SF 487 ; y W292 Copy 1 200 EGGS A YEAR PER .HEN: iy How To GET THEM. Price 50 Cents. PUBLISHED BY EDGAR WARREN, Hampton, N. H. 1904. Practical Machines for Practical People Why ?? BROODERS. Open Hover—large floor space—no heat drum in center—therefore easily cleaned—chicks do not huddle—all seen at once by opening door—full rated capacity—aluminum lamp—never gets hot— sweats oil—or rusts. INCUBATORS. An incubator in an incubator—therefore unaffected by changes of outside temperature—periect regula- tion—cannot be overheated—ventilation positive, but controlled—egg chamber surrounded with a moving current of warm air—In fact the only up-to-date incubator. Catalogue free. OLD HOMESTEAD BROODER CO., Vine Street - MIDDLEBORO, MASS. ‘i y af | FOURTH EDITION. 200 Eggs a Year Per Hen: How to Get Them. A Practical Treatise on Egg ‘Making and Its Conditions and Profits in Poultry... Price 50 Cents. PUBLISHED BY EDGAR WARREN, Hampton, N. H. 1904. , I ete ee vorviet ee S20 ef eee eet e e ee) 6) 2 ee COPYRIGHT 1899, 1900, 1902, By EDGAR L. WARREN. "tts L BRARY OF CONGRESS, One Cory Reoeiven APR. 94 1904 OeevnieHT ENTRY 3-lqov LASS: % XXo. 2 eas COPY A. GIA TERS I. THE TWO HUNDRED EGG HEN. We hear a good deal said in these days about the 200 egg hen. Some are disposed to deny her existence, and to class her with such fabulous or semi-fabulous birds as the phoenix and dodo. Others admit that she has appeared in isolated instances, but is by no means common. Others contend that if she should appear in large numbers it would be a misfortune rather than otherwise, for such excessive egg production would weaken her system so that her eggs would not hatch heaithy and vigorous chicks; and the 200 egg hen would be in constant danger of extinction from her own success. One thing is certain, however, the 200 egg hen is no myth. There are many of them scattered about, and the tribe is on the increase. My reputation for truth and veracity is reasonably good; yet I am willing to make oath that I had a flock of 14 White Wyandottes that from October to October gave me a total of 2999 eggs, an average of a little better than 214 eggs apiece. There are others who can beat this. Men are already talking of the 250 egg hen, and before we realize it she will be here. al do not see how a man can draw an arbitrary line, and say how many eggs a hen may or may not lay ina year. The hen in her wild state lays from six to ten; the average farmer’s hen not over 100; while on egg farms the average is raised to 150. But why stop here? There are 365 days in a year; and [ do not see why a pullet that is fully matured, that comes from an egg pro- ducing strain, that is properly fed and cared for and kept steadily at work, may not lay at least 200 eggs in that time. I am prepared to admit that a hen will not lay 200 eggs a year without constant and intelligent care. I am also prepared to admit that in some cases the number of eggs extra a hen will lay where she hasthis constant and intelligent care will not pay forthe time consumed, and that it may be more profitable to get an aver~- age of say 150 eggs a year than a larger number. But I believe that in the poultry business, as in every other, it 1s well to have a high ideal. The man who inscribes on his banner, “Two Hun- dred Eggs a Year Per Hen,” and then comes as near it as he can, will make more money and have more fun than will the man who is content to take what comes along. 4 2HE HEREDITY OF THE TWO AUNDRED LEGG tis When I was a boy a mile in 2:40 was regarded as a great performance for a trotting horse. There were horses that had trotted under 2:40, much under, but they were few. I remember it was the custom for us urchins to cry out whenever a man drove by at a slashing gait, “Go it, two-forty!” J ara not an old man yet by any means—my wife tells me that I am young—but I have lived to see the trotting record come down and down until it has dropped below the two minute mark. A horse that cannot trot in less than 2:40 is regarded as a good horse for a woman to drive, but out of place on the track. What has brought the record down and down until men are looking for the two minute horse? Heredity and handling! A trotting horse now has a pedigree as long as a European monarch. ‘The blood of generations of trotters flows in his veins. It may be the ancestral lines converge in the great Messenger himself. Heredity and handling! ‘These two things are as necessary for the 200 egg hen as for the two minute horse. Men do not gather grapes from thorns nor figs from thistles. The 200 egg hen must be bred to lay. She must come from an egg-producing strain. No matter how scientifically a man may feed or how hygienically he may house, he cannot take a flock of hens of any old breed or no breed and get 200 eggs a year apiece from them. It is impossible. By carefully following the instructions of this book he can largely increase the egg yield of such a flock, but he must not expect to get 200 eggs a year apiece. I cannot impress it too strongly upon the reader’s mind that if he expects to get 200 eggs a year apiece from his hens he must start in with a great laying strain. WHAT PBREEDY TS (BES There is an old Latin proverb, De gustibus non est disputan- dum, which I will take the liberty to translate for the benefit of those who have been out of school for some time. Its meaning is this: In matters of taste there is no argument. This is as true in the poultry business as it is elsewhere. Other things being equal that breed is the best for a man which he likes best. There is no breed that combines all the excellences and has none of the defects. There is no breed that does not have its admirers. In general it may be said that the most profitable breeds are to be D found in the Asiatic, American and Mediterranean classes, as fol- lows: In the Asiatic class the Light Brahmas, Black Langshans, Buft and Partridge Cochins; in the American class the Barred, Buff and White Plymouth Rocks, all the Wyandottes and the Rhode Island Reds; in the Mediterranean class the Black Minorcas, Brown, White and Buff Leghorns. These are the great money-making varieties. The Asiatics are excellent table fowls and prolific layers of dark brown eggs. They are good sitters and mothers, although somewhat clumsy. They are inclined to be sluggish and readily take on fat. They stand cold well, and make good winter layers. The Mediterraneans are egg machines, turning out great quantities of white-shelled eggs. They do not stand cold as well as the Asiatic and American breeds, and are not as good fowls for the table. The Americans on the whole are the favorites. They are all-round birds, good layers of brown eggs, excellent for the table, good sitters and mothers. They stand cold well, and are the birds for farmers and breeders. The danger with every breed is that it will get into the hands of the fanciers and be bred for points rather than for utility. Stamina is the important thing, and not the show card. It will be a great day for the poultry business when far- mers keep more pure-bred fowls, for then the great standard varieties may be kept up without danger of deterioration. OW. MANY VARIBTIES SHALE, T KERP: After studying the matter carefully, I have come to the con- clusion that it is better for the average poultryman to confine himself to one variety. He will get better resu!ts and make more money if he concentrates his energies than he will if he dissipates them. After a man has made a success with one variety he may perhaps add another, and even a third; but the best poultrymen do not handle many varieties, and some of the most successful confine themselves to one. Where several varieties are kept I would suggest that there be some principle of unity determining the choice. Let the birds all be of one color—say white, black or buff—or let them all be of one family like the Leghorns, Wyandottes or Plymouth Rocks. Where the fowls are all of one family they will have the same characteristics and respond to the same treatment. In case of an accidental mix-up the damage is reduced to a minimum, for the birds are all of the same size, comb and contour. 6 HOW MANY RECORDS ARE WRECKED. Some time ago I received a letter from a young lady who is an enthusiastic poultrywoman, in which she said that she was getting a goodly number of eggs, but that her record was lowered because she had kept over half a dozen hens which had laid well the year before. She said that she knew better, but could not resist the temptation. I mention this case because it is so typical. More egg records are wrecked by keeping old hens in the flock than in any other way! There is always a temptation when a hen has laid well to keep her the second year. This temptation must be resisted if one is in quest of a big egg record. The fact that a hen has laid well for one year since coming to maturity incapacitates her from ever laying so well again. She has drained her system, and requires recuperation before she can lay even moderately. You may set it down as an axiom that it is the pullets that give the big egg records. If you have in your flock some hens that you desire to keep a second year as a reward for past services, or for breeders and mothers, put them in a pen by themselves and do not look for more than a moderate egg pro- duction from them. It is the pullets that lay, and the early- hatched pullets at that. Get out your chickens in March, April or May, according to the breed, if you want winter layers. WEED OUT THE NON-LAYERS. Reports from the Maine Experiment Station, where trap nests are used and individual records kept, show that among hens of the same breed and kept under the same conditions there is a great difference in egg production. One Barred Plymouth Rock -laid 251 eggs in one year, while another in the same flock laid but eight. A White Wyandotte pullet laid 219 eggs, while another of the same breed laid absolutely none. These figures are most significant, showing as they do _ the absolute necessity of weeding out the non-producers. Suppose you have two hens in a pen, and one lays 200 eggs a year and the other none. The average for the two is 100 eggs apiece. In other words, the non-layer has reduced the pen record one-half. It costs a:dollar a year to feed a hen, and this money is thrown away if the hen does not lay. The one absolutely sure way of identifying the layers and non-layers is by the use of the trap nest ; but this takes time, and many do not feel that it pays. Still 7 without the use of the trap nest, by keeping one’s eyes and ears Open, one can pick out the layers with sufficient accuracy for all practical purposes, as I shall show before I get through. te PiREE CONDITIONS: OF EGG, PRODUCTION. It was a maxim of Lord Bacon, one of the greatest men that ever lived, that Nature is the great teacher, and that in order to learn we must interrogate Nature. If we study Nature with open eyes she will often give us suggestions of great value and fruit- fulness. The poultryman must continually go to Nature, the great teacher, and he will not go in vain. In the state of Nature in which wild fowls live, or in the state of semi-Nature in which the farmer’s fowls are kept, what is the season of egg produc- tion? Summer. Why? Because in summer the conditions of egg production are present.. What are these conditions? Warmth, proper food and exercise. Reproduce these conditions at any season of the year and the fowl will be likely to lay. The poultryman should keep this fact in mind and govern himself accordingly. LS EERE, AUN, EGG TYPE? Before I pass to the next chapter I wish to take up a subject upon which there is a wide difference of opinion—lIs there an egg type? Some of those who ought to know claim there is not. But I am of the opinion that as there is a type of cow that we associate with large production of milk, so there is a type of hen that we may associate with large production of eggs. I believe that a hen with a broad breast, a long, deep body and straight underline (the so called “wedge-shape” fowl) will lay better than one with a narrow breast, a short body and curved underline. The reason is not far to seek. The vital organs are confined within the body, and in a hen with a broad breast and long, deep body there is plenty of room for the organs of assimilation and reproduction; while in a hen with a short, curved body these organs are necessarily constricted. If a hen is to lay well she must eat weil, breathe well, and have large ovaries; in other words there must be plenty of room inside for all the great organs to perform their functions. This explains why there is a tendency on the part of the egg-producing breeds to increase in size. CEA EE Rai: THE HOME OF THE TWO HUNDRED EGG HEN. Much of a man’s success or failure in the poultry business will depend upon the location and construction of his plant. Where hens are kept in small numbers and given free range, they do well almost anywhere; but-where they are kept in large num- bers and in confinement, they must have as favorable condi- tions as possible or they will prove a source of loss and not of profit to their owner. The best location for a poultry plant is on sandy soil where there is a gentle slope to the south or southeast. If there is a windbreak of some kind on the north and northwest the location becomes ideal. Such a location, however, is hard to find—nor is it indispensable. Poultry can be kept on almost any soil, pro- vided it is not saturated with water for a considerable portion of the year. Even a clay soil has its advantages: it produces a lux- uriant growth of grass which not only provides the fowls with forage, but which also by its roots takes up the excrement which otherwise might contaminate the ground. Before the poultryman drives a nail or does a stroke of work, he should carefully consider the possibilities of his situation, and lay out his prospective plant in his mind. If he is to build largely at once it might pay him to consult an expert. But if he is to build only one small house, he should build it with reference to others that he may put up in future years. So I say, have a plan. The details may be filled in at the poultryman’s conven- ience—or they may never be filled in. But if the man lives and his business grows the time will come when he will thank his stars that he was wise and far-seeing enough to have a plan at the very start, and not have to waste time and money moving buildings about or in tearing them down and replacing them with others. THE COLONY PLAN. There are three methods of keeping hens in large numbers. The first of these is the colony plan. The principle of the colony plan is that of keeping hens in small segregated houses—twenty- five to fifty hens in a house. These houses are scattered at regular intervals over the farm, and are visited two or three times a day 9 by an attendant. The hens are given free range. It has been found that when houses are one hundred yards apart, or even less, flocks will not mingle, but each flock will keep in the neigh- borhood of its own house. This plan has its advantages. It is inexpensive. The houses may be of the cheapest kind. No yards are required. The hens at certain seasons of the year pick es fe a ps —— ate ¥\ ERR LUN UALAN PALO Oe ns Bi IE gue on yy } ? hy PAT era Pr Wy aes arte, (RU PRB VE TLS lo yc Colony house to accommodate from 12 to 25 fowls. This house is eight feet square on the ground, and eight feet from floor to apex of roof. There is no frame, but the roof boards are nailed to the ridgepole and to plank baseboards. up a good deal of their living. If the houses are located in an orchard the hens fertilize the ground around the trees and eat the wormy fruit. No dangerous disease is likely to break out among hens kept in colonies. But on the other hand the plan has serious drawbacks. Even in pleasant weather it requires a good deal of time each day to visit the scattered flocks; but in winter, when a blizzard is raging, to make the rounds of the houses is an experience calculated to make one appreciate the perils and hardships of a Polar expedition. Then, too, these isolated, detached houses are shining marks for thieves; and unless the neighborhood is exceptionally honest, the poultryman may wake up some morning to discover that two or three hun- dred of his fowls have vanished. 10 THE COMMUNITY SPIcAN: The second method of keeping hens in large numbers is what I may call the community plan, and is sufficiently described by the name. The majority of large poultry plants in this country are constructed on this plan. The great argument in favor of this plan is economy—economy in labor, economy in land. The original cost of a plant on the community plan issomewhat greater than the cost of a plant on the colony plan; but when the plant is erected and equipped the saving begins. There are, however, some objections to this plan besides the initial cost. It has been found very difficult to keep the houses perfectly dry, where the length exceeds sixty feet. Moisture collects on the walls and roof, and in cold weather congeals, so that in these long houses there is often a coating of frost. In cleaning out the long houses it is somewhat difficult to reach the central compartments, requir- ing as it does a long walk and the opening and shutting of many doors and gates. Where a virulent disease like cholera or roup breaks out in one compartment, as it sometimes will, it has been found almost impossible to confine it to that compartment— germs traveling in the air, or being conveyed from one pen to another in excrement which may stick to the feet. With the community plan go long, narrow yards or parks, which can be fenced only at considerable cost. The scratching shed has now become an integral part of many of the long houses. The scratching shed, as its name implies, is a place for exercise under the same roof with the laying room, but more open to the weather. The scratching shed has many enthusiastic advocates who claim that it is indispensable to the health and comfort of the fowls in winter, and will more than pay for itself in an increased egg output. The claims for the scratching shed house seem so valid that if I were building a house more than 60 feet in length, I should certainly add scratch- ing sheds. It isimpossible in an article like this to give a plan for a house that will suit every purse and every place. I can only submit a cut of what I consider the best community house I have yet seen, and give a brief description of it. The house is on the Dunning- Gardner Poultry Farm, of Auburn, N. Y. ye The Dunning-Gardner Poultry Plant of Auburn, N. Y., Showing community house described on following page. equipping this plant, which is one of the best in the United States. No expense has been spared in building and ile, The house shown in the foreground of the view is 180 feet long by 12 wide, and is divided into Io sections, each 18 feet. Each section is in turn divided into a scratching shed of nine feet, and a laying and roosting room of the same length. ‘Lhe house is made of the best material, double boarded with paper between and ceiled overhead at the height of six feet. In each pen is a large window, a small ventilating window into the hall- way and a ventilating hole cut through the ceiling which draws off the foui air but forms no draught. The scratching sheds are open in front, with a canvas which can be let down to keep the snow out. The yards are 150 feet long, with a row of fruit trees in each, and are plowed and sowed each year. At present there are three of these long houses on the plant and more will be added as they are needed. THE MONTANA EXPERIMENT STATION OUSE: An important and in many ways desirable variation from the ordinary scratching shed house is the main poultry building in use at the Agricultural Experiment Station at Bozeman, Mon- tana. “The building is 72 feet long and 14 feet wide with a four foot passage in the rear. It is divided into pens 12 feet long and 10 feet wide, and is set upon a foundation of stone 18 inches wide and two feet high. The slope of the roof is for the main portion to the south, the ridge coming just above the passage way four feet from the rear wall. This slope of roof is of great advantage since the sun rapidly melts the snow on the southern incline making it warmer and drier, while on the other side the slope is so steep that the snow does not lodge there. “The next most important feature is the double floor. The exit from the pens is through the floor into the space underneath the building. This basement has a ground floor, and it is two feet from the ground to the sills. In summer, this makes a fine, cool and shady place when doors shown in cut are down and portholes open, while in winter with the doors raised the low sun enables the sunlight to extend more than half of the distance from front to rear, making an ideal place for dusting and scratch- ing. This feature adds greatly to the usefulness of the building, since it so materially increases the floor space without affecting the area of the roof.” 13 The Montana Experiment Station House. The peculiarity of this building is that the scratching sheds are underneath the laying and roosting rooms, instead of beside them, thus economizing cost of construction. 7 7) os . o —_ 14 THE COLONYECOMMUNTEY WPLAN: The third method of keeping hens in large numbers is, so far as I know, original with me, and may be called the colony-com- munity plan. The plan in brief is this: to keep the hens in small detached houses built in streets and situated close to one another, with yards running to the rear instead of the front. It has always seemed to me a great mistake to run the yards to the front of a hen house instead of to the rear. There are innumerable occasions when the poultryman wishes to visit a pen in the middle of a long house, and in order to do so he must open and shut half a dozen doors or pass along an alley way for fifty or one hundred feet. When he wishes to remove the litter or shovel sand into the middle pens it is necessary to open and shut a number of gates before he can do so. But with the yards in the rear the poultryman can drive along the front of his house and reach the middle pen as easily as he can at the ends. rao < age 2 ci : i i ‘ = Fah seca raat gon lt Colony-community houses arranged in streets, with yards running to the rear. The houses that I use in the colony-community plan are all alike, and are very simple in construction. Each house is 12 feet long, seven feet wide, seven feet high in front and five feet high in the rear; and is designed to accommodate 50 brooder chicks, 20 15 head of laying stock, or a breeding pen of one male and 12 females. The house rests on cedar posts or old railrcad ties put in the ground below the frost line and sawed off eight inches above the surface. There are six of these posts, three on each side, and where old railroad ties are used the whole cost of the founda- tion is 15 cents. On these ties are laid two main sills and four cross sills, each 2x4 spruce. The plates are 2x4 stuff, but the other timbers in the frame—posts and rafters—are 2x3. After the building is framed the floor is laid. This is double, Colony-community house designed to accommodate 50 brooder chicks, 20 head of laying stock, or one male and 12 females. and between the upper and lower floor Neponset black sheathing is used. The covering to the frame is then put on, and over the boards Neponset black sheathing is tacked. This is to be cov- ered with Neponset red paper. All the boards in the frame are hemlock. The roof is a very important part of a hen house. When the rafters are put on they are sawed off flush with the plate; and when the sides are boarded the boards are brought up so that they cover the ends of the rafters and also the edge of the roofing boards, making an absolutely tight joint. Neponset black sheath- 16 ing is then laid over the roof boards, and a double course of shingles laid along the lower edge of the roof. The object of this course of shingles is to throw the water from the roof away from - the house. The roof is then covered with Paroid, carefully put on and allowed to project a few inches at the ends. This flap will eventually be turned in and held in place by the finish. The house is supposed to face south. There are two win- dows, one on the south side and one on the east end. There is a door in front, and a panel in the rear which can be raised or jowered at wil! to let the hens out into the yard, After the house is finished all the outside woodwork receives a coat.of dark green paint, which forms an effective contrast with the brick-red of the Neponset paper. Indeed, all who see the house remark how neat and pretty it is. INTERIOR CONSTRUCTION. The interior of the house is of the very simplest. I have learned from hard experience to have as little furniture in a hen house as possible, and that many of the things advertised as helps for the poultrymen are really hindrances. The house, as I have said, faces the south. The roosts, instead of being in the rear, as is commonly the case, are in the west end, away from all possibility of draughts. The roost platform is two feet and a half above the floor, and is constructed of dry matched pine boards, which I get from old dry goods boxes. The platform, as soon as built, is covered with a coat of hot tar. There are two roosts, or perches, parallei and on the same level. I forgot to say that the roost platform is three feet wide, which enables me to place my perches one foot apart, and one foot from the back wall and one foot from the edge of the platform. The perches are of spruce, 2x3, with the upper end slightly rounded, and set in sock- ets cut out of boards. They are removable. The perches are also covered with hot tar, as are the sockets in which they are set. Red mites let my houses severely alone. The materials used in the house are as follows: Hemlock boards, 500 feet; matched pine for doors, trimmings, etc., 60 feet ; frame (board measure), 100 feet; windows; Neponset black sheathing, 250 feet; Neponset red rope, 250 feet: Paroid, 100 feet; hardware, etc. The cost of such a house, exclusive of labor, in New Hampshire to-day would be not far from $20. Two men, working together, can complete the house in two days. Such a ve house always finds a ready sale, and if the owner wishes to move out of town or go out of the hen business at any time he can sell the house for about half what it cost him. In case a somewhat larger house is wanted, the dimensions may be enlarged as follows: Length, 14 feet; width, 8 feet; height in front, 74 feet; height in rear, 54 feet. This will pre- serve the proportions and give nearly one-half more floor space. HOUSE MADE FROM PIANO BOXES. Possibly there are some who desire even a cheaper house than the ones I have described. It may be they expect to remain but a short time where they are, or wish a house for young stock, and do not care to invest even $20 in a building. To such I would say that a good temporary house can be made from two Three Dollar Poultry Houses. Good summer buildings, and in a warm climate suitable for winter. piano boxes at a cost of about $3. The simplest way to make such a house is as follows: On a level place lay down two joists eight feet long. Take the boxes and carefully remove the boards on the tallest side. Spike the boxes to the joists, so that the open ends will face each other. With the boards you have taken out close up the gap between the boxes on the back and roof. Put a door in front, a pane of glass on either side of the door, or two panes in the door itself, complete laying the floor, put in a roost, cover the building with good roofing paper, and you have a house that will accommodate a dozen hens at a trifling cost. CAT ike ik SANITATION AS A FACTOR IN EGG PRODUCTION. Sanitation is one of the most important factors in egg produc- tion. As blossom and fruit are the culmination of the tree’s activities, so the egg is the culmination of the activities of the hen. The hen cannot lay heavily unless she is in perfect physical condi- tion. One of the ways in which disease first reveals itself is in the dropping off of the egg product. The poultryman who desires the largest return from his investment must make a care- ful study of sanitation. A SANITARY Stl @ Si The style of house a man builds will depend something upon his means and personal preferences. There are houses costing thousands of dollars, and there are houses built for less than a dollar a running foot. I have known hens to do well in houses made of piano boxes, costing, when completed, three dollars apiece. But whether the house is cheap or dear, elaborate or sim- ple, it should have three characteristics: I. It must be dry. Dampness is fatal to fowls. Roup, rheumatism and kindred evils go with a damp house. The house should always be built in ample season so that it may thoroughly be dried out before winter, and unless the ground on which it stands is as dry as powder it should have a board floor. 2. The house should be warm. Nature has provided the hen with an ample covering of feathers, and she will not freeze even if the temperature falls far below zero. But under such conditions she will lay but few eggs. How can she? All her food goes toward making caloric, and there is no surplus for any- thing else. In a properly constructed house there is no need of artificial heat. A house should be so built that in the coldest weather water will not freeze solid in it. If it does a curtain should be provided to drop down behind the hens and shut them mm when they are on the roosts. 3. The house should be sunny. Hens love the sun. See them stand in the path of sunlight on the morning of a clear, bright winter day. The house should face the south or south- 19 east, whenever possible. - There should not be too many windows, for windows let the heat out as easily as they let it in, and the difference in temperature between noon and night is too great. REP POLE, HOUSE: CLEAN. Cleanliness is the most important element in sanitation. Dis- ease germs find in filth a congenial soil. The hen house cannot be kept too clean! The room in which hens are confined plays many parts—it 1s their sleeping room, dining room, workshop, their bath room and water closet. Suppose a large family to be shut up in one room and obliged to use it for every purpose. Do you not see how careful they wou'd have to be to escape disease? It is a wonder to me how hens manage to live through the winter in the majority of houses, to say nothing of laying eggs. The hen house should have its daily, weekly, monthly and yearly cleaning. The windows should be opened in the middle of the day for two or three hours on every day in winter when the sun is shining. The droppings under the roosts should be removed every morning! When poultrymen realize that poul- try manure is a virulent poison and should not be allowed to pol- lute the houses or the yards where the hens are kept, they will make a great step toward success. It takes but a few minutes to a house to remove the droppings, and the gain in looks and in wholesomeness is worth. the cost. After the droppings are removed the dropping board should be sprinkled lightly with earth, coal ashes or land plaster. Once a week, summer or winter, the drinking vessels should be scalded out; and once a week in winter the litter should be shaken up, and if you have a board floor, the dust and dirt that settle to the bottom should be removed. If the floor is of earth the surface droppings should be taken out and the earth raked up. Once a month the cleaning should be more thorough. The litter should be renewed, and the floor swept. The roosts should be kerosened and in summer the walls around the roosts sprayed with kerosene or with a kerosene emulsion. Nest boxes should be emptied, painted with a good lice killer, and when dried out filled about one-third full of dry planer shavings. The dust box should receive attention. The annual cleaning is still more radical. On some sunny day in autumn—the earlier the better—shtit the hens out in their yards and begin work upon their quarters. Everything 20 movable in the house should be taken outside. Sweep the dust and cobwebs off the walls, windows and ceiling. Sweep the floor, if you have one. The walls should then receive a generous coat of hot whitewash, put on with a spray pump to save time. A good receipt for whitewash is as follows: Take a sufficient quan- tity of lime, slack it slowly and wet enough to make into a thick putty. Let it stand in this shape a few hours or a few days, and then reduce it with water to the thickness desired. Add one pint of crude carbolic acid to every 12-quart pailful, and you will have a combination that will be death of lice. Sprinkle the floor with napcreol or some other disinfectant, kerosene the roosts, paint the nest boxes with some good lice killer, cover the dropping board with a coat of hot tar—in short give the house a thorough cleaning. LiGEVAND RED aVuliES: Relentless and persistent war must be waged against lice and red mites. The poultryman who keeps his house in the san- itary condition I have described is apt to think that the battle is won, that there is nothing more to do. Such is not the case. The foe is in hiding; it is not destroyed. There comes a falling off in egg production, and the poultryman wonders what is the cause. Lice,” says a too candid friend. The poultryman waxes indig- nant. “I'll give you a dollar apiece for every louse you find on my hens!” he exclaims. The friend takes a hen off the nest, and holds her up toward the light. “Pull apart the fluff around the vent,” he commands. The poultryman does so, and, lo! a covey of lice may be seen cutting to cover in the dense jungle of soft feathers. Where a big egg record is desired the hens must not be left to rid themselves of lice by their own efforts, but must be dusted from time to time. The poultryman can make his own insect powder cheaper than he can buy it, but where only a few hens are kept it will not pay him to do so. Lambert's “Death to Lice” and Cyphers Lice Powder are standard preparations. If the poultryman wishes to make his own powder here are two formu- las that may be depended upon: 1. Take one pint of slacked lime and stir into it one ounce liquid carbolic acid. Add to this mixture three pounds finely ground tobacco and mix thoroughly. This powder dusted wherever lice are will kill them. 2. Take five pounds strong 21 tobacco dust, one pound air-slacked lime, one-half pound naptha- lene—mix wel! together. This is sure death to hen lice, plant lice, lice on cattle, sheep ticks, bed bugs, ants, moths, etc. Lice paint is a liquid preparation, and is used for painting roosts, nests, etc. The fumes penetrate the feathers of the bird and kill the lice. Lee’s Lice Killer and Cyphers Surekil Lice Paint are highly recommended. A good lice paint is made by dissolving one pound napthalene flakes in one gallon kerosene oil. Red mites make their home on the underside of the roosts and in cracks and crevices adjacent. They are quiet by day, but by night come forth to suck the life blood of their victims. The kerosene treatment, which I have already described, is sure death to red mites, and it is folly not to exterminate them. TO RIDE A-HOUSE, OR; VERN: Sometimes through carelessness or neglect a house becomes infested with vermin, and then radical measures are necessary. In the first place the house should be thoroughly fumigated. Close every door and window, and see that there are no cracks or apertures to admit air. Burn a pound of sulphur for every 100 square feet of floor space in the house: thus a house 1ox1o will require one pound of sulphur; one 20x10 two _ pounds, one 30x10 three pounds, and so on. The sulphur must be burned in iron vessels, which must be set on gravel or sand, so that there can be no danger from fire. Into each vessel put a handful of carpenter’s shavings, saturated with kerosene, and upon these sprinkle the sulphur. Place the vessels in position, apply a match to the shavings, and hastily leave the house, clos- ing the door behind you. Do not open the house again for five hours, when every door and window should be thrown wide open. In case you feel any anxiety about fire, you can look in through a window once in a while to see that everything is going well. After the fumes of sulphur have been driven out, with a hand sprayer go through the house sending a spray of kerosene everywhere. These sprayers can be bought for half a dollar each, will Jast for years, and are simply invaluable. All the time you have been at work the hens have been in the yard outside, without food, and are now anxious to return to their home. Let them in, one by one, and as each enters catch her and dust her well with some good insecticide. 22 GIVE THE HENS?) PLENTY OF (ROOM There is a snare spread for beginners in the poultry business which catches nearly all: it is to crowd the birds. The pros+ pective poultryman has a small flock and they kave laid well. He begins to reason like this: “I have kept 12 hens in this pen the past year and they have netted me two dollars apiece. All I have to do to increase my income is to increase the number of my birds. If 12 hens have paid me $24, 50 hens will pay me $100.” This seems logical, and the prospective poultryman goes to work and puts in 50 birds, only to find at the end of the year that the 50 birds have not paid him so well as the 12 did. They have laid no more eggs, and sickness has been rife among them. More men lose money and retire from the poultry business in disgust from losses brought about by putting too many birds into one pen than from any other cause. The farmer would not think of putting two cows in one stall. He would not plant his potatoes in rows one foot apart. He would not shut up his family in one room. Why should he not display the same good sense in dealing with his fowls? Experi- ence has shown that 10 square feet of floor space is about the amount needed by each hen if she is to do her best. Where the house is kept perfectly clean, and where the hens have a chance to get out doors every pleasant day, they can get along with a somewhat smaller space. But for the best results in egg pro- ducing there must be plenty of room. The year I made the phenomenal record with my White Wyandottes—214 eggs apiece from October to October—I knocked out the partitions between two pens and gave the flock double room. DUS AGE Provide your hens with a dust bath. They will spend many happy hours wallowing in the warm earth and will keep them- selves reasonably free from lice. But do not trust to the dust bath entirely, for in the dead of winter the bath is often so cold that the biddies will not use it, and then lice will get in their work. Soil out of the garden, sifted through a common coal sieve, makes the best material for a dust bath that I know anything about. Next to this I rank coal ashes. The bath tub may be a sugar barrel, sawed off about a foot from the bottom and set in a sunny place, or one of those shallow square boxes that “Force” and other cereal foods come in, which may generally be obtained of the grocer for the asking. 23 EXERCISE, Hens need a reasonable amount of exercise. They do not need to be kept on the jump from morning until night, but they de need enough exercise to keep them in good trim. Where hens have free range they will attend to the matter of exercise themselves—although a hen having free range knows enough not to work when it is very hot or very cold. But when in confinement exercise must be provided for them. The floor of the hen house, or scratching shed, should be _ kept carpeted with six inches of litter in winter, and the fowls should be made to work for all the grain they eat. This litter, as I have already said, should be frequently shaken up and occasionally renewed. Straw, fresh hay and dead leaves make the best litter. Dry planer shavings are good if they are not allowed to become too fine. PED POWER Y ARID: In summer the hens should be out in their yards. The yard does not need to be very large. Indeed, unless the yard is large enough to grow all the green stuff that is needed for forage, a small yard is better than a large one, for it is more likely to be kept clean. Much money is spent each year for wire netting and foundation boards for fences that could be laid out to much better advantage in some other way. There should be shade of some kind in the yard. If the yard is small it should be raked and swept every week and the surface droppings removed. It should be spaded up from time to time. In the spring the sur- face soil to. the depth of three or four inches should be removed and spread on the garden and replaced with fresh earth. If this is done there is much less danger of sickness with a small yard than. with a big one that is never cleaned. GRIF GHARCOAR AND OYSTER SHEERS: Nature has not provided fowls with teeth, and consequently they cannot masticate their food as can the higher animals. The food passes from the crop into the gizzard, where it is prepared for the intestines by trituration; that is, as the food passes through the gizzard it is triturated, or ground up, by the little flinty particles which line that member. Unless the fowl is well supplied with grit the food passes into the intestines improperly prepared, and the result is indigestion. It is a great mistake not 24 to keep the fowls well supplied with grit. Charcoal is an alter- ative and tonic, and should be before the hens all the time. Oyster shells are necessary to supply the lime needed for the egg shells, and nothing can take their place. DRINKING WATER. Pure drinking water is as necessary to the health and comfort of fowls as it is to the health and comfort of human beings, and should be supplied in abundance. The water dishes should be scalded out from time to time, and if a few drops of carbolic acid are added to the water with which they are scalded so much the better. Have your water dish as simple as possible. There is noth- ing better than a two-quart measure, made of galvanized iron, set on a little shelf by the door of the hen house and six inches from the floor. SANITATION IN “SUMMER: It has been my observation that hens that are kept shut up in houses and yards suffer more from lack of sanitation in summer than in winter. There are a hundred directions printed for making the house warm to one for making it cool. And yet anyone who has watched a hen on a hot day in mid-summer, with mouth wide open and wings outspread, must realize that the poor creature is far from comfortable. Houses built on the colony community plan, such as I have already described, are ideal houses for summer as well as for winter, as there is a window in the front and on the end. As soon as warm weather comes I take out both windows letting the air circulate freely through the house. Poultry wire tacked on the outside of the window frame keeps the biddies in and the “varmints” out. Gi APR, FEEDING FOR TWO HUNDRED EGGS A YEAR. We now have our hens in a dry, warm, sunny and sanitary house, have supplied them with facilities for keeping clean, and of course want them to lay. What shall we feed and how much? This is an important question, for unless a hen is supplied with material for egg production she cannot lay. She can no more produce eggs without the proper food than a factory can turn out the finished product without raw materials. What shall we feed and how much shall we feed, therefore? Let us again follow Lord Bacon’s advice and interrogate Nature. Suppose we take a hen as she comes up to the house at the close of a long day in summer from foraging in the fields, kill her, take out her crop and analyze its contents. If we do so it is obvious that we shall obtain at least a part of the information we are after, for a hen lays in summer or not at all. What do we find as the result of our analysis? The crop we are dissecting has about as many articles in it as the average small boy’s pocket, and they are equally miscellaneous. We find grains of corn that the hen has picked up about the barn, pieces of bread and table waste that she has found under the sink spout, clover leaves and tips of grass blades, bugs, worms and a mass of matter that we cannot resolve into the original elements. The first thing that impresses us as the result of our analysis is that the hen seeks VARIETY. The second is, that this variety admits of classifica- tion. This mass of miscellaneous matter that we found in the hen’s crop can be arranged in three divisions: 1. Grain. 2. Green food and vegetables. 3. Animal food—in the form of bugs, worms and so forth. The conclusion is irresistible, that these three elements must be combined if we would have a perfect ration. How shall we combine them? The answer is not so difficult as one would at first suppose. There are many ways. The hen makes a new combination every day. Perhaps the ideal way is to have no stereotyped method, but to study variety. If we com- bine grain, green food and meat in the daily ration, the hen can hardly fail to respond with a goodly output of eggs. ‘ 26 FEEDING FOR EGGS: HOW MUCH. The problem, as every poultryman knows, is not what to feed,. but how much. If you do not believe this write to the editor of your favorite poultry paper and ask him how much food you shall’ give a flock of 15 hens, and see what he will.say. It takes a great deal of skill to steer between overfeeding on the one hand and underfeeding on the other. I believe however that there is a scientific principle underlying the matter, and think that after a great deal of study and experimentation I have discovered the principle. In order tc determine how much we should feed we must again interrogate Nature. Before we began to dissect the crop of the hen we had killed, suppose we had put it in the scales to ascertain its weight. If the hen from which the crop was taken was of an American breed, if she had been running in the fields all day and just before she had been killed had been given all the corn that she would eat, her crop withitscontents would weigh not far from six ounces. Allowing that two ounces of food have passed from the crop into the gizzard during the day, and from the gizzard into the intestines, it will be seen that when a hen is on the range, supplied with abundance of food, she will consume about eight ounces of food in the course of 24 hours. It would seem therefore that this is about the amount a hen needs to supply all the demands of her system and leave a margin for egg produc- tion. But before we settle down to this conclusion there are some things to be taken into consideration. On the range the hen has had plenty of exercise, and needs more food to supply the tissue lost than when in confinement. On the range food is more bulky and less nutritious than the food the hen receives in her pen. It contains a larger proportion of grass and vegetables. It is probable that in the pen, where the hen does not exercise so freely as she does on the range and where her food is more concentrated, she does not need so much food by one-fourth as she does when at liberty. Six ounces of food a day ought therefore to be ample to supply all the needs of a hen in confinement. Six ounces of food a day for a hen weighing six pounds seems at first sight an enormous quantity. In the same ratio a man weighing 160 would consume 10 pounds of food every 24 hours. But before we dismiss the matter as absurd let us consider a moment. The hen’s food is not so concentrated as the man’s. It contains far less nutriment in proportion to bulk. A considerable 27 proportion of it will be voided in the form of excrement. Them ‘the hen has a task to perform such as is imposed upon few other creatures. She is expected to lay an egg weighing not less than: two ounces; and an egg, as everyone knows, is one of the richest of food products. Deduct from the six ounces of food two: ounces for waste and two ounces for egg production, and it will be seen that only two ounces are left to repair the tissues and’ maintain the temperature of the body. The laying hen needs a: generous diet, and those doctrinaires who advocate keeping her in a state of semi-starvation have no support in reason for their theory. FEEDING FOR EGGS: WINTER METHOD. Having given my readers the principles that apply to feeding,. I purpose now to tell them how I put these principles into prac- tice. I desire to state here that I have no patent methods. I aim to apply common sense to the problem of egg production, as I do: to other things; but I do not claim to have a monopoly of wis- dom. ‘There are doubtless other methods as good as mine. As I said in a preceding section, there are many possible combinations. that will produce good results. I give you mine, and leave you to adopt it or not as you think best. From October to May I feed as follows: A mash the first thing in the morning. The mash is made as I am about to describe. Into an iron kettle holding 12 quarts I put two quarts (dry measure) cut clover, two quarts mixed feed or wheat bran, two quarts corn meal, one quart green ground bone or beef scraps, and one quart table scraps. The ingredients are thoroughly mixed together. I then take the kettle into the house and set it on the range where the metal can become warm. I next stir in a heaping teaspoonful of coarse-fine salt, and in the coldest weather sprinkle in a little black pepper. Boiling water is then added to: the mash in just sufficient quantity to moisten every particle and yet not have it sticky and sloppy. I consider the mash just right to feed when I can take some up in my hand and have it feel pleasantly warm (not hot), and dry enough so that it will not adhere to the palm or fingers. Some advocate dry feeding. I have no doubt the food is just as nourishing without the water, and after they become accustomed to it (or starved into it) the hens will eat it readily enough; but before the food can be digested it must be moistened, and I think it better and safer to 28 moisten it for the birds myself than to allow them to do so. I do not believe the bird can moisten a large handful of dry mix- ture after it enters the crop so evenly as I can before it goes there. Then if the mash is about the temperature of the bird’s body when it is fed (or, on cold mornings, a little higher) she will not have to use up her heat in raising it to that temperature. BEE DRAI I TEE EUsIN SS» VV LIGIe se Ase iee@ le ACN: I feed all the mash the hens will eat up clean in a reasonable time—say from 15 minutes to half an hour. Then I go through the pens and empty what is left (1f anything )back into the kettle, to be fed the next day. At 11 o'clock I make a round of the pens to collect the eggs and look after the birds. On this trip I take with me green food of some sort—mangel wurzels, cabbages, apples or onions—and leave in each pen the amount that experi- ence has shown me the birds will eat up clean. About two o’clock in the afternoon I make the round of the pens again. I have told you that in each pen [ keep a male and 12 females, and on this trip in the early afternoon I throw down in the deep litter one quart (dry measure) of grain of some kind. The three grains I feed are wheat, cracked corn and oats. I study to give variety. On a mild afternoon I feed all oats or all wheat, on a moderately cold afternoon, about half cracked corn and about half wheat or oats,—and on a very cold afternoon, cracked corn alone. When TI get home from making pastoral calls it is generally dusk and the hens have gone to roost. Before supper I go through each pen to see that the birds are all right for the night. I empty the water dishes, collect any eggs that may be in the nests, pause a moment in each house to see that the _ birds are breathing right (no colds nor bronchitis) and occa- sionally feel of the crops to see if I am feeding enough. If the crop is comfortably full—neither distended on the one hand nor nearly empty on the other—I conclude that the grain ration is about right so far as quantity is concerned. > DUD NOOR Ye I have given the ingredients of my standard morning mash, but I vary these ingredients from time to time. I don’t want the same thing for breakfast every morning, and I don’t believe my birds do. About twice a week I substitute gluten meal or linseed meal for green ground bone or meat scraps; and once in a while 29 I give a breakfast of scalded oats—the oats scalded the night before and allowed to stand on the back of the stove where they will be warm and nice in the morning. Occasionally I give a breakfast made up of three parts by bulkof Biles’ Fourex* andone part by bulk of corn meal. When I have plenty of small potatoes I make up a dish composed of boiled mashed potatoes, green ground bone and mixed feed or bran, which the fowls eat with avidity. I put in about four quarts potatoes, two quarts green ground bone and two quarts mixed feed or bran—season and serve hot. The table scraps, which I feed every morning, add variety to my standard ration. * Biles’ Fourex (X XXX) is a by-product from distillers’ grains. Very rich in fat and protein. A valuable new food, when mixed with one-third its bulk of corn meal. FEEDING FOR EGGS—SUMMER METHOD. My method of feeding in summer is substantially the same as it is in winter, except that corn is struck entirely off my list and wheat and oats made to take its place. In summer, too, I give my hens grass and weeds from the garden for green food, instead of mangels, cabbages, apples and onions. We are fortunate here in Hampton in having close at hand an inexhaustible supply of food not usually found. Every northeast storm washes up on the beach tons and tons of seaweed, which may be had for the hauling. A load of seaweed dumped into a yard in summer will breed mil- lions of small white worms, which the fowls eat greedily. These _worms, or maggots, are said to be better for the hens than wheat, and certainly form a very cheap addition to the daily bill of fare. FEEDING FOR EGGS—CAUTION. In what goes before I have given my method of feeding, but this method will need to be adapted to individual cases. No hard and fast rule can be laid down. The poultryman must study his flock, and learn by experience—he must mix brains with his mash. ‘The large criticism that will be made is that I feed too heavy and do not make my birds exercise enough. Bear in mind, however, that I have been talking about laying stock. Birds that are kept over for breeding are fed the same things that I feed my laying stock, but are not fed so much and are made to exer- cise more. In one case I am after eggs and a good many of them ; in the other, I am after fertile eggs—that will hatch strong B0 ‘chicks. If you notice that your birds are becoming fat and lazy, drop an occasional soft-shelled egg, and that their combs instead of being a healthy red are a dull purple, reduce the ration at once and set the birds to work—otherwise you will have dead hens on your hands. About the time of feeding the mash: it don’t make a cent’s worth of difference whether you feed morning, noon or night, so long as you feed enough and feed the right things. TE GOLDEN, RULE FOR FEEDING Give the hen a sufficient variety and quantity to meet all the needs of her system and leave a margin for egg production. A warm mash in the morning, all she will eat with good relish in 15 minutes to half an hour. Enough grain during the day so that she will go to roost with a crop moderately full, neither dis- tended on the one hand nor nearly empty on the other. Green food, either in mash or separately. More heating food in winter and more of it than in summer. In general it may be said, that one ounce of food a day for each pound she weighs is about right for the average hen. HOW SOME “SUCCESSFUL MENU EERD: Mr. B. F. Duntap, West Salisbury, N. H.—One of the most remarkable poultrymen that I know anything about is Mr. B. F. Dunlap of West Salisbury, N. H., who keeps from 450 to 500 head of laying stock (White Wyandottes and Rhode Island Reds) and clears up a profit of $1,000 yearly. Mr. Dunlap is postmaster and proprietor of a country store, and all the time he can devote to his hens is what he can snatch from his business. Mr. Dunlap lives five miles from the nearest railroad, and makes his profits from eggs, which he markets in Boston. “Every day something different,’ is the principle he goes on, as expressed in his own words. He has four combinations, which he names from the leading article in each: Boiled potatoes, waste bread, clover hay, whole oats. The four combinations are as fol- lows, enough kettlesful being mixed up to feed the whole flock: 1. Boiled potatoes, soaked over night, 8 quarts; gluten, soaked over night, 3 quarts. In the morning add mixed feed, 2 quarts ; corn and oats, ground and mixed together, 2 quarts. 2. Waste bread, soaked over night, 8 quarts; beef scraps, 2 quarts; corn and oats, 2 quarts. Bl 3. Clover hay, soaked over night. In the morning add 2 quarts flour middlings, 2 quarts boiled beef and bone, 2 quarts corn and oats. 4. Whole oats, soaked over night, 8 quarts; gluten, soaked over night, 4 quarts. In the morning add 2 quarts shorts, I quart beef and bone, 2 quarts corn and oats. The mash is fed in the morning, and the hens are given all they will eat up clean in ten minutes. The second and last meal