November 2, 1908 
The Poultry Yard 
Rearing Chickens. 
Before we attempt to rear chickens we 
should see that we have the parent birds 
in perfect health ; if the parents are not 
in good health we cannot expect to rear 
strong chickens from them. All birds 
used for breeding purposes should be 
descendants of strong, vigorous stock? 
that have never been tainted with roup 
or other contagious disease, 
A well-known pliysician, when asked 
when a child’s education should begin, 
replied ‘twenty years before the child is 
born” With equal truth we might say 
‘that a chick’s 
should be looked to months before the 
egg from which it is hatched is laid, 
which is another way of saying that most 
of the weakness and want of vigour in 
weaklings’ is due to preventable 
causes, and that an ‘ ounce of prevention 
is worth a pound of cure.’ 
The person who would succeed in 
rearing chickens must commence with 
sound, healthy birds to breed from, and 
should feed them so that they will pro- 
duce good fertile eggs. It is a waste of 
time and expense to try and breed healthy 
chickens from parents that are tainted 
_ With diseases, many of which are here- 
ditary, and are handed down to their 
progeny, which come into the world 
affected or so delicate that it is useless to 
try and rear them. 
Breed from healthy parent birds, 
never neglect them at any time, and 
their offspring will give you pleasure in 
the rearing of them besides a handsome 
constitutional vigour - 
THE AUSTRALIAN GARDENER. 
profit when you sell them for all the care 
and management you spent on their 
parents. 
A mistake often is that the 
rooster is not considered of as much im- 
made 
portance as the hens for producing good 
The male bird should 
not be overlooked in this connection, for 
laying chickens. 
unless you have a rooster from a good 
laying strain at the head of your harem 
your chickens will not be good egg- 
Another matter that should 
not be over-looked, and that is, to be 
certain that the rooster is a good healthy 
producers, 
bird; if not, the eggs will be uncertain, 
and what chickens do hatch. will be 
‘ weaklings.,’ 
The chickens when first hatched want 
just leaving alone —should be left undis- 
turbed with the hen from twenty-four to 
thirty hours. This enables the little 
chick to assimilate the yoke of the egg 
that it has drawn into its body before it 
makes its way out of the shell. Nature 
supplies the chicken with this rich and 
nutritious food, and if we feed the 
youngster before this natural food is 
assimilated and properly digested, we 
spoil the digestive organs, and wreck 
that chick’s chance of ever becoming 
strong and well-grown. 
Most people are in too much haste to 
feed the young chicks, and it is surpris— 
ing how many are ignorant of the facts 
just mentioned. As I haye said, they 
must be left alone with the hen for the 
first twenty-four or thirty hours; after 
that time the hen and chicks should be 
taken from the nest and cooped on dry 
ground, or on a clean sanded floor which 
should be perfectly dry at all times. 
Shelter from rain and heat are great 
aids to chicken growth. Just erect a 
rude shelter, and try the scheme of giv- 
ing the little fellows a protected square 
yard of ground. A little observation of 
how much they enjoy it will convince 
the most stubborn doubter ofits benefits.. 
It is very easy, with a few odd pieces of 
boards, a couple of stakes, a cross-piece, 
and a few bushes or bagging, to make a 
royal shelter for a flock, and the reward 
in health and added pounds of meat will 
be substantial—‘ The Farmers 
Fruit-Grower’s Guide.’ 
and 
33 
Guinea-Fowls. 
Guinea-fowls are not commonly seen 
in Australia, and around Adelaide, where 
in years gone by their appearance was 
not uncommon, they are rarely seen 
now. These birds are said to be very 
fine for the table, and it may be hoped 
that something will be done to make 
In‘ Farm, Field, 
the following appears, 
them more popular. 
and Fireside’ 
which may prove instructive :—* Guinea- 
fowls are profitable where they have 
plenty of room to search for insects, 
worms, &c., and no one should attempt 
to keep these birds entirely in confined 
runs, as it is against their nature al- 
together. When reared on a farm they 
will get most of their own living, par- 
ticularly after the corn is carried, for 
about two or three months. The young 
birds are delicious eating, and have very 
plump breasts, and we consider a. brace 
of young Guinea-fowls well roasted to be 
only inferior to pheasants. Guinea 
fowls should always sleep out in trees— 
itis their nature to do so, and when they 
are allowed to sleep in the fowlhouses, as 
a rule, they are very quarrelsome indeed, 
and will often clear the perches of the 
hens, in many cases pecking and blind - 
ing them. It is, therefore, much better 
to allow them to sleep out; if they do, 
they will lay quite as early in the spring 
as when kept under any other circum- . 
stances. When, thus kept they actas a 
guard, invariably giving warning when 
strangers are about.” 
Fattening Poultry. 
In referring to the subject of feeding, 
‘Farm, Field, and Fireside’ gives the 
following information as to the methods 
adopted for the preparation of birds by 
the English fatteners:—Now as to the 
methods adopted by those who are in for 
fattening chickens. The age of the 
chicken varies from two to four months 
number being about three 
months old when they are put into the 
coops. Older birds are fattened also, but 
they do not make proportionate progress. : 
old, larger 
