’ 
352 QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. [1 May, 1899. 
each six months. Itis in this respect that laying fowls can be recommended 
in preference to table poultry, which want so much more attention. Of course, 
fresh chickens must be raised to take the place of the fowls that have to be 
cleared in the autumn, and it is here that the owner should strive to improve 
his stock. He must always have his eyes open to note which breeds or crosses 
are doing best, and be ready to eliminate the less productive kinds. J 
Provided no disease appears, and if ordinary vigilance is practised there is 
no reason why it should, a certain profit is bound to accrue to the owner. The 
old birds should fetch the price of rearing the pullets. I mean the sum received 
for their sale should equal the out-of-pocket expense in rearing the pullets 
before they begin to be productive, and the profit should be between the cost 
of food (for other expenses, once the houses are built, are nominal) and the 
price received for eggs. To say what the profit ought to be is absurd, for there 
is no “ought” in the matter; itis bounded by many circumstances impossible to 
foresee. In feeding large quantities the cost per hen is reduced, and should 
not exceed 5s. per annum. [t may not be so much, but liberal feeding is 
absolutely necessary if we want plenty of eggs, and especially in winter, when 
the price is high. Many poultry-keepers fail in this respect.—Zurmer and 
Stock breeder. 
: HOW TO TREAT A SITTING HEN. 
Many who have the good fortune to live away from towns and cities and their 
10-perch back yards, will say: “ Let her alone, and she'll come home, bringing 
her chickens behind her.” There is no doubt that a great deal off he advice 
given by experienced poultry breeders to their fellow-colonists, does not in the 
slightest degree apply to the farmer with his many acres of wheat, maize, 
panicum, and lucerne, which afford such splendid runs for poultry, with his 
barns and outhouses whither the good “ clucking” hen loves to resort to hatch 
out her brood in peace. Here the advice to “let her be” is no doubt the best 
that can be given. There is probably not a single farmer who cannot recall a 
score of instances in which a missing hen has suddenly walked into the kitchen 
some fine morning with a dozen sturdy, cheeping chicks running round her, 
Where that hen laid, how she protected her eggs during days and nights of rain 
and storm, she alone could tell, but the simple fact remains that she is there— 
plump and healthy looking, no vermin about her, and her chicks are all fat, 
happy-looking balls of fluff. The writer, at one time, used to keep nearly a 
hundred fowls on a scrub farm. Some of these were annually shown in the 
poultry sections at exhibitions, and one or two invariably took prizes. Now, how 
were these fowls managed? hey laid vigorously, and the contract held for the 
supply of a certain number of eggs weekly all the year round was easily 
carried out. 
Hirst of all, a nice fowlhouse was built, provided with roosts in proper 
positions, laying boxes, anda detached compartment for the sittinghens. The floor. 
was regularly cleaned up and dusted with lime, the hens could always get a 
good dust bath, and generally everything was done to ensure immunity from 
disease and vermin. But all precautions were useless; disease came. Morning 
after morning dead fowls were found under the roosts, the sitting hens were 
alive with vermin, and the idea that poultry would pay was being gradually 
dispelled, when it was determined to do away with the fowlhouses, and let the 
birds live in the open air. The reason which led to this decision was that on 
one or two occasions a lost hen returned as described above, one of these hens 
actually bringing home sixteen healthy chickens. Her nest was found when the 
cornstalks were being cut down, under a half-burnt log in the open field. So 
a couple of roosts were put up under a bushy tree, a wire net fence was run 
round about half-an-acre to keep out snakes and dingoes, and the fowls were 
turned into it. Some roosted in the tree, others preferred the regular roosts. 
Boxes were discarded. Shelters of waste shingles were provided for the laying 
hens, and in each corner a rough bush shade afforded protection from the sun 
during the day. 
