THE GUN AT HOME AND ABROAD 
as all the eggs have been laid, when the new feathers will begin to grow 
at once, and in about three weeks’ time will be sufficiently developed to 
make it safe to turn the bird out at large. 
With fixed pens a little lime should be scattered over the ground as 
soon as the hens are gone, and the ground should then be dug over. After 
this is completed a few spadefuls of fresh earth may be scattered over, 
bringing in fresh insect life, for the former supply will be quite exhausted, 
and then some hay -seeds should be thrown broadcast over the surface 
of the soil. Unless abnormally droughty weather should set in, the young 
grass will have made a good growth before the autumn is far advanced. 
A further supply of insect food can be assured for the hens when they are 
again established in the pens, if a small heap of partially decayed manure 
is made in one corner and renewed from time to time, when the pheasants 
will usefully employ some of their time in searching out the tit -bits it 
contains. 
Feeding.— For laying -hens in the pens there is no better egg -producing 
mixture than grain just sprouted sufficiently to show a little white rootlet 
protruding. To make it, the grain — ^wheat or barley — should be placed 
in the copper as soon as the water has become just hot enough to be 
unbearable to the hand, in fact, just above blood heat. The fire should 
be raked out, the grain allowed to remain in the copper twenty -four hours, 
and then taken out and placed in a box for two days. By that time it will 
have sprouted sufficiently, but it must be used without delay, as it will 
not keep good for more than a day or two, and it is therefore necessary 
to prepare only enough for present need, and to keep continually making 
a fresh supply. 
The morning meal for the hens may consist of powdered biscuit soaked 
in water until it swells, then made dry with barley meal, and afterwards 
mixed with sprouted grain in the proportion of one -third. The evening 
meal may consist of the sprouted grain alone. If the hens should show 
any signs of scour a little Epsom salts mixed in the food is the best remedy 
which can be employed. 
A supply of grit must never be forgotten, and though fairly large pieces 
are of use, it is the very small ones, indeed some almost as fine as sand, 
which are most beneficial, and of these there should be a plentiful supply 
for daily use. All birds seem to prefer quartz, but flint and road scrapings 
are also eagerly swallowed. 
The water supply needs careful attention and frequent renewal, for, 
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