30 HOW TO HATCH, BROOD, FEED AND PREVENT 



Well, as the method of stuffing and starving was not satisfactory, I began 

 to investigate. I read every article 1 could on how to force a quick molt, 

 but all the papers and poultry journals advocated the starving and heavy 

 feeding process. I finally thought of a method that I believed would work 

 and resolved to try it at once. I took about fifteen hens and picked them. 

 The result was charming. You fanciers will hail me with a cheer when 

 you read this article. I plucked the body feathers first, then just as soon 

 as the feathers began to come in, which was in about ten days, I plucked 

 their wings and tail. By the time the wings began to grow, the feathers 

 on each side of the birds were large enough to support the wings. Within 

 six weeks they had an entire new coat of feathers, and the most of them 

 were laying eggs. Then I was provoked that I did not pluck the whole 

 flock. This beats any method of forcing a molt that I ever heard of. It is 

 more effectual, that is one thing certain. Your fowls have not been weak- 

 ened by starving, but are in good shape to make a new coat of feathers at 

 once. You must feed plenty of milk and green cut bone once a day for two 

 weeks if you can possibly get it. If green bone cannot be obtained, meat 

 scraps or cracklings will do, mixed with a mash consisting of bran shorts, 

 alfalfa meal, charcoal, corn meal, oil meal, boiled potafoes, squash or any- 

 thing that they will eat, but they should have a variety. Mix their mash 

 with milk if you have it. After two weeks, feed this mash three times a 

 week. Sometimes your hens will commence to lay before they are full 

 feathered, under this treatment. 



Fanciers that are preparing their birds for an exhibit should pluck 

 them at least two months before they place them on exhibition. They will 

 have an entire new coat of feathers and they will score much higher as they 

 will be in good condition, the feathers will be more even and the markings 

 or'colors will be more uniform by their all coming in at once than if al- 

 lowed to drop out and come in one at a time. This sounds reasonable, does 

 it not? It does not hurt your fowls to pluck them when the feathers are 

 ripe and ready to come out at a touch, not a bit more than it does a duck 

 or a goose. Then why not aid nature at this period? 



After your fowls have gone through my method of forcing a 

 molt, and begin to wear their new winter dress, their combs and 

 wattles become red just like they do in the spring. They do not stand 

 around all humped up for three months like they do if their feathers are 

 left to come out of their own accord. They act like they were afraid of 

 themselves for a few days, but soon come to the front for something to eat. 

 If the feathers do not seem matured, and the skin bleeds, let those go till a 

 little later in the season. July is the best time to pick your fowls, for the 

 weather is warm and there will not be so much danger of them taking cold. 

 Do not pick them on a rainy day. If fanciers would pluck their fowls just 

 as soon as they are ready in July, then they will be in prime condition to 



