262 FEEDING. 



while they eat. It is at that time you can best 

 judge of the state of health they are in. 



The fattening of fowls is carried on to a great 

 extent in Prance. In some localities it is the 

 staple occupation of the females. In three 

 weeks after being penned up, the birds should 

 be ready for market ; but they must be in fair 

 condition when cooped, jind not more than six 

 months old. Cockerels do not fatten so well 

 as pullets, but if they have been kept apart, the 

 young male birds of all the French breeds are 

 very superior in flavour and delicacy to the 

 Dorking, and must not be despised as table 

 fowls. In France the food given is buckwheat 

 ground into meal and mixed with milk. Barley 

 and oatmeal, and also Indian-corn meal, are 

 all good feeding stuffs. Great cleanliness is 

 imperative, and to ensure this in the coop there 

 should be no bottom, but merely rounded spars ; 

 the coop being on legs, is raised above the 

 droppings, which must be removed daily, and 

 sawdust sprinkled underneath. The chickens 

 should be fed twice in the twenty-four hours, 

 early and late, the feeding-troughs taken away 



