Poultry show

“ We should be afraid to say how much might be done if English breeders would bring their perseverance and experience to bear in a similar direction. Agricultural Societies in particular might be expected in their exhibitions to show some interest in the improvement of poultry regarded as useful stock, and to them especially we commend the matter. ”

“ Any one may see the wonderful improvement that has been made in poultry-breeding by visiting the next Birmingham or other first-class show, and comparing the fowls there exhibited with those of his earliest recollections, and with those mongrels and impure breeds which may still be seen in too many farmyards. Points that were said to be impossible of attainment have been obtained with comparative ease by perseverance and skill, and the worst birds of a show are now often superior to the chief prize fowls of former days. ”

“ The enormous prices paid at the poultry shows of 1852 and 1853 for fancy fowls gave a new impulse to poultry-keeping; and many persons who formerly thought the management of poultry beneath their attention, now superintend their yards. ”

“ With the exception of prizes for Dorkings, which are chiefly bred for market, our poultry-shows have always looked upon fowls as if they were merely ornamental birds, and have framed their standards of excellence accordingly, and not with any regard to the production of profitable poultry, which is much to be regretted. ”

“ As I have elsewhere stated, the rearing of early chicken is always attended with risk and trouble, and extraordinary success must not be expected; it should only therefore be attempted under favourable circumstances; and unless chicken are bred for the summer poultry shows, or for early table use, for which purpose they fetch a high price in the market, it is not a desirable proceeding; for the best and finest birds, that alone should be kept for stock, are those hatched in April and May, as they attain their full size without having their growth once checked by cold. ”

“ Roast Fowl
HOW TO SELECT
A chicken’s feet are soft and smooth and the end of the breastbone is flexible. Poultry that is to be carried over from the season of plenty is carefully selected and specially fed and prepared. Only the choicest corn and milk fed poultry is worthy of the skill and science displayed in modern cold storage. Scientific methods of packing fresh poultry, and shipment in the refrigerator cars originated by the packers, assures the most select fresh poultry in season. The undrawn poultry is preferred to the drawn poultry in the market. ”

“ No inhabitants of a yard seem possessed of such a variety of expression and so copious a language as common poultry. Take a chicken of four or five days old, and hold it up to a window where there are flies, and it will immediately seize its prey, with little twitterings of complacency; but if you tender it a wasp or a bee, at once its note becomes harsh, and expressive of disapprobation and a sense of danger. When a pullet is ready to lay she intimates the event by a joyous and easy soft note. Of all the occurrences of their life that of laying seems to be the most important ”

“ When there is a variety of poultry, each kind should be separately lodged. Plenty of space, water accessible, gravel, living plants and loose soil are the principal things to render poultry comfortable. The worms and insects obtained from the loose soil furnish them animal food, and sand or gravel is necessary to promote digestion. It is best not to draw poultry when preparing it for market, as it keeps longer when the air is excluded. In winter some farmers let their poultry freeze, and pack them in boxes of dry straw, and send them to market. ”

“ For instance, for twelve hens and a rooster in a wire cage you will have to give a first feed, say at six o'clock in the morning, of soft food—pollard and sweet potatoes is very good, or kitchen scraps consisting of potato peels, meat, waste bread, &c., all boiled together and mixed with enough pollard or meal of some kind to make it into a stiff dough, and allow for each bird a lump about the size of a cricket ball. Instead of scattering the soft food it should be put into a long narrow trough, so that all can get at it easily. ”

“ They are still more fattening than worms, and therefore too many must not be given when laying, but they do not injure the flavour of the flesh. Some will eat slugs, but they are not generally fond of these, and many fowls will not touch them.
One great secret of profitable poultry-keeping is, that hens cannot thrive and lay without a considerable quantity of animal food, and therefore if they cannot obtain a sufficient quantity in the form of insects, it must be supplied in meat, which, minced small, should be given daily and also to all fowls in winter, as insects are then not to be had. ”

“ Poultry is largely retailed alive although we saw much of it dressed and cooked to a uniform rich brown, apparently roasted, hanging exposed in the markets of the very narrow streets in Canton, shaded from the hot sun under awnings admitting light overhead through translucent oyster-shell latticework. ”

“ The term Poultry, includes all the domesticated birds reared for the table—fowls, capons, turkeys, geese, ducks, and guinea fowl. Those who live in the country and intend to rear fowls for the consumption of their families, should have a poultry-yard, called by the French, a basse cour. It should be well sheltered, with a warm aspect, and sufficiently inclined to be always dry. It should also be supplied with sand or ashes, and there should be also a supply of running water, of which poultry are fond. A green patch of earth should be next to the poultry-yard, to allow the fowls free exercise. ”

“ Much attention has been paid in this country, during the last ten years, to the breeding and feeding of poultry. All that read this will remember the hen fever that spread through our country a few years ago. Chinese chickens sold at from $40 to $100 a pair; and the usual price of one egg for a time was $5. The saving of feathers off poultry will be found profitable, for they bring a high price and ready sale. [Pg 166] Poultry are best disposed of in large quantities at hotels, steamboats, and restaurants. Houses for poultry should be warm and tightly made. ”

“ Young stock in cornfield on a fancier's farm
While farmers usually care more for horses, cattle, sheep, and hogs, many [Pg 122] become interested in poultry, and if they are natural fanciers and good business men, it often happens that the growing of fancy poultry becomes one of the most important industries on the farm. ”

“ For my own part I am no friend to fattening fowls artificially, as I think they are never half so good to eat as when they are indulged with moderate exercise, and kept in good condition by feeding them with barley, oats, or other grain, two or three times a day. When the poultry-yard adjoins a farm-yard, so that the fowls can be let out occasionally to pick up the grains that are scattered by the thresher, they become so plump and so well fitted for the table, that it is considered the highest praise that can be bestowed on poultry, to say that it eats as well as a barn-door fowl. ”

“ During the day the hen is kept in the outer compartment, the chickens having liberty, and the food and water being placed outside; whilst at night she is put in the inner portion of the coop, and a piece of canvas or sacking hung over the bars of the outer half. If the top be glazed, a little food and the water-vessel may be placed in the outer compartment at night, and the chicks will be able to run out and feed early in the morning, being prevented by the canvas from going out into the cold air. ”

“ They will work to obtain the grain and be kept busy. The usual quantity of grain for poultry is at the rate of a quart of corn or wheat to each fifteen hens. A standard winter ration is the so called hot bran mash. This is made from wheat bran, clover meal, and either cut bone or meat scraps. It will be necessary to feed this in a hopper to avoid waste and it should be given at night just before the birds go to roost, with the grain ration in the morning, which will keep them scratching all day. Always keep some grit and oyster shells where the chickens can get it ”

“ The Little Girls helped to cut it into small pieces, and then the whole family, Baby, and all, stood in the sunshine and threw the fragments to the eager poultry, while the dolls looked on. The Barred Plymouth Rock Hen walked inside the box and picked up the many crumbs around the table, while the other fowls fluttered and ran for the pieces outside. The Black Hen always picked for the largest, and the rest chased her. Their manners were certainly bad, but it was the first birthday party they had ever attended, and perhaps it is not strange that they were excited and greedy. ”

“ From July, when the earliest farm chickens are large enough for roasting, until about the first of February, when the last of the late-hatched farm chickens disappear from the markets, there are nearly always enough very good roasting chickens in the general market receipts to supply the demand for that class and grade of poultry. ”

“ No ploughing [51] is done; the earth prepared for potatoes is [Pg 107] thrown with spades, picks, and hoes up as small ridges or tumuli, into the surface of which the seed is planted. A few of those shaggy little bulls and cows, which we have noticed before at Wood Island and Kadiak, are also roaming about, and a great many domestic fowls, such as chickens and ducks, are raised by the women and children, who take the poultry into the attics or lofts above their living rooms during the inclemencies of winter. ”

“ When the fowl has been "crammed" it should be carefully carried back to its coop, both hands being placed under its breast as before. Chickens should be "crammed" regularly every twelve hours. The "cramming" should commence with a few pellets, and the number be gradually increased at each meal until it amounts to about fifteen. But always before you begin to feed gently feel the fowl's crop to ascertain that the preceding meal has been digested, and if you find it to contain food, let the bird wait until it is all digested, and give it fewer pellets at the next meal. ”

“ It is a good way of giving your fowls green food and employment at the same 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. ”

“ The great majority of American breeders of fancy poultry seek to secure a high degree of practical value in combination with fancy quality in their stock. There are some fanciers who breed only for fancy points, and some market poultry growers who pay no attention at all to them, but as a rule those who give market poultry special attention want well-bred stock of good ordinary quality, and those who keep poultry for pleasure want the flock kept for this purpose to supply at least their own tables with eggs and meat. ”

“ The quantities of eggs, fowl, and game which are needed to supply so many tables must be enormous; and as one sees very few live poultry anywhere, it has occasioned me surprise to think how they can be procured. ”

“ The coops or pens employed by the poultry feeders are made of laths, stand raised from the ground, and are usually placed in sheds. They who have no fattening pens should confine the fowls in a small run, feed them three times a day on ground oats, barley-meal, and maize-meal mixed with potatoes. When a certain stage is reached the birds begin to go back, and should be killed at once, first letting them fast twenty-four hours to empty the crop. ”

“ THE NEW NESTS AND THE NEST EGGS As might have been expected, the new poultry-house was no sooner finished than the fowls began to discuss who should live in the different parts. They could see no reason why they should not all run together, as they always had done. “Perhaps,” the Black Hen had said, “the Man may put us all together and let the table’s Chickens have pens to themselves.”
“What?” said the Barred Plymouth Rock Hen, “put me in one pen and my Chickens in another? ”

“ From that time all the pullets that begin to lay, and the slips as they appear, are marketed; all others are kept, because the grower realizes the largest profit on those that can be marketed in June and July, when the price is highest. By the middle of July, at the latest, everything is sold. The poultry keeper then begins to prepare for the next crop of chickens by taking up all his fences, plowing land that is not in grass, and planting it with winter rye or cabbage or some late garden crop. ”

“ It is only within a few years that the public at large have become awake to the importance of the poultry interests in the country. Formerly it was supposed to be of insignificant proportions compared to the beef and pork product. ”

“ To a novice in fancy-poultry culture the number of chickens grown by expert fanciers seems very small for the equipment and the land used, but the old fancier has learned in the costly school of competition, by the bitter experience of defeat, that in growing exhibition poultry it pays to give the birds a great deal more room, both indoors and outdoors, than is needed simply to get quick growth and good size. ”

“ Americans have strangely neglected its cultivation with the method and precision of foreigners. We can raise food more cheaply than they, while none of them can boast of possessing our incomparable Indian corn.
There are several of my neighbors who are highly skilled in the art of raising poultry. One of them is quite a poultry-fancier, and, by keeping only choice breeds, he realizes fancy prices for them. Another confines his fowls in a plum-orchard, and thus secures an annual crop of plums without being stung by the curculio. ”