FEBDINO.] 



POULTKV. 



[feeding. 



must be given at once, of a more solid nature. 

 A little rye or wheat is an excellent change 

 in such caaes. If they are costive, a boiled 

 nash of potatoes will generally bo a remedy. " 



In a work of this kind, it iniglit bo expected 

 that calculaliuus would be given as to the most 

 economical mode of rearing poultry ; but, as no 

 general rule, alike applicable to Great liritain 

 and Ireland, can be established, we have 

 deemed it better to omit them. Not to speak 

 of the dill'ereuees of prices which exist between 

 the several products of these countries, there 

 are even diflereuceg, in these particulars, to bo 

 found in various localities in the same county. 

 Tliis circumstance, alone, presents a difliculty, 

 doubtless, sufficiently great to render all cal- 

 culations upon this part of our subject nu- 

 gatory. Respecting the profits of poultry- 

 keeping, the Agricultural Gazette has, at 

 various times, given statements. The foUowiug 

 are taken from the columns of that paper, and 

 may enable the inquirer upon this portion of 

 our subject, to form a basis for his own cal- 

 culations, as they have done for those of 

 others. 



The actual cost and receipts for the produce 

 of ten hens and a cock in one year, and of 

 twelve hens and a cock in another, are given. 

 The food was all bought at a high market price, 

 and the produce sold in the village where they 

 were fed. The fowls were kept clean, and well 

 housed and attended. They were fed regularlv 

 three times a-day when young, and had the 

 run of a large grazing-yard in the day-time. 



the Dorking breed ; six ducks, and from seventy 

 to eighty geese : — 



COST. 



Darlpy, milk, meid 



luid corn 

 Woiiiiin'n wuRCH and 



iiiurkft cliurK<''i . 

 70 Keciiv, ut"2j. 0</. . 

 Bulunco pruflt 



£ (. J. 



G 4 1 



•« 12 7 



. 8 15 



. 31 8 10 



£'.! (i 



SOLD. 



1. d. 

 7 

 i 



3,4()Ooirif", nl Ut.M. 



l>iT 100 . . 9 



2()H chickens, at 



l«. 9</. . . .18 

 b\ cbickeni con- 



HUiiicJ lit lioino . 4 14 

 CO (rccpte, ul 5«. M. . IC 10 

 10 ditto cuiiHiimed . 2 15 

 20 duckji, ul 2j. fid. .2100 



Pro fit 



54 





 8 10 



COST IX ONE YEAR. 



£ s. 



8 



19 



19 



1 

 1 

 3 



40 pints groats 



Oats 



Barley-meal . 



Barley . 



Tail Wheat . 



Eggs for sitting 



Collecting eess, &c. 5 



Balance, profit . 3 18 



£S 14 2 



RECEIPTS SAME YEAR. 

 £ s. d. 



For eggs, at 8d. . 13 8 

 10 ducks, at Is. 9d. 17 C 

 12 do. at li. 8rf. 10 

 82 chickens, at 



Is. (id. . .630 



8 14 2 

 Profit . . £3 18 



COST FOLLOWING YEAR. 

 £ *. d. 

 For 16 pints of groats 3 4 

 9 bushels barley . 2 14 

 Barley-meal . " .079 

 Collecting eggs .029 

 Balance, proht .558 



£8 13 6 



RECEIPTS. 



£ a. d. 



2 11 G 



For eggs, at 9(i. . 2 U G 

 66chickcns, atls. 8i. 5 10 

 8 ditto at Is. Gd, n !•> n 



12 



8 13 6 



Profit , 



. £j 5 



Another authority, in the neighbourhood of 

 Newcastle, gives the following statement of 

 cost and income for sixty hens, priucipallv of 



To produce anything approaching to these 

 profits, however, it is necessary to have a 

 superior breed, in place of the fowls commonly 

 found in the barn-yard; and also to have 

 suitable houses and yards for their accom- 

 modation. 



With respect to the poultry of cottagera, 

 which are fed on what would otherwise bo 

 wasted, or what is collected by the industry 

 of their children, and warmly housed under 

 the same roof as the owner, they often thrive 

 better, and prove more prolific, than the ex- 

 pensively tended inmates of ornamental poultrv- 

 houses. The celebrated Aylesbury ducks are 

 an example of this kind. They are often 

 reared under the beds of the cottagers in Buck- 

 inghamshire; and dunghill hens, that roost 

 in the " kitchen and parlour and all" of the 

 peasant, often lay, when the choice, everlasting 

 layers of neighbouring noblemen and gentle- 

 men, seem to have retired on half- pay. 



A gentleman breeder found, that from the 

 2'ith of March to the 7th of May, he had set 9S 

 eggs under nine hens. From this number o2 

 chickens were hatched, 20 were dead in tlie 

 shell, and 46 had no birds in them. 



The next year he commenced setting on the 

 2ndof April, and put, altogether, 72 eggs under 

 eight hens. The produce was 40 chickens ; 14 

 were dead in shell, and crushed by hatching 

 hens, and 12 eggs were addled. Instead, how- 

 ever, of having only 17 chickens from three 

 hens, which were set at the same time, he did iu)S 

 hesitate to say that he ought to have had 21 ; 

 but, in consequence of two o\ the hens desert- 

 ing their nests seven days before the chickens 

 were hatched, he had to get another broody 

 hen, which had only set a few days. The 

 other eggs he had to divide among several hens 

 which were sitting; and, as they chipped, ho 



8G1 



