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TOUKTO
Forcing Poultry.
Mb. Editor: After earnest solicitation from
my correspondents, I have concluded to give you
my views on forcing poultry, for publication.
Almost every person who raises poultry does
it expecting to make money, either from the
eggs they lay or the meat they make.
There are as many different views as people in
relation to the subject under consideration.
The majority of casual observers say that to
force poultry is to spoil it. I dare to differ with
them, and if people will use a little judgment,
in connection with the process I shall explain
in this article, they will believe in forcing as
much as I do, as it is the only sur« way to make
a good profit from their fowls.
We use hens to hatch our chickens, as a mat
ter of economy, comfort, and profit.
We can buy hens that will sit first-rate from
15 to 30 weeks each, as we happen to want their
services, at 50 cts. to $1 each, according to the
season, and S2O worth will hatch 200 chickens
every three weeks with no trouble or anxiety on
our part, and the manure they make will pay
for their feed.
We give each hen a clean, roomy box, that
costs 20 cts. when roofed and cleaned ready
for use, and put in 4 to 6 inches of moist earth ;
if cold weather, a woolen cloth over the earth,
and a good nest of fine and coarse hay well
shaped, then our eggs, from 7 to 15, according
to size of hen and temperature of the weather.
Small hens the fewest eggs, and if weather
and place where set is cool, but few eggs ; then
take a hen that has got the sitting fever well on
and, we are sure will sit well, and put her on to
the nest of eggs, put up our front door and
fasten it, and we know that the stream will not
get too low in this our natural incubator.
All we have to do now is to take off our hen
twice a day to eat, drink, wallow, &c., and put
her back a few times. Most hens will learn to
go on to the right nest themselves in a few
days.
When we sit a hen she is named, and her
name and the strain of eggs she sits on are regis
tered in our sitting book, also the date of putting
under the eggs ; twenty days after the eggs are
expected to begin to hatch.
Some responsible person sees tho eggs twice
every day, and if one gets broken, or cracked,
it is known immediately, and it is removed.
It is very important to keep the eggs clean. If
the surface gets coated in any way it will in
terfere with the process of hatching.
After the eggshave been sat on a week they
are •looked over by placing them in a tester,
made by sticking a piece of looking-glass on to
the bottom of a paper box inside, and then mak
ing holes in the cover to set eggs in, small end
down, and a hole in one end of the cover to look
into ; the reflection on the glass will show the
condition of the egg. If Miy of the eggs are not
going to hatch, they are taken out and good ones
put in their place.
Eggs from some cause get their shells cracked
quite often.
If eggs have been sat on 5 or 6 days, and are
ahre, if a strip of paper, a little wider than the
crack, be covered with mucilage and stuck over
the crack, the egg will hatch just as well, if the
membrane under the shell is not broken. Care
must always be taken to have one-half, at least,
ot the original shell unbroken and clean.
W hen a chicken hatches it is taken away from
the hen, marked with its particular j/ratn-marA:,
and placed in a clean box in a temperature of
100 to 103 degrees; the bottom of the box
covered one-half with clean sand, suitable for
the chicks to eat, and the other one-half with
tian net. We put a pane of window-glass in the
side of the box when the sand is so the sun can
shine in, and stretch a cat's skin tanned with
the fur on, or some similar substance, loosely
over the other end, just high enough so the
< hickens can stand up nearly straight under
it Flannel will answer very well for a mother.
" e cover the end the mother is in with slats
and the other end with wire netting, that sets
down over two sides and the end an inch or
more to hold it down, and have a mother at an
expense of uO cts. that will accommodate from
2 »to ,->o chickens for two or three weeks, as a
night room, letting them run out in small runs
in day time.
He calculate to have from 50 to 150 chickens
hatching at the same time, so can have a mother
full of one strain ; but it makes no difference,
for they are m<u • s,i l*efore putting together. We
mark with a darning-needle and white yarn, and
•ew it through where we want our mark, in
wing- web, toe-web, or any other pdaev, and lie
the yarn loosely, cutting it quite short. By the
time the yarn comes out there is a hole that
w ill never close up.
Chickens need onlv heat and gravel for the
THE -WAL & WTATW
first 12 hours, and then they will begin to pick
food. We feed the yolks of eggs boiled hard
and mixed with Indian cakes baked hard and
pounded up fine (the first 24 hours they only
need clear egg-yolks and sand), about one yolk
to a gill of fine cake. Feed often and what they
will eat up clean. When they are about 36
hours old they will drink water or milk ; we
give milk to drink, and mix our cakes with
new milk. We increase our egg-feed, putting
two yolks to a gill in course of a week, and 6
egg-yolks to a pint at. 1J weeks, and begin to
feed cracked and whole wheat once or twice
a day. At two weeks’ old we begin to feed boiled
meat, and drop our egg-feed, but continue our
pounded cake once or twice a day till chicks
are 4 weeks old, then use cracked corn as the
bulk of our feed after chicks are 4 weeks old—
feeding boiled meat two or three times a day.
We riddle cracked corn, feeding the coarse part
dry, mixed with wheat, in the afternoon, and
the fine, mixed with coarse shorts, scalded to
gether, in morning ; change once in a while if
chicks tire of the regular feed. We feed a good
many boiled potatoes with corn-meal and wheat
middlings mixed, by mashing the potatoes,
meal, &c., together while hot. We find boiled
rice a cheap and very desirable feed to change
with. One pound of rice will take in 6 pounds
of water, and make a good feed for 50 hens.
At four weeks xye separate our cockerels and
pullets, putting 25 to 50 together in a run 10
feet long, 3| feet wide, and 2.1 feet high, made
of narrow boards, with laths nailed on three
fourths of an inch apart, on sides, one end, and
top.
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IMPERIAL PEKIN DUCKS.
Imported bg Eugens B. Pendleton, Westerly, Rhode Island.
We use large boxes or small movable houses
for the chickens to roost in and run into in
rainy weather, and keep these roostiiig-rooms
clean and well littered, making the chickens sit
on the ground, or wide roosts, till they are
4 mouths old, as roosting on small sticks will
crook their breast-bones. After chickens are
2 or 3 weeks old they will begin to eat green
food, grass, oats, clover, cabbage, mashed man
gold wurtzels, or onions, potatoes. &o. Our
great study is to make them comfortable and
furnish them some exercise to keep their appe
tites good.
Chickens grown and cared for in the above
manner will weigh as much at three months old
as if, running about, would at six mouths old;
and pullets will begin to lay at three to four
months old raised our way. (lam speaking of
Brown Leghorns.) I do not think White Leg
horns or Light Brahmas could stand the con
finement. Partridge Cochins do very well, and
begin to lay when about 5| months old, and my
Worcester Bounty pullets commence laying at 4
to 5) months old. The cockerels are fit to
kill at about the age the pullets begin to lay.
Brown Leghorns, hatched in March, are fit for
broilers in June, and will dress to 3 lbs, and
*ell in our market at 60 to 75 cts. per pound, and
there is never one tenth as many as would
sell at those prices.
Some people will say chickens raised in this
way cannot be strong and well. I will say that
we seldom have a sick fowl, and have hens 5 to
7 years old on our yards that are good layers now,
and arc perfectly well, that have never run out
a day in their lives, and have been
constant layers.
I do not approve of forcing all
kinds of fowls, or of all the fowls
on the yards of any variehr, for we
can grow a better exhibition-bird
by a slower process, especially of
the large-combed varieties, as forc
ing tends to make the combs and
wattles grow too large and out of
shape. Leghorn pullets will be
larger if they do not begin to lay
until they are 5 or 6 months old.
I prefer to choose my breeding
stock out of my runs that have
been forced for eggs 2 or 3 years,
taking the largest and strongest
hens, that lay the largest and best
formed eggs, and mate them with
cockerels from 6 to 10 months old
that have never run with pullets
or hens. My exhibition cockerels
I let run with pullets and hens
all I can safely—t. e., and not have
them picked. Now that good breed
ers can get from ten to one hundred
dollars each for exhibition birds of any of the
popular varieties they chance to make a specialty
of, it pays to take considerable pains to breed
thein.
I will say here, for the benefit of those who
are constantly questioning me in relation to the
matter, that my Brown Leghorns lay costantly
(except when they are moulting), after they com
mence, summer and winter, and if they are in
good condition the cockerels and cocks will not
freeze their combs or wattles until the mercury
falls to 10 degrees above zero, or the pullets or
hens until the mercury falls to zero. Still I do
not believe it pays to let mercury fall much
lower than to 45 or 50 above, in the poultry
house, or rise much above 75 degrees except in
the small chicken-rooms, where it should be
kept to 100 degrees.— Frank J. Ktnn>g f in Poultry \
Bulletin.
The Imperial Pekin Ducks represented in the
above cut are owned by Mr. Eugene B. Pendle
ton, of Westerly, R. 1., one of the most cele- ,
brated breeders of poultry in Rhode Island,
and he has well earned the laurels which he
has gained in every show room where he has
exhibited.
A vot’xo lady in Concord, Mass., there
is profit in the poultry business. She commen
ced with about sixty fowls in the spring. From
these she raised four hundred and fifty chickens.
During the sea-on she sold egg- to the amount of
S9O, and from September 20th to January 27th
she got ready for market one hundred and fifty
pair-of chickens, which she sold for $260, mak
ing in all $350.
A farmee in Chester county, Penn., sold
last year, from thirty hens, eggs ami chickens
at a net profit of s26*. 91.
SEABRIGHT BANTAMS.
The beautiful birds (Sebright Bantams) illus
trated above are portraits of stock bred by Mr.
C. W. Chamberlain, of Arlington, Mass., well
known among the poultry men as one of the
most successful breeders of this variety, and
White-faced Black Spanish, in the New England
States.
Lice on Chickens.
Much has been written in regard to freeing
poultry, and especially young chickens, from
lice, and a good many recipes given, most of
them more or less objectionable or expensive
One man objects to the use of lard and sulphur
for the reason that it has killed a fine lot of
chicks for him; and another that it has made
his chickens’ eyes sore ; and one of my neigh
bors killed a choice lot of chicks with his ounce
of preventive, in the shape of grease without
the sulphur, having put it on their heads and
under the wings of their mother.
1 use for Asiatics a fiat perch some 2A or 3
inches in width, (as with a narrow perch the
breast bones of young birds are apt to become
crooked); this I groove to the depth of half an
inch with a carpenter’s plow, and fill the groove
with dry sulphur, and I strew sulphur about
their houses and in their nests, and my fowls
are not troubled with lice, nor are they troubled
with sore eyes, or any other evil arising from
the use of sulphur. G. W. Cleveland.
Millington, Mass.
For the Rural Southerner.
BLACK POLISH.
Among the great variety of breeds of domes
ticated poultry, none perhaps are so universally
admired as the Black Polish. The striking con
-1 trast of the white crest, and, in highly-bred
specimens, the beautiful iridescent character of
the general plumage, never fails to’attract the
attention and to elicit the admiration of even
such individuals as do not make poultry culture
a matter of either amusement or profit. These
fowls certainly were one of my most favorite
breeds for a number of years, and few persons
who have given them a fair trial report of them
otherwise than most favorably. Though not
large, they are a good-flavored, plump fowl on
the table; and as to the production of eggs,
few, if any, excel them.
E. Hartshorn & Sons, Boston, Massachusetts,
make a specialty of this fowl. e. h.
For the Rural Southerner.
LIGHT BRAHMAS.
I have five acres of land for my fowls, and
plenty of fresh water. I have about five hun
dred, mostly Light Brahmas. I have warm,
well-ventilated houses. I have from 12 to 20 in
a room. I have spared no expense to improve
them, and keep the best stock of Light Brahmas
and buff fowls. I have bred them five years.
There never has been one particle of cross with
any other fowl. They have the best qualities as
| layers in winter. When dressed, they weigh
from 6 to 10 pounds. The poultry is the best,
brings a good price I have kept them up to
the standard of excellence the public demands.
Nashua, N. 11. C. C. Russell.