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508 POULTRY.
Raising Poultry.—It is best to have a number of partitions in a long building, with a long row of nests ; the eggs can be gathered at night and sent fresh the next morning to market. Wheat shorts, meai scraps, meal corn, and other varieties of grain, with broken oyster shells and calcined bone, should be given them in abundance; these, with cleanliness, are the strong points of good poultry management. Disinfectants should be freely used.
The Nettle is of value as food for poultry, turkeys and hogs.
Condiments in Poultry Diet.—Poultry World.—Cayenne g£p-per, ginger, pepper, mustard, can, with good benefit, be added to the food of fowls to increase their vigor and to stimulate egg production. This apparently artificial diet will be seen to be natural, if we remember that wild fowl of the gallinivorous species get access to very high spiced berries and buds, articles that give the "game flavor" to their flesh. A moderate quantity of cayenne pepper added to the ground grain is always productive of health and vigor in poultry.
Food for Poultry or Turkeys.—Feed the hen with coarse corn meal until satisfied, and her brood with finely chopped hard boiled eggs. Milk is better for them to drink than water; boiled potatoes mixed with milk, clabber, stale meat or bread are all good. Now and then give them alum water and pepper in their food. Allow 2 1-2 tablespoonfuls of alum to 2 pints of water.
To Fatten Poultry.—Make a row of coops with baths on sunny side of barn, large enough only to admit the fowls standing on a perch in some and not to turn or not to get down; feed from 4 to 5 times a day at regular times with different kinds of food each time, (cooked), sufficient for one meal. In 2 weeks they will increas 75 per cent.
To fatten Fowls in a short time.—Mix well together ground rice scalded in milk and add some coarse sugar. Feed them with this in the day time, but not too much at a time. Let it be pretty thick.
* Worms for Fowls.—During moulting season give them minced raw meat; if fowls run on grass, where they can get worms and insects, they do not need so much meat. The Chinese feed their fowls and cage birds a great deal on the silk worm or grub. As it comes out of the cocoon they dry, press and put it away for future use. The Chinese use meat only four times a lunar month.
Fasting Fowls.—Should have for several hours, only a small portion of soft bread wet up with milk, a teacupful at a time; this serves both as food and drink. If the fowls suffer much from the effects of fasting or a long journey, give them ale and bread, instead of bread and water. |
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