Antequam tamen ad reliqua me conferam, pauculos hosce Politiani[1] versus ceu epilogi loco, nempe de eisdem agentes adijciam. Ait autem:

Vocibus interea crebrum {singultit} <singultat> acutis
Parturiens coniu<n>x, quae scilicet ova subinde
Tollit anus, signatque dies, vigilemque lucernam
Consulit: et Lunae crescentis tempora servans
Ut primum Gallina glocit, numero {impare} <impari> subdit
Versatisque diu, solers auscultat, an intus
Pipiat involucer pullus, tenerumque putamen
Pertuderit molli rostro, {atque} <adque> erumpere tentet.

But before devoting myself to remaining items, I shall add as epilogue these few verses of Poliziano, dealing of course with the same subject: For he says:

The partner, while is laying the egg, often sobs with sharp sounds, and of course straight after the old woman takes up those eggs and marks the date, and watches the ever-lighted lantern: and, observing the periods of the growing moon, as soon as a hen clucks she sets an uneven number of eggs under the hen, and after she handled them slowly, skillfully listens if inside the flightless chick is peeping and has broken the tender shell with its soft beak, and if is trying to come out.  

EDUCATIO. VICTUS.

BREEDING - FEEDING

Quamvis nulla non mulier Gallinaceum genus sciat educare: sunt tamen nonnulla praecepta a diligentissimis antiquis Geoponicis praescripta, quae illas non tantum, sed forte eruditos etiam latent. Qui itaque fructum ex his avibus percipere volet, fidum in primis aliquem eligat oportet. Nisi enim, qui curam habet Gallinarum, fidem domino servet, nullus ornithonis quaestus vincet impensas. Eiusmodi altor, qui nempe in Gallinarium scandit, et ova colligit, et quae incubantur, manibus versat, Gallinarius curator, vel custos recte dicetur.

Although every woman knows how to raise the chickens, there are nevertheless some precepts fixed by the very careful ancient geoponics which are unknown not only to women but perhaps also to people learned in these matters. He who wishes to gain profit from these birds should first choose someone he can trust. For unless the person who takes care of the hens keeps faith with his master no profit from poultry house will overcome the expenses. A breeder of this sort, who of course climbs up a hen house, collects the eggs, and turns them when in incubation, will rightly be called the caretaker or the guardian of hens’ house.

Cum vero pulli maiorem quam adultiores curam requirant, itaque de his prius dicemus: qui[2] iam exclusi singulis <nidis> Gallinarum statim subtrahendi sunt, subijciendique {alii} <aliae>, quae {paucioribus incubat} <paucos habet>, sed et huius rursus quae fovet, ova vel nondum concreta, et formata, aliis quarum ova eiusdem temporis sunt, supponi debent, ut una cum illis calefacta animentur. Columella[3] ea, qua excluduntur die, singulos tollere prohibet, sed una die in cubili sinere iubet cum matre, et aqua ciboque abstinere, donec caeteri excludantur, et postera die, cum iam grex fuerit effoetus, hoc modo deponere: Cribro vitiario[4], vel etiam loliario, quod iam fuerit in usu, pullos superponi, deinde pulegii surculis fumigari, quoniam ea res, pituitam quae celerrime teneros interficit, prohibere videatur. Posthac caveae iuxta eundem cum matre includendi sunt, et farre hordaceo cum <aqua> incocto, vel adoreo farre vino resperso modice alendi. Nam maxime cruditas vitanda est, et {obhoc} <ob hoc> tertia die cavea cum matre retinendi sunt, priusque quam emittantur, ad recentem cibum singuli tentandi, ne quid habeant in gutture, nam si vacua non est ingluvies, cruditatem significat; abstinerique debent, donec concoquant. Dum adhuc teneri sunt, non est permittendum longius evagari, sed circa caveam continendi sunt, et farina hordacea pascendi, donec iam robustiores evaserint.

Since the chicks require more care than more adult subjects, therefore I shall speak of them first. The chicks already hatched must be immediately withdrawn from each nest of the hens and must be placed under another hen who has less chicks; but conversely the eggs warmed by this hen which are not yet developed and formed ought to be placed under other hens whose eggs are of the same period, so that warmed together they can be vivified. Columella forbids us to remove chicks on the day on which they are hatched, but prescribes to leave them one day in the nest with the mother, and that they must to abstain from water and food, until the rest are hatched. And on next day when the flock has been hatched, to arrange them in this way: the chicks must be placed upon a vetch or darnel sieve which has already been used and then fumigate them with sprigs of pennyroyal - Mentha pulegium, since this seems to prevent the pip which kills the very young birds very swiftly. Subsequently they must be shut up in a hencoop with the mother nearby the summer savory itself and given a moderately large feeding of barley flour boiled in water or of wheat flour sprinkled with wine. For indigestion must be particularly avoided. Thus until third day the chicks should be kept in the hencoop with the mother and before they are sent out for fresh food, each should be touched to see if they have anything in their crops; for if their ingluvies is not empty this indicates digestive disorders and they should be kept away from food until they conclude the digestion. While they are quite young they should not be allowed to stray far but be kept around the hencoop and fed with barley flour until they become stronger.

Varro[5] quindecim primis diebus mane subiecto pulvere, ne scilicet tenellis rostris noceat terra dura exhibet polentam, cum nasturtii semine, et aquam prohibet, ne tum deinde in eorum corpore turgescat. {Dydimus} <Didymus[6]> porri[7] folia tenerrima cum caseo musteo contusa illis exhibet. Hordeum vero exactis duobus (sex ut habet codex Graecus, sed interpres mendum[8] suspicatur) mensibus offerri iubet. Democritus vermes laudat ex stercore asinino, vel {bovino} <equino>[9] genitos: quare id in capacia vasa colligi, inijcique vult. Nam decem diebus exactis nascuntur pullorum nutricationi percommodi. Sunt qui, ut multum, et cito crescant, testas, e quibus emerserunt, tunica interiore dempta, contritas, cum sale, et ovo cocto duro immisceant, et pullis primi alimenti loco apponant. Verum nostrae mulieres tanta diligentia non utuntur, et simul atque omnes exclusi sunt, mox vel saltem post biduum simul cum matre evagari sinunt, obviumque quidvis exhibent. Audio tamen apud Belgas primis octo, aut decem diebus caveae matrem includi, ne pulli longius abeant, et simul cum illa cibum sub cavea capiant, habereque ligneum quoddam vas vix palmum altum, in quo multa, plerunque vero duodecim cava sunt, et in his aquam pro potu imponi, ne si in ea incidant pulli submergantur.

In the first fifteen days in the morning, with dust laid down so that they not damage their tender beaks on the hard earth, Varro offers them barley polenta to eat with nasturtium seed and keeps them from water so that later the polenta will not swell inside of their bodies. Didymus - a geoponic - offers them very tender leaves of leek crushed with fresh cheese. He says barley should be given them when two months have passed (the Greek manuscript has six, but the translator suspects a mistake). Bolos of Mendes praises worms born from donkey or horse dung: therefore he prescribes it should be collected and thrown into large vessels. For when ten days have passed worms are born very suitable for feeding the chicks. There are people who, so that they may grow large and quickly, in place of their first food give the chicks the shells from which they emerged, with the inner tunic removed, ground up and mixed with salt and hard boiled egg. To tell the truth our women do not employ such great diligence and as soon as all chicks are hatched, immediately or at least two days after, allow them to wander with their mother and offer them whatever food. I hear that among Belgians, however, the chicks are kept in a coop with their mother for the first eight or ten days lest the chicks wander afar, and along with her they receive the food under the coop. And they also have a certain wooden vessel scarcely a palm high in which there are many holes, mostly twelve; they put drinking water in these holes, so that if chicks fall inside they don’t drown.

Quot vero pullos una Gallina educare debeat, cuivis notum est, dum quaeque suos tantum convocet. Quod si autem inter incubantes aliae plura aliis incubent, pulli aliquot ei subijci poterunt, quae pauciores habet: idque maxime faciendum, dum quae futura erat nutrix, nota est non bene educare. Columella[10] id omnino faciendum esse monet, dum mater suos, et alienos propter similitudinem dignoscere non potest, nempe prima die. Cavendum item ne plures quam triginta uni nutrici committantur. Negant enim omnes fere Geoponici hoc numero ampliorem gregem posse ab una nutriri. Sin autem Gallinarum aliqua suos deserat, timeasque ne ita [229] deserti intereant, cura, ut Gallus, vel Capus nutricis munere fungatur. Quod quomodo praestare possis, superiori capite[11] ex Io. Baptista Porta ostendi.

But how many chicks one hen can raise is known to anyone, as long as each hen calls together only her own. But if among incubating hens some sit on more eggs than others, some chicks may be placed under the hen which has fewer; this should be done particularly when the hen that is to be the future nurse is known to be a poor mother. Columella advises that this should be done by all means while the mother cannot as yet distinguish between her own chicks and those of other hens, that is, on the first day. Care should be taken not to commit more than thirty chicks to one nurse. For almost all geoponics affirm than a larger flock than this number cannot be raised by one nurse. But if some one of the hens deserts her chicks and you may fear lest so deserted they perish, see to it that a rooster or a capon takes on the duty of nurse. I have shown how you can accomplish this in the chapter above from Giambattista Della Porta.