The Middlebury register. [volume] (Middlebury, Vt.) 1850-1882, 1876-02-01
Chicken Notes.

men OF tne country ls not uOlng better
in the way of laying, and I judge she
is doing Ill, because eggs are and have
been for many weeks quoted at % to "a
cents per dozen in the principal cities
of the West, and because no farmer or
farmers wife keeps eggs on hand, or |
consumes them freely. in such close |
times as this, when eggs will sell for |
cents apiece.
During all this winter, my own hens
have done so well under the regimen
of food have adopted, and others have
done so poorly, Notwithstanding the
very favorable temperature, that am
getting to be pretty fully convinced
that egg production is, to much great
er extent than hes ever been claimed or
believed, under the control of the feed
er. In order that hens shall lay eggs
in winter, they must have that food out
of which eggs are made; and Indian
csrn being principally compound of
starch and oil, is not the article. The
statement Of M. s. D., on page IL, cur
rent volume, that medical commits
mission in 1864 reported and demon
strated diarrhea in the army and hog
cholera to be both caused by too much
starch and sugar in the diet, discovered
to me, like fash of lightning, that
which had simply inferred to be the
case, in the matter Of hog and chicken
cholera. Too much starch and sugar
in the food of pigs and chickens produ-
css lard and gret Sc sbundantly; but in
the one case they do not produce eggs.
and in both they are the cause and ORR
gin of epidemics, which threaten the
health increase and permanence of two
of the most generally diffused, and
therefore two ofour most valuable food
producing domestic animals.
At the risk of repetition, let mo state
how l feed hens SO that they will lay
say to the extent Of four eggs per week
for each hen from December till March.
Onions, cabbages, turnips, parsneps,
artichokes and potatoes, valuable in
the order in which they are named,
sometimes one and sometimes the 9TH
er, chopped up not quite as fine as saul
sage meat, with about one-third their
bulk of cooked cracklins, liver, or flesh
of some kind, sailed as if for human
food, and seasoned with Cayenne pep
per (rather, but not too sharply)-and
all so clearly done that the prepara-
ton may, without offence, he tasted-is
fed one full meal once day. The two
ether feeds are of wheat screenings and
they are fed dry or scalded, according
to the temperature-the heaviest ration
always in the evening.
Besides, there are placed where the
fowls can have sure and easy access to
them, every other or third day AS much
broken granite reck and as much
pounded calcined bones as will serve
from one time to the other. The
amount of both these substances lay
Ing hen will pick up in the course of q
day, even when the ground is bare, is
quite beyond what would be expected.
In addition to these provisions for the
inner hen, the outer is provided for by
a box con tanning sifted coal ashes, and
the other ashes made by two and some
times three soft coal fires, are always
smptied in the chicken house. Care is
taken to keep always present pure wa
ter, and when it is cold warm water is
served two OF three times daily, Be-
sides these rations, they have the brok-
en- victuals of a frugal table, the run OF
a large yard, and larger meadow
when the ground IL bare, and OCCASION
ally, say once week, full feed of
shelled corn, rye or oats-,just some
thing to break the monotony ola ron
tine diet.
Fowls which lay so largely in winter
will of course lay considerably less in
spring, and will "stand at ease" in after
summer longer in the process of moult-
ing but the main benefits are that
they furnish eggs when eggs are Jear,
and diminish the supply in June and
July, when eggs are so abundant, and
so much to be suspected, that they often
sell, from first hands, as low as three
dozen for ten cents.
In regard to breeds, though the non
sitters are much the best layers-and
what a conquest of civilization that is
which takes all the sense of mother
n and ont nf n orAatur.t still 7 bsliav.
the hardest sitters, the Asiatics
may be made to lay, if fed long enough
beforehand. If anybody is sanguin,
enough to think, by adopting the foe,
have recommended, they can set thei
. fowls to laying in week or ten days
or if they have the cholera, they cal
Danish it in month, think they will
find themselves mistaken. The chang
es from barren to an egg producing
T condition, and from a state of the sys
; tenn which precedes cholera to vigor
GUS health, are constitutional ones, ant
4 months are required to bring then
about. b. +. G..
Country Gent.