74 
The I LLUSTRATED BOOK OH POULTRY. 
to enter and share the food intended for the smaller, which is placed within it. At best, 
however, such a feeding enclosure is only a makeshift, and separate accommodation infinitely 
to be preferred. 
The number of chickens which can be reared in a very limited space, with care , would surprise 
many who have not been forced by necessity to make the attempt. For several years we hatched 
annually from forty to fifty of our Brahmas, and reared more than half of them to maturity, with 
no other space than a pen twenty-two feet square, and a strip of ground (originally a flower 
border) seven feet by seventy. The pen or yard had a shed six feet wide all up one side, enclosed 
with netting ; and the border was divided in two, and had a rough shed at each end. The hens 
were set in the shed, and the chickens cooped there, being let out in dry weather into the open 
yard, and fed constantly as already described. Our and their favourite food was a mixture of about 
equal parts in bulk of good oatmeal, crumbled bread, and grass cut small, mixed with milk, and 
with a little bone-dust added (of which we will say more hereafter in a chapter on rearing prize 
fowls). When the first lot of chickens was about six weeks old, the cockerels were put in one end 
of the border and the pullets in the other, leaving the yard for the next lot ; though we have had 
sometimes the whole fifty in the yard at once. At about three months old we picked out the worst 
part of the chickens, and either sold, ate, or gave them away. By the middle of August we 
generally disposed of at least one pen of the old birds, and the “second crop” of chickens was 
then divided between the pen thus vacated and their own yard, so dividing the whole into four 
lots — two of cockerels and two of pullets — but always thinning them out, so as to keep only the 
good ones, as early as possible. The ground was trodden quite hard, and was regularly swept 
with a hard brush, and now and then sprinkled with carbolate of lime, by which it never became 
offensive ; but every year we had it dug up a foot deep before the chicken-season began. Every 
year or two the earth in the sheds also was passed through a sieve, and all offensive matter thus 
removed. We either did these things ourselves (we often did) or saw that they were done ; and, in 
particular, always took care that each coop or sleeping-box was cleaned and fresh sprinkled with 
earth every night. We hardly ever had a case of disease, and reared such pullets as we have again 
and again been offered ten guineas each for, just as they ran in the yard ; but this was the result, 
be it remembered, of personal care and supervision, and we mention it to show what can be done 
where there is a real interest in the undertaking. 
We still have to consider the rearing of chickens deprived of the kind offices of a 
motherly hen before they are strong enough to shift for themselves. We have often seen it stated 
that here the difficulties of artificial production begin ; that it is easy to hatch chickens, but 
almost impossible to rear them. The exact contrary is the case, not the slightest difficulty in 
the mere rearing of chickens artificially being experienced by any who will devote to the 
pursuit the necessary attention and care ; and almost every fancier at times being obliged to 
make the attempt, from the death of a hen or other unforeseen occurrences. In such cir- 
cumstances an artificial “mother” becomes needful; and after having had recourse to them on 
several occasions, we can unhesitatingly say there is no difficulty whatever in fostering and 
rearing chickens without a hen. Mr. Halsted goes further, and in his enthusiasm even affirms 
of artificial mothers: — “After five years’ constant use of them, I reiterate that I would never 
put out a brood of chickens under a hen as long as I could make or get one made. My 
success with them has been constant and perfect. I raise fully one-fourth more chicks, and 
they are much more growthy and more easily restrained. The use of the hen is saved, for 
instead of taking care of her brood, she goes to laying again. When the eggs do not hatch 
well, three, four, or more broods may be united (although of different ages), and thus that 
