184 



On the Rearing and Management of Poultry. 



to render assistance. We would that man would let nature have 

 its course. It is a very rare occurrence indeed that any good 

 result is obtained by givino^ assistance to the chick when in the 

 shell. " Never attempt," sajs Cantelo, to free a chicken 

 from the shell, unless the cause of its detention is very evidently 

 an accidental circumstance, which you may know by its loud 

 cries, sometimes caused by the feathers sticking to the shell ; but 

 when the chicken is nearly disengaged, or making very violent 

 efforts, there is no danger in pullmg open the shell, though the 

 least abrasure of the veins covering the inside of the shell before 

 the blood is taken up by the chicken is always detrimental, and 

 generally fatal. In case, however, of the chicken pecking 

 towards the small end, instead of the butt (which sometimes 

 happens), as soon as it begins to cut round the shell, a piece 

 may be removed, in order to give a little more room for the 

 exit." Such is the advice of one who, in some years, rears as 

 many as eighteen thousand poultry. We imagine nothing more 

 need be said on this subject, for we are certain that there is 

 not one case in a hundred that any good can be done, and 

 were we to give further instructions, we should, like the quack 

 doctors, be putting double-edged tools into the hands of those 

 who are ignorant of their use. 



Many people set two or more hens at the same time, in order 

 that they may put the broods to one hen ; not a bad plan in an 

 economical point of view, but we cannot admire the system of 

 thus depriving a hen of her offspring, after she has so carefully 

 sat for twenty-one days anxiously waiting the issue. Nor do 

 we think one hen should have more than fourteen birds to cater 

 for and to cover comfortably, and, moreover, a hen will not 

 always take the chicks of another under her care; however^ 

 should the brood of one hen have to be given to another, the 

 dusk of the evening is the best time to do it, and whoever has 

 the work to do must be careful, as the mother becomes quite 

 furious when interfered with. 



Many attempts have been made to make hens sit at the will 

 of man. With one exception, these attempts have been acts of 

 cruelty, and we cannot too strongly express our disgust at them. 

 The exception I speak of was brought under my notice by 

 having observed the earliest chickens in our neighbourhood were, 

 every year, in the possession of the same person. Attributing 

 this circumstance to something more than mere accident, I 

 was induced to ascertain the cause. The person never kept 

 more than one hen, and I found, in answer to my inquiries, 



that the eggs were not taken from the nest, and as soon as she 

 had laid about thirteen, she commenced to sit." This seemed so 

 natural that I at once felt convinced that if hens were to be in- 



