Poultry : an original and practical guide to their breeding, rearing, feeding, and exhibiting

Front matter

LIZABETH WATTS

: FREDERICK WARNE & CO BEDFORD STREET. STRAND.

Frederick Wame and Co., Publishers,

Dedication

TO YOUNG AMATEURS AND BEGINNERS IN POULTRY-KEEPING

I Scbitait

THIS LITTLE BOOK, WITH SINCERE AND HEARTY WISHES THAT THEY

Chapter I. Iiea.ltu And Condition

The state of thriving prosperity in Poultry so well known to connoisseurs as condition, is of such primary importance that it may justly claim first attention.

When fowls get ill and die, without any apparent cause, careful observation may generally trace it to one or other of a few fertile sources of evil to them. They have been over crowded, they have had too much pampering, or they have had too little care. All latal faults in feeding come under one of the last two heads.

Like many of my brother and sister amateurs, I began poultry keeping with little knowledge, and no experience; and 1 purchased those valuable commodities at the cost of occasional loss and failure. 1 always loved fowls, and one bright day in spring, now many years ago (it was a bright day indeed to me), my eldest sister gave me four hens and a cock. Queer little mongrels they would seem to amateurs of the days of the Birmingham show, but I thought them wonders. The cock was a red bird with a rose comb ; one hen was a speckled Dorking, weighing about four pounds; two were more decided mongrels; and the fourth was a small and rather

B

POULTIiY.

degenerate sample of the old real spangled Polish fowl , a pretty satinny little creature she was, and ‘ satin gown ” was the name we gave her. Her plumage of white spangles, picked out with black, upon a glossy golden brown, was crisp and neat, but her crest \sas neither globular nor large. She was very good in domestic qualities, and was a favourite as long as she lived. When the fowls were brought home, we had no home to give them, and could only set them down in a small enclosure by the side ot a semi-detached suburban house.

A house by roosting time was a necessity, so to work v, e went. Three young girls were the builders, and all the building materials that could be mustered were an old kitchen table, some sacks, and a few boards. The kitchen table was set on end a few feet from a corner angle of the enclosure ; that shaped out the house. Boards and the old sacks were arranged for roof and front; door was dispensed with, and the perch and a nest vere fixeu in time. I have often wished, since I have reared chickens by hundreds, that I had taken a sketch of that primitive hen-house, just to show amateurs with all possible appliances, how very few are necessary to ensure success. Those five fowls, in an enclosure measuring 26 feet by 10 or 12, with only the shelter of a few rough board , laid together with plenty of interstices, throve well, and produced well; and looking back to that time with the aid of the experience of after years, I attribute the success with them to very simple causes. First, the number of fowls was not too great for the space allotted to them. Second, the earth was clean and pure; it Lad never been used for poultry before, and so iuaae for them just the kind of 'home in which fowls are sure to do well. Third, we had not been accustomed to the cost of feeding stock, so we did not buy the food lavishly, but used it with due economy. Fourth, the new pets were a delight to us, and we attended to them ourselves, regularly and well.

These four elements of success demand the attention of every poultry breeder. Carefully avoid crowding in

HEALTH AND CONDITION'.

house or run ; let the door of the houses and the earth of the runs be pure and sweet. Gfive regular plain feeding and no pampering. Let the fowls receive necessary attention with care and regularity.

If the apparent health and appearance of the fowls be not satisfactory, visit the hen-house after it has been some hours shut up at night, and if the air be offensive there need be no further quest after the cause of illness or other evil there may be among the living beings breathing its close atmosphere for many hours.

The remedy should at once be applied, by decreasing the number of fowls, aud by giviug increased ventilation. Except early in the year, when we want our fowls to produce eggs at a time which is not natural to them for the production of eggs, there should be plenty of good fresh air in the hen-house, always avoiding wind from a cold quarter, and any draught ou the fowls as they sit at roost. In my wooden hen-houses I always have window's of perforated zinc, of a large open pattern ; I never give instructions to have the wood too closely joined, and on the warm side, at a distance from the perches, or above them, I have all the knots pushed out of the boards. One of my best hen-houses, in years gone by, was made of mud walls breast-high, and carried up to the roof with trellis, over which ivy was trained outside. This was a nice airy healthy house ; the roof of course was firm and good, as roofs always must be ; there must be no air-holes in them to let in water.

A hen-house 6 or 8 feet square will do well for seven old fowls, or one large brood of chickens. More crowding will not lead to a good result, so if the increase of the stock seems to render it necessary, consider means for housing the youngsters out of doors, in coops or by other contrivances, rather than overfill the houses.

Fowls, even the tallest, live and breathe very near tho surface of the ground ; and when the earth becomes foul from having had live stock on it for some time, they cannot fail to inhale the malaria engendered by it. Human beings in such an atmosphere would fall in as great proportional numbers as do the fowls of the most

3 & rOTTI/TEY.

unfortunate amateurs ; sanitary measures in their case stop epidemics, and they arc the remedies to use with our fowls, or we must uot look to have them prosperous and healthy.

The most valuable sanitary measure for the fowls is to renew the surface of the runs by paring from time to time. Spring is a good time to do it, when the pared olf surface, rich with guano-like manure, is a valuable, strong fertilizer. Duck and pigeon manure are, 1 believe, the strongest ; I have known a poor neglected orchard brought into good culture and full bearing by the manure produced by an amateur’s stock of fowls running in it most days in the year.

Means must be taken to dry the runs, made pure by paring. Low damp ground should be drained. Excellent runs may be made by paring the ground one spit deep, i.e., a foot good measure, and filling in with a depth of nine inches of chalk and three of gravel. On the cold clay of Hampstead I have found this make a capital and lastiug run. Another good grounding which will come less expensive is a foundation of baked brick earth, so largely used on railways, with a thin surface of gravel. After the runs have once been firmly laid down with a foundation of chalk, burnt brick earth, or coarse gravel, they will afterwards need only paring, and a thin covering of gravel about once a year or so.

Sometimes, when paring would be too troublesome, a sprinkle of lime over the surface will purify it, but the fowls should be kept off it until after rain. Where the fowls have extensive ranges the immediate neighbourhood of the houses only will need this cleansing process ; but the floors of the hen-houses require renewal from time to time.

Many amateurs have so much laud at command, foi the use of their poultry, that they find it scarcely necessary to coufine them to runs at all. M here this is the case, nothing can be better than movable houses, to place about in park, or pleasure ground, where fowls may range without mischievous trespassing, and without danger of admixture with other fowls, and be removed

HEALTH AND CONDITION.

to fresh ground whenever a change is thought advisable. Nothing can be better for keeping fowls in first-rate condition than this opportunity of changing them to entirely new ground, when that which they have occupied becomes in the slightest degree tainted.

The kind of pampering which leads to over-feeding fowls, giving them dainties, such as meat, greaves, hempseed, Indian corn, and other fattening food, and keeping them too warmly housed, is a fertile source of ill-health. Half our choice fowls are out of condition and too fat internally, from over-feeding. The corn or other food is thrown down in such quantities that the fowls can stand and eat their fill, without moving half a dozen yards ; and so much is often given that a quantity remains after they leave off eating and go away satisfied. Poultry, to remain thoroughly healthy, and not to become unhealthily fat, should never have a grain more of food given than they can eat up at once with a hung-y healthy appetite; they should not be fed too often, they should not have a variety of food given at the same time, and they should have to run for all the food they eat, and have it so thrown abroad that they shall have plenty of work, and consequently plenty of amusement, to find it. I have heard of amateurs’ poultry runs where the very earth beneath the fowls’ feet was a mass of corn and other food, beaten into the ground. The fowls thus wastefully fed grow fat and out of condition, the food palls on the satiated appetite, until they care lor it no more, and crave for greater variety, and they turn from the ever increasing mass before them with disgust.

The well-being of fowls requires that they have regular care as well as judicious economical feeding, regular meals, a regular supply of water, and regular cleaning. The real care that they require is not pampering and superabundant, almost incessant, feeding, and sometimes the less they arc run after the better they will thrive ; but the little care they need should be administered with regularity. This is the kind of care that will keep poultry in the perfect health and good looks which

POULTRY.

amateurs know so well, and so fully appreciate as good condition.

A fowl in good condition is free and bold in gait, brisk in movement, and bright in the eye. The plumage is full, firm, crisp, and glossy; the bird feels firm in handling; it is neither lean nor too fat; and the comb is clear, and bright in colour, according to ti e season.

When a bird is out of condition, in which case it will take no prizes, and do no good service to its owner, it handles flabby, however fat it may be ; it is heavy and listless in movement, often craves continually for food, and seems too lazy to wander far to seek any for itself. The comb and eye lack brightness, but the plumage tells the tale most unmistakably ; it is dull, ruffled, and broken, sets away from the body, and either comes out with a touch, or adheres to the skin with unnatural tenacity, fixed by a kind of leprous scurfiness. A tendency to roup is also often seen.

The commonest barn door fowl in fine condition is a more satisfactory sight than the choicest stock without this crowning merit ; and the more naturally we can treat our fowls iu letting them have good pure air by night and by day, and plenty of work for their food, the better they will "be both in health and appearance.

The condition in which game fowls are shewn is worthy the imitation of all amateurs, and Polish fowls are perhaps the most disheartening of all kinds in getting out of condition, so much so that beautiful varieties of them have quite disappeared, or are disappearing from among us. Some fowls from warmer, better climates than our own, are difficult to keep in good condition, because they are liable to take cold and get roupy if they have the abundance of air necessary to keep all fowls pure and healthy, on account of the damp cold, of which we have so much.

f

Chapter II. Arrangement Oe Stock

I shale somewhat more fully enter into the purchase of fowls hereafter. The cheapest way to get up a stock, allowing time and work lor the matter, is to buy really first-class reliable eggs, from sellers of established character. \\re must neither expect all the eggs to hatch, all the chickens which are hatched to turn out especially good, nor find fault with the sellei it this be not the case ; for if he is honest he will tell you that when eggs are set at home, without the small trial ot a journey, the hatching of two out of three is a pretty good proportion, and a first-class pair from each brood is ample return for the outlay, reckouing the value of the eggs at the usual price charged for eggs for setting, and the trouble of rearing.

My proportion of good chickens out of the number hatched is much greater than this, but many years . experience and attentiou are necessary to produce uniformity of merit ; aud, generally, in the purchase of eggs,

I should think myself well done by, if the eggs produced a fair proportion of chickens, if the chickens were all true to the kind, and if one or two in a brood turned out first-class — the rest being good. Every purchaser has aright to expect to get purity ot breed and perfectly fresh eggs : if the eggs are more than a week old they may probably not be productive, and if they are, the chickens will not be strong.

If it be wished to get a good stock together, without the delay of rearing chickens, it may be done by purchasing fowls.

An old cock should be mated with pullets, or a fine cockerel of the year before with old hens. I think no match so good as that of two years old hens with an older cock. Gfood breeders consider it better to mate potJLinr.

a 011°. bird with young hens, than pullets with

an old bird; but cue of the most experienced breeders in the country has said that a pullet’s second batch of eggs produces as fine chickens as any she will have.

In-breeding, i.o., breeding among relations, must be carefully avoided. However fine the stock, it is altogether against the laws of good breeding to keep the pullets and the cockerels, and go on year after year breeding from them without the introduction of fresh blood. Doing so will produce decrease of size and weakly constitutions. In-breeding must, on no account be carried beyond the first remove. The mother may be mated with her son, but the old game breeders did'not consider the union of a cock with the pullets bred from him nearly so good.

In the purchase of stock, therefore, take care to get tens and cock which are not related, either bv burinh-om different persons, or by asking the person of whom you purchase for cock and hens of different families which most amateurs, and all dealers, are able to manage! Many amateurs attach great importance to the cock : but by all means take care that the hens are also excellent. Collie oi our old game breeders used to say that excellence

in the lien was even of more weight than in the cock.

a point m which I agree with them.

It basnet unfrequently happened that well-established good stocks of fowls have been greatly injured by a carelessly introduced cross. When the introduction of fresh b ood becomes necessary, the stock with which to cioss should be chosen with reference to the qualities most wanted, and great care is necessary to prevent tlm increase of present failings by it. The purity of the peed and its stamina must also be especially consideredtor mongrel crosses, or a weakly constitution, may be introduced in one year, and may take a great many to eradicate. •

With regard to the number of liens to be allowed to run with one cock, various opinions have been givenbut while ten or a dozen may form one group for the production of eggs, for that of really fine chickens the

ARRANGEMENT OF STOCK.

number should be limited to four, or at most six. With four hens, almost all the eggs which are laid will prove productive of line strong chickens, provided, of course, the stock birds are good ; with six, 1 have always found less certainty, and more than six I consider should never be put up with one male bird, during the breeding season.

At this interesting period of the year the breeding stock should most decidedly be confined to runs, if purity and precision in breeding be a desideratum, and each family, consisting of a male bird and his harem, should be kept distinct. This separation from stock birds less to be depended upon than those which are selected, should be arranged before Christmas, and continue until eggs are no longer wanted for setting, after which they may have a fuller range, when the houses they have occupied will be valuable for other purposes.

So particular have some game breeders been in that important point, purity of race, that they considered that the character of the chickens might be influenced by the hen that hatched them, and would set eggs only under the hen that laid them, or one of the same breed, saying that cocks lost pluck by being hatched by common hens.

In the early days of Cochins, when amateurs were wild to get the unflecked yellow, to the attainment of which so much has been sacrificed, some set the eggs only under hens of perfectly clear colour, made clear bull the only colour used about the houses in which the fowls were kept and set, and took care that the hens should see no fowls of any other colour.

A physiological fact often observed and mentioned, is that a pullet’s or any young female animal’s first mate, influences the character of her progeny in all her after life. This circumstance has been noticed from mares down to hens.

It certainly is curious to observe the attachment which hens show towards the cock. In the reverse position I am afraid the case is not the same, for if a cock gets

POULT II Y.

female companions he is satisfied, but hens show liking for one mate in particular, and exhibit evident dislike to a change. On this account it is best to give consideration to the first arrangement of the stock, and then afterwards to avoid all unnecessary and capricious changes. I have known hens, especially with game blood in them, that would scarcely move from a hamper m which the cock was confined, even to eat.

Some old writers entertained curious ideas respecting mating one cock with many hens. Columella gives it as his opinion that if there are twelve hens the chickens will be uniform in colour, whereas a smaller number, five or six, will occasion more diversity. Bradley, in the Farmer’s Director, the author on poultry in Bee’s Encyclopedia, and others, recommend seven or eight hens. The French author, M. Parmentier, writes that one cock is enough for fifteen or twenty hens.

On the side of a limited number of hens, i.e., less than six in one family, we have Mowbray, Dickson, myself, and many others.

‘Where several families of breeding fowls are kept and attention to purity of breed renders it necessary to keep each lot confined to a ruu of limited dimensions, all may be let out into a field or orchard, one lot at a time. Of course care must be taken that the lot just put up is duly secured before another is let out. 1 our lots each day may very well get some hours’ liberty, by leaving the hatch open for one family to run out before breakfast, changing them for a second until noon ; and apportioning the remaining hours (seven or eight in summer) between two other lots.

A more troublesome and less peaceable wav, practised by some, is to let out the heus of all kinds together, keeping in the cocks.

Chapter III. Houses

A simple construction is better for a hen-house, than a very elaborate air-tight building ; for too confined air, while the fowls are at roost, makes the place offensive, and is more prone to engender disease than almost anything.

I have already described one very primitive poultryhouse. Another which I once had, in which the fowls did exceedingly well, was a simple erection of common brown osier hurdles. The roof was covered with felt, and sloped enough to carry off the wet, and the sides of the house were lined with felt towards the cold quarters. It was put up in a good grass run, a perch and nest were fixed, and it really made a good house, and was approved of by the inmates,

Poultry amateurs would be much at a loss in their building operations, if they could not have that useful commodity, the patent felt roofing. It measures 32 inches wide, is 8 d. per yard, and is a capital water-tight covering for a roof, or any other part of a hen-house : it is like wood and brickwork to the builder of hen-houses, and cheap withal.

About the cheapest regularly formed house may be made with it, stretched over a wooden frame, which should be rather stout, and well put together. The roof should be made of common board, under the felt, which without that support is apt to bag, make hollows for water to lodge in, and become rotten in consequence. It nails most easily with iron tacks heated in a fryingpan: when up it requires tarring and thickly sprinkling with sand, which should be repeated every year to make it durable. In sunny weather a felt house is apt to be hot, so that, to keep it refreshingly cool, as well a* for appearance sake, it is a good plan to plant quick-growing trees round it.

POUT.TBT.

Tolerably stout wooden bouses have done hundreds of amateurs excellent service. For the house to keep m good order, the wood should he well seasoned, Mid any amateur carpenter can put it up at small cost and trouble. Shane the house with a framework of battens il e

lowest part may be 5 feet high, and the roof should have a good pitch, both to throw ’off the wet, and to make it airy. The cheapest description of boards will

A SIMPLE WOODEN OR FELT-COVERED DEN HOUSE.

do for the roof under felt, and scarcely any wooden roof is good without that covering, from its being liable, after being swelled with wet, to crack with the heat of the sun, and so let in water. If it be entirely of wood, the boards can either be placed horizontally, with an overlap of at least an inch and a half, or vertically, edge to edge, with fillets of wood nailed over the joins. A cheap roof, yet one which is tolerably lastiug, may he made by covering the boards with gas tar and coarse houses.

brown paper. Lay on a coat of tar, then the brown paper, lapping it over a full inch where the sheets meet, and finish with another coat of tar. When the wooden roof is to be covered with either felt or brown paper, there need be no overlap of the boards, but they may lie edge to edge, either from ridge to eaves, or across. The boards, too, for covering the framework of sides, back, and front of the house, can go either upright or across, whichever will use the wood with the best economy. Eaves should project well, to carry off wet.

If the boards are used rough, three-quarter inch planks will do, but if they are planed, inch deal will be required to make up for the waste.

A hatch for the fowls to go in and out, with a door to slip down over it, should be made when the house is built: sometimes two on different sides are found very useful, in case of changes in the run, which can then be put to one side of the house, instead of the other, without further alteration.

A more solid kind of house, as well as one which will be more costly, can be built with regular walls of brick, stone, rough stone, or earth. These may be more lasting, and the first three more secure from the attacks of vermin, but, of course, the cost both in material and in labour will be greater.

Eor a brick wall, what bricklayers call half a brick thick is sufficient, as very great strength is not required. A pattern of a few feet square, made by leaving out alternate bricks high up on the side of the house, which will admit air that will not be too cold, is a good means of ventilation, and of giving light also.

Few amateurs would go to the expense of walls of hewn stone, but in neighbourhoods where rough blasted rock or stone is plentiful, and consequently cheap, it makes good walls, which come rather cheaper than brickwork. To be sufficiently solid and stable these walls should be rather over than under a foot thick, and the stones fitted together with judgment, to avoid interstices, causing weakness, or great consumption of mortar, of which, however well the stones may be fitted,

POtri/THY.

a great deal will be used. While building this kind of wall it should be brought to a level surface at the top every 10 inches or so, which gives the stone a look of order in the arrangement, greatly improving the appearance, and also giving strength. All laminated stone, i.e., stone which has an appearance of being formed in layers, should have these layers placed horizontally.

Where building materials of most kinds are difficult to obtain, earth walls may be used with advantage, requiring, if the material be at hand, little outlay except labour. The proper earth is neither sand nor clay, but partaking of both. Clay, chalk, any calcareous earth, or sand, are bad for the purpose. The earlier in the season the building can be done the better, that it may have time to dry ; but a time must be chosen when the earth is sufficiently dry for working, and the coarser and bolder it is the better. A foundation of brick or stone must be used, which can be brought 9 inches above the surface of the ground, or less if preferred. The wall is made by ramming in the earth, supported during the process by a mould formed of two planks of inch board. These planks for a cottage or bettermost building should be 12 feet long and 20 inchfes wide, formed of two breadths, and strengthened with cross pieces strongly nailed outside ; but for a hen-house, summerhouse, or similar edifice of less importance, they might be shorter. Cross-bolts fix these planks together (two near each end), with as many inches between the two boards as the wall is to be thick, say 14 or 1(3 inches, and the bolts have large heads at one end to fix them, and eyelet holes and cross pegs at the other. Place the planks above the brick foundation, bolt them together, and fit bits of board into the ends, to prevent the building material running out there, the little boards fitting in between the top and bottom bolts, and making (with them) the mould into a sort of box. Then work the earth up well, a little at a time, mixing in cut straw or some similar material to make it bind, and when it is used it should have just moisture enough to adhere together, under the pressure of the thumb and finger.

HOUSES.

Earn in no more at a time than will make an inch aud a half, when well rammed ; and the rammer, to do its work well, should be no more than an inch and a half wide. "When the earth is well rammed down, as high as the mould will allow, draw out the cross-bolts, remove the planks, and tlx the mould further on, the bolt at one end being fitted into the hole left by that at the other, only one end board being of course required. When

(EARTH WALL HOC3Z, each layer of the wall is completed the mould must be placed higher, fitting the bottom bolts into the holes left by the top ones, and after each course pour over the surface (to make the next course adhere, and also to give a nice appearance) a small quantity of thick grout composed of one-fifth lime and four-fifths earth.

Before the wall dries the holes left by the bolts must be carefully filled up with mortar made of one-fourth lime aud three-fourths earth. If the same mixture be used for thp wall, it will dry almost like stone.

rOULTnY.

A stout frame of wood must be fixed to shape the door, hatch, and windows, and the building may have a smooth facing given to it of the mortar above named, or one made with more lime, or even a little cement. As a finish it may be washed with a mixture of lime and sharp sand, mixed in small quantities, and used whilst hot, which may easily be done by adding a knob of lime, and the sand, a little at a time, as it is used.