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THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN, Jakuaby 17, 186U. 
POULTRY AND BEE-KEEPER’S CHRONICLE. 
POULTRY SHOWS. 
January 18, 19, 20. Liverpool. Secs., Messrs. G. W. Moss and W. C. 
Worrall. 
January 31st and February 1st and 2nd. Chesterfield and Scarsdale. 
non. Secs., Mr. J. Cliarlesworth, and Mr. T. P. Wood, jun. Entries 
close January 11th. 
February lltli to 15th, 1860. Crystal Palace (Poultry and rigeons). 
Sec., Mr. W. Houghton. Entries close Jan. 14th. 
February 29th, and March 1st, 1860. Ulverstone. See., Mr. T. Robson. 
June 6th and 7th. Beverley and East Riding of Yorkshire. See., 
Eras. Calvert, Surgeon, &c. Entries close May 31st. 
N.B .—Secretaries will oblige us by sending early copies of their lists. 
EARLY CHICKENS. 
Thebe are always learners in every pursuit, and it is necessary 
that any periodical that undertakes to teach should give the in¬ 
formation that is required at certain periods. We used to defer 
these remarks till the cessation of Shows left us space for them ; 
but now, if we wait, the time will have passed when they arc 
most valuable. While yet there are the great Shows of Liverpool 
and the Crystal Palace to come off, it is necessary those who 
mean to exhibit in July should be thinking of the chickens that 
are to enable them to do so. 
Many are discouraged by the narrations of their friends, de¬ 
tailing the difficulties and disappointments they have experienced 
in endeavouring to rear early broods. Such is not our opinion. 
We have found, of late years, January and' February better 
months than March and April for rearing chickens ; but failure * 
will be the result of giving a hen more to do than she can accom¬ 
plish. If we had fourteen eggs of any particular strain from 
which we wanted early chickens, we would put them under two 
hens. We should expect live chickens from each, and should 
not doubt of rearing four. We would put them in a warm shed 
on a dusty floor and cover them carefully at night. We would 
feed them by candlelight twice after dark every night—say at 
seven and ten, or half-past, and we would have them fed very early 
in the morning, and covered up again ; but we would not allow 
them to run about till, as a lie-a-bed friend of ours says, “ the 
world is well aired.” The hen should remain under the rip, and 
not be allowed to drag the chickens about. 
The niglit.-feeding at this time of year is necessary, because 
there are fifteen hours night to nine of daylight. The small 
number of chickens is necessary, because if there are more, as 
they grow their size prevents the hen from covering them, and | 
one by one they get chilled and droop ; whereas, if there are 
hut four or five, she can hover them well till more genial weather 
makes her task a lighter one. We should not hesitate, when the 
grass is dry, the sun warm, and the weather kind and mild, to 
give them a mid-day hour in the sun. We should avoid the possi¬ 
bility of a chill, and feed liberally with bread and ale. We are 
more than ever convinced, at all seasons of the year artificial 
warmth leads to disease and death, and that anything like 
bottoms to the rips in which hens and chickens are put, such as 
hoards, or carpet, or sacks, are decidedly bad things. Warmth 
should be given by food instead of fuel. Long lasting should 
be avoided, the hen should be kept in high condition, the | 
chickens should have milk to drink, they should not be exposed ' 
to draughts, and then we think we should rear four out of every 
five. 
SCARCITY OE EGGS. 
We have had many complaints this season of the scarcity of 
eggs; and, we believe, hens have laid badly. Our own have. 
But on inquiry we have found in many cases the fault did not 
lie with the birds. Those who expect eggs in the winter must j 
select the stock with that view. Some breeds—as Cochins and j 
Brahmas—may be more properly termed winter-layers than any 
others ; but even with these it is entirely a question of age and 
season. Thus, a Cochin pullet hatched in March will often lay 
in August. We have known them do so at sixteen weeks old ; but 
it must be recollected they were the most genial weeks of the year, 
and those most conducive to growth. Pullets hatched at the end 
of June, will not, probably, lay before January. Dorkings seldom 
lay regularly till they are seven months old. Spanish the same. 
To procure a regular supply of eggs, it is, then, necessary to have 
fowls so classed that a number of them shall arrive at the proper 
ago at the period when they will be required to produce them. 
Temperature affects this only to a certain extent; cold may 
diminish the number of eggs, but it will not prevent laying. 
Good feeding will facilitate it; but anything like the use of 
stimulating food to force it is very injurious to the bird, and 
often destroys life. It always impairs fertility and health in 
after years. Egg-producing in the winter may become a certainty, 
but only with pullets. After their first eggs they become hens, 
and then are subject to the seasons; but they obey the law of 
Nature when they lay their first eggs at a certain age. We must 
not be misunderstood. We do not intend to say hens 'never lay 
in the winter, hut they cannot be depended upon to do so. 
DETECTING THE SEX IN EGGS. 
I have been confidently assured that the sex of chickens may 
be foreknown by the position of the air-circle in the egg, which, 
undoubtedly, is not the same in all. In some it is exactly on the 
crown of the egg, in others it is more at one side. I have not 
myself tested the value of the information, nor can I say which 
of the two positions indicates the one sex, and which the other. 
Does no one use artificial chicken mothers ? What precautions 
are necessary to insure poultry, sent to shows by rail, being 
properly tended on the journey ? And what is the usual fee per 
pen for exhibiting? In tlie “Poultry Book for the Many,” at 
page f), a plan for poultry-houses and yards is given, a House for 
sitting liens, d Boosting-house for stock (with nests). I should 
like to know (for it is not explained), how, if a lien lays in D, is 
she to be made to sit in a. Many a hen I have found will not sit 
anywhere but in the nest in which she has laid her eggs.—G. M. 
[We are strongly of opinion that no one can foretell the sex of 
the chicken that will be produced by an egg. At all events, wo 
never met with any one that did so foretell correctly. Those who 
claimed the knowledge necessary for so doing were wrong as 
often as they were right. Nests should always bo moveable; and 
then, after the eggs have been placed under a lien, the whole 
together may be moved from d to a.—Eds. C. G.] 
DEVIZES & NORTH WILTS POULTRY SHOW- 
Januaey 11 and 12, I860. 
The first class we came to on entering the room was the 
Spanish. Amongst the list of competitors were found the names 
of many of our first breeders ; the first prize justly going to a 
pen of birds, in most splendid condition, of Mr. J. R. Kodbard’s. 
The pullets in this gentleman’s pen were very good, and the comb 
of the cock was much more upright than we have seen them of 
late. Mr. Atkins came second with a pen of good birds ; and 
Mr. J. K. Fowler was a good third. Mrs. Fookes’ and Mr. 
Long’s well deserved their commendation. 
The Dorkings were the next birds that came to our notice; 
and amongst them were many very first-rate specimens. The 
first-prize birds were very first-rate, and were claimed imme¬ 
diately the Show opened, and could have been sold at a much 
larger price, ten pounds having been offered and refused for them, 
this not being the first time they lmd distinguished themselves. 
The Mai’cbioness of AVinchester’s second-prize pen was very fine, 
and the cock was considered by many to be superior to that in 
the first-prize pen, though the hens were undoubtedly inferior; 
and the probabilities are, that had Mr. Burns’s third-prize birds 
been in better condition, they would have held a very different 
position, as they were a remarkably fine pen of birds, but showed 
evident signs of too frequent exhibition. We believe them to he 
the same pen that obtained the Silver Cup at Darlington a few 
weeks since. There were many good birds in the commended 
pens, especially the Bov. J. L. Popham’s and the Eev. J. G. A. 
Baker’s. 
In Cochins , although the competition was not large, it was a 
very hard run between Mrs. Fookes and the Eev. G. Gilbert; the 
latter gentlemen taking the first prize with a very nice pen of 
Buffs, and Mrs. Fookes second and third with splendid pens of 
Partridge and Bull'; this lady also had another pen oi' Bulls 
highly commended. 
We now come to what was most decidedly the class of the 
Show—the Black-lreasted Bed Game, and where all were so 
good, it becomes almost invidious to particularise, but we cannot 
help remarking that the first and second-prize birds were very supe¬ 
rior ; the pullets in the latter being in splendid condition, and 
had they a better cock with them the respective positions of tho 
