[233] Pluma omnis in capite, sub alis, atque clunibus {detergatur} <detergetur[1]>, illic ne pediculos creet, hic ne stercore naturalia laedantur. Varro[2] ex alis, et cauda pennas evelli iubet. Florentinus extremas, quare et hae{c} eximi poterunt. Substernatur mundissima palea, vel molle foenum. Nam si dure cubent, non facile pinguescunt.

Every feather on head, under wings, and on buttocks should be cleaned, to prevent that they give rise to lice in first two areas, in the latter point to keep their genital parts from being damaged by dung. Varro advises the feathers should be plucked from wings and tail. Florentinus says the outermost ones, therefore these also can be plucked. The cleanest straw must be spread underneath, or soft hay. For if they lie down on something hard they do not easily grow fat.

At non obesas tantum, sed in cibo etiam longe suaviores fore promittunt omnes ferme rei rusticae scriptores, si farina hordeacea recenti aqua mulsa conspersa exhibeatur. Unde Columella[3], postquam, ut videtur, ex Varrone, apud quem eadem leges, nisi quod simplicem eam aquam dulcem vocet, simplici eam aqua conspergit, et ita offas ex eadem fieri iussit, primisque diebus dari parcius, donec plus concoquere consuescant: quod  cruditas vitanda sit maxime, tantumque praebendum, quantum digerere possint: neque ante recens exhibenda, quam tentato gutture apparuerit nihil veteris escae remansisse. Nam illi, inquit, qui volunt non solum opimas, sed etiam teneras aves efficere, mulsa {recente} <recenti> aqua praedicti generis farinam conspergunt, {atque infarciunt} <et ita farciunt>.

But almost all writers on agriculture assure that they will not only be obese but much more tasteful if they are fed on barley meal sprinkled with water recently mixed with honey. Hence Columella, who seemingly gathered it from Varro in whose book you will read the same things, after he simply called water that sweet water, he sprinkles barley meal with unmixed water, and after he prescribed little balls to be made, to be given sparingly in the first days until they get accustomed to digest them in larger amount: since indigestion is to be avoided by all means, and only so much food should be given as they can digest: and, before new food is given, their crop is to be touched lest any previous food remained in it. He says: For those who wish to make hens not only fat, but also tender, they sprinkle meal of aforementioned kind with fresh hydromel, and thus they fatten them.

Nonnulli, teste Varrone[4], pane triticeo, vino optimo ac odorato madefacto, et aqua praedicta opimant, ita ut viginti diebus pingues reddant, et teneras. Alii, inquit Columella, tribus aquae partibus unam boni vini miscent, madefactoque eodem pane obesant: et hoc modo farctam avem, quae prima Luna (quoniam id quoque custodiendum est) saginari {caepta} <coepta>, vigesima pergliscere tradit. Varro[5] turundis hordeaceis partim {admistis} <admixtis> {ex} farina {hordeacea} <lolleacia>, aut semine lini ex aqua dulci farciri scribit, idque facere iubet usque ad dies vigintiquinque tum denique pingues fieri. Laudatur Florentino etiam milium. Et panicum ad Gallinarum Columbarumque saginam potius datur, quam ad hominum alimentum. Cardanus author est, Gallinas si pingui lacertae salnitro cyminoque farinam tritici miscueris et hoc cibo eas saginaveris, adeo pinguescere hominesque qui eis aluntur, ita pinguefieri, ut disrumpantur[6].

Some, Varro is witness, fatten them with wheat bread soaked in very good and fragrant wine as well as in the aforementioned water, so that they can grow fat and tender in twenty days. Others, Columella says, mix one part of good wine with three parts of water, and with the same soaked bread they fatten them: and he says a hen fattened in this way, which begun to be fattened at the beginning of new moon (since also this must be observed) finishes its fattening by the twentieth day. Varro writes that they are stuffed with barley mash partly mixed with darnel flour or flaxseeds kneaded with running water, and he prescribes to do this for twenty-five days, and then they become fat. Millet is also praised by Florentinus. Also foxtail millet is given for fattening hens and pigeons rather than for feeding humans. Gerolamo Cardano asserts that hens, if you will mix wheat flour with a fat lizard, saltpeter and cumin, and you will nourish them with this food, they fatten up to such an extent, as well as humans eating them grow fat to such an extent that they burst.

Io. Iacobus Weckerus[7] eiusmodi sese secretum ab Hollando quodam accepisse tradit, ut Gallinae pinguescant. In culina, inquit, facias tibi capsam, pluribus interstinctam capsulis, singulis cum suis foraminibus, per quae capita extrudere foras possint Gallinae, cibumque capere. His itaque capsulis, Gallinae iuvenes, vel pulli incarcerentur, singulae singulis: cibusque singulis horis offeratur, parum pro vice potu interdicto. Cibus autem sit triticum in aqua modice elixum. Oportet autem capsulas inferius esse pervias, ut excrementa permeare possint singulis diebus diligenter auferenda. Caeterum ultra duas hebdomadas inclusas Gallinas esse non oportet: prae nimia enim pinguedine interirent. Haec ille. Audio etiam apud eosdem populos insigniter pinguescere, et cito, si cervisia eis in potu apponatur pro aqua, item si reliquiis eiusdem cervisiae pascantur, sed et ova ita plura, maioraque, parere.

Johann Jacob Wecker reports that he learned from a certain Dutchman the following secret about how hens grow fat. He says: in the kitchen you should make a box divided up into many little boxes, each of them with its own hole through which the hens can thrust their heads and take food. Then pullets or cockerels are imprisoned in these boxes, one pullet in each box: and food is given them hourly, on the contrary the drink is forbidden  in dribs and drabs. Furthermore their food should be wheat a little soaked in water. Then it is advisable that compartments are open underneath so that the excrements may pass through and each day must be carefully carried away. The hens should not be shut up, however, for more than two weeks: for they may die from too much fat. Thus far Wecker. I also hear that among those same people they grow very fat and swiftly if beer is given to drink instead of water, likewise if they are fed on the dregs of beer, but thus they lay more and larger eggs as well.

Columella[8], Plinius, et Florentinus[9], cum ad partum promovendum, tum ad saginandum, Cytisum miro modo {comedant} <commendant>, eamque propterea in agro haberi plurimum referre. Paucae enim regiones sunt, e quibus non possit eiusmodi arbuscula haberi. Columella eius folia {ieiunis}[10], seminaque maxime probari ait: et alibi[11] etiam non Gallinis tantum, sed omni pecudum generi utilissimum praedicat, quod ex eo cito pinguescat. Plinius {Aristomachum[12]} <Amphilochum> viridem cytisum Gallinis dari iubere scribit, aut si aruerit, madefactum. Denique Florentinus[13] eius semina, et folia arida aqua perfusa offerri praecipit quippe quae non minus quam viridia eas nutriant. Eiusmodi Gallinas, quae hoc modo saginabantur, altiles, et farctas vocant, earumque nutritionem saginationem. Iam vero non omnes aptas censebant teste Plinio[14], sed eas tantum, quae pinguem in cervice cutem haberent. Sed quia nostra aetas Capos potius, quam Gallinas saginet, itaque eiusmodi victus Capis etiam praescribi poterit, de quibus suo loco[15] post fusius dicemus.

Columella, Pliny, and Florentinus especially recommend the cytisus both for increasing eggs laying and for fattening, and therefore it is very advantageous to have it in the farm. For there are few regions from which a shrub of this kind cannot be obtained. Columella says its leaves and seeds are highly appreciated: and elsewhere declares that it is very useful not only for hens but for every kind of animals, because thanks to it they grow fat swiftly. Pliny writes that Amphilochus of Athens - not Aristomachus of Soli - recommends green cytisus be given to hens, or moist if it is dried up. Finally, Florentinus advises that its dry seeds and leaves soaked in water should be fed to hens, since they nourish them no less than the green ones. They call hens fattened in this manner altiles and farctae, and they call saginatio their nutrition. But on the other hand, according to Pliny, not all hens were considered suitable for fattening, but only those who had a fat skin on their necks. But since our age preferably fattens capons rather than hens, it is then possible to prescribe the same food also for capons, about whom I shall speak later more widely in its proper place.

Quod si cibum respuant, fastidiantve, totidem diebus, inquit Varro[16], minuere oportebit quot iam farturae processerint: ita tamen ne tempus omne opimandi quintam, et vigesimam lunam superveniat. Idem Columella, Cato[17], et reliqui Geoponici bis die cibum offerunt. Parum tamen refert, si pluries dederis: modo id observes, ut cruditatem vites, quod praestabis, si cum iterum cibum oblaturus, guttur examines: si enim prior descendit, iterum dandus alius, si non, nequaquam. Qui itaque saepe offerre volunt, ut Hollandus ille, de quo diximus, faciebat, parum exhibeant, idque facilis digestionis.

But if they reject food or show aversion for it, Varro says that it will be suitable to reduce it for as many days as they began to be fattened: in such a manner however that all the time devoted to fattening does not exceed twenty five lunar days. Columella, Cato, and the other geoponics themselves give food twice a day. It matters little, however, if you feed them again and again: you must only to pay attention to this, that is, to avoid indigestion, which you can accomplish by inspecting their crop when you are about to give food again: for if the previous feeding has descended then you must feed them again, otherwise not at all. Therefore those who, like that Dutchman of whom I spoke, wish to feed them often, they must give them little food and easy to digest.

Quod vero ad potum attinet: si farciantur, Cato meridie tantum dari praecipit, aquamque non plus, quam unam horam ante sinendam. Quae pariunt, et in corte divagantur, potum tota die postulant, isque nequaquam negandus, maxime, si aestus fuerit: sitis enim non aliter ac nobis hisce avibus nocet. Aqua autem mundissima sit[18]. Nam stercorosa pituitam concitat: quare cohors per quam vagantur, non tam stercore, quam uligine careat: quae res cum diligentissimum etiam custodem nimia assiduitate stercus colligendi torqueret, aquam tamen interim mundissimam esse oporteat, vasa in hunc usum fabricata clausa habere debebit. Ea autem talia sint, qualia his verbis Columella describit.

As far as drinking is concerned: if they are fattened, Cato advises drinking be given only at midday, and that water does not remain in front of them more than one hour. Those who are laying and wandering in the barnyard seek drinking all day long, and it should not be denied them nowise, especially in hot weather: for thirst harms these birds just as ourselves. But the water must be very clean. For if it is filthy with excrements causes the pip, whence the yard in which they wander must be free not so much from dung as from moisture: this fact, while should torment the most careful keeper in order that he gathers the dung very assiduously, however at the same time it would be necessary that he arranges the water be very clean, and he must have available closed vessels made for this use. And they should be such as Columella describes them by the following words.