83 Matching Fowls. 



weighed before a meal. But fowls that are over-fattened, 

 as some judges very improperly desire, cannot be in good 

 health any more than " crammed " fowls, and are useless 

 for breeding, producing at best a few puny, delicate, or 

 sickly chickens ; thus making the exhibition a mere 

 " show," barren of all useful results. 



Pullets continue to grow until they begin to lay, which 

 almost or quite stops their growth ; and therefore if great 

 size is desired for exhibition, they should be kept from the 

 cockerels and partly from stimulating food until a month 

 before the show, when they will be required to be matched 

 in pens. During this month they should have extra food 

 and attention. 



If fowls intended for exhibition are allowed to sit, the 

 chickens are apt to cause injury to their plumage, and loss 

 of condition, while if prevented from sitting, they are liable 

 to suffer in moulting. Their chickens may be given to 

 other hens, but the best and safest plan is to set a broody 

 exhibition hen on duck's eggs, which will satisfy her 

 natural desire for sitting, while the young ducklings will 

 give her much less trouble, and leave her sooner than a 

 brood of her own kind. 



All the birds in a pen should match in comb, colour of 

 their legs, and indeed in every particular. Mr. Baily 

 mentions "a common fault in exhibitors who send two 

 pens composed of three excellent and three inferior birds, 

 so divided as to form perhaps one third class and one 

 highly commended pen : whereas a different selection 

 would make one of unusual merit. If an amateur who 

 wishes to exhibit has fifteen fowls to choose from, and to 

 form a pen of a cock and two hens, he should study and 

 scan them closely while feeding at his feet in the morning. 

 He should then have a place similar to an exhibition pen, 

 wherein he can put the selected birds ; they should be 

 raised to the height at which he can best see them, and 

 before he has looked long at them defects will become 

 apparent one after the other till, in all probability, neither 

 of the subjects of his first selection will go to the show. 

 We also advise him rather to look for defects than to dwell 



