POULTRY. 213 



meal we have found to be good, and all the bits of bread, boiled 

 vegetables, &c., from the kitchen are acceptable. 



GIVE MEAT. 



The avidity with which poultry devour worms and insects is 

 a matter of common observation. Mr. Reaumur, the distin- 

 guished French experimenter, fed a hen entirely on worms for 

 a fortnight, and she seemed pleased with her fare and grew fat. 

 At first she ate a pint a day, then increased to a quart, and then 

 to nearly three pints. In the winter, or when the. fowls are 

 confined, and such food cannot be liad, they should be supplied 

 with bits of meat, fish or fat, to supply the drain on their sys- 

 tem of constant laying. They will eat meat, either raw or 

 coolced, without much preference. Fresh fish scalded may be 

 easily cut up for their use, and will be eagerly eaten. Tliey 

 are fond of blood, and when a companion is wounded will peck 

 at the wound to procure the blood, and even when wounded 

 themselves will drink their own blood, if they can reach it. 



All salted food should be carefully avoided, and also the 

 throwing of bits of salt from the table into the coop, which may 

 prove fatal, and is a frequent cause of sickness. 



FEED CONSTANTLY. 



The crop and stomach of poultry are so formed that it will 

 answer to feed them once, twice, or three times a day ; but it 

 is better to keep food before them all the time. They should 

 at all events have a chance to fill their crops before going' to 

 roost for the night. If food, say a mixture of oats, barley and 

 corn, is kept before them all the time, in a feeder so contrived 

 that they cannot waste it, they will not eat much in the early 

 part of the day, but will fill their crops just at night. Fowls 

 are not such greedy eaters as might be supposed by any one 

 who should see them fed only occasionally. An English writer 

 estimates that a common-sized fowl will eat a quarter of a pint 

 of oats or barley a day, and voracious fowls of large size a third 

 of a pint. 



LAYING. 



To promote laying, in the winter season, an abundance of 

 warm, stimulating food should be furnished, in good variety. 

 The fowls should have constant access to gravel to promote 



