THE POULTRY YARD. SETTING A HEN.

Te Aroha News, Volume V, Issue 210, 9 July 1887, Page 8

THE POULTRY YARD. SETTING A HEN.

The following is good practical information :—": — " How to set a hen i° a very simple question, yet there are more blunders and mismanagements in it than many are aware. Some claim the be^t success with a nest filled with a, pod, as that i* as near nature as possible. Each one claims his method as the best, and it is hard to get any to understand that there is something better. I have set hens in every way I have read of and seen recommended by others, and did everything a living m m could do ; but I have learned by experience that if the eggs were good I always had a fair hatch, and if the eggs were bad, or the hen failed to do her part, ifc did not make a particle of difference whether the nest was sod or ■stiaw, or lined with bilk or satin—the eggs wouldn't hatch. The piincipal thing neglected by many is to see that the hen is fiee from lice. If sho is not, we cannot expect a good hatch. There are many ways of killing vermin. I have found kerosene oil about the best thing to clean a hen-house of lice ; but it is too cheap, and is otten ptssed for something inoie expensive. I will give your readeis my method of setting and taking care of hens during the time of incubation, and if anyone has a, better way, let him come forward and give it for the benefit of the poultry-keeper. I have each hen inclosed in a separate place, about four ieefc long and eighteen inches wide. I think it is a bad plan to have all the hens together, as they vill often go in , different nests and leave their own exposed. Time is money ; and if I can take care of 100 hen* in the tamo time I did ten in the old way, I have so much saved. Before I make a nest I wash the bottom of the box v>ith keiosene oil, andthen fill it with straw ; and 1 assure you no . lice will live in that nest. Take the hen and dust her with sulphur. Dust her soshe looks as if she came out of a flour barrel, and she will nest three weeks in peace. Aiter the hen has her eggs I leave her alone She knows more about her business than anybody else, and I give her water and corn that will last fur a week. Every few nights I put my hand under her and soe if the eggs arc all light, and this is> aU the care I give them during the three weeks. Let the hen alone, and a little common sense on your part will insure -success." enr, \p r/iG-pnonrciNG food. Upon this subject a practical poultry keeper \vrite3 : —In the morning, just as the hens come off, is the time to give them the sof b food, and it should be warm and stimulating ; but do not give them.all they caneat, nor feed them on the gjonnd, but rather give only enough to atlbrd them a partial breakfast, and then make- khem scratch, if necessary, compelling them to go. hungry until night, rather than they should mope around and become lazy and idle. At night stuff them, with all the mixed grain they want. Therearo many ways of preparing cheapnourishing foods, which may contain all the elements of the eggs. Ono of the best is at? follows : Take apiece of liver,, rough beef, or even blood (about a. pound),, and boil it to pieces in half a gallon of water* adding more when too much ha 3 evaporated. While boiling jvVI \AI a pint of soaked beans the • «\. of rice, and the Ktimo of lint-eed me.- . When the whole is cooked add salt to taste and thicken with two parts ground oats, ono pait bran, one part middlings and quo ot corn meaL Add the mixed ground grain until the mess has thickened to a stiff douglu If it burns a little no harm vi ill be done. Then stir in a half a pint of ground bone. If milk be convenient it may bo also added, either as curds, buttermilk or in any other shapo. When boiling add a teaspoonful o£ broad soda "to the water. This food may be cooked in the shape of cakes and crumbled for the fowls or fed in the soft state. A teaspoonful is sufficient for each hen. Just before adding the ground grain chopped clover may be placed in the boiler also.