HATCUrNO.] 



POULTRY. 



[uATcnrso. 



boiled barley ; pearl barley rolled in bran or 

 pollard ; pieces of meat and potatora ; bones, 

 and any other scraps from tlio table ; swoUed 

 rice rolled in bean-meal. Ship biscuit, lu-inp- 

 seed, canary, buck-wheat, and in:iny other 

 things may be used occasionally, in small quan- 

 tities, by way of a change. 



Should the chicks be very weakly, they 

 may be crammed with crumbs of good white 

 bread, steeped in milk or butter, with well- 

 minced, hard-boiled egg; but, at the same 

 time, it must be noted that their little crops 

 are not capable of holding more than the bulk 

 of a pea — therefore rather under than over 

 feed. If the hen has been much exhausted 

 by hatching, it will do well to cram her with 

 crumbs of bread steeped in port wine ; or, in 

 the absence of wine, diluted spirits or ginger 

 cordial may be substituted. Such treatment, 

 however, is very rarely necessary. 



Tor hatching, warm damp weatlieris wanted. 

 Kothing can be worse than an east wind, 

 especially if accompanied with occasional bursts 

 of cold rain, also from the east. 



Sprinkling the eggs, now and then, has 

 been recommended when the hen comes 

 off to feed. Tor this, of course, warm water 

 must be used. AVe once placed a little pan 

 of water in a hen's nest, for her to drink from. 

 This she cleverly upset, and gave the eggs a 

 cold shower-bath, which killed all the chickens, 

 or nearly all. 



"Whilst on this subject of hot and cold water, 

 it will not be out of place to give an extract 

 from Bechstein, which was written with refer- 

 ence to the fledging of young cage birds ; — 

 " It sometimes happens, in very dry seasons, 

 that the feathers of the young birds cannot 

 develop naturally. A bath of tepid water, em- 

 ployed on such an occasion by Madame , 



was so successful, that I cannot do better than 

 recommend it." In another passage, Bech- 

 stein recommends that the young birds shall 

 be dipped in lukewarm water, so as quite to 

 moisten the quills of the sprouting feathers. 



Mr. Bailey — about the highest poultry autho- 

 rity in the country — advises that the old hen be 

 confined under a rip, placed on the grass in a 

 warm sheltered situation, and moved about, 

 as often as necessary, to keep the mother and 

 her brood on a clean spot. 



At farm-houses, complete success often 

 5 li 



attends chicken-rearing with much Bitnplcr 

 and cheaper apparatus ; namely, by a common 

 wicker coop, which may bo bout^ht nnywhero 

 for lifteen pence, or a bit of wide flannel list, 

 with which to tethiT the hen. 



Some breeders have gone to the exponso of 

 making permanent chicken coops, with a com- 

 fortable little house, and a run of three feet by 

 six for each brood ; but we do not think this so 

 likely to form the best treatment for chickens 

 as any little movable contrivance. 



As prevention is better than cure, and 

 example better than precept, wo may as well 

 say a few words about hatching diflicultiep, 

 at such times and seasons as they generally 

 occur. One Monday, under a bright sky and 

 a biting wind, a breeder divided twenty eggs 

 (of a choice kind, of course — for who thinks 

 of anything else ^low ?) between two willing 

 recipients — well-tried, broody hens. lie set 

 one wide, plump, short-legged old hen in a 

 nest nine inches by ten ; and she soon gave 

 signs that her quarters were too straitened 

 by breaking four of the eggs. The remaining 

 sixteen, he found, contained twelve chickens, 

 which went through the process of incubation, 

 without further breakage, to the twentieth, 

 twenty-first, and twenty-second day: still no 

 chickens made their appearance. B}' this time 

 the chicks were cheeping inside the egg-shells, 

 but none were cracked, A drying and bitter 

 east wind prevailed, finding its way through 

 the few crevices that were in the hen-house. 

 In two of the eggs the chickens had died, 

 which left ten eggs under one hen. The other 

 had had a fresh batch given to her when this 

 was discovered. Tliis was a most unsatis- 

 factory state of things ; therefore he had the 

 nest (with the hen in it) taken into his house, 

 and placed over a foot-bath, into which hot 

 water was poured, and an old piece of flannel 

 thrown over ail, in a manner to give the hen 

 and eggs a vapour-bath, but not enough of it 

 to set her panting. The nest was left in a 

 room with a fire in it, and very soon the eggs 

 hatched. 



lie believed the loss of the two chickens, 

 which we have mentioned as having died in tho 

 egg-shell at an early stage, to have been his 

 own fault ; for, finding one hen had but two 

 good eggs, he made up her nest with others, 

 ivhich he gave her cold; and we have no doubt 



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