The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1871-02-28 00:00:00

POULTRY KEEPING.

The flee. A. Cr. Deooke (of Shrawardine, Salop), at
a recent meeting of the Midland Farmers' Club, said :
A; regards starting with an entirely fresh strain (the
iloing which I most strongly recommend), you will
find that it will answer your purpose beat to keep Dark
Brehm's—say • two-yest-old cock and six pullets, by
way of a start, and for this reason. They are very
hardy, extremely prolific, and good mothers; ii hatched
iu Ate it. they will lay during the winter months, and,
with a liber..l supply of gnoil food, the chieken• attsin
size and flesh very lest; utit ~on be got ready for the
market, an are by no eu.ans coarse for the table. In
addition to this, they are handsome, and an ornament
to the farmyard ; the eye is naturalll. pleased by seeing
a true and pure strain of fowls foraging about, and in
I these days of poultry exhibition', good birds (especially
of this breed) command high pncos, and you will find
theta very remiineretive.
Ai regards the nisnagement of poultry, the most
important
p
p:i
utrnit
iyhouse,
i ° hov
with properly consttneted, well.
ith plenty of light, and free
from draught.. Br all means have this before entering
upon a fresh breed of fowls, as on their arrival they
utu to shut in for • few days in their new abode. .04
thus learn k, return to it for the purpose of laying ,od
and by patent padlocks
sliding
locankesl
the
roo•ting. Have the door well secured by two flit iron
also
sheonua,l d
bars to go across it, fastened with staples sorest into
bottom of the door for the fowls to got) in and out
otl:heepor. itTaatereone
during the day, and the lower iron bar should ga aCroll
this pine( when shut down for the night Von will
thug be better able to frustrate the designs f thst
class of people who hardly know the difference between
" mine and thine;" and sly Reynard (however desirous
we may he of his welfare) will find it answer his
purpose better to visit the poultry yard of some more
careless neighbour, The walls of the house sliAild ltd
hanewitehed at least three times in the jest. 1."5
perches should not be more than d feet from the ,poon.i,
and ought to be at lout 3 inches wide: a leech pole.
split in halves, answers the purpose admirably. Tires.
perches should be plated all round the house' about
3
feet distant from the wall, not one above the otheroind
care should be taken that there are no beams
.or rsttere
that they can lip up to in the roof, ea in their Ae.cerit
they alight on the ground with great force, er,l tliv is
the cause of so many cooks being bumble-to tel and
gouty. Honed the walls, on the ground, at convenient
distances, place three bricks, to form a ssinsp, (or nett"
for laying and sh ting ; in these place sing hay 3,1 •
china egg. I prefer this plan to boxes, became in_ol
are easier to keep Mean, and the other fowls oitte;
roost upon them to disturb the letting kens., ••
centre of the house being an open spate, there Urle,
to have the droppings properly rated oat limo 1° 0,
the perches one or twicea-week, and fresh ciette
ooarse sand thrown all over the floor, acid well rake"
over. The value of these droppings as manure cannot
, be too highly estimated. It is usually the plan to
allow fowls to roost in ahetlii, bushes, or trees, where
I the dropping are intisly w iontd, and 4:tenant we I be
. collected arid tuined to good &coolant. In boas places
where there te • po
• ultry beam the fowls undoubtedly
, declinei roosting in t, because it
°is kept so dirty, and
I consequently swarms with vermin. lb. .g. you
/ keep your N will ho Nei-beam the healtJuir pow
If you Gas haw* your Tatter to rood le the ease
beam as jest Cowie, eo auk the beds ; so', *WA

B soy uwiell, at 11*a litt/e extra expense, by all
low,. kayo a separate dwelling for your Geese end
pocks. Let the door be well littered with straw, to
be owsesionally shakes over, or changed. In winter
time, eight o'cloek is almost
..early enough for fowls to
be let out of their house, but before so doing it is a
good plug
pt,sis.„,.. them a liberal supply of soft food
i
(WO= f ), as It will teach them to become
attached to their abode, and the tilting hens will reap
c benefit of • regular meal. By soli food I mean
potatoes boiled the night before, and mashed up when
waxen with Indian or barley meal. Corn should be
given in the middle of the day, and again before going
to roost, it the vieinity of the fowl house. Cabbages
should also be specially grown, to be given them daily
during the winter mouths. In simmer time they ean
0! wares in c measure cuter for themselves. The
wiring hens will also be much benefitted by having a
out iron trough (which will east about 31.) placed on
two iron breaks* fixed in the wall of the house about
a foot from the ground, to ciontain water, which ought
to he changed every morning. As regards the rearing
of chickens, I would only say, when under the 000 p
give a nest liberal supply, little and often, of different
kinds of food, but above all be very particular that
tbe water given them to drink is ever, and often
changed.