Poultry Part 10

GEESE.

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 rendered bare by sheep, as is generally the case; but even when the pasturage is good, a supply of oats, barley, or other grain should be allowed every morning and evening. Where the pasturage is poor or bad, the old geese become thin and weak, and the young broods never thrive and often die unless fully fed at home. A goose-house for four should not be less than eight feet long by six feet wide and six or seven feet high, with a smooth floor of brick. A little clean straw should be spread over it every other day, after removing that previously used, and washing the floor. Each goose should have a compartment two feet and a half square for laying and sitting, as she will always lay where she deposited her first egg. The house must be well ventilated. All damp must be avoided. A pigsty makes a capital pen. Although a pond is an advantage, they do not require more than a large trough or tank to bathe in.

For breeding not more than four geese should be kept to one gander.

Their breeding powers continue to more than twenty years old. It is often difficult to distinguish the s.e.xes, no one sign being infallible except close examination. The goose lays early in a mild spring, or in an ordinary season, if fed high throughout the winter with corn, and on the commencement of the breeding season on boiled barley, malt, fresh grains, and fine pollard mixed up with ale, or other stimulants; by which two broods may be obtained in a year. The common goose lays from nine to seventeen eggs, usually about thirteen, and generally carries straws about previously to laying. Thirteen eggs are quite enough for the largest goose to sit on. They sit from thirty to thirty-five days.

March or early April is the best period for hatching, and the geese should therefore begin to sit in February or early March; for goslings hatched at any time after April are difficult to rear. Food and water should be placed near to her, for she sits closely. She ought to leave her nest daily and take a bath in a neighbouring pond. The gander is very attentive, and sits by her, and is vigilant and daring in her defence. When her eggs are placed under a common hen they should be sprinkled with water daily or every other day, for the moisture of the goose's breast is beneficial to them. (See page 50.) A turkey is an excellent mother for goslings.

She should be cooped for a few days on a dry gra.s.s-plot or meadow, with grain and water by her, of which the goslings will eat; and they should also be supplied with chopped cabbage or beet leaves, or other green food. They must have a dry bed under cover and be protected from rats.

Their only dangers are heavy rains, damp floors, and vermin; and they require but little care for the first fortnight; while the old birds are singularly free from maladies of all kinds common to poultry. When a fortnight old they may be allowed to go abroad with their mother and frequent the pond. "It has been formerly recommended," says Mowbray, "to keep the newly-hatched gulls in house during a week, lest they get cramp from the damp earth; but we did not find this indoor confinement necessary; penning the goose and her brood between four hurdles upon a piece of dry gra.s.s well sheltered, putting them out late in the morning, or not at all in severe weather, and ever taking them in early in the evening. Sometimes we have pitched double the number of hurdles, for the convenience of two broods, there being no quarrels among this sociable and harmless part of the feathered race. We did not even find it necessary to interpose a parting hurdle, which, on occasion, may be always conveniently done. For the first range a convenient field containing water is to be preferred to an extensive common, over which the gulls or goslings are dragged by the goose, until they become cramped or tired, some of them squatting down and remaining behind at evening." All the hemlock or deadly nightshade within range should be destroyed. When the corn is garnered the young geese may be turned into the stubble which they will thoroughly glean, and many of them will be in fine condition by Michaelmas. Green geese are young geese fattened at about the age of four months, usually on oatmeal and peas, mixed with skim-milk or b.u.t.ter-milk, or upon oats or other grain, and are very delicate. In fattening geese for Christmas give oats mixed with water for the first fortnight, and afterwards barley-meal made into a crumbling porridge. They should be allowed to bathe for a few hours before being killed, for they are then plucked more easily and the feathers are in better condition. Their feathers, down, and quills are very valuable.

Geese are very destructive to all garden and farm crops, as well as young trees, and must therefore be carefully kept out of orchards and plantations. Their dung, though acrid and apt to injure at first, will, when it is mellowed, much enrich the ground.

The Toulouse or Grey Goose is very large, of uniform grey plumage, with long neck, having a kind of dewlap under the throat; the abdominal pouch very much developed, almost touching the ground; short legs; flat feet; short, broad tail; and very upright carriage, almost like a penguin. The Toulouse lays a large number of eggs, sometimes as many as thirty, and even more, but rarely wishes to sit, and is a very bad mother.

The Emden or pure White is very scarce. The bill is flesh-colour, and the legs and feet orange. They require a pond. The Toulouse, crossed with the large white or dark-coloured common breed, produces greater weight than either, and the objection to the former as indifferent sitters and mothers is avoided; but is not desirable for breeding stock, and must have a pond like the White.

CHAPTER XXIV.

DISEASES.

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 risk of infection. But if the fowls are favourites, or valuable, it may be desirable to use every means of cure.

See to a sick fowl at once; prompt attention may prevent serious illness, and loss of the bird. When a fowl's plumage is seen to be bristled up and disordered, and its wings hanging or dragging, it should be at once removed from the others, and looked to. Pale and livid combs are as certain a sign of bad health in fowls, as the paleness or lividness of the lips is in human beings. Every large establishment should have a warm, properly ventilated, and well-lighted house, comfortably littered down with clean straw, to be used as a hospital, and every fowl should be removed to it upon showing any symptoms of illness, even if the disease is not infectious, for sick fowls are often pecked at, ill treated, and disliked by their healthy companions. Bear in mind that prevention is better than cure, and that proper management and housing, good feeding, pure water and greens, cleanliness and exercise, will prevent all, or nearly all, these diseases.

APOPLEXY arises from over-feeding, and can seldom be treated in time to be of service. The only remedy is bleeding, by opening the large vein under the wing, and pouring cold water on the head for a few minutes.

Open the vein with a lancet, or if that is not at hand, with a sharp-pointed penknife; make the incision lengthways, not across, and press the vein with your thumb between the opening and the body, when the blood will flow. If the fowl should recover, feed it on soft, low food for a few days, and keep it quiet. It occurs most often in laying hens, which frequently die on the nest while ejecting the egg; and is frequently caused by too much of very stimulating food, such as hempseed, or improper diet of greaves, and also by giving too much pea or bean meal.

HARD CROP, or being CROP-BOUND, is caused by too much food, especially of hard grain, being taken into the crop, so that it cannot be softened by maceration, and is therefore unable to be pa.s.sed into the stomach.

Although the bird has thus too large a supply of food in its crop, the stomach becomes empty, and the fowl eats still more food. Sometimes a fowl swallows a bone that is too large to pa.s.s into the stomach, and being kept in the crop forms a kernel, around which fibrous and other hard material collects. Mr. Baily says: "Pour plenty of warm water down the throat, and loosen the food till it is soft. Then give a tablespoonful of castor-oil, or about as much jalap as will lie on a shilling, mixed in b.u.t.ter; make a pill of it, and slide it into the crop. The fowl will be well in the morning. If the crop still remain hard after this, an operation is the only remedy. The feathers should be picked off the crop in a straight line down the middle. Generally speaking, the crop will be found full of gra.s.s or hay, that has formed a ball or some inconveniently-shaped substance. (I once took a piece of carrot three inches long out of a crop.) When the offence has been removed, the crop should be washed out with warm water. It should then be sewn up with coa.r.s.e thread, and the suture rubbed with grease.

Afterwards the outer skin should be served the same. The crop and skin must not be sewed together. For three or four days the patient should have only gruel; no hard food for a fortnight." The slit should be made in the upper part of the crop, and just large enough to admit a blunt instrument, with which you must gently remove the hardened ma.s.s.

DIARRHOEA is caused by exposure to much cold and wet, reaction after constipation from having had too little green food, unwholesome food, and dirt. Feed on warm barley-meal, or oatmeal mashed with a little warm ale, and some but not very much green food, and give five grains of powdered chalk, one grain of opium, and one grain of powdered ipecacuanha twice a day till the looseness is checked. Boiled rice, with a little chalk and cayenne pepper mixed, will also check the complaint.

When the evacuations are coloured with blood, the diarrhoea has become dysentery, and cure is very doubtful.

GAPES, a frequent yawning or gaping, is caused by worms in the windpipe, which may be removed by introducing a feather, stripped to within an inch of the point, into the windpipe, turning it round quickly, and then drawing it out, when the parasites will be found adhering with slime upon it; but if this be not quickly and skilfully done, and with some knowledge of the anatomy of the parts touched, the bird may be killed instead of cured. Another remedy is to put the fowl into a box, placing in it at the same time a sponge dipped in spirits of turpentine on a hot water plate filled with boiling water, and repeating this for three or four days. Some persons recommend, as a certain cure in a few days, half a teaspoonful of spirits of turpentine mixed with a handful of grain, giving that quant.i.ty to two dozen of chickens each day. A pinch of salt put as far back into the mouth as possible is also said to be effectual.

LEG WEAKNESS, shown by the bird resting on the first joint, is generally caused by the size and weight of the body being too great for the strength of the legs; and this being entirely the result of weakness, the remedy is to give strength by tonics and more nourishing food. The quality should be improved, but the quant.i.ty must not be increased, as the disease has been caused by over-feeding having produced too much weight for the strength of the legs. Frequent bathing in cold water is very beneficial. This is best effected by tying a towel round the fowl, and suspending it over a pail of water, with the legs only immersed.

LOSS OF FEATHERS is almost always caused by want of green food, or dust-heap for cleansing. Let the fowls have both, and remove them to a gra.s.s run if possible. But nothing will restore the feathers till the next moult. Fowls, when too closely housed or not well supplied with green food and lime, sometimes eat each other's feathers, destroying the plumage till the next moult. In such cases green food and mortar rubbish should be supplied, exercise allowed, the injured fowl should be removed to a separate place, and the pecked parts rubbed over with sulphur ointment. Cut or broken feathers should be pulled out at once.

PIP, a dry scale on the tongue, is not a disease, but the symptom of some disease, being only a.n.a.logous to "a foul tongue" in human beings.

Do not sc.r.a.pe the tongue, nor cut off the tip, but cure the roup, diarrhoea, bad digestion, gapes, or whatever the disease may be, and the pip will disappear.

ROUP is caused by exposure to excessive wet or very cold winds. It begins with a slight hoa.r.s.eness and catching of the breath as if from cold, and terminates in an offensive discharge from the nostrils, froth in the corners of the eyes, and swollen lids. It is very contagious.

Separate the fowl from the others, keep it warm, add some "Dougla.s.s Mixture" (see "Moulting") to its water daily, wash its head once or twice daily with tepid water, feed it with meal, only mixed with hot ale instead of water, and plenty of green food. Mr. Wright advises half a grain of cayenne pepper with half a grain of powdered allspice in a bolus of the meal, or one of Baily's roup pills to be given daily. Mr.

Tegetmeier recommends one grain of sulphate of copper daily. Another advises a spoonful of castor-oil at once, and a few hours afterwards one of Baily's roup pills, and to take the scale off the tongue, which can easily be done by holding the beak open with your left hand, and removing the scale with the thumbnail of your right hand; with a pill every morning for a week. If not almost well in a week it will be better to kill it.

THE THRUSH may be cured by washing the tongue and mouth with borax dissolved in tincture of myrrh and water.

PARALYSIS generally affects the legs and renders the fowl unable to move. It is chiefly caused by over-stimulating food. There is no known remedy for this disease, and the fowl seldom if ever recovers. Although chiefly affecting the legs of fowls, it is quite a different disease from LEG WEAKNESS.

VERTIGO results from too great a flow of blood to the head, and is generally caused by over-feeding. Pouring cold water upon the fowl's head, or holding it under a tap for a few minutes, will check this complaint, and the bird should then be purged by a dose of castor-oil or six grains of jalap.

MOULTING.

All birds, but especially old fowls, require more warmth and more nourishing diet during this drain upon their system, and should roost in a warm, sheltered, and properly-ventilated house, free from all draught.

Do not let them out early in the morning, if the weather is chilly, but feed them under cover, and give them every morning warm, soft food, such as bread and ale, oatmeal and milk, potatoes mashed up in pot-liquor, with a little pepper and a little boiled meat, as liver, &c., cut small, and a little hempseed with their grain at night. Give them in their water some iron or "Dougla.s.s Mixture," which consists of one ounce of sulphate of iron and one drachm of sulphuric acid dissolved in one quart of water; a teaspoonful of the mixture is to be added to each pint of drinking water. This chalybeate is an excellent tonic for weakly young chickens, and young birds that are disposed to outgrow their strength.

It increases their appet.i.te, improves the health, imparts strength, brightens the colour of the comb, and increases the stamina of the birds. When chickens droop and seem to suffer as the feathers on the head grow, give them once a day meat minced fine and a little canary-seed.

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 1: Piper on Poultry: their Varieties, Management, Breeding, and Diseases; Price 1s. Groombridge & Sons, 5, Paternoster Row, London.]

[Footnote 2: The Practical Poultry Keeper. By Mr. L. Wright. Ca.s.sell, Petter & Galpin.]

[Footnote 3: The Practical Poultry Keeper. By Mr. L. Wright. Ca.s.sell, Petter & Galpin.]