Store fowls will feed well upon the tailings of corn, potatoes, and insects, and require little attention except when laying, during which time the food for the hens should be abundant, and their roosting places dry and warm.
The chemists of all poultry principally arise from cold and moisture. filicumntiou decidedly arises from this cause. During or after moulting in a wet season, fowls frequently become diseased, as is evident from their drooping appearance, swelled and watery eyes, and the dropsical affections of the legs. Severe laying also sometimes, causes emaciation and Ulnae., which give way to a more healthy condition after the moulting season, if they have good food and dry weather.
Chickens are very subject, iu wet or variable weather, to a disease called the chip, which appears in about a fortnight after their birth, when they are changing their feathers. Warmth and sunshine are the only restoratives within our knowledge.
The roup is properly an impoethunie upon the rump, which is cured or relieved by opening, squeezing, and bathing with warm water. Mr. however, who is a good practical authority, states that the roup is a general term for all diseases, though it is generally applied to catarrh, which is indicated by watery eyes and running at the nostrils. This last disease resembles glanders in horses, and is infectious, and generally fatal. As all these diseases originate in moisture, dryness and warmth are the best counteracting influences. The nostrils ehould be washed with soap and water, and the eyes with milk and water. 31r. Moubray recommenda a pepper-corn in dough at first to impart warmth, and afterwards calomel three times a week as a finish to the cure.
We have had the trachea of a chicken dying of the gapes (which is the incipient stage of roup) cut and opened, and have taken out narrow worms, about half an inch in length, which lay imbedded in a serous fluid. We have known fowls to be cured of the name disease by putting the upper part of a feather, stripped for the purpose, down the trachea, turnmg it round, and thus bringing up the worm.
The pip, which is probably a modification of Troup, has been cured by an application of powdered borax dissolved in tincture of myrrh and water, and rubbed on the tongue with a camelhair brush two or three times a tiny. This at the same time assists the bowels. The flux is not uncommon. Solid corn is the most certain remedy for this disease. Taken at the commencement, it is rarely serious, but if once
established in the constitution it becomes incurable, and, according to some, contagious. For constipation, bran or pollard, with milk, beet leaves, and lettuces, afford a certain cure.
Much of the foregoing matter applies to the rearing and management of all poultry. The succeeding observations will be brief.
Tart-eye—The greatest weight to which our domesticated poultry can be made to attain is 3011)3., and a turkey of even half this weight is " a dainty dish." "The varied plumage of the bird in the domesticated state is well known to every one; and in no species is that sure mark of subjection to man more strongly seen. Every gradation of colour, from its original bronze, passing into buff, and in many instances into pure white, may be observed in these strutting denizens of our farmyards." (Broderip, Recreations in Natural History.) The bronze or copper coloured is not considered hardy, nor is it often reared, and the varieties may be stated to be only twofold, the dark-coloured and the light.
The dark-coloured birds are most prized for size and hardihood. Notwithstanding the great price which may he obtained for turkeys in London when fat, the finest young birds may be purchased in Ireland, fit for cramming, in September and October, from 4s. to 5s. a couple, and the light-coloured and smaller ones frequently from 2s. 6d. to 3s. 6d. a couple.
Turkeys, though extremely delicate in their infancy, become very hardy, and, if permitted, will roost on the highest trees, in the cold dry nights of winter, without suffering injury. The hen, which lays many eggs early in spring, site thirty days, and covers from twelve to fifteen eggs. It is unnecessary for the turkey cock, as is the case with gallinaceous fowl, to be in constant intercourse with the hen during her period of laying. Two visits from him in that season are sufficient to impregnate all the eggs. She is a very steady sitter, and must be removed to her food and supplied with water, for she would never leave her nest. She wants the alertness and courage and sagacity of the common hen, and might be called a fool with much more propriety than the goose, which is an intelligent bird. The turkey hen is in capable of teaching her young ones how to pick up their food, on which account a poultry-maid should always attend them until they are reared.