92 Hubbard's poultry secrets. 



faking white birds for the show room that have brass 

 and creaminess in their plumage. 



A male bird that has creaminess and brass in his plumage 

 should be washed three times. Once when his new plumage 

 is about half in, the next time just before his plumage is prime 

 and the next, three days before he is shown. When washing 

 each time, use the same method of soaping and rinsing as you 

 do in the other method of washing white birds, which is ex- 

 plained in the next chapter on "Washing White Birds," with 

 the exception that you should put enough ammonia into the pail 

 of hot melted soap, so that it smells good and strong. With this 

 melted soap and ammonia, you should soap the bird in good 

 shape, working in all the soap the feathers will hold. Put 

 the bird in a warm room and leave him in there for a half hour. 

 Then take him out and put him into the rinsing tub, making 

 sure you get all the soap out of the feathers, then he should 

 go into the bluing tub. Use double the amount of bluing 

 you do in the other method of washing. From the bluing 

 tub put him into the drying room and when the bird is dry he 

 should be blue all over. 



Now he should be put into the yard and allowed to run as 

 before he was washed. The reason for using so much blu- 

 ing is that when he is out in the sun, it will help bleach the 

 feathers, and they won't take on so much brass. Wash the 

 bird twice in this manner, let him run in the sun, and the next 

 washing will put him in the show room a white bird. Three 

 days before the show, wash the bird in the following way : Be- 

 fore you start to wash your bird the last time, you should get 

 some clean white sand and heat it to 115 degrees. You must 

 also have a box eighteen to twenty inches long about a foot 

 wide, and high enough so that when the bird is sitting down 

 his head will come to the top of the box. Now soap, rinse. 



