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FANCIERS' JOURNAL AND POULTRY EXCHANGE. 



A good plan, especially for large, heavy hens, is to have 

 nest boxes on the ground, and closed off, with the exception 

 of one end, which should have a strip over the lower part 

 of the open end, and high enough to prevent the eggs from 

 rolling out. The nest should then be shaped with damp 

 earth, and on the top of this ought to be placed fine hay or 

 straw to the depth of about half an inch. Where it can be 

 done it is best to have these boxes placed in a sitting apart- 

 ment, with a good yard or run attached. In the morning, 

 or at whatever time of day is most convenient, so that some 

 uniformity is observed, the hens may be taken from the 

 nests, and food and water placed before them. It is very 

 important, also, that they have dry earth or coal ashes in 

 which to dust themselves. 



Some take off the hens only every second day, but I do 

 not think this is best. The irregularity in evacuating often 

 produces diarrhoea, and sometimes causes the loss of the hen, 

 at others the entire destruction of the eggs. Some hens will 

 not remain off the nest long enough to take sufficient exer- 

 cise or to evacuate ; such hens should have the nest covered 

 up until they have remained off a sufficient length of time. 



Where hens are procured from neighbors, or where they 

 are changed from the laying to the sitting-room, they will 

 sometimes require to be watched, and placed back on the 

 nest after feeding. In a few days they will learn to return 

 to the nest of their own accord. After all of the hens have 

 returned to their nests, or have been placed upon them, all 

 should be securely covered up, where they will be safe from 

 all intrusion for the day. Sometimes hens will desert the 

 nest before their broods are hatched ; a little watchfulness and 

 experience on the part of the breeder will enable him to de- 

 tect this disposition a day or two before the hen actually 

 leaves her eggs, when they can be placed under another hen. 

 Many persons, for want of this precaution lose several sit- 

 tings of eggs each season. If eggs become broken in the 

 nest, as will often happen, the hen, in her endeavor to re- 

 move the pieces of shell which adhere to the sound ones, will 

 break others, and the eggs will adhere together, so that the 

 hen cannot turn them properly. Whenever an egg becomes 

 broken the remaining ones should at once be washed with 

 tepid water. A neighbor told me that he had a hen which 

 was eating her eggs, and he feared he should be obliged to 

 remove her from the nest. At my suggestion he washed the 

 eggs and renewed the nest, when the trouble was at once 

 ended. I find whole corn to be an excellent feed for sitting 

 hens, though I give my layers hut little of it. 



When the chicks begin to come out of the shell they need 

 considerable care. Often after the eggs are pipped they will 

 become partially crushed by the uneasiness of the hen; un- 

 less the chicks have help they will become pasted fast to the 

 shell, and will perish. A small portion of the broken shell 

 and the thick skin under it should be removed near the bill 

 of the chick, and if any sign of blood appears the egg 

 should be replaced under the hen, and allowed to remain 

 several hours, when it must again be examined. Whenever 

 indication of blood appears all efforts to free the chick should 

 cease for the time, but, if there is no appearance of blood, 

 enough of the shell and thick skin may be removed to 

 enable the chicken to free itself. I have in this way saved 

 a number this year, which I should, otherwise, certainty 

 have lost. I frequently find it convenient to give the hatch 

 of two hens to one mother, and reset the other one, and I 

 have never found a hen the worse for sitting six weeks, 

 indeed, I have thought that a hen which has been hatching 



six weeks will remain longer with her birds than one that 

 has been on the nest but three weeks. 



Many who read this will no doubt say " I knew all that 

 before." I am well aware that I have advanced no new 

 ideas, and, perhaps, the treatment which I have described is 

 not even the best, but I have given the method pursued by 

 myself, and one which I have found so successful that I fell 

 safe in recommending it to others. 



You have doubtless among your subscribers very many 

 who are beginners in poultry breeding, and it is with the 

 hope of interesting and benefiting them that I have written 

 this article. F. R. W. 



My Dear Fanciers' Journal. 



I have just received No. 16, and find it as attractive as the 

 preceding numbers, and although when the enterprise began 

 I was among those who doubted its expediency, I now see 

 my mistake, and, also, believe the " F. J." to he what we 

 have wanted for some time past. I look for your arrival 

 every week with pleasure, which is not diminished when I 

 read your columns of advice and happy ideas. I hope you 

 will have the greatest success, as is certainly promised at 

 present. 



This, however, is hardly what I started to write about ; 

 my object in writing is to ask your readers, through your 

 columns, if you see fit to give me space, for information 

 (derived from experience) on the subject of Game Bantams, 

 Black-breasted Beds particularly. I know that some of 

 your readers have had that experience, and, as I am per- 

 petuating this beautiful breed, I should like to hear from 

 such men as Messrs. Simpson, Spaulding, or Howlett, and 

 others, as to the selection of breeding-stock, what sort of 

 sitters, mothers, and layers they make, &c. I daresay others 

 might profit by the information thus given. It seems to me 

 that it would be an excellent plan if those who have kept 

 one or more breeds of poultry for years would give their ex- 

 perience, and the peculiarities of their flocks, so that ama- 

 teurs could judge which breed to choose for themselves, by 

 comparing their merits, and adapting them to their own in- 

 dividual circumstances; thus giving all a chance, spreading 

 the news of " Fancy " far and wide, and bringing all to a 

 realization of the merits of our domestic friends and com- 

 panions, the " Chickens." 



I remain yours truly, Black Bed. 



New York, April 18, 1874. 



(For Fanciers' Journal.) 



Mr. Bicknell's roup experience (in Journal of April 16) 

 corresponds somewhat with mine, though I cannot report 

 the same favorable results from the use of powdered alum. 

 Chickens are like " humans " in many respects, and require 

 for the same diseases, different treatment in different locali- 

 ties ; and I have found in many cases, that what would 

 benefit one ailing chicken, would have no effect on another, 

 though both were apparently suffering from the same cause. 



I tried the powdered alum on the cockerel sores in the 

 mouth, without effecting a cure. I burnt alum, mixed it 

 with honey, and administered in the form of a pill. I used 

 almost every poultry powder, paste and pills, and though 

 from some of them I gained temporary relief for the fowls, 

 none seemed to get at the root of the disease. Before last 

 fall, I never had a case of roup amongst my chickens, and 

 often congratulated myself at the good healthy appearance 

 my fowls presented, and the entire freedom from the attacks 



