Hens as Barometers.

Kaipara and Waitemata Echo, 21 August 1914, Page 2

Hens as Barometers.

A poultry-fancier near Durham I has produced results by altering and alternating the food given to his fowls. ' ; It is known to many who have reared canaries for the market that Cayenne pepper, put into their food, results in a notable difference in the character and shade of their plumage, giving the feathers a smoothness and reddish tinge which adds very much to the sum for which the birds may ordinarily be sold. If the same ingredient be added to the diet, especially of white hens which have been hatched from care-fully-selected eggs, their feathers become pale rose, and they flush to a : brilliant red when tho weather is ; damp and a storm approaching. ' These hens thus become veritable I barometers, .and the progression of i colour from pale to brilliant is so I exact that a scarlet hou stalking about the barnyard is regarded as j certain, prophecy of a storm which may be as much as twelve hours ! distant.