POULTRY.

Globe, Volume XXII, Issue 1999, 21 July 1880, Page 2

POULTRY.

TEEATMENT OF CLUCSINQ HENS. A writer in the ‘‘Adelaide Observer” makes the following remarks upon this subject:— “ There are still some extraordinary ideas entertained by some people with respect to the treatment of hens that will persist in sitting when they are not required to perform that useful domestic duty. The old custom of dipping a clucking hen into a bucket of cold water, which is still much in favour amongst old-fashioned housewives, is simply outrageous. It is not only positively cruel, but is the means of promoting disease in the unfortunate fowl operated upon. A clucking hen is to a certain extent in a state of fever. Her system is heated, and she is altogether in so peculiar a condition that a sudden immersion in cold water is calculated to convey a shock to her system which she will take some time to get oveer. Some wiseacres cram their clucking hens with pepper—just the very thing to increase the state of irritation to which the fowl has been wrought by her maternal instincts. Others clap a camp-oven over the victim of philoprogonitiveness, thereby running the risk of smothering her and spoiling a good hen, A few, again, hang the hen on a line and swing her to and fro till she is as nearly dead as thoir cruelty can brhfg her. In fact, the unfortunate fowl with proclivities in the direction of chickens is often subjected to the most barbarous treatment to make her forgot what nature has prompted her to undertake. No hen should be prevented from sitting at least once in a season, as the sitting process is to some extent a rest from the occupation of laying eggs, which drains the system very much if kept up to an unnatural extent. Practically the best way to get a hen off sitting is to put her in a small coop with a smart young rooster for a day or two, and she will soon quiet down, gradually give up clucking, and begin to lay again. Two or three days of this discipline generally effects a cure. Cochins are about the worst for developing sitting proclivities. They are no sooner off thau they are on again, and they will squat on a hare board if they cannot find a nest handy. However, there is not much difficulty to get them to lay again bv following the plan proposed, or cooping them alone for a few days on plain diet.”