with the right hand, then with a swinging motion (the same as in using
an axe), strike the back of the head against a post with sufficient
force to start the blood from the ears. Now with a quick motion place
the body under your left arm, catching the back of the head and the top
of the bill in the left hand. Using a knife with a five-inch blade,
make a cut crosswise at the base of the brain, then turn the edge to
the roof of the mouth, and slash outward, being careful not to split
the bill. Let the blood run for two seconds.
Sit down. Place your knees against the neck just tight enough to keep
it in place. If too much pressure is put on, it will stop the flow of
blood and give the flesh a red appearance. Hold the feet and wings in
the left hand. Commence picking at the vent, then the breast and neck.
The feathers are left on half the neck, and on the wings from the first
joint out. Pick clean as you go, for once the duck gets cold, it will
be hard to pick. Experts use a shoemaker’s knife ground thin, and strop
it the same as a razor, to shave the pin and small feathers off.
After picking, put them into ice water or cold spring water until the
animal heat is gone; then wash the feet, and wash all clots of blood
from the mouth and throat; then put into another vessel of water, which
takes all the stains off and gives a nice clean appearance. After they
are clean you can put them into a barrel or box with crushed ice, and
if left for twelve to twenty-four hours in this condition they can be
shipped a long distance with but little ice. To make dressed ducks show
up good it is necessary to take them out of clean water at the finish.
The second vessel should have clean water put in as soon as it gets
cloudy.
When packing for shipment, use flour or sugar barrels. Pack with back
down, putting the head under the wing. Pack close, and leave a space on
top for ice. Raise the top hoop, place burlap on top, drive the hoop on
again, with the burlap under, and nail firmly. Before using, the barrel
should be thoroughly washed. Bore two three-fourths-inch holes in the
bottom, to drain.
A goose will lay from ten to twenty eggs and then want to sit; but if
you coop her in sight of her companions, four or five days will suffice
to break her up. If she lays a third clutch of eggs, let her keep them
and sit.
When the weather is mild, set five eggs under a hen; or, if she is
very large, seven might be risked. It takes from twenty-eight to
thirty days for goose eggs to hatch. As the skin is very tough, it is
well to sprinkle a little water around the nest, and even on the eggs
themselves, during the last two weeks, especially if the weather is
dry and hens are doing the incubating.
The youngsters need nothing for the first thirty-six hours. Then feed
scalded corn-meal--the coarsest kind--and wheat bran, chopped green
clover or young green oats cut fine, tops of green onions, lettuce
leaves or any tender young greens.
If the weather is fine, put the coop containing Biddy and her family
out on the grass, making a small yard in front for the first few days,
to prevent their wandering too far away. Move the coop and yard to a
new place as they eat the grass. Like young ducks, their drinking water
must be in a vessel that permits them to put the whole beak into the
water, or they are apt to get the air passages clogged up with soft
food, causing the gosling to smother; but on no account must they be
permitted to get their bodies into the water, as they chill and cramp
so easily.
It is much better to buy two- or three-year-old birds from a reliable
dealer for stock than obtain eggs for setting and wait for them to
develop. After the breeding season is over, geese and goslings need
little grain if on grass land. Late in the fall geese do well if turned
into the corn stubble or the orchard, where they will clean up all the
windfalls--which does much to stamp out grubs and insects.
PIGEONS AND SQUABS
When pigeons are kept for squab-raising it is one of the most
profitable ventures in which suburbanites or real country folks can
embark. The young are ready for market when four weeks old; the average
wholesale price is three dollars a dozen. Private customers will pay
forty cents a pair all through the winter months, and a good pair of
mature birds will raise two squabs every four weeks for nine months in
the year, which means that each old pair of birds should provide one
and one-half dozen squabs, which will market for four dollars and fifty
cents. The cost of keep is supposed to be fifty cents a year, but ever
allowing one dollar a year, there should be three dollars and fifty
cents clear profit.
These estimates are made on good homer pigeons, well housed and cared
for, not common nondescript birds, leading a half-wild existence, with
only old-fashioned shelter behind a row of holes high up in the barn,
where the nests are exposed to every storm; besides which, the young
of mongrel pigeons only weigh five or six ounces when four weeks old,
and are so scrawny and unappetising that they are difficult to market
at any price, whilst homers at the same age weigh from twelve to twenty
ounces, and are white-skinned and plump. The mature homers will cost
about two dollars a pair from any of the recognised lofts, but it is
no use buying elsewhere, for unless birds are mated pairs, you may
have another season wasted. Pigeons are faithful creatures and remain
in pairs for years, and if an accident happens to one of them will
frequently refuse to mate a second time the same season. Young birds
which are only paired at the time of sale are likely to object to the
mates chosen for them, and proceed to exercise personal choice when
liberated amid a flock of strange birds. So be wise and buy only from
reliable experienced breeders.
The most convenient house for squab-raising is built like a
chicken-coop, about twelve feet wide, eight feet high in front, sloping
to six feet at the back, and any length, according to the number of
birds kept. Have plenty of windows in front of the house, and openings
six inches square, three feet apart, all along the back of the house
about a foot from the roof. Run a nine-inch board the entire length
of the house as a platform for the birds to alight on as they go in
and out, and it is just as well to have a similar board just under the
holes on the inside of the house. Put up three or four perches near the
front windows, so that the birds can fly from side to side of the house
on wet days for exercise.
The number of birds which can be kept in each house can be easiest
estimated by the nests. Each pair of brooders must be provided with
nest-boxes divided into two compartments twelve inches square. They
can be arranged in tiers all along the side, back and front walls, and
from floor to ceiling. Put the first tier about eighteen inches above
the floor, as the birds don’t seem to like the lower nests. Fasten
small perches about a foot long to the partition on each box, for the
convenience of the birds as they fly back and forth, and when feeding
their young.
Before the house is occupied, it should be thoroughly whitewashed, the
floor covered with sand or ground plaster, and earthenware dishes known
as “nappies,” which cost one dollar a dozen, must be put in, one into
each compartment. Suspend a bundle of cut hay in one corner of the
house, as some birds like to make their own nests, though others seem
to think that a handful of tobacco-stems, which it is well to place in
each nappy as a check to vermin, is quite nest enough.
Drinking-fountains and feeding-boxes into which the birds can only get
their beaks are imperative for pigeons, for they are most particular
and will not take defiled food or drink unless positively starved into
it. Yet if they have open feed and water boxes, they will scatter the
contents all over the floor. There is a galvanised-iron feeding-box
costing one dollar on the market which has seven openings, so that many
birds can feed at the same time. Water-fountains of the same material
are virtually indestructible, and cost only fifty cents.
The yard and fly must of course be entirely closed for pigeons, and
should be four feet higher than the front of the house, so that the
birds can use the roof for a sun-parlour. We use four-by-four joists,
cut into twelve-foot lengths, for the front of the house, as they can
be nailed to the house and need not be sunk into the ground, as those
at the side and far end must be. The joists for the sides and end are
cut into thirteen-and-one-half-foot lengths, which allows a foot and
a half to go into the ground. These measurements allow the use of
four-foot netting without any waste. For a house twelve feet long, I
think the yard should be at least fifty feet. Erect several perches
at the far end of the yard, a platform about two feet wide and four
feet long on legs three feet high in the centre of the yard for the
bath-tubs to stand on. Pigeons must have a bath, for cleanliness is a
necessity; a pan about two feet square and four inches deep is the best
size, and they can be bought in galvanised iron for one dollar each.
Red-wheat, Kafir-corn, cracked corn, Canadian field-peas, German
millet and hemp-seed are all appropriate for pigeons. They should be
alternated, or one or two mixed together. Of course, sometimes one
grain is cheaper than another, or easier to get in certain districts,
but don’t use any one grain exclusively. Pigeons must have variety.
We follow the rations recommended by W. E. Rice, a very experienced
pigeon-raiser. Morning: Equal parts of cracked corn, Kafir-corn and
wheat. Evening: Cracked corn and Canadian peas. These regular meals are
put into the feed-boxes in quantity sufficient to insure the birds
having a constant supply. Treats which we feed at odd times, such as
millet, hemp and rice, are thrown on the ground, for, as they are only
fed in comparatively small quantities, they are eaten up at once, and
so there is no danger of their being soiled. Remember always to buy
red, not white, wheat, for the latter is very apt to cause diarrhea.
Once a week we give them a meal of stale bread which has been
steeped in skim-milk and squeezed almost dry again, for we have lots
of skim-milk, and the bread we get from a baker in the town for
twenty-five cents a barrel. Freight costs another twenty-five cents,
but even at fifty cents a barrel we find it an economical feed when
there are a lot of squabs to be fattened for the market.
The parent birds take all the trouble and responsibility of feeding and
raising the young right up to the time they are ready for market. The
hen-bird lays two eggs, with one day intervening, which take eighteen
days to incubate. After the eggs are hatched, both birds devote their
entire energies to feeding the youngsters for about two weeks, for
both have the power to secrete the predigested substance often called
pigeon’s milk, on which nestlings are exclusively fed for the first few
days. At the end of two weeks the hen has usually laid two more eggs in
the second nest, so that by the time the squabs in the first nest are
ready for market, the second eggs are ready to hatch. It is this double
family which necessitates two nests for each pair of birds.
Cleanliness is even more imperative in the pigeon-house than in the
hen-house. Never neglect to scald out the earthenware nest, and
whitewash the compartment it stands in, every time squabs are removed
for market, for it is only by such rigid system that the place can
be kept in a sanitary condition. Pigeons must have shell, salt
and charcoal to be healthy, so there should be a self-feeder with
three compartments in each house. When ordering, specify that the
oyster-shell is for pigeons, as it is to be broken up smaller than for
the hens. The rock salt and charcoal should be ground to about the
size of rice. During the heavy breeding season we crush most of the
grain, and always peas, for when the parent birds are rushed for time
between their two nests they are very liable to pick up whole grain and
feed to the young birds before they are able to digest it. Until we
discovered this carelessness, we often had a dead squab in the nest.
The feed-boxes can be kept filled up, as pigeons never overeat, and
must have access to food at all times when they have young ones to feed.
If you start with a few pairs of birds, the best way to increase the
number is to sell the squabs, and use the money to buy mature birds,
for it takes pigeons six months to reach maturity, and it is necessary
to have two extra houses in which to keep the growing birds, as they
should not be allowed to remain in the regular brood-pen. If, however,
you have specially-mated birds and desire to raise their progeny, you
must watch the nests, and as soon as the young ones get out on the
floor (the old ones generally push them out when the eggs in the second
nest hatch), they can fend for themselves, and should be removed to a
nursery-house, where all feed must be cracked to the size of rice for
several weeks. When one desires to build up size and good points, it is
necessary to have two nursery-houses, and so be in a position to select
the best birds from different parentage to mate.
To illustrate: The nestlings from one side of the house should go
into Nursery No. 1, nestlings from the other side into Nursery No. 2.
Our nurseries are only seven by ten feet, so we never have more than
twenty birds in each, and they can be taken within a few days of each
other, in this way making very little difference in age when it comes
to mating-time. When the younger ones in the nurseries are between six
and seven months old, we take a bird from each and put them into a
mating-cage, which is really a coop, four feet long, two and one-half
feet deep and two feet high, which is fastened up in a corner of the
feed-house. The coop is divided into two compartments by a wire-netting
door. A bird is put into each compartment. If they are male and female,
they will commence within a week or two to coo and talk to each other
through the wire, at which time the compartment is fastened up to
the top of the cage, and they are allowed to have the run of the
coop for three or four days, after which they are put into a regular
breeding-house, where they will soon take possession of the nest. If,
however, the birds chosen simply ignore each other after they are
put into the mating-cage, one of them is removed to another cage, and
two more birds are taken from the nursery-house and put into the two
compartments. In this way we go through the nests until we have them
all paired.
POULTRY AILMENTS
Only in rare instances does poultry require doctoring, yet it is well
to be prepared with sufficient knowledge to recognise the symptoms of
approaching trouble. A few small coops should be kept in some dry,
sheltered outhouse, to be used as quarantine quarters. Empty dry-goods
boxes turned on their sides, with half the front boarded across and
a door of wire netting to close the other half, make good coops for
individual patients. They should be covered all around, sides and top
and bottom, with roofing-paper, to insure freedom from draft. The
boxes may be any size, but I like them about eighteen inches wide and
high, and about two and a half feet long. To avoid dampness, and for
convenience in attending to the birds, it is well to elevate them on
legs or stand them on a shelf or bench. Before using, or whenever they
are vacated, they should be disinfected and the inside thoroughly
painted with whitewash. The enamelled cups without handles can be
attached to the side of the coop by wire loops.
The most dreaded visitor on a poultry-farm is roup, for it not
only affects the bird during the period of immediate illness, but
it leaves behind it all sorts of constitutional weaknesses to the
bird’s progeny. Every poultry-keeper should cultivate the habit of
scrutinising his or her flock at feed-times. A suspicious-looking bird
should be caught and removed to quarantine quarters immediately. The
symptoms of cold, influenza, canker, diphtheria and roup are in the
earlier stages almost identical--watery eyes, sneezing, discharge from
the nostrils or the nostrils being stuffed up (the nostrils are the
two small holes at the base of the bill). When the bird is noticed to
have any one of these symptoms, open the bill and look down the throat.
Should there be no signs of trouble, you may be sure that there is
nothing but an ordinary cold to fight, which a few days in hospital
will cure.
Give light and easily digested food, such as stale bread soaked in
scalded milk and squeezed almost dry or corn-meal which has been well
steamed. Put ten drops of spirits of camphor on a lump of sugar, then
dissolve the sugar in a half-pint of water and use in the drinking-cup.
If, however, examination reveals yellow spots on the mouth or in the
throat, or a thick slimy discharge from the eyes and nostrils, it is a
serious case of catarrh or roupy cold, which may, if neglected, develop
into malignant roup. Throughout the entire range of cold and roupy
diseases there is no special odour until malignant roup is positively
developed. Then there is a most offensive and unmistakable odour.
Treat all diseases which overstep a common cold as roup, and you will
err on the side of safety. In the last and most malignant stages of
roup, the face and eyes or head are very likely to be severely swollen,
and if things have progressed to such a condition, before the bird
has been removed from the flock, it is well to take the precaution of
disinfecting the drinking and feeding dishes and generally clean up the
poultry-house, and add a disinfectant to the drinking-water for a few
days. Permanganate of potassium is what I generally use, because it is
cheap and most effective as a germ-killer. Dissolve one teaspoonful
in a quart of warm water, and you will have such a strong solution
that for all ordinary uses can be diluted again at the rate of one
teaspoonful to five of water.
Treatment for roup: First wash off any discharge which may have
accumulated around the eyes and bill with warm water and permanganate;
then fill an atomiser with diluted permanganate solution and thoroughly
spray the throat and nostrils. Repeat night and morning, as long as
there seems any necessity. Keep the light diet as recommended for
common cold.
Indigestion and intermediate stages up to acute gastritis and liver
complaint, all spring from the same causes, and will succumb to the
same remedies, so we will consider them connectedly. They are caused
by indiscreet or excessive feeding; mash which has been allowed to
become sour; an excess of bread, potatoes or fat in table-scraps
fed to the birds; lack of corn, vegetables or sharp grit; condition
powders, egg-foods, and such condiments, if given frequently, will
affect the digestive organs and bring on indigestion. At first the
sufferer looks mopey and stupid; the comb is pale. At this stage a
few days in hospital and a dose of magnesia and reformation in diet
will work a cure. Put about a third of a teaspoonful of sulphate of
magnesia in a cup of drinking-water. Feed a mash composed of three
parts finely-cut clover-hay, which has been thoroughly steamed, and one
part each of coarsely-ground corn and oats. If you haven’t clover-hay,
use wheat-bran instead; chopped apple, lettuce or any greens should
be the mid-day meal. Put a small pan of sharp grit into the coop.
Advance symptoms are watery, yellowish droppings and thirst, and the
comb becoming fiery red, which may gradually darken to crimson as the
bird’s condition becomes worse. Administer a teaspoonful of castor-oil;
feed sparingly on mash, which at this stage should consist of boiled
rice, scalded bread and milk or cottage-cheese. If the dysentery is
very severe, fill up a drinking-vessel with the water in which the
rice was boiled. After eight hours of such diet, add twenty-five drops
of tincture of nux vomica to half a pint of rice-water. Continue with
light, nourishing food for about a week.
In the fall fowls are frequently given free range, before the corn
and other crops are harvested, and with the result that they gorge
themselves with new corn, which is very liable to heat and swell.
In the summer people are very likely to cut grass and throw it in
to yarded hens, who will eat it greedily, but it invariably causes
trouble, being in long lengths. Lawn-clippings, which are not over
an inch in length, are quite safe and, of course, supply the required
green food which they specially crave in hot weather. When the bird is
seen to have an unusually large crop and shows signs of distress, catch
it and hold by the feet, head downward, then gently work the crop so as
to push a little of the contents into the throat and out through the
beak. Even if only a few grains can be ejected in this way, it will
help the strained condition of the crop and ease the bird’s sufferings.
Administer a dose of castor or sweet oil.
Occasionally an obstinate case can’t be helped by simple means, and
then surgery has to be resorted to. Tie the feet together and the wings
close to the body with a broad strip of muslin, place the bird on its
side on the table, calling in assistance to hold it still, and with a
sharp pocket-knife make a small slit, first in the outer skin, pulling
one side slightly outward, then making an insertion in the crop itself.
Carefully remove the contents. You need not be at all nervous about the
operation, which is quite painless. After the crop is emptied, take
a moderately fine needle threaded with a fine sewing-silk. Take two
or three stitches in the crop and cut off the thread, pull the edges
of the outer skin together and fasten with two or three stitches. Of
course, under no circumstances must the crop and the outer skin be
fastened together in stitching. Keep the bird on very meagre rations
for a week or ten days.
The most common ailment of infant chickenhood is bowel trouble, and
one should be on the watch for the the first signs, all through the
hatching season, as a few hours means much to frail baby life. A
chill, dampness, improper food or dirty drinking-water are the usual
causes. Should any laxity be noticed in the droppings, remove the
drinking-water and substitute either milk which has been scalded and
allowed to cool or rice-water, according to the symptoms. Feed boiled
rice at least once a day. If the chicks are in a brooder, set the
temperature a little higher than under ordinary circumstances. If they
are with a hen, keep her confined to the brood-coop, to insure the
chicks being able to nestle to her.
Gapes is the second scourge of chick-life. Gapes is not truly a
disease, but the effect of a parasite worm, which is supposed only to
materialise on ground in which poultry-droppings have been deposited
for several seasons. A gapeworm is only about five sixteenths of an
inch in length and no thicker than a fine thread. Once introduced into
the bird’s throat it fastens there and sucks the blood of its victim,
and, of course, a little chick has not the strength to eject it, no
matter how much it may cough or gape. They multiply very quickly. Some
of the remedies are as follows: Dip the end of a small wing feather
in turpentine, push it down the bird’s throat, turn two or three
times quickly and pull out. The worm may come with it. Another is to
mix salt and water or steep tobacco in water for ten minutes; pour a
tablespoonful down the bird’s throat, keeping the head up, and the two
holes at the base of the bill covered with your thumb and forefinger
whilst you count five. Release and suddenly turn the bird upside down,
holding by the feet. It will gasp, splutter and usually eject the worm.
To exterminate the pests, have the ground, on which the birds have
been cooped and yarded, sprinkled with quicklime (keeping the birds
safely cooped, so that they cannot get into or eat the lime). Let it
lie overnight and then plough under. If such treatment is impossible,
remove all the young stock to some other part of the farm. Mature birds
have the strength to eject the worms.
THE VEGETABLE GARDEN