The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1886-04-21
Variety in food is an indispensable

requisite of success. Fowls may be made
to live when fed upon any single article OF
diet, but profits under such circumstances
are not to be expected. Variety in diet
promotes health, and health secures the
activity of the reproductive organs.
Fresh water is indispensable. Foul water
leads to disease.
Fowls should never be allowed to enter
barns or stables, as they will foul more
hay and feed than their eggs are worth.
Their domains should be entirely separ-
ated from those of horses and cattle.
Not only are vcrmin from poultry some
times communicated to horses stabbed in
their neighborhood, but the specially
filthy and offensive excrements of the
fowls deflcs the hay and grains.
A young and nervous horse, unused to
fowls, is often frightened if, by accident
or otherwise, a cackling, scratching
troop of hens finds entrance to his stable,
and he will resign his oats to the petty
thieves and stand trembling while they
dcvour his we'll earned dinner. Be sure
that stable doors and windows are SO ar
ranged that neither domestic fowls nor
pigeons can enter and annoy the rightful
occupants.
It is we'll to season lightly the food of
all fowls both young and old. The d.
gestive organs of all animals abhor
tlavorless article of food. Some sort of
stimulant is necessary to gently urge the
digestive organs while at their work. A
very little salt, pepper. mustard or gin
ger, and other things of a like nature, is
sufficient to give flavor to the poultry
mush OF to the cooked vegetables.
For feeding young chicks a few bread
crumbs soaked in milk are the best things
for the first two or three days. Feed
only very very small quantity. When
they get older they may have a variety of
grains and vegetables. They cannot
swallow large kernels of corn, but they
can have cracked corn or small pop corn.
Millet seed is we'll adapted to young
chickens.
One of the best things for chickens
from week to six weeks old is bread,
not the ordinary household bread, but an
article made on purpose for chickens.
Mix corn meal and wheat bran, neither
the fine nor the coarse bran entirely, but
little of both, with some fine
rye or wheat flour to give it
consistency. Put in water enough to make
dough, add little salt and bake it in
an oven as if for the family. This cheap
bread can be used to great advantage for
young chickens by breaking or rubbing
it into crumbs or by soaking it in milk
until it becomes soft and can be eaten
readily. Never give too much food.
Allow your chickens to leave off hungry:
Thousands of young chickens are killed
every year by gorging with rich food.
For we'll grown fowls feed of whole
corn at the evening meal is excellent, be-
cause it digests so slowly that the fowls
will have something in their crops all
night. The digestive organs do not
slumber, but keep at their work the
whole night long. In cold weather,
especially, the food in the crop gives
strength and support and power to re.
sist the cold of the small hours, when, if
the crop was empty, the birds would not
be so we'll nourished.
It is a good plan to boil fish before
feeding to poultry, although raw fish,
chopped fine, is not to be despised. Meat
and fish, when boiled, form diet more
nearly resembling the soft insects which
arc procured in a state of nature by the
fowls. If you boil the fish no other
preparation is needed if they are placed
in clean spot. The fowls will pick off
every morsel of flesh from the bones.
If flooring of boards is used when the
poultry house is built, it will be advis-
able to cover the house with dry earth.
If in dry spot, the floor may be dis
pensed with and the earth may be used
for the floor. The tainted earth can oc-
casionally be removed to the depth of six
or eight inches and its place supplied
with fresh earth. If dependence is placed
upon an earth floor, it must of course be
a little above the surrounding ground, to
provide good drainage. 1t is cheaper to
build the house upon aqittle knoll or rise
of ground, or to raise little mound OF
earth before the house is built than to
carry the earth into the structure after
ward. Poultry World.