68 GENERAL MANAGEMENT OF POULTRY. 



Separate shed accommodation, or dusting-places, are scarcely 

 ever wanted in the fields, as the fowls get both under hedge- 

 rows, or in other natural places. 



The fowls kept for laying only will only need feeding twice 

 a day, and should therefore, for obvious reasons, be kept in the 

 most distant locations; while the more substantial accommo- 

 dation nearer home will be devoted to the breeding-pens and 

 the rearing of chickens. The labour will be lessened by the 

 fact that the laying birds, having free range, may be fed, and 

 indeed are best fed, with grain only. Water may be provided 

 at any convenient point in each lot, as the fowls will soon learn 

 the place. Often a small stream can be so managed, or a 

 drain so cut and utilised, as to save all trouble. 



Where poultry are kept upon a farm in this way, the 

 attendant's day will be something like the following, taking, for 

 example, the spring of the year : 



Up early, he will first clean out the coops or artificial 

 mothers and feed the young chickens ; also feed the breeding- 

 pens, if confined near home, since in that case they require 

 rather more careful regime. Then he will start on his first 

 round, with sufficient grain in a couple of buckets slung on a 

 yoke for carriage. At each house he will scatter his corn 

 widely for each flock, and give a brief glance over ; and in 

 some cases he may scrape up the night's manure at the same 

 visit, leaving each house clean and trim as he goes. In other 

 cases, however, such delay would bring the other flocks crowd- 

 ing round him ; and it will generally be better to feed all first, 

 taking the houses on the return journey ; at the same time 

 collecting all eggs already laid, noticing what hens are on the 

 nest, or if any appear sickly. There will have to be a covered 

 barrel at each house to store the manure. 



By the time all this is gone over, if necessary dividing the 

 houses, so as to clean each half every two days only, the 

 chickens will want another feed, after which there will be the 



