1847. 



GENESEE FARMER. 



43 



Poultry.— Management, Profits, &c. 



Mr. Editor : — It gives me great pleasure to 

 comply with your request to furnish you some 

 facts relating to the management of fowls, veri- 

 fied by the experience of the past two years. — 

 Following the example of some others I com- 

 menced on the first day of November, 1845, to 

 keep an account of the expenses of my hen- 

 house, and of the eggs and chickens taken there- 

 from : the result has been that, during the year 

 ending the 1st of November last, thirty-two hens 

 yielded a nett profit of thirty dollars and forty 

 cents. As fowls are commonly kept I doubt not 

 but that they are a source of expense instead of 

 profit to the farmer, and are only tolerated be- 

 cause their food is stolen from the stack, or fed 

 from the bin, and considered as costing nothing. 

 In such cases the hens lay little, except in the 

 spring, when eggs are plenty and cheap — while 

 my hens last year laid the greatest number of 

 eggs in February, when they sold readily at 19 

 cents a dozen. The greatest number laid in 

 any one day during that month, by 32 hens, was 

 27, worth 42 cents ; the average price of their 

 food each day was 7 cents. The more eggs that 

 can be obtained, at the time the price is the high- 

 est, the greater will be the profit. To do this 

 requires a good house and proper feeding. — 

 Herewith you will find a plan of a house, feeder, 

 nests,' &c.; and I shall be happy, at any time, to 

 exhibit mine to any person who takes an inter- 

 est in the subject. 



A hen with the best care will not commence 

 laying until she has entirely recovered from the 

 effects of moulting, which is not often until Feb- 

 ruary, while pullets begin when they are from 

 seven to eight months old ; consequently the ear- 

 lier in the spring you can get chickens, the ear- 

 lier next autumn you will have eggs. My broth- 

 er's chickens hatched last February, made tlieir 

 nests in October, and his March pullets are now 

 laying 2 or 3 dozen eggs each week. Mine were 

 hatched later, and are now just commencing to lay. 



Fowls should have proper food, and the house 

 where they are kept should be warm, dry, clean, 

 and light. Some have even kept their hen-houses 

 warm by a stove, but it is sufficient if water do 

 not freeze there the coldest nights. A light cel- 

 lar makes a good place for fowls, provided it be 

 dry ; nothing sooner generates disease among 

 them than dampness. 



I keep always in my feeder wheat screenings 

 bought at the mills, that being here the cheapest 

 food, and have found that my fowls have at all 

 times relished them. During the winter I some- 

 times give them boiled potatoes, mashed and fed 

 warm, and with occasionally a cabbage or other 

 green vegetable. When they cannot get plenty 

 of worms, I have in their house a kettle of scraps, 

 softened with hot water, of which each laying 

 hen will eat about two ounces a day. Animal 



Ostrich Fowls. (Fig. 10.) 



food is absolutely necessary for the formation of 

 eggs : some give oats fried in fat, but I have 

 found these scraps much the cheapest and the 

 least trouble. They can be procured of S. Moul- 

 son, on Front st. at 50 cents per hundred lbs. 

 Fowls also need dry ashes and sand to roll in j 

 gravel to aid digestion, and lime or some sab^ 

 stance containing it to furnish the proper shelL 

 Old mortar pounded is very good, but perhaps 

 the best and most convenient is to give oyster or 

 clam shells, burned and pounded. 



Never kill the finest and fattest chickens, as is 

 the common custom ; never keep a hen after she 

 begins to moult, unless she has some peculiarly 

 good qualities. 



Varieties. — I have tried and rejected the 

 Malays and the Javas, and have now on hand 

 the Ostrich and Dorkings. 



The Malays, at two or more yeai-s are tha- 

 largest ; but when young are too long legge^ 

 besides being very tender and hard to rear. — 

 Their flesh is not first rate, smd the hens are ixt- 

 different layers and bad setters. 



The Javas are large, compact, and handsome ;: 

 but they are exceedingly quarrelsome, and oj> 

 that account not desirable. \\ hen a hen wants 

 to sit, a confinement of two weeks is sometimes 

 necessary to wean her from her nest ; and if she- 

 is allowed to take her own course, she will gen- 

 erally break or spoil all the eggs in it. 



The Ostrich (sometimes called Bucks County,y 

 are large, small boned, finely formed, black and 

 white fowls — very hard}-, even while young.— 

 The cocks are peaceable ; the hens are goo&' i^y-. 

 ers and sitters, and excellent mothers. This is 

 the capon fowl of Philadelphia, and when well 

 fatted, often sell in that market at $5 a pair. At 

 the head of this page (Fig. 10.) is a drawing of 

 them, copied from " Bement's American P<»ai"-. 

 terer's Companion." My best cock, 7 months, 

 old, weighs eight pounds ; a pullet of same age 

 five pounds ; a hen, eighteen months old,, six, 

 pounds. 



I have but recently procured any Dorkings^. 

 and of course have not given them u trial. They 



