Buchanan County bulletin. [volume] (Independence, Iowa) 1869-1891, 1877-08-03
Our Chickens.

| VuI NulChCuSs
aunt Addie" gives her experience
in rearing poultry in the N. Y. 7rib
une, as follows:
When our lines fell in pleasant coun.
try places, our attention turned at once
to the desirability of keeping poultry
and in the course of year or SO, by
dint of reading, observation, and in
quiry, we gained quite an enviable rep
utation among numerous acquaintance
| We began by purchasing during the
hens, and very happy they seemed
Well they might be contented, for both
natureiand man had combined to give
them every advantage. Our ''Shanty'
stood on the edge Of very large apple
orchard, within one hundred yards of a
piece of woodland, and about twenty
five yards of deep, running brook,
which was fed from numerous springs.
Then on the southeast side of our house
was a quite good sized lean-to with a
small window and door on the south
side of it. Under the lowest part of
the shelving roof we placed sassafras
poles for roost, and on the floor, coal
ashes covered with clean straw We
whitewashed the boxes for the nests,
and placed them about half way up the
side of the house. AS the very cold
weather came on and the ground became
frozen, closing that storehouse of ami
NAL food against us, we were obliged to
feed them more literally. We had laid
in large supply of ''cullens," and these
washed clean, boiled in their jackets
and little salt, afterward mashed well
adding some wheat middlings or bran,
cracked corn corn meal, or oat meal,
with sprinkling Of pepper, constituted
their morning meal. At noon we gave
them scraps from the kitchen, a cab
bage, chopped, raw potatoes, apples and
onions, etc., or scrap cake or oats. At
night we fed whole corn. Their food
was always scattered over the ground,
never put in pans or boxes, and given
hot in the morning
Whenever obtainable we gave raw
bones crushed, and some sort of raw
meat-sheep's pluck, or liver or lights
pinned to the ground or hung up on a
nail where they could reach and pick at
it. Oyster shells and charcoal cracked
were scattered around After snow
storms we cleaned a space about the
door for a run for them, also path
down to the brook We left nothing
undone for their well-being, and they
amply repaid us, were always plump
looking, full and smooth feathered, and
were always noticed and spoken Of by
passers-by. We never had but one hen
who either ate her eggs or feathers
We cured her of the egg eating by open
ing one end of an egg and taking out a
little of the albumen, mixing thorough
ly, and shaking up well with the re
naming egg In the shell good quaint.
ty of cayenne pepper, afterward past
ing piece of white paper over the ap,
erture. She did not like the dose at
all, and ran around like possessed hen
We continued the preparation three
days and she was cured. They were
among the first fowls in the neighbor.
hood to lay, and layed right along
| When they come to set we placed the
nests in small house by themselves
and put them near the ground. We
have only twelve eggs to a hen, and oc
casionally sprinkle them oyer with lit
tie water; on an average our hens ooml
off with ten chickens apiece. We make
coops with floors to them; rough look
ing, with no ARCHITECTURAL pretensions
they certainly were warm and cOmfor
table. At night we covered them over
with old carpet, and placed a broac
board against the front of the coop ano
kept it there until all the dampness wa.
off the grass. We changed the cool
every day, and after week or two tieo
strong Irvine to the hens leg and thu
other end to heavy log of wood OF ;
stone, putting her back at night. Al
first she did not like the performance
but soon became reconciled
We also adopted this same method tC
cure hen from wanting to set, anC
found it much more effectual than duck
ing or filling the nest with stone or any
other device. We gave each chick, as
soon as it came out of the shell, one
black pepper corn, and nothing more
for twelve hours. Then we gave warn
bread and milk, and once or twice {
week bread soaked in beer, and after ;
few days cracked corn with little sail
in it and boiled water poured over it
also plenty of fresh water three times
a day. We put the chicks food out
side of the coop beyond the reach Of
the mother, giving her corn and sclaI
cake Old hens we fed very literally
and found it paid. We gave all the
skim milk and sour milk we could spare
and when we gave cracked corn, scaldeC
it. In the vessels containing theil
drinking water we put pieces oil old ir0l
or rusty nails, and sometimes piece OF
roll sulphur. IF they seemed droopy
at all we gave them alum diluted in wa
ter, but we had no sickness and but very
few deaths. We lost one immensely
large rooster by apoplexy, and We
scarcely wondered at it, for he was ;
fearful glutton and gobbled every fa
morsel that came in his way, even aftel
he had called his hens to share it. W.
cleaned the hen house three times dur
ing the summer, burning the straw an(
hoeing out the ashes, which we used as
manure in our garden, whitewashing thu
entire place and sprinkling black peppe
about, also carbolic acid diluted in wa
ter So with extreme cleanliness ant
| liberal 1000 we made q great success o.
poultry raising, and found it paid III
well. In two years we had a flock O
nearly 200 fowls, and were able to buy
all our groceries with the eggs they
laid, besides using all we needed. W,
also sold numbers of pullets. We hac
the advantage Of large run-plenty o
grass and running water and OF cOurs'
this was great help.
A SeasOnable Warming.