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ARTIFICIAL___
INCUBATIN
AND BRO ODIN

PIS CEN J

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ARTIFICIAL
INCUBATING axnp BROODING

THIRD EDITION

The Successful Hatching

and Rearing of Poultry by Modern
Artificial Methods

PIFTY GENTS

QUINCY, ILLINOIS
RELIABLE POULTRY JOURNAL PUBLISHING CO.

1906
Lie:

COPYRIGHT, 1906
BY THE
RELIABLE POULTRY JOURNAL
PUBLISHING CO.

Oe e®

C RS
ES

VEN AGES OF SOUTH SHORE SOFT ROASTERS

SE

PREFACE

Practical and successful incubating and brooding by
artifical means have taken giant strides since the introduc-
tion to the first edition of this book was written, some
six years ago. To-day popular sized incubators are used
extensively in every civilized country in the world where
poultry is grown for market. We thought we had large poul-
try plants six and seven years ago, and such was the case,
but since that time still larger ones have come into existence,
including, for example, the Stouffer Poultry Farm, Harrisburg,
Pa., with a capacity of 100,000 ducks and broilers annually, us-
ing one hundred 300-egg capacity incubators; Yardley Duck
Farm, Yardley, Pa., green ducks, broilers and roasters, using one
hundred and four 300-egg capacity incubators; Oxford Poultry
Farm, Oxford, Pa., capacity 50,000 green ducks per year, using
seventy-four 288-egg capacity incubators; Earl Stock Farm,
New Holland, Pa. using sixty-five 300-egg capacity incubators;
Woodlands Farm, Iona, N J., having 7,000 laying hens; For-
est Lakes Poultry Farm, Browns Mills In the Pines, N. J., cap-
acity 10,000 layers, using eighty-three 360-egg incubators; Hart-
man Stock Farm, Columbus, Ohio, using fifty-seven 360-egg cap-
acity incubators; Emma B. Poultry Farm, Gurnee, Lake Coun-
ty, IIL, using thirty-two 360-egg incubators; Ledgewood Duck
Farm, Norwalk, Conn., capacity 50,000 ducks per annum, us-
ing eighty-five 300-egg incubators; Weber Bros. Duck Ranch,
Wrentham, Mass., capacity 45,000 ducks annually, and many
other well-known farms of equal and less capacity.

Undoubtedly, America still leads in the size and output of its
poultry plants, but foreign countries are recognizing the op-
portunity and embracing it. The fame of American incubators,
brooders and poultry appliances has gone abroad and a num-
ber of our manufacturers make foreign shipments, others have
foreign agents and a few find it profitable to maintain their
own offices and warehouses in the largest foreign centers.

Five and six years ago comparatively little attention was
paid to the poultry industry by the general and state govern-
ments; to-day the Bureau of Animal Industry is making ex-
tensive experiments and issues regularly valuable bulletins de-
voted to poultry exclusively, and in the neighborhood of thirty-
five state colleges are conducting poultry plants on which they
are making a systematic study of poultry and egg production,
including the problem of successful incubation and brooding
by both natural and artificial means. At several of these col-
leges annual poultry classes are conducted, with increasing
membership, and numerous college graduates in poultry work
are obtaining lucrative employment as managers of large mar-
ket and standard-bred poultry plants.

But the greatest progress made by incubators and brood-
ers in supplanting the hen as a hatcher and brood mother has
been among poultry fanciers, farmers and farmers’ wives. For
many years fanciers held aloof from the use of incubators, fear-

ing to trust their valuable eggs to them. At present, on the -

contrary, there are a number of makes of incubators on the mar-
ket that are so trustworthy in their operation and so correct in
in principle that they hatch as good or better chicks than the
hen will produce, and, as a result, a majority of the poultrymen
who produce fancy fowls are using nowadays one or more in-
cubators. Until recent years many farmers have looked on an
incubator as a mysterious contrivance or an ingenious plaything.
Incubators on the farm are now quite common. Where per-
sons used to look askance at a neighbor who made bold to buy
a “tin hen,’ the purchase of an incubator is now looked on as
a stroke of enterprise and the possessor of a good incubator is
envied.

When it becomes known that a pair of chickens has
been hatched in an incubator, raised in a brooder, fed on pre-
pared chick food and brought to weigh 23 pounds dressed at
six months old, and that the first prize birds at many of our
largest shows are incubator-hatched and brooder-raised, pre-
judice against the artificial hatching and brooding of chickens
and ducks dies a speedy death in the minds of progressive poul-
try raisers. The large poultry plants, the growth and present
development of the poultry industry were impossible without
the aid of good incubators and brooders.

The incubator has come to stay. The practical success
of properly-constructed incubators and brooders is no longer
questioned by persons acquainted with the facts. The inven-
tion and perfection of the small-sized portable incubator gave
origin to what is now known as the poultry industry. With-
out these modern hatchers and artificial mothers the great
duck and poultry ranches could not exist. It would be futile to
attempt to hatch 5,000 to 100,000 ducks, broilers or roasters by
the use of hens alone. A person can hatch 100 to 1,000 chicks
by the hen method, though a large amount of work is involved,
and the expense, labor included, is out of all proportion to the
results. With incubators, on the other hand, the cost, labor
included, is greatly reduced and profits increased.

One large-sized incubator, holding 360 hen eggs or 300
duck eggs, will do the work of 30 hens. Five minutes’ time,
morning and evening, will give the incubator all the attention
it requires, whereas the work of obtaining 30 broody hens, pro-
viding nests for them, caring for them, dusting them with lice
powder, seeing that they return to the right nests, cleaning the
eggs and removing the broken ones, is a task that tries even
the patience of a woman. The difference between the use of
a modern, improved, automatic incubator and the use of hens,
as herein briefly described, indicates the difference between
present up-to-date methods and old-time conditions that were
in force before what is now called the poultry industry existed.
The successful incubator and brooder, therefore, have come to
stay and are highly important factors in the upbuilding of a
great industry.

INTRODUCTION

PERSON who is at all well informed will not dis-
pute the claim that the poultry business in the
United States is now an important national
industry. As a matter of fact, it is one of the
most important, not alone in this, but in every
other civilized country, for poultry and eggs
are much esteemed the world around as a highly
nutritious and palatable human food. These

articles are admitted to have only one rival as a natural, com-
plete and nutritious food, namely, milk and milk-products.
The poultry industry rests solidly upon the actual value of
poultry and eggs as food and will endure, therefore, as long as
mankind exists. Its future will be identical, in a true sense,
with that of the human race. Increase of population will
mean a corresponding increase in the production of these well-
nigh indispensible food products.

Just how much the modern incubator and brooder have
had to do with the recent rapid development of the poultry in-
dustry in this and other countries is hard to estimate, but un-
questionably they have been one of the most important factors.
Hatching chickens by artificial means is almost as old as history,
for it was practiced before the dawn of the Christian Era and
has been practiced continuously in Egypt, China and other
oriental countries down to the present day For an authen-
tic account of how hen eggs are hatched at present by artificial
‘means in Egypt, see report of the United States consul in the
following pages. For many years past, in fact, during at least
‘three or four centuries, chickens have been hatched artificially
in European countries, notably in France, England, Belgium
and Denmark; but it has remained for Yankee genius to modern-
‘ize and practically perfect the present popular-sized incubators
and brooders and to devise ways and means of hatching and
waising chicks in large numbers by their use on the city lot, the
village acre and the ordinary farm.

There is no longer room to doubt that the incubator and
brooder method of hatching and raising chickens and duck-
lings is a marked improvement over the hen method. It is an
improvement in the sense that it is cheaper, also that it is better,
also that a far greater number of chickens and ducks can be rais-
ed by the use of incubators than could profitably be raised with
hens. The reader of this book will learn that broiler plants
now exist and are being successfully operated in this country
where thousands of chickens are raised in limited quarters by
artificial means, and that duck ranches exist and are in success-
ful operation where from twenty to fifty thousand ducklings
are raised each season. All these chickens and ducklings are
produced by artificial means and it would be practically im-
possible to produce the same number by the hen method. To
do so would require many acres of land, thousands of square
feet of building and a small army of men and women to take
care of the hens. The invention and perfection of the modern
incubator has made all this possible, hence so far as the market
poultry business is concerned, it owes a very great deal to arti-
ficial incubating and brooding.

When we come to consider the incubator and brooder on
an ordinary farm, the thought suggests itself and gradually
takes the form of actual belief that sooner or later the incuba-
tor and brooder will supplant the hen as a sitter and mother in
the production of poultry, for it is well known that on hundreds,
yes, thousands of farms, taking the country over, the hen meth-
od has already been abandoned by the farmer and his wife,
and incubators and brooders are being used simply and solely
because they do better work with less labor, hence are more pro-
fitable. The number of farms on which this condition exists is

increasing from year to year and the question arises, ‘How long
will it be before every intelligent and progressive farmer or
farmer’s wife who wishes to better his or her condition, will
find other and more profitable work for the hen to do than to
sit on her eggs and serve as mother to a brood of chicks for a
number of weeks, and will call to their assistance the artificial
hen and mother—modern inventions that are able to do the
work better and cheaper?” *

We believe it is only a question of a comparatively short
time when the American hen will be used almost exclusively
for the production of eggs, rather than have her valuable
time wasted in doing work that can be done better and cheaper
by artificial means. The hen has a monoply in the production
of eggs. We can hatch her eggs for her and raise her chicks,
but we cannot manufacture eggs that will hatch. She will
always be in demand, therefore, and it is plainly to the advant-
age of poultry keepers to use her exclusively for egg production.

The following extract is taken from a report on artificial
incubation and the annual egg yield per hen, appearing in the
United States Statistics of Agriculture for 1902, based on the
census of 1900, published by the Department of Agriculture,
Washington, D. C.:

“The continued use of the incubator tends to make the
hen forget, in a measure, her maternal instinct. This fact
assumes gigantic importance when it is remembered that it has
been discovered that there are 600 embryo eggs in the ovary
of the hen. It has been further ascertained that two-thirds of
this number can be secured in the first two years of the hen’s
life, provided suitable measurers are employed. If the tendency
to become ‘broody’ can be suppressed and more time can be
given to egg laying, incubation being left to the artificial incub-
ator, and if, in addition, egg producing food be fed, the problem
of getting the greatest number of eggs from the hen in the first
two years of her life will be very near solution.”

The question is, how many of these 600 embryo eggs can
we coax out of record layers during the first two years of their
laying period, meaning from the time they are six months to
thirty months old? That is the important point for practical
poultrymen to consider, and clearly it is one of absorbing in-
terest and far-reaching importance.

Do we rightly appreciate the importance of this question?
Let us see if we do. The government statistics, based on the
census of 1900, report that the average egg yield per hen on the
farms in the United States during the year 1899 was 5 5-10 doz-
en, or sixty-six eggs per hen.

On the other hand, Prof. G. M. Gowell, of the Maine Agri-
cultural Experiment Station, reports that by proper feeding,
by the use of trap nests which unfailingly record the best layers
of a flock, and by discarding the poor layers, they have produc-
ed a hen with a record of 251 eggs in 365 days and scores of
them with records ranging from 200 to 251.

Notwithstanding the improvement made in the past five
years, it is doubtful if the average hen on the average Ameri-
can farm, where she is still used as a sitter and mother, lays to
exceed one hundred eggs during three hundred and sixty-five
days; indeed. it is doubtful if she lays more than six or seven
dozen eggs during the year. Poultrymen the country over
have repeatedly demonstrated that an average flock of stand-
ard-bred fowls can be induced to lay from one hundred and fifty
to two hundred eggs per year, under proper treatment. When
we consider that the hens of America laid during the year
1890 over six hundred million dozen eggs, we obtain a glimpse
of the national loss resulting from the average hen laying only
seventy-five to one hundred eggs per year, when she could have

INTRODUCTION

been induced to lay twice that number. As this country doub-
les and trebles in population, all such losses as this will be care-
fully looked after and scientifically treated. This means, if it
means anything, that the poultry industry will increase and de-
velop along systematic lines and the incubator and brooder
will be called into very general use.

The writer of these lines has traveled upwards of seventy-
five thousand miles during the last 12 years, visiting poultry
plants, large and small, and during this time has made a care-
ful study of different branches of the poultry business. Long
strides have been taken during even this short period until at
the present time we hear it commonly said, ‘The incubator is
now a practical success. It is no longer any trouble for a per-
son of ordinary intelligence and careful habits to hatch chickens
in large numbers by the use of incubators, but it is not so easy
a matter to raise them.” This is true, and it isn’t true. It is
a singular fact that for every three people who can be found who
will say, ‘Oh, yes, I hatch them all right, but I do not have
very good success in raising them artifically,” one person can
be found who will say, ‘I cannot hatch them so well with in-
cubators as I can with hens, but I can raise them in brooders
much better than I can with hens.”

This simply means that different methods are employed,
some of which are right and others wrong. It means simply
that up to the present time more careful attention has been
given by experts to the work of perfecting the incubator and
demonstrating the proper use of it, than to the equally im-
portant work of perfecting brooders and brooding systems and
solving the problems of their successful operation. But at the
present time this is changed and as the incubator nears per-
fection much time and thought is being given to proper brood-
ing devices, and with excellent results. The fact that many
people in this country to-day are hatching eggs under hens and
then placing the chicks in brooders to be raised artificially, is
complete proof that chicks can be raised in brooders as well or
better than they can with hens, and that the brooder is as much
an improvement over the hen as an incubator is an improve-
ment on the hen as a hatcher. It is a question merely of know-
ing how, and that demand is what called forth this book.

Admittedly our equipment of tools at present is by no
means complete and we have mastered only the first princi-
ples of the production of poultry and eggs in large quantities
as an independent enterprise. The improvement of the utility
breeds, the invention of popular-sized, portable incubators and
brooders and the designing of suitable brooding houses have
given us a fair start, and we may look forward with confidence
that great progress will be made during the next few years.

No man can safely set a limit to what will be accomplished in
this direction within the next decade. Ten years ago the poul-
try business in this country, as an independent business, was
insignificant as compared with present achievements, but there
is good reason to believe that the next ten years will show still
greater progress. It cannot well be otherwise. Where one
man was interested in the problem and trying to achieve results
ten years ago, one hundred or more are now employed at the
same task. To-day America leads the world in the knowledge
and employment of successful methods of poultry production
on a large scale, and probably it will maintain this position.
Other countries are adopting our methods but we have secured

a lead that will be hard to overcome. The financial risk is be-
ing eliminated from the business until it is not greater now
than that involved in other business enterprises, and men of
means and brains are taking up the work in rapidly increas-
ing numbers.

Naturally, as poultry production became a distinct and
important industry, it was divided into branches representing
special lines of effort. Mankind had entered upon an age of
specialties and the poultry industry did not prove an exception.
First, the growers of poultry were merely poultry keepers;
now we have fanciers, duck growers, egg farmers, broiler
‘raisers, etc. The devélopment of these branches has been
rapid, but not unnaturally so. It was natural that this develop-
ment should result from special attention, special effort and
singleness of purpose. The practical result has been that we
now have thousands of fanciers, including hundreds of specialty
breeders, and where, at the beginning, there was only one vari-
ety of fowl, a black and brown wild bird of the jungle, to-day
we have more than one hundred separate and distinct varieties;
where twenty-five and thirty years ago the common puddle
duck, weighing three to four pounds, was the best this country
produced, we now have the Imperial Pekin, weighing ten pounds
to the pair at ten weeks old, and ten to fourteen pounds each as

- adults, and have numerous “ranchers” who produce from five

to sixty thousand ducks annually and find for them a ready
and profitable market; where three or four decades ago a flock
of one hundred or more hens was a curiosity and the egg basket
was seldom larger than a man’s hat, we now have egg farms
that each carry from one to ten thousand laying hens, and the
eggs are gathered in bushel baskets, five to twenty baskets be-
ing required to gather the average daily yield, and where only
a few years ago broilers, squab broilers, roasters, winter chick-
ens and capons were strange words, because seldom used, they
are now common expressions, while tons upon tons of expertly
produced poultry meat are consumed daily, and we have made
only » fair start. ;

The fancier, first and last, despite his “fuss and feathers,”
has been our good friend. What we have wanted, and asked
for, he has supplied. We asked for a “general purpose” fowl,
and he gave us the Plymouth Rocks. We asked for more eggs,
and he gave us the ‘‘200 eggs per year hen” of several varieties.
We asked for better squab-broilers, broilers and roasters, and
he gave us the Wyandotte. We asked for more meat and this
demand was soon supplied by increasing the weights of the Asia-
ties, by deepening the keels of Pekin ducks and by the produc-
tion of Mammoth Bronze turkeys and Toulouse geese that tip
the scale at twenty to forty pounds each.

We have endeavored in this work to provide the most re-
liable information to date for the guidance of persons who wish
to use from one to one hundred incubators and from one or two
brooders to the brooding and raising of thousands of chicks and
ducklings by artificial means. The contributors are noted
poultrymen and women—men and women who write from prac-
tical, successful experience. Each may select the method best
suited to his circumstances, feeling confident that close atten-

* tion to details and strict guard kept on expenses will bring

success.
Quincy, Ill, April 1, 1906.

EDITOR.

ANCIENT ARTIFICIAL INCUBATING

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EGYPTIAN

T IS quite generally known that the hatching and
raising of chickens by artificial means was first
practiced in Egypt. The fact now develops that
artificial incubating and brooding is still exten-
sively practiced in Egypt. Some time ago Mr.
F. W. Judd, of Michigan, wrote to the United
States Consul at Cairo, Egypt, asking for infor-

mation on the subject of artificial incubation in that country
to date. In due time he received through the foreign or consu-
lar department at Washington a lengthy and carefully prepared
report, accompanied by three drawings, outlining the ground
plan of a present-day Egyptian incubatory and two sectional
views of same, showing the interior construction and arrange-
ment.

From this report we learn that the Egyptian hen, in many,
many cases, has abandoned the work of sitting on eggs for pur-
poses of incubation. In other words, her instinct to do this
has become extinct in a majority of cases. If we want a hen to
lay eggs and do nothing else for a living, she will accommodate
herself to our wishes. Not only has she shown this disposition
in Egypt and China, but in this country as well. About four
years ago Mr. Redkey, of Ohio, who used incubators exclusively
during eight years only, reported that he noticed a decided fall-
ing off in the broodiness of the sixth, seventh and eighth gene-
rations of hens produced in this manner. Possibly he was mis-
taken, probably not. Since then a number of prominent poul-
trymen have come to the same conclusion, that the tendency to
broodiness can be bred out of a strain. Following are the semi-
official report and drawings, presented under copyright, all
rights being reserved:

REPORT OF THE U. §. CONSUL AT CAIRO

The artificial hatching of eggs has been so long practiced
in Egypt that the hens have completely abandoned that part
of their work to man. It is a regular industry and the professors

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INCUBATORS

SEMI-OFFICIAL REPORT OF THE UNITED STATES CONSUL AT CAIRO, EGYPT,

SETTING FORTH INTERESTING AND SURPRISING FACTS REGARDING THE

STATE OF ARTIFICIAL INCUBATING AND BROODING AS PRACTICED AT THE
PRESENT DAY IN THE COUNTRY OF THE NILE

10

form a very close corporation, handing down their secrets from
father to son. For three months of the year their time is com-
pletely absorbed by constant attention at the incubatories.

Although very successful in the work, they never attempt
the hatching except during the months of February, March
and April. The minimum temperature in Egypt is reached on
the 20th of January; after this it steadily rises, and by Easter
the hot weather may be expected. This makes the process
difficult and the ovens are therefore closed for the year.

The population of Egypt is very dense, about 700 per
square mile. This agglomeration fosters the use of large in-
cubatories, turning out each one from 300,000 to 600,000 chicks
each season. In some villages there are from three to five of
these establishments. They are generally near to some import-
ant market place, and each one apparently in the center of a
district of about 50,000 population. That is, each one is the cen-
ter of a circle having 4 radius of five miles. It is this density
of the population that has allowed this system of artificial
hatching to become so very successful. At the same time it
must be remembered that there is no other, as the native hen
never sits on her eggs.

Another important point is that the hatchers do not at-
tempt to rear the young broods. Forty-eight hours after the
chicks emerge from the shell they are scattered over the coun-
try; overcrowding is thus prevented. This distribution is ef-
fected in a very simple manner. As the incubator is near a
market place, word is sent there that on such a day there will
be so many young chicks. This news is quickly disseminated
among the villages, and on the appointed day the women ar-
rive with their cages and purchase the young chicks, which are
generally sold by the hundred for about $1.50 per hundred.
There are also a number of brokers or dealers who take the young
chicks to the more distant villages. For this they have cages
made from palm branches. They are divided into two stories,
each of which is divided by a partition, so that the smaller divi-

ANCIENT ARTIFICIAL INCUBATING

sion only contains about 250 chicks, thus preventing over-
crowding. Two such cages will transport each 1,000 young
birds, so that a man with a donkey easily manages 2,000 of
them, and by nightfall has probably sold the entire lot at a dis-
tance of five or six miles from the establishment.

Once in the village the chicks become the property of the
women, who take great care of them during the first week.
For two or three days they are kept in cages in lots of twenty
or thirty and fed on broken grains slightly moistened. At
night the cages are taken into the houses and sometimes cover-
ed with a bit of cloth. After these first few days the young birds
are strong enough to forage for a living; they are then allowed
to roam about freely and at night are kept in a sort of oven
placed in a corner of the courtyard. This oven is made of un-
burnt clay and in shape is like the letter U laid on
one side—see drawing. The top is slightly perfor-
ated. The entrance is closed by a heavy stone to

ovens. For this particular incubatory the attendants consist
of two men and a boy. ~

In the month of January, about the 10th, fires are lighted
in all the ovens and on the floor of the central hall. The en-
tire building is thoroughly warmed to a temperature of 110 de-
grees Fahrenheit. This heat is continued for three weeks,
when the temperature is allowed to fall to 100 degrees Fah-
renheit.

The fires are at first composed of gelleh or dried cow dung,
but when the eggs are placed in the oven coarse broken straw,
mostly the joints, and sheep or goat dung is used. The fuel
is placed in the trough between the hall and the ridge, and is
lighted at one or more places, according to the degrees of heat
required. This is the only means of regulating the heat. Ther-

ere

keep off foxes and other vermin. EZ

When the young chicks are fairly feathered
they are plucked perfectly clean and _ slightly
greased. This adds greatly to their health, but A

detracts much from their beauty. It strikes a “Vay Et {---€

stranger as something extremely novel to see
hundreds of perfectly naked chickens basking in
the sun or running about.

It is difficult to get any exact figures as to
the number of these incubatories, but judging
from those personally known to me, and their
distances apart, I should estimate the number at
150, with an average production of 300 000 per sea-
son. This estimate must be well within the mark,

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as the population of Egypt is nearly 7,000,000
and fowls form a very large part of the Egyptian

diet, so that 45,000,000 eatable fowls would be
a short supply.

The ordinary form of the incubatories is an
oblong 100 feet in length by 60 feet in width, the
height varying from 12 to 15 feet. Ill. 1, though

not drawn exactly to scale, shows the general

arrangements. The outer chamber A is divided
into three rooms, the middle one masking the en-
trance to the ovens and thus excluding the outer
air, The door leading from A into the central hall
is very small. B represents the ovens of the upper
tier. C is the man-hole; the attendant stands in this
and manipulates the eggs. DD are spaces in the
central hall for the reception of the young chicks,
These spaces are marked off by ridges of dried
mud about 9 inches in height. Fig. 3 is a door
giving access to the interior of the oven. Around
the walls and parallel to it runs a raised ridge 6
inches in height; between this,and the wall the fires
are lighted. In the top of the dome is a small
aperture about 2 inches square for the exit of smoke and reg-
ulating the heat.

The outer wall, 4 feet thick, is generally built of sundried
bricks, the mortar simply mud. The space contained within
the walls is divided as shown in Fig. 1. The circular ovens
are built up and the spaces between them and the wall filled
in with brick and mortar, the same as the outer wall. Each
set of ovens, the upper and lower, is perfectly independent and
is covered by a dome having’a very small aperture in the
crown.

Fig. 2 represents the elevation on the line A B of Fig. 1. The
height of the lower oven is 4 feet, that of the upper one 9 feet.
The interior diameter between the ridges D D is 15 feet.

Fig.3 represents the elevation on the line C D of Fig. 1, and
shows the disposition of the central wall and. is doors of the

hatched.
wise.

Fig. I—Ground plan.
C C, manholes admitting attendants to upper tier.
A A A, upper chamber to ovens.
Fig. 111—Sectional view lengthwise—same lettering as for Fig. II.

1—PLANS OF EGYPTIAN INCUBATORY

A A A, rooms masking entrance to incubatory. B B B, ovens where eggs are
DD, hallway. Fig. II—Sectional view length-
BBB, lower chambers. CCC, manholes. D D, fire spaces.

mometers are not used. The attendants endeavor to keep
the heat a trifle greater than that of their own skin.

While the oven is being warmed, notice is sent out to the
villages that the establishment will purchase eggs on such a
date. The country people arrive with large crates containing
from 1000 to 2000. These are purchased outright by the
establishment at the rate of $4 per 1,000.

The floor of the oven is covered with a coarse mat made
of palm leaves; on this a little bran is sprinkled to prevent
the eggs from rolling. The attendant changes the position
of the eggs twice a day, taking those from near the manhole
and placing them on the outer edge of the circle, and vice versa.
At the end of six days the eggs are held up one by one towards
a strong light. If they appear clear and of a uniform color,
it is evident that they have not succeeded; but if they show an

11

ARTIFICIAL INCUBATING AND BROODING

opaque substance within, or the appearance of different shades,
the chickens are already formed. The bad eggs are removed
and the others are continued in their places for four days; at
the expiration of this time they are again examined and put
back into their places, the same continual shifting from the
inner to the outer part of the circle being observed. The doors
of the ovens are kept hermetically closed by a small plank well
caulked. This is removed in the forenoon and afternoon and
once during the night to see that the heat is kept at the proper
point.

After the eggs have been fifteen days in the ovens they are
daily examined, and so delicate is the touch of the attendant
that he can at once distinguish if the egg is alive by the fact
that it should be slightly warmer than his own skin.

At the expiration of twenty-one days the chicks com-
mence to emerge from the shells, the attendants constantly
aiding them. They are placed in the spaces D D, Ill. 1, and
left to dry for nearly forty-eight hours, but they are not fed.
The sale then commences and in a few hours they are spirited
away. The temperature in the central hall is maintained at
98 F., and that of the ovens slightly more

ADDITIONAL FACTS

“The Egyptian incubatory of to-day is but a reproduction of
the one of thousands of years ago. In all these years the Egyp-
tian breed of chickens has not changed, and the manner of re-
production has remained immutable. Not long since I secured
the metal stamp of a chicken, deposited in a tomb over two
thousand years ago, and it is a perfect type of the Egyptian
fowl of to-day, and when this stamp was struck, artificial in-
cubation was a thing of actual existence in Egypt.

“Not only are the eggs put through the process of incu-
bation more cheaply here than anywhere else in the world, but
chicks are reared at an expense past comprehension, while
disease and natural death among fowls, because of tireless care
are almost unknown. One man and a boy are the sole attend-
ants of the incubatory I explored * * Think of 234,000
chicks owing life alone to the tender care, in three months’
time, of an old man with most defective eyesight and a 16-year
old boy, and some conception may be had of the economies of
this Egyptian industry.”—U. S. Consul General Cardwell, Sci-
entific Am. Supplement. No. 29, 1890.

THE EGG AND ITS GERM

A PRACTICAL STUDY OF EGGS

A NON-TECHNICAL PRESENTATION OF THE FORMATION AND PRODUCTION
OF EGGS—THE CAUSE OF DOUBLE-YOLKED, SOFT-SHELL EGGS AND CROOK-
ED EGGS, ONE EGG WITHIN ANOTHER, ROTTEN NEW-LAID EGGS, ETC.

G. BRADSHAW

LTHOUGH eggs are a common article of food
there is not a general knowledge amongst poul-
trymen as to their formation. The shell or
envelope .is white or colored according to the
breed which produces it, and is composed of
carbonate of lime, phosphate of lime, and animal
gluten; salts of lime causing the particles to ad-
here. Soft eggs are either eggs without a shell,

or the shell may be so thin as to feel soft through the deficiency
of salts of lime. It is a matter of surprise where a hen finds
all the lime necessary, for if she lays 150 normal sized eggs in
the year she will have produced two pounds of pure carbonate
of lime.

HENS ARE WONDERFUL CHALK MAKERS

Mr. P. L. Simmonds F. L. Z., on this subject in the Journal
of the Society of Arts, says:—If a farmer has a flock of 100
hens, they produce in egg shells about 137 pounds of chalk an-
nually, and yet not a pound of the substance, or perhaps not
even an ounce may be found on the farm. The materials for
the manufacture are found in the food consumed, and in sand,
pebbles, brickdust, pieces of bone, etc., which hens and other
birds are continually picking from the earth. Their instinct
is keen for these apparently innutritious and refractory sub-
stances, and they are devoured with as eager a relish as the
cereal grains or insects.”

If hens are confined to barns or outbuildings, it is obvious
that the’egg-producing machinery cannot be kept long in action,
unless materials for the shell are supplied in ample abundance.
If fowls are confined in a room and fed with any of the cereal
grains, excluding all sand, dust or earthy matter, they will go
on for a time, and lay eggs, each one having a perfect shell made
up of the same calcareous elements.

THE SHELL IS A “SIEVE”

The shell is porous to such an extent that when examined

13

by a microscope it has quite a sieve-like appearance, and is
permeable by the air, otherwise the chicken could not live dur-
ing the incubating period.

This porosity of the shell, although absolutely necessary
when the eggs are to be incubated, is detrimental when such
have to be used as an article of food from the fact that by means
of these minute perforations there is a continual evaporation,
so that from the time the eggs are laid until consumed there is
a wasting and deterioration of the contents, the extent of which
is dependent on the temperature and other conditions under
which they are kept, it being very well known that eggs deter-
iorate much quicker in summer than in winter.

FORMATION AND PRODUCTION OF AN EGG

Anyone, upon opening after death the body of a hen, will
find a cluster of eggs in formation much like a bunch of grapes,
and called the ovarium (see illustration.) These, however,
are but rudimentary eggs, and I have counted as many as sev-
enty in one bunch, and are in size from a pin’s head to the full-
sized yolk of an egg. Each of the eggs is contained within a
thin transparent sac and attached by a narrow pipe or stem to
the ovary, and during the laying period of the hen these eggs
are maturing and thus keeping up the supply which she lays.

These rudimentary eggs have neither shell nor white, con-
sisting wholly of yolk, on which floats the germ of the future
chicken; and as they become larger and larger they arrive at
a certain stage when, by their own volition, weight, or other
cause, they become individually detached from the bunch and
fall into a sort of funnel leading into a pipe or passage called
the oviduct—this organ in the hen being from 22 to 26 inches
long.

THE COATING OF ALBUMEN

During the passage of this egg or ovum to the outer world
it becomes coated with successive layers of albumen—the
white—which is secreted from the blood-vessels of the oviduct

ARTIFICIAL INCUBATING AND BROODING

in the form of a thick glairy fluid, and is prevented from mixing
with the yolk by the membrane or sac which surrounded it be-
fore it became detached from the cluster. It is also strength-
ened by a second and stronger membrane, formed around the
first immediately after falling into the funnel, and having what
is like two twisted cords of a more dense albuminous character,
called by anatomists chalazes which pass quite through the
white at the ends, and being, as it were, embedded therein, thus
preventing the yolk and germ from rolling about when the egg

ing duplicated as well as the yolk. Should these yolks be fer-
tilized and the egg hatch, we get the occasional four-legged
or other chicken tuonstrosities.

SOFT-SHELLED EGGS

A further result of stimulating food is varied from the above
when the ova mature in excess of one a day. In place of fall-
ing into the passage in pairs, as above, the two drop in sepa-
rately but on the same day. This results in soft eggs, not from

2—OVARY AND OVIDUCT OF A HEN

is moved, and serving to keep the germ uppermost, so that it
may best receive the heat imparted during incubation.

THE AIR CHAMBER

It is during the passage of the egg through the lower part
of the oviduct that it gets covered with the two skins which
are found inside the shell. These, although lying close around
the egg, at the thick end become separate, and form what is
called the air-bubble or chamber. This, in newly-laid eggs, is
a mere speck, and is that portion which shows the result of the
evaporation previously referred to. This speck of air space
becomes daily larger as the egg gets older, and is frequently
equal to one-fourth of the entire egg. This egg-chamber, if
perforated with the finest needle will prevent the egg hatching.

_ When the egg has advanced more than half-way down the
oviduct, it is still destitute of shell, which begins to be formed
by a process of secretion, and when about completed the various
shades of brown and tinted coloring matter are imparted in
those breeds in which colored eggs are peculiar; sometimes in
very brown eggs white spots appear, but which can readily be
rubbed off. When the shell and coloring are complete the egg
continues to advance along the oviduct till the hen goes to the
nest and lays it.

THE RESULTS OF TOO STIMULATING OR EXCESSIVE FOOD

Eggs are produced from the surplus food, which is that
over and above what is required for the sustenance of the hen,
and, if such is too stimulating, or given in excessive quantities,
the result is that in the former case the ova are produced so
rapidly that sometimes two of them drop into the oviduct togeth-
er, which results in the eccentricities which frequently puzzle the
poultry keeper. These ova travel together along the pas-
sage and receive the white separately, but become enveloped
in one shell, and when laid are commonly known as a double-
yolked egg, but more properly it is a double egg, the white be-

1+

the want of shell-forming material, but rather because the shells
cannot be formed as fast as the mature egg is ready for such
covering.

CROOKED EGGS

Crooked eggs
are no uncommon
thing in the poultry
yard, and are at-
tributable as fol-
lows: Twenty-four
hours are usually
sufficient for the
formation of a per-
fect shell, but when
by stimulation a
second ovum falls
close on its prede-
cessor, reaching it
before laid, the sec-
ond egg, which is up
to this time soft and
is lying against the
hard one, becomes
covered with a shell,
and when laid pre-
sents a flat or crook-
ed side the result of
its position against
the hard one.

3—DEFORMED EGGS

1—"'Marble-sized” eggs containing albumen and shell,
but no yolk.

2—Crooked egg.

3—Two eggs with an imperfect shell.

4—Double-yolked eggs.

ONE EGG WITHIN ANOTHER—"'MARBLE-SIZED” EGGS

To over-feeding is also attributable the further irregularity
of one perfect egg being found within another, and caused by
irritation of the oviduct, which contracting in front of the per

THE

fectly-formed egg instead of
behind it, forces it back until it
meets another yolk, when the
two join and again become coat-
ed with the white and the shell,
thus producing another wonder.
Other abnormalities are occa-
sionally seen, and particularly in
the smaller poultry yards. Some-
times when the ova are nearly
exhausted by continuous laying,
the secreting organs may be
most active, which results in
small marble-sized but perfect-
looking eggs, which are merely
a shell covering a portion of al-
bumen. Such ‘“eggs’’ when laid
have the peculiarity of never
having been at any stage at-
tached to theJovary, but are a
product only of the oviduct.

ROTTEN NEW-LAID EGGS

To the internal fatness of
the hen are due other eccentri-
cities than those mentioned, in-
cluding the apparently parad-
oxical feat of laying rotten new-
laid eggs, this being a not in-
frequent occurrence. The egg,
being unable to force its way
through the fatty oviduct, is
retained two or three days near
tye mouth of this organ, and, if :
a fertilized one, the heat of the hen’s body tends to putrify it,
and when ultimately laid it is in an addled condition. To
other causes, but principally diseased organs, is due a depar-
ture from the normal in the way of color. A\hen which lays
white or brown eggs, on rare occasions produces one almost
black, while at other times these vagaries much resemble the
dark green of the emu’s eggs, and, in most instances, the
shells are rough, wavy, corrugated, or otherwise irregular.
Then there are instances of foreign matter being found in eggs,

EGG AND ITS GERM

4—HAPPY MOMENTS FOR THE LEGHORNS

clots of blood being nothing unusual. This is the result of the
breaking of a blood-vessel internally, and, again, possibly the
effect of over feeding.

FOWLS PRODUCING FAULTY EGGS SHOULD BE DISCARDED

Fowls from whatever cause producing any of the above
misshapen or otherwise faulty eggs should at once be
disposed of, for although in some cases a reduced diet may

bring them back to their nor-

mal production, still the slightest
cause will frequently prompt
the organs to their previous
irregularities, the fowls thus
becoming unprofitable members
of the flock. As has been seen
the majority of troubles men-
tioned are preventable ones, and
largely due to the poultry keepers’
mistaken kindness in over feed-
ing, but there are other ills of a
more serious nature than those
mentioned. The producing organs
are of a most delicate nature,
and, from the amount of work
they have to do, are not only
easily disarranged but are subject
to a variety of diseases, the nature

5—THE LIFE THAT GIVES VIGOR

15

of many of them being unknown
‘to the ordinary poultry keeper.

THE BREEDING STOCK

NECESSITY OF CAREFUL SELECTION—BREEDERS SHOULD BE SOUND, VIGOROUS AND
WELL MATURED—PRACTICAL POINTS ON MATING, FOOD, CARE AND MANAGE-
MENT OF BREEDING STOCK—HAVE FERTILE EGGS—HOW TO DETECT STERILITY

Re T. WOODS, M. D.

HERE are few poultrymen who recognize the great
importance of the condition of the breeding
stock from which the eggs for incubation are
taken andits relation to their success or failure.
The breeding stock is the foundation of the busi-
ness, the life of your undertaking and the
source of all the eggs which you intend shall
produce chickens. Unless the breeding birds are

sound, healthy and in the best possible condition for the

reproduction of their kind, satisfactory results cannot be
obtained. Eggs from well-fed, sound parent stock will
hatch strong, sturdy chicks, even under what are consid-
ered quite unfavorable conditions. Eggs from birds out
of condition, either from inbreeding, unsanitary surround-
ings, improper food, sickness or other causes, will never
produce chicks that are worth the trouble it takes to hatch and
rear them. When chicks die in the shell, are slow to hatch, or
die off in large numbers within ten days after hatching, do not
blame the incubator or brooder. First investigate carefully
the condition of the breeding stock and the care, housing and
food they receive. Nine times out of ten you will find that there
is where the trouble lies. Breed for health if you wish to have
and produce healthy chicks. Feed, house and care for health
if you would keep your stock healthy. Remember that the
eggs are the seed from which you expect to produce and grow
your crop of chicks; you cannot get good wheat from poor seed.

It takes generations of careful seléction to produce the best.

Even then poor care and careless management may spoil it all.

It is just the same with chickens whether you use artificial or

natural methods. To be successful you must start right; get

a solid, lasting foundation.

Breed for the health of future generations by beginning
now to select your breeders for soundness, vigor—in a word—
Health. Keep them healthy by good food, good care and good
management. Do not sow poor seed.

THE SELECTION OF THE BREEDING MALE

From the breeders standpoint the male bird is practically
one-half of the breeding pen, i. e., you depend on him to fertil-
ize the eggs laid by all the hens with which he is mated. For
this reason whatever else you do, you cannot afford to be care-
less or indifferent in your selection of the cock or cockerel that
is to head the pen. Furthermore, he must be carefully watched
to see that he is capable of performing the duty to which he
is assigned. Any laxness in this particular is fatal to good
results.

Aside from being a typical standard specimen of the vari-
ety which he represents, he should also typify perfect health
and soundness. Inferior or unhealthy male birds have no place
whatever in the breeding pen. Never breed from « bird that
has had or has apparently recovered from any serious sick-
ness. In selecting a male bird for the head of a breeding pen,
choose one that is well proportioned, of good size and well
matured; broad, smooth backed; tail well spread at base of A
(don’t breed a ‘‘pinched tail”); full, deep chested; stout, strong
legs and thighs set well apart, good carriage and symmetry;
well-formed comb and wattles, neither too large nor too small,
of a bright, healthy red; keen, sharp, bright eyes; a well-shaped,

16

stout beak of medium length, the whole head being perfectly
proportioned to the body and carried in a manner that gives
the birds an alert, active, business-like appearance. He should
be in the best possible condition and capable of taking his place
as head of the pen and holding it against all comers. Aggres-
siveness in the male bird is a desirable quality. “(Hen-feather-
ed” males with an effeminate disposition have no place in the
breeding pen. :

DISQUALIFICATIONS IN THE BREEDING MALE

Do not breed from any bird, no matter how perfect a stand-
ard specimen he may seem to be, if he shows the following symp- |
toms indicating that he is physically unsound:

Shortness of breath on running or jumping; blueness or
dark color of comb, face and wattles after chasing a hen or
attempting service; pale face and comb; rattling in throat;
canker of throat or mouth that does not yield promptly to treat-
ment; putrid discharge from nostrils; foul discharge from vent;
vertigo; violent shaking of the head with tendency to step back-
ward or to one side; staggering or wobbling gait; jerking walk
like “spring halt’; paralysis of any kind; emaciated, debili-
tated condition; leg weakness; foot, hock or wing ulcers or ab-
scesses; deformities of any kind or any other symptom of a dis-
eased condition, Examine the mouth and throat carefully
and discard the bird if the mucous membrane appears unhealthy.
Note carefully the condition of the legs, (Scaly leg can be
easily cured, but it should be done before the bird is placed in
the breeding pen, for the disease is contagious). If the legs
feel hot and dry, look closely for other symptons of disease.
Hot feet and legs mean that something is wrong with the bird.
It is a sure sign.

Breeding from an unhealthy male is sure to result in dis-
appointment; either he will not fertilize the eggs at all or you
will get weak germs. Weak germs are the cause of chicks dy-
ing at all stages of developement during incubation and for
several days after hatching. Also there is always the possibil-
ity and probability that chicks from such source, if they live,
will inherit some tendency to disease, which will result in direct
losses or indirect ones by continuance of the inheritance of an
unsound constitution in the progeny, that years of careful
breeding, later, will find it difficult to uproot.

CARE OF THE BREEDING MALE

When you get a sound healthy male bird try to keep him
in good condition. If he is as gallant and attentive as he should
be during the breeding season, he may easily get out of condition.
Avoid this by removing him from the flock occasionally and
feeding a few tid-bits of fresh meat (cooked or uncooked) fresh
green food and a mixture of hard grains. You will run no risk
by keeping him for a day or two in a comfortable coop apart
from the flock where he cannot see or hear the hens, and it may
save him from wasting his energies in useless services. This
is important for an active, attentive male, when running with
his flock, often does not eat a sufficient amount of food to keep
himself in the best condition. A little attention given to sup-
plying him with occasional meals away from his harem will
be well repaid in the results gained thereby. Keeping the male
bird with the hens‘will not insure strongly fertile eggs unless

THE

EGG AND

ITS GERM

ing pen. It is almost cer-
tain to induce disease of
the generative organs and
subsequently sterility.

SELECTION OF FEMALE BREEDERS

The female breeders
should be selected with as.
great care as the male bird.
Health and sound bodily
vigor should be the first.
consideration; size and
shape the next, and then
other standard - requisites.
Bear in mind that the size
and shape of the female
governs to a large extent
the size and shape of the
progeny. Choose well-grown
well-matured, sound
healthy specimens that have
never been seriously sick.
Prolific layers are more prone
to lay infertile eggs than or-
dinary layers, chiefly because

- of the great number of eggs
they produce and subsequent.
inattention on the part of
the male. This may be over-
come by giving the male a
smaller flock of mates or by

6—WHITE WYANDOTTES IN 4 HARVEST FIELD

he is well cared for and in good breeding condition. Too many
people overlook this matter or fail to consider its importance.
Do not pen him up with other males—it leads to bad habits
and is more injurious than continuous running with a flock of
hens. Do not keep him away from the hens too long; a few
days each month is sufficient, except while molting, when he
will be better if kept in a coop by himself, where he can have
a small outdoor run.
THE GROWING COCKEREL

Mr. A. J. Silverstein, who gave much attention to pedigree
breeding and the proper conditions for growing breeders, once
told the writer that he was convinced that while it is a good
thing to keep the growing pullets away from the cockerels, it
is not a good thing to bring up young males in the same man-
ner. He recommended that males intended for breeders be so
far as possible brought up in company with a few good, healthy
hens, claiming that they thus become accustomed to the com-
panionship of the opposite sex and better fitted for the work
for which they are intended; that they were more satisfactorily
attentive, less brutal, when so raised and also that they were
less liable to “‘go to pieces” when placed in the breeding pen.
There is much truth in this assertion. The writer, from actual
experience extending over « number of breeding seasons, is
convinced that the monastic method of bringing up a herd of
cockerels together in one flock without female society is certain
to result in the permanent injury to some of the most promis-
ing specimens as well as unfitting a number of others for use-
ful work in the breeding pen. It is much better to permit them
to run with the pullets and risk possible injury to the latter.
The best plan is to turn a number of the most promising cock-
erels out on a good farm range with‘a flock of hens and let the
best birds win.

Do not attempt raising a large number of celibate cockerels”

in one flock if you wish to avoid disappointment in the breed-

17

introducing a fresh male bird
as an alternate.

An individual egg record
kept with the aid of trap nests
will aid the discovery of sterile hens so that they may be re-
moved from the flock. The leading authorities agree that there
is no egg type that indicates prolificacy. The trap nest and in-
dividual egg and hatching record are the only means of deter-
mining which hens pay.

Unhealthy hens should have no place in the breeding pen.
Any symptons of disease including all those mentioned as dis-
qualifying male breeders apply with equal force to the selection
of the female breeding birds. In addition to these no female
should be used that habitually lays misshapen or deformed
eggs, or eggs containing blood clots. Hens broken down be-
hind, or those having abdominal tumors causing the abdomen
to drag on the ground should also be barred from the breeding
pen.

MATING

In mating the breeding pens, avoid, as far as possible, hav -
ing the same faults in both males and females, as thereby there
is more liability of the tendency or predisposition to have these
faults being transmitted to the progeny. As a rule the best
results in hatchable eggs will be obtained by mating well matur-
ed cockerels with yearling or two-year old hens; or yearling
or two-year-old cocks with well-grown, fully matured pullets.
Under these conditions there is no occasion to worry about
pullet eggs producing weak or imperfect chicks, always pro-
vided that the parent stock is sound, vigorous and healthy.
As a rule medium sized birds for the variety make the most
satisfactory breeders.

Do not (unless in exceptional cases where the specimen is
sufficiently valuable to take the risk of possible failure) use
breeders of either sex older than two-year-olds—that is, birds
older than about thirty months at the beginning of the breed-
ing season.

Right here it will be well to differentiate the terms applied
to breeding birds, both male and female. A pullet is usually

ARTIFICIAL

7—RHODE ISLAND RED BREEDERS

spoken of as such until she has passed through one year of laying
(her pullet year) or until she is about eighteen months old, when
she becomes w yearling hen, which term applies until she has
passed her second year as a layer and becomes a two-year-old
hen. A cockerel remains such until he has passed his cockerel
year or until about eighteen months old—assuming that he be-
gan developing his adult plumage by the time he was six months
old. He is then considered as a yearling cock until the close of
the second breeding season after he reached maturity, when he
is rated as a two-year-old. These terms are used in this sense
only when applied to breeding birds.

NUMBER OF FEMALES TO A MALE

The number of females which may be mated with a cock or
cockerel depends largely on existing conditions. Commonly ten
females is considered a sufficient number for a cock and fifteen
for a cockerel. This rule has many exceptions. Some males are
not fit to care for more than five or six females, while others
can prove themselves capable of attending to fifty throughout
a breeding season. . A male that in confinement could only care
for ten to fifteen will often easily serve thirty hens satisfactorily
when given free range.

The number of hens a male should have also depends largely
on how many are laying and how recently they began to lay.

This will be discussed further in another paragraph.

FECUNDITY VS. STERILITY

It is often stated that the prolific hen after laying a
considerable number of eggs is prone to become sterile or
that a large number of her eggs come infertile. Without
doubt this is a fact, yet the fault does not necessarily lie with
the hen. ;

In fact, it may easily be proved that it is no fault of the
hen by giving her a new mate, when the eggs will usually
again run high in fertility.

The matter is readily explained by the fact (easiiy ob-
served but hitherto mentioned by but few writers; Mr. E.
Cook, author of “Incubation,” published in England, was
among the first to mention it) that the male when intro-
duced into a flock of hens is soon surrounded by the layers
and those about to lay and that he is particularly attentive
to those near laying or lately become productive, while those
hens which have been laying some time or which are unpro-
ductive are more or less neglected.

Failure to serve these prolific

mates sufficiently

INCUBATING AND BROODING

often, and the fact that the male has his favorites among
the hens, is in a large measure the cause of infertile eggs
from these members of the flock. Again with the prolific
layer, there being a greater number of eggs laid, it is but
reasonable to expect that more eggs will escape impregna-
tion. Where the service is frequent, eggs which escape
fertilization in the first service may become fertilized by
the second or any succeeding service.

This explains why it is possible for a hen to lay eggs
that produce chicks having the characteristics of more than
one sire, although one of the parent males has been intro-
duced to the flock but a short time. ‘For example, if cock 1
has served the hen at the beginning of her lay and cock 2
be then introduced for service, his seed may impregnate eggs
which escaped the service of 1; so that while eggs in both
the first and last litter may produce chicks from cock 1, a
number of intermediate eggs may produce chicks having
cock 2 for a parent.

A male bird given all the females he can attend to
during his first season, will often wear himself out and
become practically sterile and useless as a breeder the fol-
lowing year.

Mating up the pens in the fall and permitting the birds to
tun together throughout the year is also in many cases respon-

sible for the low fertility of the eggs from that pen. The cock
bird needs intervals of rest, but should not be kept from his mates
sufficiently long to become morose and indifferent. Extremes in
either respect produce unsatisfactory results. It is not reason-
able to expect a male that has been running with the flock
throughout a long season to possess strong fecundity unless he
has received especial care and attention in both food and rest,
as recommended in advice for care of male bird.

THE SERVICE

After the introduction of a male to a flock, it is possible to
obtain eggs in a few days that will hatch chicks of his get,
though if another male has preceded him it may be two weeks
(possibly longer) before all the eggs laid can be safely credited
as fertilized by the male last introduced.

How long after service impregnation takes place is not pos-
itively known, though it is probable that it may be accomplished
in from sixteen to twenty-four hours, but that under some con-
ditions a much longer time may elapse. The sperm of the male
is capable of living a considerable time in the oviduct, remaining
active with full power to impregnate any ripe ovum with whieh
it comes in contact. It has been established by many experi-
ments that one service will suffice for the majority of eggs laid
from the second day to two weeks immediately thereafter.

Some observers claim that one service is sufficient for one

8—PLENTY OF SHADE IS ESSENTIAL FOR SUCCESS

18

THE EGG AND ITS GERM

month, providing the hen was just starting a litter at the time
of service.

From this it follows that it is not necessary to waste the
strength of the male bird in useless service, Where the poultry-
man possesses an especially fine male from which he desires to
obtain the greatest possible number of chicks, the bird could
be made to care for a considerable flock of females by mating
him only with the layers or those about to lay; or by dividing the
layers into several flocks and permitting the male to run for a
few days twice a month with each flock, giving him brief intervals
of rest between. In fact, it is possible and quite practicable as
well to keep an exceptionally fine male “standing at stud” as
is common in breeding other domestic animals, and to bring the
females to him for service at regular intervals once every week
or two weeks; always endeavoring to have the hen served when
about to begin her lay.

TESTS OF STERILITY

There is only one way to test the fecundity of the male

bird and that is by mating him to several females and then

hatches are seldom as satisfactory since the germs are more
liable to be weak.

. Semi-confinement in large runs and roomy houses will give
good results if the fowls are well cared for. The quarters should
be kept in good sanitary condition and the ground of the runs
kept sweet by plowing and planting at regular intervals not
too far apart.

Close confinement in cramped quarters and small runs is
fatal to successful breeding. Exercise is essential to health and
the breeding stock must be kept busy if fertile eggs and strong
germs are wanted.

SUGGESTIONS AS TO HOUSING

Breeding birds should be comfortably housed, but this
does not mean that they nedd to be pampered or to have speci-
ally constructed poultry houses or buildings supplied with arti-
ficial heat. The men who are getting the best results in pro-
ducing eggs that hatch well in the winter season house their
birds in what are commonly spoken of as cold houses.
These are tight, well-made buildings either provided with

9—WHITE WYANDOTTE PULLETS RESTING ON A HOT SUMMER DAY

incubating their eggs. If the eggs do not show a good percent-
age strongly fertile, the male is useless as a breeder.

Sterile females can be located by means of trap nests and
individual egg records. If after incubating a number of eggs
from any hen a large percentage show infertile, try her with
another male and test the eggs again. If she still fails to pro-
duce fertile eggs in sufficient numbers to make her worth using,
discard her.

Hens with very long, downy fluff feathers (particularly
Cochins and Brahmas) will sometimes appear to be sterile, but
if the fluff is plucked or clipped so as not to interfere with ser-
vice, they usually prove to be all right and produce their share
of fertile eggs.

FREE RANGE VS. CONFINEMENT

Birds on free range, if otherwise well cared for, will pro-
duce a greater percentage of strongly fertile eggs than those
kept in confinement, other things being equal. The confined
birds may produce a considerable number of fertile eggs, but the

19

scratching sheds where the fowls can have a sheltered place to
exercise and are at the same time supplied with an abundance
of fresh air, or closed houses having windows or doors in the
front which are opened wide daily to admit a large volume of
fresh air and practically convert the house into an open shed.
In such buildings the birds keep in better health and are less
liable to colds than when confined in warm houses and houses
supplied with artificial heat.

In the matter of housing the safest plan is to provide com-
fortable, tight buildings, so arranged that they can be thorough-
ly aired and sunned daily while the birds are exercising. Keep
these buildings practically wide open throughout the day ex-
cept on very stormy days. In most localities there will be
very few days in winter when the house cannot be kept open for
a few hours during some portion of the day. Such houses
should always be closed at least an hour or two before dark
and remain tightly closed all night. Keep the houses clean and
in a sanitary condition. Filth and success are sworn enemies

ARTIFICIAL

INCUBATING AND BROODING

instinctively knows what it wants

and what its system craves and—
can be trusted to balance its own
food ration if given an opportu-—
nity. This should not be con-
strued to mean that the poultry-
man should entirely ignore the
chemical content of the foods he
supplies his flocks. The govern-
ment chemists supply us with am-
ple and authoritative information
as to the constituents of all the
foods available for poultry feeding.

We know that the grains like
wheat, barley, corn and oats are
well proportioned in regard to
protein, carbohydrates, fats and
mineral matter. We also know
that clover and alfalfa are rich in
protein and mineral matters, pos-

10—GETTING THE RIGHT START

and are never found on the same poultry plant. Care should
be taken not to overcrowd the poultry buildings and there
should not be more fowls in the pen than can find comfortable
roosting accommodation. As a rule it is a good plan to allow
about 10 square feet of floor space per breeding bird and not
to run more than 15 or 20 birds in a pen, according to the va-
riety. :

Bear in mind that exercise is of vital importance in keep-
ing the breeding birds in good condition and for this reason
they should receive a large proportion of their dry grain food
fed in deep litter. It is the active, busy, hustling hen who is
always scratching in litter and may be found at almost any time
buried tail deep, with straw flying in all directions, that pro-
duces the eggs that hatch best. Any good litter material may
be used, either straw, chaff, corn-stover or planer shavings, and
this should cover the floor of the breeding pens from 6 to 10 inches
deep. Leaves may be used, but they do not make as satisfac-
tory litter material as either straw or shav-
ings.

sess health giving properties and
supply the necessary bulky food
without which the digestive organs
of the fowl will not work properly. We also know that in
beef scraps and other meat food we have a product rich in
animal protein, differing in some not thoroughly understood
way from vegetable protein, and very essential to the life and
health of the fowl. If we know this we have little need to '
worry ourselves concerning the chemistry of foods, provided we
give the birds an opportunity to select what they need as
they require it.

Wheat, barley and corn are named because they are the
most desirable and most easily obtainable grains, as well as
the most economical. Oats, if of good quality, may be sub-
stituted where barley cannot be obtained, but are not nearly
as satisfactory. Barley and corn can be made to answer if
wheat is scarce and high. Heavy wheat bran is desirable for
use in dry or moist mashes. The coarse light bran contains
more fibre and is of less value. Clover or alfalfa is necessary
to afford roughage and supply a substitute for the anti-scor-

After the snow comes, breeding stock
should always be kept confined to poultry
houses until the weather becomes settled in
the spring. Dry earth floors, well littered,
are very satisfactory, but if there is: any
tendency of the earth floor to be damp or
wet, a wooden floor is more desirable. Do
not allow breeding birds to run on the snow
and ice or to eat frozen grass or weeds.

FOODS AND FEEDING

Given sound, healthy breeding stock,
well houged, the food and the manner of
feeding it plays a most important part in
the getting of fertile, hatchable eggs It is
not necessary for the breeder to trouble him-
self with regard to the chemical composition
of the grains or the nutritive ratio of the
food fed so long as he supplies his birds
with an abundance of good, wholesome food
in variety. It is much better to allow the
birds a reasonable opportunity to balance
their own ration than for a breeder to
attempt to prepare a scientifically bal-
anced food, the formula for which is based

largely on guess work, haphazard reading
and theory. The average healthy fowl

20

11—BLACK LANGSHAN CHICKS

THE EGG AND ITS GERM

butic and medicinal properties of fresh plant life. Breeders
who use clover or alfalfa freely and encourage their fowls to
eat it, get the best results in fertile eggs.

It is not possible to get strong, well fertilized, hatchable
eggs where birds are forced for egg production by feeding con-
centrated mash foods. Mash food fed too freely or, too often
will result in large watery eggs that will not hatch well. The
free use of moist mashes also tends to create more or less dis-
turbance of the digestive organs, resulting in looseness of the
bowels or some other evidence of lack of perfect condition.
This does not mean that mashes should not be fed to breeding
birds, but that rich mash food should never be pushed with a
view to getting the greatest possible egg production if the eggs
are intended for hatching purposes.

Highly concentrated mashes, containing quantities of beef
scrap or other meat food, should not be fed to breeding stock.
Any considerable amount of scrap or other meat food fed in
the grain mixture has a tendency to create digestive distur-

always a morning mash. Whatever time you select for feed-
ing mash, be sure to have it come at the same feeding time each
day. No matter what else you may neglect, do not fail to see
that your birds have regular meals or, if you dry feed, that they
are always supplied. Careless, or irregular feeding methods
are sure to upset the condition of the stock.

If the birds do not take kindly to the clover in the mash
at first use only a very small quantity and gradually work
it up as the fowls become accustomed to it. The other
feeding should be a mixture of hard dry grains fed in the
litter.

A good scratching grain mixture can be made of 30 pounds
each of wheat and barley, to 40 pounds of freshly cracked or
whole corn. Keep grit, oyster shell and dry, pure beef scrap
constantly before the birds in a grit box or food hopper. In
addition to this, whenever obtainable, hang cabbage in the pen
for the birds to work at, or split beets or mangel wurzels in halves
and nail them, cut surface outward to the studding of the

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bed ee eee ee eee

12—WELL VENTILATED HOUSES ARE INDISPENSIBLE

bances and it is the belief of the writer that nearly all of the
trouble which has been experienced by those who feed mash
foods is due to the’ use of meat and animal fats in the ground
grain, moist mash mixture.
A MOIST MASH RATION FOR BREEDING STOCK

Where it is desired to feed breeding stock according to the
moist mash method, the following will be found a desirable
plan for feeding: Scald a quantity of cut or mealed clover or
alfalfa, sufficient to form one fourth to one-half of the bulk of
the mash for your flock. Into this stir a mixture of equal parts
by measure of heavy bran and coarse corn meal or equal parts
by measure of corn and oat chop and heavy bran. Mix the
whole into a crumbly mash as dry as possible and feed either
morning, noon or night, according to the convenience of the
breeder. When fed at night this mash should be followed by
a feed of mixed hard grain. Adopt some regular plan of feeding
and stick to it. If you start with a morning mash, make it

poultry house, at a convenient height for the birds to pick at.
A GOOD DRY FOOD RATION FOR BREEDING STOCK

In the litter use dry grain scratching food consisting of
the same dry grain mixture mentioned above,:or made of 30
pounds coarse cracked or whole corn; 30 pounds wheat; 30
pounds barley; 7 pounds kaffir corn, and 3 pounds sunflower
seed. This should be scattered morning and night in deep litter
always keeping a sufficient amount of grain in the litter
so that the birds can find a kernel by scratching for it. Keep
dry, pure beef scrap constantly before the birds in one compart-
ment of the food hopper; keep the other compartment of the
food hopper filled with a dry grain mash mixture made as fol-
lows: 40 pounds of corn; 20 pounds of barley and 20 pounds
of wheat ground together to a medium coarse meal, add to this
20 pounds of heavy bran and mix thoroughly, dry. This
shouldbe fed dry from the food hopper, never moistened, and
should be always kept before the birds.

at

HATCHABLE EGGS

GETTING FERTILE EGGS—MERITS OF GREEN FOOD—SELECT THE EGGS—DEFINITE
RESULTS FOLLOW DEFINITE CONDITIONS—THE VALUE OF MEAT AND CUT BONE

A. F. HUNTER

8S THE hatching season approaches we shall do
well to consider how to get eggs that will pro-
duce strong, vigorous chicks. It is of little
advantage to hatch weak, puny chicks. They
linger along a week or two, then pine and die;
there is no satisfaction in hatching such chicks,
and yet, unfortunately, a great many such are
hatched. If the knowledge requisite to the
hatching of strong, vigorous chicks was more generally taught,
and lived up to, the*present chick mortality would be decidely
lessened, and our profits very much increased.

We use the above title, ‘“hatchable eggs,’’ and use it ad-
visedly, because thousands and thousands of eggs are put into
incubators or under hens which never ought to be used at all;
they will not hatch if incubated, or, if they do hatch, the chicks
produced will be too weak and puny to live long. The witty
“Autocrat of the Breakfast Table” was asked when the educa-
tion of a child should begin, and replied, ‘‘twenty years before
the child is born,” and we ought to begin to work for the good,
hatchable eggs at least a year before the eggs are produced.
This, of course, means selecting the birds for our future breed-
ing stock while they are still chicks; their strong, sturdy appear-
ance at that time plainly indicates strength and vigor of consti-
tution which will make them hardy and vigorous birds.

An excellent illustration of the great benefits of strength
and vigor in the breeding stock is seen in a letter from a Tenn-
essee poultryman from which we quote: ‘I give my incuba-
tor good attention and use only the best eggs, carefully tested
for good, even shells, and I always set two hens at the same time.
When I test out the infertile eggs I replace with live eggs from
under the hens, so that all the eggs left in the machine are strong-
ly fertile, and it is no wonder to me that I hatch nearly all of
them. From time to time I compare it precisely, so that when
hatching time comes the chicks hatch like popping corn. When
I take off a hatch I do not expect a single chick to die, and they
rarely ever do. If this sounds to you like bragging let it go at
that, but the statement is true, that from the last three hatches
I have made not a single chick has died. They have been
raised in brooders, in the dead of winter as well as at other sea-
sons of the year

“The suggestion that you make, that I have to incubate
5,000 eggs a month to market 2,000 broilers a month seems to
me, in the light of my own experience, simply preposterous.
You may be right, but give me such hens as IJ have, let me se-
lect the eggs, run the incubators and superintend the feeding
and care of the chicks, and I would not give any one ten cents
to guarantee me 4,000 broiler chicks from 5,000 eggs. I know
I should do better than that here in Tennessee. If this sounds
like foolishness to you, it must be because you have operated
in the north and raised your chicks in confinement. Mine have
large runs on blue grass and white clover from the time they
are two weeks old, the year around, and they inherit good con-
stitutions from parents raised in like manner, and they just
simply don’t die.”

There is a moral in that story. What a splendid example
of strength and vigor in the breeding stock, grown from chicks
that inherited strength and vigor from their parents. Note,
too, that the eggs are “only the best eggs, carefully tested for
good, even shells.” Far too many of us do not “select” the

yy

22

eggs from which the chicks are hatched, to say nothing of ‘‘se-
lecting” the hens that are to lay the eggs! If however, we are to
have generations of strong-constitutioned stock we must work
for it as does our Tennessee friend; we must build up the strength
and vigor by careful and persistent “selection” for these much
desired qualities.

SELECTING THE BREEDERS

In the winter is a good time to study the birds from which
we wish to select our next season’s breeders, picking out those
that are most active and vigorous, and that went to laying
promptly after getting through the molt. The eggs of hens are
of larger average size and the chicks hatched from hens’ eggs are
(as a rule) larger, stronger and more vigorous, and mature into
larger and better birds. Select breeders for their strength and
vigor and from birds that did the best laying in their pullet
year, then we will have accomplished the one step in the gen-
eral upbuilding of the strength and vigor of the whole flock.

Practical poultrymen of large experience agree that the
prime causes of lack of vigor in the chicks are inbreeding; breed-
ing from weak and debilitated stock and breeding from imma-
ture stock. It is easy to avoid all three of these causes of lack
of vigor in the chicks, and if we give our attention early to se-
lecting the birds from which we are to raise the following sea-
son’s chicks we shall start in with a great advantage.

RAISING THE BREEDING STOCK

Our future breeding birds should be brought up on free
range, where they can get plenty of fresh air and exercise and
have plenty of shade when they want it, and should be fed a
ration which will produce flesh rather than fat so that they grow
strong, muscular, hardy, and have much reserve strength.
This stock after being brought into the houses for the winter
should have plenty of fresh air and abundant exercise. To at-
tain these things the curtained front scratching shed house is
desirable and they should be compelled to work and scratch
for every kernel of grain they eat. Scratching and searching
quickens the circulation and promotes digestion; in other words,
it promotes and preserves good health; and such birds, fed a
well-balanced ration, and breathing sweet, pure, fresh air, will
produce good, sound eggs, eggs with firm yolks and whites of
the right constituency and with sound, strong shells, and when
put in an incubator or under hens, with the hatching conditions
right the chicks will come out “like popping corn.”

Green food in winter is most essential. When running at
large in the fields growing pullets eat a very great quantity of
grass-blades, ete., and when they are brought into the pens of
the poultry houses they must have green food regularly supplied
to them, if good health is to be maintained. What this green
food is depends upon what supplies we have; it may be any
one of several things or it may be of several kinds. Cut clover
or alfalfa in the mash are the best articles for this green food
supply, and fresh cabbages are a close second. Almost any
kind of vegetables or fruits such as turnips, beets, carrots,
apples, etc., are good, and the birds eat them greedily. Not
only do these green foods promote the general health of the
fowls, but they are economical to feed because they ‘‘extend’’
the ration and thus save the consumption of grain and more
costly foods.

THE EGG AND ITS GERM

SELECTING THE EGGS

Not only should we select the breeding stock, but we should
“‘select’’ the eggs laid by the breeding stock. Do not set an
egg, even from your best hen, if it is a poor egg; by which we
mean poorly-shelled, poorly shaped, or otherwise lacking in the
qualities which make up a good egg. The fancy poultry breed-
er gives too little heed to the most important points of strength
and vigor of the chicks, and will use misshapen and poorly shell-
ed eggs if the hen that laid them is all right—is possibly a first
prize winner. He is thinking of the fine points of the hen and
not at all of whether the chicks hatched from those eggs will
grow up strong, sturdy and vigorous. The practical poultry-
man, on the contrary, can ignore the show qualities, and should
consider only the strength and vigor of the offspring. There-
fore, after we have selected our best breeding birds, paying par-
ticular attention to the points requisite for constitutional health

13—STANDARD-BRED

and vigor, we should reject every egg that is questionable, and
put in the incubator or under the hens only such as give the best
promise of producing first quality chicks.

Undoubtedly the eggs from the year-old hens will produce
the largest, strongest and most robust chicks, hence, if we are
aiming at the very best results we will not breed from pullets,
even though they be a full year old at the breeding season; it
is much better that they pass through the summer and through
one molt so that their “staying power’ becomes manifest. Not
infrequently a pullet which is very promising at six or eight
months old and proves a most excellent layer for a time, develops
some constitutional weakness, or some defect develops.

Such illness is good and sufficient evidence of lack of vigor,
and the manifestation of any lack of vigor should exclude the
bird from the breeding pen. Be sure that the cockerels put in
the pens areearly hatched and fully matured, with stout, sturdy
legs and broad backs; in fact, that give abundant evidence of

full strength and vigor. Such will produce good chicks if the
females are right.

It is sometimes advisable, too, to alternate males in the
pens. One breeder got 79 per cent hatch from all eggs put in
his incubators, and one of the methods he employed was to have
six breeding males for four breeding pens, and keep the males
moving from pen to pen, each male having one day in each pen
and two of the males being out resting all the time. There are
many advantages in such a plan as it prevents the male having
special favorites among his mates and ignoring others. Of course
this plan interferes with what is called “special matings,” but for
the practical poultry raiser special matings are unnecessary. The
points for him to consider are strength and vigor of the chicks,
and to that end he should study the strength and vigor of the
breeding stock and the conditions which promote the good health
of that stock, and then aim to produce “good hatchable eggs”.

WHITE LEGHORN CHICKS

FEEDING FRESH CUT BONE

It has come to be generally understood by poultrymen
that feeding meat and bone in some form is necessary if we
would have the chicks thrive and the pullets and hens lay eggs.
Animal food supplies the food elements which promote growth
and induce egg production; indeed, the egg shows by analysis
chemical constituents very similar to those of lean beef, hence
beef, if we could economically feed it, would give the fowls the
best food elements for egg production. The analysis of the
two is substantially as follows:

Fresh Beef Eggs
Wiate®: shag hoe nice cee awanoad 64 74.5
PROUCMI ino aan and WA aa d Mahala de 14 12.5
DR GSS igen echt cvtaee eh eh arrconmn Mecres es 21 12
DaltSiaiss yieie whiner aa ou oe eee 1 1

It is impossible to profitably use fresh beef as a food for
fowls and chicks, but in the waste pieces produced in preparing

23

ARTIFICIAL INCUBATING AND BROODING

animals for human food there are several products which fur-
nish the desired food materials for this purpose. Fresh bone,
cut into pieces sufficiently small is one of the very best of animal
foods. Speaking upon this point a bulletin of the United States
Department of Agriculture says: ‘Where fowls are kept in
confinement it will be necessary to supply some meat food.
Finely cut fresh bone from the meat markets is one of the best
if not the best kind of meat food for laying hens and young
chickens.” The bone should be fresh, and should be freshly
cut, and this point is especially mentioned in the above bulletin,
which says: “Tainted bones should be rejected as unfit for
food.”

In cut fresh bone from the meat market we have one of

the best, if not the very best, of animal foods, and one so mod-
erate in cost that every keeper of fowls who has facilities for
procuring the bone cannot afford not to feed it. The manufac-
turers of bone cutters have carefully studied the conditions of
bone-cutting, and have given us, in the modern bone cutter, a
machine which is especially adapted to the turning of this waste
product into an excellent food for fowls and chicks. Fresh
bones have to be cut. They cannot be ground unless first cook-
ed and then dried, which almost wholly extracts the animal
matter and leaves practically only mineral matter, chiefly lime.
A good bone cutter will cut the fresh, raw bones. with the at-
tached pieces of meat, gristle, etc., and make them into a food ,
which promotes growth in chicks and increases egg production.

WEAK GERMS IN WINTER EGGS

TESTS CONDUCTED WITH EGGS LAID PREVIOUS TO AND DURING WINTER CONFINE-
MENT—WARM HOUSING LOWERS VITALITY—EVIL EFFECTS OF STIMULATING FOOD—
COLD HOUSING GIVES BEST RESULTS—GENEROUS RATIONS DID NOT LESSEN FERTILITY

A. G. GILBERT

URING the months of March and April for some
years past [investigation has been made at
the Canadian Experiment Station with the
view of discovering, if possible, the cause, or
causes, of so many weak germs found in eggs
laid at the latter part of the winter and in
early spring by hens which were confined to lim-

ited quarters in the farm} poultry houses. The houses were
artifically heated to a moderate temperature, varying from
30 in cold weather to 50 degrees on mild days. The fowls
had been gently stimulated to lay, but with no condiment,
and had laid fairly well. But these eggs when hatched out in.
late March or April by incubator or hens, produced few chick-
ens. The eggs on being tested showed a fairly satisfactory
percentage of fertility, but on examination, after the hatch
was over, a great many chickens were found dead in the
shell, the majority of them, at the “pipping”’ stage.

TESTING STRENGTH OF GERM IN EGGS LAID IN DECEMBER

With the view of obtaining further data a number of pens
were mated up on the fowls going into winter quarters. Tests
heretofore had been made towards the end of the winter season.
The object of this occasion was to test the fertility and strength
of germs of eggs laid in December and before the hens had be-
come enervated by long laying or confinement. Accordingly
on December 20, 181 eggs of different breeds (enumerated fur-
ther on) were placed in an incubator. On the 26th instant 18
clear eggs (i. e., without germs) and 6 with partially developed
germs, were removed.

On January 1 (eleven days from date of placing eggs in in-
eubator) a further test was made with following results:

Barred Rocks—46 eggs showed 69 per cent fertility

Light Brahma-Barred Rock Cross—54 eggs showed 90 per
cent fertility.

Rhode Island Reds and White Plymouth Rocks—49 eggs
showed 61 per cent fertility.

Buff Leghorns—8 eggs showed 26 per cent fertility.

The rapidly developing germs presented a strong and
healthy appearance. This was confirmed by later examination.
An unfortunate accident to the incubator two days before the
chickens were due resulted in the death of all but 26, which,
however, hatched out apparently strong and healthy.

TESTS CONDUCTED DURING THE WINTER

Further experimental tests were made with eggs laid from
stime to time during the balance of the season and confirmed

the conclusions of previous years. These conclusions showed
that the longer and closer the term of artificial life of the laying
stock the greater was the weakness of the germs. Experience
has shown, with no uncertainty, that it is one thing to have a
high percentage of fertility and another to have results in a
corresponding number of robust chickens. It is the strong and
lively chicken which will make rapid growth, that is wanted.
It has been shown by experiment that the germs in eggs from
hens closely confined to winter quarters, but laid in spring time,
although showing a high percentage of fertility, did not result
in many chickens. The germs had died in different stages of
development, the greatest number when fully developed, or at
the “pipping stage.” And in many cases the chickens which
came out proved weaklings. As warranting the foregoing con-
clusions, the following results of experimental tests are given:
HATCHING RESULTS IN AN INCUBATOR OF EGGS LAID BY HENS IN
MODERATELY HEATED HOUSES

On March 27, 202 eggs of different breeds were placed in
one of the most reliable incubators on the market. The result
was 39 chicks. The eggs placed in the incubator were laid pro-
bably during the third week of the month named, and by hens
which were kept in artificially but moderately heated compart-
ments of our poultry houses. The fowls had received generous
rations with a view to egg production, and had laid fairly well
for the most part of the previous ‘winter.

The examination of the unhatched eggs showed that the
great majority contained chicks fully developed but dead, pre-
sumably too weak to break their way out of the shell, a very
discouraging result certainly. Under similar circumstances the
first conclusion would be, on the part of the inexperienced, to
blame the incubator. But if it hatched 39 chickens, was it not
as capable of hatching out more, if germs were as strong in the
unhatched eggs as in those which produced chicks?

SIMILAR EGGS UNDER HENS AND RESULTS

In order to ascertain results with hens as hatching mediums,
on the same day as the incubator was started, four Faverolle
hens, which were broody, were given 13 eggs each. The
eggs were of the same kind and age as those put into the incu-
bator.

Of the 52 eggs set, 17 hatched, so that as compared with
results from the incubator this showing is in favor of the hens,
but the average experience of several years past does not point
to much difference between incubator or hen when conditions
are equally favorable to both.

THE EGG AND ITS GERM

RESULTS FROM EGGS LAID BY HENS IN COLD HOUSES

The above results, it will be borne in mind, are from eggs
laid by hens which had been kept in warm houses and given
rations calculated to gently stimulate egg production during
winter. It will be interesting, then, to compare these results
with those from hens which had not—nor had their parent
stock—known what warm winter quarters were, fowls which
were kept under such conditions as are to be met with in the
majority of farm yards throughout the country.

On the 11th of March 13 eggs laid by Buff Orpington pul-
lets from hardy stock—as described above—were set under a
B. P. Rock hen. On the 2d of April 10 chickens hatched. On
eggs being tested, one clear egg was found. Examination of
the two eggs which did not hatch showed two embryos, which
had probably died about the fourteenth day after the eggs were
put under the hen.

On March 21 (ten days later), 13 eggs, also laid by Buff
Orpington pullets, were placed under another B. P. Rock hen.

To farmers, particularly those living in America where the
winters are rigorous, these results are important, as they are
strikingly in favor of fresh air and plenty of it, even if it is cold.

They are doubly important, as giving proof that with in-
telligent effort it is possible and profitable to build up strains of
fowls to suit winter conditions, rather than to attempt making
winter conditions suit the fowls.

VALUABLE CONCLUSIONS DRAWN AS THE RESULTS
OF WINTER TESTS

A summary of the experiences gained in connection with
the testing and hatching results of eggs laid during the cold
season under conditions described may be given as follows:

1, The generous and gently stimulating rations given to
the fowls kept in cold houses did not seem to affect the strength
of the germs of the eggs laid by them, as similar rations appar-
ently did in the case of the hens kept in artificially warmed
quarters.

14—COLONY HOUSES ON GRASS RANGE

On the 11th of April, 11 chickens hatched; one chick was crush-
ed in the nest by the hen. Examination of the remaining egg
showed a fully developed chick dead about “pipping” time.

On March 21 (same day), 13 eggs of Buff Orpington pullets
were given to a Langshan hen. Result, 11 chicks.

The most convincing results were obtained from 16 eggs
(half Buff Orpington and half B. P. Rock pullets), which on
March 9 were placed under a large hen, and in due course every
egg hatched. And what was further satisfactory, every one of
the 16 chickens lived and made rapid growth.

The total of 48 chickens from 55 eggs laid by pullets, which
had been kept in cold winter quarters—as had their parent
stock—and which had been good winter layers, is in favorable
contrast with 17 chickens from 52 eggs laid by fowls which had
been kept in artificially warmed poultry houses.

It is also an effectual answer to the statement, sometimes
made, that strong germs cannot he had in early spring time
from hens which have laid steadily during the winter.

2. Eggs laid in early December by the hens in artifici-
ally warmed houses showed a greater percentage of strong germs
than did eggs laid by them later in the season. ;

3. Eggs laid by the same hens in early spring showed a
satisfactory percentage of fertility, but the weakest germs.

4. The most striking and gratifying results were obtain-
ed from the fowls which, like their parent stock, had never
known warm quarters. From 55 eggs laid by these fowls in
early spring—after laying well during the winter—48 strong
chickens were hatched. In contrast with this are 17 chickens
from 52 eggs laid by hens kept in warmed, but comparatively
limited quarters.

5. Results were strongly in favor of the average farm
conditions. One successful farmer has an open shed attached
to his poultry house, and to this shed, which is protected by a
curtain in stormy weather, his fowls have access, so obtaining
fresh air and exercise. The latter is secured by throwing grain
in litter which is always on the floor of the shed.

ARTIFICIAL INCUBATING AND BROODING

FERTILITY IN EGGS

GREEN FOOD NECESSARY TO FERTILITY—
VIGOR AND GROWTH OF CHICKS DEPEND
UPON VIGOR AND HEALTH OF PARENTS

Cc. A. HULBERT

N ORDER to understand the requirements of artificial
I incubation we shall need to first consider the observed
facts in relation to the natural process. A late spring
obstructs the fertility of the eggs for early hatching un-
less a store of vegetable food was put away for winter use.
Hens that are steady layers
are very liable to disappoint
the owner in the matter of fer-
tile eggs in the spring. It will
be found that not one egg
in a dozen will hatch. Later,
after the same hens have
been given a daily run, and
have picked the fresh grass,
no fault will be found on the
ground of fertility. Hens need
green food in the spring more
than any other creature on the
farm. During the season for
selling eggs for hatching we
hear more or less complaint
about rotten eggs. Begin-
ners are apt to believe that a
rotten egg is aninfertileegg and
that it must have been old be-
fore shipping. On the other
hand, a rotten egg is good proof
that it was fertile, but the germ
not being strong, it soon died
after the heat of the hen or the
incubator started to develop it.
The truth is that eggs do not
become rotten when there is no
male bird with the layers.
They merely dry up. An egg not
impregnated will come out from
under a hen at the end of three
weeks’ incubation perfectly
clear, while one that is impreg-
nated if sat on forty eight hours and then taken out will at the
end of three weeks be of bad odor.

When an egg that has never been in an incubator is broken
the albumen adheres closely together-and does not run over so
large a surface. An infertile egg placed under the heat of 103
degrees for one week will in appearance and taste be equal to a
fertile one that has been laid away for two weeks.

Just why some chicks outgrow some others when the con-
ditions are apparently the same is a question that is hard to
answer. There are, however, several reasons which may be
assigned as a cause for this lack of growth in the early days of
a chick, the main one being lack of vitality and vigorous consti-
tution of the parent bird.

It may appear to some that if these conditions exist at one
stage of the hatching season they would also prevail at others,
but that is not necessarily the case. Much of the vigorous
growth of a chick or the reverse depends upon the condition of
the parent fowl at the time the egg was laid, which is the begin-
ning of the chick’s growth. In view of this fact attention must
be paid to the healthfulness and vigor of the flock from which
the eggs are gathered for incubating purposes.

Then again much depends upon the condition under which

26

the eggs are incubated. Good sound eggs laid by vigorous
stock should when properly incubated bring forth chicks that
with correct handling should grow right from the start; but the
treatment, feeding and conditions surrounding the chick dur-
ing its early life have a great deal to do with its rapid and vig-
orous growth.

We must observe all these facts; employ every agency at
our command; see that right conditious exist; use nothing but
strong, well developed parents, and if proper care is given the
youngsters we will reap the reward of our labor in dollars and

cents.

15—AN INTERESTING FAMILY
The photograph from which the above half-tone was made was taken in Australia.

CONDITIONING BREEDING STOCK
SELECT BREEDERS WITH REGARD TO VIG-
OR—SUPPLY FOOD AND CONDITIONS RE-
QUISITE TO SUCCESS —-WINTER FEEDING
HE problem of conditioning breeding birds is by no means

a difficult or intricate one. Any poultryman wor-

thy the name selects each season birds of the devel-
while selecting the shape required for the variety in hand. It
isa fact that birds of standard size and shape are not pro-
duced year after year by any but healthy, vigorous stock and
strain when following the course necessary to produce good
representatives of his variety. Constitutional vigor is the
source of strong procreative power and is built up only by

H. A. NOURSE
T
opment and style that denote vigor and constitution,
the breeder cannot avoid protecting the constitution of his
careful breeding for a term of years.

With this characteristic well established it remains only to
maintain good health and normal condition of flesh to produce

THE EGG AND ITS GERM

eggs aah will bring forth chicks that will live, thrive and make
a profit. In this connection it is safe to remember that appear-
ance, although a good indicator of health, is by no means infal-
lible and a bird may be in the best condition, apparently, yet un-
able to produce a fertile egg. Supply 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 a hen may not lay
well during the winter and produce strong, fertile eggs in the
spring. It is only necessary to build up day by day the vitality
which egg production tears down, that the hen shall not be the
loser, The best rule to follow during the winter is this: pro-
vide as well as possible the exercise, fresh air and foods that
the hen would get if allowed her freedom on a grass range in
summer.

Of these, exercise is the most difficult to obtain. The dry
grain may be fed in the scratching material and the methods of
dry feeding now becoming popular enable the feeder to get the
most exercise for the grain fed. As the hen cannot range wide,
she must dig deep and the scratching material upon the floors
therefore should be deep and frequently renewed to keep it
light and clean.

Fresh air is easy to obtain and costs nothing; yet it is rig-
idly excluded from some poultry houses where the moisture
from the birds’ breath, condensing upon the cold walls of the
building, keeps the interior damp and the fowls unhealthy and
the caretaker condemns the house as unfit, and the birds as deli-
cate. But let the windows on the south side be opened wide
whenever the temperature outside is not below twenty-five de-
grees above zero, Fahr., or open less in proportion as the cold
increases and the moisture will disappear as fast as it collects,
leaving the house dry and comfortable.

In severely cold weather or when winds drive snow or rain
into the house, light frames filled with cotton cloth may be fit-
ted into the space made by dropping or raising a window a few

16—CHICKS FEEDING FROM A HOPPER

27

inches, admitting plenty of fresh air, but preventing a draft.
The use of these frames will make it unnecessary to entirely
close the house even in the coldest weather. There is but little
danger from the cold so long as the birds are at work and exer-
cise not obtained in fresh air loses half its value.

These are important factors. Feed as carefully and as
scientifically as you may, you cannot achieve success without
them,

We cannot lay down a rule for feeding. What will pro-
duce good results in one yard will not always do so in another,
because of varying conditions. Sufficient information upon the
feeding values of all commercial foods and their effects upon
the birds under various conditions has been published so that a
little experience and intelligent observation will enable one to
compound the ration best adapted for his use.

The problem of supplying green food in cold weather has
been practically eliminated; clover and alfalfa cured green, and
mangel wurzels and cabbage may be had throughout the winter
and furnish the required elements in an acceptable form.

Birds constitutionally strong, provided with the foods and
surrounded by the conditions intended for them by nature will
produce offspring that will live and thrive.

VIGOROUS STOCK: GOOD HATCHES
J. B. HEABERLIN
T SEEMS to be a very hard matter for an amateur or any
I one for that matter, who has had no experience in

the poultry business to believe anything but that an

“ege is an egg’ andshould hatch a good, strong chick,
not for a moment considering whence it came, and this
very ignorance is what causes most of the complaints against
good incubators. The writer is fully aware that there are
some incubators on the market that would not hatch anything
but trouble, for he has had this sad experience with a machine
that turned out more egg fertilizer than chicks.

But that was years ago and I have fully recovered
and further wish to say that I did not become discouraged
and conclude that no one could do any better than I, I
said to myself, the papers are full of advertisers who are
doing all their hatching with incubators, therefore it can be
done, and I am going to be one of them, for the novelty
of hatching chicks artifically was just what tempted me to
enter the business. The next month I found an article
from the pen of one of our shining lights in the poultry
world, giving the per centage he had hatched in incubators
during the season just closed. I wrote him asking what
make of machines he was using and also remarked that any
information he would give me in the matter would be
highly appreciated.

I received a prompt reply, giving me the information
asked for, and hesaid: ‘Be surethat your breeding stock is
healthy and vigorous and properly mated, and you will have
no trouble.” That set me to thinking. I went out into my
chicken yard and sat down on a stump and began to scru-
tinize my flock in general. Now, right then and there it
dawned upon me that one must know his fowls or he
doesn’t know his business. I then began to get better ac-
quainted with my chickens and about the time I got
pretty well acquainted with them I found out that I had
no chickens worth breeding.

I must admit I felt somewhat discouraged, but I
straightway passed a resolution in my mind resolving to
get into the right pew. The next spring I bought first-class
stock and eggs from the very best breeders in the country
and with hard work and perseverance I have learned to know
a good bird when I see it, and that when good birds are

ARTIFICIAL INCUBATING AND BROODING

properly mated the hatching of their eggs is mere play. But
before I close, I want to say for the benefit of those concern-
ed that I placed 220 eggs in my incubator and on the four-
teenth day I tested out eighteen. On the twenty-first day I
took out 172 White Rock chicks and I raised every chick to
maturity except one—an 85 per cent. hatch. I have had
other hatches just as good, but generally lose some before
maturity.

HELP FOR BEGINNERS

CONDIMENTS ARE INJURIOUS—THE PROPER DIET
FOR BREEDING FOWLS TO INSURE FERTILE EGGS

W. H. HARDIN

E CANNOT hope to get strong, vigorous chicks,
\ \ whether hatched artificially or by the natural
method, unless our breeding stock is in the best
possible condition. After years of experimenting
the writer has become convinced that it is a mistake to
feed condiments to any kind of breeding stock. In fact I
do not believe in feeding these so-called egg-producing for-
mulas even to laying stock from which eggs are to be sold for
market purposes, as they simply irritate the egg producing or-
gans and are sure to prove a detriment to your fowls sooner
or later. Rather should you endeavor to improve the laying
power of your flock by breeding each year from your best
layers of the previous year. Such a method systematically
carried out year after year will be sure to bring your fowls
up to a high state of productiveness, which will be more satis-
factory and it can be done without undue forcing.
I have had frequent inquiries from poultry keepers and
the managers of two state experiment stations, asking for a
proper diet for breeding fowls to insure a high percentage of
fertility.
The feeding of fowls to bring about this desirable result is
a question that has given many of us more or less trouble in
times past, especially during the early spring when the fowls
must be confined to their houses the greater portion of the time
on account of bad weather. While I do not say that my meth-
od is perfection, yet it is one that I have adopted after carefully
studying and experimenting, and it is giving me satisfactory
results.
FEEDING FOR FERTILITY
To begin with, I feed only twice daily. I do not consid-
er it good policy to feed fowls three times a day. The work-
ing meal of the day is whole grain, which is fed every morning
as soon after daylight as possible, and it consists of 4 mixture

of wheat and coarsely cracked corn. One quart of this mixture
is allowed to every twelve fowls and it is scattered in the litter
of the scratching sheds, the floors of which are kept covered to
the depth of six to eight inches. It takes the birds the better
part of the day to find all these grains when they are well buried
in the litter, which gives them plenty of exercise, and exercise
they must have if you want fertile eggs and plenty of them.
The working hen is almost invariably a good laying hen.

The evening meal is a mash of milling products, animal and
vegetable food mixed by measure as follows?

Good wheat bran, two parts.

Ground oats, one part.

Second crop cut clover, two parts.

Corn meal, one part.

Best quality beef scrap, one part.

This soft mash is prepared by first putting into the feed
bucket the proper quantity of cut clover, adding a small quan-
tity of salt, or in other words, seasoning it about as you would
for your own palate. Next we pour on the boiling water, cover-
ing the vessel and allowing it to stand half an hour or so and
then add the other ingredients. Mix well to a crumbly consis-
tency (not sloppy), and feed warm. There can be no fixed rule
about the proper quantity to feed, as no two flocks will eat the
same amount. However, I make it a rule to feed my birds
just what they will eat up readily in from ten to fifteen min-
utes, being careful to remove any food that is not eaten, be-
cause if it is allowed to remain in the feed troughs it will sour
and is liable to sicken the fowls.

Fresh, pure water should be kept before them all the time.
The fowls can not be good layers if their water supply is stinted.
Perhaps many of you have noticed that your hens that drink
freely are generally the best layers. Be careful to keep the
water vessels scrupulously clean. I make it a rule to scald
mine two or three times a week. Bear in mind that filthy drink-
ing vessels and filthy water are prolific sources of disease among
poultry. Fowls that are confined to yards should have access
to plenty of good, sharp grit at all times. They cannot be
healthy without it. Ground oyster shell is also very healthful
in many ways. During the winter and early spring I try to
keep green food, such as cabbage, mangels, beets, etc., before
my birds at all times. It is not only a great relish to them, but
it assists in keeping their systems in good tone.

Twice a week I omit the beef scrap from the soft mash
and on those days I feed instead a liberal quantity of green cut
bone in the proportion of about one ounce to each fowl. They
are extremely fond of it and it is one of the best natural egg pro-
ducers that can be fed, and it assists wonderfully in the matter
of fertility of the eggs, especially during the winter and early
spring before the insects come.

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i

INCUBATOR AND BROODING

MODERN

HOUSES

INCUBATOR HOUSES

DETAILS AND PLANS OF INCUBATOR HOUSE THAT IS MODEL OF CONVENIENCE—
SAVING TIME OF OPERATOR—MATERIALS REQUIRED FOR INCUBATOR HOUSE—THE
INCUBATOR CELLAR — SMALL INCUBATOR HOUSE— HOW CONSTRUCTED, ETC.

While any piece of machinery will perform its destined work for
a time under sudden severe changes of temperature, exposed to damp-
ness and inclement weather, still anything made of wood and metal
is necessarily perishable and it shows good sense for us to operate any
machine under the most favorable conditions possible. To obtain the
best results with an incubator, we should place it in the best location
possible.

Everyone cannot build an incubator cellar for one or two machines,
but each can use common sense in locating the machines in a well ven-
tilated cellar room, and with the aid of a thermometer keep the sur-
rounding temperature from varying many degrees. Do not put the
machines in the attic in the summer nor in an unheated out-house in
the dead of winter.

You may get an excellent hatch under the most adverse condition,
but you are unfair to the machine and its manufacturer.—Editor.

HILE many illustrations of incubator cellars or
houses have been published from time to time,
we do not recall that any plans have ever been
offered which showed a dark room for testing
eggs.

The incubator house shown in accompanying
plans, was designed by Dr. P. T. Woods, and a
house of this pattern is now in successful

operation at the Millville Poultry Farm.

On all plants where a considerable number of machines
are run, the testing of eggs becomes an item of considerable
labor and consumes a large amount of time. If this testing has
to be done at night, it lengthens the hours for the poultryman
so much that during the hatching season he loses a great deal
of much needed rest, whereas if some means are provided for
testing the eggs during the day, there are usually odd moments

29

when the work can be done without interference with the reg-
ular routine of the plant. It was for this purpose of saving night
work on the poultry farm that the incubator house with dark
room was devised. This house, or more properly, half-cellar,
is a frame building built above a brick foundation, a slight ex-
cavation being made and a 2 feet 6 inch or 3 feet brick wall
built, against which the earth is banked up on the outside and
on which the sills of the frame building are laid.

The sills are laid in cement to make a tight joint. The sides of
the building are sheathed with rabbeted pine boards laid length-
wise on both sides of the studs. The lower board reaches be-
low the sill and laps over brick work to avoid draughts.

The roof is of rough boards laid on rafters which are placed
2 feet apart and is covered with a good quality of shingles.

These rafters and frame are afforded additional support
by tie beams, as indicated in plan. (Ill. 18.)

The nine windows of the building are all double windows,
the outer windows being hinged at the top, the inner ones
hinged at the bottom, so that they may be opened as shown
in plan (Ill. 18). The space beneath the roof is not ceiled in,
the portion between the rafters and tie beams being left open
so that the air from the windows may be deflected up against
the roof. In such a building the windows may be left open on
both sides of the building, affording excellent ventilation and
at the same time not permitting any direct draught to blow
upon the machines. The large door in the end of the building
is provided with double doors, the inner one having ventilating
holes as shown in Il.18. The house is 59 feet long by 21 feet
wide and 7 feet 6 inches from the floor to eaves, inside measure-
ment. The floor is made of cement or hard packed gravel.

The dark room is 6 by 8 feet and is ceiled up with matched
boards to the rafters. It is provided with a wide door,which
for purposes of ventilation is best made of a stout frame cov-
ered with burlap or bran sacking. In one end of the room

ARTIFICIAL INCUBATING AND BROODING

LLL

being carried to the table to be filled could

WLLL

WS

then beset on a firm surface for cleaning,
which was quickly accomplished by
means of a pocket knife and a soft
cloth. With a cement floor and the
table on rollers or small wheels it would be

still more convenient.

Such an incubator house will be
found a most satisfactory style to run, it
being easy to have perfect ventilation at

all times and very little difficulty in keep-
ing the heat at an even temperature even
in warm weather. The building in use
at Millville is giving very satisfactory
results and excellent hatches have been

there should be two shelves, one just high enough to place the
egg tester on, and have the eggs come in direct line with the eye
when the operator is seated on an ordinary high stool, and he
will be able to pass the eggs before the light very rapidly.

The second shelf should be beneath this and should be of
sufficient size to accommodate two incubator trays, one full and
one empty, and a basket having two compartments, one for in-
fertile eggs and one for dead germs. It is very little trouble to
furnish a dark room in an incubator cellar, in this manner and
the expense is small. Such a room should be ventilated by a
hinged window, the glass of which has been painted black or has
a black cloth tacked over it. It is surprising what an amount
of labor such a room, properly equipped, will save in course of
a season in running a number of incubators. Provision can also
be made for testing by aid of direct or reflected sunlight by
having in the outer window a special pane fitted, with an opening
like that in the egg tester and a mirror arranged outside the build-
ing to reflect the rays of the sun. The writer ran twenty large
machines in an incubator cellar equipped with a dark room as
above described and by keeping a careful record of the time
spent in the incubator cellar he was surprised to find that, after
doing all the work required, filling the lamps, trimming them
attending to the regulation of the machines, filling the machines)
turning the eggs, testing them and everything necessary from
starting the eggs until the chicks were ready to be taken to the
the brooders, the average time required per machine was not
over ten minutes per day.

Other useful furniture in the incubator cellar which made
it possible to handle the machines so easily, was a plain pine
board table and a five-gallon oil can having a quick
flow, easily controlled spigot. This table was
placed in the centre of the incubator cellar. Il. 16,

ammmmee MYYMMMi:

17—GROUND PLAN OF CELLAR FOR TEN LARGE INCUBATORS

obtained when the temperature outside
the building registered close to 100 de-
grees for days at a time.

AQ SS

INCUBATOR CELLAR

All things considered, the cellar shown herewith is one of
the best that has been devised for the purpose. The tem-
perature keeps very even and there is just enough natural
moisture in the air to give the best results. To build it requires
an excavation 3 feet deep and the building of a wall 5 feet high
with an additional 2 feet of wood work above it. Bank the
earth up against the wall so as to make the cellar 5 feet deep.

The door is in one end of the building and the stairs are
inside so that they are safe from the weather. Four cellar
windows are used on each side and are double glass, being placed
on each side of the window frame. The inside of the room of
the cellar is ceiled with matched stuff. The ceiling runs inside
of plate up studs and rafters to a point 10 feet from the floor,
where it crosses on the tie beams. The roof,ends and sides may
be either shingled or papered. In such an incubator cellar it
is well to have the incubators lefts and rights for greater con-
venience in the care of them.

MATERIALS REQUIRED FOR 36-FOOT INCUBATOR CELLAR

Sills and Plates—4 pieces 2 by 6,14 feet; 16 pieces 2 by 6,
12 feet .

Rafters— 38 pieces 2 by 6, 16 feet.

Collar-beams and Ties—24 pieces 1 by 6, 16 feet.

Roof Boards—1,300 feet, No. 1 barn siding.

Sides and Ends—400 feet matched stuff.

The machines were rights and lefts, ar-

ranged along the sides of the room
which was a little over 50 feet
in length. The lamps of the
machines at one end of the
table were quickly filled and
trimmed by carrying them to
the table one at a time, the oil
can resting on the end nearest
the operator, then the can was
transferred to the opposite end
of the table and the lamps of
the machines on that end were
eared for. This is a small

OOYBLE WINDOWS
OPEN

FOR VENTILATION

ARROWS SHOW AIR CURRENT

IN

ie eal i
_

|
| DOUBLE | s
J] poors | o
| | TH

br]
| VENTILATING | pe
| HOLES IN INNER | =
00000
ILYVOOO |

matter, yet it proved to be the

ai’

[Vad
N

means of saving a considerable
amount of labor. The lamps

30

18—SECTIONAL VIEW SHOWING VENTILATING SYSTEM

INCUBATOR AND BROODING HOUSES

7 a _—_—_—_

——S=—

Ceiling—1,-

400 feet, § ceil
ing.

Shingles —
12 thousand.

Paper—3
rolls, 500 square
feet. each.

One door, 5
feet 6 inches by

‘Ne

6 feet 6 inches.
‘ Kight win-
dows, 3 lights

9 by 13. ae

i — a

le
K
SMALL INCUBATOR HOUSES

Incubator houses are best made in half cellars, and when
possible should be put up early in the season on dry, high ground.

It is often desirable to hatch late in the spring or even in
the summer, and a house entirely above ground then gets too
warm for the best work. With a half cellar the air strikes the
walls, which the outer ground keeps cool, and the temperature
can be kept down to 60 or 65 degrees, excepting in the very
warmest weather. A row of windows is placed on either side

19—SECTIONAL VIEW OF SINGLE INCUBATOR CELLAR

59°

a

20—-GROUND PLAN FOR LARGE INCUBATOR CELLAR

well up toward the ceiling, so that a window can be opened on
either side of the house to afford ventilation without a draught
striking the machines.

In Ill. 19 we present a sectional view of a single incubator
cellar which can be made to hold from six to twelve or four-
teen incubators. Ill. 17 shows the ground plan arranged for
ten large incubators. The house should be 12 feet 6 inches in
the clear on the inside by 25 feet in length. If it is desirable to put
up a house for only six incubators it will need to be only 15 feet
in length. A large incubator practically takes up 5 feet of room.

The incubator house should set 3 feet in the ground ‘with
a 2 foot banked wall above, making 5 feet in all under ground.

There should be 8 feet head room from the fioor to the plates
or ceiling. Do not build a lower ceiling, as a lower room will
not give sufficient cubic feet of air space to allow the air to be
kept fresh.

MATERIAL REQUIRED FOR 20-FOOT SINGLE INCUBATOR HOUSE

24 pieces 2 by 6, 10-foot hemlock for rafters.
16 pieces 2 by 4, 16-foot hemlock for collars,
10 pieces 2 by 4, 12-foot hemlock for studding.
650 feet hemlock for sheathing.
3,600 shingles, or five rolls roofing paper.
200 feet siding.
4 windows.
400 feet matched ceiling.
10,000 brick.
10 barrels lime.
10 loads sand.

31

A SUCCESSFUL BROODER HOUSE

A SIX PEN BROODER HOUSE THAT WAS THOROUGHLY TESTED AT THE CONNECTICUT
AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION—A DEPRESSED ALLEYWAY MAKES IT POSSI-
BLE FOR OPERATOR TO ATTEND TO BROODERS AND LAMPS WITHOUT STOOPING

F. H. STONEBURN

This article is partly taken from a bulletin published by the Storrs
Agricultural College of Connecticut. The author, Mr. F. H. Stone-
burn, was for three years in charge of the practical poultry work car-
ried on by the College, but later resigned his position to become director
of the Columbia School of Poultry Culture.—Editor.

HE arrangements for artificial brooding are of as
great importance as the equipment of any other
branch of the poultry farm. Adult fowls, vigor-

\ ous and well protected by nature, may survive

and even thrive under adverse conditions, but

i the tiny chicks must have careful treatment.

The importance of the brooder house is em-

phasized when we consider that everyone engaged

in commercial poultry keeping desires to produce a large pro-
portion of his annual crop of chickens at some time of
the year other than the natural breeding season of his
fowls: This is true whether the main object be the pro-
duction of meat or of eggs. Fall-hatched chicks are
carried through the winter to be sold in the spring as roasters;
winter-hatched chicks are marketed as early broilers; while the
early spring-hatched stock is either marketed at the broiler age
or carried to maturity to be used as breeders or egg producers.
The production of any large amount of this out-of-season stock
by natural methods of rearing is, of course, out of the question,
and the incubator and the brooder must be relied upon largely.
The facilities for brooding the chicks vary according to the needs
and resources of the different owners, ranging from a jug of hot.
water in a tight box to the huge pipe-system brooder houses
found upon the leading poultry plants. But, unfortunately, in
too many cases these brooding systems are inadequate, being
poorly designed or improperly constructed. As a result the
mortality among chicks entrusted to them is so excessive that
it cuts down the profits materially. In fact, observation leads
one to believe that the greatest source of loss on the average
poultry plant is to be found in the heavy mortality among chicks
under two months of age. :

A brooder building designed for the rearing of chicks during
the cold months should embody several distinct features. For
the health and well-being of the chicks it should be so constructed
that the temperature and ventilation can be absolutely controll-
ed, plenty of sunshine admitted, and enemies of all kinds kept
out. For the comfort of the attendant and the economical con-
duct of the business it should be convenient in every way. Under
this latter head are grouped many factors, because convenience
in this case must include caring for the lamps and hovers, feed-

21—A SUCCESSFUL BROODER HOUSE

<<)
[IN eg

ing and watering the chicks, managing the doors and windows,
and keeping the house in a thoroughly sanitary condition. -It
is the object of this article to describe briefly a building which
seems to embody most of the requirements enumerated above.

It was decided best to use small lamp brooders in each pen,
as this enables the attendant to manage each pen of chicks in-
dependently of the rest. For the above reason the plan should
commend itself to those who are in the business on a compara-
tively small scale, as well as to the large operator who feels the
need of a nursery brooder where the hover temperature can be
regulated according to the needs of each pen of chicks.

The house is built 15 by 30 feet in size, with a 4 by 5 feet
extension on the east side. This latter is used as an entry or
“ante-room,” permitting the poultryman to pass in and out of
the house at will during bad weather without exposing the

chicks to draughts. An alley-way 4 feet in width extends along
the entire north side, and the rest of the floor space is divided
into pens. They are six in number and are 5 by 11 feet in size.

An examination of the accompanying cuts will show that
the vital feature of the building is the elevated chick floor, the
latter being 3 feet 6 inches above the former. This arrangement
secures several advantages. It enables the attendant to care
for the brooders and feed the chicks without the constant stoop-
ing required where the brooders are operated upon the floor in
the usual manner. Further, it reduces the enclosed air space
by fully one third, effecting a corresponding saving in the amount
of heat required to maintain a given temperature. It also
places the chicks nearer the ceiling—the warmest part of the
room—thus giving them the benefit of all the available warmth.

Repeated tests in the house under discussion demonstrated
that in cold weather the temperature at the
level of the alley floor is 14 degrees lower than
at the chick floor but 3 feet 6 inches above.
And finally, the amount of side wall exposed
to the weather is reduced one-half, quite a con-
sideration in wind-swept positions. The disad-
vantage of the plan becomes evident only when
it is found necessary to enter the pens for any
purpose. It is inconvenient because of the
necessary climb to enter the pen and the con-
fined space in which to do the work. It has,
however, been found unnecessary to get into

INCUBATOR AND BROODING HOUSES

4 ---- $3

'

!
)
'
ui

These windows are hinged at the bottom and
swing inward, being controlled from the alley
by cords. At the west end of the alley another
window of the same size is placed. This lights
the alley thoroughly, which is very desirable, par-

i

ticularly on dark, winter days. Chick doors are

6 by 7 inches in size, and are also operated by
cords, The construction of pen partitions is
so fully illustrated by the cuts that no further
explanation seems necessary. The door is
made nearly as wide as the alley to permit the
easy passage of wheelbarrows for cleaning.

23—SECTION OF BROODER HOUSE SHOWING SOUTH SIDE OF ALLEYWAY

the pens except on rare occasions, so this is not a serious
draw back.

The site selected for this house is a knoll sloping slightly
to the north and abruptly to the east. The alley was formed
by digging a trench of the required depth along the north side
of the site of the proposed structure. Parallel stone walls 4
feet apart were then laid in this trench and carried to a height
of 3 feet 6 inches. These were joined by a wall of the same
height at the west end, the east end being reserved as a doorway.
When laying the wall on the south side of the alley, provision
was made for three lamp pits, each 2 feet 6 inches by 5 feet
and 1 foot in depth, as indicated upon the plans. Each pit ac-
commodates the heaters of two brooders.

The rest of the foundation is a simple wall varying in height
according to the slope of the land, but carried to the same level
as the alley wall. Finally the entire floor was cemented, in-
cluding the bottoms of the lamp pits, the cement in the chick
pens being at the level of the top of the foundation walls.

Because of the small size of the building, the
frame is constructed entirely of 2 by 4 inch mate-
rial, except the sills, which are 4 by 4 inches.

The walls are 3 feet 6 inches in height. The roof
is an even span, with a rise of 2 feet. The

The brooders were constructed by the col-
lege carpenter. They consist simply of the
heaters and hovers mounted upon platforms,
no sides or top being required. Because the heaters are
suspended in the lamp pits, the floors of the brooders are
elevated but 2 inches above the floors of the pens, which enables
the chicks to enter the hovers without climbing the usual bridge.
The pen floors are kept covered with 1 inch of sand and more
or less fine litter, such as chaff, cut straw, etc. In ordinary
weather the six lamps maintain the temperature sufficiently
high, but an auxiliary heater is supplied for use in extreme cold.
This is a stove placed near the west end of the alley, and a small
fire in it will keep the building sufficiently warm at any time.

For the needs of the practical farmer or poultryman some
slight change might be made in the above plan. The alley
could be reduced to 3 feet in width, and still be large enough
to accommodate one attendant. The length of the chick pens
might be reduced 1 or 2 feet, thus making the building narrow-

iin

=

rafters are tied with collar beams which are spiked
on level 7 feet 6 inches from the alley floor. The

Oo

entire frame is covered with 4-inch matched boards,

with one-ply Flintkote upon the roof and an extra

heavy felt upon the sides. This gives an absolute-

ly wind-proof structure. Eaves-troughs are requir-

ed to carry from the roof the water which might otherwise
make its way into the building.

The interior is lathed and plastered with fire proof asbestos
plaster. By carrying the plaster across on the collar beams an
attic is formed which is of great value in controlling the tempera-
ture, preventing direct radiation through the roof. A large
sliding ventilator opens into this attic through the ceiling above
each pair of chick pens, and in each gable doors are placed, open-
ing into the attic from outside. These are regulated according
to the weather. This forms a decidedly effective ventilating
system which is entirely under control.

In the south side of the building are six windows, one for
each pen, each a single sash with six panes of 10 by 12 inch glass.

25—WEST ELEVATION OF BROODER HOUSE

er. The depth of the alley might be made 3 feet instead of 3
feet 6 inches, and the sides made of heavy plank instead of
masonry. The cement floor could be replaced with an earth
floor, provided rats could be repelled. The entry extension
could be dispensed with. For ordinary uses in southern New
England the wall might be satisfactory if constructed of two
thicknesses of inch boards with paper between. All of the above
changes would result in a financial saving so far as the first cost
of the building is concerned, but, excepting the reduction in
width of alley, they would also cause a decreased efficiency.
Not infrequently poultrymen have attempted to secure the
benefits to be gained from an elevated chick floor in the brooder
house by constructing board floors at various heights. In some
instances the brooders have been set upon tables

57 and passage ways left open at each side of the build-

] ing, one permitting the attendant to care for the

ileal

j lamp, clean the brooder, etc., and the other to feed

4 and water the chicks in the pens. Such arrange-

ments have proved to be quite satisfactory, but are

:
a

expensive and have one very decided disadvantage,
namely, it is impossible to give the chicks an outside
run unless they are compelled to climb to an eleva-

eS

\ tion of 2 or 3 feet when returning to the brooder.

24—SOUTH ELEVATION OF BROODER HOUSE
33

Every experienced poultryman will understand how

ARTIFICIAL INCUBATING AND BROODING

‘impracticable this is. The hillside brooder house,
however, permits the chicks to step right out at
the ground level, there being no bridges to climb.
It is evident that a slight slope to the north is
the best location for a house of this kind, if it is
desired to have the house face the south. How-
-ever, either an east or west slope can be utilized
if a small amount of grading is done. It is im-
perative that the site be well drained, otherwise
water will collect in the depressed alleyway. It
might be possible to erect a building of this kind
upon perfectly level ground by digging a trench

ee ee

of sufficient size to serve as the alleyway if
ample drainage could be provided by laying a line
of tile to some lower point. Of course, under
these conditions, steps would have to be used
which would not be as convenient as having an

entrance upon the level as in the building de-
scribed above.

Since this bulletin has appeared I have re- SZ SK

‘ceived several letters containing questions about
-the house, and I will mention one or two matters
not fully touched upon in the bulletin. Kindly
refer to the illustration “Section showing south

a
ow we am Se RRL
.

side of alleyway.” The lamp boxes suspended in
lamp pit (c) occupy but a part of it, allowing
ample circulation of air around the boxes. Lamp
fumes are permitted to escape into the alley through
the openings in the corners of the lamp boxes; one of these
can be seen at the upper right hand corner of the box (b).
The “clean out” doors (a) are directly behind the hover and are
hinged at the bottom. These drop down and permit the attend-
ant to clean the brooder very conveniently. The wire netting
above these “clean out” doors is securely tacked in place. As
each pen is 5 feet in width and the brooder itself a scanty 3 feet,
there is sufficient room for the 2-foot front door shown on the

THE HEATING OF

26—PLAN OF BROODER HOUSE

left. This door should be swung outward, being hinged on the
side next the brooder. Thus each door can be thrown wide
open, swinging around against the brooder, without interfering
with the other doors.

The lamp fumes and vitiated air naturally rise to the ceil-
ing and are permitted to escape through the slide covered ven-
tilator which is above the partition between the two pens. A
similar ventilator is placed above each pair of brooders.

BROODING HOUSES

THE MOST SUCCESSFUL DESIGNS OF UNDERNEATH AND OVERHEAD HEATING
SYSTEMS FOR BROODING HOUSES—THE ADVANTAGES OF EACH AND A COMPARI-
SON OF THEIR MERITS—SUMMARY OF MATERIAL REQUIRED FOR 100-FOOT HOUSE

THE UNDERNEATH SYSTEM

HE brooding house illustrated in the accompany-
plan i is 140 feet long and 13 feet wide and is
1) into two parts, 36 feet and 104 feet
8 The shorter end has twelve pens
of 3 feet each in width and 10 feet in length in-
‘Inding the hover, and the longer end has
y-four pens 4 by 10 feet in size. The
furnace pit and a narrow walk separate the
two lots of pens and an aisle 3 feet in width extends the entire
length of the house back of the hovers.
The system of piping is under the hover floor in a trench
(N, Ill. 28). The shorter end has a 2-inch flow and return pipe.
The long end has two flow and two return 14-inch pipes (see
Ill. 29), and both sides are controlled by valves near the
heater, whereby all, or a part of the flow may be shut off from
the pipes. The trench is made by excavating to «a depth of 6
inches and 36 inches wide. The sides are 2 by 6 inch spruce
plank, set on edge (OO). The bottom of the trench is cemented
(H). The top is boarded with a course of rough 1-inch boards,
and covered with a layer of matched spruce flooring seven-
eights inch (IX). This double boarding takes away any danger

‘from too much bottom heat.

The boarding comes flush with
the edges of the 2 by 6 inchand the frame work of the hovers,
is secured by 1 by 3 inch posts nailed to the outer sides of the
2 by 6, which are only as high as the hover divisions (C), which
inthe small pens are 10 inches and in thelarge pens 12 inches.

oft Cie aac

oe oeno z
: aft “Boiler Pit.

“Steps to
y 2. PHL
Aes DMMP UID

’ 27—-SECTIONAL VIEW BROODING HOUSE (UNDERNEATH HEATING SYSTEM)

34

INCUBATOR AND BROODING HOUSES

This gives a house entirely free from inside posts and makes
possible a view of the whole interior from any part. The hover
floor is 3 feet wide (the width of the trench) and in the 3-foot
pens the hover top slides on cleats (F) 6 inches from the floor.
The top or cover is only 24 inches wide. which leaves 12 inches
of the slightly warm floor in front of the hover curtain, making
a splendid resting place for the little chicks or ducklings which

_ ati i

28—DETAIL OF HOVER OF UNDERNEATH HEATING SYSTEM
BROODING HOUSE

they evidently enjoy. When first they are put in the hover they
are penned back nearly to this floor and the gentle warmth
helps them and keeps the floor free from dampness. The cover
being in two parts (A and B) and sliding freely on cleats (F)
may be readily abjusted so as to give ventilation at the back,
front or center of the hover, or all three, and the surplus heat
may escape in the same way.

The hover floor is kept littered with chaff or shavings and
when the pen is to be cleaned the hover top is removed, the
back board which sets between the cleats can be taken out and
the litter swept into the aisle and taken thence in barrels. When
the little chicks are to be changed from pen to pen, the back
boards are taken out and they are driven down the aisle from
one pen to another, which in the long end of the house are 4
feet wide and the hover 8 inches high, but are otherwise the same
as the short end. The illustration shows a hover closed, one
with the top partly cut away and one with the top off and the
back out, ready for cleaning.

The hot air is admitted to the hovers through the upright
14-inch pipes seen in the lower floor. These pipes reach nearly
to the cover of the hover and the bottom ends just reach through
the board floor, being flush with the under side. Back of each
second hover (on the division post, so as to be out of the way),
is a 2 by 3 air box which reaches down under the 2 by 6 side
and permits the cold air to enter the trench. This gives a chance
for the warm air in the trench to rise through the short, upright
pipes under the hover and draw in cold air from the aisle, mak-
ing a perfect circulation. The warm air strikes the hover cover
and deflecting, makes.a perfectly warm box on all sides of the
little chick and yet exposes his body to no direct heat. The
variation allowéd by the slide cover permits of ventilation and
the escape of surplus heat at the will of the operator. In very
hot nights the cover may be removed altogether. For the older
chicks no curtain is supplied for the hover front, and this ar-
rangement leaves the front entirely open in warm weather.

"MATERIAL REQUIRED FOR 100-FOOT HOUSE

Sills, 12 pieces, 3 by 4, 18 feet; 2 pieces, 3 by 4, 14 feet.

Plates, 12 pieces, 2 by 4, 18 feck: 2 pieces, 2 by. 4, 14 feet.

Studs, (10 feet to centers,) 11 pieces, 2 by 4, 6 feet 3 inches;
30 pieces, 2 by 3, 4 feet 7 inches.

Girts, 10 sen 2 by 3, 12 feet.

Rafters, 51 pieces, 2 by 4, 16 feet.

ee - i door frames, etc., 8 pieces, 2 by 3, 16 feet.

, 49 pieces, 1 by 6, 7 feet.

ae eure 700 feet 14-feet, 2300 feet 16-feet; inside,

524 feet; total, plain, 3524 feet: TmeteHed, 900; if ceiled inside
add 2400 feet.

Board up and down. Roof length-wise.

Paper, roof, 1500 feet; balance 1400 feet.

Doors, three 3 by 6 feet 6 inches, one 2 by 5.

Wire netting to suit use, l-inch mesh.

HOVER WORK

Sills, 12 pieces, 2 by 6, 16 feet.

Floor, 300 feet, 12 feet.’

Covers, divisions and back, matched 500 feet, 12 feet.

Pen division boards, 14 pieces, 1 by 12, 16 feet.

Windows, 14 12-light, 9 by 13; 6 rear windows 6-light, 9
by 13; 2 end windows, 6-light, 9 by 13.

Cement floor under all, 1300 feet.

Pit wall 18 inches, 5 by 8 feet, 5 feet deep, pointed.

Walk across pit and stairs, 5 pieces, 2 by 6, 16 feet.

Heating and piping to suit.

OVERHEAD PIPING SYSTEM

This brooding house may be built exactly like the one con-
taining the underneath piping system described heretofore.
The only difference is the arrangement of the hot water pipes,
and the necessary difference in the construction of the brooderss,

2-6 ”

rane
Pt

tun

‘ooo

Cloth. 2]

30—SECTIONAL VIEW, SHOWING OVERHEAD HEATING SYSTEM

In the accompanying illustration the overhead piping system
is used. The construction of the hovers is very simple. The
back is formed of 1-inch boards 12 inches wide and the divisions
between the brooders are made of the same size boards, in which
have been bored eight holes to receive the four flow and four
return pipes. A narrow board is let in to the division boards
2 feet 6 inches from the rear wall of the brooder. To this is
tacked the felt which hangs to the floor of the brooder and is

slashed for the ac-

“gas .

SLIDES i2"r18" WINDOW SUOLS 18'* 20° commodation of the
te ‘. vt chicks in passing
to and fro. Over

the pipes are placed
foot-wide boards
and resting on the

29—GROUND PLAN OF BROODING HOUSE (UNDERNEATH HEATING SYSTEM) FOR EITHER CHICKS OR DUCKLINGS

35

edges of these are

ARTIFICIAL INCUBATING AND BROODING

brooders to the depth of 5 or 6 inches, so that the smallest birds
are brought near the pipes and as they grow the amount of
litter is decreased, thus giving them more room and taking them
further from the heat.

BILL OF MATERIAL

Sills—20 pieces, 2 by 6, 16 feet. Plates and Girders—38
pieces, 2 by 4, 16 feet. Rafters—72 pieces 2 by 4, 16 feet. Par-
titions to Pens—37 boards, $ by 12, 10 feet. Supports for Roof
; through Center of House—10 pieces 2 by 4, 16 feet. Sides and
boards which bridge the opening. By moving these boards, Top to Hover—30 boards } by 12, 14 feet; 10 boards, % by 8, 14
which are loose, ventilation may be obtained at the back, feet. Roof Boards—2,200 feet boxing; 21,000 shingles. Sides
front or middle of the hover, and the cleaning of the brood- and Ends—2,400 1-inch boards, matched; 6 rolls paper of 500
ers is greatly facilitated. This is quite a saving on a large square feet each. 20 window sashes, 6, lights, 9 by 13. One
plant. door, 2 feet 6 inches by 6 feet 6 inches. 2,600 brick for 8-inch

In the short end of the house chaff or sand is placed in the _ wall to broiler pit.

31—DETAIL OF HOVER CONSTRUCTION, OVERHEAD HEATING SYSTEM

32—GROUND PLAN OF BROODING HOUSE WITH OVERHEAD HEATING SYSTEM

36

ARTIFICIAL INCUBATION

SUCCESSFUL ARTIFICIAL INCUBATION

COMMON SENSE ADVICE ON INCUBATOR MANAGEMENT, INCLUDING LOCATION,
OPERATION, CARE OF THE LAMP, SELECTION OF EGGS, TURNING AND COOLING
THE EGGS, TESTING AND CARE OF' THE MACHINE DURING HATCHING TIME

P. T. WOODS, M. D.

ie EBRUARY usually brings the question of starting
with an incubator into prominence and the hatch-
ing season should then be begun in earnest
Early pullets must be hatched in March and
April to make fall and winter layers and take the
place of older breeding stock which is to be
marketed. The early cockerels will bring the
best profits as fancy spring chickens, and the
profits on sale of such should practically pay the
cost of the food consumed by the pullets. For this reason if
you intend using an incubator the first season, and wish to make
it pay you a handsome profit, February is the time to start.

BUYING AN INCUBATOR

What machine and what size to buy are two questions that
are not easily settled. In selecting the make of machine the
beginner must be guided by his own best judgment. It is a
good plan to study the manufacturers’ advertising catalogues
carefully, read the testimonials and note what date they bear.
Then call on the nearest successful poultryman in your locality
and observe for yourself what they are using and learn the results
obtained. Try to get a fair unbiased opinion from reputable
men whom you know and whose advice you are willing to follow.
If you do this you can’t go wrong.

In buying an incubator do not buy too small a machine.
Fifty eggs will hatch just as well in a 100 or 200-egg machine
as in a 50-egg size and you have room to set more if you want to.
It is a decided mistake to buy too small a machine. There is
very little difference in the time required for operating the
various sizes and as a rule the lamp of a 100-egg size incubator
will consume just as much oil as the lamp of a 200 or 300-egg
size. There is very little difference in the operating expenses,
and if the machine is a modern standard make you can rely on
getting equally good results in all sizes. As a general rule the

37

100-egg capacity machines are sufficiently small for any town
lot fancier, although the 50 and 60-egg incubators do excellent
work and are found entirely satisfactory by many operators.

WHERE TO RUN THE INCUBATOR

As soon as you have uncrated your incubator, before set-
ting it up, read carefully the manufacturer’s directions—and
then re-read them. This is the only way to start right and it
is important. Learn what you have to do, and how to do it,
then go ahead.

The first question to come up will be, where is the best
place to run the incubator? As a rule, the answer will be that
the house cellar, if free from gas and decaying vegetable matter,
is the best place unless one has a specially constructed incubator
cellar; but with’a well made machine almost any unused room
having a firm floor, free from excessive vibration, can be made
to serve the purpose well. The best results will be secured in
an unheated room where the temperature remains fairly uniform
and where it does not run much above or below 65 degrees.

The question of ventilating the incubator room is not as
important as is generally supposed, and so long as the air of the
room is kept reasonably pure, good results will be obtained.
A good deal has been written about the danger from carbonic
acid gas, but the fact remains that the embryo chick is able to
stand a considerable amount of this gas in the air around the
eggs. Several recent experiments by experienced investiga-
tors tend to show that the presence of carbonic acid gas (carbon
dioxide) in the hatching chamber, when accompanied by mois-
ture, has a tendency to assist in the process of exclusion by its
action on the egg shell. Apparently the gas weakens and par-
tially dissolves the shell. making it easier for the chick to hatch.
Experiments made at the Montana Experiment Station found
nearly twice as much carbon dioxide under setting hens as was
found in the egg chamber of the incubators used in the test;

ARTIFICIAL INCUBATING AND BROODING

33—A SAFE AND CONVENIENT BROOD COOP

the hatches showing that the presence of the gas aided rather
than hindered hatching. Ordinarily the incubator room will
get sufficient ventilation in winter without keeping the window
open. If a number of machines are run in the room it may be
necessary to air it out once a day. In summer time a window
should be kept open day and night for ventilation.

HAVE THE INCUBATOR LEVEL

Care must be taken to place the incubator so that it will
not sit in a draft and it should be made as nearly level as pos-
sible. Use a spirit level on top of the incubator to test it from
back to front and from side to side. If a level is not at hand
use a shallow pan of water on top of the machine for the same
purpose. If the water is the same depth on all sides with the
bottom resting evenly on the top of the incubator the machine
is level. Block up under the legs of the machine until you get
it right. If the body of the incubator is not level, the egg chamb-
er will not heat evenly; therefore be sure that the machine is as
nearly level as possible. Be sure it sits firmly.

WARMING UP

When starting the incubator run with low lamp flame_until
the machine is thoroughly warmed through. Then run with a
moderately high lamp flame and adjust the regulating device
according to the manufacturer’s directions. After securing the
proper adjustment the machine should run evenly at a temper-
ature of 102} to 103 in the egg chamber with the center of the
thermometer bulb two inches from the bottom of the egg tray.
Maintain this temperature throughout the hatch. Run the
incubator empty for a few days until you become familiar with
it and are sure that the regulating device is working properly.
After you are sure you understand the operation of the machine
and can run it at an even temperature, the eggs may be put in.
Do not put in the eggs until you can run the empty incubator
at an even temperature.

SELECTING THE EGGS FOR HATCHING

Don’t be eager to fill the machine to the fullest capacity
of the egg trays. Select the eggs for hatching as carefully as
you would for use under hens. Be sure the eggs used for hatch-
ing are from breeding stock that is in the best possible condition.
Eggs from debilitated or unhealthy fowls will only prove a
disappointment. If they hatch, the chicks will not do well and
the probability is that many of the chicks will be dead in the
shell or die within the first ten days after hatching. To get the
best results use only eggs from sound, healthy breeding stock.
Eggs of medium size for the fowl producing them usually hatch
best. Very large or very small eggs should not be used. Discard
all eggs having misshapen, rough, lumpy or thin porous shells.

Unless the egg tray is especially fitted for placing the eggs
in rows there is no need of so arranging them. Fill the tray

_ with as many as will go in easily, but do not pile up the eggs

or attempt to double up by placing eggs on top of a full tray.
STARTING THE HATCH

After placing the eggs in the machine, let it alone until
theZeggs have had time to warm up, which will take several
hours. Then make sure that the machine is holding tempera-
ture properly and do not let the heat run above 103 degrees.
Too high a temperature during the first week will injure the
germs.

Under all ordinary conditions it will be best to run with
the ventilators closed in hot air machines, having an exhaust
or return pipe to the heater, and nearly closed in other types.
Too much ventilation is worse than none. The modern machines
of standard make furnish ample ventilation and it is seldom
necessary to run the vents wide open. In case of doubt, consult
the directions furnished by the manufacturer. He should know
best the proper conditions for securing good results with his
machine. ;

Run the incubator lamp with a moderately high flame at
the start, gradually reducing the height of same as the hatch
progresses, until you are running with the mimimum height
flame necessary at hatching time. This is necessary on account
of the constantly increasing radiation of animal heat from the
eggs as the embryo grows and becomes more vigorous.

TURNING THE EGGS

After the second day it will be necessary to turn the eggs
twice a day; these turnings should be as nearly twelve hours
apart as possible. The writer prefers to turn eggs by removing
them from the center of the tray to the ends and rolling the bal-
ance inward toward the center with the flat of the hand. This
is the most satisfactory method and is easy and simple in prac-
tice. It tends to even up any inequalities of temperature in
the egg chamber and gives all the eggs an even chance to hatch
well. In addition to this the position of the trays should be
changed from side to side at the morning turning, when two or
more are used, and turned from end to end at the night turning

34—A MOST SATISFACTORY FEEDING TROUGH

38

ARTIFICIAL INCUBATION

COOLING THE EGGS

Under all ordinary conditions in a temperate climate, ex-
cept in extremely warm weather, the eggs will do better if no
cooling or airing is attempted. The eggs get all the airing
necessary, for best results, while being turned and should be
returned at once to the incubator after turning. Afte the
eggs are replaced the door of the egg chamber should be closed
and the machine let alone until next turning time. The tem-
perature of the eggs and the egg chamber always falls whenever
the incubator door is opened or the eggs are removed for turning.
Do not attempt to adjust the regulating device to assist the
machine to return to normal temperature; if it is let alone it
will recover the proper temperature in a short time without
regulation.

In very hot weather, where the temperature runs high in
the incubator cellar, the eggs may be cooled from five to fifteen
minutes once a day. When running at any season of the year,
should the temperature
of the egg chamber rise
above 103 degrees, from
any cause, it is a good ,
plan to cool the eggs
from five to fifteen min- |
utes according to the
length of time they have
been exposed to higher
temperature. Do not
practice cooling the eggs,
except as advised herein
if you wish to get the best
results. '

CARE OF THE LAMP

Keep the incubator |
lamp clean. Put in a new
wick when starting each
hatch. Be sure to trim
the wick and fill the lamp
after turning the eggs '
every morning. Never
attend to the lamp and
then handle the eggs with
oily hands. Carelessness
of that kind has ruined
many hatches. Keep the
perforations in the disc
about the wick tube of
the lamp burner, clean
and open, and do not al-
low crusts to accumulate
on the wick tube. Use
only the best grade of kerosene oil.

In filling the lamp be careful not to run the oil over—have
it full, but not too full, Always run a. lamp flame of sufficient
height so that it can be turned higher or lower as needed. Never
turn the flame high enough to cause the lamp to smoke.

TESTING THE EGGS

An egg tester is furnished with every incubator and hen
eggs should be tested twice during each hatch. Experienced
operators will make their first test on the sixth day, but it is
easier for the beginner to test on the tenth day. Do not turn
the eggs on testing day, as handling them while testing will
stir them up all that is necessary. In cold weather test the
eggs in a warm room. When the egg tray is removed close
the door of the machine. The egg tester should be ready for
use in a dark room and it is more convenient to provide an extra
tray in which to place the fertile eggs and a basket for the in-
fertile ones and dead germs. By holding the eggs before the

39

opening in the egg tester, which has been placed on a lighted
lamp, the operator will be able to examine the contents. The
infertile eggs will be perfectly clear or only show a slight shadow
of the yolk. ;

The dead germs are not so easy to recognize, and a little
practice is necessary to identify them. Many dead germs will
show a small irregular red line apparently adhering to the inside
of the shell, or a broken circle of red containing a dark brown
spot. The operator will soon become familiar with the various
types of dead and putrid eggs.

On the sixth day the live egg is easily recognized as it
contains a spider like arrangement of blood vessels in the midst.
of which appears the embryo, a small irregular dark body which.
has pulsating motion and appears to be floating in the center
of the network of blood vessels which radiate from it. On the:
tenth day the larger portion of the fertile egg appears dark
with a fair sized air space at the large end. Mark any doubt-

35—HEALTHY BROODER-RAISED LEGHORN CHICKS

ful eggs and let them remain in the machine until the next test.
When the trayful has been tested and the infertile eggs and
dead germs removed, the live eggs should be returned to the
incubator. The infertile eggs may be cooked and fed to large
brooder chicks, growing stock or breeding birds. Do not feed
eggs to newly hatched chicks.

The second test should be made on the seventeenth or
eighteenth day. All live germs will now appear to fill the
greater part of the egg, making it opaque when held before the
tester. The air cell will be considerably increased in size and
may show a slightly irregular outline. Dead germs will show
a streaky or mottled appearance. All dead germs and any eggs,
marked doubtful at the first test, which have failed to develop
should be removed at this time.

HATCHING TIME

When chicks begin to pip the eggs (break the shell) it is
time to stop turning. The trays should be pushed back as far

ARTIFICIAL INCUBATING AND BROODING

as they will go to give the chicks a chance to drop into the
nursery below the trays, or, if there are two trays, one may
be pushed back and the other drawn forward, leaving a space
at the front and back of the egg chamber for the chicks to fall
into the nursery,

Now close the machine and let it remain closed until the
hatch is over. If it has been running evenly and regulating
properly it is perfectly safe to trust, and interference at hatch-
ing time will only injure or spoil the hatch.

Learn to let the incubator alone at hatching time. When
the chicks are hatching it will do so harm for the temperature
to run as high as 105 degrees, but it should not go higher.

Never open the incubator to “help” a chick which seems

Wee oes

ee

is a large number of very wet chicks in the machine, but as soon
as the chicks have dried the trays should be removed.

By leaving the incubator door open in this manner a greater
volume of fresh air is supplied for the use of the chicks which
now require a considerable quantity for breathing purposes
since their lungs have been brought into action. While the
incubator has sufficient ventilation for all purposes of incuba-
tion, and for supplying sufficient oxygen to the embryo chick
through the blood vessels lining the egg shell, it does not give
a sufficient amount of fresh air for use of a machine full of
lusty young chicks which have broken out of their shells and
are making use of their full lung capacity for the first time.

Chicks hardened off in this

manner always make a better

life of it than when confined

yy too closely to the machine. It

will be advisable to let the

chicks remain in the incubator
for 24 to 36 hours after hatch-
ing, at the end of which time
they should be placed in the

So

7
Gs

a

bus

TAN
Fr Cel SY
sa

t

36—DRINKING FOUNTAIN AND FEED HOPPER

to be having a hard time to get out. Such practice is almost
certain to injure the balance of the eggs by releasing the mois-
ture and cooling the eggs. When the chicks have all hatched
ag near as you can judge by looking through the glass in the
incubator door, the ventilators should be thrown wide open;
at this time remove the egg trays and all egg shells from the
machine, turn the buttons on incubator door to the perpendicular
and close the door against them, fastening it in place by means
of a wire attached to a tack driven into the body of the machine
and make it fast to the knob on the incubator door. This
leaves the door open a little and allows a greater volume of air
to enter the egg chamber, assists the chicks to dry off properly
and helps harden them at a temperature a little lower than that
at which they were hatched. This should not be done if there

40

brooder which has been made ready and is running all
heated up waiting for them.

WHAT IS A GOOD HATCH

Don’t expect too much of your incubator. Many compe-
tent men believe that they get just as good or better results
from the season’s work with incubators as they could with hens.
They have good ground for their belief.

Some hens will hatch thirteen chicks from thirteen eggs
sometimes. Many more hatch but five or six chicks and there
are plenty of hens that do not hatch any chicks at all or that
spoil nearly all of their eggs.

You get chicks dead in the shell from various causes when
hatching under hens and you get them in incubators. Summing

ARTIFICIAL INCUBATION

it up carefully you will not find such a wide difference in results
between the natural and artificial methods for the given number
of eggs incubated. You don’t feel alarmed if you find from
four to five chicks dead in the eggs under a hen, yet the same
percentage loss in a 100 or 200-egg incubator startles you, be-
cause it looks bigger, owing to the greater number that you see
at one time,

Two infertile eggs and four chicks dead in the shell out of
a sitting under a hen is a very common thing. In a machine con-
taining one hundred eggs the same percentage would mean at
least fifteen infertile eggs and thirty chicks dead in the shell,
which would seem alarming to the inexperienced.

Experienced incubator operators feel well satisfied if they
‘find that their entire season’s work gives them an average of
fifty chicks for each hundred eggs set. Some are able to better
this average. Hatches made during the spring months, the
natural breeding season, will frequently run a much higher per-
centage. I have obtained 75, 80, 97 and 108 chicks from the
120 eggs set when hatching in March, April and May and many
others can report like results. Earlier and later hatches have
given 50 to 65 chicks, sometimes more, very seldom less, while
even some spring hatches have not averaged better than 50 per
cent of the eggs set. I considered the results good and never
once thought of blaming the incubator. Hens would not have
done better with the same number of eggs, conditions being
equal.

One hundred per cent hatches are sometimes made in in-
cubators, but like the thirteen chicks from thirteen eggs that
advocates of the natural method like to boast of as “old biddy’s”’
record, they are exceptional cases.

Get a good incubator, use good fresh eggs from sound,
healthy, vigorous breeding stock and be reasonable in your ex-

pectations. If you do this, take my word for it, you will not be
disappointed. ,

An old time poultryman recently said to me, “I wouldn’t
set 500 eggs under hens again if you’d give me the eggs and pay
me for my trouble. I’ll take an incubator every time, keep my
conscience clear and a clean sheet with the recording angel.
I haven’t the time nor the patience to hatch a lot of chicks with
hens.” JI have no doubt that many feel as he does and I know
that I do.

CARE OF THE INCUBATOR

After the chicks have been removed from the machine
give it a thorough cleaning. If the incubator has burlap or
other porous material covering the bottom of the nursery, this
should be cleaned and removed. Run the machine for a day
or two to thoroughly dry it out before starting a new hatch.
When a number of hatches have been run it is advisable to use
a weak solution of some creolin disinfectant in warm water to
wash out the interior of the egg chamber. Before starting with
another lot of eggs be sure to dry and air out the egg chamber
thoroughly. Ordinarily disinfectants will only be required at
the close of the hatching season before the incubator is put
away.

Always store the machine in a,dry place where the wood-
work will not be liable to be affected by moisture and so swell
and warp out of shape. Never leave an incubator with the
lamp filled, if this is done the oil is liable to creep up on the
metal and the result will be that when the machine is next
started it will smoke and give trouble. A little attention given
to taking care of the incubator when through hatching will
prove a saving both in time and money and aid greatly in the
preservation of the machine itself.

A FEW HINTS ON BUYING INCUBATORS

DO NOT PUT IT OFF—BUY A GOOD INCUBATOR—CONSIDER THE RIGHT SIZE—
LOCATION OF THE INCUBATOR—THE ABUSE OF INCUBATORS—TEST THE EGGS

A. F. HUNTER

O NOT put off buying too long, that is, until the
season for hatching is near at hand. An in-
cubator will cost no more bought early than at
the time you want to begin to use it, and there
are very manifest advantages in getting it into
your possession, and becoming to a certain ex-
tent familiar with it.

While extreme delays may be unusual, still, there are pos-
sible delays, owing to the transfers which may be necessary in
transit. Therefore we say buy your machine in good time so
as to avoid the possible misfortune of delay. Another point is
that you have an opportunity to set up the machine at a time
when you have plenty of leisure to do it right and get the con-
ditions right.

We heard 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 sub-
jected to will illustrate the point. She had never seen an in-
cubator before and had no idea of running one excepting what
she got in the directions sent with the incubator. As for-
tune 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

41

gradually warm up the machine to the desired temperature, see
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 fill-
ing and trimming,—in fact, become “familiar” with the methods
of operating the incubator. This is purely elementary advice,
but the great bulk of incubator buyers are amateurs, and very
many of them have never operated incubators before, hence
these same “A, B, C”’ points have to be gone over frequently.

BUY A GOOD INCUBATOR

Do not make the mistake that some beginners do of buying
a cheap incubator because you risk less in case you do not suc-
ceed with it. We had that argument made to us in a letter
in which the writer said he preferred the——because it was
cheapest, and if he did not succeed with it his loss would be
smaller. We have no right to say that a cheap incubator is
not a good incubator; nor to say the reverse, that the highest
priced incubator is the best incubator. The point we wish to
suggest is the one which the late President Harrison made in
his oft-quoted statement about the cheap coat. It is a well
known fact that a cheap pair of shoes cannot be made of so
good leather nor so well made as a pair of shoes costing, say,
twice as much; no one would expect to get as good a pair of
shoes for $1.50 as he would for $3; in the very nature of
things it is impossible that he should.

ARTIFICIAL INCUBATING AND BROODING

As this principle runs throughout all business, it is per-
fectly legitimate advice to say that the probability is against a
cheap incubator being as good an incubator as you will require
for best results. Be sure you buy a good one, because the
incubator is the chief corner-stone of your success in poultry
work, Chickens that are poorly hatched start in life with a
serious handicap and in the very nature of things cannot be
so thrifty, cannot grow so well, and have not so much strength
and vigor as chicks that are “well hatched.” A well known
physical scientist says that “we owe to our children that they
be well born”; similarly we owe it to our chickens that they
are well hatched. There is another adage that applies, namely,
that “well begun is half done”—hence the importance of the
advice to buy a good incubator.

CONSIDER THE BEST SIZE

A very common mistake with beginners is to buy a small
machine, and then, after a hatch or two, learn that they ought
to have had one of twice the

ence is abundant proof of the good work incubators will do.
LOCATION OF AN INCUBATOR

The location of the incubator is a most important question,
for upon its right location much depends; as, for example, its
accessibility and hence ease of management, the supply of fresh
air for it, and many other aids to good hatches. Taking up the
question of fresh air first, because 'it is very important—it is
really wonderful that some incubator managers get as good re-
sults as they do. The common advice is, “Put the incubator
in a cellar,” without a thought of how many different shades of
meaning are attached to that word, cellar. In some sections
of the country there are no such things as cellars, in other
sections, as for example, New England, a cellar is a large or
small underground apartment intended for the storage of fruit
and vegetables to secure them against frost (not forgetting a
row of barrels of cider), and such a cellar has usually no facili-
ties for ventilation; and, during the winter months, absolutely
no fresh air reaches it save
such as is admitted when the

size. A case in point was
that of a lady in Canada
whom I met last summer.
She bought a small incuba-
tor, took it home, set it up,
got an excellent hatch from
it, then went directly off to
the agent and exchanged it
for a 100 per cent larger
size, because she wanted one
that would do twice the work
of the smaller one. She had
bought a small one in the
first place because she dis-
trusted her ability to run an
incubator, and was not cer-
tain that an incubator would
do as good work as hens;
but that brief trial convinc-
ed her that she had blund-
ered in buying the small
size and that it would have
been sundry dollars in her
pocket if she had bought
the larger one at the outset.

housewife goes down to get
supplies, Such a “cellar” is
a most unfit place for an in-
cubator because the incuba-
tor lamp, burning night and
day, soon exhausts the oxy-
gen of the air, and by the
time the germs have devel-
oped into embryos and begun
to breathe, there is practi-
cally no oxygen for them.
Oxygen is absolutely essen-
tial to life, and a liberal sup-
ply of oxygen is needed by
the one or two hundred tiny
pairs of lungs within the in-
cubator if the bodies are to
develop strength to survive
the struggle for exclusion.
Here is where very many be-
ginners stumble. They are
afraid to allow fresh air to
enter for fear of variations in
the temperature of the incu-

Fortunately, in her case, the
mistake was comparatively
easily remedied, because the
agent was only eight or ten
miles distant and was quite
willing to make the exchange with her. If she had bought the
machine of the manufacturer direct there would have been the
difficulty of arranging the matter by correspondence, taking
down, crating and shipping the machine back and remitting
the difference in price, and paying return freight charges on
the larger machine.

Consider well the hatching capacity you require for your
business and buy a good incubator of the size that will do the
work you wish to have done. The time has gone by when there
is any question about an incubator doing the work an incubator
is wanted to do. It hasbeenabundantly proven that a good,
dependable incubator will not only hatch chickens, but will
hatch those that are strong and thrifty; the incubator will do
better work than will the erratic sitting hens. This point of
buying a good incubator is suggested by the experience
of a lady who mentioned incidentally that she bought
an incubator last spring and sold the chicks of the first hatch
for enough to pay for the machine and had some $5 over;
as she had never used an incubator before, such an experi-

weather.

37—A CONFINED PEN IN FRONT OF THE BROODER

This illustration shows a method of confining chicks that should not be practiced in warm
The pens should have wire or lath sides to allow of a free circulation of air,

42

bating apartment, or that the
slightest current of air, will
derange the regulation of the
machine, and the direct re-
sult of their fear is insuffi-
cient oxygen, weakened embryos and a poor hatch; further-
more, even the chicks that have sufficient strength to survive
to exclusion are toa considerable per cent, debilitated and
weaker than they would have been if there had been a suffici-
ency of fresh air.

For many reasons the common house cellar is an unfit place
in which to run an incubator; most cellars are too damp and
all are lacking in facilities for admitting fresh air, hence it is
much wiser to have the incubator room above (or mostly above)
ground.

THE ABUSE OF INCUBATORS

Many people are unfair to their incubators, either through
ignorance or carelessness, or both, and do not give them more
than half a chance to do the work an incubator is intended to
do. An incubator is precisely like every other kind of machine
in that it has to be operated by “human intelligence,” and
if the operator neglects to apply his intelligence and common-
sense, or has a super-abundance of that impalpable quality

FERTILE EGG (HEN); SEVEN DAYS FERTILE EGG (DUCK); SEVEN DAYS

INFERTILE EGG (HEN); FOURTEEN DAYS FERTILE EGG (HEN); FOURTEEN DAYS

HOW EGGS APPEAR THROUGH A TESTER AT VARIOUS STAGES OF INCUBATION

ARTIFICIAL

which New England people call carelessness, the results will be
unsatisfactory and the incubator manufacturer will get the
blame. An incubator is not endowed with intelligence. That
most essential quality must be supplied by the operator, and
that word “intelligence” is very significant. Possibly the term
common-sense or “horse-sense” explains it better, because it is
not essential that a man or woman be a trained scholar, but it
is necessary that one be able to understand the plain directions,
and then follow them.

One difficulty is that the instructions have such a different
meaning to different individuals, because they understand words
differently. Take, for example, the instruction to fill and trim
the lamp once a day. To a careful and tidy housewife that
means that the lamp is to be filled pretty well up to the top, the
charred crust of the wick brushed off, the burner carefully wiped
and the perforated air plate in the base of the burner is to be
brushed clean and then wiped clean and dry, and then the lamp
itself is wiped clean of any dust collections and, in fact, of all
dirt and dampness, whether of oil or moisture. To the ‘‘care-
less’? individual the same instructions to fill and trim the lamp
mean that the can of oil is up-ended, slap-dash, and oil spurted
into the lamp until it is overful, then the thumbnail (or a
match-stick) is run along the edge of the wick tube to scrape off
the incrusted wick, the scrapings falling over the burner and
especially upon the air-plate in the base, the lamp is relighted,
chucked back into place and left to its fate. This isn’t a “fancy
sketch’’—we have seen incubator lamps mishandled in just that
way, and the man was called a “hustler” and had the name of
‘turning off a whole lot of work.” Evidently the work was
“turned off!”

We don’t at all mean that there is to bealot of “fussing”
with the lamp and other details of caring for an incubator, be-
cause there is not. It is a fact, though, that a very great dif-
ference in mental habit means a very great difference of interpre-
tation (or understanding) of instructions by different persons,
and while one will easily and successfully manage his incubators
and get good hatches another will so bungle his work as to get
poor hatches every time, and he will be the one to complain
that incubators are no good, or that he hasn’t luck with them.

NO SUCH THING AS “LUCK”

There is no such thing as luck with an incubator. There
is some element of “luck” in hatching with hens, but with a
well made and well regulated incubator the element of ‘“Jluck”
isn’t in it at all. If instructions are followed and the regulator
rightly adjusted the temperature is held to a degree, and with
the temperature kept at the desirable point and the ventilation
what it should be the eggs will hatch if handled right. If the
regulator doesn’t control the temperature the machine is at
fault, because the up-to-date incubators of to-day will keep the
temperature right; if you haven’t an incubator with a regulator
that regulates you haven’t the right incubator!

We should remember that the incubator manufacturer
wants us to have good hatches; it is to his interest to have us
succeed, as an unsuccessful customer is a poor advertisement
for his machine. The instructions sent out with it are calculated
to aid to a successful operating of the incubator, but we must
do our part and supply the element of intelligence and common
sense. If anyone buys an incubator in the expectation that all
he has to do is put in the eggs and then take out the chicks at
the end of three weeks he will get badly left. The house-wife
knows a kitchen range is a tool or implement for accomplishing
certain results with foods for the family, and she also knows
that she must guide the range in its work, regulating the heat to
the particular work she desires to do, putting in and taking out
the loaves of bread at the right time., etc. Just so with the
incubator. It is an implement with which we can accomplish
the hatching of chickens at any time we choose if we do our part,

INCUBATION

44

just as the house-wife accomplishes a successful baking by doing
her part; the essential thing is that we “do well our part.”

As we said before we don’t want to be continually “fussing”
with the incubator; leave it alone and give it a chance to do its
part! Many a fair promise has been wrecked by injudicious
meddling on the part of the operator, and if we can get amateurs
to understand that they are doing the best service by letting
the incubator entirely alone, excepting the regular trimming
and filling of the lamp and turnjng and airing of the eggs, we
shall have decidedly aided to good results. Of course, the
thermometers must be glanced at night and morning to be sure
the temperature is steady, and the air in the incubator room
must be fresh and pure, but, beyond that, the less the incubator
is fussed with the better. Judgment must be used, also, in cool-
ing and airing the eggs, and especially must we be careful if
the incubator room is cold. In winter it is good economy to
warm the incubator room to (say) sixty degrees, so as to avoid
the severe shock to the embryos of taking the eggs out of the
warm incubator into a temperature well down towards freezing.
Embryo chicks are decidely. more delicate in winter than in
April and May, and it is in winter they are liable to be subjected
to a particularly trying low temperature; the spring eggs are
decidedly stronger and more hatchable, and yet the winter eggs
are the ones likely to meet the extra trying conditions. We
must use judgment in all of the details of incubator manage-
ment, as do the incubator operators who have made the splendid
successes. ‘Don’t care’? never made a success of this (or any
other) work!

TEST THE EGGS

A not uncommon fault of inexperienced incubator operators
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,
and those clear eggs are perfectly good for cooking. 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 ex-
tent, 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 these infertile eggs to bakers and
confectioners, and they are used up in making cakes, pies, cus-
tards, ete.

A decided advantage in removing from the trays these
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 sixteenth or seventeenth 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 embryonic life and devel-
opment, 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.

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 interest of gaining knowledge—it is a good
investment in the long run.

ARTIFICIAL INCUBATION

SUPPLY FRESH AIR

Be sure 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 jeopardize 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 every day and every minute of the day, hence it is im-
portant 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 can be admitted to the machine and
the eggs can be cooled and aired a longer time than if the ma-
chine is in a considerably colder place. This means that cooling
and airing the eggs should be much less in cold 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 first week, and there are some who cool and air
from the very start almost. Generally speaking, however, if

of fresh air getting to the chicks, and when the operator finds a
lot of “chicks dead in the shells” he writes off to his poultry
editor and complains that the incubator don’t hatch good strong
chicks! How could it, when the operator is afraid to let the
life-giving oxygen in the air get to the embryo chicks, and doesn’t
give them a chance to grow strong and vigorous?

ARTIFICIAL HATCHING OF CHICKS

PRACTICAL INFORMATION IN REGARD TO
INCUBATOR MANAGEMENT—FEEDING OF
YOUNG CHICKS—MOISTURE IN INCUBATORS

H. P. JOHNSON

HIS is the modern method of raising chickens in any
numbers, and the poultryman who tries to do it in any
other way cannot hope to compete with those who adopt
up-to-date methods. There are so many good makes of incuba-
tors on the market that it is
a hard matter to make any

recommendation at all. Do not

buy an incubator simply be-
cause it is cheap; rather buy
the machine that costs a little
more and that carries the
maker’s guarantee with it, and
one that you know is in satis-
factory use by the leading
poultry raisers of the day.
The same remarks will apply
to the brooder, for whereas
anything will hatch a certain
percentage of chicks, it is only
the properly constructed, sci-
entifically ventilated brooder
that will raise those chicks af-
ter they are hatched.

There are, from my ex-
perience, a few golden rules
that must be observed by those
who would have success in the
operating of incubators, and
they are as follows: Run the
machine strictly in accordance
with the maker’s printed in-
structions; for it is a reasonable

supposition that he has made
every experiment and investi-

38—IDEAL QUARTERS FOR BREEDING STOCK

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 pipping) ten to fifteen minutes a day
is none too much. Indeed, if the animal heat in the eggs is
strong and the temperature of the incubator room is 60 degrees
or above, quite a long airing daily will be beneficial.

Don’t be afraid of giving the embryo chicks shut up within
the egg shells too much fresh air to breathe,—the errors are all
in the other direction. One man, for example, stuffed rags into
every crack and crevice, to keep out the life giving oxygen in the
air! He will save a few cents worth of oil by keeping out the
cool air, but at the expense of vitality and vigor of the chicks,—
and some of them may be so weakened by the lack of fresh air
to breathe that they may not be able to struggle out of the
shells, Many and many a hatch has been spoiled by this fear

45

gation necessary for success

and is as much interested in

the machine doing the work
properly as you are, and more so, as it means increased sales
for him; therefore, I say, follow his directions to the letter.

Air your eggs at a regular time every day and also have a
set time for filling and trimming your lamp, and do it then, so
that you will not have the misfortune to find your machine
cold and the hatch ruined.

Do not be in a hurry to open the machine at the end of the
hatch; your chicks will not die of starvation; nature has provid-
ed for all their requirements for at least forty-eight hours after
exclusion, and more chicks are killed by opening the machine,
perhaps with a view to saving some chick which itis thought
cannot get out by itself, than by any other means. The chick
that has to be assisted out of the shell is never any good, and in
saving, or trying to save, the one you may kill fifty others.
Let me then make a strong point of this; do not allow any one,
by any excuse, whatever, to open your machine during the

ARTIFICIAL INCUBATING AND BROODING

hatching or until it is all over and you are ready then to remove
the chicks to the brooder. This is also a critical time, as they
must be quickly removed to the brooder without a chance of
a chill, which is almost sure to be fatal, andif not so will give
them a great set-back, and they never will quite recover from it.

A most important point to be observed is the keeping of
an equal temperature and the proper supply of pure, fresh air.
In the matter of temperature it is a good plan to err on the side
of too much than too little. What I mean is. that if your ma-
chine is such that it cannot be regulated to a fine point, it is
better to be on the high side than to have the machine at 102
degrees. One hundred and three degrees is conceded to be the
correct incubating temperature, and the nearer the temperature
is kept at that the more satisfactory the result.

All good makes of incubators are now provided with reliable
automatic regulators, so that if the maker’s directions are fol-
lowed there will be no variations of temperature. Follow the
directions and keep heat as regular as possible, providing plenty
of fresh air by proper airing of the eggs daily. Do not be afraid
to give the eggs plenty of fresh air, as this is essential above all

39—JUST HATCHED

things to the proper and timely exclusion of the chick and to
the natural drying out of the egg. But do not get the eggs
where they will be chilled or you will err on the other side.
What is wanted is pure, not cold air. ‘
Most beginners are too timid about airing the eggs; especi-
ally during the last week, and more chicks are lost from this
cause than any other; they are practically smothered in the shell.
Did you ever notice the way a hen will leave her eggs, often for
half an hour each day, and even an hour if the weather is warm,
and then hatch every one? More pure air should be the motto
of the incubator operators and there would be more chicks.
These same remarks apply also to the brooder and brooder
houses. Fresh air is the life of the chick, both before and after
hatching. :

MOISTURE AND VENTILATION IN INCUBATORS

All know that varying conditions demand varying forms
of treatment. This applies to artificial incubation, and especi-
ally to “moisture” and “ventilation.” Experience has taught
us that it is impracticable to build an incubator with a positive
fixed ventilation (self-ventilation); also, with no provision for
supplying moisture; for a machine must be so made as to give
uniformly large hatches whether operated in a cold cellar or in
an over-heated chamber, and whether operated under the ex-
acting conditions in the dry atmosphere of Colorado, the damp
air of the Atlantic coast, the heat of Florida, or the chilly air
of Maine. Not to provide for these varied conditions would be
impractical and unreasonable. Provision’ must, therefore, be
made to govern at all times, in nature’s way, the proper supply
of fresh air and the lack or excess of moisture, under any and all
conditions of atmosphere. and temperature, and at different
seasons of the year.

The operator will have to usea great deal of judgment and

46

common sense in this important matter, as the conditions at
the time of hatching have so much influence on the matter that
it is impossible to lay down any set rules.

There are times when the so-called non-moisture machines
have been proved to give infinitely better results by having a
pan of water placed in the machine.

W. H. HARDIN

I ence to a hot water one. Hot water may be just as good,
dium dry cellar, there being few changes of temperature in such
where a direct current of air will strike them, in which event
is a single case one. Although double case machines cost a

In order that you may get a good uniform hatch, it is nec-
always will hatch sooner than those that are older. After get-
days and nights, after which they should be turned night and
The importance of this matter of airing was brought to my at-
during the period of incubation almost without exception brought
ing the winter and early spring I should advise say ten minutes

I test my eggs on the seventh day of incubation, removing
machine, because if one or more chicks should “die in the shell
trous to your hatch. It is highly important that the air within
different stages of the hatch, I would suggest that an amateur
the difference in the development of the air cells of the eggs
ventilation.
running your machine in a dry room above the ground, particu-
necessity for this will have to be determined more or less by the

HATCHING WITH INCUBATORS
N REGARD to the kind of incubator to purchase, I should
by all means advise buying a hot air machine in prefer-
but I have invariably had the best results from the former.
My first choice for the location of an incubator would be a me-
a place, though I have had excellent results from machines that
stoodin my bedroom. You should avoid placing your machines
you will find more or less trouble in maintaining a uniform de-
gree of heat within the egg chamber, especially if your machine
fraction more than single case ones, yet they are well worth the
difference in price and give far more satisfactory results.
essary that your eggs be as freshly gathered as possible, and as
nearly as practicable of the same age. Freshly gathered eggs
ting your machine heated to the proper degree of temperature,
introduce your eggs, allowing them to remain quietly for two
morning and aired ten to thirty minutes, according to the season
of the year. Do not let them cool much under seventy degrees.
tention before I began using incubators, from the fact that those
of my sitters that came off their nests twice or three times a day
off the greatest number of chicks, while on the other hand, the
close, steady sitters never gave me satisfactory hatches. Dur-
cooling; but later on, from twenty-five to thirty and even forty
minutes would be better.
all clear eggs, and I test from that time on until I am satisfied
that none but fertile eggs, those that will hatch, remain in the
during the time they are allowed to remain in the machine they
will throw off a most disagreeable odor which will prove disas-
the egg chamber be perfectly sweet and pure at all times.

In regard to the proper amount of ventilation requisite at
on making his first hatch with an incubator set a hen at the same
time he does his machine and note carefully from day to day
under the hens and those in the incubator. By this means you
can readily determine whether you have too much or too little

If your machine is located in a cellar that is somewhat damp,
it is not likely that you will need any supplied moisture, but in
larly in hot, dry weather, is it often necessary to supply a little
moisture during the latter part of the hatch. However, the
appearance of the egg shell. When the chicks come out, if they
look dry and shriveled and pieces of the shell adhere to them,

ARTIFICIAL

add a little moisture by means of a wet sponge or a small quan-
itty of warm water in a saucer, which will generally correct the
trouble. Avoid opening the machine while a hatch is in progress,
as it completely destroys the humidity of the egg chamber and
will cause a loss of many chicks.

All the chicks should be out on the twenty-first day, When
I am satisfied that the hatch is finished, I remove the egg tray,
allowing the chicks to remain in the incubator until they are
at least twenty-four hours old.

SUCCESS WITH INCUBATORS

INCUBATING AND BROODING EQUALLY IM-
PORTANT—HATCHING AND RAISING CHICKS

WILLIAMS BROS.

: HE disappointment to beginners in the poultry business
could, nine-tenths of them, be avoided if they would

assume a less experimental strain, and adopt the horse-

‘sense principle. LExperimentts are all right and to be commend-
ed when confined to the proper sphere, but it seems that most
people when starting to operate an incubator for the first time
believe they can improve upon the rules laid down by the makers
-of the machine. They, therefore, put their own ideas in opera-
‘tion, often ideas which are diametrically opposed to the rules
given them, as well as being in opposition to the laws of nature,
All incubators are not operated alike, and while there is

more or less similiarity among them, in many cases the rules

.governing the operation of one make would not prove success-
ful if applied to another. It seems natural that the maker of
.an incubator should understand his particular machine better
‘than a person not so familiar with its mechanism, therefore,
we strongly recommend to the beginner when starting his in-
cubator to apply the rules laid down and given him by the
manufacturer of the particular machine he is operating. After
‘he has run it for two ar three hatches, should he find he can im-
prove upon the printed instructions he has followed, then he
may do so, but he should by all means use all the good judgment
he possesses, and mingle with it just as little “theory” as pos-
sible,

It is a very simple thing to operate an incubator. In recent
years wonderful improvements have been made in incubator
construction, until to-day there are machines on the market
which are almost perfect. We believe that the best are none
too good, therefore, would advise purchasers of incubators not
to consider a few dollars’ difference in cost, but to pay a little
extra if necessary and get a good machine.

There are a few points we will refer to particularly as they
may be beneficial to some who are inexperienced in operating
incubators:

First. It is highly important to keep the temperature of
the egg chamber as near 103 degrees Fahrenheit as possible the
first week of the hatch, but do not lose your equilibrium should
you find on different occasions that it varies. Sometimes the
temperature drops to 95, without injury to the eggs. Again, it
may go up to 107 the latter part of the hatch without serious
injury, but this is risky business, although some of the best
hatches we have ever seen have been under just such circum-
stances. There is nothing gained by such a variation of tem-
perature, but on the other hand, everything to lose, however,
we repeat, do not get excited if the temperature varies, but do
your best to learn to manage your incubator so it will not vary.

Second. The moisture question is about as important as
any, and should be carefully considered. It is difficult to make
a rule which will apply to all machines and to all climates. In
a dry climate, and in warm weather more moisture is required

INCUBATION

47

than otherwise, and two or three hatches will prove to the
operator whether the eggs require considerable moisture, very
little, or none at all. If the chicks develop too rapidly it is
usually caused by too much moisture,.in some cases combined
with too much heat. This causes them to die in the shell. It
is far better to have a little moisture in the incubator from the
beginning to the end of a hatch, rather than to put it in at in-
tervals and have too much. Rather than guess at the amount
required, we would much prefer to have a little in the machine
during the entire hatch, i. e., from the first day to the twenty-
first. But whatever you do, follow the instructions of the
manufacturer.
BOWEL TROUBLE

Usually the cause of chicks dying the first week of their
lives may be attributed to improper. incubation of the eggs,
resulting in their coming out of the shells notso strong in con-
stitution as they should be. By “improper incubation” we
mean too much or too little heat, or too much or too little mois-
ture. If the chicks do not come out of the shells strong and
vigorous, the operator of the incubator should be a close enough
observer to determine the cause. He can do this by watching
the chicks develop and studying the process of which so much
has been written.

There is no more excuse for improper brooding and feeding
than there is for improper incubating. While there are many
first-class‘ makes of brooders on the market, I think there is yet
room for improvement in some. Poor ventilation of the brood-
ers is the very root of all evil. It is the cause for chicks dying
more than all other causes combined. A brooder which will
give enough heat and still furnish an abundance of pure fresh
air is the right thing, but a brooder which will cause the chicks
to crowd and suffocate is not a success.

The key-note for feeding should be—‘Keep the chicks
hungry.” Learn to feed them just what they will eat up clean,
no more. Then feed again soon. Keep them busy and hungry.
Never allow them to become overthirsty, but keep good, clean
water before them all the time. Never feed sloppy food. We
believe chicks will grow faster and do better on a dry, well-bal-
anced diet, than on anything else. Never neglect the chicks
from the time they are hatched. Any extra attention that can
be given them out of the ordinary routine of feeding, etc., for
the first three or four weeks is time well spent, for if they are
given a good start, they will grow, and develop rapidly, whereas
if they do not grow from the time they are hatched they never
will reach the state of perfection they would had they started
out on their career under more favorable conditions.

Cleanliness in everything connected with the chicks plays
an important part, and this department must not be neglected.

Out here in California we can hatch and raise poultry any
month in the year, although most of the extensive breeders
count on getting out the largest number of chicks in January,
February and March. It makes it very convenient for us in
breeding and hatching for exhibition specimens, for we know
just when to hatch the birds in order to have them just right
and in the pink of condition for the different shows. We our-
selves raise exhibition S. C. Brown Leghorns exclusively, and
for the state fairs hatch out our birds about April 1st, and by
September 15th they are in fine condition. Then for the Dec-
ember and January shows we hatch a little later. Eastern
breeders must follow the seasons for doing their hatching, while
California breeders do not have climate to contend with.

In conclusion, to get back to the subject of this article, we
will say that there are only a few cardinal points to keep in
mind to be successful, and any person of ordinary intelligence
can raise poultry artificially if he will only apply himself to the
business and study the requirements, always keeping foremost
in mind—“Take every man’s counsel, but reserve judgment,”
then profit and pleasure will go hand in hand.

THE ADVANTAGES OF INCUBATORS

THE SOUTH CAROLINA AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION GIVES RELIABLE
ADVICE AND TELLS HOW SUCCESS MAY BE SECURED—THE ADVANTAGES OF
POSSESSING AN INCUBATOR—WHERE IT SHOULD BE LOCATED—MUCH DEPENDS
UPON THE EGGS—ATTENTION TO INCUBATOR AND EGGS—RAISING THE CHICKS

O. M. WATSON

N INCUBATOR is necessary for chicks to be hatch-
ed early in the season. By having early hatched
chicks much better prices are obtained, and the
chicks mature earlier in the fall and commence
laying before winter sets in, and if properly cared
for a larger number of winter eggs can be obtain-
ed. By using an incubator hens can be stopped
from sitting and can commence laying again.

A much larger number of chickens can be raised on a small lot.
An incubator is a time saver. It requires fourteen to sixteen
large hens to cover 200 eggs, and to look after these hens proper-
ly will require three times as much time as a 200-egg incubator
will require. It will take eight gallons of oil to the hatch with
a 200-egg incubator, which, at 15 cents per gallon, will amount
to $1.20. It will take half a pint of corn per day to properly
feed a sitting hen. For six-
teen hens, four quarts per
day would be required. Four
quarts per day for twenty-
one days would amount to
eighty-four quarts. With
corn at 64 cents per bushel
(two cents per quart), the
cost of feeding sixteen hens
for twenty-one days would
amount to $1.68. It costs
less to heat the incubator
than to feed the hens. By
having the incubator -thor-
oughly disinfected before the
eggs are put in we avoid the
worry and trouble of lice
and mites.

WHY MANY PEOPLE FAIL WITH
INCUBATORS

A great many people
have an idea that all that is
necessary isto get an incu-
bator, put the eggs in, heat it
up and let it alone. The advertisements of manufacturers of
incubators are somewhat responsible for this. A certain
amount of attention at the proper time is absolutely necessary.

A man will become interested in an incubator and will buy
one. When it comes his hens are not laying much. He wants
to start it up at once, so he goes out to get the required number
of eggs. He gets all he can from his friends and gets the balance
from the store, no matter what sort of weather they have been
through nor how long they have been kept, no matter what
sort of hens laid them nor what sort of care the hens had. All
he is looking for is eggs. He puts his. incubator anywhere,
where it will be out of the way and starts it up. He hatches
about ten per cent of sickly chicks, and then says that the in-
cubator is worthless and throws it into a shed and gives it up.

THE PLACE TO RUN AN INCUBATOR

The proper place to run an incubator is in a room or cellar

40—ACTIVE, HEALTHY CHICKENS

48

where the temperature is not variable. The greatest trouble
with a cellar is too much moisture. No matter if the temper-
ature in the room is high or low, so it is not subjected to sudden
changes. A brick cellar where it is not too moist is the best
place. By having a story above, the room is not affected by
the heat from the sun and the thick brick walls do not cool off
as quickly when it is very cold outside. A great deal of trouble
can be avoided by having the incubator in a room of this sort.
The room should be well ventilated so as to have a constant
circulation of pure air. Do not run the incubator in a draught.

THE KIND OF EGGS TO HAVE

A great deal depends upon the kind of eggs you have to put
in an incubator (or under a hen). The eggs should be fresh
and from good healthy, vigorous stock. As the eggs are
gathered day by day they
should be kept where they
will not get too cold or too
warm. Select eggs as near
even size and color as pos-
sible. The eggs should be
turned once a day to keep
the yolk suspended in the
center. It is best not to
keep eggs more than two
weeks. The fresher they
are the better.

CARE OF INCUBATORS

The incubator should be
started up several days be-
fore the eggs are put in.
Heat slowly and gradually
turn up the flame. Watch
it constantly, and when the
thermometer registers 103,
screw the nut onthe con-
necting rod until the cap
over the lamp is raised about
one-eighth of an inch. It is important to know that the reg-
ulator is working all right before the eggs are put in. After
the temperature is regulated, put in the eggs and close the
doors, and do not open them for forty-eight hours. It takes
the eggs from thirty-six to forty-eight hours to get warmed
through, so do not be surprised to find that the thermometer
does not register 103 right off. Just keepthe flame as you
had it before the eggs were put in.

The lamp should be filled and cleaned and the wick trimmed
every night. This insures a good steady flame through the
night.

After the eggs have been in the incubator forty-eight hours,
they should be taken out and turned twice every day. It is
not necessary to turn them completely over each time, but just
enough to keep the yolks from settling to one side.

On the seventh day the eggs should be tested and the infer-
tile ones taken out. This is done by inclosing a lamp in a box,

ARTIFICIAL INCUBATION

with a hole in one side the shape of an egg. Hold a fresh egg
up to the light and it looks perfectly clear. When a fertile egg
has been incubated seven days, a dark spot surrounded by a
network of small veins can be seen. All eggs that still look
clear after the seven days’ incubation, are infertile and should
be taken out. These infertile eggs can be used for cooking or
can be boiled and fed to the young chickens. On the tenth and

fourteenth days the eggs should be tested and the dead eggs
removed,

The chickens will commence to hatch on the nineteenth and
twentieth days. After the hatch commences, do not open the
door of the incubator until the end of the twenty-first day. A
great many of the details of the management of an incubator
have to be learned by experience. Full directions for operat-.
ing accompany each incubator and should be carefully studied.
before the incubator is started up. There are quite a number
of good incubators on the market. Avoid buying an inferior-
machine because it is cheap.

THE MORTALITY’ OF CHICKS

AN INTERESTING INVESTIGATION

INTO THE CAUSES OF DEATH IN

INCUBATOR

CHICKS, AND THE MEASURES THAT WILL PREVENT SAME—MORTALITY GREATER
AMONG FEMALE CHICKS THAN AMONG MALE CHICKS—FAULTY INCUBATION

JAMES R.

HE rapid growth of the poultry industry within
“recent years has been largely influenced by the
perfection of the incubator. True, high priced
meat has been a factor, but the setting hen
has long since been distanced, and commercial
poulterers could do little without the incubator.

Just now the topic of greatest interest is |
“what incubator shall I buy? Which is best?”
Singulraly, every one who has at any time run an incubator
feels qualified to give advice.

In buying an incubator, two things may be remembered
to advantage. No machine can hatch an infertile egg and no
machine is fool proof. In other words, our first consideration
should be fertility and vitality in the egg; secondly, intelligent
faithful manipulation of the incubator. These statements are
repeated in substance many thousands of times by incubator
manufacturers; they are hoary-headed truisms, but ever new to
the tyro.

The feeling that the “latest is the best” is common to many.
Without knowing why, these persons insist on having the very
latest and their satisfaction and sense of security when. the
latest is finally purchased are so great that neglect of ordinary
and reasonable precautions often follow to the detriment of an
otherwise good hatch,

While much greater perfection in the art of constructing
ingenious contrivances for incubation does not seem probable
for the future, the case is different with brooding. The great
mortality among incubator chickens is an engrossing subject.
In this connection the results of post-mortem examinations
into the cause of death of 826 incubator chickens, a study recent-
ly made in Rhode Island, are interesting and instructive.

These studies were made for the purpose of ascertaining
with as much certainty as practicable the proportion of in-
cubated chickens which die, the causes of death, and what
measures are best adapted to check the losses.

CHIEF CAUSES OF MORTALITY

Of the 826 dead chickens examined, 387, or about 47 per
cent., were males, and 439, or 53 per cent. were females. Thus,
it would appear that the mortality among females chicks is
greater.

The diseases discovered as a result of the post-mortem
examination range themselves under four different heads: (1)
hereditary or faulty incubation; (2) mechanical causes; (3) im-
perfect sanitation; (4) improperly balanced rations.

First, to heredity and faulty incubation may be ascribed
the deaths that occur before extrusion and the abnormalities.

49

COVERT

Recent experiments conducted in Germany demonstrate that
alternate periods of heat and cold occuring during incubation
influence very largely the proportion of cripples. Of the 826
dead chickens examined, 33 per cent. died as a result of heredi-
tary weaknesses or faulty incubation. The weakness exhibited
by these chicks resulted in a greater liability to disease or in
abnormalities. Fifty eggs selected from certain breeding pens
were incubated. Of the 50 eggs, 27 proved fertile, 19 chicks
hatched, and of these 19 only 12 remained alive at the end of
ten days. Six of the dead chickens were tuberculous and all
of them had enlarged gall bladders.

Not one of that lot reached maturity. The excessive mor-
tality is attributed to congenital weakness, since chicks from
other parents did well under exactly similar conditions.

EFFECTS OF INHERITED WEAKNESS

Constitutional weakness may manifest itself in those cases
where the yolk is not absorbed at the normal rate. Just pre-
vious to pipping, the unassimilated remnant of the yolk of the
egg is drawn within the body cavity of the young chick. This
yolk sac is connected by a narrow tube with the intestine and
through this tube the liquified yolk enters the intestine, there to
undergo digestion and absorption. This yolk within the body
cavity of the young chick provides it with proper pabulum until
the chick has gained sufficient strength to provide additional
nourishment through the mouth. While the young chick is
gradually acquiring strength, this unassimilated yolk within its
body is gradually disappearing as the chick is able to assim-
ilate larger and larger quantities of food by the mouth, until,
finally, at the end of perhaps a week, under natural condi-
tions, the yolk has practically disappeared—absorbed into the
alimentary canal and there assimilated as required.

Now if this process of absorption is unreasonably delayed,
whether by reason of abndrmalities, congenital weakness, or an
over abundance of food through the mouth, the food provided
by nature as best suited to the chick fails of assimilation, weak-
ness results, the unabsorbed yolk decomposes, and the chick
is poisened—‘‘bowel trouble,” it is called. In a large propor-
tion of the chicks in this experiment which died just previous
to hatching, the yolk had not been drawn into the body cavity,
and 13.3 per cent. of the chickens which hatched, but subse-
quently died, showed trouble connected with the yolk sac.

Mechanical causes, many of them clearly preventable, oc-
casion the death of many chicks. Means of prevention sug-
gest themselves to all who are familiar with the details of brood-
ing, and no extended discussion is deemed necessary.

Imperfect sanitation, poor ventilation, and want of sun-

ARTIFICIAL INCUBATING AND BROODING

light are fruitful causes of high mortality, notwithstanding the
fact that young chicks are generally allowed as much liberty
as is consistent with satisfactory growth.

PREVALENCE OF TUBERCULOSIS

More than 15 per cent. of the post-mortems in this study
revealed the presence of tuberculosis—the bacillus was located
in the dark, poorly ventilated brooders, and it was here that
the chicks contracted this most insidious disease. Many a
person casually examining a brooder is misled by the fact that
it is scrupulously clean and absolutely louseless, and overlook
the danger of infection from tuberculosis, a disease very prev-
alent among fowls. German statistics show that 10 per cent.
of the adult fowls killed in that country are tuberculous.

Of the 15.1 per cent. tuber-
culous fowls examined in this
study, 113 chicks had tubercles
in the lungs, 5 on the walls of
the heart, 5 on the walls of the
gizzard, and 1 on the intestines.
The lungs, then, appear to be
the principal seat of infection,
over 90 per cent. of the diseas-
ed chickens having tuberculous
lungs. Tuberculosis is to be
suspected when whitish, cheesy
lumps appear on any of the in-
ternal organs, and, as a matter
of precaution, the lungs of fowls
should not be utilized as food.

Sunlight was found to be
the most efficient and cheapest
germicide. Affected hovers were
removed from the brooders and
set in the full sunlight and al-
lowed to air fora day. This
simple expedient reduced the
evidence of tuberculosis in the

.infected brooders from 50 per
cent, to only 3 per cent.

Congestion of the lungs, due
to sudden alterations of the
temperature and exposure,
claimed a large percentage of

food in abundance, consisting of sliced onion, oat sprouts, etc.,
was fed. in

To pen No. 2 was fed grain and green stuff—no animal
protein. The mortality in this pen was 9.5 per cent., of which
75 per cent. was due to digestive trouble.

To pen No. 8 grain alone was fed—animal protein and
green stuff were omitted. Mortality 32.7 per cent., of which
76.5 per cent. was due to digestive trouble.

To pen No. 4 was given egg, liver and green stuff—no grain.
In this case the mortality was 63.7 per cent., of which 85.8 per
cent. was due to digestive trouble.

THE IMPORTANCE OF A BALANCED RATION

This feeding experiment very strikingly indicates the ne-
cessity of a well-balanced ra-
tion for young chicks. If
chicks immediately after or even
before death show this green
area on the right side, the
amount of meat in the diet
should be increased. The weights
of the chickens surviving in the
above feeding experiment, taken
at the close of the test, very
forcibly demonstrated the fact
that the increased amount of
animal protein, in combination
with the grain ration, not only
reduced the mortality due to
indigestion, but also caused a
more rapid growth than was
observed in the case of chicks
not similarly fed.

For the purpose of provid-
ing a better balanced ration for
young chicks, the author has
instituted a feeding experiment
of his own, using blood meal
as a source of animal protein.
Blood meal is well-known as a
specific in calf scours, and from
its abnormally high content of
animal protein, its use in feeding
young chicks is expected to re-

victims, 243 chickens, or 29.4
per cent. of the mortality, being
attributed, more or less correct-
ly, to this trouble.

DIGESTIVE DIFFICULTIES

But the greatest interest attaches to the study of those
cases showing symptoms of indigestion. Of the 826 chicks
which died of disease, 625, or 75.6 per cent. had more or less
trouble with the gall bladder — closure of the gall duct, leading
to an enormous accumulation of gall, and a paleness of the
intestines. This condition is readily recognizable in the living
chick. The green gall stains adjacent organs and the abdo-
minal wall and a distinctly green erea is conspiduous outside
the abdominal wall, close to the posterior edge of the breast
bone, on the right side of the midline. The affected area ap-
pears as though mortification had set in, even before death.

To ascertain the cause of this accumulation of gall and
consequent mortality, a feeding experiment was instituted.
Four pens of approximately 50 chicks each, all conditions being
identical, were fed a varying ration,

To pen No. 1 equal parts of egg (from the incubator) liver,
and grain, boiled together and chopped fine, were fed. Green

41—WHITE LEGHORNS IN A LONG CLOSED-FRONT HOUSE

50

duce to a minimum the mortal-
ity from bowel trouble. Compar-
ed with animal protein derived
from other sources, such as beef
scrap, its use would appear to be more economical, yet it is
not thought desirable to make blood meal the only source of
animal protein in feeding young chicks.

A NEW EGG TESTER

AN ORDINARY CALCIUM CARBIDE BICYCLE
LANTERN WILL GIVE ADMIRABLE RESULTS

J. D. STEVENS

HE following may be of interest to many incubator
[ operators who, like the writer, ride a bicycle, and fre-
quently have to avail themselves of the use of a bicycle

lantern in getting home on a dark night.
The lantern we use is a calcium carbide which, as is well
known, needs only the application of water to generate acet-

ARTIFICIAL INCUBATION

lyne gas, which burns with a perfectly white light and with
great brilliancy.

Having occasion to use the egg tester on an incubator
full of eggs, we decided to try the lantern for that purpose,
and after having fitted over the lens a piece of black enamel
cloth with a hole in it, we discovered much to our surprise
and gratification, that it was far ahead of any so-called egg
tester we had ever used. The intense white light seemed to
make the egg about as nearly transparent as is possible, and
in dark shell eggs we had no difficulty in detecting the
fertile eggs at the end of the third day of incubation, the
minute blood vessels being distinctly discernible. We shall
continue to use the lantern hereafter in preference to the
regular tester, because of its unquestionable superiority.

We advise those who have a carbide lantern to try it.

There is also a hint in this to the manufacturers of egg
testers.

THE HATCHING OF CHICKS

THE IMPORTANCE OF CORRECT TEMPER-
ATURE IN INCUBATORS—LOCATION MUST
BE DRY—HATCH THE CHICKS EARLY

W. F. CHAMBERLAIN

RAISE and keep from one thousand to fifteen hundred

I chickens each season, and if I can give any information
that will help a beginner and save him one little chick, I

will feel well repaid for my trouble. Generally it seems to be
the best that die; any way we miss them more, and fret ourselves
with thoughts of what they might have been. It is far better
to use some precautions, some care and so avoid these troubles.
See that your eggs come from strong, healthy stock, and do

not set eggs from stock that you know has been diseased at
any time, as it will show in your little chicks some time and
cause you trouble when you least expect it. Use old stock for
breeding if you can, as I believe old hens and roosters produce
the best and strongest chicks. If you cannot use old stock; use
a cockerel with old hens or a cock with pullets. I find that the
first eggs a ben lays hatch stronger chicks than the last eggs

she lays, and it might be well to bear this in mind when you.

set your hens or fill your incubators.
INCUBATORS

See that your incubator.is placed in some place where the
temperature does not change any more than possible. A bright,
dry, well-ventilated cellar is certainly an ideal place in which to
hatch chickens by artificial or natural means, but the air in a
damp, close cellar will so poison the germs developing in the
eggs that satisfactory hatches are impossible. If the cellar is
not dry and has windows that can remain open throughout the
hatch, the machine should not be located init. A north room—
unheated—is far preferable, or an open shed. High-percentage
hatches can be turned out in an ordinary woodshed with an earth
floor even during the warm months of June and July.

Warm up your machine at least twenty-four hours before
you place your eggs in it, and see that it is perfectly regulated
and that the temperature is as near one hundred and three
degrees as possible. When you place your eggs in the machine
you will notice that the temperature will drop very fast on ac-

¥

51

count of the eggs being cold but do not be alarmed, as the
temperature in the machine will soon rise, and if your machine
is well regulated, in a few hours the temperature will again be
up to one hundred and three degrees. A few degrees below one
hundred and three during the hatch will not cause any trouble,
but a few degrees above one hundred and three is approaching
the danger point. You will have to watch the temperature of
your machine very closely, and run it as near one hundred and
three as possible. See that the eggs you put in the machine are
fresh and clean and as even size as possible; that is, do not use
any great big eggs or any very small ones. Watch the lamp in
your incubator carefully, Have a regular time to fill and trim
it, using a match to rub off the charred wick. Hatching chicks
with an incubator is like any other business, you will have to go
through just so many ups and downs before you get there, and
while you can get some good information from your incubator
catalogue, you will get more lasting information from your first
few failures, for experience is the best teacher in the chicken
business as well as in all-other business.. Do not forget to turn
and cool your eggs, as the cooling of the egg is life and strength
to the little chick, and if you do not give this part of the busi-
ness your careful attention, you will have very poor hatches,
and those that do hatch will be weak.

EARLY CHICKS GIVE GOOD RETURNS

Hatch your chicks as early in the spring as possible, as it
is the early chicks that count and bring you in good returns,
because they grow
quicker, keep heal-
thier and lay earl-
ier. Early chicks
run all day long
and grow every
minute in the day,
while late hatched
chicks spend most
of their time hunt-
ing for some cool,
shady place, ard
only range a few
hours morning and
evening. This lack
of exercise and feed
causes them to grow very slowly and in fact they never make the
growth they should. When your hen comes off with her brood
in the early spring, see that she is put in a roomy coop and
that the coop is placed in some dry shed with a window in it,
so that the little ones can come out and scratch around when
the ground is dry. Little chicks can stand lots of cold weather
if kept perfectly dry, and will make wonderful growth. Later
on when the weather is warmer and the storms are not quite
so bad you can place the coop under a tree and build a yard
in front of it, with poultry netting, so that the hen can come
out and dust herself and enjoy the sunshine while her little
chicks have free range. You will be surprised how many you
will raise in this way and how easy it is to take care of them.
We have had the hotest summer we ever knew, and I hatched
late and raised about seven hundred Leghorn chicks, and my
loss was about seven per cent. Considering the weather, this
was remarkable. It may be a little trouble for you to make
your hen and chicks comfortable, but you must not hope to
succeed without this trouble.

42—AN ACETYLENE LIGHT EGG TESTER

THE DAY-OLD CHICK INDUSTRY

Va

Pe, NMED :

nem

SELLING DAY-OLD CHICKS

THE SALE OF DAY-OLD CHICKS IS BECOMING POPULAR IN ENGLAND—AN ENGLISH
FARM DEVOTED TO THIS INDUSTRY—A NOVEL ROOM FOR EIGHTY-FOUR SITTING
HENS—HOW PAPER BOXES ARE MADE COMFORTABLE FOR SHIPPING THE CHICKS

FRANKLANE L. SEWELL

WO hundred acres of well kept orchard and veg-
etable gardens within easy driving distance
from the London markets, looked like profit-
able gardening to the writer, whose home is in
the Michigan fruit belt.

We passed nearly a half a mile of these
productive gardens operated by three brothers
whose fine fowls are well known throughout

Great Britain, and found ourselves at the picturesque old

house long ago built by Henry VIII as a ‘‘hunting

box’? for Queen Anne Boleyn. This quaint house was
then at the edge of the Windsor forests. Here we found
the poultry plant well arranged, partly among the plum and
apple trees and partly over the adjoining meadow. We
were pleased to find the combination of poultry with fruit
growing, and to be told that the finest fruit was gathered
from the trees under which the fowls had liberty throughout
the season. We asked if the fowls did as wellin the open
meadow as in the orchard and were told that they succeeded
about as well on the open meadow. The birdsin the or-
chard appeared the brightest and most industrious and we
noticed that most of the breeders and laying hens were yard-

52

ed there. The extra work of carrying the fruit out of the
yards was mentioned as against having the poultry pens
among the fruit trees. However, it was quite decided that
the improved quality of the fruit, not counting the increased
quantity, make up for the extra work. Properly arranged
gates might make carting of the fruit quite easy.

ORPINGTONS, WYANDOTTES, LEGHORNS, MINORCAS AND DUCKS

The breeds kept were Buff Orpingtons, White and Silver
Laced Wyandottes, Black Leghorns, White Leghorns and
Black Minorcas; also Aylesbury ducks. These occupied
four breeding pens next to the incubator house, twenty yards
in the orchards and twenty yards in the meadow.

Besides these breeding yards there was one large field
with a row of fruit trees through the center where 125 laying
hens were kept; also about two acres of orchard in which
were eight houses occupied by about 222 laying hens, two
warm brooding houses with yard attached, and a large cold
brooding house of eight sections, in which last house the
youngsters were three to four pounds in weight, just about
to be changed to the four grassy yards next the brooder
house.

THE DAY-OLD CHICK INDUSTRY

PREFERRED THE “SITTING BREEDS”

All but the brooding and incubator houses are of portable
types. We were told that they liked the ‘‘sitting breeds’’
best for their business, as they had experienced the best
success with them in artificial hatching and rearing—found
them easiest to handle, stronger and not too apt to ‘‘go off
their feed’’ in cold, bleak weather, and seeming to hatch well
at almost any season. This was partly a surprise to us as
some of our earlier experience had led us to class the Med-
iterraneans among the most fertile breeds.

We were impressed by the vigor and healthy condition
of all the stock and inquiring about the feed were told that
they handled them ‘‘on the rough-and-ready scale,’’ plenty
of good coarse feed—boiled mangles, (large, coarse beets)
with middlings mixed in until a good consistency is reached
and then add about 10 per cent of beef scrap or meat meal—
occasionally barley meal is mixed with the above. The large
grassy runs explained much towards the birds’ strong con-
stitutions. Whole grains,—corn, wheat and oats,—were be-
ing fed the large stock for the evening meal.

At the incubator house we found fifteen incubators, four-
teen of American pattern and one of an English type. The
incubator house is single boarded, with windows in the north
slope of the roof and these were curtained to keep out the
sun. ‘‘The room for sitting hens shades it on the south,’’
they explained. It is against the warmth of the sun that
they guard their incubator rooms overin England. The cold
that they have is not often so severe as to cause trouble with
incubation by the best machines.

MANAGING 84 SITTING HENS IN ONE ROOM

We have never seen such a handily arranged outfit for
managing sitting hens. There were eighty-four nests on the
inside of an alley-way and five airy pens for exercising and

43—SHIPPING DAY-OLD CHICKS

Four dozen day-old chicks shipped in strong paper boxes, one dozen in eachbox. Air
holes are cut with a knife at the center of the upper edges (as shown in the illustration) .
The four boxes are securely fastened with a cord.

feeding the hens on the outside of this alley-way, as seen in

the photograph. Each hen was banded onthe leg with the

number of her nest, so after her time for an outing she could
be returned to the proper place. The sides of the nests were

formed by a square sloping frame, which was movable and.

rested upon a continuous board bottom, extending from end |

to end of the tier of nests at a height to bring the top of this
movable portion level with the bottom ‘of the door. Just
inside each door was a six inch wide platform, so that if any
old cluck became restless and would not sit, she had some
place to dance her jig on*besides her clutch of eggs. All
woodwork was thoroughly whitewashed after each sitting.

53

INCUBATORS ARE A NECESSITY

‘‘Well,’’ we said, after looking this outfit over, ‘‘with all
this handy arrangement, why do you need incubators?’ He
shook his head and replied, ‘‘We arein the day-old chick
business—that’s why we have incubators.’’ They want the
chicks first of all, early—then they want them in large lots—
not late and irregularly when the good old hens take a notion
to quit laying and become broody. They keep several hund-
red hens to supply fresh eggs. These eggs are mostly order-
ed by dealers whom the elder of the three brothers meets
when disposing of the vegatables and fruit at Convent Gar-
den’s Market. The restrictions of this market being entirely
for flowers, fruits and vegetables, it does not permit of dis-
playing eggs there, but they will meet many grocers who re-
quire strictly fresh eggs for their trade, so receive many
orders in that way, the eggs being shipped from the farm
directly to the shops without being exposed in the market.

PAPER BOXES FOR SHIPPING THE CHICKS

We wanted to know more about how the day-old chicks
were shipped, and were shown into the shipping room where
the strong paper boxes used by this firm were packed, just as
they came from the box factory—flat. A box was quickly
put into shape for shipping—‘‘and what do you put into the
box to make it soft for comfortable traveling?’’ Reaching
for a good-sized handful of soft hay which was bent round
into a nest-like form inside the box, then for a handful of
soft feathers, with a couple of strokes round the opening in
the hay lining, it looked very comfortable, ‘‘like a sparrow’s
nest’’ they explained, and, ‘‘it’s just comfortable for twelve
chicks (the number placed in each box) to turn round in and
keep each other warm.’’ The contents of the box is mark-
ed on it so no mistake can be made after packing and as
many dozen tied together as are ordered by each patron.
The sketch will show where the boxes are cut in the middle
or upper edges for ventilation. Properly marked for ship-
ment, and the little orphans are ready to start for their new
home. The porters of the trains seem to take quite an in-
terest in the little things and handle them with the greatest
of care. Often they can be seen listening at the air holes to
hear the peepings of the wee travelers—and I believe they
get safer handling in the paste board boxes than when ship-
ped in the less fragile appearing wooden cases.

FIFTY DAY-OLD CHICKS ARRIVE SAFELY IN GERMANY

This firm has sent day-old chicks to the Isle of Wight,
and up into Scotland. Another order that no doubt requir-
ed quite as much handling and changing about with as much
time as would be required for any shipment of a thousand
miles in America, was a lot of fifty-day old chicks that went
to a gentleman near Berlin, Germany. We saw a letter from
the customer, stating that all had arrived alive. Fifty were
sent to Southport (250 miles), with only one dead, and 250 to
the Isle of Wight, all arrived safely.

Just twice as much for day-old chicks is received by
this firm as for the eggs for hatching, and they had hatched
an average the past season of 250 chicks from 360 eggs (with
the sitting breeds) and had good sales from J anuary to June,
so they were very well satisfied with the: profits from their
season’s trade in day-old chicks.

There-seems every reason that our breeders in the United
States and Canada should enlarge the profits from their

- poultry farms by adopting a method of selling day-old chicks.

The method of gathering the eggs for hatching is worthy
of mention. The care and the system of record employed is
such that a mistake in breed or number is almost impossi-
ble. The eggs from the large flocks of laying hens of
course needed no regard as to record of pedigree, only to be
sorted as to size and color.

ARTIFICIAL INCUBATING AND BROODING

HATCHING CHICKS FOR SALE

A FARMER RUNS 77 INCUBATORS—25
NEIGHBORING FARMERS SUPPLY EGGS

4

A. F. HUNTER

E HEAR, poultrymen say. now and then, that they
hatch chickens for their neighbors at 5 cents apiece,

or some agreed upon price, and occasionally we hear
of cases where men having incubators have taken up the work
of hatching chickens for others as an additional source of in-
come. It has frequently occured to us that there were great
possibilities in this direction; that 4 man who had a faculty of
operating incubators successfully could make a good living by
hatching chicks for farmers who were too busy, or not sufficiently
well equipped to do the hatching themselves. Hatching chicks
for others is no new thing, as we know of the celebrated Egyp-
tian hatching ovens, in the operation of which men make a live-
lihood and where the usual method is to pay two eggs for a
newly hatched chick. These Egyptian hatchers must be re-
markably successful in their operations, if they can deliver a
chick for two eggs and make their profit out of the marketing
of the hatch. Undoubtedly they do make a profit, else they
would not continue in the business. As it is the concensus of
opinion that an average of a 50 per cent hatch is all that can
reasonably be expected, taking the season through, our American
incubator operators would hardly make a living hatching upon
that basis. We know a gentleman in Canada who has been
quite successful in building up a hatching trade. He began by
hatching for some of his neighbors, charging them five cents per
egg for the use of the machine and his trouble; from that it was
an easy step to hatching his own eggs and selling newly hatched
chicks, and without any advertising he has developed a consid-
erable trade in newly hatched chicks and in some instances has
shipped them to considerable distances.

We know of one man in New Jersey who has successfully
shipped in the east to Maine and New Hampshire, as far west as
Dakota and Nebraska and as far south as Florida, and the
sample testimonials as to the condition of the chicks on arrival
indicate that there are scarcely any losses and that the shipping
of chicks even to these great distances is entirely successful.

A visit to this “hatchery” gave us some interesting points
and a brief account of the methods employed will not only be
interesting, but will point out the way to others taking up this
porfitable line of work.

The owner of this plant uses 77 incubators and is apparently
making money out of the new-old venture. He buys his eggs
for hatching from farmers thereabouts, whom he has induced
to keep good, thoroughbred stock for the purpose. There are
about twenty-five of these farmers now supplying him with
eggs and he pays them five cents a dozen above market price.

The chicks are Barred Plymouth Rocks and White Leg-
horns, these being popular farm varieties. He has also added
Buff Plymouth Rocks to his list and for these he gets a higher
price because the eggs are harder to get.

It is surprising to learn that he does not test the eggs at all,
his statement being that he had thought it did not pay to bother
to test them. In this we disagree with him, because the abso-
lutely clear eggs tested out by the fifth or sixth day could be sold
to bakers and used in many ways. They form excellent food
for chicks and would be so much salvage. He told us that from
360 eggs in each machine he averaged to ship !75 to 200 chicks.

The chicks are shipped when about twenty-four hours old
in shallow, flat boxes which are about seven inches deep. A
burlap cover is tacked over them about 34 inches from the
bottom, or half way from the bottom to top of the box. No
other covering is put over them, excepting that in cold weather
there will be two thicknesses of burlap. According to the
number of chicks to be shipped.

Ordinary boxes are bought of the grocers, and if they are
more than eight inches high they are cut down to the desired
size. A box, say two and one-half feet long by ten or twelve
inches wide, would have a partition in, dividing it in halves, and
fifty to seventy-five chicks will be put in each end. These boxes
are all made ready and the burlap cover tacked on, with the
exception of two or three tacks out of one corner (or one corner
of each compartment if it is « long box divided in halves); the
chicks are slipped in through the untacked corner, which is then
secured in place and the package is ready for the expressman.
At the time of our visit a man was busy preparing these shipping
boxes and was kept busy at that work four or five days in a
week. This gives one an idea of the extent of the business. A
strip of cover-board four or five inches wide is nailed on top to
tack the shipping tag onto, and the shipment is complete.

This is a very interesting story, and tells much as to the
possibilities of the development of the poultry interest. Here
is a man shipping newly hatched chicks all over the United
States, even as far west as Nebraska and Dakota and as far
south as Florida, The question arises: “Why are there not
hundreds of hatching stations, scattered say one or two in each
county, to do the hatching for those who do not care to do it
themselves?”

54

ARTIFICIAL BROODING

SUCCESSFUL BROODER OPERATION

INDIVIDUAL BROODERS—THE WAY TO MANAGE THEM—HOW AND WHERE TO
LOCATE THEM—THE NUMBER OF CHICKS TO THE BROODER—PROPER BROODING
TEMPERATURE AT DIFFERENT AGES—GETTING READY FOR THE CHICKS, ETC.

P. T. WOODS, M. D.

S soon as the hatching season has well begun,
attention is naturally turned toward the proper
means of brooding the newly hatched chicks.
For the beginner brooding by the individual
brooder method will undoubtedly give the most
satisfactory results. Nearly all of the leading
makes of brooding devices give satisfactory
results when operated under favorable condi-
tions. In most cases the outdoor style of brooder will
prove the most satisfactory since it may be used under a greater
variety of conditions. Where indoor brooders are used they
must necessarily be run in a house or room of some sort through-
out the entire season while outdoor brooders may be run under
shelter or in a house during the early part of the season and
then removed to the orchard or field after the weather has be-
come warmer and more settled, and the houses or shelters may
then be devoted to growing stock or to other uses.

In buying a brooder be sure to obtain one of standard make
from a reliable manufacturer. The best is none too good. As
a tule, it will not be wise for an amateur to attempt raising
chicks with a home-made brooding device, as such are seldom
properly constructed and often cost more than the well-made,
properly built machines sold by reputable manufacturers. Do
_ not buy a brooder simply because it is cheap. Remember that
the best is the cheapest in the end and that the little extra
money expended at the start will be more than offset by the sav-
ing in losses and the ease in caring for the chicks. The best
individual brooding devices are those which supply a consider-
able volume of top heat combined with just enough bottom
heat to give a warm floor in the hover apartment. A properly
constructed brooder will be so made that it is entirely self-
ventilating, drawing pure fresh air from outside of the machine,
carrying it up and distributing it beneath the hover and around

-

55

the chicks so that they are always supplied with pure fresh
warm air while the brooding apartment is maintained at the
proper temperature.

LOCATING THE BROODER

During March and April it is best to run the individual
brooder of outdoor pattern in a small house or at least under
a shed or shelter. Personally I prefer to use a house having
a floor space 6 by 8 or 8 by 10 feet according to the size of the
brooder. Such a house should have a door and a glass or can-
vas window in its south front. It should be so arranged that
the door and window can be kept open throughout the day
and a wire screen should be provided to keep the chicks inside
if the weather is not favorable for their having an outdoor
run. When so placed the chicks have a good sheltered exercise
room outside of the brooder on the floor of the house where
they are protected from wind and storm. The operator will
also find such a location for his brooder much more convenient
for attending the lamp and caring for the chicks. Here in
New England many such brooding houses are in use and they
are particularly desirable because of the sudden and extreme
weather changes occurring during the early spring. A house
of this sort if placed in a well-drained, dry location may have
an earth or sand floor; as a rule a tight board floor is best since
it affords protection against dampness and also keeps out rats
and other marauding vermin. If a board floor is used, cover
it with an inch or two of sand.

After the weather has become settled in May and June
the brooders may be run beneath a tree in the orchard or may
be located in the open field. Later in the season when run in
the open field it is a wise plan to provide a sun shelter for both
a portion of the chick run and the brooder itself, since it is al-
most impossible to run any brooder at anything like an even

ARTIFICIAL INCUBATING AND BROODING

temperature when it is exposed to the full glare of the sun for
the greater part of the day.

When placing the brooder in position do not make any ex
cavation to receive it, but place it on the top of the ground,
making it as level as possible. Use a spirit level on the floor
of the hover apartment from side to side and front to back
to make sure that the brooder is leveled up properly. Unless
the brooder is level the heat will not be distributed evenly. If
with the brooder in this position it does not fit down tightly
to the ground on all sides, bank up around it with a little earth
so that the wind cannot blow under it. If the door by which
the chicks leave the brooder is not on a level with the ground,
make a little inclined run-way of earth and sod leading up to
it from the ground. Two or three pieces of sod turned upside
down make the best sort of inclined run-way and with ordinary
attention will last as long as needed. Do not use a board for
this purpose. Where a board run-way is used the chicks are
liable to get beneath it or lose their way when very young and
fail to get into the brooder and beneath the hover before they
are chilled. With an earthen sod run-way the chicks will learn
to find their way in and out in a very short time and the operator
will be saved a great deal of unnecessary trouble.

THE BROODER LAMP

There are many styles of brooder lamps, a number of which
seem to be more in favor in some sections of the country than
in others. It should be borne in mind that the brooder stove
or lamp, like all other kerosene heating apparatus, is very liable
to give trouble unless properly cared for. A brooder stove or
lamp has to run for many weeks without an opportunity to
thoroughly cool off and rest and therefore should be treated
with much greater care than an ordinary house lamp which is
only run for a small portion of the 24 hours. The brooder lamp
must be kept clean, particularly the burner portion. The wick
tube should be kept free from accumulations of crusts, the
burner should be kept as bright and clean as possible and the
perforated disc about the wick tube must be kept clean and
bright and free from dirt; its perforations must be kept open.
The wick should be trimmed daily and should be slightly round-
ed at the corners to prevent burning with a fish-tail flame. A
flame of fish-tail shape is liable to result in one or both sides of
the flame burning too high, reaching against the chimney part
of the stove or other metal parts and causing smoking, which
is almost certain to bring disastrous results.

Of the two types of brooder stoves in most common use
the style with chimney made of Russia iron held together with
iron castings and fitted with water pan above the oil bowl and
the chimneyless lamp equipped with a zenith or railroad burner,
are probably the most common. The stoves with the water
pan, when run in the old-fashioned way with the pan filled with
water, are sloppy and disagreeable to care for and the pan must
be kept always full of water, or else the insulation of the oil
bowl is not complete. The writer prefers to fill up the water
pan with asbestos cement, such as is used by plumbers for in-
sulating portions of hot-water heating apparatus. This asbestos
can be obtained in a dry form and is easily made ready for use
by simply mixing it with sufficient water to reduce it to a putty-
like consistency. The water pan may be filled full of this and
it will soon harden, making a good insulating body that will
insure protection of the oil bowl from the heat of the lamp flame
When this asbestos insulation becomes old, soiled, or should oil
be spilled upon it, it can be readily removed and replaced with
new at the expense of a few cents.

Use only the best grade of kerosene oil in the brooder
lamp and be sure to keep the lamp full, fill it twice a day if
necessary. When running the brooder in cold weather it is a
wise plan to fill the lamp twice a day, morning and night. In
warm weather when operating with a low lamp flame it will

56

seldom be necessary to fill the lamp oftener than once in 24
hours. Never turn a brooder lamp so high that it cannot be
turned higher without smoking and never turn it so low that
you cannot turn the flame a little lower without the lamp going
out. If these directions are observed and ordinary common
sense care given to the lamp there will be very seldom any trouble
from the kerosene heater used for individual brooders,

Nearly all brooder lamps are pushed in place on a wooden
slide. Be sure to see that the lamp is in its proper position.
In brooders having a metal floor, with a place for the lamp
to sit immediately beneath the central portion of this metal
floor, care should be taken to see that it is correctly placed,
since if the lamp sits to one side the brooder will not heat as
evenly, Where there is any tendency for the lamp to heat up
it will be found more satisfactory to have the bottom of the
lamp rest on the earth beneath the brooder rather than on the
wooden slide, since the oil will be kept cooler in such a position.
For convenience the writer prefers to cut a circular hole through
the lamp slide big enough to admit the bottom of the lamp;
across the bottom of this opening I fasten two iron or tin straps
to keep the lamp from settling beneath the lower level of the
slide. This leaves practically the whole bottom of the lamp
exposed to the earth beneath the brooder, keeping the oil much
cooler.

GETTING READY FOR THE CHICKS

When the little chicks are expected to hatch have the
brooder heated up and ready to receive them. Over the floor
of the brooder, in both the hover chamber and exercise apart-
ment, sprinkle a little fine sand, over this about one-half inch
deep, place cut clover, chaff or other fine litter material. In
this may be sprinkled a little chick grit and a good dry grain
chick food. Run the brooder for a day or two before the chicks
are placed in it to be sure that it is running properly and to get
it thoroughly heated up. The temperature beneath the hover
before the chicks are placed in the brooder should register 95
degrees in brooders having a wooden hover. In brooders having
a metal hover, which supplies a portion of the top heat of the
hover space, the temperature should be at about 90 degrees at
the start. The little chicks should not be placed in the brooder
until they are from 24 to 36 hours old. It wll be the wisest
plan to put them in the brooder in the afternoon so that they
can have a little time for the first meal and then go early to bed
for the night. When the chicks are treated in this manner they
learn more quickly to use the hover and to find their way back
and forth. If they are placed in the brooder in the morning
and spend the whole of their first day there, they are liable to
huddle more or less in the corners and may become chilled.

PROPER BROODING TEMPERATURE

As will be noted in what has gone before, brooders having
a wooden hover should be run at a little higher temperature
than those which have a metal hover supplying a considerable
radiating surface for distributing heat beneath it. In brooders:
having a wooden hover run the hover space temperature at 95
degrees for the first week, gradually dropping to 90 degrees
the fourteenth day. Continue reducing the temperature to 80
degrees by the twenty-first day, dropping to 75 degrees by the
end of the fourth week. For the balance of the time which the
chicks remain in the brooder maintain a hover space temperature
of about 75 degrees.

In brooders having a metal drum hover start with the
hover space heated to 90 degrees with the thermometer in its
proper position (all brooder manufacturers indicate the posi-
tion where the thermometer should be placed). Maintain the
temperature as near 90 degrees as possible the first week, grad-
ually dropping to 85 degrees by the fourteenth day and to 80 de-
grees by the twenty-first day. Reduce the temperature to 75 de-

ARTIFICIAL BROODING

grees by the end of the fourth week and run at this temperature
while the chicks remain in the brooder. These temperatures
are given for the hover space when the chicks are outside.
The operator should always aim'to keep the chicks comfortable
and to be guided fully as much by the appearance and actions
of the chicks as by the temperature indicated by the thermome-
ter. Many experienced operators running individual brooders
pay no attention whatever to the thermometer, depending on
the appearance and actions of the chicks ‘to guide them. Their
Tule is to have sufficient heat under the hover so that the chicks
will be comfortable. When they are warm enough the little
chicks will be found ranged about the edge of the hover with
their heads peeping from beneath the felt. If they are not
warm enough they will be bunched up out of sight underneath
the hover or will show a tendency to huddle and crowd. If
allowed to remain in such condition, they will be almost certain
to be chilled by morning. It is always wise to have a little sur-
plus heat at night.
have an opportunity to get away from the source of the
heat there is very little danger of their becoming overheated.
When they are warm enough to stay around the edge of
the hover at bedtime they will, when the brooder cools off
as the night grows colder, gradually draw nearer the
source of heat underneath the hover and so keep comfort-
able all night. Ifa brooder operator will carefully and
closely observe the habits of his chicks he will have little
difficulty in properly brooding them.

In running the brooder on warm nights it may be
found advisable, where double felt curtains surround the
hover, to raise the outer row of felts, or in metal drum
brooders having removable felts, to remove the felts
altogether.

It is probable that more of the troubles which beset
the amateur in raising brooder chicks are caused by either
overheating or chilling the chicks than from faulty feed-
ing. It is as dangerous to overheat them as it is to chill
them. The well made, modern, up-to-date brooder, if
properly operated, will readily take care of temperature
changes occurring outside of the machine of from 10 to
15 degrees, but where there are greater changes than these
it will be necessary to provide promptly for offsetting them
by either turning the lamp flame up or down as needed.

THE NUMBER OF CHICKS TO THE BROODER

As a rule brooder manufacturers rate the capacity of
their brooding devices much too high for practical purposes.
Seventy-five or even 100 newly hatched -chicks may be
placed in the brooder having a brooding apartment 36
inches square with a hover two feet in diameter, but
such a brooder is not adequate for raising this number of
chicks to weaning age. Fifty chicks to be carried to weaning
age are enough for one flock in any brooder. It will be much
wiser for the beginner to start his brooder with only fifty
chicks, since, if more are placed in the machine he is almost
certain to lose some of them until they thin the flock down
to that number or below it.

SUGGESTIONS AS TO BROODER MANAGEMENT

When the chicks are first placed in the brooder give each a
little drink of pure fresh water by dipping its bill. After this
keep water where they can have access to it at all times, but do
not place water dishes in the hover chamber where they can
slop over and wet the floor and litter material. In addition to
the chick food and grit, sprinkled in the litter, give the little
chicks for their first meal.a little dry stale bread crumbs barely
moistened with sweet milk. Feed this for the first two days,
then discontinue and feed exclusively on dry mixed grain chick
food. After the fourth day keep good pure beef scrap con-

In apartment brooders where the chicks ©

stantly before the chicks; also see that they are supplied with
chick-size grit and charcoal. Green food should be given early
and fed at regular intervals.

In brooders having removable wooden hovers, take off the
hover while the chicks are being fed during the first week. In
this way you will make sure that all the chicks come out from
under the hover and get a chance at the food.

Do not permit any weaklings in your brooder flock. Weak-
ly chicks are not worth raising and serve only as a setback to
the healthy ones. It will be best to put them out of the way
before they prove a source of injury to the balance of the flock.

After the chicks have occupied the brooder 24 to 36 hours
they should be provided with a little outside run; limit this run
at first to a short distance beyond the inclined run-way and do
not have it wider than the front of the brooder. Increase the
size of this run gradually as the chicks become accustomed to
their new quarters. Watch them closely for the first few days
to make sure that they do not crowd or bunch up outside of the

44—OUT-DOOR BROODER IN SHADY LOCATION

machine and help them to learn their way to and from the hover,
which is the source of heat.

Be sure to always leave the ventilators partly open; never
attempt to entirely close up the brooder; the chicks must have
an abundance of fresh air to breathe if you are to raise them.
Every day, if possible, sun and air the interior of the brooder
and when -practicable expose the under side of the hovers and
the felts to the direct rays of the sun for a little time each day.
Where the chicks are confined in chick shelters or small wire
enclosed runs, remove the brooders to fresh ground at least
once in two weeks.

In the early spring brooder chicks will do much better in
moderate sized runs than if allowed wider range. Later in the
season they may be given larger runs, but it is a wise plan to
keep them somewhat confined until they are large enough to
be weaned from the brooder, since they are ligble to injury
from sudden storms unless they are kept within easy distance
from shelter. After weaning from the brooder and removal to
colony coops the wider range they have the better.

57

ARTIFICIAL INCUBATING AND BROODING

KEEP THE BROODERS CLEAN

Change the litter and replace with new litter material and
sand at least once a week. The brooder must be cleaned often
and kept clean. After the brood has been weaned be sure to
thoroughly clean and disinfect the brooder and thoroughly scour
the floor and sides of both brooding and exercise chamber with
good yellow soap and water. If a little creolin or other non-
poisonous disinfectant can be added to the water so much the
better; if creolin is used, add one teaspoonful to each quart of
water used for scrubbing. After washing out the brooder, dry
as thoroughly as possible and then expose the parts to strong
sunlight. If possible place the brooder where it will be in a
strong current of fresh air, as this will materially aid in the dry-
ing and cleansing process. Remember always that sunlight is
the best natural disinfectant and purifier and that thorough
exposure of the interior of the brooder to sunlight will do more
to kill disease germs than anything else.

Where brooders have been in use for some time and the
woodwork has become stained and darkened it is a good plan
to give the interiors a thin even coat of good hot whitewash.
Do not add disinfectants to whitewash used on the interior of

‘ed, and then we use a good lice destroyer inside.

CARE OF BROODER AND CHICKS

PREPARATION FOR THE CHICKS—SIMPLE
METHODS PRODUCE POSITIVE RESULTS

C. H. CURTIS

UR experience with brooders and brooder chicks con-
() vinces us thete is a good deal to be taken into con-
sideration. Under right management it is a simple

thing to run a good brooder and raise healthy chicks. We will
give some of our methods of operating a good brooder. In the
first place when we begin to think about incubating eggs we begin
to plan how to take care of and provide for the baby chicks,
When they arrive, brooders that we are to use or the coming
season, whether old or new ones, are given a general overhauling,
something like this: They are thoroughly cleaned and renovat-
We do this
for several reasons. One is we commence to kill lice before the
chicks go into the brooder; the next reason is, it makes a good
disinfectant and helps to keep the air pure in the brooder. We

45—COLONY OF LIGHT BRAHMAS AT THEIR NOON MEAL

the brooders. The whitewash will also aid in lighting up the
interior of the brooder when the lids are closed.

At the end of the season when the brooders are to be stored
for winter, be sure to clean them up thoroughly as advised above.
Never put away your brooders badly soiled from a season’s use;
thoroughly clean and disinfect them. Before storing be sure
that the brooder is in good repair and thoroughly sweet and
clean. Store in a dry place protected from the weather. If you
are careful to follow this plan the brooder will be easily made
ready when needed at the beginning of another season by simply
exposing it for a while to fresh air and sunlight. In brooding
chicks as in all other lines of poultry work, it is the careful atten-
tion to details—“‘the little things that count” that brings success.

58

use the liquid lice killer and allow it to thoroughly dry, after
which we cover the bottom of the brooder with dry sand (such
as is used for building plaster) to the depth of an inch or an inch
and a half. This we find to be a very good litter for the hover
or mother part of the brooder, as it makes a dry floor for the
youngsters to travel over, and also helps to keep the floor at
a good temperature for warmth. The droppings become dry
and hard upon this litter, and when you come to clean the brood-
er it is very easily and quickly accomplsihed. We have a small
hand rake for this purpose, and every morning the droppings
are raked up and removed from the brooder, for we believe that
you cannot keep a brooder too clean nor the air in the brooder
too pure for the good of the youngsters.

ARTIFICIAL BROODING

About three or four days before our hatch is ready to come
off we start a slow fire in the brooder, to dry it and heat it up
throughout. Then just before placing in the chicks we run the
temperature of the brooder up to 90 degrees and keep this
temperature under the hover from eight to ten days. The tem-
perature we do not guess at, for we think that is poor manage-

46—BROOD COOP AND PEN

A lath pen of this type is almost a necessity where mature fowls have access to the yard

where the chicks are fed. Special food is given in the pen and the fowls cannot reach it.

ment, for these reasons. If the chicks become chilled they get
a very serious set-back; it gives them bowel trouble, causes
them to crowd and smother one another, and gives the operator
all kinds of trouble to get them straightened out again. Too
much heat is about as bad as too little. It makes the young-
sters weak, gives them leg trouble, colds, and causes them to lose
their appetite, a most essential thing for little chicks to have
if they are expected to thrive. To insure an even temperature
place a thermometer in the hover so that the bulb of the mer-
cury is raised about two inches from the floor. Then keep the
hover at 90 degrees for eight or ten days, and after that the
temperature can be dropped to 85 degrees for five or six days
and then to 80 degrees. This we find to be a good temperature
until the chicks are six or seven weeks old.

We like the hot air brooders for several reasons, and we
also prefer the center heat. We find that if there is any crowd-
ing on the chicks’ part that they crowd to the center and keep
making room for one another, hence they do not smother each
other by crowding into the corners. In a hundred chicks size
brooder we never place more than seventy-five newly hatched
chicks, and generally after the first ten days we are obliged to
remove about half of the youngsters to another brooder. This
is not only beneficial to the youngsters, but is also better for the
operator, for this reason; he can feed the more robust chicks
heavier than he would the weaker ones and the stronger chicks
do not domineer over the weaker ones. One thing we are care-
ful to avoid is not to feed or water the chicks in the hover part
of the brooder. We place their food and water in the outside
part of the brooder and compel the youngsters to go there to
supply their wants. We take special notice at every feeding
that every chick comes out to get something to eat. If they do

59

not we put them out and watch them very closely to see if they
partake of the rations set before them. If they have not been
over fed previously they will take hold with the others. If
they do not, and stand around dumpish, we remove them to
other quarters. We also feed them in such a manner that they
cannot trot through their food or water, getting themselves
wet and all gummed up and then go back under the hover and
get that to smelling foul, thus causing sickness in the youngsters,
for which the brooder is often blamed.

It is good policy in the spring, just as soon as the weather
will permit, to get the brooders and chicks out doors, so that
they can get all the fresh air possible.

Another thing I should like to mention is this: In the late
spring or early in the summer it is not a good idea to set the
brooder and chicks out of doors so that the rays of the sun can
strike on the hover part unless the cover is raised to allow the
warm air to circulate in the hover freely. Then just before the
sun’s rays leave the brooder, close it up so as to keep it from
getting damp with the night dews. Do not allow the fumes of
the lamp or heater to pass directly into the hover, as this is very
injurious to the youngsters. It gives them catarrh, sore eyes,
and in many cases kills them outright. If you have a brooder
with too much bottom or top heat, look out for all kinds of
trouble with the youngsters. Last, but not least, when you have
finished the season’s work with brooders and have no further
use for them, don’t let them stand around in the weather, but
remove to dry quarters, empty the lamps, brush out the brooders
and set them away until you want them again in the spring.
With this kind of care your brooders will pay for themselves
many times over and last for years, as there is comparatively

47—THREE USEFUL DEVICES

On the left is a three compartment grit and shell box with glass front.
an adjustable feed hopper. In the center is a drinking fountain.

On the right

little wear and tear on them, and they are just as good to use
in after years as they are when you first get them. If you are
using incubators, do not try to raise chicks without the help of
a good brooder. It is just as essential to have as a good in-
cubator, because it is to your profit to raise as many of the
chicks hatched as is possible.

READY-MIXED CHICK FEEDS

ADVANTAGES OF ITS USE—COMPOSITION—THE MOST ECONOMICAL FEED FOR
YOUNG CHICKS—COMPARED IN FEEDING QUALITY WITH OTHER FEEDS—SHOULD
BE FREE FROM DUST AND EVERY GRAIN ABSOLUTELY SOUND, SWEET AND DRY

M. L. CHAPMAN

HE proper feeding of poultry is without doubt the
most essential factor in the raising of any kind of
poultry for profit As this is the largest item of
expense in the running of a poultry business, it
is a subject which every poultryman should study
with a considerable amount of original common
sense, as there are no hard and fast rules that can

be laid down as applicable to every case,—cli-.

mate, breed, price of grain and general environment all having
to be considered in determining the proper rations.

Considerable advancement in the feeding of poultry has
been made in the past few years, especially in the feeding of
little chicks. The old way of feeding chicks was to mix up meal
and water, or meal and sour milk, making a sort of dough for them.
On nearly all the large poultry farms, chicks are now started
entirely on some modern, ready-mixed, dry-grain chick feed.

In my travels about, however, I find that many farmers
who raise quite a lot of poultry, still follow the old system from
a false idea of economy, reasoning that if a bag of meal costs
$1.25 and a bag of that ‘“new-fangled” chick feed $2.50, that
they are a winner by a dollar and a quarter.

“ONE HUNDRED POUNDS OF CHICK FEED WILL GO TWICE AS FAR AS
ONE HUNDRED POUNDS OF MEAL”

But let us figure a moment and see how it actually works
out. In the first place it is almost an impossibility to feed
a dough of this sort without wasting a great portion of it, as the
hen will scratch it around amongst the dirt and the little fellows
will patter it down in the mud. Any that is left is soon soured
by the sun, and is then great stuff to place the chicks among
the dear departed. Now consider the $2.50 a hundred feed:
In the first place it is all ready and can be fed much more quickly.
If any should be left on the ground, it is all right for the chicks
to pick up an hour or so later, when some of the youngsters be-
come hungry again. It is composed of several different kinds
of grain, and will nourish the chicks properly. I have tried
both ways, and can state positively that a hundred pounds of
good chick feed will go twice as far as a hundred pounds of meal,
‘it can be fed more conveniently, will start the chicks much
faster, and the mortality is much less with it.

Let us investigate what a first-class chick feed should be
composed of to qualify for the best standard. There are a
large number of chick feeds on the market varying in price
from $2 to $7 per hundred weight. Some of the firms who
manufacture chick feed are in the business because they were
selling poultry supplies or in some way were in touch with the
poultry trade when the demand for balanced rations began to
grow. The men in charge know very little about poultry or the
grain business, and while their product is undoubtedly better
than the old ground grain method, it is not as perfect as is
possible for a well-equipped milling plant to produce. Of
course, such a plant must have a competent man in charge of
the poultry feed department, one with a practical knowledge
of poultry and -scientific knowledge of feeding. There are
many so-called balanced rations, chick feeds, egg forcers, etc.
on the market that are made by parties with little or no knowl-
edge of poultry, that it behooves us to be careful that we do
not spend our good money for a mess of pottage.

60

Every one who buys grain should make a study of the State
Experiment Station Report on Foods. Much information about
different foods can be obtained, although it must be remem-~-
bered that the hen does not always analyze food the same as
the chemist.

“EVERY GRAIN IN A BAG OF CHICK FEED SHOULD BE ABSOLUTELY
SOUND, SWEET AND DRY”

Some manufacturers claim that their chick feed contains
seventeen or eighteen different ingredients. While some variety
is necessary in a perfect chick food, it is not necessary to have
as many ingredients as this. It is essential, however, that
every seed and every particle of grain in a bag of chick feed
should be absolutely sound, sweet and dry; in fact, should look
and smell tempting enough to eat. A chick feed that contains
in proper portions, corn, wheat, oats, rice and millet, will pre-
sent sufficient variety to properly nourish any chick. We have
seen samples of chick food that contained a large number of
different seeds, some of them of doubtful value, the idea seem-
ing to be that the greater number of different seeds the food
contained, the better it would sell. Now in order to combme
so many different seeds in a feed to sell it at anything like the
usual price, it is necessary to use a poorer quality of seed through-
out, and to introduce many seeds which may or may not be of
value to poultry, some of which may be injurious. We doubt
if anybody can properly combine a chick food containing twenty
different ingredients, and keep them all up to par.

The corn that is used in a'chick feed should be two years
old, as nearly all corn goes through a sort of fermentation the
first spring, and does not reach its hardest and most perfect
condition the first year. We have seen bags of chick feed that
contained quite a large proportion of fine-cracked new corn
that arrived from the manufacturer so hot that you could not
hold your hand in the bag, and the feed had to be spread out
on the floor and turned over for several days before being re-
sacked and offered for sale by the dealer. Such chick food will
quickly place your chicks in the absent column.

CHICK FEED SHOULD BE FREE FROM DUST AND WASTE

Some chick feeds are made from a good quality of grain,
but are not blown sufficiently clean after cracking, and you will
find by running them through a fanning mill, that you can take
out about twenty pounds of fine meal to the hundred. Of
course, this twenty pounds is an absolute loss. as when the
chick feed is scattered on the ground or in litter, the chicks
cannot get the dust. Try to buy a chick feed that is practi-
cally free from dust and waste.

We have examined chick feeds offered for sale that actual-
ly contained 15 per cent of grit, 10 per cent of fine cracked
oyster shells and about 10 per cent of charcoal, although it
might not be safe for a manufacturer to put out a chick feed
without some grit in it, as many people cannot be depended
upon to furnish their chicks with any kind of grinding material;
however, such a large percentage of grit, shells and charcoal as
above is nothing short of a roast on the buyer, as these ingredi-
ents can be purchased separately for about half a cent per pound.

Charcoal is a good food for small chicks and they should
have it, but when it is combined with chick feed and shipped

ARTIFICIAL

around the country, the most of it is powdered into dust. We
believe the most economical way to feed it is to buy the char-
coal’and prepare it at home.

THREE CENTS FEEDS a CHICK BEYOND THE DANGER POINT

Some chick feeds are composed very largely of shrunken
grains of wheat, and small weed seeds that are blown out from
grain at the large elevators. Such feeds are of far less value
than a feed that is composed entirely of sound, selected grains
broken to the proper size, and blown free from dust, so that
practically the whole bag can be fed without loss. Ordinarily
such a feed can be bought at retail for about $2.50 per hundred
weight, and it is the best and most economical feed that can
be used. There are a number of such foods on the market

BROODING
RAISING BROODER CHICKS

VALUABLE HINTS ABOUT CARING FOR
CHICKS ENTRUSTED TO THE BROODERS

MRS. W. B. CHANDLER

HAVE been peculiarly fortunate in raising brooder chicks,
I and though I do not claim to be “‘all-wise’”’ on the subject,
perhaps if I tell how I manage them it may help some less
fortunate one to see wherein she fails. i }
A lady said to me the other day, “Oh, you always succeed
with everything.” That was not true, and I knew it, but I

said nothing and let it pass. But one thing I do know, and that

48—POULTRY HOUSES WITH WOODLAND RANGE

and if you exercise a little care in buying, you will be able
to find one that will answer all requirements, and will solve
the feeding problem for you, as far as the young chicks
are concerned, One hundred pounds of such feed will carry
75 or 100 chickens pretty well past the danger point, so that
the expense of feeding a chick until it is well started is only
about three cents.

In feeding chick feed to chickens that are running with
hens carry a2 pail of corn and throw out a small handful to
the hen. It is just as good, for her as the more expen-
sive chick feed.

Do not neglect to provide green food and some form
of animal food, if your range does not supply them in suffi-
cient quantities. If you are able to solve the other problems
as well as the feed, your chickens will be present or accounted
for when the fall round up comes.

61

is that I never give up to one failure. I try again and again
until I force at least a partial success from my efforts. All of
which means if your chickens die off the first time you try to
raise them in a brooder, try it again, and do things differently,
thinking over each step and searching out the cause of your
failure.

The day the chicks are due to hatch I light the lamp in the
brooder so that it may be thoroughly warmed. Previous to this,
however, I have carpeted the whole brooder with burlap. tack-
ing it in the corners and a few places at the sides, so it will stay
in place. Over this is strewn a good covering of oats chaff
(gathered at threshing time) in which all their feed is scattered.
T use a commercial chick feed and the wee Biddies have to scratch
for it in the chaff. The first week this chaff need be changed
but once or twice, and a thorough brushing with a whisk broom
cleans it quickly and perfectly. As the chickens grow older,

ARTIFICIAL INCUBATING AND BROODING

the brooder must be cleaned oftener to keep it sweet smelling.

The first day they have no water, then it is given to them
(a little warm) three or four times a day after they have eaten
and is taken away again in half an hour or so. Believing that
an ounce of prevention is indeed worth a pound of cure, I give,
three or four times the first week or ten days, scalded fresh milk
instead of water the first time in the day. By so doing I believe
most of the bowel trouble will be prevented, and possibly all
of it. As to the heat, I keep it so that few of them seek the hover;
but I seldom, except on very windy days, shut the lid down
tight. I put a small nail or a thin chip under, and so avoid the
danger of overheating, by giving a means of escape for the hot
air. The burlap on the floor of the brooder need be renewed
only once in three weeks, usually. But that must be governed
by the soil that is on it.

I like to get my chicks out on the ground by the time they
are a week old, but sometimes, early in the season when the
weather is bad, they have been in the brooder till three weeks
old before ever getting onto the ground, and yet there was not
a case of leg weakness. Perhaps the strictly grain diet which is
furnished by the feed I use is responsible in part for this, but the
thick covering of chaff on the floor of the brooder, in which
their food is buried, is also a great factor in the case.

As to incubators, I think they are a good deal like children,
all the better for a judicious letting alone. If one notices all
the little naughty things a child does, one is pretty apt to be
kept in hot water. If you notice all the little variations of
temperature in an incubator, you will be kept in a state of anxiety
and doubt all the time, but by letting it alone except at stated
periods, say three times a day, you can judge much better how
the regulator is working. The inequalities of heat will adjust
themselves, and at certain hours you get the mean temperature.

NOTES ON DRY FEEDING

WHAT AND HOW TO FEED TO PRODUCE
TWO-POUND CHICKS AT EIGHT WEEKS

DR. H. P. NOTTAGE

Dr. Nottage ts a practical poultry keeper and has for a number
of years practiced, and been an exponent of, dry feeding both chicks
and fowls. His conclusions, therefore, can be considered as the out-
come of experience and intelligent observation.—Editor.

I what he had found out to be the disadvantages of dry
feeding and he responded, “I haven’t found any yet!”
If such is the experience of a man who for many years has been
constantly visiting poultry ranchés, it certainly may be a safe
proposition for any one to consider, even though he has a large
ranch, and may be afraid of losing money by changing methods.
I have always contended that the safest way, at least for the
beginner is to start with his little chicks direct from the machine,
for there have been some who for various reasons, most of them
avoidable, have got into trouble by changing horses in the middle
of the stream. It seems as if some flocks of fowls have never
had sufficient meat in their ration. Those hens may fill up on
beef scraps to their hurt if the scraps are placed before them
once, allowed to remain and they are at liberty to eat their fill.
It is better in such cases to let them have access to the meat
only every other day at first, or to see that the hopper feeds
gradually, so that they have to work for what they get.

Another thing for which I have contended from the first
is that little chicks right from the machine shall be allowed
access to scraps at their first meal and ever after have all they

ASKED a well-known authority on poultry a while ago

62

I have repeatedly seen warnings not to give them scraps
until a week or two. I give mine all they want and bowel
trouble is a thing unknown among my chicks. Here comes in
the question of the kind of scraps one uses; and there may be
the difficulty with some. Some grades of scraps are only fit
for fertilizer. Every maker seems to turn out scraps different
from another. We get them dry and fine; coarse and full of
chunks of bone in big splinters; bright and lively looking, and
dead and dull in appearance. I hope that as soon as poultry-
men know and say what they want we shall get scraps uniform
in consistency and quality. For dry feeding we need scraps
that average one-eighth of an inch in size, bright looking, of a
golden brown, in which the fibers of meat and small bits of bone
appear, without the feathery and dusty appearance produced
by an admixture of tankage. Let us stand for at least fifty
per cent of protein. Before I knew much about scraps I fed
a brand that was full of big splinters of bone that government
analysis afterward proved to contain only thirty-five per cent
protein. Tankage in scraps is detected by feathery strings of
stuff that look as if little shreds of cotton batting had been
rubbed in animal meal. Cottonseed Culls are sometimes used
as an adulterant and give a similar appearance to the scrap.

We would not like to feed cracked corn that was half meal,
as that would be considered as wasteful; neither do we want to
feed scraps that are half meal. Let the meal be sifted out and
sold as animal meal and give us scraps that are granular, so
that we can detect just what each particle really is.

One of the questions that is most frequently asked is,
“Can you grow chicks just as rapidly on dry food as you can
with wet food?’ With the breeds that are grown for broilers
it is expected that you will get the most of your chicks to weigh
three pounds to the pair, live weight at eight weeks and that
some of them will weigh two pounds each. This is accomplished
by feeding four or five times a day cooked food that is concen-
trated and forcing, using the formulas that experienced broiler
raisers have found to be best suited to this purpose and even
then it is expected that some of the chicks will ‘‘go off their
legs” from over-feeding. You can produce the same weight of
chicken by filling up a food box with one-third wheat and two-
thirds cracked corn and let them have all the scraps they will
eat, and you will not see as many get weak in the legs from over-
feeding.

Speaking of the legs of your chicks, I would like to make
an observation that has been made by visitors to my ranch.
They have remarked the large sturdy legs that little chicks put
on under this dry feeding as if to carry a large frame later on.
It would be interesting to know if others have observed the same
thing. Oneman who has used dry feeding off and on for twenty-
five years wrote that during the years that he used dry feeding
the fowls were larger, and that when he dropped back to the
usual wet mash feeding he noticed a deterioration in size of both.
Without making any attempt to breed for size of eggs, I know
that my eggs have increased from about 223 ounces to the dozen
to about 28 ounces.

These are points for all to observe. Experiment stations
are already working on these problems and we may expect in
the next few years to learn some valuable things.

It requires a good deal of courage for one who has been
accustomed to the old way of feeding to place a lot of food
before chicks and let them have all they want; but thousands
of poultrymen are now doing this with the best of results, both
in growth, health of young chicks and breeding stock. Now
is the time to plan for testing this method with your young
chicks that will soon be coming on. Try a hatch or two with
dry food and you will find that it not onky saves time, but you
will have fewer chicks that are sick, and a smaller percentage
of mortality.

want.

STARTING THE CHICKS

DO NOT FEED TOO SOON—DRY FOOD ENDORSED—NOT TOO MUCH AT A TIME
—Two GOOD JOHNNY CAKES—FEED A VARIETY—VALUE OF PROPER HEAT AND
GOOD SANITATION—GIVE THE CHICKS FRESH AIR—AVOID ALL OVERCROWDING

A. F. HUNTER

LL experienced poultryman are aware that there
is a large amount of bungling work done with
chicks. Some feed too soon, some feed too
much, some overheat in the brooders, some chill
the chicks in the brooders or brooder house, in
fact, there are very many ways by which
chicken work is bungled.—and bungling work

_ costs heavily in chick mortality. At a recent
gathering poultrymen were discussing chicken experiences, and
they quite generally agreed that the right starting of the chicks
was the keynote to better success with their work. The good
work done by incubators is not supported by good work in
brooding and feeding the chicks, and while some were inclined
to thing the fault was in the brooding, others were strongly of
the opinion that the careless or bungling work of the brooder
operators, especially in the feeding, was chiefly to blame for the
heavy losses.

EXERCISE CARE IN FEEDING

It is certain that much bungling is done in the feeding,
and by not a few the bungling consists in feeding too soon, al-
though with many it consists in overfeeding, feeding unsuitable
foods, -etc., etc. Take the point of'feeding too soon, and if
one studies the literature touching upon the subject he will
find that there is great diversity of opinion among supposed
authorities. It’is generally conceded that the chicks ought not
to be fed during the first twenty-four hours, and many maintain
that they will do still better if not fed until they have been out
of the shell at least forty-eight hours, and there are still other
writers who stoutly maintain that still better results will be
gotten if sixty to seventy-two hours elapse before the chicks are
given any food.

We all know that the tiny chicks are well supplied with a
nourishing food at the time of exclusion, as the balance’ of the
yolk of the egg is absorbed into the chick’s abdomen just before
that period, which is nature’s way of providing sustenance until
supplies can, be found, the absorbed yolk giving strength for the
search. Common sense should teach us that they ought not to
be fed until they have had a chance to digest and assimilate
the absorbed egg yolk, and experienced chicken raisers are
coming to believe that a very serious mistake is made by feed-
ing before the chicks are forty-eight hours old. It is better
that they get to be a little hungry before they are fed than that
they be tempted to eat before they are really ready to digest
food. If the chicks are ‘well hatched,” they should be left in the
incubator until the morning of the second day, and then removed
to a well warmed brooder, which has chaff or finely chopped
clover, etc., scattered over the floor, and a little dry chick-size
grit and water given them.

DRY FEEDING ENDORSED

We say “feed some dry food” advisedly, because the con-
sensus of opinion among experienced chicken raisers is coming
.to be that dry food, especially the first week or two, is the best.
Among the advantages of feeding a dry food is that it does not
sour if not eaten immediately, as does wet food; also the chicks
will not overeat of it. When fed a wet (or moistened) food
there is danger of their eating more than their tiny digestive

63

organs can take care of; and another important advantage is
that this dry food can be scattered in the litter and the chicks
made to exercise for it from the first. That common term, made
to exercise, does not really express the idea. It is ‘natural’
for a chick to exercise, that is, to scratch and seach for seeds,
grains, insects, etc., for its food, hence the inducing of exercise
is simply feeding in nature’s way. To secure this advantage
and do away with the wide-spread dissatisfaction with present
methods of feeding, many prepared chick foods have been put
upon the market and are coming to be very generally used.
These preparations furnish “balanced rations,” that is, they
are so blended (or compounded) of several different seeds and
grains, rightly proportioned, that all the bodily wants are sup-
plied; and the use of them has given most satisfactory results.
Certain it is that the systematic feeding of these ‘“‘balanced”’
foods gives complete immunity from bowel trouble, leg weak-

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49—A THREE COMPARTMENT FOOD HOPPER

The hopper is made from a biscuit box as shown in the illustration.

ness, brooder sickness, etc., and users of them claim that with a
right temperature in the brooder the mortality in little chicks
can be reduced to a minimum, and the most happy result of
increased profit will be the reward.

LITTLE AND OFTEN

Whatever kind of food is fed the good old rule, ‘Feed only
a little at a time and feed often,” should be rigidly adhered to;
it is the veritable keynote to successful chicken raising. A
most successful broiler raiser of our acquaintance says that over-
feeding, especially of too concentrated soft foods, is the cause of
very much of the infant mortality with chicks. Of course, if
one does not feed the soft foods to little chicks, he does not incur
the risk of overfeeding them. and as we said before, that ig one
of the great advantages of the dry foods consisting largely of
seeds and grains, that the chicks will not over eat of them; an-

ARTIFICIAL INCUBATING AND BROODING

other great advantage is that the foods are not too concentrated.
If we study the natural way of chicks feeding, which is here a
seed, there a grain, then a bug or worm, and that very much
exercise in the way of running about, scratching and searching
accompanies the feeding, we can readily understand that
exercise or working for the food is a substantial aid to the pro-
cess of digestion; hence we cannot too strongly urge that it is
most reasonable, and will be most certainly profitable, for us to
study and closely follow the natural way.

TWO GOOD JOHNNY CAKES

Probably the next method is feeding for the first week or
ten days a well baked johnnycake; and the term well-baked
ought to be made particularly emphatic, because it means a
great deal. A johnnycake should be baked several hours, four
to six hours, in a slow oven. Then it is an easily crumbled cake
and should have no stickiness or doughiness about it. Two
formulas which have been made by Dr. P. T. Woods, and have
given good results in the hands of practical chicken men, are
the following:

JOHNNY CAKE NO. 1

Two quarts of bran (or shorts.)

Two quarts of coarse corn meal.

One quart of wheat middlings.

One handful of good clean beef scraps.

One handful of good chicken grit.

Rub these together dry with from two to four infertile eggs,
and mix all together with barely enough skim milk to just moist-

50—EASILY CONSTRUCTED FATTENING CRATE

enit. Rub the whole into a moist, crumbly mass with the hands,
then put in a well greased pan (a roasting pan about three inches
deep is the best) and press down hard to stick cake together.

JOHNNY CAKE NO. 2

Two and a half quarts of bran (or shorts.)

Two and a half quarts of corn meal.

Two quarts of ground oats, sifted.

One quart of clover meal.

One handful of coarse bone meal.

One handful of beef scraps.

Mix all together while dry and then rub in half a dozen
infertile eggs. Wet up with milk or water (or both) and add one
heaping teaspoonful of baking soda and one teacupful of pure
cider vinegar, mix the whole thoroughly into a stiff dough and
bake three to six hours in a slow oven. It is claimed for this
johpnycake No. 2 that, where chicks are not very strong and
have a tendency to bowel trouble, it will prevent their pasting
up behind.

64

A popular food for the first week with some chicken raisers
is either cracker crumbs or dried bread crumbs thoroughly mix-
ed with finely chopped, hard-boiled eggs, and a very little or no
moisture added; but hard-boiled eggs are a very concentrated food
and there should be at least four or five times as much cracker
crumbs or bread crumbs as there is of egg. Pinhead oatmeal or
rolled oats makes a superior chick food, and where pinhead oat-
meal can be bought by the barrel (or bulk) at a cost not exceed-
ing two and a half or three cents per pound, it is an excellent
food. The little chicks should be fed four or five times a day,
say every two or two and a half hours, for the first week or ten
days; and all dry-grain mixtures should be thrown in the scratch-
ing litter to promote exercise; and if the soft feeding method is
employed, some dry grains should be scattered in the litter to
give variety and induce exercise. If chicks are fed a soft food
all the food not eaten within a few minutes should be removed,
so that it will not become sour from the heat.

FEED A VARIETY

After the first few feedings chickens need a variety of foods
The dry-grain chick foods supply this. Where other method.
are employed they should have, in addition to their johnnycake
and mash foods, feedings of cut or rolled oats, cut wheat and
granulated corn (this is fine cracked corn with the coarse cracked
and fine meal sifted out, and is known in some localities as
“corn grits’.) Where a dry grain chick food is used a little
pure beef scrap, which has been steamed or barely moistened
by scalding water, should be fed each day after the chicks are
a week old. The chicks should, after they are
four or five days old, have one or two feedings
a day of some bright, fresh, green food, like
lettuce, cabbage or the fresh, green shoots of
sprouted grain. Where it is possible to give
the little chicks a clean grass-run, it will be
beneficial.

After the first week, four times a day is
often enough to feed. It is a mistake to feed
too much or too often. The chicks need a
little time between meals to work and get up
an appetite. They must be kept hungry, but
not too hungry, and with most people there is
more danger of overfeeding than of starving
them. If the chickens appear dumpish and
do not take hold of their food eagerly, try
lighter feedings and add more grit to their
food. Feeding grit in such cases will often
work wonders.

Until the chicks are ten days or two weeks
old they will be fed practically the same.
whether they are intended for market or for
use as stock birds. If they are started right the battle is half
won. After the second week the manner of feeding and caring
for them depends on whether they are intended for broilers or
roasters, or whether they are to become layers or breeders.
If all are treated alike and the careless grower makes his
selection of laying and breeding stock out of his ‘“pushed-
for-market” flock it will eventually prove a detriment to his
poultry, and will ina short time find himself confronted with
some of the many poultry troubles which result from failure to
use good judgment.

KEEP THE RIGHT HEAT

Too much or too little heat in the brooder is the cause of

‘not a little chick mortality; this also is very likely to manifest

itself in “bowel trouble.” If the brooders are overheated the
little chicks get to perspiring, the pores of the skin are opened,
and an exposure to a chilling atmosphere causes congestion and
cold and a diarrhoea quickly develops. Sometimes too many
cooks spoil the broth, and more than one brooder full of chicks

ARTIFICIAL

has “passed over to the majority” through the interference of
an over-zealous friend or co-worker.

_A most forceful example of this over-zealous help was the
case of an outdoor brooder full of chicks on a poultry farm in
Massachusetts. It was coming on cooler at night and the zeal-
ous wife of the poultryman, while crossing the yard, passed the
brooder and thought to herself: ‘It is going to be a cold night
and these chicks need a little extra heat,” so she gave a slight
upturn to the lamp and flattered herself she had been good to
the chicks. A little later the man having the brooders in charge
was passing that brooder and he thought, “It is going to be a
cold night and these chicks need a little more heat,” and he, too,
gave a little upturn to the lamp wick. Neither mentioned to
the other the kindly thought for the good of the chicks, and
when the man having the brooders in charge stepped out of the
house the next morning there was a pretty little heap of ashes
where the brooder full of chicks had stood the night before,
and in the ashes were the metal parts of the brooder and the
calcined bones of the baby chicks.

This is an extreme case, of course, but it well illustrates
the danger of too many fussing with the brooder lamps. One
person should be the responsible custodian of the brooders, and
should be competent to judge whether more or less heat is desir-
able, and as he is depending upon results he will naturally take
pains to keep the heat as near right as possible. All well equip-
ped brooders of the present day have thermometers suspended
within the hovers, so that it is easy to determine the temperature
conditions under the hovers and decide whether more or less heat
is wanted. A most successful chicken raiser of our acquain-
tance makes it a point te have the heat a little bit strong, and
give a little extra ventilation to balance it; he believes that the
better quality of air resulting amply compensates for the
very slight increased cost of oil consumed.

POOR SANITATION.

There is no doubt whatever that indifference as to cleanli-
ness is a prominent factor in chicken troubles. We all know
that freedom from filth and vermin is positively required, and
the great difficulty is we do not live up to our knowledge. Other

' work is pressing and crowds upon the time which
should be given to proper care for cleanliness and the
result is unfortunate We do not realize how quickly
chicks double and quadruple in size, and that with
the increase in size there is a corresponding increase
in the droppings and a corresponding increase in the
need for cleanliness. Speaking upon this point a
bulletin of the Rhode Island Experiment Station says:

“Much more important are the fatalities grouped under
imperfect sanitation. The veriest tyro at poultry raising knows
that freedom from filth and vermin is a primary requisite and
no reference to. disease thus arising is here necessary. But
particular attention should be directed to the fact that a brooder
may be scrupulously clean and absolutely louseless, yet be the
hiding place of disease germs far more to be feared on account
of the insidious nature of their attack and the difficulty of detect-
ing and combatting their inroads. Such a germ is that which
eauses tuberculosis. Tuberculosis is very prevalent among
fowls. According to observations 15.1 per cent. of the chicks
which died were considered to be more or less affected. * *

“Sunlight is the best and cheapest germicide for the tuber-
cle bacillus. We found that the simple expedient of removing
the hovers and setting them out of doors in the full sun all
day reduced the evidence of tuberculosis in the post-mortem ex-
amination frem nearly fifty per cent to only three per cent.

GIVE THE CHICKS PLENTY OF AIR

Lack of fresh air is another fruitful cause of chick mortality.
Through false economy or mistaken kindness the brooders are

65

BROODING

kept tight shut to prevent loss of heat, or to keep the chicks
close to the heat supply, and the result is they do not get suf-
ficient good, fresh air to breathe. A reasonably healthy chick
can stand a lot of trouble if it is well supplied with ozone, and
ozone is absolutely essential to the making of good blood,—to
making good growth. We spoke above of the successful chick-
en raiser who makes it a practice to have the heat of his brooders
a bit higher than the age of the chick makes necessary in order
that he may raise the lid of the brooder an eighth or quarter
of an inch, or open the ventilator slides a little more, or in other
ways supply currents of fresh, outside air. Contrast his method

-with that of chicken raisers who in mistaken kindness cover

the brooder with burlap sacks or a horse blanket at night to
“keep the heat in.” Such do not realize that in keeping the
heat in they are also keeping the air in, to be breathed over and.
over again. And it is no wonder that the chicks come out of
such a brooder in the morning weak and trembly. Some brood~
ers are so constructed that the ventilators cannot be absolutely
tight-shut. Indeed, in one popular make of brooder we advised
the manufacturer to provide holes for ventilation close up to.
the top under the hover, and make a slide with corresponding

Ny 51—THE FATTENING CRATES

The frame of the crate is six feet long, sixteen inches wide and twenty inches high. It
is built from seven-eighths by two-inch dressed lumber, and is divided by two tight wooden
partitions into three compartments. Each compartment holds four chickens, Ground oats,
finely ground, or with the coarser hulls sifted out, form the basis of all food mixtures.

holes through it, with a knob and wire connection to the slide
so that it could be operated from outside, and a catch so set
that when the slide was pulled a certain distance it was check-
ed, and there were one-eighth inch apertures through all
of the holes on each side.

This device positively prevented the ventilator being fully
closed. The operator who did not get on to the device would
think he had wholly closed the ventilators, but there were still
some air inlets and outlets remaining. Brooders should be well
out daily and opened up to the sun every day; the hovers being
turned up and exposed to the sun and air also. There are
stormy days, of course, when such sunning and airing is impos-
sible; it is all the more imperative that the sunning and airing
be done when possible, on warm, sunny days. Note again the
quotation above from the bulletin of the Rhode Island Experi-
ment Stations which says: “Sunlight is the best and cheapest
germicide for the tubercle bacillus.” It is not only the cheapest

ARTIFICIAL INCUBATING AND BROODING

and the best germicide for that germ, but for other disease
germs, and it is a germicide which we should use as a preven-
tive; if we use sunlight and fresh air freely we shall have very
little trouble with disease germe.

OVERCROWDING

Just a word about overcrowding the chicks in the brooders;
overcrowding is a prolific cause of disease and death in brooder
chicks. We do not mean when they are babies; at that time
two or three times as many chicks can be brooded together in
one brooder as can be safely let run together three or four weeks
later. As we said before, chicks double in size very quickly,
and the brooder space which was large enough for the family of
babies has become crowded quarters for practically the same
number of chicks grown twice the size. What then shall we
say when by the time the chicks are four or five weeks old they
are four times as large as when first put in the brooder? Under
these conditions the chicks are crowded together and the weaker
ones get pushed down and are trampled or suffocated; many
that do not actually die under these conditions have health
impaired and are weaker for life. We know a poultryman who
bought half a dozen brooders of a well-advertised make, and
they brooded the chicks admirably for two or three weeks; then
he began to find two or three and sometimes as many as five
or six dead in a brooder in the morning; but not until he had
actually lost by such overcrowding fully twenty-five per cent
of the chicks entrusted to these brooders did he come to realize
that he had twice too many chicks in them. Thus does nature
revenge herself upon us. She has a way of “getting even” that
furnishes sharp lessons sometimes, and we are wise if we give
heed to her admonitions,

START WITH HOPPER FEEDING

UNDER PROPER CONDITIONS CHICKS MAY
BE HOPPER’ FED FROM THE START—GRIT,

CHARCOAL AND FRESH WATER NECESSARY
OPPER feeding does not often begin with the first food
fed to little chicks, but under favorable conditions it

H. A. NOURSE

H is successful from the start. Once in the last week of
May, I took from a large incubator sixty-two chicks that were
left after the stronger ones had been taken out. One had a
crippled leg and two others were apparently of little account.
They were in the incubator forty-eight hours after the hatch
was finished and were placed in a brooder located in a house
with a dirt floor. The floor of the brooder was six inches above
that of the house and dirt was banked in to form an incline
between them. Directly in front and five feet away was a full
window which was never closed.

The chicks were placed in the brooder just before dark and
a board set on edge near the hover to keep them from getting
away from the warmth during the night. This was moved
back a little next morning to allow the chicks to run about in
front of the hover. About noon the first day this board was
removed and a small hopper containing dry chick food was
set about three feet from the brooder. A fountain of water

was placed near it and a handful of fine grit was scattered about
the pen. No attempt was made to drive the chicks to the

66

food, but when they hegan to crowd together outside they were
driven back to the brooder to get warm. Before the end of the
first day they were eating from the hopper and it was after-
wards refilled as often as was necessary. The brooder was
kept clean, a fairly even temperature was maintained and plenty
of finely granulated charcoal, grit and fresh water were always
within reach of the chicks. After three days the chicks were
given « small yard in front of the house.

At the end of three weeks, when we were obliged to aban-
don the experiment, sixty of those chicks were alive and had
made rapid and vigorous growth.

HOPPER FEEDING HENS AND BROODS

At about the same time that the experiment explained
above was tried hoppers containing two parts chick food and
one part whole corn, well mixed, were placed in the coops of
ten broody hens that had finished hatching the day before. Each
of these hens had twelve chicks. These hoppers were never
empty, fine grit, charcoal and fresh water were supplied and
the coops frequently cleaned. Just at sundown on pleasant
days the hens were let out to exercise.

The chicks made good growth and very few were lost.
After a few days the little fellows began to eat the whole corn,

52—CONDITIONS FOR GOOD HEALTH

which was intended for the hens, and were often seen with their
crops bulging with it. They seemed to digest the large kernels
readily, for they lived and thrived.

At the end of two weeks wheat and cracked corn in equal
parts were gradually substituted for the chick food in the hop-
pers and were continued in use until the chicks were weaned.
This reduced the labor of caring for these broods to the mini-
mum and the results were all in favor of the method.

Although the results of these experiments were very grati-
fying, I do not feel justified in giving the methods unqualified
recommendation. Both were tried during warm and fairly
dry weather when the chicks could spend most of their time in
the open air on the green grass. Under equally favorable con-
ditions as good results could always be obtained. But whether
the same methods could be used successfully in cold weather,
when the chicks are confined to pens in a brooding house, and
have no exercise except that obtained by scratching in the
litter, can best be ascertained by experiment. If hoppers can
be used successfully under such conditions, it would save hund-
reds of dollars to operators of large brooding houses.

SUCCESSFUL CHICK GROWING

KEEP THE CHICKS GROWING—AN OUT-DOOR BROODER IN WINTER—HARDEN
THE CHICKS GRADUALLY—SUNSHINE AND FRESH AIR—DRY FEEDING A FACTOR—
HINTS FOR WEANING TIME—KEEP QUARTERS CLEAN—TABLE OF WEIGHTS, ETC.

P. T. WOODS, M. D.

RDINARILY weaning time is a critical period in
the life of small chicks, particularly those which
are grown by artificial means. It is at this time
and in the failure to properly lead up to it, that
many beginners make fatal mistakes in the care
and management of brooder chicks.

When brooder chicks are from six to eight
weeks old, depending on the season, the weather

and the development of the chickens, they should be ready to
leave the brooder for colony coops, except in the case of mid-
winter chickens, which of necessity must be kept in buildings
warmed by artificial heat. Unless chickens are properly handled
at weaning time there is liable to be a cessation of growth
which means loss of time and many mean that the chick will
fail to develop properly. Stunted, imperfect chicks and even
increased mortality may result from errors at this time. If
intended for breeders or profitable market stock, chicks must be
kept growing all the time from the start; there must be no set-
backs like “Standing still,” with no apparent gain or temporary
stops in growth. With a healthy

These weights represent the actual weights of several chicks
selected as average representatives of the flock. A few of the
birds ran a trifle under weight and several ran a little over
weight, so that the above table may be accepted as a fair esti-
mate of the entire flock.

Aside from the normal standing still which occurs in the
first four days, these chicks grew continuously from the start;
there were no set-backs. It has frequently been stated that
“chicks are heirs to nothing but health and enjoyment of life,
while the ills come from mismanagement.” ‘There is a deal of
truth in this for it is the natural tendency of a healthy chick to
grow and thrive.

CHICKS GROWING OUTDOORS IN WINTER

The writer has a flock of White Wyandotte chicks which
are being grown in an outdoor brooder, which has been running
out of door without shelter or protection from the weather
since the middle of February. The weather has been stormy
and very cold. Extreme changes have been frequent, the out-

normal chick you should be
» able to almost .“‘see it grow,”
so continuous and rapid is the
development.

A WEIGHT STANDARD TO GROW TO

In the following table are
given the weights which it is
possible to attain in growing
chicks of the American class.
These weights were actually
attained with a flock of early
hatched White Wyandotte chick-
ens. While somewhat unusual
and extraordinary, this sched-
ule of growth represents actual
development, and what has
been done may be again ac-
complished. It is not to be
expected that every flock of
chicks can be kept up to this
standard, but it is an end to
work for, not an ideal, but an
accomplished fact that it is
perfectly possible for others to
attain if they will strive hard
for it. 2

TABLE OF ACTUAL WEIGHTS

The following weights were attained by a flock of seventeen
White Wyandotte chicks in ten weeks:

Weight of chick when newly hatched.......-...-.--- 2 ounces
Weight of chick when four days old_.....---.----------- 2 ounces
Weight of chick when ten days old : 4 ounces
Weight of chick when three weeks old_......-..-..-.-.--.------- 8 ounces
Weight of chick when four weeks old............-..---—- 12 ounces
Weight of chick when eight weeks old 2 pounds
Weight of chick when ten weeks old..........------------- 3 pounds

67

3—AN OUT-DOOR BROODER IN OPERATION

door temperature ranging from 50 degrees above zero at noon
on some days to zero on several nights, with only a few nights
when it was warmer than 12 or 14 degrees above zero. On
several occasions the wind has blown a gale of 60 miles or more
an hour. Quantities of snow on the ground and only a little
bare place in front of the brooder cleaned by shoveling. Yet
these chicks have done remarkably well, they are covered
with heavy down and are growing rapidly. The hover space is
kept quite warm, several degrees higher than the brooder direc-
tions call for, in order to keep the apartment outside the hover

ARTIFICIAL INCUBATING AND BROODING

sufficiently warm for comfort, but they get an abundance of
pure fresh air to breathe. Every day when the sun shone,
after they were a week old, these chicks have run out on the
snow, ice and frozen bare ground in front of their brooder and
in this way are becoming hardened; properly seasoned to be in
fit condition for weaning time when it arrives. Every day
after they were three days old, no matter what the weather
was, the hover was removed for a few minutes to air it three
or four times between daylight and dark. Dry grain chick food,
the best cut clover, grit, charcoal and pure fresh water have
been kept always before these chicks from the time they were
placed in the brooder.

While running them in a small outdoor brooder out of doors
in winter was begun chiefly to see what could be done, the
results have been both interesting and pleasing thus far; the
only disagreeable feature being the discomfort attendant on
earing for a brooder out of doors in inclement winter weather.
The chicks are but three weeks old at the present writing, are
doing well and will soon need a rough packing-box, scratching
shed shelter to afford an outdoor run in stormy weather.

This report of experience has taken us a little way out of
the regular course of our article, but it is given to illustrate in
a practical manner that small chicks are naturally hardy and
are seldom as delicate as is popularly believed, unless we
make them so.

It is by coddling, babying and otherwise mishandling chicks
that we make them delicate. We are afraid to give them fresh
air, afraid to open the brooders. afraid to let the chicks be nat-
ural, forgetting that the mother hen in natural brooding has
no such scruples and frequently rises from her brooding posi-
tion, forcing her chicks to take exercise and fresh air whether
they will or no. She hardens her chicks to frequent and sud-
den changes and at weaning time declines, in no uncertain
manner, to permit them to hover. Having gradually outgrown
their natural hover and having become hardened to abrupt
changes, there is seldom any difficulty with hen-raised chicks
at weaning time. There is no good reason why there should
be any more trouble in weaning brooder chicks.

HARDEN THE CHICKS GRADUALLY

Lead up to weaning naturally and gradually. Let the
change be a constant and almost imperceptible one from the
start and there will be no trouble at weaning time. Begin,
when the chicks are a few days old, to air out the hover cham-
ber at frequent intervals and expose the under side of the hover
to direct sunlight. Reduce the heat under the hover very grad-
ually, but keep it warm enough to make the chicks comfortable.
When operating a brooder in cold weather, keep the hover
space warm enough so the chicks can warm up quickly. If
you do this and care for the chicks properly, you will seldom
find them under the hover in the day time. They run in out of
the cold to warm up a bit and then run out again to scratch
in the litter or play with their mates. Like all young things,
healthy chicks are playful and get a liberal amount of exercise
in this manner. If you doubt this, watch a flock of brooder
chicks running with a bit of wood or other non-edible substance,
watch them jump about and flap their tiny wings, and race in
and out of the brooder in the sheer joy of a happy existence.
If you keep your eyes open you will cease to be a “doubting
Thomas” and find small chicks quite as playful as young kit-
tens or other frisky young creatures.

AN OUT-DOOR RUN ESSENTIAL

Provide an outdoor run early, it will do them good even in
winter to have a run outside on every fair day for a little while
when the sun shines. On days when it is stormy, keep the
chicks indoors, but supply an abundance of fresh air by open-
ing the house windows and by keeping the brooder vents open.

Never wholly close the ventilators of your brooders. Close,
dead air will kill more chicks than any other one cause. Fresh
air is a life giver and a life saver, dan’t forget this. On windy
or stormy days it may be necessary to close the vent on the
windward side, but keep the apposite or lee side vent open.
Whatever you do, air out the whole brooder daily, if only for
«few minutes. Don’t use a brooder which has a fixed or im-
movable hover. Sunlight under the hover kills germs and pre-
vents sickness. The only way to get sunlight under the hover
is to remove the hover board or metal and expose its under side
and the inner side of the felts to sunshine and fresh air. If this
is done every time the chicks are fed it will benefit the chicks
and there will be no danger of chilling them.

IMPORTANCE OF SUNSHINE AND FRESH AIR

As long ago as in 1889 the Rhode Island State Agricultural
Experiment Station issued the statement in its Bulletin No. 61
on the “Mortality of Brooder Chicks,” that: ‘Sunlight is the
best and cheapest germicide for the tubércle bacillus. We found
that the simple expedient of removing the hovers and setting
them out of doors in the full sun all day reduced the evidence

68

54—CANVASS SUN SHELTERS FOR COOPS

of tuberculosis in the post-mortem examinations from nearly
50 per cent. to only 3 per cent.”

If fresh air and sunlight will work this wonderful change
in a fatal malady like tubercular disease, it certainly can be
counted on to prevent diseases of a less malignant nature.
When brooding in cold weather we cannot always keep the
hovers out all day. We can remove them for a little sunning
and airing while feeding the chicks several times a day, and
gradually work up to keeping them out all day as the chicks
become gradually hardened, older, stronger and better able to
do without artificial heat. Whatever else you may neglect, do
not fail to supply Nature’s best tonic and disease preventives,
fresh air and sunlight (when it is available), in all parts of the
brooder. :

DRY FEEDING A FACTOR IN SUCCESS

I firmly believe that dry feeding is the most satisfactory
and most successful method of feeding brooder chicks. Dry
grain chick food of good quality, should be kept always before
the birds. The brooders should be well littered with cut clover
or chaff and some fine sand. Use sand and chaff half an inch
deep on the floor beneath the hover. Keep pure beef scrap,
good quality, green-cured, dry cut clover or alfalfa; granulated
charcoal; chick-size grit and pure fresh water (with the chill

ARTIFICIAL BROODING

off in cold weather) always before the chicks. They will nor
overeat, and fed in this manner there is no danger of theit
going without food when they need it. In addition to this,
chick food should also be scattered in the litter. Fresh green
food like grain sprouts, lettuce, split beets, or apples should
be supplied frequently. Give them a grass run as soon as pos-
sible after they are a week or ten days old, and in any case pro-
vide an outdoor run, giving them a chance to use it during the
sunny part of every fair day.

Cared for in this manner the chicks will grow sturdy and
thrive like hardy weeds; they will be always plump and in
good condition.

HINTS FOR WEANING TIME

_ Gradually reduce the temperature in the brooder until 75
to 65 degrees is reached; then on mild nights accustom the

sheltered position, preferably in an orchard beneath a good
sized tree, and move the chicks to it in the morning of a pleas-
ant day. Place a small wire enclosed run about 6 by 10 feet in
front of the house and keep the chicks confined for a few days
until they become used to their home. Bed the floor of the
house with a little sand and an inch or more of chaff, cut straw
or similar litter. Run this house with the cloth hood closed
at night at first; as the chicks grow and the weather be-
comes warmer the hood may be left up on mild nights and
finally kept open all the time.

Do not put more than 50 chicks in one flock at weaning
time, and when they are ten or twelve weeks old, thin the flocks
down to 25 in a colony coop.

KEEP QUARTERS CLEAN

Keep the chicks’ quarters clean; if they are confined to small
runs remove to new runs often, always

" plowing up and disinfecting the old
ground from which the chicks were
moved. Airslaked lime (if thoroughly
slaked) will answer for disinfection if
a good top dressing of it is given before
plowing under. It will be well to plant
these old runs to rye or oats to sweeten
the soil and afford green food for fresh
crops of chicks.

The colony house should be cleaned
at least once a week and kept clean,
renewing the sand and litter often. In
these houses use a creolin disinfectant
or a good lice paint at frequent intervals.
Take the roofs off and sun and air the
coops often. A little hot whitewash
applied to the interior in the early morn-
ing of a bright sunny day, and a thorough
drying out afterward, is an excellent
means of sweetening the coops. Don’t
let the chicks get lousy. If lice appear
use a lice paint on the woodwork and a
good lice powder on the birds.

When the chicks are a little more
than half grown put roosts into the
coops for them. If they are healthy,

55—CONTINUOUS OPEN FRONT BROODER HOUSE

chicks to going without artificial heat until you are able to do
without the lamp altogether. When the chicks are from six
to eight weeks old they should be well feathered and well grown.
At this time if they have been hardened properly, and gradu-
ally used to doing without artificial heat, they are ready to be
transferred to the colony coops. These should be shed roofed
box coops of about 3 by 6 feet floor capacity; 3 feet high in
front. and 2 feet high in the rear; the roof should be removable.
The front should be boarded up at the bottom for a little more
than half the height; the balance of the front should be wire
netting and provided with a framed hood on which is stretched
waterproof muslin or close-woven burlap. This hood should be
hinged at the top to swing outward and held in position by
wooden ratchets. The hood when closed should cover the whole
wire front. Provide a large door in the center of the front
and in the bottom of this make a small opening, for a chick
door, provided with a slide to close it. The floor of this coop
should be wood, kept off the ground by one inch cleats. In
such a colony coop the chicks may be safely kept from weaning
time until well grown and ready for the larger houses.

After the chicks have become accustomed to doing without

artificial heat, place one of these portable colony houses in a

well-fed and well-nourished you need
not fear crooked breast bones. Pro-
vide shade and shelter for the birds to run
to in hot or stormy weather, but don’t neglect to make the
proper use of Nature’s best remedies, sunshine and fresh air.

SOUND, PRACTICAL METHODS

METHODS EMPLOYED ON ONE OF THE BEST
AND MOST SUCCESSFUL POULTRY FARMS IN
AMERICA—MUCH TOLD IN LITTLE SPACE

H. J. BLANCHARD

UR White Leghorns have been hatched and reared in
() large numbers continuously for many years by the arti-
ficial method, and we are satisfied it is by far the best

and most profitable way. Some few breeders still maintain that
artificially hatched and reared chicks do not make as large,
vigorous birds, nor as good layers, but our experience is
quite the reverse. Buy the best incubators and brooders
you can get, even though the first cost is more; the cheap
machines are usually ‘made to sell’ and would be dear as a
gift. Run your machines afew days before using so as to
become familiar with them and able tokeep them well under

69

ARTIFICIAL INCUBATING AND BROODING

control, At the end of the twenty-first day, after the hatch
is done, open the incubator and remove the trays with the
shells, unhatched eggs and dead chicks, if any; next open wide
all ventilators and run the heat down to 98 or 100 degrees,
leaving the chicks in without food or water until the next
day. The brooders well littered with dry sand or finely
cut straw in run and hover, should now show 95 to 100
degrees of heat under the hover. The chicks will now
be strong, lively and in good condition to transfer to the
brooder hover, which should be done without chilling them.

Feed very little the first day and give water with the chill
off, using a good chick fountain. Be sure the chicks have some
fine, hard, sharp grit with the first feed and always thereafter.
What to feed is largely a matter of circumstances. We use
a good commercial chick food exclusively for the first
three or four weeks, and find it very satisfactory. After
this we work in a little whole wheat and cracked corn, grad-
ually leaving out the chick food.

BROODING AND FEEDING THE CHICKS

We use indoor brooders early in the season while yet cold,
but later, when mild, use outdoor brooders. As soon as the
chicks are strong enough and the weather is suitable, they
should be got out doors on the grass in a little yard first, but
when old enough, they should have free range all summer and
until snow comes in fall. When chicks are about eight weeks
old, we begin feeding once a day a mash of ground grain in
which we mix a very little high-grade beef scrap, gradually in-
creasing the quantity of meat.

Always keep fresh water in shade where the chicks can
help themselves to it at any time.

_ We believe in the colony house plan for both chicks and
old fowls, and free range for breeding stock so far as possible.
We have colony houses for chicks near our corn fields and one
near a half-acre blackberry patch, and find the shade and protec-
tion afforded by these crops very valuable to our growing chicks,
and the crops and soil are also benefited by the foraging birds.

One line of our breeding birds has houses in a small wood-
ed valley through which flows a brook, making a typical place
for the birds to roam at will. From stock kept in such a man-
ner, you will not fail to get strongly fertile eggs and chickens
of sturdy frame and robust constitution.

The cull pullets and hens can be confined in large yards,
planted with fruit trees of any kind or blackberry bushes, of
which we find ‘‘Snyders”’ the best all-round variety. We annu-

ally gather good crops of blackberries and tree fruits from our
poultry yards, while the trees and bushes make the yards seem
more like free range and the confined fowls do much better than
in the ordinary small, bare yards.

The best mangel wurzels are the Golden Giant Intermedi-
ate, and we grow them as follows: Select a clean piece of
ground and plow under a heavy dressing of stable or hen man-
ure, harrow very thoroughly and remove all rubbish, broad-
cast on a good dressing of commercial fertilizer and harrow in.
Mark out rows three feet apart, sow seed in drills, about twelve
pounds to the acre, and cover about one inch. Soon as the
plants are large enough (about one inch high) thin out to a foot
apart. in the row, then cultivate, hoe and keep clean. The roots
should be gathered before any hard freezing and stored in bins
or piles in a cool cellar.

We never store the hen manure as it is a costly job to ‘fix’
the nitrogen and pulverize the manure. It is drawn directly
from the poultry houses to the fields and spread, winter and
summer, and gives grand results with all crops except potatoes,
which it is liable to scab.

BEFORE WINTER CLOSES IN

When snow comes our chickens are taken from the colony
houses in the field and put in warmer winter quarters. During
fall and early winter we dispose of a large share of our hens
for breeding, laying or exhibition, thus making room for the
pullets.

The cockerels are separated from the pullets about August
and given free range on another part of the farm. They are
kept in warm houses in winter that no combs may be frozen.
Our best cockerels go in our own breeding pens or are sold for
breeding or exhibition, and a great many of our pullets are sold
and shipped all over the country. Sales of eggs for hatching
also help swell the income. Market eggs was our first object
and our plant was built up largely from the profits on their
sale. When producing in large quantities we went to New
York City and after some difficulty succeeding in placing our
output at a good margin above regular market prices. Every
egg must be new-laid, clean, of good size, neatly and securely
packed to hold such trade, and you must have eggs in fall and
winter.

Nothing desirable comes without earnest’ endeavor, and the
poultryman must expect to work hard and have for his motto,
“Eternal vigilance is the price of success.”

70

FEEDING, HOUSING AND REARING

A COMPLETE COLLECTION OF QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS BY FOUR WELL-KNOWN
EXPERT BREEDERS UPON THE SUBJECTS OF FEEDING, HOUSING AND REARING
FROM HATCHING TIME TO MATURITY—COMPRISING VALUABLE INFORMATION.

8S IDENTICAL questions were asked the four
breeders referred to, we will simply state the
question once, then follow with the replies of
each correspondent opposite his respective name.
This will be advantageous to our readers, as they
will be able to compare easily the different
methods employed. These contributions are
proof that while feeding methods may be similar,
there is no cut and dried plan that can truly be deemed the best.

Q. 1. What do you feed your laying and breeding stock?

C. 8. Green—Whole wheat, cracked corn, buckwheat, oats,
wheat middlings, wheat bran, hominy, linseed oil meal, beef
scrap, mangle wurzels, cut clover or alfalfa. Grit, oyster shells
and fresh water are constantly before them.

G. A. McFetridge—Morning feed consists of cracked corn
scattered in straw; night feed one part cut clover, two parts
meal, two parts wniddliage, one part scrap, one-half part flour,
some crushed shell. For “greens” cabbage, potatoes, turnips.

56—A PROFITABLE COMBINATION

For winter feed plenty of greens; when spring comes feed rye,
wheat and corn in the green state; cut it short.

U. R. Fisbel—Wheat, oats, corn, and two or three times a
week a mash of one-third corn meal, balance wheat bran. Some-
times I add clover meal, and occasionally use as a tonic cayenne
pepper in small quantities. I also feed sparingly of green cut
bone.

H. A. Nourse—I feed one feed each day of whole grain—

71

wheat, oats and cracked corn fed on alternate days, not mixed,
and one feed of mash. In winter the grain is fed before light
in the litter—straw—to induce scratching, with a light sprink-
ling at noon on cold days, and mash at night. In summer
reverse.

Q. 2. Do -you feed mash?

C. 8. Green—Yes.

Q. 3. What is the composition of your mash?

C. S. Green—One hundred pounds wheat bran, 100 pounds
wheat middlings, 50 pounds linseed oil meal, 50 pounds hominy
meal and 75 pounds beef scrap.

H. A. Nourse—The mash is made of wheat bran, corn meal,
middlings, clover meal and beef scrap. The whole grain ration
is never varied, but the proportions in the mash are varied
according to the needs of the fowls.

Q. 4. What and how do you feed small chicks the first
week?

C. 8. Green—The first two days they are fed wheat bread
moistened with milk and fed every two hours. Grit, granulated
charcoal and water are kept by them constantly after the first
feed. From the third to the eighth days johnnycake is gradu-
allyfsubstituted for the wheat bread, but is fed only three
times a day, alternating in addition cracked corn, cracked wheat
and millet seed either mixed or fed separately in very light lit-
ter on the floor. The johnnycake is made of five parts corn
meal, one part wheat middlings and one-half part beef scrap
with a little soda mixed stiff with sour milk and steamed until
thoroughly cooked. This is fed cool, not hot. During this time
they are fed six times a day.

G. A. McFetridge—I don’t remove chicks until the twenty-
second day; then I feed only once a day and give free access
to water slightly warmed. The mash consists of equal parts of
corn meal, middlings, and bran with flour enough to stick it to-
gether.

U. R. Fishel—I have found the best food for small chicks
is cracked wheat for the first week; in fact, I have reared whole
broods with wheat alone until nearly feathered out. Millet is
good for chicks, but I find it will kill them if fed liberally at
early stages. Oats, both rolled and pin-head, are good, but
cause bowel trouble if fed to excess.

H. A. Nourse—Millet is fed in the litter, just enough to make
them scratch, but the principal ration is a cake made of two
parts bran, one part sifted corn meal and a little beef scrap and
fine grit sprinkled in, baked hard and dry and fed in crumbs on
tin plates, which are frequently scalded.

Q. 5. What is the ration after the first week and how fed?

C. 8. Green—During the next five weeks the chicks are fed
johnnycake (made as described) three times a day, at 7 a. m.,
il a.m.and3 p.m. It is very important that they be fed the
same time every day. When the weather will permit of free
outdoor range whole and cracked grain suitable to the size of
the chicks is kept before them in hoppers, but when they are
confined the grain is scattered in litter on the floor and practi-
cally kept by them all the time; that is, they can find some grain
by scratching on the floor. Wheat, cracked corn, millet seed,
or buckwheat can be used, changing frequently. After the
chicks are six weeks old they are fed mash twice a day (mixed
same as for hens) and cracked or whole corn and wheat are kept
before them in hoppers.

ARTIFICIAL INCUBATING AND BROODING

G. A. McFetridge—After the first week I feed three parts
of bran, one part of meal, one-half part beef scrap, some green
cut wheat or rye and mix with it enough flour to make it stick.

U. R. Fishel—After the first week we add to the ration pin-
head oats, some millet and whole wheat. I always keep the
chicks hungry and working. I have fed baked corn bread with
good results.

H. A. Nourse—A mash made of two parts bran and one of
corn meal with a little grit and five per cent beef scrap added,
mixed with water or milk, is fed morning, noon, and night with
a feed of cracked wheat and corn in mid-forenoon and mid-
afternoon as an inducement to scratch.

Q. 6. Do you feed chicks intended for breeders and those
intended for market differently and how?

L. 8. Green—No.

G. A. McFetridge—I do not except when I fatten, then
those intended for market are fed nearly clear corn meal for
seven to ten days, not longer.

57—WELL FATTENED DRESSED POULTRY

U. R. Fishel—We rear nothing for market, as we have never
been able to rear enough for our fancy trade.

H. A. Nourse—Just the same until time to fatten, when we
feed to those intended for market a mash composed of three
parts corn meal, one part bran, one part scrap and a little grit,
in place of the mash described above.

Q. 7. Do you feed mash to chicks; if so, how is it made
and how fed?

C. 8. Green—Mash is fed in the morning and at noon after
the chicks are six weeks old. We generally feed the same as
we feed old hens, but sometimes mix in 100 pounds corn meal
with the ration given the hens. We never give them all the

mash they will eat, but govern it so they will be still hungry.
: U. R. Fishel—I never feed mash to chicks until they are
well feathered and then it is made up of green cut bone, bone
meal, wheat bran, and clover meal. It is a good idea to feed
mash to young stock whenever they tire of grain and seem to
stop growing.

Q. 8 What results do you get?

C. S. Green—Pullets hatched March 1st began to lay this
year July 24th, and cockerels are ready for market at twelve
to fourteen weeks old.

U. R. Fishel—Excellent.

72

Q. 9. What do you use for green food?

C. 8. Green—Mangel wurzels, alfalfa and cut clover.

U. RB. Fishel—We have grass in all our yards. Also use
some onions, clover, both cut and the meal, beets, cabbage and
potatoes, almost anything in the vegetable line we can secure,
cutting them with a vegetable cutter.

H. A. Nourse—In winter with no other green stuff avail-
able, I use chopped cabbage or add clover meal to the mash, but,
in warm weather I find lawn grass preferable.

Q.' 10. Why do you prefer your plan? Does it save in
labor in other expense?

C. 8. Green—We consider it econamical in both labor and
cost of food, and it serves our purpose by using the food that is
most available here. It also produces the best results of any
method we have tried.

G. A. McFetridge—I find that my plan grows a large frame
and makes a better broiler than when too fattening feed is fed
while young.

U. R. Fishel—I prefer
any plan that will benefit
the poultry, making the
saving of labor and time a
secondary matter. The
welfare of my, poultry is
the first thing considered
by me.

H. A. Nourse—I prefer
this method because I have
had the greatest success with
it.

Q. 11. Mention any
points which occur to you
tending to show benefit from
your plan of feeding.

C.S. Green—This ques-
tion, I suppose, relates to the
method of feeding, which is
as follows: The composition
of the food is nearly the
same in the winter as it is
in the summer, except that
less meat scrap is fed dur-
ing the molting season, when
the hens are idle, and an
extra amount of corn is fed
in cold weather. Whole
wheat, cracked corn, oats and buckwheat all mixed
together or one at a time, alternating with the others, is
fed in a litter about six inches deep as soon as the fowls can
see to eat. At 10 a. m. the mash is fed, care being taken not
to feed more than about three-fourths as much as they will
eat. At noon all the green food is given them that they will
eat up clean, and at night they are fed the same as in the morn-
ing. We find this « good ration for eggs in the winter. We
are very careful not to change the ration except perhaps twice
a year, fall and spring. As soon as the fowls can be given free
range they are only fed twice a day. Morning feed is the same
as in winter and the mash is fed at night allsummer. An occa-
sional feed of green cut bone when it can be procured is very
good, even better than beef scrap. Boiled vegetables and refuse
beef from the butchers boiled and mixed with the mash is re-
lished very much,

‘G. A. McFetridge—While fed as stated, it is a good plan
once in a while to leave out the mash and feed a mixture of
cracked wheat, cracked corn and either rolled or pin head oats,
equal parts, and the first time they refuse to eat give them
nothing for the balance of the day.

U. R. Fishel—Good, healthy, strong, vigorous chicks matur-
ing into breeders that give the best results in breeding yards.

ARTIFICIAL

H. A, Nourse—I have tried various other methods advised,
but find the above about as easy, cheap, and as successful as any.
Q. 12. Do you use incubators and brooders and why?

C. S. Green—Yes; because we cannot find time to raise
chickens with hens.

G. A. McFetridge—I use them because they’ are far supe-
rior to hens for hatching.

U. R. Fishel—I use incubators and brooders, for the reason
that the hens cannot be depended upon. The machines are al-
ways ready and never leave the nest. If the brooders were as
nearly perfect: as the incubators we would not lose so many
chicks. If every one would place in the brooders just about
one-third the number of chicks the manufacturers claim the
brooders will hold they would have greater success.

H. A. Nourse—I use incubators and brooders for market
poultry because I have found it impracticable to hatch and rear
large numbers with hens, if not indeed impossible in the early
season.

Q. 13. Are artificially hatched and raised birds as good as
those reared by the “natural method?”

C. S. Green—Yes. The fact of their being artificially
hatched and raised will not detract from their worth one cent.
Crowding one hundred chicks into a brooder where forty be-
long is the cause for the delusion that artificially hatched and
raised chicks are inferior to those reared by the natural method.

G. A. McFetridge—Either chicks or ducks hatched and
reared artificially grow faster and are free from head lice.

U. R. Fishel—Better.—I have reared larger, stronger birds
by artificial means than the hen can rear.

H. A. Nourse—I can discern no difference, provided the
same conditions of range, food, and exercise are secured for
the growing chicks.

Q. 14. How do they differ, if at all?

C. 8S. Green—We can see no difference, except that the
brooder chicks are free from lice, and are raised with much less
mortality than those with hens.

H. A. Nourse—When those artificially hatched are confined
in small yards they do not, as a rule, make as good stock birds,
but rather better broilers.

Q. 15. Have you any particular method of brooding and
what are its advantages?

C. S. Green—Yes. We use individual brooders which have
both top and bottom heat. Each brooder is set in a colony
house six feet square and contains about fifty chicks. The col-
ony houses are placed about one hundred feet apart. This
makes it possible to give the growing birds free range without
intense crowding. They have a chance to get all the green
food they require, and it saves the cost and bother of fences,
thus reducing the labor to a minimum as nearly as possible.

G. A. McFetridge—My method of brooding is with a pipe
system in a brooder house. I run the heat so that the return
pipes near the stove register 100 to 110 F. with bulb in the
returning water. This I find is the right heat.

U. R. Fishel—We take our chicks from the machine and
place them in the brooder, which is placed in a small yard.
As the chicks grow they are moved to larger yards. After they
are feathered they are taken from the brooders and placed in
colony coops, with window sash and glass placed in front of
same, These coops are made of pine boxes which we get of the
dry goods stores. From these boxes they are moved to colony
coops made of piano boxes and placed at different points on the
farm, allowing the chickens free range.

H. A. Nourse—I use and prefer individual indoor brooders
for young chicks, and the overhead pipe system after two weeks.
I believe that the chicks make a better start in the separate
brooders because of better ventilation and slightly warmed
floor, while the older ones seem to do better on a cool floor with
the heat above.

73

BROODING

Q. 16. How do you keep your runs and yards clean and
avoid so-called “poisoning of the ground” by fowls using the
same runs year after year?

C. 8. Green—We give all fowls and chicks free range, occa-
sionaly plowing the ground around the buildings.

G. A. McFetridge—Hither plow or dig the ground and sow
to wheat or rye, or scrape off the top and add new soil or sand.

U. R. Fishel—Each yard for the old fowls contains one acre
in grass, while the young birds are placed at different points
on the one hundred and twenty acres of the farm, so there is
no poisoning of the ground. The grass absorbs all such matter,
as do the growing crops. :

H. A. Nourse—The soil here at Fisher’s Island Farm is
very sandy and is thoroughly purified by heavy rains which
we have in the fall and spring and which carry all foul matter
into the earth.

Q. 17. How do you house and yard fowls and why?

C. S. Green—The fowls are housed in winter, in houses
about fifteen feet wide, nine feet high in front and five feet
high in back, with a single pitch roof, and it faces the south.
It is divided into pens fifteen feet square, each pen containing
about fifty laying hens. Every forty-five feet there is a solid
partition to prevent draughts. The sides of the roof are stuffed
with straw four inches thick, which keeps the house free from
dampness. The front of each pen contains two window sashes,
each sash containing twelve lights of 9 by 12 inch glass. This
gives plenty of light without so much glass as to make the house
exceedingly cold at night. We use cement floors because they
are rat proof and will last indefinitely. They cost very little
more than board floor when properly laid.

G. A. McFetridge—I yard pullets as soon as I can detect
the sex, but prefer to give free range if possible.

U. R. Fishel—We use the colony plan, as it is the safest.
No epidemic can go through your flock with the colony plan in use.

H. A. Nourse—In summer we use the colony plan only,
with yards for each small house, and in winter both the long
house and colony plan, with the odds in favor of the long houses,
they being easier to care for, and fully as successful.

Q. 18. If you were to start over again with poultry how
would you begin?

C. 8. Green—I would buy eggs for hatching of the breed
I liked best. I would also get the best eggs I could find of that
breed, and set the eggs under hens the first year. The next
year I would buy a first-class incubator, and four first-class
brooders and “drive on.” With this equipment and good
houses, success would be practically assured.

G. A. McFetridge—The best and surest way to start. in the
poultry business, especially with limited capital, is to buy the
eggs and work your way up. If sufficient funds are in hand
buy stock.

U. R. Fishel—If breeding fancy poultry I would rather have
three strictly high-class birds than a field full of ordinary ones.
I would buy the best I could buy and would surely buy of a
specialty breeder. I would then each season go back to the same
breeder and get either eggs or new breeders, thereby getting the
same line of blood and the good results of the breeder’s matings
and experience.

H. A. Nourse—I would begin slowly and build both plant
and business along the lines indicated by prevailing conditions
as the profitable ones.

Q. 19. What is the cost of keeping the hen a year?

C. 8S. Green—Ninety cents.

G. A. McFetridge—The cost of food for one year is about $1.

U. R. Fishel—I can feed and care for a hen a year at an
average of $1 per hen, that is, in large numbers, say from five
hundred to three thousand.

Q. 20. What is the amount of net profit that may be
reasonably expected per hen per year?

ARTIFICIAL INCUBATING AND BROODING

C. 8. Green—It is reasonable to expect $1 net. profit per hen
per year after paying the cost of feed.

G. A. McFetridge—The net profit should be at least $2, the
best I did was to produce $300 worth of stock from thirty-six
hens; of course, I sold quite a number at $5 each.

U. R. Fishel—I never figured this out, as it is not as easily
done on a fancy plant as on an egg or broiler plant.

Q. 21. How many hens can be profitably kept in one
flock?

C. S. Green—Fifty. :

G. A, McFetridge—It all depends on the range; four hundred
Leghorns have done well in one flock on twenty acres.

U. R. Fishel—From ten to one hundred.

Q. 22. How many hens can one man care for and do well?

C. 8. Green—Six hundred.

U. R. Fishel—Fifteen hundred to two thousand. :

Q. 23. How many chicks should he raise each year with-
out help?

C. S. Green—Eight hundred.

U. R. Fishel—Two thousand.

Q. 24. How many breeding hens are needed to pay a
fair living?

C. 8. Green—Three hundred.

G. A. McFetridge—Four hundred.

U. R. Fishel—If for fancy, a flock of White Plymouth Rocks
numbering one hundred will make a good living; while for market
eggs and poultry u flock of five hundred to one thousand will
make any man good money.

74

BROILERS

PROFITABLE BROILER RAISING

SUITABLE BREEDS FOR BROILERS—VIGOR AND SHAPE IN BREEDERS—SEASONS OF
INCUBATION AND PRICES OF EGGS—PERIOD OF GROWTH TO MARKETABLE SIZE
—SPECIAL FOOD AN AID TO GROWTH—CLUE TO PROFITS—CAREFUL WORK NEEDED

A. F. HUNTER

'

Mr. Hunter made an exhaustive study of this branch of poultry

culture, collecting his facts from successful poultrymen in the section of

the United States where broiler raising is conducted on the largest
scale. Since the raising of broilers in profitable numbers, would be
impossible cwithout incubators and brooders or brooder houses, a
work on Artificial Incubating and Brooding would not be complete
without a chapter devoted to the subject of broilers. —Editor.

HERE are several interesting features manifest in
different 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 choice marketable fowls does
greatly fascinate the beginner is well known to

those who have studied conditions in the poul-
try business, and perhaps the most frequently recurring ques-
tion coming to the poultry editor’s desk relates 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 mat-
ter 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 condi-
tion, 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 difficulties in the way of realizing the 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.

75

We have in mind several widely known poultrymen as examples
of broiler (and market poultry) raising having been the
stepping stone to the great poultry business they have built
up.

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 succeeding 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 broiler 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. The rapid fall in prices of broilers.
from the top market in April is partly due to the great quantity
of surplus chicks marketed by the latter class, although some of
it can doubtless be charged to the poor quality of many of the
broilers thus thrown upon the market.

PRICES THEN GO DOWN

There is very little sale for broiler chicks in October, No-
vember 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 increases 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 12 to 20
cents a pound, and the highest prices range from 25 to 50
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.

ARTIFICIAL INCUBATING AND BROODING

fine, ‘‘gilt-edged” quality they not only sell quickly, but fre-
quently command a premium above highest market prices.
These broilers are in greatest demand in April, with a
good demand in March and May, and a moderate demand from
August to New Year’s. In the best markets, which are those
of our greatest eastern cities, the prices range from about twen-
ty cents a pound in January up to fifty cents a pound in April,
then gradually falls off to about twenty cents again in August.
Not all two-pound
chickens, however, are
“high-class” broilers

(or disgusted) not a few broiler raisers, hence the importance
of getting eggs from stock of the much desired fine-boned,
plump-breasted, yellow-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.

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 produce the December, Jan-

and command the
highest current prices;
to command the high-
est prices they must
be of “the best” qual-
ity, must be plump,
full-breasted, yellow-
skinned and fine-boned

uary and February chickens, and eggs in those
months are scarce and high. Eggs in the
winter months frequently sell at forty -five
cents a dozen, wholesale; nearly four cents
apiece. We once paid a visit to a large practi-
cal poultry farm early in December, and found
the owner just closing a case of fine looking
eggs he was sending to market. We asked
him if he was selling any eggs to market poultry
raisers and he replied, ‘No, sir! It don’t pay to
bother with that trade. I’m getting forty-five
cents a dozen wholesale for these eggs, and the
most that market poultry raisers will pay is
five dollars per hund-
red; that isn’t differ-
ence enough to pay me
for packing them to
ship by express and
pay for correspon-
dence, time, etc., that
it takes.” As we had
visited a market poul-
try raiser only a
couple of days before,
and he had exclaimed
about the difficulty of
getting good hatching
eggs to fill his incuba-
tors, a comparison of
the two differing points
of view is interesting.
The one man had the
eggs in good supply,
said he was getting a
hundred and over a
day, and could, no
doubt ship five or six
hundred eggs a week
if the other would

and the quicker a
chicken can be grown
to broiler size the bet-
ter in quality it will
be. The better the quality the
higher the price and conserjuent-
ly better profit to the grower.
If « two-pound broiler costs
twelve and u half cents a pound
to raige 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 centsa pound;
if, however, it is ‘off’ in quality and sells for ten
cents less per pound, there is but seventeen and a half
or twenty-seven and a half cents a pound profit. This one point

of poor quality and consequently lower price has discouraged
76

58—TYPE OF UTILITY IN FOWLS

offer a price which
‘would make it worth
while taking care of
the Five dollars per hundred did
not tempt him, possibly six dollars per hund-
red would.

orders.

“GOOD HATCHABLE EGGS”

Next to getting eggs to put in the incubators the most
important matter is the quality of the eggs, is the getting of

good, strong-bodied eggs that will hatch out strong, vigor-

ous chicks. Indeed, it may well be stated that the quality
of the eggs isthe most] important point; it isn’t an im-
possibility to get onefor two or. three thousand eggs,
but to get eggs which will turn out a reasonable pro-
portion of sturdy, “bound-to-live’” chicks is more difficult.
This brings us to “the hens behind the eggs,” as it is
impossible that eggs be in the best shape to hatch good
chicks unless the hens that produce themfare in high-condition.

PROFITABLE BROILER RAISING

They must be in perfect health and be fed a food ration that
supplies the elements of which good eggs are made. In addition
to the food (which must include a sufficient supply of green food
to “balance” the grain and animal foods), the fowls must be
kept in clean quarters, must be kept free from vermin, must have
an abundance of fresh air to breathe and must have sufficient
exercise to keep the circulation active and promote good diges-
tion. This looks formidable at first, but is really nothing more
than common prudence dictates, because ‘‘the hen that lays is
the hen that pays,” and the hens must have good food and care
if we expect them to lay.

The term ‘quality of the eggs’’ means much more than the
average reader will realize. It is most important that eggs for
market be of good quality, be strong bodied and full bodied;
if less than this they are seconds or thirds and sell for a lower
price. Of how much greater importance that they be strong-
bodied and full-bodied if they are to be incubated. If weak and
watery they cannot hatch good, strong chicks. There may be
sufficient body to the egg to nourish the embryo to (and beyond)
the critical period of exclusion, but the infant chick will be so
weak and feeble it cannot “make-a-live” of it; or it may be still
poorer and the embryo die in the last week of incubation; and
some eggs are so poor the germs die in the first few days of in-
cubation. When eggs are very poor in quality there will be
many of these dead germs found in the incubator at the end of
the hatch, or thrown out at the second test; it is perhaps un-
necessary to say that such poor quality eggs are the most un-
profitable and most unsatisfactory for the market poultry raiser
to buy.

THE HENS THAT LAY THE EGGS

The witty ‘‘Autocrat of the Breakfast Table” said that the
education of a child should begin twenty years before the child
is born, and, similarly, the strength and vigor of our broiler
chicks must be planned for one or two or more years before
the eggs are laid from which the chicks are hatched. The
laying hens must be birds with strong constitutions and them-
selves descended from birds that had strong constitutions.

How to get the desired strong constitution is an important
consideration, and it is evident that we should both breed for
it and “select” the breeding birds for it. Prof. Graham, of the
Ontario Agricultural College, Guelph, has given much study
to this subject, and in an excellent article has discussed the ques-
tion of the constitution of the breeding stock, and illustrated
his points with photographs from birds of both the desired and
undesirable types. We have reproduced these illustrations on
pages 76 and 78. Mr. Graham says:

“T am of the opinion that one of the most important points
to be considered is constitution. This may have no actual mar-
ket value, but it certainly has much to do with the bird’s ability
to grow and put on flesh. What we want is a good feeder and
an economical producer. Generally, a bird with a short, stout,
well curved beak, a broad head, not too long, and a bright,
clear eye, will have plenty of constitution. Furthermore, I have
noticed that when a bird has a long, narrow beak, a thin, long
comb and head, and eye sunken in the head, it is lacking in con-
stitution. It also has a narrow, long body, and in many cases
legs which are long, and upon which the fowl seldom stands
straight. There are some exceptions to these points, yet, upon
the average, if a bird has a good head, the chances are favor-
able for a good body, and if a poor head, the opposite may be
said. I have frequently noticed in Rose Comb breeds, such as
Wyandottes, that you seldom see a good shaped one that has
a long, narrow comb.

“The neck of the market fowl should be moderately short
and stout, indicating vigor. The breast is the most important
point in a market chicken. It should be broad, moderately
deep; and, if fairly long, will present a fine appearance and
appear well fleshed. It is quite possible that a broad, deep

77

breast will carry more meat than a moderately deep breast of
the same width, yet there is no doubt but that the latter will
present much the better appearance and thereby sell quicker,
and at a higher price in the market.

“When considering the length of breast, we must try to get
it to come. well forward (see Ill. 1), and not cut off at an angle,
as seen in Ill. 2, The body, in general, should present the
appearance of an oblong, when the head, tail and neck are re-
moved. We frequently see birds that are very flat in front and
cut up behind as seen in Ill. 3. This class of chickens gives a
very short breast; and if it happens to be deep, as it is in this
bird, you will have, when dressed, about as poor a looking
chicken as one could wish to see, there being a lack of width
and length of breast, with excessive depth. (Notice the head
is narrow and long, the body is narrow, the eye is bright, but
slightly sunken, the legs are long and not straight under the
body.) In Ill, 2, note the very flat breast, the length of back,
the long neck and head, the narrow comb, the sunken eye, and
the length of legs. The breast comes fairly well back, but not
well forward. In Ill. 1 the bill is short and stout, but not as
well curved as I should like. Note the breadth of the head, the
prominence and brightness of the eye, the short and stout neck,
the great width of the breast, the fullness caused largely by the
breastbone extending well forward, the short, stout legs that
are straight under the body, and the width between the legs.
There is an expression about this chicken that impresses one as
being the essence of vigor.

“The back should be broad to give lung and heart capacity,
and, further, this width should extend well back to the tail-head.
Avoid the wedge-shaped back as seen in some fowls that have
great width at the shoulders and taper rapidly toward the tail-
head. '

“Tt is much easier to get good shaped market females than
it is to get good cockerels. * * * The farmers have gone to
raising big chickens and are asking for large, overgrown cockerels
for breeders and, further, birds that have excessive depth.
The result is, we get chickens when dressed weighing four to
five pounds each that have immense, high breast-bones and very
long legs. These are not attractive to the buyers and sell at
a less price per pound than plumper birds. For example, if
given two birds of the same width of breast, one is one and a
half inches deeper in the breast than the other, the result will be,
the one bird looks plump and sells readily, the other lacks plum p-
ness and sells slowly. This can be bred out by using such males
as Ill. 1.

“T wish to have birds as well built as we can get them.
Tll. 1 is as near the ideal market chicken as I have seen in the
breed he represents. The hen as seen in Ill. 4 is of a good
market type. Note the width and fullness of breast. As a
breeder she is u little fine in bone, and rather too small. She
has, however, that blocky appearance that is desirable.”

There has been far too great a use of big, coarse breeding
males, the thought appearing to be that size (mere ‘‘bigness’’)
indicated a strong constitution, and the note of warning sound-
ed by Prof. Graham is most timely. In broiler chickens, too,
fineness of bone is most important. The fineboned carcass
gives « larger proportion of meat to bone (waste), and the
coarser framed bird has the knife-edge breast, rather than the
round, plump breast which has so attractive an appearance.
Then, too, the finer boned birds take on fat more readily; it
will generally be found that the birds which will not fatten
and that it is seemingly impossible to get in good, marketable
condition, are the long-legged, thin-bodied, angular birds be-
gotten by the big, coarse ancestors which have come to be used
because of this craze for mere “bigness!” If we will but take
heed to the suggestions given us by Prof. Graham there will be
a notable improvement in the “type” of bird we send to market;
the improvement in type resulting in a bettering of quality,

ARTIFICIAL INCUBATING AND BROODING

an increased price, quicker sales and better profits to the poultry- Compare such a defective brooder house with the one in
eas use at another farm which I also had the fortune to visit

PROPER BROODING HOUSES ESSENTIAL and which is in striking contrast. There is a brooder
house equipped with abundant heating pipes under the
hovers, having a bank of auxilliary heating pipes along the
walk, to warm the house, and an adequate heater for the coldest
weather. Then there is an electric regulator connected with a
thermostat under one of the hovers, and which opens or closes
the dampers as the temperature falls or rises from the point
desired. Moreover, the hovers are not back against the walk
partition, but out about three feet from it; there is no confined
(dead) air under such hovers and no noweibiliey of chicks crowd-
ing each other back against a back wall and smothering some.

I spoke of the remarkable attraction that broiler raising
seemed to have for the beginners in poultry work, and to such
the very great bettering of incubators and pasding and feeding
comes as a great boon. The distressing failures, such as I have
seen many of, should now be less common. One such, in a
pleasant town about thirty miles west of Philadelphia, is worth
citing as a warning. In this case two young men from the city
had thought to better their pecuniary condition by broiler
raising. pe built a hot water pipe brooder house a hundred

feet long,/bought five hundred eggs and went to work. A friend Of course such a brooder
with whom"f was making an over-night visit ieee euseiecocts wore than @
told me of r poor success, and suggested 2 cheaply built and inade-
that we drive over in the morning :

quately heated one, but it
“raises the chicks,’ and
therefore pays
the added cost
over and over,
instead of aiding
to pass them
along to the fer-
tilizer heap.

and see them. When we arrived
we found them
contemplating
an incubator full
of eggs which
should have
hatched the day
before, and from
which not one

: MUST BE
chick had come. WELL HATCHED
Closing the shut- ;

ters (the incu- Chicks to

grow well must
be well hatch-
ed. It is a seri-
ous handicap to
_ the baby life to
have great diffi-
culty in getting ~
out of the shell;
sometimes the
struggle for ex-
clusion is so
violent and ex-
hausting that
the chick has
little chance of
making a live
of it. There are
various causes
for this, such as
too high or too
average temperature
in the incubator, irregu-

bators were be-
ing run in the
old farm house
parlor), we test-
ed about half
the eggs, and
told them they
hadn’t ventila-
ted the incuba-
tor at all (ap-
parently); had
not put any
moisture in the
machine the

18th day, and,gn addi-
tion to those Handicaps,
their eggs e only

about half fertile, so they
were only entitled to
about 150 chickens
anyway.

The air wag “blue”
there for a little while,
but talking did no good,
and while they in their

low

larity of temperature, and
other eccentricities; poor
eggs, owing to the laying

lurid dreams had pictured a chicken hatching ee being out of condi-
from every (in winter at that!), the po- ON tion, is another potent
tent fact was their work was a fail- ee cause. With the well
ure. They had already incubated PaO WAM AR EEE: 2 UBEIEIC SIONS MA: BERURANSMERLED made, up-to-date and well

over 2,000 eggs and hatched less ventilated incubators of
than 300 chickens, and the brooder house showed at a glance to-day there is no reason for poorly hatched chicks if direc-
the moment we entered it that no one could “raise” chickens tions are closely followed, provided, of course, that the
in it. There was a “chill” in the air that went to the eggs are good and strong. The most important thing is
marrow, and chicks cannot possibly be grown in such an that the right temperature be maintained in the incubator,
atmosphere. ‘The brooder house had been built with and that it be steadily maintained. It is wiser to err
half-dried lumber, after freezing weather came in the early upon the side of a bit too high temperature than letting
winter, and to save fifty dollars or so a heater two it run low; it is the opinion of incubator operators
sizes too small had been bought. There was no heat ex- that just a little too much is better than running the
cept the two flow and two return pipes under the hovers, and risk of the temperature going too low. This is especially
the hovers were close up against the partition along the walk. true in winter hatching. As a general rule, the colder

78

PROFITABLE BROILER RAISING

the weather the stronger (or slightly higher) the average tem-
perature should be.

RUNNING AN INCUBATOR

The daily task of running an incubator consists of turn-
ing the eggs twice a day, morning and night, and daily filling
and trimming the lamp. Ordinarily the lamp trimming can
best be done about the middle of the afternoon, in the interval
between feeding the chicks and before the last feeding of the
hens. About the seventh day the eggs should be tested, which
ts the simple operation of passing the eggs, with the large end
up, before a testing light and noting if the egg contains a living
germ. The germ is a dark (almost black), spider-like spot upon
the side of the yolk, and the stronger and darker the germ ap-
pears the better. An egg which is absolutely clear is infertile,
and should be saved out (to be eaten in omelettes or scrambled,
or sold to the bake shop to be used in cooking.) Now and then a
dead germ will be found, evidenced by reddish circles about
the yolk or a generally cloudy appearance of the egg. These
‘should be thrown in the manure pile, or may be fed to hogs.

After the test there will be fewer eggs left in the machine,
but as each egg contains a life and life means animal heat,
we may soon expect to note a slight increase in the tempera-
ture. This should be met by slightly turning down the nut
‘on the regulator rod each day, or every other day, as the con-
-ditions seem to require. The directions sent out with each in-
-cubator are the guide to follow, and these directions say 103
‘degrees is the proper temperature to maintain. As we said
-above, we would err on the side of a bit more than the desig-
nated temperature, rather than fall below it. One of the most
-successful incubator operators of our acquaintance does not
pretend to keep his machines at exactly 103. He says that
atmospheric conditions vary, causing variations in tempera-
ture, and if he keeps between 101 and 105, with an average
‘close to 103, he gets good hatches of strong, vigorous chicks.

An article written by Col. Roessell, formerly poultry edi-
tor of the “Country Gentleman,” giyes the following: “The
guide which is most reliable in determining the progress of the
hatch is the development of the air cell. This is a little space
‘in the large end of the egg which is visible at testing time,
and should continue to grow larger and larger until about the
nineteenth day, when it occupies about one-fifth of the entire
egg. Unless this air cell is developed correctly by the nine-
teenth day the chick cannot turn itself in the shell, hence sticks
fast and dies, although it may be fully developed. The de-
velopment of this air cell is the vital point to be considered
in obtaining a first class hatch. It is controlled in two ways.
If it develops slowly, which is usually the case, give the ma-
-chine and eggs all the air you can. This can be done by open-
ing the slides over the ventilators full width and cooling the
-eggs as long as possible each day. The cooling is best accom-
plished by placing the trays of eggs on top of the machine
(closing the doors meanwhile), and leaving them there until
the thermometer drops to 80 degrees, not lower. As the hatch
progresses the eggs will stand more and more cooling.”

This is excellent advice, and the novice will need especially
‘to observe the last sentence; the novice usually errs upon the
side of too little airing and cooling. It is sometimes better, in
cold weather, to cool and air the eggs within the machine,
leaving the doors open until the thermometer drops to about
‘eighty degrees; and sometimes, in quite warm weather, it will
be necessary to leave the eggs out several hours to get them
‘cooled to about eighty degrees. No matter, not only is the
exposure not harmful, but the fresh air strengthens the embryo
chicks,

Most operators test the eggs a second time about the fif-
teenth day, testing out the dead germs and leaving in only the
strong and vigorous germs. An expert operator can tell on the
fifteenth day pretty nearly how many chicks he will get from

the hatch, so familiar does he become with the appearance and
condition of the strong, vigorous embryo chicks.

When the first chicks begin to pip the shells close the ven-
tilator slides almost wholly and keep the doors of the incuba-
tor closed until the hatch is well over; it is better to leave the
machine entirely alone for the twenty-four to thirty-six hours
during which the chicks are hatching. A good, strong heat,
even up to 104 or 104} is desirable at hatching time, as the
chicks come out faster and better. When the hatch is well
over open the ventilating slides again, to give the baby chicks
more air, but do not take them from the incubator till twenty-
four hours after the hatch is over.

BROODING AND FEEDING THE CHICKS

The temperature under the brooder hovers should be about
95 degrees at first, gradually lowering it to 90 degrees when
the chicks are about a week old, and thus dropping about
five degrees each week. An experienced chicken raiser says he
wants the heat under the hovers to be 90 when the chicks are
put in, and that their heat will bring the temperature up to about
95 degrees; lower it to 90 and by end of first week, 85 at end of
second week, 80 at end of third week, 75 at end of fourth week, —
and so on. In such a brooder house as the one I have fully ~
described above, the hover pipes are about three inches from
the sand floor in the small pens next the heater, where the -
baby chicks are put. The space between pipes and floor gradu-
ally increases, until it is about eight inches at the end furthest
from the heater, where the oldest chicks are brooded. It is
the custom to move the chicks along as they increase in size, .
they being driven from pen to pen through a sliding gate in the
partition between the pens.

One of the most successful broiler raisers of my acquain-
tance has smaller brooder houses (ten of them), each about
sixty feet long, and the chicks are never moved from the pens
in which they are first put until they are taken out to dress for
market.

On another very successful broiler (and roaster) farm, in
Massachusetts, they have entirely removed the hovers from
the brooder pens, built up the sand floor an inch higher, and
the chicks put their backs up against the warm pipes,—just
as they do against the hen’s body when brooded by a hen. It
looks comical to see the chicks under and between the hover
pipes, their tiny heads sticking above the pipes quite frequently.
The people at the farm say they get better results since they

.removed the hovers, that the chicks grow better and faster.

FEEDING THE CHICKS

Feeding has been the stumbling block over which many
a would-be broiler raiser has fallen. The dismal wail of “bowel
trouble,”’ usually caused by improper feeding (although too
much or too little heat, or a “chill” may contribute) has marked
the beginning of failure. Here is where the great gain in feed-
ing methods has come in, of which we spoke at the outset and
which has brought about what appears now to be a revolution.
Instead of the mixed messes of meals, etc., the ready mixed
chick foods, consisting of a large variety of seeds and grains,
are fed; with the gratifying result of comparatively little infant
mortality and a much more rapid growth.

We show here a table of the results obtained with
White Wyandotte chicks of different ages, and the article des-
cribing them gave the following weights of the chicks:

Newly hatched chicks, per pair... 4 ounces
Four days old chicks, per pair... 4 ounces
Ten days old chicks, per pair... 8 ounces
Three weeks old chicks, per pair... 2.2... 16 ounces
Four weeks old chicks, per pair... 14 pounds

Eight weeks old chicks, per pair... _.4 pounds
Ten weeks old chicks, per pair 6 pounds
Experienced broiler raisers expect to bring broiler chicks

ARTIFICIAL INCUBATING AND BROODING

to two pounds weight (apiece) in ten to eleven weeks, and
here we have eight weeks old chicks of full two pounds weight,
and ten weeks old chicks weighing three pounds apiece. That
difference of two to three weeks clipped off from the old time
ten to eleven weeks considered necessary to grow a two-pound
broiler makes a tremendous gain in profits. A saving of twenty
to twenty-five per cent in time greatly increases the capacity
of the brooder houses, as well as saves so much labor and food;
and this in addition to the practical elimination of the vexing
“bowel trouble’? problem and the dreaded infant mortality.
Assuming that the business paid a fair profit as formerly con-
ducted, such a saving of time and labor will greatly increase
the profits.

This most successful broiler raiser’s method of feeding is
worth quoting, by way of getting “‘a point of view.” It was
given as follows: ‘The chicks are fed five times a day on

missed is a step in growth lost. In a limited sense this is true,
but a greater loss in growth comes from the chicks overeating
and the appetite becoming cloyed. Not only does a careless
feeder waste the food, but he puts the chicks out of condition
and checks their growth by cloying them, by taking away their
appetite. If food is left before them all the time they will
actually eat less, and make a slower growth than if fed judi-
ciously and kept a little bit hungry.

Another writer, describing the methods of 4 New Jersey
broiler raiser, says: ‘At first the chicks are fed the infertile
eggs, cooked, mixed with bread crumbs and rolled oats; then
gradually corn meal and bran are added to the ration. After
a hatch is off everything left in the incubators, shells, chicks
that have failed to come out, whether fully grown or not, are
all cooked up; equal parts of corn meal and bran, with about
ten per cent of beef scraps are added and this mixture is used
to feed chicks that are two
weeks old. It is said to make

a perfectly wholesome food.
The chicks are fed all they
will eat three or four times a
day.

“Fattening these small
birds is a difficult problem.
The natural tendency is to
make growth instead of lay-
ing on fat. For the last ten
days before killing the ration
consists of two parts corn
meal, one part bran, about ten
per cent cottonseed meal and
from twenty-five to thirty per
cent beef scraps. This seems.
like a heavy feeding of meat,
and of course would not do
for chicks that are to be raised
tomaturity. The proper weight
for killing, twelve ounces, is.

‘ reached at about six weeks;

however, some reach that
weight sooner than others.”
This writer gives six

weeks as the time of raising
these twelve-ounce squab

60—CONVENIENT CRATES FOR FEEDING

hulled oats mostly, with a little cracked wheat and millet seed
added. The cracked wheat is changed to whole wheat when
they are about a week or ten days old, and cracked corn is fed
after they are a week older, which brings them to three weeks
of age. After this they are fed three times a day; a mash in
the morning, wheat at noon and cracked corn at night, with a
feed or cut fresh bone the middle of the afternoon. The mash
is made of either corn meal or gluten meal, and wheat bran,
with a ration of meat meal, light at first and more of it towards
the “finishing off.” Green food they get each afternoon, in the
shape of lawn mower clippings when the grass is growing; later
in the shape of rape. In winter finely cut clover is steamed
and fed them.”

Feeding, he claims, is the crucial point, Said he, “A care-
less or indifferent feeder will do more harm and waste more
food than the profits amount to.” The test of good feeding is
to keeps the chicks just a little hungry, and the best judgment
of the feeder should be brought to bear. His rule is to give no
food to a pen if there is any left uneaten from the last feed-
ing. Many chick raisers mistakenly think that one feeding

80

broilers by that feeding meth-
od. The White Wyandotte
chicks which are described
here, and whose weights are
given above, grew to the same weight in exactly four weeks;
a saving of thirty-three and a third per cent of time, brooder
house room and labor. That saving would fully double the profits,
and that saving is made by the improved method of feeding,
by feeding a ready mixed ration of seeds and grains.

MARKETING THE BROILERS

Most broiler chickens are marketed “dry picked.” This is
partly due to the fact that the people educated up to appreciat-
ing fine broilers are critical, and the better appearance of the
dry picked chicken both enhances its value and increases the
consumptive demand. Most of the picking is done by profes-
sionals, who are paid so much apiece, and who go from one
broiler plant to another as work is offered. The usual price
paid for picking broilers is three to four cents apiece, and the
picker engaged to pick them not infrequently employs “pin-
ners” to assist him. He does the killing and “rough-picking,”’
and passes the chicks on to the pinners to finish; the pin feath-
ering and cleaning up requiring patience and nimble fingers.

PROFITABLE BROILER RAISING

NICE WORK IMPORTANT

It is of great importance that the work be nicely (care-
fully) done, as a torn and marred chick is less attractive and
fetches a lower price. The most successful broiler raiser quoted
above pays five cents per chick for killing and picking, and
when we commented upon the rather higher price than is gen-
erally paid he said: “I would rather pay that price and have
the chicks carefully picked, the man picking fifty to sixty chick-
ens a day, than to have a man earn the same amount of money
by hurriedly picking one hundred a day. It is quite easy for
a picker to ‘skimp’ his work, and the broilers would be a cheaper
looking lot in consequence, shrinking the price perhaps four or
five cents a pound.” In other words, quality pays in broilers
as well as in other things, and the fact that this
man’s broilers frequently bring him five cents a
pound above the highest market quotations, ap-
proves the policy of paying the picker a good
enough price to insure having the chicks carefully
picked.

A good many farmers and small poultry
growers ship their chickens alive to a commission
dealer, who, in turn, sells them to a picker, who
kills, dresses and markets them. Almost always
hiege chicks shipped in alive, are not really eped
broilers; they
are usually
“Jean” and thin,
not plump and
round, not well-
fattened. A
good business is
done in buying
up these ‘‘range”’
chickens, feed-
ing them a fat-
tening ration ©
for two to three
weeks, and then
dressing them
for market;
which is some-

what similar to the fattening done in England and France, the
birds there being almost always bought from farmers and
small growers, brought to the fattening station and fattened for
market. There is a substantial loss to the grower who does
not fatten his own chickens; selling them in the “lean” condi-
tion means that they are very poor in quality and sell at a low
price if marketed at once, if bought by a fattener and put in
good, marketable condition the fattener gets the bulk of the
profits; he gets pay for the increase in quantity of flesh and the
premium paid for the better quality.

In an article written and published some few years ago,

61—BLOCKING CHICKENS INTO SHAPE

The upper view shows a row of chickens in a right-angle trough or
which rests on two barrels.
middle and lower views.

Mr. Pollard says: ‘In dressing chickens for market, they are
killed by cutting the vein and penetrating the brain at a point
well back in the roof of the mouth. A deep cut at just the
right point will so paralyze the nerves of the bird that the
feathers will pick very easily, and much of the trouble in tear-
ing the skin will be avoided. The chickens are dry picked. All
the feathers are taken from the carcass with the exception of
the tips of the wings, and from these all the quill feathers are
picked. If the birds have feathered legs these are also picked.
The heads are left on, and the entrails are not drawn. After
picking and carefully pin-feathering, they are dropped into huge
tanks of water and left a suitable time to cool. In hot weather
this water is iced in order to more quickly remove the animal

heat. They are then
rinsed and the blood
cleaned from their
heads, and are laid on
a bench for the water
to drain off. After
draining those that are
nearest alike are pair-
ed together, the legs
being tied with twine,
and they are hung in
a cool, dark room until
the following morning,
when they are packed
and shipped to mar-
ket.”’

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 de-
mand 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 abetter average
quality of broilers marketed. Another point in favor of broiler
raising is that the work-season of broiler raising for the high-
est prices comes at a time when other work is slack, hence the
time utilized in the broiler raising is not wanted in other de-
partments 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 emi-
nently satisfactory.

“‘shaper’’,
The shapers are placed in convenient frames in the

81

ARTIFICIAL INCUBATING AND BROODING

THE BEST VARIETIES FOR BROILERS
The best broiler chick is one that is — A, fat-

tens readily, is fine-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. A prominent
broiler raiser lays strong emphasis
upon the necessity of strength and
vigor in the parent stock if we would
have chicks that would live and grow.

“There is no question that many
of the failures in broiler raising have
come through improper tools with
which to work, and a general misun-
derstanding of the best means to the
end aimed at, which in this case is the
plump, yellow and juicy little chick,
which weighs from one and one-
half to two pounds when dressed,
or two to two and one-half
pounds alive. Heavier birds
may be used, but these are
the weights which are best
suited to the demand and sell
most readily, which means, of
course, at the best prices.

“How to get these plump,
yellow chickens is the problem
which we shall try to solve. In-
stead of beginning with the egg
which is to produce the chick,
we should go farther back, even
back of the hen which lays the
eggs, and find the health and
strength of her ancestry. In other
words, we examine her family tree.
If, on due examination, we find the
hen which is to lay our eggs is the
offspring of some generations of strong,
healthy birds, we may safely depend on
her giving us the proper material on
which to build our broiler structure.
There never has been, and never will
be, a successful broiler business built
up on eggs from other than stock in
perfect health and of strong vitality.
The reasons are plain to see. In or-
der to get your quick-grown, juicy
broiler, there must be a forced growth
from the very hatching, and the
chicks must have the stamina and
the vitality which alone come through
inheritance, and which enable him to
stand the hardest feeding and keep
him busy and happy. The chickens
from poorly fed, ill-developed parent
stock, of hit-or-miss breeding, cannot,
and will not, fill the bill.

“Next, after the strong, vigorous
ancestry, we look for shape and color.
Shape first, as on shape depends the
ability to lay on flesh in the right
place and in the proper proportions.
Any of the American breeds will

WINNING GEESE
(TOULOUSE):

82

62—PRIZE DRESSED POULTRY

answer this purpose. The oldest and best known is the Barr-
ed Plymouth Rocks, and they, when rightly bred for this use,
are splendid birds. Strong, hardy,
and active, they grow quickly, and
are good feeders. The Leghorns, while
advocated by some, are too small
boned and too sprightly to get up
to weight quickly enough. The
Asiaties are generally too large framed
and too angular, when at the right
weight, to satisfy a fastidious market.
The Wyandotte family, as a whole,
provides the best means to the broiler
raiser. They are fine boned, yet with
the plumpest breast development of
any of the suitable breeds, and have
stout, wide-apart legs and yellow skin.

“With these natural structural
qualities, the Wyandottes unite the
ability to fully assimilate the strong
feeding which goes with all attempts
to produce suitable chickens for this
purpose. Of the varieties of Wyan-
dottes either the Buff or White would
certainly be preferable to the Laced, on
account of the freedom from the dark
pin feathers found in the others.
‘This same reason, aside from the fact
of their longer establishment as a
pure breed, would give the Whites
the preference.”

Visits to the great market
poultry raisers south of Boston
reveal many varieties of stock
used with the Light Brahma
most in evidence; this is pro-
bably 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 chick-
ens and capons. Next to the
Light Brahmas a cross of B. P.
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-round 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
neighborhood. In all cases excepting
possibly the “May R. Poultry Plant”
the stock described is ‘farmers’
stock of the varieties, and would no
doubt be found lacking in some points
essential in show birds.

BLUE RIBBON 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

PROFITABLE BROILER RAISING

each; they are split down the middle and broiled for in-
dividual orders in high class hotels, restaurants 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 customer. 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 in-
dividual 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. We have known of
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 adver-
tised in our columns 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.

83

63—SEVEN AGES OF THE PEKIN DUCK

HATCHING AND BROODING OF

DUCKS

ARTIFICIAL HATCHING OF DUCKS

A PROFITABLE INDUSTRY IN WHICH THE FARMER HAS MANY ADVANTAGES—
HOUSES AND FIXTURES REQUIRED—BROODING AND RAISING THE DUCKLINGS—
SELECTING AND FEEDING THE BREEDERS—FATTENING—PREPARING FOR MARKET

H. A. NOURSE

Within recent years the raising of ducks has grown from condi-
tions under which a few ducks raised themselves, so to speak, «without
particular care from the owner, to an industry, of immense magnitude
managed with the strictest care as to details and representing an
annual investment of many thousands of dollars. Under other than
artificial means of incubating and brooding such a «wonderful devel-
opment would have been absolutely impossible.

It then seems fitting that in a work of this character the incubat-
ing and brooding of ducks by artificial means should receive the atten-
tion which its importance as an industry merits.—Editor.

YOUNG duck carrying five pounds or more of sal-
able weight that will command an average price
of twenty cents per pound can be placed on the
market eight weeks from the date of hatching.
This is quick work—turning a profit in twelve
weeks from the time the egg is laid—and no
proof is needed that a substantial profit can be

realized on ducks so marketed. Therefore, since the loss of

ducklings need not be over five per cent (frequently it is not

over two per cent), and the equipment required is neither ex-
tensive nor expensive, there is money in raising ducks for any-
one who will make an honest, intelligent effort to get it.
Growers of ducks frequently have everything to buy at
market prices and some even have to go off their farms to se-
cure sufficient green food for their flocks. The farmer with
his wide acres is prepared to feed ducks at the minimum cost.
He has at hand much of the grain produced on the farm at less
than its market value and this the exclusive duck raiser has to
pay good money for. The vegetables, which are often difficult
for the duckman to obtain, the farmer sorts out from his pota-

- toes, turnips, beets, cabbages, etc., and places but little value

85

upon them. Fed to ducks this inferior quality will produce
meat salable at fifteen to thirty cents per pound. If the far-
mer is a dairyman the skim milk fed to stock ducks furnishes
the best of nourishment at little cost and if fed to growing
ducklings will produce twice or three times the value it would
if fed to swine.

Nearly one-third the bulk of food for breeding ducks may
consist of vegetables and clover. The latter can be grown on

ARTIFICIAL INCUBATING AND BROODING

the farm and cured in the shade of the orchard or on the barn
floor out of the sun, but open to the fresh air where it will cure
perfectly and if stored away in a clean, dry place it will make
the best of green food when treated with boiling water and
added to the mash. :

There is always a demand for well fattened ducks, and a
simple announcement that they can be secured is all the re-
quirement necessary in localities where the flavor is known.

Thus it is seen that the farmer is able to secure the last
cent that the profitable business will yield and that for little cost,

As before stated, expensive buildings are unnecessary and
since additional capital expended means less profit on the in-
vestment they are not desirable. A house built with a shed
roof, high enough to give head room to the attendant and
twelve feet wide exclusive of alley, or fifteen feet if a walk or
alley is desired, will accommodate two ducks to each foot of
length. It may be framed of two by four inch pieces, these to
be covered with barn boards and roofing material. Such a
building should be located on a well drained spot, facing south
or southeast when convenient, with liberal yard room enclosed
by a wire netting fence two feet high. One window in each
twelve feet of house length will admit sufficient light to the pens.

Opinions differ somewhat as to the utility of a walk, some
claiming that it is nearly as easy and far better for the care-
taker to go from pen to pen over the division boards two feet
high because he exercises more care in distributing the food;
but in a house fifty feet long or more the argument is in favor
of a walk at least three feet wide along which the feeder can
pass, feeding the occupants of each pen over the low partition
or carrying fresh bedding or removing the old when cleaning
the house, without frightening the inmates

A floor of earth made by filling in to the top of the founda-
tion is better than boards or cement, which hold the water
spilled by the ducks about the water fountains, making the
pen damp and uncomfortable, requiring far more bedding to
make it habitable.

The pens may be twelve feet square, with the yards of cor-
responding width. If the partition separating the pens from the
walk is made with laths set two and a half inches apart the
drinking water may conveniently be given in V-shaped troughs
at least half as long as each pen, placed in the walk where the
ducks can reach them through the slats. If water is piped to
the house, a trough extending the length of the house and con-
nected with the piping makes it possible to water the houseful
of ducks by simply turning on the water. In a long house this
is a great time saver.

A hopper or box with compartments for shell, charcoal and
grit and a trough for food completes the equipment of the
stock duck house.

BROODERS AND BROOD HOUSES

The cost and construction of the brooding equipment nat-
urally depends upon the extent of the operations contem plated.
Frequently there are buildings about the farm in which could
be placed brooders enough to raise several hundred ducklings,
but we will consider that the importance of this branch of farm
industry warrants building those required.

A brooder house sixty feet long, fifteen wide, arranged with
an alley or walk three feet wide next the north wall, having
pens twelve by five feet, will enable the builder to properly
brood one thousand or more young ducks to sell during the sea-
son of good prices. The early ducks are the money makers, and
to secure the warmth necessary for the best growth of the lit-
tle ones, besides economizing fuel, it is advisable to build this
house snug and warm, but with windows and doors sufficient to
thoroughly ventilate and cool the house in spring.

* If a good house of this kind is built the least expensive and
probably most satisfactory method of brooding is with hovers
heated by hot water pipes. These hovers should be two feet

six inches wide and extend through eight of the pens, leaving
four pens without hovers in which to temper the ducklings be-
fore removing them to other houses or to yards outside. To
heat these hovers four one and one-half inch pipes, two flow
and two return, are needed, attached to a water jacket stove
or small boiler.

Eight lamp brooders can take the place of these hovers, if
it seems desirable, and a hot water pipe system may be in-
stalled to warm the house in cold weather or omitted entirely
at the builder’s option. The combination of lamp brooders and
pipe system is a good one especially useful in the early season,
while the lamp brooders alone will suffice in warmer weather.

If operations are fairly extensive and work is begun early
in the season it is convenient to have one or two other wind
and water tight buildings to which the young ones can be taken
when forced out of the brooder house by the new arrivals from

64—HEALTHY DUCKLINGS TWO WEEKS OLD

the incubators; but if the weather is warm before the brooder
house becomes congested and the occupants are nearly feather-
ed no more house room will be needed and yards of good size
enclosed by fencing two feet high, with a provision for shade
from the sun, will accommodate the ducks in flocks of fifty to
two hundred.

I have not made special provision for an incubator room

’ because a dry, well ventilated basement or an unoccupied room

86

in a house will answer for the work better than many houses.
that have been built for the purpose.
This is practically all of the equipment needed and it will
last for years, making each year’s share of the cost but little.
What branch of animal industry on the farm will so quick-
ly turn so large a profit for the expense incurred?

SELECTING AND FEEDING THE BREEDERS

Quality is the point of importance when buying breeding
stock, for the influence of the original purchase lasts for years.
and determines to some extent the value of each season’s pro-
duct. Vigor is the primary consideration. The degree of profit
depends upon the ability of the individual specimen to digest-
rapidly and well every ounce of food, turning it into flesh with
the least waste, which is the work of a healthy, vigorous system.
Large birds are desirable, but not monstrosities, and a well-
shaped, deep-keeled bird of a little more than medium size is.
more satisfactory than a larger one with a coarse, angular frame
and consequent slower flesh development.

Early hatched, fully developed young birds make the best.
breeders, with well conditioned yearlings a close second.

HATCHING AND BROODING OF DUCKS

A group of young ducks bought in the fall and well cared
for through the winter will begin to lay in January and con-
tinue through the spring. They should;not be fed for laying
in the fall or many of them will lay a litter in the early winter
and not lay again until spring. A mash of vegetables and bran
chiefly, with a ration of corn or wheat occasionally and very lit-
tle meat, will prove a good bill of fare until Christmas, when
it may be gradually strengthened until it contains something
like one part of corn meal, one and a half of bran and the same
of cooked vegetables or steamed clover plus ten per cent of
beef scrap. This fed every morning and alternated with corn,
wheat and oats at night, supplemented by plenty of fresh water
and a supply of shells, grit and charcoal, will produce eggs
that will hatch if the ducks are fed just as much as they will eat,
and any remaining is removed after each meal from the trough

nourishment and send them to the next season’s breeding pens
with lusty good health.

RAISING AND FATTENING THE YOUNG DUCKS

Incubating is in no way difficult and the method is identical
with that recommended for hens’ eggs except that one week
longer time is necessary. The little ducks are placed in hovers
having a temperature of ninety-five degrees, which after a
couple of days is reduced to ninety and further reduced to
eighty in two weeks’ time.

The first feeds are best composed of stale bread moistened
with milk and a little fine sand or grit sprinkled in. This is
gradually replaced by a simple combination of ground grains
mixed with milk or water, to which is added five per cent of
fine grit and a little meat scrap. One of the simplest rations

65—-FLOCK OF BREEDERS ENJOYING A LARGE INLAND POND

in which both mash and whole grain are fed.

When producing eggs steadily it is frequently necessary
to increase the proportion of corn in the mash, the thin flesh
of the ducks indicating the necessity. A specimen very thin in
flesh will not produce strong, fertile eggs.

When the young ones are developing, previous to the fat-
tening period, those that make especially rapid and vigorous
growth and show a symmetrical development should be se-
lected for next season’s breeders and when six weeks old should
be separated from those intended for market. Place them in
a well-grassed and shaded yard of considerable area to develop
naturally until the cold weather of the fall drives them to win-
ter quarters. The old ducks, breeders of the previous season,
should be likewise turned out to pasture and may be allowed
to forage for most of their food on free range if it is convenient
for the owner. A swampy meadow, generally unused after the
grass is cut, will supply a flock of ducks with over half of their

87

consists of one part corn meal and two of bran mixed with milk
and having five per cent each of beef scrap and grit added.

These simple foods, with a liberal allowance of grass or
garden truck and a supply of coarse grit and good water, will
grow big ducks if other conditions are right

Fattening is easy if the subjects are in good health, and
three parts of corn meal, one part bran and one of scraps, mixed
with milk when obtainable, will fatten the healthy duck in one
week fit for the most exacting market. Some growers substi-
tute an equal bulk of ground oats for half of the corn meal and
claim better results.

Killing and picking is simple and no loss need be sustained
if reasonable care is taken when dry picking or scalding. The
proper time to kill and best time to pick is when the first full
coat of feathers has fully matured, which usually is about the
end of the eighth week, when a well grown duck will be fat and
heavy.

HATCHING, FEEDING AND MARKETING DUCKS

THE GREAT GAIN IN USING INCUBATORS—FEEDING FOR QUICK GROWTH—PICK-
ING, PACKING AND SHIPPING TO MARKET—SOME ITEMS FROM EXPERIENCE OF
SUCCESSFUL BREEDERS—THE EARLY DUCKLINGS SHOULD HAVE BROODER HEAT

A. F. HUNTER

HE development of the modern incubator has made
possible the enormous growth of the. market
duck business. It is but « comparatively short
time since very few ducks were sold in the city
markets, and these ducks were hatched under
hens and reared on free range, usually with a
brook or small pond as a feeding ground. Fancy
hatching twenty, thirty, or forty thousand duck-
ling under hens! It is easily seen that the great duck ranches
would be impossible without the aid of the modern incubators.
No inconsiderable part of the great gain made by duck-
meat in popular favor is due to the fact that the ducklings are
hatched in incubators and rais-

chines are emptied on Wednesdays and Saturdays. The
machines should be left to dry out for w few days, those that
are emptied on Saturday dry out till the following Tuesday
and those that are emptied on Wednesday are empty till the
following Friday. By having things thus systematized the
work goes on with clock-like regularity, 1 most important aid
to “getting things done.”

Duck eggs can be tested in four or five days, the dark spot
which is the embryo being clearly seen as the egg is held up to
the tester. On breaking the egg, this dark germ spot can be
determined after one day’s incubating, and is then about as
large as a large pin-head. It practically doubles in size with

edin brooders, and because they
never go out of the compara-
tively small pens of the brooder
houses and fattening sheds
until they are killed for market.
We had a talk with three or
four different marketmen re-
cently upon this point, and
asked them if they received any
free range ducks now. Only
one said that he had a few sent
in from a farm up the state
recently, and that he had quite
a time selling them. They were
small, lean and tough; would
be mighty poor eating unless
parboiled for two or three hours
ibefore roasting, and he had to
sell them to a cheap boarding
house keeper for a little more
than half what first-class ducks
were worth. Probably the ship-
per of those ‘‘ puddle ducks”
cannot understand that his pro-
duct is very inferior to the
quickly grown, tender and

toothsome duck raised in con-
finement.

On the large duck ranches
one man usually has charge of the incubators. Mr. Rankin
takes care of the incubators on his farm, and has a general
oversight of all the work. On the Messrs. Weber's duck farm
one of the brothers runs the incubators and feeds the duck-
lings in one of the brooder houses. On the McCormick-
McFetridge farm Mr. McFetridge handles the incubators, and
finds time to oversee the work of all departments, but he has
the incubator work so planned that he never wastes a minute
in thinking what he must do next. He has forty-eight 360-egg
incubators, which gives him twelve to set each week—when they
are running fullblast. As the eggs come in from the laying houses
they are washedand placed in empty trays on the floor under
the machines next to be “set.” These machines are filled on
Tuesdays and Fridays,—six at a time. The eggs set on Tues-
day are tested on the following Monday, and those set on
Friday are tested on the following Thursday, and the ma-

88

66—FIVE-WEEKS-OLD DUCKLINGS THAT SHOW RESULTS OF SCIENTIFIC FEEDING

each day of incubation, and on the sixth day is spread over a
space as large as a quarter. The infertile eggs remain perfectly
clear and should be taken out and boiled for the newly hatched
ducklings, or may be used for human food; the dead germs
should be removed from the incubator as soon as they are
detected, as they will soon vitiate the air in the machine, which
the living embryos have to breathe. When a duck egg inside
the incubator shows a discoloration of the shell remove it at
once, as that is a dead germ.

A duckling does not break the shell directly after it is
pipped, but will lie quiet for twenty-four to forty-eight hours.
At this time there should be plenty of moisture in the egg cham-
ber, so much that it will condense and run down the glass of
the door; if the membrane around the orifice of the shell dries
the duckling may become attached to it and be unable to work
his way out. . When the hatch is well over the operator can take

HATCHING AND BROODING OF DUCKS

out the egg quickly, break the shell and release the duckling,
putting him back at once into the warm machine. When
nearly dried off the ducklings should be dropped down into the
“nursery” space below the egg trays (if there is no opening
through which they fall down), where the temperature is a few
degrees cooler than in the trays; this also prevents their turning
over and disturbing the unhatched eggs. About once in four
or five hours the dry ducklings should be dropped down, but the
work should be done quickly, so as to derange the temperature
of the egg chamber as little as possible. After the hatch is well
over let the ducklings remain in the nursery chamber for about
twenty-four hours, then they are removed to the brooder house
and put in the warmest pens, next to the heater.

BROODING AND FEEDING THE DUCKLINGS

To carry the ducklings from the incubator to the brooder
house a square basket, about 2 feet 6 inches long by 15 to 18
inches wide and a foot high, is the lightest and best thing. Some
duck farms use handled boxes, similar in shape, but the added
weight is a drawback. On the basket are close covers, hinged
at the center, to keep the little fellows secure and protected from
the wind. Such a basket as here described will hold about a
hundred ducklings. When it is filled it is carried to the pen

67—DUCKLINGS ONE WEEK OLD

in the brooder house and the birds carefully tipped out onto the
feed board, where a small supply of food has been placed. The
food at first is the infertile egg boiled hard and chopped fine,
mixed with about four times its bulk of stale bread crumbs,
or cracker crumbs, and having about five per cent of its bulk
coarse, sharp sand or fine (chick-size) gravel. They should be
fed every two hours for the first few days, feeding only a little
at a time, and see that the food is all eaten up before feeding
again. If any food is left uneaten it should be cleaned off the
boards and thrown on the fertilizer heap; it will be so soiled as
to be unfit for feeding again.

The temperature of the brooders should be about 90 degrees
at first, and the animal heat of the little ducklings will bring
the heat up to about 95. After carrying them through a cou-
ple of nights at his temperature 90 degrees will be warm enough,
and after a week 80 to 85 degrees. After the first few days the

89

attendant can regulate the heat by the appearance of the duck-
lings. If they seem happy and contented, and cuddle down
comfortably under the hovers, they are warm enough. If,
however, they bunch together and cry discontentedly, they need
a little more heat. If they are disposed to push out from under
the hover there is a little too much heat, and the temperature
should be lowered to a point which will draw them in under
the hover. ‘

At one plant the baby ducklings are confined close to the
hovers by a board about a foot high, having two end-pieces 18
inches long nailed across so that one end makes 4 pen 6 inches
wide across the breadth of the pen, or, reversed, it makes a
pen a foot wide across the pen. In very cold weather these
partitions are put up at ‘night to confine the ducklings close
up to the warm hover ‘space. On another large duck plant
these partitions boards are fitted to slots fixed to the sides of
the pens, and when taken up are slid up onto the top of the
collar-beams (boards) overhead, and are always within reach
when wanted.

In an excellent article in the report of the R. I. State Board
of Agriculture, the following feeding directions are given: ‘In
times past all sorts of mixtures and all kinds of fussing have
been recommended in feeding young ducks. The biggest and
best breeders of the present day, however, do very little fussing,
and the food mixtures are of the plainest kind. I have found a
mixture of two-thirds wheat bran and one-third corn meal,
with a handful of fine gravel or coarse sand mixed in, for the
first two or three days, sufficient for all their needs. If skim or
whole milk is easy to get, it may be used to moisten this mixture
to a crumbly consistency; otherwise either hot or cold water
will answer. I frequently break raw eggs into the meals, in
the proportion of two eggs to one quart of the dry grain. This
must be thoroughly mixed in order that it may not be too pasty
or sticky. After the first three days I omit the sand or fine
gravel, and by the fifth day begin to feed a slight proportion of
beef scrap. This proportion may be gradually increased until,
at two weeks old, they are getting five per cent of beef scrap; at
three weeks old their food should be one-half bran, one-half corn
meal, and about seven per cent of the whole mixture beef scraps.
Gradually increase the animal matter until at five weeks they
are having 15 per cent. This proportion may be carried until
killing time, which, under ordinary conditions, should be at
ten weeks, when they should weigh from ten to twelve pounds
per pair.

“Early hatched ducklings should have brooder heat for
practically the whole ten weeks. At least, they will require
houses that are slightly warmed even after feathering, or too
much of the food consumed will have to go toward making
heat instead of flesh. After the warm spring months come the
birds will require less heat, and after the first of May proba-
bly fourteen to twenty days will be all the hover heat they will
need. After that time a house dry and free from draughts
will meet every requirement. It must be kept sweet and clean,
however, and it becomes necessary to keep continually at the
cleaning. .

“Dry planer shavings make the best litter for the floor for
both old and young stock. Sawdust is fairly good, but mixes
too readily with the food of the young birds. Straw and gravel
are both bad, as they become wet quickly and are slow to dry.
Whatever material is used, it must be kept dry or disaster will
follow. Keep drinking water, grit and shell by the young birds
at all hours. Have the water supply so that they can get at
it night and day. This will save undue thirst and the loss of
many of the birds by the tramping and wetting which comes
after being shut away from the water for any length of time.
Standing in a brooder building any moonlight night one can see
a constant procession of little birds going to and from the water
fountain, and this in itself is proof of the need of its being there.”’

ARTIFICIAL INCUBATING AND BROODING

DRESSING AND MARKETING DUCKS

Ducks should be dry picked for the eastern markets. In
handling (as catching them for the pickers), they should be
caught and lifted by the neck; there is great danger of break-
ing a leg when they are caught by the legs. On large duck
ranches the picking is done by professional pickers, who are
paid so much per head for killing and dressing. The ducks
are selected by the owner (or foreman) and cooped ready to
hand in large boxes in the picking room. The picker grasps
one by the neck, inserts the killing knife in its mouth and sticks
up through the roof of the mouth, into the brain. The picking
begins immediately, while the muscles are relaxed, and before
the death struggle is over the picking is done. The ‘down’
is then rubbed off with the fingers and ball of the thumb, which
are kept.damp by dipping now and then into a pan of water.
Such pin-feathers as are started are then shaved off with a keen-
edged knife, usually a broad-bladed shoe knife. The tip joint
of the wings is not picked, and a ring of feathers is left upon the
upper part of the neck, next to the head.

chunk of ice of twenty-five or thirty pounds weight is placed
on top, a thickness of burlap spread over all and secured by
driving the top hoop down over and nailing on, the address tag
tied to the burlap, the weight of the package marked on the side
and it is ready for the expressman.

There is good money in raising ducks for market. The
ranks of the duck growers are continually extending, but the
consumptive demand is also constantly extending, and the de-
mand keeps ahead of the supply. The consuming public recog-
nizes the high quality of the improved duck, and it is only neces-
sary to keep up the quality to have the demand steadily increase.

In the height of the season, which is June, there are about
twenty men employed, eight or ten being pickers, eight others
on the general work of feeding, watering, etc., and two on gen-
eral farm work, teaming grain and supplies from the railway
three miles distant, etc. After the five or six months of stren-
uous life is past there comes a time of comparative leisure
when a well earned*vacation can be taken. In the fall months
buildings are built or repaired, the yard ground ploughed up

68—TYPICAL ENGLISH AYLESBURY DUCKS

After being picked and pinned the birds are tossed into a
tank or barrel of cold water and left to cool for a couple of hours.
The packer takes the cooled ducks from the tank, washes the
blood from the mouth and head, ties the wings close to the body
and packs them in cases or barrels for shipment. They should
not be packed till thoroughly cold or until all animal heat is
out, and if the birds are to go a journey of several hours they
should be packed in cracked ice to keep them in good condi-
tion. Mr. Rankin, at the time of my-visit, was shipping his
ducks to Boston dealers, and as it is only an hour’s ride there
was no need to ice them; most shippers, however, have to ship
the night before in order to have the birds at the dealers’ stands
in the morning, and the birds are always iced. The Messrs.
Weber put a layer of ducks in the bottom of a clean barrel,
then a thin layer of cracked ice, then more ducks, firmly packed
in, and more ice, and so on. When the barrel is even full a

90

and sown to rye, both to sweeten it and furnish fodder for the
cows and green food for next spring’s ducks, and in the winter
the duck-raiser can ‘‘live on easy street.”’

Messrs. Weber Bros. breed from two-year-old ducks only,
all the eggs from ducks in their pullet-year being used for hatch-
ing market ducks. An item of increased cost which must be
considered is the over-crowding of the birds. They now put 150
to 175 youngsters into the pens in the cold houses and as many
as 200 birds in each flock in the pens in the fattening sheds,
and one of the brothers told us that in small flocks the duck-
lings would grow to marketable size and condition a full week
sooner than where they were so crowded. House room and
yard room are items in the expense account, but there is a week’s
additional food and labor cost to counterbalance it. Is it econo-
my to crowd the birds?

An item of considerable income is the feathers, of which

HATCHING AND BROODING OF DUCKS

the Messrs. Weber sold about 4,000 pounds (two tons!) last
year. As the feathers fetched thirty-eight to forty cents a
pound, here was an income of from $1,500 to $1,600 from feath-
ers alone.

The steady increase in duck production has been made pos-
sible by the improvement in methods of hatching and brooding;
in no other branch of the poultry business are incubators and
brooders used with so generally good results, and the compar-

ative perfection of the up-to-date incubators and brooders of

— to-day makes possible the hatching and rearing of a very large
per cent. As the infant mortality is slight and ducks grow to
marketable size in ten or eleven weeks’ time, the grower soon
begins to realize a profit upon his investment, and the steady
increase in public appreciation and consumption of so desirable
a table delicacy insures a sound, healthy development of the
business.

““IF I WERE TO START AGAIN”’

THE MAN WHO IS OFTEN REFERRED TO AS ‘*THE FATHER OF THE PEKIN DUCK

INDUSTRY IN AMERICA’”’

TELLS WHAT HE. WOULD DO IF HE

WERE TO START

ANEW AND GIVES VALUABLE ADVICE IN REGARD TO CARE AND ATTENTION

JAMES RANKIN

x

F I WERE to start over again in the duck business,
I should not begin as I did. I have learned many
things, during the past thirty years of experience
in duck growing which I did not know when I
first began. One is, that labor is the most ex-
pensive item in the whole business, and a plant
should be systematically laid out so as to mini-

It is w poor policy to erect a small group of build-

mize that.
ings, making them a nucleus to build around as you increase
your plant from time to time, as so many are doing, and making

the whole thing about as inconvenient as can be. Select a piece
of ground with considerable slope to the south. Sandy land,
if level, will not answer the purpose, as the birds will soon pud-
dle it and make it water tight, and then trouble begins. We
make our breeding and broodings houses fifteen feet wide with
a walk in the rear, and four feet in front. This necessitates an
uneven double pitch roof. It makes « stiffer, warmer building
than a shed roof and requires less lumber. For breeding birds,
these buildings are divided off into pens 12 by 18 feet for thirty
birds, each, the yards outside being of the same width and about
100 feet long.

Located in warm buildings of this kind, judicious feed and
care will soon compel the birds to lay. But it is one thing to
induce egg production during the winter season, and quite
another to secure highly fertilized eggs, which can only be done
by a careful feeding and a well balanced ration. See following
formula for feeding laying ducks:

Equal parts wheat bran and corn meal; twenty per cent
of Quaker oat feed; ten per cent of boiled turnips or potatoes;
ten per cent of clover-rowen, green rye or refuse cabbage chop-
ped fine; five per cent of grit. Feed twice a day all they, will
eat, with a lunch of corn and oats at noon.

We never cook the food for our ducks after they are a week
old, but mix with cold water. The birds should be fed all they
will eat up clean of this ration twice a day. Never keep food by
them or allow it to sour. They should not hiss let out till they
are through laying in the morning.

They should be watered at least four times each day. It
would be a great saving of labor if a small stream or brook
should run through the lower part of the yards so that the
birds could obtain water at‘will. We usually mate about one
drake to five ducks.

As a rule, the first eggs laid by young birds are apt to be
infertile, though if the birds are well cared for and fed, the
fertility rapidly increases and will often reach from ninety to
ninety-eight per cent. Of course the hatching should be done
artificially. The incubators should be located where the tem-
perature is as nearly uniform as possible. The eggs should be
turned carefully twice a day, moving them from the ends to

center of trays and vice versa. The machines should be run
at 102 degrees the first fifteen days and at 103 degrees the re-
mainder of the hatch. The eggs may be tested the third day of
incubation. They should be cooled a little once each day, espe-
cially the latter part of the hatch, though usually they are
cooled sufficiently while turning. No specified time can be
given, as that depends upon the temperature in which the ma-
chines are located.

WHAT TO FEED

The little birds should be left in the machine for about
thirty-six hours after hatching. The heat in the brooders should
be about ninety degrees the first day or two and be gradually
reduced as the birds become stronger. Feed them according
to formula, as follows:

The first four days, feed equal parts of rolled oats and crack-
er crumbs; ten per cent hard boiled egg, chopped fine; five per
cent coarse sand. Feed four times a day what they will eat
clean.

From ‘four days to three weeks old, feed equal parts of rolled
oats and wheat bran; ten per cent corn meal; five per cent coarse
sand; five per cent fine ground beef scrap, soaked. Give finely
cut green clover, rye or cabbage. Feed four times a day.

From three to six weeks old, feed equal parts corn meal,
wheat bran and Quaker oat feed; three per cent fine grit; five
per cent beef scraps. Mixin green food. Feed four times a day.

From six to eight weeks old, feed three parts corn meal;
two parts wheat bran; one part Quaker oat-feed; three per cent
grit. Feed three times a day.

From eight to ten weeks old, feed two-thirds corn meal;
one third equal parts of wheat bran and oat feed; ten per cent
beef scrap; three per cent grit. Give oyster shells and less green
food. Feed three times a day. They should now be ready
for market.

Our brooding arrangement consists simply of a two inch
flow and return pipe running horizontally, ten inches apart the
whole length of the building and boxed in about two feet wide,
the upper boards resting upon the pipes. This brooding box
should be partitioned every four feet with pens of corresponding
width. The distance between the pipes and floor should be at
first about three inches, gradually increasing it as the birds
grow larger. The top half of these brooding boxes is hinged
in the center next to the walk, so they can be lifted up to facili-
tate cleaning.

Water pans should be arranged so that the little birds can
get their bills in to drink and not their bodies. From sixty to
seventy-five ducklings are a full complement for each of these
pens and when four weeks old they should be removed to larger
quarters.

91

ARTIFICIAL INCUBATING AND BROODING

Great care should be taken to disinfect the pens and keep
them dry and clean, as neglect in this particular will soon mani-
fest itself in the sore eyes and emaciated bodies of the young
birds and a great mortality will surely follow.

One thing I neglected to mention is, that uniform heat
should be kept in the brooding boxes. The pipes are supposed
to radiate the same amount of heat the entire length of the
building. The ducklings, as they grow older require less and
less. We obviate this difficulty by increasing the distance be-
tween the pipes and the
floor, always putting the
newly hatched birds next
the heater and moving
the older ones towards the
other end of the building
to make room.

For one embarking
in the duck business, I
should advise purchasing
eggsfromareliable
grower of first class stock
(one who will guarantee
fresh, fertile eggs) and se-
cure enough of them to
produce all the breeding
stock for the coming
year. The advantage of
this course over purchas-
ing a few breeding birds
to get stock is obvious;
it will give early birds of
one age that will be ready
for business and repro-
duce early in the season,
and the care is soon over.
A few old birds would
give but a few eggs each day, which would either necessitate
hatching them under hens or keeping the eggs till they were
old in order to filla machine, and it would be necessary to be
hatching the entire season; the young birds would be of all
ages and would not be uniform in size and value.

In regard to the relative profit derived from growing ducks
or chickens, would say that there is very littJe difference. Duck-
lings during March and April usually command from thirty to
thirty-five cents per pound in Boston and New York markets,
while roasting chickens are then worth twenty to twenty-five
cents per pound. During June and July, chickens readily com-
mand from thirty to thirty-five cents, while ducklings are worth
but fourteen or eighteen cents in the same market.

PEKIN DUCKS

MATING, HATCHING AND FEEDING—FEATH-
ERS A SOURCE OF CONSIDERABLE PROFIT

FRANCES E. WHEELER

T DOES seem rather hard on us sometimes that we are able

I to profit so feebly by the experience of others and with
all the wish in the world and the willingness can ‘‘pass on”

so little of our knowledge to those we would fain help if we
could. ‘Work out your own salvation” is an iron bound law
and applies quite as truly to man’s physical as to his spiritual
being. In our life’s work we have to take hold each of us in
our own way; what we gain an insight of—that is, the practical
part or detail—is not much of it adaptable to others. “Live and

92

learn, die and forget it all,’ I used to think a hard saying of my
grandmother’s. but have grown to realize its deep wisdom and
truth. Especial cause have we to remember it this spring at
Clovernook in the mating of our Pekin ducks. Heretofore we
have separated our breeders in October and wintered them in
one flock. Last fall we had so many that in December we divid-
ed them into two flocks and yarded them separately. This
February we picked from among them a choice Hallock drake
and penned him with five of our largest ducks. Their eggs we

69—GROUP OF CHOICE PEKINS

kept separate to hatch out in a pedigree tray. At the first test
we had four fertile eggs out of the twenty-two! The balance of
our eggs rated nine infertile out of one hundred and eighty
eggs. Again we put the two flocks together and the egg yield
promptly advanced twenty-five per cent.

If the points thus submitted are correctly understood, the
natural inference would be that if each drake and his five ducks
were separated in the early fall and kept yarded separately for
a few weeks there would be secured a decided benefit to the
spring output, and the importance of not disturbing the breeders
after the fall round up would be emphasized.

The ration of our breeders during ‘‘egg time” is: Two
measures of corn meal, one and a half measure of ground oats,
one and a half measures of wheat bran, and a half measure of
beef scraps. To this is added about one-fourth the bulk in green
stuff. At noon there is scattered to them two measures of
whole corn, oats and barley (mixed). They are yarded until
noon when they go to the river for the balance of the day. Of
course plenty of water, sand and grit is always before them.

I have grown to have a decided respect for ducks, because
they know so much and so quickly show up our mistakes. No
fowl responds so promptly to care or neglect. A slight change
in the first “tells the tale” in a week or two. For example, I
ordered a shipment of ground oats; they sent me instead what
we call ‘‘provender,” a mixture of everything, mostly shucks.
In less than two weeks the egg yield dropped one-third and it
took two more weeks to bring it back to its original standard.

Evaporation is so rapid in our section (the Adirondack
region) that in order to get best results from our incubators
when the’ hatch is on we have to shut up the incubator room
three or four times during the last forty-eight hours and with
boiling water sprinkle the floor around the machines. We use

HATCHING AND BROODING OF DUCKS

two quarts each time and open up the room in about a half
hour. During the last two weeks of the hatch we also sprinkle
the eggs; otherwise the shells have a dry, feverish, brittle feeling,
and the ducklings cannot seem to break through them. .The
skin is tough and leathery and in many cases the inner wrapping
dries and mummifies the birds.

We find that a comfortably heated brooder house is of more
importance than to have their little brooder at any exact tem-
perature. This latter must, of course, be comfortably warm; but
lots of bother and loss have been saved us of late by a good
stove running steadily all the time. When the ducklings run
out of their warm bedroom to feed or drink, they are chilled or
troubled with rheumatism or cramps. Again we do not hurry
them out of the incubator, but let them get well dried off and
when we do change them to the brooder, for the first twenty-
four hours we place only water and sand before them. Their
water is tepid and the food is—well, sometimes one thing, some-
times another. Just now they are getting bread crumbs soaked
in milk and dried to crumbly consistency with corn meal and
wheat bran. After they are a week old we give them either a

little fine chopped, hard boiled egg, or well soaked beef scraps.
We put before them only what. they will eat up clean and after
the first two weeks feed four times a day until marketed.

For the second month their ration is one-third corn meal,
one-third wheat bran, one-third ground oats and gradually
work up from one-fifteenth of beef scraps to one-tenth, which
continue until marketed. To the above we add one-fourth in
bulk of fine cut green stuff, preferably clover. During the third
month the proportion of corn meal is gradually increased until
it is about three-fifths to three-fourths of the food given. We
also shorten up their yards.

When raising ducks on a small plant it is a good plan—
when the ducks are being prepared for market—to have the
coarse feathers (of wings and tail) kept apart and the fine

‘feathers and down picked together and spread in a clean, airy

place to cure, which takes about a month. These feathers may
be sold to the local trade at from 60 to 75 cents per pound;
five ducks usually yield about one pound. They may also be
made into sofa pillows and a little advertising of this is all that
is necessary.

FEEDING FOR MARKET OR BREEDERS

FEEDING NURSERY DUCKLINGS—FATTENING THE DUCKLINGS—FEEDING STOCK
DUCKS—FEEDING THE BREEDERS—HINTS IN REGARD TO FEEDING FOR EGGS

H. E. MOSS

HE duck farmers of this country who conduct the
business on a commercial scale are, so far as feed-
ing methods are concerned, far in advance of
those engaged in any other branch of the poultry

i) business. They have reduced the feeding ques-

4 tion to what may be called a certainty if not a

| science. They have every branch of it from start

to finish under perfect control and while but few
of them perhaps would undertake to demonstrate what consti-
tutes successful feeding from a scientific viewpoint, or even
undertake to figure the nutritive value of the different feeds,
they never-the-less know exactly what to use and what results
will follow as well as if they had worked it out scientifically;
they have been through the severe school of experience.

The writer enjoys the personal acquaintance of nearly
every one of these men, and has visited practically every large
farm in this country, and knows what has been accomplished.
They do not all feed exactly alike, so far as the materials used
are concerned, and it will be found that the best results are
obtained by those who approach, either intentionally or other-
wise the correct nutritive ratio, the secret of successful duck
feeding.

I admit that ducks will eat almost anything, and that
after they are ten days or two weeks old they will not, only
eat, but manage to live and grow to maturity although thrown
almost entirely upon their own resources, if given a chance to
rustle. But this would not answer our purpose. We must de-
vise a system of feeding that will produce the most rapid growth
and greatest weight in the shortest time. The food must be
composed of material demanded by the nature and constitution
of the duck, and easily digestible; otherwise it will not only be

wasted, but may injure or kill the ducklings, which it will if-

it steps too far out of the narrow path wherein safety lies.
Forcing their growth on a concentrated feed is an entirely dif-
ferent proposition from their natural, slower growth on mate-
rial of their own selection.

FEEDING NURSERY DUCKLINGS

The critical period in a duckling’s life is during the first ten
days of its existence. The handling and care during this per-

93

iod determines whether or not they go to market at a profit

When they are hatched the yolk which has just been taken
into the abdominal cavity contains sufficient nourishment to
sustain them thirty-six hours or more. They should be taken
from the incubator thirty-six hours after the hatch is over.
which if properly conducted will be-the evening of the twenty-
ninth day, as they should be practically all out of the shells on
the morning of the twenty-eighth day. They should then as’
they are transferred to the brooder (and this applies to chicks
as well) be taken one at a time and their bill dipped in blood
warm water, if they get only a drop it will be found that this
will prove the means of saving many that would otherwise suf-
fer and perhaps to a degree that would later on prove fatal;
for one drop of water at this time will so aid the assimilation of
the yolk that must, take place, or should before any food is
taken, that many deaths from unabsorbed yolk will be pre-
vented. This takes time, but it pays to do it.

Of course ducklings quickly find the water, but there are
always a few that do not until it is perhaps too late to save
them. Both ducks and chicks when hatched can wait seventy-
two hours before taking food and I believe to their advantage,
but they must not be deprived of water.

The first feed should consist of stale-bread crumbs soaked
in skim milk and squeezed dry with the least bit of fine sand
sprinkled over it. This should be kept constantly before them
day and night for the first forty-eight or sixty hours, renewing
it every three hours. This has the effect of thoroughly cleans-
ing the entire digestive tract of all acid and urate accumula-
tions and fitting them for the rapid and active work they must
now take up, for without a ravenous appetite and perfect diges-
tion they canriot reach the stage we desire. I shall not go into
the details of brooding houses and temperature here, but con-
fine myself to feeding alone. I will assume the reader has
these details correctly and firmly fixed in his mind and is prac-
ticing them.

The next ten days that now follow are the important ones,
so far as temperature and food are concerned and those that
safely survive this period are not only safe, but far more hardy
than chicks at the same age. ‘

Their feed during this period should consist of:

ARTIFICIAL INCUBATING AND BROODING

One measure of stale bread crumbs or cracker crumbs F

One measure of white middlings or pollard;

One-half measure of fine bran;

Five per cent of sand.

Wet this with skim milk or water, using only enough to
stick it together. Feed four times a day. Scatter it on flat
boards, made say one foot by three with an inch strip around
the edge. Give them twenty minutes during which to eat; then
remove the board.

Keep water before them at all times day and night, but in
the nursery always have the chill taken off. Wash the drink-
ing receptacles at each feeding, and if for any reason their
pans have been allowed to become empty be sure to give them
their food before placing water before them, especially at the
first morning feed or colic may result, which is often fatal.

Four measures of fine bran;

Three measures of white middlings (pollard);

One measure of corn meal (maize);

Three measures of fresh cut green clover or rye or two of
steamed clover meal;

Five per cent (of the grain feed) of sand;

Five per cent (of the grain feed) of beef scraps.

I prefer to keep water constantly before them, although
they can worry along without it except at feeding time.

This ration will not fatten; it is not intended that it should,
for to feed any more corn meal at this time would starve the
bone, muscle and feather growth and they would soon be crawl-
ing on their bellies broken down or throw their heads back and
fall in a fit, which usually ends fatally and is the sure result of
feeding a too highly carbonaceous or fattening and heating

70—WATER FOWL AT THE LONDON DAIRY SHOW

They will scatter considerable water on the bedding around the
drinking fountains and will also drop particles of food on it;
this soon becomes sour and the wet portion should be renewed
every day, otherwise they dig in it and eat it to their injury.

GROWING DUCKLINGS

At the end of ten days they are transferred from the nur-
sery to the brooding house proper. Here they are given more
room and also outside runs to exercise and sun themselves in,
but where both sun and shade are found. We now aim to grow
all the frame and muscle possible until they are seven weeks old,
and we feed them four times a day until they are five weeks
old, and then three times a day the following, mixed as before:

94

ration. There is plenty of time to fatten them after the frame
is grown, which at seven weeks old, has been sufficiently accom-
plished to permit it. When they reach this age we select the
most precocious and promising ones for the next season’s breed-
ers and turn the others into the fattening sheds.

FATTENING DUCKLINGS

In these sheds are fed three times a day on the following
mixed as before:

Two measures of corn meal (maize meal);

Two measures of white middlings (pollard); +

One measure of bran;

One measure of cut green clover or rye;

HATCHING AND BROODING OF DUCKS

Ten per cent of beef scraps;

Five per cent of sand.

They remain here until they are between nine and ten
weeks old, when they are ready for market. They of course
must have shade and a constant supply of water in these sheds.
As the weather grows warmer they will eat much less at noon
than at morning or night, but here as well as in the brooding
house be careful and do not overfeed.

It is better to leave them a little hungry than to overdo
it. Twenty minutes is time enough for them to eat all they
should and whatever is left must be removed. Ducklings fed
in this way should weigh from ten to twelve pounds per pair
at this time.

Do not keep them longer than ten weeks. Let this be the
limit, for they then begin growing their adult plumage and the
‘pin feathers that now start will make them very difficult to
pick properly or rapidly; and as all their strength will be em-
ployed in growing this crop of feathers they will gain nothing
in weight during the next six weeks. The feed they consume
would be practically wasted, adding so much to their cost that
instead of making a profit, they would show a loss.

FEEDING STOCK DUCKS

The birds that are selected to be raised for stock ducks for
the next season should be turned into a pasture where there
is water and shade. If marshy and swampy so much the bet-
‘ter, they will find most of the food they require, but they should
be fed morning and night as follows:

Three measures of cracked corn (maize);

Seven measures of fine bran;

Five measures of cut green clover.

If there is no marsh or water in the pasture in which they
-can find bugs and worms there must be five per cent of beef
scraps added to this feed.

They remain in this pasture until late in the fall and the
quantity of food given them must be governed by the quantity
‘they are able to pick up on the range.

This feed does not encourage egg production in the fall,
~which we try to avoid. Should a few begin laying, cut down
‘the feed. It is not desirable to have laying begin until Christ-
mas, but April hatched ducklings will if encouraged lay a few
eggs in October and November. They will be largely infertile
-and too far out of season to serve our best purpose.

THE BREEDING STOCK

Latitude and markets will vary considerably the time when
it is desirable to make up the breeding pens, but generally the
first of November is early enough for any locality. The birds
care then divided up in pens with twenty-five females to five
males in each. Feeding for eggs should be started three weeks
‘before we wish them to begin laying and we have them so well
ander control that this will result on the following feed:

Five measures of cracked corn;

Five measures of fine bran;

Two measures of white middlings;

One and one-half measures beef scraps;

Three measures of boiled potatoes or turnips;

Three measures of cut green clover or rye.

If the winter should be very severe and there is an exces-
sive demand upon the birds for fuet to keep up their internal
fires, the quantity of corn meal must be slightly increased to
provide it. They will not fatten unless they are fed an excess
above the demands made for fuel and energy. The feeder must
use judgment in this and increase the quantity when conditions
demand it. Avoid fattening, but put all the flesh on them
possible. No fowl can or will produce eggs if in poor flesh,
but flesh and fat are two entirely different products. Carbo-
naceous food produces fat and supplies heat and energy; it is
fuel, and any surplus is stored as fat for future use. Protein
produces flesh, bone and feathers and has other important uses
in the vital processes going on within. To supply the neces-
sary amount of both is what we attempt and the above formula
will answer as a basis, to be varied only in extreme weather
as directed.

The formulas I give above are those I have used in my own
work and the result of a wide experience. They are correct
both in theory and practice.

In addition to above I wish to add that it is advisable to
keep a box of ground oyster shells in each pen of stock ducks,
and also to feed a lunch of about a quart of whole corn at noon
to each pen during the laying season. When this is done the
corn in the mash may be meal instead of coarse cracked. The
idea is to give the gizzard some work to perform to keep the
digestive organs in perfect health.

Watch the birds closely and see that they come up raven-
ously hungry at each feeding. The more they can eat and digest
properly the more profitable they become.

In mixing mashes for poultry of all kinds there should be
added at the rate of one pound of salt to every hundred pounds
of grain except for the newly hatched birds in the nursery.

Should there be any indications of bowel trouble at any
time, use a little powdered charcoal in the mash for a few feeds
and it will correct it. Keep the yard clean and free from pud-
dles of filth and feed only the best material and at regular hours
and no such trouble need be anticipated.

TESTING DUCK EGGS

Duck eggs should be tested more frequently than hen eggs.
Three or four tests during the hatch being necessary, the first
test may be on the fourth or fifth day, when the embryo duck can
be readily seen through the clear shell of the egg, if a good tester
is used. After the first test a few eggs should be examined
every day or two, to see how the hatch is progressing, and if
any foul odor is noticed on opening the machine, the rotten
eggs should be tested out and removed. For the beginher it
will be necessary to examine the eggs with a tester or else “smell
them out” in order to find the eggs which give rise to the foul
odor. An expert operator can tell the putrid eggs by the chang-
ed appearance of the shell almost at sight; for, as # rule, the
putrid egg shows a slightly bluish or discolored, marbled ap-
pearance on some portion of the shell, which is not found in the
eggs containing live, healthy germs. Duck eggs become putrid
very quickly after the germ dies, and give off foul gases which
endanger the lives of the little birds in remaining eggs.

95

INDEX

Bepinneres: Help: for os s.c en ccneiseeeheecctice ed iesanneesesbce ccs 28
Breeding Stock; Conditioning. — oo... 22.2.2 ceseeeeee eee 26
Bréeding Stock; WG secs arecnencvee econ aera 16
Brotlets, cee wrens eres eee eesenev aren ney deuce eunemmsem tn 75
Broiler Raising; Profitable___....02000000 0... 2 siege deaaneanes 75
Brooder and Chicks; Care of_ occ 58
Brooder Chicks; Raising---_....-....0. 00 61
Brooder House; A Successful... 32
Brooder Operation; Successful... 55
Broodings Artificiet) oo acon cee cess te cae ces scat cch'g cone elcsnecabcenseneseceens 55
Care of Brooder and Chicks___...u.2....-..2.--- 58
Chicks; Artificial Hatching of_ 22-2. 45
Chicks; Care of Brooder and 58
Chick Feeds; Ready-Mixed cone 60
Chick Growing; Successful___ oo... 2o2.e-e cece cee cece eee oe 67
Chicks for Sale; Hatching ' 54
Chick Industry; The Day-Old__ o.oo eee 52
Chicks; Raising Brooder-_- 61
Chiekss Selling: Daiy2Ol ds scie2. csc ceeccce ces vceas ese peesces teeta neon 52
Chicks; Starting: these. cscs ce eee eee ece cape eee 63
Chicks; The Hatching of... cece cece eee 51
Chicks; The Mortality of... cece ce 49
Day-Old Chick Industry; The__-...02022020200.... 2 52
Dry Feeding; Notes on_- es 62
Ducks; Artificial Hatching of... 85
Ducks; Hatching and Brooding of--.....22222.00 85
Ducks; Hatching, Feeding and Marketing........00000-. 88
DUCKS #:, ROR sori stiaret cles eee cess en eerste insted sono eee i 92
Fogo Rertilityy tt weecc erecta cece eecesce nemesos as eee deseo aeereesen 26
Figg and! [ts Germs Tih sceceees oe sess seo eesssntas ear ceabacsanticerciceees 13
Eggs; Hatchable eo Saket ges senna than Cth 2p
Eggs; A Practical Study of... 2.2.2... ccc ec cceceeceeeeeeeneeeeees 13
Hee Tester: A. NewWeswiaecae aad Medes aan eee ete 50
Eggs; Weak Germs in Winter-__........--...2-..-. ne, 24
Feeding and Marketing Ducks; Hatching-—.... (88
Feeding for Market or Breeders_......2...2.-221e1eeececee tees ee eee 93
Feeding, Housing and Rearing. -....------2--2ee2eeecee ieee 71

96

Feeding; Notes on Dry__ uu. 62
Feeding; Start with Hopper. 66-
Feeds; Ready-Mixed Chick... 60-
Fertility in Eggs 26-
Hatches; Vigorous Stock; Good 27
Hatching Chicks for Sale ow... 54
Hatching of Chicks; The 51
Hatching of Chicks; Artificial 45
Hatching of Ducks; Artificial 85
Hatching with Incubators 46
Heating of Brooding Houses; The 3d
Hopper Feeding; Start With 66
House; A Successful Brooder 32°
Houses; Incubator and Brooding.... 29
Houses; Modern Incubator 29
Houses; The Heating of Brooding_ owe 34-
Housing and Rearing; Feeding 71
“Tf I Were to Start Again” 91
Incubating; Ancient Artificial_ 10:
Tacubations Artificial avcccresvenscscesreenenerays 37
Incubation; Successful Artificial___ 37
Incubators; A Few Hints on Buying — 41
Incubators; Egyptian 10:
Incubators; Hatching With 46
Incubator Houses; Modern.. 29
Incubators; Success With... cece cece cece cee 47
Incubators; The Advantages of 48
Introduction_- s
Marketing Ducks; Hatching, Feeding and 88
Methods; Sound, Practical __....... ee cecececececeeeeeeeeteteeeeeeeeeeeees 69
Mortality of Chicks; The... 2... 2.2.2s2s22e eesti veces 49
Pekin Ducks-- tobe cn a RO 92
Piping System) Overhead) .c.cccsccseaccs cesnrecemnrncmces 35
Piping System; Underneath... eee ee ee 34
Rearing; Feeding, Housing and... eee 71
Stock; Good Hatches; Vigorous... 27
Weak Germs in Winter Eggs ____.....2..-2-.e--1ceeeceeeceeeee eee 24