Huntsville gazette., 1886-01-02
CHICKENS IN WINTER.


The Advantages 70 BE Derived fr0m Pre-.
paring Fowls for Spring Sale.
Few persons derive much profit from
their hens during the winter. After
the holidays fowls Kept on farms are
rarely in condition to send to market
or to use on the home table. They are
generally indifferently fed during the
latter part Of the winter, and are ac-
eordingly in poor flesh. Farmers gen.
orally are well supplied with fresh
meat while the weather is cold, and
accordingly have little need of poultry.
Early in the spring, however, the sup
ply of fresh meat becomes exhausted,
and it would be well to have some fat
fowls that could be killed as they are
wanted. Cockerels can be kept grow
ing during the winter by feeding them
on plenty of corn. and toward spring
they can be fattened SO as to be table
luxuries. Before there are any calves
old enough to furnish veal there is
great lack of fresh meat in most farm
houses, and fowls will furnish most
desirable substitute for salt pork, bacon
and canned beef. A large poultry
raiser near Chicago states that for
series of years he has received higher
price for cockerels during March than
for any kind of fowls he has sent to the
market at any other time of the year.
The general practice of poultry raisers
is to send their fowls to market just
before Thanksgiving or Christmas.
Towns are then so well supplied with
fowls, as well as game and very choice
beef and mutton, that prices for poul-
try rule very low. During the early
part of the spring there is a great
scarcity of fowls, and if they are in
suitable condition they bring good
prices. There is no game, except
fowls, in the market then, and persons
who desire variety of food are anx-
ious to obtain fowls. Fowls can be fed
and fattened during the winter to as
good advantage as beeves that are
chiefly relied on to furnish meat during
the spring.
To fit fowls for the spring market
they must be well fed and we'll pro.
tected from the cold They should
have other food than corn and small
grains. They should be well supplied
with cooked food, such as boiled pota-
toes and roots, fresh cabbage and the
scraps of meat. Cooked Indian meal,
to which some cheap fat has been
added, will cause fowls to lay on flesh
and fat during the winter. Too little
attention is generally paid to supply
ing water to fowls during the winter.
On many farms water is taken to the
poultry house or yard but once day.
1t generally becomes covered with ice
or foul with dirt in short time, and
the fowls have nothing to drink till the
next day. Birds consume more water
according to their size than animals do
and more pains should be taken in
keeping them supplied with it. Eggs
are chiefly composed of water, and
hens that have not all the water they
want can not supply eggs. Water is
more essential to fowls in winter than
in summer, because their food during
cold weather is for the most part dry.
Fowls should be kept in dry quarters
during the winter, as they are injured
as much by wet as by cold. They
should have an opportunity to take ex-
ercise when the weather is pleasant, as
they lose flesh and fall off in condition
if .they are kept in close confinement.
During pleasant days it is well to feed
them in the yard, and to encourage
them to run about by scattering the
corn they are to eat over the ground.
Birds are more active than animals, and
suffer more if they are kept in close
quarters. A variety of food is highly
beneficial to fowls during the winter
When at liberty during the summer
they have an opportunity to crafty
their taste for many articles of food
which they can not obtain by them
selves during the winter season.-CM-
cago Times.