Little Chicks How To Hatch and Rear Them Successfully United Poultry Publishing Co. WATERVILLE, N. Y. c.4^;>^.,;^.;., s ..^.». > 4. ^ .. ^ 4.4^^. l. ■^• ^ ^ I ^^^■ ^ •^^.)4^■^^^^H•'^->^w^^^^^4^^^^^^^^^^^4~^^ ALBERT R. MANN LIBRARY New York State Colleges OF Agriculture and Home Economics Cornell University Cornell University Library SF 494.G79 Little chicks and how to rear them succe 3 1924 003 086 216 Cornell University Library The original of tliis 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/cu31924003086216 { j preaident / Copyrighted 1911, by UNITED POULTRY PUBLISHING CO. Little Chicks How To Hatch and Rear Them Successfully A coatplete and comprehensive treatise on chicle raising covering every step of the work Irom the breeding pen, through the shell to the market period and maturity. By D. M. GREEN and A. A. BRI GH AM Price Fifty Cents Published by United Poultry Publishing Co. WATERVILLE, N. Y. : CONTENTS CHAPTER I. The Beginning. Day-Old Chicks. Selection. A Practical Plan. CHAPTER II. Seasonable Management. Winter Care and Feeding. Furnish- ing and Cleaning. Principal Points of Practical Feeding. Balanced Rations. Egg Records. CHAPTER III. Hatching the Chicks. Setting the Hens. Neat and Natural Nests. Testing for Fertility. CHAPTER IV. Brooding the Birds. Cozy Coops. A Knock-Down Domicile. The Machine Mother. Feeding the Peatherlings. Keep the Chicks Growing. CHAPTER V. Colonizing the Chickens. Separating the Sexes. Chicken Col- ony Houses. Specifications of a Special House. Portable Houses. House of Straw. Refuge from Heat and Hawks. Yarding, Free Baths, Dry Feeding. CHAPTER VI. Perfecting the Pullets. Feeding. Exhibiting. Utility Interests. CHAPTER VII. Managing the Molt. Modified Molting Ration. Demons In Dis- guise. CHAPTER VIII. Keeping the Egg Records. Egg Recording without Trap-Nests. Trap Nests. When to Begin the Record. CHAPTER IX. The Hen House and its Furnishings. Location. Selecting the Site. Materials of Construction. Lighting, Ventilating, Etc. The Straw Loft. Roosting Places. Pen Partitions. Feed Troughs, Nests, Hoppers. CHAPTER X. Erecting Fences. Fine Fences for Fowls. Gate and Gateways. Water Works. Gentle Damming. Settling the Silt. The Pump and Connections. CHAPTER XI. Feeding the Fowls. The Hamblen Ration. CHAPTER XII. Foundation Feeding Factors. The Care of the Family Flock. Two or Three Meals per Day. Feeding Show Birds. The Open Front Hen House. The Dry Feeding Plan. Introductory. The poultry business of the present day is so far reaching, so broad in its scope, with no fixed rule as to the more profitable method of conduct, that in a majority of instances heretofore, where large revenues have been earned from poultry, the profits thus realized have come as a result of the ability exercised by the in- dividual breeder from day to day, rather than from knowledge gained through the experience of others or any careful study of literature. Plao;ng due responsibility upon all branches of the work, yet the ultimate success of the poultryman depends almost entirely upon the hatching and rearing of the chicks. The incuba- tion, growth and development must be governed by such conditions as will bring the little chick from the shell in a normal, healthy state, permitting the building of a strong, vigorous constitution as it passes through the various stages of development. If not the grown bird will lack the constitutional power necessary for pro- lific egg production) or breeding purposes, thus failing to yield but little, if any, more than a nominal profit for its owner. This hand- icap does not terminate in the matured bird or at the end of the first generation, but instead will establish itself to a still greater extent in the offspring. Matured birds lacking in vitality and per- fect development, if used for breeding purposes, will transmit the weakness to such a marked degree as to cause a flock to become fully unproductive in the course of two or three generations. In direct contrast to this, chicks well hatched from eggs bearing strong germs, will, if iproperly cared for, develop into vigorous hardy specimens. The factor of greatest concern, therefore, centers itself upon the rearing of the young stock. In this particular the use- fulness of the broody hen has by no means been eliminat- ed, as she often times is sufficient for the needs of the small 'breeder, as well as the more dependable, when it is the de- sire to hatch every chick possible from a choice sitting of eggs, yet later day intelligence as applied in the perfection of the incu- bator and brooder, makes it possible to succeed on a moich broader scale than would be the case were we deprived of their existence While the dependable and well established appliances, prepared foods, etc., greatly facilitate the work as well as contribute their share in growing poultry for profit, yet the greatest secret of suc- cess liesi in well founded knowledge and a thorough understanding of environments, assisted by hard, persistent and conscientious work on behalf of the breeder. Without knowledge of the under- taking and minus of personal counsel or reliable literature as a guide, the average individual wooxld find the poultry business a rather discouraging and unprofitable vocation. During recent years many bright, intelligent men and women enthused by the .success of some acquaintance or made over zealous by laudatory accounts of certain advertised "systems" have invested large sums of money in land, poultry buildings and equipment vfith the Intentdons of m,aking a fortune, on quick notice, only to be doomed to disappointment. They plunged full length into the business without the slightest knowledge of the more requisite details. Not until an abundance of good tame and money were wasted did they awaken to the fact that a thorough understanding of the principles of breeding were necessary for a successful reproduction of their stock from year to year, and in thus failing to hatch and rear the chicks to maturtty, they come in contact with the stumbling block that caused their failure. Oftentimes they have given up at just the wrong period, having acquired the information which, if coupled with further efforts, would have resulted in success, but the cold wave of experience, costly and disappointing, had banished the fire of enthusiasm, and the vocation is deserted in disgust. Even those possessed with the courage to stick to their task and win out through grim determination, sacrifice liberally in both time and profit, it the same knowledge can be attained by a careful study of reliable literature. The latter enables' you to take ad- vantage of tjhe experiences of others, avoiding their mistakes, and thus travel the short road to success, which is the easiest way. With this in mind, it has been the chief aim in preparing the material for this book, to offer a fund of knowledge so thorough, so complete In every detail, as to enable every reader to become fully versed in all branches of the work, thus permitting him to engage in poultry keeping and attain success from the very be- ginning. The information given does not consist of dry rules and dogmatically expressed theories, but in real experience gained from the field of actual operation. The greater portion is contrib- uted by that able expert. Dr. A. A. Brigham, graduate of the world renowned Goettinger University, Germany. For five years he was professor of Agriculture at the Imperial Agricultural College, Sap- poro, Japan; returning to America he was appointed pro- fessor at the Rhode Island College of Agriculture; made ■director of the Agricultural Experiment Station, where he devoted several years to special poultry work, conducting ex- tensive experiments, etc., the results of which are given in the following chapters. The information can therefore be depended upon as absolutely authentic, and by carefully following the advice given costly errors can be avoided, the losses in little chicks over- come and the poultry business made a profitable and pleasant vo- cation. D. ir. GREEN. LITTLE CHICKS How to Hatch and Rear Them Successfully. CHAPTER I. The Beginning. At the beginning it is well that we consider in detail the fac- tors that directly hear upon the rearing of chicks. First we might say that the work largely depends upon the kind of chicks, from a physical standpoint, that are to receive your attention. Whatever the breed or variety of poultry selected, the chicks may be grouped into one or the other of two classes — the one which is vigorous, lively and chirruping; the other squeaky, weak and deathly. The characteristics of the first class include, bright eyes- smooth fluffy down, clean shining legs and toes and intense ac- tivity even from the moment of hatching. Their sprightliness Is shown in the brooder or with the mother hen by the time which they spend away from hover scratching for dear life in the sand and Utter, jumping for green food, chasing one another when one finds a tld-bit too large too swallow at a gulp, perhaps enjoying a dust-bath in the bright sunshine, smoothing their downy coats with their bills or the tops of their heads, or taking a fighting attitude on the challenge of a companion chick. Even when resting their eyes show the sparkle of health and happy heredity. Such are the chirruping chicks, whose conversation is always of the cheering kind unless one gets lost or strayed from the brood, In which case his calls become lusty, penetrating and persistent. These are the lively chicks that develop into perky pullets and conquering cock- erels. On the other hand the squeaky chicks show little Interest in life. They are stupid and sluggish r'rom the first. They are always hugging close to the mother hen or to the heated hover of tho brooder. If they venture out or are pushed away from the warmth, they move about in a listless way and return to the heat as soon as they can. Their eyes are dull and have a beseeching look. Their little feathers seem to be growing the wrong way, the wing feath- ers developing too rapidly and perhapsi dragging down on the ground, and the legs and toes become dried and shriveled. These chicks are always thirsty, but care little for food, become daily more stunted and wretched looking, grow lighter in weight and pro- long an apparently hopeless- struggle. Such are the deathly chicks and eventually Death claims them for his own. Day Old Chicks. The first class, the chirruping chicks, are Nature's children. They have had a chance in life. The second, class, the squeaky chicks, are man's "misfortunates." They have had things against them and their short lives of suffering are pining protests against human mismanagement. The number of chicks in each of these classes is large and, unfortunately for some poultrymen, the second class outnumbers the first. It needs no large amount of argument to convince one that the first class is the one which brings profit and pleasure in poultry keeping and the second class is the one wlilch has brought loss and disappointment to many. Why will man produce chicks of the second class, when chicks of the first class only ought to be produced? Ignorance, careless- ness and inexperience in the poultry calling will account for a mul- titude of chicks which die young. USING EVERY MEANS. In the business of raising prime chickens, we must take ad- vantage of every factor that, will fount for success. The things that influence chick life are not a few in number and all demand at- tention. These Include the principles of breeding, the development of science that in thrir application tend to hygienic surroundings and healthful growth and the recorded results of experience in poultry practice, which are proof of coriect methods in the care of chickens. It is a poor poultryman that will not profit to the ut- most by the experience of others as well as by his own past mis- takes and successes. "Knowledge is power" is the very truth in poultry keeping. Success is sure if the man or woman knows just what to do and does it conscientiously, continuously and conclusively. One has to have brains and use them in chicken culture. There come occasions when one must reason out things to a conclusion and act upon the results. BEGIN BACK PAR ENOUGH. Or better look far enough ahead to make the beginning right. How inconsiderately silly and wonderfully foolish some embryo- poultry raisers can act, is shown every spring when the eager pur- chaser of a new or second-hand incubator, goes to a grocery store and gets the eggs to fill his hatching machine. This scheme beats any lottery seventeen times for hazards. An old broody hen shows as much sense as this when she sits sedulously on china eggs and door knobs. Where do the grocer's eggs come from? How old are they? How have they been cared for? What kind of stock produced them? Verily "Where ignorance is bliss 'tis folly to be wise." Contrast this short sighted folly with the long headed horse sense of the man who looks ahead five, even ten years, or for life and prepares for the best results in poultry breeding. He is con- tinually working for better things. MAKE FIRM THE FOUNDATION. Selection is the corner stone of success in poultry breeding. If the right breeding birds are selected to start with a foundation is laid for the very best chick culture. When the poultrymen already has good pure bred fowls of a strain or family which he has tested under his local conditions and found well adapted to his purpose, then his selection of breeding stock can be made from his own flocks. If this is not the case and proper birds must be obtained by purchase, then it is best to first look for stock in the neighborhood because flocks raised in the given locality will be acclimated to local conditions and should have proved their fitness and profitable- ness. In some cases it may become necessary to secure fowls from a distance, in which circumstances it is desirable to make Kure of the fine quality of both the poultry and their owner before investing. Having decided what breed of fowls is best for your purpose and what family in the breed to select from, there comes the choos- ing of the individual breeding birds. Whatever else you do or fail to do, make sure that the birds selected for your foundation stock are absolutely healthy and hardy. If fowls are selected which have any taint of disease in themselves or their parentage you are laying a rotten foundation for all your future breeding of poultry. Healthiness, hardiness, stamina, vigor, must be emphatically evident in the birds. Let no one blind you to the absence of these qualities by talking of stand- ard, prize exhibition and fancy points. A PRACTICAL PLAN. Restrain your ambition to have many breeders all at once, and confine your selections to not more than six birds, a male and five females. These half dozen birds may be considered too many to start with if you feel that you have years enough ahead to work out a slow but complete campaign. One pair — the very best obtainable — would answer if you were certain that no accident or other cause would result in the loss of either of the birds within three years. Suppose, however, that you secure six fowls for your purpose, particularly if you are in haste to raise large numbers of chicks. Let the male breeding bird be a well matured cockerel, the son of a hen possessed of the qualities desired in your future chicks to a very marked degree. We shall depend upon his being prepo- tent, that is very powerful and certain to transmit the qualities of his mother to the pullets which he shall sire. They should not be allowed to breed until the spring season, the natural "nesting time" of the birds. A suitable time to select the breeding stock and get them un- der your care is in autumn or early winter, certainly before the breeding season of spring. Thus the birds will become accustomed to their quarters and acquainted with their owner or keeper. A careful study should be made of the individual birds and records kept in simple form suitable for easy reference. CHAPTER 11. Having made the best beginning by selecting a few of the most desirable breeding fowls, the owner of the beautiful birds will naturally provide for them the nicest of homes and most particular care. For a pair, a trio or a sextet of fowls even of the finest fam- ily, an extensive or elaborate house is not necessary but clean, comfortable, well ventilated quarters, free from vermin and with- out direct drafts are desirable. We will at present, only indicate a few important points as to the housing of the fowls so as to make the method of manage- ment clear in its daily details, then next summer when the parent stock has yielded several flocks of choicest chicks we consider plans and construct poultry houses suited to their needs and our purposes. WINTER CARE AND FEEDING. During the fall and early winter it is best to keep the birds, which are to become the parents of the "coming chicks," in good healthy condition, not allowing them to breed or to lay eggs. Their quarters need not be extra warm, as that might soften them and render them liable to catch cold easily from a sudden or ex- treme change in the weather. There should, however, be sufficient protection to prevent any chance of the freezing of combs and wat- tles. If located where the climate is warm or decidedly temperate, during the coldest parts of the year the house may have an open front, covered with wire netting for protection against would-be in- truders, and supplied with a curtain of burlap to use when neces- sary to keep out driving storms of rain or snow. In a cooler cli- mate the house may have a muslin front or window covered with cotton cloth instead of glass. The experiments in this line at the Agricultural Experiment Station of the State of Maine, and the ex- perience of a number of poultry keepers, have amply shown the value of the cloth fronts for hen houses even in quite a severe cli- mate. In a very cold location it may be necessary to provide a roost- ing compartment, double boarded or sheathed at the back and overhead and provided with a curtain of burlap or muslin to be dropped in front, during nights of ex^tremely low temperature and especially when high winds prevail. 10 For our little pen of fine fowls it will be easy to place a dry- goods box in any hen house, put one or two roosts In the box, raise the lower side two feet above the floor of the house and make a muslin curtain for the open front of the box. If yet more protec- tion is needed cover the box at the back, sides and top with straw or hay. See that the birds SJ at night into this roosting box, let down the cloth curtain more or less according to the temperature, the wind, etc. Inside such a shelter the birds will be comfortable even though a blizzard is blowing outside their quarters. The house should have a ceiling of poles, lath or strips of lumber placed about two inches apart on which dry straw, hay or pine boughs a foot or more deep are placed. Above this layer, windows or ventilators at the ends of the loft should be kept al- ways open. Thus doing we easily and economically provide fresh air in constant and sufficient supply, without direct draughts and at the same time prevent the presence of surplus wetness and frosted walls within the well drained poultry house. Dampness un- derneath is prevented by drains if needed and the floor of the house should certainly be filled in high enough to be several inches- above the level of the surrounding ground. FURNISHING AND CLEANING. Everything within the hen house, perches, roosting platform, nests, feed troughs, grit boxes, water fountain, dust box, every sin- gle thing should be easily and quickly removable. Once a year or oftener if need be, take each article out of the house, on a bright day, and wash or spray thoroughly with hot soap suds containing 2 per cent of strong carbolic acid. Then let the sunshine and air dry the articles completely. If lice or mites have troubled the fowls or entered the house, burn the nest boxes with the straw or other nesting material in them. Empty orange boxes or egg crates can be readily obtained for making new nests. Also spray the interior walls with the hot wash. If you haven't a spray pump, take an old broom and swish the liquid over the walls and into every crack. Use whitewash if you prefer but don't forget to add to it 2 per cent of crude or con- centrated carbolic acid. Dust the fowls with lice powder before they go into the new or cleaned quarters and dust them often enough to surely keep the Insects banished. An easy way is to hold the fowl by the legs in an empty barrel, then work the dust by hand through the feathers to the skin particularly below the tail, between the legs, under the wings and at the back of the neck and head. Mites are worst than lice because they not only irritate the skin but actually suck the blood of the birds. Their favorite pasturing times are when the fowls are roost- 11 Ing laying or sitting. Between feeding times they usually seek shelter In cracks and crannies under the 'perches, in the walls or nest boxes. Spray these places once a week if necessary with kerosene in which 2 per cent of crude carbolic acid has been thoroughly mingled by shaking. It any of the haunts of the mis- chievous mites cannot be thus reached, fumigate the empty closed house with burning brimstone and after that seal up the cracks with a coating of hot tar. It does not pay to harbor breed and feed lice and mites. On the floor of the hen house place several inches depth of fine, fairly dry garden loam. If it is rather sandy soil so much the better. Silt from the road side, so often recommended, is apt to be heavy and hard to wallow in. Coal ashes may be used if loam is not at hand but the fowls do not take to coal ashes, which, tend to bleach out the surface color of the legs. Store up a few bar- rels of dry loam to sprinkle daily upon the droppings beneath the perches. Land plaster (gypsum) fine ground phosphate rock or finely ground bone make good absorbents for the poultry manure. Never use wood ashes, quick lime or air slaked lime in contact with droppings of fowls. Remove the accumulations from beneath the Chick Culture. roosts once a week and store this excellent fertilizer in barrels or bins, protected from wetness, until the same can be applied to the garden or lawn. 12 An abundant supply of dry straw, hay, leaves or other litter is very desirable. Unthreshed wheat, oats, millet and buckwheat make excellent litter in which the birds should, during the winter, be kept scratching. Throw in, once a week or oftener, a fresh sup- ply of litter material and scatter grain in it daily, to induce ac- tivity in the birds, thus preventing their getting in the habit of mop- ing in idleness. Let the fowls range out of doors when the weather permits. GENTLE KEEPER— GENTLE fOWL. Now with the surroundings right, take pains to get well ac- quainted with your pets. The birds will not resent your familiar- ity and you will come to- know each individual thoroughly. Your intimate interest in their welfare and continual care for their com- fort will count towards the highest success. It located in the temperate zone the poultry-keeper usually de- sires to have his chicks hatched in March and April. The birds, after their moulting and long rest from laying during the fall and early winter, will, tinder correct management, be ready to begin breeding by February. The time of commencing to lay eggs will depend very much on the temperature of the quarters and yet more on the feeding. The best practice in feeding fowls is based on a few simple principles. PRINCIPAL POINTS OF PRACTICAL FEEDING. In deciding what and how to feed our flock we may well con- sider first the condition of the bodies of the fowls, the size or live weight whether growing or mature, plump or thin of flesh, produc- ing feathers, eggs or fattening. Second, we should have in mind the season of the year or the climatic conditions, wherever located. In the third place the available feed stuffs are to be studied as to their adaptability and economy for our particular purpose. When it comes to deciding what the rations shall be we do well to remember what the fowls diet is under the conditions of free range on a farm in early summer time. They have four kinds of things to put inside themselves which may be represented by: GRAINS, GRASS, GRASSHOPPERS AND GRIT. The grains which feed the fowls of the world are mainly wheat, Indian corn (maize), barley, oats and rice. They are eaten by the birds for the large amount of starch which they contain and they furnish some gluten and mineral constituents. The fresh grass supplies the "green food" which is so necessary to keep the fowls' digestive system in good running order. It also yields considerable nourishment. Young growing grain is excellent if grass is not at hand. Where two yards are available tor one flock the ground In 13 each may In summer be alternately sown with wheat, oats, barley, or rye. After the growth is several inches in height the flock may be turned in to pasture upon it. The surplus vegetables from the garden will help out where green grass and growing grain are lacking. In winter cabbages and mangolds are relished by the birds. Lacking these we can use clover or alfalfa hay, clover meal or even fine cut common hay. The grasshoppers are "meat" for the fowls if the latter can catch them. They signify not only the right kind of "protein" for making muscle and eggs but free range over green fields with abundant fresh air and healthy exercise. Grubs, worms, millers, files are all in this class, and grist for the lively birds gullet. They help to balance the starchy grains and seeds. Groimd beef scraps, animal meal, green bones and skim milk are the best substitutes for the insects which the birds cannot get when confined. Grit in the form of granulated bone or ground oyster-shells may be considered as food because of their mineral or ash consti- tuents in organic combinations. Pebbles, gravel, crushed rock are not food but supply excellent mill-stones for the fowls gizzard so that the grains and all hard portions of the food may be ground to fineness for easy digestion. BALANCED RATIONS. The problem in feeding is, for any given conditions, to combine ^in the daily rations the right proportions of the different forms of food for the purpose. One of the Agricultural Experiment Stations has worked on this problem sufficiently to develop a series of Standards for daily rations of fowls which appear to be not only scientific but de- cidedly practical. For our little flock of fine breeders we may make up a sample daily ration which will at least serve as an aid in deciding what to feed them during the latter part of winter and early spring. Sup- pose we have to feed six mature fowls of about four pounds live weight each or say twenty-five pounds in all and that they are in good condition but not overfat. If practising "dry feeding" the following dally ration would meet the requirements of the stand- ard: — 3-4 lb. Indian corn (maize). 1-2 lb. Wheat. 1-4 lb. Beef Scraps. 1-4 lb. Clover hay. If it is desired to have the ration include a mash and if the flock consists of fowls averaging about eight pounds each or say fifty pounds together, the following or its equivalent may be used daily: — 14 1-2 lb. Indian corn. 3-8 lb. Wheat. 3-8 lb. Corn meal. - 1-4 lb. Animal meal. 1-4 lb. Buckwheat middlings. 1-3 lb. Fresh cut bone. 1-4 lb. Alfalfa hay. As a matter of practice, the feeder will not be far out of the way if he chooses to substitute oats or barley for wheat and in the supplying of animal food some very successful poultrymen keep beef scraps in a hopper constantly before the fowls, allowing them to balance their own rations. In the latter case the fowls should not be suddenly fed such concentrated animal food in abundance but be gradually accustomed to taking what they need from the hopper. It is well to scatter cracked corn, wheat or other grains in straw litters for the morning feed. A mash, in cold weather at least, seems to go best at noon. When fowls are laying well it is usually safe to feed them all the whole grain they will eat towards evening. THE EGG RECORDS. The poultry breeder having a half dozen or less of fowls in his best pen comes to know what eggs are laid by each hen and can readily keep the daily record. Trap nests may be used if neces- sary but should not be needed if the one who cares for the birds comes to know each one as well as he ought to. Keep the eggs for hatching in a cool place, free from freezing, each hen's eggs sep- arate. CHAPTER III. HATCHING THE CHICKS. If we have not already stated It emphatically enough, let it be here earnestly urged upon the young poultryman that to get healthy, hardy, strong, satisfactory chicks the breeding stock should be thoroughbred, of robust constitution and abounding healthiness. The fowls must have sufficient exercise to keep their digestion and circulation system in splendid condition, be nourished by whole- some, suitable food in properly balanced rations and have contin- ually such surroundings as preclude disease and tend to healthful living The breeding stock should never be forced to excessive egg production or overfattend. The laying and hatching of the eggs should be seasonable, i. e., 15 -"^^iilKsi n ■ **' '^t'v^Bff'Wr ■ li i ■ Sitting Boxes Used in France. or room for their exclusive use during the hatching season. This place should be very neat and comfortable, not liable to freezing or overheating. It should be well ventilated so as to provide pure fresh air without direct strong draughts upon the sitting hens. If the room has a window of two sashes the lower one may be raised six inches and a board fitted into the opening below the sash. Fresh air can then come in between the two sashes at the middle of the window. In mild weather a better plan is to remove the glass sashes and cover the window frame with burlap or coarse sacking. This will allow of good ventilation and at the same time help to darken the room. The door should have a lock and be kept fastened unless the place is secure from intrusion or disturbance. The floor may be of sandy loam with a place near the window where the soil is very mellow and fairly dry to induce the fowls to dust themselves and thus keep off body lice. If the floor is of 17 • boards or concrete let a shallow box or a pile of dusting soil be provided in tlie part ot the room best lighted. Adjoining the sitting room on the south side have a small out- door yard, surrounding and covering the sama with poultry net- ting. Let the ground ia the yard be partly in grass or young grow- ing grain and partly spaded up. Next to the room, in a spot where the sun strikes, make a dusting place to induce the sitters to wal- low there on pleasant days. 1^IEAT AND NATURAL NESTS. When a bird makes her nest upon the ground she usually se- lects a small hollow place in a secluded spot, collects a few leaves and some stray straw to line the nest, lays her litter of eggs, sits comfortably and contentedly the allotted length of time and hatches all the eggs into healthy birdlings. We can imitate the natural way advantageously. Take empty orange boxes or soap boxes and place them in ' rows on the floor of the sitting room, as many as may be needed. An orange box or egg-case will make two nests for medium* sized sitting hens, or the middle partition may be knocked out and; one nest made of each box. Bach box is turned on its side, the open top becoming the front of the nest. A strip of board nailed across the front, with upper edge three or four inches above the floor will keep the nesting material in place and prevent the eggs from roll- ing out. If the floor of the room is of boards or concrete, mellow or slightly moist loam or an inverted grass sod may be put in the bot- tom of each nest box. The soil or sod is hollowed out to hold the eggs and conform to the shape of the fowl's, body. If the room or house has a dirt floor, hollows for the nests may be made in the- dirt and the bottom boards of the boxes removed. The bottomless boxes are then placed over the nest hollows in which cut straw, soft short hay or dry moss is laid for the eggs to rest upon. The front of each nest box should have a door or gate- made of slats or aframe covered with wire netting to keep the hens shut in safely, when this required. A piece of coarse burlap sacking is provided for each nest box so that it may be hung over the front of the nest for use whenever it is desired to make it dark and se- cluded, while still allowing the free entrance of air: FURTHER FURNISHINGS. A galvanized iron pail or stone-ware jar, large enough to hold a good supply of water. Is placed on a block or shelf raised several inches above the floor so that the hens, when off the nests, will not be able to scratch litter into the drinking water. A clean, shal- IS low box or trough is placed in a convenient place to receive the daily ration of whole grain. Have everything in the room removable so that each article may be taken out and sprayed or washed with a two per cent solu- tion of carbolic acid. (Two parts crude carbolic acid to 98 parts of water.) Spray also the inside walls of the room and all cracks and crannies, where mites could hide, with kerosene oil in which has been mingled one per cent of carbolic acid. If mites have ever been in the house, fumigate the empty tightly closed room for three hours with burning sulphur. To start the sulphur burning use a little alcohol. Burn the brimstone in an old iron kettle or coal hod and guard against firing the building. When a trusty hen becomes broody and you wish to use her for incubation, first dust her thoroughly with lice powder, working the fine dry dust among the feathers clear to the skin. After dark is the safest time for removing the hen from her laying nest to the sitting house. One or two china nest eggs are put in the nest and the broody biddy is gently placed upon them. The front of the nest-box is then closed by the little door and covered with burlap bagging. Fresh water and corn (maize) or other whole grain is placed in the room. The next day towards evening the hen is allowed to come off the nest if she wishes to. If she sticks to the nest, try her again the next morning and if necessary quietly take her from the nest.' If, after feeding and dusting, she goes back upon the nest, it is safe to put under her a sitting of eggs, usually not more than thir- teen, never a larger number than she will cover completely and comfortably. It is usually well to set several hens at the same time if con- venient to do so. If you have not a full sitting of one breeding hen's eggs it is permissible to place the marked eggs of several hens 'under one sitter, provided that you will surely have enough different broody hens three weeks later to care for the separate lots of eggs at hatching time. Another method is to set, say six of one breeding hen's eggs un- der the sitter and twenty-four hours later put seven eggs of another breeding hen in the same nest. The two lots of eggs, even If kept under the one sitter, will hatch nearly a day apart and the chicks ■can be marked according to their parentage. Sometimes, however, the hatching of the lot first set Injures the hatching out of the eggs set a day later. On a card above each sitter's nest, make a record of the eggs set, time of sitting and later of any transfers and of the results in testing and at hatching time. Have a regular time every day for supplying water and feed in the sitting house. See that the hens have a chance to come off 19 the nests at a regular time daily. If they do not come off, gently lift and remove them from the nests and quietly compel them to go out into the yard every bright day. See to it that the hens go back to their nests after being off ten to thirty minutes. Close the doors in front of the nests to prevent all danger of a mix-up. Dust the hens again at the end of the first and second weeks of sitting. TESTING FOR FERTILITY. White shelled eggs may be tested for fertility after five days of incubation. Dark shelled are more easily tested after seven days. Use a common egg tester in a dark room. A simple tester W y_ VM. Structure of E;?. (a) Structure of Eaas. may be made by taking a paste board box, such as shoes are sold in, or a board box, or use a roll of card board, of tin or an old beaver hat. Cut a hole In the side, the shape of an egg or a cir- cle a little smaller than an egg and at the height of the flame of a lamp set in the box or cylinder. See that the light has plenty of air and guard against setting fire to the tester, especially if it is dad's stovepipe hat. Hold each egg up to the testing hole on the outside of the box. Look at the eggs from one side or the other to save straining the eyes. A clear egg looking the same as one fresh laid, is infertile. The shadow of the yolk may show slightly. An egg that looks clouded and has a small dark spot just under the shell is dead. One showing a large red ring with perhaps a 20 dark small spot in the center bas bled to death.. Both the latter eggs show no movement of their contents when held still before the light. A live egg should show the blood vessels In a beautiful net work surrounding the embryo, which may move about lively in CA. Y5 — (b) Section of Five Day Embryo. the liquid contents of the egg. The emoryo shows a dark spot which is the eye. About one-half of the egg is darkened by the net work of veins partially surrounding the yolk. Infertile eggs may be used for cooking but those which have started and died should be saved to feed to the chicks that batch later. On the twentieth day some of the eggs will usually be pipped and the hatching should be completed before the end of the twenty- first day of incubation. Leave the hen alone at hatching time if all the eggs under her are from one breeding hen as they should be. If she has two lots of eggs set a day apart, remove the chicks hatched from the first lot of eggs after they are fully dried oft and strong enough to go to 21 a brooder. An incubator makes a good nursery for this first lot of chicks to stay in for a day or so. If the hatching of the eggs is to be done in a machine, run the temperature the first week close to 101 degrees F. as indicated by thermometers with bulbs on the level of the tops of the eggs. Don't let the heat get above 102 degrees the first week. The second week 102 degrees temperature is about right and do not run above 103 degrees until hatching time when 104 to 105 are allowable. Ventilation the first week should be as slight as possible increased a little the second week and abundantly the third week and through hatching time. Daily sprinkling of water on the floor of the room in which the 'c) Egg With Nine-Day Embryo- incubator is standing will oftec help the hatching. The increase in the size of the air cell at the large end of the egg should result from the use of the contents of the egg in the growth oi the embryo and not be caused by evaporation of the con- tents of the egg 'l " : -,-^-:'-' "^\_>' A Pair of Black Sumatra Chicks. fresh clover, and alfalfa leaves are all good green food. Very early in the spring, cut clover hay, dry alfalfa leaves, cured lawn clip- pings are excellent substitutes for fresh green food. Chopped onions or leeks are nice for a change and seem to have a tonic ef- fect while also furnishing nourishment. Feed no wet mashes or sloppy food to chicks. Peed little chicks at first five times a day. As already pointed out, the rations must include four kinds of things which may be termed the good Gs. GRIT, GRAINS, GREENS, GRUBS By the middle of the second week the daily ration may con- sist mainly of whole wheat, cracked com, green food and beef scraps (the commercial substitutes for grubs, grasshoppers, etc.) Make the chicks search and scratch in the chaff for the grain food. Mineral or ash constituents are necessary fcr the proper nourish- ment of the chicks and these are supplied to some extent in all of the foods. The granulated bone, while it acts as grit, also furnishes 30 the phosphates of lime and other compounds for building up the skeleton framework of the birds. The following is a sample of a balanced ration for chicks three to four weeks old: — Wheat, 5 lbs. Cracked corn, 5 lbs. Beet scraps, 2 1-2 lbs. Green alfalfa, 3 lbs. This amount (15 1-2 lbs.) will feed about forty chicks for ten days. If, however, the little feeders say they want more give them all they will work for in about the proportions stated. Other grains, previously named, may be substituted occasion- ally for the wheat or corn to lend variety to the diet. It alfalfa is not available clover or other green food will answer and should be given without stint. Instead of the ground scraps, use may be made of fresh cut bone or dry milk curds (cottage or Dutch cheese.) Evaporated buttermilk casin in granulated form will probably be placed upon the market within a short time and should make an Ideal feed stuff to furnish the protein part of the chick ration. When the mother hen has free range with her little flock, many insects, grubs and worms are devoured by the chicks and they also get a plenty of green grass. They find some seeds but usually require feeding some additional grain such as wheat or cracked corn. KEEP THE CHICKS GROWING. As the season advances, the weather grows warmer and all the conditions become increasingly favorable, the chicks should grow very fast. They care less and less for the hen or the brooder and spend more and more of tne day time ranging for food and fun. They should have ample room on fresh ground, including both till- age and grass land. Under such conditions it is easy and economi- cal to practice dry feeding by the hopper system, allowing the chickens to partake of grit, grains and beef scraps at the hoppers whenever they desire to do so, expecting them to get green food and plenty of exercise by ranging. If decided changes In their diet are deemed desirable at any time, these should be made not suddenly but gradually. Common sense and carefulness count for success In chick feeding. Keep the creatures growing continually with never a check. CHAPTER V. COLONIZING THE CHICKENS. Colonizing seems to agree with hens and humans. Both feath- 31 ered and unfeathered bipeds appreciate the enjoyments of "fresti fields and pastures new." Our flocks of youngsters, the prosperous progeny of our pedi- greed poultry, having outgrown the brooding stage, are ready for greater things. The sexes of the chickens are distinguishable by the appear- ance of their feathering combs, size and shape of body parts and by their voices and their actions. Wale chicks of Mediterranean breeds Colony House and Chicks. develop decided masculine characteristics by the time they are eight to ten weeks old. They show by their general behavior or misbehavior that they have enjoyed the privileges of co-education long enough. If the breeder is short of range for his birds, he may cull out all except the most promising cockerels and sell the culls as spring broilers. If plump as they should be, these bring good prices. This plan saves the expense of their further feeding and care. They should sell for enough to pay for the raising of the pullets. SEPARATING THE SEXES. On the farm where there is plenty of room, we can separate the young cockerels from the maidenly pullets and colonize the birds of each sex in flocks of twenty-five or fifty each, where all the con- ditions shall favor uninterrupted rapid growth. The free ranges 32 for the flocks may well include a fair proportion of both tillage and grass land and be sufficiently separated to prevent intermingling of the flocks. Planting several continuous rows of Indian corn between col- ony locations, will help give seclusion, provided agreeable shade during the hot days of mid-summer and yield considerable grain for the next winter's rations. When there is an orchard available, it usually makes an ideal place for the growing chickens. The occasional cultivating of the ground under the trees, necessary for the best results in fruit cul- ture, gives the chickens fresh turned soil to scratch in, and they destroy many insect enemies of the trees. Further their droppings furnish the finest of fertilizer for promoting orchard growth. The shade of the trees is appreciated by the chickens, which also fre- quently prefer to roost in the trees at night rather than remain in houses which may lack the fresh air, cleanliness and freedom from insect parasites of the natural perches. CHICKEN COLONY HOUSES. Some localities are not blessed with orchards, and houses seem necessary to properly protect the chickens. Some out-door brooders are so constructed!, that after the chicks are beyond the brooding age, the hovers can be taken out, the floors lowered and perches put in. Each brooder is then used as a small summer house for a dozen or more growing chickens. Such a shelter is sufficient to protect a little flock at night or dur- ing rainy days, but should never be over crowded. If an inside brooder has been used in a shed or small house or a number of brooders in a larger house, it is practicable to use the shed or house to shelter the chicks after the brooders are removed to storage. Round poles two inches in diameter may be put in the house for perches. In case it becomes necessary to build colony housea for the flocks, very simple structures will sufiice. If empty piano-boxes are procurable at small expense, each can ea^ly be made into a chicken house to accomodate a flock of twenty-five chickens. Two piano-boxes can be combined into a house to shelter fifty chickens. Covering the top with roofing paper or three-ply tar paper will turn the rain water nicely. Openings made for doors and windows may be protected by frames covered with poultry netting or cotton cloth. The house, if it has no board floor, should be placed on ground which is high enough to ensure good drainage and avoid all danger from flooding. The house may well be moved once a week sufficiently to place it on fresh ground. Large dry-goods boxes obtainable at slight expense, may be used to make colony coops. It is not difficult to take one box for 33 the body ot the coop and use the lumber of another box to make a roof, covering the latter with three-ply tar paper. Such a house may be elevated on posts or legs so that the floor will be a foot or eigh- teen Inches above the ground, thus providing an extra sheltering. Made from a Piano Box. place for the birds under the floor. They like a place of this kind where they can find a retreat that is shaded from the hot sun or safe from sudden showers, in the summer time. By the use of a little paint of the right color, any of the rude shelters described may be made quite attractive in outward appear- ance. A SPECIAL HOUSE. A single-pitch colony house for chickens, which has proven its- adaptability for use on free range in summer is described as fol- lows: The board is raised several inches above the ground to avoid all possibility of wetness. The perches are placed at least a foot apart and eighteen inches above the floor. A long ventilator in front near the top, may be opened more or less according to need. If preferred, a frame covered with muslin may be used instead of a board cover for the ventilator-opening. A frame covered with mus- lin or ducking may be used to take the place of the glass sash of the window frame. A house of this shape and size may, if preferred, have its side- , boarding run up and down instead of horizontally. Fifty chickens, or more if necessary, will be nicely taken care- of m a house of this kind. 34 SPECIFICATIONS OP SPECIAL HOUSE. To be 8 X 8 feet at floor, 6 feet high In front, 4 feet high in back. Sills to be 2 x 4 inches, halved together. Floor timbers to be 2 X 4 inches locked over sills. Studs to be 2 x 3 inches cut on bevel at top to receive plates. Plates and rafters to be 2 x 3 inches Toenail a 1 x 2 inch scantling on to studs at ends of building to re- ceive flooring. Perches to be 2 x 2 Inches and to be supported at each end by 1 x 4 inch piece nailed to studding, and in the middle by a 2 X 3 inch piece. Three of the perches to go clear across the building and the other three, if needed, to go as far as the door. Floor to be of second quality spruce. Siding to be of feather edg- ed pine or spruce. Roof to overhang two inches and be of square hemlock 8 inches wide. Frieze to be of 7-8 x 3 inch pine, cypress or spruce and put on as shown. Door and ventilator to be made of barn boards and cleated. Door to be carried with 16-inch hinges and to be provided with strong latch. Ventilator to be hinged with two 8 inch hinges, to also have button for fastening when closed and to have hook with screw eyes in several places so that it may be fastened open at^ any degree desired. Sash to be of six 9 x 12 inch lights and to be screwed on to inside of building. Roof to be covered with roofing paper. PORTABLE HOUSES If a house cannot be constructed without the aid of a carpenter and further if lumber is high in price, it may be easier and more .economical to purchase small colony houses ready made. Suitable One Style of Portable Colony House. tportable houses are on the market and may be bought at reason- able prices. If sent "knocked down" to the purchaser, transporta- tion by freight costs but little On arrival the parts of a house are' •easily and quickly put together and the structure is ready for occu- 35 pancy. Such houses, when not In use, are readily taken apart and stored in small space until again wanted. A HOUSE OP STRAW. In localities where rye straw is easily grown or obtainable at small expense, thatched summer chicken houses may be made. A frame-work of poles forms the skeleton of the house and small sheaves of straight straw are laid on the roof and sides, lapping like Another Style of Portable Colony Hoiise. shingles and thick enough to shed rain, all being fastened in place by strands of tarred rope. Such a structure, trimly put together, is not lacking in rustic beauty. The whole front of the house may be open or covered with wire netting, and may be further protected against storms by a cloth curtain or frame covered with muslin or ducking. Shelter, shade, ventilation, coolness, comfort, and agreeable ap- pearance are thus easily and economically provided by means of a few poles, some straw, a handful of nails, a little twine and willing work of brain and muscle enough to make the right combination. REFUGE FROM HEAT AND HAWKS. If shade is not sufficiently supplied by trees or growing corn, 36 sunflowers, etc., on tlie range, further shelter may be provided by means of frame of oles covered with limbs of birch, pine or other trees cut when in full foliage. These frames are raised two feet above the ground and rest on posts or stakes. These frame shelters furnish places of refuge from hawks, in regions where these birds of prey are likely to be troublesome. On city or town lots, extra shade may be cheaply provided by means of frames covered with burlap or sacking and so placed as to temper the scorching rays of the summer sun. YARDING THE YOUNGSTERS. ' Many breeders of fine poultry can not give their chickens the blessings of free farm range. Sometimes neighbors are too near, if not to dear, to permit of the chickens having a good time all of the time. If yards become necessary, use may be made of galvanized woven wire fencing, of any desired height, with fine meshes near the bottom and wires wider apart near the top. Make the yards as large as possible. Remember that the less room the chickens have to move about in, the more careful attention they will require. Cul- tivate, spade or rake the ground of their enclosures frequently so that if they cannot have fresh fields to roam in, they may at least have freshened ground to scratch in. Throw straw or hay into the yards and scatter grain in it to encourage the birds to search for their food and at the same time get desirable exercise. If there is not abundant fresh growing grass in some part of their runs, vegetables or green crops, such as lettuce, cabbage, beets, Swiss card (ornamental), rape, etc., should be grown in a gar- den near by, and given to the chickens daily. DOUBLE YARDS. If the yards are bare of grass, it may be agood plan to divide each flock's yard space into two parts. One part may be cultivated and used for growing oats, rye, wheat or barley, while the other part is occupied by the birds. As soon as the young grain is five or six inches high, the birds are turned upon it and then the other yard is cultivated and sown to grain, which in its turn becomes fresh pasturage for the chickens. Some times it is possible to let the chickens out of their yards towards evening, they being duly watched to prevent their wander- ing upon forbidden grounds. FREE BATHS. Tilled ground is usually available in the yards or on the range, where the fowls can make dusting places in the mellow loam and thus reduce the chances of lousiness. Mites will sometimes get into chicken houses even out in the fields. Look for them under the perches, between the perches and 37 their supports, and in any cracks or crannies near by. If their presence is detected or suspected, spray every place that could possibly shelter them. Use two per cent Carbolic acid solution. (98 per cent water or kerosene and 2 per cent crude or concentrated Carbolic acid.) Drive the liguid into ever conceivable hiding-place. Repeat the spraying once a week during the hot sul- try weather of August, when the mites multiply by millions If oppor- tunity offers. Prevent the accumulation of manure in the houses by cleaning out the droppings weekly. Use the manure in the garden, orchard or on the grass land. It is a wonderfully good fertilizer to make the crops grow. Count up the chickens every few days and. If any are missing, find out where they are or what has taken them away. Listen to the breathing of the birds, after dark, occasionally, to •detect any signs of lung trouble. Remove any of the flock that make a noise in breathing if any such indication is noticed. Keep an eye on all the surroundings of the chickens. Prevent any unfavorable conditions and thus ward off disease and death. DRY FEEDING. The plan of supplying granulated bone, dry grains and ground Oeef scraps freely in hoppers, may well be continued for feeding the growing chickens on free range. It is well for the flocks to get in the habit of eating whole grains and granulated feeds, balancing their rations, mixing the food with digestive fluids inside the body, giving their gizards, livers and kidneys proper work to do, and securing conditions favorable to natural digestion. Fresh green food, some Insect food and abundance of exercise secured on the free range help to make conditions mor.3 complete for the perfect development of the birds. Yarded chickens, especially if quite closely confined, must be fed with great care. Avoid overfeeding, unbalanced rations, lack of green food, lack of work In getting their grain feeds and any other condition that would tend to make them too fat, too lean, lazy or sickly. Fresh water, running if possible, should be at hand always for the free use of the chicks, whether on free range or confined in yards. If dishes or fountains are used for holding the drinking water, scald them out thoroughly once a week with boiling water. CHAPTER VI. PERFECTING THE PULLETS. How the chickens grow! This Is poultry pleasure. With the 38 coming of sunny, smiling June, the troublous times are over and gone. Sensible summer treatment puts an end to our poultry per- plexities and Nature takes things largely into her care. Memory may still dwell in a dreamy way on the wintry weather that brought discomfort and perhaps destruction to some of our poultry pets. The freezing and thawing of Peburary, the wilful winds of March, the fickle showers of April and the flood of Easter time all had their influence upon the breeding birds. The terrible trials with setting hens, cranky incubators and motherless mothers are things of the Perfecting the Pullets. past. Our thoroughbred chickens escaping the rats, have feathered out finely and, separated according to sexes, have for weeks been enjoying tree range and all the other advantages of Colony Chicken Civilization. Let us consider some of the factors of this method of manage- ment In detail. IN THE GOOD YOUNG COLONY TIMES. If the growing chickens have been "turned out to grass," as described previously. Nature is given full opportunity to nurture her chicken children. With only slight assistance from human hands, our feathered companions find it the easiest thing in the world to thrive and grow fast. Think what this intelligent co-partnership of nature, humanity and bird life signifies. The cockerels and pullets are in separate colonies. The former, therefore, devote their energies to develop- 39 ment instead of fighting together or obstreperously abusing their winged sisters. The pullets thus free from plaguing are left to live- In peace and quiet. They prosper correspondingly. The chicks have abundant room and freedom to roam at willv ensuing thorough exercise and therefore excellent circulation of the blood, ready appetites, good digestion and the healthy operation of every function favoring perfect development and steady, strong growth. What could be more favorable than the weather in June?" The temperature is conducive to rapid Increase in size and but lit- tle of the food is needed to keep up the heat of the body. If the sunshine strikes down too hot for the comfort of the fowls, they re- treat to the cooling shade of the trees or other shelter provided. OXYGEN COMES FROM AIR. It is certainly man's fault if the birds do not get abundant oxy- gen from the limitless supply of fresh air on free range or in large yards. If the chicks are permitted to roost in the orchard trees, they thus get the full benefit of ample airiness even at night. If confined in the colony houses at night their shelter may well be simply the roosts with a roof above them. It is nice in summer to- have the sides of the house removable or hinged near their upper edges so they can be swung out from the bottom. If protection from enemies is necessary, cover the open sides with wire netting. At any rate, open all door and window spaces and cover with wire or provide screens for them to protect the birds from strong winds- and storms. Shutters covered with muslin or cheesecloth may be used on the windward side, but really, very little protection is ordi- narily required in the summer time. I have had my White Leghorn pullets, perching in the apple or- chard,' go through rain storms, heavy winds and freezing tempera- ture even in October, without any apparent injury and with every evidence of unimpaired health and vigor. On the other hand, I have known nice healthy pullets to be put in close houses where they promptly caught cold and later developed serious cases of roup. Confining "out-door" pullets in newly built hen-houses that have not been well dried out is especially dangerous. CLEANLINESS. Whether the chickens roost In trees or on perches under a roof, the droppings should be collected once a week and used in the orchard, garden or grass land. Get this valuable fertilizer into the mellow soil as soon as conveniently possible. Don't fail to spray the roosts and any wood-work where mites can hide, with two per cent carbolic acid liquid. Keep the soil mellow, not too dry and cer- tainly not wet, where the chickens wallow to cool their bodies and! get rid of lice. 40 FEEDING. Continue the practice of dry feeding, filling the hoppers with ^rain once a week or as often as necessary to keep a supply before the pullets. The animal food may be supplied daily if necessary to have it fresh and avoid any chance of waste. If rats anil mice are about, feed them in separate hoppers covered with wire netting, so that the chickens cannot get at the food which may be "seasoned" with strychnine or "adulterated" with plaster paris. Remember that the daily balanced ration for 100 lbs. live weight of growing chickens should be close to 5 lbs. of grain food, 1 lb. beef scraps or equivalent and all the green grass or other fresh succulent food the birds will eat. Watch the pullets closely, note results of the feeding and study to keep the daily diet wholesome, palatable, and nourishing, so there shall be no halting in the growth of body parts, finishing of feathering and maturing of the organs of . egg production. The growing birds like to wet their throats frequently and drink great quantities of water in hot weather. It will be ideal if a brook runs through or by the range to supply fresh, running water. Let gravitation thus save your lugging water. If this cannot be ac- complished, then use a water-wheel, wind-mill or gasoline or alco- hol engine to pump water from a well or other pure source of sup- ply to a tank or reservoir elevated above the ranges, and then let gravitation distribute the liquid in pipes to the different flocks. We have lately seen a very neat and economical method of pumping by means of an overshot waterwheel in a fine section of farming country where poultry is considered an important part of the farm stock. THRIVING LIKE TOPSY. I The pullets should grow and grow during July and August, gradually perfecting all their organs in preparation for breeding. This process of maturing takes time. Do not get impatient. When the ripening days of September come, the creatures should begin to converse concerning the coming eggs, especially if they have Mediterranean blood in their veins. Late in September they should go into winter quarters and be- gin laying by October 1st, or 15th, or certainly before November 1st. After this, avoid changing quarters and violent variations in feeding and management. The pullets should continue to lay through tall and winter if surrounded continuously by comfortable ■conditions and supplied with the raw materials for making eggs in addition to maintaining their bodies in health and vigor. TOO EARLY— TOO LATE. Pullets of laying breeds hatched too early are likely to begin 41 laying in summer and molt like old hens in late autumn. They they usually forget to lay again until the next spring. Too early laying of pullets may be hindered in some degree by transferring them to colder and darker quarters and feeding mostly on Indian corn. Af- ter they do being laying, try to keep the conditions uniform, com- fortable, unchanged and avoid any check that could turn their at- tention from eggs to feathers. Pullets hatched too late in spring do not properly mature be- for cold weather, and, in a cold climate are liable to become stunt- ed. They wait tor spring before beginning to lay and then the eggs are liltely to be undersized. THINKING OF EXHIBITING Of course you will wish to take a few of your finest to the fall shows, to find out their standing in poultry society. For weeks you can be watching the birds and selecting the promising specimens. Handle them occasionally and speak encouragingly to them. Scruti- nize every part carefully in order that you may detect any defects or disqualifications. Do not let any possible future prize winner ruin the shape of the breast bone by roosting on a narrow angular perch; also prevent roosting where the growing tail feathers will come in contact with the roof or side of the building when the bird is on the roost. Look for bright red or bay eyes unless the stand- ard for your breed calls for other color of eyes. Give attention to comb and wattles. Well, I guess you will have to own and study a copy of the illustrated "Standard of Perfection" and make it your guide in selecting and fitting your winners. We haven't noticed the cockerels much this time. These ram- pant rascals can usually take pretty good care of their own interests but most of the points in this article have a bearing on their well being. If you wish to be partial and push forward one or two prom- ising cockerels, you may let them run with the pullets. UTILITY INTERESTS. It seems to be a good plan to get the egg records of our future breeding stock during their first laying season. Our faithful old breeding birds must not be forgotten or neg- lected. So let us take up "The Management of the Molt" and other mid-summer matters. CHAPTER VII. MANAGING THE MOLT. Misery attends and follows the molt if it comes too late in the 42 season. Left to themselves, the fowls often neglect to shed their feathers until the chilly weather of late autumn or the beginning of winter. The best laying hens in a flock will, sometimes, just out of habit, continue egg production right through summer and fall, then with vital energies exhausted, attempt to molt in November or De- cember when raw winds, chilling rains and even snow storms are liable to assail their unprotected bodies. The results are likely to be fatal. The birds, instead of promptly replacing their old feath- ers by new bright, beautiful plumage, put on angel clothing and de- part for poultry paradise. Fowls covered with plenty of good, dry feathers, can stand con- siderable cold. They do not fear wetness much if the weather is warm. But coldness and wetness together coming upon a hen when her old feathers are gone and her new feathers are just coming, prove too much for her nakedness and she vanishes. The hap-hazard molt is death in disguise and a very thin dis- guise at that. A little consideration of the science of feather mak- ing, a little taking thought for the feather future, a little systematic planning featherward, a little practical management featherwlse, will save the birds, ensure the molt and profit the poultryman. AN ANNUAL AUTUMNAL AFFAIR. The shedding of the old feathers and the acquiring of new plumage by adult fowls occurs usually once a year Observation has frequently shown, however, that molting may come at other times than in the autumn, that it may, indeed, occur several times during the year. The extra molts may usually be traced to some special cause, such as a sudden change of surroundings, a shift in the feeding, some shock or check which affects the nerves or upsets the daily routine of hen habits. The regular functions of digestion, breath- ing circulation, etc., go on but egg laying, flesh production, fatten- ing are likely to halt and feather making to begin. To grow feath- ers requires good blood and plenty of it, constantly renewed by the digestion and assimilation of abundant nutritious food. ONE WAY. Sometimes we wish to keep up the egg supply during the sum- mer and fall without depending wholly on early hatched pullets. A simple, easy and economical method of accomplishing this ob- ject and at the same time securing an early molt was taught me by a little experience on the farm a few years ago. I like a horse as well as a hen (pure bred if possible in both cases). My roadster, "Nancy Lee" had been the victim of fancy shoeing and showed lameness. To soften her hoof I used a paste of Linseed oil (oil 43 meal,) mixing the meal witti milk into a sticky mass and filling the space inside the shoe, then clapping a little straw on to help hold it in. (This is a very easy and effective way of bringing the horse's hoof into healthy condition.) Well, I set the dish containing what was left of the Linseed paste where some of my pet pure bred White Leghorns found it. Nothing escapes their inquisitive eyes, and their beaks were soon in the paste. I let them think they were stealing something nice and they cleaned up the dish. The opera- tion was repeated daily for a week or longer and the birds cer- tainly developed a Linseed appetite. After this, I mixed a little mash of Linseed meal and Indian meal or bran or middlings and gave to the flock daily in addition to regular rations. Most of the hens molted in mid-summer and their plumage came out beautifully clean and white. Linseed meal is a by-product of the manufacture ot oil from flaxseed. "Old Process" contains somewhat more oil than "New Process" Linseed meal and is, perhaps, on that account a little bet- ter to use, but both are excellent. Sunflower seed and Hemp seed are sometimes fed to help and to hasten molting. The effect of feeding oil meal or similar food in the daily ra- tion is to cause a gradual molting while egg production continues to a considerable extent. The nitrogenous and somewhat oily food, supplied In small quantity, tends to loosen the grip of the old feath- ers and helps to start new feathers. This food is also of use in egg production. Individuality of the different hens has an important Influence in the working out of this plan. Some of the hens seem to be in- fluenced by the food decidedly towards molting. Others are so strongly inclined to egg production that .they keep on laying and yield only slowly to the molting influence. Still others appear to continue laying more or less while also shedding gradually and grow new plumage without becoming naked. A sure Indication that molting has begun is found in the number of loose feathers scat- tered about where the flock is staying although the change Is their coats is hardly apparent until it is fully completed. Finally, the neat, clean, bright plumage of most of the flock, shows that the fowls have come out in new dress and are ready for the coming winter season. MODIFIED MOLTING RATION. The proportion of Linseed meal to use in feeding the flock is well illustrated by taking a very practical daily ration for dry feed- ing of laying Leghorns. This ration is for one hundred pounds weight of live fowls and I have named it the "Hamblen Ration" af- ter one of my former correspondence students who suggested it. 44 This ration includes three pounds Indian corn, two lbs. wheat, one lb. beef scraps and one pound cut clover hay. A very easy change gives the following molting ration: 3 lbs. Indian corn, 2 lbs. Wheat, 1 lb. Beef scraps, (48 per cent Protein,) 1 lb. Cut Clover Hay. In place of the cut clover use in summer, green clover, alfalfa, fresh grass or young growing grain. Lettuce, cabbage, rape, chop- ped onion tops are also good green food. It is well to use granulated bone for grit and to keep a supply in the hopper before each flock of fowls. Some poultrymen prefer to use fresh cut bone, which is not objected to after the molt is in full swing, especially if it is desired to induce the laying of eggs as soon as possible. ANOTHER WAY. Forcing the molt is a good plan, the aim being to stop egg lay- ing, induce prompt shedding and rapid renewal of the feathers in mid-summer. The fowls are made prisoners and put on starvation diet for five days or possibly for a week. Each flock should have a sep- arate turf run and be given only grass and water with an invitation to exercise freely. Egg production ceases, the feathers begin to drop and pin feathers commence to develop. Now start feeding for growth of the new plumage. The molt- ing ration already suggested will answer or if the poultryman wishes to include a mash, ground grains instead of whole or cracked grains may be used. Skim-milk if available, may be used to mix the mash. Do not fail to supply an abundance of fresh, green food. For- get not the grit. Remember a constant supply of water, fresh and cool is appreciated by the molters. SCYLLA AND CHARYBDIS. While we wish to avoid the dangers of cold weather by mak- ing our hens molt in summer, it is well to keep in mind the dangers of overheating, sun-burn and sun-stroke in hot weather. Molting time is a period that naturally tends to make the fowls inactive and listless. It they are kept closely confined in stuffy houses and small, sheltered yards, when the weather is sultry or oppressively hot and all the surrounding Influences debilitating, the birds will shed happiness and plume themselves for the paradise aforementioned. They rightly conclude that even the terrors of the ITT "Hot Place" are to be risked rather than endure the horrors of some earthly hen houses. It were better to have delivered the fowls just before molting time, to the market-man so that they might be saved the trouble of molting themselves. To sum up the matter, it is desirable to keep the birds comfort- able and yet incite them to sufficient bodily exercise to promote good digestion, excellent appetites, active blood circulation and satisfactory operation of all the functions that tend to healthy con- dition and prompt, complete molting. An open, well ventilated house and free range or a large run on grass and tilled ground are favorable conditions. Out with all glass windows that would make an oven of the hen house. Wire netting is right for windows and doors in hot weather. DEMONS IN DISGUISE. Even though ideal quarters are provided, the fowls will suffer fearfully and fail to feather out properly if mites are permitted to get at the birds' bodies. The sultry days of August, in the tem- perate zone, offer opportunities for these vermin to breed by bil- lions. If these pestiferous parasites are sucking the birds, their blood is going to develop and nourish unlimited multitudes of mites and can not, therefore, be developing and nourishing fresh, fine feathers for covering tne fowls. As before indicated in this article, spraying all interior parts and furnishings of the hen house frequently with two per cent carbolic acid solution (or kerosene to which is added two per cent of concentrated carbolic acid) is one way of fighting mites. Anyway clean the villians out or quit the study and practice of "Chick Culture." Molting time is a test of fowls of the buff and red varieties. Too many fade out at the first or second molting. Individual hens and cock birds that hold their standard color should be cherished as thoroughbreds and breeders of standard or exhibition stoclt. The molt also tests the color quality of the white breeds. If the prize cockerel shows brassiness after getting his new feathers, he will be very likely to transmit this failing to his chickens. Study your individual birds, save the steadfast thoroughbreds for years and gradually develop whole flocks of them. It certainly pays both in satisfaction and in silver. CHAPTER VIII. KEEPING THE EGG RECORDS. How nice it would be if our hens would kindly stamp each new 46 egg with, the name o£ the layer and date of laying. Next I expect we would wish them to take a pencil and write It down on the list. But what a time the grocers would have erasing the birth marks on storage eggs of ancient date! Well when you come to think of it each hen does mark her own ovum, for you never yet saw two eggs laid by different hens, that were exactly alike. Each biddy has her egg pattern and keeps very close to the mode. Consider what variety there is in the make-up of these articles. It's the way the world over, among feminine creatures (whether they wear feathers of their own growing or borrow their plumage of others), they feel that they must show style in some respect. Well, why shouldn't they? If one would learn something of the differences in styles of birds' eggs, let him inspect one of the large ornithological collec- tions in some great museum. It is instructive to study even the eggs of Turkeys, Geese, Ducks, Pheasants and Guinea Fowl, and one may learn much if he has only the eggs of the different breeds and varieties of our common fowls to examine. EGGS THAT ARE DIFFERENT. A recent bulletin of one of our State Experiment Stations con- tains illustrations of the differences that occur in the shapes and sizes of eggs. There are shown some wonderful departures from the regular "oval" shape. Some hens delight in defying the custom •of all time and lay eggs that are as large at the "small end" as at the air cell end. Other hens appear to have astronomical ambi- tions and place a ridge around the center of the egg, vainly attempt- ing to reproduce the rings of Saturn on their shells. The news- papers have lately been publishing a reporter's yarn about a New Jersey hen that laid eggs with handles. That is nothing very new except to "experienced" city reporters, who occasionally amuse themselves and probably think they are amusing others by writing .articles about hay seeds, cows that have no upper front teeth, two- •IT headed calves, four-legged chickens and hens that lay fifteen eggs a day, etc. Soft-shelled eggs frequently have an elongation of the shell at the "tail end," evidently because the egg factory was rushed the day that egg was made, and a city newspaper reporter who could not make a handle of that would he woefully wanting in urban imagination concerning rural affairs. Some hens always put a peculiar little querl on the small end of the egg as a sort of trade mark. My boy has a R. I. Red hen now fully five years old, that is still laying well and she lays an egg which is distinguishable from other eggs not only by its size and shape, but by having invariably little crescent-shaped ridges curled about the small end. The sounds that result from tapping a lot of the eggs gently with the cap of a pencil are instructive. Some shells give back a dull sound, others a sharper tone, while occasionally a metallic ring gives the hint to the poultryman that It is useless to try to hatch a live chicken out of that egg. The size of the egg is frequently a guide, although the product of one hen may vary in this respect, especially when nearing the close of a litter or when two yolks are enclosed in one shell. How often we hear the complaint, "My best hen lays the smallest, mean- est egg of the whole flock." By the way, perhaps that is not her fault altogether. Her manager may have been paying too much attention to breeding fine feathers, beautiful appendages and other "winning points" of exhibition birds neglecting the matter of egg production. Then when we come to the coloration of the shells of eggs, what a range in tinting is shown. The faithful feathered artist sticks to her color-pattern unless pigment runs short. She appar- ently draws on the color pigments of her feathers, sometimes, if her food does not supply coloring materials enough to paint her egg shells during the busy laying season. She shows a fine art too in the way the tinting is done. The lordly Langshans excel in color work. Brahma eggs are browned to a turn. The Leghorns and most of the other Mediterraneans leave in the nests, eggs with shell as white as new fallen snow.* What a difference there is too In the texture of the shells, the thickness, the size of pores, the mottling and many minor character- istics which the eye or touch may readily detect. A more definite idea of the qualities and peculiarities of the shells may be obtained by taking the eggs into a dark room and holding them one by one between the fingers and the palm of the hand, before a bright lamp flame. A better plan if one has the apparatus and time to use it Is 48 to examine the eggs before an egg tester. I have just been testing a lot of eggs of Leghorns and Reds preparatory to incubation and I find many characteristics coming out before the light, that do not ordinarily appear. The position of the air cell is usually slightly off the center at the large end of the egg, but sometimes it Is decidedly to one side and reminds one of the little cap worn jauntily on the side of the head by the British Calvaryman. The spots, streaks, blotches and mottles of the egg come out very clearly before the strong light. Occasionally an egg shows a wart or bunch of lime cells as an ex- crescence. One of my Wyandotte hens puts a nest of lime dots over the air-cell. They look like a lot of minute nits. The pure white shells of the Leghorns when placed before the egg tester show variations that were not evident in ordinary light. Some shells are firm, close celled, of strong uniform texture. Others are thinner and more transparent. Yet others show luminous spots or streaks and occasionally shadings or mottllngs that remind one of the clouds in a summer sky. One is led to exclaim: "What a dif- ference there is in eggs of different hens^ and verily how much alike are the eggs of one hen." If "an egg is an egg" yet there are eggs and other eggs all differing iji one or many characteristics. EGG RBCORDIXG WITHOUT TRAP-NESTS. I have dwelt thus somewhat at length on the individual varia- tions of the eggs of different hens in order to show how easy it is- to distinguish them, if ong will take the trouble to learn in the first places which eggs come from each hen. Starting with a trio, pen or very small flock of select fine bred breeders, it was an easy task to shut the hens In separate nests or watch them and learn what kind of an egg each one laid. I have known of an interested amateur keeping the egg record of nine breeding hens without the expense or bother of using trap nests or any other contrivance. He came to know the type of egg of each hen so well that he could tell most of them in the dark just by the touch. One who can be much with his fowls, studying them, petting them, encouraging them to good works and rewarding them well for duty done, will come to know most thoroughly all their qualities and later can usually pick out the chicks of certain mother hens by sight even though they be mingled In larg'e flocks. If the owner of the breeding birds, or some one of his family, cannot find time or is not sufficiently Interested to take the trouble to learn what eggs come from which hens, then In order to secure the laying records of certain hens, some mechanical device is neces- sary. TRAP NESTS. Wherever I go I find enthusiasts who are keeping egg records- 49 of their best birds. I was pleased to find in Nebraska last winter ai first class fancier who breeds world's winners and uses trap neeta- of his own Invention. He excludes from his breeding pens all fe- males that do not show a satisfactory egg record. I also find all sorts of trap nests in use, many of them home made and as nice as any of those that are covered or said to be- covered by innumerable patents and have their wonderful mechan- isms advertised without limit. When I was at the Rhode Island Agricultural Experiment Sta- tion, we tested twenty different kinds of trap nests. Some were- clumsy affairs, some too complex, some too wonderfully Ingenious altogether (evidently their inventors never "kept hens") and some were very simple, practical and effective. Among these was the trap nest of Mr. Silberstein, who claimed to be the starter in trap- ping the laying hens. The door of his nest, though made of wood was on practically the same plan as the "bob wire" of pigeon cotes. It would let more than one hen into the nest and then things were liable to get mixed. I presume there are now ss many as a hundred various con- trivances for trapping the hen that lays the egg, or that doesn't. I once attempted to advise a poultryman as to the best trap nest to use. I am not doing so any more. There are too many "best nests" and tastes differ too emphatically. Many poultry keepers- enjoy capturing the layers in those much advertised nests that are labelled with a big open eye. These should have the word "Wel- come" placed over the entrance and it seems that a hen house thus- fitted and furnished needs only to have a motto "Home, Sweet Home" hung up on the wall to make it perfect. Another eye nest was named from the great Western Hawk. That- was a decided detective. One of ..the most interesting of the- score that we tested at the Rhode Island Station, was connected with an electric battery. On entering the box the hen tripped the- latch of the entrance door so that it closed. Biddy then went into the laying apartment. After her stay there she came out upon a platform where her weight caused electric connections to be made and a bell rang out the lay of the last minstrel. This bell could be placed in the owner's office or anywhere that he pleased and it rang after the egg was laid. Certainly no thoroughbred hen would go through all that ceremony and then ring in a false alarm. If she did the first offense was forgiven with due admonition to not repeat the offense. If she played the trick twice she was threatened with electrocution. A third time and no egg made her an ornament for the dinner table. In case the proprietor of the establishment preferred something more quiet than an alarm bell, he could use a buzzer at the end of the wires. Think of the electric smile that 50 •overspreads the countenance of th busy man as the buzzer sizzles and he remarks "Another egg by thunder." Of late, the progressives have invented a mechanism which hangs a numbered ring on the neck of the layer as she goes out of the nest. This is what might be termed collaring the culprit cov- ertly. The rings are collected after the hens are gone to roost and the eggs are collected and marked according to the rings. I am reminded of a circular, automatic, revolving cabinet com- bination contrivance that a friend of mine evolved for the purpose of trapping laying hens in series or catching them In cohorts, I might say. It was to be self-releasing and the hen by her foot was to work the rubber stamp, ink pad act and mark her egg before departure. A substructure with compartments corresponding to those of the upper cabinet was to receive the eggs after the hens had made their exit. This truly wonderful machine was never put to work because of the fear that the hens might be inclined to lay- ing three or four times daily and thus lay themselves to death. If one does not wish to purchase any of the excellent trap nests now on the market or has the time, the tools and knack for building his own trap nests, he may obtain descriptions of two good nests by sending to the Experiment Station, Orono, Maine, or Kingston, R. I. Most poultrymen in these days prefer to invent their own trap nests, then they are suited and can proudly refer to the con- trivance as one of their own invention, all rights reserved, patent applied for, etc. It the pen or flock of layers must be left unattended all day long or for hours at a time and the owner still desires to keep the records of his fowls, it is practicable to arrange for the releasing of the fowls after laying. A trap door is placed at the back of the nest and the hen finding 'this the only chance of exit after laying, pushes through into a little yard, covered with poultry netting. This enclosure may be 2 feet "'wide, 4 feet long, li^ feet high or larger if space allows. The chaff and small grain placed in it give the hen something to scratch for and she passes the hours quite agreeably until the owner comes to give her larger range. Whatever the form or style of trap nest adopted, let it be roomy enough for comfort, made with plenty of chance for fresh air and no danger of smothering or overheating the hen during hot weather. Make it simple rather than complex, all parts working freely, easy to operate, inviting to the hen because of an attrac- tive secluded nest, sure to trap and free from all likelihood of injur- ing the hen in any way. RECORDING RESULTS. One of the neatest simple plans for recording the laying is to 51 use a sheet of paper for each month, placing the dates from 1 to 31 across the page, and the names or numbers of the layers at the left or right across the page, e. g.: TABLE I. 2 EGG RECORD OF FABYAN FLOCK FOB, AUGUST. W g 1 3 3 4 5 6 r 8 9 10 11 13 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 81 22 83 ii 25 26 87 23 89 30 81 g Alllllll 11 1 B A Bllllllllll D B C 1 1 1 I 1 1 ? 1 1 Dllllll 11111 lis D E B If an egg is laid outside the nest and you are not positive as to the hen that laid it, credit it at the bottom of the sheet with any remark that is necessary. If you feel sure which hen laid the egg, mark it in the regular date with an Interrogation point or other sign that it was dropped outside the nest. Death of a layer is indi- cated by D, sale by S, broodness by B. Add up at the end of each month and credit the total eggs of each hen in a yearly sheet as follows : TABLE II. EGG RECORD OF FABYAN FLOCK FqR 1906. Apr. May June July Auk. Sept. Oct Nov. Dec. Year BIRD 34 27 21 16 lu' 4 9 15 18 201 A 28 27 23 80 10 148 H BIRD. Jan. Feb Mar. A 11 23 26 B 16 24 LC D FLOCK GRAND TOTAL- AVERAGE PER BIRD The year may begin with October or any other month instead of January. There should be room near the bottom of the sheet for "Remarks" and here may be noted any points not shown in the regular columns. Any explanation which makes the record clearer or more complete or avoids complexity or confusion is allowable. WHEN TO BEGIN THE RECORD. By all means begin the laying record with the pullet's first «gg. It is well to get the records of our breeding birds as pullets and not use their eggs for hatching uptil the second season. We can thus select those birds whose performances through the first year are satisfactory and we avoid pushing the birds for large egg production while their eggs are being used for incubating. This signifies more chicks, better chicks, stronger chicks than when the hens are being forced for large yield of eggs. Keep up the egg recording however, and note also the hatch- ing quality, the number and quality of the chicks from each breed- 52 ing lien's eggs and save the best hens for a third, a fourth or even a fifth season. CHAPTER IX. THE HEN HOUSE AND ITS FURNISHINGS. Early fall is the very best time of the year for constructing and furnishing or remodeling poultry houses. The weather is us- ually favorable for the work, the materials are not likely to become soaked with rain and the building has opportunity to dry out thoroughly before it is used. In many cases September is the sea- son when regular work is least pressing and the poultryman may do the building himself or assist considerably in constructing or re- constructing the poultry house. The present high prices of lumber compel the practical man to figure as closely as possible on the cost of labor. It is my purpose in this article to describe a hen house which I built last fall in the eastern part of Massachusetts. It gave me great satisfaction last winter and several of its features are worthy of consideration by any one who contemplates the construction of a poultry house. Any poultryman who builds a new house for his fowls should first give the matter a large amount of thought. The building when finished and furnished ought to be an expression of the man's ideas of the fitness of things. It should be complete, comfortable and convenient, — a suitable home for the hens. If all places all poultrymen, all fowls and all surrounding conditions were alike it might be worth while to try to discover the "best" hen house and then all copy it. When these items are all different, as they are, then each case becomes a special problem and the result worked out should express the individuality of the poultryman. He must put things together so that they fit the particular conditions all right. An adapted, economical and attractive structure should prove the excellent quality of the poultryman's head-work. LOCATION. It is one of the pleasant points of this old world of ours that no two sites are alike. The poultryman ought to know all about his location before he plans his hen house. He should summer and winter on the ground, if possible, before building much. Then he should make a study of himself, his poultry purpose and his fowls in relation to the proposed structure. We will suppose that he has chosen a location where the land is well drained and dry under foot. He has had the foresight to se- 53 cure a place where a stream or spring will supply abundant fresh water by gravitation to his poultry houses and yards. It is not fun to lug water from one to three times a day three hundred and sixty-flve or six times in a year even to a small pen of pure birds and when flocks are increased it ia certainly desirable to have water running rather than humans walking to quench the thirst of the fowls. Sunny southern slopes and sandy soil are nice for poultry but many fine flocks are raised and kept successfully where these are not available. Shade for the hot sultry summer days is of course essential. SELECTING THE SITE. In choosing the spot for a hen house bear in mind the eleva- tion, drainage, prevailing winds, convenience, freedom from ene- mies, economy and harmony. In northern localities a gentle southerly slope is usually pre- ferred. The site must be free from the dangers of surface flowage and stagnant water. Get the site that is dry naturally if possible or make it dry by draining if necessary. The site should naturally or artificially have the land sloping away from the floor level of the house on all sides so that no water can get into or under the house after it is built. Bear in mind the weather conditions the year around and select the site that will allow the most comfort for the fowls, 1. e., warmth in winter and coolness in summer. Too many hen houses are ovens in hot weather and bake the hens alive, with feathers on. Nearness to the dwelling place of the poultryman is very de- sirable if there is danger of loss because of enemies or thieves. I had available a piece of land having a decided slope to the south and only a few rods from my dwelling. The soil, though a clayey loam, was well drained naturally and covered with a good grass turf. The surface of the ground pitched slightly to the east so I did not have a level place east and west to build on. How- ever, this incline helped to carry off the water that tended to enter the house from the north side. The land rising to the north gave excellent protection from the prevailing winds in winter. The spot was not perfectly protected from the northwest winds but a belt of double row of white pines, arborvitae, Norway spruce or other evergreen would complete the protection if planted to the west of the house. Apple trees near the site of the proposed house promised am- ple shade in hot weather. MATERIALS OF CONSTRUCTION. What to build of is a hard question In these days because of 54 the almost prohibitive price of lumber. Concrete (one part good hydraulic cement and five parts of sharp sand and gravel) may In some cases be best, if the house is to be permanent and to stay on the site where it is built. If built of concrete blocks it might be possible to move the structure^ I intend to see what can be done in building a structure out of poles, cornstalks, straw and poultry netting in a climate some- what milder than that of Massachusetts. In localities where straw is abundant and cheap it certainly may be used to construct thatched quarters for fowls which shall be comfortable in winter and summer. Thousands upon thousands of people in Asia and Europe dwell in thatched houses. These simple structures are dry, warm in winter, cool in summer, well ventilated, economical of con- struction and may be made attractive in appearance. However, lumber still remains the most available and suitable material for building in the majority of localities and especially if the houses are to be made removable or portable. Dr. Brigluun't Hundred DolUr PaglliT Ho»4 The house which I built last fall was constructed of lumber and covered top and sides with tar-paper. The carpenter estimated the cost at $135.00. He reckoned the labor at one-third the cost of the materials. It was to be 40x12 feet, have four pens and to ac- commodate one hundred and twenty pullets, sixty White Leghorns, thirty White Wyandottes, thirty R. I. Reds. Although I intended to sell the place, I concluded to build because 1 needed room for some nice pullets that 1 had raised and did not have house room for and I thought a new hen house would help sell the property. I told the carpenter it must be built for $100,000. I cut out several features in order to reduce the cost. I also agreed to furnish and place the posts for the sills to rest upon. He agreed finally to go ahead and build the house for an even $100.00. Stone walls are plentiful in New England and if I had done as first planned I should have dug out two feet depth of soil, filled in with stone, levelled off and made a concrete floor the whole length of the house. Having decided not to do this, holes were dug 2^4 55 to 3 feet deep and 5 feet apart for the posts which were to support the sills. In the bottoms of the holes were placed several Inches- of small stones. Six inches space around the posts set In these holes was also filled In with cobble stones. If the subsoil held water it would be desirable to connect the bottoms of the post holes- by a stone or tile drain to take away any inflow of water and riot let It stagnate around the posts to hasten their decay. The foundation posts were 6 to 10 Inches In diameter, chestnut and maple, and sawed ofE at a level for the sills of the house to- rest upon. The sills were of 2x4 inches, two deep, breaking joints: This makes a sill 4x4 inches and amply strong enough to support 56 itHis -houge. The plates were of 2x4 inches. The uprights and raft- ers were 2 x4 inches, placed four feet apart. The sides and roof were of straight-edge 1 inch hemlocli boards laid horizontally, close together. The roof, sides and ends were covered with best quality three-ply tar paper, run up the front, over the roof and down the back from sill to sill. The edges of the tar paper were lapped three inches, sealed with roofing cement and se- <;ured by brads having broad flat heads. This roofing if painted once a year will last several years and can then be covered with shingles. It' should be painted with tar paint once a year, or pitch paint may be used, and further the freshly laid paint may be strewn with fine gravel or sharp sand, in which case shingling may be de- layed for a considerable length of time. Painting must, however, be ■done before the weather has a chance to penetrate and spoil the paper. If the building is in a place where the sun beats down fiercely ■on the black surface, the roofing paper may be sprayed with lime ■wash and the white surface will then absorb less and reflect more of the heat rays of "Old Sol." LIGHTING, VENTILATING, ETC. The house is divided into four pens, each 10x12 feet and each ipen has a south window. The two end pens have each a second 'Window — the east end to catch the first rays of the rising sun, the west end to receive the last rays of the setting sun in winter. Bach ■window is of two sashes and each sash has six lights of glass 9x12 inches. Some men may prefer to cover the window spaces half or wholly with cotton cloth. The cold air chicken cranks may ■choose to use only wire netting for the windows summer and win- iter. Entrance to the house is by a door 6x3 feet, in the west end •next to the south or front side of the house. If harsh winds from the west prevail in winter, the door may be placed on the south -side next to the west end or east according to convenience. Ventilation in winter is mainly effected by means of a straw loft, the ventilators (one foot square), one in each end of the loft ibeing kept continuously open, except possibly in blizzard weather •when the one to windward may be partially or completely closed. The ventilators of the house built nearly a year ago have not once been closed and the plan has furnished pure air continuously to iperfection. THE STRAW LOFT. The south front of the house is six feet from sill to plate and ithe back of the building three feet high. The roof is double pitch, 57 •with the peak nine feet above the level of the sills and three feet back from the front of the house. On the level of the plates a ceil- ing is made of 3x1 inch boards laid flat, three inches apart, length- wise of the building. In four places the slats were arranged to form trap doors, so that when opened, dry straw or hay could be readily pushed up into the lott space. A layer of straw a foot or more deep resting on the lattice ceiling, served to sift the breezes that blew through the loft from end to end, so that the fresh air perco- lated down into the pens below without creating dangerous drafts or causing the fowls to catch cold. The foul air of the house moved steadily out through the loft and any surplus moisture was ab- sorbed by the dry straw or sent along with the air out of the venti- lators. No wet walls, white frost or icy chilliness were found in this house to remind one of a cold storage plant or a roup factory. A dry, pure, tempered atmosphere constantly surrounded the fowls during their waiting and sleeping hours. Entering the house any morning one was never oppressed with foul air or disgusting odors. THE ROOSTING PLACES. I had planned at first to sheath the back of the pens and up the rafters to the ceiling which formed the floor of the straw loft. This was not found to be necessary last winter. The low roof to the rear helped to keep the fowls warm at night. A roosting platform 3 feet wide, of boards, planed smooth on the upper surface, ex- tended the length of the house, next to the back. Over this ran two lines of perches, those for each pen resting on cross pieces hinged to the back studding of the house. The perches could thus be raised in front and fastened up to the rafters when the platforms were cleaned off once a week. The perches were made of 2x3 inch joists planed smooth, laid broadside down and upper corners round- ed off. A supply of dry garden loam was kept at hand to throw daily upon the droppings. THE PEN PARTITIONS. Three partitions divided the house into four equal pens or rooms 10x12 feet. The lower two feet of each partition was of boards. Above these to the ceiling was 2 inch mesh poultry net- ting. A frame, 3x6 feet, covered with wire netting and placed in each partition, next to the front side of the house, formed the door between each two adjoining pens. These doors were hung on com- mon strap hinges and a spiral spring held them ahnt. They might perhaps, better have been hung on hinges allowing them to swing both ways. In two partitions there were cut places for a pail of water to stand on a shelf high enough so that litter would not be scratched 58 into the drinking liquid. The fowls in two adjoining pens thus drank from one pall. FEED TROUGHS, NESTS, HOPPERS. Common V-shaped troughs answered for feeding when a mash was used as was the case when we wished to utilize skim milk, middlings and finely ground beef scraps with cleanliness and with- out waste. For holding supplies of grit, crushed oyster shells, granulated charcoal and coarse ground beef scraps, compartment hoppers made of thin boards or galvanized iron are suitable. I like to have the feeding box of the hopper as deep as three or four inches so that the birds will not throw out the feeds. For nests, I used empty orange boxes or egg crates. These boxes are usually to be obtained free for the asking of fruit deal- ers and grocers. They come with a convenient partition so that each box forms two nice nests. It is not difficult to lay one on its side, nail a strip of board about four inches wide near the floor side, put in a little cut straw or soft hay and add a couple of china eggs. If you please you can use trap nests if you have determined to know the birds' egg records. PROFITABLE PULLETS. The hen house is completed. Let it dry out thoroughly. Put in some sand and gravel if convenient for the fowls to scratch in during the winter months. Throw in some dry straw or hay for the birds to play with. All being ready, dry and comfortable, put in those fine pullets and push them for profit and pleasure. CHAPTER X. Happy is the hen that may roam at will on farm range, and happy the owner that can let her do so. It may be that the su- burban or village fowl which goes scratching in her owner's or a neighbor's garden for stolen sweets^ is happier than her rural relative running free and capturing grubs and grasshoppers on the farm, but more disagreeable consequences are likely to follow the feasts of the, former than of the latter. Surprise, disgust, disap- pointment, anger, qauirels, lawsuits, may result from the straying of a hen in forbidden places. All these unpleasant results may be avoided by using poultiy fences. Hen happiness may incur human misery in city, town or coun- try. We bipeds, whether feathered or unfeathered, can all have 59 room enough out in the country, but even there, when we try to, raise or keep chickens near the dwelling house, fences are often useful to prevent the birds becoming too familiar. At the same time we can make the yards very large and perhaps deceive the prisoners into supposing that they have room enough and to spare. Much depends on the early training and the habits of the chicks. The birds of the farm usually enjoy what they have become ac- customed to. The manufacturers of modern wire poultry fencing have con- tributed to the peace of the people in both city and country and might have proved themselves yet greater public benefactors had they always made their wire of durable steel or iron and covered the same with genuine good galvanizing. ERECTING FENCES. Whether one uses poultry fencing to bound the hen yards, to enclose and protect the garden, or to surround the homestead, he wishes it to be an effective bird barrier. A fence that lets the chickens through Is triply troublesome. It costs money, it permits the chickens to pass one way and keeps the creature on the wrong side. At least it seems settled that the chicken will never, no never, find its way back the way it came through. Chickens that win through a fence are like "rivers that to the ocean run." They never return the way they came, and if they come back at all it is by the cloud route or in some equally miraculous manner. Lattice work made of lath or narrow thin board strips nailed to a frame work of scantling, makes a tasty fence, especially if vines can be run over it. Instead of placing the strips vertically they may be laid at an angle, perhaps halfway between vertical and horizontal. For very effective screening another layer of strips is laid on at any desired angle over the first strips. Common wire netting, one inch mesh for chickens, two inch mesh for bantams, three inch mesh for large and clumsy fowls, may be made to answer fairly well for fencing. The posts for such a fence are best placed rather near together (eight or ten feet apart) and even then the poultry netting is liable to become warped or to sag. Frequently the bottom of such fence is made of boards to the height of one or two feet. Above the boarding is placed the wire netting to the height of four to eight feet above the ground, according to the power and propensity of the birds for flying or climbing over the top. FINE FENCES FOR FOWLS. Special woven wire fencing made with meshes small at and near the bottom and larger towards the top is better than the com- mon wire netting for poultry fences. It requires fewer posts. Is 60 more easily put up, more effective in keeping the fowls within bounds and more attractive — or less unattractive — in appearance. Posts for permanent poultry fences may be of cedar, chestnut, black locust or such trees, in any locality, as will stand strong and last for a long period ot years. Here in a section of Maryland I find the Paulonlu, a Japanese tree, has proved to be very quick of growth, wonderfully tough ahd durable and evidently suited for use in building permanent fences. It deserves to be planted exten- sively. Iron piping and concrete shafts are coming into .use for posts in some localities where timber of the right kind is wanting or scarce and very high priced. Wooden posts six to ten inches in diameter are large enougi. If ten or more inches in diameter they may be split or sawed in halves. Smaller posts are sometimes used intermediately, if the fence is straight and has extra large braced posts at the ends. The wearing and weakening of wood posts comes mainly at the ground where air and water, dryness and wetness, heat and cold alternating frequently are promoting decay. Charring the lower part of the post with fire or coating with hot tar will help to pre- serve the post and extend its period of usefulness in the fence line. Posts for the woven wire fencing are placed about a rod apart. A post hole digger is the best tool for excavating the holes if the ground is not too hard or stony. The next best tool for the purpose is a long handled, round pointed shovel. An iron bar is sometimes used to loosen the soil for the shovel. POSTS TO STAND PAT. In cold climates some soils, containing considerable clay, may heave and fall with alternate freezing and thawing. Posts set in snch soils should have their bottom ends below the depth of freez- ing. If cobble stones, broken bricks, coarse gravel or similar ma- terials are at hand they may be filled in several inches deep at the bottom of the holes for the posts to rest upon. If there is no dan- ger of heaving by freezing and thawing set the posts deep enough (three feet usually) to stand securely. If there is a great strain on the end posts each may be braced by a pole or post extending from near its top into the ground in line with the fence and against the pull of the wires. A corner post may be braced on two sides in line with the fencing. If posts and poles are plentiful an extra post may be set six or eight feet from an end post and a pole may then run from the top or near the top of the end post to the extra post at the ground. This will most effectivefly ibrace the end post. The height of the posts above ground corresponds with the width of the wire fencing selected. The tops of the posts should be 61 sawed ofE slanting to shed rain water. After the posts are placed in the holes they should be plumbed to make sure that they stand vertically erect, and be held so until soil is filled in around them to keep them in position. Sand or sandy loam is better than clay to use in contact with the posts. Tramp the soil down hard as It Is filled in. If water can be run into the soil as it is filed in it wIH help settle the soil easily, quickly, solidly and permanently Into place about the posts. STRETCHING THE STRANDS. Two men working together can do rapid work attaching the woven wire to the posts. The manufacturers usually furnish printed directions for putting up the fence and also sell or loan a fence stretcher which is a very useful tool in doing the work. The wires are attached at one end to an end post, the coil of fencing unrolled along the fence line, the fence stretcher fastened to the woven wire and to a post in the line, the wire drawn into position taut against the posts, and wire staples driven over tbe top, bottom and intermediate horizontal wires into successive posts. If canines or pestiferous persons are liable to attempt scaling the fence, one or two lines of barbed wire may be run along aboye the top wire of the woven fence, the posts being left high enougb for attaching the same. GATE AND GATEWAYS. Common gates of lumber and wire netting may be easily made after the simple plan of partition doors of the hen house descril>ed on a previous page. It is wise to use strong hinges on all g^tes and to hang them to large, firmly set posts. Gates that sag or stick or swing open when they should stay shut are abominations. Iron gates to match the various kinds of woven wire fences are made and sold by the fence manufacturers, but are quite expen- sive. A neighbor of mine, who is considerable of a mechanic, has made his gate frames of iron piping and covered these with woven wire fencing. The piping is from 1-2 inches to 2 Inches in diameter according to the size of the gate. ADDED ATTRACTIVENESS. If the fence when completed is not as pleasing to look upon as it should be or If it fails to harmonize with Its surroundings, cover or hide It, at least partially, by means of green foliage and flowers. It may take time, skill and patience to get vines growing upon the wires satisfactorily, but it is well worth trying in special cases. Spade up the soil along the fence, enriching it if necessary with poultry manure, wood ashes or other fertilizer. Plant rambler 62 roses, ampelopsls or grape vines at the posts. Annual climbers like morning glory, flowering cucumber, etc., planted between the posts may help the first year. Sometimes very pretty effects are produced by planting along just outside the fence, rows of sun- flower, canna, salvia, etc. Even Indian corn, sorghum, kafir com, hemp, flax, etc., will help hide the fence for a season. Hoping these homely hints will prove helpful or suggestive to some of the readers of this publication, I will turn to another phase of the poultryman's problem. WATER WORKS. Fresh water, plenty of it, is so important to poultry and it is so desirable to have it brought in constant flow, that I will tell of a simple plan that I have lately "discovered." In searching for a farm in Maryland I visited one on which an expensive waterwheel was continually pumping cool, pure spring water up a high hill- side to the dwelling house. On another farm nearby another wheel was doing similar duty. In each case a small stream, or "branch" as it is tenned here, supplied the water power. In one case near the foot of a steep slope a perennial spring had bubbled up for years at the base of a great tree. After a little digging at the spring, a section of large glazed pipe was sunk down vertically to form a basin or reservoir, and this was capped so that it could be covered with soil and be underground. A pipe leads the spring water from this basin to the wheel-pit, near by. This pit is dug a little deeper than the basin of the spring and walled up .on its four sides with stone. The pit is 6 feet deep, 5 feet 6 inches wide on the east and west, and 6 feet 2 Inches wide on the north and south, inside measure. The overshot water-wheel was made by taking the balance wheel of an old tread horse power and tacking pieces of tin to the rim so as to form cups for catching the falling water conducted to it from the stream near by. QENTLE DAMMING. The brook which furnishes the power was harnessed by going upstream a short distance and making a slight dam across it. The bed of the stream was dug out somewhat and logs about ten feet long laid side by side lengthwise of the stream in its bed. Then a couple of logs were laid one on the other across over the bed of logs and extending into the banks on either side. Silt was thrown against the cross logs on the upstream side and cobble stones were dumped on the logs below the dam. The water flowing over the dam falls upon the cobble stones and percolates through to the logs 63 in the bed of the stream. Even in flood times there is no washing away of the bed of the brook. A few feet baclt of the dam, at the side of the basin formed by it, was laid the head of the line of pipe for conducting water to the waterwheel. This conduit is of 3 inch brown glazed pipe laid about a foot below the surface of the ground. The 2 foot lengths of pipe were sealed at the joints by hydraulic cement. (This is easily made by mixing dry Portland cement one part to three parts of sharp, clean sand, then mixing with water to make a suitable mor- tar.) SETTLING THE SILT. The pipe runs from the stream eight feet to and into a silt box, which is 6 feet long, 19 inches deep, 14 inches wide, made of planks between one and two inches thick. The pipe enters the end of the box, five inches above the bottom of the same. Any silt brought from the stream by the water flowing through the pipe, drops to the bottom of the box. At the other end of the long, narrow silt box the pipe makes connections for carrying on the clear water and this pipe continues 96 feet to the wheel pit. The grade is gen- tle but sufficient to cause the water to flow easily to the pit, where the pipe enters the side of a board trough which conducts the water around the wheel and empties it into the cups on its rim. The pipe enters the trough midway of the south side of the pit. This trough is five inches deep and eight inches wide. The water flows in it two inches deep. The trough is made of inch boards, runs near the top of the pit 3 1-4 feet to the S. E. corner where a notch cut in the side of the trough allows any surplus water to all get out of the trough and into the pit. The trough continues level along the east eide of the pit, turns the N. E. corner and runs 18 inches along the north side to deliver its water to the wheel, which is set in a strong plank framework. As soon as several of the rim cups of the wheel fill with water, the wheel begins to turn and its axle carries the crank, which drives the piston of the pump. A continuous suffi- cient flow of water keeps the wheel constantly turning and pump- ing. If, however, the water supply is diminished, sufficient cups are filled to make the wheel turn again. This is one of the fine points of the apparatus, it does not refuse to work a part of the time if there is not water power sufficient to keep it turning con- stantly. A very small supply of water causes such a wheel to tufn and pump intermittently and usually sufficiently. If the CQnditions permit of using a wheel of larger size, it will Increase the-effiec- tiveness of a given amount of water power for pumping. ■ The water wheel in this case is 2 feet 3 inches from Tim ,to center of axle, has a wooden rim 5 inches wide and 3 inches tJ^k reinforced on the under side by a rim of iron into which entjer the outer ends of the four wooden spokes. Tlie tin cups are 4 1-2 inches wide, 3 inches from outer edge direct to rim of wheel and 5 1-2 inches from outer endge to bend where attached to rim. These tin pieces are tacked upon the rim of the wheel in close suc- cession. THE PUMP AND CONNECTIONS. The pump is home made of regular fittings and is shown with connections in detail by diagram illustration herewith. The pipe from the spring is 3-4 inches and of iron. It has an open T coupling, with the opening on the upper side to allow sur- plus water from the spring to overflow into the pit. A section of 3-4 inches rubber hose connects this coupling with the pump and there is fall enough to carry the spring water to the pump. The- overflow water and that discharged by the wheel is conducted away by a line of 3 inch glazed pipe sixty feet in length leading from the- bottom of the pit to the stream lower down. The spring water is forced up to an elevation of sixty-five feet through a 1-2 inch lead pipe several hundred feet in length. The pit containing the water wheel, force pump, connections^ etc,, is covered by a neat A roof, provided with a door in its south end. I realize that all these details are rather dry considering the- 65 wetness of the topic, but they may help some poultryman to quench the thirstlness of himself and his fowls in In very easy, economical way if his conditions allow of the use of a water wheel to do the work. In some cases a spring may have sufficient flow of water to supply the power for running the wheel as well as for the pump. The outfit which I have described was mostly home-made and the actual cash outlay very small. Any practical plan that supplies good water easily and abund- antly is worthy of consideration especially if its adoption will do away with the laborious and everlasting lugging of water pails. CHAPTER XI. FEEDING THE FOWLS. Occasionally one sees in a poultry paper or agricultural pe- riodical, a communication from a disbeliever in balanced rations. The most plausible claim for doubting the usefulness of scientific, standard rations, is that each individual hen is different from every other hen in the flock and no ration can be balanced to suit the needs of all the eaters. It would be rather nice, from the standpoint of the poultry idealist, if we could set a separate table for each fowl, but it is doubtful if the creatures would really appreciate such an appeal to their individualities. There is something well worth considering, however, in the idea of the decided differences in the members of a flock and thanks to the hopper system, of dry feeding, we can arrange readily for each fowl to dine a la carte and thus obtain the right feed stuffs in correct proportions to suit its individual condition, needs and pur- poses. Another very plausible argument against balanced rations comes from the poultryman who claims to have tested the thing in practice and reasons from experience. There is wonderful potency in these two words "practice" and "experience." They command attention and are very convincing. Now this practical poultryman brings proof positive that he has fed his fowls on corn alone and they have done better than on any other ration he has ever tried. His neighbors' flocks have not done half as well. His hens keep on laying when all the other hens in the country, though fed according to chemists' formulas, produce naught but a famine. KING ZBA AND QUEEN LTJCBRN. This is a persuasive point too, because in America "Corn is 66 King." This year's bumper crop of the crowned cereal certainly clinches the kingship of Zea Mays. A good king, however, should have a mate. Alfalfa should be his queen at least when it comes to the realms of poultry rations. His majesty's starchiness is splendidly by her peculiar protein properties. A flock of fowls, farm raised, healthy, in good flesh and kept in comfortable condition, can, sometimes, be fed for months on corn and do well. They draw on resources stored up in the past. Con- tinue this practice long enough and disaster is quite sure to result. When I was in the West last winter I heard of farmers who fed their Plymouth Rock hens, corn without stint and later threw the big, plump, but lifelesss birds into wagons and scattered the car- casses by scores along the road-side to save funeral expenses. The old hens had dropped dead of apoplexy due to over fatness. Corn consists mainly of starch but contains some protein and some mineral matter, so it is not entirely unbalanced. It has, in fact, a nutritive ration of 1:10, that is one part of protein (flesh- forming, muscle-making, white-of-egg kind of food) to ten parts of starchy (heat-producing, fattening) food. It is right and good for fattening fowls but not correct for growing chickens or laying hens. CHICK CULTURIST'S CREED. I believe it is practical and sensible as well as scientific, to balance the rations for our broods of chicks and flocks of fowls ac- cording to their average needs, considering the season, their age, then condition, and the special product, if any, which the birds are called upon to make, besides maintaining their body-temperature and keeping up repairs. Here let me introduce some pertinent practical proofs from my own experience. Several years ago a series of experiments were undertaken at the Rhode Island Experiment Station, to ascrtain the effects of balanced and unbalanced rations feed to broods of little chicks. Two hundred and nineteen chicks were hatched in incuba- tors at a given time and under similar conditions, so far as possi- ble. These chicks were separated into four groups and placed in four similar brooders. All the surrounding conditions and treat- ment were kept alike so far as they could be, except the rations. The experiment continued thirty days. The experiment was in charge of Dr. George W. Field, a train- ed biologist, who gave very careful personal attention to the de- tails and made searching post-mortem examinations of all chicks that died. Pen A (52 chicks) received a complete ration of suitable food, properly balanced. Their daily diet consisted of equal parts of in- fertile eggs, liver and grains (cracked corn, wheat and barley), 67 boiled together and chopped fine. Oatsprouts and sliced onions sup- plied abundant green food. The chicks were healthy, thrifty and showed no signs of disordered digestion. Two of the fifty-two chicks died, a mortality of 3.9 per cent but not from bowel trouble. Pen B (63) chicks was fed the grains and green food as in Pen A, but all animal food was left out. Six chicks died of which four had digestive disorders. This was a mortality of 9.5 per cent, with 75 per cent bowel trouble. Pen C (58 chicks; was fed the grains only. No animal food was given them. Nineteen of the fifty-eight chicks died, a mor- tality of 32.7 per cent, of which 76.5 per cent showed digestive dis- order. Pen L) (46 chicks) received a ration consisting simply of egg, liver and green food. No grains were fed. Of the forty-six chicks, twenty-nine died, a mortality of 63.7 per cent and 85.8 per cent showed digestive disorders, mostly decided diarrhoea. Is any further proof needed of the futility of feeding un- balanced rations? It is not alone a matter of living or dying, however. We wish the chicks not only to live but to thrive and grow. SEEING IS BELIEVING. I wish every reader of this booklet could have watched daily the chicks of these four groups. The chicks of Pen A, fed on a balanced ration, were lusty, lively fellows and grew rapidly. At the end of the month these chicks showed the highest average weight. We kept tract of all the chicks through the season fol- lowing the experiment and the chicks of Pen A kept the lead dur- ing the remainder of the growing season. In short these chicks un- der the same care as those of the other pens but fed a balanced ration, lived, thrived, were healthy, grew fast and matured early into marketable, profitable fowls. Pen D fed on animal food and green food, tried hard to keep up with pen A but their diet was too strong for them. Those chicks of Pen D, which survived showed average weights next to those of Pen A. Their heavy death rate was evidently caused by the lack of grain (starchy) food. One of the amusing as well as instructive exhibits of the ex- periment was the daily rush of the chicks in Pen A, B and C for green food and the longing looks of the poor fellows in Pen C when "the other chicks were scrambling for the shreds of sliced onions thrown to them by handfuls. In this connection it may be well to state that feeding experi- ments carried on at the New York (Geneva) State Agricultural Ex- j)eriment Station have likewise proved the necessity of balancing the rations for" growing chicks. These experiments also showed 68 emphatically the need of including sufficient mineral or ash consti- tuents in the rations. THE WHY AND WHEEBPORE. Why are rations eaten by the birds? Not solely for the sake^ of swallowing corn, meat or fresh-cut bone however appetizing these- may be. The birds eat to secure supplies of nutriments for re- plenishing and renewing the blood. The nutrients are the digesti- ble, useful parts of the corn, meat, bone and other feed-stuffs, the parts of which blood is made and which the blood carries to dif- ferent parts of the body for the building up and repairing of brains, nerves, muscles, bones, for the making of eggs, and feathers, for the storing up of fat, etc. The nutrients, these valuable parts of the food, have names- which are not difficult to understand or hard to remember. The grains (corn, wheat, oats, barley, etc.,) consist mainly of the nutrient Starch, which is utilized by the fowl to keep up its body heat to about 105 degrees F. whatever the weather or temperature outside of its covering of feathers. When there is more starch eaten than is needed to keep up the bird's body heat, it is stored in the body in the form of fat. Pat is another nutrient and fats in the food are considered to be two and one-fourth times as valuable as starch and sugar for keeping up body heat. Beef-scraps, blood-meal, powdered buttermilk and similar food- stuffs are valuable chieflj; for the Protein nutrients which these con- tain. This is the costly part of the ration. The nutrients of the Pro- tein group are needed for making flesh (muscles), producing eggs,, developing brains, nerves, the nitrogenous parts of bones, etc. If the less expensive starch, sugar and fats are lacking then. Protein nutrients are used to keep up body-heat. Isn't it true,, practical economy to feed as little costly Protein as will suffice and as much comparatively cheap starch, sugar and fat as can be uti- lized? Balancing a ration for a given purpose means feeding the right amounts of starch, sugar, fat for body heating, etc., and the neces- sary quantity of Protein nutrients to make muscles, whites of eggs,. ossein of bones, etc. Also we must include sufficient ash constituents for making the mineral parts of the bones (skeleton,) shells of eggs, etc. Here then are reasons for including in the diet of fowls what. in a former chapter, I termed the four G's: — GRAINS, GRUBS, GRASSES, GRITS. It is because these groups of feed stuffs and ^heir substitutes- CD •contain tne nutrients and convey them to the fowls in forms suited "to their digestive organs. All four groups are required and to supply them in proper pro- portions signifies satisfactory nourishing of the birds, economical poultry production and profitable poultry practice. Scientific standards for the feeding of fowls according to sur- rounding conditions and for a definite purpose have been developed A Likely Place for the Four "G's." after exhaustive feeding experiments, conducted at the New York State Agricultural Experiment Station. Instead of stating the standards which give the requisite per- centages of ash, carbohydrates, protein, etc., let me present this matter in a plain, practical way by restating a ration, which fulfills the requirements of the standard daily ration for laying hens of less than five lbs. weight each, the amount of food sufficient for 100 lbs, live weight of fowls. THE HAMBLEN RATION. 3 lbs. corn; 2 lbs. wheat; 1 lb. beef-scraps (48 per cent protein); 1 lb. cut clover hay. To change this laying ration to a molting ration make it as fol- lows: 3 lbs. com; 2 lbs. wheat; 1-2 lb. beef -scraps; 1-2 lb. linseed (oil) meal; 1 lb. clover hay. These rations each have a nutritive ratio of about one part 70 protein to 4.6 parts ot starch, fat and the like. Fresh drinking water is of course always at hand. Grit in the form of granulated bone, crushed oyster shells, etc., is kept in the hopper continually. I have given these rations here because they meet the demands of the standard in a simple, sensible way and also for the reason that in a previous chapter, by some mistake, this ration was stated wrongly, leaving the oil meal out of the molting ration. I have no desire to persuade poultry-men to figure their fowls' rations to a fineness that shall strictly accord with scientific stand- ards. The ration just given shows what are the proportions of the different groups of food and may serve as a guide. Of the seven pounds of the laying ration, five pounds are grains, one pound is animal food (which is nearly one-half protein) and one pound is clover hay a winter substitute for green grass. It will not derange the ration or the digestion of the hens if, in place of whole corn, use is made of cracked corn, corn meal or even barley, oats or v/heat. The place of wheat may be taken by oats, barley, millet or a mixture of these or other grains (corn, rice, buckwheat, etc.,) with- out putting things altogether out of joint. The beef-scraps may occasionally be omitted and fresh-cut bone, blood-meal, milk or similar nitrogenous feed-stuffs substituted without departing dangerously from the standard requirements. In the molting ration mentioned, hemp seeds or sunflower seeds may play the part of oil-meal. GREEN GROWING GRASS. In summer time on free range or in turf yards, the fowls man- age the green food part of the ration themselves. Whenever and wherever the birds can get fresh growing grass or grain they may eat all they will without danger of over balancing the other parts of their daily diet. In the fall cabbages, in early winter mangold beets are excellent green food. Alfalfa hay and particularly alfalfa leaves make a splendid substitute for clover hay. Alfalfa leaves are rich in Protein and when these are included in the ration the animal food may be somewhat reduced. A sample of alfalfa leaves sent me by a Colorado poultry-student was analyzed at the Massa- chusetts Agricultural Experiment Station and showed between twenty-three and twenty-four per cent of protein or half as much as a good quality of beef-scraps. These leaves were gathered up at or near the stack where they fell from the alfalfa hay as it was being stored. They would have been blown away by the wind and wasted but for the foresight of the thrifty poultryyman who gathered them into sacks which he stored in a dry place. In the winter time his 71 hens were thus provided with the very best of "green food" and considerable saved on the bill for beef-scraps. All the feed stuffs mentioned contain mineral matter, some of them considerable quantities and the use of fresh cut bone, or the supplying of granulated bone for grit, insures an abundance of the phosphates of lime for skeleton construction and repairing. The chemists might possibly find fault with the looseness of the variations I have suggested in substituting feed-stuffs but the hens will figure out the results all right if you give them the op- portunity to balance the nutrients fairly closely. This brings us to the methods of feeding and management which we will consider next. CHAPTER XII. The brightest and best thing in chick culture is that many men and women are thinking about fowls and how to manage them for the best results. Thousands of people are studying and working on poultry problems. The calling is advancing and its progress dur- ing the coming years will show many striking developments. In no part of poultry practice is there such variation as in the methods of feeding and management of the fowls, especially dur- ing the colder season of the year. Consider the differences in location and the attendant condi- tions of climate, surroundings, etc. No two flocks of fowls would be just alike. Even never be duplicates. It would be difficult to find two poultry plants where the sun shone just the same or the weather vanes pointed in the same direction. A decided unlikeness would be found in the crops grown for poultry feeding on the farm lands of the neighborhoods and in the feed stuffs, and prices of the same, sold in the markets of the different localities. FOUNDATION FEEDING FACTORS. Are there, then, any fixed facts or truths that will apply in all cases? The following suggestions may perhaps form some sort of a basis for our operations in developing a system of management. 1. Wholesome, palatable food to keep the fowls in health and replenish the blood. 2. Balanced rations, so that the food shall have the right nourishing power and fit the purpose in view without waste and with certainty of good effect. 3. Shelter for the fowls shall be healthful, not enervating, sav- ing the need of excessive feeding to keep up the body temperature.. 72 4. Sufficient bodily exercise to keep the fowls in healthy and vigorous condition. 5. Direct, effective, economical work in caring for the fowls, the poultryman, however, to have the privilege of spending what extra labor he chooses, on his fowls for personal reasons. 6. Prevention of parasites pestering the fowls and stealing their nourishment. 7. A suitable strain of fowls adapted to the conditions and the purpose of the poultryman. 8. Personal, earnest, interested attention to all thp details of management. Perhaps we can come closer to the actual details of manage- ment if we separate one great class into several groups and con- sider sample methods fitting very well the various conditions. The Family Flock THE CARE OP THE FAMILY FLOCK. In feeding and managing the little flock kept for supplying the owner's home with fresh eggs and chunky chickens, in winter, the conditions and method may be ideal. It is useless to attempt to work out a fine method of manage- ment unless the fowls are worthy and the conditions allow of its application. In the first place, the flock, being small, should consist solely of excellent fowls answering the purpose in view, pure-breed, of course, beautiful as well as useful, birds which one can take pride in owning and managing. Next, their quarters should be ample in size, convenient in lo- 73 cation and arrangement, well equipped with modern appliances, sufficiently ventilated, capable of being easily kept, cleanly and tree from vermin. If the hen house is frosty and damp the remedies are drainage below aiid a straw loft above or cloth windows, securing ample ventilation without dangerous direct draughts. The care of the flock falls to some member of the family, who performs this duty, usually, during spare moments, thus reducing the cost of the labor to the minimum. The food consists, in large part, of the wastes and scraps from the table and household. If there is a kitchen garden, connected with the home, its surplus vegetables may be used to supplement the poultry rations. Keep in mind the proper proportions of the different parts of the dally ration, for example: — for 100 lbs. laying hens of about four lbs. live weight each, seven lbs. of dry food represented by three lbs. corn plus two lbs. wheat for the grain part; one lb. beef scraps for the meat part; one lb. clover hay for the green food part. For 100 lbs. of laying Wyandottes, Rocks or fowls averaging five to eight lbs. live weight, a representative ration would Include three and a half lbs. grains; one-half lb. animal meal plus two-thirds of a lb. fresh cut bone for the meat part; and three-fourths of a lb. fresh young alfalfa for the green food. If potatoes are used they may be reckoned in the grain portion ot the ration because they are mostly composed of starch. They are fattening. Broken egg shells or crushed oyster shells are kept in the hopper. Likewise granulated bone, gravel or other grit. Some poultry-keepers like to keep gran- ulated charcoal in the hopper; some fowls will eat it while others leave it severely alone. It certainly does no harm and may occa- sionally do some good as a corrective of digestive disorder, espe- cially if the feeder follows the old way of giving the hens a wet mash for breakfast, and particularly if any mash is ever left sour in the trough. EARLY VS. LATE RISING. I well remember the remark of a friend, who has been very successful in poultry culture, anent early rising. When asked if it was not a great drawback to have to get up early to feed the hens he smiled broadly and said if the poultryman would do some care- ful brain-work the evening before, he need not hustle out of bed so very early the next morning. His plan was to scatter an excess of small grain in the litter in the afternoon so that the birds would have a plenty for supper and enough left over to keep them busy and happy during the early hours of the morning. Another plan is to scatter wheat, cracked corn and millet in the litter after dark 74 When closing up the hen house £or the night. Whatever plan is adopted a light litter is desirable for the hens to worls in. Wheat, oat or rye straw, hay, forest leaves, buckwheat hulls are all excellent for this purpose. I have found It very agree- able to the fowls as well as to myself to use unthreshed grain for litter. The hens delight to do the threshing and I delight to let them. Wheat, oats, buckwheat and millet used In this way have proved very acceptable to the fowls. Lately I have been using cow pea hay in like manner. If one has not at hand or readily obtain- able, a supply of straw or hay, a dust litter will answer quite well. Perhaps as good a plan as any is to cover the hen house floor with several inches depth of mellow green loam and soil from a field of sandy loam and on top of this throw threshed or unthreshed straw, hay or leaves to the depth of a foot or more. A flock of active hens soon breaks down the straw and a fresh supply may well be put in once a week. The dust and finely broken litter may be used daily for covering and absorbing the droppings. If a platform is placed under the roosts and sprinkled dally with this finely broken litter or with dry loam or land plaster the excrement need not be removed oftener than once a week. By keeping it in barrels or boxes cov- ered from the rains, using plenty of absorbent, enough fertilizer may be saved to sufilciently manure the garden and top-dress the lawn. This plan is hygienic for the hen-house and healthy for the poultryman's purse, saving "a considerable fertilizer bill. TWO OR THREE MEALS PER DAY. The fowls may be fed once, twice or three times daily or the feeding may be a continuous feast and frolic. For breakfast the same grains scattered in the litter are excel- lent. Wheat, oats and millet are well adapted to the plan. Dinner for the family flock may well consist of the table-scraps and remnants of food from the house and garden. If the waste pieces of meat and bones are cut finely enough to be eaten by the hens they will probably furnish sufficient animal food to balance the other parts. If they are not sufficient, beef scraps may be kept in the hopper before the fowl or used in a mash, dry or wet, fed at noon. Leaves of cabbage, turnip, beets, swiss chard, spinach, let- tuce, are good green food. Cabbages for fall feeding, mangolds for early winter, clover or alfalfa hay for late winter are excellent forms of green food substitutes for the same. If a third meal Is fed during the day it should be given before the birds seek the roosts. Indian com is the favorite for supper time and the laying fowls may usually be given all they will eat, especially in the winter time. Laying pullets, trained from hatching time, to take their food in dry form, may be fed by the hopper method, their feast being 75 continually before them. At the same time it is well to scatter some of the small grain in the litter, that is where the frolic comes in. The table-scraps may still be fed at noon or at any convenient time in order that they may be utilized and a saving made o£ the feed-stufCs furnished in the hoppers. If time is precious, the hoppers may be refilled once daily when feeding the noon meal or when gathering the eggs. If time is still more precious, make the feed hoppers large and fill once a week or get a strong man of the family to do this work. If green food is supplied daily and corn, wheat and beef kept in the hopper, the hens may be trusted to balance their own ra- tions. An occasional treat of fresh cut bone will encourage the hens to keep their egg factories in operation. Twice a week is not too often to give them the fresh bone unless it makes your arm ache too badly to comminute the green skeletons. Of course, no poultry feeder will forget to furnish fresh water in full supply and in clean vessels placed where they cannot be fouled by the flock. Pick up a fowl frequently and feel of it to see if it is in good flesh and getting enough to eat. Use trap-nests, it you choose and can spare the time, to detect the layers and to cull the drones and those that are not paying fairly for their board and lodging. Avoid rash and rapid movements when among the birds and get them as tame as possible. Pet them if you are disposed to and can take the time for it. These little things help toward full egg baskets and plumpness of the egg producers. Put your thoughts right on the poultry problems that are sure to arise in caring for your feathered friends. Study their needs and how best to meet them. Keep them com- fortable, but do not let them get lazy. Remember that you are working not only for the welfare of the flock, but of yourself and the dear ones in your home. THE FANCIER'S FEW FOWLS. The keeper of the family flock, if interested and progressive, is very liable to become a fancier. If one is earnest and enthusiastic. It is perfectly natural to wish to improve the flock. As pure-bred fowls are more productive and more profitable than mongrels, he soon banishes the latter and keeps and breeds thoroughbreds. The method of winter feeding and care already detailed will answer nicely for the fancier's fowls. (Green food is very essen- tial. Meat is desirable at least occasionally). The more interested one becomes in his fowls, the more time 76 he is inclined to spend studying ttieir individual characteristics. If desirous of increased egg production in his flock he will keep the egg records of the pullets during the first laying season and select the best for his next year's breeders. If trap-nesting requires more attention than the owner of the flock can supply, he may perhaps enlist some other member of the family in the work and possibly hatch another fancier if the fascination catches. The fancier Is warranted in keeping the poultry diary in which a record is made of everything relating to the birds that will be use- ful for future reference. The possessor of finely bred fowls, usually develops a desire to have his best birds scored according to the Standard. There are three ways of getting the individual scores. First, by exhibiting The Fancier's Few Fowls. the birds at a score card poultry show, where they will be scored by the poultry judge who places the prizes. Second, by hiring a poul- try judge to come and privately score the birds In their home. Third, by learning to score the birds and working out the individual scores one's self. The new, revised and nicely illustrated Standard of Perfection, recently published, is proving a wonderfully helpful guide to fan- ciers who desire to study or score their own fowls. Well developed pullet?, that are to be exhibited in the fall or early winter shows, should not be permitted to lay before being ex- hibited. A pullet just ready to lay is usually in the pink of condi- tion for exhibiting. A training coop for fowls to be exhibited is of 77 the same shape and style as a regular exhibition coop. In it the- bird is daily taught how to pose and show good points so that when he meets the eye of the poultry judge in the show, he will at least be scored for all he is worth. FEEDING SHOW BIRDS. If a bird is up to standard weight and in splendid condition for showing, it should be fed just enough to keep it so and not forced with animal food. Green food in full supply will help to keep the digestive system in order and save the plumage from getting dull. Birds falling below standard weight may be fed an extra quan- tity of food including a little fresh cut bone with the meat on it,, but never enough to surfeit the fowl. Twice a week the ration may include a warm, crumbly mash made of equal parts by weight of ground oats, wheat middlings and pure beef -scraps, adding a sprink- ling of linseed meal (oil meal). Clover or alfalfa leaves are all right as substitutes for green leaves if the latter is lacking as green food. Onions and apples, sliced, are appetizing and add variety to the diet. Whole wheat and oats are good for the dry grain part of the ration. While the birds are on exhibition try no experiments with new feed-stuffs. Do not omit the grit or the green food. Finely cut fresh meat may be offered them in small quantity daily. Water the birds frequently, removing the water cup after each drink so as to- avoid spilling any liquid in the coop or on the floor. Cover the coop at night with thin cotton cloth to keep away direct draughts of air. After the birds are returned home from the show, feed as be- fore exhibiting and fail not to give them green food generously. Regularity and reasonable variety in the feeding of the fowls will help win the blue ribbons. THE FARM FLOCK. A few months since, during a trip to Massachusetts, I was the guest for a day and a night of Mr. George H. Pollard of the Park and Pollard Company, Boston. Mr. Pollard took me to inspect his- new farm near Scituate which is to be partly devoted to poultry keeping. During one of our conversations Mr. Pollard remarked that the poultryman of today must learn to forget all the old way& in chicken culture and blaze a new path in the poultry business. There's a text for a poultry preacher to sermonize upon. With- out doubt there has been too much copying of mossy methods, too- much following in rusty ruts, too great dependence on say-sos, which, oft repeated in poultry papers, have come to be considered settled systems. The new way must cut through the shrubbery and drivet 78 straiglit at success. The system must take account of economy of labor, be simple and direct in all Its details and avoid all doubling on the trail. Two apt illustrations of the new business ways are the open front hen house and the hopper dry feeding plan. Credit is due and should be heartily accorded to Prof. Gowell, Dr. Nottage, Mr. Park and others who has studied and experimented on these matters and have put into practice the results of their investigations. THE OPEN FRONT HEN HOUSE. I have been trying to practice what I preach in poultry pro- gress. My newest hen house, just completed, has its front of two inch mesh wire netting. The building is fifteen feet wide and forty feet long. Its length may be increased at will. The roof is double pitch with the peak nearer the front than the rear. I shall have to confess that this is partly for looks. A single pitch or shed roof takes less lumber. The house is divided by partitions of wire net- ting into pens ten feet wide, because I wish to separate my fowls into several small flocks. If I had been seeking to build a house to hold laying hens, at least expense of material, construction and use, I should have cut loose from the double pitch roof and the parti- tions. My house would have been constructed of the most economi- cal suitable material obtainable, its width would have been fifteen feet unless the lumber to be used would cut to better advantage for a different width of the house. The back of the house should be three feet high and the front six feet or higher if necessary to give the right pitch for the kind of roof covering to be used. The roof to be single pitch, the front of the house enclosed by wire netting except the lower two feet, which are boarded. If there is danger of snow drifting into the front of the house the wire netting may be reenforced by curtains of burlap or cotton cloth let down when occasion requires. The floor is well drained ground, elevated enough to keep out all surface water. My house is covered with asbestite paper held in place by narrow strips of thin board. Roosts in pairs extend along near the back of the house. There are no roosting platforms. Water should be supplied by pipes and be continuously running. If the water must be brought daily it may be kept in pails or foun- tains insterted in front of the house where they can be emptied and filled from the outside of the house. THE DRY FEEDING PLAN. Having described the simple structure that is to shelter the fowls, the system of feeding may be easily explained. The rations are mixed in the feed room and carried by man power or horse power to the hoppers, which are filled at regular and convenient times, daily, weekly or at such intervals of time as the size of the 79 hoppers and the appetites of the fowls determine. Have plenty of litter in the house and daily scatter the small grains of the rations in it. To economize labor to the last degree let the attendant make one trip daily in the afternoon to scatter small grain through the wire netting into the litter to replenish the hoppers if this is done One Style of Dry Feed Hopper. daily, to refill the water fountains unless gravitation is doing the work, and to collect the eggs which should be laid in nests placed on or near the floor at the part of the house and reached by hinged doors opening to the outside along the front of the house. This comes pretty near to being simplicity simplified and economy economized. Let us indulge the hope that many poultry keepers may be induced to study their methods of management to see if they cannot save steps, reduce expenses and sensibly increase their poultry profits. ¥*iWWp THE END. i:»t : » : »»»n»»»: i »»n»»»»»»»«»t«iH»»»»»»»H»n»»»tmmttti Mineola Strain Buff Wyandottcs For a combination of eggs, meat and fine feathers you will find them hard to beat. I know that my Buffs can be depend- ed on to deliver the goods. A pen in your yards will demonstrate the fact to you. Winners of 1st Pen, 3-4 Pullets at MADISON SQUARE GARDEN. Two years in succession. i L. D. HOWELL, | Mineola, N. Y. ti t "»»"»»» » »»»»»»:»»»;»;»5ma»HH»t»«H»»»» i »»»»»t t« 2 r^rairlo ^tate c s Incubators and Brooders Big Hatches of Bi j, Strong Chicks are what have made the Sand Tray Prairie State So Popular. The Prairie State Sand Tray Incubator will hatch more liva- ble chicks than any other incubator. Uni- versal Hovers and Brooders are safe, easily operated, and will raise more chicks Ithan any oth- er method. We carry a full line of both and can fill your or- ders promptly. A Complete Line of Poultry Supplies Humphrey, Stand- ard and Mann Bone Cutters, Root Cut- ters, Feed Cookers, Egg Cases, Egg Boxes for Shipping Eggs for Hatching, Exhi- bition Coops, Shipping Coops, Brood Coops. Nest Eggs that drive the lice off your hens, 50c per doz. "QUALITY KIND" CHICK FOOD is made of selected grains only (new crop com is never used in it), is a properly bal- anced ration absolutely free from grit and every ounce is eaten by the chicks. CHICK MANNA (you all know Chick Manna) for the first ten days, "QUALITY KIND" Chick Food and "QUALITY KIND" Beef Scraps after that and the growth of your chicks will siurprise you. , POULTRY FOODS DOG FOODS OLD GRIST MILL DOG AND PUPPY BREAD, Remedies for all diseases of poultry and dogs. Books by leading authors. In fact, everything needed for the poul- try farm. Send for our illustrated catalogue. Stumpp & Walter Co., I 50 Barclay St., - - New York I James B. N. Fitch J. Douglas Harcomb Valley View Farm Prize Winning Buff, Black and White Wyandottes Single Comb White Leghorns Winners of highest at Madison Square Garden and other large shows. All hardy vigorous farm raised birds that are sure to please you. Eggs and Stock in Season. Try us and get a square deal. We guarantee to please you. 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