CHAPTER VII.

REARING AND FATTENING FOWLS.

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 the mother as soon as they are hatched, one by one, placing them in a basket covered up with flannel, and keep them there in a warm place, until the last chick is out, when they are put back under the hen. But this is very seldom necessary unless the weather is very cold and the hen restless, and is generally more likely to annoy than benefit her. Nor should the hen be induced to leave the nest, but be left undisturbed until she leaves of her own accord, when the last hatched chickens will be in a better condition to follow her than if she had been tempted to leave earlier. In a few hours they are able to run about and follow their parent; they do not require to be fed in the nest like most birds, but pick up the food which their mother shows them; and repose at night huddled up beneath her wings. The chicken during its development in the egg is nourished by the yolk, and the remaining portion of the yolk passes into its body previous to its leaving the shell, being designed for its first nourishment; and the chicken, therefore, does not require any food whatever during the first day. The old-fashioned plan, so popular with "practical" farmers' wives, of cramming a peppercorn down the throat of the newly-hatched chick is absurd and injurious.

The first food must be very light and delicate, such as crumbs of bread soaked in milk, the yolk of an egg boiled hard, and curds; but very little of anything at first except water, for thirst will come before hunger. The thirsty hen will herself soon teach the little ones how to drink. If your chicks be very weakly, you may cram them with crumbs of good white bread, steeped in milk or wine, but at the same time recollect that their little craws are not capable of holding more than the bulk of a pea; so rather under than over feed them.

As soon as the hen leaves the nest, she should have as much grain as she can eat, and a good supply of pure, clean water. In winter, or settled wet weather, she should, if possible, be kept on her nest for a day, and, when removed, be cooped in a warm, dry shed or outhouse; but in summer, if the weather be fine, and the chickens well upon their legs, they may be at once cooped out in the sun, on dry gravel, or if possible on a nice grass-plot, with food and water within her reach. The hen is cooped to prevent her from wearying the brood by leading them about until they are over-tired, besides being exposed to danger from cats, hawks, and vermin, tumbling into ditches, or getting wet in the high grass. They can pass in and out between the bars of the coop, and will come when she calls, or they wish to shelter under her wings. It is a good plan to place the coop for the first day out upon some dry sand, so that the hen can cleanse herself comfortably. The common basket coop should only be used in fine weather, and some straw, kept down by a stone, matting, or other covering, should be placed on the top, to shelter them from the mid-day sun; otherwise a wooden coop should be used, open in front only, about two and a half or three feet square; well-made of stout, sound boards, with a gabled roof covered with felt; and at night a thick canvas or matting should be hung over the front, sufficient space being left for proper ventilation, but not to admit cold draught, or to allow the chicks to get out. Mr. Wright describes an excellent coop which is "very common in some parts of France, and consists of two compartments, separated by a partition of bars, one compartment being closed in front, the other fronted with bars like the partition. Each set of bars should have a sliding one to serve as a door, and the whole coop should be tight and sound. It is best to have no bottom, but to put it on loose dry earth or ashes, an inch or two deep. Each half of the coop is about two feet six inches square, and may or may not be lighted from the top by a small pane of glass. The advantage of such a coop is that, except in very severe weather, no further shelter is required, even at night [if placed under a shed]. During the day the hen is kept in the outer compartment, the chickens having liberty, and the food and water being placed outside; whilst at night she is put in the inner portion of the coop, and a piece of canvas or sacking hung over the bars of the outer half. If the top be glazed, a little food and the water-vessel may be placed in the outer compartment at night, and the chicks will be able to run out and feed early in the morning, being prevented by the canvas from going out into the cold air. It will be only needful to remove the coop every two days for a few minutes, to take away the tainted earth and replace it with fresh. There should, if possible, be a grass-plot in front of the shed, the floor of which should be covered with dry, loose dust or earth." The hen should be kept under a coop until the brood has grown strong. Some breeders object to cooping, on account of its preventing the hen from scratching for worms and insects for her brood, and which are far superior to the substitutes with which they must be supplied, unless, indeed, a good supply of worms, ants' eggs, insects, or gentles can be had. The hen too has not sufficient exercise after her long sitting. Cooping thus has its advantages and disadvantages, and its adoption or not should depend upon circumstances. If it is preferred not to coop the hen, and she should be inclined to roam too far, a small run may be made with network, or with the moveable wire-work described on page 21.

Winter-hatched chickens must be reared and fed in a warm place, which must be kept at an equal temperature. They return a large profit for the great care they require in hatching and rearing.

Chickens should be fed very often; every two hours is not too frequently. The number of these meals must be reduced by degrees to four or five, which may be continued until they are full grown. Grain should not be given to newly-hatched chickens. The very best food for them, after their first meal of bread-crumbs and egg, is made of two parts of coarse oatmeal and one part of barley-meal, mixed into a thick crumbly paste with milk or water. If milk is used, it must be fresh mixed for each meal, or it will become sour. Cold oatmeal porridge is an excellent food, and much liked by them. After the first week they may have cheaper food, such as bran, oatmeal, and Indian meal mixed, or potatoes mashed with bran. In a few days they may also have some whole grain, which their little gizzards will then be fully able to grind. Grits, crushed wheat, or bruised oats, should form the last meal at night. Bread sopped in water is the worst food they can have, and even with milk is still inferior to meal. For the first three or four days they may also have daily the yolk of an egg boiled hard and chopped up small, which will be sufficient for a dozen chicks; and afterwards, a piece of cooked meat, rather underdone, the size of a good walnut, minced fine, should be daily given to the brood until they are three weeks old. In winter and very early spring this stimulating diet may be given regularly, and once a day they should also have some stale bread soaked in ale; and whenever chickens suffer from bad feathering, caused either by the coldness of the season or delicacy of constitution, they must be fed highly, and have a daily supply of bread soaked in ale. Ants' eggs, which are well known as the very best animal diet for young pheasants, are also excellent for young chickens; and when a nest can be obtained it should be thrown with its surrounding mould into the run for them to peck at. Where there is no grass-plot they should have some grass cut into small pieces, or other vegetable food minced small, until they are able to peck pieces from the large leaves. Onion tops and leeks chopped small, cress, lettuce, and cabbage, are much relished by all young poultry. The French breeders give a few dried nettle seeds occasionally. Young growing fowls can scarcely have too much food, so long as they eat it with a good appetite, and do not tread any about, or otherwise leave it to waste.

Young poultry cannot thrive if overcrowded. They should not be allowed to roost on the branches of trees or shrubs, or otherwise out of doors, even in the warmest weather, or they will acquire the habit of sleeping out, which cannot be easily overcome; not that they would suffer much from even severe weather, when once accustomed to roosting out of doors, but from want of warmth the supply of eggs would decrease, and it would, in many places, be unsafe and, in most, inconvenient.

The sooner chickens can be fattened, of course the greater must be the profit. They should be put up for fattening as soon as they have quitted the hen, for they are then generally in good condition, but begin to lose flesh as their bones develop and become stronger, particularly those fowls which stand high on the leg.

Fowls are in perfection for eating just before they are fully developed. By keeping young fowls, especially the cockerels, too long before fattening them for market or home consumption, they eat up all the profit that would be made by disposing of them when the pullets have ceased laying just before their first adult moult, and the cockerels before their appetites have become large. Fowls intended to be fattened should be well and abundantly fed from their birth; for if they are badly fed during their growth they become stunted, the bones do not attain their full size, and no amount of feeding will afterwards supply these defects and transform them into fine, large birds. Poultry that have been constantly fed well from their birth will not only be always ready for the table, with very little extra attention and feeding, but their flesh will be superior in juiciness and rich flavour to those which are fattened up from a poor state. In choosing full-grown fowls for fattening, the short-legged and early-hatched should be preferred.

In fattening poultry, "the well-known common methods," Mowbray observes, "are, first, to give fowls the run of the farmyard, where they thrive upon the offals of the stables and other refuse, with perhaps some small regular feeds; but at threshing time they become fat, and are thence styled barn-door fowls, probably the most delicate and high-flavoured of all others, both from their full allowance of the finest corn and from the constant health in which they are kept, by living in the natural state, and having the full enjoyment of air and exercise; or secondly, they are confined during a certain number of weeks in coops; those fowls which are soonest ready being drawn as wanted." "The former method," says Mr. Dickson, "is immeasurably the best as regards the flavour and even wholesomeness of the fowls as food, and though the latter mode may, in some cases, make the fowls fatter, it is only when they have been always accustomed to confinement; for when barn-door fowls are cooped up for a week or two under the notion of improving them for the table, and increasing their fat, it rarely succeeds, since the fowls generally pine for their liberty, and, slighting their food, lose instead of gaining additional flesh."

To fatten fowls that have not the advantage of a barn-door, Mowbray recommends fattening-houses large enough to contain twenty or thirty fowls, warm and airy, with well-raised earth floors, slightly littered down with straw, which should be often changed, and the whole place kept perfectly clean. "Sandy gravel," he says, "should be placed in several different layers, and often changed. A sufficient number of troughs for both water and food should be placed around, that the stock may feed with as little interruption as possible from each other, and perches in the same proportion should be furnished for those birds which are inclined to perch, which few of them will desire after they have begun to fatten, but it helps to keep them easy and contented until that period. In this manner fowls may be fattened to the highest pitch, and yet preserved in a healthy state, their flesh being nearly equal in quality to the barn-door fowl. To suffer fattening fowls to perch is contrary to the general practice, since it is supposed to bend and deform the backbone; but as soon as they become heavy and indolent from feeding, they will rather incline to roost in the straw, and the liberty of perching has a tendency to accelerate the period when they wish for rest."

The practice of fattening fowls in coops, if carried to a moderate extent, is not objectionable, and may be necessary in many cases. The coop may be three feet high, two feet wide, and four feet long, which will accommodate six or eight birds, according to their size; or it may be constructed in compartments, each being about nine inches by eighteen, and about eighteen inches high. The floor should not consist of board, but be formed of bars two inches wide, and placed two inches apart. The bars should be laid from side to side, and not from the back to the front of the coop. They should be two inches wide at the upper part, with slanting or rounded sides, so as to prevent the dung from sticking to them instead of falling straight between. The front should be made of rails three inches apart. The house in which the coops are placed should be properly ventilated, but free from cold draughts, and kept of an even temperature, which should be moderately warm. The fronts of the coops should be covered with matting or other kind of protection in cold weather. The coop should be placed about two inches from the ground, and a shallow tray filled with fresh dry earth should be placed underneath to catch the droppings, and renewed every day.

When fowls are put up to fat they should not have any food given to them for some hours, and they will take it then more eagerly than if pressed upon them when first put into the coop. But little grain should be given to fowls during the time they are fattening in coops; indeed the chief secret of success consists in supplying them with the most fattening food without stint, in such a form that their digestive mills shall find no difficulty in grinding it. Buckwheat-meal is the best food for fattening; and to its use the French, in a great measure, owe the splendid condition of the fowls they send to market. If it cannot be had, the best substitute is an equal mixture of maize-meal and barley-meal. The meal may be mixed with skim milk if available. Oatmeal and barley-meal alternately, mixed with milk, and occasionally with a little dripping, is good fattening food. Milk is most excellent for all young poultry. A little chopped green food should be given daily, to keep their bowels in a proper state.

The feeding-troughs, which must be kept clean by frequent scouring, should be placed before the fowls at regular times, and when they have eaten sufficient it is best to remove them, and place a little gravel within reach to assist digestion. Each fowl should have as much food as it will eat at one time, but none should be left to become sour. A little barley may, however, be scattered within their reach. A good supply of clean water must be always within their reach. If a bird appears to be troubled with vermin, some powdered sulphur, well rubbed into the roots of the feathers, will give immediate relief. The coops should be thoroughly lime-washed after the fowls are removed, and well dried before fresh birds are put up in them.

It is a common practice to fatten poultry in coops by a process called "cramming," by which they are loaded with greasy fat in a very short time. But it is evident that such overtaxing of the fowls' digestive powers, want of exercise and fresh air, confinement in a small space, and partial deprivation of light, without which nothing living, either animal or vegetable, can flourish, cannot produce healthy or wholesome flesh. "Indeed," as Mowbray observes, "it seems contrary to reason, that fowls fed upon such greasy, impure mixtures can possibly produce flesh or fat so firm, delicate, high-flavoured, or nourishing, as those fattened upon more simple and substantial food; as for example, meal and milk, and perhaps either treacle or sugar. With respect to grease of any kind, its chief effect must be to render the flesh loose and of a coarse flavour. Neither can any advantage be gained, except perhaps a commercial one, by very quick feeding; for real excellence cannot be obtained but by waiting nature's time, and using the best food. Besides all this, I have been very unsuccessful in my few attempts to fatten fowls by cramming; they seem to loathe the crams, to pine, and to lose the flesh they were put up with, instead of acquiring flesh; and when crammed fowls do succeed, they must necessarily, in the height of their fat, be in a state of disease." Mr. Muirhead, poulterer to Her Majesty in Scotland, says: "With regard to _cramming_, I may say that it is _wholly_ unnecessary, provided the fowls have abundance of the best food at regular intervals, fresh air, and a free run; in confinement fowls may gain fat, but they lose flesh. None but those who have had experience can form any idea how both qualities can be obtained in a natural way. I have seen fowls reared at Inchmartine (which had never been shut up, or had food forced upon them), equal, if not superior, to the finest Surrey fowl, or those fattened by myself for the Royal table."

If "cramming" is practised it should be done in the following manner: The feeder, usually a female, should take the fowl carefully out of the fatting-coop by placing both her hands gently under its breast, then sit down with the bird upon her lap, its rump under her left arm, open its mouth with the finger and thumb of the left hand, take the pellet with the right, dip it well into water, milk, or pot liquor, shake the superfluous moisture from it, put it into the mouth, "cram" it gently into the gullet with her forefinger, then close the beak and gently assist it down into the crop with the forefinger and thumb, without breaking the pellet, and taking great care not to pinch the throat. When the fowl has been "crammed" it should be carefully carried back to its coop, both hands being placed under its breast as before. Chickens should be "crammed" regularly every twelve hours. The "cramming" should commence with a few pellets, and the number be gradually increased at each meal until it amounts to about fifteen. But always before you begin to feed gently feel the fowl's crop to ascertain that the preceding meal has been digested, and if you find it to contain food, let the bird wait until it is all digested, and give it fewer pellets at the next meal. If the "crams" should become hardened in the crop, some lukewarm water must be given to the bird, or poured down its throat if disinclined to drink, and the crop be gently pressed with the fingers until the hardened mass has become loosened so that the gizzard can grind it.

The food chiefly used in France for "cramming" fowls is buckwheat-meal bolted very fine and mixed with milk. It should be prepared in the following manner: Pour the milk, which should be lukewarm in winter, into a hole made in the heap of meal, mixing it up with a wooden spoon a little at a time as long as the meal will take up the milk, and make it into the consistency of dough, keep kneading it until it will not stick to the hands, then divide it into pieces twice as large as an egg, which form into rolls generally about as thick as a small finger, but more or less thick according to the size of the fowls to be fed, and divide the rolls into pellets about two and a half inches in length by a slanting cut, which leaves pointed ends, that are easier to "cram" the fowls with than if they were square. The pellets should be rolled up as dry as possible.

The operation of caponising as performed in England is barbarous, extremely painful, and dangerous. In France it is performed in a much more scientific and skilful manner. But the small advantage gained by this unnatural operation is more than counterbalanced by the unnecessary pain inflicted on the bird, and the great risk of losing it. Capons never moult, and lose their previously strong, shrill voice. In warm, dry countries they grow to a large size, and soon fatten, but do not succeed well in our moist, cold climate. They are not common in this country, and most of the fowls sold in the London markets as capons are merely young cockerels well crammed. If capons are kept they should have a separate house, for the other fowls will not allow those even of their own family to occupy the same roosting-perch with them. The hens not only show them indifference, but decided aversion. Hen chickens, deprived of their reproductive organs in order to fatten them sooner, are common in France, where they are styled poulardes.

Fattening ought to be completed in from ten to twenty days. When fowls are once fattened up they should be killed, for they cannot be kept fat, but begin to lose flesh and become feverish, which renders their flesh red and unsaleable, and frequently causes their death.

Great cruelty is often ignorantly inflicted by poulterers, higglers, and others, in "twisting the necks" of poultry. An easy mode of killing a fowl is to give the bird a very sharp blow with a small but heavy blunt stick, such as a child's bat or wooden sword, at the back of the neck, about the second or third joint from the head, which will, if properly done, sever the spine and cause death very speedily. But the knife is the most merciful means; the bird being first hung up by the legs, the mouth must be opened wide, and a long, narrow, sharp-pointed knife, like a long penknife, which instrument is made for the purpose, should be thrust firmly through the back part of the roof of the mouth up into the brain, which will cause almost instant death. Another mode of killing is to pluck a few feathers from the side of the head, just below the ear, and make a deep incision there. Some say that fowls should not be bled to death like turkeys and geese, as, from the loss of blood, the flesh becomes dry and insipid. But when great whiteness of flesh is desired, the fowl should be hung up by its legs immediately after being killed, and if it has been killed without the flow of blood, an incision should be made in the neck so that it may bleed freely.

Fowls that have been kept without food and water for twelve hours before being killed will keep much better than if they had been recently fed, as the food is apt to ferment in the crop and bowels, which often causes the fowl to turn green in a few hours in warm weather. If empty they should not be drawn, and they will keep much better. Fowls are easiest plucked at once, while warm; they should afterwards be scalded by dipping them for a moment in boiling water, which will give a plump appearance to any good fowl. Fowls should not be packed for market before they are quite cold. Old fowls should not be roasted, but boiled, and they will then prove tolerably good eating.

The feathers are valuable and should be preserved, which is very easily managed. "Strip the plumage," says Mr. Wright, "from the quills of the larger feathers, and mix with the small ones, putting the whole loosely in paper bags, which should be hung up in the kitchen, or some other warm place, for a few days to dry. Then let the bags be baked three or four times for half an hour each time, in a cool oven, drying for two days between each baking, and the process will be completed. Less trouble than this will do, and is often made to suffice; but the feathers are inferior in crispness to those so treated, and may occasionally become offensive."