Page:Australian enquiry book of household and general information.djvu/262

 time. If you cannot feed early in the morning, a few handfuls of grain should be scattered over night, so that they will have something to eat the first thing. Meat must be given to fowls if possible every day. The refuse from the soup if the family indulges in soup, or any refuse meat boiled down to rags. Many fanciers, I believe, advocate raw  meat for the poultry, and particularly for ducks. I do not consider it either good for the birds themselves, or for those who finally eat them. Some seasons ago I tried the experiment of feeding uncooked meat to ducks, the result was they got beautifully fat and grew wonderfully. I was delighted till one day I chanced to be cleaning a pair for our own table and found out the intestines were full of tiny worms, and the liver was covered with little white spots. I might not have thought anything of this, or put it down to some other cause, but that I happened to see a number of ducks being cleaned for some party in town, they had been reared at or near the slaughter yards, and they were just alive with the same little worms. Afterwards I took to boiling my meat to rags, and when I next killed a duck there were no worms or spots, and decidedly the flavour is just as good. I have since been told that it is a well known fact that the ducks running about the slaughter yards are full of worms. Poultry that have a big run and plenty of grass require no more than two regular meals a day, viz., soft food early in the morning, and a feed of grain just before going to roost, but do not give more than they will pick up readily; directly they cease to run for it cease feeding.

Give your hens sulphur in their food occasionaly—just before laying is a good time; give it every second morning for a week. It will brighten their feathers and purify their blood.

Never overfeed your laying hens.

Brahmas, Plymouth Rocks, Wyandottes, all require good feeding when laying.

Let the hens have access to the manure heap, they will get good food for eggs there.

Corn (maize) is not a good food continuously, it is too heating and fattening. Wheat, oats, millet, all are very good.

Boil the kitchen scraps for them. Give wheat when they are moulting.

Oats should always be soaked in a little warm water, for half an hour or more before giving to the fowls.

A few drops of tincture of iron in the water when moulting is very good.

To make a nest egg.—Blow an egg in the ordinary way. Mix some plaster of Paris with water till as thick as paint, stir in a