Fowls must be well fed, but they should not have too much. Over-feeding is as bad for fowls as for men. They ought not to be fed with stale or bad corn, but of the best, and now and then with a little buck-wheat; with cabbage, mangold-wurzel leaves, and parsley, which should be chopped fine. Where they are likely to be stinted for insect food, small pieces of meat chopped up should occasionally be added to their food.
On the floor of the fowl-house, a little sand should be occasionally spread, and sandy gravel should be placed in the corners. The small sharp stones found in gravel are absolutely necessary to fowls, as they are picked up by the birds and find their way into the gizzard, where they perform the part of mill-stones in grinding the corn.
LAYING.
The early period of spring, and after a cessation at the end of summer, are the two periods at which fowls begin to lay. When the period of laying approaches, it is known by the redness of the comb in the hen, the brightness of her eyes, and her frequent clucking. She appears restless, and scratches and arranges the straw in her laying place, and at last begins to lay. She generally prefers to lay in a nest where there is one or more eggs; hence it is of use to put a chalk egg into the nest you wish her to settle on.
The eggs ought to be taken from the nest every afternoon, when no more are expected to be laid, for if left in the nest, the heat of the hens when laying each day will tend to corrupt them. Some hens will lay only one egg in three days, some every other day, and some every day.
To promote laying, good food in moderate quantities should be given to the hens, and also clean water. A hen well fed and attended to, will produce upwards of one hundred and fifty eggs in a year, besides two broods of chickens. Some half-bred game hens begin to lay as soon as their chickens are three weeks old.
PRESERVATION OF EGGS.
To preserve eggs fresh for a length of time, it is only necessary to rub each egg with a small piece of butter, which need not be larger than a pea, or the tip of the finger may be dipped in a saucer of oil and passed over the shell in the same way. Eggs may be thus preserved for nine months.
HATCHING CHICKENS.
The eggs given to the hen to hatch must be perfectly fresh; they should be large in size, the produce of the most beautiful birds, well shaped, and the number put under the hen should vary according to her size, and may be from nine to thirteen eggs; odd numbers, old housewives say, are the luckiest.