The practical poultry keeper : a complete and standard guide to the management of poultry / [Lewis Wright].

  • Wright, Lewis, 1838-1905.
Date:
1885
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The practical poultry keeper : a complete and standard guide to the management of poultry / [Lewis Wright]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    essentials; and these being provided for, operations can be commenced, and it becomes necessary to determine upon the plan of proceeding. This, then, will be treated in the next chapter. CHAPTER II. THE SYSTEM OF OPERATIONS, AND SELECTION OF STOCK. When poultry are kept as a branch of domestic economics, it will be obvious that the system to be pursued should vary according to the extent of accommodation which can be afforded, and to the object sought. Both these considerations should be well weighed before operations are commenced; and the plan then determined upon as best adapted to the circum- stances should, as long as those circumstances remain the same, be consistently carried out and adhered to. It very frequently happens that a regular supply of eggs is the sole object in view: and that neither the time, trouble, nor space required to rear chickens with success can well be spared. If, for instance, a covered shed fenced in with wire, as described in the last chapter, with a small house at the end for roosting and laying in, be the sole accommodation for the fowls, to attempt rearing them would be folly; * and yet they may be kept so as to yield a good return upon their cost and main- tenance. The proper plan in such a case will be to purchase in the spring a number of hens proportioned to the size of the run, and none exceeding a year old. A cock is useless, as hens lay very nearly as well without one; and where eggs only are wanted, this is balanced by his food, and his room is saved. All these birds, if in good health and condition, will either be already laying, or will commence almost immediately; and if * It is not meant to be denied that chickens can be reared in such cir- cumstances, and that in good health and to a fair size. We have ourselves done so. But it does not pay, and we do not intend to do it again.