Poultry fancier . high enough to enable the bird to stretch tohis utmost extent and not touch his comb, should bemade of horizontal rods. When the bird is cooped,every time you go near him introduce some tidbit, likea piece of lean beef for example, through the rods atthe top of the coop and hold it so that the bird willhave to stretch up to reach it. After a time the birdwill associate your presence with the tidbit and as-sume an erect attitude on your approach. The samemay be attained by taking the bird from his coop—as-suming that he has been properly trained—and strok-ing the front of his
Poultry fancier . high enough to enable the bird to stretch tohis utmost extent and not touch his comb, should bemade of horizontal rods. When the bird is cooped,every time you go near him introduce some tidbit, likea piece of lean beef for example, through the rods atthe top of the coop and hold it so that the bird willhave to stretch up to reach it. After a time the birdwill associate your presence with the tidbit and as-sume an erect attitude on your approach. The samemay be attained by taking the bird from his coop—as-suming that he has been properly trained—and strok-ing the front of his neck gently with your hand. Youcan make the bird pose in his most attractive attitudeand retain that pose for as long at it would be ofadvantage. 566 POULTRY FANCIER But taming and training are only for the purpose ofexhibiting to the best of advantage the characteristicswhich the specimens possess. You cannot make a showbird out of a scrub by taming and training. Theshow qualities must be there to start Many birds fail to win because they do not possessthe requisite size. From now on it should be the aimof the breeder to develop his birds so as not to havethem fall short in weight. To this end the sexesshould be separated and the birds fed with the pur-pose of promoting their growth and development. They should have a good run, have plenty of goodsound grain, some meat, access to grit and shells, sothat both bony structure and its covering of flesh,skin and feathers may be provided for. Later on, sayabout two or three weeks before the exhibition is to beheld, the birds should be weighed, and those deficientin weight should have for drink sweet milk, to whichhas been added sugar or molasses in the proportion ofa heaping teaspoonful of sugar or a level tablespoonfulof molasses to an ordinary teacupful of milk. Thisaddititon to the previous diet will help them to puton weight rapidly. I have added from a half poundto a pound in the weight of a Plymouth Rock cockerelin
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1910, booksubjectpoultry, bookyear1912
