Poultry Part 9

The breeding birds should be carefully selected, any malformation almost invariably proving itself hereditary. The c.o.c.k is at maturity when a year old, but not in his prime till he has attained his third year, and is entering upon his fourth, and he continues in vigour for three or four years more. He should be vigorous, broad-breasted, clean-legged, with ample wings, well-developed tail, bright eyes, and the carunculated skin of the neck full and rapid in its changes of colour. The largest possible hen should be chosen, the size of the brood depending far more upon the female than the male. One visit to the male is sufficient to render all the eggs fertile, and the number of hens may be unlimited, but to obtain fine birds, twelve or fifteen hens to one c.o.c.k is the best proportion. The hen breeds in the spring following that in which she was hatched, but is not in her prime till two or three years old, and continues for two or three years in full vigour.

The hen generally commences laying about the middle of March, but sometimes earlier. When from her uttering a peculiar cry and prying about in quest of a secret spot for sitting, it is evident that she is ready to lay, she should be confined in the shed, barn, or other place where the nest has been prepared for her, and let out when she has laid an egg. The nest should be made of straw and dried leaves, in a large wicker basket, in a quiet secluded place, and an egg or nest-egg of chalk should be placed in it to induce her to adopt it. Turkeys like to choose their own laying-places, and keep to them though their eggs are removed daily, provided a nest-egg is left there. They will wander to a distance in search of a secluded spot for laying, and pay their visits to the nest so cleverly that sometimes they keep it a secret and hatch a brood there, which, however, does not generally prove a strong or large one as in the case of ordinary fowls. When a hen has chosen a safe, quiet, and sheltered place for her nest, it is best to give her more eggs when she shows a desire to sit, and let her stay there. The hen generally lays from fifteen to twenty eggs, sometimes fewer and often many more. As soon as seven are produced, they should be placed under a good common hen, a Cochin is the best, and the remainder can be put under her when she wants to sit. The best hatching period is from the end of March to May, and none should be hatched later than June. The broody hens may be placed on their eggs in any quiet place, as they are patient, constant sitters, and will not leave their eggs wherever they may be put. A hen may be allowed from nine to fifteen eggs, according to her size. During the time the hen is sitting she requires constant attention. She must occasionally be taken off the nest to feed, and regularly supplied with fresh water; otherwise she will continue to sit without leaving for food, till completely exhausted. In general, do not let the c.o.c.k go near the sitting hen, or he will destroy the eggs or chicks; but some behave well, and may be left at large with safety. She should not be disturbed or visited by any one but the person she is accustomed to be fed by, and the eggs should not be touched unnecessarily.

The chickens break the sh.e.l.l from the twenty-sixth to the twenty-ninth day, but sometimes as late as the thirty-first. Let them remain in the nest for twenty-four hours, but remove the sh.e.l.ls, and next morning place the hen under a roomy coop or crate, on boards, in a warm outhouse. Keep her and her brood cooped up for two months, moving the coop every fine day into a dry gra.s.s field, but keep them in an outhouse in cold or wet weather. The chicks having a great tendency to diarrhoea, the very best food for the first week is hard-boiled eggs, chopped small, mixed with minced dandelion, and when that cannot be had, with boiled nettles. They may then have boiled egg, bread-crumbs, and barley-meal for a fortnight, when the egg may be replaced by boiled potato, and small grain may soon be added. Do not force them to eat, but give them a little food on the tip of your finger, and they will soon learn to pick it out of the trough. A little hempseed, suet, onion-tops, green mustard, and nettle-tops, chopped very fine, should be mixed with their food. Curds are excellent food, and easily prepared by mixing powdered alum with milk slightly warmed, in the proportion of one teaspoonful of alum to four quarts of milk, and, when curdled, separating the curds from the whey. They should be squeezed very dry, and must always be given in a soft state. Water should be given but sparingly, and never allowed to stand by them, but when they have had sufficient it should be taken or thrown away. The water must be put in pans so contrived or placed that they cannot wet themselves. (_See_ page 38.) Fresh milk is apt to disagree with the young chicks, and is not necessary. If a chick shows weakness, or has taken cold, give it some carraway seeds.

In their wild state the turkey rears only one brood in a season, and it is not advisable to induce the domesticated bird by any expedients to hatch a second, for it would be not only detrimental to her, but the brood would be hatched late in the season, and very difficult to rear, while those reared would not be strong, healthy birds.

The coop should be like that used for common fowls, but two feet broad, and higher, being about three feet high in front and one foot at the back; this greater slant of the roof being made in order to confine her movements, as otherwise she would move about too much, and trample upon her brood. When they have grown larger they must have a larger coop, made of open bars wide enough apart for them to go in and out, but too close to let in fowls to eat their delicate food, and the hen must be placed under it with them. A large empty crate, such as is used to contain crockery-ware, will make a good coop for large poults; but if one cannot be had, a coop may be made of laths or rails, with the bars four inches apart; it should be about five feet long, four feet broad, and three feet high.

Keep her cooped for two months, moving the coop every fine, dry day into a gra.s.s field, but on cold or wet days keep them in the outhouse. If she is allowed her liberty before they are well grown and strong, she will wander away with them through the long gra.s.s, hedges, and ditches, over highway, common, and meadow, mile after mile, losing them on the road, and straying on with the greatest complacency, and perfectly satisfied so long as she has one or two following her, and never once turning her head to see how her panting chicks are getting on, nor troubled when they squat down tired out, and implore her plaintively to come back; and all this arises from sheer heedlessness, and not from want of affection, for she will fight for her brood as valiantly as any pheasant will for hers. When full grown they should never be allowed to roam with her while there is heavy dew or white frost on the gra.s.s, but be kept in till the fields and hedgerows are dry. They will pick up many seeds and insects while wandering about in the fields with her, but must be fed by hand three or four times a day at regular intervals.

They cease to be chicks or chickens, and are called turkey-poults when the male and female distinctive characteristics are fairly established, the carunculated skin and comb of the c.o.c.k being developed, which is called "shooting the red," or "putting out the red," and begins when they are eight or ten weeks old. It is the most critical period of their lives--much more so than moulting, and during the process their food must be increased in quant.i.ty, and made more nourishing by the addition of boiled egg-yolks, bread crumbled in ale, wheaten flour, bruised hempseed, and the like, and they must be well housed at night. When this process is completed they will be hardy, and able to take care of themselves; but till they are fully fledged it will be advisable to keep them from rain and cold, and not to try their hardness too suddenly.

Vegetables, as chopped nettles, turnip-tops, cabbage sprouts, onions, docks, and the like, boiled down and well mixed with barley-meal, oatmeal, or wheaten flour, and curds, if they can be afforded, form excellent food for the young poults; also steamed potatoes, boiled carrots, turnips, and the like. With this diet may be given buckwheat, barley, oats, beans, and sunflower seeds.

When they are old enough to be sent to the stubble and fields, they are placed in charge of a boy or girl of from twelve to fifteen years old, who can easily manage one hundred poults. They are driven with a long bean stick, and the duties of the turkey-herd is to keep the c.o.c.ks from fighting, to lead them to every place where there are acorns, beech-mast, corn, wild fruit, insects, or other food to be picked up. He must not allow them to get fatigued with too long rambles, as they are not fully grown, and must shelter them from the burning sun, and hasten them home on the approach of rain. The best times for these rambles are from eight to ten in the morning, when the dew is off the gra.s.s, and from four till seven in the evening, before it begins to fall.

Turkeys are crammed for the London markets. The process of fattening may commence when they are six months old, as they require a longer time to become fit for the market than fowls. The large birds which are seen at Christmas are usually males of the preceding year, and about twenty months old. All experienced breeders repudiate "cramming." To obtain fine birds the chickens must be fed abundantly from their birth until they are sent to market, and while they are being fattened they should be sent to the fields and stubble for a shorter time daily, and their food must be increased in quant.i.ty and improved in quality. Early hatched, well fed young Norfolk c.o.c.ks will frequently weigh twenty-three pounds by Christmas of the same year, and two-year-old birds will sometimes attain to twenty pounds. When two or more years old they are called "stags."

The domesticated turkey can scarcely be said to be divided into distinct breeds like the common fowl, the several varieties being distinguished by colour only, but identical in their form and habits. They vary considerably in colour--some being of a bronzed black, others of a coppery tint, of a delicate fawn colour, or buff, and some of pure white. The dark coloured birds are generally considered the most hardy, and are usually the largest. The chief varieties are the Cambridge, Norfolk, Irish, American, and French.

The Cambridge combines enormous size, a tendency to fatten speedily, and first-rate flavour. The tortoisesh.e.l.l character of its plumage gives the adult birds a very prepossessing appearance around the homestead, and a striking character in the exhibition room. The colours may vary from pale to dark grey, with a deep metallic brown tint, and light legs. The legs should be stout and long.

The Norfolk breed is more compact and smaller-boned, and produces a large quant.i.ty of meat of delicate whiteness and excellent quality. The c.o.c.ks are almost as heavy as the Cambridge breed, but the hens are smaller and more compact. The Norfolk should be jet, not blue black, and free from any other colour, being uniform throughout, including the legs and feet.

All the birds in a pen must be uniform.

The American wild turkey has become naturalised in this country, but being of a very wandering disposition is best adapted to be kept in parks and on large tracts of wild land. It is slender in shape, but of good size, with uniform metallic bronze plumage, the flight feathers being barred with white, and the tail alternately with white, rich dark brown, and black, and with bright pink legs. The wattles are smaller than in the other breeds, and of a bluish tinge. They are very hardy, but more spiteful than others, and are said to be also more prolific.

Crosses often take place in America between the wild and tame races, and are highly valued both for their appearance and for the table. Eggs of the wild turkey have also often been taken from their nests, and hatched under the domesticated hen. The flavour of the flesh of the American breed is peculiar and exceedingly good, but they do not attain a large size.

CHAPTER XXI.

GUINEA-FOWLS.

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 now retained, although the error is acknowledged, in order to prevent confusion. It is a native of Africa, where it is extensively distributed. They a.s.sociate in large flocks and frequent open glades, the borders of forests, and banks of rivers, which offer abundant supplies of grain, berries, and insects, in quest of which they wander during the day, and collect together at evening, and roost in cl.u.s.ters on the branches of trees or shrubs.

Several other wild species are known, some of which are remarkable for their beauty; but the common Guinea-fowl is the only one domesticated in Europe. The Guinea-fowl is about twenty-two inches long, and from standing high on its legs, and having loose, full plumage, appears to be larger than it really is, for when plucked it does not weigh more than an ordinary Dorking. It is very plump and well-proportioned. The Guinea-fowl is not bred so much as the turkey in England or France, is very rare in the northern parts of Europe, and in India is bred almost exclusively by Europeans, although it thrives as well there as in its native country. It "is turbulent and restless," says Mr. d.i.c.kson, "continually moving from place to place, and domineering over the whole poultry-yard, boldly attacking even the fiercest turkey c.o.c.k, and keeping all in alarm by its petulant pugnacity"; and the males, although without spurs, can inflict serious injury on other poultry with their short, hard beaks. The Guinea-fowls make very little use of their wings, and if forced to take to flight, fly but a short distance, then alight, and trust to their rapid mode of running, and their dexterity in threading the mazes of brushwood and dense herbage, for security. They are shy, wary, and alert.

It is not much kept, its habits being wandering, and requiring an extensive range, but as it picks up nearly all its food, and is very prolific, it may be made very profitable in certain localities. The whole management of both the young and the old may be precisely the same as that of turkeys, in hatching, feeding, and fattening. This "species,"

says Mr. d.i.c.kson, "differs from all other poultry, in its being difficult to distinguish the c.o.c.k from the hen, the chief difference being in the colour of the wattles, which are more of a red hue in the c.o.c.k, and more tinged with blue in the hen. The c.o.c.k has also a more stately strut."

They mate in pairs, and therefore an equal number of c.o.c.ks and hens must be kept, or the eggs will prove unfertile. To obtain stock, some of their eggs must be procured, and placed under a common hen; for if old birds are bought, they will wander away for miles in search of their old home, and never return. They should be fed regularly, and must always have one meal at night, or they will scarcely ever roost at home. They will not sleep in the fowl-house, but prefer roosting in the lower branches of a tree, or on a thick bush, and retire early. They make a peculiar, harsh, querulous noise, which is oft-repeated, and not agreeable. The hens are prolific layers, beginning in May, and continuing during the whole summer. Their eggs are small, but of excellent flavour, of a pale yellowish red, finely dotted with a darker tint, and remarkable for the hardness of the sh.e.l.l. The hen usually lays on a dry bank, in secret places; and a hedgerow a quarter of a mile off is quite as likely to contain her nest as any situation nearer her home.

She is very shy, and, if the eggs are taken from her nest, will desert it, and find another; a few should, therefore, always be left, and it should never be visited when she is in sight. But she often contrives to elude all watching, and hatch a brood, frequently at a late period, when the weather is too cold for the chickens. As the Guinea-fowl seldom shows much disposition to incubate if kept under restraint, and frequently sits too late in the season to rear a brood in this country, it is a general practice to place her eggs under a common fowl--Game and Bantams are the best for the purpose. About twenty of the earliest eggs should be set in May. The Guinea-hen will hatch another brood when she feels inclined. They sit for twenty-six to twenty-nine or thirty days.

When she sits in due season she generally rears a large brood, twenty not being an unusual number.

The chickens are very tender, and should not be hatched too early in spring, as a cold March wind is generally fatal to them. They must be treated like those of the turkey, and as carefully. They should be fed almost immediately, within six hours of being hatched, abundantly, and often; and they require more animal food than other chickens. Egg boiled hard, chopped very fine, and mixed with oatmeal, is the best food. They will die if kept without food for three or four hours; and should have a constant supply near them until they are allowed to have full liberty and forage for themselves. They will soon pick up insects, &c., and will keep themselves in good condition with a little extra food. They are very strong on their legs, and those hatched under common hens may be allowed to range with her at the end of six weeks, and be fed on the same food and at the same times as other chickens.

The Guinea-fowl may be considered as somewhat intermediate between the pheasant and turkey. After the pheasant season, young birds that have been hatched the same year are excellent subst.i.tutes for that fine game, and fetch a fair price. They should never be fattened, but have a good supply of grain and meal for a week or two before being killed. The flesh of the young bird is very delicate, juicy, and well-flavoured, but the old birds, even of the second year, are dry, tough, and tasteless.

CHAPTER XXII.

DUCKS.

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 appet.i.tes are voracious, and they do not graze like geese. They may be kept in a limited s.p.a.ce, but more profitably and conveniently where they have the run of a paddock, orchard, kitchen garden, flat common, green lane, or farmyard, with ditches and water. They will return at night, and come to the call of the feeder. Nothing comes amiss to them--green vegetables, especially when boiled, all kinds of meal made into porridge, all kinds of grain, bread, oatcake, the refuse and offal of the kitchen, worms, slugs, snails, insects and their larvae, are devoured eagerly. Where many fowls are kept, a few ducks may be added profitably, for they may be fed very nearly on what the hens refuse.

Ducks require water to swim in, but "it is a mistake," says Mr. Baily, "to imagine that ducks require a great deal of water. They may be kept where there is but very little, and only want a pond or tank just deep enough to swim in. The early Aylesbury ducklings that realise such large prices in the London market have hardly ever had a swim; and in rearing ducks, where size is a desideratum, they will grow faster and become larger when kept in pens, farmyards, or in pastures, than where they are at and in the water all day." Where a large number of geese and ducks are kept, water on a sufficient scale, and easily accessible, should be in the neighbourhood.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Toulouse Goose.

Rouen and Aylesbury Ducks.]

Ducks, being aquatic birds, do not require heated apartments, nor roosts on which to perch during the night. They squat on the floors, which must be dry and warm. They should, if possible, be kept in a house separate from the other poultry, and it should have a brick floor, so that it can be easily washed. In winter the floor should be littered with a thin layer of straw, rushes, or fern leaves, fresh every day. The hatching-houses should be separated from the lodging apartments, and provided with boxes for the purpose of incubation and hatching.

In its wild state the duck pairs with a single mate: the domestic duck has become polygamous, and five ducks may be allowed to one drake, but not more than two or three ducks should be given to one drake if eggs are required for setting.

Ducks begin laying in January, and usually from that time only during the spring; but those hatched in March will often lay in the autumn, and continue for two or three months. They usually lay fifty or sixty eggs, and have been known to produce 250. The faculty of laying might be greatly developed, as it has been in some breeds of fowls; but they have been hitherto chiefly bred for their flesh. They require constant watching when beginning to lay, for they drop their eggs everywhere but in the nest made for them, but as they generally lay in the night, or early in the morning, when in perfect health, they should therefore be kept in every morning till they have laid. One of the surest signs of indisposition among them is irregularity in laying. "The eggs of the duck," says Mr. d.i.c.kson, "are readily known from those of the common fowl by their bluish colour and larger size, the sh.e.l.l being smoother, not so thick, and with much fewer pores. When boiled, the white is never curdy like that of a new-laid hen's egg, but transparent and gla.s.sy, while the yolk is much darker in colour. The flavour is by no means so delicate. For omelets, however, as well as for puddings and pastry, duck eggs are much better than hen's eggs, giving a finer colour and flavour, and requiring less b.u.t.ter; qualities so highly esteemed in Picardy, that the women will sometimes go ten or twelve miles for duck eggs to make their holiday cakes."

A hen is often made to hatch ducklings, being considered a better nurse than a duck, which is apt to take them while too young to the pond, dragging them under beetling banks in search of food, and generally leaving half of them in the water unable to get out; and if the fly or the gnat is on the water, she will stay there till after dark, and lose part of her brood. Ducks' eggs may be advantageously placed under a broody exhibition hen. (_See_ page 88.) A turkey is much better than either, from the large expanse of the wings in covering the broods, and the greater heat of body; but if the duck is a good sitter, it is best to let her hatch her own eggs, taking care to keep her and them from the water till they are strong. The nest should be on the ground, and in a damp place. Choose the freshest eggs, and place from nine to eleven under her. Feed her morning and evening while sitting, and place food and water within her reach. The duck always covers her eggs upon leaving them, and loose straw should be placed near the house for that purpose.

They are hatched in thirty days. They may generally be left with their mother upon the nest for her own time. When she moves coop her on the short gra.s.s if fine weather, or under shelter if otherwise, for a week or ten days, when they may be allowed to swim for half an hour at a time. When hatched they require constant feeding. A little curd, bread-crumbs, and meal, mixed with chopped green food, is the best food when first hatched. Boiled cold oatmeal porridge is the best food for ducklings for the first ten days; afterwards barley-meal, pollard, and oats, with plenty of green food. Never give them hard spring water to drink, but that from a pond. Ducklings are easily reared, soon able to shift for themselves, and to pick up worms, slugs, and insects, and can be cooped together in numbers at night if protected from rats. An old pigsty is an excellent place for a brood of young ducks.

Ducklings should not be allowed to go on the water till feathers have supplied the place of their early down, for the latter will get saturated with the water while the former throws off the wet. "Though the young ducklings," says Mr. W. C. L. Martin, "take early to the water, it is better that they should gain a little strength before they be allowed to venture into ponds or rivers; a shallow vessel of water filled to the brim and sunk in the ground will suffice for the first week or ten days, and this rule is more especially to be adhered to when they are under the care of a common hen, which cannot follow them into the pond, and the calls of which when there they pay little or no regard to. Rats, weasels, pike, and eels are formidable foes to ducklings: we have known entire broods destroyed by the former, which, having their burrows in a steep bank around a sequestered pond, it was found impossible to extirpate." If the ducklings stay too long in the water they will have diarrhoea, in which case coop them close for a few days, and mix bean-meal or oatmeal with their ordinary food.

A troop of ducks will do good service to a kitchen garden in the summer or autumn, when they can do no mischief by devouring delicate salads and young sprouting vegetables. They will search industriously for snails, slugs, woodlice, and millipedes, and gobble them up eagerly, getting positively fat on slugs and snails. Strawberries, of which they are very fond, must be protected from them. Where steamed food is daily prepared for pigs and cattle, a portion of this mixed with bran and barley-meal is the cheapest mode of satisfying their voracious appet.i.tes. They should never be stinted in food.

To fatten ducks let them have as much substantial food as they will eat, bruised oats and peameal being the standard, plenty of exercise, and clean water. Boiled roots mixed with a little barley-meal is excellent food, with a little milk added during fattening. They require neither penning up nor cramming to acquire plumpness, and if well fed should be fit for market in eight or ten weeks. Celery imparts a delicious flavour.

The Aylesbury is the finest breed, and should be of a spotless white, with long, flat, broad beak of a pale flesh colour, grey eyes, long head and neck, broad and flat body and breast, and orange legs, placed wide apart. As it lays early, its ducklings are the earliest ready for market. They have produced 150 large eggs in a year, and are better sitters than the Rouen.

The Rouen is hardy and easily reared, but rarely lay till February or March. They thrive better in most parts of England than the Aylesburys, and care less for the water than the other varieties. They are very handsome, and weigh eight or nine pounds each, and their flesh is excellent.

The Muscovy duck is so called, says Ray, "not because it comes from Muscovy, but because it exhales a somewhat powerful odour of musk."

Little is known of its origin, which is generally thought to be South America; nor has the date of its introduction into Europe been ascertained. "This species," says Mr. W. C. L. Martin, "will inter-breed with the common duck, but we believe the progeny are not fertile. The Musk duck greatly exceeds the ordinary kind in size, and moreover, differs in the colours and character of the plumage, in general contour, and the form of the head. The general colour is glossy blue-black, varied more or less with white; the head is crested, and a s.p.a.ce of naked scarlet skin, more or less clouded with violet, surrounds the eye, continued from scarlet caruncles on the base of the beak; the top of the head is crested, the feathers of the body are larger, more lax, softer, and less closely compacted together than in the common duck, and seem to indicate less aquatic habits. The male far surpa.s.ses the female in size; there are no curled feathers in his tail." The male is fierce and quarrelsome, and when enraged has a savage appearance, and utters deep, hoa.r.s.e sounds. The flesh is very good, but the breed is inferior as a layer to the Aylesbury or Rouen.

The Buenos Ayres, Labrador, or East Indian, brought most probably from the first-named country, is a small and very beautiful variety, with the plumage of a uniform rich, l.u.s.trous, greenish-black, and dark legs and bills; the drake rarely weighing five pounds, and the duck four pounds.

Their eggs are often smeared over with a slatey-coloured matter, but the sh.e.l.l is really of a dull white.

CHAPTER XXIII.