126 BREEDING AND EXHIBITION OF PRIZE POULTRY. 



"If the chickens are early hatched, I coop the hen in a 

 warm sheltered place, free from all intrusion, and should the 

 weather be very severe, keep them within doors; the floor, 

 however, must be gravel. Till about a fortnight old I feed 

 them on sops made with boiled milk, and sweetened with 

 coarse sugar, mixing it for the first two or three days equally 

 with yolk of egg boiled hard and chopped fine. The egg is, 

 however, too "binding" to be continued longer. The first 

 thing in the morning they have warmed milk to drink ; there 

 is nothing equal to this for bringing them on in cold weather. 

 If the chicks are weakly, yolk of egg beaten up and given to 

 drink is the most strengthening thing I know. In water they 

 are of course unlimited, and they also have plenty of fresh 

 grass cut small. I also throw them, two or three times a day, 

 a handful of coarse raw oatmeal. 



"I feed like this, on soft food, raw oatmeal, &c., with 

 milk every morning, for about a fortnight, after which they 

 have boiled oatmeal porridge made so stiff that it will crumble 

 when cool. They grow amazingly fast on this food, and are 

 very fond of it. I also give them boiled rice occasionally, and 

 frequently throw them groats, giving them also a little fresh 

 cooked meat at dinner-time, cut up fine. Of course they are 

 fed every night after dark, usually about ten o'clock. There 

 is at first a little difficulty in getting them out to feed at night ; 

 but they soon learn the time, and will run out eagerly for their 

 'stirabout,' which, if made thick enough, they prefer to 

 any other food. The mode of preparation is to boil a 

 saucepan full of water, and throw in it as much oatmeal as will 

 take it all up. Then continue stirring till it is a stiff crumbly 

 mass, after whi h turn it out upon a large plate, and keep 

 stirring it about with the spoon till cool enough to be eaten. 



"At ten weeks old all the waste birds should be picked 

 out to make more room for the others, and the cockerels sepa- 

 rated from the pullets. The main food will still consist of the 



