Hubbard's poultry secrets. 73 



careful that they don't get over-fat. If your best hens be- 

 come broody, let them set, as they will make better molt by do- 

 ing so, and when the new feathers start, they will gain in 

 weight and their feathers will grow much faster. The faster 

 they put on these new feathers, the better color they will have. 

 While they are on free range they should be made to pick the 

 most of their living by catching bugs, grasshoppers and crick- 

 ets. They should only be fed once a day, and that should be at 

 night just before bed-time. This should be thrown in the lit- 

 ter to make them work to get it. It would be a good plan to 

 put a few heaps of horse manure in different places around 

 their roosting quarters, then you can throw their night feed 

 in this, and they would enjoy scratching it out, and the exer- 

 cise they got from it would keep them in good health. If 

 you handle your show birds and breeders in this way, they 

 will not disappoint you, and they will be birds of rare quality, 

 provided when they begin to shed, that you feed them by the 

 method which I have given on another page in this book, on 

 feeding through the molt. You should also keep plenty of 

 shells, grit and charcoal before them. Don't neglect going 

 over them for lice once each month, and grease their shanks 

 to keep them in good shape. 



HOUSE AND YARDS FOR MALE BIRDS. 



It is almost impossible for a breeder of Fancy Poultry to 

 get along without having a separate house for his male birds 

 when the breeding season is over and when the cockerels will 

 no longer run together without fighting. There are many 

 Blue Ribbon cockerels ruined by being allowed to run with 

 other cockerels. When a cockerel is once "cowed down," it 

 is impossible to get him to finish his feathers as he should ; his 



