FOWL. 



FOWL. 



self upon any eggs she can find, and remain- 

 ing thereon instead of roosting. She should be 

 placed upon fresh eggs, unless allowed to sit 

 as nature directs upon her own natural num; 

 ber, which rarely exceeds eighteen ; but if one 

 egg alone is allowed to remain in the nest she 

 will continue to lay many more before she 

 wishes to sit. If the brood is hatched irregu- 

 larly, the firstlings should be kept in flannel 

 near a fire all day, till the others come forth, 

 but they should be returned to the mother at 

 night. The hen and her brood should be kept 

 warm, and be cooped out of doors only in dry, 

 fine weather. They should be fed for some 

 days on bread crumbs, with some finely chop- 

 ped leeks, and be carefully supplied with clear, 

 clean water daily. Boiled barley, and boiled 

 rice, &c. succeeds, till in about three weeks 

 they are sufficiently strong to be turned into 

 the poultry-yard. When the young chickens 

 get their head feathers, they are out of danger 

 of all infantine disorders. Nothing is so re- 

 quisite for all poultry as warmth, cleanliness, 

 and good water. Fowls fattened for the table 

 should be put into coops for a fortnight or three 

 weeks, and fed upon good barley-meal, moist- 

 ened with milk or water, and lard. Give it 

 four or five times per day, sufficiently moist to 

 require no drink with the food. 



Eggs are preserved any length of time, by 

 greasing them well over with butter or lard, 

 when warm from the nest. It keeps out the 

 air. Fresh laid eggs are easily known by 

 holding them up to the light of a candle. If 

 the inside appears transparent and fluid, and 

 the yolk in the centre, it is a fresh egg. If 

 it looks turbid, it is a stale one. If, also, an 

 egg held up against a candle shows a small 

 vacancy at the top of it within, it will produce 

 a male bird : if the little vacancy is observed 

 at the side of the egg, it will prove a female. 

 (Main's Dam. Poultry, p. 253.) See EGGS. Every 

 poultry-yard should have a bed of ashes de- 

 posited in a corner: the fowls delight in a 

 dunghill and an ash-hole ; the former produces 

 seeds and insects, and the latter calcareous 

 matter, and destroys their vermin by its sharp- 

 ness, as they revel in its rough particles. See 

 CAPO sr. 



There is a communication in the Farmer's 

 Cabinet, (vol. ii. p. 95,) upon keeping hens, and 

 the profits from eggs, from a poulterer in Eaton, 

 Massachusetts, which contains much useful 

 information. On the 1st of January, says the 

 writer, I had ten hens and one cock. In the 

 spring three of the hens were suffered to set, 

 which left seven to experiment with. The 

 three which set raised 24 chickens, which 

 were sold for 12 cents each, when about the 

 size of quails. The sooner, he observes, you 

 sell chickens the better, since they do not 

 bring prices corresponding with their increase 

 in size. The seven hens which did not set, 

 laid 100 dozen of eggs. During half the time 

 in winter the fowls were fed upon boiled pota- 

 toes and bran or meal mixed together with 

 warm water, and as the place where they were 

 kept was well sheltered, none were lost by the 

 dough freezing in their craws or crops. For 

 the remainder of the time oats were given 

 them, which the writer considers better for 



fowls than Indian corn, having tried both. The 

 oats were first allowed to soak in warm water 

 for three or four hours, till well swelled, after 

 which they were given to the fowls. Treated 

 in this way he considers one bushel of oats 

 will go as far as a bushel and a half of corn. 

 Hens, fec. should never be allowed to roost in. 

 stables or kept near cattle, as they communi- 

 cate their vermin to these, which worries and 

 prevents them from growing fat. 



FOWL, GUINEA, or PINTADO (Numida, 

 meleagris). These birds are very wild and 

 restless in their nature, owing to their native 

 habits. They are shy, and love to make their 

 nests in dark, obscure places, far from home ; 

 for which reason their eggs are generally 

 placed under a common hen to be hatched 

 and fostered. They give no notice of laying 

 or setting. A brood of Guinea fowls is an. 

 excellent guard. They love roosting in the 

 trees; and at night, if any footstep disturb 

 them, their loud cries are sure to give notice 

 to the farmer that a trespass is committing. 

 The Guinea fowl is delicate eating, and is in. 

 fine season about Lent. The young chickens 

 must be treated in the same manner and with 

 the same food as young turkeys, and they must 

 be kept warm and dry. In fatting, they should 

 be shut up in a house for a fortnight, and fed 

 four or five times a day with sweet barley-meal, 

 moistened with milk and good lard. They pine 

 if confined any length of time. The great 

 drawbacks to the rearing of Guinea fowls are 

 the vigilance required to watch for their nest, 

 and the harsh screaming of their cry. 



FOWL, PEA (Phasianus Jo). Native of 

 India, tender in infancy, but soon inured to 

 our climate, as they become older. From 

 their native wild habits, they love to lay their 

 eggs in woods or coppices far from home. As 

 the hen covers her eggs over with dead leaves 

 after laying them, and generally deposits them 

 under a bush, without the ceremony of making 

 a nest, she must be closely watched, and each 

 day her fresh egg should be withdrawn, and 

 an egg cut in chalk substituted, and covered 

 over again with the leaves. The eggs should 

 be placed under a common hen for safety, both 

 on account of the fox, and because the pea-hen, 

 would lead the young ones to ramble as soon 

 as they had escaped from the shell. The best 

 food for pea-chicks is barley-meal made into 

 a paste, and mixed with sweet curd, and finely 

 chopped, hard-boiled eggs. They are also ex- 

 ceedingly fond of the large horse ant and its 

 eggs, which in England are found in woods, 

 deposited in little hillocks of small leaves and 

 twigs. All the tribes of wild birds, such as 

 pea-fowl, turkeys, pheasants, &c. love ants : it 

 is their natural food. Two or three handfuls 

 of their eggs twice a day, makes a good variety 

 with their usual food. Keep the young pea- 

 fowls well housed while under the mother's 

 care : when they grow up, they prefer roosting 

 in trees or on buildings. If a pea-hen is al- 

 lowed to brood her own chickens, she should 

 be kept under a coop for three weeks at least, 

 to prevent her rambling. Pea-fowl will feed 

 well on any kind of corn. They are exceed- 

 ingly destructive in a garden. Our ancestors 

 considered them very delicate eating. 



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