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POULTRY. |
5°9 |
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Young Turkeys, Food for.—Hard boiled egg, cheese crust, stale bread, cracked wheat, onions, leeks, all cut short and fine, and moistened a little with water. Feed them for a month with the mixture, keeping them out of the dew.
Young Turkeys—Should not be permitted to run out on the grass before 10 o'clock in the morning, until they are ten days old.
To Fatten Ducks and Gee;e.—An English method.—Boil slightly the leaves of lettuce and cabbage with carrots, all chopped fine, and feed them. The leaves of carrots chopped, are also good when boiled with a little grain. N. B. Ten days before killing them, give them nothing but chopped carrots. It makes the flesh delicious.
Young Ducks.—C. Faidener.—The best food for young ducks is oat meal. If they are hatched under a hen, you may let them be at liberty with her, providing them with oat meal mixed with water in a plate. If there is water they (to the hen's great discomfort) will dabble about on the edge of it, and find some food. If hatched under a duck, the safest plan is to confine them for a fortnight in old place, such as a pig stye, where the faulty paving or earth allows of puddles. They must be fed here in the same way. The objection to a duck being at liberty with her brood is, she drags them about evenings when the flies are about, she takes them under beetling banks, and often leaves some behind. When there is only a small and open pen, the duck may be safely left at liberty with her brood.
Killing Fowls.—Only turkeys and geese should be bled to death; the flesh of chickens becomes dry and insipid from the loss of blood. The best plan is to take a flat stick, and strike the bird a smart blow on the back of the neck about the third joint from the head; death follows in a moment.
To Pick a Chicken.—By means of a knife, remove all the fine hairs from the head, take out the eyes, cut off the under bill and the tongue^ now place the chicken on its breast, cut the skin off the back of the neck lengthwise, from the point where the neck and back meet, to the head, loosen the craw carefully, without breaking it, and remove it at once; then lay the chicken on its back, cut open the body a little, and singe on all sides, wash it clean, and let the water drain off. Clean the heart and liver, remove the gall carefully from the liver, and put them into the body of the chicken and prepare it for roasting.
To cure Cats from catching Chickens.—When given to the practice, catch a chicken and tie it around the cat's neck; fasten it securely and make her wear it 2 or 3 days.
Cleanse the chicken coops or houses. Never put a new supply of food on an old one which has become sour or tainted from stand- |
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