POULTRY DIARY 323 
they drink the more eggs they will lay, and you should rejoice 
every time you have to fill the water trough. 
Feed fairly generously, so that the birds will not slack in the 
egg supply or begin to moult too early. Eggs are beginning to 
mount in price and it is essential you should get plenty for the 
market, With proper handling few birds should begin to moult 
just yet. 
Keep a watch on your young stock, and keep putting food into 
them, but do not make it stimulating. Some of the birds—a 
small minority—may be backward, and these should be separated 
from the quick growers and specially catered for. In a month 
you will be able to tell which of them are to be any good. All 
the others get rid of, even if you have to give them away. 
It is now a suitable time for doing odd jobs in the way of paint- 
ing or repairs. A nail in time saves nine. 
August 
The young birds are now growing big and some are getting into 
the adult stage. If your early light breeds are getting too forward 
and their combs begin to redden, keep them on hard food for a time. 
You do not want any pullets to lay before the end of September. 
If you have any backward ones separate them and feed generously 
with a proportion of animal food. Nothing is better than ground 
green bone if you can get it fresh, but if not, better use meat meal 
or fish meal. 
The moult will now be overtaking the laying hens and without 
doing anything drastic it will be well to feed them sparingly on 
hard grain only for, say, three days, when the feathers should begin 
to fall. A bird moults much better in the mild months than 
later on when it is cold. Once the moult is in full flood begin to 
feed well again, and after a week or so give them all they can pick 
up. You will now get a plentiful supply of feathers and a shorter 
supply of eggs, but if the birds have laid well you will not grudge 
them their well-earned rest. 
All stock cockerels should now be in the cockerel pens and the 
