Gallinam pullos deserere volentem agnosces inde, quod non iam amplius hispida sit, nec alas demittat, glocire desinat, et cum iis evagari nolit. Atque haec de pullorum cura dicta sint.

You will recognize a hen who wishes to desert her chicks by the fact that by now she is no longer ruffled nor lets down her wings, ceases to cluck, and does not wish to wander with them. Let this be said about the care of chicks.

Iam de parentum educatione aliquid dicendum superest. Eae si incubent, bis, mane scilicet et vesperi cibus offerendus est. Vagantium vero non alius cultus est, quam clausarum, nisi quod hae non emittantur, sed intra ornithonem ter die maiori mensura pascantur. Nam singulis capitibus, Columella[1] teste, quaterni cyathi[2] diurna cibaria sunt, cum terni, vel bini vagis praebeantur. Quid vero exhibendum paulo post dicemus.

Now something remains to be said about the care of their parents. If they are incubating they should be fed twice a day, in the morning and evening. But the care of wandering hens is no different from that of hens shut up except that the latter are not let out but are fed three times a day in larger measure inside the pen. To each hen, according to Columella, four cyathi - nearly 200 ml - of food should be given daily while three or two are given to wandering hens. What food is to be given I shall explain shortly after.

Locus, quo conversantur, Gallinarium dicitur: Gyb. Longolius officinam cohortalem appellari ait, quod, ut in nostris officinis cuncta parantur, quae in usum humanum veniunt, ita istic ova, et pulli, quae in cibum. Aviaria vero nominantur, ubi cicures atque omnium avium genera separata farciuntur. Haec aviaria ὀρνιθοβοσκεῖα Varroni dicuntur. Unde forte haud recte Calepinus ὀρνιθῶνα Gallinarium interpretatur. Nam praeterquam quod ea vox, teste Varrone[3], in villa pastionis genus, quale pariter περιστερῶνας[4] dicunt aviarium proprie significat: etsi interim minime negarim, et pro gallinario accipi. Nam Graeci cum omnem avem, ut diximus[5], tum Gallum Gallinamve per excellentiam ὄρνιν et ὄρνιθα nominant. Grapaldus πέταυρον interpretatur ex Polluce caveam, in qua sese cortis alites cubitum iturae recipiunt. Aristophanes[6], inquit Pollux[7], πέταυρον, nominat οὗ τοὺς ἐνοικίδιους ὄρνιθας ἐγκαθεύδειν συμβέβηκε. Verum ut Ornithol. conijcit, non Gallinarium totum πέταυρον nominari potest, sed tabula, vel asser, qui Varino dicitur σανίς, quasi πέτευδον παρὰ τὸ εὔδειν ἐν αὐτῷ, τὰ πετεινά.

The place where they live together is called poultry house: Gisbert Longolius says it is called barnyard workshop given that, as in our workshops are provided all those things for human use, so there are provided eggs and chicks, which become food. But are called aviaries those where tame fowls and distinct genera of all birds are fattened. These aviaries are called ornithoboskeîa in Varro. Hence perhaps wrongly Ambrogio Calepino translates ornithôna as gallinarium - poultry house. For besides this word, according to Varro, in farmhouse properly means aviary, as it is that kind of raising which likewise they call peristerônas: although I should not in the least meanwhile affirm that it is not meant for hen house. In fact Greeks, as I said, call both whatever bird and par excellence rooster or hen órnin and órnitha. Francesco Mario Grapaldi, from Julius Pollux, translates pétauron - poultry pen stick, planking - as poultry pen, into which barnyard fowls withdraw when are about to go to sleep. Giulio Polluce says that Aristophanes calls pétauron the place where domestic birds go to sleep - oû toús enoikídious órnithas enkatheúdein symbébëke. To tell the truth, as the Ornithologist conjectures, not the whole hen pen can be called pétauron, but a plank or a beam which by Varinus is called sanís - plank, as to say that the fowl jumped up on it to sleep - péteudon parà tò eúdein en autôi tà peteiná.

Sunt vero nostra gallinaria longe diversa ab illis, quae Columella[8], Varroque commendant. Nostra enim admodum exigua sunt, et vix quandoque gregem capientia, cum maximo saepe eius detrimento, nam cum bona pars saepe noctu excludatur, animalium noxiorum reliquuntur furumque rapinis. Non mirum itaque si tanta gallinariorum cura veteres incesserit, ut illa nobis exacte depinxerint. Iubent itaque, ut, ea parte villae, quae orientem spectat, constituantur, iuncta sint furno, vel Culinae, ut ad aves perveniat fumus, qui huic generi praecipue salutaris est, adeo ut Palladius[9] sufficere dixerit, ut fumo<,> pulvere, et cinere utantur. Unde etiamnum nostro aevo super furno, vel prope caminum saltem aedificantur.

But our hen pens are far different from those which Columella and Varro recommend. For ours are quite small and sometimes scarcely hold the flock, often with great damage of it since a large part is often shut out at night and is left as prey to harmful animals and thieves. It is no wonder if ancients took such care of their hen houses, so much as they described them accurately for us. Therefore they urge that they should be built in that part of farmhouse facing east, joined with wood-burning oven or kitchen so that the smoke may reach the birds, since it is especially healthful for this genus, so that it is sufficient for them, according to Palladius, to use smoke, dust and cinders. Hence still in our age hen pens are built upon an oven or at least near a fireplace.

Totius autem officinae, inquit Columella, tres continuae extruuntur cellae, (sed forte pro plurimo gregis numero, nam Varro pro ducentis duas caveas coniunctas constituendas monet) quarum perpetua frons orienti sit obversa. In ea deinde fronte exiguus detur omnino aditus mediae cellae, quae ipsa tribus minima esse debet in altitudinem, et quoque versus pedes septem: in ea singuli dext<e>ro, laevoque pariete aditus ad utramque cellam faciendi sunt, iuncti parieti, qui est intrantibus adversus. Huic autem focus applicetur tam longus, ut nec impediat praedictos aditus, et ab eo fumus perveniat ad utramque cellam, eaeque longitudinis, et altitudinis duodenos pedes habeant, nec plus latitudinis quam media<:> sublimitas{:} divida{n}tur tabulatis quae supra se quaternos, et infra septenos liberos pedes habeant, quoniam ipsa singulos occupant. Utraque tabulata Gallinis servire debent, et ea parvis ab oriente singulis illuminari fenestellis, quae et ipsae matutinum praebeant exitum avibus ad cohortem, nec minus {ad} vespertinum introitum, sed curandum erit, ut semper noctibus claudantur, quo tutius aves maneant. Intra tabulata maiores fenestrae aperiantur, et eae clatris muniantur, ne possint noxia irrepere animalia. Sic tamen ut illustria sint loca, quo commodius habitent, aviariusque subinde debet speculari aut incubantis, aut parturientis foetus.

Well, Columella says three adjacent rooms are built to form the entire workshop (but perhaps for a very big number of subjects, since Varro recommends two pens joined together be built for two hundred birds) and the whole front of them should face east. Then in this front a very small entrance should be made for the middle cell, which should be the smallest of the three cells and whose height and each other side must be of seven feet. Inside this cell in right and left partition wall must be made a single entrance adjacent the wall facing those who enter the central cell. To this wall a hearth must be attached of a length that will not block the aforesaid entrances and so that from it the smoke may reach each of the other two cells, which should be twelve feet long and high and have no more width than the middle cell. The height should be divided by planks which must keep clear four feet above and seven below since the planks take up a foot each. Both planks should serve the hens and furthermore must be lighted by small windows on east side which may also offer an exit for the birds into the poultry yard in the morning as well as an entrance in the evening; but care should be taken to keep them always closed at night so that the birds may remain with greater security. Below the planks larger windows should be opened up and protected with gratings so that harmful animals may not creep in. The rooms should be kept well lighted in order that they can stay rather well, and the poultry keeper rather often must keep an eye on incubating or hatching hen.

Nam etiam in iis locis ita crassos parietes aedificare convenit, ut excisa per ordinem, Gallinarum cubilia recipiant: in quibus aut ova edantur, aut excludantur pulli. Hoc enim et salubrius, et elegantius est, quam illud quod <quidam> faciunt, ut palis in parietes vehementer actis, vimineos qualos super imponant. {Sic} <Sive> autem parietibus, ita, ut diximus<,> cavatis, aut qualis vimineis praeponenda erunt vestibula, per quae matrices ad cubilia vel pariendi, vel incubandi causa perveniunt. Neque enim debent ipsis nidis involare, ne dum assiliunt, pedibus ova confringant, ascensus deinde avibus ad tabulata per utramque <cellam> datur iunctis parieti modicis asserculis, qui paulum formatis gradibus asperantur, ne sint advolantibus lubrici. Sed ab {hac} cohorte fori{e}nsecus praedictis fenestellis scandulae similiter in<i>ungantur, quibus irrepant aves ad requiem nocturnam. Maxime autem curabimus ut et haec aviaria, et caetera, de quibus mox dicturi sumus intrinsecus, et extrinsecus poliantur opere tectorio, ne ad aves feles habeant{;} aut coluber accessum, et aeque noxiae prohibeantur pestes.

For also in these rooms it is advisable to made walls so thick that they may hold the hollow nests of the hens in a row, in which the hens may lay eggs or hatch chicks. For this solution is both more healthy and neat than what some people do, that is, when they drive pegs into the walls and place wicker baskets on them. And in front of the spaces hollowed out in the walls so as I said, or of the wicker baskets, little entrances must be placed through which the females can pass to their nests for either laying eggs or incubating them. For they must not fly into the nests themselves, so that when jumping on them lest they break the eggs with their feet. Furthermore through both rooms an ascent for the birds to the planks is provided by small pegs fixed to the wall; these should be roughened a little with grooves formed on them so that they are not slippery when the birds fly on them. But outside, on the barnyard’s side, similarly little ladders should be fixed to the aforesaid little windows, on which the birds may creep to their nightly rest. But great care should be taken that both these aviaries, and the others about which I shall soon be speaking, be kept polished with plaster both inside and outside so that the beech marten or a snake may have no access to the birds and that likewise harmful diseases may be excluded.

Tabulatis insistere dormientem avem non expedit, ne suo laedatur stercore, quod cum pedibus uncis adhaesit, podagram creat. Ea pernicies ut evitetur, perticae dolantur in quadrum, ne teres laevitas earum supersilientem volucrem non recipiat: conquadratae [230] deinde foratis duobus adversis parietibus induuntur, ita ut a tabulato pedalis altitudinis, et inter se bipedalis latitudinis spatio distent.

It is unsuitable that a sleeping bird rests on the planks in order to not be damaged by its own dung, because once this adhered to its hooked feet creates podagra - bumblefoot. To avoid this injury the perches should be cut square lest their rounded smoothness fails to give the bird a purchase on them when flying up. When squared, the perch poles should be inserted into holes in two walls facing each other so that they rise a foot above the plank and two feet distant each other.