LIBRARY 
 
 ANNEX 
 
 2 
 
MEMORIAL POULTRY LIBRARY 
 
 CORNELL 
 UNIVERSITY 
 
 •f/fE Giff oy 
 
 Wm^mimmwmm\mmjm^\m,\mmm\mim^m^ 
 
 ALBERT R. MANN LIBRARY 
 New York State Colleges 
 
 OF 
 
 Agriculture and Home Economics 
 
 AT 
 
 Cornell University 
 
The original of tiiis book is in 
 tine Cornell University Library. 
 
 There are no known copyright restrictions in 
 the United States on the use of the text. 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924003128539 
 
^ ^ 
 
 TOWN LOT 
 POULTRY KEEPING 
 
 New Types of Houses, Appliances, Brooders 
 
 Curing of Diseases, Formulaes for 
 
 Feeding, and a New Chart 
 
 for Line Breeding 
 
 By 
 D. D. CAVANAUGH 
 
 L 
 
 Illustrated by Philip N. Rinc 
 
 A 
 
Copyright igig 
 
 By 
 
 Cavanaugh & Ring 
 
k i < J 
 
 
 Introduction 
 
 THE OPPORTUNITIES for making money by keeping 
 poultry on a town lot, are rhany dhd the enjoyment derived 
 from scientific poultry keepi.hg will mori than repay one 
 for the labor spent. In puttirig this little book before the 
 public, it is the author's aim to give his readers a practical 
 and concise treatise on the keeping 'of' 'pbultry dtl a limited space 
 of ground. 
 
 The profits from a small plant will depend upon the care of 
 the stock and the cost of production. It is not wise to keep any but 
 standard bred poultry and only the best specimens of the breed 
 you select. 
 
 The cost of feeding .the fowls will depend upon the ctirrent 
 prices of grain. I have found that it requires about One hundred 
 pounds of grain food per year besides green foods, etc. to keep a 
 fowl in satisfactory condition. At the prices now charged for 
 mixed grain, one hundred pounds of feed will cost about two dollars. 
 Home prepared foods, after the formulas given in this book will cost 
 25 to 50 per cent. less. But even with the high grain prices ctirrent, 
 one may expect to make a profit of at least three dollars per hen. 
 
 Because of the limited space, a back yard plant should make a 
 specialty of breeding-stock ; permitting the poultry farmer with a 
 larger area to specialize in the production of eggs for commercial 
 use. It is possible, however, for a town lot breeder to incubate and 
 laise to three months of age, several hundred chicks, disposing of 
 them at thai age to some one having more space, to mature. 
 
 Such great birds as the Cochins and Brahmas are attractive 
 fowls and, although there is a limited demand for such large breeds, 
 their eggs will easily fetch three to five dollars a setting. 
 
 The lyCghorns are the money makers for the commercial plant, 
 as they are easy keepers and will pay, if their eggs are even sold as 
 low as fifty cents a setting. It has been said, and this we believe 
 to be a fact, that these fowls will produce fifteen per cent, more 
 eggs on fifteen per cent, less food than the heavy breeds. For fancy 
 breeding, one fowl is as good as another as each has its following 
 and it frequently happens that the poorest laying hen will bring 
 the highest prices as a show bird. 
 
 The I^eghorn family are practically non-setters, while the heavy 
 breeds — Rocks, Wyandottes, Cochins, Brahmas, Reds, etc. — are 
 particularly successful in this branch of the industry, often going 
 broody two or three times a season. During these periods, they lay 
 no eggs. Figure i shows a simple hanging coop for breaking a hen 
 of setting. A heavy breed that are non-setters are the White and 
 Black Minorcas. 
 
4 TOWN LOT POULTRY KEEPING 
 
 About all the heavy breeds, with the exception of the Minorcas, 
 lay a brown shelled egg, while the light weight birds lay the white 
 shelled egg which is so popular in the New York market. 
 
 There is nothing in the claim for any particular breed as winter 
 egg layers, as one fowl will do as well as another if properly fed 
 and cared for. ■\ i\ f 
 
 The Rocks, Wyandottes and Langshans and other l^rge fowls 
 may reasonably be expected to lay at least one hundred and twenty 
 eggs a year; Leghorns, Minorcas, etc., should average about one 
 hundred and forty eggs ; the ornamental breeds about one hundred 
 eggs and the Bantams about one hundred. , 
 
 Using these conservative fig^ 
 ures, the average of twenty-four 
 hens will produce 2880 eggs, in 
 the course of a year. Seventy- 
 five per cent, of these eggs will 
 be laid during the hatching 
 months of January, February, 
 March, April and May, giving the 
 breeder 90 hatching eggs or six 
 settings to each hen, or in the ag- 
 gregate, 144 settings, which at 
 the lowest hatching price, should 
 bring $144.00. 
 
 After the hatching season, 
 the males should be removed 
 from the pen and the unfertile 
 and misshapen eggs may be eat- 
 en by the family or sold through the regular markets. 
 
 To dispose of the hatching eggs during the incubating season is 
 a simple matter as the demand for eggs from good quality stock 
 tar exceeds the demand. A small ad in the local papers or in one of 
 the poultry journals will solve this problem. Or orders may be 
 booked at the poultry shows where the breeder has taken prizes. 
 
 I know of one breeder of Anconas who cleared nearly $4,000 
 in one season on a town lot, and with very little advertising'. An- 
 other, a breeder of Buttercups, had to turn away scores of orders 
 which he could not fill. A breeder of White Orpingtons sold hatch- 
 ing eggs at $10 an egg or $150 for a setting and even at that price 
 he could not satisfy his market. Hatching eggs sell readily for one 
 to fifty dollars per setting of fifteen eggs. There is no doubt that 
 the breeding game is the one for the Town Lotter. 
 
 If one expects to produce eggs for the table only, the profits are 
 smaller, for, necessarily, the market is lowest when the hen has the 
 largest yield, but a Town Lotter should not have any diffiGult3r in 
 disposing of his eggs to his friends and neighbors at an average price 
 of forty cents a dozen, the year round. People are willing ta pay 
 a generous premium for eggs upon whose quality they can abso^ 
 lutely rely. i,'fl 
 
 Fig. 1 — Coop for breaking a 
 hen of setting 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 It is always best to keep the fowls confined during the rains or 
 when the runs are muddy because the hens dirty their eggs with 
 their feet. I have found that a good gravel outside run, raked 
 often, makes the best yard. Sanitary and well drained surroundings 
 mean healthy fowls. 
 
 There are still opportunities for the poultry breeder to make 
 good by establishing new breeds of birds whose characteristics will 
 prove popular. An American fowl similar to the Wyandotte or 
 Plymouth Rock which would lay a white shelled egg would become 
 poi)ular and be in great demand. A fowl similar to the Leghorn, 
 laying a brown shelled egg would make good in some parts of the 
 country. It sometimes occurs that one or more fowls of a flock of 
 Rhode Island Reds will lay distinctly white shelled eggs. Such 
 fowls could be used, by following the line breeding system hereafter 
 described, in establishing a strain of Reds which would lay a white 
 shelled egg. 
 
 The droppings from poultry are valuable as fertilizer for gard- 
 ners, farmers and florists. The best .way to gather the droppings 
 and keep them is to scatter fine sand or dirt over drop boards or 
 under the roosts and remove oftener than once a week. A hand full 
 of one third sand and two thirds droppings, worked over to keep 
 dry, is equal to the same amount of the richest commercial fertilizer 
 or guano. 
 
 In many towns, the keeping of poultry within the city limits 
 is forbidden by law. Such laws were adopted in practically all 
 cases without a single protest. Some cities have laws requiring a 
 license fee from poultry keepers. This is, to my way of thinking, 
 proper, because it enables the city or town officials to enforce sani- 
 tary conditions by penalizing the unsanitary breeder with the loss 
 of his license. 
 
 If the Town Lot poultry keepers would form an association for 
 the purpose of looking after the interests of it's members, the law 
 makers of the city would be more than glad to hear from and con- 
 sider the interests of such a body. Laws that are already in force 
 may be repealed by petitioning the City Council. 
 
 There are very few families who are fussy enough to object to a 
 clean and attractive poultry plant in their midst. Upon investiga- 
 tion, I have found that most of the laws enacted against poultry 
 keeping in cities were the results of complaints from a few cranks 
 who had personal grievances against their neighbors, and not from 
 any nuisances that could be fairly charged to the poultry. 
 
 To keep a rooster from crowing on the roost, place a board in 
 [such a position that he cannot raise his head. A cock cannot crow 
 (unless he is able to stretch his head up into the air. 
 ' The United States Department of Agriculture and the agricult- 
 ural colleges of each state issue free bulletins on poultry keeping 
 'and kindred subjects. A list of these publications may be had by 
 •applying to your congressman or by addressing the Department of 
 Agriculture direct and by applying to your state agricultural college. 
 
Selection of Breeds 
 
 The choice of breed will depend upon the goal you are aiming 
 for. Leghorns and Anconas are light weight ; Rhode Island Reds 
 and Minorcas are medium light weight ; Plymouth Rocks and Wyan- 
 dottes are the medium heavy fowls ; while the Orpingtons, Brahmas 
 and Cochins are heavy breeds. 
 
 One of the most popular strains is the Plymouth Rocks, 
 either the White, Barred or Buff varieties. This breed, if fed and 
 bred right should produce an average of 144 eggs a year, and the 
 young cockerels should attain a weight of six pounds and upwards 
 in eight months. 
 
 The smaller breeds lay as well or even better and require. less 
 feed. The young stock make good broiler or frying chickens, as at 
 three or four months, they will weigh from two to three pounds 
 each. A pleasant back yard plant may be stocked with the orna- 
 mental breeds, such as the Polish, Houdans, Cochins, Bantams, Pit 
 Game Fowls and Pheasants. Such an assortment would be purely a 
 fanciers' plant, still these ornamental fowls can be used for the 
 table and for egg production. 
 
 While experimenting on a city lot in Chicago, I had an oppor- 
 tunity of keeping an accurate account of the cost of feeding several 
 different varieties of poultry. This record was taken in 1904. Sixty 
 fowls were used in the test — thirteen Buff Cochins, thirteen Barred 
 Rocks, seventeen Pit Games and seventeen White Leghorns. One 
 male was included in each flock. 
 
 Space was more cramped than is advisable as each pen of birds 
 had only 48 square feet of roosting and nesting space and 225 square 
 feet of outside run. This undoubtedly lowered the egg production 
 to some extent. 
 
 These fifty-six hens and four males consumed an astonishing 
 amount of food. 
 
 56 Bushels of cracked and whole corn 3136 pounds 
 
 14 bushels of wheat 840 pounds 
 
 15 bushels of oats 480 pounds 
 
 Bran 400 pounds 
 
 Green bone 400 pounds 
 
 400 loaves of stale bread 400 pounds 
 
 Oyster shell and grit '. 50 pounds 
 
 Total 5706 pounds 
 
 Besides this, should be added the weight of 200 heads of green 
 cabbage, which I bought at one cent a head of a market gardener, 
 in the falL The green bone was purchased at the butchers, at fortj 
 
SELECTION OF BREEDS 
 
 cents a hundred pounds and cut with our own green bone cutter. 
 The stale bread was secured from a baker at seventy-five cents a 
 hundred loaves. Table scraps were fed to the fowls each day, which 
 brought the total weight still higher. 
 
 The Leghorns and Games consumed practically the same 
 amount of food. The Plymouth Rocks and the Cochins also came 
 out about even. Not only did the lighter fowl require less food, but 
 it produced more eggs per hen than the Cochins or Rocks. The 
 Leghorns laying 2381 eggs, or 149 to a hen; the Barred Rocks, 1765 
 eggs, or 139 to a hen ; Cochins, 1513 eggs or 126 eggs to a fowl ; while 
 the Bantams produced 120 eggs per bird, or 1950 eggs for the sixteen 
 fowls. This is a total of 7609 eggs for the fifty-six hens. 
 
 M 
 
 Hook for catching fowls 
 
 ' In 1904 I bought grain as follows : Corn at 57c for a bushel of 
 56 pounds, oats at 38c a bushel of 32 pounds, wheat 70c for a bushel 
 of 60 pounds, bran at 7Sc a hundred weight and bone for 40c a 
 hundred. 
 
 My fifty-six hens in nineteen four, therefore, produced eggs at 
 nine cents a dozen — worth on the market, twenty-four cents. The 
 cost of the feed was $57.27, leaving a profit of $94.89. If my entire 
 flock had been Leghorns, my profit would have been much higher. 
 
 I have carried on experiments with Leghorns up to as late as 
 1914 in New England, and I find I can keep a fowl comfortable on a 
 little under one hundred pounds of grain food a year, which averages 
 about one dollar and forty cents a hundred pounds. As compared to 
 one dollar for the same amount in 1904, this is quite an increase, but 
 to offset this, my eggs sell at a very much higher rate. 
 
Fitting Up a Town Lot Plant 
 
 If there are no buildings suitable for housing poultry; coops, 
 sheds, etc. will have to be built. I would suggest building a coop to 
 be occupied by twenty-five or more fowls, depending upon the size 
 of the plot. The low, small coop system, so extensively advertised 
 has never been a success and should not be encouraged. 
 
 There are certain broad rules to follow in planning a town lot 
 plant. A full grown fowl requires four square feet of floor space 
 indoors. Thus a house with a six by eight floor will house twelve 
 birds. An eight by twelve house would be suitable for twenty-four 
 or five birds. Each house should have an outside run at least as 
 large as the floor space. In other words, a plot of ground eight by 
 
 twenty-four feet, or one 
 hundred and ninety-two 
 square feet, will accom- 
 modate twenty-four or 
 five fowls. A plot even 
 larger than this would be 
 more satisfactory. 
 
 The poultry house 
 should be built on well 
 drained ground. If your 
 plot does not have a 
 grade sufficient to drain 
 off the water, the house 
 should be elevated by 
 building it upon a mound 
 of earth and gravel. The 
 windows should face the south, south-east or east to get the maxi- 
 mum amount of sunlight. 
 
 In building, it is best to keep a house as near square as possible, 
 for it not only saves lumber, but, having less surface exposed to the 
 air, is warmer. The rectangle. Figure 2, having a floor space of 
 10x15 feet, and the space with a measurement of 4x38^4 feet, each 
 have the same number of square feet, i. e., 150. Yet the former has 
 a lineal measurement 35 feet less than the latter. If the two houses 
 had six foot walls, it would require 120 less board feet for the 10x15 
 foot house than it does for the one 4x38^^ feet. At the prices now 
 current for lumber, this would amount to about $3.50. Besides this, 
 would have to be reckoned in the extra frame timbers, nails, etc. 
 
 Figure 3 shows the common types of poultry house roofs. 
 These all contain about the same amount of material. Matched 
 boards are the best material to use for roofing. The roof should 
 
 
 
 IJ'XIO-IJOSOFT 
 50 LINEAL FT. 
 
 
 
 
 
 ieJXa' = l50S9.FT. 
 
 ;;i UNEAL rr. 
 
 
 
 
 E^Xe'-lJOSO.FT./EUNEAL FT. 
 
 
 y6j,X^=\f'0 3i)fT: ajUNEAL FT. 
 
 Fig. 2 — Comparison of floor space in houses 
 
FITTING UP A TOWN LOT PLANT 
 
 always slant away from the poultry yard. If the type of house you 
 select does not permit this, provide a drain trough to carry off the 
 Moisture falling from the roof to the yard is undesirable 
 
 t^aAo^ 
 
 Fig. 3— Types of roofs 
 
 ram. „ _ 
 
 as it is likely to breed dis- 
 ease in the fowls. 
 
 For side walls, match- 
 ed boards are best, as 
 single walls of this ma- 
 terial will be sufficient in 
 almost any climate. If, 
 however, second-hand or 
 unmatched lumber is to 
 be used, it will be neces- 
 sary to either batten the 
 cracks with two inch 
 strips of seven-eighths stuff, or to lap one board over two others, 
 making a ij^ inch lap on each board. See illustration Fig. 4. All 
 outside boards should be nailed on perpendicularly and not horizon- 
 tally as is the method in house building. 
 
 I prefer packed earth as a flooring mater- 
 ial, but it is sometimes advisable to use con- 
 crete o r lumber t o exclude varmints. 
 Concrete should be used in brooder houses in 
 preference to lumber. 
 
 To prepare ground for concreting, stake 
 a frame of two inch planking in the ground so 
 that it will project about three inches above 
 the surface. Chestnut is the most lasting 
 wood to place in the ground or for sills. Fill 
 the inside of the frame — with the exception of 
 the dust box — with gravel, sand or cinders, to within one or two 
 inches of the top. See Fig. 5. Level this off and pour in the 
 
 Fig. 4 — Metliod of 
 lapping boards 
 
 Fig. 5 — Concrete Frame 
 
 concrete. Directions for mixing and laying concrete will be sent by 
 any concrete manufacturer. To assure dry floors, the concrete frame 
 should never extend beyond the sills of the house. 
 
lO 
 
 TOWN LOT POULTRY KEEPING 
 
 A space, four feet square should be left open for a dust bath. 
 This size bath is sufScient for any number of fowls up to seventy- 
 five. If a greater number than this are to be housed together, more 
 than one box should be provided. Ashes or fine dust will serve for 
 bathing material and should be changed twice a week in winter and 
 oftener in summer. One good dust bath will kill more lice than 
 three dustings with the best lice powder. Lice powder is sometimes 
 mixed with the dust with very favorable results. 
 
 Sashes should be of the old type, divided into twelve or more, 
 eight by ten inch panes, to the sash. All windows should be either 
 hinged from the top or should slide open and shut from the side. 
 Behind or in front of the glazed sash, depending upon the way it is 
 
 Shed Type Coop for 20 Fowls — If used for a laying coop, the roosts should 
 
 be placed at the rear, 18 inches from the floor. If used for a brood 
 
 coop, the roosts of 1x2'b set 4 to 8 inches from the floor. 
 
 hung, there should be a screened frame to close the opening when 
 the window is open. 
 
 The following are a few rules that will hold good in any system 
 of poultry keeping: 
 
 1. A grown fowl requires at least four square feet of floor 
 space indoors. 
 
 2. At least one foot of roosting space should be provided for 
 each fowl. 
 
 3. There should be five nests to every twelve hens. 
 
 4. While the house must be free from draughts, plenty of light 
 and ventilation should be furnished. 
 
 5. Nests should be placed at the back of the house where they 
 will be partially shaded from the light. 
 
 6. Never roost the fowls near the openings or the windows. 
 
 7. Roosting boards and roosts should be kept clean and the 
 litter frequently changed. 
 
 8. A good supply of clean litter should always be kept on the 
 poultry house floor. 
 
 9. Prevention of disease by cleanliness is better than any cure. 
 
FITTING UP A TOWN LOT PLANT 
 
 II 
 
 10. Fresh drinking water should always be kept before the fowls. 
 
 Figure 6 shows a ^et of 'nests, of seven-eightlis material to be 
 hung of nailed on the wall. The top is slanted' to prevent the fowls 
 from roosting on it. If 
 the nests are hung 
 higher than eighteen n 
 inches from the floor, 
 a roost should b e | 
 placed along the front I 
 for the hens to jump I 
 
 on to enter the nests. 
 
 Feed hoppers, au- 
 tomatic feeders, water 
 fountains and the like, 
 are all very convenient 
 for the back yard plant, 
 
 Fig. 6 — Set of Nests to hang against the wall 
 
 Several easily coijistructed, practical styles 
 of each are shown in the article untjer feeding. The majority of 
 the advertised appliances are to be commended, the only draw back 
 being in the price. Any handy man should have but little trouble in 
 constructing the most elaborate of them. All water fountains, 
 feeding vessels, etc., should be kept clean and disinfected. 
 
 Piano boxes, dry-goods boxes and other packing cases can be 
 converted into very practical and lasting coops. Figure 7 shows two 
 
 Fig. 7 — Piano Box Coops 
 
 coops constructed from piano boxes. The first is the simplest 
 possible type. The upper part of the front is removed and fitted 
 with a window for ventilation and light. This window can be 
 removed and a screen put in its place, or it may be hinged to open 
 back on the cover. In this case the netting is fastened permanently 
 on the inside of the opening. This type coop is very satisfactory 
 for young chicks and can be used as an out-door brooder in con- 
 nection with the Cavanaugh's Fireless Brooder illustrated in Fig. 25. 
 The second illustration in Fig. 7 is a type of coop that can be 
 made from two piano boxes at a cost of four or five dollars. The 
 
12 
 
 TOWN LOT POULTRY KEEPING 
 
 lumber taken from the back of the boxes is used as the material for 
 the extension between the two. This makes a very cheap and handy 
 coop for the fancier and city lot poultry keeper. In winter a burlap 
 curtain is hung in front of the roosts at the back of the coop to keep 
 the fowls warm. 
 
 Figure 8 shows a coop made of a grocery or dry-goods box for 
 a hen and chicks. The size is about 18x24x36 inches. The hen is 
 confined in the coop 
 and the chicks are 
 allowed the free- 
 dom of the garden. 
 At night, the front 
 is closed with a 
 slide of sheet 
 metal which moves 
 between the slats 
 and the box front, 
 as illustrated. 
 
 An ideal town 
 lot plant is shown 
 on the front cover. 
 The plot used is 
 25x25 feet square. 
 A house 8x25 feet 
 
 is built across one end of the plot, (see Fig. 14) and the remainder is 
 fenced off, with six foot No. 19 poultry wire netting, into two yards 
 twelve and a half by seventeen feet. Openings for the fowls are 
 made into each run and the birds are allowed the freedom of the 
 yards alternately. Rye or other quick sprouting grain is sown in 
 the untenanted yard. The grain sprouts quickly and will keep the 
 fowls in excellent condition. All yards should be occasionally spaded 
 up in order to keep them sanitary and prevent disease. The floor of 
 the house should always be covered with a deep litter of oat straw, 
 dry leaves, hay or any other covering of a similar nature. This 
 should be changed frequently to keep the house in a healthy 
 condition. 
 
 8 — Grocery Box Coop 
 
Automatic Release Doors 
 
 Automatic release doors fitted to the openings of your coop will 
 relieve you of the unpleasant job of early rising to let your fowls 
 out in the morning. On the house illustrated in Figure 14 is an 
 Automatic Release Door. The door is closed and fastened at night 
 when all the fowls are at roost. In the morning, the first fowl to 
 waken will naturally make for the light which shines through the 
 window set in the door. The added weight of the fowl, as it steps 
 on the running board, will cause the bolt on the 
 board to pull out from the eye and the window 
 weight will pull the door up out of the opening, 
 thus making a clear passage for the fowls. Fig. 
 9 shows a cross section of the automatic release. 
 
 It sometimes happens that the rope or wire 
 passes through the opening in the wall at such 
 a height that in pulling on the door, it will be 
 straining on a dead center and thus will refuse 
 to operate. This can be overcome by raising 
 the opening through which the sash cord passes. 
 [Sometimes the lack of sufficient height in the 
 house prevents this. In this event, 
 the cord is passed along a stick or 
 arm which obviates all danger of a 
 dead center. If this arm is used it 
 will be necessary to have a slightly 
 heavier weight than in the case 
 where no arm is employed, as the 
 several points of contact provide a 
 stronger resistance to be overcome. 
 Figure 10 shows the outside appear- 
 ance of the automatic door. 
 
 The second door, Fig. 11, is 
 
 operated by the fowls in the same 
 
 manner as the first, but a different 
 
 method of construction is employed 
 
 to gain the same point. The hooks, 
 
 fastening the door, set in- 
 
 y^ to two screw eyes which 
 
 permits their rising and 
 
 releasing the door (which 
 
 drops down instead of 
 
 rising up), as the hen 
 
 steps on the running 
 
 board. If this running 
 
 ^w^*-*T"«v«''*-" 
 
 Fig. 
 
 9 Cross Section of Automatic 
 
 Door Opener 
 
14 
 
 TOWN LOT POULTRY KEEPING 
 
 board extends far enough back into the coop to create a strong 
 enough leverage, only one hook or catch will be needed. 
 
 The advantage of 
 this automatic re- 
 lease is the fact that 
 no weight is requir- 
 ed and consequently 
 no rope is exposed 
 to the winds and 
 rains. There is noth- 
 ing to wear out and 
 very little to need 
 attention. 
 
 Fig. 11 — Automatic Door No. 2 
 
 Fig. 10 — Outside Appearance 
 of Door 
 
Double Deck Houses 
 
 Figures 12 and 13 show two types of two story houses. Figure 
 12 is the usual style house with the scratch floor below and the 
 roosting and nesting floor above. 
 
 Figure 13 illustrates a new type of two story house, originated 
 by myself. In place of having the scratch room below and the 
 roosting room in the second story, the arrangement is just reversed. 
 This plan is greatly to be preferred in those parts of the country 
 where the winters are severe. In the old style house, the open 
 
 is 
 
 Si 
 
 
 Fig. 12 — Double Deck House 
 
 scratch room being under the roosting room, would keep it quite 
 thoroughly chilled and prevent the fowls from having the proper 
 degree of warmth at night. 
 
 The lower floor of the Cavanaugh house is divided into two 
 apartments — a roost room 6x12 feet and a nesting and feed room 
 also 6x12 feet. In this latter room is placed the running board for 
 the fowls to ascend to the floor above. The scratch room is not 
 divided but occupies the entire 12x12 foot space. 
 
 The window in the roost room is 36x36 inches, the door between 
 the nesting and roosting rooms is 30x60 inches, and the trap in the 
 floor of the scratch room is 18x24 inches. The running board is 18 
 inches wide. 
 
 Such a house, although having only 144 square feet to a floor, is 
 large enough to house 50 or 75 grown fowls. 
 
 On page 16 are shown five practical houses for the Town IvOtter. 
 
DOUBLE DECK HOUSES 
 
 17 
 
 Figure i illustrates a common colony coop that may be used for 
 36 layers or 100 growing chicks. I have used this house as one unit 
 in a continuous house. It was the only style of continuous house 
 that ever gave me winter eggs. Windows, 30x36 inches. 
 
 Fig. 13 — Cavanaugh Type Double Decker 
 
 Figure 2 is a two compartment colony laying house. The roost- 
 ing and nesting room is 8x10 feet and the exercise room occupies the 
 rest of the space. 
 
 
 ^J 
 
 B.^l^'-■'*^>ii.''"w,^ 
 
 Fig. 14 — Practical Back Yard House 
 
 
 Figure 3 shows a house very similar to Figure 2, but with the 
 dimensions so changed that it will fit a different size lot. Roosting 
 and nesting room, loxio feet and exercise room 12x10 feet. 
 
 Figure 4, a one room colony house that will make good in any 
 dimate. Windows 32 inches square, to be replaced in summer with 
 frames of netting. The door is backed up with canvas. 
 
 Figure 5. This is a low, shed type house which will produce 
 
i8 
 
 TOWN I.OT POULTRY KEEPING 
 
 winter eggs, it matters not how cold the weather outside. The 
 roosts are set at the rear of the house and are hinged to lift up 
 against the ceiling for ease in cleaning. No drop boards are used. 
 This house can also be converted into three 10x12 breeding pens by 
 building partitions of poultry netting between them. 
 
 Figure 14 is the house used in the plant illustrated on the cover. 
 This is eight by twenty-five feet. The roosts are at the end of the 
 house away from the open space in the wall. A curtain of burlap or 
 canvas is so placed that it can be let down or drawn across in front 
 of the roosts at night if the temperature is low. The floor of the 
 house should be covered with fresh, clean litter and the entire inter- 
 ior — floor, ceiling and walls — thoroughly disinfected frequently. 
 One automatic release door is shown in operation. 
 
 Hatching and Brooding 
 
 There is a great deal of pleasure in raising your own stock from 
 chicks. One may buy several hens and set them, or the artificial 
 method of using incubators and brooders may be resorted to. In 
 some instances, both methods may be combined successfully. 
 
 Perhaps the safest way of starting a town lot plant is by purch- 
 asing a small flock of standard fowls from a responsible dealer. 
 Five setting hens of the American varieties can be purchased for 
 one dollar each and upwards. The Plymouth Rocks, Wyandottes or 
 Rhode Island Reds make good setters and mothers. From thirteen 
 to twenty eggs may be set under a hen. 
 
 After the eggs have been set for ten or fourteen days, they 
 should be candled, and all the vmfertile and non-hatchable eggs 
 
 should be removed 
 and the remaining 
 eggs doubled un- 
 der the necessary 
 hens. The extra 
 fowls are set once 
 more, thereby 
 gaining several 
 days time. 
 
 If the eggs 
 hatch but a low 
 percentage, the 
 chicks may be 
 doubled up, giving 
 eighteen to twen- 
 
 , „, , j.^ ^, , ty chicks to a hen 
 
 to brood. Ihe bereft mothers can then be reset. 
 
 If both incubators and birds are used, this same process can be 
 utilized. The hens and the incubators are set at the same time 
 
 Fig. 15— Gable Coop 
 
HATCHING AND BROODING 
 
 19 
 
 After a proper interval, candle out the unhatchable eggs and place 
 the remainder in the machine for hatching, and reset the hens ; or 
 Ihe hens may be given the job of hatching, and the machine refilled. 
 After hatching, the chicks may be raised with brooders or they may 
 be allowed to run with the fowls. 
 
 Figure 15 shows a gabled roof coop for a hen and brood, made 
 with or without a floor, part of the front is hinged to open. If the 
 coop is floored, it will be necessary to have the back also swing on 
 hinges for convenience in cleaning. A small, portable run can be 
 made to fit against the front of the coop and thus keep the chicks 
 near the hen. 
 
 If one does not wish to take the risk and responsibility of rais- 
 ing their own stock from the shell, baby chicks can be purchased 
 and raised with a brooder. 
 
 A practical egg tester can be made by hanging in a window, a 
 curtain of opaque cloth in which a two inch, round or egg shaped, 
 hole has been cut. The room is darkened and the eggs passed, one 
 at a time before this opening. The light shining through the egg 
 will show whether or not it is fit for incubation. Any incubator 
 manufacturer or the U. S. Department of Agriculture will mail free, 
 upon request, full information regarding the testing and candling of 
 eggs under incubation. 
 
 Several instruments are on the market, which the inventors 
 claim will distinguish the strongly fertiHzed eggs from the non- 
 fertile ones. Experiments are being made at the present time to 
 discover a method for detecting the eggs which will hatch female 
 from those which hatch male chicks, but up to the present date, 
 very little progress has been made. 
 
 Fig. 16 — Arrangement for Six Setting Hens 
 
 Figure 16 shows an arrangement for six setting hens. The 
 nests open on opposite sides of the house, alternately. Each pen 
 has a wire mesh cover which is hinged to open back after the 
 manner of the one shown. The nests are floored but the runs are 
 not. This arrangement can be set in the shade of some tree. The 
 
20 TOWN LOT POULTRY KEEPING 
 
 six fowls will require a space of about six by eleven feet, which as a 
 rule cannot be spared in a building. Food hoppers, mash troughs, 
 water vessels, etc., are placed in each pen. 
 
 EGGS FOR HATCHING 
 
 Eggs should be gathered twice a day and oftener during the 
 winter months, to keep them from freezing. They should be placed 
 in cartons and fillers and stored in a dry room at a temperature of 
 from forty to fifty degrees. The eggs should be turned at least 
 twice a week. If it is inconvenient to do this, they should be placed 
 with the points downward. There is a small air chamber at the 
 large end of the shell, and if the egg stands for long periods on this 
 end, the weight of the yolk will break the skin at this space or 
 hollow, and decomposition will set in. To prevent fertile eggs 
 from hatching, hold each egg against a hot lamp chimney or stove 
 pipe. Grease the exposed side of the egg with lard. 
 
 Only smooth shelled, perfect eggs of average size should be 
 selected for hatching. Malformed eggs are caused by accident, ovi- 
 duct troubles, and over-fat hens, and they should never be used. 
 The following are the most common reasons why eggs do not hatch : 
 
 1. Weak parent stock. 
 
 2. Eggs from diseased stock. 
 
 3. Too few or too many males in the mating pen — im- 
 
 proper fertilization. 
 
 4. Poor selection of eggs. 
 
 5. Shaking the egg, thereby rupturing the blood vessel of 
 
 the embryo chick. 
 
 6. Eggs not turned often enough, causing the embryo to 
 
 stick to the shell. 
 
 7. Improper feeding. 
 
 8. Eggs too old. 
 
 9. Impure air. 
 
 10. Eggs stored in a temperature either too cold or too 
 
 warm. 
 
 11. In incubation — Heat too steady; not enough airing; 
 
 after the first week, eggs should be exposed to the 
 air from thirty to sixty minutes each day. Temper- 
 ature of the room should be about seventy degrees. 
 
 EGGS FOR COMMERCIAL USE 
 
 Eggs from hens not mated to males will keep fresh longer than 
 fertilized eggs. Fowls that are to be used to furnish commercial 
 eggs, do not need to be mated. 
 
 A formula for preserving the freshness of eggs is as follows: 
 To ten quarts of pure water that has been boiled and cooled, add 
 one quart of water glass. Pack the eggs in a large stone jar, pour 
 the solution over them until entirely covered, and store in a cool, 
 
HATCHING AND BROODING 
 
 21 
 
 Fig. 17 — Confinement Coop for Six Hens 
 
 dark place. Water glass is silicate of soda, sold by all druggists. 
 The cost of preserving eggs in water glass is about one cent a 
 dozen. Eggs preserved in this solution, will keep one year or longer, 
 and when removed will keep from one to three weeks according to 
 the outside temperature, but it is best to let them stay in the mix- 
 ture until wanted for use. 
 
 Illustrated in Figure 17 is a confinement coop for six hens. 
 This is one of the dry-goods box coops. If fowls are raised from 
 hatching to ma- 
 turity in such con- 
 finement, they will 
 do well in these 
 small pens. Two 
 such coops in a 
 back yard, each 
 housing six hens, 
 will keep the av- 
 erage family in 
 eggs. The roosts 
 are hinged or set 
 in notches so that 
 they can be re- 
 moved or let down 
 during the day. Table scraps with the addition of a little grain for 
 scratching will be all the food that the fowls will need. Boxes of 
 grit, charcoal, oyster shells and water should be kept where the birds 
 can get at them. While this stunt is nearly always a success for the 
 production of family eggs, it fails when tried out on a large scale 
 because of the labor involved in caring for so many separate units. 
 
 BROODING 
 
 In my experience, covering twenty 
 years, I have used every known system 
 of artificial brooding and it would be im- 
 possible to present my entire knowledge 
 on the subject in the small space alloted 
 to it in this book. 
 
 The primary necessities in artificial 
 brooding are, proper nourishment and a 
 satisfactory brooder. There are a num- 
 ber of systems now in use which are 
 equally successful. Circumstances will 
 determine the proper one for your use. 
 
 The colony stove system is the best and easiest to handle when 
 units of 200 to 1000 chicks are to be housed together. The hot air or 
 hot water brooders are very successful in caring for 25 to 100 chicks. 
 See Figures 21, 22, 23 and 24. The fireless brooder for housing 25 
 to 100 chicks is most satisfactory when it is used in a room that is 
 heated during the day. See Figure 25. When transferring the 
 chicks from the incubator to the brooder, care should be taken not 
 to chill them. Chilling chicks before they are ten days old, is the 
 
 Backview of Confinement 
 Coop 
 
22 TOWN LOT POULTRY KEEPING 
 
 cause of bowel trouble and white diarrhoea and it will prevent the 
 chick from maturing to its proper size. The growth of the feathers 
 will be retarded when the chick is chilled at any time before they 
 have covered the body. See that the brooder is warmed to the 
 proper temperature before transferring the brood, 90 degrees is a 
 comfortable temperature for chicks up to three weeks old. Brood- 
 ers that are so constructed that the birds can escape at will, may be 
 heated up to a hundred degrees, if well ventilated. Openings should 
 be so arranged as to guard against direct draughts. When chicks 
 are uneasy, investigate. A comfortable chick is always quiet. Reg- 
 ulate the temperature to satisfy them. When chicks are hatched out 
 of natural season, you must, as near as possible, give them summer 
 conditions, warm quarters, fresh green food, etc. 
 
 The floors of all brooders should be covered with burlap or some 
 sort of cloth to give the chick a foot hold. Spraddle and weak-leg- 
 ged chicks are caused by smooth or slippery floors. The floor of 
 the brooding pen should be covered with a light, short litter in which 
 small seeds and grain have been scattered. The best grains to use 
 for chicks are pin-head cut oats and millet seed. Hominy meal is 
 the food for mashes. Hominy chop and meal is the best food for 
 chicks up to ten weeks old. Vessels containing grit, charcoal, water 
 or milk and a dry or moist mash should always be within easy reach 
 of the fowls. Sow a shallow box with rye or oats and place a screen 
 of fine mesh over the top. This is put where the chick can eat off 
 the sprouts as they grow up through the wire. 
 
 To teach chicks to eat, select several likely birds and gather 
 them about a feed vessel. By tapping the dish and by dropping a 
 few bits of the food from the fingers, encourage them to eat. In 
 teaching them to drink, dip their bills gently in the water or milk. 
 This should be warm, as new hatched chicks should never be given 
 cold liquid to drink. One of these chicks, after he has learned the-' 
 trick, will quickly teach its companions. In teaching a second brood, 
 a small bird from the first group, may be introduced, to initiate the 
 younger ones in the art of eating and drinking. 
 
 Before the chicks become a month old, all of one age, should be 
 brooded together. After they pass this age, they can flock together. ^ 
 Cull out the weak chicks and brood them by themselves. I 
 
 When the birds are four weeks old, weather permitting, they 
 should be allowed out door runs. One inch mesh should be used to 
 fence them in. It should be remembered that these artificiallyl 
 reared chicks should not be removed from the brooder any sooner 
 than they would leave the hen, had they been brooded naturally. 
 
 After the chicks become ten or twelve weeks old, they should be 
 trained to roost in a warm room, or, if an outside coop is used, it 
 should be heated. This can be done by using a system of pipe coilsa 
 heated by a lamp set outside the house, in a lamp box. The hot air 
 brooder utilizes this idea. The roosts should be set four inches from 
 the floor. 
 
HATCHING AND BROODING 
 
 23 
 
 Fig. 18 — Feeding Pen for Chicks 
 
 Leghorns and all quick maturing varieties can be hatched as late 
 as June, and yet produce winter layers. The large breeds should 
 be hatched as early as 
 possible to assure win- 
 ter laying, as it takes 
 six or eight months for 
 them to mature. 
 
 A feeding pen for 
 chicks who run with the 
 old fowls is illustrated 
 in Figure 18. The feed 
 trough is kept full at all 
 times and the chicks 
 reach it by going under 
 the bottom sill which is 
 four inches from the 
 ground. This coop prevents the grown fowls from eating the more 
 costly food intended for the chicks alone. It is covered with 
 roofing paper. 
 
 Cavanaugh's Colony Brooder System 
 
 The colony stove system is the brooding method for the breeder 
 who wishes to hover several thousand chicks a season. In this 
 system the stove is placed in the center of the room and the chicks 
 gather about it much after the fashion of the family in the house. 
 The warmest part of the room is, of course, near the stove, and this 
 is where the chicks hpver when needing warmth. The entire room 
 is, in fact, heated to a comfortable degree, making it impossible to 
 chill the chicks. 
 
 A colony stove after my method can be made of any heating 
 stove by adding a sheet metal deflector. The size and shape of this 
 deflector will depend upon the type of stove you use. I have found 
 that a deflector that extends about two or two and a half feet out 
 from the stove on all sides, gives the best satisfaction. The lower a 
 stove is, the easier it will be to convert it into brooder use. 
 
 In a section where wood is handy and cheap, the low, oblong 
 wood burning stove: No. i, makes the ideal brooder. Such stoves 
 sell at mail order houses from $3.00 up to $6.00. A twenty-four inch 
 stove of this type, taking a two foot piece of cord wood, costs only 
 $4.00. The deflector may be made either with or without the top. 
 It can be so arranged with wires and pulleys as to raise up when 
 coaling or cleaning. The deflector should not cost more than two 
 or three dollars, thus making the entire cost about seven dollars. 
 
 The small cannon ball type coal burners : No. 2, are listed at $1.69 
 for a twenty-four inch stove with an eight inch fire front, up to 
 $-1 12 for a thirty-six inch stove with a twelve inch fire front. The 
 seif-feeding base burners cost more than this but they give no better 
 results, the only advantage being that they need attention less often 
 than the cheaper styles. 
 
"«•■ 
 
 £ i ^ -S s ^, " •> 
 
 CO 
 
 CD 
 CD 
 CD 
 
 cn 
 
 >^ 
 
 cz> 
 
 _l 
 
 CD 
 CJ> 
 
 n 
 
 
 o 
 o 
 Oi 
 CD 
 
 < 
 
 ^S2 
 
 CO CJ 
 CJ> O 
 
 z o 
 
 < Q_ 
 
 n 
 
 
HATCHING AND BROODING 
 
 25 
 
 Hot blast air tight stoves can also be used — in fact, almost any 
 stove can be made into a brooder. The only requirement being 
 that the deflector be so placed that it will throw the heat from the 
 stove to the floor. 
 
 I have found that local dealers charge from fifty cents to a 
 dollar more for these stoves than the advertised prices of the mail 
 order houses. If this is the case in your section, it might be well to 
 order from the big dealers, as freight on stoves is very cheap. 
 
 Fig. 19 — Brooder House 
 
 To brood a colony of from 500 to 1,000 chicks, the brooding 
 room should be about twelve feet square. A second room, divided 
 from the first by a tight board partition, in which there are several 
 openings for the chicks to pass through, shpuld be used as a scratch 
 and exercise room until the chicks are old enough to use an out door 
 run or when the weather is bad. This exercise room should have a 
 part or full open front. 
 
 The floor of the house is best made of cement. It should Tdc 
 covered with one or two inches of fine sand and gravel. Several 
 boxes of fine dust should be in the brooder room for dust bath. 
 
 Fig. 20 — Interior of Brooder House 
 
 Figure 19 illustrates the exterior view of such a house, as the 
 above. The yard is surrounded with a fence of small mesh poultry 
 wire three feet high. Figure 20 shows an interior view of this house. 
 
26 
 
 TOWN LOT POULTRY KEEPING 
 
 Cavanaugh's Hot Air Brooder 
 
 Figure 21.— This is an indoor brooder only. The heating pipeiis 
 two inches in diameter and is of-tin or galvanized iron. The brooder 
 is divided by a curtain of woolen cloth into two compartrnents, one 
 for feeding, and the other, the pipe chamber, for hovering. The 
 lamp should have a metal chimney and fount, such as used in incuba- 
 tors. This may be set in a lamp box which will protect it from the 
 chicks. If your tinner makes a tight job of the pipes, there will be 
 no gas fumes in the brooder. 
 
 During the day the chicks should be allowed an outside run. 
 The top of the feed compartment may be raised for more ventilation, 
 if necessary. This top, which is not shown in the drawing, should 
 have a glass window let into it so that light will enter the box. 
 The ventilator holes should be covered with fly screen as a protec- 
 tion against rats and other varmints. 
 
 A brooder of this size will need about seventy-five inches of pip- 
 ing and three elbows, one for the lamp feed and the other two for 
 the bend at the further side of the hover chamber. 
 
 Fig. 21 — Cavanaugh's Hot Air Brooder 
 
 Cavanaugh's Hot Water Brooder 
 
 I have invented a new style brooder which has proven itself on 
 my place in Connecticut. This is a tank brooder. See Figure 22, 
 A tank of copper or galvanized iron, twenty-four by twenty-four 
 inches and two inches deep is connected by a neck two by four 
 inches, to a small tank or boiler proper. A stand pipe one half an 
 inch in diameter, topped with an eight inch cup is fastened to this 
 neck for filling or overflow. 
 
 The tank is either set on a frame covered with a hover cloth, 
 such as shown in Figure 23, or it can be set inside of a box. If the 
 heater is to be used in the latter style brooder, the box should' be 
 divided into two compartments. The measurements should be 
 
HATCHING AND BROODING 
 
 27 
 
 24x48x12 inches. The hover chamber twenty-four inches square, 
 contains the heater, which should be flush with the top of the brood- 
 er. The feed and exercise room should also be 24 inches square. 
 
 Fig. 22— Cavanaugh's Hot Water Brooder Tank 
 
 Fig. 23 — Hover Frame for Hot Water Brooder 
 
 Fig. 24 — Lamp for 
 
 Hot Water 
 
 Brooder 
 
 A lamp, Figure 24, heats the water in the boiler tank which in 
 turn heats the hover tank. The lamp sets in the lamp box as illus- 
 trated in Figure 22. 
 
 Cavanaugh's Fireless Brooder 
 
 This brooder is made of lumber a half to one inch thick. It is 
 twenty inches square and stands ten inches high. Vent holes one 
 inch in diameter are cut in the front. These have tin shutters which 
 are closed during the day but are moved back to prevent smothering 
 in the night time when all the chicks are inside. 
 
 A frame is made of such a size that it will fit inside the brooder 
 box. To this is fastened a hover cloth of canton flannel. Strips of 
 flaps, cut from an old pair of trousers or other soft cloth, are sewed 
 on this covering at intervals of two inches. The hover cloth should 
 be tacked to the frame so that it will sag loosely, therefore allow 
 for this in sewing on the flaps, which should reach to within two 
 inches of the floor. See Figure 25. 
 
28 
 
 TOWN LOT POULTRY KEEPING 
 
 A pillow about twenty inches square is made of cotton batting 
 or feathers. This is set on the top of the hover cloth. During the 
 
 
 VeHTHOue AHOJMUTTBIS 
 
 25 — Cavanaugh's Fireless Brooder 
 
 day a thinner pad 
 may be used. On 
 u n u s u a lly cold 
 nights, a grain 
 sack or other 
 cloth may be fold- 
 ed and placed over 
 the regular pillow. 
 When chicks get 
 older and need 
 more air, they 
 will gather near 
 the door at night. 
 When this happens, the window at the rear should be replaced with 
 a screen cloth. The window should be constructed so that it can 
 slide open or be shut as desired. It is best to have a bottom on the 
 brooder as it enables the attendant to move the chicks at will. 
 
 This size brooder will house seventy-five new hatched chicks or 
 fifty chicks from two to six weeks old. After this, larger brooders 
 should be built to house about fifty chicks in a flock. 
 
 Figure 26 shows the 
 brooder attached to a run. 
 This is built so that a par- 
 tition can be fastened 
 acros the yard. This can 
 be moved forward as the 
 chicks grow. The first few 
 days it should be close to 
 the entrance of the brood- 
 er, and the chicks will soon 
 learn to go under the hov- 
 er when cold. If the birds 
 do not learn this quickly, _ 
 
 two pieces of sheet iron or pjg. ae-Flreless Brooder Attached to Run 
 board may be placed so as «.i.n»i.iiea lu n.un 
 
 to direct them to the door. A cover of one inch wire mesh should be 
 placed over the top of this run to keep the chicks from flying out 
 and keep the rats, etc., from getting in. 
 
 BROODER AMD 
 OOTMDt: RUN 
 
Feeding 
 
 Few poultry breeders are informed on the very important sub- 
 ject of feeding. In the following article I have endeavored to show 
 the importance of feeding a well balanced ration. In order to make 
 poultry pay, one must obtain results in equivalent in eggs and flesh 
 and this is done more by proper feeding than by any other means. 
 When feeding an unbalanced ration much of the food is wasted, being 
 expelled from the body as manure, etc. The mixtures and mashes 
 which appear under my name are the results of many years of exper- 
 iment and study and they can be relied upon to perform the func- 
 tions claimed for them. 
 
 A back yard flock of twelve to twenty-five head can be supplied 
 with over half of its feed from table scraps and waste. Often times 
 the neighbors will save scraps for your fowls, which will cut down 
 the feed bill considerably. It should be remembered, however, that 
 all poultry must have 
 some hard grain to eat in 
 order to satisfy their di- 
 gestive organs. Moist 
 mashes are the easiest di- 
 gested as they remain in 
 the crop but a short time 
 before being carried to 
 the gizzard. Hard grains 
 and dry mashes must re- 
 main in the crop long 
 enough to moisten and 
 soften. 
 
 Old fowls, especially Double Hopper for grain or dry mash 
 hens, will become too fat 
 
 on ordinary rations if allowed to remain idle. Over fat hens will lay 
 misshapen and soft shelled eggs and will develop oviduct troubles, 
 apoplexy and other complaints. 
 
 When bad weather conditions make it advisable to keep the 
 fowls under cover, they should be made to work for the larger 
 portion of their food. The feeding of grain in deep litter will keep 
 the flock in good condition by forcing it to take needed exercise. 
 Free range fowls need no enforced exercise. 
 
 The use of automatic feeders and exercisers is recommended to 
 Town Lot poultry keepers. Figure 27 shows a Cavanaugh Auto- 
 matic Feeder and Exerciser attached to the bottom of an ordinary 
 wooden bucket or pail. It may be used, however, in connection with 
 any wood or metal box, pail, can, etc. There are many ways of 
 equipping a plant with automatic hoppers by using this fixture. 
 
30 
 
 TOWN LOT POULTRY KEEPING 
 
 EAEKQI5ER<S.rEEPELK, 
 
 BracKel 
 
 Spreader 
 
 M- 
 
 ■Disk 
 
 ■"riut soldered Jodisc 
 
 ^Mut lo Keep rocKer m position. 
 "^Rocker 
 
 Fig. 27 
 
 Pait- 
 
 They may be 
 attached to the 
 bottom of small 
 barrels or dry- 
 goods boxes or 
 several may be 
 fastened t o a 
 single large re- 
 ceptacle so that 
 more than one 
 flock o f fowls 
 may work 
 about it at the 
 same time. The 
 feeder may be 
 adjusted to dis- 
 pense any size 
 grain o r seed 
 by raising or 
 lowering the 
 disk which 
 closes the open- 
 ing to the hopper. Mixed grains make 
 gooj scratching foods, but if several j 
 exercisers are used in the same house 
 or yard they should be filled with dif- 
 ferent grains. When used indoors, the 
 floor of the house should be covered J 
 with a deep litter. By building a roof 
 over the top of the feeder it can be 
 left outside in any kind of weather. 
 The "bait" is a coiled spring filled with 
 corn. 
 
 In handhng layers, it is best to 
 have regular feeding times. The first 
 meal may be given to the fowls upon 
 their leaving the roost in the morning, 
 and the last meal, of mash, just before 
 roosting time or before the daj- begins 
 to darken. One medium handful of 
 grain or mash is sufficient for one 
 fowl's meal. This quantity may have 
 to be varied a little if the food values 
 are unbalanced. Always send the fowls 
 to the roost with a comfortably filled 
 crop of rich, easily digested food, pre- 
 ferably, a moist mash. 
 Never allow wet mashes to remain long in the feed troughs. 
 
 Feed left from one meal may be shaped into cakes and cooked and 
 
 fed to the flock in that condition. 
 
FEEDING 
 
 31 
 
 An analysis of a hen's body shows that one half the weight is 
 water, two to five per cent, consists of ash or mineral matter, fifteen 
 to twenty per cent, is protein and six to thirty per cent, is fat. 
 Besides these four elements, the body stores up certain amounts of 
 glycogen. A fresh egg contains: 65.5 per cent, of water; 13.1 per 
 cent, of protein; 12.2 per gent, of mineral, and 9.3 per cent, of fats. 
 
 Like the body, the food stuffs must contain a variety of ingre- 
 dients and like the body, they are classified into groups and should 
 be so arranged as to provide a well balanced ration for the building 
 and upkeep of the fowl, to stimulate the digestive organs, etc. 
 
 Protein is the principal tissue producer, it builds up and repairs 
 losses in the muscles, tendons and blood and forms the whites or albu- 
 men of the egg. It is used to furnish energy and fuel when these are 
 not to be had from other sources. Protein needs regular replenish- 
 ment as it is consumed at a fairly regular rate. 
 
 Carbohydrates and fats are the 
 chief energy and fuel ingredients. 
 These are burned in the body to yield 
 heat and power. 
 Ash is the ingre- 
 dient which 
 forms the bone. 
 This supply does 
 not wear out as 
 fast as the tissue 
 building compo- 
 nents and there- 
 fore does not 
 need the fre- 
 quent replenish- 
 ment that the 
 
 tissue builders do. Fat represents, among other usages, a storage 
 material to be called on in time of need. When food is insufficient, 
 this store of surplus material is drawn upon and the fowl gradually 
 becomes lean. The water contained in a fowl's body is of no more 
 nutritive value than that which is drawn from the well. Fibre is of 
 value as a bulk maker and regulator. Only a small amount of this 
 substance is needed in a ration and it is a costly food if bought at 
 grain prices. 
 
 In compounding a ration to feed laying hens, one must be careful 
 to have it contain the proper amounts of each of these materials to 
 maintain the body and enough extra to produce the eggs. It has 
 been claimed that to produce one dozen eggs, eight pounds of solid 
 food stuffs are required. Feeding experts have agreed that a food 
 ration to produce a maximum amount of eggs and mamtam the hen's 
 body should contain at least eighteen pounds of protein to one 
 hundred pounds of feed. Poultry feed for old fowls should never 
 run over ninety quarts to the hundred pounds, and for young chicks, 
 over seventy-five quarts to the hundred pounds, providing the ration 
 
 Feed Trough for wet mash 
 Bars to keep fowls from 
 scattering food about the yard 
 
32 
 
 TOWN LOT POULTRY KEEPING 
 
 Trough for Mash 
 
 does not contain over twenty per cent, protein. A ration containing 
 fifty per cent, protein should run two hundred or more quarts to the 
 hundred weight, if fed alone. 
 
 You must use judgment in compounding a ration to meet the 
 individual requirements of your flock, combining several different 
 foods to make a one to three ration, a one to four ration, or what- 
 ever is needed. A one to three ration means one part protein to 
 three of carbohydrates and fat, i. e., a ration containing 20 per cent. 
 of protein, 60 per cent, carbohydrates and 4 per cent, of fat (fat 
 equal two and one half times that of carbohydrates), would be a 
 
 twenty to seventy ration or a one to 
 
 three and a half. 
 
 Bran middlings and other mill 
 feeds containing screenings should 
 not be used, as a great deal of their 
 weight is composed of weed seeds, 
 dirt, dust and other refuse. Alfalfa 
 and clover are too costly for the 
 breeder when bought at grain prices, 
 as the food value contained in them 
 is not worth more than sixteen or eighteen dollars a ton. Mill seeds, 
 kafir corn or sunflower seeds may be occasionally scattered in the 
 litter as an appetizer to encourage exercise. Cavanaugh's Egg Mash 
 No. I, fed moist, as an evening meal and corn and oats equal 
 parts, scattered in the litter at ten A. M. will insure eggs in winter. 
 
 Furnish land fowls plenty of sharp, clean, grit (sharp gravel, 
 broken crockery, sharp edged granite, etc.) in hoppers within easy 
 reach. Water fowls should be given their grit in the drinking 
 vessels. 
 
 One part protein to three parts carbohydrates for growing 
 chicks on free range is usually proper but I have had excellent 
 success in feeding 
 new hatched chicks, 
 up to eight weeks 
 old, nothing but 
 hominy meal, dry 
 and moist. This is 
 a one to six ration. 
 Later on I fed a one 
 to five ration and single Hopper Grain 
 then a one to four 
 ration. In doing this I increased the per cent, of protein but did not 
 lower the quantity of carbohydrates and fat. Twenty per cent, of 
 protein to sixty per cent, of carbohydrates and fat is the ideal food 
 ration and one which will produce feathers and eggs during the 
 moulting season. Fowls fed on table scraps require less protein in 
 their grain foods. Cooking often makes food easier and quicker to 
 digest. It also destroys or makes harmless, bacteria or moulds. 
 The nutritive value of food is not impaired by cooking. 
 
— FEEDING 33 
 
 Cavanaugh's Mashes and Feed Rations 
 
 Egg Producing Mash, No. 1 
 
 Hominy meal 150 pounds 
 
 Gluten meal 100 pounds 
 
 High grade middlings 150 pounds 
 
 High grade bran 50 pounds 
 
 TnTA?'^^^ SO pounds- 
 
 luiAL, 500 pounds 
 
 ■11 '^'^^•1 ™^^^ ^^^ ^^ ^^^ ™°^^t ^y mixing with water, skimmed 
 milk or buttermilk or it can be fed dry, in hoppers. If good wheat 
 middlings and bran and a good grade of cotton seed is used, the mash 
 will contain about twenty per cent, of digestible protein, which will 
 insure a heavy yield of eggs from the fowls. The birds should also 
 have access to some green food, either grass, clover, chopped vege- 
 tables or sprouted grain. 
 
 Trough for Mash 
 
 Meat Scrap Mash 
 
 Hominy meal 200 pounds 
 
 Gluten meal 100 pounds 
 
 Middlings 100 pounds 
 
 Bran 50 pounds 
 
 Beef scraps 25 pounds 
 
 Cotton seed meal 25 pounds 
 
 TOTAL Soo pounds 
 
 Fish scraps may be substituted for beef scraps. This ration 
 contains between eighteen to twenty per cent, protein and can be 
 fed either dry or moist. 
 
 Cavanaugh's Mash for Chicks 
 
 Hominy meal 50 pounds 
 
 Gluten meal 10 pounds 
 
 Beef or Fish Scraps 5 pounds 
 
 Corn meal 10 pounds 
 
 Middlings 10 pounds 
 
 Bran 15 pounds 
 
 TOTAL 100 pounds 
 
 A couple of tablespoonfuls of fine powdered charcoal may be 
 added to this. If fed with chopped green foods, this mash will make 
 an excellent growing ration for young fowls. It may be fed dry 
 or moist. 
 
34 TOWN LOT POULTRY KEEPING 
 
 Scratch Feed Mixture 
 
 Corn, whole or cracked loo pounds 
 
 Clipped whole oats lOO pounds 
 
 Barley lOO pounds 
 
 Buckwheat loo pounds 
 
 TOTAL 400 pounds 
 
 This combination makes a very fine food when the Cavanaugh 
 
 Mashes are used, as the high analysis of the mashes balance the low 
 
 percentage of this mixture. 
 
 Scratch Mixture for Chicks 
 
 Fine cracked corn 25 pounds 
 
 Cracked hulled oats 25 pounds 
 
 TOTAL 50 pounds 
 
 This mixture is to be scattered in the litter and fed along with 
 the chick mash. Water, skimmed milk, buttermilk or sour milk, 
 should be accessible to the chicks at all times. 
 
 Hominy meal in itself contains 11 per cent, protein and makes 
 an excellent dry or moist mash for young chicks. 
 
 Stale bread and other wheat products, if free from mould, and 
 scraps from the table may be ground up fine and mixed with the 
 mashes. 
 
 Cabbage, beets and corn may be suspended from cords for the 
 fowls to pick at. 
 
 Small quantities of salt, black and red pepper, mustard, or gin- 
 ger can be added to the fowl's food, to act as a stimulant, should 
 they need it. 
 
 Sour milk, buttermilk, clabbered milk or cottage cheese are 
 good bowel regulators for young or old fowls. 
 
 To raise the per cent, of protein in any of the mashes, add 
 beef or fish scraps or blood meal. Blood meal runs about ninety 
 pounds of protein to every hundred pounds. 
 
 In grinding green bone, grind it with whole corn in order to 
 have it come from the mill crumbly and easy to mix. 
 
 It is always advisable to know the nutritive value of the ration 
 you are feeding a fowl, as it frequently happens that a breeder will 
 be furnishing the maximum quantity of food and obtaining the min- 
 imum quantity of results. To aid breeders in this particular I have 
 prepared a chart which shows the analysis of the more common food 
 stuffs. The information has been gathered from several depend- 
 able sources. By studying the chart one can compound his own 
 feeds, mashes, etc. 
 
TABLE OF FOOD VALUES 
 
 (dry) 
 
 Alfalfa 
 
 Artichokes . . , 
 Beef Scrap . , 
 
 Beets , 
 
 Bone (green) 
 
 Bran , 
 
 Brewer's Grain 
 Buckwheat 
 
 Buckwheat Middlings 
 
 Carrots 
 
 Clover Meal 
 
 Corn 
 
 Corn Meal 
 
 Corn and Cob Meal 
 
 Cotton-seed Meal 
 
 Cow Pea 
 
 Fish Scraps 
 
 Gluten Meal, Buffalo Brand 
 Gluten Meal, Cherry Brand 
 Hominy Meal and Chops . . . 
 
 Kafir Corn 
 
 Linseed Meal 
 
 Milk, whole 
 
 Milk, Butter 
 
 Milk, Skim 
 
 Milk, Whey 
 
 Meat Meal 
 
 Meat and Bone Scraps 
 
 Oats 
 
 Potatoes 
 
 Rice 
 
 Rye 
 
 Rye Bran 
 
 Soy Beans 
 
 Sunflower Seed 
 
 Turnips 
 
 Wheat 
 
 Wheat Bran, (spring) 
 Wheat Bran, (winter) 
 
 Wheat Middlings 
 
 Wheat Shorts 
 
 14-3 
 
 2.4 
 49.72 
 
 1.4 
 20.6 
 24.8 
 24.1 
 10. 
 28. 
 
 I.I 
 10.5 
 10.3 
 
 9.2 
 
 8.5 
 42.3 
 23-5 
 50. 
 24-5 
 37-6 
 11.2 
 10.9 
 
 32.9 
 
 3-6 
 
 3- 
 
 3-3 
 
 .6 
 
 48.36 
 
 367 
 
 11.8 
 
 2.1 
 
 7-4 
 10.6 
 
 14.7 
 
 36-3 
 16.4 
 
 1-3 
 12.5 
 16.1 
 16. 
 16. 
 
 Ash and 
 Mineral 
 
 7-4 
 1.8 
 
 17-39 
 I. 
 
 22.8 
 4.5 
 3-4 
 2. 
 4.8 
 I. 
 
 1-5 
 1-4 
 
 1-5 
 7.2 
 
 3-4 
 6.7 
 
 •9 
 1.2 
 
 3-1 
 1-3 
 
 5-7 
 •7 
 ■7 
 •7 
 ■4 
 
 30 
 i.o 
 
 •4 
 1.9 
 
 3-5 
 54 
 2.7 
 .8 
 1.9 
 5-4 
 5-9 
 3-3 
 4.6 
 
 Carbohydrates 
 Nitrogen 
 freeextr't Fiber 
 
 42.7 
 16.8 
 
 5-4 
 
 1.9 
 
 40.8 
 
 44.8 
 
 64-5 
 
 41.9 
 
 7.6 
 
 70.4 
 68.7 
 64.8 
 23.6 
 
 55-7 
 19. 
 
 47-8 
 44-4 
 56.1 
 
 70.5 
 35-4 
 4.9 
 4.8 
 4-7 
 5-1 
 
 59-7 
 17-3 
 79.2 
 
 72.5 
 63-9 
 27.7 
 21.6 
 
 5-9 
 71.2 
 
 54-5 
 53-7 
 60.4 
 56.8 
 
 25- 
 •9 
 
 .8 
 
 11.7 
 
 13- 
 8.7 
 
 6.3 
 1-3 
 
 2.2 
 1.9 
 6.6 
 5-6 
 3-8 
 12.3 
 6.1 
 
 2.3 
 5-8 
 1.9 
 8.9 
 
 9-5 
 
 .6 
 
 .2 
 
 1-7 
 
 3-3 
 
 3-9 
 
 29-3 
 
 1.2 
 
 1.8 
 8. 
 8.1 
 4.6 
 
 7-4 
 
 2.2 
 
 .1 
 
 18.51 
 
 .2 
 
 20.5 
 
 6.7 
 
 6.7 
 
 2.2 
 
 7.2 
 
 ■4 
 1.8 
 
 5- 
 
 3-8 
 
 3-5 
 13-1 
 
 1-7 
 
 4- 
 12.S 
 
 5- 
 
 10.3 
 2.9 
 
 7-9 
 
 3-6 
 
 •5 
 
 •9 
 
 .1 
 
 12.9 
 
 10.5 
 
 5-0 
 
 .1 
 
 •4 
 1-7 
 2.8 
 18. 
 
 21.3 
 
 .2 
 
 2.2 
 
 4-5 
 
 4- 
 
 4- 
 
 4.5 
 
 The above table gives the average per cent. Foods will run higher or 
 lower than the figures given. For example, take gluten meal— Maximum and 
 minimum analysis is as follows: Protein 43.1 to 29.2, Ash 2.3 to .6, Nitrogen 
 52.6 to 37, Fat 9.6 to 1, Fiber 6.3 to 1.1, Water 7.2 to 5.5. 
 
36 
 
 TOWN LOT POULTRY KEEPING 
 
 Convenient water fountains which provide fresh water for 
 fowls, can be made from judgs, bottles, etc. Figure 28. A frame 
 work of barrel hoops which have been soaked in hot water to allow 
 them to bend easily, is fastened on two or more pointed sticks. 
 These are driven into the ground until the pan or vessel, which is 
 attached to them, rests on the ground. The bottle or jug is filled 
 with water and is inverted in the frame until it rests with the open- 
 ing or mouth, just below the edge of the pan, which, filling up, 
 prevents the entrance of air into the bottle, and permits no water 
 to escape until the level is lowered. 
 
 Fig. 29 — Stove Pipe Hoppers 
 
 Figure 29 illustrates two stove ^pe 
 hoppers for use in the brooder house. The 
 first is on the principle of the water foun- pjg 23 
 
 tain. The pipe is suspended from the ceil- Water Fountain 
 
 ing, to within one inch of the bottom of a 
 
 deep cake tin or some such utensil. The hopper is filled with dry 
 mash or grain. 
 
 The second stove pipe is converted into a feeder and exerciser 
 by fastening to the bottom, a thimble of one quarter inch netting. 
 The exerciser is filled with cracked g^rain at which the chicks pick 
 through the netting. 
 
FEEDING 
 
 37 
 
 Grain Sprouting 
 
 The sprouting of grain is very important when no other green 
 stuff is available. It not only reduces the cost of feeding by at least 
 one quarter but it keeps the fowls in good condition. Oats, barley, 
 rice, corn or beans may be sprouted in the sprouter as illustrated 
 in Figure 30. 
 
 Sprouted grain makes the best of green foods and grown in a 
 sprouter, the cost of production will be negligible. The sprouts may 
 be run through a feed grinder and mixed with the mashes or they 
 may be fed as taken from the sprouter, a quart to forty or fifty 
 fowls. Sprouted grain or any other food should never be allowed 
 to mould. 
 
 The sprouter shown, is made 
 of four 2x4 uprights, forty inches 
 long; fourteen runners 24 inches 
 long of 1x2 inch strips ; and 14 2x^ 
 inch strips thirty inches long and 
 14 2x% inch strips, twenty-four 
 inches long — these last two to 
 form the sides of the sprouting 
 trays. Besides this, there are four 
 braces. 
 
 The trays are bottomed with 
 perforated galvanized iron or one- 
 eighth inch mesh. The space be- 
 tween the top of one tray and the 
 bottom of the one above, is three 
 inches, to allow for sprouting. 
 
 These seven trays are intend- 
 ed, one for each day of the week. 
 Start at the top, they may be lab- 
 eled Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday 
 and so on to Sunday, the bottom 
 tray. As the trays are used, they 
 are moved up one "peg" and the 
 emipty tray filled and started at the 
 bottom, thus keeping the trays in 
 rotation. By the time this tray 
 has reached the top, the seventh day, the grain will be fully sprouted. 
 
 The grain to be sprouted is soaked in water over night and 
 placed in the trays. Each drawer should be sprinkled with warm 
 water twice a day. The sprouter should be kept in a room with the 
 temperature from sixty to seventy degrees, or higher. 
 
 This was once POULTRY FEED AT 20 Cts. A BUSHEL! ! 
 
 advertised as : Secret, Five DoUars! 
 
 Fig. 30 — Grain Sprouter 
 
Line Breeding 
 
 A fortune awaits the man who invents a positive laying strain 
 of fowls that will produce two hundred eggs a year per hen. The 
 only way such a strain can be developed is by the use of the trap 
 nest in connection with line breeding. The trap nest detects the 
 best layers and line breeding promulgates the blood lines. The pro- 
 duction of heavy egg laying strains and fancy show birds is a profit- 
 able business and one eminently suited to the back yard plant where 
 greater attention can be given to the details of this sort of work. 
 There is a great demand for utility bred males as well as females, 
 many fowls bringing as high as a hundred dollars each. 
 
 The system of line breeding has never been clearly put before 
 the public. I have endeavored, in the following pages, to remedy 
 this lack. In conjunction with Mr. Ring, who has illustrated this 
 book, we have invented a set of charts which can be easily followed. 
 We have taken as a beginning, one male and one female of separate 
 blood lines and shown the method of producing a new strain of 
 fowls, without serious inbreeding. Several individual pairs or sev- 
 eral groups of fowls could be handled under this rule as well. Each 
 fowl wears a leg band for identification. These are of distinctive 
 colors or numbered consecutively. 
 
 The trap nest must be used when there is more than one female 
 in the mating pen. The nest traps the hen on entering the nest to 
 lay. She must be released by the attendant, who keeps a record of 
 her number and the number of eggs she lays. Eggs from such 
 matings are incubated and the chicks marked with leg bands or web 
 punches. By this means one can keep track of the chicks of each 
 mating. 
 
 The simplest trap nest I have ever seen was one shown me at 
 the state agricultural college at Storrs, Connecticut. It can be 
 made of any old lumber — the door of one half inch stuff and the latch 
 or trigger of three-quarter inch material. The trigger is pivoted on 
 one side of the nest as shown in the cut. The door is pushed back 
 into the box and its own weight holds it in place. The hen, in enter- 
 ing the nest, raises the door slightly and the trigger falls, thus 
 releasing the door and closing the aperature. Instead of hanging 
 the door on hinges, a rod and several screw eyes take their place. 
 
 The second catch, which is considered by many to be preferable 
 to the Conn. Agricultural College trigger, holds the door in place 
 from the back. See Figure 31. 
 
 A chart, for marking up the records of the hen, laying condi- 
 tions, etc., is shown in Figure 32. This is an interesting as well as a 
 valuable stunt. Simpler records may be kept, but in a back yard 
 
LINE BREEDING 
 
 J2 
 
 plant with its small number of hens, the full record is advisable, 
 especially when breeding for standard fowls. 
 
 Scientific breeders have been working for years to discover a 
 method of producing breeding fowls whose progeny will have a pre- 
 dominance of one sex or the other. As yet, their efforts have not 
 been entirely crowned with success. What has been done along this 
 hne has been accomplished by trap nesting and line breeding. In 
 order to assure eggs that will produce a large percentage of females, 
 males that have been incubated from eggs laid by hens whose eggs 
 have produced a majority of female chicks are mated to the males 
 that were hatched from eggs laid from a fowl producing mostly 
 females. By breeding in this way the characteristic of these fowls 
 is retained. 
 
 Latcbflf iwAod. 
 
 TI*St«ti?biirn1atclL 
 
 Fig. 31— Trap Nest 
 
 The Sloneburn TrapJIesI in use at 
 Conn. Aqricultural College ' 
 
 In developing a show room exhibition strain of fowls, a standard 
 color and type male is mated to a female or pen of females which 
 possess show room qualities and by this means establishing a strain 
 which can be expected to show a reasonable per centage of exhibi- 
 tion fowls. 
 
 Breeders of birds of more than one color, such as the Barred 
 Rocks, Silver Wyandottes, Brown Leghorns, etc., use the double 
 mating system, to perfect the color and marking of the fowls. 
 Taking for example the Barred Plymouth Rock : To secure a .rich 
 narrow barred cockerel of proper shape, a standard exhibition col- 
 ored male is mated to a narrow barred female which is darker in 
 color than the standard. In some cases both male aiad female are 
 darker than the standard to produce the proper color in the progeny. 
 To produce an exhibition Barred Rock female, mate a standard col- 
 ored female to a light colored, distinctly barred male. The females 
 
i I 
 
 40 
 
 TOWN LOT POULTRY KEEPING 
 
 have a tendency to run dark and the males just the opposite, running 
 light in color. In order to use double mating successfully, it is 
 necessary to understand the mating characteristics of the different 
 breeds. This knowledge comes only from close personal observa- 
 tion. The system whereby the breeder mates for standard exhibi- 
 tion males and females from one mating is called a single mating. 
 The White Leghorns and other single color breeds often need no 
 single mating to get exhibition results, but our own experience has 
 shown that double mating will improve the show qualities of any 
 breed. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 ^«l 
 
 ltlof_ 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 — 
 
 _iai_ 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 t 
 
 3 
 
 4- 
 
 I 
 
 6 
 
 7 
 
 S 
 
 S 
 
 10 
 
 n 
 
 l£ 
 
 13 
 
 1+ 
 
 U 
 
 16 
 
 17 
 
 18 
 
 19 
 
 21 
 
 CI 
 
 It 
 
 a 
 
 u 
 
 IS 
 
 Z( 
 
 n 
 
 2.1 
 
 li 
 
 3D 
 
 91 
 
 ar. 
 
 f. 
 
 Rilion 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 'B 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 1 
 1 
 
 Hi,\lui 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 as 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 — 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 z 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 3 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 4 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 5 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 e 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 7 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 8 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 9 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 10 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 11 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 t 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 B 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 H 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 15 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 IS 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 17 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 18 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 19 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 to 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 tl 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 ^^ 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Z3 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 u 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 a 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 T. 
 
 fl^ 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Fig. 32— Record Chart 
 
 It will be noted in the Line Breeding Chart that male birds are 
 designated by odd numbers, as i, 3, 5 etc., while the female birds are 
 named by the even series of numbers 2, 4, 6 and so on. After the 
 first mating, the diagram separates into two main branches, one, the 
 female branch, having a predominance of blood of the original fe- 
 male; and the other, the male branch, having a predominance of 
 blood of the original male bird. In this way the system of double 
 mating can be charted. The birds of the proper shape and color to 
 produce perfect males are selected from each pen and mated and the 
 same process is followed in the other line to produce perfect females. 
 
 The fractions J4, 54, etc. tell the quantity of blood in the pens of 
 each of the original fowls, as pen number 8 in the Original Line are 
 
lylNE BREEDING 41 
 
 H_ the blood of the original male, No. i and ^ of the blood of the 
 original female No. 2. While this chart gives the matings in a 
 systematic manner they can be varied when the birds have not the 
 proper points to produce good progeny. 
 
 THE FIRST YEAR 
 
 The first year we start with a male who is leg banded "i" and a 
 female who is banded "2". These birds should not be in any way 
 related. For this reason it is best to buy either the male or the 
 female from some outside dealer. This male bird "i" is mated to a 
 pen of females in which our original female "2" is placed. These 
 fowls are trap nested and the eggs from this bird are saved for 
 hatching and thus continue the line. This mating of "i" and "2" will 
 produce progeny which we will call number 3, males, and number 4, 
 females, thus carrying out our system of numbering the males with 
 the odd numbers and the females with the even numbers. These 
 fowls are each >^ of the blood of the male "i" and J^ of the blood of 
 the original female "2". This mating takes us over the first year. 
 
 THE SECOND YEAR 
 
 A male from group "3" is now selected who seems to have the 
 proper breeding points. To him is mated the original female No. 2. 
 She is of course, placed in a pen with other females as in the first 
 mating between "i" and "2". 
 
 This mating between mother and son is productive of males No. 
 S and females No. 6, each % the blood of the original female bird (2) 
 and J4 the blood of the original male (i). 
 
 In the male branch the same procedure is followed, viz. : the 
 original male No. i is mated to a proper type and color female from 
 pen 4 who is leg banded with this number. This produces males, 7, 
 and females, 8, each ^ the blood of the original male and }i of the 
 original female blood. 
 
 This second year we also start a Young Stock Line for the pur- 
 pose of introducing new blood into our strain, when our Original 
 Line begins to deterioriate. A male from group 3 (not the same one 
 who was used in the Original Line) is leg banded 3a or with, say, a 
 red band numbered three, and mated to a sister who is similarly 
 marked with 4a or a colored band. This mating produces males, 9 
 and females, 10. These fowls are each yi of the blood of 3a and 4a. 
 
 We consider this Young Stock line as a separate and distinct 
 unit and not a part of the original line, so no attempt is made to 
 figure bloods in Original Line equivalents. To do this would simply 
 be to repeat the figures j4 in each progeny. In the combination of 
 3a and 4a we have all the blood of the original birds i and 2 ; group 
 3 being ^ blood and group 4 being also J4 blood. Therefore 
 
iO 
 
 CJ 
 
 J_ 
 
 Q • 
 
 L3 
 
 ul- 
 
 Z QQ< 
 
 
 O 
 
 _l 
 
 bJ 
 
 a 
 cr 
 o 
 
LINE BREEDING 
 
 43 
 
 therefor?.. "^"f l/'^i'^^^ by 2 (mated) equals y,. Nine and lo 
 orSfnal hfr^ T° ^^^^ *^' ''^°°^ °^ ^°^' ^^o. i and fowl No. 2, the 
 fowls will K 1/ lu ^11 cases throughout the Young Stock line the 
 th^ r.r ^' the blood of. No. I and y^ the blood of No. 2. For 
 
 this reason we consider the Young Stock as a separate line, 
 ations of'thTseSJ Vear. ^ ' ^ ^° 4 and 3a to 4a completes the oper- 
 
 THE THIRD YEAR 
 
 .hoHlH *ifll°Ki^''?^' ^''^' ' ^"1 ^r^^""^ ''^^" properly cared for, they 
 should still be vigorous enough for a third mating. No. 2, the orie- 
 inal male IS mated to the grandson, 5, which will produce males !i 
 and females 12; each J/g of the blood of the original female, 2. 
 inree-tourths plus one equals seven-fourths; seven-fourths divided 
 by two, equals seven-eighth. 
 
 No. I is simularly mated to the proper female 8, which will pro- 
 duce males 13, and females 14; seven-eighth of the blood of the 
 original male. 
 
 Modern Fresh Air House— Can be used as one unit or partitioned oflf 
 
 into three 10x12 Breeding Pens. Doors between pens to be on 
 
 hinges that will open both ways. The open windows are 
 
 closed with muslin in winter. 
 
 This third year the Young Stock line is further developed by 
 mating 4a to 9 to produce groups of males and females, 15 and 16, 
 each three-fourths of the blood of the original young female. 3a is 
 mated to 10 to produce males 17 and females 18 which are three- 
 fourths of the blood of the young male and one-fourth of the blood 
 of the young female. It will be noted that this step is the same as 
 was made in the second year of the Original Line, viz. 2 to 3 and 
 I to 4. 
 
 To make our point more clear for considering the Young Stock 
 Line as a separate line, we will show what bloods would be in fowls 
 15, 16 and 17 and 18, figuring in equivalents of Original Line bloods. 
 3a and 4a, coming from groups 3 and 4 of the Original Line are each 
 }A of the blood of the original male i and the original female 2. 
 Mating them together to produce 9 and 10 causes the progeny to 
 have (figuring in Original Line bloods) each y of the blood of the 
 
44 TOWN LOT POULTRY KEEPING 
 
 original birds (i and 2) as we have shown. J4 added to J^, 
 divided by 2, equals J4. 9 and 10 each J4 of the original Old 
 Line birds. 
 
 Now, considering the case of the second mating, 4a to 9 and 3a 
 to 10, we still have the progeny (15 and 16 and 17 and 18) each J4 
 the blood of fowls i and 2. Thus : 4a, >4 blood mated to 9, which v^e 
 have shown is also J4 blood, produce progeny which are yet again 
 Yi of the blood of i and J^ the blood of 2. 4a,J^ plus 9, J^ equals i 
 divided by 2 (to get the average) equals J^. Thus 15 and 16 are J^ 
 of No. I and J4 of No. 2. The same works out in the case of Nos. 
 17 and 18. 
 
 THE FOURTH YEAR 
 
 This year the original birds i and 2 are too old to be of any 
 further service for breeding, so the best bird from the female group 
 6 is mated to the best male from group 11. This is productive of 
 males 19 and females 20. Each of these are thirteen-sixteenths of 
 the blood of the original female 2. (Three-fourths plus seven- 
 eighth, divided by two, equals thirteen-sixteenths.) 
 
 In the male branch of the same system is followed, mating No. 7 
 to No. 14, to produce groups 21 and 22, each thirteen-sixteenths of 
 the blood of the original male i, and three-sixteenths of the blood of 
 the original female, 2. 
 
 This is as near to the original bloods as it is possible to get 
 without again using the original birds. In fact, this is slightly 
 further away than the matings of the year before (3rd) in which 
 the original birds were used. 11 and 12, and 13 and 14 were seven- 
 eighth bloods or fourteen-sixteenths as opposed to thirteen-six- 
 teenths of the fourth year matings, (21 and 22; and 19 and 20). 
 
 The Young Stock line also continues this year. 4a is mated to 
 15 to produce groups 23 and 24, males and females respectively, 
 which are seven-eighths of the blood of the original young female, 
 4a and one-eighth of the blood of the original young male bird. 
 The male branch produces groups 25 and 26 by mating 3a to 18. 
 
 After the fourth year our Original Line may "run out," so 
 this year (4th) we start to combine the Young and the Original 
 Lines into the Young and Old Line. 
 
 No. 14, a female from the Original Line, is mated to 17, a male 
 from the Young Line. This produces males, 27, and females, 28. In 
 this case, it is not necessary to consider the Old and Young Line 
 as a separate unit. We can figure out just what proportion of the 
 blood of the two original birds i and 2 is contained in the veins of 
 this Old and Young Line. As we have shown, all fowls in the 
 Young Line are one-half bloods. Then 14 (the Original Line fe- 
 male) contains seven-eighths of the blood of the original male bird 
 No. I (refer to first chart) while 17 contains three-fourths the blood 
 
LINE BREEDING 45 
 
 ?i ^^j^ original young male or, as we have shown, one-half of the 
 blood of the original old male, No. i. Then 14, seven-eighths plus 
 17, one-half, equals seven-eighths plus one-half divided by 2 equals 
 eleven-sixteenths. Thus the progeny of fowls 14 and 17 have 
 eleven-sixteenths of the blood of the original male No. i and five- 
 sixteenths of the blood of the original female No. 2. 
 
 To produce a female line, take 12 a female from the female 
 branch of the Original L,ine ^nd mate her to 15, a male from the 
 female branch of the Young Stock Line. This will produce males 
 and females which are eleven-sixteenths of the blood of the original 
 female, No. 2. 
 
 In both of these examples we have taken the female from the 
 Original Line and the male from the Young Stock Line. This is not 
 compulsory. It would produce as good results if the females were 
 from the Young Stock Line and the males were from the Original 
 Line. That is, 11 and 13 mated to 16 and 18 instead of 17 and 15 
 mated to 14 and 12. 
 
 If the reader has followed us to this point it is unnecessary to say 
 that line breeding requires careful study and close attention. We 
 have presented our text in the simplest way possible. If the breeder 
 will thoroughly familiarize himself with the charts, it will be un- 
 necessary for him to refer to the text at all. 
 
 In the chart all fowls have been mated systematically. This 
 should be followed whenever it is possible. Sometimes it happens, 
 however, that from the matings of one of the years, no fowls with 
 sufficiently good points for further breeding are produced. In the 
 event of this happening, any two vigorous fowls having the proper 
 qualifications may be mated together. For example, a male from 7 
 is mated to a female from group 11. This would produce fowls 
 whose blood would be nine-sixteenths of the original female No. 2, 
 and seven-sixteenths of the original male i. No. 7 being one-quarter 
 female blood and three-quarter male blood while No. 11 is seven- 
 eighths female blood and one-eighth male, then, seven-eighths plus 
 two-eighths equals nine-eighths, divided by two, equals nine-six- 
 teenths. In this way any two good birds may be mated together 
 but when this is done, it should be carefully written into the chart. 
 
Fitting Fowls For Exhibition 
 
 How Fowls Should Be Handled, Washed and Trained, 
 to Win at Shows 
 
 It has often been said that the prize winners at the important 
 poultry shows are made so from chickhood. While this is partly so, 
 only birds from properly mated fowls have much chance to win the 
 blue ribbon. Besides this fundamental breeding, the fowl must be 
 given extra care to fit it for the show room. Its feathers must have 
 grown without a set back ; the breast bone, back, tail and legs, must 
 be grown strong and straight, the comb must be of standard size 
 and shape and the eyes, legs, ear lobes, beak, etc., of proper color. 
 
 Even with all these points per- 
 fect lack of training and prepara- 
 tion may cause the fowl to lose to 
 a slightly inferior bird. 
 
 It is hard to show birds in 
 any kind of condition, during the 
 moulting period (when the fowls 
 are casting feathers), yet train- 
 ing, and a good wash will help tp 
 make a fair showing. In the 
 first place, the fowl must be in a 
 healthy condition. Remove the 
 fowls from the pen jand place 
 them in separate coops, twenty- 
 four to thirty inches square. AH 
 sides, with the exception of the 
 front, which should be of smooth 
 rungs, placed close enough to 
 keep the fowl from putting its 
 head through — should be of 
 smooth boards or canvas. See 
 Figure 33. It is necessary to 
 have these bars close together as 
 
 Fig. 33— Exhibition Coop 
 
 the fowl will damage the neck feathers if not prevented from doing 
 so. Make the fowl tame by careful handling and train him to pose 
 whenever you go near the coop. A good way to train a fowl to pose 
 is to use a judging stick (a round slender stick about twenty-four 
 inches long) using the stick to raise up the fowl's head, smooth out 
 the back, set the legs apart, the tail at the right angle, and so on, 
 according to the Standard of Perfection, the American Poultry Asso- 
 ciation's book of Standard Specifications. 
 
 If the requirements of the bird you wish to show, call for a 
 straight comb and your choosen fowl is lacking in this particular, 
 
FITTI(NG FOWLS FOR EXHIBITION 
 
 47 
 
 • you must remedy this defect several weeks before the show. Scratch 
 the comb with a knife until it bleeds at the bend or droop in the 
 comb on the side which you wish it to slant to. Straighten the 
 comb and attach a comb guard as shown in the illustration. Fig. 34. 
 The guard is made of stiff, spring steel wire and is formed or shaped, 
 before placing on the comb so that it will spring snugly into place. 
 Care must be taken, however, that it is not so tight that the circula- 
 tion of the blood will be impeded. A thread is passed through the 
 fowl's nostrils and around the guard 
 and thus fastened in place. It may be 
 found necessary to wind the back of 
 the guard with yarn to prevent from 
 chaffing. When the sore on the side of 
 the comb heals, the skin will have 
 formed so as to hold the comb in the 
 proper position, and the guard may be 
 removed. Such a guard can be made 
 for rose combs, as well as for the single 
 comb. , The shape of the wire will de- 
 pend, entirely on the nature of the fault 
 to be remedied. 
 
 To be faetent'd IhrougK J 
 th? tiostriis with Ihrwv 
 
 Fig. 34— Comb Guard 
 
 A fowl should be kept in a fairly 
 cool room as heat develops the combs 
 and wattles'. Fowls requiring white 
 earlbbes, whose lobes have a puffy, 
 toiigh appearance, can be improved by 
 gently - stretching the lobes sidewise 
 and rubbing them with zinc ointment 
 every day. . The treatment should be 
 star,ted two or three weeks befpre the 
 ?how- Short wa^ttles may be length- 
 ^ped by massaging them length wise 
 with vaseline. The same treatment 
 
 will be found beneficial if used on combs in the need of training. 
 Pale ear lobes can be improved by massaging them with camphor- 
 ated vaseline or with alcohol and vaseline. 
 
 Four to six weeks before the show, all full grown, faded and 
 off-colored feathers, except main wing or tail feathers should be 
 pulled out. There is little chance to do anything with the wing pr 
 tail feathers unless you have a cojiple of months to let them grow 
 in. Never pull any immature feathers because they will come in 
 again off-colored. , Just before the show, go oyer the fowls carefully 
 and remove any twisted or off-colored feathers or stubs that you 
 may find on the legs or between the toes of fowls requiring clean 
 legs. 
 
 For scaly or rough legs : With a tooth pick, remove all dirt, in 
 the crevices and creases of the skin and every day rub well into the 
 shanks and feet, a mixture of equal parts of alcohol and sweet oiL 
 See also Scaly Legs, under Diseases of Poultry. 
 
48 TOWN LOT POULTRY KEEPING 
 
 To color legs yellow, mix a few drops of butter coloring in a 
 little olive oil and apply with a soft cloth. 
 
 To polish a fowl's legs, dissolve a little parafine in alcohol, apply 
 to the legs and polish. 
 
 To cut off the comb and wattles, use a sharp pair of shears if the 
 parts are thin; if heavy and thick, a sharp knife. Disinfect the 
 wounds and cover with healing powder. This is a simple operation 
 practiced by pit game fanciers and exhibitors, to remedy defects. 
 
 Removing side sprigs from the combs or any other disqualifica- 
 tion : Take a sharp knife and cut the sprig off at the base and treat 
 same as in dubbing. One can design any shape comb with a knife 
 and shears. This operation should take place several weeks before 
 the show, to allow for healing. 
 
 To cut off the spurs : Use a butcher knife or fine hack saw. Do 
 not cut too close to the shanks as this will weaken the fowl's legs. 
 
 While the practice of clipping one wing of a fowl to prevent 
 flying, is entirely satisfactory in the fulfillment of its purpose, it 
 never should be practiced on birds which are intended to be entered 
 at shows, as it is cause for disqualification. 
 
 All white or light colored birds require washing and often 
 bleaching a couple of days before the show. Some white fowls 
 require several washings, allowing an interval of two or three days 
 before each bathing. Take three tubs and fill one, three-quarters 
 full of cool, soft water, and the other two, three-quarters full of 
 warm water. You will also need a dipper, a large sponge, a cake 
 of Ivory Soap and several soft towels. 
 
 The fowl to be washed is placed in one of the tubs of warm 
 water and thoroughly lathered with the sponge and soap. Wash 
 the bird thoroughly as it is necessary to reach right down to the 
 skin to do a good job. Be careful not to break the tail and wing 
 feathers. By holding your hand on the fowl's back, you can keep 
 it quiet. 
 
 After the fowl is thoroughly washed, transfer the bird to the 
 tub of clear warm water and rinse with the dipper and sponge until 
 the soap is all removed. 
 
 Now blue the tub of cool (70 degrees) water and transfer the 
 fowl to this for a final rinsing. Be sure not to get the water too 
 blue and that the bluing is entirely dissolved or it will streak 
 the birds. 
 
 If the fowls show a brassy tinge, it may be necessary to bleach 
 the feathers on the neck, back and wings with a solution of one ounce 
 of ammonia and four ounces of peroxide of hydrogen in a pint of 
 soft water. This mixture is brushed on with a soft sponge after 
 the fowl IS taken from the last tub but is still a little wet. The 
 towels are used for wiping off the surplus moisture and for smooth- 
 ing down the feathers. The room should be warm to prevent the 
 fowls from catching cold. It is imperative that the birds be dried as 
 
FITTING FOWLS FOR EXHIBITION 
 
 49 
 
 Fig. 35 — Drying Coop 
 
 quickly as possible after the bath. For this purpose, I am showing 
 how to construct a drying coop which may be made, either from a 
 barrel or dry-goods box. The illustration explains itself. Figure 35. 
 If one can use the top of a hot air register, steam or hot water pipes, 
 in place of the oil stove, it will be much safer. The birds may be 
 
 dried over the kitchen 
 stove by setting a bottom- 
 less coop on four bricks. 
 This is the best method 
 of drying fowls that I 
 know of. While drying a 
 fowl, it is advisable to 
 keep separating the feath- 
 ers so that the warm air 
 can circulate evenly thru 
 them. 
 
 After the white birds 
 are dry, to protect the 
 plumage from dirt, dust 
 them with powdered chalk or corn starch, using a sifter top can. 
 
 To assure an even color crop of feathers on buff and black fowls, 
 and to prevent brassiness on white birds, the fowls should be kept 
 in the shade when moulting and growing new feathers. Feed lin- 
 seed meal or ground sunflower seeds in the mashes to produce lustre 
 in colored feathers. 
 
 ■ Fig- 33 illustrates a 
 shipping and exhibition 
 coop 30x24x24 inches. 
 The sides are of thin 
 boards or strong canVas 
 (10 ounce ducking), the 
 bottom is of % inch 
 flooring, the bars are of 
 wood or metal ^ of an 
 inch in diameter, while 
 the frame work is of 1x2 
 inch strips. The coop 
 for exhibition pens — 
 four females and one 
 male — is made 24x48x30 
 inches. 
 
 At the 1914 Roches- 
 ter, N. Y.. show, these 
 pens were divided by a 
 canvas partition to iso- 
 late the male from the 
 females. Figure 36 illustrates a simple shipping coop. 
 
 Fig. 36 — Shipping Coop 
 
Judging 
 
 In mating fowls it is customary to use matured cockerels 
 l^males, eight to twelve months old) with hens (over one year old 
 females) or, cocks (males over one year old) with pullets (one year 
 old females), but this system is not compulsory. As a rule we may 
 expect more eggs from pullets the first season after they mature 
 than in their second season. For this reason, if a large production 
 of eggs, is the mark we are aiming for, we must replace the old hens 
 with the younger stock each year. 
 
 Many poultry keepers care more for perfect color and type than 
 for egg production, especially is this true among prize winning 
 poultry breeders, who are purely fanciers and whose fowls hold the 
 same position in the family collection that a house cat or a pet dog 
 does. This class of breeders are willing to pay the highest prices 
 for fowls of the breed they fancy if the specimens are up to their 
 requirements. 
 
 In judging show specimens of fowls, judges use the rules 
 adopted by the American Poultry Association for a guide. There 
 are two systems that are used at the shows, viz., the score card 
 system and the comparison system. In the score card system each 
 bird is given one hundred points or a perfect score, to start with. 
 The judges examines every fowl and cuts off from a quarter to 
 several whole points for each defect discovered. An official score 
 card is used by the judge for marking down the cuts and when the 
 examination is finished, the total number of ' points cut are sub- 
 tracted from one hundred, the perfect score. For example, if the 
 cuts, when added up, amounted to eight points, the score of the 
 fowl would be ninety-two, which would be a fairly good specimen 
 in many breeds. 
 
 In the comparison system of judging, the judge, without using a 
 score card, examines the fowls and places the awards, the best 
 -specimen, in his opinion, receiving the first prize, the next best speci- 
 men, the second prize, and so on. This latter method of judging is 
 at the present time used at all the big shows. The score card system 
 is used mostly by judges who visit the plants of the fanciers to score 
 and classify the birds for the owners. 
 
 In judging poultry for utility or egg laying, there are certain 
 rules to guide the judges. By investigation, tests, etc., the poultry 
 departments of agricultural colleges and experimental stations 
 have been able to determine the correct type fowl that will produce 
 a large yield of eggs if properly fed and handled. The judges pro- 
 ceed as with the exhibition fowls, making cuts for all defects. 
 
 Eggs are also judged at shows and exhibitions to determine the 
 best displays. Fixed rules govern this class of judging also and 
 
JUDGING 51 
 
 several score cards can be procured which will make judging eggs a 
 simple matter. Eggs are scored according to their market and 
 hatchmg value. Consideration is given to size, uniformity, texture, 
 color, weight, shape, size, freshness, etc. 
 
 Judging dressed poultry follows about the same system. Scores 
 .are given for the general appearance of the dressed carcass, weight, 
 age, plumpness, freshness, skill in dressing, etc. 
 
 Pedigree for Fowls 
 
 Where professional mating is carried on and one wishes to keep 
 a correct record of such matings and results, the breeding stock 
 should be pedigreed. For this reason I am illustrating a pedigree 
 blank to record the blood lines of any fowl. The dotted lines are to 
 be filled in by the owner of the fowl whose pedigree is to be made. 
 
 As illustrated, for example, the fowl to be pedigreed is a Single 
 Comb White Leghorn Cockerel, by name. White King. The leg 
 band number is 478. The pedigree shows that the fowl was hatched 
 April 5th, 1915. There are several blanks to be filled in with remarks 
 telling that fowls show record, or if utility is aimed for, the egg 
 laying record, if the fowl were a hen. 
 
 White King, according to the record was bred by D. D. Cava- 
 naugh, and sold to C. H. Jacks, and later resold to Frank Coombs. 
 
 The pedigree further shows that White King is the result of a mat- 
 ing between a male named White Prince and a female by the name 
 of Madison Square Belle. The owners and breeders of these two 
 birds are given also. 
 
 Continuing, the form shows that White Prince was the result 
 of a mating between a male, Sure Good, and a female, called White 
 Beauty.. The dam of White King (Madison Square Belle) is the 
 result of a mating between a male, called Perfect Boy and a female 
 called White Princess. 
 
 Further back on the pedigree we find the records of Snow 
 Prince and Snow Queen; and Glad Boy and Queenie, the sires and 
 dams of Sure Good and White Beauty, respectively. The same is 
 worked out with the progenitors of the dam of White King, Madi- 
 son Square Belle. 
 
>^ «:f5* 
 
 
 *^ in b 
 
 CO pq n pa 
 
PEDIGREE FOR FOWLS 53 
 
 A pedigree of this sort will be highly prized if the records show 
 that the fowls named as sires and dams of your bird were prize 
 winners at the poultry shows or that they were a line of egg layers. 
 The Author believes that the time is not far off when fowls with 
 show records will be sold and priced on their pedigrees, just as in 
 other live stock lines. Specialty breeders are organizing under the 
 names of the breeds they are encouraging, viz., the Buttercup Club, 
 an organization formed for the purpose of encouraging the breed- 
 ing of Sicilian Buttercups. Breeders of many other fowls are organ- 
 izing for the purpose of encouraging their breeds just as the breed- 
 ers of swine, cattle, etc. have done. The live stock organizations 
 support registration bureaus for the purpose of filing the pedigrees 
 of the standard bred stock. This is a feature which will soon be 
 added to the specialty poultry associations. 
 
 For an example, if a breeder has a hen whose official record 
 for laying is 250 eggs in a year, and she is mated to a cockerel who 
 is known to have been hatched from a setting of eggs that were laid 
 by a hen with an official record of 230 eggs, such a bird could be 
 registered at the recording office of the association, and thereafter 
 all of her progeny would be eligible for registration, providing their 
 sire-father was a standard bred fowl. 
 
 By such a record system as just explained, the race horse men 
 are able to trace the blood lines of the noted horses back to the first 
 recorded race horse, and his owner and breeder. I have been advo- 
 cating for many years that such a system be adopted which would 
 if put into action, protect buyers against unscrupulous, misrepre- 
 senting breeders and dealers who claim much for fowls which have 
 little or no merit behind them. 
 
Diseases 
 
 TO CLEAN A FOWL'S CROP 
 
 . There are times when it is necessary to remove fermented food, 
 poison and other foreign substances from a fowl's crop. When the 
 matter to be removed is soft, I make use of a fountain syringe. Fill 
 the reservoir with warm water, medicated with a few drops of car- 
 bolic acid. Place the rubber hose, without the nozzle, well down 
 into the crop and let the water flow until the crop is well puffed up. 
 Remove the hose, and, holding the fowl's mouth open, with the neck 
 extended downward, squeeze the crop as you would a rubber ball 
 until the substance is washed out through the open mouth. Repeat 
 this operation several times until you are sure all injurious matter 
 is removed. 
 
 When the fowl's crop is bound up with dry grass or other 
 matter of a hard nature, which cannot be washed out and which will 
 cause the fowl's death unless removed, the crop should be opened 
 and cleaned. This is a simple operation. Take a burlap bag or 
 other cloth and wrap the fowl up, leaving the head, neck and crop 
 exposed. This will confine the fowl until the opei-ation, which from 
 all indications seems painless, is completed. 
 
 Gather the crop up in the hand and remove the feathers from 
 the spot where you intend to make the incision. The best place to 
 cut is on the side of the crop just off the center line. When the 
 feathers are removed, pull the skin taut and make an incision one 
 half inch long or, if necessary, longer. As in caponizing, care .must 
 be taken not to cut any of the larger veins. These are readily seen. 
 
 Still holding the crop in the hand in the same position, use a 
 button hook to remove the hard substance. When all matted matter 
 is removed, the fountain syringe is ernployed as before explained, 
 allowing the water to flow in the mouth and out through the incis- 
 ion, which is held open for that purpose. When the crop is thor- 
 oughly cleaned, coop the fowl up and feed sparingly with soft 
 mashes for a few days. If the incision is properly made, it will be 
 unnecessary to sew the crop. 
 
 LIMBERNECK 
 
 Symptoms: Limberneck comes gradually and takes several 
 days before causing death. The first sign of the disease is in the 
 sagging motion of the fowl's head, then a staggering, unsteady walk. 
 Later on the neck muscles lose the power to support the head, the 
 neck, twisting snake-like. The fowl finally is unable to walk. 
 
 Causes : Limberneck is caused by eating decayed flesh and other 
 matter containing ptomaines, and not from eating maggots as is 
 
DISEASES 55 
 
 popularly supposed. This belief is the result of the fowl's eating 
 injurious food on which maggots are swarming. The dead carcass 
 of a chicken or other animal covered with these insects will attract 
 the fowls and in eating the maggots they may pick up enough of 
 the flesh to cause Limberneck. It is a fact, proven by years of 
 observation, that the unfit food a fowl swallows is retained in the 
 crop and is not allowed to pass down to the gizzard. The chicken 
 is one of the few creatures which cannot vomit up unfit food. When 
 decayed or unfit food enters the crop, it stays there until removed 
 artificially. 
 
 Treatment : If taken in the first stages the fowl can be quite 
 easily cured, but later, a cure is seldom successful. The treatment 
 of this disease is very much the same as that for fermented or 
 crop bound fowls. The crop is first cleaned with the fountain 
 syringe or, if the substance is too large or hard to be removed this 
 way, the cutting method is used. A little milk in which a liberal 
 amount of charcoal has been mixed is the first food after the opera- 
 tion. A second method which I have used with success on fowls in 
 the more advanced stages of the disease is as follows : Give the 
 ailing fowls a piece of gum camphor the size of a grain of wheat. 
 Wash this down with a tablespoonful of kerosene oil. Repeat in 
 eight or ten hours and follow this dose, after a second period of the 
 same length, with just a spoonful of the oil. If this relieves, but does 
 not cure the fowl, start the treatment all over again after a wait of 
 twelve hours. A third treatment recommended to cure mild cases 
 of the disease is to give the afflicted fowl a tablespoonful of Per- 
 oxide of Hydrogen in three tablespoons of warm water, using a 
 small medicine syringe to administer. This treatment is repeated 
 in twelve hours. If the throat seems full of maggots, clear a passage 
 for the medicine by using a fountain syringe. 
 
 CROPBOUND 
 
 Symptoms : Enlarged or puffed crop. Offensive 
 smell from the mouth. Thin weak fowls. Starva- 
 tion in spite of abundance of food. 
 
 Cause: Eating indigestible articles, i. e., unfit 
 food, grass, weeds, etc. 
 
 Treatment: Feed pieces of chardoal the size of N.,-~(a^. 
 a pea if the crop is fermented or soft, open if hard. jj''^ 
 See page 54, "How to clean a fowl's crop." [iEojbMmd 
 
 LOSS OF APPETITE 
 
 Causes : Feeding same food for a long time, unbalanced ration, 
 etc. Also loss of appetite may be caused by lice. 
 
 Treatment: Remove the false membrane which will form under 
 the tongue. "See pip." Change the diet. Pepper, a little salt, 
 einger, or mustard will act as a conditioner. Tonics are also valu- 
 able remedies. 
 
56 TOWN LOT POULTRY KEEPING 
 
 FOWL CHOLERA 
 
 Symptoms : Violent diarrhoea. Droppings yellow, often streak- 
 ed with red and sometimes a greenish yellow. Contagious. 
 
 Causes : Improper food, filth, inflammation of the intestines, 
 colds, etc. 
 
 Treatment: Disinfect the house and grounds. Scatter chloride 
 of Lime about. Remove all suspected fowls to the hospital for 
 observation and treatment. Give sick fowls one level teaspoonful 
 of Epsom Salts dissolved in a little warm water. Medicate all 
 drinking water about the house and yards with one teaspoonful of 
 hyposulphate of soda and color this mixture with enough perman- 
 ganate of potash to make it pink. All unmedicated drink except 
 sour milk should be kept out of reach. Sour or clabbered 
 milk may be given freely. In fact, where fowls are allowed 
 plenty of sour or clabbered milk, along with sound food, there is 
 little danger of Cholera. Keep onions away from fowls that have 
 diarrhoea of any kind. Be sure to burn fowls which die of Cholera 
 or any other contagious disease. 
 
 BOWEL TROUBLE 
 
 Symptoms : Diarrhoea, soft fluid droppings, etc. 
 
 Cause: Sloppy food, mouldy grain, filth, etc. 
 
 Treatment: Feed boiled rice, into which plenty of powdered 
 charcoal has been mixed. Give clabbered milk for drink. Mix 
 Venetian Red, a mineral paint, dry with the drinking water. This 
 will harden the droppings and the clabbered milk will regulate the 
 bowels. Disinfect the drinking water with Hyposulphate of Soda 
 or Permanganate of Potash. 
 
 WHITE DIARRHOEA 
 
 Symptoms: This disease affects chicks under ten days old. A 
 white gummy discharge which soils the flufif and clogs up the vent. 
 The sick chick, in the first stages, droops its wings and utters dis- 
 tressed chirps. 
 
 Causes: Numerous. The most common cause is chilling the 
 first five days after hatching, poor hatching conditions, unfit food, 
 lack of grit and I have heard it said that the malady may be inherit- 
 ed from the parent. Chilling, or ill-ventilated and over-crowded 
 quarters are the most common causes. 
 
 Treatment : If it is a season when the germ of the disease can be 
 carried, it is best to kill the affected chicks. At the Agricultural 
 College at Storrs, Conn., feeding the diseased chicks with clabbered 
 milk was successful in curing the mild cases. A tablespoonful of 
 Hyposulphate of Soda dissolved in a quart of warm water or a 
 weak solution of carbolic acid has also been used successfully. A 
 chick that has once been aflFected with this disease seldom matures 
 into a good fowl. 
 
DISEASES 
 
 57 
 
 Canker 
 
 CANKER 
 
 Symptoms : Yellow or yellowish white cheesy growth on the 
 side or roof of the mouth, under the tongue and sometimes on the 
 entrance to the windpipe. Offensive odor, 
 coughing, wheezing, etc. 
 
 Causes: Poorly ventilated, damp coops, 
 extreme changes of temperature, draughts, 
 etc. General unsanitary conditions. Con- 
 tagious. 
 
 Treatment: Similar to Roup. Isolate 
 the sick birds. Disinfect all drinking and 
 feeding dishes. Keep the fowls in a well- 
 ventilated coop, free from draughts. Water 
 should be colored with permanganate of pot- 
 ash as a precaution. Each cluster of the cankers should be washed 
 in a solution of the potash in warm water. Scrape the clusters off, 
 being sure to remove every particle. Disinfect. Swap the throat 
 and mouth with the permanganate solution. Repeat in a couple of 
 days if necessary. 
 
 ROUP 
 
 Symptoms : Eyes iniiamed and of- 
 ten filled with offensive matter. Nos- 
 trils closed and filled in the same way. 
 Face swelled and an offensive odor is 
 noticeable. 
 
 Causes : Neglected colds, or it may 
 be contracted from other affected 
 fowls. Practically the same causes as 
 Canker. 
 
 Treatment: Color all drinking 
 water purple with permanganate of 
 potash, which is the curative agent in 
 most roup cures, and keep all other 
 
 water from the fowls. Disinfect the houses, coops and ground with 
 
 a strong disinfectant. Plenty of ventilation without draughts. 
 
 Feed good food to keep up strength. This is the most successful 
 
 treatment for roup known. 
 
 DIPHTHERITIC ROUP 
 
 Symptoms, causes and treatment : See "Canker" and "Roup". 
 
 PIP 
 
 Symptoms : A hard hook like tip, form on the end of the tongue. 
 
 Causes : From breathing through the mouth. From a cold or 
 any other ailment which causes the clogging up of the nostrils. 
 
 Treatment : Keep the nostrils clear and open. Disinfect and oil 
 the tongue with carbonated vaseline until soft. When the tongue 
 
S8 
 
 TOWN I.OT POULTRY KEEPING 
 
 has been well oiled, take the finger nail and peel off, toward the tip 
 of the tongue, the pseiido membrane, which will be found on the 
 underside of the tongue. This false membrane can be readily found, 
 laying as it does on the underside of the tongue, starting at the tip 
 and terminating at the furtherest point back in a sort of button or 
 wart. Do not remove the hard portion of the tongue. 
 
 BROKEN EGG IN THE OVIDUCT 
 
 Symptoms : See Egg Bound. 
 
 Causes : Accidental, soft shelled eggs, etc. 
 
 Treatment: Oil forefinger and clear the egg passage, or use a 
 bulb syringe, putting the feed end of the rubber hose into the pass- 
 age and thus drawing the obstruction into the bulb. The oviduct 
 passage is the upper one in the vent. 
 
 EGG BOUND 
 
 Symptoms : The fowl goes to the nest often but does not lay. 
 The wings and tail droop, and the hen walks in 
 a weak, unsteady manner, acts uneasy and if 
 not relieved, will soon grow weak and die. 
 
 Causes : Weakened muscles of the oviduct, 
 over fat condition of the hen, soft-shelled or 
 broken egg in the egg passage, annoyance 
 while on the nest, etc. Note : If an egg that is 
 about to be dropped should be forced back into 
 the oviduct, another egg will form around it, 
 causing an abnormally large egg which will 
 cause egg bound. 
 
 Treatment: With a small medicinal 
 syringe, inject warm sweet oil in the passage. Hold the legs wide 
 apart and insect an oiled finger in the vent and press the egg toward 
 the opening by pressing up, through the abdominal wall. A second 
 method, nearly always successful when a hard shelled egg is ob- 
 structing the passage, is to insert an unpointed-lead pencil into the 
 passage and give the stopped egg a gentle tap. 
 
 OVIDUCT DISEASE 
 
 Symptoms : Hen sits about and plucks at the vent which is 
 inflammed. 
 
 Cause: Unknown, but believed to be the result of constipation. 
 The disease is contagious and the hen should be isolated. 
 
 Treatment : Inject a solution of permanganate of potash and 
 warm water into the vent. Give the hen a teaspoonful of castor oil. 
 
 SOFT SHELLED EGGS 
 
 When a hen lays a soft-shelled egg, it is an indication of a 
 weakened condition, lack of lime or over-fatness in the fowl. The 
 last is the most common. 
 
 Eg gbound 
 
DISEASES 59 
 
 Treatment : Feed limestone or wood ashes in hoppers, and 
 ground bone in mashes. If the fowl is over-fat, feed very little fat 
 producing foodstuffs. 
 
 RED SPECKS IN EGGS 
 
 Also blood stains on the shell. Caused by the rupture of a blood 
 vessel in the oviduct. This is not serious and will generally remedy 
 itself. 
 
 PROLAPSED OVIDUCT 
 
 Symptoms : The oyiduct protruding with the lining exposed. If 
 the organ is greenish purple in color, gangrene has set in and treat- 
 ment is useless. If the color is red and healthy looking, wash the 
 parts with a warm solution of water and carbolic acid and replace 
 with the finger. Massage the parts and if the oviduct does not remain 
 in place, insert a small piece of ice, which will contract the 
 muscles. 
 
 VENT GLEET 
 
 Symptoms: Watery pus discharge from the vent. Offensive 
 odor. The vent becomes infiammed and often times causes a can- 
 cerous sore. This disease is contagious. Cause: Filth, unfit food, 
 disorder of the sexual organs, bowels, etc. 
 
 Treatment: Make a solution of one tablespoonful of hyposul- 
 phate of soda in one quart of warm water, shake well until the soda 
 is thoroughly dissolved and add a small pinch of permanganate of 
 potash or enough to color the solution a light pink. Inject into the 
 vent with a medicine dropper. Wash the sores with a dismfectmg 
 solution. This disease may be given to the whole flock by one 
 affected male. 
 
 EGG EATING 
 
 This is more of a habit than a disease. Darken the nest and 
 over-dose the hen with egg shells. This will have the effect of cur- 
 ing her appetite for eggs. 
 
 CANNIBALISM 
 
 Symptoms : The fowls pick at one another until the blood flows. 
 In some cases the weaker fowls are entirely eaten. 
 
 Causes : A habit contracted by allowing a defective chick among 
 the flock. Lack of animal food. 
 
 Treatment : Feed plenty of green cut bone and chopped meat. 
 Spray the chick with a hght spray of disinfectant. 
 
 DROPSY OF THE WATTLES 
 
 Symptoms : Wattles become enlarged and are filled with fluid. 
 Causes • From freezing, injury or from abnormal conditions that 
 may arise from a complication of other diseases. 
 
6o 
 
 TOWN LOT POULTRY KEEPING 
 
 Treatment : With a sharp, disinfected 
 knife, make a puncture at the lowest point of 
 the wattle and squeeze out the fluid. Disin- 
 fect the interior, using a medicine dropper. 
 Another treatment is to soak the wattles in 
 warm water, manipulating them with the fing- 
 ers, the while. 
 
 FROZEN COMBS AND WATTLES 
 
 Frozen combs and wattles can be treated 
 successfully if discovered in time. Rub the 
 frozen parts with snow or cold water until the 
 blood circulation is restored, then anoint with 
 glycerine. Greasing the combs and wattles 
 with lard will prevent freezing. Never carry 
 
 frozen fowls into a warm room or bathe in warm water until the 
 circulation is restored. 
 
 BAGGING DOWN BEHIND 
 
 Symptoms : The posterior portion of the fowl drags on the 
 ground. The flesh becomes diseased and the feathers drop off. 
 
 Cause: Rupture, over-feeding, lack of grit and rupture of the 
 gizzard. Lack of exercise will also cause bagging down. 
 
 Treatment : Hard to remedy chronic cases. Feed sparingly and 
 give plenty of grit and exercise. 
 
 WORMS 
 
 Symptoms : Fowls infected with worms become stupid, have fits 
 of uneasiness, appetites become sluggish. or if eating well, the fowls 
 become thin. 
 
 Cause : Numerous, Improper feeding, too much flesh, etc. 
 
 Treatment : Give the fowl a teaspoonful of castor oil containing 
 15 drops of spirits of turpentine. 
 
 Note : Worms infect the digestive organs. If you are not sure 
 whether or not worms are causing the trouble among the fowls, 
 kill one chick and disect the organs. 
 
 GAPES 
 
 Symptoms : Young chicks are more 
 commonly aflfected with this malady than 
 the mature fowls. As its name would in- 
 dicate, the chick continually opens its 
 mouth to gape and cough, then it swings 
 its head, trying to throw up the worms 
 which aire in the wind pipe. 
 
 Cause : Small, red, double headed or 
 forked worm in the wind pipe. I have 
 never heard a reasonable explanation of the origin of these worms, 
 but they seem to incubate and mature in the fowl itself and do not 
 
, DISEASES 6i 
 
 seem to be picked up from the ground. The male and female are 
 jomed together, forming a forked worm which fastens itself to the 
 mner lining of the wind pipe. The female is said to contain thous- 
 ands of eggs, when these mature the parent worm dies. The fowl 
 coughs up these worms which are picked up by the young chicks, 
 some of them getting into the windpipe where they begin to cause 
 trouble. Mature fowls being strong enough to dislodge the para- 
 sites, are less badly affected than the young birds. 
 
 Treatment: Provide yourself with a commercial gape worm 
 extractor, which can be bought of any dealer, or can be made by 
 doubling into a loop a fine silver wire or tail or wing feather, strip- 
 ped of all the web with the exception of a small tip. Dip the 
 extractor in a weak solution of carbolic acid before using. The 
 extractor is inserted in the wind pipe and given several twists which 
 will cause the worms to catch on the end. Withdraw and cleanse. 
 
 A second treatment : Heat a small quantity of carbolic acid and 
 hold the chick so that it will be forced to breath the white fumes 
 which arise. A drop of eucalyptus oil, injected in the wind pipe will 
 also be found to be beneficial. 
 
 Prevention: Keep the young chicks off the infected ground 
 until eight weeks old. Freshen up the ground by plowing and dis- 
 infecting. 
 
 DEPLUMING MITES AND PARASITES 
 
 Symptoms : Skin of the fowl becomes rough and scurvy looking 
 and the feathers rot and drop off. 
 
 Cause : A parasite. The mites work through the plumage near 
 the skin, causing the feathers to break and fall off. Mostly notice- 
 able on the head and neck of the fowls. Very contagious. Result of 
 filthy conditions, neglect, lack of the dust bath, etc. 
 
 Treatment: Bathe the fowl in a warm solution of some disin- 
 fectant such as creolin. The solution should be of lice killing 
 strength. Note directions of whatever disinfectant you use. 
 
 FEATHERLESS CHICKS 
 
 Caused by chilling before the feathers have covered the body. 
 Will remedy itself at the first moulting season. 
 
 GOING LIGHT 
 
 Symptoms: Although given plenty of food the fowl becomes 
 thin and weak, results in death. 
 
 Causes: Indigestion, crop trouble or tuberculosis. Moist and 
 mouldy grain. 
 
 Treatm,ent : Examine the crop and if the trouble lies there, oper- 
 ate as for crop bound or fermented crop. If from indigestion the 
 crop will be empty. In this event, feed with milk, skimmed, sweet 
 or sour, pot cheese, and plenty of charcoal and grit. If the trouble 
 
62 
 
 TOWN LOT POULTRY KEEPING 
 
 e::^xif0i 
 
 Scaly Lejt 
 
 is from tuberculosis, treatment is useless. Kill the fowl and burn 
 the carcass. 
 
 LIVER COMPLAINTS 
 
 Symptoms : Dullness, loss of appetite, diarrhoea and dark purple 
 combs. Cause: Neglected indigestion. 
 
 Treatment : For a grown fowl, one grain of calomel a day until 
 cured. See also "Going Light" for indigestion. Give Douglas Tonic 
 in the drinking water. 
 
 SCALY LEGS 
 
 Symptoms: The legs and feet of 
 the fowl become encrusted with a 
 rough powdery growth. 
 
 Cause: A small nyte which bur- 
 rows into the scales of the shanks and 
 feet. 
 
 Treatment: Wash the legs in 
 strong soap-suds and remove all loose scales, ^yith 
 an old tooth brush, rub well into the scales, an oint- 
 ment composed of one part carbolated petroleum and 
 three parts kerosene oil. Repeat this treatment until 
 the legs are smooth. 
 
 BUMBLE FOOT 
 
 The ball of the foot becomes swollen and inflam- 
 med, causing lameness. 
 
 Cause: A bruise. Similar to a stone bruise. 
 Jumping from a too high roost to a hard floor. 
 
 Treatment: With a sharp, disinfected knife, 
 make tow incisions cross-one another in the 
 bottom of the enlargement. Using a blunt thin 
 stick, scrape and squeeze out all the pus. Dis- 
 infect and bandage with a clean cloth to keep out 
 the dirt. Confine the fowl in a coop on straw 
 until the wound heals. 
 
 LEG WEAKNESS AND SPRADDLE LEGS 
 
 Sym4)toms: The chick falls on its knees or 
 BinnbfeFodt ^^^ ^^^^ spraddle apart. 
 
 Causes : Lack of exercise, lack of grit, lack 
 of mineral or ash in food. Excess heat, sloppy feed and hard or 
 slippery floors. 
 
 Treatment : When the chicks first show signs of leg weakness, 
 feed plenty of green food, clabbered milk and chopped beef once a 
 day. Allow outdoor exercise. A little Epsom Salts in the water 
 has been found beneficial. ' 
 
 Mite enlarg- 
 ed a b o n 1 15 
 Diameters 
 
DISEASES 
 
 63 
 
 SopeheaA . , 
 
 <?hicken "Pw- 
 
 SOREHEAD OR CHICKEN POX 
 
 Symptoms : Small light colored specks appear on the face and 
 
 comb of the fowl. These gradually mature into warts and later 
 
 form dark brown clusters. The eyes 
 
 are often filled with a frothy white 
 
 substance. Very contagious. 
 
 Cause: A fungus mould, damp 
 
 unsanitary conditions, etc. May be 
 
 spread by flies, mosquitoes and 
 t other insects. 
 ■' Treatment : Color all , drinking 
 
 water with permanganate of potash 
 
 or medicate with carbolic acid. The 
 
 crusts of the warts should be 
 
 scraped off with a disinfected stick. 
 
 The tender tissues will bleed a little. 
 
 Dip a feather into pure creolin or "Roupine" (a commercial remedy) 
 
 and anoint each wart, or the entire head if covered with the warts. 
 
 The remedy must reach the root of the trouble to kill the fungus. 
 
 In a few days after the treatment the sores will come off and the 
 
 disease cured. 
 
 WHITE COMB 
 
 Symptoms : The comb becomes encrusted with a frost-like sub- 
 stance. Cause: Fungus. Contagious. 
 
 Treatment: Rub comb with a solution of disinfectant. See 
 "Sorehead." 
 
 WHITE SPECKS ON COMB 
 Caused by parasites. Contagious. Wash, the affected ' parts 
 with creolin and water, equal parts. 
 
 TUMORS 
 
 Symptoms : Small swellings of 
 hard matter about the head, eyes, 
 or other parts of the body. 
 
 Causes: Various. 
 ■ Treatment: Remove swell- 
 ings with a sharp knife and cauter- 
 ize with lumor caustic. 
 
 DISEASE OF THE 
 
 AIR PASSAGE 
 
 Whenever wheezing is noticed 
 among the fowls, permanganate 
 of potash should be placed in the 
 water. 
 
 Proper Type Roosts set in slots so 
 
 as to be easily removed 
 
 for cleaning 
 
 CROOKED BREAST BONES 
 
 Caused by allowing the chicks 
 to roost too young, also from having narrow or sharp-edged roosts. 
 Chicks with crooked breast bones do not attain full size. 
 
64 TOWN LOT POULTRY KEEPING 
 
 TO KILL HEAD LICE 
 
 If the chicks or older fowls have droopy wings and act sluggish, 
 examine the head. If any long bodied lice are discovered sticking 
 
 head down in the flesh, get ten cents 
 worth of Tincture of Larkspur at 
 the druggist and anoint the heads. 
 This will kill the lice. Do not rub. 
 ?'"4» A second method which will destroy 
 Various Hen Lice head and other lice is to make a 
 
 salve of blue ointment and vaseline 
 or lard. Rub this on the head and about the vent of the fowl to 
 be treated. 
 
 POISONS 
 
 Rock or coarse salt. Rough on Rats, etc. Causes fermentation 
 of the crop. See "To Clean a Fowl's Crop." 
 
 TONICS 
 
 It is often advisable to tone up the fowl's system and assist 
 nature by the use of a tonic. They act as stimulants and may be 
 given to the fowls while being treated for diseases. The following 
 are two well tried tonics : 
 
 COPPERAS TONIC 
 
 Dissolve four ounces of Copperas in two quarts of water. Give 
 one tablespoonful of this solution to every quart of drinking water. 
 This is a general toner up for weak fowls recuperating from disease. 
 
 DOUGLAS TONIC 
 
 This is an old time tonic and cure-all for digestive troubles. 
 Dissolve one pound of sulphate of iron in two gallons of water and 
 add one ounce of sulphuric acid. Allow this to clear and bottle. 
 Dose : One pint of the clear liquid in eight or ten quarts of water. 
 
 PURGATIVES 
 
 Epsom Salts may be administered to chicks by mixing in the 
 mashes, one teaspoonful to every eight to fourteen chicks, according 
 to the age, or it may be dissolved in water and administered with a 
 medicine dropper. One level teaspoonful is a dose for a mature fowl 
 and can be dissolved in water or fed in mashes. A purgative of 
 Epsom salts will aid the remedies in all bowel and intestine diseases. 
 
 Castor Oil : A teaspoonful into which has been added a few drops 
 of turpentine or three drops of carbolic acid, will cleanse the intes- 
 tines. One teaspoonful of the clear oil is a purgative for a mature 
 fowl. Administer with a medicine dropper. 
 
DISEASES 65 
 
 KEROSENE EMULSION 
 
 Dissolve one cake of common laundry soap in one gallon of 
 boiling water. Take this from the stove and while boiling hot, 
 add two gallons of kerosene oil. Mix thoroughly by stirring or 
 churning, which will take ten minutes or more. To this stock solu- 
 tion, add seven gallons of hot water and spray with a spray-pump, 
 whisk broom, etc., every part of the house or coop. To assure suc- 
 cessful extermination of mites, lice and other vermin, the solution 
 should touch every corner and crevice on the inside of the buildings. 
 
 LICE POWDERS 
 
 To four quarts of fine road dust or sifted wood ashes, add one 
 quart of powdered air slaked lime, one half pound of powdered sul- 
 phur, and one half pound of creosote flakes (moth balls, powdered). 
 Dust the fowls down to the skin with this mixture. 
 
 Lice powder No. 2. Four quarts of fine dust, one half pound of 
 tobacco steams, powdered, and one quarter pound of creosote flakes. 
 Mix well and use the same as number one. 
 
 Lice powder No. 3. To four quarts of fine dust or air slaked 
 lime, add one pint of Coal Tar Creosote (a liquid) or other creosote 
 product. Dry and repowder. These lice powders should be kept in 
 air-tight cans to retain strength. 
 
 GOVERNMENT WHITEWASH 
 
 One peck of lime slaked in boiling water and kept just covered 
 with water while slaking. Strain through a coarse cloth. Add two 
 quarts of salt dissolved in warm water, one pound of Hce meal or 
 ground rice boiled in water to a thin paste, one quarter pound of 
 whiting, and one-half pound of glue dissolved in warm water. Mix 
 thoroughly and let stand, covered for two or three days ; stir occas- 
 ionally. Can be tinted any color. This whitewash will not rub off. 
 
Pheasant Raising 
 
 Pheasant raising is a paying proposition which may be as suc- 
 cessfully handled on the town lot as on the farm. A beginning in 
 the pheasant line can be made with four pheasant hens, which will 
 cost from five to twenty dollars and one cock, costing about twenty 
 dollars. This pen should lay from 50 to 120 hatching eggs a season. 
 One Bantam hen will be required to hatch each cluck of ten or twelve 
 eggs. In starting with pheasants as with poultry, it is advisable to 
 purchase eggs or breeding stock from reliable American dealers, thus 
 receiving acclimated stock. 
 
 The following are several of the varieties of pheasants which 
 take kindly to the confinement necessary on a town lot : 
 
 1. The Ringneck Pheasant, a native of China, has a broad, white 
 ring about the neck. The body color is turquoise. 
 
 2. The English Pheasant, often called the Hungarian Pheasant, 
 is the same color as the Ringneck Pheasant but it has no ring about 
 the neck. 
 
 3. Mongolian Pheasant, a native of Asia, has a ring about 
 the neck and resembles the English Pheasant in other particulars. 
 
 4. The Reeves Pheasant, Europe, is one of the large varieties, 
 having a large tail. Beautifully colored plumage. 
 
 5. White Pheasant, spot from the Chinese or English Pheasant. 
 
 6. Golden Pheasant, China, the most beautifully colored of all 
 pheasants. 
 
 7. Lady Amherst Pheasant, same markings as the Golden 
 Pheasant, but' silver in color. 
 
 8. Silver Pheasant, India and China, large strong birds, having 
 a dull colored body and a silver white back. 
 
 9. Eared Pheasant, Asia, large, dull colored birds. 
 
 10. Horned Pheasant, fine plumaged bird from China. 
 
 11. Fire Back Pheasant, another bright colored bird. 
 
 In addition to these, there are the Manchurian, Crimson, Tro- 
 godan. Manual, Argus, Kaklas and Peacock Pheasants which run 
 from a dull penciled brown to bright colors of blue, red, gold and 
 silver. Many of these birds are the results of cross-breeding. 
 
 The young pheasants are most successfully raised by Bantam 
 fowls. The majority of breeders use a cross between the Japanese 
 Silkie and the Cochin Bantam for this work. The Silkie makes good 
 mothers and setters for hatching the eggs and brooding the young. 
 
 I do not advise the use of brooders in pheasant raising as I know 
 of no one who has been successful in raising the fowls by this sys- 
 
PHEASANT RAISING 
 
 67 
 
 tern. I have, however, hatched the eggs in incubators and given the 
 new hatched chicks to the hens to raise. Most breeders claim that 
 they have no trouble in hatching pheasant eggs but when it comes 
 to raising the young, "that is a bird of a different feather." It has 
 been demonstrated, however, that when eggs are secured from 
 properly mated fowls, and hatdtied under proper conditions, the 
 brooding of pheasants is as simple as chick raising. Young pheas- 
 ants are more delicate than chicks and so require more attention. 
 The young birds should be handled as little as possible and they 
 should never be given to a hen to brood who has a quarrelsomte or 
 nervous disposition. 
 
 Under fair conditions one may expect to hatch about 75 per cent. 
 of the eggs set and at least 50 per cent, of the chicks may be counted 
 on to reach maturity. 
 
 The set of hatching nests, shown in Figure 16, will make an 
 excellent arrangement for several Bantams and eggs, and will also 
 serve to brood the chicks in for the first week. A coop for brooding 
 either pheasants or other chicks is shown in Figure 37. This is a 
 gable coop, 24 inches high, sloping to 18 inches at the sides, with the 
 
 Fig. 37 — Pen for Brooding Pheasants 
 
 ground dimensions 30x24 inches. A frame 12x48x24 inches covered 
 with one inch wire netting is set against the front of the coop to 
 keep the chicks from straying from the hen. If the coop is floored, 
 the back should be hinged to facilitate cleaning. 
 
 The laying season for pheasants begins about March or April 
 and ends about June or July, depending upon the climate. The eggs 
 are best gathered in the evenings and care should be taken never to 
 disarrange the nests. Nest eggs may be used, either a small china 
 one, or one of the pheasant eggs may be permitted to remain in the 
 nest. Pheasant eggs should be handled carefully and very much the 
 same as hen's eggs. 
 
 Most all breeds of pheasants, especially those which inhabit 
 game preserves, have acquired the habit of polygariiy, owing to the 
 
68 TOWN LOT POULTRY KEEPING 
 
 destruction of the cocks by the hunters. Breeders say, however, that 
 better results are obtained in this way, three to five hens being mated 
 to one cock — than when the fowls are mated in pairs. 
 
 The aviary for pheasants should be of two inch wire mesh poul- 
 try netting, the sides about six or seven feet high, the top formed 
 gable style and covered with netting. Bushes and shrubs should be 
 planted in the pheasantry as several piles of brush should be heaped 
 upon frames to act as hiding places for the fowls. 
 
 The equipment of a pheasantry is similar to that of a poultry 
 plant. A cheap practical pen for pheasants has the house full open 
 front and the roof shed type. Some times this roof is extended a few 
 feet out into the yard to shelter the interior of the house from rain. 
 The dimensions can be varied to suit individual requirements. A 
 house with a six by eight floor space will give plenty of room for a 
 pen of pheasants during the mating season and a dozen pheasants at 
 other times. The house should be made of matched flooring boards 
 on 2x2 or 2x4 studding. 
 
 Several small nail kegs should be set about the yard to be 
 used as nests. They should be placed on the side and covered with 
 brush. It is best to have the nests set outdoors also, as pheasants 
 are essentially open air birds, roosting on limbs of fallen trees in the 
 wild state. They prefer to nest on the ground, building the nest 
 under shrubbery, etc. Knowing this to be so, we should keep the 
 birds in their natural environment as near as it is possible to do so, 
 in order to encourage laying, this being the main source of profit. 
 
 The most successful artificial roosts are made from poles on 
 which cross arms have been nailed. Nests and roosts should also be 
 placed in the open front house for use in very stormy weather. 
 
 A town lot plant as illustrated on the front cover ; using a full 
 open front house, topping over the run with wire will accommodate 
 three pens of pheasants, five birds to a pen, if divided into three 
 parts, instead of two as shown. During the* mating season, the 
 pheasant cocks will become quarrelsome, often killing one another, if 
 allowed to run together. 
 
 Earth floors and dust baths are needed for pheasants, both old 
 and young. Sanitary conditions should prevail as the fowls are sus- 
 ceptable to the same diseases and vermin, as poultry. Lice should be 
 fought from the beginning. Brooding Bantams with lice, scaly legs 
 or any other ailment should never be used in the pens. 
 
 There is a large demand for pheasants of the ornamental, bright 
 colored varieties. These can readily be sold at fair prices to the 
 owners of estates, etc. Game pheasants are in demand mostly with 
 hunting preserves, clubs, and so on. The feathers of the Golden and 
 Lady Amherst Pheasants are used for making artificial flies for 
 fishing and will bring a good price. They are also used to trim 
 ladies head wear. 
 
PHEASANT RAISING 63 
 
 The feeding and food stuffs for pheasants should be the same 
 as for poultry except that less grain and more flesh food and greens 
 are required. There are several methods of furnishing the pheasants 
 with their natural food— berries, fruit, seeds, worms, bugs, etc. The 
 young pheasants, at least, must receive such a ration. In winter, 
 chestnuts, acorns, apples, potatoes, turnips, cabbage, and sprouted 
 grain are relished. For grains, feed the poultry rations, adding to 
 them split peas and beans, millet and sunflower seeds. Sharp grit 
 is also needed. 
 
 One of the best ways of furnishing animal food is to hatch mag- 
 gots. This is easiest done by making a box about six inches square, 
 the bottom being of one quarter inch wire netting. This box, which 
 we will call the hatchery, is placed upon a second box of the same 
 construction. Place a piece of liver or other meat in the top box, 
 which has no cover. The lower chamber is filled with coarse bran. 
 The meat, being exposed, will be blown by flies and in time the eggs 
 will hatch out maggots which will fall through the wire bottom of 
 the hatchery into the bran box below. Here they will make their 
 way through the screen and will drop to the ground to be eaten by 
 the pheasants. This hatcher can be placed up high, either on the 
 roof of the yard or upon a post. The pheasants should never be 
 allowed to eat the decaying meat as it will poison the birds and cause 
 limberneck, therefore if the hatcher is placed inside the yard, it 
 should be covered with one inch netting for safety. The maggots 
 are cleansed of the meat by the bran in the lower box by the time 
 they have made their way through the screen, which serves as a 
 bottom. Some pheasant raisers hang a piece of dried beef inside of 
 the pheasant coop for the fowls to pick at. 
 
 In order to prevent disease, the yard and floor of the house 
 should be spaded up every month during the summer. When this is 
 done, it is a good plan to sow oats, rye or other seeds which will be 
 eagerly sought after by the birds. This stunt will encourage the 
 pheasants to take the exercise which is necessary for their welfare 
 and health. 
 
 Keep on friendly terms with your flock and never go near the 
 pens without first giving warning of your approach by whistling, 
 rattling a pan or some such noise. 
 
 My Town Lot friends will get a great deal of pleasure from the 
 pheasant industry, and, as there will be no cocks to crow, or hens 
 to cackle, the neighbors will have little cause to complain. 
 
 THE END