Sheep, Swine, and Poultry: Embracing the History and Varieties of Each; The Best Modes of Breeding; Their Feeding and Management; Together with etc.Jennings, Robert
Science
Sheep, Swine, and Poultry: Embracing the History and Varieties of Each; The Best Modes of Breeding; Their Feeding and Management; Together with etc.
Jennings, Robert
Poultry; Sheep; Swine
The chances of rearing such chickens are small; but, if they survive the
first twenty-four hours, they may be considered as safe. The only thing
to be done is to take them from the hen till she is settled at night,
keeping them in the meanwhile as snug and warm as possible. If a gentle
hand can persuade a crust of bread down their throats, it will do no
harm; but all rough and clumsy manipulation will utterly defeat the end
in view. Animal heat will be their greatest restorative. At night, they
should be quietly slipped under their mother; the next morning will
disclose the sequel.
The period of incubation in the _Guinea fowl_ is twenty-eight days, or
one month; in the _pea fowl_, from twenty-seven to twenty-nine days; in
_turkeys_, a month; in _ducks_, thirty or thirty-one days; and in
_geese_, from twenty-seven to thirty days.
INCUBATION OF TURKEYS. When the turkey hen has once selected a spot for
her nest, she will continue to lay there till the time for incubation;
so that the egg may be brought home from day to day, there being no
need of a nest-egg, as with the domestic fowl. She will lay from fifteen
to twenty eggs, more or less. If there are any dead leaves or dry grass
at hand, she will cover her eggs with these; but if not, she will take
no trouble to collect them from a distance.
Her determination to sit will be known by her constantly remaining on
the nest, though it is empty; and, as it is seldom in a position
sufficiently secure against the weather or pilferers, a nest should be
prepared for her, by placing some straw, with her eggs, on the floor of
a convenient out-building. She should then be brought home, and gently
and kindly placed upon it. With the smallest varieties, thirteen eggs
will suffice; a large hen might cover more. At the end of a week, it is
usual to add some fowls' eggs; the activity of the chickens excites some
emulation in the larger brethren, and the eggs take up but little room
in the nest.
Some believe it necessary to turn the eggs once a day; but the hen
herself does that many times daily. If the eggs are marked, and their
position noticed when she leaves the nest, they will never be found in
the same order. In about four weeks, the young will be hatched.
INCUBATION OF GEESE. Geese breed in general only once a year; but, if
well kept, they sometimes hatch twice a season. During the sitting, in
sections where the most attention is paid to breeding them, each bird
has a space allotted to it, in rows of wicker-pens, placed one above
another, and the person in charge of them drives the whole flock to
water three times a day, and, bringing them back to their habitations,
places each bird in its own nest.
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