82 THE PRACTICAL POULTRY KEEPER. 



frequently lays the foundation of mortal disease, by leaving 

 the poor little things with no strength to endure any 

 inclemency of the weather. 



Finally, it ought to be mentioned that it never answers 

 to rear chickens partially upon this system. If they are 

 allowed to get used to the hen's call, they fret and pine for 

 days, and some of them never recover. Or if there are hens 

 with their broods in the same run, they will run to them 

 and get pecked, and fret in the same way. But if either 

 hatched in an incubator, or taken from the nest before the 

 hen has called them to food, they thrive at least as well as 

 with the natural parent, and grow up tame and familiar to a 

 degree almost beyond belief, knowing, as they do, no other 

 friend but the hand which feeds them.* 



CHAPTER V. 



TABLE POULTRY. FATTENING AND KILLING. 



THE chickens killed for home use, where poultry is only 

 reared in a small way, will be ready for table any time after 

 about four months old, according to the size of the breed. 

 If they have been thoroughly well fed from the shell, they 

 will need no further fattening at all, but will be covered with 

 plenty of good meat, which to average people in this country 

 is really more palatable than a fatter condition. They 

 should simply be fasted for about eighteen hours before 

 being killed, which may be effected in either of the ways 

 presently described, if anyone be available with the necessary 

 skill. If this be not the case, the simplest and most certain 

 way of avoiding unnecessary suffering is to chop the head 

 off, after which there can be no consciousness. The fact 



* Those who wish to try their hands at constructing apparatus may 

 find assistance in a little handbook on "Incubators and Chicken Rearers: 

 How to Make and Use" (Cassell & Co.). 



