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LOOKING OVER A FLOCK OF 3000 WHITE LEGHORN HENS ON THE TUMBACH EGG FARM

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How I Made $10,000
in One Year With
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4200 Hens

, BY
JOSEPH H. TUMBACH

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Copyright, 1919 |
; By Joseru H. TumBacu
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INTRODUCTION

This work is written for and is offered especially to
those who are interested in or who contemplate engaging
in commercial egg-farming for the profit to be derived
from the operation. The writer frankly proclaims that
he knows nothing whatever about the science or art of
poultry breeding, and excepting for appreciating a beau-
tiful bird he would-not know a standard bred bird from an
ordinary one. His right to offer this work is based solely
on the fact that he has “made good” in the work from a
financial standpoint. His “biddies” have to their credit
at this time a profit above their cost of keep in excess of
forty thousand dollars. The profit in 1918 was out of
proportion to previous years. This was due in a large
measure to the fact that when the “poultry panic” set
in in 1917 and many operators quit, discouraged at the
outlook, the writer practically doubled his flock; and the

greatest increase was made in young pullets.

This is not a theoretical exposition. The writer has
been in the work more than eight years and he is now
engaged in it. He has raised and is raising not a few,
but thousands of chicks each year; he has kept and is
keeping thousands of hens. Fully 90 per cent of his work-
ing hours for more than eight years have been spent work-
ing among and with the birds. He has been through
every stage of the work, from cleaning a hen house to
building several that measure 160x150 feet; from selling
a dozen eggs at retail to contracting a year’s output of
more than a million and a quarter. He has candled
and put eggs into storage; he has hatched chicks by

the hen method and in incubators; brooded them in fire-
less hovers in lots of 50 and by the stove method with
more than two thousand in one lot and house. He has
fought mites, lice and ticks; he has been through sieges
of colds, swell-head, chicken-pox and canker—not with
a mere handful of birds but with thousands of them, and
there is a vast difference in the operation.

The advice and recommendations he makes herein are
based on that experience, and the methods herein out-
lined are the methods he follows. Let it be understood
that these plans and methods are by no means given out
as the ONLY way to success. They are given simply
as the plan and method by which he netted $10,000 in
1918 from an average of 4200 hens, and by which he has
persistently, year after year for more than six years,
made a very handsome profit from the keeping of hens
for commercial egg production. With other methods and
systems he is not herein concerned and he who seeks
argument on comparison of plans and methods must look
elsewhere.

To the writer it seems that the great error in most
books on poultry work lies in their failure to point out
some definite, concrete plan on which to proceed. Toa
man totally ignorant of the practical side of the thing it
is simply confusing to outline many plans of procedure, of
which he may take his choice. It seems more reasonable
to outline the definite plan and method by which a suc-
cess has been achieved and let him follow that if he will,
until, from his own experience, he is qualified to make the
deviations and improvements which will lend themselves
more readily to his particular case.

For the benefit of those who are fearful of their lack

of experience with poultry or with any form of farm life
it may be noted that the writer was city born and bred,
an accountant by profession, and that when he started
he hardly knew a hen from a duck.

Should the reader by chance be a poultryman of experi-
ence his indulgence is craved for much to be found
herein that will to him seem simple, even laughable. He
is asked to remember that such things are addressed pri-
marily to him or to her who knows as little about the
birds and the work as the writer did when he started.
A special effort is made to save the inexperienced, as far
as may be possible, the anxieties and extreme discom-
forts suffered by the writer during his first few years 1n
the work, and to make plain and comparatively easy the
many little points, simple in themselves, which to the
beginner seem veritable mountains of trouble.

But the writer makes bold to suggest also that even the
experienced may find matters herein well worthy of
thought and consideration. The problems concerning
the industry are in many respects far from being solved,
and unless those who operate on comparatively a large
scale adopt a more liberal—it might even be said a franker
attitude than is now commonly encountered—such prob-
lems may never find a solution. ‘This is to be regretted,
especially so since it involves a financial loss not only to
_ the individual operator but to the industry as a whole.

Many points covered herein have their promptings from
calls we have had for advice and counsel either from be-
ginners or from others in the work who encounter some
especial difficulty. These calls become more numerous
every day and this work, unselfish in its prompting, may
lighten the burden by affording an easy means of answer-
ing such calls for help. |

In conclusion the writer gives it as his opinion that
anyone who is willing to work, who is willing to stay at
home 365 days in the year, from early morning until late
at night, for the first few years at least, who loves birds
or animals—any one who has these qualifications—can,
if he will, do as well or better than he has done.

JOSEPH H. TUMBACH.

Pasadena, Calif.

PART ONE

A discussion from the standpoint of one who wishes to
enter the work of egg-farming, who is not yet located
and has not bought property, but who wishes to buy
land at the start.

Location

The important consideration in locating an egg farm is
the matter of market. If you follow in the writer’s foot-
steps your main objective in life is the production of eggs
for table use. ime is your greatest enemy because it
works against your product the moment the egg 1s laid.
Your problem then is to put that egg on the market in
the shortest possible time. For this reason, if you have
the choice, locate your egg farm as close as you can to
a good all-the-year-round market. Don’t go out on the
desert because land is cheap there. And don’t think a
location is first class because it is close to a summer or
winter resort where people flock during a part of the
year. You will have eggs to sell 12 months in the year
and you want a 12-month market.

Your plant should be within reasonable trucking or
shipping distance of some large marketing center where
eggs are handled in large quantities. If poultry plants
are being conducted in the section where you think of
locating or starting, ask the people running such plants
about the market facilities. If you intend starting in a
new section, consider its location with reference to the
primary marketing point—in California, for instance, San
Francisco and Los Angeles are the two primary market-
ing points. If no poultry people are available for the

10 HOW I MADE $10900 IN ONE YEAR

- information go into these cities, find the produce mar-
keting centers, consult with egg dealers, (you can find
them in the city directories if in no other way), and learn
from them how they would treat you in the matter of
buying your product. If you find a better market than
they offer you well and good; but make certain before
you start that there will be a ready market for eggs pro-
duced in the section you have in mind.

Locating in a section where there are other egg and
poultry farms has many advantages. Where a consid-
erable number of such farms are operated there is
usually an arrangement by some egg buyer for regular
trips by trucks to pick up the eggs and return empty
cases. This is a big advantage. If you are entirely new
to the work you will feel much more comfortable at it if
there is someone within hailing distance should you get
into serious doubt or trouble over any phase of the work.

Be sure you are not following some real estate boom,
though. The country is full of poultry-wrecks, the result
of some real estate boomer advertising a tract of land
as a poultry colony regardless of its fitness for such work.
If your choice is some place where you can find a plant
that has been in operation for years and that is not all
run down at the heels and ready for the junk man, all the
better. This would indicate that somebody made a go
of chickens in that locality and if he did it you can.

Your nearness to market means also that you will be
close to feed and supplies—and the closer you are to a
district where grain and feed is grown, the cheaper will
be your feed bills.

Avoid, if you can, locating your plant very close to a

WITH 4200 HENS 11

railroad. You will be raising baby chicks and carrying
young pullets and laying hens. The sudden shrieking of
locomotive whistles, clanging of bells and grinding of
wheels will be a most harmful influence at all stages.

Before locating your plant within the limits of a city
or town, make sure there are no restrictions against
chickens in large flocks, or that the chickens Must not
be kept a certain distance from an adjoining residence.
Secure information on these points from the city or town
officials—don’t go on the opinion of the man from whom
you would buy.

Generally speaking, it 1s unwise to locate an egg farm
within the limits of a city. The neighbors may not
object to one or two crowing roosters and cackling
hens but it may seem different to them if one hundred
roosters and several thousand hens provide the concert.
Furthermore, ground for complaint is easily found when
even a single animal is kept in a city, let alone thousands
of hens.

If, in seeking a location, you should encounter the
remains of old poultry plants, try and learn the cause of
their failure. The soil may be too heavy, making it sub-
ject to standing pools of water and sticky mud; there
may be sand fleas or ticks if it is very sandy; it may be
too windy or stormy for hens to do well; it may be sub-
ject to heavy fogs especially in the spring when the young
stock 1s raised; it may be the land lies in a draw or de-
pression where there is a heavy suction of air at night;
there may be a scant water supply. On the other hand,
if none of these disadvantages are apparent, the people
who tried there may have been at fault themselves; if so,

12 HOW I MADE $10,000 IN ONE YEAR

you might do well to buy some of the remains at a bar-
gain and save a lot of money. More will be said on the
latter score under “Buildings.”

Soil

The ideal chicken soil is a light, sandy loam with a
gentle slope to the south. This means perfect drainage
away from your buildings. Where we are located it is
unusual to find even a small pool of standing water 30
minutes after the heaviest rain storm. This is almost
ideal. |

Nor is drainage the only consideration. A light, loose
soil lends itself much more readily to cultivation, it is
an easy matter to keep the ground fresh, and the hens
have an incentive to keep busy scratching. During the
rainy season, such as we have in Southern California, the
top soil is washed clean, the impurities sinking into lower
levels. Such a soil requires far more water and fertiliza-
tion for the growing of green stuff, but the advantages
offset this tenfold.

It is not impossible to successfully operate an egg
farm on heavy soil. Our plant was located on a stiff
“dobe” soil the first five years, where a crowbar had to
be used to dig a post hole during the summer months, and
where a sticky mud formed during the rainy season, and
we laid the foundation for our success on that place,
making good money at it after the first two years. We
had only one attack of serious trouble during the five
years, and as other people located on lighter soils had
the same trouble at the same time, it seems reasonable
to assume that the soil was not the cause of it. But
heavy soil makes the work far more difficult and is much

WITH 4200 HENS 13

less pleasant for the hens; so avoid the heavy soil if you
can.
Buildings and Yards

There is no ideal building for housing either chicks or
hens—one that can be used in every country and every
climate. Local weather conditions make modifications
necessary wherever you may go. The writer has seen
hens kept, on an egg-farming basis, in little houses with-
out yards, the likes of which if attempted in a southern
climate where it really gets hot, would result in cooking
the life out of the birds, and the other extreme was a
case where no houses were used at any season of the
year. If this were attempted in Maine or in Michigan,
especially with Leghorns, the birds might not actually
freeze to death but they would surely lose their combs
and wattles and they would lay few if any eggs in the
winter. 5

Before deciding on the style of housing you will adopt,
make inquiries and learn who is most successful in the
district. There is always someone who stands out above
the rest in making a success of the work. Learn from
him or them how your brooder houses and laying houses
had best be faced. Generally speaking a southern ex-
posure is best, east is second choice, west third, and north
last or not at all. The writer cannot recall seeing a suc-
cessful poultry plant with houses faced north. There are
some, of course, but they are rare. Unless your success-
ful man is a faddist whose ideas are contrary to all gen-
erally accepted rules for keeping hens you might well
follow his lead both as to exposure and as to style or
type of housing. |

14 HOW I MADE $10,000 IN ONE YEAR

But if you find a number of successfully conducted
plants in the section, operating with practically the same
style and type, you are safer in following that lead than
in following the one. For instance, in Southern Califor-
nia by far the greater number of poultrymen use the long,
partially open-front laying house. Were you locating in
this section your best plan would be to adopt that style.
Of course you might come here and show us something
new, something that would put our efforts in the shade,
so to speak. But be sure you have enough money with
you to enable you to tear down and rebuild should your
innovation prove a failure. An experienced poultryman
could go into almost any poultry section and make im-
provements on the housing and methods commonly em-
ployed, but a beginner usually lays out for himself a
hard row to hoe when he attempts to learn the business
and to start an innovation at one and the same time. The
writer knows this to his cost—that is why his first two
years resulted in failure. The hens were not a failure—
they did remarkably well and showed a fine profit, but he
could not get enough hens to make the total profit pay
his living expenses, let alone a surplus for rainy days.

This suggests another “don’t’”—don’t be misled by re-
ports you see giving the results of a certain system or
method where a few hens were used to make the test.
If you make a success of the work you will want at least
one thousand and if you are ambitious, even moderately
so, two thousand will be the least number you will carry.
And it is absolutely foolhardy to base your ideas of the
business and its returns on multiplying by one or two
thousand the results per hen you can find in many reports
of experiments.

WITH 4200 HENS 15

Another point worth making: If you are buying a
place on which there are some old buildings (chicken
houses or any other kind) and if your capital is limited
or you wish to determine whether or not the work suits
you, you can easily adapt them for use for a year or two.
The writer made a perfectly satisfactory brooder house
out of two old sheds, 7x12 feet, 6 feet high in front and
4 feet in the rear, by tearing out the fronts of both and
placing them nose to nose, making one building 12x14.
There were several such sheds on the place. Two more
were set twelve feet apart, the intervening space was
roofed over, the back was connected up, resulting in one
building 7x36; a “porch” 5 feet wide was run along the
front (which was left wide open), sloping away from the
main house, which kept out the rain and wind and the
whole resulted in a very comfortable house 12x36 feet
in which 350 hens were kept. A little ingenuity, or a day’s
wages to some good carpenter, might easily save you a
lot of money at the start.

Sand-papered and varnish finish are not a necessary
adjunct to success. What you need primarily is a house
in which you can absolutely control the inflow and outgo
of air and which will keep out storms and rain. The de-
tailed description of our buildings may serve as a useful
guide as to the necessary features even though you do not
adopt the plans as a whole. It is for this reason they are
given, not with the idea that we have the only proper
scheme of housing.

Should you use or adapt old buildings one thing in
particular you must do—they must be most thoroughly
disinfected. This is best accomplished by spraying with

16 HOW I MADE $10,000 IN ONE YEAR

the mixture we use, described in the chapter devoted to
“Cleaning and Disinfecting.” Cover every inch of that
old building with this spray, inside and out, up and down
and sidewise, and when you are through and have done
a good job of it, go over it again. Five days later repeat
the dose, and then you can feel that you have taken every
human precaution against falling heir to trouble. It mat-
ters not whether there ever was a chicken within 10 miles
of the place, or if there has been nothing in the building
for aS many years, spray it as herein outlined.

The question of yards and yard space is a much mooted
one. Some people advocate shutting the birds into a
house or coop and giving them no yard space at all be-
cause yards are disease breeders. ‘This seems to the
writer to follow literally the biblical injunction “if thine
eye offend thee, pluck it out.” We use yards and believe
they are conducive to the health, well-being and happr
ness of the birds and we enjoy their seeming enjoyment
of that much freedom.

Wallowing in loose moist earth seems to be one of the
habits we cannot break biddie of, and there is grave ques-
tion if we could afford to do it were she willing. There
is this to be said, however—she is better off with no yard
at all than to be on soil baked as hard as a brick and dry
as a bone in summer and a mess of sticky mud in winter.

Ninety-nine out of 100 poultrymen, including so far as
we know, all the experiment stations, give their hens
more or less yard space and your safest course is to fol-
low this lead. You should allow enough space to each
house so that you can shut off a part of the yard at regular
intervals and freshen the ground by growing something
on it.

WITH 4200 HENS 17

As to the size of the yard, no set rule can be given.
If you were building a house 50 feet long, in which you
will keep 500 hens, your best plan would be to have one
yard in front of the house and one in back. On this
plan if each yard were 30 feet deep and the length of the
house, 50 feet, the hens would do nicely on it if the soil
was reasonably loose and open. If it suited the shape
of your land better, you might have a yard the length
of the house and say 100 feet deep, divided in the center.
Then again you might have the 30x50 yard in front of the
house and one of the same size at either end. You will
see later how our yards are arranged.

Planning the Plant

In selecting your land, avoid a hilly, steeply sloping lo-
cation if you can. You can lay out a plant on anything
short of straight up and down but it is a much harder
problem and the assistance of an expert, practical poul-
tryman is almost necessary to do it successfully. A long,
narrow tract is harder to lay out than one oblong or near-
ly square. If long enough and narrow enough you will
walk yourself to death unless you install a tram car or use
a motor car.

The number of hens that can be kept on a given space
is a question involving many problems and one that is
asked us almost as frequently as “what do you feed your
hens?” In attempting to answer it we must first of all
agree that we will give the hens yards; the writer can-
not hazard an opinion otherwise as he does not favor
the no-yard idea. On this basis it is reasonable to count
on 1000 hens to the acre with a minimum of 5 acres, or

18 HOW I MADE $10,000 IN ONE YEAR

about 800 to the acre with a minimum of 2% or 3 acres.
There are many successful poultry plants in operation
where this limit is exceeded, and it can be exceeded where
the soil is especially good or where it is planned to break
the operation every few years, sell off all the birds and
take a vacation for a year while the whole system of
yards is freshened by growing crops. This is the best
answer that can be given to the question.

When you have agreed on a deal for your land your
first move should be to have it surveyed by a licensed sur-
veyor. This is an ordinary business precaution. You
ought to know that the land you are looking at is the
land your deed will convey to you. Then have the sur-
veyor make a plat of it for you on a fairly large scale.
This you can use in making diagrams of the settings of
your various buildings and yards. Make a drawing of the
buildings and yards in different positions. If you do this
you will be able to lay out the plant to much better ad-
vantage than would be the case if you go at it in a ran-
dom sort of fashion, and your place will look all the bet-
ter for it. Then take a tape line and a lot of stakes and
stake the plant on the ground as you have drawn it on
your plat. Walk around from building to building as it
would be; consider the idea of having to go over the place
in your daily rounds, the distance you would have wo
carry the feed stuffs and eggs. A proper arrangement of
your plant at the start will save you many steps and a
lot of time.

Consider the drainage problem—you don’t want the
door of a building right in line with a possible flood dur-
ing the season of heavy rains; you want a high wall at

WITH 4200 HENS 19

that point. Mark it if you see a chance of this occurring
so that your builder will give you a high wall there.
Don’t set your feed house in a depression if you can help
it; if you can’t avoid it, be sure you have high concrete
walls all around, and have the cement man plaster the
concrete with top dressing after it has set. This will make
it waterproof; ordinary concrete is not.

If your land slopes heavily you must bear in mind that
your hens, and your chicks also, will help it in its sloping
movement; most of their lives when they are outdoors
will be spent in helping your land on its natural down-
hill movement. The floor of vour house on the down
hill side should be level with the ground if you are on a
modest slope; on a heavy slope you can better afford to
gerade the building site so as to have a level space of 5 or
6 feet in front of the building, even though this means
a very high wall in back to turn the rain-flow. The back
walls on some of our laying houses reach to within a foot
of the dropping-boards. There is no disadvantage in this.

If you can spare the space, leave a passageway of say
10 feet between the outer lines of your property and your
chicken yards and houses. This means double fences but
it also means that you have a margin of safety for birds
flying the fences of their yards and a margin of safety
also against prowling animals—both four-and-two-legged.
If your neighbor keeps hens there is less danger of the
flocks becoming mixed and lice or sickness communi-
cating. You can plant this passageway in green stuff
or garden truck and it will not be wasted, although it
will be a bit more troublesome to care for a long narrow
‘Strip of this kind. But it is well worth the effort.

WHV4 9553 HOVEWNL SHL NO (NOSVSS DNILINOW) MOOLS ONIGAZaYE

WITH 4200 HENS 21

If your land is bare, by all means plan on setting out
fruit or nut trees. The hens will fertilize them for you
and you will be wetting down the yards to keep the
ground moist and obviate dust colds, so they will need
little if any irrigation. We have never had nut trees in
our yards but are considering resetting our old trees with
walnuts. We have had apricots, peaches and prunes in
the yards and derived some revenue from them although
the birds eat and destroy a lot of the fruit; of the three
the prunes were harmed the least.

You must allow space for growing green stuff. In
the description of our plant and methods you will find this
matter treated at length and you can without doubt obtain
ideas there that can be adapted for your own place. Some
think we are wasteful of space, especially in our brooder
yards, but we make good use in one way or another of
almost all the space we have.

The Breed to Keep

Under present prevailing conditions you have no choice
in the matter of the breed of chickens to kéep on an egg
farm. It seems safe to say that at least 90 per cent of the
hens on the commercial egg farms throughout the coun-
try are White Leghorns. This being true you can ill
afford to keep anything else. When you are safely estab-
lished you will have hatching eggs to sell. If there is a
commercial hatchery in the section where you locate the
chances are all in favor of their wanting nothing but Leg-
horn eggs; and with the kind of birds you will have,
cared for as you will care for them, the hatchery will
want your eggs.

22 HOW I MADE $10,000 IN ONE YEAR’

Your chances of selling eggs of another breed are slight
in comparison. One can work up a sale for eggs from
other breeds, and it is often possible to get better prices
for them than for the Leghorns, but we are planning for
the surest end of the thing. Again, you may lean towara ~
the American breeds, such as the Rhode Island Reds, or
the good old Plymouth Rock. You cannot afford them.
They lay brown eggs and brown eggs are discounted in
price in the primary markets. If you have just a hand-
ful you can sell them to your neighbors or possibly to
the corner groceryman at regular prices, but you cannot
do that with the product of an egg farm. Other objec-
tions might be advanced but it is a waste of time to dis-
cuss the matter.

We have often been asked about. the advantages of
crossing breeds. The work of Prof. Dryden leaves no
room for doubt as to the advantages that may be derived
from a scientific crossing of breeds. But until you are
well along toward a comfortable financial surplus, derived
from your egg-farming activities (which means that you
will have had, a considerable and varied experience in
handling chickens), you had better leave experiments in
crossing breeds to the other fellow; and what has been
said as to the sale of hatching eggs applies to the cross-
breeding matter also.

Profits to Be Expected

An unqualified estimate of probable profits to be de-
rived from egg-farming cannot be made at the time this
is written (August, 1919). If the prices of eggs and of
poultry feed stuffs remain at the level that has prevailed

WITH 4200 HENS 23

during the present calendar year (1919) a flock of well-
bred and well-cared-for birds, averaging not less than half
and half of young pullets and yearling hens, should net
a profit of not less than $2.50 per bird.

If prices recede to the pre-war level, when the whole-
sale price of eggs (to the producer) dropped as low as
20c during the storage months of March, April and May;
and if the price of the feed stuffs also declines to the
pre-war level, when good feed-wheat could be bought in
large quantities at about $1.75 per hundred (practically
$1.00 per bushel) and first class yellow corn could be had
at $2.00 per hundred ($1.12 per bushel), (both prices be-
ing on basis of delivery in our barns in Southern Cali-
fornia), under these conditions the net profit per bird with
the same flock should be from $1.25 to $1.50. This is as
good an estimate as anyone can make under the condi-
tions prevailing. |

The figures are based on the writer’s own experience,
and the yield per bird, which of course governs the results,
is based on the average production he has been able to
secure, to-wit: from 140 to 150 eggs per pullet and from
110 to 120 eggs from yearling hens. If you can better
this production one year for another your profits will be
increased. |

The estimates are based on selling the product for tabie
use, at market quotations, which is the only safe basis
to count on. Sales of eggs for hatching purposes would
increase the profit per hen because of the premium re-
ceived over the market price; but as such sales are prob-
lematical, the careful man bases his calculation on the
assured price and considers any premium derived as
“velvet.”

\

24 HOW I MADE $10,000 IN ONE YEAR

When to Start

You may start either in the fall or in the spring. Fall-
hatched chicks stand a good chance of being the offspring
of good layers. They mature and come into laying
quicker than the spring hatched, and the broiler cock-
erels usually bring better prices in the market. ‘The dis-
advantage lies in the size of the eggs. Fall-hatched pul-
lets lay a very small egg at the start and the eggs are
under normal size for several months at least; this
means a discount on price. September hatched birds will
be laying in February andzas this is the beginning of the
flush-laying season and prices are always at the low ebh
at that time, the very small eggs bring a very low price.
These birds will go into a late moult, beginning usually
in September, and in the year following their first moult
they are more than likely to out-lay a spring hatched
pullet. ‘They will out-earn a spring hatched pullet in the
first calendar year (January 1 to December 31) as their
second moult will be late and they will be laying and
earning money during July, August, September and Oc-
tober, when the spring-hatched bird is in its lowest lay-
ing period. Our experience with them indicates that one
can well afford to carry a fall-hatched bird an extra sea-
son. If you have them hatched in September, 1919, they
will be laying in February, 1920; moulting in October,
November and December, 1920; laying heavily until
November, 1921 and you can afford to carry them until
September or October, 1922. All of this is conditioned
on your treating them properly, of course.

The fall-hatched chicks will cost you more than those —
hatched in the spring whether you buy eggs for hatching,
whether you use eggs from your own flock, or whether

WITH 4200 HENS 25

you buy baby chicks, because eggs are higher in price at
that time and for the further reason that not only will
the fertility of the eggs be lower but the hatchability of
the fertile eggs will also be lower. But this increased cost
will be offset to a large extent, if not entirely, by the fact
that the cockerels sold as broilers will bring a higher
price, and the pullets will mature and be self-sustaining
at an earlier date.

If you wish to start in the fall, September 15th to Octo-
ber Ist would be a good time to have your hatch come off.

By far the greater proportion of chicks are brought off
in March and April. These are generally considered the
ideal months. But if you will have several broods ot
chicks, and especially if this is your first experience, the
writer recommends that you have one brood in the month
of January, preferably about the middle of the month.
This will give you some experience before you enter
the heavier hatching season. The objection to January
hatched chicks is the fact that they will moult the fol-
lowing summer and fall. You can count on reaching
the low ebb of egg production from January hatched pul-
lets in October and November, the season of highest
prices. They will show an increase in eggs late in No-
vember; will gain fast in December, and by January will
do as well or better than the spring-hatched birds that
did not moult. And if you keep the accurate records you
will be advised to keep you will find that in spite of their
moult, your January hatched pullets have earned as much
above the cost of feed on January Ist as vour later hatched
birds that did not moult. This is because they mature
and become self-sustaining quicker than the later birds.

26 HOW I MADE $10,000 IN ONE YEAR

The same objection may be made to the January as to
the fall-hatched—their first eggs will be very small; but
the eggs gain in size faster than the fall-hatched, and in
addition these first small eggs will come into the market
at a better time, the time when the flush of the lay is
over and when prices are beginning to advance. The
cockerels from a January hatch are ideal for breeders.
We use nothing else. The broiler cockerels come in at
the very peak of the market—if they are properly handled.

Your heaviest broods of chicks should come off in
March. If you have two lots, March 10th and March
25th, would be good dates. If you have but one, let it be
the 15th. The pullets from this hatch will give you their
first eggs in August. They will be nearly if not quite
self-sustaining in September—by which is meant they
will pay for their feed—and will show a profit in Octo-
ber. Some of the quicker-maturing ones will go through
a light moult, but taking the flock as a whole the moult
will not amount to much. Some years whole flocks of
March pullets will go through a light moult in their
first fall, but this is exceptional, due, usually, to extreme
weather conditions. A mild spring and summer followed
by an extremely hot spell early in September is likely
to bring on a moult. Improper feeding or a sudden
change of rations in August will do the same thing.

Some years April hatched chicks will do as well and
even better than those hatched in March but we prefer
the latter month. We can offer no encouragement to the
idea of hatching chicks for commercial egg-farming in
May, June, July or August.

Whenever you start, whether in the fall or in the

WITH 4200 HENS af

spring, be absolutely certain that at least the brooder
house is ready a month ahead of time. You might just
as well have it ready a month ahead as one day. This is
more important if you are eritirely new to the work.
You must not be rushed and bothered when you have
your first brood of chicks on your hands. You want all
the time in the world. If you are of a nervous disposition
you will realize. the force of this advice about two hours
after your first chicks are turned loose in your brooder
house.

PART TWO

The discussion enlarged, to include the idea of using a
rented or leased place at the start.

Capital Required

So far as the chickens themselves are concerned it is
comparatively easy to tell you what capital you must
have. You can safely count on needing 85c to mature a
pullet—$850 for one thousand—if you start at the time
herein recommended. This is based on your selling the
cockerels as broilers as soon as they are ready for market
and applying the proceeds on your feed bills as you go
along. Itis based also on your starting with either hatch-
ing eggs or baby chicks of a good strain from some com-
mercial breeder or from some hatchery that specializes
on first-class chicks for egg-farming purposes. Such
chicks would cost you under present conditions from
approximately 20c in January to 12 or 13c in March or
April and perhaps 16c in September. Under pre-war con-
ditions they would have cost perhaps 15c, 10c and 12c
for the same months.

If you go in for higher grade stock at the start, chicks
from trap-nested flocks or from birds bred for show pur-
poses as well as for utility, there is no telling what the
chicks would cost you; any estimate made would be a
mere guess. Let us say you pay 30c for the chicks in
January. The writer’s “guess” as to the cost of raising
the pullets then would be $1.10, an increase of 25c. The
increase 1s seemingly out of proportion but it is due to
the fact that the broiler cockerels from the higher priced —

WITH 4200 HENS 29

chicks bring you no more than those from the cheaper
ones, and the pullet you raise must stand the extra cost
of the cockerel you sell. Furthermore, the pullet raised
must also stand the extra cost on the chicks that die off.
This is the best estimate that can be given you for such
a circumstance.

The entire estimate is based on your raising what would
be considered a fair percentage of your chicks. You may
do better and it is easily possible to do far worse; but
you ought to do at least as well as this.

To carry the subject of capital required farther than
this we must use a concrete illustration. Let us say, for
instance, that you want to start on the basis of living ex-
penses of $1,000 to $1,200 a year; that you want to keep
enough hens to yield you that much. ‘The safe and con-
servative thing to do is to base your estimates on the
profits that were to be expected in pre-war times which,
you will recall, we set down at from $1.25 to $1.50 per
hen. We all hope never to get back to that level, ot
course. If we do not, then we will be better off than our
illustrated basis; we will have more than our $1,000 to
$1,200. Better that than to be disappointed. Let us say
also that you are renting or will rent (or lease) the place
to be used at the start. Let us say furthermore that you
want to get started in March. Here then is what you
must provide for:

You must take possession of the place early in Jan-
uary, say January lst; this gives you time to clean up,
put the brooder house in shape, plant the brooder yard
(to freshen the ground), and to get some green stuff
started.

30 HOW I MADE $10,000 IN ONE YEAR

Your pullets should be self-sustaining by October Ist
and should give you enough surplus in October to pay
your rent and living expenses. We must bridge the gap
between January and October.

Say your rent is $30.00 per month—you will need
$270.00 for rent from January to October.

You want from $1,000 to $1,200 per year to live on—
for nine months this would be let us say $900.

We have tried to be conservative thus far, let us con-
tinue on that plan and count on 1,000 pullets; for that
number you should have $850.00.

You will need some tools and appliances—$50.00 prop-
erly spent will provide the things absolutely needed at
the start.

This gives us a total requirement of $2,070.

There may be some special requirements. You may
have to spend some money re-arranging, rebuilding or
renovating the buildings on the place. We cannot esti-
mate this—you will have to do that for yourself or have
a carpenter do it for you. You will need troughs and
chick fountains, later you will need larger sizes of same
for the developing birds, and finally of a size suitable
for matured birds. We will count on $80 for these
items. This gives us a grand total then of $2,150.

But we cannot quite afford to stop at this point. We
are now on our feet; we have an income sufficient to take
care of us but if we stop there we get into trouble. Per-
haps half of the failures are due to that premature stop.
We must bear in mind that these pullets—that began
laying in August and laid heavily enough in October to
pay not only their feed but our rent and living expenses

WITH 4200 HENS 31

beside—will reach the end of their string, so to speak.
When we get along to August and September, nearly a
year later, our biddies will go back on us; they will be
feeling the effects of the moult. And in October and No-
vember we are exceedingly likely to be face to face with
the proposition of putting them on half rations, to stand
off the landlord, and either to quit eating our own meals
or else to stand off the butcher, the baker and candlestick
maker. :

We may have taken the best end of it in our estimates
—quite likely we really have stored up a surplus; but
we are being cautious about the thing and not counting
on the best possible results. So we must prepare for
this season of shortage. We do it by repeating what we
did last March. We take on another lot of baby chicks,
part of them perhaps in January, the balance in March.
For this we need another $850.00, and we should have it
in sight before we get started.

This gives us then a grand total of about $3,000. And
this is the sum the writer would tell you you should
have in sight if you want to go into the business on the
basis outlined. You do not need it all at once; the last
$850 will not be needed until about a year after the
start is made, and you may not need all of it at that, but
you should know where it can be had if you do need it.

And now we come to the parting of the ways: Are you
content to make just your living expenses and rent, or do
you want to forge ahead?

If you are content to make your living and stop at that
your best plan would be to sell off the first-raised pullets
at the end of their first laying season, probably in Sep-

32 HOW I MADE $10,000 IN ONE YEAR

tember or October. Your second pullets will take their
place. You can easily sell them as layers if you are in
a poultry-keeping district and you should get at least
$1.00 each for them. In this way you will get back a
large part if not all of the last $850 you needed, the cost
of the second year’s pullets. You might think that at
$1.00 each you would get it all back and more, too, but
you will have lost some of them—we all lose hens.

Another plan would be to raise six or seven hundred
pullets the second year, reducing your needed capital by
the difference, and carry over three or four hundred of
the first pullets through a second laying season, selling
the remainder. Notice particularly that you are advised
to raise and carry more pullets on this plan than yearling
hens. This is important. You must not lose sight, even
for a moment, of the fact that you will be faced with
three or four “lean’”’ months in the fall of your second year
when your first pullets are moulting, and you must cover
those months by the earnings of newly-raised pullets. To
do this you must have more new layers than old moulters.
If you make the total flock 1,000 birds on this plan you
are taking up what leeway you had between the prob-
able earnings of 1,000 pullets and the $1,000 to $1,200 you
thought you wanted to clear, and you will make less net
money the second year than you did the first. You can
help overcome this difference by mating the carry-over
birds during your second spring and using your own eggs
for hatching, also selling the surplus eggs for hatching
purposes.

In this way you should clear as much the second year
as the first—if you find the market for the surplus hatch-

WITH 4200 HENS 33

ing eggs. Look into the possibility of doing this before
deciding which course to pursue. The first course, (sell-
ing off the entire first flock), 1s the surest way.

If you want to forge ahead, carry over all of the first
year’s pullets that are worth keeping—you will learn
later how we cull them,—mate them all and provide all
of your own hatching eggs. Even though you do not
find an assured market for your surplus hatching eggs,
you will save enough on your own chicks to make it
worth while to mate these birds.

Following this second plan you will have 1,000 pullets
and perhaps 800 yearling hens the second year and then
you are on a fair road to success and independence. You
will need no more outside capital; you will make enough
surplus profit to enable you to build up as large a flock
as you may be ambitious enough to strive for and if you
follow in the writer’s footsteps you will soon be buying
a place of your own and putting up the kind of a plant
you have meantime come to dream of as the ideal plant
for an egg farm. ©

Starting Small While Working Elsewhere

The possibility of getting a start in the work while
engaged in other work is a question concerning which we
have had many inquiries. It is a pleasure to say this is
entirely feasible and possible if you have the right kind
of a wife.

The means and method can best be illustrated by
the case of a man who was employed on our place.
He left us to take a better paying job as gardener on x
large estate. He lived on a city lot. Nearby was a
vacant tract of several acres, which he rented or leased
by the year. He built a brooder house on his own lot,

34 HOW I MADE $10,000 IN ONE YEAR

where it would be close at hand, large enough to brood
1,200 chicks. He had money enough to provide house-
room for and to raise 500 pullets. We advised him to
brood one lot in January and another in March, and to —
try for 500 pullets in each lot, with the idea of selling —
half of each lot when they were about three months old.
It is quite as easy to brood 1,200 chicks as 600; the work
and expense for fuel is no greater; and there is no trouble
in disposing of three months’ old pullets at a good price.

He followed this plan, and did so well with the January
lot both as to the number he raised and the price he ob-
tained for them that he was able to retain the March
hatch entirely, giving him 750 pullets instead of the 500
he thought was the maximum he could finance. He did
the heavy part of the work mornings and evenings, his
wife caring for the chicks during the day. His laying
houses, following ours in plan, he built in separate sec-
tions, each 16x16 feet. He is using the dirt floor. When
he gets ready to move to a larger place of his own he can
load these houses on low-slung moving trucks, set them
where he wants them, fit them together, and he will have
his long, continuous laying-house. He did all of his
building work alone and unaided, putting in his time after
he came home from his regular work. This is going after
it strenuously, but it is the spirit that succeeds.

There has been considerable discussion in our home as
to who deserves the greater credit for his success—the
man or his wife. (She was caring for three young chil-
‘dren at the time). I give the man the greater credit—
he picked his wife. But this case shows what can be
done by people of the right kind.

WITH 42u0 HENS 35

How to Start.

The easiest way to get started, so far as the birds are
concerned, would be to buy pullets nearly or quite ma-
tured. Many people base their plans on such a scheme.

From a basic standpoint the idea is wrong and if you
expect to succeed you had better get rid of the notion at
the very start. There is only one secret of success in the
work—the handling and raising of baby chicks, and unless
you learn to do this you will fail. This is because of the
uncertainty of being able to buy pullets of the kind you
must have, birds that were hatched at the right time, the
offspring of the right kind of stock, and a sufficient num-
ber of them. There may be places where you can buy
pullets to fill this bill, at prices you can afford to pay,
but if so the writer is not aware of it. To put it still
plainer, you must be able to place an order for say 1,000
pullets, hatched March Ist to 30th, out of the right kind
of stock, at a price not to exceed $1.50, for delivery about
August 15th. At the price named you would be paying
$650.00 more for the birds than the estimate made as to
the cost of raising them yourself.

You can buy pullets—and so-called pullets; and at
times you can pick up a few, even a few dozen, here
and there that are worth buying. People who raised
them are moving away or have grown tired of putting
money into them without returns, or sickness disrupts
the plan that caused them to be raised. At times some
would-be egg-farmer becomes disgusted or his money
gives out, and you might pick up several hundred. Under
such circumstances you can buy them for a dollar and
even less. Again, you can buy them of dealers. In the

36 HOW I MADE $10,000 IN ONE YEAR

latter case the chances are ten to one that you are buy-
ing someone’s culls, or what he thinks are culls; and
there is an even chance that you are buying some early
moulting hens, especially if you get them along in Novem-
ber or December.

All of this is entirely too haphazard for you may find,
when October Ist arrives, that instead of replacing your
old hens with 1,000 pullets you have instead 200 or 300
birds of more or less uncertain age and of still more
uncertain pedigree, and your year is wasted, which means
that you will have to look to other sources for your in-
come and livelihood.

The writer has known of one or two instances where
people have bought as many as several hundred very
good pullets that he himself would have bought had the
chance offered; and picking up a dozen birds that would
make. a wonderful showing is not unusual, but relying
on such chances has no place in commercial egg-farming.

You must learn the trick of caring for baby chicks.
Whether you start with hatching eggs-or with baby

chicks from some poultryman or from a commercial

hatchery is immaterial so far as this phase of the matter
is concerned. But if you do not care to undertake the
drudgery and the close confinement involved in prop-
erly brooding and handling baby chicks you had better
not enter commercial egg-farming.

a

PART THREE

A description of The Tumbach Egg Farm from which
ideas may be obtained as to the laying-out of a plant;
and of the buildings used, from which ideas may be
had as to buildings that have been proven practicable
and conducive to success in Southern California.

_ The Plant

The Tumbach Egg Farm is laid out on a 5-acre tract
just outside the city limits of Pasadena and about 16
miles from the business center of Los Angeles. The loca-
tion means not only quick communication with one of
the greatest markets west of the Mississippi River, but
proximity ‘to city life with its conveniences and pleasures,
and minus ‘the annoyances of city restrictions. In reply
to many inquiries the writer admits that this is high
priced land for an egg farm. We figure we paid $1,000
per acre for the privilege of living in this particular local-
ity and that $500 per acre is the value from the stand-
point of the business we are engaged in. (To be fair to
the biddies let it be said they have paid the whole cost).

Our experimental work was done on a leased place,
this property being bought 3% years ago. The plant,
both as to location of the buildings and as to their type
and character, is the result of year by year evolution on
the leased place, in the course of which most of the suc-
cessful egg farms in this section of the State were visited.
Ideas were obtained from generous poultrymen whose
courtesy the writer has already acknowledged and hereby
acknowledges again. The land was surveyed ana

(SN Y¥O4 LING

WITH 4200 HENS 39

platted and the location of the various buildings was the
subject of study extending over a period of months.

The soil is very light and sandy and the whole place
is covered with old peach and prune trees. Reference
to the plat will show how the grounds are laid out and
the relative location of buildings and yards.

Nearly an acre is given over to the residence and
family orchard, this being on the best part of the land—
the southeast corner. The long frontage on the boule-
vard is planted to alfalfa, to a depth of from 125 to 175
feet. This not only keeps the chickens and their equip-
ment from becoming an eye sore to the neighborhood,
(as they might be to some if they were directly on this
much-traveled thoroughfare), but in addition the long
stretch of alfalfa is not only very useful and necessary,
but is also, for the greater part of the year, an attractive
sight. aah

The brooder houses and yards, you will see, are located
nearest the residence. This is for quick accessibility at
night if necessary. The cockerel house is just beyond the
brooder houses.

The main feed-house is located almost in the center of
the plant. To have it so located means giving up a cer-
tain amount of ground for a driveway to it; better that,
better we think to make that much of an investment at
the outset than to be spending hours of time and a wortd
of labor, day after day, dragging feed stuff the further
distance it would have to be carried if the feed were
stored at one end of the plant. In one end of the feed
house is the tool-room and place for the greens-cutter
with its driving motor.

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42 HOW I MADE $10,000 IN ONE YEAR

The egg-room, directly across from the feed house, is
also centrally located. The trucks, in which the eggs are
taken to market, drive right up to it. The car-shed next
to it is for a little delivery car used on odd errands. The
grain-sprouting shed with a little storage place for the
grain which is to be sprouted are temporary arrange-
ments. Eventually they will be made part of the egg-
room building.

The manure-box shown is used for dumping and meas-
uring the manure as it is brought from the dropping
boards. The manure is carted away by the purchaser im-
mediately after each cleaning.

On either side of the main feed house is a 150-foot lay-
ing house with yards the length of the house and 100 feet
deep. You will notice the yard gates open toward the
feed house. Behind these two laying houses is a 12 foot
passageway, and beyond the passageway are two more
150 foot yards with a 150 foot laying house at the upper
end of each. Between the two upper yards is a 12 foot
passageway and between the two upper houses is a 12-
foot mash-storage shed. The upper yards have gates
both near the house, opening into the passageway, and
in the lower end, opening toward the main feed house.

The point about the arrangement is this: The grain
feed is stored in the main feed house. ‘The feed is carried
into the lower yards through the side gates, the greatest
carry being 150 feet either way; and for the upper yards
it is carried through the lower gates, the furthest carry,

when the yards are subdivided, being about 200 feet.

When all four houses are filled two men can easily feed
the whole flock of 6,000 to 6,500 birds in 15 minutes. The

WITH 4200 HENS 43

mash for the two lower houses is laid down in the main
feed house, and for the upper houses the delivery trucks
back up the passageway and lay the mash down in the
upper shed. One hundred and fifty feet either way is
the extreme carry.

An old shed is used for storing the feed for the young
chicks, located just across the main road from the
brooder houses.

The hospital, observation and cull houses are located
behind the cockerel house and near the main feed house.

After more than three years of day by day use of this
plant the writer can truthfully say that if he had it all to
do over again he would not make a single change in the
laying-out of the plant or the location of the several build-
ings.

The Buildings
Brooder Houses

The brooder houses, three at present with space alloted
for a fourth, are each 14x24 feet. These buildings are not
uniform and are of crude design and construction, having
been used on the old plant. (See illustration page 8&4.)
A gable roof is used. The sides are 5 feet high and the
peak of the gable is 8% feet high. The sills are laid ona
concrete foundation, in which two ventilators are set to
allow. a circulation of air under the floor. A tongue-ana-
groove flooring is used, driven up tight and top-nailed to
keep it so. We have different arrangements of windows
in each house. The most satisfactory is three 24x36
inch single light sash in the south side of the building,
and two 9x14 inch in the north side. The south lights are
flush with the plate at the top and the bottom rests on a

44 HOW I MADE $10,000 IN ONE YEAR

girth set to receive it. These windows open from the
top. Hinges can be used on the bottom but we nail a
very light strip along the bottom, close against the frame,
which keeps it from working out; this scheme has the ad-
vantage that the windows can be taken out entirely if
desired. A strip of light muslin is tacked to each side ot
the window, fastened to the wall, close up at the bottom,
wider at the top; this serves not only to hold the window
in place when it is opened but also to keep direct drafts
from striking down on the chicks. The little windows in
the back wall are set close to the ends of the house up -
near the plate, and are nailed in place. The main purpose
of these little windows is to help the chicks find the
roosts. ‘They seem to take more readily to the roost side
of the house if there is even a little light there.

~A muslin curtain is hung over each of the front win-
dows large enough to cover the glass completely. It is
weighted at the bottom by nailing it between two laths,
the laths extending several inches on each end. Nails are
driven on each side of the window and a wire loop on the
end of the lath allows the curtains to be rolled and
hung up.

Our most satisfactory brooder house is lined with
tongue and groove lumber to a height of three feet. The
other houses have a twelve inch board resting edgewise
on the flooring, nailed to the studding or to false studs
inserted, with a quarter round moulding in the corner;
above this a lining of tar paper extends to the plate. We
do not use ceiling under the roof. A low ceiling may
save fuel, but it makes the room too stuffy.

The door is placed in either end, according to conveni-

WITH 4200 HENS 45

ence. But it should not be placed in the center under the
gable, but to the south side, so as not to interfere with
the roosts.

The opening into the yards 1s placed in the front wall
near one end, across the room from the main entrance.
It is 12 inches high and 24 inches long. A slide 1s prefer-
able.

The roosts are made of %x2-inch stuff running length-
wise of the house, preferably in two or three sections, set
4 inches apart on cross bars of 1x3-inch. They are
hinged with T hinges, the flange of the hinge fastening
either to the tongue and groove lining or to the 12-inch.
board. They are set 8 inches high. Made in this way
the roost can be hung against the wall until needed.

Ventilation is provided by means of two airshafts, 10x
24 inches, made absolutely airtight. The inlet shaft, 24
inches high, is set to one side of the door, a hole being
cut in the floor to fit it. A slide cover fits over the top,
arranged to slide away from the door. This makes it
- possible to control the amount of air admitted. A screen
of l-inch netting is tacked across the shaft just below the
slide.

The outlet shaft is set in the other end of the building,
one edge of it resting against the ridge board. It is fas-
tened against the outer wall and hangs 18 inches above
the floor, extending through the roof to a height of 2 feet
above the peak of the gable. A little gable covering on
top keeps out the rain, the sides being left open for the air
passage. These side openings are covered with 1-inch
mesh wire. (We once found one of our many family cats
sleeping warm and comfortable nine feet below the gable

46 HOW I MADE $10,000 IN ONE YEAR

opening of the outlet shaft on the lower slide.) The out-
flow of air is controlled by two slides. The lower one is
at the very bottom of the shaft, arranged to slide away
from the direction of the roosts. The upper one, 9x18
inches, is in the face of the shaft 6 feet above the floor.
This upper air slide, a valuable idea, was obtained from
the Kresky Brooder Stove literature. The use of it will
be learned in the discussion of brooding.

We use the stove method of brooding. From the de-
scription given it will be seen that we do not use the two-
room, or cooling-room, plan.

An automatic alarm system is in use in the brooder
houses. This consists of a thermostatic plate with two
points of contact, adjustable in both directions, wired to
a bell (and batteries) located in the sleeping porch of the
residence The thermostat is hung about 12 inches above
the floor, 3 feet from the stove and facing the stove. Prop-
erly adjusted, and this can be done only by considerable
patient experimenting, this alarm system is well worth
its cost both in money and in the time spent on it. The
best of us are liable to overlook the fuel tank some mean,
fretful day; or a stove may go wrong even with a full
fuel tank ; or the needle valve in the feed line may stick-—
we know from experience that the alarm system is val-
uable.

We have been asked why we build our brooder houses
in separate units instead of having one long building,
which would save walls, fuel and footsteps. The latter
idea was considered and discarded because we do not care
to risk all the eggs in one basket—the danger of fire is
present wherever a stove is used, especially so when oil

—_— — >

WITH 4200 HENS 47

is the fuel and the floor is covered with straw. The
burner must be cleaned regularly, and especially with
very young chicks one cannot let the flame die out en-
tirely; it would take too long to start it up again and
bring the temperature back. The tiniest splash of burn-
ing oil on the bed of warm straw would spell the doom of
the house and all in it; and we think we have a chance
to save the other houses when there is a reasonable space
between. Ours are set from 15 to 20 feet apart.

-The brooder yards are each 40-50 feet wide and 90 feet
long, subdivided into three sections. The first section 1s
18x24 feet. It is surrounded by a 2-foot fence. (See il-
lustration page 84.) An 8-inch board is used at the bot-
tom and a 3-inch strip at the top. One-inch mesh netting
covers the intervening space. A panel made of 12-inch
boards is kept in the yards and on windy days, also when
the chicks are first turned out, the panels are fastened
into place, forming a 2-foot windbreak and shelter all
around this first yard. A sloping 2-foot roof extends in-
ward from this fence, about 30 inches high on the inner
edge, forming shade in hot weather and protection dur-
ing light rains when the chicks may be outdoors.

Running water is provided in this first yard, under the
roof, a shallow crock and a float valve being used.

The second division of the yard is about 20x50 feet. This
yard is enclosed by a fence with an 18-inch strip of 1%-
inch mesh netting at the bottom and 6 feet of 2-inch mesn
netting above it, the base board being 10 inches wide.
There is quite a saving in this form of fence construction.
Twelve-inch lumber costs more in proportion than 10-
inch; and under present market conditions the difference

48 HOW I MADE $10,000 IN ONE YEAR

in price between 114 and 2-inch poultry netting is consid-
erable. Where the netting joins it can be permanently
fastened together by twisting it with a light nail.

The third division of the yard, about 50x50 feet, is
fenced with 2-inch mesh netting. Octagonal netting is
preferable to the square kind that has graduated open-
ings, for fencing growing chicks. The little chaps easily
learn the trick of climbing up the square meshes until
they reach an opening large enough to let them through.

Our brooder yards are larger than common and it has
been suggested that this is a waste of land. We think it
a most beneficial practice to have a succession of yards
in growing green stuff into which the chicks can be turned
as they develop. In addition, we use the brooder yards
for growing green stuff (barley) for use during the fall
and winter months when alfalfa is not available. If we -
had no such space available we should have to allow
more space elsewhere; and under this plan we have the
benefit of the fertilizer already in place.

The Cockerel House

The cockerel house is 9x50 feet, shed roof, 5 feet high
in back and 7 feet in front. The upper 30 inches of the
front 1s open, covered with 1'%-inch wire netting, pro-
tected with a canvas awning. The awning is made in
10-foot sections, 1x2 stuff being used for the frame. The
canvas is fastened to the frame with broad-headed roofing
nails. The awning is fastened to the plate with three
5-inch strap hinges; the end of the hinge projecting be-
yond the plate is bent back against the plate on the in-
side, which makes it more rigid. Two quartering braces

WITH 4200 HENS 49

are used on the lower end of the frame, made of %x3-
inch redwood. This awning can be used to close the
house fairly tight when the cockerels are first taken out
of the brooder houses; later it is kept half open by prop-
ping it.

The house is divided into five compartments, each
9x10 feet. A slide door, 12x18 inches, opens from each
compartment into the yards; and 3x6-foot doors, hinged
toward the back wall, afford passage into the house and
from one compartment to another. We find this arrange-
ment preferable to having large doors opening directly
into each yard from the several compartments. The out-
side door is outside the yard—-this avoids opening a gate
for entrance to the house. The roosts are of 1x2-inch
stuff set 8 inches apart, 12 inches above the floor. These
roosts are not hinged. They are nailed to 3 cross pieces
under which blocks of 2x3-inch stuff are spiked. In clean-
ing the house the roosts are tilted back against the wall.

The yards are each 10x16 feet with a gate in the end
of each section. A 10-inch base board is used, above
which is an 18-inch strip of 1%-inch wire netting and
above this is a 6-foot strip of 2-inch netting. Beyond the
sectional yards is a larger yard, about 50x50 feet, for use
when cockerels for breeding purposes are matured in the
cockerel house. On this yard 6-foot netting of 2-inch
mesh is used. Running water is had in each sectional
yard, a 4-inch crock being used.

The frame of the house rests on a concrete wall 6
inches high. The floor is of tongue and groove stuff,
driven up tight and topnailed. The flooring runs cross-
wise of the house, making it easier to clean.

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WHV4 D993 HOVEWNL SHL NO (GSAOWSY SONINMV) 3SNOH DNIAVT LOOS-00E 40 M3FIA

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WITH 4200 HENS 51

Laying Houses

The laying houses are an adaptation of the Corning
house, 16x150 feet, shed roof, 6 feet high in back, 8 feet
5 inches in front. A concrete wall is used on the back
and on both ends, but not in front. The height of it is
governed by the slope of the land as suggested in the
chapter devoted to “Planning the Plant.” The floor is of
3-inch concrete, medium rough finish, with a slope of 2
inches toward the front. The reason for this slope and
also for the absence of a wall in front is that the house
can be washed out with a hose when it is desired to
cleanse it thoroughly. The front sill is raised 1 inch
-above the concrete floor by inserting blocks under the
sill where the studs strike. One-half by 8-inch bolts are
Set in the concrete both in the back wall and in the front
edge of the floor where the sill will rest. This fastens
the structure firmly in place. We use 2x3-inch stuff for
the sills, girth, plates, studs, and drop-board Joist, and
2x6 inches for the rafters which are 18 feet long with a
6-inch eave in front and 12-inch in back. The wall
sheathing may be tongue and groove stuff or board and
batten, whichever is the cheapest. But sound lumber
should be used to avoid cracks. The girth (for the back
wall) is set 30 inches above the concrete floor, regardless
of where the sill strikes. This is done so that it may be
used for the rear joist of the drop board.

A ventilator is set in the center of each 16 and 18-foot
compartment, in the back wall, under the dropboards.
‘They are 10x24 inches, covered with 2-inch netting, and
should have a slide or hinged door. These ventilators
are opened when the first hot weather comes on and re-

Se HOW I MADE $10,000 IN ONE YEAR

main open until late in the fall. Should a cool spell set
in in the meantime they are closed temporarily.

The dropboard is 7 feet wide, of tongue and groove
stuff, driven up tight and nailed side and top. Two joists
are used in addition to the rear girth. The front joist is —
set back 3 inches so that a wheelbarrow can be run under
the dropboard at cleaning time. The top of the joists are
kept at 30 inches above the floor level, giving the droap-
board the same slope as the floor. ‘The dropboard is put
on crosswise of the building, in 7-foot lengths, for ease
in cleaning. A moulding, made of Ixl-inch stuff cut
diagonal, is nailed in the corner where the dropboard and
the rear wall meet; this prevents accumulation of drop--
pings in the corner.

Six roosts are used, running lengthwise of the building.
They are made of 2x2-inch stuff, toe-nailed on two sides
to 2x3-6 crossbars, all of it dressed on four sides with
the upper edge of the roosts proper rounded at the mill.
The first roost is set 8 inches from the rear wall, the bal- |
ance at 13 and 12-inch intervals. Four crossbars are used |
in each section and the roosts are made in 8 and 9-foot
lengths, according to the length of the section. ‘The
roosts are hinged to the rear wall with 6-inch strap —
hinges ; the top is 8 inches above the dropboard. A block
2x3 inches, set under each crossbar 12 inches from the ©
forward end, forms the front support. |

The house is divided into three compartments of 50 |
feet each. A description of one compartment will serve |
for the entire house: Each compartment is divided into
three sections, two of 16 feet and one of 18 feet. The |

compartment partitions extend across the whole house;

WITH 4200 HENS a0

the section partitions are 9 feet wide, extending 2 feet
beyond the width of the dropboards. All partitions are
made of tongue and groove stuff, nailed both side and
top. The sills are of 2x3-16, extending from the rear
wall to the front sill. The rafters are used for plates. A
2x3-inch girth is set at center between the rafter and sill,
sloping with the raiter.

The compartment doors as well as the outside doors,
one in each end of the building, are 42x/2 inches.
The compartment doors are hinged toward the front—
they swing toward the nests. This is to avoid hens fly-
ing from the nests through the door when it is opened
suddenly. The compartment doors are 6 inches short of
the floor and a 6-inch board, set in grooves, fills the space.
This obviates the doors being blocked by litter; the pur-
pose of setting the board in grooves is to enable its being
removed when the wheelbarrow or cart is taken through
at cleaning time.

All doors and gates on the place are equipped with
Conrad Gate Latches, one of the greatest conveniences
we have on the place.

The front of the house involves a tedious description
and if that description is given in crude terms it is be-
cause it is intended for non-technical understanding.

We already have the 2x3 sill resting on 1l-inch blocks,
bolted to the concrete. The studs are 8 feet long. They
Mee Set ai intervals of 4, 8, 12, 16, 20, 22, 26, 2%, 32, 36,
40, 44, 48 and 50 teet. ‘Lhe purpose of the odd setting
is to make place tor the trame ot the water shed which
will be described later and of the partition: already de-
scribed. ‘he 2x3-inch plate gives us the total height of

WITH 4200 HENS Eb,

8 feet 5 inches. A 1x6-inch board 1s nailed on the out-
side of the studs, flush with the bottom of the sill. This
leaves the l-inch opening below the sill clear. A lath is
tacked on the inside of the sill to cover this opening.
The 1x6 is notched at each stud deep enough and wide
enough to insert a piece of 1x3 crosswise of the stud, set
on edge. This crosspiece is 29 inches long. It extends
6 inches inside the house (3 inches past the stud), and is
nailed flat against the stud. It must be set level. The
trough rests on these crossbars, on the outside of the
house. A piece of 1x8 follows, for the trough step. This
is laid flat along the projecting end of the crossbars,
inside the house, and is notched to pass the studs, the
notches being made deep enough so that the board will
extend 2 inches beyond the studs, outside the house. It
is nailed to the crossbars and also into the top of the 1x6
below it. The reason for extending it outside the house is
to avoid dirt and refuse, which lodges on the trough
cover, falling into the trough when the cover is tilted.
A 15-inch opening is left above the 1x8 trough step for
the trough. ‘wo pieces of 1x6, or one 1x12, is next nailed
to the studs. Above these an opening of 3 inches is leit.
This is to allow free play for the trough cover. Above
this opening a weather strip is used. ‘his is made of a
2x6, preferably pine, bevelled on both edges to a depth
of 2 inches, leaving it 4 inches wide on each side. The
upper bevel turns the rain and the lower allows the
trough cover to slip under it, making the cover rain prooi.
ihe reason for using pine for this strip is to make a secure
fastening for the hinges ot the cover—screws will not
hoid ior any length ot time in redwood, especially it the >

56 HOW I MADE $10,000 IN ONE YEAR

hinge is in constant use. Above the weather strip either
siding or tongue and groove stuff may be used. If siding
is used it will be necessary to add a short false stud be-
tween each stud; if tongue and groove stuff, a top and
bottom girth must be run from stud to stud. We have
both in use. We use 1x3 for the girths, and also for the
false studs. The upper 30 inches is left open and is cov-
ered with 2-inch mesh netting. An awning is used over
this opening, the details of which may be found in the
description of the cockerel house. The awning is held
open at all times, excepting when young pullets are first
put in the laying house, by means of a wire nailed to the
end of the rafter, wrapped ’round a nail driven into the
lower edge of the awning frame, and pulled tight to a
nail driven into a stud above the trough cover. Three
wires are used on each awning. This holds it absolutely
rigid.

The rafters, of 2x6-18, are set at 4-foot intervals with
an extra one over the 50-foot stud, and are notched front
and back. The cantboard is of 1x6—preferably of red-
wood. To make the joint absolutely tight we put in the
cantboards when the rafters are set. The first rafter is
nailed in place. The cantboard is cut to proper length
and is set on top’ of the plate, flush with the inside of it.
(This avoids a dust-box on top the plate.) The next
rafter is set against it and spike-toe-nailed into the plate,
against the cantboard. When a section is completed the
projection of the cantboard is planed smooth with the
rafters and the roof sheathing is nailed to it.

The roof sheathing is of 1x6; we prefer 12 and 16-foot
~lengths, to which there is no waste if the rafters are set

WITH 4200 HENS 37

as directed. Two or 3-ply composition roofing is used
with a layer of tarred felt under the roofing to protect it
against the spraying materials. Both the felt and the
roofing is run lengthwise of the building. A 1x6 cornice
board is run along the front edge of the rafters.

Water Shed

The water shed is 5x8 feet, extending outward from
the main building between studs at 20-28 feet. The floor
is of concrete and two bolts are set in the outer edge oi
the concrete 18 inches from each outer end to make the
front rigid; 2x3 sills are used, 1x3 girths, and three 2x3-6
rafters, the rafters being used for the side plates. A piece
of 1x3-8 is nailed crosswise of studs 20-28 to support the:
upper end of the rafters. Four studs, 2x3-6 are used in
front, set at 0, 2, 6 and 8 feet, capped with a 2x3-8 plate
on which the lower end of the rafters rests. —wo doors
are swung between studs 2-6, opening outward, an old
fashioned bar and socket barn door fastener being used on
the outside to hold the doors closed. The entire front
of the water shed, doors and all, is but 5 feet high, leav-
ing an opening of 12 inches, to admit light and air, which
is covered with 2-inch mesh netting. To catch the wire,
the outer boards on each of the doors is left 6 feet
long. ‘Iwo sliding doors, 18x24 inches are used in the
sides of the shed close to the front edge. The purpose of
these smaller openings is to allow the front doors to be
kept closed during hot weather, shading the water pots.
The sheathing may be either of siding or ot tongue and
groove stuff.

No door is used between the water shed and the main
building, but a piece of 1x8 is nailed flat against the studs,

58 HOW I MADE $10,000 IN, ONE YEAR

flush with the studs at the bottom, to keep the litter out
of the water shed. Two water pots are used in each water
shed, placed near the front edge. The supply pipe runs
along the front of the house and a connection is run into
the water shed, dividing at the door and one branch run-
ning to each side of the shed. We use the “Float Boy”
water valves, which are self-acting.

Mash Troughs

The mash troughs extend from each end of the build-
ing to the water shed and are made in four sections, two
of 10 feet each on one side of the water shed and one oi
10 and one of 12 feet on the other. A 12-inch board is
‘used for the bottom. A piece of 1%4x7 is nailed on each
side, giving a depth of 6 inches inside the trough. The
opening is 3% inches. Above this a strip of %x3 is
used. ‘The crossbars, one at each end and one in the
center, are made of l-inch stuff, 2 feet long, sloping
from the upper edge of the top bar to the top. The end
cross bars should be nailed to the side of the base board—
not on top of it. This makes it rain proof.

This trough is 13 inches wide if the specifications are
followed. It is set on the 1x3 cross bars and when it is
in place a 1x8 board is set close against it, nailed to the
cross bars, and forms the outside step. The cover is made
of 44-inch stuff, 24 inches wide, nailed to five cleats of
lx3-2. ‘Lhe upper end of the cleats are bevelled to allow
the cover to fit snugly against the studs. One-ply com-
position roofing is used over the cover, fastened to place
with laths nailed down into each cleat. ‘Lhree 6-inch
strap hinges are used on each section ot cover, fastened
with 1!44-inch screws. The hinges are set 1 inch from

WITH 4200 HENS 59

the upper edge of the cover, to allow the cover to slide
into place under the weather strip. If the weather strip
has been correctly set the cover will rest on the slope of

the trough sides and will open and close readily. To hold

the cover open while filling the trough a wire is nailed to
the stud nearest a cover cleat, with a loop on the end of it
A nail is driven into the side of the cleat (inside the cover)
and the wire loop is slipped over it. (See page 120.)

Before the troughs are set in place the nest brackets
are put on. These brackets hold the trough cross bars
rigid. One is used at each stud. They are made of 1x6
redwood. The horizontal bar is 17 inches long and the
top of it is 30 inches above the concrete floor. It must be
set level. The support extends from the outer upper edge
of the horizontal bar slanting downward to the stud and
is cut to rest over the inside trough step. When this
bracket is in place properly set and securely nailed you
can stand on the trough and it will not sag.

Nests

‘The nests are made in 4 sections, three of 12 feet and
one of 10, extending along the entire front of the house
(inside) excepting for the 4+foot entry into the water
shed. ‘Lhey rest on the brackets just described and their
weight hoids them in place. The bottom board is ot
1x12 stuff, the back of %x12 and the top consists of one
piece of 4x6 and another of 4x8; this allows a slight
Overhang in tront. lhe tront is of 1x6, nailed Hush with
the bottom of the 1x12 board, making the depth inside
(in front) 5 inches. ‘Lhe back piece is nailed in the center
oi the bottom board which leaves a slight opening at the
top. lhis makes the nest cooler than it would be if

60 HOW I MADE $10,000 IN ONE YEAR

closed solid. The partition pieces are of 1x12 cut into
lengths just a trifle short of one foot each. ‘They are set
at intervals to make one compartment to each running
foot.

The running board or step, which is used also to
close the nests at night, is made of 1x3 stuff, the length
of the section. About 18 inches from each end a 6-inch
piece of 1x3 is nailed to the running board on what will
be the outside of it when the nest is closed. To put it ©
another way, put the cleats on the ground with the run-
ning board on top of them; the hinges can then be put
on in their proper position. A 3-inch strap hinge should
be used. . Fasten the hinge to the cleat, “upside down” ;
instead of having the screws run down into the slot,
which brings the screwheads flush with the surface of
the hinge lay the hinge face downward, which leaves
the screwheads exposed. The completed nest ready for
the running board is most conveniently set on the ground
with the front, the 6-inch board, on top. Place the run-
ning board on it. Itis flush with the 6-inch front board.
The hinge cleats will fit flat against the 6-inch board,
and the lower section of the hinge will also lie flat, with
the screw-grooves up. A 2-inch space is left between the
6-inch front board and the 3-inch running board; this
leaves the cleats extending downward 1 inch from the
top of the 6-inch front board. This is the closed position.
A notched latchet, made of wood, is fastened to the cen-
ter partition board, patterned so that it will raise and
lower readily. ‘lhe notch should be deep enough so that
the step is not likely to be jarred loose when hens fly
against it.

WITH 4200 HENS 61

The final part is three supports to hold the running
board in the open position. These should be six inches
long, one near each end and one in the center. To
get their proper position hold the running board squarely
at right angles to the nestbox (the hinges must first be
fastened to the 6-inch front board) and toe-nail the three
supports in place so that the running board drops on
them evenly. This is the best combination running board
and nest-closing arrangement the writer has ever seen.
It is the idea, one among many in use on our places, ot
the writer’s father-in-law, Mr. W. C. Freeman.

Above the nest is a protector, designed to prevent the
hens roosting over the nests. This is made of 3 pieces
of %x6 stuff, nailed to 5 cleats, of proper length to cover
each section of nest boxes. The lower edge of it rests
on the slight projection of the top of the nest and the
upper edge lies against the studs. It is nailed to the studs
but not necessarily at the bottom. The nest boxes can
be lifted out at cleaning time if desired. An open space
is left between the studs which provides a meager foot-
ing for the more ambitious young pullets, but we seldom ©
if ever find one staying there all night; the position is
too uncomfortable.

Broody Coop

A broody coop is put in each compartment, under the
dropboard, and covers one-half the center section. The
bottom support or sill is made of one 1x6-7 and one
1x6-8, standing on edge and nailed together at right
angles.

The outer edge of the front drop board joist serves for
the front plate and a strip of 1x3-7 is nailed to the joist

62 HOW I MADE $10,000 IN ONE YEAR

legs, flush with the 1x6 at the bottom. The space between
should be covered with lath, set 2%4 inches apart. We
used 2-inch mesh netting but the hens eventually break
through. A little door is put in the front section. The
coop is placed in the center section to have it close to the
water supply. We use two gallon galvanized cans (spe-
cially built) with a pan soldered on the front edge, oper-
ating on the cup and saucer fountain principle, and with

a screwcap filler opening on the bottom. It is provided .

with a swinging handle on top, by means of which it can
be hung at a proper height from a nail in the wall. We
use two roosts in the broody coops.

Yards

The yards run the length of the house (150 feet), and
are 100 feet deep. A partition fence is run through at
50-foot intervals, conforming to the inside sections of
the house. The fences are fastened to the southeast
and southwest corners of the house, leaving the out-
side doors of the houses clear. The fences are built oi
3x4-10 redwood posts, 1x10 redwood for baseboards, and
2-inch poultry netting 6 feet high. ‘lhe posts are given
two coats of half creosote and half crude oil to a depth
of 36 inches and are set 30 inches in the ground. ‘The
sideline posts are set, the first one 8% feet from the house
with another at 12 feet, forming the gateway; the next
at 20 feet, and thereafter at 16-foot intervals. The ends
are set in two intervals of 16 feet and one.of 18, excepting
for the upper yards in which a 3!4-foot gateway setting
is made in the 18-foot section. ‘hese post intervals are
most economical of baseboard material and have been

WITH 4200 HENS 63

found satisfactory. Braces of 2x3-7 redwood are used,
which should have the steepest possible pitch to obviate
birds climbing them. No top boards are used.

The gates are built with the upper crossbar 18 inches
below the top of the wire. All gates swing inward, the
upper ones (nearest the dane toward the house rather
than away from it.

Hospital, Observation and Cull Houses

We have several small houses, with appropriate yards,
used for hospital, observation, and culling purposes. All
of these are made up of odd buildings accumulated dur-
ing our earlier experience on a leased place. Such spare
quarters are not only a great convenience but an absolute
necessity on a plant of any size. The construction of
the buildings and their size is of no importance. We
make a special point, however, of providing not only
tight, comfortable sleeping quarters in all such places but
in addition ample shade and shelter and water faucets
are provided in each.

In the hospital section at least two divisions should be
. available, a small one in which sick birds are first isolated
and a larger one for what we call the convalescents. The
- isolation yard on our place is surrounded with a solid
board fence about 3 feet high, with 5 feet of netting above
it. The house is but 4 feet deep and has a dropboard 2
feet above the floor; but roosting quarters are provided
on the floor as well as on the dropboard. Fresh straw
is put into these quarters after each cleaning and the
houses are always sprayed when cleaned.

64 HOW I MADE $10,000 IN ONE YEAR

The Feed House

The details of the feed house are hardly of importance.
This may be built according to taste and purse. Our
building is 16x40 feet, of which 16x20 is used for feed
storage. The floor is of concrete. Our close proximity
to source of supply makes it unnecessary to carry any
creat quantity in storage. Where this is not the case it
will be necessary to have greater storage space. It might

be mentioned, in this connection, that we do not specu--

late in grains and feedstufts; we buy as we need.

The Egg Room

The egg room, just completed, may be of interest. It
is 16x17 feet and rests on a 5-inch wall of concrete. The
building runs north and south. On the northerly end an
excavation was made for a shallow cellar the width of
the building, 36 inches wide and 30 inches deep. The con-
crete foundation which extends all around the building
runs to the bottom of the excavation. The floor joists of
2x4, properly supported, run crosswise. An interval of
3 feet is allowed over the cellar. The balance of the room
is floored with tongue and groove flooring. The cellar

covering is made of flooring in 3-foot lengths made into

4 trap doors which can be lifted against the north wall
and held in place by looped wire catches. Filled cases
are set on the edge of the cellar way and can be easily
and conveniently lifted down or up. This arrangement
obviates the drudgery and labor of dragging the eggs up
and down cellar steps. Anyone who has been through it,
especially during wet weather, will readily understand
why we fought shy of the old scheme.

WITH 4200 HENS 65

The cellar is used exclusively for hatching eggs. We
can store 30 cases in it without crowding. Two venti-
lators are set in the foundation, one in the south end, the
other in the west side 5 feet south of the cellar. They
are covered with l-inch mesh netting.

The building is set on sloping ground. The main —
entry is a 3-foot door on the west side, just south of the
cellar. One step leads up to the floor. On the south
side the floor is 2 feet above the driveway. A 3-foot door
was put in the southwest corner. The delivery truck
can back to this doorway and the eggs can be loaded
onto the truckbed with but little lifting.

Cost of Buildings

It would serve no purpose, under present prevailing
conditions, to record the cost of our buildings. Prices of
materials have advanced to such an extent that no com-
parison can be made. The last of our laying houses was
built in the fall of 1917. The 150-foot house and fences
complete cost $620 (in round figures) for materials alone ;
the labor cost cannot be given for any of the buildings
because the writer did a very large share of it himself.

Our total investment in buildings and accessories, in-
cluding water lines, fences, etc., is $3,500 in round figures.
This is entirely exclusive of labor; it covers materials
alone. The amount paid out for labor in construction of
the plant would not exceed the labor cost in building one
of the large laying houses.

An idea of the size of the plant may be obtained from
the fact that we have more than 10,000 square feet of
concrete floors and about 13,000 square feet of composi-
tion roofing on the place.

PART FOUR |
A detailed description of the methods followed on The
Tumbach Egg Farm.

And this is

“How I Made $10,000 in One Y ear with 4200 Hens”

Hatching

All of our hatching is done at a commercial hatchery,
the eggs being supplied by us from our own stock. This
course was adopted after several years of experience m
doing our own hatching. Much may be said in favor of
either system but the arguments would leave us where
we started ; that is, that we leave the hatching to the man
who makes hatching his business. When brooding time
comes, bringing with it thousands of chicks, we have
nothing on our minds but the care of those chicks.

The eggs are marked with a rubber-stamp to avoid any
possible confusion. It then becomes a matter simply of
the honesty of the hatcher as to whether or not we get
the chicks from our own eggs.

We pay the hatcher so much per thousand eggs, re-
eardless of the number of chicks hatched.

We usually provide 6 cases (2160 eggs) for each hatch
and we count on about 1500 chicks from this number.
In a year of poor hatches we are likely to fall short and
in good years we run over that number. ‘The long haul
in a truck—our eggs are carried 25 miles—reduces the
hatchability of the eggs of course; this has been taken
into consideration. “The hatcher calls for the eggs at our

place and delivers the chicks. In both respects he is

better equipped and more experienced as to the safest
method of carrying than we are or could be.

ee ee ee ee ee ey ee ee

WITH 4200 HENS . 67

Carrying Baby Chicks

To those who carry their own chicks a word of advice
might be in order: The chicks must have air and warmth.
If you are stacking up a lot of the familiar 100-chick
carrying boxes in a motor car be sure the boxes are criss-
crossed in such a way that each box will have air. The
boxes should set level, otherwise the chicks will be
jammed to the lower section of the box. If necessary
place strips of wood between the boxes. As to warmth,
the chicks will supply all they need for the trip, but this
will not protect them against the draft made by the
moving car. Excepting in hot weather it will be neces-
sary to put a blanket over the load to keep off the draft,
and even in hot weather a curtain of some kind should
be hung in such a way as to stop the draft. It should
be kept in mind that newly hatched chicks differ in no
essential respect from a very young baby so far as sus-
ceptibility to draft is concerned, and the writer’s observa-
tion is that a careful mother who carries the baby in a
motor car quite generally has it completely covered.

Should you meet with an accident on the road or if it
is necessary to stop for as long as 10 minutes you should
remove the blanketing—the draft stops with the car. We
heard of an instance where a poultryman carrying a load
of one thousand or twelve hundred chicks was delayed
half an hour. He forgot to remove his blankets; and he
smothered more than half of the chicks. On the other
hand we have known of many cases where chicks were
chilled by the draft and a heavy mortality was the re-
sult, which was of course blamed on the hatcher and the
stock he hatched from.

68 HOW I MADE $10,000 IN ONE YEAR

We are extremely careful with newly hatched chicks.
If it becomes necessary to transfer some from one house
to another we either use one of the cardboard chick boxes
on which the lid can be set down tight, or else, if an open
box is used, we put a gunny sack or a piece of flannel
over the chicks before going outdoors. This may seem
“fussy”; it must be remembered that your care of these
chicks will make or mar your whole year. »

If your chicks are shipped to you by express, learn the

exact time when the train is due and be there to meet it.
Do not chance a careless expressman setting them out-
doors in the rain or snow and wind; or a careful one put-
ting them next to the stove. Either course may cause
you not only loss but a lot of misery and trouble.

Selecting Eggs for Hatching

We use no egg for hatching that weighs less than 2
ounces and we discard exceptionally large eggs also.
The egg must be of normal shape, and must have a per-
fect shell. “Pimples” of lime in the shell; shells with
ridges and water-marks; shells that clink like glass on
being tapped with the fingernail—all these are discarded ,
likewise, of course, any that are checked—by which is

meant a crack in the shell which may or may not be a

complete fracture.

We take no chances of mixing hatching eggs with
the general run—the buckets are marked with a card
as they are brought to the eggroom, and the eggs dis-
carded from the hatching eggs are never packed for mar-
ket directly; they are put into a bucket and are graded
and packed out of the bucket. With our years of experi-

7,

WITH 4200 HENS 69

ence in packing we still deem it unsafe to try making the
double grading in one operation. Should the cases be-
come mixed the cost would be too great—especially if
the eggs are sold.

Time of Hatching

Our first brood of chicks is brought off the second or
third week in January and we have either two or three
lots in that month, one week apart. These are followed
by three lots in the month of March, also one week apart.
This arrangement allows for keeping the first hatches in
the brooder house a maximum of 8 weeks should a streak
of bad weather be encountered. This leeway of time has
saved us a great many chicks that would otherwise have
been forced out of the brooder houses to make way for
another lot regardless of extremely adverse weather. It
was to avoid being so forced that we used three brooder
houses earlier in our poultry career when we brooded
only three lots in one season. Most poultrymen would
agree with us, we think, that the greatest single factor
in chick mortality is lack of proper housing’ facilities.
lt has.come to be a common thing to hear, “I lost
a lot of young pullets in my early hatches; | had to put
them in colony houses to make way for another hatch
coming off.”

| Foreword on Brooding

The description of our brooding methods will be em-
bellished to an extent which to those of experience may
seem even absurd. It is the writer’s purpose to give
herewith a definite line of procedure for a novice to fol-
low ; as he expressed it in an outline, “I would have the
chicks arrive and make him feel at home with them, not

70 HOW I MADE $10,000 IN ONE YEAR

like a hopeless idiot. I would take him along, day by day,
morning, noon and night, knowing just what to do at
each stage of the game.” When this novice has gradu-
ated he can do his own eliminating of non-essential fea-
tures and make such changes as will best fit his own
particular case and habits. But at the start, assuming
that he knows nothing whatever about handling the
chicks, we purpose giving him something to go on.

Getting Ready for the Chicks

’ : a . : 4
a ne ee ea er

The chicks are delivered to us 36 to 48 hours out of the |

incubators at which time they are ready for their first feed
and water.

About one week before the chicks are due the brooder
house.1s in order. If it 1s. a new one it Hasiiieenm
thoroughly sprayed; if an old one it has been cleaned,
washed out with a hose and nozzle, allowed to dry and
then sprayed. If clean sand, reasonably free from dust
and dirt, is available, the floor is covered with it to a
depth of about one inch. A light scattering of clean,
bright straw, preferably wheat straw, is put over this; if
barley straw must be used it is put through the feed chop-
per and cut into one inch lengths. If clean sand is not
to be had none is used and the straw is made about two
inches deep.

The stove is started up and tested out thoroughly, run-
ning several days if necessary to get the proper adjust-
ment and to be sure it is working properly. The auto-
matic alarm system is gone over and put in working
position, the thermostat hanging by its wires (from a
rafter) 12 inches above the floor, 3 feet from the stove

WITH 4200 HENS 71

and facing it. A thermometer, known to be registering
accurately, is hung from the bottom of the alarm-thermo-
stat, also facing the stove, the bulb hanging about 2
inches above the straw. The inlet air shaft is openea
about one inch and the outlet shaft about three inches
on the bottom slide, the upper slide being kept closed.
The heat is run up to 95 degrees. The alarm is set to
ring the bell if the heat drops to 90 degrees (this is
brought about by shutting off the stove), or if the heat
rises to 100 degrees. Under ordinary weather conditions
the space between either the hot or the cold contact points
will be about the thickness of a worn dime; but nothing
short of experimenting will determine the exact setting.

The house is allowed to warm up gradually rather than
by forcing the stove. As already said, it may be neces-
sary to extend the warming-up and testing out experi-
ments over a period of several days. When the proper
adjustments have been reached the stove is shut off until
the day before the chicks are due to arrive. On the morn-
ing of that day it is started up again; and it continues
running from that time on. The burner is cleaned and
scraped some time during the morning of the day the
_ chicks are to arrive so that it will not need attention just
after the chicks are in the room.

A ring of l-inch mesh netting, 12 inches high, about
14 feet in diameter, covered with muslin, is set around
the stove. his is to keep the chicks trom straying. ‘The
muslin is fastened to the netting at the top by stitching
thread, and is on the inside of the netting. It must be
fastened in place with the netting set in the form of a
circle ; if the netting is laid flat the muslin will bulge and

72 HOW I MADE $10,000 IN ONE YEAR

the chicks will crawl under it and bunch up between it _

and the netting and many of them will squeeze through
the wire. The ring should rest on the flooring, the straw
being banked against it.

Tar paper is cut into strips 2x3 feet, about 8 being

used for 1500 chicks. These strips are put down inside —

the circle. A light scattering of chick grit is thrown over
them, likewise a light scattering of hulled oats, cracked
wheat and fine cracked corn (equal parts by weight).
About an hour before the chicks are due the little cup and
saucer chick fountains are filled with water from which
the chill has been taken. We use one fountain to 100
chicks. These are scattered promiscuously inside the
circle, some of them very close to the stove, others on
the tar paper. Tilt the “cup” slightly for an instant so
the water will come up to the very edge of the “saucer.”

Then we are ready for the little newcomers.

And if you purpose following our plan in caring for
chicks, take this much advice: Work all night if you
have to; but have that brooder house absolutely ready

for your chicks at least 24 hours before they are due-

to arrive. We have heard of cases where the delivery-
man from the hatchery had to assist in putting up the
brooder stove intended to warm the chicks he brought
in the month of January. Irom the writer's point of
view this is little short of criminal; true enough, he
views it from a prejudiced standpoint, the standpoint
of one who really loves the birds and especially baby
chicks. But almost any human being worthy the name
would resent the idea of chucking a lot of helpless flutt
balls, just out of a temperature of at least 103 into a damp,

WITH 4200 HENS 73

cold house, and certainly no one has the right to expect
them to do well in such hands.

Method of Brooding

All available help is called into action when a load of
chicks arrives and they are unloaded as quickly as pos-
sible. The first boxes are carried to the farther side of
the room. They are set on the outside of the wire circle,
half of them on each end of the house. They are not
piled up. On a hot day the lids are taken off the boxes
as they are set down. If the sun is bright and strong
the curtains are dropped over the windows to keep the
chicks from crowding toward the strong light.

Set a box close to the circle, sidewise, kneel down by
the side of it and lift the chicks over the wire in bunches
of five. Dip right into them with both hands. Have a
pencil handy, and when you have emptied a box, mark on
the lid of it the number of chicks you counted out. If
dead ones are found toss them aside into one pile and
‘count the dead when the live ones are all out. Don’t
drop the little chaps if you can help it—some men can
handle them in what appears a rough manner without
hurting them but this comes from long experience.

Move as rapidly as you can and don't mind the chirp-
ing; you will grow accustomed to it. They will “chup”
quite a bit for a day or two until they have settled down.
Meantime you will be surprised to see many of them
drinking and eating before you get the last box emptied.
The idea of tilting the fountain is to bring the water to
the very edge so that when a little bill is laid to it the
moisture is found at once. You want to get them started

74 HOW I MADE $10,000 IN ONE YEAR

in the shortest possible time and you are doing everything
you can to make it easy for them.

If you had things arranged as outlined you now have
nothing to do but pile up the boxes and remove them.
In doing this we always look through them carefully to
be sure no chicks are overlooked. Next you should tack
a large card on the wall of the brooder house, near the
door, with a lead pencil hung over it by a string. On
this card mark the date and number of chicks received,
and as losses occur, mark them down. If you wish to
learn the periods of heaviest mortality, mark off squares
on the card and put each day’s losses in a square. You
will find such a record both interesting and instructive.
We make no distinction between chicks found dead and
those that we help out of the way.

And then you can sit down and “size them up.” The
chicks themselves will tell you in a short time whether
or not your temperature and ventilation are right. Dii-
ferent lots require different degrees of heat and outside
atmospheric conditions will necessitate a variation in the
supply of air admitted. If it happens to be a very hot
day you may have to lower your heat and increase the
air supply immediately. In such case the chicks will
pant for breath, some of them racing about, others
‘“chupping”’ madly. If this continues for as much as say
five minutes, open your inlet air slide to full capacity
and open the upper outlet slide about half way; then
turn down the regulating screw on the stove, giving it
two or three full-round turns. This will reduce the heat
and increase the fresh air in a verv short time.

Give the chicks a chance to settle down in the new

ph pte ly

y 22 Giaw

WITH 4200 HENS 75

atmosphere before making further radical changes. If
they quiet down and begin to take an interest in water
and feed, close the upper outlet shaft slide and increase
the opening in the lower one. Then leave them to
themselves. :

On the other hand, if they crowd each other and pack
together, even right under the hood of the stove, run up
the temperature by turning up the regulator screw; but
do this slowly. Turn it a quarter ways around, leave it
for a few minutes, until you hear the buzzing of the
flame, then turn it a little further, and so on, until you
have raised the temperature two or three degrees. Then
leave it at that for half an hour or so; and if, after that
length of time they are still crowding the stove, repeat
the operation, and continue doing so until they scat-
ter and take to the water and feed.

Meantime some of them may show an inclination to
peck one another’s toes; this is not serious at this age. If
you wish to take no chances of their getting started on a
rampage of toe-picking, catch the chaps that do it and give
them a drink. Hold the little fellow between your thumb
and middle finger, leaving the index finger free. Take him
to a fountain, and with the index finger ‘“‘duck”’ his head to
the water. Don’t hold his head down very long—he must
raise his head to get the water where he wants it. Then
remove one fountain from the ring, tear off an edge of
tar paper, put a little feed on it, and set your toe-peck-
ing chap outside the ring with this feed and water to
amuse him. Don’t forget him, though, and step on him
later on or leave him out all night.

Chances are that in an hour or so they will have

76 HOW I MADE $10,000 IN ONE YEAR

cleaned up your feed and are acting like old stagers. If
so, give them another light scattering. You want to get
them all to eating and drinking as fast as ever you can.
Some of them will still stand around and “chup,”’ and
will go to sleep that way, without taking feed or water
the first day. They will cry at intervals throughout the
night. If you are patient and wish to bother with it, find
the owner of the voice you hear and give him a drink.
The writer has gotten out of bed many a time because
he could not stand the crying voices and after making
a few chaps happy with a drink has in all probability
not only saved chicks from starvation but made his own
night more comfortable. This is the “personal element”
we hear so much about in connection with the conduct of
any line of business, like the storekeeper who goes to
the store especially to accommodate some good customer.

Should your chicks arrive in the morning, so that they
have had their first feed and water before noon, leave
them until about 2 o’clock; at that hour give them another
light scattering of feed and tilt the water fountains again
so that the water is up to the edge of the saucer. Keep
the water at as high a level in the saucer as you can
throughout the day. At 4 o’clock give them another
feed and at this time replenish the fountains, using water
from which the chill has been taken (by adding a littte
hot water). The easiest way to refill the fountains is to
carry in two buckets, one filled with water, the other
empty. Empty the fountain into the second bucket, then
dip it into the fresh bucket, fit the saucer over it, reverse
it, and set it down. You will have to move very cau-

\

tiously, “feeling your way” amongst the chicks with your |

WITH 4200 HENS 77

foot and with your foot pushing aside any that happen
to be in your way. You will learn this trick quickly.
While in the ring, and later when you have turned them
loose in the house, make it a practice to keep your feet
as close to the floor as you can.

If you are just starting in the business you will very
likely have someone coming in to see your new chicks.
Put a sign on the outside of the door reading “Be quiet ;”
and if you take anyone into the brooder house, caution
them to be quiet. When the chicks are just hatched noises
will not bother them so much but when they are a few
days old and thereafter it will be a very harmful influence
to have someone come up to the house (or into it) and
clap their hands and shout for joy at the sight. The little
chaps will drop in their tracks or dash wildly for cover;
and anything of the sort will cost you money because
a sudden nervous shock hurts any tender, nervous organi-
zation. The more vigorous they are the more nervous
they will be. This is not so noticeable when they are
segregated into small lots, but where they are kept in
swarms as we keep them it stands out boldly. You will
learn it for yourself but guard against it if you can.

The 4 o’clock feed is the last for the first day. Leave
them until 5 (if early in the season), until 6 if later, but
not until dark. The curtains should be raised before the 4
o’clock feed if the day is short, so they will have plenty
of light for the final feed. If the day is longer the cur-
tains remain down. An hour after the last feed the water
pots are removed; set them outside the circle. Then pick
up the tar paper. Brush off any chicks standing on it
and put the paper outside the circle. Pile up the differ-

78 HOW I MADE $10,000 IN-ONE YEAR

ent pieces, saving what feed remains on them. Scatter
this in the litter outside the ring or leave it for the morn-
ing feed, whichever is easiest for you. It is better not
to scatter it inside the ring where they will sleep on it.

Then let the chicks settle down. If after half an hour
or so, when they have begun to settle, they show an incli-
nation to crowd toward the stove, increase the heat by
turning the upper screw of the regulator, but do it slowly.
You want them to stay at least two feet away from the
legs of the stove. As darkness comes on they will miss
their mother. There will be a great deal of crying and
they will “cuddle” toward one another, trying to “get
under.” You will simply have to grin and bear this.
They will finally settle down, very close to each other.
They may favor one side or the other, bunching up; if
so, spread them around the stove by pushing a bunch
along the straw. You may have to take a handful here
and there and remove it bodily to another section. When
they are a few days older they will find the right degree
in the circle; and very often even the newly hatched
will spread round the stove in a perfect circle.

Should the main body crowd the outer edge of the
wire circle, the temperature is too high and it should be
reduced by turning down the stove. Only on warm nights
will it be necessary to increase the air supply by opening
the inlet shaft more than an inch or so and the outlet shaft
by three inches (on the bottom slide). You can gauge
this by your own sensation while in the room. The air
should be sweet but not cool. And remember that the
feeling you have while standing upright is no guide—
your face may feel hot and close but the chicks are far

WITH 4200 HENS 79

from the atmosphere you are “tasting.” The fresh air
is on the floor and the greatest heat is near the root—
you must get down to the level of the chicks before your
judgment can be taken. If your thermometer reads be-
tween 90 and 95 and the chicks are settled with the outer
ones near the thermometer, your heat is about right; and
if you do not feel a “stuffiness” in the air when you get
your face down near the thermometer, your air is about
right.

We usually look in on the chicks at about 7 o’clock
and again just before going to bed. Newly hatched, they
should now look like a big omelette, close together, many
with their necks stretched flat along the straw; but they
should not be piled three or four deep. If they are so
piled up and are the proper distance from the stove there
is too much air. Correct this by reducing the opening
in the air shafts. Before leaving the house on the last
round, test the alarm system by pressing the contact
points together first on one side, then the other. The
bell in the house should ring each time.

We leave the curtains down at night for the first few
nights. Thereafter it is raised after dark.

Second Day

On the second day raise the curtains as soon after day-
light as possible. Put down the tar paper plats, scat-
tering the grain on them as you go. This will be rather
a tedious process on this day because they have not yet
learned that it means “eat.” Next day it will go easier.
When they have had the feed about half an hour put
in the water pots. Temper the water to the heat of your
hand and add a level teaspoonful of common baking soda
to each quart of water. (Use the two-bucket scheme for

80 HOW I MADE $10,000 IN ONE YEAR

emptying and refilling the pots). This is done to over-
come possible fermentation in the little crops, as yet un-
used to “outside” feedstuffs. Leave them with their
feed and water for about an hour. Then roll up the circle
and set it aside. If you have the space above the rafter
braces, make a place for it up there; otherwise provide a
bracket of some kind on the wall on which to hang it.
Don’t set it in a corner—it looks like mother to them and
they are likely to crowd up around it during the day.

If the day opens bright and clear drop the curtains; if
it is cloudy leave them up so as to have all light possible.
Increase the ventilation by opening the air shafts wider—
at least double the opening used during the night. On
very warm days you may have to open one or more
windows toward noon. Keep the air fresh and pure.
There is no danger of overdoing the ventilation during
the day—the night is the danger period in this respect.
You should give them all the air possible during the day.
Keep the temperature up; they can get away from the
heat in the ends of the house.

Scatter a light feed of the oats, wheat and corn on the
plats every three hours; leave the plats in place on the
second day so that the slower ones may yet have a chance
to catch on. We make it a point to so regulate the quan-
tity that there will be a little left on the plats an hour
after feeding. Empty and refill the water pots at 11 o'clock
and again at 3, but omit the soda after the first filling ;
and scatter the pots pretty well all over the room. If
the chicks favor a certain portion of the house, put sev-
eral pots in the vicinity. Take the chill off the water at
each filling.

. ee **
ee

WITH 4200 HENS 81

When bed time comes you will have some trouble in
rounding up the herd on this second night. Fasten one
end of the wire to the wall near the stove and unrolling
it as you go, round the little fellows ahead of you. In
a day or two they will keep well ahead and it will be but
a few minutes work to put the circle in place. Stay on
the outside of the circle as you unroll it. You will likely
have to reduce the temperature a point or two on this
night to keep them the proper distance from the stove.
Do not overlook reducing the openings of the airshafts.
Get them back to the position at which you had them the
night before. Test the alarm system same as you did
last night.

Third Day

On the third day feed and water early in the morning
as before; but do not use the soda. Remember to take
the chill off the water. Leave them in the circle for half
an hour, then remove the circle and pile up the plats, scat-
tering the left-over grain (if any) in the litter.

At 9 or 9:30 on the third day we give them dry bran
and charcoal. The bran must be absolutely pure and
sweet—if it tastes bitter we do not use it. To a sack of
bran (80 or 90 lbs.) we add about 8 pounds of fine char-
coal. ‘This is fed in little troughs.

The trough is made of a piece of %x3, in 4 foot
lengths, on each side of which is nailed an ordinary lath.
The end pieces are 3 inches high and a lath is nailed across
the top from one end piece to the other, with a little sup-
port in the center of just the right size to keep the top
piece from sagging. We use one trough to each hundred
chicks. The troughs are set lengthwise of the house close

&2 HOW I MADE $10,000 IN ONE YEAR

to the end walls, nine of them near the closed end and
five in the end where the door is. If many chicks are
working near the stove we transfer one or two troughs
from each end to the side walls until they have learned
to follow them. In this as well as in every other respect
you will note that we go to extra trouble to get the little
fellows started.

We find it easier to fill the troughs the first day or
two near the door and to carry them into place already
filled. We use five gallon oil cans for feed pails. The top
is cut out to within an inch of the edge. This one inch
is turned over, making the top stronger. Heavy wire is
used for a bale; we fasten the bale toward one side rather
than in the center. This makes it convenient to carry
two pails in one hand which saves steps as two pails full
of bran can be carried as easily as one.

The troughs are filled with a small-mouthed scoop or
a large sized flat stove shovel. Enough bran is put into.
each trough to bring it within half an inch of the top of
the side pieces. If the trough is filled level full there
will be too much waste—there will be some in any event,
especially for the first few days as some of the little fel-
lows will crawl into almost any sized opening. We
have found that a trough of the exact dimensions given
is least wasteful.

The bran troughs are removed at about 11:30. We
fasten two brackets to each end wall, not quite four feet
apart and about two feet wide, and the troughs are set
on the brackets. The top piece of the trough being flat
and wide, the troughs will “stack” nicely. ‘he water pots
are then refilled and the plats are put down, most of them

WITH 4200 HENS 83

where the troughs have been but at least two on each
side of the stove. A liberal scattering of grain 1s spread
on them and this remains in place for about half an hour.
The quantity can be gauged only by experimenting.
Measure it in scoopfuls and if they leave part of it, reduce
it next time; if they clean it up in less time, increase it.
At the end of half an hour the plats are piled up again
and the troughs are replaced. If any are empty they are
refilled; but they must be cleaned up before more is
added. |

At 3 o'clock the water is freshened again and the
troughs are removed. Grain is fed at 4 and the plats
remain in place until bedtime. If the grain is cleaned up
entirely within a short time a little more is scattered, but .
it must be cleaned up quickly and completely before this
is done. The circle is put into place as before, the ventila-
tion is adjusted and the alarm is tested. 7

Fourth Day |
The same routine is followed on the 4th day. At this
stage it usually becomes necessary to begin reducing the
temperature. The location of the chicks within the circle
after they have settled down is the best guide to follow
in reducing the temperature. It should be done gradu-
ally, one or two degrees at most. The 7 o’clock inspec-
tion trip is the best time; then in looking in again just
before retiring a re-adjustment can be made if necessary.

Fifth and Sixth Days
On the fifth day chick mash replaces the bran and
Seeen stuit is fed at noon ‘in place of the grain. The
simplest way of handling the chick mash problem is to

WHV4 D933 HOVEWAL SHL NO SASNOH YAGOOYUS AHL AO ANO

WITH 4200 HENS 85

use equal parts of bran and hen mash, with the addition
of 100 pounds of bone meal to each completed ton, and
this is not only a simple method but it continues the
heavy feeding of bran on which we place great reliance.
The formula of hen mash will be found in the chapter
devoted to feeding the layers. At this stage we begin
to weigh the feed with the idea of keeping the chicks on
half mash and half grain (by weight). A quantity of
erain is weighed into a pail in the morning, likewise a
quantity of mash into other pails. This is used for the
day’s feeding. In the evening the remainder is weighed
and the results indicate the course to be followed next
day. If your memory is not good, mark the results on a
card fastened to the wall in the feedhouse.

The chicks will be slow to take the green stuff at first.
We use the plats, to which they have become accustomed.
Very little will be needed at first, but in a short time
they will take to it and then they are given all they will
eat, Lhe plats can then be omitted. When they have
learned to eat the greens readily it will not be necessary
to remove the troughs at noon. They can be left in place
all day.

Seventh to Eleventh Days

On the 7th day the grain is fed in the morning without
using the plats; but they are used for the evening feed.
At this stage it will be necessary to use a higher and
wider netting for the circle; we use one 2 feet high and
long enough to make an oval reaching from side to side
of the house and about 18 feet at the longest point. It
is covered with muslin like the other. To support the
wire, cords are fastened to the roof with a hook on the

86 HOW I MADE $10,000 IN ONE YEAR

end of each. When the wire is unrolled the hooks are
fastened as they are passed. The ventilation will have to
be increased; this is done by increasing the openings in
both inlet and outlet shafts. The chicks are likely now
to be settling nearer the wire, but this is of no conse-
quence.

If the litter is beginning to look bare in spots, add an-
other inch or two.

The water pots are now set on little platforms. These
are made of half inch pieces about one foot square nailed
to blocks three inches high. ‘They are set close together,
about five feet from the stove, half on each side of it;
at the noon filling they are set further back. ‘The water
is no longer tempered from this time on unless freezing
weather prevails. ‘The pots, platforms and all, are set
back still farther when the wire is put up at night and
when the wire is in place one or two pots are set inside
of it, close to the stove, for the benefit of amy chaps that ~
may have overlooked their bed time drink. When the
last inspection is made at night all of the pots are returned
to their place inside the wire. This gives them water
early in the morning, tempered, and at breakfast time
they will be found busily scratching. |

Twelfth to Twentieth Days

On the 12th day more straw is added to the litter. Ii
baled straw is available save out several chunks of it.
Use these to bank up the corners, stuffing loose straw
behind them to avoid a nice crawling-in place in which
you would most likely find several hundred stacked up
and smothered. |

WITH 4200 HENS 87

A strip of muslin is now tacked to the rear wall, ex-
tending to the floor. The wire, instead of forming an
oval, is used running from one end wall to the other;
one end is fastened just inside the outlet airshaft, the
other end on the inlet shaft. It bulges out in the center
where it goes around the stove. It is upheld by the cords
and hooks which are changed to conform with the new
position. The idea is to herd the chicks toward the back
wall, where the roosts will be. The muslin on the back
wall is a big help. . It still looks like “mother.” ‘The tem-
perature is increased for the night at this stage as the
chicks will be farther from the stove. Some lots will re-
quire a bit of herding when this change is made, but ordi-
narily they take to it readily enough after one or two
evenings. |

On the 14th day the roosts are let down in the mornin

before the troughs are put in place; the troughs are set
in double rows beyond the roosts with one or two on top
of them, set between the cross bars. This helps to get
the chicks upstairs. ‘The roosts are raised when the
evening grain is fed.
- On the 18th day larger troughs are used. These are
made of 4x4, 6 feet long, for the bottom, with two pieces
of 2x2 for the sides, and the top is of %x2, the end
pieces being 4 inches high. Larger water pots are used
(4 or 5 quart) and fewer of them.

Three Weeks and Thereafter
At 3 weeks the morning grain feed is omitted and
sprouted oats are fed at from 9 to 10 o’clock. The oats
is not allowed to sprout into a matted mass but is used
when the white roots are about half an inch long. The

88 HOW I MADE $10,000 IN ONE YEAR

chicks take to this readily. Enough is fed to last them
about 15 minutes. It is fed in the litter. At this time

we begin adding coarse grain to the evening feed, mix-_

ing it with the chick grain in gradually increasing quan-
tities until the chick grain is entirely replaced at about
7 weeks.

We use the same grain for the chicks as we do for the
layers excepting that we never give them barley with
the hulls on it.

A pan of medium shell and medium granite yrit is also
given them at this stage and is kept before them con-
stantly.

At four weeks the roosts are let down permanently.
Some time after the evening grain feed has been cleaned
up, but before the chicks begin to settle down behind the
wire, we raise the end roosts and kick the straw into the
corners, building it up to the heighth of the roosts. This
prevents corner-crowding and is also an encouragement
toward climbing up on the roosts.

We usually clean out the brooder house and put in
fresh straw the day before the roosts are to be lowered
permanently. sie

If warm nights prevail at from 3 to 4 weeks it may be
necessary to temporarily increase the ventilation when
the chicks begin to settle down. We do this by opening
the upper slide of the outlet shait about an inch.
It is left open until the 7 o’clock inspection at which
time, if the night air is cool, itis closed again.

lf the night air is warm it may be necessary to leave a
slight opening in this upper slide all night. You can tell
by the chicks whether or not it is necessary. It they are

WITH 4200 HENS 39

lying close together in the straw, (such as are not on
the roosts), or if those that climbed up have dropped off,
the upper slide may remain closed.

If they are uncomfortably warm they will lie far apart,
some with open mouths. It seldom happens that the
upper slide must be left open all night (at this stage)
with early hatches; the March hatches may require it.
We have even found it necessary during a very hot spell
to put in a screen door at their bedtime, leaving the main
door wide open, until our own bedtime. In this case
the front windows are also left open. The chicks being
against the back wall they are in no danger from drafts.

As soon as the chicks have become accustomed to the
roosts being left down, usually in two or three days, the
use of the wire is discontinued and the muslin on the back
wall is removed. |

Use of the Yards

The age when the chicks may be permitted outdoors
is dependent entirely on the weather. January hatches
are seldom turned out before they are 10 days old 4nd
then only on clear, warm days. We leave them out but
a short time at first, herding them back into the house
until they grow accustomed to running in and out. We
use a sloping runway, made of boards, as wide as the
doorway, to make it easy for them to go back and forth.
Care is used to keep the space between the runway and
the fence filled with dirt so the chicks cannot pack up
in this space; and we also bank the corners of the yard
with dirt to prevent crowding.

li the yard is in growing green stuif we cut it with a
lawn mower beiore the chicks are turned out. The out-

90 HOW I MADE $10,000 IN ONE YEAR

side water pot is not used until the chicks have been out-
doors off and on for at least a week. This keeps them
running into the warm house for water.

Half of the mash troughs are brought into the yard
from the house as soon as the weather permits, but on the
January hatches this is seldom done before three weeks.

The March hatches are let out earlier and they have
their outside water pot and mash troughs earlier also.
Common sense will dictate the course to be followed in
respect to these matters. Our rule is to take no chances
on exposure to inclement weather. Ifa cold wind or driy-
ing rain sets in while the chicks are outdoors, when they
are less than four or five weeks old, we take the trouble
to herd them in. It is a bit troublesome at first, but they
soon learn your purpose; and in a short time your appear-
ance in the yard along with a sudden drop in tempera-
ture or a heavy rain will be a signal to “scoot.”

The second division of the yard is opened as soon as
an appreciable number of the chicks begin to fly over the
little division fence. We do not cut the green stuff in
the second yard—they are allowed to mow it themselves.
The feeding of green stuff inside the house is not dis-
continued when the chicks are turned outdoors.

If the weather is favorable at about 4 weeks, half of
the sprouted oats and half of the evening grain is fed
outdoors from that time on.

With the late hatches care is taken to keep the first
division of the yard from getting dusty; it is wet down
regularly.

At from 5 to 06 weeks the cockerels are taken out; but
betore entering on this phase of the work the description

WITH 4200 HENS 91

will be interrupted to discuss possible troubles that may
have been encountered meantime.

Chick Troubles and Diseases

The reader, especially the novice, might assume from
the description given that we still have all the chicks that
we counted out of the boxes. If such were the case there
would be no money in egg-farming—it would be too easy
to be profitable.

We count on raising to the broiler and egg-laying
stages about 80 per cent of the chicks hatched. Judging
by what you read in descriptions of brooding appliances
this may seem startling to you. And to the experienced
man who uses another method it may seem that we do
a lot of unnecessary work and spend a lot of time to get
such poor (?) results. To the latter might be given the
reminder that we are dealing with 1500 chicks all the time
—if we had to do all these things in twenty or thirty
different compartments, opening and closing that many

' gates for each operation, we would never “arrive.” As

a matter of fact the writer can easily handle from 4,500 to
5,000 chicks single handed and alone on the plan herein
given; and he not only can do it but he does and he
handles a lot of other work along with it.

The percentage of chicks raised is based on a year
aiter year average and handling from five to six lots each
season. In good seasons we do far better—we had one
lot of 1,050 this year (1919) out of which the total brooder
house mortality was only 85 chicks. This is the best
record we ever made with such a large lot. It is not safe
to count on doing that well one year with another in

92 HOW I MADE $10,000 IN ONE YEAR

large lots. A greater percentage could probably be
raised if the chicks are brooded in small lots; but one
man could not handle so many. We prefer making a
big showing of matured birds to a higher percentage and
fewer of them.

We count on half pullets and half cockerels. This too
will vary with different seasons but half and half is a
fair average.

Danger Periods

There are three distinct periods in the growth of
chicks when they seem more susceptible to weakness and
all are related to the process of feathering. The first stage
is when they are two or three days out of the incubator.
They are sprouting wing and tail feathers at this time.
Some will go down under the strain, others will fall
behind the flock in development and as a rule will never
catch up: ‘The second period, at from 10 to 14 days, is
marked by the coming in of the feathers on the crop, on
the back and on the neck; and the final period (in the
chick stage) is when the feathers come in on the head,
usually at from 5 to 7 weeks.

Mention is made of these periods because we keep a
careful eye on the chicks at that time. They always look
ragged and rather hopeless when the head feathers are
coming. We never allow them to suffer from exposure
at such times. If they do not seem normally active we
give them a tonic for two or three days. We use the
Douglas Mixture in the water, at the rate of a teaspoon-
ful to a quart of water. ‘his is put into the water at
the morning renewal; the afternoon water is given clear.
The formula will be given elsewhere—consult the index.

WITH 4200 HENS 93

Diseases

Some chicks will die off for no apparent reason—they
are simply found dead, apparently in perfect condition ex-
cepting for that sad fact. Experts find reasons for it—
in practice we have no explanation. You may safely
count on finding one of these every now and again; but
if you find them dead in bunches, plump bodies, fine look-
ing little chaps, look to your feed. Is your grain sound
and sweet? If it is not fit for you to eat it 1s not fit for
your chicks. And your bran—is it sweet and pure? Or
do you find lumps of it tinged with greenish mould? Have
you spilt water in the litter and allowed the soggy mass
to remain, tainting the grain and waste mash, to be found
and eaten by the little fellows looking for variety? Are
you giving them partially decayed vegetable tops, or fer-
mented table scraps? Is the meat in the mash faulty?
Did you leave them exposed to a sudden chilling rain?

Nine times in ten the reason for numerous sudden
deaths will be found in this list. If you find the fault,
give the whole flock a dose of salts next morning, common
Epsom Salts, a tablespoonful to a gallon of water (dis-
solve it in hot water and add to your pail) in mild cases,
double the dose if the attack is severe. Give them fresh
water in the afternoon, and follow with the Douglas Mix-
ture, as already directed, the next two days.

You may have some leg weakness—sturdy chicks get-
ting down on their knees. Once more the scientists give
us the cause but we admit our ignorance. We have seen
it with all kinds of brooding methods and with various
feeding systems. We do not know the cause nor the
proper remedy. If the attack is a severe one we assume

94 HOW I MADE $10,000 IN ONE YEAR

that a thorough cleansing and disinfecting of the intesti-
nal tract cannot be harmful and we give them the salts
and tonic. Our experience is that the greater number
get over it. We segregate those affected, putting them
in a large wire covered box, not too near the stove, until
they get their legs again.

“Puffy crops” is another common trouble. You will
see chicks here and there, early in the morning, with
bloated crops which on examination are found to be air-
filled. An isolated case can be treated with a bit of
common soda, dissolved in water and poured down the
throat. If numerous cases develop give the whole lot a
dose of soda (as already described), adding a heaping
teaspoonful of ground ginger to two or three gallons of
water; give this two mornings in succession.

Toe-picking is often encountered. ‘The cause has been
ascribed. to almost everything under the sun, from lack
of meat to an injured toe suffered by the great grand-
father. We think it is started by a nervous condition
due generally to excessive heat and lack of air, either in
the incubator (after hatching), on the road home, or in
the brooder house. Once started it is hard to control. At
the first sign we make sure there is plenty of fresh air
in the house and that the temperature is not too high.
Next the windows are darkened; and if the light is still
very strong the glass can be painted over with whitewash
into which a little lampblack or some blueing is added.
Then a special effort is made to keep the chicks busy—
rake the litter into piles at intervals; they will try to
scratch them down as fast as you make them. Add a
little grain to each pile. Give them extra greens. Hang

WITH 4200 HENS 95

bunches of lettuce against the walls—anything that will
divert them. This is the best treatment we know of. The
chaps that have been attacked must be segregated in a
box or something of the kind. As long as bloody toes
are in evidence they will keep at it.

White Diarrhoea and Coccidiosis

There remain but two well-recognized troubles to be
discussed, and, judging by the quantity of matter written
concerning them, these two cause by far the greater
mortality amongst chicks: White Diarrhoea and Cocci-
diosis. The writer has so far been spared experience with
either of them, although he has been called on many times
for assistance in handling chicks so infected. Whether his
having escaped them is due to his method of handling
the chicks, either in brooding or in feeding, he is not
prepared to say. This work being based entirely on his
experience he might very properly avoid the issue, but
with the understanding that he is dealing with theories
he ventures these opinions, based entirely on ‘obser-
vation: , |

White diarrhoea is most commonly recognized as
“pasted-up-behind,”’ which is self-explanatory. The
chicks become droopy and listless, stand around humped
up, usually crowding together for warmth, and die off
in great numbers.

Scientists tell us it is a bacterial disease which may be
transmitted from generation to generation and from one
chick to another. ‘‘his sounds rather hopeless; and it
may be so. The wonder then is that there are any chick-
ens left what with the interchange that is constantly
going on, especially with the growth of the commercial

96 HOW I MADE $10,000 IN ONE YEAR

hatchery business. But we will admit that there is a
distinct bacterial disease of the kind. Let us take refuge
in the suggestion that what is commonly called white
diarrhoea in chicks is not that particular disease. From
that standpoint it can safely be discussed.

The writer believes that bowel trouble in young chicks,
evidenced by “pasting up,” is due primarily to a chilling
of the chick while very young and when it is most sus-
ceptible to such a shock. And in the light of such a belief
it will more readily be understood why he so strongly
urges extreme care in handling the chicks. If the reader
is sufficiently interested he may turn back the pages and
learn how the writer would avoid the trouble, which to
his notion is the only hope.

A flock of chicks infected with white diarrhoea is well-
nigh a hopeless proposition. The best we can do, all we
can hope for, is to save the strongest. We would give
them the salts and tonic treatment, the salts once a week,
the tonic every other day. Most authorities dwell
strongly on the merits of sour milk or buttermilk, kept
before them all the time. This must not be given in tin
or galvanized iron vessels. The best plan is to scald
several of the mash troughs, to make them water tight,
and feed it in the troughs.

More important is the matter of avoiding further ex-
posure. If the theory herein advanced, that the trouble
is due to chilling, resulting in a cold settling in the intes-
tines; if this theory is correct, we must first of all make
certain that the chicks are no longer exposed to chilling.
Ixcepting late in the season they had perhaps best be
kept in the house for a week or two, where the air is kept

WITH 4200 HENS 97

not only fresh and pure but tempered with warmth all
over the room, and in addition, a zone of extra warmth
may be found close to the stove for those needing it. The
objection to letting them outdoors is that the stronger
ones, those able to withstand possible severe changes in
temperature, will always “scoot” out, and the weaker
ones that need a tempered atmosphere will run with them
as long as they can, finally bunching up where they are
still in sight of the fellows who are enjoying themselves.

A change in the feeding method is also advisable. Let
them have their grain and greens as before, but abandon
the dry mash feeding and substitute a moistened mash,
fed twice a day say at 10 a.m. and3p.m. If milk of
any kind is available, use it to moisten the mash, not a
wet, soggy mass, but a crumbly mixture, one that when
balled up in the hand will fall apart readily when the
pressure is removed. The addition of finely chopped
onions or garlic and stale bread, the latter previously
soaked in milk or warm water, would be a decided bene-
fit. Feed the grain sparingly and use the plats regard-
less of age, but in addition scatter some grain promis-
cuously through the litter.

It would also seem advisable to clean the brooder house
once a week while the trouble is running, putting in fresh
straw at each cleaning. Keep the temperature up, espe-
cially at night. Keep it high enough so that they will
spread out. If the roosts have been let down, put them
up again and resume the use of the wire circle, enlarg-
ing it sufficiently so that the stronger chicks can get away
from the increased heat. Watch the ventilation care-
fully; give them plenty of fresh air at night, but do it

98 HOW I MADE $10,000 IN ONE YEAR

through the air shafts rather than with open windows.
Keep the windows open during the day, and if the days
are uncomfortably warm, use a screen door on the main
doorway.

The writer believes that when you have done all this,
you have done everything possible and that you will save
the livable chicks. You may feed some of the many
kinds of “dope” offered in the market if you wish—we ~
never use any; but we have not been driven to it, perhaps.
Whether you use “dope” or not, give the chicks the care
herein outlined; they need it. |

Coccidiosis looks as formidable in action as it does in
print. It is said to be an infection of the Caeca, some-
times called the Appendix or Blind Gut. The only cases
that have come to the writer’s observation have been m
chicks that were from 6 to 8 weeks old. The outstanding
symptom is the passing of a bloody mucus in the drop-
pings. The birds go down very fast and the mortality
is extremely heavy. Bichloride of Mercury has been used
successfully in treating this disease. The preparation
with instructions for use may be had from the Poultry-
men’s Co-operative Milling Association of Los Angeles.

Don’t Worry

Should the reader be new at the work, let him beware
of too much pondering over what has herein been related
as to chick troubles; and more particularly let him be-
ware of studying too closely the booklets and circulars
that will come to him concerning diseases of chicks.

Too many people are influenced by these lurid descrip-
tions ; they immediately see all of the many symptoms de-

WITH 4200 HENS 99

scribed, and proceed at once to dose and doctor the imag-
inary ills.

One of the most successful small operators the writer
knows, a man who has brooded twelve to fifteen hundred
chicks each year for a number of years, has never had
trouble of any kind excepting toe-picking; and while the
writer has not been present every minute of the time yet
he is morally certain that this man has never fed or used
an ounce of “dope” of any kind. But he lives with his
chicks. If they are outdoors when young and a sudden
cold wind comes up, he drops whatever he may be doing
and puts his chicks inside. Constant care and thought
for the welfare of those chicks is the only panacea he
knows; and in the writer’s estimation his is the best
remedy.

The fact that he raises a larger percentage of his chicks
than we do would tend to prove, to us at least, that his
greater care shows up in his better results.

Let that be your main reliance; look after your chicks
carefully and methodically. And should trouble come to
you in spite of it, check back your work (as an account-
ant would say)—try and find the point wherein you failed
to properly protect them, and the finding of the error will
be its own best remedy. Make up for it by extra care as
has herein been outlined ; your chances of overcoming the
trouble will be far better if you follow some such method
than if you try to make the correction by dosing and
doping. The latter method is like unto a mother whose
baby cries because of a loose pin and who quiets it with
some “doped” soothing syrup while the pin remains. If
you fail to go over your work and locate the cause of

100 HOW I MADE $10000 IN ONE YEAR

the trouble you have learnt nothing from the experience.

And don’t get “rattled.” You'll forget to fill the fuel
_tank or set the house afire if you lose your head. You
cannot expect your chicks that have been drooping to
show up in fine mettle the day after you have removed
some rotten feed or closed the door you left open the night
before or restored the supply of fresh air which you acci-
dentally shut off. Give nature a chance to repair the
damage, with such help as you are giving her in the way
of extra care and special feeding.

Lice and Mite Troubles

~ We have never had lice on young chicks hatched in an
incubator and brooded artificially excepting during our
second year in the work when we made the serious mis-
take of mixing hen-hatched chicks with those hatched
in the incubators. This nearly ruined the whole year’s
work. Since then we take special precautions to see that
neither hen-hatched chicks nor old fowls gain access to
the brooder houses and yards, nor are any such allowed
the freedom of the place in the enjoyment of which they
might wander near the brooder yards.

You will have no mites in the brooder house if you
spray the house in advance as we do ours.

. Cleaning and Spraying the Brooder Houses

We clean and spray the brooder houses just once dur-
ing the brooding stage. This is done at about 4 weeks,
when the roosts are let down permanently. .When the
January chicks are taken out the house is cleaned and
sprayed before the next brood comes on. When the

WITH 4200 HENS 101

March chicks are carried in the brooder houses beyond
the 6 to 8 weeks’ stage the house is cleaned every ten
days and is sprayed once a month.

Training the Family Cat

It is an easy matter to train a cat to leave the chicks
alone if the matter is gone about properly. If there are
young cats on the place when chicks come in they are
taken to the brooder house, in among the chicks, are
given the “smell” of a chick along with a reasonable
cuffing. This is repeated several times and thereafter
they usually give the brooder houses a wide berth. If
they are found nosing around the brooder house after-
ward we make a point of having a pail of water handy
and if the cat can be given one good drenching the les-
son is learned. Should a cat be caught in the house or
yard with a chick we drench it in a barrel; if the chick
is dead we force it into its mouth for the drenching and
then hang it around the cat’s neck for a time.

Old cats are harder to train but with patience it can
be done. We have a mother cat on the place now who
has been found time and again watching a gopher hole
in a brooder yard with chicks all around her; and we
have watched her take her kittens to the brooder yard
fence, evidently to show them the chicks, and when they
showed interest she would cuff them just as we did her.
Ihe farm is a sort of repository for stray cats.

Buying Partly Developed Chicks

At times an opportunity presents itself to purchase
partly grown chicks. If your brooding has not been suc-

102 HOW I MADE $10,000 IN ONE YEAR

cessful or if you could handle more young stock than
you have this might be worth while. But great care
must be exercised or your last state will be worse than
your first. If it is at all possible it would be better to
keep the new lot entirely separate from your own. If
this is not practicable you must be sure that the birds
are not coming from a place where disease has been ram-
pant and that the chicks are not infested with lice. It
seldom pays to buy a run down lot that someone has
failed with—you are only risking your own.

Under no circumstances should hen-brooded chicks be
mixed with incubator lots; this applies no matter how
clean of lice they may seem to be. The possible gain is
not worth the risk. If you can’t keep the hen-hatched ©
lot separate from the others do not buy or take them.

Taking Out the Cockerels

We take out the cockerels at from 5 to 6 weeks—those
that are easily distinguished. They can usually be se-
lected by their combs and shape, but the selection at that
age is more or less guesswork, especially for a novice.
Take out only those of which you are reasonably certain,
and as others show up, take them out. Keep cockerels
with the pullets rather than to put pullets with the
cockerels.

They are put into the cockerel house which has been
heavily bedded down with straw under the roosts, a
narrow board being tacked to the edge of the roosts to
keep most of the straw in place. If the weather is bad
they are kept indoors; but in any event they are not let
out until toward noon of the day after they are moved.

WITH 4200 HENS 103

Water and feed is provided in the house until they are
turned loose in the early morning.

We put 250 cockerels into each 9x10 compartment of
the house. The first few evenings we make sure that the
straw is banked up in the corners under the roosts so
they cannot crowd and pile up; they must be watched in
this respect for several nights, until they resume their
roosting. 7

The further treatment of the cockerels will be dis-
cussed in a separate chapter.

Continuing the Brooder House Work

Taking out the cockerels makes room in the brooder
house and gives the remainder a better chance. If the
weather is bad it may be necessary to slightly increase
the stove heat to make up for the body heat lost by the re-
moval of so many of the flock.

No change is made in the feed or the method of hand-
ling the chicks, excepting that the gradual change from
chick size to coarse grain is continued until at 7 weeks
the fine grain is entirely replaced. The January pullets
are taken from the brooder house at from 7 to 8 weeks,
dependent on the weather. If the weather is good we
take them out at 7, otherwise they remain until 8. The
March pullets remain in the brooder house longer, as we
do not have room for them until the summer re-arrange-
ment of the laying hens is made. If the room is available
they can be removed even earlier than the January lot.
We put in higher roosts (in the brooder houses) at 8 or
9 weeks, spacing them 8 or 10 inches apart and about 18
inches from the floor.

104 HOW I MADE $10,000 IN ONE YEAR

The stove is turned off at about 7 weeks, (this applies
to the March hatches), this depending again on the
weather. They need but little artificial heat at night in
normal weather after 6 weeks. We taper it off gradually,
also increasing the fresh air supply by using the upper
slide on the outlet shaft.

When they are comfortable at night without the stove —
we start the stove in the morning before turning them
outdoors and run it until they have been outdoors and in
again for a “warming-up” after tasting the outdoor air.
If the day is cloudy or chilly the stove is run all day,
turned low; and at the last feed time it is turned up un-
til they have settled down for the night when it is again
turned off. This continued use of artificial heat is neces-
sary because the house is a large one and there is little
chance for the body heat of the birds to afford any rea-
sonable degree of heat to the comparatively few birds
who may need it during the day and who come indoors
to find it.

The third division of the yard is OPES to the March
pullets at about 8 weeks.

Taking the Pullets From the Brooder House

We put the January pullets directly into the laying
house. The yards have meantime been ploughed and
planted to barley which may be 12 to 18 inches high
when they are moved. We put up a temporary tence ot
14-inch mesh netting, enclosing a space the width of the
house space to be used and about 25 feet deep. ‘Lhis
makes it easier to train them to the new housing place
and also saves trampling of the green barley. lt we

WITH 4200 HENS 105

need it we mow the barley in the remainder of the yard
—it will grow up again very fast at that time of the
year.

In moving the pullets care must be exercised or some
will be injured. They are nervous and flighty when their
regular routine is interrupted and when they are shut in
the house and some are being picked up and put into
crates the others are liable to pile up in the corners, some
being smothered. The best plan is to let a large part of
the flock pass outdoors, keeping one or two hundred in-
side. A panel of wire, 2 feet high and 5 feet long, cov-
ered with burlap and set diagonally in one corner of the
house, makes a good catching place. A few can be driven
into it at’a time. Meantime we keep an eye out for a
possible piling-up of the others—if they are crowding into
the other corners we stir them up before going to work
on the lot behind the panel.

Never crowd the youngsters in the crates when mov-
ing them. A little more time spent at it is a good invest-
ment. We always put them directly into the house rather
than in the yard. It saves a lot of time, work and worry
in the evening; they are determined to get back to their
old roosting quarters. This is obviated if they are carried
directly into the new house and are kept indoors at least
until the next day.

We put the whole lot from a brooder house into a fifty-
foot compartment of the laying house—usually six or
seven hundred. A special set of roosts is put into place
under the dropping boards. ‘These roosts are made otf
_¥4x2 stuff, set 6 inches apart on cross bars of 1x3, 5 feet
long. They are hinged to the back wall about 12 inches

106 HOW I MADE $10,000 IN ONE YEAR

from the concrete floor with supports under the center
and near the front end. I’wo sections of roosts are used,
each about 6 feet long. This leaves a clear space between
the two sections. The floor is bedded down heavily with
straw; near the back wall the straw is packed in until it”
is flush with the roosts. We usually line the back wall
with chunks from the bales and pile loose straw on top
of these. The purpose is to prevent a piling up under the
roosts which is likely to occur the first night or two.
Chicks seldom take to the roosts immediately when they
have been moved, even though they have been roosting.

We keep them in the house for a full day after moving
them to let them get acquainted with the new quarters;
and if the weather is bad they are kept indoors. several
days. An exposure to severe weather is extremely bad
policy just after moving a lot of young birds; they are
nervous and excited at best and are far more susceptible
to adverse influences.

The awning is dropped at night; and if it is very cold
(or wet and cold), we hang a burlap curtain from the
dropboard reaching to within 8 or 10 inches of the floor.
We make it a point to be with them at bedtime the first
night; they have come to know us, and in their strange
quarters it seems to have a quieting effect to be arouna.
We look in on them at the 7 o'clock round; if the curtain
was dropped and they seem to be too warm it is partially
or completely raised—as seems best. We look ih again
just betore our own bedtime and make such readjust-
ment as may be necessary. [his extra watchiulness is
not necessary aiter a tew nights, when they have grown
accustomed to the new place.

WITH 4200 HENS 107

The main feed troughs are cut off, either by removal
(the covers being hung to the outside wall), or by tack-
ing a piece of %4x3 stuff in the openings both inside and
out. The mash is fed in troughs made of a 6-inch bot-
tom with %x4 pieces for the sides, end pieces 6 inches
high, and a piece of 1x4 across the top. Troughs are set
both in and outside the house. Troughs of this same size
are used for the March pullets in the brooder houses at
from 7 to 8 weeks, and also for the cockerels when they
reach that age. It 1s advisable to continue the use of two
or three of the smaller sized troughs for a few days after
the change is made—this applies at all stages.

The regular house water pots are used after a few days.
It is good practice to set one or two of the old style foun-
tains inside the house, on platforms, just after the birds
are moved. The pots are cleaned with a brush every day.

The feed is continued as before. The pan or box of
shell and grit must not be overlooked.

When cockerels are spotted they are picked up ai al
ly and removed to the cockerel house.

As soon as an appreciable number, say half, of the
birds are found on the dropboard roosts at night—if they
do not take to the dropboard compartments before they
begin to look crowded underneath—the lower section 1s
closed off and all are forced into the upper section. ‘Vhis
is accomplished by the-use of a set of sloping lath ladders
set tight together, fastened to the front droppoard sup-
port by loops of wire hung on nails. ‘he laths are nailed
to the supports not more than 1% inches apart and the
whole set 1s htted pertectly both on the edges where the
ditterent sections meet and on the floor. Care should be

108 HOW I MADE $10,000 IN ONE YEAR

exercised to have no opening large enough for a bird to
slip through. With the use of these ladders no trouble is
had in getting the birds to go “upstairs.” If a few stay
in the straw at the foot of the ladders we do not disturb
them—they will go up’in a night or two. But we make
sure that none lie on the trough steps or in other out-of-
the-way places. In a week or ten days the ladders may
safely be removed, and the underneath roosts are taken
out at the same time. A ladder is left in the center of
each 16-foot section.

As soon as the birds attain a proper size so they cannot
crawl through the 3-inch openings, the main troughs are
put into use; but several of the 6-inch troughs are con-
tinued in use for a few days when the change is made.

When the March pullets are put into the laying house
(if they are from 10 to 12 weeks old, as they are with us),
they are put directly on the dropboards by use of the lath
ladders. They are kept indoors two days after moving if
the weather permits. They can’t be kept indoors that
long if it is very warm. ‘The same trough and yard ar-
rangement is made as was made with the January lots.
If they are to be moved at the earlier stage, 6 to 8 weeks,
it would be necessary to use the same under-the-drop-
board roosting arrangement as was used with the Jan-
uary birds.

Watch the birds carefully when you remove them from
the brooder house and do not expose them to chilling
weather. bear in mind they no longer have a warm room
to run to. If they have been turned outdoors and rain or
a cold wind comes up better take the time to herd them
into the house. ‘lhey are at one of the susceptible stages

WITH 4200 HENS 109

of development and if you let them get soggy wet and
chill you will surely have arun of colds. Do not let them
outdoors very early in the morning. Give them a chance
to have their morning drink and to eat some mash first.

Being able to give the young pullets this extra aaa
tion with food, water and scratch quarters available,
what makes the use of laying-house eee superior to
the portable colony house system.

Should colds develop in spite of your care, give them
the salts and tonic treatment, the salts one day and the
tonic twice, a day apart; if they are 8 weeks old or older,
double the dose both of salts and tonic. If the colds
continue give them this treatment each week; and in case
of a severe attack continue the tonic steadily for a week
or ten days.

Should the birds take to piling up at night (under the
dropboards), put on the curtain when they go to bed and
raise it part ways on your last inspection. The curtain
makes of the compartment what is practically a closed
box and several hundred birds in it will devleop a great
deal of heat in a very short time. The opening at the
bottom of the curtain will allow a sufficient supply of
fresh air for an hour or two. But there will not be suffi-
cient air for the whole night. ‘The closed curtain is used
simply to warm up the compartment as quickly as pos-
sible; and warming it up quickly will induce them to
spread out before they sweat.

The January pullets are kept on the chick mash until
they are at least 4 months old; and if they are well de-
veloped and many full-blown combs are in evidence at

110 HOW I MADE $10,000 IN ONE YEAR

that time, the chick mash is continued until 5 months.
Regular laying mash is then substituted.

The March pullets are given the laying mash at from
10 to 12 weeks, depending on the weather and their de-
velopment. If they have grown fast and cool weather
has prevailed (which has a tendency to stimulate growth
and development) they are continued on the chick mash
until 12 weeks; but if it has been been hot at intervals
(or steadily) the birds will be slower, and they are then
given the heavier mash at 10 weeks.

Culling the Pullets

We have learned by experience and by observation to
go very slow on discarding and selling so-called “cull”
pullets. One can run up their production per bird by
making a close culling, taking out and getting rid of all
the undeveloped birds at from 4 to 5 months; but we
are not so certain that it is a profitable thing to do. For
several years we culled them in this manner; but instead
of getting rid of the culls we kept them in a separate
pen, and by far the larger part of these “culls” were after-
wards retained. One such lot, taken from March hatches,
outlayed the main flock throughout the high priced egg
season, and never did we find we would be warranted fn
disposing of the entire lot.

A case of mistaken culling that came directly to the
writer’s notice was one where a friend of his bought 75
cull pullets from a dealer who obtained them from one
of the large egg-farms; they were bought on the writer's
advice. The purchaser knew how to handle chickens.
This particular lot came into laying within two weeks

WITH 4200 HENS 111

of the time he got them and they made a flock average of
better than 170 eggs in their first year—which is rather
good for culls, especially since only one of the birds was
discarded.

We take out none but the plainest sort of culls—birds
that are far undersized, scragely, thin, draggy specimens.
Anyone can spct these. They are usually an eyesore in
the flock. Others that are lagging in development we
segregate and keep to themselves for a few weeks, feed-
ing them as we feed the broiler cockerels. This will bring
them out if there is anything to bring out. If they do
not respond to it we get rid of them. We think this plan
is well worth following.

These slower birds may not equal the high-laying
record; but if they pay their feed and as little as 50c
profit per bird we have made money by the transaction.
If they are constitutionally weak they will go down in
the first moult, if we do not cull them out meantime, so
they are no detriment to our breeding plans. It would
be an easy matter to band them if one wished to be
absolutely sure of their proving no detriment.

The matter of culling will be discussed further in a
subsequent chapter devoted to that subject.

Feeding and Handling the Cockerels

As our cockerels for breeding are taken from the Jan-
uary hatches we do not force the January lots at the
start. They are continued on dry chick mash, with
sprouted oats fed at 9 to 10 a. m., and grain in the even-
ing. Green stuff is fed, of course, and a pan of shell and
grit is kept in each compartment of the yard. At 8 or 9

WITH 4200 HENS 113

weeks we make the first segregation for breeding stock.
The best looking, active, vigorous birds, those that stand
out in the flock, are put aside, in a separate compartment.
At this first segregation we take out about three times
the number we are likely to need. These are continued
on the same plan of feeding.

The remainder, as well as all of the March cockerels,
are forced for broilers. They are given a light feed of
grain early in the morning; sprouted oats at about 9;
moistened mash at 10 (fed crumbly, not soggy) ; greens
at noon; a light feed of grain at 3 to 4, followed by wet
mash within an hour. The quantity of all feed is gauged
carefully from day to day, an effort being made to feed
just what they will clean up in about ten or fifteen min-
utes. Ample trough space is provided so that all tne
birds can find a place. We use the 4-inch troughs at first
and change to the 6-inch size as soon as the birds are
large enough to eat from them comfortably. We keep
them crowded; there is little room to spare either in the
house or yard.

They are sold off just as soon as the market will take
them. We sella great many at from 3 to one pound, and
but few are carried to 1% pounds excepting when there
is a glut in the market and we are compelled to run them
up higher. This happens at times—always to our regret.
With us it is no question of whether or not it is profitable
to feed them for the higher weight. Our object is to get
rid of them as soon as we can. We have our hands full,
and we think we make more money by giving our avail-
able time to the pullets.

A beginner, in his first season, with nothing but the

114 HOW I MADE $10,000 IN ONE YEAR

young chicks on his hands and ample housing space avail-
able and ready would be warranted in carrying the broil-
ers long enough to make the 114-pound weight under the
market conditions prevailing in 1918-19. But a Leghorn
should not be carried beyond that point. They make the
11%4-pound stage more quickly, on the average, than any
other breed, but beyond it they fall back by comparison
—almost any heavy breed will make the 2-pound stage
in less time than a Leghorn will. Furthermore in the
ordinary market any other breed is given the preference
over a Leghorn at 2 pounds and upward.

There are more culls in the cockerels as a rule, more
thin and “wasty” specimens, than among the pullets.
These should be segregated and sold as a separate lot and
as soon as ever a buyer can be found who will take them.
Price is no object. Feeding cull cockerels is about as
easy a way to lose money as the writer knows of.

Marketing Broilers

In marketing a lot of cockerels we make it a rule to
grade them by weight, putting the one pounders in one
yard, the 1% pound in another, and the 1% pound in still
another. It pays to do this. Gauging the weight is a
matter of experience. The only way to learn is to have
a small family scale for the purpose. T’wo persons can
handle the work to better advantage than one working
alone. Shut the first lot in the house, the second lot out
of the house. Take the scale into the house along with a
short hook. Pick up the largest looking bird, weigh him,
clip his tail and turn him loose again. Use him as a
sample to guide your further choice. Birds that weigh
up can be put into the yard through the slide door; those

WITH 4200 HENS 115

under weight can be put into the next compartment
through the partition door; and the very small ones
should be put into a crate standing outside.

This is the easiest way we know of to make the grad-
ing. Ifa bird is unruly and refuses to lie on the scale,
fold the wings, one over the other, passing the joint of
one wing clear round the other wing. When you have
graded a few hundred in this manner you will soon learn
to pick them out without separate weighing, and you
can then use a crate in the yard with a platform scale
just outside it, weighing six or more at a time.

The grading should be done early in the morning be-
fore the birds have filled their crops. This will save you a
lot of dissatisfaction in dealing with your buyer. It is
useless to try and sell a lot of feed (inside the birds) ar
broiler prices; and if you are shipping them, while it is
good practice to give them some feed before sending them
on the journey, to prevent undue shrinkage en route, be
sure to allow for the weight of the feed in counting what
you are likely to get for them, as it will be dissipated be-
fore they reach the marketman; otherwise you will be
like the farmer who said of his pig that it did not weigh
as much as he thought it would and he did not expect
it to. |

Cockerels Intended for Breeders

The cockerels retained for possible breeders are given
the use of the large yard as well as the small ones. The
large yard has been planted to green stuff previously and
they are turned into it. They are continued on chick
mash, grain and sprouted oats until they are about 6
months old when hen mash is substituted. Meantime we

116 HOW I MADE $10,000 IN ONE YEAR

pick up any that do not measure up to standard and put
them in with the younger broilers for market. This
process of elimination is continued until none but the
choicest specimens remain. If we have more than we
need they are sold for breeding purposes.

They become very troublesome at 4 months of age.
There will be a lot of chasing and tearing around. Some
will go down in distress and if they are not removed they
will be killed. We keep a long-distance ear open at all
times and at signs of a specially riotous time we investi-
gate and remove the cause of the trouble. It is death toa
hen or pullet that is permitted to remain in the cockerel
yards if one should fly the fences.

Some of the birds are likely to be kept in the houses by
the bosses and will suffer for food and water. We make
it a rule to turn them all out of the house early in the
morning, closing the slide doors to keep them out, and
leaving the door closed for an hour or two. ‘They are
less troublesome in the morning; and in this manner they
are sure to get feed and water. In cool weather this can
be done again in the evening.

We tried a plan once suggested of keeping a few old
cock birds with the young cockerels to act as policeman,
putting them in early, while the cockerels were still quite
young. This scheme worked beautifully. The old fel-
lows kept the peace and made the youngsters behave,
until one bright day the youngsters “rushed” the old fel-
lows and answering the riot call we found the old men
down on their knees in different corners; it looked as
though a concerted plan had been agreed upon for every
single one of the old cocks was utterly whipped.

WITH 4200 HENS 117

A brother poultryman recently suggested planting milo
maize or egyptian corn in the large yard, putting it in
rows close together and sowed thickly. This when
grown forms a heavy thicket which would afford protec-
tion. We shall try it another season. We welcome and
appreciate any suggestion that might lead to easier con-
ditions among the breeding cockerels. It might fairly,
truthfully and slangfully be said “they are a tough lot,
and the better they are the tougher.”

Housing the Layers

Our laying houses are intended to house 10 birds to
the running foot—500 to each 50-foot compartment. If
it happens that we have 550 pullets in one brooder house
lot we put them into the one compartment. After they
begin to lay, when they have become firmly established
in their roosting quarters, we open two or even three
compartments and yards into one and plant first one yard
then another to barley, shutting it off until the green stuff
is 6 to 8 inches high. The birds are then turned into it
and another section is planted. In this way growing
green stuff is had in the yards for the greater part of the
season. It is not practicable to grow anything in the
yards in our section in July and August; where it can be
done it might very profitably be continued throughout
the year.

We do not mix birds hatched in different months. The
January birds are kept together, likewise those hatched
in March. It was the following of such a system that en-
abled us to determine the relative earnings of birds
hatched in different months. |

118 HOW I MADE $10,000 IN ONE YEAR

During the late fall, throughout the winter and early ©
in the spring the outside doors of the watershed are
closed after the birds have gone to roost; and they are
not reopened until 7 or 8 o’clock next morning. During
heavy rains they are kept indoors all day.

Feeding Laying Hens

The layers have dry mash before them at all times.
Our standard formula of mash for laying hens follows:

Pure AV heat Bran. ty ee 640 pounds
Wheat Shorts or low grade flour.... 320 pounds
Ground Fiytled Baroy... ey 200 pounds
Yellow Feed Meal (Corn meal)........ 300 pounds
Croley’s High Protem Meat. 300 pounds
(roley’s dried green bones. oy 100 pounds
Linseed’, Oilcake Deal es 50 pounds
Pipe Charcog! e ee ee eee 50 pounds
al t-—Tintely “eitbed fe ee ee 20 pounds

"ROR Giiire Clee ee 1980 pounds

The meat product designated contains 75% of whale
meat and 25% fish meal.

The mash is mixed for us at the mill; we supervise the
operation. It is put up in 80-pound bags, which we find .
the most convenient size for handling. It is carried to
the troughs in the bags. This has been found an easier
and quicker method of handling than by loading on a
wheelbarrow or cart which would be hard pushing or
pulling through soft ground, and our ground is always
soft.

WITH 4200 HENS 119

At from 8 to 8:30 A. M. sprouted oats are fed, at the
rate of 1 gallon to 100 birds. This is fed in the yards,
excepting in very bad weather when it is fed in the litter.

When the oats are fed the mash troughs are looked over
and any needing replenishments are looked after when
the oats feeding is over. The troughs are filled to within
about one inch of the top; if it is run higher than this
there will be waste. At intervals the mash remaining in
the trough is pulled into one corner with a shovel or a
hoe, to prevent its becoming stale. A card record is
tacked. to the wall in each mash storage place, with a
column designated for each compartment of the house.
As the mash is carried out it is recorded in the appro-|
priate column. ‘This enables us to determine the weekly
mash consumption of each compartment.

Greens are fed either early in the morning or at noon.
We use alfalfa or green barley, run through a feed cutter
which is driven by a small motor; and for a large part
of the year we have a supply of clover lawn clippings.

Coarse shell is kept in a box in the water shed and at .
intervals coarse granite grit is added to it.

Grain is fed at from 3 to 4 P. M., according to season.
The quantity is varied according to mash consumption.
We aim to feed half and half of mash and grain, the
weight of the dry oats used being counted as grain. The
schedule of grain quantities for the different compart-
ments is made up once each week. Ii a certain compart-
ment has taken 700 pounds of mash during the week that
compartment is given 100 pounds of grain daily the weex
following. This while not absolutely correct is close
enough for practical purposes.

WHV4 593 HOVEWNL AHL NO SHONOYL HSVW ONINNSASY

WITH 4200 HENS 121

During bad weather when the birds are kept indoors
the grain is fed in the litter, otherwise it is fed in the
yards. During the dry summer and fall months the
yards are wet down thoroughly at regular intervals to
avoid dust and its consequent dust-colds and throat irri-
tation. We tried feeding part of the grain in the litter
throughout the year but this had to be abandoned. It is
impossible in this dry climate to avoid heavy clouds of
dust rising when hundreds of birds are feeding and
scratching indoors.

During the winter months, when wet, chilly mornings
prevail, a light feed of grain is scattered in the litter after
the birds have gone to roost. This starts them working
early in the morning. The air is usually moist at that
season and the dust raised is not heavy enough to be
detrimental.

Beginning about September 15th and continuing until
about the middle of December the moulting hens are
given a special mash feed immediately after the grain is
fed. Special low troughs are set in the yards and a small
quantity of mash is carried to them in buckets. This
mash is wet down lightly with a sprinkling can of water
into which Douglas Mixture has been added at the rate of
one tablespoonful to each quart of water. A measuring
cup is used holding just the proper quantity for a sprink-
ling can full. Only so much mash is put out as will be
cleaned up before the birds go to roost.

We use the 5-gallon oil cans, converted into pails, for
feeding the sprouted oats and grain. The weight of a
pail full of grain being ascertained it is an easy matter
to gauge the quantity that should be put into each pail to

122 HOW I MADE $10,000 IN ONE YEAR

make up the proper amount for each yard of birds.
When the mash is checked out at the end of the week and
the pen-quantity of grain is ascertained, it is noted on a
card tacked to the wall and the pails are filled each day
according to that record.

The grain used is varied according to the market prices
of different kinds. We try always to feed some wheat
and some yellow corn and we avoid the use of seed bar-
ley (with the hulls on it), when we can do so without
running the grain cost too high. Wheat and corn are the
standard of price with us and we value other grains ac-
cording to their supposed feeding value as compared with
these. For instance, if seed barley is more than 80% of
the cost of wheat and the wheat can be had, we buy the
wheat; if the sorghums—milo maize, egyptian corn,
kaffir corn, etc-—are more than 80% of the price of yellow
corn, we buy and use the yellow corn. But we try at all
times to have at least 3 grains in the mixture.

At the present time we are mixing 400 pounds of
wheat, 100 pounds of yellow corn and 130 pounds of
egyptian corn. Until the barley market was allowed to
run wild—at the time this is written barley is quoted us
in large quantities at $3.50 per hundred and we are buy-
ing a good grade of wheat for $3.60-—until this occurred
we used 110 pounds of re-cleaned seed barley in the mix-
ture. We also had milo maize in the mixture—130
pounds of it. It is now quoted at but a few cents below
yellow corn, so we abandoned it.

In less troublous days we fed a straight mixture of 2
parts of wheat and 1 part of yellow corn; and if a reason-
able price level is ever established again we would return
to that standard mixture. |

WITH 4200 HENS 123

The grain is mixed on the concrete floor in the teed-
house and it is put directly from the floor into the pails,
the remainder of one mix lying there until the next day
when it is used up and a fresh mix is made.

We use nothing but sweet, sound, well matured grain;
under no circumstances do we buy or use damaged stuff.
Corn must be watched especially—it must smell and taste
sweet. Mouldy feed of any kind is extremely expensive
chicken feed. It not only hurts the birds, often causing
diarrhoea, but it checks the egg flow. We are about
ready to admit that a poultryman could better afford to
starve his birds for three or four days than to give them
mouldy feed.

The grain is mixed and the pails are filled and set in
place, ready for feeding, as soon as the early morning
work is over. There is always time to spare at that period
of the day. During the dry season the pails are carried
to the several gates and are covered over to keep wild
birds out of the grain. When feeding time comes there
is no delay, and the actual feeding takes but a very short
time. The pails are carried into the yards and one is
tilted under the arm and the grain is spilled out in a thin
stream. [he aim is to move as quickly as possible so
that all of the birds may have an equal chance, and to
make as long a stream as possible. In the larger yards
two men usually work together and a double stream is
run out. With the system we employ it is surprising how
quickly a flock of four or five thousand birds can be fed.

We make it a rule never to deviate from the feeding

_ plan—we start at the same yard each day and the round
is always identical. It makes the birds nervous to feed

124 HOW I MADE $10,000 IN ONE YEAR

on a helter-skelter plan, starting here one day, there the
next. | |

We feed by the clock. and vary the time with the
weather. As the seasons change, making it necessary to
feed earlier or later, we advance or drop back a few min-
utes each day until the proper hour is reached. The flock
should not be kept standing at the fence for an hour or
two—until you return from a visit, perhaps. You are
losing money every minute they stand there, for a stand-
ing hen spells a standing loss; your money-maker is
moving.

When it is necessary to keep the birds indoors the
feeding is much slower as the grain must then be scat-
tered widely because of limited floor space. This cannot
be avoided. The change always affects the egg yield, as
does a sudden change in the weather; it is simply a case
of the choice of two evils.

The actual feeding of the oats, greens and grain, is
never interrupted once it has been started. We do not
stop to pick up an egg that lies in the yard or a bird that
is out of condition—such things are attended to when the
feeding is finished. Nor do we allow strangers to crowd
the fences, let alone enter the yards when the birds are
feeding. Ladies with violent clothes or fancy parasols
or even ordinary umbrellas (carried open), frolicsome
children, playful dogs—all of these are barred from the
vicinity of the houses and yards. Young pullets are espe-
cially susceptible. An open red parasol once gave us
several hours’ work gathering a flock of young pullets
from the tops of houses and the neighbors’ premises.

We always call the birds when feeding so as to round

WITH 4200 HENS 125

up any strays that may be working in the house. So far
as the birds are concerned it makes no difference what
your call may be, whether a verse from the Bible or a bit
of profanity, so that it is the same call all the time. As
a matter of fact the writer talks to (or at?) the birds from
the time they are hatched. We think they understand
the spirit from the tone. Going through the houses at
night we can start one lot after another to answering a
softly spoken greeting. The habit is worth while when a
riot breaks out in the flock at night, as it will at times.
The writer can open a compartment door. wherein the
birds are in full cry and quiet them with a few words;
and if it breaks out again we wander around rather care-
fully after making sure that our shooting irons are really
loaded.

The hens in the broody coops are given no mash;
sprouted oats, greens and grain are fed them on the reg-
ular rounds.

Cost of Feeding a Hen

The table following shows the month by month cost

of feeding a hen on our farm during 1913 and 1918. The

comparison is interesting. 1913 1918
oe OEE gaa > ieee lt ae ah Bi is. if3e 18 3/4c
RRR oO, Lia, Ch ee 15 1/4 19 3/4
_ OE es One keane ee Ae sant eels f 1%: es) 2 Bye
ae Bs A RR eR je a 21
__- ee _ RARE tea aes ont | ca Pe 22.172
USE So Re ok 14 2/5 20 1/4
a a eee F 19 1/2
(PERC PSs cad ae sO a a #3 If3 16: 1/2
SEEN ee oy. 8 a 10:12 16 1/4
ee eas oe ee oh a Fa bee 17 1/4
MEM RRMREET ra ones. Are) L7 3/4
TENE te ire) a oe 14 1/4 20 ao

A, SIRI tact Ha NS rene cee $1.63 1/10 $2.29 4/10

WHV4 593 HOVEWNL SHL NO SNIGSSS SLATINd NYOHD3A1 SLIHM OOET 40 MBIA WILuvd

WITH 4200 HENS 127

The term “Feed” as used in this connection is a mis-
nomer to this extent—we include the cost of disinfec-
tants and litter used.

Allowance must be made for the fact that we buy in
large quantities. But we do not speculate on the grain
market—our feed is bought from month to month as
needed.

Sprouting Oats

The oats are soaked in wooden pails overnight and are
then spread in wooden boxes having sides and ends 6
inches high. In cold weather the grain is piled up in
one end of the box and is heavily blanketed with sacks
at night, the boxes resting flat on the ground. It must be
kept moist but not soggy-wet. The box should be set
out of level so the surplus water will drain off. The grain
is stirred up each day. When the sprouts begin to show
it is thinned out by spreading it in the box. In warm
weather it is piled up about 3 inches high at the start and
is gradually spread out. The grain is always covered
over with burlap which is kept moist. The boxes are
raised from the ground during warm weather and are
sheltered from the direct rays of the sun.

Care must be exercised to keep the grain from heating
and spoiling. Nothing short of experience will demon-
strate how long it may lay and how thickly it may be
kept. In normal spring weather we allow it to lay about 3
days from the time it is put into the boxes. Ifa lot “goes
bad,” in which event it will either show green mould or
become slimy, with a disagreeable sour odor, it is thrown
Out. Spraying the boxes at intervals with the regular

128 HOW I MADE $10,000 IN ONE YEAR

spraying material is good practice. We always have one
box empty and drying out. :
The use of sprouted oats is not a necessity. We go to
the extra trouble because the birds relish the feed; it is
a palatable variety and anything of the kind is a benefit.
It has been said by men of scientific trend of mind that
sprouted oats are rich in the digestive agent, vitamen.
This may or may not be so—it is entirely beyond our
limited mentality. We feed it for the reason given.

Water and Care of Water Pots

We use two one-gallon stone water jars in the water
shed of each 50-foot compartment. These are fed by seff-
regulating float valves. A faucet is installed in each
water shed for use in cleaning the pots, watering the
broody hens, and wetting down the yards. The water
pots are scrubbed with a coarse brush every day, usually
just before or just after noon. We think it important
that this be done. Particles of dry mash adhering to the
beaks of the birds are washed into the pots and if this is
allowed to stand in the pots it soon becomes sour and
forms a slimy mass which would be far from healthful.

The birds must have fresh pure water at all times.
Neglect your feeding if you must neglect something, but
do not neglect the water. During hot weather we make
sure that the outer doors of the water shed are in such
position that the pots are shaded from the sun.

: Gathering the Eggs
We gather the eggs twice each day—at 1 and 5 p. m.
We use 4 gallon galvanized iron pails, which hold 150
eggs nicely. Two pails are carried to a compartment;

WITH 4200 HENS 129

one is hung out of reach of the birds while the other is
filled ; the full one is set outdoors, and when both are filled
they are carried to the egg room. We do not load them
on a wheelbarrow or cart. The distance is not great and
‘we find the breakage to be much less if they are carried.

If an egg is dropped the remains are picked up as well
as may be and are thrown into a mash trough. It is bad
practice to allow the birds to eat a broken egg where it
lies. Not only may egg eating be thereby encouraged.
but the hens soon form the habit of following the egg
buckets, and if by chance a bucket of eggs is left for a
moment they will be found pecking at the eggs. An im-
perfect-shell near the top means an egg broken into the
mass; and this in turn means washing the whole lot as
the white will glue eggs together wherever it touches
them. Nothing but a thorough soaking will disengage
them and many will adhere and be broken in spite of it.

At the last gathering the nests are closed. The brood-
ies can be taken out and put into the broody coops dur-
ing the last gathering. The nests are opened after dark,
at which time the outer doors of the house are closed dur-
ing the late fall, throughout the winter, and in the early
spring. The compartment doors are always closed at
night and are re-opened when the sprouted oats are fed
in the morning.

The trip through the houses after dark is thought ad-
visable. One can keep in touch with the roosting condi-
tions, and should colds develop it will quickly be noticed.

Grading and Packing the Eggs

We grade the eggs according to the specifications of the
Los Angeles Produce Exchange. This calls for three

130 HOW I MADE $10,000 IN ONE YEAR |

grades: Eggs weighing not less than 22 ozs. per dozen,
averaging not less than 24 ozs. per dozen, and weighing,
case included, not less than 55 pounds to the 30 dozen
case; these are called “Fresh Extras.” The second grade
is known as “Pullets’—not because of their being laid:
by pullets but because of their size. They must weigh
not less than 18 ozs. per dozen, running to less than 22
ozs. and averaging 48 pounds to the 30 dozen case, case
included. Those running smaller than the “Pullet” size
are called ““Peewees”; this grade is made up of the first
eggs laid by the pullets which are usually undersized.

Each egg must conform to the weight requirement.
This is obtained by the use of a special scale made for
the purpose; the weights provided with the scale will
balance one-twelfth of 22 and: 18 ozs. respectively. A
little practice enables one to weigh the eggs very rapidly
and after a time many can be passed into the proper grade
without weighing.

We pack no eggs with weak or broken shells ; and eggs
that are very much soiled are washed. These are put
into a special case during the storage season (March to
May) as a washed egg will not stand up in cold storage.

A special grade is made for other than white-shelled
eggs but as we have no other this does not interest us.

The eggs are allowed to stand in the buckets over night
so that the animal heat may escape before they are
packed. We have demonstrated the fact that eggs packed
immediately will sweat in the card board fillers of the
case and the quality is thereby impaired, especially for
storage. Contrary to general belief an egg taken from the
nest while yet warm and cooked immediately is not as

WITH 4200 HENS 131

good an egg as one that has been allowed to become
“set” by a 24-hour cooling.

Marketing the Eggs

Our entire output of eggs for table use is sold to a
wholesale egg merchant on a yearly contract. The eggs
are called for and empty cases are returned three times a
week. We make no sales whatever outside the contract
—not even a single dozen. The merchant who contracts
our output knows from one day to another just what he
may count on. Such an arrangement enables one to ob-
tain the best possible price.

It is the writer’s belief that a middleman or his equiv-
alent in some form or another is an absolute necessity,
especially in the egg business, the product of which de-
teriorates so rapidly. The egg farmer must have a place
where he knows his entire product will be accepted and
welcomed at a fair price. If he is working on the right
system his time will be well taken up, especially during
the season of heaviest production. At that time he should
be brooding chicks. To interrupt this most important
activity or to curtail the number he might handle by giv-
ing part of his time to the selling end of the business is
a serious mistake.

If the man who markets his products in small lots,
selling what he can at retail and dumping the remainder
finally at wholesale, would take the trouble to keep record
of the time spent along with the difference in price re-
ceived for the remainder, compared with what he could
get if he sold the whole product, he would easily see tne
point herein made. But his greatest loss is not apparent.

132 HOW I MADE $10,000 IN ONE YEAR

This is represented by the profit he might have made from
the additional pullets he could have raised.

A retail merchant counts his time, interest on invest-
ment, wear and tear on delivery equipment, and similar
charges as part of the cost of the article he handles. The
average farmer, on the contrary, counts none of these
when estimating the additional profit he made by re-
tailing. But the fact that he does not count them cuts no
figure—the cost is there just the same.

The view expressed, summed up, is that the egg farm-
er should make his entire profit in the production of the
egg. If there is no profit, or too small a profit, in the pro-
duction end of the business he had better retire from it.

Co-operative marketing of the product of egg farms has
come to be much in vogue in California. Where the pro-
duction is limited, and especially where a number-of egg
farms are located within reasonable distance of each
other, the plan has much in its favor. The all-important
question is, what does it cost to handle the business?
Perhaps equally important is the question of how far
should the operation be carried? When co-operative
associations enter the field of retailing and cold-storage
they are reaching the zone of thin ice from the writer’s
point of view. Insofar as they may be used in establish-
ing and maintaining a fair price for the product, the cost
of which they should have no difficulty in determining,
they are clearly within their proper field.

The subject is a large one, however, and what has been
said merely touches the surface. Those who are consider-
ing that form of marketing their product may well give
thought to these general suggestions.

WITH 4200 HENS 133

Selling Hatching Eggs and Baby Chicks

We contract our surplus hatching eggs to a commercial
hatchery on the same general plan that is followed in
marketing eggs for table use; we make a contract for the
whole supply by the year. And as has already been said,
we do no hatching whatever. This course was adopted
after a number of years’ experience doing our own hatch-
ing and selling such odd lots of hatching eggs as we could
find a market for. We do not obtain as high a price for
the eggs in this way but we sell them all. We prefer a
certain small premium to a possible larger one.

To those who prefer making the experiment for them-
selves or to those who have time to spare for such activi-
ties we have one bit of advice to offer: Do not make the
common mistake of booking in advance orders for eggs
or chicks that may, by any possible chance, interfere with
your own hatching dates. Set your own dates and stick
to them. Should there be any doubt of your having
enough eggs from your own flock arrange for the possible
deficit elsewhere. Let nothing interfere with getting
your chicks and all of them at the time or times you de-
cide to have them.

The writer has seen a number of ventures founder on
this rock. The demand for hatching eggs and baby
chicks is extremely heavy during the choice hatching
months. To grab off the few pennies that might lie in
selling the eggs at hatching prices the thoughtless poul-
tryman engages and sells the eggs at that time and
hatches for himself when the demand slackens. This is
suicide. It is akin to selling all your good apples and
keeping the rotten ones for yourself.

'

134 HOW I MADE $10,000 IN ONE YEAR

Cleaning and Disinfecting
The dropping boards are cleaned every ten days and
the concrete floors are cleaned of litter every three
months. In wet weather cleaning the drop every
week is advisable.

A long handled, square-point shovel is used, face ddwa:
on the drop-boards, the droppings being pushed toward ©
the back wall; this scrapes them clean. A large hoe is
then used to pull the mass into a wheelbarrow, specially
built to fit under the edge of the drop-board. A wide rake
and a scoop shovel are the best tools for cleaning out the
litter, along with a spade to loosen any Best... that
adhere to the concrete.

When the buildings are new we spray them before
birds are put into them. Thereafter the underside of the
roosts and crossbars and the drop-boards are sprayed
after each cleaning. When this has been done for sev-
eral months the wood becomes thoroughly saturated
and they are then sprayed once each month.

We use stove distillate, a thick brown liquid, and mix
with it 5 per cent of creosote. The latter can be bought
in drug or paint stores. It is applied with a 5-gallon
compressed air sprayer which can be bought at seed —
stores.

The spraying is usually done in the afternoon, after
the first gathering of eggs, to lessen the chance of the
birds getting their feet into the stuff and then walking
over a lot of eggs. ‘This mixture is likely to cause dis-
colored feathers, especially in wet weather, but years of
use ot it has demonstrated to us that it will keep out
vermin and we chance the discolored feathers.

WITH 4200 HENS 135

We do not approve of the water mixtures for spray-
ing; we prefer the oily base which saturates the wood.
A cheap grade of kerosene may be used in place of
distillate.
Disposition of Manure

All of the manure, both drop-board material and litter,
is sold under a yearly contract. The purchaser does the
hauling. |

There is keen competition for it in this section for use
in fertilizing citrus groves. It seems generally agreed
that it is the most valuable of all fertilizers. It is worth
at this time about $8.00 per two-yard load, at the farm.
When we started in the business we gave it away. Our
total sales up to this time have brought us more than
$1,200.

A cubic yard of drop-board material averages about
750 pounds in weight during the dry summer months.

Freshening the Yards

The yards in use are either ploughed or cultivated once
each month. If the ground is dry the sprayers are put
on and it is thoroughly wet down the day before the
ploughing is done.

When old hens are sold off and yards are vacant they
are ploughed and sowed to barley. ‘This is used to sup-
plement the supply of green stuff through the late fall
and winter. Barley planted in September is high enough
to be cut with a scythe in about six weeks and we have
had as many as four and five cuttings from it. It is
finally allowed to head out and mature when it is cut
and used for litter. Maturing the grain seems to purify

WaV4d SSS HOVEWNL 3

WITH 4200 HENS 137

the soil most thoroughly. The edges and corners of the
yards are turned over with a spade so that no unclean por-
tions remain.

When several compartments of birds are opened into
one, by opening the partition doors, one section of the
yard is closed off. This is sowed to barley and the birds
are turned into that yard as soon as the barley is 6 or 8
inches high, the other section being sowed. This is con-
tinued throughout the year, excepting during July ana
August when hot weather makes barley-growing i1m-
possible.

Young stock is never put into a yard without growing
barley init. This is an invariable rule.

Breeding Plan

We use nothing but January hatched male birds for
breeding purposes, the sons of December layers. Cock-
erels are mated with yearling hens and yearling cocks
with January hatched pullets. We prefer not using eggs
from the January hatched pullets for the January hatches
of the following year—they are used for the March
hatches.

We mate at the rate of 20 to 1, with not less than 500
birds in one yard and house; as a rule we have from 1,000
to 1,500 in one flock. The cockerel-hen mating is made
early, usually in August; the pullet-cock mating is de-
ferred until November. _

~The birds should be mated at least two weeks before
the eggs are used.

Our experience has been that the male birds are much
better off if they are not taken out and segregated from

138 HOW I MADE $10,000 IN ONE YEAR

the hens once they are mated. We never separate them
if the male birds are to be used in the breeding yaras
again. We double them up when the hatching season is
over, keeping in one yard all the males that will be car-
ried over. The males are dusted for lice when the change
is made and again when the yards are made up for the
following season. The male birds are inch to neglect
the dust bath.

The hens are not selected—we mate the flock as it
stands. A hen that has passed through her first laying
season, escaping our culling sickle, and that goes through
the moult in good shape, again escaping being culled, is
considered a fit mother to our next year’s pullets. This
may not be the correct method, but it is the method em-
ployed here; and it is the method employed in gaining
warrant for the title of this book.

Selling the Old Hens

We carry the layers through two laying seasons and
sell them when they reach the non-profit stage at the end
of the second season. Pullets raised in the spring of 1919
will be sold in the fall of 1921. When the egg yield de-
creases to a questionable point we make a rough calcu-
lation of the daily cost of feeding the lot of hens to be
sold; and when the value of the eggs laid in any one day
does not show a profit over the feed cost the birds are
sold in one lot.

It is possible to pick out the birds that are still laying, ©
either by their appearance (if one has the experience nec-
essary to judge), or by taking.them off the nests day by
day for four or five days; we have done this several times

WITH 4200 HENS 139

and made a little profit by it, but as a rule the profit to
be made thereby is too small to warrant the time and
effort expended. We take no interest in anatomical tests.

We arrange with a market man to take the whole lot.
Grading the hens by weight usually results in a better
price; this can best be done at the time they are crated.
But we try to make a bargain on the basis of splitting the
price between the high and middle quotations. The low:
price, which applies to culls of very light weight, is not
used in this kind of bargaining where the “pen run” is sold
and none are selected to be saved out. If the best are
being saved out to be carried over the price is likely to be
shaded. In selling the “pen run” of two-year-old birds in
the months of September and October we find they will
average about 3% pounds. If they are sold earlier, or if
they are carried until late in November, they are likely to
weigh a fraction more. Older hens will generally aver-
age more in weight.

We prefer having the birds crated and made ready for
transporting to market at from 3 to 4 o’clock in the morn-
ing. At this time the majority of them can be taken oft
the roosts and put into the crates inside the house. ‘This
is a great saving in time and labor. We have handled
lots of a thousand in this manner and had the loaded
trucks drive away before 7 o’clock.

Egg Yield per Hen
Our best egg production in 1918 was from a yard of 500
pullets, with an average of 152.4 eggs per pullet. ‘he
— lowest pullet yield was 145.1 per pullet from a yard that
originally contained 900 birds hatched March 30th. The

140 HOW I MADE $10,000 IN ONE YEAR

hens laid an average of 120.4 eggs in 11% months. The
table following shows the spread of the yield from the 145
ege pullets and from the hens:

Egg Yield Egg Yield

Month per Pullet per Hen
Depretitiet: TOE ere 2 1.1 6. -
Cay 10) £1 25 Uh 1s Liat k al See Nat MP 1) Se Xie
TES UE Wen” Mire Ter et) te Ts ey: 10.5 32
PUSCORTRC INES Yost ree ONG Tee i137) 6.
Jamate FPO UB 9008 eer ek 13.4 10.3
Pebraey i815 2 R 0 LS eee 2g 12.8 122
js eh gl kt Di Bs UTNE RD Beg ae 172 16.8
PUD IEE Bee. pS ae 17S 17.4
|. EY gino onion WP ee as AAP 1G 16.
Joan ee) ee ee A 13.4 iz,
POLR ake ot Be en ee 12.6 10.3
ACS ee ee ag ee ee 11.1 6.5*

Daten ito olan a od Ua 145.1 ~ 120.4

This table is presented for the benefit of the beginner
who may wish to know what he might expect as to egg
yield from month to month. Its use as a guide is only
relative, however. Weather conditions, both during the
erowing period and during the laying season, will ma-
terially affect the egg-flow. Some seasons there will be
a heavier production during October and November with
a decline in January, and in such case the yield in the
following season is apt to be lighter, especially during the
summer and fall.

*NOTE: The hens were sold on August 15, 1918, on which day they failed to pay
their feed bill.

WITH 4200 HENS 141

Could we control the egg-flow we would much pre-
fer having a good, but not heavy yield from the pullets
during the first fall with a proportionately heavier flow
during the second year. We have had years when this
occurred and we think it is more nearly the ideal.

Electric Lights

We do not use electric lights to force the pullets into
heavier laying during the fall. We have so far been un-
able to gain information, based on authentic records, as
to the profitableness of such a method, especially if the
birds are carried through a second season and are used
for breeding.

A true comparative test of the merits of electric light-
ing involves, from our point of view, a two-year laying
record along with a comparison of the number of eggs
produced during the profitable hatching months; the
comparative hatchability of the eggs and livability of the
chicks; and finally, the comparative mortality among the
layers during both years.

When, if ever, the profits in the work grow more scant
we will make the test; but following our invariable rule
on experiments we will divide a lot of pullets hatched
at the same time, from the same parent stock, raised
under identical conditions, and divided impartially, one
lot being lighted, the other not. During the last few
years, since electric lighting sprang into favor, we have
done too well financially to warrant departing from our
proven methods.

200-Ege Hens

The month-by-month yield herein outlined will doubt-

less be disappointing to the beginner, especially so if he

142 HOW I MADE $10,000 IN ONE YEAR

reads poultry items telling of two hundred and three hun-
dred-egg hens. The egg-laying contests conducted
throughout the country are apt to be discouraging also,
unless the records are carefully analyzed.

In either case the reader must consider not only the
number of birds that reached the high goal, but the num-
ber competing that did not reach it. An authority has
stated that in one contest where nearly 3,000 pullets were
entered, from 5 to 15 in 100 laid 200 eggs or more. Those
entered are of course the very cream of the flock from
which they came. If we allow but 1,000 birds for each
flock represented, the 3,000 mentioned represented then
a total of 300,000; and if we take the maximum of 15
per cent to have reached 200 or more eggs, we have 450
birds of that class out of 300,000.

Viewed from this standpoint 200-egg hens would seem
to be almost as scarce as the proverbial hen’s-teeth.

A higher production per bird may be attained by keep-
ing fewer in one enclosure as is done in the laying con-
tests. Here the economic feature enters into play
again. How much more will it cost for housing and in
day-by-day labor to increase the production in this
manner?

We are satisfied that we can make more net money in
the course of the year by carrying them in large flocks
as we do, with a production as herein outlined; not per
hen, but in sum total. And we would rather have 4,200
birds showing a net profit of $2.50 each than 1,500 giving
a return of $5.00 each.

WITH 4200 HENS 143

Trap-nesting and Other Forms of Intensive Selection

Trap-nesting, carried on persistently and systematically
in connection with scientific breeding and careful pedigree
work, may unquestionably be made the means of in-
creased production per bird. But from the standpoint
of the commercial egg-farmer the economic features must
be taken into consideration. It is purely a question of
what it will cost in money, time and labor to attain the
desired objective and whether or not there will be a
greater net profit at the end of the year—not per bird,
but in total dollars. ;

That “total net profit” is the only influencing factor
with us, allowance being made for the fact that we wish
to continue year after year. Almost anyone would rather
have two 150-egg pullets than one that will lay 200—
if profit is the objective. We have never experimented
with trap-nest work, but the writer believes that he can
raise and care for a sufficiently greater number of 140-150-
egg pullets by the plan and with the methods he follows
to more than offset the profit to be derived from the
higher individual production that may be attained by the
trap-nesting method. )

And so we do not trap-nest.

We do not practice other forms of selection of layers
by anatomical tests because we have no faith in ‘the
accuracy of any such method that has come to our atten-
tion. So far as we know no such method has stood the
test of a comparison with trap-nest records; nor do we
know of anyone who has succeeded by any such method
in gaining a greater net profit in one year than we make
with a flock of equal size and with the expenditure of
the same time and labor.

144 HOW I MADE $10,000 IN ONE YEAR

Size of Eggs

To a certain extent the size of the eggs laid will be
dependent on the breeding of the hens that laid them.
A chick hatched froma large egg will not necessarily
prove to be a layer of large eggs; but a flock of hens raised
from chicks hatched out of uniformly large eggs will be
more apt to average large eggs than a flock from chicks
hatched out of eggs which have not been selected for
size. Nor will a large hen necessarily lay a large egg-—
the reverse is more likely to be true with Leghorns.

The eggs will vary in size with the age of the layer;
and feed, water, weather, and what might be termed tran-
quility will also affect the size.

Pullets just coming into laying usually lay small eggs
and the quicker the maturity the smaller the first eggs
will be. Fall hatched birds mature quickly and will lay
small eggs for a long time. The same may be said of
January hatches; but the eggs will grow larger in less
time. March hatched birds will lay but few small eggs
at the start if they come in normally—in from 5% to
6% months; if they are slow and do not come in until
7 or 8 months the first eggs will be larger, often of normal
size.

In the second laying season eggs from all of these birds
will be larger, many of them too large. But in the third
season they are apt to be smaller if the hens have run to
fat. This has been our experience, though it may not
hold good generally. It seems to be agreed, however,
that hens three years old and older lay more eggs having
imperfect shells.

Improper feeding will affect the size of the eggs. On

WITH 4200 HENS 145

our mash formula, which carries 15 per cent of meat and
fish meals, we have found that feeding half and half of
erain and mash gives us a more uniformly large egg.
If the feed gets out of balance, the error shows up quickly
in the larger proportion of small eggs laid. This par-
ticular point, confirmed later by experiments, was first
called to the writer’s attention by his very good friend,
Mr. M. A. Schofield.

Failure of the water supply, even for a short time, will
result in smaller eggs; so, too, will the giving of salts.

A sudden hot spell following moderate weather is
usually accompanied by a run of smaller eggs.

Fright, or moving hens from one place to another, will
be followed by a run of smaller eggs. But back of it all
is the question of whether or not the birds come from
a strain that has been bred to lay large eggs.

Nest Materials

When the nest boxes have been thoroughly sprayed we
allow time enough for the spraying material to saturate
the wood and the surplus to dry off. We first put ina
double handful of tobacco stems; these are purchased
from cigar factories. The box is then filled to within
an inch of the top of the front board with fresh pine
shavings. Redwood shavings should not be used. An
egg broken in a nest of Redwood shavings, or any other
form of moisture coming in contact with them in such a
nest will badly discolor the shells of any eggs laid in
that nest, and this discoloration is apt to prove prac-
tically indelible.

146 HOW I MADE $10,000 IN ONE YEAR

Designation of Chickens

We are often asked the meaning of “Hen, Pullet, Cock- ~
erel and Cocks.” We do not know the established rule of
usage. In the hands of a dealer who is selling live birds,
every female is a pullet—if he can get away with it, espe-
cially in the fall when only pullets are supposed to be
laying. Early moulters answer the purpose most
admirably.

With us they are “Pullets” until they have passed
through their first complete moult; birds hatched in Jan-
uary go through a light moult in their first fall, but they
are still pullets with us until the following fall. - Sostea;
is a fall hatched bird. |

After the first full moult they are “Hens”; and if we
carried them long enough they would be “Yearling Hens”
and ““Two-year-olds.”’

The same rule applies to the males. They are “Cock-
erels” until after the first full moult, when they become
“Cocks.”

In table poultry we seldom get beyond the “Broiler”
stage. Under 1% pounds they are usually known as
“Squab Broilers;’ from 1% up to 2% pounds they.are
“Broilers” and beyond that they become “Fryers” or
“Soft Roasters.” In the Leghorns especially if a young
bird gets into the Fryer class the marketman is partic-
ular to see that it is still “soft-boned’’—that the point of
the breast bone is still soft and pliable. If it is not they
are classed as “Stags’—so far as paying the producer is
concerned; what class they take when sold to the con-
sumer is another matter.

DISEASES

Foreword

Many poultrymen deny having sickness in their flocks
and we have even known of some operating on a large
scale who profess to lose few if any birds. This makes
it hard on the beginner and to the writer it seems unfair
because of the discouragement felt by the beginner who
encounters trouble and loses birds. The writer knows
he has been there. And it is his purpose herein to pre-
pare the inexperienced for possible trouble. He will also
give his experience as to mortality. The reader who is
susceptible to suggestion is reminded of the fact that the
writer earned the title of this book in spite of his expert-
ence with disease and mortality; without that sad experi-
ence he would long since have retired to a life of ease. It
“might be proper to add that we have met but few retired
eggo-farmers. 5

What has been said in connection with diseases of
young chicks might well be repeated here, however. Do
not take too seriously the stuff put out by “the medicine
man; bear in mind that to sell his goods he must show
you, perhaps in your own flock, an apparent reason for
using them, and remember that he has not come to you
as a matter of philanthropy. He has come to you liter-
ally looking for trouble and as is always the case he who
seeks that finds it, especially so if he makes money by it.

From the writer’s point of view the research work that
has been done toward eliminating or controlling disease
among chickens is both woefully and pitifully of minor
extent. The individual object, “just a chicken,” does not

148 HOW I MADE $10,000 IN ONE YEAR

seem to warrant the attention being given the subject
that is given where the individual has more money value.
A cow or horse looks like seventy-five or one hundred,
even one or more thousands of dollars, while a chicken
was rated, before these strenuous times, at perhaps twen-
ty-five or fifty cents. It is only when we consider the
hen from the standpoint of possible and probable earn-
ing capacity and then multiply the figure by one or more
thousands, even hundreds of thousands (for the mor-
tality in chickendom throughout the country runs to that
annually), only then do we realize the importance of
that twenty-five cent subject.

The writer proposes then to record his observations
and experience and to exploit his ignorant theories with
the hope that perhaps by the very ignorance proclaimed,
a discussion may be quickened which will lead toward
advancement. He is ready at any time to join in a move-
ment looking to a proper interest being taken in the sub-
ject, and his portion of the money needed to finance the
enterprise is likewise ready.

Indications of Health and Disease

There is no simpler and better method by which to
judge the condition and health of the birds than by watch-
ing the combs and the droppings.

The comb of a healthy bird, excepting during the moult-
ing season, will be a bright red. During the moult the
brightness will disappear, the color fades to pink, and
the comb will contract in size and may look as though
lightly powdered over; but it will not turn color.

A bird out of condition will show a blue or even a blue-

WITH 4200 HENS 149

black color in the comb. In extreme weather birds will
show a bluish tinge in the comb and this will disappear
if the bird is put in a dry, warm place; but the fact that
it is susceptible to the weather indicates that the bird is
not in what might be termed “the pink of condition.”

The careful poultryman will watch the drop-boards as
regularly as he watches the nests. The droppings of a
hen in good health and condition are voided in a rather
compact mass, tending toward a point on one end, greyish
in color with a decided cream-colored spot in the mass,
and of the consistency of soft putty. Any variation in-
_dicates error somewhere. If the mass is too hard there
is a tendency toward constipation ; if too soft, the reverse.
In most cases the variation is due to an error in feeding.
This may be the fault of the bird or of the feeder.

Slight variations need cause no concern; the bird may
have over-eaten of one thing or another. It is only when
violent variations are observed, variations that are ap-
parent for days at a time, that the cause of the trouble
must be looked for. If the drop-boards and the yards
show masses of watery discharge, or soft yellow or
brownish material, it is well to exercise caution.

All flocks. will show the effects of a sudden change in
temperature, the lack, even for a short time, of pure fresh
water, a sudden variation in diet, or the continued lack
of some important element in the feed, such as shell, grit
or green stuff. The feeding of immature grains, heated
corn, or an absence of variety in the ration will also be
apparent in the droppings. So it follows that if the off-
color or imperfect consistency continues and no other
sign of trouble is apparent we must look to the feed and

150 HOW I MADE $10,000 IN ONE YEAR

the water. Only too often the trouble may be found in
the water-container—it was probably emptied and
scrubbed out two or three weeks ago and is now half full
of a slimy mass of corruption. We have seen such.

The droppings always seem looser in wet weather than
in the warm summer months, due to failure of evapora-
tion. This must not be confused with a laxative con-
dition.

Diseases We Have Encountered

The list of poultry diseases is almost as long as the
moral law. In our experience we have encountered and
identified :

Colds and Catarrh; Bronchitis; Chicken Pox and
Canker; Congestion or other forms of Liver Complaint;
Dropsy and Tumors; Limberneck; Clogged Crop; Leg
Weakness; Bumblefoot; Eggbound; and Prolapsus of
the Oviduct.

The commonest form of trouble in our section is colds
and catarrh which are especially prevalent in the fall when
very warm days are likely to be followed by cold nights.
Frequently the change in temperature at sundown is ex-
treme. ‘This is especially hard on hens in the moult and
on young pullets just coming into laying. Again, we
have little or no rainfall from May until September ordi-
narily; and especially toward the end of this long dry
season the atmosphere is heavily charged with fine dust.

Chicken pox and canker should probably be accorded
second place in this black list. We have had two sieges
of it during the eight years we have been in the work, but
in some sections it must be contended with much more
frequently. The disease is more flourishing in damp

WITH 4200 HENS 151

climates. In some sections near the coast there is always
more or less of the trouble. It has been observed that an
attack is more virulent in cold, wet weather than in hot,
dry atmosphere. Freezing weather appears to be no
deterrent.

The other troubles encountered are of more or less a
minor character compared with the first named. They
are the exception rather than the rule and the mortality
due to them is insignificant. |

COLDS AND CATARRH: ‘These troubles are easily
recognized. Frequently the birds throw them off with
no treatment, especially if a day of unusual weather is
followed by a normal one or if there has been some neg-
lect which is remedied.

If you make a practice of going through the houses at
night, as we do, you will get notice promptly of cold and
catarrhal trouble. Birds will be heard to sneeze and
cough, others will have difficulty in breathing, the breath
coming in a sort of wheeze. At times one may be heard
_with a barking-cough; this is more in the nature of bron-
chitis probably.

If the presence of the trouble is not recognized in this

manner it may not be noticed until a more advanced stage
is reached, when there will be a running at the nostrils,

with inflammation at the eyes and possibly a cheesy de-
posit in the sockets of the eyes. This may lead eventually
to a severe swelling around the eyes. <«\t this stage the
eye may become entirely closed over with the cheesy
deposit extending through the nasal passage into the
mouth and throat. A bird in this condition will starve to

152 HOW I MADE $10,000 IN ONE YEAR

death. If it is a vigorous specimen to begin with it can
overcome the trouble if it.is fed.

Some authorities class this trouble at one or more of
the stages described as roup or roupy catarrh. If roup
is as contagious, as deathly and as quick in action as it
is credited with being, the presence of these symptoms
does not necessarily signify the presence of roup.

CHICKEN POX AND CANKER: Careful observa-
tion has proven to us that a siege of pox and canker is
invariably preceded by signs in the droppings. During
our last run of the trouble we identified these signs and
were able to forecast within a few days of the time when
it would break out in a given section of the plant. The
particular sign is the voiding of an irregular mass, usually
about one-half normal size, of a peculiar grass-green
color and which, if it came into contact with an eggshell,
was practically indelible. The fact that it was found
on eggs in the nests indicates that the affected bird was
probably laying, from which we deduce that the disease
is of quick development.

It is the writer’s belief that it develops in the intesti-
nal tract. This is contrary to the idea that the disease is
a fungus growth, contagious through infection of wounds
or scratches.

Whether or not chicken pox and canker are always
coincident is immaterial. We have never had one with-
out the other, excepting in what the scientist terms
“Sporadic” cases which as we understand it has reference
to a single, isolated case of a disease which is ordinarily
epidemic. The writer recalls an instance several years
ago where he found a perfectly developed case of chicken

WITH 4200 HENS 153

pox in a yard of 1,200 hens, and no other case developed
in the flock.

The origin of the trouble is shrouded in mystery so
far as the writer is concerned—as much so as is “Spanish
Influenza.” Fluent writers, poultry “experts,’ and men
of science easily and airily ascribe it to filthy, unsanitary
conditions; to infection, either from a strange bird
brought in or from birds of the air; or to other equally
indefinite causes.

As to its originating or germinating only in unsanitary,
filthy quarters—this is rather hard on those of us of the
poultry fraternity who live and have our being in the
' welfare of our birds, and to him who has made any
serious study of the trouble it simply brands the author
of the statement as an ignoramus. It would be rather
remarkable that plants conducted on so great a variety
of plans and systems as may be found in the poultry in-
dustry, that all of these should be permitted to degenerate
into filth and disease almost coincidently. During our
last siege we had calls for assistance in combating the
trouble from points as much as thirty miles apart; from
breeders with thousands of hens as well as from fanciers
with a dozen birds kept in gilt cages on carpeted floors.

As to the infection and contagion theories, we are
equally in ignorance. Our experience is that not all of
the birds in a flock will be attacked. Our records indi-
cate that about 70 per cent of the birds will be immune.
And experiments have proven that some birds cannot
be infected. We have had healthy birds in the isolation
ward where both pox and canker in every possible stage
were rampant and the healthy birds could not be infected.

154 HOW I MADE $10,000 IN ONE YEAR

We have also found ground for the belief that a two-
year-old hen is more or less immune from infection by
one a year younger. ‘This cannot be given as an estab-
lished fact because the particular two-year-old may have
been one of the immunes. But in the development of
the disease we had the same experience in both our
sieges, the disease ran through different yards of hens
of the same age at the same time, leaving the younger
or older free of it; and when it attacked the birds of the
other age, it ran through all of the birds hatched in that
year regardless of where they were kept.

It has been noted that 30 per cent of the birds were
affected. Of this 30 per cent, 25 per cent either died or
had to be put out of the way because of canker in both
eyes. This indicates a mortality of 7% per cent. The
figure may not be taken as entirely accurate for the reason
that it includes ordinary mortality which was not neces-
sarily due to the pox and canker. It was found imprac-
ticable to distinguish.

A flock attacked by this disease will show a decrease
of from 50 to 60 per cent in egg production; a flock that
has been laying 1,000 eggs will drop to four or five hun-
dred, and the production will reach the minimum in a
very short time.

The disease runs its course, in a large flock, in from
60 to 70 days. In that time the egg production will again
resume normal proportions, allowing for the mortality
and tor the time of year. It is our experience that the
loss in production will be made good by heavier laying
later in the same season or by abnormally high pro-
duction in the season following. ‘The pullets attacked

WITH 4200 HENS 155

during our first siege laid more eggs per bird in their
second season than in the first, and during their second
season they were within a few eggs of equalling the
record of the next year’s pullets.

It should be kept in mind that what has been .said
herein has reference especially to pox and canker run-
ning at the same time. We have never had one without
the other. From our observations we are not fearful of
pox as a separate disease. The writer believes it would
run its course in a short time without dosing and if the
birds are vigorous at the start and have been well cared
for that the mortality would be negligible. That it exerts
a harmful influence stands admitted, but in conjunction
with canker, if the canker is a separate disease, it is far
from harmless. The only deaths occurring during a run
of the trouble, the cause of which we have been able to
identify beyond question, have been due to the canker.

Symptoms: Chicken Pox may be recognized by a
wart-like, pimply eruption on the comb, wattles, face,
and on the edges of the eyelids. In its earlier stages the
eruption is light colored and transparent, darkening as it
develops, and finally peeling off in a scale. We have had
cases where one or both eyelids were affected to the ex-
tent even of one eye being entirely closed and the other
almost entirely. If even the tiniest portion of one lid
remains uncovered so that the bird can find feed and
water, recovery may be made if the bird was in good
health and flesh at the start.

Canker in some respects might be likened unto a can-
cerous growth, in consistency much like gristle. It may
form in the throat, usually on the rim of the opening

156 HOW I MADE $10,000 IN ONE YEAR

into the windpipe, or in the ball of one or both eyes. It
develops very rapidly. When the seat of the growth is
in the windpipe life or death is dependent entirely on
whether the enlargement is downward or upward. If
downward the bird will choke to death, oftener than not
before the trouble is apparent. Birds will be found dead
under the roosts or in the yards or nests—fine, plump
hens. Examination if carefully made invariably dis-
closes canker in the windpipe below the opening.

If the development is outward the bird may be saved
if caught in time. Presence of the trouble is indicated
by a slight wheeze in breathing, the mouth being held
open slightly all the time. The bird will live as long
as there is even a pinhole through which to breath.
Large plump birds will be observed at times, apparently
in the pink of condition, whose bright red combs turn
to a dark blue before your very eyes. ‘This is strangula-
tion. Quick work will save many such cases.

Other Diseases

A cropbound hen usually advertises her complaint.
The crop bulges out or hangs downward. We have had
them with crops as hard as a stone. It is due to some-
thing clogging the opening from the crop.

Limberneck is usually due to ptomaine poisoning, the
result of eating decaying matter. The bird loses control
of the muscles of the neck and will lie with its head on
the ground, the neck stretched out. Again, the neck
may become rigid.

Dropsy and tumors in the egg bag very often run
together. Older hens are more likely to be affected than

WITH 4200 HENS 157

young ones. The rear portions of the bird will swell
to great size and the bird is literally heavy as lead.

Congestion of the liver and other liver troubles are
usually evidenced by discolored combs. The comb turns
blue, even blue-black, and remains so. This must not
be confused with a somewhat similar discoloration due
to a chill or continued exposure to bad weather; in the
latter case the comb will resume normal color if the
bird is put.in a warm dry place.

Prolapsus is a projection of the egg-laying organs; the
entire egg bag will sometimes be forced out. This is
commoner with young pullets just beginning to lay, al-
though older hens will be affiicted under certain condi-
tions. |

Bumblefoot, so far as the name is concerned, must
have been invented by a practical joker. It is simply a
sore foot. The bird sustains an injury or runs a sliver
into the ball of the foot resulting in a puss formation.

Egg-Bound is the inability of the hen to pass the
egg, usually a fully developed egg. The size of the egg
is not necessarily the cause—it is more likely a paralysis,
perhaps temporary, of the expulsion muscles. Hens in
this condition may remain on the nests all day and be
found there at night, showing signs of distress, or more
likely they will be off and on the nests and may be ob-
served straining to pass the egg.

Leg Weakness is common among pullets just ma-
turing and coming into laying and cases are found at
times amongst the older hens. We class the former as
being due to some defect in the laying organs; the latter
is more often rheumatism, although cases are recalled

158 HOW I MADE $10,000 IN ONE YEAR

which conform to the description of tuberculosis given
by that eminent authority, Professor Dryden (Oregon).
_A pullet attacked with leg weakness goes down com-
pletely and her legs are useless. There is no evidence of
pain when the bird is picked up and the legs are manip-
ulated. |

The cases amongst hens which we class as rheuma-
tism are distinguished from the pullet cases by the fact
that the bird shows signs of pain if the legs are touched.
The bird does not lose flesh and the appetite is normal.
The cases which may be tuberculosis differ in that the
bird is usually thin and emaciated when the legs fail and
the appetite is abnormal—the bird will eat almost con-
stantly if food is within reach. Happily these cases are
extremely rare.

We have never identified diphtheria and we have never
heard it claimed that either true roup or cholera was ever
identified in Southern California.

It may be noted that we do not specifically mention
diarrhoea. ‘This is because of a belief that most cases
of looseness of the bowels are due either to a cold settling
in the intestines or to defective feed stuffs.

Medicines

In our earlier experience we bought and used perhaps
99 per cent of the various and sundry “remedies” offered
for poultry diseases. As we grew older (perhaps not
wiser) we came to be like the man who had one standard
remedy: if too cold he took whiskey and if too hot he
took whiskey.

We buy no “dope” of any kind. Our standard remedies

WITH 4200 HENS 159

are: Common Epsom Salts; Common Baking Soda, and
Douglas Mixture.
Douglas Mixture is said to be as old as the hills; here is
the formula:
8 Ozs. Copperas

Y% Oz. Sulphuric Acid.

Dissolve the Copperas in one gallon of water, using a
stone or glass jar. When the Copperas is entirely dis-
solved, which, with frequent stirring, it should be in about
24 hours, add the Sulphuric Acid. Allow it to “set” until
the mixture is perfectly clear. It is then ready to use.
It is poisonous. Its use will be stated. It costs seven
cents per gallon.

WHV4 DSSa HOVEWNL AHL NO YSHLVSAM LOH NI SQVHS IWYALVN AOPN]S SGd!Id FHL

TREATMENT OF DISEASE

The treatment of disease in large flocks of birds is quite
a different matter than the treatment that may be ac-
corded one or a few dozen. You will appreciate this to
its fullest extent if you try to handle several thousand
birds with colds or chicken pox and canker on the basis
given in poultry-remedy literature or in the bulletins is-
sued by the Federal Government or the State Experiment
Stations. Try it.

The individual treatment that may be given as will
be herein outlined is the result of years of work with
sick birds by the writer’s wife who came to be quite
an authority and whose work was eminently suc-
cessful. She saved hundreds of birds by putting in time
which could not be spared from the general handling of
the flock and the management of the plant. A beginner,
or a poultryman at any stage of the work, who has an
orphan-and-stray-cat-loving wife, can save many birds in
the same way.

Treatment in Flocks

Primarily, we prefer “dosing” the birds through the
water rather than through the feed. A bird is much more
likely to go without food than without water. The water
on our place is piped all over the plant. A main line ex-
tends through each of the two long rows of houses. At
the point where this main line enters the first yard a
92-gallon barrel is installed on a platform six feet high.
The barrel is connected to the water line with a shutoff
valve just below the barrel. Another shutoff valve is

162 HOW I MADE $10,000 IN ONE YEAR

put in the main line just outside the barrel connection.
The barrel is equipped with a drain pipe on which a screw
cap is set, to permit of the barrel being drained if desired
and to remove sediment. The barrel is filled by opening
both shutoff valves. When filled the main line is cut off.
When “dope” is to be given it is put in the barrel. This
saves a lot of time and work. If some such arrangement
is not had it is necessary to watch and refill the water
pots promptly.

COLDS, CATARRH AND LOOSENESS OF THE
BOWELS. If signs of colds show up the birds are
promptly given a dose of Salts. We give them at the rate
of one pound to 250 birds. The Salts are first thoroughly
dissolved in warm water, which is then poured into the
barrel, and the main feed line is cut off. We usually put
half the dose in the barrel at night and the balance when
the first barrel is consumed. If this quantity is not con-
sumed by 3 or 4 o’clock in the afternoon the first dose is
made stronger. The birds are given fresh water at 3 or
4. Fresh water is given the next day; and on the day fol-
lowing the dose is repeated. We have found this the
most satisfactory system.

The day after the second dose of Salts, Douglas Tonic
is put in the barrel at the rate of one teaspoonful to each
quart of water. A measure is made to gauge the quantity
needed to each barrelful. ‘The tonic is continued for two
or three days, dependent on the severity of the outbreak.
If the trouble continues, both Salts and ‘onic are re-
peated the following week and until the attack is checked.

A very good variation in long continued run of colds
is to give soda, at the rate of one pound to 250 birds, each

WITH 4200 HENS 163

day following the day of Salts, this in turn followed by
the tonic.

Should any of the birds show swelled faces or sore
eyes they are removed to the hospital yard.

CHICKEN POX AND CANKER. We have found
nothing that will cure these diseases in combination, and
we have found nothing that will protect birds from it. It
is our experience that it will run through the whole flock,
once it starts, regardless of the measures taken to check
or preventit. Our course has been different perhaps from
the ordinary in that we never make an experiment on
the whole flock—nothing can be learned in that way.
Previous to our last siege, when pox and canker were rife
in the country, we used a much-advertised remedy on two
divisions of our flock, as a tonic and preventive. These
divisions when attacked showed within reasonable de-
erees the same percentage affected and the same mor-
tality as did those divisions not given the preventive. And
one of these divisions was given the further special treat-
ment of a dampened mash in the evening, the “dope”
being used in the mash as well as in the drinking water.

We have not tried vaccination. Poultrymen of experi-
ence and judgment who tried it a year or two ago reported
most unsatisfactory results, and while we have been un-
able to gain definite figures for comparison yet the in-
ference was that as many birds were lost, either as an
immediate result of the treatment or afterwards, as we
lost without it. We may try it some time; but if we do
it will be on half the pullets from each hatch.

At first signs of the trouble we give the whole flock,
not only the division in which it appears, but the whole

164 HOW I MADE $10,000 IN ONE YEAR

flock, a dose of Salts—1 pound to 250 birds, and the dose
is repeated three times, on alternate days. Fresh water
is given each day at from 3 to 4 o’clock. Douglas Mix-
ture is then given steadily for one week.

Meantime a certain part of the day is given over to
picking up affected birds. These are put into the hos-
pital. They are given no special treatment there except-
ing that Douglas Mixture is kept in the water con-
stantly. :

Where canker in the windpipe occurs, if it is discovered
in time, the canker is removed with a bone crochet hook.
The bird may best be held by crowding the feet between
your knees. The head of the bird is held in the left hand,
the mouth being opened with the thumb and forefinger.
Quick work is necessary to success. The hook is slid into
the mouth and is run into the windpipe when the bird
draws its breath; the opening is always expanded for a
brief instant. In many cases the canker can be peeled
out with one deft stroke. If it breaks it is advisable to
paint it over with a weak solution of some disinfectant ;
we use a 10 per cent Argerole, diluted heavily with water.
It is applied by means of the tip of a feather which can be
run through the opening into the windpipe. Strip the
quill until but a brush remains. In 24 hours another ef-
fort can be made to bring out the whole mass. Two or
three applications will usually soften the growth to such
an extent that it will come out readily. If it continues
to stick tight the case is hopeless. We have cleaned
throats of the tight canker by patient work and brought
the bird back to laying, but the canker invariably returns
after a time and the bird must be put away.

WITH 4200 HENS 165

Where the canker fastens in an eye the eye is lost.
In this respect canker must be distinguished from simple
pox. Pox-scales will form on the eyelids and close the
eyes temporarily but if the bird is watched and is hand-
fed and watered regularly, the sight will not be lost; it
is, in fact, not affected at all. It is simply a question of
keeping the bird from starving to death. The application
of carbolated vaseline to such cases will hasten recovery ;
but they will recover without it, as may be learned by
observing a bird who has but one eye closed with the
pox-scale. We do not give individual treatment in such
cases. Where canker attacks both eyes the bird should
be put away immediately—the case is hopeless. We have
experimented with removing the canker when one eye
is attacked but found it conducive to no particular good.
It is painful to the bird and a trial to the operator. The
growth will eventually slough off, carrying the eye-bail
with it.

Where an eye is lost in this manner the bird need not
necessarily be disposed of. If it is in good flesh and con-
dition when attacked there is better than an even chance
that it will be profitable to carry it until the next moult.

Individual Treatment

When time is available for individual treatment a bird
with a cold can be cured quickly. A teaspoonful of castor
oil; a careful cleansing of the nostrils (of the eyes also
if affected) with a soft cloth; the injection into each nos-
tril and the cleft of the mouth of a minute quantity of
kerosene, by means of a little “squirt” oil can, milk-moist-
ened mash for a few days, or bread and milk—these meas-

_ 166 HOW I MADE $10,600 IN ONE YEAR

ures will result in a quick and complete recovery. When
a number of birds are confined in the hospital and colds
are prevaient we keep Douglas Mixture in the water con-
stantly. If this is not available a light film of kerosene
on the drinking pot will be found of much benefit.

Crop-Bound. We have had little success in treating
such cases. The giving of large quantities of olive oil,
a tablespoonful twice a day, along with a kneading
of the crop, has a tendency to soften the mass, but this
rarely removes the obstruction. It is worth trying, how-
ever. In exceptional cases the crop may be opened by
making an incision with a sharp knife (a safety razor
blade is a good instrument). The mass is then removed,
the crop is washed out with a disinfectant and the wound
is sewed up with silk thread and a fine needle. The bird
should then be given soft food for a time.

Limberneck. A tablespoonful of castor oil is the best
attempt at curing this trouble. We have never had a
bird that was worth keeping after such an attack.

Dropsy and Tumors. ‘There is no cure for these troub-
les. It is a waste of time and effort.

Liver Troubles. These are due usually to improper
feeding and a lack of exercise. The fault may be in the
individual bird. If a bird does not thrive on the treat-
ment accorded our flock as a whole we have no time to
spend on it. If a number of blue combs show up, we
administer the Salts treatment.

Prolapsus. If the bird is caught in time she may be
saved; otherwise, nine times in ten, the other birds
will kill her by drawing out the entire intestinal tract.
The parts should be carefully washed in warm water to

WITH 4200 HENS 167

which a good disinfectant has been added, and should
_then be pushed back into place. The bird must then be
kept entirely alone. If another egg does not follow within
a few days the bird may be able to retain the parts in
place. Otherwise she had better be used for the table.
She is in perfect health and there is no more objection
to her use for food than would be a case of a broken leg.

If pepper or other forcing stuffs have been in use; or
if some prepared “laying dope” has been fed previous to
a case or a number of cases of prolapsus, the use of such
things should be discontinued immediately. If your hens
will yield you no profit without them either you or the
strain of your hens is at fault.

We have cases here every season when the pullets first
come into laying and we have found no means of check-
ing the trouble. It seems a penalty attached to quick
development. We have had it even when the birds were
kept on a ration without meat product of any kind.

Bumblefoot. The bird should be caught immediately
and be put where the wound can be kept out of the
dirt. The wound should be opened when pus develops
and should be carefully washed out. A bandage may be
applied—it is another matter to keep it in place.

Egg-Bound. The hen should be held over a bucket
of very warm water, not hot, but uncomfortably warm,
with the hind parts resting in the water; this will have a
tendency to relax the parts. Frequently the egg will be
passed when this has been done; if not, grease the middle
finger with vaseline and inserting it into the egg-duct,
grease the walls of the duct and if possible turn the egg.
Repeat the warm water treatment if necessary. As a.

168 HOW I MADE $10,000 IN ONE YEAR

final resort the egg may be broken, but this is desperate —
treatment. If the particles of shell are not removed care-
fully, or if a piece of shell is thrust through the wall of
the egg-duct, infection is likely and the hen wili be lost.

Leg Weakness. We have made all manner of experi-
ments with pullets that go down on their haunches at the
time of maturity and have never been able to effect 4 cure.

Hens with what we classify as rheumatism may be
brought back to a certain degree, but the cure is seldom
permanent. It is a saving of time to get rid of them.

And the thin, wasted cases have never been experi-
mented with—they are put away immediately.

An Occasional Dose of Salts

During the hot summer months we make a practice ot
giving the entire flock a dose of Salts about once each
month. The dose is at the rate of one pound to 250 birds.
It is given just once and is followed next day by soda at
the same rate. :

Conclusion as to Diseases

Occasion is taken to reassure the beginner on the sub-
ject of disease among the birds. Colds and the minor
troubles discussed you are likely to have almost any time
and regardless of the care given the birds; and so far as
pox and canker are concerned, we have had but two sieges
of it in eight years. It is not amiss to suggest that if no
troubles were to be contended with there would be little
if any profit in the work. The writer has been through
all forms of discouragement but he has made a good thing
out of it, and there is no reason why you should not do
as well.

WITH 4200 HENS | 169

Parasites

In this respect the poultryman may have four things
to contend with: Mites, Lice, Scaly Leg and Worms.

Mites are the chicken house bedbug and they are as
much a disgrace to the poultryman as the bedbug is to
the housewife. The mites live and breed in the house.
They attack their host on the roost at night and suck the
blood. If you are as careful and regular in spraying as
you should be you will have none of them. A common
form of entry for them is to put a new roost or a piece of
new lumber in the house without first spraying it. Should
they gain entry on you in this manner your safest course
is to spray their place of abode every day until you get
rid of them.

The family tree of the louse family is a widespreading
oak. None should concern you excepting the body louse
which lives on the bird. As our chicks are all incubator
hatched we have none to contend with at the start. Our
observation is that lice are present on mature fowls in
almost every large flock. The pullets usually stay free
of them until they are nine or ten months old. We do
not concern ourselves with them. We see to it that the
birds have loose moist soil to dust and wallow in all the
time and that is as far as we go. We have never found
lice in sufficient numbers to be dangerous excepting on
birds out of condition that are not removed promptly, and
on male birds. The males are likely to be negligent in
dusting. When a sick bird is removed if it is lousy it is
dusted with “Devil’s Dust” to give it a chance to regain
its normal habits; and the male birds are given a hand-
dusting twice a year. Some birds will keep themselves

170 | HOW I MADE $10,000 IN ONE YEAR

entirely freé of body lice; but you are likely to find lice
on many of them.

Scaly leg, which may look like crusted warts, is said
to be due to a mite which burrows under the skin of the
legs. A good way to get rid of them is to wash the legs
in warm, soapy water, then applying either a mixture of
equal parts of kerosene and lard, or perhaps carbolated
vaseline. Several treatments may be necessary. If a
flock is infested a shallow pan may be set in the doorway
where the birds must pass over it; fill the pan half full
of water and adda film of kerosene. This is said to be a
good remedy. We have never tried it. The only case
of scaly leg we ever had was on an old moth-eaten hen
with spurs about two.inches long, wished on us by a
kind-hearted neighbor who was moving away and who
could not think of disposing of “Old Pet.” She was cured
in the manner first described.

Worms have never given us any trouble. We find signs
of worms in the droppings at times. ‘Should they show
up to any extent we have recourse to our salts and tonic
treatment. This is as far as we go.

Mortality

There is only one true method of arriving at the per-
centage of hens lost. You must count the pullets hatched
and placed in the laying house and when you sell them
off later, count the number you sell. This sounds so sim-
ple that it borders on the ridiculous but it is surprising
how few poultrymen do it—if what they say on the sub-
ject of death losses is to be taken as a criterion.

Our experience is that hens will die off constantly, re-

WITH 4200 HENS 171

gardless of the care given them, when they are being kept
at high efficiency of egg production. It is also our experi-
ence that the percentage lost increases with the age of the
hens—there will be greater losses among two-year-olds
than among the yearlings; and greater among the year-
lings than among the pullets. In small flocks the per-
centage does not seem to be so great but this is because
it does not involve the greater number. If two hens are
lost out of twenty in the course of two laying seasons the
loss does not seem as great as when five hundred are lost
out of five thousand.

Our experience indicates that from 10 to 15 per cent
is likely to be the mortality each year where the hens are
kept through two laying seasons. The experience in-
cludes going through two sieges of chicken pox and
canker in eight years—the mortality from this cause is
included. And as already suggested, the mortality is
likely to be heavier in the second year than in the first.

Culling

We cull constantly, but more especially during me
moulting season. The work is based entirely on the idea
of eliminating birds that are not in the pink of condition.
Rainy weather, foggy mornings, hot evenings—these are
good culling times. If a run of colds or other trouble
develops—and we all have them—a certain hour of the
day, morning or evening, is given over to culling. A bird
out of condition will remain on the roost late and will go
back to it early; a trip through the house late in the
morning and early in the evening enables one to pick up
out-of-condition birds quickly and easily. Moulting time

‘WaVd 9953
HOVEWNL AHL NO SGHIE 000T 40 GHYVA 378N0d V Ni SN3H ONITHVSA GNV S13Yu3yN000 GSHOLVH

AYVNANVE

WITH 4200 HENS 173

is an especially good time to cull. Few weaklings will
survive the moult; those that do survive it are easily
spotted.

Culled birds are not necessarily disposed of. They are
placed in the hospital or in one of the observation yards
and houses and are given a chance by having fewer com-
panions to get on their feet again. By far the larger part
of our culls are carried over then until the moulting sea-
son. They are not put back into the main flock, where
they might be used for breeders, but in a special division
assigned to returned culls. We have found this a profit-
able course to pursue. The birds that do not speedily
come back to good condition are either put away or are
sold to market when they are again in a healthy condition.

We do not go through the flock, handling each bird,
with the idea of culling out non-producers or selecting
special birds for breeding purposes.

Keeping Accounts and Records

The writer attributes a large part of his success in the
work to the keeping of most accurate accounts and
records and his advice, to the beginner especially, is to
take the trouble of doing so. It matters little or nothing
what sort of books are used—a common pencil-writing
tablet will do as well as an elaborate set of books.

You should record somewhere the number of chicks
hatched in each lot and the date of the hatch. When the
chicks are taken from the brooder house enter on this
record the number removed. Here is an illustration:

174 HOW I MADE $10,000 IN ONE YEAR

March 15, 1919—1,200 Chicks

Cockerels to Cockerel House Pullets to Laying House
From Brooder House.......... 490 From Brooder House.......... 580

May 21—from pullets.......... 22 May 21—+to cockerels.......... 22
512 558

May al--aohe 6). a 78 May dead ..... ee 16
June 1—balance.................. 434 June 1—balance.................. 542

This should be continued until the cockeréls are all dis-
posed of and the pullets are laying. The latter are then
carried into an account entitled “Record of Laying Hens.”

The four examples on page 176 constitute the whole
of the system necessary from this time forward. Rule
off a page in the tablet for each of the four. It may appear
at first glance like a complicated matter, especially ro
one not accustomed to keeping accounts, but if the
reader will take the trouble to apply it to his own case
and facts he should have little difficulty in mastering
the plan.

It is well worth while. It is the writer’s belief that if
the plan covered by these four sheets was put into use on
every commercial egg farm in the country, a far greater
percentage would be successful. The poultryman who
keeps these records faithfully knows at all times just what
he is doing and what each and every yard of his birds are
doing. And therein lies a big factor of success. If your
“Earnings per Hen” record showed month after month,
one year after another, that yards of birds hatched after
a certain time were always far behind yards hatched at
another time, you would sit up nights if necessary to get

WITH 4200 HENS 175

your birds out in the more profitable month. That is
what we did.

As a result of such records we can readily make com-
parison of earnings of birds hatched in different months
during the last eight years. We know how the cost of
feeding has varied from month to month in all that time;
how many pullets we raised, how many of them were
later sold, and how many died off.

It is not only financially profitable to have such records
but it enables one to place a true value on the data, sta-
tistics, and information of a general nature that is passed
along by word of mouth and in the poultry press and in
books on poultry.

Our accounts and records go into the subject much
more deeply. A general set of books is kept, of course,
and in addition we have records that tell us that an
average of 4,214 hens consumed in one year 302,398
pounds of grain and mash, an average of 70.57 pounds
per hen; that the grain and mash consumption was at the
rate of 6.57 pounds per dozen of eggs produced, varying
from 4.4 pounds in April to 12.22 pounds in November;
the poundage of feed stuffs used in maturing pullets; the
cost of raising pullets; the cost of producing a dozen
eggs, one year for another. We have all this data. It
takes time and a lot of work to go into it as extensively
as this, but the writer enjoys it; he enjoys doing it and
he enjoys the accurate knowledge thereby acquired. But
it is not necessary to go into it as deeply as this.

176 HOW I MADE $10,000 IN ONE YEAR

SHEET Wo. 1

RECORD OF LAYING HENS

1919 Stock

January Pullets hatched.........
Diay,'Cockerels 008 «2.0... 6. 6a

dime 1,°1919, Balanve... 2... 06.2:

June, Cockerels out......... 12

DOGG See ee Th. ee 7
suty 1.1999, Balarice: 2. oc ees
AOS. Picks 65 is bs Sian y ob

August 1, 1919, Balance
October, Dead

November 1, 1919, Balance

March Pullets hatched

July

August 1, 1919, Balance
October, Dead

November 1, 1919, Balance

Dead

eseevs 6s 6's @ © 5 « € 810 2m

When the birds are sold, mark the number and by preserving the sheet you can

always tell what mortality occurred in that particular lot.

SHEET No. 2

NOVEMBER 1919 EGG RECORD

January March

Date 1919 1919
x 317 706

2 328 817

3 302 786

4 397 792
ete. etc. etc.
Total * 12,980 18,590

Total
Eggs

1023
1145
1088
1186
etc.

31,570

Wholesale
Price

60e

Sales

(dozens)

690

2,610

Amount
Received

(or Value)

$ 414.00

$ 1,566.00

Eggs consumed or eggs used for your own hatching should be entered in “‘Sales’’

columns at the price on that day.

* “Total” is assumed to represent the proper total of day by day figures.

177

WITH 4200 HENS

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178 - HOW I MADE $10,000 IN ONE YEAR

Rules for Success

The writer-has often been asked what the requisites
are for success in egg-farming. This may vary with
different individuals. So far as his success is concerned
he attributes it to:

First, never getting tired; never being too tired to do
something that will add to the comfort and well-being of
the birds.

Second, mastering the art or science of brooding chicks
and raising large numbers of pullets.

Third, renewing at least 60 per cent of the flock each
year with young pullets.

Fourth, concentrating on one particular branch of the
work and keeping everlastingly at it.

Fifth, keeping accurate records and accounts so that
he knows at every stage of the work what the results are
in dollars and cents.

Sixth, asking the giver of advice for his practical ex-
perience on a commercial scale before acting on it.

Seventh, disregarding the clock so far as the 8-hour
day is concerned and working not only hard, but effi-
ciently, so that every minute is made to count and
neither time nor effort is wasted.

Profits Derived in 1918

Our gains and losses during the year 1918 were as
follows:

WITH 4200 HENS 179

Received from sale of eggs........ ee 020.00
Received from sale of fertilizer 300.70

i ee ema ok $22,625:73
Meee and SUN Nes oie $ 9,623.46
Rene Forint 1,419.45
Water Taxes (Including
MEUSEMOIG TS yoo is. 103.40
Sundry Farm Expenses............ 161.54
Interest Paid, and all Taxes...... 930.82
nia MOSSOS 5s ol! | 125236.67
Difference—Gain for the Year.. $10,387.06

Against this gain is a charge for depreciation on build-
ings and income taxes for 1918 payable in 1919. There
is an additional gain by reason of the fact that there was
a net increase in the flock of 632 above mortality.

The reader who analyzes these figures carefully will
readily find the answer to the question of how this great _
profit was made. The writer, with the help of one man
constantly 6 days in the week; another man for a short
time during the brooding-and-heavy-laying season; and
a third man coming in for one day every ten days to do
the cleaning, did all the work. More than three thousand
pullets were raised in the spring of 1918; and when the
maximum hired help was on duty between 10,500 and
11,000 birds, young and old, were being cared for.

The hired help worked eight hours a day. The writer
worked until the work was done; 16-hour days were
common during the brooding-season, and 24-hour days
sometimes happen.

It is a man’s-sized job.

Page
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Page
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ISSIR COTO. Ott eke ates big SE Geta 16-134
POEs HM BOUTS (cia aeteta as eae ata lae Cweeee eee 134
TRISHUYBANEGS: ois ke Shae ake as Se eee 123
DOEGORING. CHICKS os ob 2S owe Od vee eee 93
YIEG: STOHOEG) | 0 SS. ok wlan ce a iar whew ee ana 19
OUI SVOEGS: 0 aya sk sie ORR OS Be ee Pie
Woes WARGRLC Gio cess soins cae ce S 92-159-162
DOMES eek bk ee ae oe eee we 135-148
PUGNSW = tid = Sulees i 2 a ee eee 150-156-166
Dry HSRiae. «cece oS me ee ees ER ae er 118
PST he Sot ee oat ad wee bee 150-157-167
Bee OR OUNN aes os Aes ak ee we of es 8 42-64
oe Cc yeedeiwper Resa oak alka ee 31s wn eee 139
Pees anne ee ae ee citle oak Slaw 130
RUnCren tt eee Rees, on ere 128
Bib aMESIo hic avollarche: Ties ctom tate ky w SHEaS « 129
Orage ~ 3 o's 22302 Toa Ae kess eee 129
Warketinty > ee Va ies bees cee es Tal-133
SEM oC at scar OPS. ce Tad os ate wh ol aoe era 129
WOGEaeEIBIE 23 3a Fie Gag ae Pode wo ee thee 131
Selecting for hatching .:...-0 [0.6 sce ts 68-137
Wiceirie (PHS: 6 ..4ik % 4 One os oe ce 141
Walk perenne) 93.8. 5 td. Gc Bees oes 6 eee oe 24
Jy RG 111 gl ee ee i 18 119
CEES Lg SORE Bie BOE OE BE mea arden SA 8 125
GSE: ees ck eo a ee ee 39-64
Pra hoe ee oo he OE ee A, Ce ee 82-121
Wenig) fe sera eee 8 8 eres 85-119
Hyer ted GIST cl ce a it A i a Ag oe ora 70
Brgay eas) Shee et SS ore ae 125
CRETE i ice RRR wate woh ele 111-115
RENE a ge ale aoniene wae ahs Sum wee veritaakis 121-124
Peay iit: MONS! ys oe dk a oie bh 2 le bie 118
Grados se s.c orks 7 eit 24) te is oea 90
BUatigte NIG 322; dod Swe Cie ee alate SG, wee Shee ees 119

INDEX — Continued

Page
a Sep GRUNER. Fer UAT ees Al 3) 2 47-62
PGOIINE VOPR oars cae ee leietk ss ee 29-135
PH oe woe Re oe ee ee 777-123-145
PIN he sa btn oes er Shela he ote ie es Re 146
Conca, abe iis we Seatac iedeie en ee ae edo a3
ROE» al ais foiys Goes al Rh aie, ac velar eee cate nee 42-63
CC: SPS Fit encclad ot eles aye aosue wtateoaie e 128
ete. “FONG POR Cente DS sD ous esa sare a 70
IE? Mn ee a ae a Oe 114

RAO ae ta bea rote og Sle ew ae ote 129
AI aly de NS ral ke ee ee hs hm: hs uw at eae 139
Sera) ee ais bole Siena as ere ek Pen ee 133
ROtON ON hte ee Aa es eee e 122
SUES / Gye aha rd ss oR wae Se 83-119-135
Sees. 7 SNAP AOR as Nw cis: inte aon 21-48
Rete is ete a faax ip aie eee A Ls ei oe 119
CEE SOG SSB" Do Sa rane ge ee 66-69
Pam peartme SUFI) 95 hvala ts Su ce oe us Se Mein ew. RS 24
DUTIE baa eidial meee le o's sceis ia yee eke ee 24
I VEN oy aie ig etch hie hd nla See 24
Hatching eggs:
RN fo 2 ek OG me ase She sultan ee 68-137
SRI, rata Gates uctee lg cd 4 Mo ahte) 4 sun are 133
Health—indications of .............00. 148
BM 2 hss ee: aiding iia Series aie ets 138-146
Res er OPE SS aia he ile 0 a Ret ohe hex cdo 17
Peon Rie” Teyere Ne ac eies sok ee wa epeeny: ft"
ERODES CLES. eo) inane esas i ooh 43-63
Indications of health and disease.......... 148
WO. ww x ct tk one ORE cckemrds 94
Tiered “SPERTIMNONE Soca a wiv a celine 0 kee 165
Ao a a RE SN 35
RE ST 0 ica iw Yo a bn ac Wh be 103
MNCs MOMENT hd o's Uagils w digealere Gee ite te ie
Peoetine: Tene MROGOES ook kik sc klaus vl eee 118
SE RMON yaad Osa wo lane wud van ise oe ake 107
Laying houses ........ i iso easel faba sed nts 51-54
Rae SCEMON BS ae! oui ln sw We RG 110-118
RRO: 0 TD WE aia! be Slee al ees 2 AS LT
Lae ORO. COS iv aie 6 woo ete ee aces 93
NB Fi each a eles hae ‘Ore. hak oe 150-157-168
Tan S ROM aS Sag. eee hopes aca SON 169
TE ails 0-0 6 bk © ease we. are ale eater 169
I MOD fea ed a's bh el Le Ge eae bln 100
SE EEP Pe eee 150-156-166
IONS. nl oh te wile le WT GER hie ee ale keateet a 70-127
DN UM ig tee a ane 150-157-166
CORRES. OR OUI aoe 6 Ss ne ee ataretes 9
panne: DIMPOMIGR OF oc kx ac Cas os aan 135
TOUS OE eS cae a hab es ae alee Wes 135

UGE OE ih Woe eS a Wie ela ech ate 135

Marketing: Broilers ..:....0es 08s
HESS “cwicc es &o.0 6 0 ate cele
Co-operative
FIGMS on dene cee ‘ 1388

Mash: Formula .........:+«s-« see .118
TroughS ...cccscocsssass eum 2 04-58.
Web .%s 0 ee 2 ew su we ee ele ee Be i:

Mating“... < s+‘: ob os eine

Medicines ..:..+«.vs«sss 5 es ele

Method of. feeding... ..582..6.2 ee

Mites 210 00:0 000s» pe een

Mixing grain ....s% «+ » wipes ene

Mortality: Chicks ......5a «+o eeneee
Hens... 20 6.05 00 0 ou ete ee

Moult. .\... 0 6 00 6 6s © om a) ieee eee

Nests... «se é.0'0 6 & « 0 6 oan ene
Nest material '
No-yard system x. .....ss © += 555
Number of hens in house.......... rr

eeeneeeeeeeeeeeeeee ee &

Opening the nests

Packing C288 ...cccscceeeceus ss seen
Parasites
Peewee C288 .. 0s «+ «se 0si) ae

Pepper §..0 «0000.0 0 0b 0 ele
Percentage of chicks raised.........
Percentage of pullets raised........

Piling up .....« «0 ss 5 ab eee 10
Plan of our plant. ..<...<.s=e

Ploughing
Profitable age of hens.......6.=ssa
Profit to be expected. .....sse.ss sum
Prolapsus of oviduct......aeeeue
Pully ; Cons 0-6 ss Sie cee «ss eae
Pullets

Reducing heat in brooder house
Retailing e888 ...s.essa see
Rheumatism
OASIS ccs a ew ae Serre ry sy
Roosts for chicks .......s.«ss » =e
Le RR SAS Na © » ea-pua ae ae
Rules for success ...:».ts aban

GRIEG ois sxe, ares e, we ... 93-159-162-168
Seay I 4 os a eee es SlUltti(i‘<«~
Segregating cockerels ..... os eee es ame ?
Selecting: Breeding cockerels ..... 102-113-137
Hatching egg8 ....<< alee cc eee o Seen O
Fens ow 2 6 6 se 0:90 0.5 oe ion
Selling: Baby chicks
POO cia 60) Ne 0 «0 sae
Co-operative ...ccccdees sane ee|CUYD
Hatching eggs ...... o «sa: see
BIG kc wit 0-0» ace é\e mn o<ian

INDEX — Continued

Page

oe Se wee dd me e-w wale Nog Ae 119
Tas oc Sa cuw ack gels a) aneaece 25-144
tease ssw a mse 79-94-159-163-168
EE ee 12
Ee ee 100-134
es ne cet sar oe «eee ne 24
Sin ahblace Gc Cie. ar ere a Re 87
ee 127
er ts alae See iw we leeks se on
Ss Ee 146
ee kk wiv is se ww we are ee 18
RN eco. cia: a alsa: of «face ony 63 bat
I) rr 90-102
IERIE sock 6 a ke cs ce pe wwe ome 119
SEMMEMEERIE Sain be wake cc cee ee te 69
Ee ne a wee oe oe ee 75-94
I ee od a Saw ws ele we ea 101
ica oe aca. ca ee aR" u ec aece 143
UN GU MISERGE SS a als Si wee te en 161
ae a oe a a 21
Ce MOr CHICKS 2... oe ee 81-87-107
ene ac a ka ee ess 54-58
EN cre dans sme SRE aie Ne a 150-156-166
RS 104
ee-tmtee Pee eS 26. ee we 141
a er 89
SS 29

Page

TORE. ge 8 et ae eit ain ace ow a hw eR 163
MERE sath cs aetna ace. Bass, 5 ew acates oe 77-124
Warcriar, breogy. HAAS “7 avis ws So oa See 62
Meee SIP UN, Fog wane oS ios a eevee) ate WTR 72
Waterime-deyite: Ciemss ooo gg Sage ce ee ee 72
Ce ae a ee ie i 58
Water pats Gare (OL ss ot erat os oo oe 128
ee OMA ete, wie tk a SR Me eee cuales baie aes ay
Woman The, feea> CHGES see eoeie noe ee 5 ee Ss 85
PRO voce iat osc 'a? Gd! Aun a alae ce an ee 119
Weight of manure ....... a eh are, te SON 135
REL TIMES oe, crn a Rita w «cc, UTR eae ane wae 121
WCEFetOe NEE MENG S 50.) sc lac tie eee es nae 138
RRTER Ne Neb ircs' eae SS kesh ae Rh ceca ook Sec ecs 24
WHEE LO EERE oe cies as els eee ties cc ee 123
WRC EE eh, We ae a van) Soar yc re Mave So asa. ye aoe 9
ILE GEAR eye oe. eile OS Soe reyet ae kod wee 95
MUGEN Fertile See We vitals 6k eee a es 169-170
Yard: Preshienine oo 225 os see sss 29-135-136
REGS Ot Sate tee cua sate, ERA Ge ta. se ceatena 42-63
ar aA nee ce ¢ oe aerate Bae eee 40-62
REE, MOREE mono cere ne a Rhee caael one Walt LT
I Meme Aa i Sees 5 Seen. oo aad 16-17
Waras O6-NO-Vards owas «was ie pie ete Se es 16
ISI NED MEE >. 2) ot are is ne Coke eas Sk ok 139

WANN .