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 m 
 
 GUIDE- 
 POST - 
 
 
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 A-^ ^', 
 
 iamc^J.^ice 
 
 L^MEMORIAL POULTRY LIBRARY 
 
 friends and admirers 
 
 ^>VWV«v»VWY»VWy«VWY«-v »VVWy»Vvyv»«T 
 
 ALBERT R. MANN LIBRARY 
 New ^'ork State Colleges 
 
 OF 
 
 Agriculture and Home Economics 
 
 AT 
 
 Cornell University 
 
SF 487.P23'"^" """^'^'<y Library 
 ,,|^°"!»fy9"'c'epost. 
 
 ^^M 
 
 DATE DUE Z/ 
 
 GAYLORD 
 
 1970 
 
 PH1NTE01NU,S.A. 
 
The original of tiiis book is in 
 tine Cornell University Library. 
 
 There are no known copyright restrictions in 
 the United States on the use of the text. 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924003181884 
 
POULTRY GUIDE POST 
 
lEMl 
 
 ^i IMI 
 
POULTRY 
 GUIDE POST 
 
 BY 
 PHILIP R. PARK 
 
 ILLUSTRATED BY 
 
 HENRY C. GROVER 
 
 PUBLISHED BY 
 
 THE PARK & POLLARD COMPANY 
 
 BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 
 
-ITT 
 PZ 3 
 
 COPYRIGHT 1912 BY 
 
 THE PARK & POLLARD COMPANY 
 
 BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 
 
 PRESS OF 
 
 THE KENNEBEC JOURNAL 
 
 AlIQUSTA, MAINE 
 
FOREWORD 
 
 HILE the terms used in the following pages are 
 in most cases descriptive of common articles 
 of trade, the names may be new to some of 
 our readers so we take this opportunity to ex- 
 plain our meaning more clearly. 
 
 Egg- Feed as used herein refers to a mixture 
 of ground grain, corn, wheat, oats, barley or 
 kaffir corn mixed with mill feeds, bran, mid- 
 dlings or shorts, ground Alfalfa, a little salt and 
 some animal matter like meat scraps or finely 
 ground fish, ( a non oily variety preferred ). 
 This mixture is not to be fed wet but abso- 
 lutely dry in proper dishes or feeding devices 
 kept constantly before the birds. 
 
 Scratch Feed is the name used for a combination of wheat, oats, 
 barley, cracked corn, buckwheat, kaffir corn and sunflower seeds. 
 Other combinations may be used and the proportion and quantity 
 of the grains will necessarily vary from time to time, with the 
 market. Always be careful that the feed contains nothing musty, 
 mouldy or tainted. 
 
 Chick feed means a mixture of small sized cracked grain and 
 seeds, and usually consists of cracked wheat, corn, kaffir, millet, 
 canary seed, oats, — and in some of the best a little dried fish, which 
 acts as a relish and stimulant. 
 
 Growing Feed is a mixture of whole 
 with meat food added before grinding, 
 effective feed when properly prepared. 
 
 grains ground together 
 It makes a wonderfully 
 
Foreword 
 
 System 
 
 Pointers 
 
 Income 
 
 Opportunity 
 
 Feeding 
 
 Housing - 
 
 Don'ts 
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 Page One 
 
 Page eighteen 
 
 Page sixty-nine 
 
 Page eighty-five 
 
 Page One hundred one 
 
 Page One hundred seventeen 
 
 Page One hundred thirty-one 
 
OU have all heard of the 
 famous sayings of Louis D. 
 Brandeis, during the recent 
 rate hearings before the 
 Interstate Commerce Com- 
 mission at Washington, — 
 that he could show the rail- 
 coun- 
 
 ' ; !^j road managers of thi 
 ''■^^^ try wherein they could save 
 a million dollars per day in 
 their expense accounts. 
 
 We are equally certain 
 that we could show the 
 poultrymen of this country 
 wherein thev could save for 
 themselves an equal amount, and when saved it 
 means much more than the corresponding in- 
 crease in their profit account, for in many cases 
 it signifies the doubling or trebling of the profit, 
 and in most instances, the turning of what had 
 been losses into good profits. 
 
 Professor Adams, of the Rhode Island Agri- 
 cultural Experimental Station, recently made the 
 statement that if the corn growing literature and 
 
 Page One 
 
POULTRY GUIDE POST 
 
 m 
 
 h 
 
 lectures going on in this country had increased 
 the yield one kernel per ear, this added increase 
 would amount to $1,800,000.00 in the pockets of 
 the farmers of the United States. 
 
 Now we are going to show you where you can 
 increase your efficiency 10% to 50%, and if this 
 1 J is extended to every poultryman in the country, 
 the added revenue would amount to more than 
 the National House of Representatives could 
 spend in a double session working overtime. 
 
 And why should not the poultryman take just 
 as careful a survey of his losses and drawbacks 
 ^^ as the business man? Think of it! Probably 
 ^j the average large business of this country is 
 ^ done on a less than 5% net profit, and it is safe 
 to state that the dealers in feed stuffs and the 
 necessaries of life, get less than 2% net profit. 
 It is easy to see that these business men could 
 not allow a loss in the process of 
 manufacture of 90% — nearly equal- 
 ling their total sales. They would 
 be camping on the trail of the fore- 
 man who allowed any such waste 
 of raw materials, and they would 
 camp there just long enough to get 
 a new man for the job. But we 
 poultry raisers, in our optimistic 
 manner say, — "\^'ell, I am doing 
 better than Bill Smith, because he 
 lost all his chickens and I only lost two-thirds of 
 mine. We \\ill run the incubator another hatch 
 and these chicks will only be three weeks behind." 
 And so we excuse ourselves in the most dia- 
 
 ^ SI 
 
 Page Tzco 
 
SYSTEM 
 
 bolical slip-shod fashion, and content ourselves 
 with records because they are no worse than 
 the other fellow's. 
 
 We have no knowledge of any business out- 
 side of highway robbery that could stand any 
 such losses as the poultrymen experience year 
 after year, and swallow with apparently little, or 
 no thought. For instance, not many years ago 
 the writer was called to suggest a remedy for a 
 plant that was losing a large percentage of its 
 chickens before they were three weeks of age. 
 In the course of the conversation, in getting the 
 facts of the case, the owner made the statement 
 that he had hatched that season 15,000 chicks, — 
 and he had raised less than 1500! Nevertheless 
 the plant is still running. The owner is still in 
 charge. It must be paying or there would have 
 been a change of ownership before this time. 
 Another owner made the statement that he 
 has been raising chickens twenty years, and he 
 would guarantee that he had buried as many 
 pounds of poultry as he had marketed ! 
 
 Did you ever stop and consider that there is 
 a right good reason why every egg does not 
 hatch, and an equally good reason why every 
 chick that chips the shell does not grow 
 to maturity? And the chances are that 
 you are just as innocent as guilty of this 
 frightful mortality. 
 
 You, in your enthusiasm, want to take 
 particularly good care of your breeding 
 stock, so with great pains, much time, and some 
 cash, you very carefully cork up any opening of 
 
 Page Three 
 
POULTRY GUIDE POST | [!^g ^{(fi^||gjij^j^ 
 
 'oir 
 
 Won 
 
 race old 
 mdhds 
 d(jdinjt 
 jiiodeui 
 
 efficiemy) 
 'J 
 
 _M-<U'< 
 
 any kind in your poultry house. You feel that 
 you are doing them a particular kindness, and 
 you see to it that the wind is tempered, and that 
 your pets never get out of doors on the cold 
 ground in anything but pleasant weather. 
 
 The result of this smothering is seen in your 
 various tests of eggs in the incubator. One- 
 third are not fertile. One-third die between the 
 first and second tests, a 25% hatch results, and 
 the mortality keeps right on after they are 
 hatched ; for not having yet been convinced of 
 the vitalizing effect of the air upon your old 
 fowls, you are equally painstaking with the 
 babies, and they are kept in super-heated brood- 
 ers that kill off all but the very strong, and quite 
 frequently make a good clean job of it — and take 
 the whole lot. 
 
 Let us see how this will figure out. A\"e will 
 start with 300 eggs. One hundred infertile, 
 leaves 200 in the machine, and 100 of these 
 drop out before the final test, and we get out 
 perhaps 75 chickens. 
 
 Placing these in heated brooders that have 
 always killed more or less, we find 
 that we have 35 chicks of two pound 
 weight to go to the roosting coop or 
 market, and we will call them worth 
 50c. each. 
 
 Now we will start on the increased efficiency 
 plan with ,- n equal number of eggs, but these 
 eggs were laid bv hens kept in open front 
 houses — same houses costing less than the 
 other kind, — the open air treatment result- 
 
 Paac Four 
 
SYSTEM 
 
 ing in greatly increased vitality. We find only 
 io% of the eggs infertile, and we only lose 
 about an equal number between the first and 
 second tests. This leaves about 250 eggs in 
 the machine, and when the hatch is due we 
 get a full 200 chicks that are full of ginger 
 and snap. 
 
 Here we find the increased efficiency program 
 has given us 200 strong, hardy chicks from the 
 same number of eggs, the same care and atten- 
 tion that yielded us only 75 second grade young- 
 sters on the old style plan. 
 
 In brooding the babies after they are hatched, 
 more wonderful and startling comparisons are 
 found. We place the 200 efficiency chickens 
 that have started life's battle with a strong deter- 
 mination to live, in eight heatless brooders and 
 follow directions. Here the air conditions and 
 heat conditions are almost identical with Nature's 
 own methods, and at the end of three weeks we 
 have 100 chickens, while with the 75 chickens in 
 a heated brooder, heated to a degree recommend- 
 ed by the manufacturer, and maintained with 
 greater or less success — it is usually found at 
 the end of three weeks that we have about half 
 as many chickens as we started with, and we 
 pass it up as the usual mortality, and go on 
 grinding out more to run the same gamut of 
 trouble. 
 
 The modern higher efficiency method costs 
 much less to install and has everything to rec- 
 ommend it so far as economy of time and ex- 
 pense is concerned, and you may well ask, "\A'hy 
 
 Z5 Hatched 
 
 Z5 Half 6rovn 
 
 r^ 
 
 
 ZZ leacli maturiLx 
 
 Page Five 
 
l^l\:,J^ ^J^\ POULTRY GUIDE POST ]^^ ^ ^ 
 
 do the other conditions exist?" The only answer 
 is, "The skeptical mind of the public." 
 
 So much for the difference between the hous- 
 ing of the old breeding stock, and the brooding 
 of the chickens up to three weeks of age. 
 
 Comparing the Feeding System, we find a still 
 larger waste that could be corrected. The aver- 
 age method of chicken feeding is on the plan 
 of keeping the chickens hungry, relying upon 
 their keen appetites to correct the inefficiency of 
 their diet. They feed boiled eggs, cracker 
 crumbs, corn meal, oats, johnny cakes, cracked 
 corn, meat scraps, wet mashes, and many other 
 combinations, alternating between half starved 
 conditions and five-minute gorging processes, 
 that pass as feeding time. 
 
 As against this we have the modern efficiency 
 method, using Growing Feed, which should be 
 a combination of meat and grains ground to- 
 gether into a most palatable ration, kept always 
 before the chickens from one week's age to ma- 
 turity. This feed is always within easy access 
 of the entire flock. Each member has forty 
 feeds or more per day, takes it as his appetite 
 craves, and finds an unending supply. Never 
 from the end of the first week does any mem- 
 ber of the flock realize what the pangs of real 
 hunger mean. The result is: market chickens 
 in beautiful condition two weeks to two months 
 ahead of the old plan chickens, and pullets from 
 one to two pounds heavier at the same age, 
 rounded out before laying as perfectly as year- 
 ling hens. 
 
 Page Six 
 
SYSTEM 
 
 Did you ever stop and consider the various 
 processes that the feed goes through in the diges- 
 tive economy of a chicken? We think it is not 
 recorded who first advocated feeding ground 
 feeds wet to poultry, but we all did it, and many 
 of us are doing it today. 
 
 Why? Because our fathers and mothers did 
 it. Now, we all admit that the best laying and 
 the best growth cannot be obtained by feeding 
 hard, unground grain, because we have so 
 developed the birds' appetites that their intes- 
 tines are capable of digesting the food much 
 faster than the gizzards can break up and grind 
 whole grain. 
 
 Thus, we find that growing chicks, or laying 
 hens, make much more rapid growth, lay more 
 eggs or make a more complete development 
 when fed ground grain. The reason, as we sfi 
 see it, is as follows : When fed on wet mash j» 
 in the morning they gobble down a cropful in 
 five minutes or less time ; practically no saliva "^ 
 is mixed with the food in the process. This 
 cropful of food is mildly attacked by the juices 
 of the crop, which can only penetrate the out- 
 side of the mass before the inside sours. The 
 passing of the food through the mouth so rap- 
 idly, and the gorging of the crop, practically 
 throws all the work that should have been done 
 previously, upon the intestines. 
 
 In this way less of the food is digested, and 
 more or less irritation arises, causing a tendency 
 to bowel trouble, and less efficiency in the num- 
 ber of eggs and growth of the bird. 
 
 Page Seven 
 
POULTRY GUIDE POST 
 
 Now, when the birds eat ground Growing 
 Feed or Egg Feed, they take the feed very 
 slowly, mixing it thoroughly with the saliva 
 before swallowing, (they cannot swallow it if 
 they do not), the feed passes into the crop 
 slowly, and is rapidly saturated with the strong, 
 digestive acids of this organ. 
 
 It seems to us that this step in the digestive 
 process is entirely overlooked by the advocates 
 of wet mash feeding. It really seems as though 
 the wet mash feeders must consider the crop as 
 only a stopping station, or reservoir, for the food 
 to rest in before passing to the gizzards and in- 
 testines. AVe know that a very important work 
 is performed in the digestive process in the 
 crop, and that the dry feeding method, recogniz- 
 ing this, gets a much higher percentage of ef- 
 ficiency out of the feed, and incidentally, main- 
 tains the birds in a much higher standard of 
 health. 
 
 Here the work of digestion is very thorough- 
 ly started before the feed passes along the ali- 
 mentary canal through the intestines, and this 
 supplementary work which Nature intended 
 should be done before the intestines are reachetl, 
 makes the process much easier and more thor- 
 ough. 
 
 With the newly hatched chicken its destiny is 
 practically made or wrecked during the first 
 three weeks of its existence. If it finds itself 
 
 ^:ij% 
 
 2r? 
 
 ■^s-c 
 
 Poiic Eight 
 
SYSTEM 
 
 in the land of plenty, with the proper food al- 
 ways within reach, it widens out into a broad 
 gauged chicken, building a digestive system 
 capable of assimilating large quantities of food, 
 and grows into a larger bird than its parents, 
 matures and ripens into one of those wide- 
 tailed, square-bodied, heavy-limbed birds, that 
 are a delight to us all. The pullets are ripe 
 at five or six months of age, and produce 
 eggs plentifully the full year through, and 
 with utter disregard of outside weather con- 
 ditions. 
 
 On the other hand, if the birds are brought 
 up and cared for by one of our skimpy feeders, 
 who thinks that they must be kept hungry all the 
 time, the chickens develop into the thinner stock, 
 who have been taught from infancy to look upon 
 a square meal as a mistake ; these mistakes oc- 
 curring at such rare intervals that the birds can- 
 not accumulate a surplus from which to manu- 
 facture eggs. In case a change of ownership 
 gives them the benefit of full feeding, it takes 
 them a long time to get over the shock, and it is 
 a number of weeks especially in the fall of the 
 year, before they get well ripened, matured, and 
 ready to start laying ; and they never have the 
 capacity to take in and properly digest the large 
 quantities of food, that is necessary for the most 
 profitable egg production. 
 
 and ) 
 
 Page Nine 
 
POULTRY GUIDE POST 
 
 ifj )\ 
 
 ifi 
 
 o5ft. 
 
 ^ 
 
 €ii 
 
 'i? 
 
 When the chick is first hatched, it has recently 
 absorbed the yolk of the egg in the intestinary 
 chamber, and this furnishes a portion of its food 
 for the next ten days, after which time, in a 
 normally healthy chicken, it disappears. 
 
 Now, during this ten-day period, with the yolk 
 to draw on, it is easy to realize that no more 
 animal fat should be added to the ration. But 
 the chickens crave animal food, and grow much 
 better when fed a ration that contains this lean 
 meat, without the fat. 
 
 Here again the Cod Fish furnishes just the de- 
 sired element, and nothing else that we have 
 found answers the purpose. Meat Scraps uni- 
 formly contain from io% to 20% fat. 
 
 Going back to the three-weeks-old chickens, let 
 us follow the housing system and general care, 
 aside from the feeding. 
 
 Most modern heated brooders are too large 
 for the babies, and too small for the four 
 to six-weeks-old youngsters, unless, as usually 
 occurs. Dame Nature has reduced the flock to 
 one-half or one-third of the original number. 
 The result is crowding in uncomfortable quar- 
 ters at night, and much loss of efficiency in their 
 general discontent, and much loss to the vitality 
 and economy. Chickens cannot make satisfac- 
 tory gains when living in bad air, in too small 
 coops, or when suffering from insufficient food 
 or improperly balanced rations, or in too large 
 flocks (one hundred chickens running together 
 and roosting in quarters about right in size for 
 twenty-five chickens). 
 
 P(ii7<' Ten 
 
SYSTEM 
 
 Twenty-five chickens properly cooped and fed 
 will make as many pounds gain upon one-half 
 the food consumed, as will fifty chickens improp- 
 erly housed and fed, and the strangest part of 
 the whole story is that the increased efficiency 
 plan takes no more, in fact takes less, labor than 
 the old plan, and brings much quicker returns. 
 This higher efficiency method gives us full, plump 
 broilers and roasters, ready for market or table 
 at five minutes' notice. The other method gives 
 us broilers and roasters only after a fattening 
 process, two to four weeks behind the other, and 
 from one-half to two pounds less in weight. 
 
 We have taken the chicken through the grow- 
 ing period and marketing age, to the laying pen. 
 From our original three hundred eggs we have 
 ninety to one hundred strong, heavy, well ma- 
 tured efficiency pullets, as against the twenty to 
 thirty-five pullets that matured one to three 
 weeks later, and which were one to two pounds 
 each less in weight on the old plan. 
 
 The old style method takes the twenty to thir- 
 ty-five pullets, places them in a nice warm house, 
 with plenty of glass, feeds them a hot mash in 
 the morning, keeps them more or less suffocated 
 all winter through, reproducing the same kind 
 of eggs and chickens the following spring; 
 thereby perpetuating the general inefficiency 
 scheme. 
 
 The modern higher efficiency plan places these 
 large, well rounded-out pullets in houses costing 
 much less to construct, being one-third or more 
 open to the south, feeds them Egg Feed (before 
 
 TTie 
 Oui^. 
 
 
 Page Eleven 
 
POULTRY GUIDE POST 
 
 Fine "for 
 
 (Srowina 
 
 6to(iK. 
 
 them all the time) and throws Scratch Feed to 
 them once a day. The eggs start early and 
 continue to come all the fall and winter. They 
 hatch out the same kind of high efficiency chick- 
 ens, and the profits are assured. 
 
 These briefly are some of the reasons why 
 the dry feeding system produces so much better 
 results than the old way, and why its users are 
 uniformly successful. A trial of the method 
 will convince you. 
 
 The conditions we have portrayed as the re- 
 sults of the old plan actually exist on thousands 
 of poultry plants today. Here and there one 
 owner is considered lucky, while hundreds com- 
 plain that their birds do not do well, and rail at 
 the tariff, reciprocity, and have a general grouch. 
 Occasionally an owner knows that there must 
 be a reason why every egg fails to hatch, and a 
 reason why every chick dies. He earnestly tries 
 to arrest these troubles, follows our directions, 
 and accepts our statements, and though they seem 
 somewhat radical, has faith, tries them out, and 
 finds even better results than we have predicted. 
 
 We are glad to say that thousands of our fol- 
 lowers are today much more prosperous from 
 our teachings, but we realize that there are hun- 
 dreds of thousands yet to be con^•inced and put 
 upon the higher efficiency plane. 
 
 Page T'.vcire 
 
iw 
 
 SYSTEM 
 
 m'j^j^^.n 
 
 If you have been helped, won't you help your 
 neighbor ! 
 
 If you are still in the doubting column, won't 
 you make a few tests of these methods, and when 
 convinced hand along your good results, and help 
 spread the good work ? 
 
 If we all get together we can easily double 
 the poultry crop of the country, and thereby all 
 gain more returns and greater prosperity. 
 
 We consider poultry the most profitable crop 
 that can be raised today, and know that the profit 
 now derived from it can be doubled by this sys- 
 tem. 
 
 There are thousands of families struggling 
 along, striving to make the pay envelope satisfy 
 the butcher and grocery-man, who could keep 
 enough poultry in their back-yard to pay the 
 rent, and at the same time have all the fresh eggs 
 they could eat every morning. 
 
 And it does not require a great deal of room at 
 that. A space large enough to set a house 6x8 
 feet in size will do nicely for 15 or 18 hens, on 
 which a profit of from $30 to $50 a year can be 
 easily made, and the outlay need not be over 
 fifty dollars. 
 
 Smaller houses and flocks can be started and 
 as much larger as one cares to undertake, but 
 the point is that the thousands who might be 
 
 Page Thirteen 
 
POULTRY GUIDE POST 
 
 making $50.00 to $300.00 per year right in their 
 own yards are not getting ahead at all. 
 
 Look your back-yard over and see if you can- 
 not start. If not, look up another location with 
 back-yard poultry keeping in mind, and then get 
 in on the right basis and get a lead on the grocer. 
 
 Page Fourteen 
 
#n 
 
 POINTERS 
 
 We all admire an artist at his work and it does 
 not matter what that work is, if he is thoroughly 
 efficient. 
 
 This work may be painting pictures, render- 
 ing musical selections, selling goods, building a 
 house or raising a crop of potatoes or chickens, 
 but so long as he does it better than his com- 
 petitors or fellow workmen he commands our 
 respect and admiration. 
 
 Many times this efficiency will be recognized 
 as doing the right thing at the proper time and 
 in the right place. 
 
 In caring for poultry, little things done at the 
 proper time will be found to go to make up the 
 success of a venture. 
 
 On the following pages we have attempted to 
 set down the most important of the little things 
 to be looked after each month during that 
 month. To the beginner we know they will 
 prove very helpful in removing needless worry 
 and in simplifying the business. To the old 
 hand at the business they will be found a daily 
 reminder of things that are sometimes over- 
 looked in the stress of the work. 
 
 Page Fifteen 
 
m' 
 
 POULTRY GUIDE POST 
 
 While the chronological order is set for the 
 climate of New England, with slight modifi- 
 cations they will be found to fit almost any 
 climate, giving more air and shade in warmer 
 districts and a little heavier feeding of corn in 
 colder regions, always bearing in mind that when 
 in doubt give the birds more air rather than less. 
 
 We hope you will get as much pleasure in 
 following these monthly suggestions as we have 
 in gathering the facts from the pages of experi- 
 ence and setting them down for you. 
 
 Pare Sixteen 
 
STARTING IN JANUARY 
 
 January is a cold month, but this should not 
 deter any really earnest poultryman from start- 
 ing in business. Begin by purchasing a portsbk 
 house along the line of those shown on page 
 117, or having a similar building constructed. 
 We think in most cases it will be more economi- 
 cal to purchase, but that is for you to decide. 
 
 Read carefully housing article on page 117. 
 
 We suggest the purchase of 15-18 pullets, with 
 no male bird, if you are in the business to supply 
 your table with fresh eggs alone. If you are 
 starting in to breed your own stock, and this 
 lot is for your original breeding stock, we urge 
 the purchase of not over 10 to 12 females, pre- 
 ferably yearling hens, and a good vigorous 
 cockerel, — one that is well developed and fully 
 up to the standard weight of the variety you have 
 decided shall be your choice. Fill the open 
 stoneware feed dishes with Egg Feed, give them 
 scratch feed once a day. provide fresh water, 
 grit and oyster shells, and you should soon be 
 getting eggs. 
 
 Do not go into the poultry business if you do 
 not like hens. 
 
 Page Eighteen 
 
GENERAL SUGGESTIONS 
 
 Plan Your Year's Work, and Then Work 
 Your Plan. 
 
 January is a good month to plan out the cam- 
 paign for the next year's or few years' work. 
 Make up your mind, first of all, that you are go- 
 ing to be a high grade poultryman ; that you are 
 going to improve your last year's profits ; that 
 you are going to raise your stock better this year 
 than you ever did ; that you are going to have a 
 plan and stick to it ; that nothing will tempt you 
 to keep changing from one breed to another, 
 from raising eggs for market to raising eggs for 
 hatching, from market poultry to fancy poultry ; 
 and that you are determined to so improve your 
 breed by careful feeding that they will weigh 
 from one to three pounds more when they go to 
 market, and that the cockerels will go to market 
 from one to two months ahead of any of the 
 neighbors'. You can do it. Stick to it. 
 
 Late hatched June and July pullets should be- 
 gin laying this month, if they have been properly 
 fed and cared for. Broilers and roasters started 
 this month bring the cream of the year's prices, 
 and the parent stock should be selected as per 
 suggestions in our October and December hints. 
 They should be laying well now, and the incuba- 
 tors and brooders put into working order, and the 
 work started early in the month. 
 
 Cut down the number of females in your 
 breeding pens. The annual loss from infertile 
 eggs, weak germs and delicate chickens would 
 
 Page Nineteen 
 
le 
 
 coniented 
 iih tk. 
 basket. 
 
 total up into millions of dollars. You say 
 that it would be a nuisance to put half as many 
 females in each pen, — well, then, put a partition 
 through each pen. It may be a nuisance, but 
 not half as much as throwing away half of your 
 early hatches. 
 
 Small flocks spell big profits, and this rule 
 holds good from start to finish. 
 
 Pampered stock and pampered chicks spell 
 failure. 
 
 The contented hen fills the egg basket. 
 
 Breeding stock previously selected should be 
 housed in cold houses and fed upon a properly 
 proportioned Egg Feed and scratch feed with 
 oyster shells always within reach. This ration 
 insures a steady egg yield, birds always in good 
 health, and if the stock is such as we have de- 
 scribed, eggs are sure to be fertile, and chickens 
 hardy and easily reared. Sloppy, wet-mash, 
 stop-watch feeding is not only nerve racking and 
 continuous drudgery to the owner, but keeps the 
 birds on edge and at all times watching and wait- 
 .^ ing for the next feed. Where this way is once 
 given a trial, the old methods are sure to be laid 
 on the shelf, and you wonder why this business 
 method was not previously discovered. 
 
 Chickens hatched in the middle of winter need 
 good brooding accommodations, and while the 
 style of house and plan of brooder may vary 
 with the owner's fancy, for a safe proposition 
 nothing equals the small colony house with an 
 individual fireless brooder contained therein. 
 The chicks should be kept in the brooders ac- 
 
 Pagc Tz^'cr.ty 
 
POINTERS 
 
 )3^a 
 
 cording to directions until one week or ten days 
 old, then allowed the run of the dirt floor of 
 the house for another week. 
 
 When two weeks old daily out-of-door exer- 
 cise must be provided and insisted upon. Chick- 
 ens cannot grow successfully without it, and leg 
 weakness is sure to follow if one attempts to 
 rear them without this. Feed them something 
 they like on a bare spot of ground just outside 
 the building, and provide easy access to and from 
 the house (no stairs or blind passageway) and 
 they will work back and forth under zero weath- 
 er conditions with nothing but benefit to them- 
 selves and their owner. 
 
 Baled shavings make excellent litter. !Most 
 grain dealers carry it in stock. 
 
 Better give the breeding hens a little more 
 room than the layers, and if you find you must 
 sell a few pullets in order to do this, ask your^ 
 live poultry dealer to quote. 
 
 Get your incubator this month and be sure you 
 have plenty of brooding room. 
 
 JANUARY DISEASES 
 
 The only trouble for January, and most of the 
 fall and early winter months, is roup — or neg- 
 lected colds, caused usually by crowded sleeping 
 quarters, or roosting in draughts or in too warm 
 houses without sufficient air. 
 
 Birds housed in houses that are one-third open 
 to the weather on the south side, (or more open 
 in southern climates), will be free from roup or 
 
 Page Twenty-one 
 
POULTRY GUIDE POST 
 
 colds if the opening allows no draught. It is 
 the safest way. 
 
 To AVOID DRAUGHTS, long houses must 
 have tight board partitions between each pen. 
 Colony houses should be fairly tight on all sides, 
 but the south, and the opening here should be 
 about two feet from the floor, and sides and roof 
 as illustrated by cut of "No-Yard" house on 
 page 28. 
 
 Page Tzvcitty-two 
 
mg^^ 
 
 STARTING IN FEBRUARY 
 The conditions for starting the poultry business 
 in February are much the same as for January, 
 except that for breeding purposes it is easier 
 to procure well developed pullets that will make 
 satisfactory breeders, although stronger chickens 
 will be the rule if yearlings are used as recom- 
 mended for January. Get an incubator, if rais- 
 ing chickens is your object, and start it up as 
 soon as the eggs come freely. 
 
 Our cities are growing rapidly; our people 
 are appreciating the value of fresh eggs. The 
 price keeps working up and will continue to work 
 up until you receive 75c. per dozen for eggs dur- 
 ing the holidays. Get aboard ! 
 
 Do not spend much money on fancy breeds, 
 new varieties, and new blood. If you will take 
 proper care of your own stock, you can develop 
 it into as good and hardy a stock, and handsome 
 as any you see in the show rooms. 
 
 Keep your expenses and your ideas down to 
 the market level of price, and you will make 
 money, while if you try for the long prices of 
 fancy stock, you will find only disappointment 
 and loss. 
 
 Page Twenty-three 
 
POULTRY GUIDE POST 
 
 Ldt dll vou 
 
 can Hone/ 
 
 
 We have been there, — we have won the rib- 
 bons, and sold the high priced birds, — but take 
 it from us, THERE IS NOTHING IN IT. It 
 is the good market biddy that has no frills, fancy 
 skirts or shirtwaists, that pays the grocery bills 
 and the mortgage. 
 
 GENERAL SUGGESTIONS 
 
 Winter chickens, in fact all chickens, should 
 be well fed in order to get the benefit of the 
 quick-growing habit of the previously selected 
 ancestors. Surely the youngsters cannot make 
 bone and muscle out of a "pleasant view" or 
 "good sunny weather;" something more satisfy- 
 ing to the appetite will answer much better, and 
 while plenty of good vitalizing air must be pro- 
 vided, so must an abundance of food be always 
 within reach. 
 
 Use plenty of good litter. The birds need 
 exercise to keep in the condition that means 
 profitable poultry. 
 
 Keep the Egg Feed hopper full. The birds 
 are keeping union hours now. 
 
 Scald out the drinking dishes occasionally. 
 
 If your early hatches show signs of leg weak- 
 ness, be sure that you get them an out-of-door 
 run. In fact, feed them out of doors on the 
 bare ground one or two feeds per day of some 
 delicacy that they are very fond of. Get them 
 out into the open air after they are ten days of 
 age regardless of temperature. Shovel ol¥ a spot 
 right down to mother earth, and do not be 
 afraid to let them eat a little snow. Place vour 
 
 Page Twenty-four 
 
--..^f. 
 
 5^ HEALTH ' 
 
 POINTERS 
 
 orders now for baby chickens for April delivery. 
 
 You will have to put on your thinking cap of- 
 ten nowadays, or the other spring work will 
 crowd out the chicks. Do the fair thing by them. 
 Their success during the rest of the year depends 
 on it. 
 
 Chicks of the large American breeds hatched 
 this month will make the best of early roasters, 
 and will bring good prices in June and July. 
 
 Start the brooder in a clean house, with not 
 more than 25 chicks together ; feed chick feed 
 liberally, better up to the wasting point than to 
 let some of the chicks go hungry. Start the 
 Growing Feed as soon as they are one week old, 
 and let them have the run of the house when ten 
 days old. Do not let them bunch up out in the 
 bright sunlight on cold winter days. The sun- 
 light has a fascination for them and frequently 
 they will huddle together and get chilled outside 
 in preference to going to a warm hover cham- 
 ber. In wooden brooders it is sometimes better 
 to hang a thin curtain over the glass window to 
 avoid this trouble, until they reach a more dis- 
 criminating age. 
 
 If your rooster is old, do not have too many 
 hens in the pen with him, if you expect the eggs 
 to hatch. 
 
 If one keeps hens for egg production alone, 
 there will be no need of having any male birds. 
 It costs at least $1.00 a year to feed a male. Bet- 
 ter keep an extra hen. 
 
 Page Twenty-five 
 
POULTRY GUIDE POST 
 
 Cut out tlic bt 
 ]l ^pclf-5 TfOUDLE 
 
 FEBRUARY DISEASES 
 
 This month's troubles, if any, are likely to be 
 from confinement, sometimes resulting in egg 
 
 eating and feather pulling, caused by the 
 
 birds not getting all the variety of feed 
 
 which they pick up while on range. 
 
 These elements should be supplied in the 
 
 Egg Feed, thereby eliminating all chances of 
 
 this trouble. 
 
 Canker sometimes appears this month, but 
 
 is really a case of roup that you thought you 
 cured last fall. Healthy hens do not have it un- 
 less they drink out of the same dish with the 
 sick ones. 
 
 MORAL: Isolate or dispose of all doubtful 
 ones, and continue the isolation until you dispose 
 of them. 
 
 Crop bound birds have not been getting enough 
 roughage in their food, and to satisfy the crav- 
 ing, eat their litter, straw or long hay used in 
 making nests. This long material accumulates 
 in the crop, and sometimes causes death. 
 
 Page Tzi'cnty-si.v 
 
STARTING IN MARCH 
 
 Carry out the January plan and directions on 
 page 121 as to getting the house ready and 
 setting it up; except that starting with newly 
 hatched chickens no litter would be required. 
 This is a very good plan if economy on first 
 cost is the object. 
 
 This house makes a fine brooding house i for 
 two small brooders and fifty chickens, using the 
 dropping board on which to handle the brooders 
 until the chicks are a week or ten days old, — 
 then giving them the use of the house, separat- 
 ing the two lots with a little chicken wire. When 
 two weeks old provide runways outside, covered 
 to keep out the cats, and when the cockerels are 
 ready for broilers, ship them alive to market, 
 giving the pullets the entire house in which to 
 mature. 
 
 While this plan does not provide an immediate 
 income, it costs very little to start it, and the 
 cockerels sold should pay for the feed that they 
 and the pullets have consumed up to date. 
 
 Do not go into the poultry business if you 
 think you can half feed your flock and make a 
 success of the business. The hen's body wants 
 
 Page Twenty-seven 
 
 
POULTRY GUIDE POST 
 
 come first; if there is any surplus it is made up 
 into eggs. It is up to you to provide the sur- 
 plus. 
 
 GENEEAL SUGGESTIONS 
 
 When planning your extensions for the year, 
 if you build your roosting coops for your young 
 stock on the colony laying house plan, you will 
 find that your capital is working twelve months 
 in the year; whereas, if you use a low, small 
 roosting coop, you must rebuild again in the fall. 
 Select a type of colony house that pleases you, 
 then add to your plant each season as many of 
 these colony houses or units, as you need. 
 
 Brains are needed as much as capital in the 
 poultry business. 
 
 Following a hard winter, this is the month of 
 poor hatches from stock that has been fed upon 
 wet mashes and partially smothered all winter in 
 glass houses. Such stock needs a few weeks' 
 exercise in the open air to get thoroughly alive 
 again. 
 
 Set all the broody hens that come along this 
 month. 
 
 Keep the incubator full. After ten days swap 
 ^ the eggs out from under the hens into the incu- 
 bator. The machine will finish them up better 
 than the hens and deliver more chicken;, zi'ith 
 no lice. An incubator and the hens working to- 
 gether make a splendid combination, and beats 
 either one working alone. 
 
 Healthy chickens live unless abused. Healthy 
 hens lay eggs, that if not abused, hatch healthy 
 
 Page Tu'cnly-eigJtt 
 
POINTERS 
 
 iE^tlgg3S 
 
 chickens. Now it is up to you; if you are los- 
 ing chickens, why? Are you abusing them, or 
 did you abuse the old stock? Abuse may come 
 in two forms, — neglect or over-attention, — try- 
 ing to keep your birds too warm in winter, feed- 
 ing improper feeds, etc. You may be keeping 
 your chicks too warm, not running your incuba- 
 tor properly. There is a reason for the death of 
 every chicken. Try and see this year if you 
 cannot cut last season's mortality one-half. 
 
 Early January hatched broilers can now be 
 marketed, as the demand for this month does not 
 call for them to weigh over three-quarters to one 
 pound each. Market limited as to number re- 
 quired. 
 
 Pullets hatched this month will give good re- 
 sults in the fall. 
 
 Cockerels of the American varieties, March- 
 hatched, caponized, sell at good prices for 
 roasting chickens during August and early 
 September. This month is usually the year's 
 lowest point for prices on eggs. 
 
 Alfalfa cut or mealed makes splendid litter 
 for brooders and runs for early chicks, always 
 sweet and not expensive. 
 
 Figure out about how many broods of chicks 
 there will be, and get the spring coops and fit- 
 tings cleaned up and in working order. Chickens 
 will soon be plenty, and time scarce. 
 
 In mating the pens of breeding stock refer to 
 October hints for the selection of male birds, 
 and December hints on the selection of females. 
 Remember that nothing but the best is good 
 
 Page Twenty-nine 
 
POULTRY GUIDE POST 
 
 I 
 
 i^ it J ^. 
 
 mi" 
 
 Tell your neipJibor 
 SxMtyour success 
 
 enough, whether for eggs, roasters, broilers or 
 fancy poultry. 
 
 MARCH DISEASES 
 
 Leg weakness in chickens is caused usually by 
 confining the birds indoors, and on hard floors 
 and overheated brooders. Get your birds out of 
 doors when ten days old, and raise them always 
 (all of them) in small heatless brooders. 
 
 Sitting hens leave their nests if lousey — sel- 
 dom for any other reason. Use lice powder 
 liberally whenever you set a hen, and at other 
 times also. 
 
 Poor fertility is usually caused by insufficient 
 air in the quarters during the winter, too many 
 females with one male, or too large flocks. Cut 
 down the size of your flocks, and take out the 
 windows, substituting wire netting, water-proof 
 sheeting, or cheese cloth. 
 
 Raise your chickens on a new lot of land each 
 season, or let a crop of green stuff grow between 
 seasons, and you will not be troubled with gapes 
 in your chicks. 
 
 Page Thirty 
 
<^p^^ 
 
 % 
 
 STARTING IN APRIL 
 
 Starting in April is a cinch. Buy the houses 
 as in January plan, and if eggs for table is all 
 that is wanted, you will not have long to wait. 
 Your pullets will be laying within a day or two 
 after you get them, and in a week's time you 
 will be getting a dozen eggs or more a day. 
 
 If you wish to start with the minimum expense 
 and are willing to wait for the chickens to grow, 
 get a small portable house and two small heatless 
 brooders and proceed as in March using the 
 house for the pullets after the cockerels go to 
 market. 
 
 Using incubators, you simply provide more 
 small brooders as the chickens hatch. 
 
 If hatching with hens, set them in a dry place 
 with plenty of ventilation. Avoid damp cellars. 
 Forget about sods and damp earth in the nest. 
 
 GENERAL SUGGESTIONS 
 
 If your chickens are on range or in yards 
 where the hawks bother them, sometimes con- 
 venient brush heaps, or stretches of wire net- 
 ting, so placed as to break up the swoop of 
 the hawks as they skim along the ground in 
 
 Page Thirty-one 
 
POULTRY GUIDE POST 
 
 Weed out tlie 
 lowg [695 
 
 catching the chickens, will stop their thieving. 
 
 In early spring a cornfield, with last season's 
 stalks standing, makes an ideal dodging place 
 for the youngsters, and Mr. Hawk will give it 
 up as a "bad job" trying to catch them among 
 the stalks. 
 
 There is only one way to feed poultry if you 
 would make a success of the business ; stuff them 
 with the right kind of feed from "hatch to 
 hatchet." 
 
 Watch the cockerels and pullets, and mark 
 now the ones making the most satisfactory 
 growth, choosing those that have grown steadily 
 and at all times have been plump, full breasted, 
 and in good proportion. 
 
 Avoid those that grow leggy, with thin breasts, 
 and also the ones that grow unevenly, making a 
 month's or two months' progress and then ap- 
 parently stopping, and later going ahead again. 
 
 Get the breeding stock out of doors, give them 
 plenty of room, not too many females with your 
 males. 
 
 If you have previously lacked the nerve, take 
 all the windows out of your poultrv house this 
 month, provided, of course, that they are all in 
 the south side and no draughts on the roost re- 
 sults. 
 
 Growing Feed is the feed that puts those nice 
 plump broilers and roasters on the market, and 
 gives us the big hardy pullet that lays all win- 
 ter, and in the spring produces the kind of 
 chicks that are bound to live if given half a 
 chance — and proper feeds. 
 
 Page Thirly-t'di'O 
 
POINTERS 
 
 Cull your flock closely. Market everything 
 that is not making valuable use of every kernel 
 of grain it eats. Do not house any loafers. Get 
 them into money. 
 
 Your late chickens will still be in danger from 
 rats. Be sure to keep some good Rat Destroyer 
 in stock and use promptly. 
 
 Do not be afraid to give the chicks all the sour 
 milk they will cat. Good for them. If there is 
 anything better, we have never found it. 
 
 Better caponize the cockerels if intended for 
 roasters. Place in fair sized yards or let them 
 run at large, and feed — and feed hard. These 
 chickens are going to be worth thirty cents a 
 pound in June and you cannot aiford to have 
 them stand around a minute waiting for the feed 
 to come. 
 
 Try this year and have a nice lot of 5 or 6 
 pound soft roasting chickens to sell during the 
 Christmas holidays. 
 
 Use all the poultry manure in top-dressing the 
 grass land or on the garden plot. 
 
 January and February hatched broilers are 
 now selling well, and prices during this month 
 should be at the top. If you think there is more 
 money in them for you as broilers, let them go 
 now, if they are large enough. The market calls ^ 
 for larger broilers this month than in February 
 and March, and wants still larger sizes in May. 
 Always give the party paying the bill what they 
 want — if they call for two pound broilers, do not 
 send them one and one-quarter pound, or you 
 will lose in price. 
 
 Page Thirty-three 
 
POULTRY GUIDE POST 
 
 Z5 Hatched 
 
 Z5 Half 6rovn 
 
 1^ 
 
 W/ 
 
 22 T^edcli mdixiiiL/ 
 
 This is one of the best months to hatch pul- 
 lets for middle-fall and early winter laying. Get 
 out all you can. 
 
 Do not throw away that setting of eggs simply 
 because the hen left the nest and they got cold. 
 Unless they have been exposed to freezing tem- 
 perature for 24 hours, in many instances the hatch 
 will come along as if nothing had happened, if 
 you put another hen on and let her finish the 
 clutch. 
 
 Get away from the old idea that you should 
 keep fifty chickens in a lot. You will make al- 
 most, if not quite as much profit on twenty-five 
 chickens raised in the small heatless brooder as 
 with fifty raised in the old-fashioned way. 
 
 APRIL DISEASES 
 
 As a rule poor hatches are the result of low 
 vitality in the breeding .stock. (See March hints 
 referring to poor fertility). 
 
 Liver troubles and indigestion are caused by 
 poor food and improperly balanced rations. 
 
 Guard against these by feeding only the best 
 of feeds. 
 
 Chicken pox is some more of last fall's cured 
 ( ?) colds and roup, now showing up in another 
 form. 
 
 Page Thirty-four 
 
STARTING IN MAY 
 
 Pullets for laying or breeding had better be the 
 rule for starting in May. Set the house up and 
 raise the chickens, if that is to be the business, 
 in the small brooder; or start as in April. The 
 house will soon be needed, and makes an ideal 
 roosting coop. Use the incubator and brooder 
 if you are breeding your own stock. 
 
 GENERAL SUGGESTIONS 
 
 A good garden, a cow, a flock of hens, and you 
 can cut your grocery and provision bill in half 
 and begin to live where you only existed before. 
 
 Let the March chickens have plenty of roomy 
 roosting coops or roost in trees. Keep the feed 
 always within reach. 
 
 To break up your setting hens, catch them the 
 first night you find them on the nest, and place 
 them in light airy coops, with wire or slat bot- 
 toms. This kind of a coop keeps them from 
 hugging a board floor or the ground, and by per- _^ 
 mitting the free circulation of air below them, 
 tends to reduce the fever which is in their blood 
 at this time. 
 
 Page Thirty-five 
 
POULTRY GUIDE POST 
 
 Lice 
 Spoiled 
 ThiJ 
 Hatch 
 
 Nothing but lice will cause the old hen to leave 
 her eggs when she has settled down. 
 
 Setting hens are lice breeders. This is one 
 reason why the incubator is to be preferred for 
 hatching chickens. 
 
 The chickens are free from lice to begin with 
 and it is not such a difficult matter to keep the 
 lice in subjection. 
 
 Stop the red mites with liquid lice killer before 
 they get started — prevention is better than cure. 
 
 Hatch the eggs in an incubator or with hens. 
 
 Don't have ventilators. 
 
 Don't try to keep your birds warm. They 
 have ample protection from the coldest winter 
 weather if you only keep them cold all the time. 
 
 Don't feed hot mashes that will sweat them. 
 
 Keep them health)^, feed them properly, and 
 the eggs will roll out. 
 
 Tr}' marketing your birds alive. We don't 
 know of a more nerve-racking job than picking 
 a lot of broilers without tearing the skins. 
 
 ]Many times you can get as much for them 
 alive as you can for them dressed. The labor 
 saved is a big item. 
 
 Broilers are going down in price, and the mar- 
 ket is calling for larger birds, two and one-half 
 to three pounds each month. 
 
 March hatched chickens should now be leaving 
 the brooders, and if they have been properly 
 hardened, will take quite airy roosting coops. 
 
 Chicks of the Plymouth Rock, Wyandotte, R. 
 I. Red and some other varieties hatched this 
 month can be brought to laving bv November 
 
 Page Thirty-six 
 
^^^S[ 
 
 POINTERS 
 
 22S 
 
 1st, if pushed with plenty of Growing Feed. 
 
 Outdoor brooders must be kept under a shed 
 or some kind of sun protection to maintain the 
 even hover temperature desired. In teaching 
 young chickens to run in and out of outdoor 
 brooders regularly, use a sod or pile of dirt for 
 them to run up and down on. Also when build- 
 ing their first yards make them A-shaped, with 
 the apex at the opening of the brooder, then the 
 chicks will have no corner to bunch up in dur- 
 ing the bright sunshiny days, and their education 
 takes much less of the attendant's time. 
 
 Growing chickens in the hot months, too young 
 to roost, will thrive much better if they sit on 
 the ground ; that is, if their coops have no floors. 
 
 Plant Dwarf Essex Rape this month. Care 
 for it as you would young cabbage plants, until 
 the plants are a foot high, then break or cut off 
 the leaves as wanted daily for the poultry. The 
 new shoot will spring up again and continue 
 the process until the hard freezing weather of ^ 
 October and November comes. Four pounds 
 of seed, for an acre of land. 
 
 If you are through hatching, break up your 
 pens and market the old cocks, all but the very 
 choice ones that you are expecting to use another 
 year. They are a nuisance with their quarrel- 
 some habits and are a continual bill of expense. 
 
 Be liberal enough with your estimate and have 
 chickens enough and to spare. If you have 
 twenty-five percent to spare when filling your 
 laying houses they will always find a ready 
 sale, and this gives you an opportunity to cull 
 
 Page Thirty-seven 
 
 
 '^ 
 
 A]\ headed 
 totk Hole 
 
POULTRY GUIDE POST 
 
 Eneinie5 are 
 on your^ 
 
 closely and reserve only the best for yourself. 
 
 Be careful of them on cool nights when first 
 put out ; see that they do not pile up and smother 
 one another. 
 
 January and February chickens intended for 
 early market should have grass runs and Grow- 
 ing Feed before them during the balance of their 
 lives.' 
 
 Have a closely woven wire door to each of 
 your chicken houses and don't forget to close 
 them at night, or some rat, skunk, owl, fox, 
 cat, mink or weasel may deplete your stock. 
 
 MAY DISEASES 
 
 White diarrhoea is quite contagious among the 
 newly hatched chickens. Raise them in heatless 
 brooders and burn the brooder if any trouble 
 appears. 
 
 We think this is an inherited disease. Don't 
 breed from any hens that are not in the best of 
 health and be careful where you buy eggs for 
 hatching. 
 
 Be sure you know that any stock you buy 
 is better in health than your own before you 
 part with any of your good money. 
 
 We should take chances with a little inbreed- 
 ing from strong, robust, hardy stock, rather than 
 take chances with unknown, over-advertised out- 
 siders. 
 
 If your hens have pale combs look for red 
 mites or spider lice in cracks and all around the 
 roosts and nest boxes. Use liquid lice killer. 
 
 Indigestion — See April hints on Liver Trou- 
 bles. 
 
 Page Thirty-eight 
 
i^wsi' 
 
 iinefx 
 
 --^•^wi^„^ 
 
 STARTING IN JUNE 
 Starting in June, if you want winter laying, it 
 will save time to purchase chickens in place of 
 hatching them. Get them out on a good grass 
 plot with shade and sunlight where they can get 
 whichever they choose when they reach the age 
 of discrimination, and feed liberally. They 
 should be laying in December if pushed with lib- 
 eral feeding. 
 
 Eggs for the family table come as soon as the 
 pullets are located and get to eating freely. Give 
 them all the table scraps after each meal. 
 
 GENERAL SUGGESTIONS 
 
 The days begin to get hot ; see that the brood- 
 ers are in the shade, that the chickens have shade 
 also, that they all have an abundance of water 
 and green food. Both are cheap and almost 
 equally important. One-third of the growing 
 chicks living will be from green food if given 
 a grass run, and how much cheaper the gain on 
 this ration is easily figured. 
 
 Whitewash the chicken coops. Disinfect the 
 hen houses with a good disinfectant at least once 
 a week, and continue through the hot months to 
 come. 
 
 Page Tliirty-nine 
 
POULTRY GUIDE POST 
 
 A goo6 
 
 su^^gestion 
 for 6lray catj: 
 
 When dressing poultry be careful to cool the 
 carcass properly, else it will heat and result in 
 loss. "Cool well, keep well," is the rule. 
 
 From June ist to July 4th is the top of the 
 market for roasting chickens. January and 
 February roasters, capons and pullets should all 
 be turned into money while the price is at the 
 highest point. They should bring from 30c. to 
 33c. per pound, and here is where we think the 
 roaster has great advantage over the broiler. 
 These same chickens in April were broiler size, 
 and would not have sold for a great deal more 
 per pound that month and were weighing only 
 two pounds each. They now weigh four to five 
 pounds each, and the last two or three pounds 
 have only cost eight to ten cents per pound for 
 feed, giving a profit of from twenty to twenty- 
 five cents per pound, or from forty to seventy- 
 five cents per bird. No mortality and a hand- 
 some margin. 
 
 Look hard after lice and use liquid lice killer 
 and lice powder freely. Don't let the "bugs" 
 get a start. 
 
 Cats and chickens agree sometimes, but stray 
 cats are always subject to suspicion and if you 
 are losing chickens and can trace them in no oth- 
 er way, set a box trap, and bait it with a dead 
 chicken. If the cat takes the bait, your suspicion 
 is correct. Dispose of the cat with as little delay 
 and disturbance as possible. 
 
 A box trap is made of boards and illustrated 
 below. Most any boy that is handy with tools will 
 make one in an hour or two and most country 
 
 Page Forty 
 
POINTERS 
 
 boys have used them to catch rabbits and other 
 game. They need no directions or suggestions. 
 Remove males from breeding yards as soon 
 as the season is over. Keep the best for another 
 season. If you have three or four, put all to- 
 gether in an open yard on a good hot day at noon 
 time and let them "scrap it out." In a few min- 
 utes they will find the master, and all future dis- 
 putes will be referred to him for settlement. 
 Keep them by themselves until wanted for breed- 
 ing pens. 
 
 Begin to work off the less valuable and more 
 broody of the hens. 
 
 This is a good month to caponize. 
 Market all the broiler stock on hand. 
 Have you provided shade in the runs? Fail- 
 ure to do so results in chicks that won't feather. 
 Get the layers to drink all the water or milk 
 you can. Eggs are very largely made up of 
 water, and the birds cannot lay heavily without 
 a constant supply. Frequent changes induce 
 frequent drinking. 
 
 ]\Iilk, (skimmed, sweet or sour) is one of the 
 best feeds for growing chickens and it will pay 
 double the profit when turned into poultry that 
 it will when fed to pigs. 
 
 If you want to use brooding hens, this and 
 next month are good months to set them. 
 
 They will raise a greater percentage of chicks 
 during the hot weather than brooders, and, if 
 allowed to take their own course, will raise these 
 and go to laying again during August and Sep- 
 tember, when eggs are paying a good profit. 
 
 good gr&ss 
 plot with 
 shade and sim^i 
 
 Page Porty-one 
 
POULTRY GUIDE POST 
 
 We have no use for the hen in hatching dur- 
 ing the cold weather, but she will be found to 
 do good work during the hot months in brood- 
 ing chickens. Give her a corn field, orchard or 
 patch of weeds in which to grow her family, 
 and she will nearly pay for herself before cold 
 weather gets her. 
 
 JUNE DISEASES 
 
 Sudden deaths during hot weather are many 
 times the result of last fall's cured (?) cases 
 of roup. 
 
 The Barred Rocks seem a little more prone 
 to these troubles than other varieties. 
 
 Late chicks not growing is usually the result 
 
 of carelessness, unclean brooders, or yarding 
 
 ''^''\ them in the same yards the early chicks used, 
 
 "0^ or from mixing the young and older chickens 
 
 together. 
 
 Be sure to keep each age by themselves, and 
 be just as enthusiastically clean with these late 
 comers as with your first born pets that came 
 in March. 
 
 Page Forty-two 
 
STARTING IN JULY 
 Starting this month we should purchase large 
 heavy pullets if for the table eggs alone, de- 
 pending upon using them upon the family table 
 during the months of August and September, 
 when they begin moulting. It is rather late to 
 hatch breeding stock for another year. We 
 would advise purchasing chickens and pushing 
 them along so they would get to laying in Jan- 
 uary. This can be easily done if new runs, 
 plenty of shade, feed and green stuff are pro- 
 vided. 
 
 GENERAL SUGGESTIONS 
 
 If you will see that all your chickens that are 
 not old enough to perch sit with their feet on 
 the ground during the hot weather, you will 
 avoid colds and roup among them. 
 
 There is a wonderful amount of blood passing 
 through their feet, and if the ball of the foot 
 rests upon the ground (the earth being a remark- 
 ably good conductor of heat) this keeps their 
 body temperature down, and prevents sweating 
 and consequent colds. 
 
 Board floors are necessary in the early spring 
 months to keep the coops dry, and are de- 
 
 Kecp tfieir 
 
 fed on the 
 around 
 
 Page Forty-three 
 
POULTRY GUIDE POST 
 
 ^g^^T 
 
 Good feed 
 
 
 cidedly wrong in hot weather, for the above 
 reasons. 
 
 The demand is for heavy ch'ickens and heavy 
 fowl. 
 
 Spread the growing youngsters out over the 
 hay fields this month after the hay is cut and 
 you will lose nothing, next season's crop will be 
 better for it, and if you lose some of the second 
 crop it will be fed to better advantage to the 
 chickens than to any other farm animals. 
 
 Do not think that the chickens can live on 
 grasshoppers ; give them all the feed you can 
 get them to eat, with the grasshoppers as an 
 extra. 
 
 After this season of the year it is a good 
 thing to send broody hens to market. 
 
 July is termed a late month for hatching lay- 
 ing pullets, but if you have not ample stock, 
 by all means get out enough to "make good." 
 If these chickens are given as good care as out- 
 lined for June chicks, they will mature in Jan- 
 uary and February and make the best of sum- 
 mer and early fall layers. It is useless to expect 
 the early hatched pullet to keep laying all winter 
 and spring and still keep at it through the hot 
 weather. Really, these late pullets are nearly 
 or quite as profitable as the earlier ones, for 
 they lay splendidly during x\ugust, September 
 and October, when fresh eggs bring good prices 
 and at a very small cost. Do not despise the 
 late chickens. 
 
 About this time put the caponized males in 
 yards fifty feet square for fifty birds, push them 
 
 Pa/ic Fortv-four 
 
POINTERS 
 
 with fattening feed and plenty of meat scraps, 
 with liberal feeds of corn and barley. Do not 
 hold them too long. When they reach the weight 
 of 5 lbs. each alive, get market quotations. Re- 
 member, as a general thing, the price per pound 
 is going down after they reach this size, and it 
 is up to you to get your money out of them at 
 the earliest opportunity. 
 
 For instance, a 5-pound chicken sold in August 
 will usually bring 18 to 20 cents per pound, while 
 if the same cockerel is kept until November, 
 then weighing 6 pounds, he will be hard and not 
 worth 12 to 15 cents per pound. In other words, 
 you have lost three months' feeding by holding. 
 
 Allow chicks the run of swamp land during 
 hot weather, but get them into upland brooding 
 coops at night or colds may result. 
 
 Keep the house as cool as possible. 
 
 The most profitable hens, as a rule, are not 
 the stylish ones. ^' "^"^ 
 
 Lice like to hide away under the end of the ^^i-^^^7^-^^'> 
 
 roosts. Every time you spray, lift the roosts 'x^//r%^ 
 and give the pests a dose that will drive them .Jiii^jf ^^^ 
 out for good and all. vvS'' *' 
 
 Women make the best of poultry keepers and 
 all find the work interesting, pleasant and very 
 profitable. 
 
 There ought to be a law forbidding over 
 twenty-five chicks together. 
 
 Renew the nest material frequently. 
 
 Send the broilers to market as fast as they 
 are ready. Write your dealer for quotations 
 
 Page Forty-five 
 
POULTRY GUIDE POST 
 
 Shady 
 
 and get them into money, giving the pullets more 
 room. 
 
 Look out for mites in all your new coops and 
 houses as well as in the old ones, but they seem 
 to thrive better in the old wood. Use liquid lice 
 killer all around cracks, nests and roosts of lay- 
 ing houses and roosting coops. 
 
 Shady nooks are relished by the hens. 
 
 JULY DISEASES 
 
 Apoplexy — same as sudden death in June 
 hints. Old stock going light — results of last 
 fall's cured ( ?) cases of colds and roup. 
 
 Summer colds and snuffles among growing 
 chickens are the results of too hot sleeping 
 quarters. 
 
 Be sure their feet rest on the ground, and 
 not on board floors, and that they are never 
 over warm. 
 
 About all they need is wire to protect them 
 from the skunks, etc. 
 
 Page Forty-six 
 
STARTING IN AUGUST 
 
 Starting in August for table eggs, we should 
 not recommend purchasing matured birds as it 
 is just in the middle of the moulting period, and 
 moving them about would result in stopping their 
 laying altogether. Better get the house ready 
 and purchase some early hatched pullets that 
 will get to laying in September or October. 
 
 For breeding stock, this month is a good time 
 to pick up some yearlings of some good reliable 
 breed that suits you. They will make ideal stock 
 for next season's use, begin laying in November 
 or December, just in time for broilers and early 
 winter work. 
 
 GENEKAL SUGGESTIONS 
 
 When the poultrymen all find out that the 
 first year of a layer's life is the most profitable, 
 they will begin to market their old hens as fast 
 as they start moulting. They should push them 
 hard the first year, then buy or raise pullets to '^'M 
 take their place. Early moulters are frequently Vj, 
 slow moulters, taking eight to ten weeks for the 
 process, while the later moulters will get through Keep up ep^ laying 
 in half the time. Send them along to market as or goio market. 
 
 Page Forty-seven 
 
POULTRY GUIDE POST 
 
 l5ALEl 
 
 soon as they show signs of moulting and get 
 pullets to fill their place. All the old surplus 
 stock should now be marketed. 
 
 It is somebody's fault if the little summer 
 chicks are dying. 
 
 The tender little fellows cannot withstand heat 
 and lice combined. Protect them from the sun 
 and get after the lice. 
 
 The old rooster crows well, but he is a tyrant. 
 Either sell him or get him away from the laying 
 hens some other way. He pesters them so that 
 they cannot do their best. 
 
 Hot, dry weather, and larger chicks in with 
 them, make it a hard condition for the later 
 broods to catch up with the early ones, and a 
 good many times it causes the owner to say, 
 "Late chickens are no good anyway." 
 
 Late chickens are all right and as good money 
 makers as the early ones, if properly cared for, 
 but they must have radically different treatment 
 when hatched in hot weather. 
 
 With the early birds we must take care to 
 keep the pens dry, and their feet off the ground 
 when being brooded. Late chicks must be kept 
 cool, and after a few weeks old we must be 
 careful to keep their feet on the ground when 
 being brooded. 
 
 See that the growing stock has plenty of 
 room to expand. Be sure that every chicken 
 you own has plenty of elbow room to grow in 
 and see that he is never overheated after night- 
 fall. This is a bad month for crowded quarters. 
 Often the seeds of next winter's crop of roup 
 
 Page Forty-eight 
 
^s^^^^ggr 
 
 POINTERS 
 
 are sown in this month, simply by keeping the 
 youngsters crowded into quarters about the right 
 size for one-fourth the number. Results : the 
 chickens are too hot at night and take cold by 
 getting out on a chilly morning in September 
 and waiting around for the sun to warm them up. 
 
 August is a good money making month. 
 Prices of poultry are at good paying figures ; 
 eggs bring better returns and chickens hatched 
 this month make splendid roasters during Feb- 
 ruary and March. August hatched pullets will 
 be found rather more profitable if turned for 
 market than kept as layers.* 
 
 Shade, green stuff and plenty of water are all 
 very essential for August chickens of all ages and 
 sizes. Keep the different sizes by themselves. 
 
 There is no crop we know of that will produce 
 such returns in green feed for poultry as Dwarf 
 Essex Rape. Sow at any season of the )'ear, 
 wet or dry, hot or cold. Frost does not hurt 
 it, and it will make a satisfactory growth anjr- 
 where, but with good rich soil and plenty of 
 room the plants will soon rival cabbages in size, 
 and remind one of loose-headed cabbages. Ask 
 your seedsman for the seed. 
 
 Tell your neighbors of the results you obtain 
 from good feeds and supplies. It will help 
 them, and in helping them you help yourself, 
 for if your neighborhood has the reputation of 
 producing top-notch quality you will get better 
 prices for your stock. 
 
 'J^ 
 
 Keep up 
 Spraying 
 
 * A "layer" is a hen or pullet devoted to market 
 eggs, not destined to be used in tlie breeding pen. 
 
 Page Forty-nine 
 
POULTRY GUIDE POST 
 
 4W 
 
 Tell your neip^ibor 
 about _ycur success 
 
 Begin to market the old hens as they stop 
 laying. Be sure that they are good and fat, as 
 per suggestions in July. 
 
 This is a bad month for mites. 
 
 Use a sprayer for applying liquid lice killer 
 and some disinfectant to the various houses and 
 runs. A good sprayer makes thorough, quick 
 and easy work. Pay special attention to spray- 
 ing the nest boxes and the perches. 
 
 AUGUST DISEASES 
 
 Whenever you can do so, separate your chick- 
 ens into smaller flocks, and if you want any 
 particular lot to develop especially quick, divide 
 them once more. 
 
 The smaller the number together, the less 
 trouble, and the most results. 
 
 Page Fifty 
 
*'''>*^^:^-v'^;ij. 
 
 STARTING IN SEPTEMBER 
 
 Starting in September, buy pullets for family 
 eggs, and yearling hens for the best breeding 
 stock for another season. Buy house and other 
 appliances as in other months, but support the 
 house on posts and get sand or gravel in early ^^- ;r> 
 before the fall rains wet it. House your birds ^^J^^^ 
 that are intended only for laying, but let the 
 breeding stock have all the range outside the 
 house that you can provide. 
 
 Hatch a few broods of chicks this month. 
 They will lay in March and keep at it until Fall. 
 Winter them in a house by themselves, with 
 plenty of food by them at all times. Sell the 
 cockerels in February. 
 
 GENERAL SUGGESTIONS 
 
 Get the early March-hatched pullets that you 
 plan to use for layers into winter quarters by 
 the middle or last of this month. 
 
 There never will be too many good poultry- 
 men ; do not be afraid of that. Be one of the 
 best. . , , 
 
 It is not too late to get another litter out of '" "^^^Z^.^Jr 
 the hens that have not moulted yet. 
 
 ler Quarl 
 
 NOW 
 
 Page Fifty-one 
 
.LTRY GUIDE POST 
 
 Pullets are worthy of your best attention. Get 
 the early ones into winter quarters, and con- 
 tented this month. 
 
 It checks them less to move them before they 
 begin to lay. 
 
 Yard the cockerels by themselves; not only 
 the market stock but the ones you have selected 
 for breeders. They grow much better than when 
 placed with the pullets or hens. If they begin 
 to get scrappy, put in one of the old cocks with 
 them. He will maintain order, and is tickled 
 with "his job." 
 
 This is the time the wet mash hen goes to 
 pieces, so to speak. While her drj^ fed sister 
 is laying right along, she takes a complete vaca- 
 tion, loafs around, neither an ornament nor help, 
 demonstrating the truth of our claim of health- 
 ier flocks by this system of feeding. We repeat 
 last month's warning ; keep the chickens cool 
 nights, do not let them pile up or sweat, see 
 them personally at least once a week, and pro- 
 vide plenty of room. Get them out of the trees 
 as soon as the nights get frosty ; put them in 
 winter quarters, but keep the house cool. 
 
 Keep working off the old hens, watch your 
 flock of growing youngsters. If you iind a 
 number that lag behind the others, put them bv 
 themselves and see that they have a little better 
 chance. 
 
 Have your houses all cleaned out, and put in 
 about six inches of clean sand or loam. 
 
 Keep the hens happy and healthy. Use liquid 
 lice killer, and some good disinfectant. 
 
 Page Fifty-tzco 
 
POINTERS 
 
 Hens with scaly legs are undesirable mothers. 
 Get the capons to market, for prices are now 
 on the downward scale, and it does not pay to 
 hold them once they are in condition. 
 
 March pullets should be laying this month. 
 Keep track of the different lots of cockerels, 
 and your different breedings by a system of 
 banding the birds. 
 
 We do not advocate warm poultry buildings, 
 but we do insist that they must be dry and free 
 from draught. 
 
 Now the July pullets of last year will give a 
 nice yield of eggs at prices that pay handsomely. 
 If for table eggs let the birds stay in the house 
 all summer, in fact after they go into winter 
 quarters never let them out of the house again, 
 and you will get a larger egg. yield. 
 
 Begin to get things pulled together for win- 
 ter ; it is some ways off but it will soon be 
 here. 
 
 Eggs getting scarce and higher. 
 September-hatched chickens should be brood- 
 ed in small brooders and coops. 
 
 Prepare the hens now for fall and winter lay- 
 ing. Prepare the pullets also. 
 
 Each brood of chickens from one year's end 
 to another should have a new spot of land to 
 grow on, but this is particularly true of late or 
 hot-weather hatches. Be sure all roofs over 
 your plant are tight; if not, make them so. 
 Change the sand or gravel before the fall rains, 
 and whitewash or disinfect all winter quarters. 
 
 Page Fifty-three 
 
POULTRY GUIDE POST 
 
 Most buyers make the mistake of not provid- 
 ing enough space for the youngsters after they 
 hatch. 
 
 Get the regular fall cleaning done and by the 
 latter part of the month have everything ready 
 for a quick shift if there is need. 
 
 More birds start in the wrong direction and 
 toward a winter sickness in September than in 
 any other month. 
 
 Keep up a spraying. 
 
 Feed every atom they will eat. 
 
 SEPTEMBER DISEASES 
 
 The way to cure colds and roup is to prevent 
 them. See that your stock is always cool at 
 night with plenty of roosting room, and watch 
 them carefully when you move them — that they 
 don't get overheated in bags or boxes. 
 
 "Going-Light" is a diseased condition that is 
 hard to cure, caused by too much poor quality 
 meat supply. The axe is about the best remedy. 
 
 Page Fifty-four 
 
STARTING IN OCTOBER. 
 
 Starting in October, get your house in order 
 as soon as you can. Then buy well matured pul- 
 lets to provide table eggs, and the mixed varie- 
 ties will do just as well as the more expensive, 
 full-blooded breeds. For breeding stock, pur- 
 chase only full blooded, either yearlings or well 
 matured pullets will be satisfactory. Give breed- 
 ing stock plenty of exercise out of doors daily. 
 La-"ers should be kept closed in. 
 
 GENERAI, SUGGESTIONS 
 
 This is the right month to have your winter 
 layers start in. If they begin much earlier than 
 this they are not as good layers as a rule, and 
 sometimes get broody and moult. 
 
 Divide the pullets into small flocks, being care- 
 ful to keep each size and age and color by itself, 
 for best results — unless mixed colors have been 
 raised together. The smaller the flock, the fast- 
 er they will develop. 
 
 Eggs steadily advancing in price and giving 
 good profits, in fact as good as during the cold 
 winter season. 
 
 ^§gs steadily 
 increasing 
 in price. 
 
 Page Fifty-five 
 
POULTRY GUIDE POST 
 
 Thi5 15 j/our 
 
 fault 
 Look, in 
 
 the Book;. 
 
 , ICURE 
 
 Live poultry dealers in all the large cities take 
 care of all the odds and ends. Send them the 
 old hens, old cocks, chickens, surplus pullets, 
 in fact, everything you wish to turn into cash. 
 Ship them alive. 
 
 Keep only what you can properly feed and 
 care for — especially feed. 
 
 Use plenty of good litter, the birds need exer- 
 cise to keep in the condition that means profit- 
 able poultry. 
 
 Many bad cases of roup are started this month 
 by allowing the chicks to lie around under the 
 bushes in damp places. Better yard any that 
 show a tendency to act this way, feed liberally, 
 and use Roup Cure in drinking water. 
 
 Keep the late chicks in the coops these frosty 
 mornings. 
 
 Feed them early before letting out. 
 
 If breeding from pullets, mate with large, 
 healthy, 2-yr. old cocks. There is no better 
 mating than this. 
 
 Some chickens grow one end at a time and 
 during their early days are sometimes all legs, 
 while later they mature into quite well propor- 
 tioned stock ; then again some of them have the 
 appearance of standing still and making little 
 progress for a month or more, when they shoot 
 aliead again. All these should be weeded out, 
 and a quick-growing, hearty-eating bird that was 
 well proportioned at four or fi\-e pounds chosen. 
 
 Select vour next season's breeders now, and 
 choose the ones that have made the most rapid 
 growth as youngsters, i. e., the ones tliat have 
 
 Page Fifty-six 
 
POINTERS 
 
 reached the four to five pounds' weight in the 
 least number of days. 
 
 This does not mean the undersized, small, pre- 
 cocious chap that gets "cocky" when very young. 
 These are the very ones that you should avoid, 
 for they will run the size of your stock down 
 very rapidly if bred from. Choose rather the 
 male bird that does not discover that he is a 
 male until six or seven months of age. He has 
 been busy putting bone and muscle together and 
 he will make the right kind of chickens that do 
 not "go hard" young. 
 
 In the latitude of New England poultry should 
 be in their winter quarters this month and 
 everything snug and in shape for the cold 
 winter which is now liable to come at any time. 
 
 The secret of success is hard feeding and 
 cleanliness. Keep up their appetites and keep 
 down the vermin. 
 
 Gather the leaves for litter. 
 
 The farmer will have some cabbage that did 
 not head up very well. It is just what you 
 want. Spread it on the north side of the 
 house and cover with about a foot of hay and 
 leaves. 
 
 Never allow anyone or anything to scare the 
 chicks or fowl. 
 
 If you are not getting a satisfactory egg yield 
 see if you are housing and feeding your stock 
 right. Be sure all the chickens are out of the 
 trees before the cold rains start in, and when 
 changing birds from the trees into the houses, 
 see that the houses are as cold as they can be 
 
 s\ Never allow 
 "a >5caro. 
 
 Page Fifty-seven 
 
POULTRY GUIDE POST 
 
 it ^Q^to 
 
 Windov/j out 
 
 5ub5tituio 
 waterproof 
 
 kept during the nights without having draughts 
 striking the birds on the roosts. 
 
 All your birds should be in winter quarters 
 this month. The earlier March hatches should 
 have been under cover last month and should 
 now be laying quite steadily. It is always bet- 
 ter to house them a month or six weeks before 
 they begin to lay, for fall laying is against Na- 
 ture's law and on the slightest provocation she 
 steps in and puts an end to the unnatural pro- 
 duction and it is hard work to regain the ground 
 lost. 
 
 OCTOBER DISEASES 
 
 The one worst feature of the long houses is 
 the tendency to draughts, and the likelihood of 
 canker and other contagious troubles working 
 from one pen to another. We prefer isolated 
 flocks for money making every day in the year. 
 
 When you move the pullets into winter quai- 
 ters, be sure that they are cool at night. Take 
 out the windows, but see that they are not in a 
 draught on the roosts. 
 
 Page Fifty-L-ight 
 
STARTING IN NOVEMBER 
 
 Starting this month, we find eggs at the ex- 
 treme high figures of the year, and pullets or 
 yearlings are very slow in commencing to lay. 
 The night constitutes almost two-thirds of the 
 twenty-four hours and it is hard for the birds 
 to eat enough in the brief day to make up for 
 the long nights and lay eggs at the same time. 
 
 Get your house in position as quickly as pos- 
 sible. 
 
 Be sure to have plenty of litter, so that your 
 birds' feet never get on the cold ground ; but 
 still don't overdo it, for they will not scratch 
 as well if litter is too deep. Just right is when 
 they scratch down to the gravel every day. 
 
 Buy your breeding cockerels this month, and 
 get the first selection, and also be ready to get 
 out the early broilers. 
 
 GENERAL SUGGESTIONS 
 
 Be sure every old hen is marketed before this 
 month is out unless you want them for breeders 
 another season, and fill up with pullets that pay 
 better. 
 
 Years ago, and not so many at that, we all 
 
 <g?, 
 
 15 FIEDJNG H0UP5 
 IN vjUMMIP 
 AGAINS?- 
 
 9 Tzmm HouRj 
 
 IN WINTEP 
 
 Page Fifty-nine 
 
POULTRY GUIDE POST 
 
 jiopaJI 
 
 drduoUs 
 
 LITTEE 
 1 FOOT THICK 
 
 FOOT OF EARTH 
 
 got up early, a lot before daylight, and started 
 boiling water under the big kettle. Then we 
 lugged the mash around to each pen, and we 
 put down just what they would eat up clean in 
 five minutes. We had shutters for the windows, 
 roosting closets, every crack and crevice sealed 
 up tight, warmed the water and the grain. 
 
 Think of the steps we took, anrl then we didn't 
 get half as many eggs as we do today with Egg 
 Feed, open front houses, and cold water, Egg 
 Feed fed once a week, and the hens are a lot 
 healthier, our health is better, too, and our profits 
 are more than double. 
 
 November is a month of long nights and short 
 days ; while during the summer months the birds 
 are on the roosts eight hours or less and are 
 busy eating the other sixteen, now the reverse 
 is the rule and they should not be kept waiting 
 a minute for the owner or attendant to feed 
 them. The dry ground feed is always there, 
 and as soon as it is light enough they can begin 
 filling up, and naturally they are at it from 
 morning until night. No chance for a feast, 
 then a famine, as under the old system. This 
 is why results are so much more certain with 
 this method. 
 
 Thousands of women are engaged in poultry 
 keeping, finding it a sure and profitable method 
 of making nionev, and city markets for live poul- 
 try remove all the disagreeable features of kill- 
 ing and marketing the birds. 
 
 See that your house is banked up around the 
 bottom so as to avoid draughts. 
 
 Page Sixty 
 
One of the best helps toward keeping the 
 quarters dry in winter, at a nominal cost, is to 
 have the floor well littered to the depth of from 
 three to six inches with dirt, cut straw, hay or 
 leaves. This protects against loss of heat and 
 prevents cold currents from below, and may also 
 be used in which to scatter the grain to keep the 
 fowls active. 
 
 You should be getting a good supply of eggs 
 from March and April pullets and the May- 
 hatches should be starting in. Keep the differ- 
 ent ages by themselves so that the younger ones 
 are not "bossed" around. Kept separated they 
 will mature much faster. 
 
 Push everything to market early this month, 
 as the late holiday markets are seldom satisfac- 
 tory, except for very large choice eight to nine- 
 pound fancy capons. These it might pay to 
 hold, but really they should have gone to market 
 two months ago when prices were better. July 
 and August chickens should be pretty well 
 feathered out and able to care for themselves 
 if properly housed. 
 
 Eggs bring long prices this month and poultry 
 is at the low point for the year. 
 
 November is, on the whole, a bad month to 
 market fowl and chickens. Turkeys have the 
 right of way, and so many unposted producers 
 rush in fowl and chickens that the market is 
 usually glutted and prices run low. 
 
 The more vigorous the male, the larger the 
 percentage of good pullets from the mating. 
 
 The poultry will stand almost any degree of 
 
 Page Sixty-one 
 
Dry feet — 
 plenty of 
 
 cold, but draughts mean sure trouble. If there 
 is any sign of a cold, use some roup cure. 
 
 Keep the hoppers full. The hens are keeping 
 union hours now. They say the way to a man's 
 heart is through his stomach. You must jolly 
 the hen the same way. 
 
 Better gather your eggs for hatching several 
 times a day ; during this kind of weather eggs 
 quickly chill. 
 
 Treat the pullets the best you know how and 
 your reward will be sure and ample. 
 
 Give your birds plenty of air, with the south 
 side open day and night. 
 
 It is not always necessary to supply grit, but 
 as it is so cheap, you cannot afford to take 
 chances. The hens need it for best results. 
 
 NOVEMBER DISEASES 
 
 Getting out on the cold ground, walking 
 around in the snow and slush, damp litter, all 
 stop your birds from laying. Don't try to keep 
 your birds warm but keep them dry at whatever 
 cost. Keep them scratching. 
 
 The circulation of the blood is very active 
 through the hen's foot, and she cannot devote 
 her feed to making eggs if it takes too much of 
 it to keep her feet warm. 
 
 Page Sixty-two 
 
STARTING IN DECEMBER 
 Starting in December is much like starting in 
 January and the same rules as November apply. 
 Depend upon early hatched pullets to get eggs 
 this month. Keep the birds dry. Get strong, 
 fertile eggs from yearling hens. Don't put over 
 eight females with a male at this season of the 
 year. 
 
 Get them all out of doors every day and the 
 eggs will hatch much better. Dig off the snow 
 in front of the coop, making a space equal in 
 size to the size of the pen. Feed them Scratch 
 Feed outside in some litter so they will scratch 
 in the open air for it. This means some extra 
 work, but fertile eggs in winter are worthy of 
 a good deal of extra labor. 
 
 GENERAL SUGGESTIONS 
 
 Cut out the leaks, not only in the coop, but 
 in your business. If you have a lot of old hens 
 that do not look like laying right away, market 
 them. 
 
 This is the month when "eggs is eggs." 
 If you have a lot of cockerels that are not big 
 enough for breeders, or any old cocks that you 
 are not going to use, market them. 
 
 15 
 
 Page Sixty-three 
 
POULTRY GUIDE POST 
 
 P^SD 
 
 WIielliCT you believe 
 it or not. thu 
 
 Get your birds into small flocks. Get them 
 settled down for the winter. Get late hatched 
 pullets in place of two-year-old hens. They will 
 pay better. 
 
 Don't let your market egg layers out of doors 
 under any condition during the winter months, 
 and keep their pens well littered. There is a 
 wonderful lot of blood circulating through their 
 feet, and they won't lay if they stand around in 
 mud and snow all day. 
 
 Keep in airy houses with liberal sized open- 
 ings in the south side which are never closed 
 night or day. 
 
 In selecting breeders for the broiler or roaster 
 that is to be hatched next month, choose the 
 male as per suggestions in October, and select 
 females that are of good size, hardy, vigorous 
 breeders, birds that from the shell up have never 
 known what it was to lose a feed. We strongly 
 favor the large American varieties for all pur- 
 poses, for they lay as well and make much better 
 poultry than the smaller breeds. Select hens, 
 yearlings, that are well through the moulting and 
 about ready to lay, or pullets that have been well 
 matured before starting to lay, thus insuring 
 good sized eggs ; mate not over six or eight 
 females with a male that has been kept away 
 from all females until this time, and the chances 
 are you will get e.ggs that will hatch those strong, 
 rugged chickens that will live through tornado, 
 earthquakes and blizzards. 
 
 December and January-hatched chickens ma- 
 ture in June, bringing highest prices of the year. 
 
 F<i,<;r Sixty-four 
 
POINTERS 
 
 Keep charcoal in front of your poultry all the 
 time. 
 
 Vigor is only another way of spelling health. 
 If your breeders are healthy, strong birds, and 
 your house is open so that they practically roost 
 and live in the open air twenty-four hours a day, 
 and if you feed as we direct, the chickens will 
 be vigorous and healthy, and you will raise every 
 one 3'ou put in small heatless brooders. 
 
 Have you purchased your stock of breeding 
 cockerels ? It's a good time now before the 
 stock gets culled over. 
 
 Keep the hens busy. Dry leaves make the 
 best kind of litter. 
 
 It is nice to have the house whitewashed so 
 that it will not be so dark on stormy days. 
 
 Sort over your pullets and if you have more 
 than you can take care of properly, send the 
 surplus to market. 
 
 Keep an egg record. Try to have an intelli- 
 gent idea of what your poultry costs you and 
 what it returns. 
 
 See that you have plenty of eggs and that the 
 poultry is all marketed or is growing along to 
 maturity for the better prices of another season. 
 
 This is the month of highest prices for eggs 
 and bottom prices for poultry. 
 
 It is a good idea to use some roup cure in 
 the drinking water. "Prevention is better than 
 cure." 
 
 See that your birds are eating every minute 
 of the time from leaving the roosts until they 
 get back on them, for they now spend nearly 
 
 Page Sixty-five 
 
 Fresh' arr 
 for Poultn/ 
 
POULTRY GUIDE POST 
 
 Otudj/ iostvij 
 ih heiu during 
 ^W feeding- 
 
 two-thirds of their time on the perches and 
 must eat continuously to get enough to lay all 
 the eggs you expect. 
 
 Accept our hearty wishes for a happy New 
 Year. 
 
 DECEMBER DISEASES 
 
 In December practically the only disease to 
 guard against is roup, and this is really the 
 only one in the business to fear — and fear this 
 we must, as it is the worst of them all ; in fact 
 is worse than all the others combined, and at 
 that it is a disease resulting from carelessness 
 f; or ignorance. 
 
 ^ 3) (^ Give the birds good air to breathe at all times, 
 treat them as though they were hardy and strong 
 from the time they are hatched, and they will 
 be strong and free from disease. 
 
 Baby them, pamper them, raise them in heated 
 uildings, keep them in tight houses — and you 
 will have continuous trouble. 
 
 Page Sixty-six 
 
Vitality is largely inherited, and without vital- 
 ity our work and pains are thrown away. If 
 we do not have good, strong parent stock the 
 chickens will be weak, puny things that are 
 worse than useless. Experienced poultrymen 
 will testify that such stock is of no value ; in 
 fact, is a curse to anyone, their care nothing 
 but a continual worry, and their survival only 
 a deferred disappointment. Better pay double 
 the price for good, strong, robust stock than to 
 have the other kind given to you. 
 
 Assuming that you have the kind of stock 
 described above, and that the chickens are 
 hatched, we will try to outline a simple system' 
 of care and management that will bring them 
 to laying in good season. 
 
 Now, to get early fall and winter eggs, or in 
 fact to get any kind of success with poultry, 
 we must study nature and her methods. 
 
 You have all noted that Red-root or Pig- 
 weeds that come up in a vacant lot late in 
 September or October have a different habit of 
 growth than when beginning to grow in the 
 early spring. In the spring the habits of the 
 
 Page Sixty-nine 
 
POULTRY GUIDE POST 
 
 ferent 
 
 5lock. 
 
 V4 ./fr'^t^' f 
 
 
 plant are apparently on the broad gauge plan. 
 The branching stalks and main stem are wide 
 and thick, intended to grow to large size before 
 bearing seed, and if left unhampered to grow 
 as started on rich soil, the plant will reach a 
 height of 5 or 6 ft. before any blossom buds 
 appear. Now the same seed in the same soil 
 sprouting in October will grow with another 
 plan of life altogether. Instead of the thick 
 stem and branching habit it shoots up a small 
 dwarf habit stem less than 6 inches in height 
 before blossom buds appear. This is simply 
 nature's recognition of the fact that the growing 
 season is past, that the harvest time is near, and 
 whatever seed is borne must be produced in 
 haste. The plant's form is shaped with this end 
 in view, and is brought to bearing in its limited 
 time and on a dwarfed frame. 
 
 Now, the springtime is nature's season of 
 breeding. Among practically all the wild ani- 
 mals the young are produced during the spring 
 months. It matters very little when your pullets 
 are hatched, they ■will lay in February, March 
 and April anyway. If these chickens are hatched 
 in J\Iay, June or July and improperly fed or half 
 starved, allowed to shift for themselves, they 
 will come to laying during these months. The 
 same is true of August, September or October- 
 hatched pullets. They too will lay in February, 
 March and April, but they will not be so well 
 developed. Their bodies will be small, and their 
 eggs will be undersized. So too, will pullets 
 hatched in January and February get to laying 
 
 Page Seventy 
 
INCOME 
 
 in May or June. Nature, recognizing the Spring 
 as the breeding or producing season, hurries 
 these birds, hatched, according to her calendar, 
 late on the last growing period, and sets them 
 to laying, very small eggs to be sure, but eggs, 
 and eggs that will hatch. Of course the pullets 
 are small, and never make the frames they would 
 have grown had they been hatched at the proper 
 season. 
 
 This is simply to show that nature has a period 
 of seed time, of growth, and another of harvest 
 or maturity. Now, she times that period of 
 growth with all her children when the feed is 
 most plentiful. You never see the robin or blue- 
 bird, the deer or moose building nests or bearing 
 young at any other time than during the early 
 spring or summer when the feed is most abund- 
 ant, giving the young ample time and feed for 
 maturing- before the winter season. 
 
 Now, man in his manipulation of nature's 
 laws, as regards the hen, by creating an abnor- 
 mal appetite and laying habit, has a bird that 
 under some conditions breeds or produces eggs 
 in the off season or fall and winter months. 
 Left to herself to pick her own living the hen 
 would only lay during the spring and summer 
 months, and we are sure that those eggs would 
 hatch much better than those produced by our 
 
 fall ., 
 
 Page Seventy-one 
 
POULTRY GUIDE POST 
 
 n i>g'9iS^ blipl f 
 
 perpetual machine that is laying five to ten times 
 as many eggs as Nature intended her to. 
 
 The burning question is, why don't we get as 
 many eggs during the fall and winter season as 
 during the spring and summer? Really, is not 
 the question, WHY DO WE GET ANY EGGS 
 DURING THE FALL AND WINTER ? 
 
 If we stop to consider the effects of years of 
 breeding of our domestic animals we will find 
 that the improvements have been along the line 
 of increased capacity for food, resulting in in- 
 creased productiveness. In the milch cow the 
 development of her appetite and productiveness 
 has probably increased her size 200 per cent, to 
 400 per cent., and her milk yield in the full year 
 from 200 per cent, to 800 per rent, over cattle 
 in a state of nature. 
 
 "We TIHJ5t study 
 
 ndturo 
 
 In the horse we have the largest specimen, 
 weighing 2000 to 2500 pounds, and if we are 
 to believe the naturalist these have been devel- 
 oped from animals weighing less than the little 
 donkeys our children played with. Compare the 
 old razor-back hog \\*ith enormous weight of 
 some of the show Berkshire or A\'hite Chesters 
 of toflay, weighing from 1000 to 1500 pounds. 
 
 All these cases cited sift down to man's man- 
 ipulation and increase in the capacity of the 
 
 Page Scvciity-tzvo 
 
INCOME 
 
 animal to assimilate more feed than its ances- 
 tors and put it to the uses sought. 
 
 Now, in poultry just as wonderful changes 
 have been wrought. In our domestic hen in 
 place of the jungle fowl laying one or two 
 clutches of eggs, perhaps 25 or 30 eggs in the 
 spring months, we are not satisfied unless we 
 get from 150 to 200 and want them all when 
 eggs are at the highest prices. 
 
 Mankind has certainly done wonderful things 
 with our feathered pets but cannot stand nature 
 on her head altogether. We must continue to 
 court her favors and try to lead her along the 
 road we wish her to follow, but we must remem- 
 ber that while she is willing as long as we con- 
 sider her whims and caprices, occasionally she 
 balks and wrecks our aspirations in mid air, 
 when her laws are disregarded, and we come to 
 earth with a dull thud. 
 
 In the past, amateur enthusiasts have con- 
 ceived the idea that the birds laid in spring and 
 summer because it was warm weather, and figur- 
 ing on this basis without consulting Dame Na- 
 ture, they constructed expensive buildings with 
 elaborate heating systems, endeavoring to try to 
 convince the birds that spring time had come, 
 even if the sun did rise at seven o'clock and set 
 at four. Their attempts have all failed for the 
 very important reason that the birds were not 
 adapted to live in stifled air and heated quarters, 
 and that eggs are not dependent upon warmth. 
 Colds, roup and kindred ailments put these plants 
 out of business in short order. 
 
 -y-^r' 
 
 V 
 
 Anythinq iU 
 
 Cacklcr 
 
 a v/eaw 
 
 iedthcu 
 
 will X&y in 
 
 •tlic Win©. 
 
 Page Seventy-three 
 
POULTRY GUIDE POST 
 
 L when you 
 
 & disoley 
 f Nature 
 
 To produce this five or ten-fold increase of 
 egg yield over what nature intended, we must 
 continue to crowd the right kind of feed into 
 the birds in about the proportion we expect eggs. 
 In the state of nature the birds hatched in the 
 spring laid the next spring: or at about the age 
 of ten months. Now we hear all kinds of pro- 
 tests if the pullets do not get to laying at five 
 and six months of age, and in many cases where 
 they have not been more than half fed at that. 
 Taking ten months to develop in a mild climate 
 they required very little feed and effort to secure 
 it, especially as the birds were very much smaller 
 than our birds of today. One of our American 
 ' variety pullets should weigh from five to six 
 pounds at six months of age. The jungle fowl 
 >- weighed perhaps 2j4 lbs. at ten months of age. 
 How much more food must our well-bred bird 
 consume to double this Jungle fowl's weight in 
 half the time? 
 
 Supposing our American variety pullets are 
 hatched in March or April how soon may we 
 expect them to lay? Nature would start the 
 Jungle fowl with the intention of bringing her 
 to laying maturity at ten months of age, and 
 with a productiveness of perhaps twelve eggs 
 as her first litter, and a weight of 2 lbs. to make. 
 She would require probably less than 25 per 
 cent, food and ten months to get it in. It's a 
 long, slow, growing period with a lighter pro- 
 duction at the end of it, soon broken up with 
 three weeks of incubation. 
 
 We expect Miss Plymouth Rock to start lay- 
 
 Page Seventy-four 
 
INCOME 
 
 ES?^ 
 
 ing promptly at nine o'clock in the morning of 
 the day she is five months of age, and continue 
 one egg a day during the short winter days when 
 she has about 7 hours on the floor of the pen 
 and 17 hours on the roost, until the next spring 
 or summer; not only that, but we wonder why 
 the eggs don't hatch as many chicks as were put 
 in the machine, and why the chicks die in the 
 shell- and why they don't all live. 
 
 First of all, to bring Miss Plymouth Rock to 
 la3'ing at five to six months of age and have her 
 up to the weight we wish, we must pour a con- 
 stant stream of rich, nourishing food through 
 her alimentary canal from the moment she is 
 hatched. Every moment her digestive machin- 
 ery is without material to build on is lost. If 
 we start during infancy with scanty feeding, 
 nature changes her plan from a wide-tailed big 
 stocky bird to one of two-thirds or half the size, 
 with a pinched and generally half-starved ap- 
 pearance. 
 
 We are very firm believers in the prenatal 
 influence of full feeding. We think that to get 
 heavy laying pullets, they must be well fed dur- 
 ing their growing period else Nature thinks these 
 birds are born to endure privation and short 
 rations, and thus she dwarfs their future pro- 
 ductiveness to suit the conditions under which 
 they are developing. 
 
 If Miss Ply- 
 mouth Rock is 
 well started and 
 pushed with the 
 
 Page Seventy-five 
 
POULTRY GUIDE POST 
 
 
 Mot 111 19 do my 
 on the 
 
 right kind of food always within reach she will 
 easily outgrow her ancestors, and having Nature 
 always with her to prompt the development of 
 her system for a period of plenty she will pro- 
 duce eggs of good size and frequency. But she 
 must not be held back with unsuitable conditions 
 or feed for a single moment from the shell up, 
 and she must be kept in housing conditions that 
 promote her steady addition to the natural hardi- 
 ness inherited from her parents. 
 
 Hothouse conditions she cannot withstand, but 
 given a suitable cold house with an abundance 
 of fresh air, without draught, and plenty of 
 food always within reach, she will lay more 
 eggs than her ancestors, and go on as one of 
 the links in the chain of the better producers 
 we are seeking. 
 
 The birds are ravenous eaters, and what else 
 can be expected if we consider what enormous 
 producers they are when conditions suit them. 
 They must have a large amount of feed to de- 
 velop into this size and in the limited number of 
 months we expect, and the feed must be rich, 
 palatable and constantly before them. Whole 
 grain \\'ill not produce the results we are look- 
 ing for, since we have so increased the diges- 
 tive capacity of the intestines, we have not yet 
 greatly increased the efficiency of the gizzard, 
 with the result that we must feed a large pro- 
 portion of the feed in a finely ground state to 
 give the intestines enough to do. Otherwise 
 they are constantly waiting for the gizzard to 
 send along some more material, and the result 
 
 Page Sc'\-iity-six 
 
INCOME 
 
 is lost ground, lessened growth and limited pro- 
 duction. 
 
 Meat food is absolutely necessary. The 
 growth and development we seek cannot and 
 will not come from vegetable sources altogether. 
 Animal protein we must have ; and the only 
 question remaining is in what form? We strong- 
 ly advise the mixing of the meat food with the 
 ground, whole grain, just as we have it in Grow- 
 ing Feed, years of study and experiment 
 having demonstrated that this is the most 
 palatable form, and productive of the maxi- 
 mum growth without any disturbance of the 
 liver. 
 
 The birds in some sections get quite a little 
 of their living from the grasshoppers and 
 other bugs and worms, but be sure that in 
 addition to this they always have some appe- 
 tizing food constantly within reach so that 
 the grasshoppers will be a little dessert and 
 not the whole meal. 
 
 Be sure that a liberal percentage of the 
 food is meat, from the hatch to the hatchet, 
 and let it be meat of good quality. 
 
 March or April-hatched pullets of the 
 American varieties may or may not lay in 
 September, October or November. If they 
 have been well fed and properly cared for 
 they will start laying during these months. 
 On the other hand, if only half fed, allowed 
 to find their own living, kept in small, ill ven- 
 tilated quarters, crowded and stunted, or sub- 
 jected to any one of the above handicaps, they 
 
 CompaTc 
 
 Jdjor-hdckiS 
 
 Page Seventy-sevmi 
 
POULTRY GUIDE POST 
 
 will very likely hold back their eggs until the 
 natural time for laying, February or March. 
 
 It is very easy to revert to the natural habit 
 of spring and summer laying only. It requires 
 good feed and care to overcome the natural 
 tendency, and splendid returns come to those 
 who master the problem. 
 
 Bringing the pullets along through the sum- 
 mer months in roomy, cool roosting coops, with 
 plenty of green food and shade, and an abund- 
 ance of rich, palatable food, always within easy 
 access, the early fall months should see them 
 rounding out into large, well-developed, wide- 
 
 icnj arc 
 ravenoTi^ 
 CdteTr. 
 
 tailed, henny-Iooking pullets that gain the size 
 of their parents before beginning to drop their 
 eggs. They have enjoyed full feeding during 
 the natural growing period, and the fall finds 
 them entirely matured and in the same state of 
 development to which a scanty feeder would 
 bring his birds in February or March. 
 
 We have taken advantage of Nature's teach- 
 ing to grow the birds during the growing season, 
 and she has rewarded us with a finished product 
 in one-half the time she originally took to pro- 
 duce it. If we take the same pullet all readv to 
 lay, transport her from one house to another, 
 radically change the feed and care, our hopes 
 may not materialize. 
 
 Page Sn'cnty-cigJit 
 
^^^^ 
 
 INCOME 
 
 It is not the natural season for eggs, and too 
 much abuse just as the birds are about to begin 
 production will sometimes throw them back even 
 so far as to wait until the spring season. It is 
 best to get the pullets settled in their permanent 
 winter quarters a month or more before they 
 would lay, and after they have been placed to- 
 gether no change of the personnel of the pens 
 permitted. Strangers introduced from time to 
 time cause more or less scrapping and disturb- 
 ance, and all go to interrupt egg production. 
 During the unnatural season for eggs seemingly 
 trivial matters and excuses cause the egg pro- 
 duction to stop, whereas, during the flood tide 
 of eggs in the spring season apparently one can 
 go to almost any extreme with shifting, feeding, 
 et cetera, without affecting the egg yield ma- 
 terially. 
 
 We may confidently expect eggs during the 
 off season from early hatched pullets and from 
 yearling hens that were early hatched the previ- 
 ous spring; having laid early during the pre- 
 ceding fall and winter they have been indiffer- 
 ent layers during the summer months, have 
 moulted early and with proper feed and care are 
 ready to begin their second season's work early. 
 
 From the foregoing it would seem that only 
 one class of pullets are desirable, — the early 
 hatched. This, however, is not as we see it. 
 We all like the early hatched, but we find that 
 if our birds are all early hatched, within a rea- 
 sonable space of time they will come to laying 
 together, providing of course, that they all re- 
 
 mctiuit tliey expecl hel- 
 lo c^d on ific nejt 
 and ]ay.. 
 
 Page Seventy-nine 
 
POULTRY GUIDE 
 
 A /bod-tide 
 
 mthe 
 
 ceive the same treatment. Again, they would 
 all moult at the same period and we would be 
 at a standstill for eggs. 
 
 We have seen the habits and natural tenden- 
 cies with the early hatched pullet. Now let us 
 consider another class of birds, heretofore re- 
 garded as of very little value — the late hatched, 
 or the June and July chickens. These have 
 their work to do, and also do it just as well if 
 we understand them. 
 
 Carefully kept and well fed, they come to 
 laying maturity in December, January and Feb- 
 ruary. Beginning later, they go through the 
 spring in better form, and when their early 
 hatched sisters are moulting these late birds are 
 still laying heavily, and as they have three 
 months' time to make up, having begun three 
 months later, they continue good, strong work 
 .right through August, September and October, 
 stopping then for a short, quick moult, dropping 
 the feathers almost all at once, and getting a new 
 set very rapidly, whereas, the early hatched birds 
 begin to drop their feathers in July or August 
 and take three or four months for a very 
 leisurely, ladylike change of clothing. To be 
 sure they expose their bodies less, but the' 
 Salome dance ruling does not extend to the 
 poultry yard, and results of the egg basket rather 
 than beauty of bird are what we are seeking 
 It will be seen that the late hatched pullet fills 
 her place and gives us eggs when they are quite 
 scarce and hard to get. Prices are good and the 
 eggs come with very little effort in feed and care. 
 
 Page Eighty 
 
Now if these pullets be purchased there is 
 even more to be said in their favor. The early 
 hatched are the kind that everybody is seeking, 
 and the price is consequently bound to be high. 
 These late ones are looked down upon, and not 
 only bring a less price per pound, but as they 
 are light in weight the total price is small indeed. 
 
 Put into the pens in October or November, 
 weighing 2 to 3 pounds, they cost 40c. to 60c. 
 each, while the early ones weighing 4 to 5 lbs. 
 cost $1.00 to $1.25 each. Now when the time 
 comes to go to market the early ones weigh 
 about the same as when purchased, while the 
 smaller ones have gained to about the size of 
 the larger ones, and bring nearly, if not quite 
 enough to purchase more small pullets to take 
 their places. 
 
 The early ones must take quite a loss, as they 
 are no more valuable as market poultry, cost 
 quite a bit more per pound, and weighed heavier 
 at the start. To be sure they got to laying 
 earlier, but on the other hand they stopped 
 earlier. 
 
 When the books are balanced at the end of 
 the year it will be found that in many cases the 
 late hatched birds have paid as much per head 
 as the earlier ones. If these late hatched birds 
 be wintered it will be found that they begin 
 laying very nearly as soon as their medium 
 early hatched sisters, and carry the same char- 
 acteristics of late fall laying through the next 
 season, although for this market egg business 
 we favor the changing of the full stock each 
 
 Disturbed 
 HenJ 
 ftop laying. 
 
 Page Eighty-one 
 
POULTRY GUIDE POST 
 
 iM f~6%^o 
 
 ;£c 
 
 fall, either raising or purchasing an entire new 
 lot. 
 
 We have tried to outline the natural tendency 
 of the different classes of birds. Now, let us 
 consider what we can do to increase the laying 
 habit in the off season. 
 
 It will be acknowledged that almost every- 
 thing from a feather duster to one of these new 
 Easter bonnets will lay during the spring months. 
 Anything that cackles and wears feathers and 
 has half a chance to live will lay when Nature 
 prompts her to do her best. For this reason we 
 need take no credit upon ourselves for the large 
 egg record during the spring months. The time 
 for us to put out our best efforts is when Nature 
 is urging her birds to "go slow" and take a rest. 
 
 We must push the early hatched pullets with 
 liberal feeding of meat-laden food all through 
 the growing period- then follow this with every- 
 thing to whet her appetite and increase her pro- 
 ductiveness while she is laying during the fall 
 and winter. During the early spring she will 
 lay anyway, for nature tells her to do so. But 
 after the early spring is passed she is pretty 
 nearly "all in" so far as eggs are concerned, and 
 is either broody or loafing, laying very short 
 litters between fits of broodiness or starting 
 slow moults that will last for three or five 
 months. 
 
 Now if in May we give her a change of 
 diet, — for instance, shift from Egg Feed to a 
 ration of Growing Feed with ten to fifteen per 
 cent, of a good quality of meat scraps, the 
 
 Page Eighty-two 
 
INCOME 
 
 I fe^^J 
 
 change of diet tickles her failing appetite and 
 she eats ravenously of the new ration, gains 
 flesh and lays a splendid lot of eggs during the 
 following sixty days, when to our mind we have 
 pretty well milked her out and she should go to 
 market. 
 
 Now the late hatched birds as they are not 
 allowed so much time during the growing period 
 should be pushed harder, with, say a five or ten 
 per cent, addition of scraps to the Growing Feed. 
 They should be given yards and runs in which 
 no birds have been kept for twelve months at 
 least, and in smaller flocks than the earlier ones, 
 not over 25 at most. 
 
 They have nature with them prompting the 
 laying in February anyway, so we have only to 
 encourage them with the extra ration of scraps 
 to get them going a month or six weeks earlier, 
 so we are seldom disappointed in their laying, 
 usually getting eggs before we expect them, 
 which is always pleasant. 
 
 During the spring months, like all the rest of 
 poultrydom, they will lay under almost any kind 
 of treatment and feed, so we had better rest on 
 our oars and drift with the current until early 
 summer, say about July, when we should begin 
 the treatment previously outlined for the early 
 hatched ones. 
 
 All our experience with poultry teaches us 
 that the heavy feeders make the money, and 
 any addition to the diet which will allow in- 
 creased feeding with safety will more than cor- 
 respondingly increase the profit. 
 
 Page Eighty-three 
 
 Tost on your- 
 
 cand dtifi v/rth^ 
 ikc current 
 
\r^ 
 
 OPPORTUNITY 
 
 
 There is much discussion of the steadily in- 
 creasing cost of living, and with very good rea- 
 son, — "it hits us where we Hve." For several 
 years past the cost of all kinds of food stuff's has 
 steadily increased, and this is especially true of 
 beef, mutton and pork, which have advanced 
 in price with alarming rapidity in the past few 
 years. Nor is there any prospect of better con- 
 ditions in these meat-foods, for the good and 
 sufficient reason that a steadily increasing de- 
 mand for food stuffs is met by a steadily dimin- 
 ishing supply of these products; to the inex- 
 orable law of supply and demand is due (in 
 the main) the steady advance in prices. 
 
 The population of the United States is in- 
 creasing at a rate which means that each year 
 there are a million more mouths to be fed than 
 there were the year before. Over against this 
 fact there has to be set the further fact of les- 
 sened production, due to the settling of the lands 
 of the far west and south-west, and the turn- 
 ing of the great cattle and sheep ranges into 
 small farms which are used for diversified farm- 
 ing, a factor which effects a change in the pro- 
 
 Page Eighty-five 
 
 un, 
 
 000. _ 
 
 iralAr 
 
ESE 
 
 POULTRY GUIDE POST I J^lJ^Ejl^' 
 
 y 
 
 portion of consumers to producers of food 
 products, especially in the States east of the 
 Mississippi River where the concentration of 
 people in the cities and manufacturing towns 
 is most marked. As it is apparent that it is the 
 younger and more vigorous of the population 
 who move to the towns and cities, so it becomes 
 evident that not only the number but the effi- 
 ciency of the producers is being diminished while 
 an increased consumption has to be cared for. 
 
 Statistics furnished by the United States De- 
 partment of Agriculture tell us that there were 
 produced in 1910, 2,000,000 fewer beef cattle 
 and 6,000,000 fewer hogs than were produced 
 the year previous. The shrunken beef produc- 
 tion is accounted for by the change in conditions 
 in the west and southwest mentioned above ; the 
 lesser pork production is explained bv the ex- 
 tremely high price, which induced the farmer to 
 sell his young stock in place of making breeders 
 of them. 
 
 This suburbanite 
 
 thought he had no p (ID 
 room for poultry / 
 keeping. 
 
 Page Elghfy-six 
 
OPPORTUNITY 
 
 A natural outgrowth of this lessened food sup- 
 ply and increased demand is a turning to other 
 sources of supply, foremost among which stand 
 poultry-meat and eggs. That these articles of 
 food are well appreciated is made evident by the 
 fact that in the single state of Massachusetts there 
 is consumed each year over $30,000,000 worth 
 of them, and it is a very significant fact that only 
 some five millions of dollars' worth of these 
 products are grown within the state. That is to 
 say, the people of the State of Massachusetts 
 pay out each year over $25,000,000 for poultry- 
 meat and eggs produced outside its limits. 
 
 In view of these facts it would seem wise for 
 us to consider whether we cannot become pro- 
 ducers of at least a portion of these foods, for 
 our own households. Few of us realize the 
 possibilities of a small flock of poultry in the 
 back yard, and although we do realize the sat- 
 isfaction there is in fresh-laid eggs for the break- 
 fast table, we do not know how easily the eggs 
 
 Same yard with four 
 No-Yard houses and 
 garden. 
 
 Page Eighty-seven 
 
POULTRY GUIDE POST 
 
 can be secured, nor how cheaply, at a cost of 
 about a cent a piece for the food. The man 
 who has a few square feet of room in the back 
 yard may have the luxury of a constant supply 
 of deliciously fresh eggs for the breakfast table 
 and the family cooking at low cost, by simply 
 taking advantage of the recent developments in 
 methods of poultry keeping. 
 
 We all know the attractiveness, the delicious 
 flavor of fresh-laid eggs, and how very far short 
 of that attractive flavor are the cold-storage eggs 
 which we receive, as "fresh" from the grocer 
 or provision dealer. If it can be demonstrated 
 that we can all have the genuine article, pro- 
 duced right in our own back yard at such small 
 cost, surely we will hasten to add a small poul- 
 try house and flock of laying pullets to our pos- 
 sessions and become independent of the cold 
 storage and semi-stale eggs ^previously expe- 
 rienced. Furthermore, we will eat decidedly 
 more of them. Finding them eminently satis- 
 factory, we turn to them again; they are "so 
 
 An unsightly back 
 
 yard, producing ,g=e==5j= 
 
 nothing but regrets. U 
 
 Page Eighty-eight 
 
OPPORTUNITY 
 
 different" from the strong-flavored and unattrac- 
 tive eggs which we all eat under compulsion or 
 because we are still in ignorance of the real qual- 
 ity of the home-made article. 
 
 Does one reader object that he hasn't room to 
 give his flock of fowls an outside run? An out- 
 side run is wholly unnecessary; the birds need 
 never step foot outside the confines of the poul- 
 try house. This is one of the recent develop- 
 ments in poultry keeping, that when the flock is 
 not kept for breeding but for egg-production 
 alone the No- Yard system is quite as satisfac- 
 tory, and gives even better results than where 
 a considerable amount of ground is given to them 
 to range over. This No- Yard system of keeping 
 fowls is a wholly new idea to those who have 
 been accustomed to see the fowls ranging all 
 over the farm and garden and over the neighbors' 
 gardens also. It works out perfectly, however, 
 where the fowls are kept solely for egg-produc- 
 tion, the birds being carried through one laying 
 season only ; being gradually killed for the f am- 
 
 Same yard now 
 paying a large part 
 of the rent. 
 
 Page Eighty-nine 
 
POULTRY GUIDE POST 
 
 ily table or sold off to market in the late sum- 
 mer, and a new stock of laying pullets being in- 
 stalled in the house each fall. The flock is fed 
 for eggs and lays eggs, and late in the summer 
 any that have escaped the family's growing ap- 
 petite for fresh killed fowl are shipped to market 
 alive in time to clean and white-wash the house, 
 making it ready for the new flock of pullets in 
 October, 
 
 Does another reader object that he sends his 
 family away to the seashore or the old home in 
 the country directly after the schools close in 
 June, and that he does not care to have a flock 
 of fowls on his hands through the summer" The 
 birds that are left on hand the last of June can 
 be closed out to the hen-cart man, at a price 
 closely approximating the first cost of the pul- 
 lets, the very day before the wife and children 
 flit from the home nest. Here is one illustra- 
 tion : — In the fall an acquaintance purchased a 
 flock of twenty mixed pullets for twenty dol- 
 lars and installed them in a small house which 
 
 A vacant lot adjoin- 
 ing a village home. 
 The taxes were 
 heavy and the 
 income nothing. 
 
 Page Ninety 
 
^2S 
 
 OPPORTUNITY 
 
 he had built of himber from old packing cases 
 in his back yard. From that date to July 7th 
 following, he paid $19.50 for their feed ; total 
 capital and expense $39.50. During this period 
 he sold to the grocer and used in his family 
 eggs to the value of $80.89; the eggs used by the 
 family being credited at the market prices of 
 the time. 
 
 On July 7th, the following year, he moved his 
 family into the country, to their summer home, 
 and sold the hens to a hen-cart man for $10.12, 
 making a total for eggs and hens sold of $91.01. 
 Deducting the cost of feed bought and pullets 
 we have $51.51 net profit on an investment of 
 $20.00. Over and above that was the great 
 satisfaction of having an abundance of eggs 
 fresh from the nests for the family table. 
 
 An illustration of the rapid growth in popu- 
 larity of this family flock idea is found in the 
 experience of a poultryman living just outside 
 the city of Toronto. A friend living in the city, 
 having a small back yard to his house, bought a 
 
 Same lot now pays 
 the taxes and a nice 
 income besides. 
 
 Page Ninety-one 
 
POULTRY GUIDE POST 
 
 flock of ten pullets from him some half dozen 
 years ago. This flock gave him an ample supply 
 of fresh-laid eggs for home use and some to 
 sell to his less fortunate friends and towards 
 spring the family began eating a hen now and 
 then as the appetite craved poultry-meat. When 
 the family went away to the country for the sum- 
 mer the remaining birds were sold to the mar- 
 ketman. The city-man's friends envied him his 
 good fortune, in his having fresh-laid eggs all 
 through the fall, winter and spring and they got 
 busy to provide the same blessing for their fam- 
 ilies, the net result being that our poultryman 
 friend now has twenty-one families to whom he 
 supplies a flock of ten, twelve or fifteen ready- 
 to-lay pullets each October. All these families 
 can credit to their backyard poultry plant greater 
 health, wealth and happiness. 
 
 A man may feel that he cannot easilv spare 
 the time to feed and care for a flock of fowls. 
 By the up-to-date methods of poultry keeping, a 
 
 Another suburban 
 residence, the lady 
 owner of which 
 needed an income. 
 
 Page Nincty-t'^ 
 
OPPORTUNITY 
 
 :^ 
 
 ^m 
 
 ten-year-old boy or girl can throw out to them 
 the few handfuls of scratch feed in mid-after- 
 noon, after coming from school. Then again 
 it is no small advantage to a family to have an 
 easy method of disposing of table and kitchen 
 waste ; the table and kitchen scraps of the ordi- 
 nary family will half feed a flock of fowls, and 
 gives them a much enjoyed variety of food. 
 All the rest of the chores can be done in a 
 few minutes after supper, the most important 
 part of this last being the filling of the Egg 
 Feed hoppers and the emptying of the drink- 
 ing fountains so that the water shall not freeze 
 in cold weather. In cold weather, too, the 
 eggs should be gathered from the nests two 
 or three times during the day to prevent their 
 freezing. 
 
 Another man may say that he hasn't any chick- 
 en house. One suitable for a small flock can 
 be quickly and cheaply built out of lumber from 
 a few old boxes ; if we want something more 
 attractive, ready-made poultry houses that are 
 
 Same yard with 
 pouhry paying all 
 expenses. 
 
 Page Ninety-three 
 
POULTRY GUIDE POST 
 
 handy, convenient and attractive can be bought 
 at moderate cost. These houses are shipped 
 "knocked-down", can be quickly assembled and 
 erected, and can be easily and quickly separated 
 into several parts for removal if desired, as in 
 the case of the family moving to another home. 
 The No-Yard house is an excellent portable 
 house, well adapted for a flock of a dozen to fif- 
 teen fowls. A description and illustration of this 
 house seems desirable, and we give it on 
 page 122. 
 
 It is not our intention in this chapter to enter 
 into a discussion of the merits or demerits of 
 any housing systems, but our experience, com- 
 bined with thousands of successful poultrymen 
 has proven to our satisfaction that in recom- 
 mending the "open-front" house to the public 
 we are advocating a system that has many ad- 
 vantages over any other. 
 
 A more complete outline of housing is given 
 in the chapter by that title in this book, pages 
 117 to 128. 
 
 Old style poultry 
 keeping. 
 
 Page Ninety-four 
 
OPPORTUNITY 
 
 A good illustration of the especial point of this 
 story has come to our notice. A young lady ot 
 our acquaintance who had run down her health 
 by too close application to office work in the city 
 was ordered by her physician to eat two eggs 
 each morning for her breakfast and take three 
 eggs raw during the day. The difficulty of get- 
 ting "dependably fresh" eggs suggested that she 
 keep a small flock of fowls herself, and have 
 home-grown eggs. Gaining her parents' per- 
 mission to use a few square feet of the back of 
 their lot for the purpose, she bought a "No- 
 Yard" house, a flock of fifteen pullets and two 
 bags of ready mixed feeds. The pullets laid 
 splendidly all winter, not only giving her the 
 fresh-laid eggs for her own use and a supply for 
 the family, but she had a surplus to sell to the 
 corner drug-store, where they sell for ten cents 
 per dozen above the market price, and are used 
 in egg-chocolate and other soft drinks. 
 
 This worked out so well that she has continued 
 each year, fattening and selling off the birds in 
 
 Same lot with up- 
 to-date methods and 
 ^^ No- Yard houses. 
 
 Page Ninety-five 
 
POULTRY GUIDE POST 
 
 The picture that 
 comes to many 
 minds when back 
 yard poultry-keep- 
 ing is mentioned. 
 
 August and September, and buying new pullets 
 again in the late fall to lay heavily during the 
 season of high prices for eggs. 
 
 She pays her ten-year-old brother a small sum 
 each week for doing the poultry work and says 
 that she had not onl}' achieved fresh-laid eggs 
 for herself, but is making a good snug amount 
 each year. 
 
 We have no sympathy with the "get-rich- 
 quick" stories of $io to S50 or $500 profit per 
 hen in one year's time which are doing the 
 rounds of the papers, solely for advertising pur- 
 poses. We don't want our friends to get such 
 greatly inflated figures into their minds, for they 
 will be disappointed if they do. We do, how- 
 ever, want them to know that thev can reduce 
 their family living expenses by a substantial sum, 
 by utilizing the table and kitchen waste and a 
 small space in the back yard, both of which are 
 not now used because of lack of opportunitv. 
 You can easily clear from $2.00 to $5.00 profit 
 
 Pi!,<;6' Ninety-six 
 
OPPORTUNITY 
 
 per year per hen on whatever number you can 
 care for in your back yard, and the small amount 
 of time spent with them will prove a recreation 
 rather than a burden. 
 
 On a lot 50x50 feet in size there will be no dif- 
 ficulty in realizing a profit of from $50 to $500 a 
 year on an investment of from $50 to $300. The 
 old style method of poultry-keeping meant a lot 
 of unsightly "shacks" and tumble-down yards, 
 unending labor, and with results far from certain. 
 
 With our modern methods, of "no-yards" for 
 the mature market egg birds and scientific feed- 
 ing, the results are certain, the birds cannot get 
 by without laying. 
 
 These statements sound pretty strong, but we 
 are sure of our position. 
 
 Your garden will not suffer, in fact, both gar- 
 den and lawn (if you have them) will be greatly 
 improved by application of the droppings which 
 are a most excellent fertilizer. The weeds from 
 the garden, also the clippings from the lawn will 
 
 Q [| No-Yard system 
 requires no male 
 bird to disturb the 
 neighborhood. It 
 leaves ample space 
 for a nice garden. 
 
 Page Ninety-seven 
 
POULTRY GUIDE POST 
 
 ^^SHS^ 
 
 be greatly relished by the birds in confinement 
 and less grain food will be eaten by them if they 
 have the green food. 
 
 We well know that if these facts were real- 
 ized by our friends more than double the poul- 
 try would be profitably kept and the family liv- 
 ing expenses appreciably reduced. It takes 
 years, however, to impress some of the most sim- 
 ple truths upon the minds of the doubters, mean- 
 while, the demand for eggs and poultry meat 
 continues to increase much faster than the sup- 
 ply. Prices continue to soar and our doubting 
 friends continue to rail at the beef trust, over- 
 looking the fact that they have right at hand a 
 powerful weapon against that organization, viz : 
 shutting off a part of the trust's market by pro- 
 ducing their own meat and eggs and by sup- 
 plying their friends and neighbors. By so much 
 they can decrease the trust's sales, and put a 
 handsome profit in their own pockets. 
 
 So let the consumer of eggs and poultry be- 
 
 The young lady 
 whose parents 
 owned this estate 
 was ordered by the 
 physician to take 
 fresh eggs daily. 
 
 Page Nincly-i-iglit 
 
OPPORTUNITY 
 
 come first the producer. There is money to be 
 made, heaUh to be gained and recreation ana 
 happiness will go hand in hand. While held in 
 the city by the demands of the present day civ- 
 ilization, the back-to-the-farm yearning may be 
 all but realized in the little back yard flock of 
 poultry. 
 
 A poultry house 
 was substituted for 
 the unsightly view 
 of a neighbor's back 
 yard, and now fresh 
 eggs are a regular 
 morning delicacy 
 for all the family. 
 
 Page Ninety-nine 
 
The success or failure of any poultry keeping 
 undertaking really rests upon the skill of the 
 feeder, for successful poultry keeping is only 
 dependent upon two things, keeping the birds 
 healthy and feeding them properly. We have 
 shown the proper methods of housing and gen- 
 eral care in other chapters and will try to give 
 the outline of a safe feeding system or plan that 
 will enable all to gain success with their birds. 
 
 One of the first principles to be always remem- 
 bered is that your results are dependent upon 
 liberal feeding and by liberal feeding we mean 
 feeding all the birds can be coaxed to eat of the 
 right materials, and we must consider feed as 
 material and egg. poultry and breeding stock as 
 the finished products. 
 
 There is no question that a newly hatched 
 chicken is a delicate and tender object, keenly 
 sensitive to neglect, but particularly sensitive to 
 improper food. Properly fed and surrounded 
 with half way right conditions as to temperature 
 and air, he goes ahead at a wonderful rate — but 
 improperly fed, he stands still and dies. 
 
 Practically speaking, his life horoscope is de- 
 
 Paffc One Hundred One 
 
 HcAvy feeder J 
 make the 
 
 T.mcy 
 
POULTRY GUIDE POST 
 
 &" 
 
 ■K 
 
 cided in the first ten days to three weeks of his 
 existence. In this length of time, if he is a 
 good husky fellow, he will eat from three to 
 four cents' worth of feed. 
 
 If the chickens consumed the chick feed dur- 
 ing the first month in their lives in the quan- 
 tities they use when from three to five months 
 of age, there might be a little excuse for look- 
 ing for inexpensive rations, provided it did not 
 imperil the lives of the youngsters, but when 
 we consider that a pound of the best chick feed 
 will put a chicken beyond the danger period, 
 or up to three weeks of age, what excuse is 
 there for the saving of a quarter of a cent a 
 pound when it endangers the entire season's crop 
 of producers ? Really a poultryman would be 
 better ofT in many instances if he paid double 
 the price for the best chick feed, in preference 
 to the gift of manv of the feeds on the market. 
 Every experienced poultryman realizes that 
 the first two or three weeks is the crucial period 
 in the lives of his chickens. 
 Upnn the health and thrift 
 of the chickens during these 
 fe\\' weeks depend the pro- 
 fits of the whole season, 
 and of the year's business. 
 An all grain or vegetable diet is not natural 
 to any age of poultry and it has been found 
 highly beneficial to young chickens tn combine 
 a small amount of dried codfish or meat and 
 add it to the cracked grains and seeds used in 
 making up the chick feed ration. Certain prep- 
 
 Page One Hundred Two 
 
 fPEEP) 
 
 
FEEDING 
 
 arations of codfish being used after having been 
 put through a special preparatory process that 
 eliminates all the fat, it supplies the newly 
 hatched birds at the crucial age when most 
 needed with animal protein, without the animal 
 fat. 
 
 The yolk of the eggs not being fully absorbed 
 until the chickens are ten days old and consist- 
 ing largely of carbo-hydrates, furnishes all the 
 materials of a fatty nature that is desirable. 
 Thus if we add the commercial meat scraps con- 
 taining more or less fat, there is very sure to 
 be trouble, while in shredded codfish properly 
 prepared not an atom of fat remains. We thus 
 furnish just what the rapidly developing bodies 
 require without any white diarrhoea — so fatal 
 in some sections. 
 
 Cooking the food for chickens or grown poul- 
 try, only serves to render the starchy parts of 
 the feed more digestible, but by so doing, throws 
 the feeds out of balance, and while the chicks 
 apparently thrive better for a few days, they 
 later receive a set 
 back that leaves 
 them not so far 
 ahead as the birds 
 fed on raw foods 
 from the start. 
 
 With so much of our entire season's work and 
 profits depending upon the chickens, realizing 
 that they are going to be worth from one to two 
 dollars each when grown, and that after they are 
 three weeks of age very little mortality ensues — 
 
 Page One Hundred Three 
 
 
 \aturc 
 put a 
 
 Cool 
 inside 61 
 
 -f^h 
 
POULTRY GUIDE POST 
 
 -±^ 
 
 it would seem folly to consider any feed for 
 
 them but the BEST and most nourishing rations. 
 
 A coarser chick feed may be fed after the 
 
 chicks reach three weeks of age, being fed in 
 
 connection with Growing Feed. If the very 
 
 Til ^ \ \r\ T\ highest perfection of development is desired 
 
 inCIim lU SJ&yS ^^jjj^ y^^^ ^jj.jg_ gj^g alternate feeds of the 
 
 decide my Tate best fine chick and of a coarser chick feed 
 ^ — , until the birds are eight weeks of age. Keep 
 the Growing Feed continually before them. 
 ('if'^ ^\^ Remember that stuffing the birds to their limit, 
 S "^ studving their habits and whims, all with the 
 ^-^ idea of getting more food into them by mcreas- 
 ing their early growing habits, is a successful 
 poultryman's aim. If you get a two-pound 
 chicken at eight weeks of age, instead of ten or 
 twelve weeks' time, you have gained from one 
 to two weeks' feed, and the chances are from 
 five to ten cents per pound in the selling value, 
 as the market declines very rapidly during the 
 spring and early summer months, and if your 
 chickens are not in the market any earlier or 
 better than the one thousand other poultrymen 
 shipping to the same market you are not going 
 to receive any better prices than they get. 
 
 NINE-TENTHS OE THE CHICKENS HATCHED DO 
 NOT GET ENOUGH TO EAT. 
 
 Why so many chickens are hatched, and so 
 few really fed. is a great problem, but we think 
 that the improper feeding and poor quality of 
 unbalanced rations are largely responsible, for 
 all will recognize the fact that most of the teach- 
 
 Pagc One Hundred Four 
 
FEEDING 
 
 ]^LM 
 
 ings of ten years ago, — and in many cases of to- 
 day, — are to keep your chickens "on edge", ot 
 hungry all the time. 
 
 Your chickens should never be hungry, as 
 the term is generally understood. HUNGRY 
 BIRDS ARE NOT GROWING. 
 
 Almost without exception in all other forms 
 of bird and animal life the growing period is 
 the fattening period of life. In other words, 
 the birds or animals carry more fat on them 
 during this than any other time of their lives, 
 and in the face of this, the old teaching told 
 us to "keep them hungry." Is it any wonder 
 that the hens did not lay, that the youngsters 
 did not get to standard weight, or that poultry 
 keeping did not pay? 
 
 Hen-reared chickens, when running at large 
 with the mother hen, are fed a continuous 
 stream of bugs, worms, grains, seeds and 
 grasshoppers, from daylight to dark. There 
 is no interval of fasting; only brief warm-up 
 recesses or naps ; the entire da\' is spent in 
 trying to "fill up." The feeding system we 
 advocate gives these same conditions. After 
 the chickens are ten days to two weeks old Cn(3Tl(J"& 
 provide them with ground Growing Feed which TA • j. 
 furnishes them with a continuous ration which ■L^-i'^'L 
 should be made up of a happy combination of 
 the strongest and richest grains and meat food 
 ground together in the most appetizing form for 
 the chickens to so please their palates that they 
 will stuff themselves from one week's end to the 
 other, and grow evenly and rapidly into highly 
 
 Page One Hundred Five 
 
POULTRY GUIDE POST 
 
 YES 
 
 NO 
 
 developed pullets, cockerels, or capons, in one- 
 third less time than they would under any other 
 system. 
 
 Upon a properly balanced Growing Feed 
 ration, cockerels reach ten and twelve pounds 
 weight in six months, thus representing a 
 growth in each day of their lives equal to two- 
 thirds of their entire weight when hatched into 
 this cold, hard world. 
 
 To make this growth, conditions must be right, 
 and the feed must be rich, abundant, and always 
 within reach. It must also be present in a form 
 that is not only palatable to the growing chick- 
 ens, but in such form as will digest most eco- 
 nomically and completely. Now it is easy to see 
 that wet food cannot be kept before them con- 
 stantly and remain sweet. 
 
 Poultry rations that have been in use in the 
 past for growing stock are too restricted, and 
 do not fully nourish all parts of the rapidly 
 growing system, and some of the chickens break 
 down at all ages. 
 
 Fanciers recognize as an almost universal fact 
 that late hatches or summer chickens are the 
 best colored and the best formed of any of 
 their broods, and their problem has been get- 
 ting them to standard size in season for the 
 winter shows. 
 
 This rapid growth and full development is 
 just what a properly prepared Growing Feed 
 will do, giving a wide variety to feed upon, and 
 so fully nourishing every part of the growing 
 stock that they are always in good form and 
 
 Page One Hundred Six 
 
^m^:m 
 
 FEEDING 
 
 well feathered with unlimited stamina that will 
 reproduce itself in next season's breeding pen 
 with even better and greater strength. 
 
 Added to this is the big item of saved labor 
 over the expenditure of time in preparing and 
 "serving" wet mash mixtures. 
 
 This enormous saving of time and food is not 
 at the expense of any vital function, but rather 
 the reverse, for the stock will rapidly increase 
 in strength and vitality under this treatment, and 
 after you try it a season you will find your old 
 stock one to two pounds heavier, and your pul- 
 lets laying a month earlier. 
 
 Give your chickens a chance to show you how 
 skillfully you did your mating last season, and 
 the only way you can do so, is to feed them to 
 the limit. 
 
 Remember, full fed chickens are paying chicks. 
 
 The Scratch Feed should be compounded to 
 balance the Egg Feed and should always be very 
 carefully screened and composed of a combina- 
 tion of the very best and sweetest grains and 
 seeds, which pleases the taste of the hen and at 
 the same time keeps her everlastingly scratching. 
 The exercise she gets in this way increases her 
 activity, develops the muscles and blood vessels, 
 helps digestion and circulation, reddens the comb, 
 and assists in a general way to strengthen all the 
 functions of the body. A scratching hen is like 
 a whistling boy or a singing girl— always hap- 
 py, and generally busy. We believe in giving 
 poultry plenty to do. 
 
 A variety of grains more fully nourishes the 
 
 Page One Hundred Seven 
 
^"( ?, 
 
 POULTRY GUIDE POST 
 
 Study iosiuil 
 ihe lienj" during 
 dhort feeding 
 Hout/. 
 
 
 many complicated parts of the bird's anatomy, 
 and results in larger and stronger fowl with in- 
 creased vitality. When coniined to a restricted 
 ration, young stock do not fill out as well ; are 
 more subject to disease, and fail to reach the 
 size that they would attain if fed liberally upon 
 a carefully balanced mixture. Laying hens are 
 more subject to disease, acquire pernicious hab- 
 its of egg eating, feather pulling, etc., simply as 
 a result of the natural craving of an appetite un- 
 satisfied. Given a carefully balanced ration, they 
 acquire none of these bad habits and show their 
 appreciation in full baskets of fertile eggs 
 throughout the year. 
 
 For instance, buckwheat in itself is one of the 
 best egg producers on the entire list of grains, 
 but if fed to excess, and without other grains to 
 counteract the tendency, produces eggs with very 
 pale yolks. 
 
 Wheat is an excellent egg producer, but fed 
 too freely reduces the strength of the germs and 
 vitalitv of the chickens hatched. 
 
 Nothing but long experience with the birds 
 gives this information, arid makes it possil.ile to 
 counteract the weak features of each ingredient 
 with the strong features in some other materia!. 
 
 An egg is the ]iroduct of a very wonderfully 
 developed and sensitive organism, containing the 
 nucleus of undeveloped germs for generation'; 
 upon generations to come. This action of the 
 generative organs is a ^-er-N- bca\'v drain upon 
 tlie hen's system; nothing parallels it in Xature. 
 A milch cow is an approach, but she is not draw- 
 
 Pagc One Iliiiidrcd Einht 
 
^J^^ 
 
 FEEDING 
 
 ing on her reproductive organs as often as in na- 
 ture, but the hen has, by man's careful manipula- 
 tion, increased her reproductive capacity many 
 times since becoming a servant of mankind. 
 
 This saps her vitality and we can only hope 
 to keep her wonderfully made machinery in op- 
 eration without interruption or breakdown by 
 placing within her reach an abundance of such 
 food as she likes, without having any "stop- 
 watch" on her to tell when she has eaten enough. 
 
 Instead of being "used up" with that tired 
 feeling in the spring season when we want 
 strong eggs for hatching purposes, she is stead- 
 ily producing eggs that hatch well, and chickens 
 that live well. She skips all the ailments and 
 diseases caused by improper feeding, and con- 
 tinues to contribute to the prosperity of her own- 
 er for the full twelve months of the year. 
 
 Scratch Feeds are usually made the dump of 
 refuse grains that cannot be sold in the open 
 market, and when making comparisons with 
 prices of feed keep in mind that every kernel 
 of grain in your mixture should be sweet, and 
 that they contain no sweepings or weed seed. 
 
 For the best results in egg production we rec- 
 ommend one or two Feeders containing Egg 
 Feed constantly before the birds, and a feed 
 of Scratch Feed in litter an hour or two be- 
 fore roost time at night. This gives an oppor- 
 tunity to fill up at the time of day when Nature 
 warns them that they need a full crop to last 
 them until morning. They do not have a chance 
 to gorge themselves early in the day and then 
 
 Page One Hundred Nine 
 
 15 FIEDJNG H0UP5 
 IN JUMMEP 
 
 AGAlNSq- 
 
 9 Yzmm Wows 
 
 IN V/INTEP 
 
POULTRY GUIDE POST 
 
 Pe^flb jntfie 
 Jy^ basket 
 rather tiian 
 
 beauty of 
 bird , di-G what 
 we are 5ee]<: 
 
 '3- 
 
 dope around, but are always on the move be- 
 tween feed hopper and Htter looking for some 
 of last evening's remnants, and have no time to 
 line up in the sunlight as wet-mash fed hens are 
 prone to do on a cold winter day after a hot 
 mash in the morning. 
 
 Years ago a wise old poultryman said, 
 "There's more in the feed than in the breed," 
 and he was certainly right. We would say that 
 it is all in the feed. Perhaps that would be too 
 strong a statement, but certainly all will admit 
 that the breed counts for very little, or nothing, 
 without the feed. The best bred hens cannot — 
 and will not — lay if not fed, and the poorest 
 scrub will lay quite plentifully if properly fed. 
 Feed has more to do with the paying end of a 
 poultry plant than anything else, and the only 
 feed that is cheap is the feed that produces 
 results. 
 
 A properly compounded Egg Feed always 
 will produce eggs at a lower cost per hen than 
 any other feed. After carefully experimenting 
 for years we have demonstrated that egg eat- 
 ing, feather pulling, going broody, getting over- 
 fat, and "going light" may be — and are— largely 
 overcome by its use. 
 
 These points should be given constant and 
 careful consideration, and the requirements fol- 
 lowed out regardless of the cost of the proper 
 materials. 
 
 A fluctuating grain market does not mean that 
 high priced ingredients necessary to the proper 
 balancing of feeds be left out of these mixtures; 
 
 Page One Hundred Ten 
 
FEEDING 
 
 this would be poor economy. A proper Egg 
 Feed should give you the results you are look- 
 ing for every day in the year. 
 
 The proper blending of ingredients is as im- 
 portant as to have the proper materials. Feed- 
 ing your birds the right materials in the wrong 
 proportions will just as surely throw them out 
 of condition, resulting in a train of ill success, 
 infertile eggs, weak chickens and low vitality 
 among your stock, as feeding the wrong mate- 
 rials. 
 
 In purchasing feeds, watch your protein analy- 
 sis. A low protein feed at a low price costs 
 you more per feeding value than a high protein 
 feed at a much higher price, and we emphasize, 
 —THIS PROTEIN MUST BE ANIMAL 
 PROTEIN; NOT VEGETABLE PROTEIN. 
 
 Formulas have been put out by various exper- 
 iment stations embodying the use of vegetable 
 protein in combination with animal protein, 
 thereby lessening the cost over some rations 
 which depend upon animal protein altogether. 
 These vegetable protein rations, while good, will 
 not maintain the highest volume of efficiency, 
 nor will they maintain the birds in the best of 
 health. In confirmation of this we would refer 
 you to the report of the Massachusetts Agri- yiw 
 cultural Experiment Station, Bulletin No. 122, 
 March 1908. 
 
 " 'For laying hens the rations con- 
 taining animal food proved superior to 
 others in which all the organic matter 
 was derived from vegetable sources, 
 
 Page One Hundred Eleven 
 
POULTRY GUIDE POST 
 
 Cut out tk Iiot 
 
 J do I 
 
 Jt opclI-5 TfOUDLE 
 
 ***** j^ appears also that 
 while a cheaper vegetable food ration 
 can sometimes be made to equal or sur- 
 pass in efficiency a ration containing 
 animal food by supplementing it with 
 suitable mineral matter, there are plain 
 limitations to its economical use. For 
 laying hens, some animal food appears 
 necessary for continued good results.' 
 Judging from our own results and 
 from those obtained by Wheeler, it 
 seems safe to conclude that animal 
 albuminoids as measured by produc- 
 tion possess a much higher degree of 
 efficiency than those derived from vege- 
 table materials." 
 Start your pullets on a ration of Growing 
 Feed and Egg Feed, half of each, when they 
 are about one month from laying, dropping the 
 Growing Feed as they begin to lay. Keep the 
 feed in one or more hoppers, boxes or other con- 
 trivances, in light, easily accessiljle parts of the 
 pen, and do not let them go empty. Feed a lib- 
 eral quantity of Scratch Feed about an hour 
 before they go to roost in litter, inducing them 
 to scratch freclv. Encourage them to eat liber- 
 ally of the Egg Feed, at least as much in bulk 
 as of the Scratch Feed, cutting down the Scratch 
 Feed until this is brought about, but getting 
 every ounce of feed into them you can, and 
 your egg flasket will show the results we all look 
 for. Egg Feed and vScratch Feed make a com- 
 plete balanced ration, but if you have cabbage or 
 
 Pof/c Onr Hinuh-cd Tzi'clz'c 
 
FEEDING 
 
 clover it is well enough to feed it, although the 
 Dry-Mash itself should contain a liberal amount 
 of Alfalfa. Simply furnish shells, grit, and an 
 ample supply of water in addition. 
 
 In the newer settled portions of the country 
 we find a disposition to relax all mash feeding as 
 soon as the grass comes in the spring, the owners 
 knowing that the hens always lay at this season 
 of the year anyway. 
 
 They overlook the fact that the hens now lay 
 by Nature's bidding and in many instances take 
 it out of their bodies in reducing their fat, de- 
 pending upon their resting period in raising a 
 flock of chickens to restore them to natural 
 weight. 
 
 Now the owner perhaps does not wish to have 
 them incubate and "breaks them up" and starts 
 them laying again, they lay a short litter and 
 start setting again. When broken up a second 
 time they are very likely to hold off from laying 
 for a considerable time, as not being fed upon 
 a rich ration they have little incentive to lay and 
 if running at large they are too busy seeking 
 grasshoppers and insects to think much of laying. 
 
 If the owners of these birds would keep up 
 their winter feeding right through the year, they 
 would get heavy egg records all summer and 
 fall and double their profits over their present 
 system. Hens are gluttons, they produce from 
 five to ten times their weight each year in eggs 
 if fed properly. Your profits depend upon their 
 eating. Increase your profits by increasing the 
 eating process. 
 
 Page One Hundred Thirteen 
 
 ^ggi steadily 
 increasing 
 m price. 
 
POULTRY GUIDE POST 
 
 To get the maximum number of eggs from 
 the number of birds, confine them in small lots 
 of from 15 to 30, allowing them three or four 
 square feet floor space to each bird. See that 
 they get a liberal amount of pure air through 
 one opening in the south side at all times, night 
 and day, winter and summer. Do not let them 
 out of the house from the time they go into it 
 in the fall until they go to market the next fall. 
 Feed as directed above and you will get more 
 eggs than ever before. 
 
 We cannot tell you why, and do not attempt 
 to reason it out. We can only state that we have 
 found more eggs and at a less cost result when 
 no yard was used with this system of feeding. 
 This very materially reduces the expense of con- 
 structing and maintaining a poultry plant, leaves 
 much more room for the growing chickens, or 
 doubles the number of birds kept on an acre of 
 niand, and works a wonderful advantage when the 
 pullets are bought each season, and we have only 
 words of praise for the system. 
 
 Think of the labor saved ! Think of the cap- 
 ital saved ! Think of the worry saved ! One 
 man's labor alone will care for 2,500 birds on 
 this system. If you have an empty house or two, 
 buy a lot of mixed pullets, try out this system, 
 and tell us if you have not opened a way to com- 
 mercial poultry keeping on a business basis. 
 
 Pafjc One Hundred Fourteen 
 
^^ JS>-1S 
 
 would start keeping 
 how simple the No- 
 
 Thousands of families 
 poultry if they realized 
 Yard system reall}' is. 
 
 When poultry is suggested they immediately 
 think of all the detail and trouble incident to 
 raising chickens, — the annoyance of the crowing 
 of the cocks, the unsightly back yard, and the 
 neighbors' protests in general. 
 
 It is our purpose here to show that not only 
 can poultry be kept in a neat and tidy manner, 
 but that the original outlay may be almost noth- 
 ing if one is a little handy with tools and has 
 the time to put into the construction of houses 
 out of boxes or waste lumber. 
 
 Pages and volumes of matter have been writ- 
 ten regarding shape, sizes and styles of poultry 
 houses, and the subject is well worthy of all the 
 attention paid to it. The success or failure of 
 many plants is determined at the outset by the 
 style of building adopted. 
 
 Some writers and practical poultrymen advo- 
 cate and use the long building, claiming economy 
 in construction cost, and of labor in operating. 
 
 We will concede the slight saving in the cost 
 
 Page One Hundred Seventeen 
 
POULTRY GUIDE POST 
 
 t3^is; 
 
 Nothii9doin7 
 on "fhe 
 
 of construction, but when considered as a twelve 
 months' proposition, we know that houses on the 
 colony plan will give much better returns on the 
 capital invested. 
 
 We must consider the bird's comfort twelve 
 months in the year, and what would seemingly 
 be best for a blowy January day would be stifling 
 on a hot day in July. 
 
 What would serve to the best purposes the 
 comfort of the bird in August would be alto- 
 gether too exposed in December. Windows 
 are out of the question, as they make a very 
 hot building when the sun is shining and equally 
 cold quarters after dark, bringing two extremes 
 of temperature during a single day, a shock no 
 bird can stand, and keep in condition. 
 We have tried about every size, style and type 
 of building that has been advocated, and have 
 found that the small portable building brings the 
 most uniform success to all users. 
 
 These houses make the birds comfortable in 
 the hottest day in summer, or the coldest day in 
 winter, and require practically no attention. 
 
 Poultry, and in fact everything wearing feath- 
 ers, are of course, creatures of the air, and the 
 importance of right air conditions surrounding 
 the birds is recognized as of paramount import- 
 ance in keeping the birds in health. 
 
 Poultry in health, properly fed, produce re- 
 markable results ; in fact, a hen working along 
 smoothly is the greatest producer in the animal 
 kingdom. 
 
 This may seem a broad statement, but think 
 
 Page One Hundred Eighteen 
 
gaa^'g^ 
 
 HOUSING 
 
 of it ! In twelve months' time she will produce 
 from five to ten times her weight in eggs, and 
 that means practically five to ten times her 
 weight in flesh. 
 
 Thus, our study must be to maintain her 
 henship in the most perfect health. 
 
 The best way to cure sickness is to prevent 
 it. Nine-tenths of really bad poultry diseases 
 originate from bad air, and can all be prevented 
 by right air conditions. 
 
 Your birds will never have influenza, colds, 
 roup, catarrh, canker or chicken pox if always 
 surrounded with proper air. 
 
 Now to produce the right air conditions we 
 must carefully study the shape and diagram of 
 our house. 
 
 The main part to consider is that one-third 
 of the south side shall be open to the weather in 
 all climates and under all conditions, and that 
 the opening be covered with one-inch wire net- 
 ting on the front 
 
 of the door, and 
 
 that the opening 
 
 be equally distant 
 
 from each side of 
 
 the pen and from 
 
 the roof and bot- _^ 
 
 torn of the pen. 
 
 This prevents the whirlpooling of the air in 
 the house, which would occur if the opening 
 were next to one side of the pen and the wind 
 was blowing against the front of the house from 
 an angle. 
 
 >j.-» 
 
 
 Page One Hundred Nineteen 
 
HOUSING 
 
 As to the exact form of the house, almost any 
 size or plan seems efficient so long as the south 
 side opening is the only one in the pen, and is as 
 described. 
 
 Set the building up on posts when it arrives, 
 or if the ground is frozen too hard to make it 
 possible to dig post holes, simply set it on four 
 corner stones or wooden blocks, scraping off the 
 snow and filling the house in six inches to a foot 
 above the bottom edge of the siding with fairly 
 dry sand or gravel. If the ground is not frozen, 
 set up on four corner posts, fill in with earth and 
 gravel, and bank up the outside two or three 
 inches above the lower edge of the house. Put 
 six inches to a foot of good litter on top of the 
 sand or gravel. Leave the cloth door open every 
 day, unless the storm is coming from the south, 
 (assuming that your building faces the south), 
 and you are ready for your live stock. 
 
 Improper housing is one of the things that fig- 
 ures strongly against profitable poultry. 
 
 In climates as severe as New England we rec- 
 ommend that not less than one-third of the entire 
 south surface of the house be constructed of wire 
 onlv, with a light frame covered with cheese 
 cloth or waterproof sheeting, for use on nights 
 when the temperature ranges below zero : or for 
 use during the driving storms when the house 
 is very narrow so that storms beat in onto the 
 birds on their roosts. At other times, day and 
 night, cloth doors should be kept fastened back, 
 so as to give a free circulation of air. 
 
 For climates less severe than New England, 
 
 jiopa]] 
 
 drdu9)it5 
 
 LITTEE 
 FOOT THICK 
 
 FOOT cFEAPIH 
 
 Page One Hundred Twenty-one 
 
POULTRY GUIDE POST 
 
 Cover to 
 \_ Hole ov(?r 
 ''/'^.\ net 
 
 
 Putting on tfie siii. 
 And roolC 
 
 Putting m roo' suppoi-i. 
 &fle>- t>\de of^ piano 
 box 1^ removed 
 
 ranging to summer conditions, we should modify 
 this plan only by increasing the amount of wire 
 on the south side. 
 
 For southern states, California and other 
 mild climates of the same character, we 
 should recommend that the entire south 
 side of the building be constructed of wire 
 only, without any cloth whatever. 
 
 We should aim to err in the direction of 
 always giving the birds more air, if the 
 slightest doubt remains in our minds on 
 that point. This method of housing will 
 make a world of difference in the health of 
 your flock. 
 
 We especially recommend the " Xo- 
 Yard" house shown on page 1 14. 
 
 This "No-Yard" poultry house is 6 feet 
 wide, 8 feet deep, 6' 2 feet high at the 
 front and 4 feet high at the l)ack. The 
 back and two sides are built of heavy, 
 high-grade matched flooring, tongued and 
 grooved and solidly put together so that it 
 is impossible for air to enter at any point. 
 The front is built of the same material and 
 has two doors opening in opposite direc- 
 tions, one inside and the other outside. 
 The inner door is covered with one-inch 
 galvanized diamond-mesh wire that serves 
 to confine the hens to the house and at the 
 same time exclude objectionable intruders. 
 The outer door is covered with water- 
 proof cloth, and will be foimd necessarv onlv in 
 case of a ';e^•e^e storm, when it will effectually 
 
 Pjqc One Hundred Tvciify-tzi'n 
 
HOUSING 
 
 exclude the rain or snow and at the same time 
 permit a free circulation of pure air. The root 
 is constructed of heavy one-inch matched lum- 
 ber, reinforced around the four sides and 
 down the center by wide strips of the same 
 material. The entire roof is covered by 
 heavy No. 27 galvanized steel that makes it 
 impervious to rain, snow and wind. When 
 the house is "set-up" it is tightly held to- 
 gether by galvanized steel corner pieces and 
 with the overhanging edges of the roof it 
 is "absolutely waterproof." 
 
 The illustration of the interior shows two 
 heavy roosts si.x feet long complete with a 
 dropping- board. The location of these roosts 
 makes it absolutely impossible for draughts 
 to strike the fowl from any direction. The 
 laying box hung on the side has three com- 
 partments that are arranged in the most 
 practical manner, that permit the hens to 
 lay their eggs in comfort. The roosts, drop- 
 ping board and laying box are all easily re- 
 moved for cleansing. 
 
 It will be noted that the arrangement: of 
 the interior fixtures in this house leaves the 
 entire floor space at the disposal of the hens 
 for scratching and allows for the accom- 
 modation of its maximum capacity. 
 
 Such a house can be purchased and shipped 
 "knocked-down" of the supply houses at a 
 price ranging from $25.00 to $30.00, or if 
 second-hand lumber can be had at reason- 
 able prices the same building can be put up 
 
 Page One Hundred Tzuenty-thrce 
 
 •l\i'u in£xp6n/iv& 
 
 OjtfrL OBn bo 
 
POULTRY GUIDE POST 
 
 B 
 
 ff 
 
 at from eight to fifteen dollars, using roofing 
 paper for covering the cracks in the sides, back 
 and roof. 
 
 Of course, this price does not include the 
 labor, as we are assuming that the reader is to 
 build it himself. 
 
 A very satisfactory and acceptable house may 
 be improvised from a crocker}- barrel by sawing 
 off about three of the staves, as illustrated, a 
 door put in place, and water and feed provided. 
 This should not cost over 50c. to $1.00, and 
 makes quite a satisfactory residence for a fam- 
 ily of five pullets, and you can safely count on 
 three or five eggs per day with 
 half the rations coming from the 
 waste of the table. 
 
 Another very popular and in- 
 expensive house can be made of 
 a piano box and when completed 
 makes a house for six to eight 
 pullets, and will not cost over $3.00 to $4.00. 
 We should prefer the houses without floors, 
 and built on this plan there will be enough lumber 
 in the original box to build the entire building. 
 Make the most of the room by building 
 shelves eighteen inches by two feet in width, 
 about two feet above the height of the litter on 
 the floor. Keep water dishes, nests, feed dishes 
 and shell and grit boxes on these shelves, thus 
 giving every bit of floor space to the birds to 
 scratch over. 
 
 The same general interior plan can be pre- 
 served and a more imposing outside struc- 
 
 Pagc One Httiidicd Tn'ciity-four 
 
i^ 
 
 "~-^ HEALTH 
 
 HOUSING 
 
 Hinged ioor— 
 dlbwiny &ca;ss 
 io rcmcNc eq(fs 
 
 lon.sf building 
 
 ture constructed on 
 the lines shown on 
 page — . This build- 
 ing can be varied in 
 every way to match 
 the architecture of 
 the main building. 
 Painted and sur- 
 rounded with shrub- 
 bery or quick grow- 
 ing vines it usually 
 adds to the charm of sub- 
 urban life. 
 
 Then again some would- 
 be poultrymen think of the 
 they see on the large poultry 
 farms, and really keep out of the business 
 because of the unsightliness of the long, low 
 buildings, unrelieved by any change or variation 
 in design. 
 
 The "No-Yard" plan can readily be made to 
 fit the landscape architect's scheme by grouping 
 the buildings upon the rises among the trees in 
 such a manner as is shown on page 120. 
 
 If you are determined to build a long house, 
 we urge that you build it with absolutely no 
 doors between pens, with tight board partitions 
 running to the roof, and made as tight as build- 
 ing paper and boards can make them, the pens 
 to be cared for entirely from the front just as 
 in the "No- Yard" house. 
 
 Another very good plan is a house ten by 
 twelve feet in size for thirty or forty birds. 
 
 Page One Hundred Twenty-five 
 
POULTRY GUIDE POST 
 
 This house will cost from $25.00 to $50.00 and 
 is more adapted to poultry farms than to back 
 yards, as its increased size renders it rather a 
 permanent building, while the smaller ones can 
 be easily constructed on the portable plan. 
 
 From the foregoing plans it would seem that 
 almost anybody who really wants to keep poul- 
 try, who is interested in keeping the cost of 
 living down, might start now. The business is 
 simplicity itself when the No-Yard plan is 
 adopted. 
 
 This method of housing and caring for the 
 birds opens up the possibilities of the business. 
 In the case of the farmer's boy desiring more 
 spending money, he can build a house in most 
 any out-of-the-way spot, provided the land is 
 dry, and he never need worry about the hens 
 getting out of their yard and into the garden 
 or doing other mischief while he is away at 
 school. By increasing the number kept, he can 
 make enough money to take him through col- 
 lege, at the same time learning principles of 
 business that will prove of inestimable value 
 to him in later life. 
 For the farmer, desiring to make use of every 
 ounce of fertilizer and every foot of space upon 
 his farm, this system appeals most strongly ; in 
 fact, it is the only system that gives him absolute 
 control over the birds ; preserves all the fertiliz- 
 ing value of the droppings, and enables him to 
 make use of his land to the best advantage. He 
 will find that if he invests $100, $500. or $1,000 
 in poultry and poultry building, follows the sim- 
 
 Pagc One Hundred Twenty-six 
 
HOUSING 
 
 pie suggestions in this book, it will return him 
 more profit than four times the money invested 
 in any other branch of farm work and his re- 
 turns are immediate and continuous. 
 
 The housewife also may provide herself and 
 home with many luxuries and spending money, 
 rendering herself in a measure independent of 
 the head of the house. The business will be 
 found particularly adapted to women desiring 
 to retain their independence, or those on whom 
 the burden of life rests heavily with others de- 
 pendent upon them. The maternal instinct, 
 prominent in women, and practically unknown 
 to men, makes them much more' successful in. 
 rearing chickens, and we must 
 invariably take off our hats to 
 them in this line. 
 
 Back-yard poultry keepers have 
 a great advantage in some ways 
 over the more fortunate farmers 
 that are farther away from mar- 
 ket. We have frequently noticed 
 that there is a constantly in- 
 creasing demand for strictly fresh eggs, and the 
 man or woman who takes up poultry keeping in 
 the thickly settled communities may rest assured 
 that the surplus eggs he has to dispose of will 
 bring from 5 to 25 cents more per dozen than 
 the wholesale prices. 
 
 With the "No- Yard System" these back yard 
 and vacant lot plants are becoming much more 
 common, as by this system no unsightly bare 
 spot of land is left to mar the landscape. 
 
 Page One Hundred Twenty-seven 
 
No chickens being raised, no male birds are 
 kept and the neighbors have no complaint to 
 make of his early crowing. 
 
 It will be found in most cases that the table 
 waste from an ordinary family will furnish 
 nearly one-half the living for a dozen hens, and 
 the waste and our feeds make an ideal com- 
 bination for full egg production. 
 
 With the premium the neighbors so willingly 
 pay for eggs "right out of the 
 nest" and this saving in the 
 '^^~^^=?^^,^- feed cost, we are safe in saying 
 ^ that from $2.00 to $4.00 profit 
 
 
 can be realized on each laying 
 
 pullet. 
 
 Not only are the profits assured, but the dif- 
 ference in flavor between the eggs gathered dailv 
 and the eggs to be obtained from the store will 
 more than repay the care of the flock. 
 
 There is hardly a good-sized lot on which the 
 owner or tenant may not make a profit of from 
 $25 to $200 per year with a few minutes' time, 
 night and morning, devoted to poultry keeping. 
 
 Page One Hundred Tzventv-eiiilit 
 

 ^^r^^i^ 
 
We find there has been some confusion in the 
 minds of readers and the poultry public regard- 
 ing the advocacy of no yards for poultry. 
 
 We decidedly recommend large runs and free 
 range for growing stock and breeding stock 
 wherever possible, but with birds from which no 
 stock is to be perpetuated — being used for the 
 production of table eggs only, — the No-Yaid 
 System will be found to give much heavier egg 
 yields and to require the minimum of care, room 
 and expense. 
 
 Breeding stock should not only have outdjor 
 exercise 365 days in the year, but should have 
 good sized yards and a much smaller number of 
 females to the male than is usually provided 
 throughout the country. 
 
 This system of feeding, housing, brooding and 
 rearing has made success for thousands of poul- 
 try plants, and will for you if you will follow 
 directions exactly. Do not, however, use a part 
 of this system and expect best results. Use the 
 whole system and be sure of results. 
 
 Do not institute into your plant a part of the 
 system, mixing it with poultry paper suggestions, 
 neighbors' advice and friends' criticisms. There 
 is only one way to take a cold bath, — you cannot 
 take it piece-meal ; take it all over. Where this 
 system is radically different from what you 
 
 Page One Hundred Thirty-one 
 
 Hold 10 the 
 
 OTIC 
 
POULTRY GUIDE POST 
 
 B 
 
 '.K 
 
 Sffi^ 
 
 WhdJlCT you believe 
 it or not, thu 
 
 have been practising, try it in a whole-hearted 
 manner, just as we outline it, — in one or two 
 flocks only if you wish to do so before you 
 try it on the whole lot, — but when testing it, 
 use it as outlined, and do not let the neighbors 
 "butt in." 
 
 Results are sure when used as directed, tut 
 when diluted and twisted the very purpose for 
 which the strongest features were introduced 
 may be frustrated. 
 
 Do not attempt to test out a heatless brooder 
 and put two chickens in it. Neither should you 
 put in twenty-five chickens and then keep them 
 behind a stove. Put twenty-five chickens in the 
 brooder in an unheated room and then follow 
 directions. 
 
 Do not take your windows out of your house 
 and then put them in again whenever it looks as 
 though it was going to be a little bit cool, thereby 
 forgetting the principles that fresh air is neces- 
 sary all the time. 
 
 Do not buy Egg Feed and feed it wet, or use 
 inferior brands and mixtures of scratch feeds, 
 thereby throwing the ration out of balance, scour- 
 ing your birds, and otherwise putting them out 
 of condition. 
 
 Do not feed Growing Feed and hope to hasten 
 the growth of your cliickens by adding meat 
 food. It should contain all the meat ration nec- 
 essary for the best results. 
 
 Do not have any windows in your breeding 
 pen. Cheese cloth sheeting is much cheaper and 
 
 Pafic One Hundred Tliij-tv-tzea 
 
ww^ 
 
 DON'TS 
 
 means dry, healthy quarters with live air around 
 the stock at all times. 
 
 Do not think that you can neglect your stock 
 while it is growing, and get big, robust breeding 
 stock by full feeding a month or so before lay- 
 ing. 
 
 Do not expect that you can milk your breeding 
 stock with 50% daily egg yield from December 
 to ^Nlarch, and then get good hatches of chickens 
 that will live. 
 
 Do not put ten, twelve, fifteen or twenty fe- 
 males with a male and expect good hatches. 
 
 Never put two ages of chickens together in any 
 weather. 
 
 Don't put two chickens together where you 
 know you should put one, and don't hesitate to 
 separate them now, not next week. 
 
 ^^ Never allow 
 
 Fage One Hundred Tlnrt\>-three