Home Production of Poultri). o49 



the chickens like the feathers of a hen, and the flooi' of dry ashes 

 or sandy soil to keep their feet from cold, have been found to 

 answer well at the Bromley Home ; though a good manager 

 who has had some experience with the " mothers " has expressed 

 his opinion to me that they "are not equal to the old hen," At 

 Bromley, now, no chickens are confined except in movable runs, 

 so as to give them fresh ground every day. 



I have mentioned the artificial mothers of Minasi's Incubator, 

 which are kept warm by hot water ; and there is no doubt 

 that any apparatus for artificial nursing must provide for 

 warming the woolly compartment in which the chicks nestle ; 

 just as Mrs. D'Oyley found her hot-water tins needful in 

 chill weather. M. Carbonnier's "nursery" consists of a long 

 glazed box or cage, at one end of which is a zinc vessel for 

 holding water heated to 160^ or 180^, and filled once a day 

 in cold weather. Under the bottom of the vessel is a piece 

 of lamb-skin, under which the chickens shelter and warm 

 themselves when disposed. They are kept and fed in this 

 nursery for about a week ; and then let out, with the door of 

 the nursery open, for them to run in at pleasure, Messrs. 

 Crook's artificial rearing-apparatus carries out a plan proposed 

 by M. Reaumur in his works upon artificial incubation. It is like 

 a close coop, with a top sloping from front to back ; this top is a 

 hot-water casing, with a loose casing of perforated metal, and all 

 lined with lamb-skins ; a lamp at the back keeping up the 

 required warmth in cold weather. Owing to the oblique position 

 of the top, the chickens can nestle comfortably ; and no warmth 

 is applied to their feet, which would render the birds weak and 

 languid, liable to cramp and taking cold. A wired run should 

 be placed in front of the nursery. 



Leaving now these ingenious appliances for converting fertile 

 eggs into full-fledged fowls, as it were by machinery — inventions 

 that will probably be worked by amateurs and " professionals " 

 until they become available in ordinary yards — I return to the 

 subject of French management. 



For the first week after being hatched, and in winter for a 

 much longer time, the chickens are fed on barley-meal mixed 

 with milk, stale bread soaked in water, and green food finely 

 chopped. Mr. Geyelin did not find a single instance of poultry 

 being fed upon whole grain. " On inquiring the reason why 

 they fed by meal made into a stiff paste, I was informed that 

 whole grain would be too expensive, produce less eggs, too much 

 fat, and cause more disease when the fowls are fed ad libitum^ 

 so as to completely fill their crop, which renders the digestion 

 difficult. The food is mostly composed of about one-half bran 

 and one-half buckwheat, barley, or oatmeal, made into a stiff 



