The herald and mail. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 1873-188?, 1874-01-30
Keeping Poultry for Profit.

SRDS q Od4S4J AS4 LULU
Ihave told reader how he can start
in the poultry business on cheap plan,
and now / will tell him how to act after
ward. In picking out his flock to start
with, let him choose as many good
dominique pullets as he can, and then
get brahma cocks to put with them, for
l think that the cross-bred while young
are better than pure brahmas-there
will be more meat, but not 50 big a
frame of bones, and the pullets he
would keep would be hard to beat as
layers. In setting the hens, try and
manage to set two at once, each on from
ID to Is eggs, and when they hatch give
the chicks to one hen, and shut the 9th
er up for day or two. Get a stout
string, four or five feet long tie ore
end into piece of leather Just long
enough to go around the leg, and fasten
the string to a small peg driven almost
even with the ground, so that the hen
cannot wind the string up on it. Then
place box or barrel near enough, so
that the hen can go in at night; and
put a piece of board about two feet
long by the box, to feed the chickens on
while you feed them meal.
/ always feed them Indian meal wet
up as need it-not waiting fer it to
sour, as some recommend. I wet it with
water, and sometimes buttermilk, if I
have it, which is very good. I feed
them the meal for four or five days, and
then, if 1 can get wheat screenings,
mix them together, wet, and feed them,
or get buckwheat and feed them part of
the time. I never feed them at one
time all they can eat-only what they
can pick up clean. Be sure and keep
water by them, and in the long, hot
days renew it twice day. Managed
this way, I have never been troubled
much with the gapes. Keep the hen
tied up about two weeks; then let her
range with her brood. Feed her by her
box, and let her roost there nights, I'M
til the chickens are about six weeks old,
then after dark take the box with chick
ems into the hen house for two or three
nights, after which the box may be put
away or used for another hen, and the
hen will call the chickens to roost the
next night herself. The reason I tie
with string is, the hen can see and
warn her brood from the approach of
cats, or, what gives me the most trouble,
hen hawks; and it is better for both
brood and hen than to be shut up in a
coop.
From the LIST of April until the 1st of
August would turn every egg into a
chicken that I could for there is more
money to be made raising chickens from
a number of hens than to keep them for
their eggs. had hen this season four
years old (Which is one year too old to
keep that laid her eggs in a nest alone,
l,ak IL L. NJ
the LIST of April to keep account, she
laid % eggs, and then wanted to sit ; l
set her on 10 of her own egg s, of which
she brought out II, and raised II. She
left them when about six weeks old, and
then laid q eggs Iset her on Is again,
and she brought out 10 and raised 8,
and left them when about six weeks old.
She then laid 10 eggs up to the LIST of
October. Part of her chickens we're
sold as soon as big enough to bring so
cents apiece, and calling the whole
worth so cents each. would bring in
So so. After left her loose with her
chicks, she did not come to get feed
much more than half the time, so that
the whole cost of their feed, 1 think,
was less than a dollar. When raising
or market always sell as soon as the
chickens are big enough to bring 80
cents apiece, or more if early in the
spring-that is, 1 keep picking out the
largest ones from the flock. Managed
as have done, think, to buy the feed,
that can raise 100 chickens on a cost
of not more than $15. 1 found that the
white sweet swede tuInip is good for
big chickens-co cooked and then mashed
and mixed with about an equal amount
of corn-meal. Mix it so that it will be
as near dry as you can. The same when
you mix potato mash-mix it too thick
to pour. Potatoes cooked and mixed
with cCrn-meal I think cannot be beaten
to feed to laying hens. [ can get more
eggs while feeding that than anything
else I have ever tried. I have great
aith in feeding cooked food to poultry
and swine Country Gentleman.