Chapter I: Preface

This work is intended as a practical guide to those about to commence Poultry keeping, and to provide those who already have experience on the subject with the most trustworthy information compiled from the best authorities of all ages, and the most recent improvements in Poultry Breeding and Management. The Author believes that he has presented his readers with a greater amount of valuable information and practical directions on the various points treated than will be found in most similar works. The book is not the result of the Author's own experience solely, and he acknowledges the assistance he has received from other authorities. Among those whom he has consulted he desires specially to acknowledge his obligations to Mr. Tegetmeier, whose "Poultry Book" (published by Messrs. Routledge & Sons, London) contains his especial knowledge of the Diseases of Poultry; and to Mr. L. Wright, whose excellent and practical Treatise, entitled "The Practical Poultry Keeper" (published by Messrs. Cassell, Petter & Galpin, London), cannot be too highly commended.

CONTENTS.

GENERAL MANAGEMENT.

PAGE
CHAPTER I.--INTRODUCTION 1

Neglect of Poultry-breeding--Profit of Poultry-keeping--Value to the
Farmer--Poultry Shows--Cottage Poultry.

CHAPTER II.--THE FOWL-HOUSE 6

Size of the House--Brick and Wood--Cheap Houses--The
Roof--Ventilation--Light--Warmth--The Flooring--Perches--Movable
Frame--Roosts for Cochin-Chinas and Brahma-Pootras--Nests for
laying--Cleanliness--Fowls' Dung--Doors and
Entrance-holes--Lime-washing--Fumigating--Raising Chickens under
Glass.

CHAPTER III.--THE FOWL-YARD 18

Soil--Situation--Covered Run--Pulverised Earth for deodorising--Diet
for confined Fowls--Height of Wall, &c.--Preventing Fowls from
flying--The Dust-heap--Material for Shells--Gravel--The Gizzard--The
Grass Run.

CHAPTER IV.--FOOD 27

Table of relative constituents and qualities of
Food--Barley--Wheat--Oats--Meal--Refuse Corn--Boiling Grain--Indian
Corn, or Maize--Buckwheat--Peas, Beans and
Tares--Rice--Hempseed--Linseed--Potatoes--Roots--Soft Food--Variety
of Food--Quantity--Mode of Feeding--Number of Meals--Grass and
Vegetables--Insects--Worms--Snails and Slugs--Animal
Food--Water--Fountains.

CHAPTER V.--EGGS 40

Eggs all the Year round--Warmth essential to laying--Forcing
Eggs--Soft Shells--Shape and Colour of Eggs--The Air-bag--Preserving
Eggs--Keeping and Choosing Eggs for setting--Sex of Eggs--Packing
Setting-eggs for travelling.

CHAPTER VI.--THE SITTING HEN 48

Evil of restraining a Hen from sitting--Checking the Desire--A
separate House and Run--Nests for sitting in--Damping Eggs--Filling
for Nests--Choosing their own Nests--Choosing a Hen for
sitting--Number and Age of Eggs--Food and Exercise--Absence from the
Nest--Examining the Eggs--Setting two Hens on the same day--Time of
Incubation--The "tapping" sound--Breaking the Shell--Emerging from
the Shell--Assisting the Chicken--Artificial Mothers--Artificial
Incubation.

CHAPTER VII.--REARING AND FATTENING FOWLS 63

The Chicken's first Food--Cooping the Brood--Basket and
Wooden Coops--Feeding Chickens--Age for Fattening--Barn-door
Fattening--Fattening-Houses--Fattening-Coops--Food--"Cramming"--
Capons and Poulardes--Killing Poultry--Plucking and packing
Fowls--Preserving Feathers.

CHAPTER VIII.--STOCK, BREEDING, AND CROSSING 75

Well-bred Fowls--Choice of Breed--Signs of Age--Breeding
in-and-in--Number of Hens to one Cock--Choice of a Cock--To prevent
Cocks from fighting--Choice of a Hen--Improved Breeds--Origin of
Breeds--Crossing--Choice of Breeding Stock--Keeping a Breed pure.

CHAPTER IX.--POULTRY SHOWS 83

The first Show--The first Birmingham Show--Influence of
Shows--Exhibition Rules--Hatching for Summer and Winter
Shows--Weight--Exhibition Fowls sitting--Matching Fowls--Imparting
lustre to the Plumage--Washing Fowls--Hampers--Travelling--Treatment
on Return--Washing the Hampers and Linings--Exhibition
Points--Technical Terms.

BREEDS.

CHAPTER X.--COCHIN-CHINAS, OR SHANGHAES 93

CHAPTER XI.--BRAHMA-POOTRAS 101

CHAPTER XII.--MALAYS 105

CHAPTER XIII.--GAME 108

CHAPTER XIV.--DORKINGS 112

CHAPTER XV.--SPANISH 115

CHAPTER XVI.--HAMBURGS 118

CHAPTER XVII.--POLANDS 121

CHAPTER XVIII.--BANTAMS 124

CHAPTER XIX.--FRENCH AND VARIOUS 128

CHAPTER XX.--TURKEYS 132

CHAPTER XXI.--GUINEA-FOWLS 139

CHAPTER XXII.--DUCKS 142

CHAPTER XXIII.--GEESE 147