94 Hubbard's poultry secrets. 



ter, a brush with which to scrub the shanks, and your drying 

 room heated to lOO degrees, you are ready to wash your birds. 



Take about two quarts of your melted soap and put it into 

 the first tub. Take your bird and gradually put it into the 

 tub and hold it under the water, with just its head sticking 

 out ; w!ork the bird up and down to get its feathers wet to the 

 skin. Now take your sponge and rub the feathers the right 

 way. Never go against them. Then take your bird out and 

 stand it on a table, or on a barrel, or on a barrel with a wire 

 sieve over the top. By using a barrel, the soap runs off the 

 bird through the sieve, and into the barrel, and does not get 

 the floor wet. Have a pail of clear melted soap handy, as hot 

 as your hands can bear it. Now turn the bird's head towards 

 you, take your sponge, dip it in the hot melted soap and work 

 all you can of this into the feathers. Make sure to work the 

 soap in well with your fingers around the head and hackle and 

 at die root of the tail. If the hackle is not yet all out of the 

 quill, you should take a nail brush and comb the hackle out of 

 quill as much as possible. Never comb out any of the top 

 surface with a brush, for if you do, it will make a bad look- 

 ing job when the feathers dry out. Take your nail brush, and 

 with a little fine sand in it, rub the shanks well. 



Put the bird back into the tub, and with the sponge, rub the 

 whole top surface hard, making sure to rub the feathers the 

 right way. Now you are through with your first tub. 



Your next tub of water should be warm and have a little 

 borax in it. This helps to get the soap out of the feathers. 

 When taking your bird out of the tub that contains the soap, 

 stand him on the edge of the tub and with your hand com- 

 mence at the hackle and rub the right way of the feathers to 

 the end of the tail. This will get off a large quantity of the 

 soap suds. Now put your bird in the tub of rinsing water 

 which contains the borax. The rinsing must be done ver\' 



