

 encourages a false appetite, a constant craving after dainties. 

 The hen and her chickens should have a run to themselves, 

 there should be no intruders, not even another hen with 

 chickens, for the day of battle would come, and though the 

 mothers might not harm each other, the chickens would suffer. 

 Nor is it well to coop two hens near each other, and let the 

 young ones wander abroad, tor they might not always return 

 to their own mother ; then a skirmish would ensue, and the 

 poor little birds would be terrified. Two hens with broods of 

 about the same nge were from necessity during a wet season 

 sheltered in an old barn, the hens were confined to their coops, 

 but the chickens were free to roam over the place ; they were 

 so nearly the size and colour of each other, that no evil result 

 was anticipated. All went well for a time, then it was found 

 that one mother had stolen all the chicks, wiled them away 

 from their own mother. They were taken back to her, put 

 under her wings in the dark — to no purpose they rushed back 

 to their self-adopted mother on the first opportunity, and she, 

 proud of her large family, stretched out her wings wide as they 

 would spread, and yet vainly strove to cover four and twenty 

 chickens, while the poor forsaken mother after grieving for a 

 time made the best o! her circumstances by beginning life 

 anew. 



It is also an unwise, yet a very common practice, to give a 

 hen more eggs than she can well cover. It is a kind of greed 

 very pleasant to indulge in, for most poultry-keepers are apt 

 to count their chickens before they are hatched, yet the after- 

 counting would average more if one less than the bird could 

 easily cover, rather than more, were given to her. Many people 

 fancy if the eggs are under the hen's wings they must do, for- 

 getting that the hen can only spare a certain portion of heat, 

 however fat and well feathered she may be, and it is possible 

 to spread out that heat until its effective power is lost. If yon 

 wish your chickens to have their mother's care and shelter for 

 some time, as in the case of Black Spanish, and the hen cannot 

 stay too long with them, do not allow her to indulge too much 

 in the chickens' food, for chopped eggs and such dainties are 

 not necessary for her health, and would only put her into good 

 condition too soon, and then she would find out that it was 

 much pleasanter to have little chicks than big ones, and so 

 think she would seek a new nest, and leave the old birds to do 

 as they could. 



Now, this pitiful time comes to all chickens when the old 

 mother turns them odrift— a sad time it is for them, how- 

 ever big and strong they may have grown. She no longer 

 answers their eager call, or warns them of coming danger, or 

 catches flies for them, or waits aside from the food until their 

 hnnger is appeased. No, the flies and dainty bits are all for 

 herself now. She does not appear to care in the least for her 

 orphaned little ones, leaves them for the society of others like 

 herself, and quietly trims out her disordered feathers on soma 

 sunny slope, suddenly grown deaf to their troubles. If she be 

 an easy-tempered hen, she just leaves them alone, takes no 



