Rensselaer Union, Volume 7, Number 41, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 1 July 1875 — Water for Poultry. [ARTICLE]

Water for Poultry.

The hot weather is'"at hand when poultry, both old and young, need as careful attention as* at any other season of the year. One thing all need and must have in abundance, and that is good, clean water to drink. Well water is preferable to soft or cistern water, unless the latter comes from a cistern built and cared for as a substitute for a good deep well—as in this case it is not likely to be allowed to become foul or unwholesome for drinking purposes, as so often happens with cistern water designed only for washing purposes. Hut even with the best and purest cistern water at hand we would prefer, for poultry at least, the hard or well water, because of its impregnation jyith carbonate of lime. —; — By no means allow your fowls and chicks {to supply themselves from stagnant pools, or even the drip from the horse or cattle watering troughs, but give them fresh supplies every day. Select a few places on the premises, if the chickens are permitted to run at large, convenient of access to them, and protected from the hot sun. Here station drinking vessels, and see that they are daily replenished with good water. The cheapest aud most convenient vessels, perhaps, are made out of oyster cans, opened on tbe flat side. The side is trimmed out to within a quarter of an inch of the edge and the margin battered down to stiffen the rim of the shallow pan thus formed. In order to keep the fowls from stepping into or overturning these pans, and also to keep the water clean, shallow wooden trays should be made, holding from three to six pans each, placed side by side. On each corner of the tray is tacked a strip of lath, which serves as a leg to raise the tray an inch or two from the ground. These same laths extend above the upper edge of the tray some three inches, and from the top of one to another are tacked other laths, thus forming a frame on which a board is laid for a cover, to shade the water in the pans beneath, as well as to keep the fowls out of them; the water being reached only from the ends and sides beneath the cover.

These tin pans are more easily kept clean and pure than wooden vessels would be, and there is no danger of their being broken in handling as stone or earthen vessels often are. Neither can they be bursted by water freezing in them in winter, for even when frozen solid a few raps on the bottom and sides with a hammer will shatter the ice from them with little trouble, and leave them sound and good as ever for future service. To those who think it needful that drinking vessels should be scalded out occasionally, these small tin pans will be found very convenient. We think, however, there is little use in going to this trouble, if the vessels are rinsed each time they are refilled, and especially if the mixture of sulphate of iron, mentioned in these columns a few weeks ago, is used now and then. In case an epidemic disease breaks out among your poultry you will find an advantage in having the fowls accustomed to drink such water only as you provide for them, since remedies or preventions may often be administered by merely medicating the drinking water. For young chicks still with the hens, lower vessels, and more easily reached by them must be provided. We like nothing better than the bottle fountain, which is simply a quart bottle inverted in a small frame. The bottle is filled with water and then quickly turned into the frame with mouth down, the mouth reaching to a small shallow- dish or pan, such for example as the lid of a blacking-box. As the water is used by the chicks from the shallow vessel, more descends from the bottle above, thus keeping up an even supply beneath so long as the water in the bottle lasts. Such an arrangement is quite desirable in the case of very young chicks, and particularly so with young turkeys, as they are very apt, unless some Such special cars is taken, to get into the water bodily, both to the damage of it and of themselves. —Prairie Farmer.