Democratic Sentinel, Volume 14, Number 50, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 2 January 1891 — THE POULTRY-YARD. [ARTICLE]

THE POULTRY-YARD.

Overfeeding Fowls. Many ills in the poultry-yard como from causes least suspected* and it often happens that birds in what are considered well managed yards do not thrive. They first get lame, then get droopy, then lose color in the comb, and in two or three weeks get very weak. They generally die. t If opened their liver will bo found to’ bo affected, and soinotimes it is enlarged. This is the result of overfeeding. This was the first cause which debilitated them and made them susceptible to other diseases. They take cold, indigestion follows, and then a diseased liver kills them. Fowls should be made to hunt for their feed during the greater part of tho day. This gives them exercise and keeps them in health. Of course they should not be starved, but too much food, with no work to obtain it, is sure to cause leg weakness and liver complaint, and make the systems weak and susceptible to more malignant diseases. A variety of feed in moderate quantities and good exercise in hunting for it during the day time, will prevent such maladies. During winter a feed of shelled corn may be given just before going to roost. This may be given to them in such a way that they can readily pick it up if they havo been made to scratch through the day.— Farm, Field and Stockman.

Poultry Note*. If your runs and house are too small don’t try to keep a large flock and wonder why you are not successful. Don't be afraid to give skim milk to the hens; It may make them lay, but that is a desirable effect when eggs are worth present price. Continental countries last year supplied England with 1,000,000,000 eggs. Last year 14,000,000 dozen eggs were sent from Canada to the United States. At the present price of grain will it pay you to carry a raft of cockerels till spring and then sell them as “old roosters?” Don’t go to sleep and lose your head; act with Judgment. In our own flock of poultry the remedy we find a sure cure for all diseases and ailments is to bleed, with one blow of the hatchet, directly back of the ears. It is very inxpensive an effectual. If you have a lot of fat old hens, what are you going to do with them? Feed them all winter, and get no eggs, and have no more meat then than now. Why not sell or eat them before Christmas? On many small farms a combination of small fruits, bees and poultry can be made very profitable. Like every other kind of work, however, care and attention must be given if the good results are realized. It is unnecessary to teach an incu-bator-hatched chick to eat, they will soon learn. They never require food for the first twenty-four hours. Afterwards they will generally obey the instincts of nature and peck around for a morsel. The manager of a poultry farm which has been in existence five years, without an epidemic of any kind of disease, says an inflexible rule of the establisment is to kill every chicken that shows a decided lack of vitality. It is poor economy of time, patience, and feed to attempt to coddle weak or sickly chickens. The healthiest and strongest alone are kept.