HATCHING.] 



POULTEY. 



[hatching. 



my neighbours, were attacked with lice on the 

 bead, which destroyed numbers of them. This 

 vear some of my neighbours have the scourge 

 again. When I set a hen, she has always the 

 opportunity of getting a dust-bath whenever 

 she comes off her nest. This she had also last 

 year, and she was, and is, removed to a fresh 

 peu after hatching. The plan I have adopted 

 this season is, before giving the hen her 

 chickens, to dust her well with flour of sulphur 

 under her wings, on her breast, and under her 

 feathers : it can do the chickens no harm. As 

 yet I see none of my former enemies. My 

 houses were perfectly clean last year, as they 

 are this." 



" To insure a sufficient amount of moisture, 

 when it is found necessary to set the hen in a 

 spare hay-loft or room, with a boarded floor, I 

 would recommend a plan which I have found, 

 so far, to answer well this season — viz., to place 

 beneath the box in which the hen sits, a piece 

 of matting or carpeting which has been ex- 

 posed to a good shower of rain. No doubt, 

 the ground is the best place on which to set a 

 hen ; and, at this season of the year, it should be 

 in-doors ; but it is not every one who has such 

 convenient places, where the kindly-inten- 

 tioned visits of other hens, adding to the store 

 of eggs for incubation day by day, can be 

 avoided. It would, perhaps, add to the com- 

 fort of the hen if, previous to setting her, a 

 little flour of sulphur were dusted under her 

 feathers. This would settle the vermin, which 

 are a source of annoyance, not only to the 

 niuther, but to her young progeny. I have 

 found young chickens infested with them, even 

 when the hen, in summer, had sat under the 

 hedge of my lawn, where she had every oppor- 

 tunity of dusting herself." 



When chickens are hatched during cold 

 weather, they require artificial warmth, or, at 

 the very least, comfortable housing ; and the 

 kitchen of a farm-house afi'ords this in the ut- 

 most perfection.... Freedom from annoyance, 

 commodious and warm housing, and a sheltered 

 walk, are all that they require. It ought 

 always to be borne in mind, that the dangers 

 which are most likely to prove destructive 

 to the hopes of an amateur in rearing his 

 broods, are wet, cold, bleak winds, neglect, 

 short commons, cats, rats, hawks, and vermin 

 of all kinds. If a hen is left at liberty with 

 85G 



her brood, she leads them under shelter at the 

 approach of rain ; and many little bright eyes 

 may be seen glancing from their safe retreat, 

 and watching for the return of fair weather. 

 By our interference, the exercise of this in- 

 stinct in the old hen is often prevented. We 

 place the coop, in the morning, on a warm 

 sunny spot, where — with the addition of good 

 feeding of course — we think they will be con- 

 tented and happy for many hours. But, in 

 the course of a few revolutions of the long 

 hands of the clock, what changes may happen ! 

 The sun either leaves the place, or blazes on 

 it with an intensity of heat enough to give the 

 hen the vertigo ; a sharp east wind springs 

 up, and the poor little ones stand pinched and 

 shivering in its blast ; or a chilly rain comes 

 on, and beats into the coop. The coops should 

 be visited once an hour while the chickens are 

 very young, and every two hours afterwards. 

 The chickens should then be fed and supplied 

 w^ith clean water, and the coops shifted if neces- 

 sary. At night, the hen and her chickens may 

 be driven into the hen-house, and a slight 

 shelter, according to the weather, placed before 

 the bars of the coop. Constant attention and 

 frequent feeding are indispensable for chickens. 

 Cats and other hairy and feathered enemies 

 will require unceasing vigilance, and, perhaps, 

 a good gun. Por these, too, the services of a 

 well-trained terrier are invaluable ; nor are 

 good traps to be despised. With regard to 

 feeding, it is with young chickens as it is with 

 grown fowls- — variety is best. Sometimes food 

 of various kinds should be given them in one 

 day ; occasionally, a change of the kind should 

 be made from day to day ; and, in addition to 

 all that can be given them, the hen should be 

 allowed to roam at large for a little time every 

 day, to seek for her progeny, ants' eggs, worms, 

 &c., taking care to coop her again before she 

 can over-tire the little ones. For the first 

 week, there is nothing better to feed with 

 than chopped hard-boiled eggs. The eggs 

 which are removed from the nests of the sit- 

 ters, within the first ten days, will do very 

 well to boil for the young chickens. 



After the first week, various other viands 

 may be given. Perhaps the best plan for us 

 to pursue here, will be to give a bill of fare. 

 Barley-meal and oat-meal, moistened with 

 water or with milk : grain broken in a mill ; 



