64 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
January 28 
The Hen. 
SOME HEN PROBLEMS. 
At what age does a hen begin to be useless as 
an egg producer ? In other words, does it pay 
to keep hens till they are four to five years old ? 
Can any disease of poultry be cured profitably, 
or is it better to cut the heads off ? Can diseases 
be prevented by proper treatment ? I have a 
large number of White Leghorns. They moulted 
very early, and had nearly their Winter dress 
when, without any sign of sickness, I found some 
of them in the morning lying dead on the floor. 
One common disease seems to be swelled heads 
and running eyes. Can one neighbor compel an¬ 
other to keep his part of the line fence poultry 
tight ? o. s. 
Lockport, N. Y. 
Depends on tub Hen —The period of 
a hen's usefulness depends altogether on 
the hen. While the first year is usually 
the bjst for egg production, it is not al¬ 
ways the case, some hens laying better 
the second year ; but as a rule, one will 
get the greatest number of eggs from a 
given number of fowls by having the 
pullets hatched early; March and April 
are best months, so as to get them laying 
early in the Fall, and change them each 
year, disposing of the fowls when they 
cease laying to go through the moulting 
process. We frequently find it profit¬ 
able to keep some especially fine speci¬ 
mens of purebred fowls for several years, 
and I have some hens that are six or 
seven years old and still laying fairly 
well, though as a rule, the number of 
eggs decreases after the second year. 
Treatment of Disease. —Most diseases 
of poultry can be cured if taken in time; 
as to whether they can be profitably 
cured, depends on the value of the bird 
and the value of the owner's time. It is 
usua.ly the safest to remove any sick 
birds from the flock, not only to prevent 
possible contagion, but to save the 
sick bird from being annoyed by the 
others. If very sick, it should be buried 
about three feet deep, so there will be no 
chance of it ever getting back, as it is 
usually a long time before it is any good 
after severe sickness. Almost all diseases 
can be prevented by proper treatment. 
I have never seen sickness to any extent 
where the birds have had the chance to 
keep well; even in the best-regulattd 
poultry yards, if any disease shows it¬ 
self, the cause can usually be found. 
There is seldom any trouble where the 
following conditions prevail: Inthefi st 
place, the fowls should have a dry, sandy 
or gravelly soil for the yards and houses 
to be built on. Low, flat, heavy land is 
very undesirable for raising poultry. 
The houses should be built so there will 
be no chance for drafts from cracks ; in 
fact, make the house as tight as possible, 
and plenty large for the flock ; 10 square 
feet or more for each bird is much better 
than less, and don’t worry about ventila¬ 
tion, as there will be no trouble about 
that, during the cold nights of Winter. 
If the doors or windows are open through 
the day, the ventilation theory will take 
care of ilself. The windows and doors 
should be left open both day and night, 
of course, in warm weather. Be sure to 
have the roof tight, as leaky roofs and 
damp houses cause the poultryman more 
trouble than all the money he will make 
from the birds so kept. With good loca¬ 
tion and houses, the battle is half won, 
and all one needs is to give the fowls 
good care, and this means work and 
plenty of it if one have a large number. 
Floors and Feeding. —The floors of 
the house should be well covered with 
hay, straw, leaves, or anything most con¬ 
venient, just so there is plenty of it, not 
less than six inches deep. All grain 
should be scattered in this so as to make 
the fowls work, as work is as necessary 
for them as for the owner. Besides, it 
is a satisfaction to know that one can 
share some of the work at least. Feed 
soft feed sparingly, giving them only 
what they will clean up quickly in the 
morning. This should be composed of 
corn meal, one part; wheat bran, one 
part; ground oats, one part; cut clover 
hay, four parts ; ground meat, two parts, 
adding a handful of salt and a quart of 
ground charcoal to each half bushel of 
mixed feed ; the whole should be well 
mixed and moistened, never wet enough 
to make it sloppy or sticky. During the 
Summer, any kind of green stuff can 
be used in place of the cut clover hay. 
Feed a small quantity of small grains 
at noon and a full feed at night, all they 
will eat with a relish, but be very care¬ 
ful and do not overfeed, as that will 
cause trouble ; this is one of the princi¬ 
pal causes of finding fine fat hens dead 
under the roosts in the morniDg. Use 
cracked corn for the bulk of the grain 
food, and by way of variety, add any of 
the following that are convenient: 
Wheat, oats, barley, buckwheat, peas, 
Kaffir corn, or any other good, sound 
grain, the greater the variety the better, 
but always aim to feed as. much corn as 
all the others combined. 
With the feeding done, give them fresh 
water at least twice daily. Keep the 
drinking vessels clean. Keep plenty of 
good sharp grit where they can readily 
get it, and last but not least, keep the 
house clean and one will Lothave much 
occasion for doctoring sick fowls or him¬ 
self either, as exercise is a good medi¬ 
cine, and he will get plenty of it in at¬ 
tending to the fowls’ wants. 
I don’t know what the law is in New 
York about line fences, but in New Jer¬ 
sey, where we all live neighborly, and 
treat our neighbors (not at the bar) as 
we would be treated, we get along fairly, 
and seldom have any trouble of this 
kind. But if our fowls bother any one 
juit moved in from another State, before 
he becomes acclimated, and he should 
appeal to the law, he can compel the 
owner of the fowls to pay all damages 
of trespass. j. e. steyenson. 
New Jersey. 
INCUBATORS AND FIRE INSURANCE. 
I do not agree with Mr. Weeks, page 
864, that the farmer has more rubbish 
and litter about than does the merchant 
or manufacturer ; if you will visit the 
cellars of both, I will be much surprised 
if you do not find more light and com¬ 
bustible material in the merchant’s cel¬ 
lar than you will in the average farm¬ 
er’s. I think the insurance companies 
are prejudiced against incubators on ac¬ 
count of losses caused by neglect and 
cheap machines, and while operators 
will use these cheap fire-boxes, and be 
careless and negligent in the care of the 
lamp, I do not blame the companies for 
charging a higher premium or refusing 
to insure property where an incubator 
is used. 
I have operated incubators for three 
years, and have never had an accident, 
not even a smoking lamp. I have never 
experienced the trouble in regulating 
that Mr. Durham speaks of, and in a 
cellar or room of fairly even temperature, 
the machines will not vary one degree in 
24 hours. In the start, I find what flame 
is necessary to produce the required 
temperature, and keep the flame as uni¬ 
form as possible throughout the hatch. 
The flame can be reduced a little the 
third week, as the animal heat from the 
eggs becomes quite marked at that time, 
and the machine will require less arti¬ 
ficial heat. 
The properly-cared-for incubator lamp 
is as safe as, or safer than, the average 
house lamp or a lantern. If a little 
larger flame than is necessary to get the 
required heat is used, the regulator on a 
properly-constructed incubator, if prop¬ 
erly adjusted, will keep the heat within 
limits and counteract any sudden changes 
in the outside atmosphere. G. R. s. 
Ballston Lake, N. Y. 
Tue tenth annual exhibition of the New York 
Poultry and Pigeon Association will be held at 
Madison Square Garden, January 31 to February 
4 inclusive. The entries now closed, show a list 
of exhibitors which insures an exhibit of some 
of the best birds in America, and sharp com¬ 
petition. Competition is open to the world. A 
complete exhibit of incubators and brooders, 
and all appurtenances of the poultry yard, will 
also be shown. Pet stock of all kinds is also a 
drawing feature. 
SPURS. 
Some Alaska Hens.— Five years ago, I shipped 
some B. P. Rock hens, and one Leghorn male to 
this place. The huskies (native dogs) killed 
most of them, yet there was no new blood put in 
the flock. But by their foot-races with the dogs, 
and hidiDg in the brush from the hawks, they are 
now more like grouse than hens. Yet these 
scrubs are laying now in the shortest days, day¬ 
light 9 in the morning, dark 2 p. m. (59 degrees 30 
minutes north latitude). The P. Rock hen would 
not lay for me in Wifiter. E. b. c. 
Alaska. 
I can beat the Hope Farm egg record for Oc¬ 
tober and November double over, but am not 
satisfied. I have just about the same number of 
hens, with this difference. I have 40 pullets, the 
rest are one and two-year-old hens. The pullets 
commenced in August, and have been at it ever 
since. I have no trouble with getting an average 
of two dozen a day, but can’t get the old hens 
started ; it is wearing me out with anxiety. T. m. 
British Columbia. 
R. N.-Y.—It never pays to get too anxious over 
a hen. 
POULTRY 
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nntif TOY paplu, uiunt’d, 20 pag»», 
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Bran and Milk.— Have you tried a mixture of 
bran and skim-milk with your bens? I find it does 
very well. I have always thought highly of skim- 
milk as a food for poultry. It has seemed to me 
to take the place of meat for egg production, and 
to give better returns when fed to hens than 
when fed to pigs. But it is only lately that I 
have experimented with bran as a hen diet. 
Mixing these two together, I was surprised to find 
that the hens cleaned up a liberal allowance 
every time. I had been feeding corn with some 
oats. I prefer wheat to other grain, but did not 
have it, and so fed the others. I had been get¬ 
ting no eggs. That was about a month ago. 
Now I bring in three or four each dav. Fowls 
(25) are a mixture, most of them fairly well-bred 
Minorcas, but none pure. w. 
Pennsylvania. 
Some Hen Care —My pullets were all hatched 
in April, and were fed egg and cracker, oat meal, 
fine cracked corn and wheat. When they leave 
the hens, we commence to feed, morning and 
noon, a mash composed of meal, one part, and 
bran, three parts, mixed with skim-milk, with 
cracked corn and wheat at night. Beingyarded, 
we give them all the green feed they will eat— 
green clover, weeds, lawn cuttings, etc., until 
they go into Winter quarters November 1, when 
they receive the same morning mash with dried 
clover, steamed, noon and night. They have 
grain, equal parts, whole corn, wheat, oats and 
cracked corn, and up to the present time, they 
have had no animal meal, meat, hone or any con¬ 
diments of any kiud except a single handful of 
salt in the morning mash They always have 
access to grit and oyster shells. My house has a 
double hemlock floor with tarred paper between, 
and is kept covered with two or three inches of 
sand (not g avel), and that covered with leaves 
or cut straw into which all dried grain is thrown. 
Hens let out pleasatt days in Winter, on to the 
cold, damp ground, if laying, will stop a week or 
10 days. 1 know it, having made several trials. 
This mode of feeding I have practiced for three 
years, with about the same results as above. 
Vermont. e. c. m. 
MORE EGGS 
are laid by hens when kept free from 
vermin. LAMBERT’S DEATH TO 
LICE is the remedy. It costs but 10c. to 
try it. My 04-page Poultry Book euke. 
D. J. LAMBERT, Box 307, Apponaug, U.I 
$£T Hand Bone, Shell.Corn 
&. Grit Mill fc>r Poultry men. 
I Daisy Bone Cutter. P.owey Mills. 
fe. Circular and testimonials Free. 
WILSON BROS., Easton, Pa. 
The Model Mill 
A hand mill for grinding grain, 
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THEY HATCH MILLIONS 
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hatch CHICKENS 
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ra 3 BS H is not ati unusual 
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and Tub Rural New-Yorker, both one 
year, for bi.65 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. NEW YORK. 
