BOOK VIII. IV. 5-v. 2 



described, and it will be no different when it is shut 

 up except that it is not allowed to go out but is kept 

 within the hen-house and fed three times a day with 

 a larger quantity of food ; for the daily ration is four 

 cyathi per head, whereas that of the wandering bird 

 is only two cyathi. A bird which is shut up, how- 6 

 ever, should have a spacious portico to which it can 

 go out and bask in the sun; and this should be 

 protected with nets, so that no eagle or hawk can 

 fly in. It is only worth while to go to these expenses 

 and to take these precautions in places where the 

 prices of hens and their produce are high. But in 

 the keeping of fowls, as of all domestic animals, the 

 most important thing is that the man who looks after 

 them should be trustworthy, for, unless he is faithful 

 to his master, the profit from the poultry-house will 

 not surpass the cost. Enough has now been said 

 about the management of hens ; we will now pursue 

 the other topics in order. 



V. When midwinter is over, this kind of bird is of the 

 generally wont to lay. In warmer places the most and setting 

 prolific hens begin laying eggs about the first ofo^^ggs 

 January, but in colder regions after the 13th of the hen. 

 same month. But their productivity must be en- 2 

 couraged by suitable food to make them lay earlier. 

 The best food to give them is their fill of half-cooked 

 barley ; for it both increases the size of the eggs and 

 makes them lay more often. But this food must be 

 seasoned, as it were, by throwing into it the leaves 

 and seed of shrub-trefoil, which are thought greatly 

 to increase the productivity of birds. The quantity 

 of food, as I have said, should be two cyathi of barley 

 per hen if they are allowed to wander freely, but 

 some shrub-trefoil should be mixed with it, or, if this 



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