The Rugby gazette and east Tennessee news. (Rugby, Morgan Co., Tenn.) 1884-188?, 1885-04-11
POULTRY,
Evidences of the Owners Neglect and
Carelessness.

Evidences of the Owners Neglect and
Carelessness.
The "thorns and thistles" inflicted
upon our race pervade the industry Of
poultry-keeping quite as much as that
of the field and garden. If by the typi-
cal "thorns and thistles" we may under
stand the disappointments, worries,
failures and exasperations which we
meet in our various labors, the poultry
keeper certainly has his full share OF
them. And as we consider the winter
feeding of flock of hens, it will be well
to discuss the troubles which will surely
meet the young or inexpert poultry
keeper at this season. Probably the
first trouble will be that the hens, in
pursuit of everything that will worry
their owner, will take to eating their
eggs, dearly purchased with all the
care given to them, and anxiously
looked for. This unnatural vice is very
common. Eggs may be awaited axious-
ly, and the hens may be laying, but no
eggs are found in the nests. They are
eaten as soon as laid. Some old hens
will turn around and deliberately break
the newly-laid egg and devour it. All
the flock will assist, and will soon
learn the expensive vice. The best way
to stop such proceedings will be to
watch and catch the culprit and con-
sign her 10 the potpie, or the pie pot,
Just as one may think either term the
better. An old hen of'this habit is sly
exceedingly sly She beats Mr.. Joey
Bagstock in slyness. We have watched
such hen through gimlet hole in
partition for days until she was caught
in the act. No discipline short of de-
capitation will cure such fowl. Some
poultry keepers commend eggs stuffed
with cayenne pepper as a strong hint
that such conduct is Objectionable; but
as with many other tricks and pecul-
iarties of hens, 'the game is not worth
the candle" While one is being cured
a score are being demoralized, and the
loss in neglected flock may be large
One preventive is never to keep hens
over the second laying season. The
hens in their second year are the earli-
est layers and the best mothers, but
they should be fattened in the fall and
disposed Of and being full grown, in
their prime, and not having yet con-
tracted the toughness of older fowls, no
other fowl is so choice dish as a hen
eighteen months old and fat. Only a
small portion ofthese need be kept, as
we'll cared for pullets are the best stock
to keep, and with a two-year-old cock
will produce the largest number of pull
] let chicks.
| An effective precaution against fowls
eating eggs is to remove the eggs from
their nests frequently three or four
times day. A little girl or boy enlisted
in this work will leave very few eggs in
the nests to be cracked and eaten. If
eggs are left to be frozen in the nests
and cracked, that tempts the hen to eat
them, and this should be avoided. An
other preventive is to avoid overlooking
the hens with corn. The use of such
food as has been already mentioned will
prevent the craving for an egg diet,
(paralleled by the craving which impels
pigs to devour their litters), which is
produced by disordered condition from
overlooking with heating food, such as
corn. The use of fresh crushed bone is
especially advisable, and since this has
been adopted we have had no trouble
in the yards from this vice.
Vermin is another trouble of the sea-
SON. This is wholly incompatible with
eggs. 1t can be avoided by the free use
of kerosene oil on all the cracks and
crevices of the roosting frame at least
once a week, by the use of a dry earth
floor, liberal sprinkling of the roosts with
fresh air-slacked lime, and scrupulou:
cleanliness. The flock which is troubled
with lice needs no certificate, that tn
owner is careless and neglected.. - Henr!
Stewart, in ~ Y, Times.