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into it entirely oneself. I only bring the rules of ordinary 

 common-sense and proportion to bear on the matter. 



For early egg-laying it is, I think, desirable to have 

 some of the southern breeds, such as Leghorns, Spanish, 

 etc. 



I know very little about my own poultry, as I cannot 

 make pets of things that have to be killed, and they are 

 entirely managed by my gardener and his wife. The 

 following is their account of what they do, and they 

 certainly have been very successful : ' We set the hens 

 as early in January as we can on about nine eggs, as the 

 weather is cold ; on thirteen eggs later, being careful that 

 the eggs should not have been frosted. We make the 

 nests of hay in the henhouse, which is a warm one. The 

 early-hatched chicks are best for autumn killing, as they 

 begin to lay about July for a short time, and then stop 

 laying till the next spring. The sitting hens are fed once 

 a day on barley, about a handful to each hen ; the little 

 chickens on grits the first day, and then on oatmeal about 

 every three hours. When they are about a fortnight old 

 they have a little barley in the middle of the day. The 

 mother hen is kept cooped up away from the other fowls 

 till the chicks are about six weeks old, when they all run 

 in the field. March- and April-hatched birds we keep for 

 stock, as they make the best fowls and layers about 

 October. We shut up the pullets in a run for laying. 

 We keep no hens older than two years, and have fresh 

 cockerels every year. We feed the stock-fowls twice 

 a day on soft food in the morning, and barley in the 

 afternoon. The fowl-houses are white-washed every spring, 

 and kept cleaned out twice a week, and the floors dusted 

 with slack lime. The fowls have a good field to run in, 

 so they get plenty of grass. The shut-up pullets require 

 plenty of grit and greenstuff, and they are fond of a 

 Mangold to pick at. Fowls are very fond of bones 



