Dodgeville chronicle. [volume] (Dodgeville, Wis.) 1862-current, 1869-12-17
How Shall We Keep Our Fowls ?

This is question which concerns thou
sands at this season. A supply of fresh
eggs is a great addition TO our kitchen
economy, and most agreeable one to our
table. Fresh eggs for bro akfast all the
year round is decidedly Utopian In the
first place we must provide light and air.
Windows are absolutely necessary on the
south side of the hennery, SO that the
winters sun can be made available for
warmth. All the scraps and soap grease
of the kitchen can be returned to us in
the shape Of fresh eggs, and will greatly
lessen the expense of feeding the hens
They must have animal food. When the
ground is open, and worms abundant, they
are as well supplied as though they dined
on roast-beef and mutton; but in winter
it must be given to them. All the bones
left from the table, the bits of fat, the
scrapings of the plates, etc, should be
treasured for their use. Keep an old
kettle on the back of the stove, turn all
slops into it, even coffee grounds, and
when well-heated, feed it. At noon time,
it can be given smoking hot, and quite
watery-the warm drink helps to supply
the carbon they need. Where beefs-liver
can be cheaply obtained, it makes excel
lent food; chop it fine, and they will eat
it greedily. Keep box filled with gravel,
ashes, old plaster, Stacked lime or oyster
shells--even hard-coal ashes will not come
amiss-for hens must have food needful
to form egg shells, else they will drop
them shell-less.
For grain, we think mixture is the
most profitable. Sweepings from the
grist-mill do very well-oats, corn and
rye ground together coarsely, make good
food. Hens desire variety-will not lay
eggs on one kind of nutriment.
Where oil-cake and scrap cakes can be
purchased, they are the most desirable
food. They come in a solid mass and are
not wasted. BOne-manurc is excellent to
go with scraps. To this diet add coarse
corn-hOminy, and you will never COM
plain that hens are not worth their feed.
Cleanliness is all-important-the hen
house should be whitewashsd with hot
lime, spring and fall, and the poles on
which they roost should be covered with
kerosene-oil every month or two These
precautions are needful to destroy the in
sects which will breed in such places.
Pure warm water III iron basins, with a
bit Of birthstone in the basin, should be
given every morning, but not allowed to
freeze. If the chickens are sick, give
them soap-pills made of yellow bar-soap !;
this acts like cathal tic. If chilled, give
pepper corns-two of them if the chick
ems are large-or hot milk and pepper can
be turned down the neck with teaspoon.
A hen increases in the amount OF eggs
she lays until four years old then she is
only fit for chicken broth.
We would not enter into discussion
upon the merits Of different breeds, nor
would we pay twelve dollars pair for
novelties" The white Leghorns are
our 1avorites; their eggs are large, their
chickens grow rapidly, and their flesh is
tender and of delicious favor.
The Brahma Pootras Cor Bran Prin1s,
as a good farmer in our neighborhood
will call them) are good-sized fowls and
produce fine coffee-colored eggs; but we
confess to greater delight in the purely
white eggs, and think that what the
chicken gains in size, it loses in delicacy
of flavor. They have mixed with our
Leghorns, and formed mongrel breed
which seems to promise well. We have
forty-tiye chickens ready for dripping pan
or pie, which have sprsng from the diff
ferent breeds, and are of good size. 1t is
more profitable to keep a dozen hens than
one pig-the outlay is much less, the III
come much greater, and the pleasure You
take in the former is inexhausiible. What
pride we take in sending dozen fresh
eggs to our kind neighbors in the depth
of winter! What relish they give to
every meal Try it, friend, and see how
cheaply pleasure cgn be purchased
Rszrth ard Zone.