THE POULTRY YARD.

Auckland Star, Volume XVIII, Issue 54, 2 July 1887, Page 4 (Supplement)

THE POULTRY YARD.

SETTING A HEN.

The following is good practical information :—" How to set a hen is a very simpie question, yet there are more blunders and mismanagements in it than many aro aware. Some claim the best success with a nest filled with a sod, as that is as near nature as possible. Each one claims his method as the best, and it is hard to get any to understand that there is something better. I have set hens in every way I have read of and seen recommended by others, and did everything a living man could do ; but I have learned by experience that if the eggs were good I always had a fair hatch, and if the eggs were bad, or the hen failed to do her parb, ib did not make a particle of difference whether the nest was sod or straw, or lined with silk or satin— the eggs wouldn't hatch. The principal thing neglected by many is to see that the hen is free from lice. If she is not, we cannob expecb a good hatch. There are many ways of killing vermin. I have found kerosene oil about the best thing to clean a hen-house of lice ; but it is too cheap, and is often passed for something more expensive. I will give your readers my method of setting and taking care of hens during the time of incubation, and if anyone has a better way, let him come forward and give it for the benefit of the poultry-keeper. I have each hen inclosed in a separate place, about four feet long and eighteen inches wide. I think it is a bad plan to have all the hens together, as they will often go in different nests and leave thoir own exposed. Time is money ; and if I can take caro of 100 hens in tho earne time I did ten in the old way, I havo so much saved. Before I make a nest I wash the bottom of the box with kerosene oil, and then fill it with straw ; aud I assure you no lice will live in that nest. Take the hen and dust her with sulphur. Dust her so she looks as if she came out of a flour barrel, and she will nest three weeks in peace. After the hen has her eggs I leave her alone. She know 3 more about her businoss than anybody else, and I give her water and corn that will last for a week. Every few nights I put my hand under her and see if tho eggs are all right, and'this is all bhe care I give them during the three weeks. Lot the hen alone, and a little common sense on your part will insure success."

CHEAP EGG-rRODtJC-NG FOOD,

Upon this subject a practical poultry keeper writes :—ln tho morning, just as tho hens come off, ie the time to give them the soft food, and it should be warm and stimulating ; but do not give them all they can eat, nor feed them on the ground, but rather give only enough to afford them a partial breakfast, and then make thorn scratch, if necessary, compelling them to go hungry until night, rather than they should ' mope around and become lazy and idle. At night stuff them wibh all bhe mixed grain- bhey wanb. There are many ways of preparing cheap nourishing foods, which may contain all bhe elements of bhe eggs. One of bhe besb is as follows : Take a piece of liver, rough beef, or even blood (aboub a pound), and boil ib to pieces in half a gallon of water, adding more when too much has ovaporabed. While boiling add half a pinb of soaked beans, bhe same of rice, and the pame of linseed meal. When bhe whole is cooked add salb to taste and thicken with two parts ground oats, one part bran, one part middlings and one of corn meal. Add the mixed ground grain until the mess has thickened to. a stiff dough. If it burns a little no harm will bo done. Then stir in a half a pint of ground bone. If milk be convenient it may be also added, either as curds, buttermilk or in any other shape. When boiling add a teaspoonful of bread soda to the water. This food may be cooked in the shape of cakes and crumbled for the fowls or fed in the soft stabe. A teaspoonful is sufficient for each hen. Just before adding the ground grain chopped clover may be placed in the boiler also.