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Ge tse patng ee Me Meeps pba curs ea bee ge Ursire re OP nee ied aa if i cCied tial ek nee Secs priate ose piste te evade ne Tater re ssa ‘ilsaghe ieee i ee nae Ray ae im bavi frit ri iste that oe ing! ender fi lecenenaitinn etry pete eve me iaitigieins=e i 7h A a “ ap bs Tha, , atete ee iy relic poepiene sree: inh ies fn sti wed Hale eh ia fae ae Sebi tisisatinetie eben ei Cicicaaniananden: ee dieell cient 0 iit anise a cay facta fed is banana ae een sath oe Bris ine (vale a PP yes i poalges rr tana amex E Rice MEMORIAL POULTRY LIBRARY CORNELL UNIVERSITY ‘ALRowanory THE GIFT OF ALBERT R. MANN LIBRARY New York STATE COLLEGES OF AGRICULTURE AND Home Economics AT CORNELL UNIVERSITY niversi SF 487.R384 Cornell University The original of this book is in the Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924003058272 PN ELIABLE POULTRY JOURNAL PUBLISHING COMPANY QUINCY ILLUSA .. THE.. CHICK BOOK *. FROM THE BREEDING PEN THROUGH THE SHELL TO MATURITY - Contains the Experience of the World’s Leading Poultrymen and All the Latest and Most Trustworthy Information About Hatching, Rearing, Fattening and Marketing Chickens...... PRICE, FIFTY CENTS PUBLISHED BY RELIABLE POULTRY JOURNAL PUBLISHING COMPANY : _' QUINCY, ILLINOIS hc e Bs Tan E7454 © COPYRIGHT BY RELIABLE POULTRY JOURNAL PUBLISHING COMPANY QUINCY, ILLINOIS 1905 arg it Sse A SUGGESTION OF PLEASURE AND PROFIT. THE CHICK BOOK—INTRODUCTORY. Success in Hatching and Rearing the Chicks Is a Chief Essential to Profitable Poultry Keeping—How to Obtain the Knowledge Required for Success and How to Apply that Knowledge. HE poultryman’s profit depends in a great meas- ure upon his success in rearing the chicks. Suc- cess is attained only by intelligent use of cor- rect methods. If the incubation, growth and development of the chick are not attended by such conditions as produce and maintain the good health necessary for building a vigorous body and strong consti- tution, the grown bird does not have the power to produce, or earn, more than a nominal profit for its owner, however well it is housed and cared for. Nor does the negative ef- fect stop at the profit of the first year; the progeny of such birds is not only weak and unremunerative, but if raised under like conditions will be less valuable than the parents and such rapid deterioration will render the flock abso- lutely unprofitable in two generations. On the other hand, chicks well hatched, from good eggs, if given intelligent care and surrounded with the essentials required for proper growth and robust development, will mature into fowls which are capable of returning to their owner the last cent in payment for the food and accommodations provided. Such methods increase the productive efficiency of succeeding generations and the road to a competence is auspiciously opened. If the chicks in hand are to be marketed as squab broilers, broilers or roasters, the problem of improving them for stock purposes is eliminated; but the necessity for painstaking effort is not lessened, if indeed it is not in- creased, ; The chick destined for the market must make a very rapid growth; not so much of bone and muscle, as of flesh and fat, and to do this in the least time assures the great- est profit. Conditions, too, at the time when such chicks must be grown to command the top price must be largely artificial. Natural conditions must be approximated as closely as may be, or the young birds cannot stand the heavy feeding necessary to produce the results that count. To one whose heart is in the work, it is as interesting as it is important and offers opportunity for the full exercise of both his mental and physical faculties. That a large per cent of all strong chicks hatched can be raised to the age for maketing, or to maturity, is not disputed. The present-day appliances greatly facilitate the work, and prepared foods, selling at reasonable prices, simplify the problems of feeding. Establishments properly . equipped and handled are raising chicks in numbers that were scarcely dreamed of two decades ago, and by placing them on the market in good condition at a time when the majority of producers have nothing to offer, they obtain ex- treme prices. Later in the season when the market is filled with chickens from farmers and Jess energetic and less up-to-date poultrymen, the large raisers, with their better equipment and thorough knowledge of the business, are able to place their goods on sale in more attractive condition and at a lower cost of production than their com- petitors, securing a better price and larger profit. This is not intended to indicate that large plants are the only ones that can and do accomplish satisfactory re- sults. Small plants are doing good and remunerative work on a smaller scale; some are growing chicks for market, and others for stock purchases; some are doing the work by artificial methods, while not a few hold to the motherly hen of thirteen eggs capacity. After giving due credit to the appliances and improved foods, for the part they play in producing good chickens, the major share is left to be distributed between hard, con- scientious work and well grounded knowledge of the busi- ness. Of all these factors knowledge is the greatest and the one most difficult to secure. When it is found it com- mands its own price. How Knowledge Is Obtained. There are two ways of acquiring this knowledge: by years of costly experience and by careful study of the best poultry literature, supplemented and verified by practical experience. The former, although gocd, and enduring as the hills, plates a man too near the far end of life’s jour- ney when it staduates him and burns up money which ought to be saved ‘and invested in the business. The latter is the shorter road and enables one, by taking advantage of the experience of others and avoiding their mistakes, to cut cross lots to success with money in his pocket. . The printed wisdom of poultry culture is as far ahead of that of ten years. ago as can be imagined. In gathering the material for this book the same sources of information have been drawn upon that furnished the matter for the other popular books published by this company; that is, the poultrymen and women who have made a substantial success in the business and who are specially fitted to write upon the subjects assigned them, Such information, though difficult and expensive to obtain, is valuable almost beyond estimating. It consists not in dry rules and dogmatically expressed theories, but in the live experience of men in the field, with the whys and wherefores for every step and dependable guidance at every turn. It is information that can be trusted to the letter. By following it the mistakes of the novice can be avoided and the methods of the more experienced may be improved. This is not a one-man book, but a broad-gauge one, holding out to the reader several courses which have proved successful so that he may choose from them whatever seems best adapted to his requirements. Condition of the Breeding Stock. Securing good condition in breeding birds is not ditri- cult. Any poultryman worthy the name selects each sea- son birds having the development and style that denote vigor and constitution while selecting the shape re- quired for the variety at hand. It is a fact that birds of standard size and shape are not produced year after year by any but healthy, vigorous stock. Constitutional vigor is the source of strong procreative power and is built up only by careful breeding for a term of years. With this characteristic well established, it remains only to maintain good health and normal condition of flesh 6 THE CHICK BOOK to produce eggs that will bring forth chicks that live, thrive and make a profit. In this connection it is safe to remember that appearance, although a good indicator of health, is" not infallible, for a bird may seem to be in the best of condition, when it is unable to produce a fertile egg. Sup- ply the food and conditions required and trust to nothing less, whatever the appearances, to bring about the desired results. Every effort should be made to conserve the energy and maintain the strength during the winter, when conditions are largely artificial. This does not mean that all profit from the birds in a practical way must be lost or that hens may not lay well during the winter and produce fertile eggs in the spring. The best rule to follow is this: provide as well as possible the exercise, fresh air and foods that the hen would get if allowed her freedom on @ grass range in summer. We cannot lay down a rule for feeding. What will pro- duce good results in one yard will not always do so in an- other, because of different conditions. Sufficient informa- tion upon the feeding values of all commercial foods and their effects upon birds under various conditions is avail- able, so that a little experience and intelligent observation will enable any one to compound the ration best adapted to the needs of his flock. Incubating the Eggs. That the up-to-date hatchers can be depended upon to do their full share toward making the poultryman inde- pendent requires no argument, Good eggs and proper hand- ling by the operator will assure good hatches of vigorous chicks. An understanding of the machine and how to con- trol it, with some knowledge of how te treat eggs during the period of incubation and of the essentials of correct environments, constitutes the wisdom required for successful hatching. We find incubators operating in dark cellars, where there is no light except that of burning kerosene; where good air enters by chance and not from intention, and the atmosphere is damp and laden with germs of decay and dis- ease. Again we find them located in rooms above ground, in houses built for the purpose, in dwellings and in rooms partitioned off in the barn, poultry house and shed where the air, though dry, is seldom renewed and light from the sun is rigidly excluded that a more even temperature may be maintained. A strong man could not stay in one of these places an hour and the flame that heats the incubator frequently has difficulty in collecting enough oxygen for perfect combus- tion. To expect to develop so delicate an organism as an embryo chick under such conditions, is nothing less than folly; yet some people attempt it and, failing, denounce the machine and artificial incubation. How to provide the proper environment and successfully operate the machines is plainly told in succeeding pages. Brooding the Chicks. There are good brooders and brooding systems, and good foods ready to feed. These ready made factors in success are easily obtained, but for their efficiency they -depend upon the discriminating mind of one skilled in the work. In no other branch of the business is the effect of level thinking and well directed effort more noticeable. Five minutes in a brooding house will frequently enable the intelligent observer to estimate correctly the ability of the man in charge; for the appearance of the chicks is the best possible evidence and no flock of chicks is healthy and vigorous that does not look so. It is of primary importance that every aid to good health is supplied, for enfeebled constitutions are as fre- quently caused by bad housing, brooding and care as by improper feeding. Cleanliness, good ventilation and exercise exert more influence than the novice is prone to believe. As the black- smith’s arm grows strong by constant use, the physical structure of the chicks grows strong and is kept in trim by running about and scratching in clean quarters, where fresh air supplies the material for myrials of life-giving blood corpuscles and the digestive organs are made capable of converting to the bedy’s use all the nutriment the food con- tains. a Hatching and Raising With Hens. There are more than a few who, though they admit the practical worth of artificial methods, still cleave to the ways of their grandparents and find satisfaction and profit in so doing. The usefulness of the broody hen is by no means a ‘thing of the past. The breeder with a sitting of eggs from a favorite ‘hen to be hatched and the chicks reared by themselves, the owner of the farm yard flock and the village poultryman with a dozen hens find biddy up-to- date and sufficient for their needs. So much latter-day intelligence has been applied to chicken culture that sometimes it becomes too great a bur- den and the then is divested alike of her natural responsi- bilities and of her opportunities. Our forefathers allowed the old hen to have pretty much her own way and she, taking advantage of the good things that nature provides, not alone hatched and raised the chicks at less cost, but presented better chicks. Nature’s ways are more resultful than the made-to-order methods sometimes recommended. The hen that is allowed to run with her chicks in the day- time, searching for the nutritious worm and balancing the supplied ration by the food selected from field and swamp, will raise a brood that is a credit to the breeder and that will stand him in good stead the following winter. The guc- cessful raisers approximate these conditions as closely as the circumstances permit, Maturing the Flock. A chick well started is half raised; but it must be well cared for, or it will not win in the show room, or command a premium in the market. Good care does not mean that manner of feeding and housing which pampers the birds, but the care that supplies them with plenty of good food and an environment conducive to their physical welfare. The plan of colonizing the youngsters in roomy, open front roosting coops, works wonders toward the production of sturdy stock and hopper feeding not alone reduces the labor involved, but in many cases seams to hasten growth faster than the time honored system of three meals a day. The Value of Common Sense. This is an age of practical things in poultry culture and the application of common sense to all its problems is fast clearing it of much of the theory which has been “thrust: upon” it. It is the person who goes at the work with sleeves rolled up whose success can be counted in big round dollars and whose advice is worth all it costs to every earnest worker. The experience of such men, and women, too, is given in detail in this book and we recommend their articles to the reader with full assurance that their advice may be taken for its face value. H. A. NOURSE. OPERATING AN INCUBATOR. Hints on Buying the Incewbator and Becoming Acquainted with Its Use—The Advantages of Testing the Eggs—Why Pure . Air is Necessary—The Difficulties of Late Hatching—The Importance of Good, Hatchable Eggs. By A. F. Hunter. brooder, and some suggestions to that end will be timely. Do not put off puying too long. Do not wait until you need to begin hatching. There are very manifest advantages in getting the incubator into your possession, and becoming to a certain exteut familiar with it. We know a man who intended to buy an incubator, but put it off, for one reason or another, until it was time to pegin hatching, and, indeed, he nad actually begun saving eggs for hatching. He then sent the money for the incuba- tor and asked the manufacturers to “nlease hurry it along.” They shipped it at cnce, but he, after waiting some ten days, wrote to know why his incubator nad not arrived. As it was on the way, all the manufacturers could do was to start a “tracer” after it, and the incubator and tracer reached the man’s railway station practically. together-—the incubator having been thirteen days on the road. While such a delay may be unusual, still, there are pos- sible delays, owing to the transfer of the machine from one railway to another at a junction, aud that means unloading it onto one platform, trundling it to another platform and loading on another car, etc., etc., etc., any one who is ac- quainted with freight shipments knows the vexatious delays that are possible. Therefore, we say buy your machine in good time so as to avoid the possible misfortune of delay in transportation. Another point is that you get an oppor- tunity to get the machine set up at a time when you have plenty of leisure to do it right and get the conditions right; you can also take time to get acquainted with the machine so ag to run it to the best advantage and greatest conven- ience to yourself. That point of getting acquainted with the machine is a most important one. We have a letter from a lady in Montana who says that she bought an incubator last spring, got it home to her house about noon, went to work uncrating it and setting it up as soon as she had eaten her dinner, and at 5 o’clock in the afternoon put the eggs into it. A little consideration of the risks those eggs were subjected to will illustrate the point. She had never seen an incubator before and had no idea of running one excepting what she got in the directions sent with the incubator. As fortune favored her, she got a good hatch, but the chances were certainly very much against it; and it is very foolish to take chances when we can avoid them by taking time by the forelock. It is good, sound advice to take three or four days in which to gradu- ally warm up the machine to the desired temperature, see Mi ANY people are intending to buy an Incubator and that the regulation is properly adjusted to the desired point, become familiar. with the individuality of the lamp so that the flame can be set at pretty nearly the same point after each filling and trimming,—in fact, become “familiar” with the methods of operating the incubator. This is purely ele- mentary advice, but the great bulk of incubator buyers are amateurs, and.very many of them have never operated in- cubators before, hence these same “A, B, C” points have to: be gone over every season in order to best, nelp those who are just starting with incubators, Test the Eggs. A not uncommon fault of-inexperienced incubator oper- ators is to neglect testing the eggs. This is a mistake for several reasons. First, there is always a proportion of eggs that are absolutely clear, running usually from 10 to 25 or 30 per cent, und those clear eggs are perfectly good for cook- ing. They are not quite fresh, of course, since the six or seven days that they have been in the machine have “staled” them to a certain extent, but no more than if they had lain on the counter of a country store for a few weeks— as is very frequently the case. Large operators usually sell those infertile eggs to bakers and confectioners, and they are used up in making cakes, pies, custards, etc A decided advantage in removing from the trays those clear eggs is that there is more room for the fertile eggs in the trays, and they can be turned and handled more easily; even if no second test is made, a first test, to take out the clear eggs, certainly should be made. A second test about the fourteenth or ffteenth day, to remove germs that have died since the first test, is a help to a good hatch. Those dead eggs usually throw off slight odors or deleterious matter, hence a good hatch is promoted by getting them out of the machine. Another argument for testing eggs is that it increases one’s knowledge of embry- onic life and development, and enhances the interest of artificial incubation. A good tester is sent out with every incubator sold and we strongly urge the buyer to start right,—and learning to test his eggs is an important part of that start. ; Dark shelled and thick shelled eggs are more difficult for an amateur to test than are the more common white- shelled eggs, for the reason that the light does not shine through them so well, and even an experienced tester may mistake a clear egg for a probable germ; that is, the yolk may throw a shadow that will have the appearance of a good, strong germ. $s THE CHICK BOOK It is well in learning to test to break a few eggs that one is doubtful of and learn the appearance of clear eggs, dead germs, strong-living germs, etc. Do not be afraid to sacrifice a dozen or two of eggs in the interesi of gaining knowledge—it is a good investment in the long run. Supply Fresh. Air. Be certain that there is an abundant supply of fresh air in the incubator room at all times. A serious mistake of beginners is being afraid that a little fresh air will jeopard- ize the hatch. It is important to remember that if you have 150 living germs in an incubator all of those 150 living organisms are consuming oxygen very day and every min- ute of the day, hence it is important that they be abundantly supplied with that life-giving element. If the incubator is in a moderately warm place, say about 60 degrees, more air or soft-roasters early in the spring. _Having the incubator and brooder equipment and the winter season being 9 time when the farm work does not crowd so hard, it is natural to think of having some chickens to bring forward to mar- ket; the cash received from selling them is always welcome. A most important point in starting the incubators is that they .be carefully and thoroughly cleaned up, especially on the inside where the actual work of incubating is done. It is not so well known as it should ‘be that disease germs lurk in uncleaned incubators and brooders and that not a small proportion of the mortality of baby chicks is due to the unsanitary condition of incubators and brooders. A few years ago the Rhode Island Experiment Station was much troubled with this mortality of baby chicks, and some hun- dreds of cases were carefully examined for the purpose of Aa Incubator House Banked with Earth to Protect It Against Changes of Temperature. can be admitted to the machine and the eggs can be cooled and aired a longer time than if the machine is in a consider- ably colder place. This means that cooling and airing the eggs should be much less in coid weather than in mild, spring weather; then, too, you can do decidedly more cool- ing and airing the last third of the hatch than earlier, and the living embryos will be the better for it. The practice of operators varies considerably, some cooling and airing the eggs a great deal after the firsc week, and there are some who cool and air from the very start almost. Generally speaking, however, if the incubator is in a cool place it will be found that the eggs get sufficiently cooled and aired at the daily turning the first week, then a few minutes a day the second week, and the last week (up to the time of pip- ping) five to ten minutes a day is none too much. In- deed, if the animal heat in the eggs is strong and the tem- perature of the incubatcr room is 60 degrees or above, quite a long airing daily will be beneficial. Some of the Difficulties of Late Hatching. Some poultry raisers start hatching in the fall, with the purpose to have broiler chickens to séll in the winter locating the cause, and one of the causes given in the report is: “Imperfect sanitation; lack of ventilation, sunlight, etc., e. g., tuberculosis flourishes in dark, poorly ventilated brooders; 15.1 per cent of the posi-mortems showed more or less evidence of tuberculosis.” A similar case was reported as afflicting several practical poultry farms last winter and so serious did the trouble become that an experi on poultry diseases was called in to carefully examine a lot of the dead chicks to see if he could locate the cause. He hadn’t pro- ceeded far when he located tuberculosis as being the princi- pal cause; a thorough cleaning up and disinfecting of incu- bators and brooders was prescribed and within a week the deaths practically ceased. “Prevention” is so very much better, simpler and easier than cure! How much of both pecuniary luss and trouble those poultrymen would have saved if they had simply cleaned up and disinfected the incubators and brooders be- fore commencing operations in the fall. Improper. feeding and overcrowding are also prominent causes of the loss of baby chicks, but those are easily preventable causes; any one losing chicks’ from those ‘causes has only himself to THE CHICK BOOK 9 blame for it! And the disease germs also are easily prevent- able; cleanliness and disinfecting will down them and keep them down; hence any one who allows them to breed in his incubators and brooders and pounce upon his baby chicks has only himself to blame for it. Getting Good, Hatchable Eggs. Another difficulty to overcome in hatching fall and winter chickens is getting good, hatchable eggs, but practi- cal market poultry raisers overcome this diffculty, as is proved by the fact that they hatch and raise faii and winter chickens. Eggs of all kinds are very scarce in the fall and early winter, and lo get good, full-bodied eggs, eggs that will produce a fair proportion of strong, healthy chicks, is the problem. If pullets have now begun to lay, their eggs are rather small in size, and, as a rule, if they are used for hatching the chicks one gets are likely to be small and weak. Eggs from mature hens are the best, but they are mostly just recovering from the molt and iay few, if any, eges. Hens can be induced to molt in summer and be wholly recovered from it and in full lay again by October if handled for that object, and if one has eggs from such hens of his own, or can get a supply from farmer neighbors, he is fortunate and can hatch winter chicks. ‘There is great difference in egzs, and marketmen speak of the best as being “full-bodied and strong;” others are classed as “weak and watery.” It is only the best “‘full- bodied and strong’ eggs that will hatch strong, vigorous chicks; it is well known that eggs which are weak and watery cannot produce strong chicks. The food and bodily condition of the fowls control the quality of the eggs, hence the hatchability of the eggs is largely in the control of the manager of the fowls. The West Virginia Experiment Sta- tion has recently reported some tests of “mash feeding com- pared with whole grain, and heavy feeding coiapared with light feeding as affecting the number of eggs laid and their hatchability;” also, “beef scraps, ground fresh meat and bone, and milk albumen as affecting the hatchability of eggs.” The conclusion of the first series of experiments says: “It is seen that the eggs from the fowis fed liberally hatched better than those from the fowls fed scantily;” also, “The results from these two tests should be construed as indicating that when the conditions are favorable for normal egg production, then the eggs will hatch better than when the conditions are unfavorable.” It is quite possible. that the above tells us nothing new, but it is a restatement ‘of an important truth which we need to have frequently put up to us. The iiberal feeding is :mportant, but the good care, right sanitary conditions, fresh air and sufficient exercise for good health are equally importani factors for the production of good, hatchable eggs, of eggs that are “full, strong bodied,’ well shelled, and ail right in every way. A. F. HUNTER. THE ENVIRONMENT FOR INCUBATORS. Fresh Air and Sunlight are as Essential for the Processes of Incubation as the Correct Degree of Heat. By H. A, Nourse. machines that will do their part if the operator will provide proper environments, give them necessary care and furnish good eggs. The fact that any ‘thatch at all is secured where the operators are careless of everything but the machine itself, is a telling SCONES tion of the present day hatchers. Aside from the proper control of heat in the machine, nothing is of greater importance than a favorable condition of the surrounding air. Oxygen is a necessary factor in success and must be provided. To shut an incubator in a ‘small, dark room where to confine the heat every door and window is shut tightly, or to place it in a dark, musty cellar, where but little fresh air enters frcm autuma to spring, is to deprive yourself of its benefits. Sualight is one of the best air purifiers and germ de- stroyers, but should not be allowed to shine through the glass doors of the machine. For this reason few cellars are fit for incubator rooms; yet, when one has ventilation suffi- cient to keep the air pure at all times and windows above ground through which the sunlight may shine, it is the very ‘pest location for a macitine, because the temperature will be less variable than in a room or building that is wholly ‘above ground. In the absence of these conditions an ordi- nary room in a dwelling, without heat, will be found best adapted to the requirements of those who do not need or -eannot afford a building especially for this purpose. Ventilation may be secured and controlled by dropping ‘the windows at the top and raising them at the bottom, pre- T HERE is no question but we have good incubators— ca venting a draught in severe ur rough weather by inserting cloth-covered frames in the open spaces. By having these frames in two or three sizes and one or more windows the situation may be thoroughly mastered. It is a fact that small buildings designed for the pur- pose do not, as a rule, provide the favorable conditions de- scribed, therefore are not very satisfactory. Of those above ground few are well enough built to protect the machines in severe weather without closing every source of fresh air, in which case that confined in the building, usually of small contents, is soon impoverished by the lamps, which abstract, the oxygen, leaving unhealthy gases in its place. Houses partly or wholly below ground to the eaves almost invari- ably lack sufficient ventilation, because it is more difficult to introduce fresh air. The best room of this kind is one hav- ing a building above to temper the heat in summer and the - cold in winter; walls extending five feet below the ground, and two feet above; one-fifth of this exposed area of walls being of glass. Good ventilation necessitates a constant changing of the air by bringing in fresh air from without the building and removing the air which has become laden with impurities. To accomplish this, fresh air must be in- troduced near the ceiling of the room, preferably through a cloth diaphram, and the foul air drawn out from near the floor by means of tubes extending from within one foot thereof, up through the highest point in the roof of the building. In. this manner the room may be freed from all gases without the aid of direct draughts and the chicks will be strong and healthy, if other conditions are favorable. H. A. NOURSE. VENTILATION AND MOISTURE IN INCUBATORS, The Greatest Problem in Successful Artificial Incubation Is in Ventilation and Moisture—The Egg Contains a Proper Proportion of Elements to Build Up the Embryonic Structure—Death of the Embryo Follows Abuse of Nature’s Laws. By H. E. Moss day is the diversity of treatment to whieh eggs are required to be subjected under the instructions of the makers of the various machines now on the market and their ability to furnish pages of testimonials in support of their claims of the merits of their particular machine. There can be but one correct process or method of incubation, and that is nature’s method. If we would duplicate nature we must conform to her method. I have before me thirty catalogues from as many different incuba- tor manufacturers. I have been examining these books and comparing the claims and theories of the different makers ©": of the anomalies in the incubator business of to- Two Incubater Houses in Use on an English Poultry Farm. ‘so far as they pertain to the essential requirements of a suc- ‘cessful hatcher. There is but one point upon which they all agree, and thai is the proper incubating temperature. The ease with which this fact can be determined accounts for this, but there are other conditions besides temperature upon which successful hatching depends, and in these they not only advance contrary theories, but in some instances proclaim them as self-evident truths. Turning and cooling ‘the eggs are provided for in various ways, some even going so far as to furnish a cooling schedule for each day of the hatch, each one differing from the other. It is not with this ‘question, however, that I propose to deal at this time, but the one embraced in ventilation and moisture. We are told very emphatically by some that at the end ‘of a certain day the egg must show an air space to corre- spond with a given diagram, and at the end of certain other days it must show certain other fixed lines of air space, and that if the eggs are placed in warm water on a certain day and they float with an exposed surface equal to a silver quarter in size, the evaporation is right. Now this may all be approximately correct and agree with normal conditions, but they go further and say that if they are found deficient the ventilation must be increased and if excessive it must be diminished and moisture introduced. This sounds very plausible to the unthinking or those who jump at conclusions. That all eggs lose a certain amount of moisture during incubation is very apparent, but the question is how do they lose it? From the rules they lay down for the purpose of increasing or diminishing the air space, we must assume their hypothesis to be that there is a certain amount of water created in the egg that does not belong there and that the Creator made the incubating body a party to the reproductive process, and did not create a perfect egg in a perfect condition to reproduce the species without the intervention of this outside agency to rear- range, as it were, its contents. The absurdity of such an hypothesis is apparent. Can we imagine for one moment that in His infinite wisdom He would establish any incomplete or imperfect thing, or law, as must be inferred in this case, whereby some species are taught to deposit their eggs in suitable locations and never see them afterward, and that such eggs should not contain the proper proportions of all the ele- ments necessary to build up the embryonic structure? No, we cannot conceive of any such condition. We must assume that whatever is placed within the egg is necessary to the perfect development of its germ, and that if we wish to incu- bate it successfully we must not rob it of any one element or any part of one, and that if we do it suffers in conse- quence and in proportion to the degree of abuse to which we / “subject it. i It has taken a number of years for incubator makers and operators to correct their ventilation. Carbon dioxide has been a bugbear. They find they need no longer fear this. They now unintentionally. cease robbing the egg of its moisture and realize the fact that under the new conditions the hatches approximate natural methods. The moisture pan is now a back number. The only benefit it ever worked was to partially equalize the aqueous tension between the inner and outer air, a condition which need not exist in a modern incubator. A current of cold air drawn in through the ventilating flues increases its capacity for moisture in proportion to the increase in its temperature. Its relative humidity being lower than the outer air, it gathers mois- ture from the eggs in sufficient quantity to restore the equi- librium. The allantois is robbed of its fluid and the mem- brane becomes dry, destroying its function as a respiratory organ, and death of the embryo follows. The greatest mor- tality from this cause occurs during the third week, The ventilating flues and forced drafts with which many machines of to-day are equipped are wrong in principle, al- though it is possible to operate fairly well with them, pro- vided the apertures are reduced to the minimum and em- ployed solely for the purpose of maintaining the air pure in THE CHICK BOOK 11 the egg chamber. Natural variations in the atmospheric humidity exert no influence, provided the aqueous tension is held the same within the egg chamber as without, and this is attainable in very few machines, From the hour the egg reaches the incubating tempera- ture there is a condition present within it which I have never seen noticed or described by any investigator. It is what might be termed a partial vacuum, a tension, or a ten- dency to shrinkage or contraction, which would naturally cause the absorption of oxygen to be more rapid than if it were compelled to depend upon diffusion only. This ten- sion is more apparent on about the fourteenth day than at any other period. It seems to be rythmic or intermittent and is suggestive of the process of breathing as we perform it, except that its operation is so slight as to be impercep- tible except under certain conditions. Every atom of water contained in the egg is intended to pass through the circulation of the embryo in combination with the other elements, and is absolutely essential to the perfecting of the structure, and after having been so util- ized it is, as with any other elements that have beeen chem- ically transformed and served their purpose, thrown off as waste matter in the form of gases or urates. A weak germ, and by that I mean one that has not had a strong vitality, or life principle or impulse, implanted in it by the parent, or that has been reduced to this state by abuse, is retarded in its development. The impulse has either been checked or was weak to begin with. The normal diminution of the contents is checked or ceases entirely. The operator is told that he is using too much moisture and not ventilat- ing enough, SO Out come the water pans and open go the slides, and at the same time an examination of all the eggs would perhaps show many at the normal stage. A strong current of air is now driven through the machine under the delusion that all that is necessary to make these weak germs hatch is by some means to extract the surplus mois- ture they seem to contain and increase the air space, and I have no doubt but some would be tempted to draw it out with a hypodermic syringe if it were contained in a pocket in the egg and they were not convinced by actual experience that a rupture of the membranes would be fatal. I would suggest to any who have doubts on this ques- tion to select a tray or a machine full of eggs showing small air spaces, say about the tenth to the fourteenth day, place them in a machine by themselves, take out all the water pans, open wide all ventilators, force all the air you can through the machine, and if you wish drive a warm blast through it by a fan motor, and see how many of them will come to exclusion. You can evaporate them fast enough and the faster, the quicker and surer the death. There are some things about incubation we can never know. The life principle or impulse is beyond the grasp of finite minds. Starting with germs that in every living thing are identical in structure and appearance, and developing them from one plane to another until they reach the limit to which their impulse carries them, they become men, birds or fish, and thus perpetuate their species, the fittest always surviving. We mortals may speculate and theorize upon it, but we cannot fathom it. Our hypothesis is that the Creator placed in the normal egg just what is needed there—no more, no less—and that if we can duplicate natural conditions we can successfully incubate them. artificially, presuming that the parent bird in the incubating process contributes nothing but heat. If we can do this, and at the same time furnish oxygen suf- ficient to sustain the process we will succeed, but it must be just enough—no more, no less. The right amount to gauge the machines for, varies with the outer temperature, the stage of hatch and the machine used, as all vary in their power to induce currents—some are forced, others are natural. All these points must be taken into consideration, H. E. MOSS. A Substantial, Practical Brooding House Ia Use at White Leghorn Poultry Yards, CARE OF BROODER CHICKS. The Brooder Chick from Egg to Maturity—Ventilation, Moisture, Temperature and Floor Space Discussed by Breeders Who Know the Requirements of Brooder Chicks—Brooding Houses and Coops—Foods and Feeding—General Advice on Management. _ [This symposium is devoted to brooder chicks exclusively. To hatch chicks in an incubator is comparatively easy, and may be ‘done by a novice, but to raise the chicks after they are removed to the brooder requires a knowledge which does not stop at a thorough understanding of brooder operation. The movements and appearance of the chicks inform an experienced observer what is necessary for their well-being. To obtain the greatest growth in the shortest time, chicks must be healthy, comfortable and always on the jump for food. Improper conditions result in death. It is from men who are competent to raise brooder chicks with the lowest possible mortality that we have obtained the following useful information for our readers.—Hditor.] ADVANTAGES OF BROODER RAISED CHICKS— RATIONS AND CARE. NE of the most necessary appliances connected with © the poultry industry is an A No. 1 brooder, even though a hatcher is not in use. It is an easy mat- ter to find a number of sitting hens, and by placing in the brooder the chicks hatched by them, you avoid feeding the chick’s food to the hens, and they will soon begin laying. The chicks can be cared for and reared safely, no matter what weather prevails outside the brooder. They are free from vermin and if the brooder is kept clean they will not be troubled with lice. ‘There is no need of losing a chick if Properly cared for. more easily handled than those reared by hens. For from fifty to seventy-five chicks arun of twenty feet is sufficient for one to two weeks, after which the chicks should be placed in a larger inclosure or allowed to run at large. I believe in plenty of range, as chicks confined to small inclosures very seldom develop well, but often do de- velop off colored feathers in plumage, which nature provides against if they have large range. The run may. be made of boards twelve inches high, a portion of which may be cov- ered with cheese-cloth. This will afford protection from winds and storms, also from sun. : Chicks when first out of the shell can have no better food than bread for two or three days, then a mixture of cornmeal and bran (half and half in bulk), to which add a small quantity of bone meal, about one part to eight of the mixture of meal and bran. Wei this with water and it makes an excellent food for morning and noon. Ar night good, clean wheat and cracked corn, with oat flakes or hulled A Group of Fast Growing Chicks. They will be much more tame and oats is unsurpassed. Milk is very beneficial if placed where fowls or chicks can drink it, but should not be mixed with the food. A good brooder, an abundance of the right kind of food, coupled with a fair amount of common sense, will bring good results, W. F. BRACE. LESSONS FROM NATURE—INTERESTING EXPERI- ENCES—LIMIT THE FOOD SUPPLY. While we have most of our chicks raised with hens on farms we still raise some in brooders. We allow the chicks to remain in the incubator from ten to twelve hours after they are all hatched; then we put them into a warmed brooder with the floor covered two inches thick with wheat bran. After they have been in the brooder two days we scaiter a little millet seed in the bran, but not much for a week. This season we have used a prepared chick food al- ternately with millet and have had success. When a few weeks old we feed cracked corn and whole wheat, in fact anything the chicks will eat, as great a variety as possible, and not too much at a time, keeping them in good appetite all the time, so they will take plenty of exercise. It is well to have plenty of chaff or cut straw, hayseed or anything of that kind to scatter their grain food in to make them work, not forgetting grit and green food. Use only a brooder so constructed that the chicks can get any degree of heat they want, and one that allows the chicks to get away as far from the heat as they want to, and they will take care of themselves. One thing in raising brooder chicks seems to us to be of more importance than anything else, and that is the feed- ing of the chick the first week of its existence. When a chick is hatched nature has supplied it with enough food so it can easily do without eating or drinking for a week or over. We will give one instance that will prove this with- out a doubt. A few years ago we had a hen that would fly through a ventilator and get above a board ceiling in one of our chicken houses; there she laid a lot of eggs and hatched a dozen chicks. Judging from the looks of the chicks when we first found them they were about ten days old, and dur- ing that time they had neither food nor water. A stronger lot of chicks I never saw and they were as wild as deer. In 1890 we took two hens with fifteen chicks each and put them into a cornfield a quarter of a mile from our build- ings and left them to hunt their living as best they could. The chicks had no water or food, except what the hen found for them. After they were ten days old we went to see them and note results. We found the hens had not been ten yards from the place we put them, and such a sleek, healthy and THE CHICK BOOK vigorous lot of chicks we never saw. Being satisfied with results so far, we left them another week, but wheD we went to see them we only found a few feathers from the hens, as a@ pack of dogs had put a stop to our experiments, but we learned this one fact, that very little, if any food should be given to newly hatched chicks for the first three or four days at least, and we believe there are more chicks killed by overfeeding in the first ten days of their lives than at any other time. This hardly ever affects the chicks until about the seventh day, when they get diarrhoea and stand around with full crops and soon die from indigestion, caused by strong food and feeding. We all know what a hen that steals her nest does after her chicks are hatched. She does ncething the first few days but brood her chicks, then after they are three or four days old she will commence to scratch for them, but very little do they get for the first ten days. They secure a few small seeds at a time, and as they grow, and their digestive organs get strength they find more food, and most of the chicks live and grow to maturity; they de- velop very fast, too. Let us watch the old hen and learn lessons that will help us much in raising chicks with brooders. We think exercise is of great importance, and if one is so situated as to allow the chicks a good run it will be found very beneficial. If the room is limited use plenty of litter with dry food scattered through it. Avoid sloppy food. Remember dry food is nature’s food and always remember, too, that little food is far better than too much. AUG. D. ARNOLD. ON BROODERS AND BREEDING. Four years of experience with artificial incubating and brooding has settled definitely in my mind the fact that with it we can raise “better poultry and more of it.” I mean by this, that we cannot only raise a larger quantity, but a better quality. This is from the standpoint of a fan- cier as well as a marketman. In my hands brooder raised chicks are superior in growth and development, shape and plumage to those raised by hens. There are many reasons why this should be so, and these will be apparent to the unprejudiced poultrymen. My exhibition specimens have invariably been brooder raised. If I could have but one I would prefer a brooder to an incubator. I do not think an incubator superior to a hen for hatching, put I do think a brooder superior to her for raising chicks. To be successful the floor of the brooder should be built as near the ground as possible, should be capable of generating sufficient heat, and should have a regulator that will maintain the correct temperature. I believe a regulator on a brooder in which you expect to place newly hatched chicks is as important as that on an incubator. The heat should come from above, with just sufficient bottom heat to keep the floor dry. The tempera- ture under the hover should be ninety degrees Fahrenheit for the first two weeks, with a gradual lowering from that on. Overheating is just as injurious and will cause bowel trouble just as quickly as will a chilly atmosphere. Let me caution readers against buying cheap brooders, for they prove very expensive in the end. Out of the many brooders made and advertised, there should be no trouble to select a good one. Buy the best or none at all. I have absolutely no use for an outdoor brooder, unless it is to be used indoors, and then I prefer an indoor brooder. Imagine shutting up fifty to two hundred chicks in a brood- er three by four feet for two whole days when the weather is stormy, and expecting them to do well. I have made small houses, six by eight feet, with a window and door in front. In a corner of this house I place A Vigorous Brood and Their Brooder. the brooder, and after the chicks are three days old I give them the run of the house. On pleasant days the door to this house is left open and the chicks are given the run of the yard. In stormy weather they are kept in the house. On the floor of this house is four to six inches of chaff and into this the food is placed. At the end of eight or ten weeks the brooders are removed and roosts are put in their place. The young are left here until placed in winter quarters. For food, for the first four weeks I use bread soaked in milk, squeezed dry as possible, millet seed, cracked wheat, and cat groats. After the fourth week cut green bone is fed twice a week in place of bread and milk, and cracked corn alone for night food. Chick grit, granulated bone and dry bran is kept before them at all times. Be careful and do not overfeed. Small chicks will commence to scratch as soon as hungry, and they should be kept at it. It is needless to say attention to details is necessary to success. Clean the brooder frequently and keep the sur- roundings in a sanitary condition. _ Fresh, pure water should be kept before them. Get the chicks out on the ground as soon as possible, if but for a few minutes every day. With me the brooder chicks and their care are a source of pleasure, and their attention means a friendship between us which is noticeable when they become adult fowls. DR. 0. P. BENNETT. THE TEMPERATURE OF THE BROODER IS OF FIRST IMPORTANCE. We have been raising chicks since 1893 and with the exception of the first year we have raised nearly all of them in brooders. We have at times raised nearly every chick put into them, and again, we have lost every solitary one, with many varied and interesting experiences between the two extremes, but the method with which we have had the best success is that which we here describe. ‘When the chicks are hatched we have the brooders all ready and warmed to a temperature of ninety degrees, which we consider nearly a perfect temperature (that is ninety degrees in the coolest part of the hover and not exceeding one hundred degrees in the warmest.) We place the chicks under the hover and for one week keep the temperature at, or aS near ninety degrees as it is possible to keep it. The second week, if all has gone well, we reduce the temperature to eighty degrees, and after the second week and for as long as the chicks need the heat in a brooder we run it at seventy to eighty degrees, or at whatever temperature the chicks. seein to be contented. We consider the heating part of this brooder business of more importance than the method of 14 THE CHICK BOOK feeding;-as-too much or too little heat-will wipe out a whole brooderfultof chicks before one is aware anything has gone wrong. Another thing—in thé night when there is a change in the ,;weather from one extreme to the other, oue will, many & time, save a bunch of chicks by going out and changiiig ‘the lamp flame, either up or down, as may be necessary. No matter if you are sleepy, if you wish to raise the greatest number of chicks, you must attend to this duty. As to feeding, we have wheat, cats and corn, equal parts of each ground together, and, with one-third its bulk in bran mixed with water to a stiff mass, a little soda added, and sometimes two or three eggs to a gallon of the food, This we put in a deep pan and bake thor- oughly for two hours in a good hot oven. We use — this food crumbled fine with a little more dry bran added for the first four days and feed three times a day just what they will eat up clean. At noon, after the fifth day, we feed a little wheat, cracked corn and. millet seed until they can eat cracked wheat, oats and corn, when we feed equal parts of wheat and oats, but only half as much corn. After the first. week we add a small quantity of green cut bone every week day in the evening food. When they are five weeks old we feed whole grain morning and noon and soft food (not cooked) and green bone at night, until they are nearly matured, when we omit the noon feed entirely. We keep them in their regular brooders until they can do without the heat; then they are PI KEEP THE BRUODER CLEAN-—-WHAT TO FEED— HENS BRING LICE. Yes, I lave had some experience raising chick brooders. As to the number of chicks to a brooder, yet to find one that would accommodate more than thirty or forty chicks for me. There is much danger of over-crowd- ing where more than forty are placed in the same brooder. Special care is needed to keep the chicks very clean, and the fresher and cleaner the surroundings of the chicks the less liable one is to lose them. In regard to feeding—I like pin-head oatmeal or rolled oats for the first four or five weeks, with a change to bread and milk or Spratt’s patent chick food. An excellent change also and one that pro- 3 with I have Al duces growth is fine cut green bone. As to the quantity, I give them what they will eat up clean. I would much rather keep them a little hungry than have them stuffed with food. I feed about five times a day the first week; after that four times a day till they are near- ly grown. Cracked corn, wheat, buckwheat, ground oats and green cut bone is what I give them from six weeks old upwards. I keep plenty of grit before them, also plenty of fresh water in clean fountains or dishes. When weather per- mits I allow them to run at will, giving them practically free range. I have five acres devoted exclusively to White Wyandottes and raise about two hundred chicks on the home place. I farm out extra ones on different farms. I find that they do much better in small num- changed to a cold brood- er for a week or ten days, and from there to our open front roosting coops. They remain in these coops until they become troublesome to the smaller ones, when we put the first hatched lot in our large pens, separating the males and females. We give our young chicks unlimited range of an old orchard, except during the first two weeks, when we use a small pen ten feet square around each brooder for fifty chicks. We never put more than that number in one brooder. For our early chicks, for green food, we use a small amount of clover meal in their food. Young chicks should be placed on the ground just as early as possible after the second or third day. The little chicks in cool weather should ‘be placed in a sunny spot and in extremely tot weather in the shade. Close attention to details and all ef- forts to make the chicks comfortable are well repaid by faster, better growth. CLARK & TROLL. The Heater which Feeds the Pipe Systems in a New Jersey Brooding House. bers. It is not how many I try to raise, but how many good ones. I raise some by natural way, but have to be on the alert for fear of lice. But frequent use of lice killing powders and lice killing paints will keep them down and out. All my weaned chickens are quartered in roosting coops where they get plenty of air and grow fast. Cc. S. WETMORE. FIVE DOLLARS AN HOUR EARNED BY RAISING 400 BROODER CHICKS. I had a little experience a few years ago which I think will illustrate the possibilities of chicken growing on a lim- ited area and may interest and benefit some of your readers. During the latter part of March I got out a hatch of Light Brahma chicks, four hundred and one in number. I kept them in the brooder house for a few days, then, being short of room, put them outside in two outdoor brooders. THE CHICK BOOK 15 inclosing them in a little space of six square rods, inside a wire fence one foot high. I think I have never suffered so small a mortality in all my experience with chicks, losing but three of the whole number and one of those killed by a “dog. Those chicks commenced growing from the first and in three weeks’ time began to hop over the wire. I hastily placed a four-foot wire around the pen, intending to move them to different quarters when convenient, but they made such a remarkable growth and seemed so healthy, I thought I would see how long they could be kept growing in that limited space. I attended them myself. The yard was swept every day with scrupulous care and the excrements removed. The birds were fed systematically and always Kept a little hungry. They never left that yard till they went to market, then weighing from five to six pounds each, dressed, and there was not a cull in the lot. Their plumage | 4 In fact nothing came amiss; they greedily devoured every- thing I gave them and appeared to have every confidence in my judgment. They brought thirty cents per pound in Bos- ton market, aggregating nearly six hundred dollars, thus paying me for all food consumed and nearly five dollars an hour for all time in caring for them and had they been hatched two weeks earlier they would have brought thirty- five cents per pound. With one exception, this was my most successful experience with chickens, JAMES RANKIN. RAISING CHICKS IN BROODERS. We use both indoor piped sectional and outdoor hot-air brooders. To begin with, our chicks are well hatched and come out strong, plump and active. Very early in the sea- son, when the weather is still cold and frosty and no grass View Showing the Location of Hovers and Other Interior Fixtures in a New Jersey Brooding House. was glossy and fine. The birds were gentle and could be taken up at will. When a little over four months old and about ready for market, I notified Mr. Hunter, then of Farm Poultry, that I had a show for him. He came out the next day and when he saw those chicks he would not believe that they had been grown in that yard, as there appeared to be but little more than standing room for them. He asked my men if I was not hoaxing with him, and he finally acknowledged that they were the finest lot of chicks he ever saw together. They were fed four times per day till a month old, after that three times. They were started in with bread crumbs and hard ‘boiled eggs chopped fine. One part egg to five parts crumbs and plenty of grit mixed in. After three days their food was equal quantities of wheat bran and cornmeal witb a little fine beef scraps, and I gave them one feed each day of rolled oats and cracked corn. As they grew older they had a bucket of clotted milk each day, boiled potatoes and green grass. Toward the last, one feed of whole corn and ever one-half bushel of finely cut corn fodder per day. > growing, we use the indoor brooders. These machines are Set up, thoroughly warmed and tested before the chicks are put in. The brooder floors are sanded and the house floor covered with chaff or cut straw. During the first few weeks we keep the hovers very warm and if the chicks are too warm they crawl out where it is cooler. At night in par- ticular we are careful to have a good surplus of heat, so that the chicks lle partly outside the hovers, as from mid- night to morning the temperature of the room will lower considerably, so the chicks will go under the hover and be very comfortable. Were it not for this surplus of heat when left at night the chicks might be chilled before morn- ing and then bowel trouble would make its appearance and many chicks die. Each room is sixteen by twenty feet and not usually over four hundred chicks to each brooder. The first few days the chicks are fed granulated oat- meal only, with clean water (not too cold) for drink, and some good, sharp grit before them constantly. The first week we feed four times daily and but little at a meal. We then begin gradually working them on to a diet of cake, 16 THE CHICK BOOK varied with cracked wheat. The cake is made of ground oats (hulls sifted out), cornmeal and best coarse wheat bran, about equal parts by bulk, with a very little high grade beef scraps mixed in while dry. The mixture is then moistened with some milk or buttermilk, salted as for the table, leav- ened with soda, and baked. The baking tins should not be quite full, as when the bread is done we turn it upside down on a board so the crust will be softened hy the steam. As the chicks grow older the amount of heef scraps is gradually increased. This feeding goes on until the chicks are five to six weeks old, when a warm mash of about the same material as the cake is fed once a day, and whole wheat and cracked corn twice. This mash is moistened with warm water with a little salt dissolved. Just as soon as we can get fresh clover or grass it is fed daily, cut in one-eighth-inch lengths. Chard, lettuce, beet tops or any such green stuff is also good. The hard grains are fed in the litter to induce exercise after the chicks are older and strong enough to work it out. When the chicks are ten days to two weeks old and the weather is suitable they are let out in yards about fifty by two hundred feet in size, care being taken that they can find their way to the house when stormy. When they are about eight weeks old the yards are opened and the birds given free range. When the chicks show a disposition to roost on top in- stead of inside the brooder, roosts are placed back of the brooder and the chicks encouraged to occupy them, when in a short time the brooder can be removed. Just as soon as grass starts in spring, we begin putting chicks in the outdoor brooders, and when they are four to six days old we let them out on the ground in small yards in front of the brooder. As soon as they get familiar with going in and out and learn to go inside when the weather is stormy we give larger yards, running entirely around the brocder, and finally when the chicks are three or four weeks old we allow them free range. as in the indoor brooders, except that cut grass is omitted, as they help themselves to the fresh, growing article, and the exercise they get in pulling it off and running around the yards is a wonderful aid to growth. In my opinion an outdoor brooder should have a light, cool chamber attached, where the chicks can feed and exer- cise when very young, or when the weather is bad, and into which they can retreat in case the brooder chamber should become overheated. Outdoor brooders have some advan- tages over those indoor, but they require more waichful care. Their greatest point of superiority is that the chicks can be got cut on the ground at a much earlier age, and in running about their yard, picking the fresh grass, etc., get much healthful exercise. When the weather gets very hot the outdoor brooder should be placed in the shade, and a shady run provided for the chicks when very young, as the intense heat of the sun kills a great many. When running at large the chicks will seek shade of their own accord. We like both kinds of brooders, use both, and would not wish to be deprived of either. H. J. BLANCHARD. THE BROODER CHICK FROM EGG TO MATURITY. Early in our experience of artificial brooding we became convinced of the fact that the foundation of successful brooding was laid months before the chick was hatched. By this we mean that unless the breeding stock is in the best of physical health we cannot hope for the best results in raising Our young stock. Too many Of the reasons assigned for the large mortality among chicks are, to say the least, of very uncertain signification, and not enough attention is paid to the poor condition of the breeding stock, which These chicks are fed same. is, to our way of thinking, the main reason why @ larger percentage of chicks do not reach maturity. Sag Our first attempt at brooding chickens artificially re- sulted in disastrous failure, but by close observation and many costly experiments, we finally adopted @ method which is giving us gratifying results, and we feel sure that those who will try it will be pleased with it. : It goes without saying that the eggs must be well incu- bated, and every attention given them while under process of incubation. We leave the chicks in the incubator forty- eight hours after they come out of the shell, The morning of the third day we take them out of the incubator and carry them to the brooders, which have been previously warmed for their reception. We then give them their first feed, which consists of whole wheat bread, moistened with milk. We never place more than fifty chicks in each orcoder, sometimes only forty. The temperature of the brooders is regulated by the disposition of the chicks on the brooder floor: if well spread out, we know they have sufficient heat, if all crowded in a corner we know they need more heats That is our thermometer, and a reliable one. We wish here to relate an experiment we made inorder. to determine the length of time chicks can be left in the in- cubator without food. Five chicks were left in the machine, the ventilators wide open, and the heat regulated to 100 de-; grees. At first it was our intention to leave them in until. they showed signs of weakness, but on the fourth day, our courage weakened, and we fed them. They had up to this time showed no other signs but that of being very hungry,.. running to the glass front of the machine upon hearing the, least noise. We marked these chicks and let them run with the rest. At maturity two of the cockerels weighed eight and three-quarter pounds each; three of the pullets six pounds, six and one-quarter pounds, and six and one-half. pounds respectively. All of them lived to maturity ,and. were always bright. Since then we always left our chicks forty-eight hours without food and believe this to be the very best way to siart chickens growing. 4 Our brooders are placed inside of a house eight by ten feet, with yards eight by twenty-five feet, each brooder oc- cupying a separate house. The floor of the brooder is car- peted with cui clover, but the brooder house is filled in to above the sills with clean, sharp sand. The chicks are left. in the brooder for two days, then let out into the house for three or four days, then the slide door to the yard is left open and they are given the run of their yards. When the chicks are six weeks old we take away the fence to the yards apd give them the free run of the farm. For the first ten days of their lives our chicks are fed only whole wheat bread moistened in milk every four hours, Water (warmed in cold weather) is always before them from the start, and is renewed twice or four times a day accord- ing to the weather. When the chicks are ten days old we still continue the wheat bread morning and night, the other two feeds are made up of the following mixed grains: Cracked wheat, 50 pounds; coarse oatmeal, 25 pounds; cracked corn, 10 pounds; millet seed, 5 pounds; fine meat scraps, 10 pounds. When fine meat scraps are not procur- able, boil some liver, chop it up into fine pieces, and use that instead. Some heresy hunters will prick up their ears upon reading this and criticise us for giving meat to our young chicks, especially when given free range, but we know that it is impossible to grow the finest chicks without the free use of meat, but it must be used with judgment and be of good quality. At six weeks old we make the mixture of whole grains instead of cracked, still feeding it twice a day, but at this age the bread is replaced by a mash fed morning and night, composed as follows: Wheat, 50 pounds; shelled oats, 25 THE CHICK BOOK 17 pounds; pearled barley, 15 pounds; corn, 10 pounds. We buy the grains whole and have them ground up together into ameal. To every 100 pounds of this meal we add 10 pounds of the finest quality meat scraps. We continue to feed our chicks four times a day until three months old, then we drop one meal, and feed only three times a day, mixed grains in the morning and noon, and mash at night. We aim to feed all they will eat at each meal, without overfeeding. Now and again when they do not appear hungry we drop a meal, and they are benefited by it. At three months old we separate the sexes, giving the cockerels one part of the farm, the pullets the other. We have said nothing about charcoal, dry bran, tonics and condition powders, simply because they are unneces- sary. Grit of course we use and find we cannot get along without it. While we are painfully aware that our method is not perfect, we cannot overlook the fact that by following it as here described, we have succeeded in bringing to maturity over ninety per cent of all chicks put in the brooders. Our chicks grow steadily from the shell up, our pullets begin laying at six months old always. They have produced two hundred eggs in one year. A good deal of this large egg yield was due to the care given the pullets while growing and after they began to lay, but had they not been bred from layers we could not have reached these results. If only those who decry the practice of breeding layers by the indi- vidual record system would try it, they would soon become couverts to it. However, the proof of the pudding is the eating of it; give our way a trial before you condemn it, you will be pleased with the results. C. BRICAULT. FOOD AND CARE GIVEN FLOCKS OF BROODER CHICKS. ; As our present plan of feeding is giving such good re- sults we will here give you a description of the care and tood given our chicks. We leave the chicks in the machines until the morning of the twenty-second day, taking out the trays the night of the twenty-first day, thus giving the chicks more room and light. The morning of the twenty-third day the chicks are taken out and put into outdoor brooders and given a break- fast of dry rolled oats, which we feed for a week or ten days. A little chopped lettuce is much relished by the chicks also. From rolled oats we go to a mixed food consisting of a pre- pared poultry food with a little more rolled oats and meat meal added to it. This we mix up with curdled milk until it will crumble in the hand. This we feed until it is time for whole grain and cracked corn, and we find it is giving grand results. We neglected to state at the beginning that first and foremost the chicks are given plenty of fresh water as well as good food, all of which make chicks grow and keep them growing. Charcoal and fine grit are also among the necessities of proper feeding. Great care should be taken to keep the brooders cleaned at least once a week, and aired every day. Our predecessor always used indoor brooders, but he always had a great deal of trouble in keeping the chicks warm early in the season and cool as the season advanced, and the result was the loss of chicks. There is one point in favor of indoor brooders, and that is in rainy weather the chicks have more room, but with the style of brooders we have now in use we have had no trouble on this score, as we only put seventy-five into each brooder, which is but half their capacity, thus giving the chicks plenty of room for different kinds of weather. Attached to each brooder is a small wire run, where the chicks are let out for a week or ten days, until they get used to going in and out of the brooder, then the fence is removed and the chicks have free range every pleasant day until they are separated and put in the brooder house and taught to go onto the roost. We think we have the best plan for young chick roosts we have seen. We use four saw-horseg placed at even dis- tances apart. On these we have eleven roosts, four inches wide by twenty feet long, placed about two inches apart. These are fastened to the end horses by boring holes through the slats and horses and putting spikes through both, thus holding them all in position. We find them easy to build, easy to clean and easy to take down and store, These eleven roosts will accommodate from three to four hundred half-grown chicks. Our brooder house is situated in a large pear orchard covering about eight acres; the soil is gravel and sand and is seeded to clover. We also have two living springs, so our stock get plenty of good pure water, lots of shade, ample range, with plenty of insects to keep them busy between meals. GRAY & STORKE. BROODER CHICKS AND GROWING STOCK—CARE AND FOOD. It is a delightfully easy thing to tell how to raise chick- ens. It is not quite so easy to successfully raise them. There is little need for any extended directions for raising chickens by the natural method other than in the points of food and cleanliness, with some little attention to the de- tails of housing and shade. With artificial hatching the business takes on a development and calls for much greater care and decidedly more attention to food and management. Little need be said of the hatching, except that the best incubators should be used; the second rate cheaper machines being generally unworthy of confidence; that is, the prob- Jem of hatching is of sufficient importance that only the very best means to this end should be accepted. In producing eggs for hatching the very best attention must be given to the breeding stock, and if good results are to be had the. birds must be the product of several genera- tions of hardy, vigorous stock. The strongest emphasis may be placed upon the fact that it is much easier to hatch chickens than it is to raise them after they are hatched, and the first two weeks in the little bird’s life is a crucial period, and under some condi- tions the second two weeks is harder to tide over than the first fortnight, yet with due care and proper attention to the warmth and food they may be and are successfully car- ried to an age after which death is generally the result of accident rather than ailment or disease. What they shall be fed when taken from the machine at the expiration of twenty-four or thirty-six hours’ is a question which has exercised the mind of every producer of chickens. Every conceivable sort of food has been sug- gested, recommended and tried in more or less cases. We believe that the simpler the ration the better the chicken and the surer the success in its raising. All fancy mixtures and fussy feeding notions may safely be eliminated. The oldtime mixture of boiled eggs and cracker crumbs is now- a-days pretty generally neglected. In some instances breed- ers are using this mixture successfully, but in more cases they are killing their chickens apparently by its use. We have tried practically every system from the egg and crumb diet to that of dry food alone, including baked cakes, bread crumbs and various oat foods and so on, et cetera, et cetera, and have gradually simmered down to the point where we now feed exclusively for the first two days a mixture of two- thirds wheat bran and one-third Indian meal moistened with milk, and to this we add about five per cent of fine gravel or grit. The chickens are fed all they can eat,. in fact it is before them practically all the time for the first forty-eight hours, and from then until a week or two of age 18 ' "HE CHICK BOOK there is very little of the time when food is not within reach. After the first two or three days they are fed in ad- dition finely sifted cracked corn and rolled cats, chopped oats, cracked wheat or, in fact, any grain or food which they will eat. We conclude it makes very little difference so long as they have a fair proportion of animal food, which, with us, is in the form of ground beef scraps, and it may be just as well or better in the form of milk, either sweet or sour, Skimmed or whole. When milk is fed to very small,chickens it is better to moisten their food with it than that they have it to drink. If they have it as a drink they are quite apt to smear themselves with it, making them sticky and dirty, and both ill-feeling and ill-looking. After the first three or four days the grit is left out of the food, a supply being kept constantly within reach, which they eat as they require it. The warmth in the hover is started at ninety-five degrees, with the chickens all in. From that it is gradually lowered, more attention being paid to the action of the chicken than to the temperature as registered by the mercury. When the chickens are comfortable and Settle down conteniedly without over-crowding or pushing too much to the outside, it is concluded that the conditions are right and they are doing well. When, on the other hand, they crowd and cry, not enough heat is supplied, and we give them more. It is impossible to give small chick- ens a satisfactory treatment where the brooders are run altogether by the thermometer, regardless of the outside weather conditions, and the indications of comfort, which may be observed from the chickens themselves. The brood- er floors and pens should be scattered with chaff or covered with sand to induce action and exercise through scratching and working for particles of dry food, which may be thrown about in the litter. The one thing essential to the health of the chicken is abundant exercise. Without this they will not thrive, and success cannot be attained. In order to get the necessary exercise it is imperative that they have an abundant supply of fresh air and an outdoor run at all sea- sons of the year. A few minutes in the open air will do the smallest chicken good, and after they are a week or ten days old they may be trusted to run back and forth in pleas- ant weather almost regardless of how cold the outside tem- perature may be. Fussy coddling and over-heated compart- ments have been responsible for the death of more chickens An Ideal Place for Brooder Chicks on the Plant of Mrs. H. W. Hand. than any other cause. Whenever trouble appears in a flock of chickens the first question with the average beginner, and sometimes with the more experienced person, is what their food has been. The attention and investigation is generally directed toward the food. The facts are that the strong, healthy chickens having abundant exercise and @ good supply of fresh air will stand almost any sort of food without taking harm. The main thing is to get the exer- cise. It perhaps might be noted here that this is practically the secret of success in managing breeding stock as well as chickens. . Clean water should be always within reach of the chick- ens, and it should be kept in some such fountain as will make it im- possible for t he little birds to get into it. This will save frequent drenching and occa- sional deaths by drowni n g. In extremely cold weather it is better that newly hatched chickens should have luke-warm water than that it should be given to them icy cold. Many breeders do not give the little chickens any water until several days old, some even keeping them several weeks without it. We have not thought it the best way, and we give water from the first. From their very evident pleasure in drinking, it must taste good to them, and we doubt any possibility of harm from drinking over much clean, pure water. There is a good deal of question what the limit is in the numbers that may be kept together safely. Many advo- cate fifty as the best limit, while others keep from one hun- dred to two hundred in the same pens and under the same hovers. There is little doubt that for the beginner, at least, flocks of fifty or sixty will do better, and there will be a lower death rate than in flocks of one hundred and upward. We have built our brooder building with the pens three by ten feet, which are designed to accommodate from fifty to seventy-five small chickens, They will easily hold fifty chickens until six weeks of age if the chickens have an out- door run. They are then put in a pen four by ten feet and kept until feathered out, when they are removed to colony houses of one description or another. Of course the early hatched and winter chickens must have heat practically throughout the winter. Late birds do very well without arti- ficial heat after the last of March, and may be safely colonized in suitable coops at a few weeks of age—almost every kind of coop is used for this purpose, and it really matters very lit- tle what the style of the structure be so long as it conserves the essential features, which are dryness and free- dom from direct draught. For some years open front and bottomless roost- ing coops have been strongly advo- cated as being the best fitted for grow- ing chickens colonized in groups of from thirty to fifty. Our experience has led us to do away altogether with open fronts and coops without bot- toms. There is a constant trouble from colds caused either by driving rains or bunching up on the ground, thus drawing up the dampness, which ends in running nostrils, wheezing and general de- bility, As the chickens grow older they are fed rather differ- ently. They have their regular morning feed, with one at An Even Half Dozen—Just Out. THE CHICK BOOK noon and another at night. Generally the morning and the night feed are mashes composed of bran and meal of about equal parts, with from ten per cent to fifteen per cent of beef scraps added. Oyster shell and grit are always by them, and green food is supplied as abundantly as is conven- ient. Where the runs are large enough so that the green food is not eaten down. no other need be given, but in yards devoid of grass some sub- stitute will have to be added to the grain ra- tions. In addition to these regular feeds three times a day many of the most prac- tical and successful poultrymen keep a box of cracked corn.open to them, from which they may eat at pleasure. Many also keep a box of coarsely ground scrap, which is kept constantly filled and which may be had at all times. As the chickens gain in size and the cockerels mature they are separated from the pullets, leaving from twenty-five to thirty-five or forty pullets in a flock. The cockerels are removed to another yard and, if designed for market birds, are fed all the fattening food which they will take, and as fast as they are in fit condition they are sent to market. The earlier hatched pullets should not be fed quite so much meat or animal food as the later hatched ones, or they will begin laying too early and will molt out in the fall, thus jeopardizing the supply of winter eggs. It is possible by forced feeding of animal food to induce very early laying, and we this season, without extra heavy strain, have started our Wyandotte pullets to laying at four and one-half months, which is too early to get the best size on the birds or the best results in constant egg production. Too early maturity is as much to be avoided as too late, that is, the pullet which grows along freely and gets a suitable frame and size before beginning to lay will make the strongest and most vigorous breeding bird and will in the end prove the most profitable. We feed very little whole corn, as the cracked corn gives them more exercise in scratching and feeding, and does not pack so closely together in the crop. Considerable shelled and whole oats are fed, together with some wheat; the wheat, however, is more sparingly fed on account of the extra cost. We are able to get the same growing value from wheat bran and beef scrap at a much less cost 19 very little difference and that the chicken that is properly fed and is in the right condition will be good to kill for broilers without any extra preparation, and chickens which are good broilers will, if kept, mature into good roasters. One of the really necessary things to do is to get rid of about nine-tenths of all the accumulated wisdom which has A Flock of Future Money Makers. been loaded on to the chicken business, in many cases until it has nearly swamped it, and to get back to a few very plain principles. These brietiy stated would be, sufficient warmth, cleanliness, plain food, and plenty of it; these, to- gether with a good range, will produce chickens at a satis- factory profit, if the breeding stock has been properiy se- lected and bred. One of the very necessary points is good shade, and it must be had in some way, either by trees, boards or brush sheds or otherwise. We have killed two birds with one stone, or rather saved several birds with one idea by build- ing a number of houses on posts, which leaves them ele- vated about twelve inches or fifteen inches from the ground, These coops are floored, which keeps the birds high and dry and free from dampness, and at the same time allows them sufficient shelter from the sun and. the draught which is generally found nearest the ground, and on rainy days they. bunch together under the buildings and enjoy themselves much better than they would were they obliged to stay inside. A board runway leads from the chicken door to the ground, giving them convenient pas- sage to and from the inside. Since we have adopted this method of keeping the chickens we have Making a Good Start. than we can get it from wheat, of which the best grades only should be fed. Smoked and damaged grains, such as are commonly on sale for poultry, are unfit for this purpose. Very many fancy formulas are to be had for broiler feeding as distinct from roasters. We believe there is really * had very much less trouble from colds and greater thrift than by the former method of colonizing in open front coops without floors. These coops are built four by eight feet and are four and one-half feet high in front and three feet at back, giving a sharp pitch to the roof, which sheds the water readily. They are covered with tarred paper and have one sash, six lights, nine by twelve inches, and a door twenty-four inches wide, and full height of the building, which is fitted with a screen for hot weather. The birds may be carried in this building through the winter if necessary, and before the chickens are large enough in the spring to be placed in them they are used for breeding pens and are very convenient for this pur- pose. These buildings are, as are all other quarters, inhabited by chickens, thoroughly disinfected at frequent intervals, with a solution of carbolic acid and water. Care must be exercised that too much carbolic acid is not used immediately before the chickens are shut in:for any. length- 20 THE CHICK BOOK of time as tco much acid is quite fatal to small chickens. Any high grade disinfectant would answer the same pur- pose, the idea being to keep the house free from disease germs and to help the sanitary conditions. G. H. POLLARD. BROODER CHICKS—FEED AND CARE. I want to tell you of my mode of feeding and caring for chicks. After the chicks are hatched I leave them in the machine at ieast twenty-four hours before placing them in the brooder. This makes them strong and vigorous. As soon as they are placed in the brooder I give them sand or fine grit and water. I keep water by them all the time, good clean, fresh water. My first feed is hard boiled eggs chopped up fine. After that I feed millet scattered among the chaff that is on the bottom of the brooder and run. I feed both millet and hard boiled eggs at intervals (just what they will ciean up and work for) for the first week, after that I give them a feed of cooked rice (cooked dry) for a change, also cut oats and corn bread. As the chicks: grow older I add whole wheat and also feed some mash with a little blood meal in it about twice a week. One of the great points in feeding and care of chicks is “common sense and judgment,’ Study your brood and you can see at a glance how much and what to feed to supply their wants. I remember one season I tried not feeding any food or -water for the first forty-eight hours, etc. Weil, the result was I lost all the chicks. As brooders (the leading machines) are Dearly all properly constructed it remains for the oper- ator to do his or her part, which if done there will be no trouble. I rear and have raised by farmers from 1,000 to 2,000 White Plymouth Rocks every year, and must say if the farmers follow the above method of care and feed we Jose but few chicks. U. R. FISHEL. THE VALUE OF EXERCISE, LIMITED FOOD AND EVEN TEMPERATURE. Our experience with brooders has been somewhat varied and not all “clear sailing’ by any means. We had some very disheartening times while we were getting our “ex- perience.” The poultry journals are full of advice regarding the operating of brooders. These methods sometimes seem di- rectly opposed, and still, no doubt, they are the truthful ex- pericnce of the writers. We believe that the greater num- ber of failures with brooder chicks are caused by too much heat and overfeeding. We do not believe that brooders can be run successfully, generally, in cold weather without the use of thermometers. Chicks taken directly from the incu- bators and placed in the brooders will stand a far greater amount of heat than is good for them. Consequently if we judge altogether by their actions we may keep them at a much higher temperature than is good for them. This is reasonable, for we can so accustom a child to a high tem- perature that it will be uncomfortable in a room under nine- ty degrees, and none will deny that this amount of heat is injurious to the child. Ninety degrees three inches from the floor in the hover of the brooder is about right for the ‘first week. This should be reduced gradually to eighty-five degrees the second week and to eighty by the end of the third week. We have killed a whole lot of chicks, both in brooders and with hens, with kindness, i. e., with too much food. Now; we never feed oftener than three times a day from the very start, either with brooders or hens. This way works well with us and we shall stick to it. The danger of over- feeding with brooder chicks is especially great, as they do not and cannot take as much exercise as those with hens. Don’t worry if they get hungry enough between meals to scratch good and hard. This is the making of them. It will help digest their food and ward off diarrhoea, which is only the result of indigestion. All brooders should have an open runway or yard, and the chicks should be accustomed to running in this for at least a short time from the very start. Give fresh water to drink from the first. Keep fine grit in the brooders all the time. Keep the temperature right; have them take plenty of exercise; feed only three times a day, and ‘“what you feed” will not be so important. ; Weare very partial to millet seed. In fact we have said that we could raise chicks on this alone, with water and grit. Equal parts of corn meal, bran, shorts and clover meal, baked with soda or baking powder, makes a good winter feed. Stale bread, soaked soft and squeezed dry, is an ex- cellent food for starting chicks. Put chaff in the yards or runs and sprinkle just a little millet seed in it and watch them scratch for it. This is our way, no theory, all practice. If your way is different, and you are successful, stick to it. W. B. GIBSON & SON. FEEDING THE BROODER CHICKS. 1 have used several kinds of brooders. I first began with outdoor brooders with bottom heat, but had little success, put that was about twelve years ago, before brooders were as well perfected as at the present time. For a while after that I hatched with incubators and brooded with hens and since have used top heat indoor brooders with success. The brooder with which I have had the greatest success is one having a hot water pipe system, and with this I can raise a larger per cent of the chicks hatched than with hens, and the same number with much less trouble and expense. I feed chicks after they are about thirty-six hours old, once every two hours through the day till about four weeks old. No one need fear that any food is too fattening for young chicks. They need carbonaceous or fattening food to keep them warm while they are small and to sustaip their vigor during the period of rapid growth. There is no one food which is as good as cornmeal, either in mush or bread, but I think a variety of foods is better than any one alone. A very excellent food for chickens is bread made from two parts corn meal and one part wheat middlings, with two tablespoonfuls of animal meal added to each quart of the mixture; this stirred to a stiff batter with sour milk, in which enough soda has been dissolved to make it light, and baked in thin cakes to be fed warm or cold. This bread may form the main food till the chicks are large enough to eat cracked corn, broken rice and small grain and the bread may be supplemented by hard boiled eggs chopped fine, and other palatable foods. I save the infertile eggs from the incubators to boil for the chicks. After they can eat small grain foods I feed a mash once daily of the same meal mix- ture as described for bread, and a variety of grain foods, such as steamed rolled oats, wheat and creacked corn, plenty of oyster shells and grit, and clean fresh water, give access to a good grassy run, and a clean brooder. In short, to get the best results, chicks should be kept steadily growing from the time they leave the shell till they are fully matured. As they grow older they require proportionately more of the bone and muscle forming food and less of the more fatten- ing materials. The best way to care for the brooder is to clean it everv THE CHICK BOOK 21 morning and put clean sand on the floor to absorb moisture and to ease the chickens’ tender feet from the hard floor. GEORGE H. NORTHUP. CARE OF BROODER CHICKS—COLONY COOPS AND NEW GROUND. After many years with Buff Cochins we have almost adopted and belfeve the saying that, “If you hatch ten Cochin chicks and a board does not fall on them, you are almost sure to raise the whole ten.” .775 | (1:9.3) Corn 912 | .070 +784 | 854 1:11 2 Oats 890 092 532 +624 1:5.8 Barley 891 087 +962 «719 1:8.0 Buckwheat 87 ( 078) ; (.548) | (.626) | (1:7.0) RVC varies scotia pselgeiod (.064) | (.703) | (.767) |(1:11.0) Peas 2.0 wwe ee 856 | .188 5 7 1:2.8 Sorghum Seed. .| 873 | (.054) | (.668) | (.722) |(1:13.3) BRANS, MIDDLINGS 4 AND ) MEALS. Bran (wheat) . in! seas as + 881 | .120 454 -574 1:3.8 Bran’ (tye)ice0c sinniaie tae eve e..] 884 | (.115) | (.488) | ( 603) | (124.2) Middlings (wheat)................. -879 | .128 -609 737 1:4 8 Middlings Conch yaaa ls -868 | (.237) | (.505) | (.742) | (1:2 1) Shorts (wheat) . 892 | .122 -586 - 708 1:48 Corn Meal. 850 | .055 e711 - 766 1:12.9 Corn and Cob Meal. 849 | .044 +665 709 1:15.1 Barley Meal...... 881 | .074 -668 762 1:9.3 GARE | Guotticwiite atone uray ev seen °95 | .168 531 699 1:3.2 Linseed Meal.... 0.0... cee eee 899 | .289 49 738 1:1.6 Cotton Seed Meal...............0005 -918 | .372 437 -809 1:1.2 MANUFACTURED FEEDS, Gluten Feed........... 0. eee ee eee | 917 | 194 +633 827 1:3.3 Gluten Meals iacccesiecesusabisiinansiciaeies 922 | .323 +725 | 1.048 1:2.2 Hominy Chop....... ae -889 | (.071) | (.795) | (.866) |(1:11.2) Brewers’ Grains (dried) 917 168 471 639 1:2.8 Brewers’ Grains (wet).... «| 243 7.043 «128 -171 1:3.0 Malt Sprouts........... .. ...| 898 | .186 -403 589 1:2.2 BULKY VEGETABLE FOODS, Potatoes 211 | .009 +157 -166 1:17 4 -114 | (.009) | ( 089) | (.098) | 1:9:9 Beets (Sugar 135 | .016 -109 125 1:6.8 Mangel-Wurzels. 091 oll 054 06S 1:4.9 Rutabagas sicge os oe vais worsiage 114 010 085 -095 1:8.5 PULDIPS sccnsiwensag sa seveens cocci 6095 | 010 077 087 LET Red Clover icsseeiivg asso: sisuet aioe: -280 | (.028) | (.153) | (.181) | (1:5.5) ALLA fai ce sore sranereceiiss asieihle cele eace acs -916 | .104 -430 534 1:4.1 DAIRY PRODUCTS. Buttermilk 2, 028 050 078 1:1.8 DMA EE coc topes sa cho nisae ei ataterwisl tsa cheranorarer ole 127 (31 aT 168 1:4.4 Skim Milk.......... S| 035 057 092 1:16 WEY) sors sree ccsisians siete case ay 070 {| .008 -059 067 14 ROBT. H. ESSEX. CARE OF THE GROWING STOCK. Successful Poultry Raisers Give Their Favorite Methods of Caring for and Managing Chicks from Six Weeks to Six Months of Age--Original Plans of Roosting Coops—Range for the Youngsters— What and How to Feed. [In line with the s symposium on ‘‘Feeding Brooder Chicks,” and ‘‘Care of June Chicks,” we present the following additional methods in use among prominent breeders for bringing their growing stock to a vigorous maturity. The advice here given is of great value, as it is the result of experiment and observation by men whose successes qualify them to take rank among the foremost producers of good poultry. —EpiroR]. COLONY COOP FOR GROWING FOWLS—GRASS RUNS AND SHADE—CONDITIONS AND FOOD THAT PRODUCE BIG COCHINS. UR chicks (Cochins) are hatched by both hens and in- © cubators. We use outdoor brooders, called 200- chick size, and place from forty to fifty in each brooder. When the chicks are about six weeks old and are nicely feathered we divide them into lots of twelve each, keeping the cockerels and pullets separate. They are then placed in weaning coops, which are 5x6 feet, ground plan, and three feet high in front and two feet at the rear. (Fig. 1.) These coops are provided with frame doors hinged on the inside and covered with one-fourth inch mesh screen. On the outside a sol- id wood door is hinged at the top. This door can be raised or lowered or closed entirely, fas the state of weather may re- quire. On warm summer nights the screen door is closed and the wood door is lowered and propped to provide shelter in case of a windstorm or hard rain. This arrange- ment gives the chicks plenty of fresh air, and at the same time protects them from vermin and night prowling animals. Having an abundance of green. grass and shade, these weaning coops are almost constantly on the move. This re- duces to a minimum the possibility of disease arising from accumulated filth, as is almost sure to occur if the chicks are compelled to live on ground saturated with poisonous excre- ments. During these stages of development they are given -a thorough dusting of Persian insect powder once a week. This treatment we consider to be very important, as we have found by experience that lice cause more trouble than all other ailments combined. rH) cm min) HM == = f "A Fig. 1—Coop with Double Doors Used by A. W. Rudy & Son. From the ages of six weeks to six months the chicks are fed cracked corn, pure ciean wheat, hulled oats, and at noon are given a mash feed of some good poultry food, and once a week we add to this ration, fresh ground green bone. We never use any drugs or condiments and have no se- cret method of getting our Cochins so large, as we have found that if fresh pure food is used, combined with a little brains while using it, and the chicks are kept under condi- tions that will enable them to assimilate what is given them, their growth will be rapid and their development perfect. We are very careful when selecting the chicks to make up a colony, to see that they are all of the same size and of equal development. If any show a tendency to going back, or slow development, they are immediately removed and placed with a younger flock, where they will have at least a fighting chance to keep up with the procession. When six months old they are placed in larger houses, the floors of which are covered with a thick bed of straw. Cochins have no use for roosts till they are at least one year old. A. W. RUDY & SON. RAISED IN AN ORCHARD—ALLOWED TO “HAVE THEIR OWN WAY”—VARIETY OF FOOD. In regard to our care and management of chicks from six weeks to six months old, we have a large apple orchard near the house which has been fenced in and made into four large yards. A brooder house, or ‘summer home” for chicks has been placed on the dividing line between the yards, so that at this age we are able to separate the young pullets and cockerels, giving them separate yards and roosting places in the buildings. We have low, flat, movable roosts standing on four legs, which are placed in the buildings soon after the brooders are removed, and here you will find our chicks at night until they are from one-half to two-thirds grown. Some of them prefer the low branches of the trees which are so conveniently near by, and as we find it means con stant warfare to compel them to seek the buildings. while they dwell in the orchards, we allow them to “have their own way” until the unpleasant fall weather sets in, when they are removed to winter quarters and sheltered at night. We have a “cornfield” adjoining the yard in which the pul- lets are allowed to roam one day, and the cockerels the next. They always come home to roost and be fed. We usually put about as many in each yard as we can get of the same age and sex, varying from forty to seventy-five to the yard. In the morning we feed a mash composed of equal parts of cornmeal, ground oats and wheat br an, with a little meat scraps added, also a very little salt. Have sometimes used a prepared poultry food in place of this mash. The mash we scald with equal parts of sweet milk and water, and feed while just a little warm. The chicks are given all the fresh skim milk and water they will drink, and a basin of “dutch cheese” is sometimes added to the mash. A little fresh cut green bone is fed once or twice a week if we can get it. At noon oats, wheat or buckwheat is scattered in the yards for them to hunt for, and at night they are fed all the wheat or THE CHICK BOOK 61 corn they will pick up. They of course help themselves to apples in the late summer and early fall, and we occasionally give them cabbage and tomatoes to pick at after the grass gets dry, or any little “treat” we happen to have for them, to give variety. C. W. JEROME & CO. PLENTY OF RUNWAY AND YARD ROOM—LEAN- TO COOP. I use both incubator and hens for hatching. Tf the hens are slow in laying, requiring too long a time to supply a suf- ficient number of eggs for an incubator, I put the first two or three broody hens that 1 can find to work. I never get one hen singly. If the hens lay we!l I set the incuba- tor. I much pre- fer _ ‘incubators and brooders, es- pecially the brooder. I have hatched out chicks) by hens raised them in brooders without any loss of chicks to speak of and with much less trouble than watching the old hen. I never use outside coops, even for broods with hens. I have on the south side of a main building a lean-to shed six by fourteen feet with a glass front. (See Fig. 2.) This shed I use for my young chicks. I have movable partitions and can divide it into from three to five compartments, de- pending on the number and the size of broods, each com- partment containing a brood of chicks. From this they can run cn the outside in good weather either with the hen, or with the hen confined on the inside, so the chicks can run in and out at will. In this coop they remain until they are weaned, which is from six to ten weeks. Of course this coop must be cleaned three or four times a week, with plenty of litter or chaff on the floor, with dry food fed in litter to make them work, and plenty of fresh water. They grow and thrive from the very start. After chicks are weaned they are moved from this lean-to coop into the main room adjoining, which is 12x14. In this room they are put to roost, while other youngsters take their place in the first or young chick coop. The last lot of chicks I allow to grow up in this shed, while the first lot remain in the main room of the big building until about October 1, when the cockerels are separated from the pullets. My cockerel house is in another part of the yard, with plenty of runway and yard room. Pullets go into my main hen house, which is 12x15, divided into two parts, with plenty of yard rcom to each part. I do not allow my hens and pullets to run together. I find hens get too fat on a ration that would keep a pullet starving hungry. As to feeding chicks I find little trouble to keep them growing from the time they are six weeks to six months old on plenty of sound small grain, wheat and chopped corn be- ing my main ration. Twice a week I feed them a full mess of wheat bran, middlings and oil-mea!l well mixed. I be- lieve that vil-meal has a splendid effect in producing fine, glossy plumage. Of course, we all know that plenty of grit and fresh water are two essentials. It is the little chicks that give most trouble in getting them up to six weeks old. Tam always making a fight on lice, both on fowls and in buildings. Lice kill more chicks and grown fowls, for that matter, than all other diseases combined. JOHN HETTICH. Fig. 2—Style of Lean-to Coop Used by Mr. John Hettich. MOVABLE COOPS IN BLUE GRASS PASTURE— METHOD OF FEEDING—CORNFIELD AND CLOVER FOR RANGE. I do not have any particular style of coop—a good roof and bottom of boards always, made so that it can be conven- iently cleaned. Twenty chicks to a hen I think about right. The coops are placed near the house for convenience while the chicks are young, moving them further away as they grow older. At about five or six weeks they are located near a blue grass pasture, with a number of apple trees for shade. Here they have range until cold weather drives them into winter quarters. My first food for little chicks is dry wheat bread, moist- ened with sweet milk. This is good enough for the first day; the second day, oatmeal and millet seed are given, with good grit. They get water from the start. Up to four weeks old their food is bread, moistened in milk, millet seed, oatmeal cornbread, baked as for the table, and cracked wheat. After they are four weeks old I discontinue the oat- meal and bread and milk. and feed millet seed, whole wheat and cracked corn, with cornbread for breakfast, baked the day before. After the chicks are two months old I feed a bran mash, consisting of one-third each of ground oats, corn and wheat bran, moistened with milk, clabber or sour milk preferred. This I feed in the evening, all they will eat. I follow this method of feeding the old fowls, believing the evening the proper time for soft food. For late hatched broods (say the last of June or first of July hatches) I know of no place better for cooping than a near cornfield, with a clover meadow near by. The corn furnishes plenty of shade through the warm days, and the clover field supplies grass- hoppers. I have had good results from late broods raised in this manner. O. L. KING. ROOSTING COOP FOR YOUNG STOCK—THREE FEEDS A DAY AND PLENTY OF RANGE AND WORK. In raising chicks, if they have been fed and cared for as they should, are free from mites and diseases until weaning time, or until they are large enough to be taken from the brooder to the roosting coop, I find that the greatest work and care of the season is over. After my chicks are six to eight weeks old I give them their liberty all through the day, except when the weather is too bad to let them run. I feed them three times a day and make them work for it all except the morning feed. For a roosting place I use coops with a floor space two and one-half feet square. (Fig. 3.) I also use these coops with a run attached for the hen and brood when I let the chicks run with the hen instead of using a brood- er, so when the chicks are wean- ed they will con- tinue to go home to roost. These coops are made of seven- eighthsinch matched lumber, wel easoned. : A 5 b Fig. 3—Roosting Coops for Young Stock Rec- The sides can be ommended by Mr. G. E. Read. made of lumber taken from dry goods boxes. The front should be two feet high, the back sixteen inches high. This gives sufficient slant to the top to run the water off when it rains. The back is left open and has slats nailed across to keep the hen in and to allow the chicks to pass out. This open side adinits plenty of fresh air at all times. The top shouid pro- ject over about eight inches at back of coop to prevent the 62 THE CHICK BOOK rain from biowing in. In the front there is a door twelve inches wide. There is a bottom made by nailing boards to- gether on two cleats, made so that the coop will slip down over the fioor onto the ground. This prevents the rain from blowing under and wetting the floor. The cleats keep the bottom from resting flat on the ground. The coop should be given two coats of paint. This kind of a roosting place is very easily cleaned or whitewashed by lifting it off the floor. When the ground is dry and warm the floor is not necessary, simply move the coop to a new spot when it begins to get foul. Twenty-five or thirty chicks can, without being crowded, roost in a place of this kind until they are three or four months old. When the chicks are raised in a brooder I prefer a roosting coop large enough to accommodate fifty. This number is as many as should be put in one flock until three or four months old. I then move them to a large roosting house, where they continue to roost on a floor until five or six months old. Sometimes I put as many as one hundred in a place of this kind. From here they go to their permanent roosting place, which is on perches made of two-by-four- inch scantling, with the top rounded a little. Whatever kind of place chicks have to roost in, it should be kept clean and free from mites. Unless you do this you will surely fail. * I have no mechanical arrangement or fixed method for feeding chicks. I always feed what I think the time and occasion demand. I believe that as much depends on the way food is prepared and manner of feeding, as on the ma- terial. For the morning meal I tually give a light feed of cornbread baked just the same as for table use, or a mash composed of bran and middlings. They will still be a little hungry, and will start out hunting what they can find to pick up. Along toward noon I scatter wheat among the leaves and litter in a large part of their range. This gives them something to do that greatly interests them until along in the afternoon. When the sun is about one hour high I scatter cracked corn, and perhaps some millet seed or wheat in some litter. This will keep them busy until about sundown, and by this time their crops are full, they have done a good day’s work and are ready to go to their coop and enjoy a good night’s rest. There is always plenty of fresh water and grit where they can go to it whenever they choose. G. EB. READ. RAT AND STORM PROOF ROOSTING COOP. The brood coop I have had most success with is made as follows: Length, twenty-four inches; height, in front, twenty inches; rear, twelve inches; width, eighteen inches (inside measurements). I make the coop of matched pine, with board | il f floor, the cleats a as to raise the coop off the ground. The top projects three inches at the sides and four finches at the rear. I make a closed front (boards the same as the coop), the front being hinged to the top, and the top and front mitered, so as to close tight when down. The coop front is kept in place by cleats on the inside, these cleats allow- ing about seven-eighths of an inch space on both sides for ventilation when the door is down. The fronl has iron strips with three or four holes fast- fon the outside, so | Ni uN Fig. 4—Coop with Adjustable Hood Front. ened about the center for the purpose of forming a hood to the coop, which can be set at different angles by placing screw eyes to the sides of the coop. This feature of the coop is grand, as by the hood the hot sun can be kept out as well as driving rains. saneee coops save me many chicks each season. They are rat proof and storm proof. The hen is kept in by a lath front fastened just at the edge of coop. By painting these coops and storing when not in use, they last a long ye and repay for their cost many times over. When the chicks are older 1 utilize dry goods boxes, cut down to about the same shape, only I make a hood of the lower eighteen inches only REV. Cc. A. SMITH. ROOSTING COOP FOR STOCK UNTIL READY FOR WINTER QUARTERS—MAKING THE MASH— GRAIN FOOD. oH As soon as the hen weans the chicks (or if raised in a prooder, as soon ag they are large enough to take care of themselves) they are removed to roosting coops made and used exclusively fur this purpose. These coops are scat- tered along a , ing a large orch- Fig. 5—Mr. F. E. Mow’s Roosting Coop. ard, where they can get range and shade at all times. The coops are made from cheap lumber, but are strong and tight. We have them from six to ten feet long, but prefer them ten feet long, two feet high at back, three and one-half feet in front, the roof projecting over the front to keep out rain. Ends and back are boarded tight, and there is also a tight floor. Front is of wire netting nailed to the frame just fitting, and hinged at the top, so as to be closed at night and to shut the chicks in when getting them used to new quarters. The coops have roosting poles lengthwise the whole length of coop. We do not find so many crooked breast bones from roosting on these poles as are found by chicks roosting on the floor. The coops must be kept far enough apart so the different fiocks will not try to crawl into one coop. If possible we put pul-* lets in different quarters from the cockerels. We have kept chicks in these coops until snow flies. We feed only three times a day when chicks are this age. The morning and noon ration consists of corn meal (ground fine) two parts, bran one part, middlings two parts, thoroughly mixed. To this we add salt and to a peck we add cne quart of meat meal. This is placed in a light ves- sel, boiling water poured over it and mixed to a stiff dough. We use a grain sack to cover the vessel, and pack very tightly to keep in all the steam. Let the mixture cook in its steam and feed only when cool. They are fed all they will eat up clean. At night they are fed corn, wheat and oats—very little oats, however, as we have had poor success with oats. The grains are fed alternately so they will not get tired of either grain. F. E. MOW. EXCELLENT CONDITIONS FOR GROWING HEALTHY BIRDS. Living as we do on a farm, we have plenty of range, grass and shade. We have a large apple, plum and cherry orchard, also raspberry and blackberry patches, which af- ford fine range for young chicks. As for food, we use only such grains as we raise on the farm. When the chicks are about six weeks old we put them in flocks of fifteen to twen- ty-five, each flock roosting at night in a large coop having a movable bottom, so as to make it easy to clean out. There THE CHICK BOOK 63 is a wire screen door in front, so as to give plenty of air, also to make it vermin-proof at night. As to our method of feeding, we give corn ground rather coarse, so the chicks will have something to pick at. Hach morning we take what corn meal we want for a day and moisten it with milk that has been heated to the boiling point, being careful to mix thoroughly so all the meal is scalded, thus preventing danger of bowel trouble. We feed three times a day just what they will eat up clean each time. ‘When they are about three months old we omit the corn Higa) and give whole oats in the morning and noon, and whole ‘corn at night. We let them forage through the day for bugs, grass, etc., which they need to keep in good grow- ing condition. There’ is plenty of good clean water for them to drink at all times. This is one of the most important parts in raising healthy chicks. H. TIBBETTS. BEST OF CARE— PLENTY OF FOOD—WELL VENTI- LATED COOPS. We give our chicks farm range (farm consists of 269 acres) and Breaky of fresh well water, also a variety of food ez ——_— consisting of = eracked corn, wheat screenings, corn bread, pota- toes, etc, and plenty of natural grit from a grav- el bank. In au- 4 ein Larter erate st MGR ¥! tumn their range , affords a good Fig. 6—Coop Used by Simon Lynch & Son. supply of grass- hoppers. Wesweepthefeeding space each day, scald and clean the drinking vessels, and try to keep the chicks as free from lice as possible by keeping the floor of the roosting houses clean and the walls, etc., whitewashed frequently. We aim to give at all times the best of care and plenty of food. We keep our fowls well sheltered at night in well ventilated roosting houses, ranging in size from four by eight feet to six by twelve feet. The illustration (Fig. 6) shows a build- ing six by twelve feet; front, six feet six inches; rear, four feet. The roof projects one foot to protect ventilators from rain. The door (D) is two by six feet. C C are doors twelve inches, hinged at bottom, to be opened for light and thorough ventilation. Above this door is a wire screen six inches wide (B) for ventilation at night or when other doors are closed. Above the door, running full length of house, is a board four inches wide to give support to roof. SIMON LYNCH & SON. FARM RANGE—PLENTY OF GREEN FOOD—ROOMY QUARTERS. We have never aimed to raise over four or five hundred chickens a year, as we raise geese and turkeys and cannot accommodate a much larger flock. The young have good comfortable coops, with board floors, closed up according to the weather, with the brood hen confined accordingly. They have farm range, an abundance of grass, good water at all times and plenty of grit. Our coops are too small to accommodate them after they are quite large, So aS Soon as they begin to think about roosting on top of coops or a limb of the nearest tree, we put them in our large buildings, where the most of them are to be kept through the winter. Most of our old stock, kept for sitting, laying, etc., has been marketed by this time. Our buildings are clean and free from vermin. The youngsters, if they like, can use the perches, which are two inches wide and have rounded edges; or they can roost on the floor, which is earth, thickly covered with straw. There is plenty of room either place, with no crowding (chicks won't crowd if comfortable). When the cold rains and win- ter snows come unexpectedly they are comfortable. They are free from colds, nor do they have crooked breasts as some might think, for they do not have to go on the percneg till they want to. We have had to put as many as one hun- dred and fifty in a large room, but that is too many; fifty to seventy-five are better. These chicks are taught to roam and scratch when quite young, and are not over-fed on grain too easily gotten. When past their chick food they are fed twice a day with a mash consisting of corn meal, middlings and bran, about equal parts, scalded and salted. A third meal, the night one, consists of cracked corn, wheat or screenings, fed in the straw so that they have to work for it. A little meat in some form is fed every few days, and they are given any- thing in the form of vegetables, cooked or raw, that they will eat that we happen to have, and we usually have some- thing of the kind. Our large orchard and grove furnish an abundance of shade, sometimes too much when it is a little cool. We never neglect the young, nor feed them more or less in quantity than they require, which varies according to age and weather, and no one but the feeder can tell how much. We used to overfeed, which is easily done, though some people actually starve their poultry and of course have “bad luck,” while the real cause is death from neglect. We do uot expect to raise every chick, but are satisfied with a good per cent. We lose but few after they are placed in the large buildings, and those are by accident. This season we expect to keep many of the incubator chicks in the brooder houses till late fall or winter. The flocks spoken of were raised by hens. B. F. HISLOP. A COOL AND SAFE COOP FOR FORTY YOUNG FOWLS —MOVED TO FRESH GROUND WEEKLY. I have several coops for young chickens that are two and one-half feet high at back, three and one-half feet in front, three and one-half feet wide and from six to eight feet long, with heavy water-proof paper on top of roof. I try to set from three to five hens at one time and put all the chicks with two or three of them in one of these coops. When the chicks are about a week old, if the weather is good, I let them out. They will return at night and when weaned will roost in these coops of their own accord. Then I make a frame in front (two feet wide) € cov- ering it with poultry netting (small mesh). I leave an opening in the back eight inches above the roosts and cover with wire netting The fowls are then safe from Fig. Mr. D. F, Palmer’s Movable Coop for Forty Chicks. minks, rats, or any other animals, and still have a circula- tion of fresh air. the ground, I clean the coops once a week and set them on fresh ground. These ccops will accommodate about forty chicks. Late in the fall I line them with paper to prevent drafts, and when cold weather comes the chicks are in fine shape ta go into the houses. As to food, I am feeding small shrunken wheat from the mill. Of course fresh water is before them at all times. D. F. PALMER. The roosts in coop are about a foot from ot FEEDING THE CHICKS. We have had experience in raising chicks in brooders for many years and we have been successful. We never put more than seventy-five chicks in a lot and we use the dry food method entirely. Some years ago we found that it was not possible for us to give the chicks the time neces- Sary to success, as our fruit business at times claims almost all our atlention. We therefore dropped the brooders, re- taining our incubators and giving the chicks to broody hens, placing the hens in the house formerly used for brooders until the weather allowed us to put them outdoors. The method of feeding which we employ for chicks after being fed for a week or so on crumbs, boiled rice, etc., is for morning: One quart sifted cereals, ground fine, one pint wheat bran, two ounces meat meal and moisten just enough to adhere slightly together. Noon, feed cracked corn, barley, hulled oats. Feed just what they will eat up quickly. .At night we feed cracked corn, hulled oats, wheat, and a mixture of any small grain we may have. We find that the meat meal ‘has been a great help, and all our chicks made splendid growth in bone, and we have not the propor- tion of puny birds that are so common in nearly every flock. We prefer hen-raised chicks for many reasons, and we will name some of them. First, you do not get so many crowded in a bunch; second, the hens exercise them hunt- ing bugs and teach them to hunt for something to eat in- stead of lying around waiting for the feeder to come; third, d thirty hens will raise us three hundred chicks, which is as many as we wish for our present quar- ters. We give Game hens Game chicks, as they will hover them ‘unttil full feath- ered and raise nearly all given Fig. 10—Slatted Front Coop with Door at Side. them. White Wy- andottes leave them in six or seven weeks to do for them- selves, and they get colds and the attendant diseases and die off. We would rather raise one well developed chick than ‘twelve poor ones, and by our method we have few 5. D. & J. W. RILEY. culls. TAIT iit (b a b th as 7: y LA a Nee Me THE CHICK BOOK THREE GOOD COOPS—MOVING THE YOUNG STOCK —COOKED FOOD AND GRAINS. I send a pencil sketch of coops used by me. NG: 8 is the old A coop for hen and chicks. I have found this to be about as satisfactory in the long run as more expensive ones, No. 9 is a little area more expensive Tr We | HHH a and if made right is very conven- ig. 8-9—Half-way Coops to Use Between Plas Brooder and Fig. 10. ient, easily kept clean and safe from night prow- lers. I often make use of these coops as a half-way house from the brooders to ‘coop or house No. 10, as I can limit the number of chicks to guit size, weather and other conditions. If the: weather is cold and damp I often use a jug of hot water, set in the middle of the coop. It is a good thing and the chicks appreciate it, as one cau soon tell. I use one incubator, and with it I have three prooders— No. 1, one nundred chick; No. 2, three hundred chick; No. 3, five hundred chick size, so-called. They go from the incubator to brooder No. 1, which I have ready for them with a temperature of about 90 degrees to start with: from No. 1 to No. 2, then as age and size war- rant they go to No. 3. No. 2 has outside runs; No. 3 is an outdoor brooder and chicks have a good grass yard and plenty of shade. I bunch them up in small colonies of about fifteen in the No. 9 coops. Fresh water and grit are where the chicks can get to them all the time. The food question is one that bothers me more or less. All my fowls, old or young, get one cooked ration every day —in the mornings. For this I use oats, corn chop, clover (cut), bran, shipstuff and beef or blood meal. This is pre- pared the night before, and as soon as the young stock get old enough they get a pertion, the same as the old stock. I feed corn chop, wheat and millet, green cut bone and vege- tables, table scraps, and anything I can find that is good for them. I aim to give my chicks as much variety as possible. Oat groats is a principal factor in my food for growing chicks. E. M. DURHAM. ‘ih See ihe Nf Patty A Shelter Coop for Growing Chicks. PROFITABLE BROILER RAISING. This Profitable Branch of the Poultry Industry Discussed in Detall, from the Hen That Lays the Egg to the Profits That Go Into the Pockets of the Successful Broller Ralser—Suitable Breeds for Brollers—Vigor and Shape in Breeders—Seasons of Incubation and Prices of Eggs—Seasons of Sales and High Prices for Broilers—Perlod of Growth to Marketable Size—Special Foods an Aid to Growth—A Clue to the Profits. By A. F. Hunter. ferent lines of poultry work, and not the least of them is the fascination of broiler raising for the beginners. That the promised profits of turning eggs into a choice marketable fowl product does fascinate the beginner is well known to those who have studied conditions in the poultry business, and perhaps the most frequently recurring question coming to the poultry editor’s desk re- lates to one point or another of broiler raising. Nor is this surprising when we consider that the changing of an egg into a chick is but a matter of three weeks’ time, and the growth of the baby chick to a marketable broiler is but a matter of eight to twelve weeks’ time. Somebody says, “An egg costs two or three cents, and in three months we can turn it into a two-pound broiler which will sell for a dollar; that certainly looks an easy way to make money. And it would be if every egg produced a chick and every chick grew to broiler size and good, marketable condition, and sold for fifty cents a pound; but, there are eggs and eggs, and there are broilers and broilers, and there are not a few diffculties in the way of realizing the Klondike profits which look so tempting. That there is a good profit in broiler raising there is ample evidence in the sections where market poultry is made a business, and where men have continued the raising of broilers and soft-roasters for ten, fifteen, twenty or more years. That many who embark in broiler raising gradually outgrow “the broiler stage’ and develop into larger things is not surprising. We have in mind such widely known poultrymen as A. G. Duston and Wm. Ellery Bright as examples of broiler (and market poultry) raising having been the stepping stone to the great poultry business they have built up; indeed, not more than six or eight years ago Mr. Duston wrote interesting and helpful articles for the Reliable Poultry Journal upon this subject and his poultry plant was planned and built with the inten- tion of making broiler raising a prominent feature in his poultry work. There are great poultry farms where broiler raising is a considerable part, or even the chief part, of the work, and where incubators are kept. running practically the year around. On others the broiler work is simply one feature of the general poultry work; the intention being to have a good crop of broilers to meet the high-priced market, and a succession crop of soft roasting chickens to meet the high- priced market for roasters, and a general “market poultry and eggs’ business for all the year. There is still another class of brciler raisers, those who turn off their young cockerels to market just as soon as they are of marketable size, considering them simply a by-product of the general poultry work. alk HERE are several interesting features manifest in dif- Prices Go Up, Then Down. There is very little sale for broiler chicks in October, November and December, at least in the general market; some sale there is, to private trade, and in such case very little attention is paid to market quotations, the prices being simply between the grower and his customer. In January there is a light call for broiler chicks, which steadily in- creases through February and March and culminates in April, then gradually decreases through May, June and July, and by August the lowest prices are again reached. These lowest prices range from twelve to twenty cents a pound, and the highest prices range from twenty-five to fifty cents a pound, the sale price depending upon the quality of the product and the demand in the market. The chickens must be “gilt-edged” to command the highest figures, and if of extra, fine,, J gilt- edged” quality they not only sell quickly, but frequently command a premium above highest market prices. These broilers are in greatest demand in April, with a good demand . in March - and May, with a moderate demand from . _New Year’s to August. In the best. markets, which are those of our greater eastern cities, the prices range from about twenty .cents a pound in January up to fifty cents a pound in April, then gradu- ally fall off to about twenty cents again in August. Not all two-pound chickens, however, are “high-class” broilers and command the highest current prices; to command the high- est prices they must be of “the best’ quality, must be plump, full-breasted, yellow-skinned and fine-boned, and the quicker a chicken can be grown to broiler size-the better in quality it will be. The better the quality the higher the price and consequently better profit to the grower. If a two-pound broiler costs twelve and a half cents a pound to raise and is of such fine quality that it sells for forty or fifty cents a pound, there is a profit of twenty-seven and a half or thirty-seven and a half cents a pound: if, however, it is “off” in quality and sells for ten cents less per pound, there is hut seventeen and a half or twenty-seven and a half cents a pound profit. This one point of poor quality and conse- quently lower price has discouraged (or disgusted) not a few broiler raisers, hence the importance of getting eggs from stock of the much desired fine-boned, plump-breasted yeliow-skinned class of fowls, to the end that, if fed right and cared for as they should be, they grow (and grow quickly) into broilers of the very best class. That there has been little change in market conditions in the past dozen years is shown by the price-list given in the circular of Messrs. W. H. Rudd, Son & Co. in 1891, which reads as follows: Quotations for Broilers. January, demand light...............45 .15 to 20c February, demand improves........... 20 to 22c¢ IMPAT OM: 6s isa eae oouardsiavalitces Lace seat ein AUN idee ees 28 to 35¢ PTE eat odd sbarece tetacusican Neve weno eeataate Se 35 to 50c MAY ii eiceaiiniecies Sais ce ahem es 40 to 30¢ DUDE® rere aia’ acece foe De REDS cok kam SS 30 to 25c JULY. sats esa eeR sora tak edad tisewars nts 25 to 20¢ August, prices fluctuating ries Selisc havens 16 to 23c Septem ber acawnnieces san aves shee ward 12 to 16c Oct., Nov. and Dec., little demand...... 12 to 15¢ 66 THE CHICK BOOK PROFITABLE MARKET CHICKENS. Wlustration Referred to by Mr. Hunter. In November, 1901, Reliable Poultry Journal, we told Table of Shipments and Mr. Twining’s figures give us a clue to profits. He tells us his two-pound broilers cost him twenty-five cents apiece, and divides the cost as fol- lows: Two C228 .-.eeeeee 5c DLad0r %eawr secane Te Food .....- .eeeee 8c Picking ...... -++- 5e MOtAL: a sare. cinierses 25¢ As he and his son did all the work, it is obvious that the seven cents for labor was put into his own (and son’s) pockets, and that they got the full price of their labor in ad- dition to the profits returned. The figures give us twelve and a half cents per pound as the cost of a two-pound broiler and the market prices ranged from twenty to fifty cents a pound. A two-pound broiler selling at twenty cents a pound pays fifteen cents prof- it, while the same broiler sell- ing at fifty cents a pound pays seventy-five cents profit. Quite a difference there, and the figures show the impor- tance of ‘having the product ready to market at the time of highest prices. This is the month of April, but March and May also give high prices. It takes nine to twelve weeks to grow a two-pound broiler, and that means that the chicks must be hatched in De- eember, January and Febru- ary to come upon the market in time for best prices. ; Returns of Mr. Twining’s of a decidedly successful broiler raising business, and gave Broilers. a table of shipments of about four thousand broilers, with prices taken directly from Mr. Twining’s books. We re- i print the table so that prices may be compared with those DATE, chicks, Returned. pe pean, of Mr. Rudd, published ten years earlier. These returns are from (practically) weekly shipments, eae. cane a By $ Bop re while the prices in the first table are designed to give the Mav 3-0. -- jedeaoieeeen | 50 23.01 3s average prices for each month. Another point worth notic- a an eid “seas, ence 80 49 3 ing is that Mr. Twining shipped to both Philadelphia and 29 a tee 40 New York markets, and sometimes could get a few cents 44 38 better price in one market than in the other. For example, ma 3 May 3rd and 8th shipments to Philadelphia only returned a a him thirty-five cents a pound. He shipped no more for 132.44 “32 nearly two weeks and then shipped to New York and re- 109.88 % ceived forty cents for them; another shipment returning ed se him thirty-six cents, and not until June 8rd was the New 81 19 28 York price down to thirty-five cents, which was the Phila- 07.33 50 delphia price just a month earlier. It is worth noting that 13 8 a the Boston prices for May are given as forty to thirty cents, 94.02 20 which approximates closely 'to Mr. Twining’s actual returns ia ca $1,839.03 | ten years later; a comparison of these prices shows that there is but little variation in prices from year to year. Average Price per chick, 46.45 cents. THE CHICK BOOK Eggs for Hatching Broilers. The first problem, and one of the most important to the broiler raiser, is the eggs from which to hatch the chicks. It is November, December and January eggs that pro- duce the December, January, and February chickens, and eggs in those months are scarce and high. Eggs at this writing (February) are selling at forty-five cents a dozen, wholesale; nearly four cents apiece. It is evident, then, that eggs at this season are worth decidedly more than‘the two and a half cents apiece figured by Mr. Twining. His fig- ures, however, extended into and through the period of low- est prices for eggs, and the books showed that his average for the (about) nine thousand eggs incubated was nearer twonty-five cents a dozen than the thirty cents of the fig- ures. We visited a large practical poultry farm early in December and found the owner just closing a case of fine looking eggs he was sending 67 shape nw are hung in a cool, dark room until the following morning, when they are packed and shipped to market.” There Is Profit in Broilers. That there is good money made in raising broilers a careful study of the business ‘reveals. There is a great demand for this class of poultry meat, and of the best grade there is never a sufficient supply; furthermore, the demand is constantly increasing and will be still further increased by a better average quality of broilers marketed. Another point in favor of broiler raising is that the work-season of broiler raising for the highest prices comes at a time when ctier work is slack, hence the time utilized in the broiler raising is not wanted in other departments of the poultry work. Take advantage of the highest prices of March, April and May, and produce the very best quality of broiler chicks, and the resulting profits will be eminently satisfactory. The Best Varieties for Broilers. The best broiler chick is one that is grown quickly and fattens readily, is tine-boned and plump, full-breasted, has a ‘rich, yellow skin, and the strong constitution that will stand forced feeding. Undoubtedly the American breeds most nearly fill the bill. The white and buff varieties have the added advantage of freedom from dark pin feathers. ~ Visits to the great market poultry raisers south of Bos- ton reveal many varieties of stock, used with the Light Brahma most in evidence; this is probably due to the fact that while raising broilers for market they are by no means exclusively broiler raisers, but grow large numbers of soft roasting chickens and capons. Next to the Light Brahmas’ a cross of Barred Plymouth Rock male on Light Brahma female is popular, and the well-known market poultryman,, Mr, J. H. Curtiss, places the White Plymouth Rocks at the very top of the list for all-around utility qualities. The same can be said of the “May R. Poultry Plant,’ while the Mr. Twining quoted above grew his broilers from Barred Plymouth Rock eggs bought of farmers living in his neigh- porhood. In all cases excepting possibly the ‘‘“May R. Poul- try Plant” the stock described is “farmers’” stock of the THE CHICK BOOK varieties, and would no doubt be found lacking in some points essential in show birds. Different Kinds of Broilers. Frequent mention is made of “squab broilers,” and yet we do not recall ever seeing them quoted in the market reports. Generally the squab broilers are little six or seven weeks old chicks that weigh, dressed, three-quarters of a pound to one pound each; they are split down the middle and broiled for individual orders in high class hotels, res- taurants and clubs. Mr. Duston tells us he “sold hundreds weighing eight ounces each,” which is half a pound, and are the smallest broilers of which we have ever heard. There is a quite steady sale for squab broilers throughout the year, but, practically, all the trade is in the hands of dealers who have the finest private family trade and that of the swell hotels and clubs. The broiler of commerce is a one and a half to two pound chicken, is split in half and served, broiled (“grilled”) to two customers; a half to an individual cus- tomer. In a few instances we have known of these tender morsels of chicken flesh being stuffed and roasted, then split in halves and served to two individual customers. A change has been gradually coming about, in the intro- duction of prepared (mixed) chick foods, and these special foods have given remarkable results in quick growth. Mr. Twining (quoted above) told us he couldn’t grow a two pound broiler in eight weeks; that it took him nine weeks (on‘an average) to grow a one and a half pound broiler and about eleven weeks to bring them to two pounds weight. In the frontispiece of August, 1902, R. P. J. are shown some White Wyandotte chicks that grew to two pounds apiece at eight weeks old, and those chicks were not “forced” at all; they were fed one of the special chick foods and made the splendid growth there chronicled in the natural manner. Obviously there is a decidedly greater profit in two pound chicks at eight weeks old than in two pound chicks at eleven weeks old; we cut off a fourth of the labor and food-charge, and coal for heat, at a stroke. We have seen that there was a goodly profit in the plump and juicy broiler that grew to two pounds weight in eleven to twelve weeks; it is easy to see a still greater profit in the same product grown in eight weeks. A. F. HUNTER. A View Showing Some of the Colony Houses Used by the Poultry Department of the Maine Agricultural Experiment Station Where Much Good Work is Done in the Interest of Profitable Poultry Raising. : SUCCESS AT THE START. Thirty-Three Hundred Chickens Alive and in Marketable Condition on the Piant of a Beginner—HIs Methods Dis- cussed—His Plant Illustrated and Described, and It Only Remains to Estimate His Profits. By P. R. Park. HE town of Hingham, Mass., enjoys the distinction of being the home of ex-Secretary Long of the U. S. Navy, and one of the largest flocks of thrifty spring chickens in New England. The latter are to be found at the home of Mr. H. G. Jordan, upon whose large farm they are having an unusually favorable opportunity to devclop. They are improving all their chances. This seems somewhat at variance with the supposedly established rule that experience is necessary in order to produce large num- bers of chicks and have them thrive from the start. Here we have a comparatively inexperi- The writer has long believed that the principal source of mortality among brooder chicks is caused by improper air and incorrect temperature surrounding the chicks the first three weeks of their lives. With the novel method adopted on this plant there can be no doubt that so long as the air in the building is pure that of the hover must be equally so. When Mr. Jordan first contemplated going into the chicken business, he spent quite a little time visiting the successful plants and also the other kind in his vicinity, and with rare foresight for a novice, traced most of the mor- tality among the various flocks to the enced owner, and the young man in charge of the plant will, we think, take no offense if we say he has had almost no previous experience with incubators and brooders; yet at the time of our visit, the last of May, out of about 3,500 chicks hatched, they had almost 3,300 alive and promising to stay with them until] the hatchet intervened. Of this mortality of 200, ninety died that _were hatched from a lot of three hun- dred eggs purchased. Here we have over three thousand chicks raised, we may say, by beginners, and a healthier and more robust lot it has not been our pleasure to see. We have long been convinced that luck does not enter into the keeping of poultry. There are certain condi- tions which must be met, and if these are as they should be, there can be but one result, namely, a good lot of | absence of pure air surrounding the chicks and stock in the several stages of their development. When he con- structed his plant, he kept these two facts in mind, and as will be seen in the view of his incubator room, he gives an inlet for air through the top and an outlet of two holes on the level of the floor, one on each side of the building opposite each other. Certain- ly under these conditions it would be impossible for foul air to stay for any length of time in ‘this room. Following cut this idea, he has his brooder house built with a large num- ber of windows in the south side, insuring plenty of light and air on favorable days, and he uses ventilators in the middle of the house in bad weather. Pipes, as will be seen in the illustration, are eight in number, four outward anid four return flows, abso- chicks hatched from the eggs incupal- ed, and a large number grown of those hatched. We think two of the princi- pal elements which have participated in the success of the Jordan plant this season have been cleanliness, both as regards old stock and young, and a novel method of brooding, which we have not seen before. In the brooder house for the youngest chicks, as well as the older ones, there is not a vestige of a hover of any kind, simply eight lines of pipe, four running inward and four return, kept at a uniform temperature by an electric regu- lator. These pipes vary in height from two to three inches in the primary class up to eight to ten inches for the larger chicks. It is rather a novel sight to see one hundred and fifty to one hundred and seventy-five chicks in a brood warming their backs upon these pipes apparently the hap- piest youngsters in existence without any vestige of the imi- tations of Dame Nature that have prevailed in other broeod- ing systems. The natural method, namely, eight to twelve chicks cared for by one mother hen, is so distant and different from the artificial method that imitations seem fruitless. Ventilating Openings in Ceiling and Window in Incubator Room on Jordan Poultry Plant. lutely devoid of any hover, and the temperature is kept at a uniform heat by an. electric regulator, near the heater. This insures a steady tem- perature with no probability of crowding, for with the correct temperature, the chicks have no occasion to crowd; and if the air in the building is right, that under the pipes cannot fail to be equally pure. These pipes are from eight to ten inches from the dirt floor of the house, the distance being varied by the placing of more or less sand ‘in the runs as the chicks vary in age, thus starting in their first or baby pen with only about three inches between the sand and pipes, and in the end pen, from which they gradu- ate to house number four, the distance is ten inches, thus hardening them off for the cooler temperature of their next home. In this house the pipes are placed upon the wall and the temperature of the building kept at from sixty to seventy degrees, otherwise under the same conditions. From this latter house they are moved to colony houses, which we show in the view of the farm. The rule has been this season to place cne hundred and fifty chicks in each of 74 THE CHICK BOOK these runs, commencing with the younger ones in the first, which is five feet by ten feet, and as they grow older, removing them to the large runs, which are ten by ten feet. These flocks are unbroken until they reach the colony houses, when they aim to keep fifty in a house eight by eight feet. The chickens, how- ever, have hatched so remarkably well this season that in many cases they have been obliged to put over two hundred in a pen, with seemingly no discomfort to the occupants. The method of feeding may be equally of interest to many, asthisalsois quite a radical departure from established methods. Here we find chicks started upon nothing but hard grain until they reach the age of four days, when they are given a dish of ground beef scraps, which is kept con- sorb all the beef scraps and cracked corn that their appetites dictate is best for them, and with a supply of green cut clover, of which the farm furnishes an abundance, they have nothing to ask for in the way of food and care. AChat they are improving under all these good things a visit to the plant will convince the skeptical. ; Mr, Jordan buys nothing but the best of grain and beef scraps, for the keen business foresight with which he man- ages one of Boston’s most successful coal handling estab- lishments, has convinced him that it ig not the cost of the food or equipments that ruins the unsuccessful poultryman, the mortality of the youngsters between the age of one and four weeks being the cause assigned for nearly every case where the “plant did not pay.” A Promising Flock in Front of One of the stantly before them through the rest of their happy lives. This way of providing food gives all an equal chance and there is no possibility of there being any of the grain sour, to cause bowel trouble and other ailments. The chicks are ‘given the run cf a yard after they reach the age of seven days, which yards are also kept pure by the growing cf green stuff between seasons, After they reach the age of six weeks, cracked corn is added to their diet, and is kept always before them. This system of feeding is, we think, the only one that couid be carried out with such large flocks as we find on this plant. Under the old system of mash feeding, the rush and scram- ble for their share soon make it a case of the survival cf the fittest, and the younger and weaker ones do not get their proportion of the rations, so the gap between them and their more successful brothers grows wider with each day. Under this system each one has plenty of time to ab- Brooding Houses on the Jordan Plant. The previous experience of the foreman, Mr. Young, with poultry is represented practically by a cipher, he hav- ing lived in the state of New Jersey on a large stock farm, with no special liking for the poultry business, simply un- dertaking it at Mr. Jordan’s request, possibly until he could eet an experienced man. The success which came to him from the first rapidly interested him in the business, and at the present time he is fascinated with the business as the rankest enthusiast of years’ standing. There is a sanitarium in East Bridgewater for curing consumption in the human family simply by makng the patients sleep out of doors, or what amounts to that, winter and summer, and why should mot the chicken man adopt for his feathered pets, who are much more creatures of the air than the human family, similar methods? That Mr. Jordan’s plant will be a success this season is an assured fact, for at the present time the Boston market THE CHICK BOOK 15 is paying for soft roasting chicks 87 cents per pound, and be has three separate buyers offering 80 cents a pound alive at his door. All the male birds have been caponized and cannot fail to suit the most fastidious market in the coun- try, namely, Boston. Jealous neighbors are telling Mr. Jordan and his fore- man that they cannot repeat their this season’s success another year. Whether they can or not, of course, time only will tell, but Mr. Young is very confident, and we think with good reason, that if given the same conditions, he can repeat the success and better it in some particulars. We would offer him only a few suggestions—that a little more elbow room be given the growing stock and a number of the three hundred and sixty-five broad acres which Mr. Jor- dan owns be added to the yards now used in caring for the birds after they leave the brooder house. We suggest also that they be allowed to pick their own clover instead of bringing it to them. Good grazing land is, in our opinion, as important to the successful and cheap growing of poultry as to that of any other class of stock. Good birds have no opportunity to develop on a sand bank, and should not be forced to exist there. Bugs and worms make up a large part of their living and these are uot to be found without plenty of good grass for them to grow among. PROFITABLE ROASTING CHICKENS. How Large, Soft-Meated Chickens Are Produced for the Season of High Prices—The Advantage of the Balanced Ration—Caponizing the Males to Be Sold as Roasters—A Profitable Adjunct on the Farm. By A. F. Hunter, HAT there is a goodly profit in growing soft roasting T chickens for market is very evident to the student of poultry conditions, and there are many poultry growers who maintain that the turning of eggs into chickens and growing them to soft-roaster size is not only the most profitable, but is the most satisfactory line of poul- try work. When talking one time with Mr. Rankin about the profitableness of poultry work, we stated that we could make three dollars profit in a year from a pullet that came to lay- ing maturity in October, laid one hundred and fifty to one hundred and seventy-five eggs within a year, and then was sold to market. ‘“‘Yes,” said Mr, Rankin, “and I can make fer- ty dollars a year profit from the same bird, by turning her eggs into chickens and growing them to market size.’’ AS ex- perienced growers estimate that there is a hundred per cent profit in the business, it would need that eighty chickens be grown to roaster size and average to sell at a dollar each to give the forty dollars profit Mr. Rankin said he could make, and as an experienced poultry grower recently told me he planned to raise about two thousand chickens a year, and that they cleaned up about one thousand dollars a year profit, apparently Mr. Rankin’s forty dollars a year profit per hen, if her eggs are turned into chickens and the chick- ens grown to soft-roasters, is reasonable. Obviously the price at which the chickens are sold has not a little to de with the amount of profit in the business, and as soft-roasting chickens are highest in price in May and June, with March, April, July and August giving good prices, it is the chickens raised especially for marketing during those months that pay the best profits. In the an- nual circular of Messrs. Rudd & Son, of Boston, the prices for roasters were given as follows: Month. Prices. January ......-+-- dp a lbuastesnse (sueraserpd ican 15 to 20c February ..ccce cece eect cere reece 20 to 22c IMAPGH: o cssescaceestas ¥ 2G o Bereta 5005 eee 20 to 25¢ 01+) 8 20 to 25c May caeietscess sie ebzeietece is eee eapeonicnced Hips ae 25 to 30c JUNG ys eoeaads cei oes Beka 80 to 40c TOY ec ccackeaiees 3 <4 aneeees sees eae 36 to 25¢ AUIBUSE? 60 sve ce eaaed Ses Sones Be TE 20 to 23c September ...... Baz eveeyaaaigus NebeaeaGe 14 to 20c October, November and December.... 12 te 18¢ It takes four or five months to grow a chicken to from four to six pounds weight, and with May and June giving the highest prices, it is evident that the chickens should be hatched in January and February to be grown for market- Ing in the months of highest prices. As a matter of fact, we find soft-roaster growers hatching their chickens all through the late fall and winter, as the supply of hatchahble eggs permits, and they are marketing the chickens all along from March to July, as the demand of the market and the condition of the chickens warrants. In a great poultry growing section of South Jersey there are chickens hatched late, say in June and July, and grown to an average size of about six pounds, or as large as they can be grown and still retain the “soft”? condition of flesh, then dressed for market; if the market conditions do not warrant their being sold at once they are put in cold- storage and held until wanted. An illustration of this I saw at the poultry shipping depot of Mr. Thomas Allen, in Feb- ruary, 1902. Mr. Allen’s teams had brought in about two tons of soft-roasting chickens that day, and they were being packed in barrels to go into cold-storage to await the market demand. Mr. Allen told me he had paid one man that day forty dollars for thirty-three birds, an average of about one dollar and twenty cents apiece, and he said those birds were probably hatched in July, which would make them about seven months old when killed for market. Visiting the great poultry section south of Boston last November I found poultrymen with one to two thousand chickens already out, started on the road to become soft- roasters. The Messrs. sarrar Brothers, of Assinippi, had over two thousand chickens then, and were going on to about forty-five hundred, which is their usual number; the Jordan Farm had then over a thousand growing and were hatching right along. The Messrs. Farrar get their chickens to from four to six pounds weight, and report their highest price last season as thirty-two cents, with an average for the whole season of about twenty-five cents a pound. At that average price their birds sold for one dollar to one dollar and fifty cents apiece, with a mean price of one dollar and twenty-five cents apiece, and something like fifty per cent of that may be fairly estimated as profit; in other words, 16 THE, CHICK BOOK they make about one hundred per cent on the cost of hatch. ing and raising a four to six pound soft-roasting chicken. The Breeds Preferred. In nearly all cases it is found that the Asiatic, or crosses of Asiatic and American varieties are used to make these extra fine soft-roasters. In the poultry section south of Boston from which so many roasters come to market the Light Brahma is the breed used; in south Jersey it is gener- ally a cross of Light Brahma-Partridge Cochin, or of Light Brahma-Plymouth Rock. It is necessary that the birds be of great size normally, then they will attain the desired large size while still having the essential “soft” flesh of the young chicken. A change in conditions is gradually coming about, however, partly due to the farmers of south Jersey taking thought of the profitableness of the egg side of the business, which is bringing the better laying American varie- ties into favor. Then, too, the introduction of improved meth- ods of feeding, making it possible to grow a Plymouth Rock chicken (for example) to as great size and more quickly than an Asiatic, is causing a gradual change in front, even in the great stronghold of the Brahmas south of Boston. In a recent number of Reliable Poultry Journal is an illustration of a pair of soft-roasters that made the astonishing growth to twenty-three pounds, alive, at six months old, and the larger one weighed eleven pounds dressed. Those chickens were Barrea Plymouth Rocks, and that wonderful growth in six months is an eye-opener. Those chickens were grown by one of those south-shore poultry growers and dressed for market by the great market poultrymen of that section, Messrs. J. H. Curtiss & Brother.. The change of front in that section was indicated by a remark made to me by Mr. Cur- tiss a few days ago, when he emphatically stated that he con- sidered the White Plymouth Rock to be the best all-around variety of fowls in the world. When we remember that he is a life-long lover of the Light Brahmas, and has always considered them the best market poultry variety, we may well be surprised at such a change. The explanation lies in the simple fact of the quicker growth of the Rocks by the improved method of feeding the prepared (and accurately balanced) ration. The Males Are Caponized. All the males are caponized by these south-shore poul- try growers, even though almost all of them are sold as soft- roasters; but very, very few of them go to market as capons. They are caponized at about three months old, and the gain is in the fact of their more peaceful disposition. The unca- ponized cockerel is of a most pugnacious and quarrelsome disposition, and his quarreling hinders his growth, besides the greater activity promoting the hardening of the flesh. As it is essential that the flesh be “‘soft,’”’ it is easy to under- staud that capovizing is necessary to the keeping of the right condition. In the south-shore section of which we have been writing there are many thousand chickens raised each year, and Mr. J. H. Curtiss, who is an expert caponizer, caponizes the males for scores of the poultrymen. For this service he charges four dollars per hundred chickens, and is much in demand among his neighbors. The influence of such a man as Mr. Curtiss, in promoting the growing of “better poultry and more of it,” is beyond estimating. With- in a half dozen miles of his home there are from thirty to fifty thousand chickens grown for market each year, all fine soft-roasters and capons, and the importance of that small section of country as a poultry center is made manifest by its having given a name to a superior quality of chickens grown there; ‘‘south-shore’ chickens are quoted as the highest standard for quality! As a Farm-Product. The poultry growing above described is chiefly in the hands of those who make a specialty of growing fine soft- roasters for market, but that the business is highly profit- able to farmers, who make the growing of two or three or four hundred chickens for market annually an adjunct of their regular farm work, there is ample evidence. In the south Jersey section of which I wrote the chickens are al- most entirely grown by farmers. In the Reliable Poultry Journal not long ago, I described these south Jersey poultry growers as follows: “It may not be quite fair to speak of these poultry growers as ‘poultrymen,’ because, as a rule, the birds are grown on the farms as a branch of: farm work, and are mostly grown by the women of the farms, while the men are engaged in the regular farm occupations; two. or three hundred up to five hundred would be the usual yearly product of a farm. It needs but a little arithmetic to dem- onstrate that a branch of farm work which produces three hundred (or even two hundred) roasting chickens which bring one dollar to one dollar and twenty-five cents apiece when sold is a quite important department of the farm; we doubt whether any other one department produces so much cash income for the amount of labor and capital expended! “Comparatively few of these poultry growers use incu- bators; the bulk of the chickens are hen-hatched. Incuba- torg were attempted here and there some years ago, but the generally poor results discouraged their use; latterly, since a better class of incubators is being put out, they are com- ing to be used more. It is interesting, too, to know that these choicest chickens are not artificially fattened—no cramming machine is used. They are put into large coops, that are four feet wide by six to ten feet long, with a trough along the front to hold the food. The food is a corn meal mash, mixed up with skim-milk when it can be ob- tained. Sometimes the milk supply is not equal to the demand and then water is used. The fattening takes from four to six weeks. That the profit is not all for the grower of winter chick- ens is also evident. I have before me the account of a poul- try buyer, which shows the figures of the poultry sales of a small farmer in Worcester county, Mass. These chickens were hatched in the late winter, and sold alive during May and June as soft-roasters of about four pounds weight. The farmer said that branch of his farm work had paid him over fifty dollars a month net profit for the six months’ work. The figures of the sales, taken from the pbuyer’s book, are’as follows: ° No. of Chickens. _ Sum Paid, DH sles bve, Sn ia eeynenieaedeanne ers ee er ae $ 52.90 DAi cid seariirs yn toneuaptaigt vogue aeegu nen ale eau adund 48.95 MOG 25a re cesar eran Baiee yori shgesGywenele ides wckaen 94.87 MOG! ae xcenen engpastacartiaca xs hues svacavactetvesateageen Soares 95.04 FLO GS asec ase acag seh dal ountbeerenineica lie ta hora vas 98.72 Mpeg atc tidigteeie ue a til Noe werent oat aoc, 69.96 Oh ects weairglavamenadns yaad Sasha ttcetee 51.10 OS! eceremupa wyelyertta et Paice sraenmneleacesox cams 58.50 I ae Be a ahaha gine aepaba dried 39.12 Poa sade cacttcce ENN woe nce Allert ei eh 27.79 HMM vane eea ne noe oicchiesdea aera saath $636.95 This is an average of about ninety cents per chicken, aud as the grower claimed that they cost to raise not far from forty-five cents apiece and sold for just about double that, he made about one hundred per cent profit on them. He dces not keep a hard and fast account with his chickens; he knows they pay him a very substantial profit, and that satisfies him! THE CHICK BOOK e. The Demand Is Greater Than the Supply. The market is never over supplied with the best quality of poultry products, and this seems especially true of fine soft-roasters. Marketmen tell us they can never get enough of them to supply ‘the demand, and such commonplace re- marks as: “I could sell twice as many, if I could only get them,” is the answer to a question as to there being too many of them grown. We all know the reply Webster made to the man who asked if the legal profession wasn’t over- crowded,—'‘There is plenty room at the top.’’ This applies with especial aptness to the best soft-roasters we have been describing. There may be an over-supply of a cheaper grade, but of the best there is never enough to meet the demand. The increase of wealth end population has result- It is a truism to say the best pays the best; we all know that. And not only does it pay the best, but there is the most satisfaction in growing the best! Here is a double reward. We not only get the greater profit which comes of producing the best, but we get the satisfaction of being producers of a high-class article of food that is always in demand in the market. It is the plump, full-breasted, fine meated birds that the consumers want and are willing to pay a good price-for,—and if we but produce that article our reward is sure. A considerable study of the soft-roasting chicken re- veals several surprises, and one of them is the almost in- numerable methods of feeding employed. In fact, it is with- in the bounds of truth to say, there is no one “method” of interior of a Brooding House on the Jordan Poultry Plant, Showing Pipes for Warming the House. ed in a steadily increasing demand for the best prcducts of the voultryman’s art. Wealthy families, leading clubs, hotels ard high-class restaurants, all compete for the gilt- edged soft-roasters of the expert poultrymen, and they are willing to pay almost any price, within reason, if the desired quality is presented. In fact, they will pay what they have to pay in order to get what they want. Poultrymen should study the market requirements, and then strive to meet them. ‘The well-known fruit grower, Mr. J. H. Hale, of Connecticut, in an address in which he urged fruit growers to study the market conditions so as to know what the peo- ple want, said: ‘The fine appearance opens the customer’s pocketbook, and then quality keeps it open.” There is a most important cconomic principle completely stated in those few words. The fine appearance of an article induces a customer to buy, and good quality in the article keeps him buying. feeding; each poultryman feeds what he esteems to be a good growing ration, and, indeed, this is the one essential thing. The great point to be aimed at is a steady, con- tinuous growth till market maturity is reached, then market in the best condition: Within the past two or three years prepared chick foods have come into very general use, and have given such excellent results they are likely to be still more generally used. The method is to feed them exclusively for the first five or six weeks, adding a little beef scraps or meat meal, and after about six weeks adding cracked cern to the ration. The essential thing is the increase of the meat food and cracked corn until, the last half of the period, half the ration is of those two foods. With this ration a continuous and rapid growth is secured, and the birds are in fine, fat condition all the time, and are ready to market any time wanted. Of course such a rich ration would not ds for laying-breeding stock. Birds grown upon 78 it would be soft, and wholly lacking in stamina, or con- stitution. Where the birds are to be marketed by the time they are four to seven months old the constitution need not be considered, if the birds have sufficient to stand heavy feeding and continue putting on good, fatted flesh. The important thing is that growth shall be continuous and rapid, and the best quality of flesh attained. Marketing Soft-Roasters. The chickens above described are all dry picked, and as a rule are marketed by special dealers. In the south shore section the birds are generally sold alive, to such dealers as Messrs. J. H. Curtiss & Brother, or Mr. Farrar, and picked by their men. In the south Jersey section the birds are THE CHICK BOOK visible under the skin of the breast. That discolored ap- pearance of those two chickens distinctly marred their otherwise fine appearance, and cheapened them. HExperi- enced caterers know that the juices of the meat are less fine and not as pleasing to the palate where that decaying bunch of food is left in the crops and gizzards, and refuse to buy such chickens if better are getable. The seller has sold a few more ounces of weight in each dozen birds, but had lowered the price several times the gain in weight. Lowering the quality invariably lowers the price of chicken meat, just as of everything else in the world! There is no one thing that poultry growers S0 much need to learn as that good appearance and fine quality are most important factors in their profits. LA interior View of a Brooding House, where no Hovers are Used, on the Jordan Poultry Plant. mostly picked by the farmers, and bought up by such deal- ers as Allen of Glassboro, who packs and ships them to New York, Boston or Philadelphia, as the markets in those cities warrant. It is of the greatest importance that the work of pick- ing be nicely done. The tender, “soft” skin may be so torn and marred that a decidedly lower price will be returned for the birds. The importance of a good appearance cannot be too frequently urged. It is safe to say that thousands of dollars are lost to poultry growers each year because cf their ignoring this point. Take the one simple matter of the birds being starved (literally not fed or watered) for twenty-four to thirty-six hours so that the crop and gizzard shall be entirely empty at time of killing. Only yesterday we stopped at a marketman’s window in Boston to look at a display of fine roasters. Two of them had not been starved before killing and there was a small greenish crop Many poultry growers cannot understand that it is the “condition” in which stock arrives in the market that, deter- mines its value, and seem to think that because it was good stuff when they sent it they should have the highest market price for it. A shipper who sends chickens into the market that show the effects of the soft weather will not receive the price of that which is marketed bright and fresh. An amusing case of this kind came up in Boston a few years ago. A farmer sent a case containing two dozen ducks on a Saturday morning in summer, and they lay in the express office over Sunday. When they reached the commission dealer on Monday morning they were so “soft” they were practically unfit for human food. Just as the dealer got them wpen the keeper of an Italian boarding house came in, looking for special bargains, and the dealer called his attention to the ducks. The boarding house man turned them over, felt of them, and then said THE CHICK BOOK 79 he’d give ten cents a pound for them. The oifer was ac- cepted joyfully; the case quickly nailed up and delivered to the buyer; and a letter written to the shipper detailing the facts and enclosing a check for the full amount received; the dealer was so glad to get them out of his place before the food inspector got a whiff from them and condemned them to the garbage cart he didn’t say anything about com- mission on the sale. The farmer came right in, raving; said ducks were quoted at twenty-three cents a pound the day he shipped them, thai his ducks were as good as Blank’s that the dealer had returned twenty-three cents for, and he’d have the full price for those ducks or he’d sue the dealer. denounce him as a cheat, etc., etc. He didn’t sue, the dealer never saw or heard from him again, but that poor farmer probably still thinks (if he is living) that the commission A reader in Sandy Point, Maine, writes: “We have been much interested in your articles in regard to the ship- ments of eggs and poultry to Boston. We had an experience which leads us to desire a little more information. We have made a specialty of growing large roasters for our local ‘market, and up to last fall were unable to fully supply the demand. The birds most desired are those weighing six to. eight pounds apiece, as the people say they have something to cut from (instead of picking bones) with birds of that weight; but last fall the mills were obliged to close, throw- ing many people out of employment, and the poultry market here collapsed. We accordingly sent a portion of our sur- plus to our egg commission merchants at Boston. The birds were hatched late in May and the first shipment made October 27th weighed sixty-tive pounds to the dozen; the Bird’s-eye View of a Part of the Jordan Poultry Plant. dealer is a fraud and cheat, and put in his own pocket the difference between ten and twenty-three cents a pound for that lot of ducks! The old, old saw: ‘Water always finds its level,” ap- plies with great force to poultry sent to market. If it is stuff of the best quality be assured you will get the price of the best; if it is only second, or third, or fourth rate stuff be assured you will not get the price of the best. If you send poultry to market and get only the price of second or third quality stuff, don’t sit down and swear that the commission man is a cheat and fraud. Write him and ask why he didn’t give you the higher price, and then go to work to improve the quality of your stuff until you can send the best. Grow the best standard-breds, ship them to mar- ket in the pink of condition, and you will have no worries about the price! second, made November 12th, weighed sixty-seven pounds per dozen, and the third, made December 9th, weighed sev- enty-two pounds per dozen. The first two lots sold at eigh- teen cents a pound, then practically the top price, but the third brought only sixteen cents a pound. Now in our local market the last would have been regarded as the best, but the Boston commission men wrote us they were “large, but coarse and staggy,” and they could not obtain the highest price; that ‘‘soft-roasters” were wanted. These birds were all of the same age, but the interval between Novmber 12th and December 9th, while adding to the weight, placed them in a lower class. What we would like to know is: First—When the soft-roaster becomes a stag? Second—Did we not grow our birds fast enough, when at five to five and one-half months old they dressed five and 80 THE CHICK BOOK one-half to six pounds, or don’t they want birds of that size? Third—Should we have shipped them at four io five pounds weight? We want to meet conditions which will give us top prices; it is easy to get bottom prices any time.” Replying to these questions: ¥First—Cockerels of different varieties become “‘staggy” at different ages, and as you fail to mention the variety you raise we are in the dark. As most of the stock raised in Maine is either Barred Plymouth Rocks, R. I. Reds or White Wyandottes, we will assume that yours are of one of the American varieties, and cockerels of those varieties begin to get staggy when about six or seven months old, depending on the treatment. The method of feeding has an influence in hastening or retarding maturity. Why didn’t you ship your birds all in at once, and so be rid of them? ‘The dozen shipped November 12th brought you twelve dollars and six cents, while the dozen sent in December 9th brought you but eleven dollars and fifty-two cents; you had fed them about four weeks longer and then got less money for them. This is one of the commonest mistakes of farmers, they don’t market their stuff when it is ready for market, but carry it along at a loss of the food consumed.and at the risk of getting a lower price. Second—We think you didn’t grow the birds fast enough, when they only got to five and one-half to six pounds at five to five and one-half months old, and they would have been of a better quality of flesh,—would have been “softer,” if fed a quicker growing ration and brought along earlier. That is another point on which many poul- try raisers do not discriminate; they raise all the birds | alike, feeding them the same foods, whether they are to be killed for market or raised for laying-breeding stock. Then, : too, the amount of range allowed them is a factor. Free% range encourages the growth of muscle, and muscle is “hard” flesh. If you want to grow fine, “soft” ehickens do not let them run all over the farm,—keep them confined to moderate yards, and feed them more heavily of corn meal and beef scraps (or meat meal). You would probably have done better to have shipped the birds at four to five pounds weight. The great bulk of the trade prefers chickens weighing eight to ten pounds the pair, although there is a good sale for larger birds, and in the spring (say in March), the larger birds sell more read-_ ily. If your local trade prefers large birds you should caponize the cockerels, and then they are “soft” ever after, and will grow to eight to ten pounds without becoming “stagey.” You are not obliged to sell them as capons be- cause you have caponized them. The popular “south shore” | chickens of which you have been reading are caponized, but dressed and sold as soft-roasters. , Caponizing is so easily done, and is so great a benefit : in many ways, it is surprising that more poultry growers do not adopt it. A set of special tools can be bought of poultry supply dealers for about three dollars, and with it the nagging, scrappy cockerels are easily turned into docile, tractable birds, that have nothing to do but eat and grow. They remain “soft,” and their flesh doesn’t harden into muscle, as the cockerels do when they turn “staggy.” Capon- ize all the males not wanted for breeding birds. A. F. HUNTER. 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If esheneadt satisfactor : they can be eaiiediately returned in good order ani the purchase money will be promptly refunded, ‘The above prices include payment of postage to any addressin the United States or &ina da, : Reliable Poultry Journal Publishing Company, Quincy, Illinois, U.S. A. Tipe tt el te ot ona ted eAled a abirdt heft iienoregenstaneea dict PREP PEMA utp areal on of ed Vee ts o rap ed heed tele Mirek en cael RA Eh atlstren'a Witten Lehane be ea 8 Vaceeyn HOG HN! hy yl Cu Wheat f iatntuiveae’ Mente rh abs baat t ee, 4 eee lf sataaant ed Rita Ha ted 4 item i fou vi bse ch tat ati tecqiycy ca be riGr hb D wigehe bag ace niet en greet fea Mtge Tat Wiayen ett 9 Uae Wares Moped fa qaemanet y Arne a Merge bit hy tog eh iat Sab rane dictiet re ; Ad RE Pru revi ee iets rere Th eB rat peers eels Seceedctel ~ eee tt Sans ¥ AT acid caetats! 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