Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1870-08-26
HOwTO KEEP FOWLS.

No fowls Can thrive well, or be profit
able TO the owners, unless they are plenti
fully fed, and HAYES comfortable place to
roost in at night, and for shelterin cold.
wet weather. Their room or hen-house
may be adjoining to some other out
building. 1t is best to have it facing the
east or the south, and it must be weather
tight Il should have door and win
dows, and be well lighted; the windows
may either be latticed with woodor melted
with iron wire. In the evening, after the
fowls have gone to roost, let the door be
locked-seeing that it is opened very early
in the morning, unless in bad wealth
er. The hen-house should be fire.
quently cleaned and occasionally
whitewashed; for, If dirty, the fowls will
be infested with yermin. If this should
happen, catch every fowl, even to the
smallest chicken, and rub their skins and
feathers well with lard or dripping; then
have their house thoroughly cleaned and
whitewashed at once, afterward fumigat-
ing it with burning birthstone. Next
throw some sand or fresh earth on the
| floor. E WUATq
If fowls are scantily supplied with
water, or if they have access only to what
is dirty or puddled, they will contract q
disorder called the pip, which is thin,
white scale that grows on the tip of the
tongue, and prevents their feeding.
Catch them, pull off the scale with your
fore finger nail, and then rub the tongue
with salt. When fowls have this, OF any
other disease, they look dropping, their
eyes appear dull, and their combs and
gills appear fiabby. When they are sick
feed them with bran that has been mixed
to paste with boiling water. --
In wet weather keep the fowls shut up
all day in the hen-house; also, when it is
very cold, taking care that they are pro-
erly supplied with food and water. They
should have, in their house, a feeding
| trough, which should never be empty. If
they have plenty of food always by them,
| they will eat frequently, but only little
at time, and it is best for them to do so.
When their food is given to them scantily
and irregularly they injure themselves by
eating too fast and too much.
They should have food given to them
regularly three times day. When newly
Matched they may have bread soaked in
milk. By way of variety you may give
your fowls, occasionally, buckwheat,
barley, rice, and oats.
If always fed there, they win stay
chiefly in their house during winter, and
will, in consequence, be more healthy,
and in every respect more profitable.
They must be well supplied with plenty
of clean water in large shallow pans of
| tin or earGhenware; also, with brick-dust
or gravel, to assist their digestion. 1t is
well to place in the center of their large
waler-pan q small but heavy one of earth
enwsre, turned bottom upwards, on
| which the fowls can stand to drink with
out wetting their feet, which often in
winter makes them sick. Recollect al
ways that dirty water gives them dis
eases. But little clean brick dust thrown
occasionally into their drinking-pans is
/ good for their digestion. a fs--
Their nests should be movable, that
| whenever hen has done sitting, they
| may be taken away and cleaned out be-
fore they are replaced. For the rest you
may place on the floor mot far from the
walls, but not against them) old flat bas-
kets, or deep boxes set up oE the side ;
the open or entrance part being turned
from the light. Fill them with clean dry
straw or hay. Place near the boxes lime
for the hens to form their egg-shells. Old
rubbish lime, or plaster from old walls, is
very proper for this purpose, if vel
broken up. If you cannot procure this,
| mix lime and water TO mortar; let it dry,
then break it mp and put into the hen
| house. See that the setting hens hav'
plenty of food and water every day, a
the time they come off their nests. l
they are not supplied at once they will g
back to their nests without waiting, anC
suffer much in consequence.
The roosts and perches should be Sc
contrived as not to be exactly over eacl
other, and some should be placed low
enough for the young fowls to reach with
out difficulty in flying up to them. LIE
none of the nest boxes be placed unde
the roosts. ..r.,. -
| The hen-hOuse should be frequently
cleaned out, whitewashed, fumigated will
sulphur, or by burning boughs, and theI
strewed with sand. |F..
Norwood and rue, sown plentifully
every spring about the neighborhood o.
the hen house, will tend to keep ava!
vermin; and if strewed about the floor il
the vicinity of their nests, it will keep OF
weasels and other animals that come AM
suck eggs.-Anaerican Stock Journal