THE POULTRY YARD.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XVIII, Issue 6061, 21 April 1881, Page 3

THE POULTRY YARD.

CHANGING NESTS OF SITTING HENS. A correspondent of the Albany Cultivator gives the following as a good plan to remove a sitting hen from her original nest. He has tried it with good success. He says :— "Although zny experience is that the white Brahmas ars the best sitters, I had a Leghorn hen this spring that would change her nest every time she came off to feed. The hen she drove off was a Brahma, and this hen would take the rejected nest as though nothing had happened, only to be driven of? again the next day. I finally substituted another Brahma for the Leghorn. My plan is to take a lattice coop (one 2 by 4ft. Is large enough to accommodate three sitters), place in the coop plenty of corn, or other feed, and water; arrange on the outside of the coop from one to three nest-boxes, and place them on different sides of the coop, with commuiiiraiions between it and the nests. Of course, if warm enough place out of doors; the nests should be watertight. Now put a sitting of eggs in one of the nests, or, if too cold to expose the eggs, use a fewcommon or addled eggs first; then put a. sitting hen in the coop. She will take a good dinner, and in a little time will go on the nest where the eggs are. Pat a board in front of her nest till you have a sitting hen in each one; then take down one board at a time till each hen has been off to feed at least once and gone back on the right nest; you may then take away all obstructions and consider your sitters wound up. Keep plenty of corn and water in the coop, and you will be surprised to find out how little trouble those hens give. Possibly it can be done on a larger scale. I never have tried more than three sitters in a single coop, or small room, when changing them from their original nests. I send you the live weights of my spring chicks, not because of their superior weights, but I have often wanted to know the weights of young chicks : Plymouth Rock, 19 weeks old, 31b. 2oz.j Plymouth Rock, 8 weeks old, lib. 20z.; Plymouth Rock, crossed with white Brahma, lib. 60z.; and white Brahma, lib. soa. The last two were 8 weeks old. I think the white Brahma crossed with a Plymouth Rock cock will make an excellent table fowl, and possibly a better layer than the puro white Brahma."

MISCELLANEOUS ITEMS. Last season, says a correspondent of the Prairie Farmer, we kept an even dozen— eleven hens and one gobbler—for breeding stock, and 90 per cent, of the eggs hatched. One of my neighbours who used to be noted as a successful turkey-raiser says that he has kept as high as sixteen hens to one gobbler. J. W. H., I believe you are a turkey-raiser ; what do you say ? ~ Some breeders shut the gobbler up as soon as all the hens are laying, but the majority let them run together the whole season. We let the gobbler stay with the hens uutil they commence sitting, then we take him away. We lost one nest of eggs that were half hatched, just because the gobbler went fooling around one of the hens when she was on the nest, and we have no dtsire to repeat the experiment. Don't sell off all the largest turkeys this fall just because they wi.U weigh a few pounds more than the late hatched birds. Keep the largest and best for breeding stock. You cannot expect to raise fine, large, ntrong turkeys unless you breed from mature: parent birds. Do not breed from yearling birds if you can get those that are older. The bronze variety do not reach maturity until they are three years old, and if you expect to make money raising turkeys it would be cheaper to pay ten dollars for a gobbler two or three years old than to breed from a yearling gobbler, if you obtained the latter for nothing. To fatten turkeys, give them their accustomed range aud all the cooked corn meal and potatoes they will eat up clean twice a day; plenty of grain at night, and milk to drink at all times. Mix a little pulverised charcoal in the food once a day. Three weeks of this feeding and your turkeys will be in the best possible condition for the table that is, if they have been kept growing and in good condition from the start. Remember that no amount of stuffing for Ja few weeks just before killing will make a prime extra large table or market bird out of a turkey that has been starved and stunted from the beginning. Full feed from the beginning will make several pounds' difference in the weight of a turkey at Cliristmas. Turkeys should not be fed for 24 hours previous to killing. For some markets the heads are taken off and the birds hung up by the legs that they may bleed freely ; and for other markets they are killed by opening the vein in the neck. Do not attempt to scald young turkeys; their flesli is very tender, and if you scald them in nine cases out of ten feathers and skin come ofF together. Pick immediately after killing, while the fowl is warm, and the feathers will come off easily enough. Remove every pin-feather if any show. Take out the intestines, but leave the gizzard in its place. Lay them aside to cool, and see that they are entirely cold, but not frozen, before you pack for market. Fanny Field.