SF 487 Copy 1 ^^e Western poultry (Bui6e 'practical 'Creallse ==on Western== "poultry (Tulture $L00 :et too fat and heavy. Give grass, alfalfa or clover leaves, some form, of meat, if bugs and worms cannot be obtained by the birds, and do not force them for too many eggs at any one time. Do not allow the eggs to get cold as ice and stay that way for a long time before setting. Never set eggs that have been chilled by being in the nests when the weather is at or below the freezing point. Do not save eggs more than ten days. Do not set odd shaped, over-sized or under-sized eggs. Rapid Growth and Early Maturity — Feed the chicks the commercial chick feed the first three days. Then begin feeding a little bran mash in addition to the chick feed. Keep them warm but allow plenty of fresh air all the time in the brooders and brooder houses. Gradually increase the quantity of chick feed and mash until they go to the colony houses or coops, then feed the same ration as given for winter eggs. Do not be afraid of overfeeding chicks. Give them all they can eat of dry grain and all they will clean up in ten minutes of the mash. Allow free range on grass. Feed finely chopped grass or sprouts to the chicks in the brooders after the first day. Give all the green feed in the form of tender grass or sprouts they will eat. For early laying, house the pullets in their regular quarters at least a month before they are expected to lay. Fattening — Feed plenty of com and bran mash. Put chopped greens in the mash. Keep the birds closely confined and darken the coop so they will roost. Raise curtains and admit light when feeding. Feed four or five times a day. CONCLUSION. Select your breed and variety with the same care and study that you would use in selecting a farm or home or a business location. Study the market and place your product on sale at the time it will bring you the largest return on the investment. Feed and care for your birds in such a way that they will prcJuce at the time you want the product. Do not waste anything. Allow the birds to find all the free feed possible and introduce new blood every year if necessary to keep up the stamina and vigor of your flock. 18 The Western Poultry Guide CHAPTER III COMMERCIAL POULTRY RAISING IN THE NORTHWEST By Captain A. Waldwick, Tacoma, Washington, Breeder of White Leghorns, and Manufacturer of Fireless Brooders. O SUCCEED in profitably producing poultry and eggs for the markets, there are many things which are of great importance if the poultryman is to be successful in the highest sense of the word. The most important are: good location, low first cost, economy of operation, good stock, incubation, brooding, inexpensive but comfortable housing of the birds, proper feeding, cleanliness and care, convenient to a good market and shipping point, business abil- ity, honesty, willingness, and ability for any kind of work required. LOCATION. The best location is on a sandy loam, or Capt. A. Waldwick gravelly soil where natural drainage is obtained so there will be no pools of water standing near the poultry houses. It is also important that this soil is productive enough to raise green feed for all stock handled, and the plentiful supply the year around. Without green feed, real success is never obtained. It is of importance to be located near a shipping point so as to save time in bringing the produce from the farm to the station. It is of much less importance, if the market is some distance away, than to liave the shipping point several miles away from the farm. The loss of time in shipping is much more than the extra freight would be on a long distance shipment. If the best market is nearby, so much better. ECONOMY IN CONSTRUCTION AND OPERATION. The first cost in buildings and equipment should be carefully hoted. Many failures have resulted from too much money spent in the construction of too expensive houses and fixtures, also from impractical methods. Inconvenience in operation has also caused the downfall of many. A poultry house may be built very cheaply and at the same time lie comfortable for the birds the year around. A house fourteen by The Western Poultry Guide IS* fourteen is ample room for fifty layers, and will be most economically constructed by using the shed roof style. The back should be five: feet six inches from sill to plate; the front, seven feet 6 inches. This- will give ample slope to the roof for the water to run off, if paper" is used. If shingled, the front should be at least two feet higher.. The shed roof style is by far the cheapest and easiest to construct, and the beginner should look as much to the first cost as to anything else. It should, however, be borne in mind that cheapness should not be the only reason for doing anything. Practicability, convenience in doing the every-day work, coupled with comfort of the birds, winter' and summer, should be the guides for constructing the poultry house.. A house as formerly described, with open front, about four by five feet for every fourteen feet of house front, answers the purpose better than anything known at the present time. This open front side should face away from the prevailing winds, always. In the Puget. Sound Country and all along the Pacific Coast, and for some distance- inland, this wind is from the southeast, to west, and southwest. The prevailing wind during the rainy and stormy season of the year is: from the southwest. The house, therefore, if facing due east, will afford protection from the elements on the east side (the open front). It will be found that even in very stormy weather the house will be comfortable inside with wire fronts all open. Interior of Waldwick's Incubator House — Turning the Eggs. 20 The Western Poultry Guide Some protection should be provided for the open fronts to be used at night in very cold and stormy weather. Some use burlap curtains, others muslin. There is considerable difficulty in operating these curtains, and much time is spent unnecessarily in adjusting them. The best and most satisfactory w^ay is to have board shutters, two for each opening, hinged one on each side of the opening. On very ■cold nights the two may be closed. On very stormy nights, with a moderate temperature, one shutter on each opening may be closed if it is considered best for the health of the birds. With shutters properly arranged very little time is required in opening and closing. It can be done about as fast as one can walk past the openings. This method is inexpensive, durable and the wost economical of operation, of any manner of handling the open front problem that we know of. In addition to the board doors at the ends, there should be a door mae Western Poultry Guide 21 all the time, also beef scraps and protein meal equal parts, — also shells. Grain may be fed only once each day, in the evening before gathering the eggs, but in that case a moist mash should be fed in the morning. Feed a variety for all stock. To produce eggs in large quantities in winter, feed in deep litter three times a day. Feed oats steeped at least twenty-four hours. It is a great egg producer, and Incubation has been somewhat difficult until late years. There Interior of Waldwick's Incubator House — Testing Out the Eggs. if prices are running high gives as good returns for the money as costlier grains. INCUBATION. are now many excellent incubators on the market. The beginner will do best by following strictly the directions of the different makes. Heat, ventilation and moisture properly balanced are the essentials for a good hatch, and when those are properly adjusted, good hatches will always be the result. BROODING. The most difficult part of the poultry raising business — for some people — seems to be the brooding or raising the chicks. If space v/ould permit I could write a very long chapter on this subject alone, r will merely say that the best and largest percentage of good strong '/.l The Western Poidtry Guide chicks is raised the most economically both for fuel, time and labor, in lampless, or fireless brooders, in a house heated to anywhere from SO to 70 degrees during the day. The cheapest kind of wood obtainable may be used. It eliminates the cost of oil and attending to oil lamps. It allows the poultry raiser to retire for the night and secure a sound rest after a long day's work. He need have no fear of fire, as there need be none at night. It enables him to weed out all weak chicks as they are brooded in lots of 100 or less, and this advantage alone is of great importance, for on chicks, while small, depends the future money-maker as a breeder. When broodjng chicks in flocks of 1,000 to 1500 (room brooding method) this weeding out of the weaker ones is an impossibility, as the space is too large, which makes it difficult to observe the individual bird. I have brooded chicks in fireless brooders exclusively for the last five years, and am thoroughly convinced from what I have noted this year that there is no method equal to it in any way whatever. Gi'eat claims have been made for other methods, but unfortunately for those who have tried them, they have come very far below expectations. The individual lamp brooder is the thing for those raising a few chicks, for those i*aising chicks in large numbers, the indoor lampless will prove the best and most economical. With proper arrangement of brooders, one person can comfortably take care of 5,000 chicks. Half this number would be about the limit with any other method of brooding. CLEANLINESS. Cleanliness should always be observed. There has never been any- thing that has done more to put the otherwise successful poultry raiser out of business than neglect in keeping houses, goods and premises clean. An ever watchful eye for vermin is needed, and even if none are seen, spray and clean regularly just the same — remember -.the value of prevention. RELIABILITY. It is necessary to be convenient to a good market so one can call ■occasionally on the customer and thus become better acquainted, and if good goods have been shipped, the top prices may always be obtained. By coming in contact with the customer, the shipper will, if practicing the "square deal," produce that confidence and feeling of reliability so desirable between buyer and seller. It also gives the f hipper a chance to learn if he is getting a "square deal." If he is not, he should drop the customer. There are always others to be found. When a reliable customer is found, do your utmost to give satisfaction, without giving anything away, for eggs of the best grade always command the top prices, and the honest shipper has no difficulty in obtaining them. The Western Poultry Guide 23 Waldvnck and His Auto Delivery. WHO SHOULD ENGAGE IN THE BUSINESS. It used to be that poultry raising was looked upon as only fit for the "wimmen" folks, or as an occupation for some old decrepit person and even invalids, also regarded as something that any one could make a success at, even if he had failed at everything else he had tried. I v/ant to tell you most emphatically that never was anything more incorrect. To succeed, there must be first a willingness to work; second, ability for business, as well as for any kind of work that comes along, from digging a ditch to running an incubator. Personal manual labor is not absolutely necessary to be done if the owner has the means and feels inclined to hire the work done. Neither is it necessary to do any work, if he has plenty of money and has the experience. In that case the experience will be worth much more than the labor hired. But for* the beginner, with small means, and perhaps less experience, I will say, be prepared to do the work yourself, until you have gained sufficient knowledge of the business to know when you are right or wrong. When you know you are right and have the means, then go ahead and let nothing stop you. Push ahead to the limit and you will in time be reaping a continual harvest. The beginner will do best by adopting the methods of somo 24 The Western Poultry Guide one who has made a success and follow them step by step as he goe? along, or he may adopt a combination of several successful men's methods, but usually that does not work as well as sticking closely to one man's ideas. Much time, money, and worry may be saved by £0 doing. DOES IT PAY? Some prospective poultry raisers seem more interested in "what are the profits" rather than the expense. I will here give a short outline of both. Land, houses, stock and equipment for an egg farm will be about ?3 per hen. This will vary according to the price of the land, als6 the number of hens kept, for the larger the number of birds, the less will be the average cost per fowl. Feed for a layer per year, $1.50; 12 dozen eggs at an average of 30 cents, $3.60; balance for labor, interest, etc., $2.10. The above is a low average for the number of eggs laid if good stock is kept, also a low average price on eggs, especially if one manages to get many winter eggs, which is not difficult with proper housing, feed and care. It has been my experience to take in more money for market eggs during the winter than in the spring and summer. My eggs have averaged from 36 cents to 41 cents per dozen for the last six years. Will the poultry business be overdone? Not so long as the people of this country continue to eat eggs. I remember about two years ago I read in an Eastern farm journal, that the way large poultry farms wei-e starting up in certain sections of the country, there would in a few years be so many chickens that one could not sell either chickens or eggs. How that prophesy has worked out we all know. It is a sure thing. The poultry business is at a higher standard than ever before, and I predict that it will continue to grow. Of course there are, and always will be, those who never can make it pay. To the intelligent, painstaking person, who practices common-sense methods, who is willing to give as much time and attention to the management and care of his poultry as he would necessarily be com- pelled to do to any other business he may be engaged in, will find that for the same amount of money, the same energy, time and labor spent, he will receive larger returns, and be more independent than he would in any other business or line of endeavor. To reach this point, however, there must be time for learning how, and knowing how, permitting of no leaks, no escaped steam, in short, no ivaste. The Pacific Northwest offers exceptionally good opportunities for the egg farmer. Building material is the cheapest here of any place on the coast. Feed is as low as elsewhere, but the most im- portant fact lies in the markets, for they are the be^t of any part of the country. The Western Poultry Guide 25 CHAPTER IV PROGRESSIVE POULTRY CULTURE— SOMETHING ABOUT POULTRY HOUSES AND FEEDING By J. H. Davis, Dinuba, California, Thirty Years a Poultryman and Writer. J. H. Davis HE world moves apace. The fashions of today are the follies of to- morrow. It is not far to tallow candles and stage coaches. Not so far back. Today the tallow candles are superseded by kerosene, gas and electricity. The stage coaches of yesterday are superseded by the palace cars of the present. We travel fast. Fifty years ago poultry culture scarcely had a name. Then came the new breeds of fowls from over the seas and Americans began mak- ing new breeds themselves, and with the advent of the breeds of fancy feathers have come all sorts of poultry appliances and inventions, including incubators, brooders and so on, until now, we have the big hatcheries which turn out day-old chicks "while you wait." I could go on and write chapters on the beginning, progress and present of poultry culture, but as this book is an educational one, I shall waste no time in "glittering generalities," but begin at once on the task assigned me. Poultry house construction depends much on climate, but I am an advocate of the open front house for any climate. In the North where the winters are cold, a heavy curtain can be let down over the open front when occasion requires. In climates like California, and much of Oregon, Western Washington, and in all the Southern States, the entire open front is the thing, and curtains will only be required in some sections where heavy wind storms with rain are periodical annoyances. The poultry house should be built as plain as possible, even with people having plenty of money, there is no use for elaborate displays of cornices, windows and other ornaments which cost money, do no good and which harbor insects. In building a house or houses, the 136 The Western Poultry Guide builder must decide on the size he needs. I can't do that for him, but I can give him some pointers. The average poultry house should be twelve feet deep, six feet high in front and five feet at the rear. It should have a shed roof, because it is cheaper than shingles, yet the shingle roof may be put on by those who prefer it. The roof should be absolutely unleakable and the back of the house and three sides should be tight. Thus, while the house is filled with fresh air all the time, there can be no draughts. A fowl in the tree is not exposed to draughts, but a fowl in a house where there are holes and cracks is exposed to draughts. If you raise your window a few inches and allow the wind to blow on you from a door and through the window, you will likely wake up in the morning with a sore throat and a catarrhal affection of the head. Just so with fowls — those exposed to draughts get a cold in the head, then catarrh, and then roup — after which, the bone yard. The chicken house should have as few contraptions inside as possible, and everything therein should be movable. The roosts should be laid on trestles so that these can be taken out in the yard, painted over with kerosene and set on fire, when all insect life will be destroyed as well as the eggs. Nest boxes and all should be movable and should receive the same treatment when it comes to a "clean-up." Thus, you see, there is nothing in the house but the bare walls, and where there are only bare walls you can go over them with a torch and destroy every living thing. Care must be taken that there is no straw about, or anything to burn the house. The careful man will succeed with the torch; the careless man may have a conflagration, but there is no risk whatever if these directions are followed. Now about nests; there are various methods of building them. They may be put in the house proper; they may be on the outside, on a small platform, or shelf just wide enough for the nest boxes, which should have covers on them — then the eggs may be gathered from the outside — or a partition of wire might be run through the house, leaving an alleyway, at the back, of three or four feet, so that the eggs could be gathered inside the house while the nest boxes would not be in the roosting quarters. A door at the end of the house would be necessary to get into this sort of a hall-way; this is handy in rainy weather. It is also good in the case of setting hens, as the nest boxes may be drawn into the alley-way, but in case the nests are constructed this way, there can be no going over the inside of the house with a lighted torch. With the nests completely on the outside on a platform, all danger from a torch is obviated. Where a person keeps a large number of fowls the house should be made in accordance therewith as regards length, and while some keep several hundred in one flock, my experience is that for best results, fowls should be put in flocks of fifty and not more than one hundred. If a thousand fowls are kept, the poultry house may be The Western Poultry Guide 27 made of the above dimensions as to height and width, when it can be made as long as necessary with wire partitions, the rooms being fifteen feet wide for one hundred fowls and eight feet wide for fifty fowls. Thus, with a thousand fowls divided into flocks of one hundred each, ten runs would be required — divided into flocks of fifty, twenty runs would be necessary. The length of the runs are left to the option of the breeder, who may make them longer or shorter as he elects. He may have double yards for each flock, where green feed may be kept growing in one of the yards all the time, but this cannot be done unless water is at hand all the time. The breeder must be where he may obtain city water, and with the use of a hose, wet the growing vegetation, or he must have a windmill or some means of irrigation where the water supply is permanent. If he does not have a double yard, he must have an acre or two on which green stuff must be kept growing the year 'round for the fowls, otherwise the egg supply will be shorter, as it is impossible to get a full supply of eggs unless the fowls have plenty of green feed. This green feed should be cabbage, kale, lettuce, Swiss chard, mustard and so on. The greater the variety the bettter for the birds. There are no definite rules about poultry houses. I am of the opinion that breeders, as a rule, have intelligence enough to build their houses according to the size of their flock, the length of their purses and as convenient as possible. I repeat that different climates and different locations in the same climate, especially where climate depends altogether on topography, as on this coast, require different construction and different facing, either to the north, south, east or v/est, as the case may be. The house built so that the sun may shine in it a portion of the day is the healthiest for the fowls, just as living rooms where the sun can shine the most is the healthiest for a family. A poultry house should never be built in a clump of trees or in a shaded place. It is all right to have shade for fowls, but that shade should be away from the house entirely and this applies to dwelling houses as well as chicken houses. There is nothing so bleak and gloomy as a dwelling hid in perpetual shade, and it is just so with poultry houses. There are colony houses which are scattered over a field and moved when occasion demands — one of the best places for colony bouses is along a corn field. The corn furnishes shade for the birds, and they have the run of the field to pick up hoppers, bugs, worms and various insects. Colony houses are cheap things and can be built by anyone. Then, there are houses for the setting hens, brooder iiouses and so on, that cannot be described in a brief article like this, as it would take a book larger than this to describe the various kinds of houses and appliances. The main object of this chapter is to impress on the minds of beginners the necessity of having the poultry house 28 The Western Poultry Guide plain and modest, so that it can be readily cleaned and kept free frorrr mites, ticks and other insects. In this progressive age, poultry culture is progressive. It must be. The old time fowls used to roost on trees, on the fences, on the stalls in the stable, on the buggy, on the harness and in every con- ceivable place; some are allowed to do this today, where the slouchy poultry keeping exists. But the rule is, good chicken houses, kept well cleaned and free from insects. There are a number of books devoted entirely to poultry architecture — I have several, but have never had use for any of them, as they give plans too elaborate. In this century we have evolved from the elaborate poultry house to the plain, common- sense house, which is cheap and which can and must be kept clean, because an unclean house, full of mites and ticks and flees, cuts down, the egg yield and reduces the vitality of the birds. Progressive poultry culture has given us the open front house, which doesn't need any windows, and which has reduced afflictions among fowls fully eighty per cent. With the old, tight houses, in some instances supplied with fire in the winter, the mortality among fowls was heavy and many breeders had a room used as a hospital for sick birds. This has been done away with entirely and afflicted fowls are few as a result. In fact, there is no possible excuse now for diseased fowls and any such are the result of wrong housing,, roosting and careless attention. With no mites, lice, or other insects to trouble the fowls, and right feeding, there will be no diseases among fowls. Cause produces effect, and when the cause is removed there will be no ailing fowls. This, the open front poultry houses have largely solved, in this age of progressive poultry culture. FEEDING FOWLS. There are all sorts of theories about feeding. Books and books have been written on feeding. Some of them are too voluminous and complicated and too "scientific" to be of any real value to anybody, especially amateurs. A breeder does not have to be a chemist to feed fowls, yet, some of these writers on feeding mix up the feed so thoroughly with chemistry that a person, to understand them, would have to understand chemistry. Feeding may be divided into several sections, as follows: Feeding chicks; feeding grown fowls; feeding for eggs; dry feeding; wet or mash feeding; hopper feeding; feeding to fatten for market; balanced rations. In feeding chicks I give only bread crumbs for the first three days, corn bread and whole wheat bread. Then I begin to feed pin- head oatmeal (called steel cut oats), fine cracked corn, cracked wheat and plenty of lettuce. Chicks will begin to eat lettuce when but a few days old. This I tie with a string (the heads) so the chicks can pick at it. It is surprising the amount of lettuce they will, consume. This is my main feed for chicks until they are a month The Western Poultry Guide 29 old, and can eat whole wheat and larger cracked corn, and with wheat, cracked and whole, cracked corn, occasionally sprouted oats and some fish meat meal, with an occasional loaf of corn bread and table scraps, I rear the chicks to maturity. In hoppers, hung on the chicken house wall, I have bran, shorts, charcoal and fish meat meal mixed in one apartment and grit in another apartment, also charcoal. Oc- casionally I give the chicks a feed of cornmeal, mixed so as to be just crumbly with milk or water. Sometimes I make a mash of bran, shorts, meat meal, and a little alfalfa meal, but all the time they are supplied with lettuce, swiss chard, cabbage, Chinese mustard, and so on, in rotation. I never feed any of the feeds of commerce, sold by ■dealers, already mixed, but mix my own feeds, and know just what I am feeding. This is about the extent of my chick feeding and I have the healthiest of chicks; no ailments of any kind. Chicks love boiled potatoes, and any kind of cooked vegetables; and so do old fowls, but the main thing is to keep the birds absolutely free from mites, lice, ticks, flees, and other insect pests. Feeding is very simple, as any farmer's wife will tell you. In feeding grown fowls I follow the same feeding nearly as for chicks. Wheat, cracked corn, sprouted oats, with a feed of cooked barley at least twice a week; but wheat, oats and corn are my main feeds; these are the stand-bys. The mashes are made the same as described above for the chicks. The composition of the mashes are as follows: Cornmeal, oatmeal, bran, middlings, or shorts, equal parts; alfalfa meal, enough to color the mash slightly green; fish meat meal, one quart to each gallon of mash. Mix so as to be crumbly, with water, or milk, sweet or sour. The fowls have dry mash all the time in hoppers, same as the chicks. The fowls have all the green feed they want, and an occasional feed of green cut bone, which I get at the butchers at three cents per pound. I never feed for eggs. There is more nonsense written about "feeding for eggs" than any other phase of poultry culture. In the laying season I feed heavily because fowls which are laying heavily need to be fed well, and I want to accentuate the fact, and I want beginners to remember it, that when fowls have layed right along for months they need a rest, and do take a rest to get on a new coat of feathers. During this time if the breeder stimulates his fowls with drugs or any feed warranted to make them lay, he does so at the risk of ruining his birds physically and reducing their vigor so that they soon become unprofitable and have to be replaced by other stock. There is nothing at all in "feeding for eggs;" and fowls which are fed stimulants to force them to lay, will not lay fertile eggs; or, if they be fertile, the germs are weak, and the chicks die not long after being hatched. This will account for so many chicks dying after being shipped from hatcheries. The fowls had been stimulated to force them to lay more eggs, if possible, and these eggs sent to the hatcheries produce weaklings. I have had a score of letters from so The Western Poultry Guide people who had purchased chicks from the hatcheries, saying that the most of their chicks had died. One man said he purchased 200 chicks, and that 120 had died. This is not against the hatcheries, which I think are a good thing and needed. There are plenty of feeds which are stimulating and may be fed when required. I have already described mash feeding, dry and wet. Breeders can vary the mash to suit themselves, and breeders should experiment in feeding, as that is the only way we can learn. Practice goes a long way toward perfection. All the breeder is after is "good results," and when he gets good results he is successful, no matter what plan of feeding he adopts. Fattening fowls does not come under the head of "feeding" but is a different division of feeding. It is quite easy to fatten fowls by keeping them in close confinement and feeding them fattening feeds, and withholding green feed. Indian com is the chief agent in the process and may be fed in meal, cracked or whole, as the breeder pleases. I could draw this feeding advice out into pages and pages, but I have some regard for the intelligence of those who read this book. I have given you my plan of feeding. If you are successful, you are on the right road. Do not change your method to adopt some other method. Let well enough alone. Still, as I say, it is all right to experiment, yet it is sound sense, as well as economy, to stick fast to a good thing. There is much talk about "balanced" rations. You can't balance the ration unless it be in a wet mash. Fowls will unbalance any ration you may make. They do it every time. Mix a ration and watch the birds, and you will watch them pick out the ingredients or grains they like best, and will throw the rest out of the feed trough to be trodden under foot. It is almost impossible to make fowls eat all you fix for them in the so-called "balanced" rations, unless it be cooked together in such a way that the birds must eat the whole or none. I have watched my birds do this many times. Fowls know what they want to eat. How would you, reader, like to sit at a table and be forced to eat of all the food on it, and of things, perhaps, which you particularly disliked? Fowls have likes and dislikes. I have never been able to make my fowls eat alfalfa meal, no difference how nicely I fixed it up. In mashes, the birds pick out the other ingredients and leave the alfalfa. I give here a good ration for a mash which may be fed wet or dry: Seven pounds of cornmeal; five pounds wheat middlings; four pounds wheat bran; two pounds cut alfalfa or one pound of alfalfa meal; three pounds of beef scrap or fish meat meal; six ounces of charcoal; five pounds of steel cut oats. There are feeds and feeds, formulas and formulas; but the be- ginner, for whose benefit I am writing, will find the above formula The Western Poultry Guide 31 as good as the best, and with the other advice contained in this chapter the amateur will be able to feed for best results, and that is all that is necessary. Too much, too voluminous, instruction confuses. A little plain talk, a few plain directions devoid of perplexing terms about "ash," "protein," "carbohydrates," "fat," and so on, will not make a good chicken feeder out of an amateur. He is apt to think, and rightly, that he will have to study chemistry in order to know how to feed fowls, and he will feel like giving the thing up if such is the case. Our grandmothers and grandfathers who raised many fowls and good fowls, knew nothing about these chemical feeding termsy and if you notice the farmer's wife and daughters, who are the ones who raise the fowls on the farms, they never take a thought about protein, carbohydrates, and so on, but just feed good, sound grain, plenty of milk, some corn bread occasionally, and the fowls grow splendidly and the old birds shell out the eggs satisfactorily. This is common sense in the poultry yard. My experience in feeding chicks is that dry feeding is best. Dry feed will never sour, and the chicks will never eat more than they want of it. From the time they are a week old, I cut onions up very fine and give the chicks a good feed three times a week. As a consequence, I never have any ailments among my flocks, never have colds, catarrh, diarrhoea, worms or anything of that nature. I am of the opinion that the onions ward off afflictions. The amateur will soon leam to feed intelligently, because right feeding is very simple, and I want to expressly warn beginners to beware of drugs, stimulants, tonics, stuff warranted "to make hens lay," stuff guaranteed to make "chicks grow and keep them healthy," and so on. Fowls and chicks never need anything but just good feed. If a bird gets ailing, isolate it from the rest of the flock, and change its feed, giving milk, boiled rice, cooked oatmeal, whole wheat bread or corn bread and milk, and in nine cases out of ten the bird will recover. I have tried it time and again, and know it's the only way. If any one who reads this wants any further information, I will be glad to answer any letters directed to me personally. .{12 The Western Poultry Guide CHAPTER V INCUBATION By H. F. Rau, Tacoma, Washington, the "Quality Chickman," Breeder of White Leghorns and Rhode Island Reds. H. F. Ran jBOUT thirty years ago I decided to try arti- ficial' incubation, and built my first incu- bator; it is needless to say that it was not a success. Never having seen an incubator, I had to figure out the princi- ples myself, and my first hatch was one chick from one hundred and sixty-six eggs. This did not discourage me and I began experimenting to improve this machine or build one that would Tiatch a reasonable amount of the eggs set. During the past thirty years I have built and operated a good many different kinds of machines, besides the various kinds I bought and run. This wide experience has given me knowledge that can be gained in no other way. One may buy an incubator, follow instructions, and get a fair hatch, but they never know the "why" of the results. They only know they did as they were told and secured a good hatch. Such work does not leach a person the real system of incubation, one must start at the beginning and leam the effect of heat, ventilation and moisture on i;he eggs and they will then know why such results were obtained. TEMPERATURE VERY IMPORTANT. An incubator, to give good results, must have complete control of the temperature and it must be even in all parts of the eg^ chamber, on same level, or on a level with the eggs, so that when you read the thermometer you know that is the temperature of all the eggs. Fluctu- ation of the temperature of one degree will do no harm, but this should be equal with all eggs. A change from 98 to 105 degrees or over is harmful and should not occur very often if a good hatch is -wanted. The Western Poultry Guide 33 High temperature is far more harmful than low. I would much rather find the temperature of my incubator at 98 than at 105. The correct temperature is a question, because the different makes of machines require different temperatures to obtain the best results. Some machines will give the best hatch at 103 degrees, others at 102. This, I think, is on account of the variation of the degree of heat be- tween top and bottom of the eggs. A machine that is lightly constructed will have a greater variation of temperature from top to bottom of the eggs than one of better construction — also the manner in which the heat is applied will have some effect on this. On account of this variation, a different degree of heat is required at the top of the eggs to get the correct average of heat to the eggs. We use a well constructed machine and find a temperature of 101 the first week, or rather four or five days, then IOIV2 for a week; 102 up to a few days before hatching, and 102 Vi; and 103 during hatching will give the best results. Many differ as to the proper temperature to get the best results at hatching time. Up to this season we did not think as we do now, and we came to the conclusion only after a season's experience, when we had an opportunity to get tests that found this to be a fact. The past season we operated several large machines that held 1600 eggs each, and these machines had four compartments each. These compartments, at hatching time, would vary in degree of temperature from 101 to 105, and over at times. We found that a temperature of 102^- and 103 gave the best hatches in number and quality of chicks. We have even received good results at 101, but not good at 105 or over. These machines run fine and are well built, using less than one quart of oil for twenty-four hours, during early part of the hatch and less than a pint per day, near hatching time. The temperature runs very even — we could hold it just as we wanted it up to hatching time, and then it would vary some on account of the heat being thrown off from the eggs, varying in the different sections. We did not try to prevent this until we were satisfied which gave u* the best results. Results of good incubation; 1240 chicks from 1500 eggs Another good hatch 34 The Western Poultry Guide and after our season's work we have arrived at the following: Start the eggs at 101 degrees, run them for four or five days at this temperature, run the temperature up to 102 and maintain this up to the seventeenth or eighteenth day, then run it at 102 1/2 to 103, until the hatch is finished. This is the temperature that will give you the best results, if you have a well constructed incubator, if not, then run a half degree higher or even one degree in extreme cases. VENTILATION SECOND IN IMPORTANCE. Ventilation has caused more loss, worry and trouble than any one feature of artificial incubation, and yet, it is second in importance in securing good results. The reason for this is that it is possible to get good results by using several different systems of ventilation — systems that are directly opposite, also by using no ventilation at all. I must admit that I never secured good results with the "no ventilation" system, yet some claim the solution of incubation is no ventilation. The argument that no air passes through eggs in a hen's nest is no argument at all, for when the hen leaves the nest, the eggs and air surrounding them are warm. It rises from the eggs and the cold air outside of the nest will fall in the nest to take the place of this warm air that raises from the nest. This action is equal to air passing down through the eggs in the incubator and the results are the same. We have experimented with various kinds of ventilation systems, namely, top, bottom and side ventilation, using air brought into the machine from a heater, passing out of the machine at the bottom, through holes or cracks in the bottom; also out through ventilating tubes, taking the air off the bottom, after passing down through the eggs. We have taken this air off through side ventilation, on a level with the top of the eggs, also out above the eggs and have used a ventilation system, where the air enters the machine at the bottom and goes out at the top; also where all outlets and entrances were in the bottom, and with all the different systems, the results are about the same. The one real issue is to apply the system properly. We rather favor bottom ventilation; it is the more simple of all and is as satisfactory as any. The cry about retaining the carbonic acid gas in the machine is not as necessary as some would have us believe. We find the carbonic acid gas, as it passes through the shell from the eggs, decomposes the shell sufficiently to allow the chick to break through. We must consider airing the eggs with ventilation. Airing the eggs is important — ^the expansion and contraction of the egg helps to break down the shell particles so that the shell, at hatching time, is very tender and breaks very easily. The amount of airing that we have found to give good results is to air only while turning, for the first week. The second week, air ten to fifteen minutes, depending The Western Poultry Guide 35 upon the outside temperature. The third week, fifteen to twenty-five minutes. The size of the air cell has but little to do with a hatch. We have had good hatches when the air cell occupied one-fourth to one- fifth of the eggs, and just as good when the air cell was not larger than a five-cent piece. By keeping tab on the air cell, one can see if the eggs are drying down too fast; if they are, i-educe the heat, ventilation and airing; if they are not drying down to suit you, increase this. We find better results can be obtained by not drying the eggs down too much, and then at hatching time, no other moisture will be required. MOISTURE OF LITTLE IMPORTANCE. If heat and ventilation is right, the moisture problem is solved, but when they are wrong, then some arrangement must be made to handle the moisture problem. I would much rather run an incubator that does not require moisture applied than one that is not perfectly adjusted. There are moisture cranks who try to build or run an mcubator to see how much moisture they can use and yet secure fair hatches, claiming that this is proof that applied moisture is necessary to get a good hatch. I claim an incubator that requires moisture applied during the hatch is not right in heat and ventilation. The old hen does not use moisture, nature has provided for this in the eggs, in fact, there is more water in the eggs than is required — some must be evaporated, but we don't want to dry down the eggs too much, so some machines must use applied moisture to prevent this. The air in the machine at the time the hatch is about half over- should be well saturated with moisture to prevent the chicks that are^ late coming out drying up and sticking to the shell. If the tempera- ture was high any time during the hatch — the liquid substance sur- rounding the chick in the shell will be sticky and if the air is not real moist they will stick in the shell. An over-amount of moisture at thatching time is detrimental, inasmuch that the chicks will smother or drown in the heavy moisture ladened air. We have had this to liappen by holding too much moisture in the machine while hatching. This is not liable to occur in small machines, but it is in large ones. Less moisture need be applied during warm weather than cold, for less air passes through the machine, and the warm air entering the machine carries more moisture than cooler air, during cold weather. The results show that with the same ventilation, eggs will dry down more in cold weather than warm. This must be taken into considera- tion during incubation. TURNING THE EGGS. We set our machines at night and set the flame of the lamp so the heat will be less than 106 in the morning, then we have all day to get the temperature settled down to 101 degrees before night. At the end of twenty-four hours we change trays in the machine, then every twelve hours until forty eight or sixty hours, when we turn the eggs : 36 The Western Poultry Guide iox the first time, doing it as quickly as possible without rough -handling. After this we turn the eggs every twelve hours until the «nd of the eighteenth day. We do not open the machine until the hatch is over. Our experi- ence with machines we have purchased convinces us that some manu- facturers do not understand their own machines, sending out instruc- tions for operating them that are not right, and fail to give good ^•esults, yet when the machine is run as it should be, it would give satisfactory hatches. Many of the so-called improvements on incubators are more for advertising than real work. We have found that incubation is a very simple operation and the machine that is simple, with no unnecessary ventilation and valves for controlling ventilation and moisture is the machine to buy. There is too much fuss made of incubation — it is simply giving correct heat, air enough to furnish oxygen to the growing germ and the problem is solved. THE LAMP. The bowl should be well made and large enough to hold two days' supply. Use good oil and you will only be required to fill and clean the lamp every other day, this reduce", labor one-half. Use good wicks and a new one every other hatch It is also well to empty the lamp bowl some times to clean out the water and dirt that collects in the bowl. If you use a trip-burner, be sure to clean well every time you fill the lamp, and see that the sleeve works freely, to prevent trouble by sticking. Adjust the flame right, do not run it too high so the sleeve will be above the tube very much — if so, it will heat and gasify the oil and cause the flame to flutter, and further trouble. The Western Poultry Guide a'? CHAPTER VI ROOM BROODING AND THE BEST WAY TO START IN THE POULTRY BUSINESS By D. Tancred, Kent, Wash., Breeder Trap-nested White Leqhorns ]MAN who takes up poultry raising with the intent of making: his living by it, and who expects to get his business on a. fairly paying basis within a reasonable time, and with the? investment of a moderate amount of capital, should begirt with the day-old chicks and with as many as he can properly care for in the growing stage, and afterward when they have matured' as layers. Heretofore the stumbling block m this business has been- the brooding of the chicks. Incubation, as a separate division of the business, pays after the necessary knowledge of the process has beeib obtained by experience, and with the modern houses and equipment one man could properly care for a sufficient number of layers to net him.< a very good profit. But raising the chicks! That was the rub. Brooders — whether of the lamp, hot water pipe, or fireless type — were a great improvement over the natural hen mother and it was possible to rear chicks in large numbers by their use; but the best possible results by those means didf not adequately repay the value of the labor involved in operating them. By the use of incubators or the large hatchers a man could hatch tert times as many chicks as he could care for in individual brooders and this was too great a disproportion altogether. And a great dispropor- tion existed between the number of layers that he could care for and the number that he could raise by any brooding method known before room brooding was devised. Now let such a difference in efficiency exist in the branches of any business and we may be sure that- strenuous efforts will be made to bring the least efficient branch to* the standard of efficiency attained by the others. So with chick rearing. The efforts of intelligent poultry raisers to improve uponi inadequate methods of brooding resulted finally in the evolution of the room brooder — a device at once so simple, natural and efficient that the wonder is that it was not the first thing thought of when men first began to try to improve upon and supersede the old hen mother. The room brooder originated in Petaluma, California, and so quiet was its advent that it is not easy to determine who first used it with success. Mr. Thomas Vestal was the first one whom I heard of as operating them with success, he having placed 6000 chicks in six: rooms, in the fall of 1908, and reared 93 per cent, of them to the 38 The Western Poultry Guide broiler age. When I visited Petaluma early in January, 1909, for the purpose of investigating their best methods of brooding I had heard nothing of this method and, in fact, not many of the poultry raisers there themselves had heard of it, and still fewer had paid it the least ■attention. Nothing was known of it at the Petaluma Experiment Flashlight of thirteen hundred chicks asleep in Room Brooder Station, and one of the most prominent breeders and egg ranchers of the district, whom I visited, scoffed at the notion, and showed me a string of sectional hot water brooders (with a capacity of 250 chicks each) that he was then constructing, with the remark that there was not likely ever to be any better way than that discovered. But seven months later this very man was selling pullets raised by the new method, and had himself advertised and put on the market an improved distillate burner for use in the room brooders. At the time I mention none of the experiment stations had heard 'of the new way, nor any poultry paper; and, excepting for a casual reference to it by a Petaluma paper, nothing was printed concerning it xmtil I published an account of it in The Ranch, November 1, 1909. I continued to give it publicity in later issues of that paper and think 1 may, with reason, claim to be mainly responsible for the installation ■of the room brooder in large numbers in the Northwest. But I am by no means a rabid advocate of this method. By no means. I have always been at pains to state that great care was necessary in raising chicks by this means and I have personally discouraged from using it people whom I knew to be careless in the operation of lamp brooders; The Western Poultry Guide 39 and who could not, therefore, be expected to exercise the needed care with the distillate houses. By this method a man's efficiency is multi- plied four-fold and, as the cost of equipment is but one-fourth that of the individual brooders, brooder house, pens and yards needed to raise the same number of chicks, the efficiency of his capital is increased four-fold also. And if handled to the best advantage a better lot of chicks can be reared; at any rate such is the belief and experience of many of us. But more than mat cannot be said for the room brooder; and it seems to me that is enough: that it is unreasonable to expect moi'e. Raising young chicks — no n ttter by what method — is not an indolent man's job. Constant watchfulness is necessary, and there is always something to be done. During the brooding season a man should be on the job all day long. His absences from his chicks should be of the briefest possible. The use of the room brooder gives a man a chance to achieve an adequate return for his work. He can feel at the end that he has a satisfactory showing for a man's day's work. But he has to keep fairly busy all day, because the chicks require frequent attention and continual watchfulness. There is a good deal of difference in the efficiency of the distillate burners (or stoves, we use the two words indiscriminately) on the market. I have investigated those most widely advertised and am convinced that the one I am now using is the best one made. For obvious reasons I refrain from giving the maker's name here, but I will gladly furnish my customers with that information, as it is to my nterest that they should have complete success in brooding. The best dimensions for the brood rooms are fourteen feet in width, four und one-half feet height of walls at side, with a quarter pitch roof, flaking the height of center of roof (or ridge) just eight feet. These Jimensions are perfectly in accord with one another and with the stove's capacity, and should not be varied; but the length, which is generally twenty-six feet, may be increased a few more feet if desired. I found houses of the dimensions given above to be ideal in shape and size for the brooding of from 1000 to 1300 chicks. I have not space to go into the technical reasons of the superiority of this shaped house over the square house advocated by some makers of burners, but will say that I had plenty of opportunity to compare this house with square ones operated by 'neighbors and am thoroughly convinced that it is much the best. The stove is placed in the center of the room —pipe goes straight up, no bends — and the ventilation is supplied by two box shafts, one at either end, on the principle of a dry kiln. The fresh air enters by one shaft and the heated air escapes by the other, (Plans for all this construction are furnished by the maker of the stove). The stove man recommends that these air shafts be made twelve inches square, but I believe that shafts twelve by twenty-four inches will be better, and will make them that size in all the rooms I operate next season. Two single sash windows are placed in each 40 The Western Poultry Guide side of room, hinged at bottom, and opening inward into room from the top. The window opening should be covered on outside with one inch mesh wire netting and a strip of thin muslin drawn across the opening when window is open to prevent cold air from plunking down too hard on chicks. When the stove is in use the air shafts furnish perfect ventilation; but when the use of the stove is discontinued there is no longer a current of air through the shafts, and the windows must be relied on for ventilation. I should have said that the opening of the air shafts into the I'oom should be provided with a slide to regulate size of opening. A quarter inch feed pipe supplies the stove with its fuel. This pipe is run from the twenty gallon distillate tank placed outside of room at a height of from three to four feet above floor, and has a needle valve which controls the amount fed. Stove, valve, tank, one length of stove pipe and the amount of feed pipe needed, are all furnished by the stove manufacturer. It is advisable to cap the stove pipe with a movable bonnet which, as it always faces away from the wind, does away with any possibility of the flame of the burner being blown out in a high wind. An eight inch board set in around the base of the walls on a bevel and a further rounding or beveling off of the corners of the room, prevent chicks from smothering in case they start to pile up against the wall. From 1000 to 1500 chicks may be reared successfully in the above described room. Some California poultrymen have had good luck with i'.s many as 1750 to each room; but others have found this to be rather too large a bunch, and have reduced the number, with better results. I operated three room§ last spring, with 990, 1200 and 1300 chicks respectively, and had equal success with them all; and next season I will place about 1250 in each room. The chicks may be placed in the brood room as soon as they are dry but should not receive their first feed until forty-eight hours after the hatch is over. If the chicks are f-:hipped to you, ask the seller their exact age, so that you will begin feeding at the proper time. Do not give them a drink first. Feed them first and give them a drink an hour afterwards. And I have found that for the first few weeks it is best not to let them drink in the morning before they have the first feed of the day. When the chicks are first placed in the room a circular enclosure m.ade of thin muslin, and twelve to fifteen inches high and twelve feet m diameter should be staked around the stove, in order to keep the chicks near the stove until they have learned to go to it for heat. Three days, or at most four, is as long as this is needed and it should then be removed. They must be watched at first and spread out with a broom if they show a tendency to pile up. They do not give much trouble this way, but should be frequently visited. The windows should be furnished with good roller shades so that the room may be thor- oughly darkened at will. In this way the chicks' time of going to bed The Western Poultry Guide 41. and getting up is under control. When the muslin fence is removed watch chicks for awhile and herd them back to stove occasionally until they learn to go there themselves. They soon learn. It is the same with letting them out doors. When four days old, if the weather is fine, they may be allowed out doors; but for the first two days watch them and herd them back into the house occasionally. For the first few days I only allow them outside for a few hours in the middle of the day. I use a temporary fence at first, enclosing only a small space, as that reduces the trouble of herding them indoors. Until the- chicks are well feathered do not let them out too early in the morning or allow them to stay out too late in the afternoon. As soon as they learn to go inside to get warm I increase their yard room, allowing space about sixty feet square to each brood; and when three weeks old I remove fence and give them the range of as much ground as possible. By that time they have the homing instinct very strongly developed and if several broods are allowed the run of the same enclosure very few will fail to return to their own house. The more range they have the better and I advocate placing the rooms 200 feet apart if possible. At first the chicks should be fed every two hours, beginning at daylight. A cardinal rule to be observed is to be careful not to over- feed during the first two weeks, nor to underfeed after that. Thou- sands of chicks suffer through too generous feeding at first, and too scant feeding afterwards. The feed first used had better be a good brand of prepared chick food and the chicks fed only what they will scratch up quickly and eat with relish. No hard and fast rule can be given but I generally found two quarts sufficient to a feed for 1200, when starting. It should be scattered carefully and thinly over the whole floor space so all will have an equal chance. Once a day I feed them eggs, boiled from one to two hours, and ground up shells and all in a food chopper. This I feed on tin pie plates, a dozen or more to each room. The proper way is to keep making the rounds of the plates, not dishing out too much at a time, for they eat this voraciously and, if allowed, some of the huskiest will gorge themselves at the expense of the others. On my place thousands of eggs are set every week, and the infertile eggs tested out on the third day of incubation furnish enough eggs for the youngsters until they are old enough to eat beef scraps; and where this is not the case it will pay to buy fresh eggs at the low price that prevails during the brooding season. When a week old I give them two light feeds a week of fresh lean beef, boiled and ground in food chopper, or else liver or beef hearts. From the be- ginning I keep coarse bran before them all the time in troughs made of eave spout stuff, with a lip made of a thin strip of wood to prevent waste. When two weeks old I add a little beef scrap to this, but the greatest care must be taken that only a good grade of meat scrap be fed to young chicks. I am quite willing to tell my customers what 42 The Western Poultry Guide brands of meat scrap and chick food I prefer to use myself, but I cannot afford to incur needless antagonism by recommending one brand above another in this article, or to casual inquirers. At two weeks of age the chicks may be fed some cracked wheat and when three weeks old the greater part of their ration is wheat and cracked corn. A little later I add oats to their ration, softening them by scalding. At ten days I begin reducing the number of daily feeds gradually and when three weeks old they are fed only four times a day and when a month old three times is often enough; but they have always the bran before them and as they grow I add some rolled oats, corn meal and soy bean meal, strengthening the mash gradually until, when three months of age it is about the same as that furnished the laying hens. During this middle period of growth a good deal of oats should be added to the ration, until it constitutes a third of their total food. Lots of green stuff should be furnished the chicks from the start. Early in the season chickweed and fine lawn clippings can be had and later lettuce, dandelions, etc., are good. When they are very small I throw green sods in to them and they enjoy pulling them apart. Fine grit should be furnished them with their first feed, and this with fine wood charcoal and dried (commercial) bone, (and later on oyster .shell) should always be accessible to them. The supply of water should be clean and plentiful. A good drinking vessel for use at first is made of a quart bottle, with a groove one-fourth inch deep in side of cork, placed upside dov^rn in a Mason jar cap and held in place by an upright stick. The whole thing should be mounted on a small block of wood three inches high. About eight of these are needed in each room. Later on coal oil cans, rigged in much the same way, may be used outside the room. Most poultry raisers have trouble through toe picking and other forms of cannibalism developed by their chicks. The superintendent of poultry at a large state institution, who visited me lately, says he believes it is a matter of heredity. I do not know as to that, but I have very little trouble of that nature and when it has shown I have scon checked it. I salt the semi-weekly meat feed — using only as much salt as I would in seasoning to my own taste, and sometimes add a few grains of black pepper. And I keep the chicks as busy as possible, and that keeps them out of mischief. When I find them resting I always scatter them a handful of chick food and that gets them busy and I continue to feed them some chick food daily, until they are a good size, just for the exercise they get scratching for it. I have observed that it is almost invariably a dwarfed or runty chick that starts the practice, and is most vicious at it; and as I promptly kill all backward chicks I have but little trouble. The chicks show by their actions if the right temperature is main- tained, but I always use a good, tested thermometer as a check on The Western Poultry Guide 43 them. I suspend it by a wire about twenty-seven inches from side of stove and just clear of the chicks' heads, and I find it registers 92 or 93 degrees when everything is going right at the beginning of the brooding. During the first week of the process the chicks may need a little smoothing out with a broom at bed time; and you should always be on hand at that time, in case of trouble. They should be visited an hour afterward to see if the heat is right, and again in the course of the evening, so that when you pay a final visit before retiring you can be sure that the temperature is settled. After you become used to the care of the burner you will seldom find it necessary to visit the brood room more than once during the night, one o'clock A. M. being the best time, usually, at which time it will generally be found neces- sary to strengthen the heat to offset the considerable drop in outside temperature between that hour and five o'clock. But it is best to err on the side of over caution and visit oftener than necessary until thoroughly accustomed to the business. During the coldest weather of last March my highest consumption jf distillate was seven gallons in twenty-four hours. The usual con- sumption early in the hatch was six gallons every twenty-four hours, gradually decreasing as the hatch progressed. About 180 gallons were used for the early hatches. Sometimes a little more is consumed if much rainy weather occurs late in hatch. The present cost of No. 1 distillate is seven cents per gallon f. o. b. Seattle. During the first ten days the chicks, if comfortable, will form an almost perfect circle around the stove and from fifteen to eighteen inches away from it. At a very slight drop in the heat they move nearer and if too hot they back away. You can drive them four feet back by running up the temperature ten or more degrees. When the chicks are in the right position I never look at the thermometer; but vvhen they are not I do, so as to see how much of an error I have to correct. The stove that I use runs very evenly and a few degrees variation is not a serious matter anyway, but it is best to be careful. When ten days old they generally break formation and divide into bunches a little further away from stove. The temperature has been gradually lowered three to five degrees meanwhile. It is still necessary to superintend their going to bed, and perhaps regulate it a little with the broom; but chicks that are trained right at the start soon cease to give trouble in this manner. When six weeks old, roosts should be placed in the room, and in two weeks' time most of them will be roosting. I place roosts fifteen inches from floor and a foot apart. The cockerels should be removed and marketed at the very earliest possible age, and at three months of age all the pullets should l)e removed to other quarters excepting 200, which may be allowed to remain in the room until full grown; unless the rainy weather sets in before that time, in which case it is best to remove another hundred. It is best to cover the floor of the room with a slight coating of sand, or with loam if sand is not to be had. After the first week strew 44 The Western Poultry Guide an inch of chopped straw on top of this for litter. That part of floor nearest stove should be cleaned daily; all the sand and litter removed, and the v^rhole thing should be cleaned out and renewed eveiy day. Later when the chicks are larger the cleaning should occur every day. Absolute cleanliness in all particulars is indispensi- ble. No feature of the whole business is of more importance than this. I hope I have succeeded in showing that chick rearing is a busy job and one requiring continual attention. But it is very interesting work indeed, and after the chicks are three weeks of age it is not necessary to spend so much time with them, and more attention can be given to other things. At the busiest time a good man can take care of four of these room brooders properly, but I do not advise inexperienced persons to attempt to care for more than two during their first season. That will give them lots of time to attend to every- thing in the very best manner and without getting rattled. After the first month considerable time can be spent at other work, building laying houses for instance; for it is not necessary to have any of the equipment of the place, except the brood rooms, ready when starting in. Everything else can be constructed long before it is needed. The brood rooms themselves contain about $30 worth of material, exclusive of the heating apparatus, which costs $22 more; and a carpenter can build one in four days, and a handy amateur can do it in a week. Starting with 1250 chicks to the room, at three months of age there will probably be (on an average) 550 pullets and other quarters must then be ready for 350 of them. I find a cheaply built open front colony house eight by forty feet, with a shed roof, affords ample accommodation for 200 of them until they are fully grown. One hundred of them may be left there for the winter if financial condi- tions render it necessary, but I prefer a different type of laying house. For egg ranches I recommend as large a laying house as possible and, if the house is sufficiently large, the fowls may with advantage be kept closed in and not allowed outside runs during the whole of the- rainy season. Starting with 2500 chicks in two brood rooms it is reasonable to expect to bring 1000 good pullets to maturity. When seven months old they will — if of a good laying strain — be paying their way and will rapidly increase in earning capacity. Just how well they will do depends a good deal on their owner, but I do not hesitate to say that the man who is capable of making any other form of agriculture pay, will r'o still better with poultry. The Western Poultry Guide ^p CHAPTER VII FROM EIGHT- WEEK OLD PULLETS TO EGGS By I. D. Casey, Waitsburg, Wash., Proprietor Casey Poultry Plant N VIEW of the fact that the time is fast approaching when eight week old pullets will be the popular method of purchasing, it will be of great importance for the buyer to know how to care for them to make a profit. There are two distinct methods of management which may be adopted, depending entirely whether the buyer intends to supply the market with eggs or meat, or whether he expects to use the pullets for breeders. First, we will consider the care of the stock for breeders, suppos- ing that your pullets have had proper care to the eight week old stage. Right here is where the care must be exercised. If she be a March or April hatched Leghorn, she should have no form of animal food, and we give as a reason for this, that it will hold dovvm development, until late winter, which is desirable. Here is the way to feed and care for her: Fresh air, grit, cracked wheat, sprouted oats, oyster shell and plenty of shade; plenty of range is also necessary, as is clean roosting quarters. Let them take the weather as it comes— let them wade in the snow and run in the wet grass; it means vitality to those very chicks next spring. The cockerels should be kept in more limited quarters, but given about the same feed and care otherwise, and not allowed with the pullets until two weeks before you wish to start incubation. You may secure hens that will lay two hundred and fifty eggs by using hens for breeders that have made a one hundred and fifty egg record during their breeding year, but you cannot expect even a one hundred and fifty egg hen fi'om the hen that has made the two hundred and fifty egg record during the breeding year. Therefore you must give the pullet ample time to mature, if you wish to use her for a breeder and obtain the best of results. Let her have her own way through the early winter months, thus allowing her to build up vitality and put herself in condition for breeding purposes. You have heard the amateur say that a pullet is worthless as a breeder. The reason for this is plainly understood, if thought is given the above statements. The man who sells you chicks from a high record hen during the season that she is making her record, with a view of starting you on a firm foundation, is either a fake or he is a fool. Many are the times we have received letters from our customers, asking, "How is it that the chicks we buy of you develop 46 The Western Poultry Guide into such good layers and the pullets we hatch from their eggs are poor layers?" Bear with us a moment, kind reader, and your reason, will tell you why this is true. When the time arrives for you to obtain eggs for the incubator, we advise feeding as wide a ration of grain feed as it is possible for you to obtain, and about ten pounds of green bone (or its equivalent in protein) to each one hundred pullets, twice a week. Be sure and give these pullets all the free range that your farm will allow, thus promoting much exercise. If the pullets were hatched in June or later, we find it positively necessary to feed animal matter to get them to development properly for the breeding season. In fact, you will find that the more regularly, you feed animal matter, the faster they will develop, providing they have plenty of range and a variety of grain feed. We find that late hatched pullets mope and die, simply for the lack of animal food. It may be, if they have plenty of range and there is running water and there are not too many in a flock, they will find insects enough to supply the animal food, but when there is quite a number on the same range, even though it be a good range, the insects become scarce and you must substitute this animal matter. It is not necessary to tell the man who has only fifty pullets how to care for them to produce good breeders. Ninety-five per cent of the people who keep fifty fowls make a success in their small way, imt when a man attempts to breed from one thousand or two thousand and upwards, it is a different story, and herein lies the reason for the failures. FOR MARKET EGGS. These pullets, which we are about to consider, must be hatched from the eggs produced by the pullets considei'ed above, as they make the best market egg producers. These pullets can be fed, in addition to grain ration, an abundance of animal matter, until you have suc- ceeded to bring them to laying in five or six months — perhaps six months is plenty early to have any pullets begin laying and for best results they should be hatched in late April or May and kept growing. While there are many secrets claimed, the principal secret of having a good supply of market eggs in the fall months is good feed, free range, a good supply of animal food and good judgment in caring for your fowls. The secret does not lie in a can or package of a preparation placed on the market, by a man behind a "get rich quick" scheme. Don't forget this. Here is something else for you to store away for future reference, "Don't attempt to reproduce your flock by using these egg-producers as breeders, unless you have given the hens a good winter's rest, and even by doing this she is never as good as a breeder." Instead of feeding prepared "egg makers" as advertised by firms who have never had experience in the poultry business, prepare some one of The Western Poultry Guide 47 the following feeds, which are really egg-makers. It is useless to try to feed with the idea of forcing a pullet to lay, if the fowl is not receiving the proper food, from which she may produce eggs. Milk, in any form, green cut bone, soy bean meal, fresh meat of any kind in connection with green feed and a variety of grain, will produce eggs and will assist in early development. We are giving you this advice, which is based on our fourteen years of experience on the Pacific Coast, and while several of our first attempts at poultry raising were failures, we have accepted them as lessons, and, as we have nibbled at the bait of failure we wish to guard you from the unnecessary stumbles, if we can. We find that if the pullets are placed in their laying houses they should never be allowed out in the mud or snow, for if they are laying, such a change from their "comfy" house to the cold rain and snow will check their laying and it will be several days before you can get them in laying condition again. Be careful not to over-feed with animal matter, for ten pounds of green bone to fifty hens, three times a week, is sufficient and will force eggs, if fed with sprouted oats, cracked corn and wheat, with plenty of oyster shell and sand for grit. We think the greatest mis take made by poultrymen is not providing a variety of feed. Fowls desire a change the same as you or I, and table scraps, milk, cabbage, kale, potatoes, etc., are all valuable; don't feed them twice a day, then go into the house and perch your feet upon the mantle with the stem of your briar pipe between your teeth and through the smoke from your pipe, dream of a case of 60-cent eggs. Let the hen know that you are on the job and they will soon let you know that they are with you. As a parting thought, let us suggest that you should not wait until eggs are fifty or sixty cents the dozen before you begin to look toward building up a more convenient poultry plant, for you will find it will take several months to get everything ship-shape and it will take even longer to bring your stock up to the highest efficiency. Treat the poultry business as a business and like a good business it will pay you. •4h The Western Poultry Guide CHAPTER VIII THE MARKET MAN AND THE POULTRY MAN By C. G. Shawen, Pomeroy, Washington, Breeder of R. C. Rhode Island Reds C. G. Shawen UR real aim in raising poultry should be to make the venture pay. Poultry on the farm pays because the fowls harvest a large crop of shattered grains that otherwise would be ■wasted. The eggs from the flock and the increase furnish a vari- ety to the table and the surplus to supply the table with other articles needful from the grocer. Very few grocers buy live poul- try and here is where the market man comes in with the cash. My long experience in deal- ing in poultry has taught me many things. Nearly every farmer will have a few fowls to sell during the course of a year, and nearly all of them will sell to some dealer, hence, the dealer will know the general character of every one of his clientele. If I want to find out the real makeup of a man, I buy a few chickens of him. A dealer will go out of his way or give a fancy price to a customer who is honest and strictly on the square, and who does not assume that the marketman is crooked in his dealings. There is no reason why their business relations should be anything else but pleasant. People will accuse the dealer of being dishonest in his weights and dealings when the dealer will be abso- lutely on the square and the seller putting up the shady deal. The dealer realizes that he must give his customers satisfaction or they won't come back, so how foolish it is for the shady producer to get on a "high horse" because he was found out. The dealer is not going to be bilked, for he is in the business to make some money. Many producers assume the dealer is getting too large a profit so they proceed to use some scheme to get ahead of him. He may bilk him once, but he don't do it a second time. The dealer spots this man and makes a character-reading, and stores it away in his mind for further use. As a rule a dealer bids as closely as he dares — The Western Poultry Guide 49^ quite frequently too close, as I know to my sorrow. He will know within a fraction of a cent how much he can pay and the wise dealer and successful buyer pays very little attention to published quotations in the papers and no attention at all to the extravagant bids from the "get-rich-quick," "fly-by-night" concerns who are looking for suckers (and they get the suckers in producers who imagine the local dealer is not paying them enough for their stuff). The frequent use of the telephone or telegraph is the only sure way of keeping posted^ The producer will get a square deal from the buyers if they deal square with him. The trouble is, so large a number don't deal square.. They will catch their fowls with dogs, and hence the birds are scratched and torn and the buyers lose. They feed their birds all they can stuff before bringing them in — to make them weigh heavy — wheat at terr cents per pound. Some people will feed just a little and think the buyer won't notice it. Their excuse is that it is not humane to let them go without their breakfast. Some people have sick chickens — afflicted with roup, wens, waterbag, tuberculosis, cholera, frozen feet, etc., and attempt to work them off on an unsuspecting buyer and quite frequently they do, and if the dealer is looking for a shady/ reputation all he needs to do to get it, is to cull out these sick ones; and straightway this arbiter of all that is good(?) and true(?) will: start something. The itinerant buyer understands these schemes and! ht is on hand with his short weights and "does" the saint as well as; the sinner because they are all strangers to him. The most unjust of all schemes used is the practice of weighing^ a fowl or two out of a large bvmch (and the biggest birds are the ones usually weighed because easily caught) on a little "two-bit" spring scale which is made to weigh a pound heavy and then expect the' whole bunch to hold up to this average when the whole lot is weighed at one time on a scale that cost the marketman forty or fifty dollars. However, most producers who use these scales when convinced of their inaccuracy are quite liberal in their expectations. The dealers as a class are absolutely honest and times without number give a . square deal when they get a "rotten" one in return. I was in business two or more years before I became wise enough and experienced enough to be able to break over from the wholesaler ■ tc the retailer. If it took me that length of time to get in touch with the higher prices, how does the average producer of a few fowls expect . to break in? As soon as I obtained the better prices I passed them along and now my clientele get them and I make no more money tharj I did formerly. When the producer markets his stuff and he takes pains to see that his fowls are fat, crops empty of feed, perfectly healthy, not scarred or torn, he will be perfectly satisfied with the treatment received. •50 The Western Poultry Guide I want to express my thanks to the large majority of my patrons ■who trust me and I know I have the greatest confidence in them. This is probably true of all marketmen. For the benefit of all, and especially the marketmen in embryo, I would say that I have always sold for cash and never consigned on commission. A concern that purchases outright can usually be relied upon. However, before you trust your shipments to a new firm, do a little investigating and ascertain from Dunn or Bradstreet whether such concern has a commercial rating. If the man you ship to overpays you on error, call his attention Tto the matter in a gentlemanly way. Trust to his honesty just the rsame as you want your clientele to trust to yours. If shrinkage is •excessive at times, don't "holler" too loud, remember your customers, lor you yourself may be to blame. In shipping alive, use good, solid, but light coops. Count the fowls when shipping and make arrange- ments with your buyer to do the same. Sometimes fowls have a strange way of breaking out, getting away, hence the excessive shrinkage at times. I ship alive in warm weather and dressed in cold weather. The weather is cool enough to ship one hundred and fifty to two hundred miles when frost conies. There is much more profit in shipping idressed. I pick turkeys dry and scald all other fowls. Dealing in poultry is only a part of my line of business, but I Keep a complete record of every buy and sale — person's name, kind of fowls, pounds and price per pound, and amount paid or received, as the case may be. Also, all expenditures for feed, telephone and tele- graph tolls, advertising, etc. Keeping record serves three purposes: you get a mailing list which is' invaluable; you know whether or no you are getting ahead, and how much; protection in case of stolen j)oultry. Don't buy from small boys. Shipping alive long distances is not profitable. The shrinkage on live stuff will run about six per cent — sometimes as low as three per cent and again as much as fifteen per cent; whenever shipments shrink, on empty crop, ten per cent and over, something is wrong. In .shipping alive you can put one hundred and twenty pounds of fowls in a thirty-pound coop, which equals one hundred and fifty pounds— me express limit. You pay express on fowls, shrinkage, coop and pay to get your coop back. In shipping dressed, you put two and a Ihalf times as much in a barrel, that weighs one half as much as a ■coop, and costs perhaps ten cents more than it does to get your coop back. The shrinkage is about three per cent more and you get two cents more per pound. Six hundred pounds of fowls require five coops or two barrels of dressed; express rate $1.50 per hundred weight — price per pound paid, ten cents. An illustratioxi on a four cent margin basis: The Western Poultry Guide 51 LIVE, 600 pounds of fowls at 10c per pound $60.00 600 pounds of fowls plus 150 lbs. coops (5) at $1.50 cwt., express 11.25 Return of five coops 75 Cost $72.90 Assuming shrinkage at 6 per cent. 600 pounds less 6 per cent shrinkage — 564 pounds at 14c 78.96 Profit 6.06 DRESSED. 600 pounds of fowls at 10c per pound $60.00 Cost of two barrels at 25c each 50 Shrinkage on dressing, 10 per cent. 600 lbs. less 10 per cent— 540 lbs. plus 30 lbs. (two bbls)— 570 lbs. at $1.50 express 8.55 Cost $69.05 540 pounds dressed fowls at 16c 86.40 Profit $17.35 Deduct from this the cost of feed and labor if you hire the work done. Do the work yourself. Fowls dress away from nine and a half to ten and a half per cent. Suppose the shrinkage on the live ship- ment was ten per cent instead of six per cent, the profits would be cut $2.40 or down to $3.46. About all a shipper can figure on, on a margin of 4 cents, is ten per cent on the investment. On the same margin and same investment he can figure on a twenty-five per cent profit by shipping dressed. The wholesaler wants you to ship alive because he does the dressing and takes the extra profit. The shrinkage on the dressed shipment, when there is one, and there ought not to be any, is from one-half a per cent to one per cent. All dressed ship- ments should be thoroughly cooled before packing. How I dress poultry. I kill chickens by placing the wings between my knees with their feet out, take hold of their head and slit their throats through the ear lobes from one side to the other, and with a quick wrench dislocate the head from the neck. (Don't cut the throat — slit it) . I kill about a dozen at a time and toss them in a barrel to do their kicking. I have always scalded chickens, ducks and geese. Have the water at a little less than boiling — about one hundred and five degrees is about right. Take the chicken by the head and feet and dip, back downward. Don't scald too much. Turn fowl over and scald the feet and tail while picking the neck. Keep the head out of the water. Have a pan of cold water on your picking bench. Cool your hands in this water. You should do a first-class job in two or three minutes, counting time used in killing. I kill thirty an hour. Peel off the feet; the carcas looks better and sells better and brings you more money. Don't bear down too heavy on the fowls when 52 The Western Poultry Guide picking; if you rub too hard you will take off too much of the thin outside skin (and in case of young ones, will tear the fowl). Keep as much of the outside skin on as possible. It makes the chicken look better and preserves it from germs. Have a large oak barrel ready, two-thirds or more full of cold water, and put the dressed stock in this water to cool off. Ducks and geese I hang up by the feet with a weight in their mouth and stick from side to side. This keeps the feathers clean. Bloody feathers won't scald evenly. I kill one at a time and have one dying while picking one. I pick a duck in about seven minutes and a goose in ten minutes. Scalding ducks and geese is the whole secret. Water must be hot, nearly to the boiling point. Pull their feet back- v/ard over the back and grasp the head and dip, breast down. The hot water will take hold of the feathers and open them, and the fowls scald evenly. Dipping this way does not scald the wings too much. Don't scald too much; five or six dips are enough. Try feathei's at the base of the neck on the back, if scalded enough, hold up by the head and dip feet and tail several times. Throw on bench, back down and head towards you, and get busy, quick. Take down, and all as you go. Don't rub too heavy; work your hand along and grasp the feathers — work from the front towards the tail, except on the neck. In short, in picking ducks and geese remember these points : Keep blood off feathers; kill one at a time; have water hot; dip breast do\vnward, and don't scald too much; if not scalded enough, dip again; cool off in water. I do nearly all my killing in the morning. The fowls are in this cold water until evening, when I take them out and spread them, or hang them to dry and let the water run out of their mouths. I ship next morning. The object of putting them in water is primarily to cool them, also the water prevents excessive shrinkage and the fowls look nice and fresh, otherwise they would look brown where the white outside skin was rubbed off in dressing. Turkeys are strung up, feet apart, with a weight in the mouth. I never could see any advantage to be gained by sticking turkeys in the mouth. Too frequently it is a poor stick and then you sure have trouble. I slit through the neck at the base of the jaws from side to side — hold the wings until the bird gives up and flaps his tail down between his legs. He has let loose of his feathers then and one may work as fast as he pleases. Remember this: Don't pull out a single feather until he flaps his tail, or you will very likely have a job on your hands. Hang up to cool — water is not used in cooling. About drawing poultry — I never draw the fowls. The birds have to fast at least twenty-four hours before butchering and they must be empty, hence there is nothing in them to spoil. Any fowl should not be prepared for eating until a day and night after killing. Vast numbers of well-meaning people knock the undrawn fowl from sheer ignorance. They will go out and get a hen that is full from top to The Western Poultry Guide 53 bottom with food, that is in various stages of digestion, and of course the carcas smells. Sure it would stink if the birds were undrawn and shipped in that condition. These people judge the shippers and the stock by themselves and their way of preparing the bird. Why these people jump to the conclusion that infection takes place first in the entrails, beats me. The Creator so ordered things that infection takes place first in the death wound or injury. Hence if the forward and afterward parts of a fowl are opened to take the inside out the whole of the raw surface of the interior is exposed to the action of bacteria from the air. That clear, lymph covering of the interior flesh sours as quickly as milk when exposed to the air. The entrails were made to withstand infection and are the last parts to become tainted. Of course, if they are full (as the average person assumes, because they know no better) the contents become sour, but the entrails do not. Therefore is the reason why undrawn fowls keep better and are better than drawn fowls. I have tried several schemes and ways to handle poultry but the above outlines are my conclusions as actually practiced, and a result of actual experience to attain the three results — profit, speed, efficiency. The Western Poultry Guide CHAPTER IX SUCCESSFUL POULTRY RAISING — COMMON SENSE AND FRESH AIR 3»£ B. S. Kennedy By B. S. Kennedy, McMinnville, Oregon, Proprietor of Fresh Air Hatchery F YOU are not a land owner and are intending to buy a suitable place, select a sandy, gravely, rolling place near good markets and ship- ping facilities. If you already have a place, make the best of it. Should it be flat, cold, damp land, make all your buildings with floors, four or five feet from the ground, using the imder room for the chick- ens' rest room during the summer months, and closing it in winter if it becomes damp. Be moderate in every turn you make, do not overdo your means, chicken knowledge or grounds. Sub- scribe for one or two good poultry papers published in the locality in v/hich you live. If you have a position or way by which you are earning reasonable wages, do not give it up; you can make a small start by caring for your birds morning, noon and night. Hold on to your job until you are forced by the increase of your chickens to give up one or the other, by this time you can decide at which end to let loose. There are three popular ways of starting in the business — buying baby chicks, buying pullets, and buying eggs and hatching your own chicks. If you prefer to make a start with baby chicks, you must make preparations for them in due time so that when you get them you will be ready. You must have a good brooder house first, and while the chicks are growing to maturity you can build other necessary buildings at odd times, I wish I could have a talk with every one who is puzzled over this brooder proposition, and tell them how to prevent their chicks from crowding, and piling up in the brooder and suffering for pure, fresh air, for I consider this the most vital part of the whole business, it matters not how strong and vigorous the little fellows The Western Poultry Guide 5S are when' placed in the brooder, and how well you water and feed them, unless your brooder is properly built, warmed and ventilated you will fail. Build your brooder house twenty-four feet wide as long as desired,, with five foot walls, little less than one-third pitch, double roof with rafters well tied together with one-by-six, seven feet from the floor and sealed overhead with good shiplap or matched lumber; eight and one-half feet on each side of the building floored with good matched lumbfer, leaving seven feet the entire length of the building without floor. On each side of this dirt walk-way build a pipe box seven inches deep and wide enough to allow two pipes running from, the heaters at one end of the building. These heaters are advertised and recommended in the leading poultry journals. They cause a constant circulation of hot water through these pipes and regulate their heat, enabling the poultryman to keep the right temperature in his brooders at all times, and are indispensible in the brooder house; full directions of installing and operating accompany each heater. After the heaters are installed and pipes arranged, the covering i^ tightly placed over the top of the box and round holes five inches m diameter are cut in the center of the top, four feet apart; over these holes invert a galvanized iron can, nine inches deep, and have the holes just large enough for the cans to fit in tightly and not work any farther down than one inch. Before the cans are placed, punch three-eighth inch holes in the side of the can all around, not farther from the bottom than two inches — this is very important as it allows the heat to pass out over the heads of the chicks. Then build a cool air chamber two inches high, directly over the pipe box by laying a matched lumber floor, on sills, two inches high, cross ways on the pipe box; a five inch hole must be cut for them to project through; be sure these cans fit very closely to prevent litter from falling into the cool air chamber. Now make a false floor, two by two feet, with a hole cut in the center of it, so it will fit over the can; this floor is intended to be taken out and cleaned at will. Build sides around these two by two floors to keep chicks from running about. Also build a hover of light lumber, say twenty inches square,, with a leg at each cor-ner just high enough to clear the inverted can.. Fringe around the edge of this hover to partially retain the heat. Between these two rows of continuous brooders, make a concrete walk, the floors on each side of the building are intended for runs for the chicks, and are about sixteen inches from the bottom to allow cats and small dogs to run for rats, and the brooders are built high enough for the false floor in each brooder to be on a level with the runs. This will cause the brooders and runs to be about eighteen inches higher than the concrete walk which makes it convenient for feeding and cleaning. 56 The Western Poultry Guide Now bore one inch holes, four inches from the concrete walk, into the side of the pipe box. These holes must be about six inches apart, which allows the fresh air to pass into the pipe box, and is heated by the hot pipes and passes up through the inverted cans out through the holes over the backs of the chicks. This gives top warmth, as the cool air chamber is full of cool air and keeps the floor of the brooder from getting very warm. The rest of the fixtures about the building are arranged to suit your convenience, but this is undoubtedly the most successful brooder I have ever used. When it is completed, and about a day before you get your chicks, fill the boiler of the heater, start your fire and heat gradually up to ninety degrees under the hovers and regulate the heater to keep this temperature. Place one-fourth inch of sand on the floors of each brooder and cover this with fine cut clover or alfalfa — this will all be warmed by the heat and will be in nice shape for the reception of your baby chicks. Do not feed the little chicks until they are at least fifty hours of age — then have little pans about one and a half inches deep for charcoal, grit and fine ground oyster shells. Be sure the grit, char- coal and shells are ground fine — have a pan for each, do not mix them together. Have one-half gallon earthen fountains and give them pure water and the grit, charcoal and shells for the first feed. After they have eaten and pecked about fifteen minutes, tuck them back in the brooders to rest and take a little nap for two hours. At that time, allow them to come out into the run, where you have the floor sprinkled lieavily with sand and fine cut straw or clover hay. Sprinkle a little prepared chick feed about in places where they can easily find it and induce them to sci-atch. It will surprise you how early they will begin to scratch for their feed and it should be the aim of every poultryman to encourage them to scratch from the start. After they get to scratch- ing, never feed grains only in deep litter and let them dig it out. Keep the grit, charcoal and shells before them at all times, and about the third day, mix up a dry mash, consisting of equal parts corn meal, bran and middlings, one-tenth pait gluten meal and one-tenth part best beef scraps finely sifted. Keep this in shallow boxes before them all the time, if any signs of diarrhoea is discovered, or if you notice at any time any signs of indigestion — get, at the drug store, eight ounces of sulphate of iron, one-half ounce of sulphuric acid. Place the sulphate of iron in one gallon of very hot water and let it remain ■over night or several hours — then when it is cool, pour in the sulphuric acid and use one teaspoonful of this in every gallon of drinking water and be sure to keep your drinking fountains clean, by washing them Avell every evening and airing over night. For white diarrhoea this is also good: One teaspoonful of five per cent carbolic acid in ten ■quarts of fresh water. The Western Poultry Guide 57 Be sure the water is renewed twice daily, and keep fountains clean. But if you follow these directions of feeding, force the chicks to scratch for the chick feed, keep them warm and happy, after each meal, of twenty minutes, see that they go back in their brooder and rest, for the first three days, you will have no occasion to need these remedies — they will grow like weeds. Be sure to have little outside runs for them and when you first let them out, be sure they are able to stand it and that it is a warm sunny day. Spread straw over most of the runs for them to play on, as it keeps their feet warm. Prepare a place to sprout oats and as soon as they are a week old begin to give them sprouted oats. Place it in a wire rack so they will not run over if. They will pick it out of the rack and run with it and this gives good exercise. This is what you must keep constantly in your mind: To give the chicks ways and means of exercising, rustling and digging for their living. Now it is very hard to convey on paper one-tenth of what is in my mind that I would have you understand in a way that would be plain to you, and I find that my time and space is limited, so I will have to merely give an outline of these thmgs and pass on to some •other important points. But before I leave this subject, I want to say: Be sure the chicks you buy are from good laying stock, stock that you know is vigorous, healthy and has never had any diseases, but have been well developed and properly bred and kept. For if they are not, failure will be your experience. BUYING PULLETS. The next way to start is to buy pullets about two to four months of age. Be just as careful in doing this as when you buy baby chicks — go to the breeder of whom you are to get your stock, get a history of the stock from which the pullets were bred; know that they are as good layers and have always been healthy and well kept. Be on the job when the pullets are cooped and see that you get good, smooth, healthy pullets of uniform size, type and color and free from lice. The houses must be in readiness and built as follows: If you own a farm of not less than thirty acres, the colony plan is recommended best for profitable poultry culture; this requires less investments, gives the chickens free and healthy range, and the most fertile eggs. No fences or gates to bother with, and the feeding and watering is a sample problem. It is done by using a horse to a low truck or sled, making a trip every night and morning. The houses are built with one-sided roof, and are about ten by fourteen feet, with rear walls four feet high, open fronts seven feet high. In dry districts no floors are needed, simply use the ground; have the perches about three feet from the ground, but if it becomes damp and creates a dampness inside the house at night, better have a good matched floor one foot from the ground and keep sand and deep litter on the floors all the time; these 58 The Western Poultry Guide houses are built on runners and are moved easily with a team of horses, to any part of the farm. Keep them scattered out about two^ hundred yards apart all over the place, for best results. If your space is limited, and you want to raise chickens on an extensive scale you must use the intensive methods, which means many chickens on small space. Build your houses either on the continuous plan or many small ones close together. The continuous house is about sixteen feet wide and as long as you desire. It is open front, facing away from prevail- ing winds and storms; in flat land and wet, cold climates, build the floors four or five feet from the ground. The under room can be used to much advantage in warm, dry weather as a cool resting place and in winter it may be closed, but the idea is to keep your floors dry and keep them covered with deep litter for scratching rooms. The dropping boards are about two feet from the floor, with perches hinged to the rear wall ten inches above the boards. These perches can be raised to give easy cleaning of the boards. Build a rear and front yard to each house, whether small or long,, so they may be kept sown in "greens" for the poultry at all times; while one yard is being pastured off by the chickens, the other may be cultivated and sown to barley, oats or rape and in dry weather can be watered and grown quickly. Before I leave this part of the business, I want to especially impress upon your minds the importance of cleanliness. If you use the intensive method and do not keep your plant perfectly clean, you will wish you never had heard of the chicken business. While there are many commendable features in the intensive methods, and many great and prosperous yards in operation today under this plan, unless strict sanitary conditions are kept, the whole business will be a failure. It must be kept clean and all contaminated yards and grounds prevented. Contagious diseases must be looked after carefully, and the premises cleaned and sprayed often. BUYING EGGS. The third and last way mentioned in tuis article is to buy eggs- and hatch your own chicks. The same careful method must be used as in the other ways of starting. Be sure to know that the eggs you buy are from good laying stock and that they have always been well kept, hearty and without disease. See that they are turned twice a day and kept in a cool place while being saved up for you, and that they are not more than one week old — the fresher the better. Ask the advice of some experienced poultryman and those who have had experience in hatching chickens as to the best kind of incubators to use. I will not presume to suggest what make to use, but do not be influenced by anyone The Western Poultry Guide 59" that some other machine is cheaper and just as good — be influenced by experienced poultrymen. Follow the instructions with the machine, as the manufacturei' knows his own machine best and is capable of telling you the very best way to run it. I will not advise you along these lines, but I must give you my plans of building an incubator house, as it is very im- portant to have the correct amount of moisture and ventilation in the incubator house. Build the floor of concrete with four inch concrete walls; lay the sills on this wall, build a frame building with eight foot double walls. Good shiplap or matched lumber ceiling all over the inside and a rustic outside, with two by four studding; this allows a four inch space between walls. Now comes the ventilation. Close attention -please. Make ventilators in the comb of the roof to allow the foul air to pass out; cut holes ten by twenty-four inches in the center of the ceiling, about eight feet apart; cut same sized holes in the inside wall at the top of the sills, midway between those in the ceiling; cut same sized holes in the outside wall directly under the eve and over those inside, arrange the outside holes with shvitters so that during severe, cold, stormy winds they may be operated if necessary to prevent too much inlet of cold air. After a short time, the operator will become accustomed to the proper conditions of the inside air of the incubator hovise so that when he steps into it, he can tell instantly whether it is right or not and can operate these shutters accordingly. You will readily see the great advantage of this method of ventila- tion. The fresh air passes into these outside ventilators, down between walls, out into the room, gathers up the foul air and passes it up through the ventilators in the ceiling and out through the comb. Of all the different methods of ventilation for anything of this kind, this beats any I have ever used. Your floor is solid, and there is no jar in the room; the walls are double with cool air space between to prevent the room from getting too warm in hot weather. In other words, the outside temperature effects the inside temperature but little and you can run your machine more satisfactorily. Now my time and space is about up. I hope you have understood me all the way through — as I said before, I have dealt on rather a large scale but the novice or experienced poultryman who desires to keep only a few dozen or a hundred or so can make use of these plans on a small scale. Instead of building a large incubator room, he can use a small building already on the place; tear out the floor, use the ground instead of concrete, make a shaft running from the top ventilator holt to the lower one. If the walls are single, boards bat- tened on the outside, the air will pass in at the top, down the shaft, out in the room near the floor, and if the building is high enough for a ceiling, cut sufficient holes in it for the foul air to pass out. If it is not high enough and has no ceiling, make a hole in the top of the €0 The Western Poultry Guide roof, any old way, to get the foul air out. Instead of building a large brooder house, make a few single brooders on same plan, say have them three feet square, heated with a lamp; first floor of heavy sheet iron, fitting very closely around the edges to prevent the fumes from coming up among the chicks. Just under this iron, in the center, place a very low lamp, this is, with large flat fount, with low chimney. In one end or side of this lower lamp chamber, make a little door and bore a hole in it to allow the fumes to pass out. The door is used for placing the lamp, which heats up all this iron bottom, giving heat to an upper chamber, two inches high — this is the hot chamber, with some inch holes bored on one side to allow the fresh air to pass in and up through the inverted can as in the other plan. These will accommo- date one hundred chicks at first, which may be divided up as they grow older. The houses for laying stock can be built on the same plan with double yards, only on small scales. In conclusion, I will say, that after I have spent the best part of my life in the poultry business, there is no other vocation as pleasant and profitable, if the same careful judgment and caution is exercised that must be practiced in any other business proposition. Success is only secured by honest, persistent efforts on your part. Be a live-wire — be alert to all the good things to be had on all sides. Be a sticker, stay with it through thick and thin and you will reach the goal in the end. The Western Poultry Guide 61 CHAPTER X POULTRY DISEASES— THEIR CAUSES AND PREVENTION By G. E. CoNKEY, Cleveland, Ohio. Y BUSINESS for twenty years has been the treatment of poultry diseases. I have written a book on the subject, as some of you doubtless know. I am writing now on a special phase of the subject — and the most important part of it. I may be able to tell you some things new to you. But let us hope that most of what I tell you now, you already know! For I am going to show you how most diseases of poultry are preventable. I am going to point out the causes of 99 per cent of common poultry ailments. If you know the cause of a disorder you should then be able to pre- vent it. It is a fact that most diseases have preventable causes, and especially is this true of those diseases which are hardest to cure. In the first place, there are two classes of ailments of poultry — diseases of stock and diseases of management. It is plain to see that certain stock have inherited weaknesses and general lack of stamina or resistance to hardship, accident or disease. Such stock is quite liable to disaster, no matter what the poultryman's equipment or care. On the other hand, certain stock, inheriting great vitality and natural strength and resistance, will easily bear up under conditions far from satisfactory. In other words, weak stock under ideal conditions will probably show less favorably than vigorous stock under poor conditions. You can't maintain a state of health when there is no foundation for it. Of course you can improve the health condition but that is not always worth while, in the lower animals. At the same time the most vigorous natural vitality is lessened if the G. E. Conkey ■62 The Western Poultry Guide fowl is subjected to unnatural hardship and strain. And it is always true, that no matter what the degree of success under poor conditions, it would be vastly better if those conditions were made right. The point I wish to make is this: It is never profitable to put up with poor conditions. Your fowls may survive or even show good progress, but you never get the most possible profit in the poultry business, unless you make it your business to see that conditions are right. The difference between the man who keeps chickens and the busi- ness poultryman is this: The real poultryman never rests until he feels sure conditions are right. In other words he is basing his success ■on the law that nature will follow the line of least resistance. He puts as little as possible resistance in the way of nature. Thus he profits by her most favorable results. Having settled the question of stock, the poultryman can turn all Tiis attention to management. On management will depend his success in battling with the problem of disease. Let us have a clear idea to begin with as to all that comes under management. Housing and yarding come under management — and housing and yarding have a vast lot to do with disease. Feeding and watering the stock are the next points in management. Mistakes in feeding, or carelessness as regards purity of the water supply are the beginning of many forms of intestinal and digestive diseases. However suitable the house and yards, remember houses and yards are unnatural restrictions for poultry, and unless carefully looked after they soon become entirely unfit for further use. This brings us to the large class of ailments which are of germ origin and might really be called diseases of domestication, for they follow on the con- ditions due to overcrowding and close confinement of stock in a restricted space. Against diseases of domestication, in other words infection, we have but one weapon, and that is sanitation — a whole- some and wholesale cleaning up and disinfecting of the poultry quar- ters, not neglecting a single inch of space. In addition to the germ diseases which seem to follow close domestication there are the serious troubles from parasites, especially from lice and mites. While it is natural that the fowl's body should harbor a few lice, the conditions v/hich make it possible for these lice to develop in such numbers as to be really injurious are entirely unnatural. Lice and mites are just another curse of domestication. The poultryman who benefits by this domestication of fowls, should be willing enough to combat this curse