Poultry A Practical Guide to the Choice, Breeding, Rearing, and Management of all Descriptions of Fowls, Turkeys, Guinea-fowls, Ducks, and Geese, for Profit and Exhibition.

All hens that are inclined to sit should be allowed to hatch and bring up one brood of chickens a year; for, if altogether restrained from sitting, a hen suffers much in moultin...

The following table, which first appeared in the "Poultry Diary," will show at a glance the relative constituents and qualities of the different kinds of food, and may be consul...

In this work we shall consider the accommodation and requisites for keeping fowls successfully on a moderate scale, and the reader must adapt them to his own premises, circumsta...

The first want which the chick will feel will be that of warmth, and there is no warmth so suited for them as that of the hen's body. Some persons remove the chicks from under t...

A few years ago poultry shows were unknown. In 1846, the first was held in the Gardens of the Zoological Society, in the Regent's Park; Mr. Baily being the sole judge. It was a...

The scarcity of poultry in this country partly arises from all gallinaceous birds requiring warmth and dryness to keep them in perfect health, while the climate of Great Britain...

During the natural process of moulting, hens cease laying because all the superabundant nutriment is required for the production of the new feathers. Fowls moult later each time...

Like many other fowls these possess a name which is incorrectly applied, for they came from Shanghae, not Cochin-China, where they were comparatively unknown. Mr. Fortune, who,...

Keep only good, healthy, vigorous, well-bred fowls, whether you keep them to produce eggs or chickens, or both. The ill-bred mongrel fowls which are so commonly kept, are the mo...

Turkeys are not considered profitable except on light, dry soils, which is said to be the cause of their success in Norfolk. They prosper, however, in Ireland; but although the...

Ducks will not pay if all their food has to be bought, except it is purchased wholesale, and they are reared for town markets, for their appetites are voracious, and they do not...

It is more economical to kill at once rather than attempt to cure common fowls showing symptoms of any troublesome disease, and so save trouble, loss of their carcases, and the...

Until of late years the breeding of poultry has been almost generally neglected in Great Britain. Any kind of mongrel fowl would do for a farmer's stock, although he fully appre...

The French breeds are remarkable for great weight and excellent quality of flesh, with a very small proportion of bones and offal; their breeders having paid great attention to...

It is a disputed point among great authorities whether Brahmas form a distinct variety, or whether they originated in a cross with the Cochin, and have become established by car...

Of this breed one kind is Game, and resembles the Game fowl, except in size; another is feathered to the very toes, the feathers on the tarsi, or beam of the leg, being long and...

This is the kind expressly called the English breed by Buffon and the French writers, and is the noblest and most beautiful of all breeds, combining an admirable figure, brillia...

Geese require much the same management as ducks. They may be kept profitably where there is a rough pasture or common into which they may be turned, and the pasturage is not ren...

The Guinea-fowl, Gallina, or Pintado (_Numida Meleagris_), is the true meleagris of the ancients, a term generically applied by Belon, Aldrovandus, and Gesner to the turkey, and...

This is one of the finest breeds, and especially English. A pure Dorking is distinguished by an additional or fifth toe. There are several varieties, which are all comprised in...

This breed is medium-sized, and should have a brilliant red, finely-serrated rose-comb, terminating in a spike at the back, taper blue legs, ample tail, exact markings, a well-d...

This splendid breed was originally imported from Spain, and is characterised by its peculiar white face, which in the cock should extend from the comb downwards, including the e...

This was the first of the gigantic Asiatic breeds imported into this country, and in height and size exceeds any fowl yet known. The origin of the Malay breed is supposed to be...

This breed might with good reason be divided into more families, but it is usual to rank as Polands all fowls with their chief distinguishing characteristic, a full, large, roun...

Evil of restraining a Hen from sitting--Checking the Desire--A separate House and Run--Nests for sitting in--Damping Eggs--Filling for Nests--Choosing their own Nests--Choosing...

Well-bred Fowls--Choice of Breed--Signs of Age--Breeding in-and-in--Number of Hens to one Cock--Choice of a Cock--To prevent Cocks from fighting--Choice of a Hen--Improved Breed...

The first Show--The first Birmingham Show--Influence of Shows--Exhibition Rules--Hatching for Summer and Winter Shows--Weight--Exhibition Fowls sitting--Matching Fowls--Impartin...