Shenandoah herald. [volume] (Woodstock, Va.) 1865-1974, 1879-04-02
Poultry Papers.

Some evening when you have moth
ing else to do, make shallow box, say
Is inches long, inches wide, and A in
ches deep; divide this into three COM
partments; fill one with gravel, another
with charcoal broken into pieces about
the size of kernel of corn, and the
third with crushed oyster-shells. Fas-
ten this bex up in your hen house just
high enough for the fowls to reach 1t
easily, and see that it is never empty
during Geld weather. Old plaster or
burnt bones will do instead of oyster
shells, but l consider the oyster shells
the best. Where fowls are kept in
large numbers it is a great savlag OF
time and labor to buy the shells already
crushed.
Another essential in the hennery in
winter is a dusting box. A shallow
box feet square, l foot in depth, and
filed two-thirds full of dry road-dust
and wood or coal ashes, with sprink-
ling of sulphur, makes the best arrange
ment that | know of for a dust bath.
Ifyol can place it in front Of window
where the sun will shine on it the hens
will like it all the better. This will be
all that is necessary to keep your hens
free from lice during cold weather; that
Is if they went into winter quarters free
from the pests.
Don't buy any patent drinking
fountains" for your fowls. l bought
two and invented one, and l would sell
the whole lot for one good 3 cent post
age stamp. Common wooden buckets
are the best things for fowls to drink
from that can find: they are high
enough to keep the hens from scratch
ing them full OF dirt, and yet not too
high for the fowls convenience, and
besides they are easily kept clean; an
old broom and some hot water will
make them as ''clean as whistle" in
few minutes.
Don't buy any patent egg-producing
food, not even though the agent for the
sale thereof be silver-tongued, and the
advertisements Illustrated with plump
biddy cackling over a three-cornered
pile Of eggs. l know whereof write,
for one Of those same ghb-tOngued
agents beguiled me into purchasing a
pound of the stuff. fed according to
directions, aud fully expected to hear
all my hens lifting up their voices oyer
the aforesaid three-cornered piles Of
eggs, but didn't. As near as l could
make out ;he stuff was made of cayenne
pepper. ginger, bOne-meal and ground
oyster shells. My hens had all these
before. and they are all good. but l OBJ
ject to paying 81 pound for the mix
ture.
If YOU keep but few hens You will
fad that the scraps from the table will
make the best morning meal that you
can give; tie BITS of meat, potatoes,
crumbs of bread, and all the odds and
ends from the table are just what lay
ing hens need. aud it Will pay better to
turn the scraps into eggs than it will to-
feed them to the hogs. Eggs are worth
something now, and twenty hens, il
propt rll cared for, will shell out, at
moderate estimate. dozen eggs every
day. The scraps a MALT peck of
oats or barley. and a peck Of shelled
corn will be sufficient food for these
twenty fowls a week; do your own
figuring.
Get some China or porcelain nest
eggs. Hens ike TO have an egg left in
their nests. Gather the eggs often
during extremely cold weather; if sthey
freeze aud crack open, the hens are apt
TO peck at them and learn to eat their
eggs. If you find an egg. eating hen
among your flock, cut her head off; it Is
the only thing that will cure her.