1838] 



FARMERS- REGISTER 



121 



It is much to be ileplored ilial, in subjm'tiiijf 

 creatures to our use, we cannot make, ilieir com ■ 

 Ibrt a ^rreater object of altenlion. Grammy; tiiat 

 man has had control ij;ivea i\in\ over the bruie 

 creation, it surely would jirove his fitness jorthe 

 gift that he should exercise his auihority with 

 kindness, and lem|ier iiis power wilh mercy. If 

 nature must be ihwarled, it should be etiecied in 

 the tfentlest manner. It sometimes happens, for 

 example, that it is desirable to prevent liens from 

 sittmtr, when ejzi^s are more in request than 

 chickens : to ol)tain this end, we have known very 

 cruet methods practised, such as plun(i;in<r the poor 

 birds into water, swinging them violently round, 

 &c. The most eliectual plan, and the one 

 least objectionable, is to confine them under coops, 

 in a dark place, with plenty of clean water, and a 

 rather short allowance of food, ibr two or three 

 days. If on restoring them their liberty they 

 should return to ilie nests, a re|)etiiion of the disci- 

 pline for another day or I wo will generally be 

 found an effectual preventive. By watching the 

 denizens of a poultry-yard, not only much amuse- 

 ment is aHbrded, but no little inlbrmation of a 

 practically useful nature may be obtained. It will 

 be seen which of the hens evince a disposition to 

 sit, which to lay eg^s, &c., and we ourselves en- 

 joy the comfort of graiilying rather than crossinir 

 their instincts, by attending to these indications. 

 When a hen has sat three weeks (twenty-one 

 days), arrangements should be made foi the youni;- 

 brood, but no in'erierence should be allowed. 

 Man is so conceited, that pnnr bungling nature 

 cannot be expected to proceed in any of her ope- 

 rations without his assistance ! How could chick- 

 ens break the shell if he were not kindly to aid 

 them? When he or she has efficaciously taken this 

 duty from nature, he carries the little fragile things 

 in his rough awkward hands, pokes them into a 

 basket with some hay, which he sets before the 

 kitchen fire, having first pulled off the scale at the 

 tip of their beaks, forced open their jaws and 

 thrust a pepper-corn down their throats. Then en- 

 ter "a whol(! tide of chililren" and maid-servants, 

 all eager to look at and fondle the "pretty dears!" 

 and, in the struggle fir precedence, dou'n goe^' the 

 basket wilh its half-tlead inmates, which is lor'h- 

 vvith picked up, and the creatures thus stroked and 

 piiied, and exposed to cold, and again attempts to 

 feed and nurse them, survive their rouirh entrance 

 into lile by a miracle. We repeat — there is no oc- 

 casion to intrude upon the hen while she is hatch- 

 ing her brood, nor ought we to do so. The chick 

 that requires to be assisted from its shell will be 

 too puny to be worth the rearing. The mother 

 may be left wilh saiety, nay with benefit, for even 

 forty -eight hours from the time that the chickens 

 begin to come ibrth. The fine instinct with which 

 she is endued, will enable her to perfect the work 

 of which she has been for three weeks the sole 

 artificer. She will assist the little prisoners, and 

 throw away the intrudms shells ; she will liberate 

 their beaks from the scale, and '^cro-n-o'''' to them, 

 and dry their clammy down, and foster thern in 

 the genial warmth of her breast, and they will be 

 strengthened and nourished by the yolk, which is 

 said to form no part of the chickens, but to be re- 

 tained in the intestines, l()r the purpose of afford- 

 ing their first aliment. However tliis may be, cer- 

 tain we are, that the brood thus left to the mo- 

 ther's care, will be sLout and stron^ when (the 

 Vol. VT-46 



whole bein<x hatched except those eggs which 

 may be adilled) tiie two days are expired, and 

 (luite ready l()r the food which has been provided 

 liir them. A coop should be [int m a sunny spot, 

 but not on grass; under this the hen and her fami- 

 ly must be'placed, wilh groats, a little barley, and 

 clean water, in a chicken pan or a garden-poi sau- 

 cer. They should be fed little and often with 

 groats, a fi^w grains of barley being always thrown 

 m the mother', which she will peck and split, and 

 call her young ones to partake of. P]very day the 

 coop should be removed to a little distance, so that 

 the creatures may be clean and dry; and each 

 morning too, a fresh sod of ijrass turf ought to be 

 placed inside the coop for them to scratch and de- 

 molish, to obtain any worms or insects that may 

 be lurking among the roots of the grass. It is 

 usual for hens to be detained in their coops for a 

 month : we object to this decidedly. Indeed, 

 where the range is small, and the situation in- 

 closed, we prefer that nature should be seconded, 

 and the maternal anxieties indulged, by setting 

 them fi-ee after the first two or three days. 



Food. — We have stated that groats are the best 

 aliment for chickens, but they may be discontinued 

 as soon as it is perceived that the young ones are 

 able to eat whole barley. That (bod which is most 

 nu'ritious is the most proper for every animai, and 

 will be the cheapest in the end. While we were 

 buying our experience, we made trial of all kinds 

 that are usually given, tail-wheat, inferior barley, 

 sunflower seeds (of which last vve grew an immense 

 quantity, on purpose to make a fair trial of the as- 

 sertion, that this lliod would impart the color and 

 flavor of game to the flesh of domestic fowls, and 

 which we found to be a fidlacy), maize or Indian 

 corn, potatoes boiled, and barley of the best quali- 

 ty. It must l)e conltissed, that Indian corn is the 

 aliment they most preferred, but as it is now very 

 little cultivated in this country, it is loo expensive, 

 unless within a short distance of London, Liver- 

 pool, &c., where it is imported from America. 

 The best barley, therefore, and [ilenty of it, should 

 be ijiven wilh a fiuv peas in the winter ; occasion- 

 ally some boiled potatoes, the latter merely to 

 amuse them, with a few green leaves from the 

 trarden, such as cabbaije, lettuce, &c., to supply 

 the place of their favorite grass, when sultry wea- 

 ther may have deprived them of that daily treat. 

 Clean li-esh wafer, should be their only beverage. 



We abjure the system of cooping previously to 

 killing, on several accounts ; it is not necessaiy, it 

 is cruel, and it induces a stale of disease, instead of 

 health. That it is not necess;iry, is evident li-om 

 thif, fact, that a "barii-door fowl" has always re- 

 tained the supremacy dver the more grossly fed 

 [poultry of^he metropolis; that it is cruel, need 

 I scarcely be pointed out to the most unobservant ; 

 I that it induces disease, is a fiict which will not be 

 I doubled, when we consider that we alter the crea- 

 furps' habits, debar them from exercise, and pre- 

 i vent them from having recourse to those instinc- 

 tive enjoyments, which eoniribute to health. If 

 fjouliry have been well fed always, they can re- 

 quire no f;Uiiii2; if they are healthfiil, they are in 

 the fittest state for the taf)le. The longest period 

 ! of confliiement whicdi we consiiier necessary, is 

 . three days ; on the first two, we give them bar- 

 I iey-meal insterid of barley, because, being unable 

 to procure small irr.ivel to assist in liigesrinsr that 

 I hard food, it is belter to substitute an aliment 



