Oe pene
>
al
2
"ssg0ons JO S}UBUIoTa BY} JO QUO ST Zuipseq ut Apliernsoy
‘WAHddAS WOA AAVAA
A CONCISE AND PRACTICAL,
‘LREATISE
ON THE
Management of Farm Poultry
JACOB BIGGLE
ILLUSTRATED
“What this country needs ts less hog end hominy and more
CUECRED, and celery.’
. ATS)
PHILADELPHIA
WILMER ATKINSON Co.
19cQ
COPYRIGHT, 1895, 1909.
WILMER ATKINSON Co.
SEVENTH EDITION.
SEVENTIETH THOUSAND.
Received from
Copyright Office,
JUN 16 1919
s
®
ee
e
CONTENTS.
eg PAGE
~ ISTSOF COLORED PLATES) 3) (3025 6 ts ee) a ok eee ew IG
| CHAPTER I. ENERO DU CRON cen nice) onsen mnsiien noite 7
:, PARE STOR GEE CHICK Nalin ene eiennlO
iz Heaps AND COMES... . +=. 4 1. 16
- CHaprTeR II. THE EGe .. ia! (heii raat meee a er
: CHAPTER III. EGGS FOR HATCHING.......... 2
) CHAPTER IV. JSUMNOEOONTE, WBOM INKSSS 65565606 ao
a CHAPTER V. (CaS Wyyiatiet IBUINIS, 5 56666 oo oo Be
. CHAPTER VI. CHICKS WITH BROODERS ........ 43
CHAPTER VII. HARE YB ROLE HRS Vaal. ey phcttel ie pen mend
CHAPTER VIII. HENS EXPRESSLY FOR EGGS. ..... 57
CHAPTER IX. AUEGD) JEAURAVOSIVS INEOSK 5656550050 by
CHAPTER X. (Neos WagneAGys ISOSNININDY , 45 5 5 oo FE
CHAPTER XI. BREEDS OF CHICKENS ......... 81
CHAPTER XII. TURKEYS AND GUINEA-FOWLS..... 95
CHAR EE Ree DUCKS iy cor sim se sey gas cae e oe shame) al ee LOT,
(CisUAiparipis RIDA) (CID Seay Hola A eae) e one Gd Geb a. 240)
CHAPTER XV. JEN(ENHOINS (6) G10 a) 6.645 6 Bea G a 6 6 ola 6 Jey
CHAPTER XVI. FATTENING AND MARKETING ..... 137
CHAPTER XVII. DISEASES AND HNEMIES........ 147
PLATH
PLATE
PLATE
PLATE
PLATE
PLATE
PLATE
PLATE
PLATE
PLATH
PLATH
PLATE
1) O7-N 3
PEALE,
PLATE
PLATE
LIST OF COLORED PLATES.
XVI.
BARRED PLYMOUTH ROCKS.
SILVER LACED WYANDOTTES.
LIGHT BRAHMAS.
DARK BRAHMAS.
BuFF COCHINS.
PARTRIDGE COCHINS.
LANGSHANS.
SINGLE COMB BROWN LEGHORNS.
SILVER POLISH AND GOLDEN PENCILED HAm-:
BURGS.
HOUDANS.
SILVER GRAY DORKINGS.
INDIAN GAMES.
REPRESENTATIVE BREEDS OF BANTAMS
BRONZE TURKEYS.
ROUEN AND Muscovy DUcKSs
TOULOUSE AND BROWN CHINA GEESE,
CHAPTER I.
PRELIMINARY PARLEY.
This little book is intended
to help farmers and villagers
conduct the poultry business
with pleasure and profit. Its
teachings are not drawn from
the author’s inner conscious-
ness exclusively, but from
practical experience, study
= aud observation.
I have een Sar in the business myself, not
as a fancier, but as a farmer, a fact which I do not
attribute to my own ability entirely, but partly to the
help derived from the stimulating and restraining
influence of my good wife Harriet, and to Martha,
the industrious and vigilant spouse of our faithful Tim.
A good deal of what I know and have written has
really been derived from a diligent perusal of the
farm Journal, and I confess to having borrowed con-
siderably from its pages both in text and illustration.
Credit must therefore be given in a comprehensive
way to the Poultry Editor of that publication, whose
discerning mind and great experience with poultry
8 BIGGLE POULTRY BOOK.
have received the widest recognition by all interested
in the poultry industry. I could do nothing better
than to draw largely upon him, augmenting his prac-
tical information with trimmings from my own obser-
vation and experience, and with suger from the
women folks and from Tim.
Great pains have been taken with the illustrations,
and those having charge of this feature of the book
deserve much praise for the skill, taste and originality
displayed. They certainly havedone well. The beau-
tiful and life-like pictures set off the book in fine
style and raise it far above the level of the common-
place.
The paintings for the colored prints were made
from life from birds in the yards of breeders or on
exhibition at the poultry shows, by Louis P. Graham,
a young Philadelphia artist possessing a high order of
talent. They are as true to nature and the ideal
bird as it is possible to make them.
Few people have an adequate idea of the impor-
tance of the poultry business in this country. It is
estimated that there are in the United States over
three hundred millions of chickens and thirty millions
of other domestic fowls. There are produced in one
year nearly one billion dozen eggs of an average
worth of ten cents per dozen, making the annual
value of the total egg product one hundred million
dollars. If in addition to this the yearly product of
poultry meat is considered, the importance of this
branch of rural economy will be more ly appre-
ciated.
A pound of eggs or a pound of poultry can be
PRELIMINARY PARLEY. J
raised as cheaply as a pound of beef or mutton.
Poultry sells at home for nearly twice the price per
pound you get for beef and mutton on the hoof.
Eggs sell for more than twice the price per pound on
the farm that the city butcher gets for the dressed
carcasses of the animals he sells.
I have not written this book for the poultry fan-
cier, although that valued person will find many
points of interest in it, but for the practical farm or
village man or woman who raises poultry and eggs for
market, whose flock is one of the many sources by
which the income of the farm or village acre is in-
creased with but a trifling money outlay, and with but
little extra care and work. As in every other branch
of farm production, however, poultry always responds
quickly to any extra effort and thought put into it, and
there are hundreds of farms to-day where the poultry
yard yields more ready cash than any other department.
This book is small in measure; I could have
doubled the size easily, but it would have been thinner
and not any better, at least so it seems to me, and
Harriet agrees. Should this be your verdict, gentle
reader, I shall be content.
JACOB BIGGLE.
Elmwood.
PARTS OF THE CHICKEN:
Comb.
Face.
Wattles.
Ear-lobes.
Hackle.
Breast.
oy back,
- saddle.
. Saddle-feathers.
» Sickles.
YI. Tail-coverts.
12. Main tail-feathers.
13. Wing-bow.
14. Wing-coverts,
forming wing-bar.
15. Secondaries, wing-bay.
16. Primaries or flight-feathers ; wing-butts.
b=
rf
SO MI ANAY YP
17. Point of breast bone. 20. Shanks or legs.
18, Thighs. 21. Spur.
1g. Hocks. 22. ‘Toes or claws.
TYPES OF HEADS AND COMBS.
4
5 6 7
1. Single comb. 3. Rose comb. 5. Cup comb.
2. Spiked comb. 4. Pea comb. 6. Leaf comb,
7. Single comb, female.
SHIOWM HLINOWA Td GHAUVE
aed
38
oe
=
“I HLV Id
CHAPTER ITI.
THE EGG.
Don’t put all your eggs tn one basket.—Old Proverb.
Put all your eggs in one basket, and watch that basket.
—Mark Twain’s Version.
Careful and critical examination of an egg reveals
an arrangement of its contents in a series of layers as
seen in the illustration.
Referring to the cut, A is the shell; B is the
membrane adhering to the shell; C is asecond mem-
brane slightly adhering to B, except at the large end,
where the two separate and
form D, the air space; E is
the first layer of the white
or albuminous part and is
im) liquid’ form; E is the
second layer, which is semi-
liquid, and G is the inner
layer: i, El are the ¢chal-
azee, or slightly thickened
membranes that unite the white to the membrane
enclosing the yolk, M. They form a ligament
that binds the parts together, and holds the yolk
suspended in the midst of the white or albumen.
I,J, Kare very fine membranes surrounding the yolk ;
L is the germ, and N is the germ sack or utricle; a,
b, c are separate layers composing the yolk. The
germ, L, and germ sack, N, are suspended by the mem-
ABCE MFJ 1K c
14 BIGGLE POULTRY BOOK.
branes H, like a mariner’s compass, so that the germ
always retains its position on top of the yolk. While
this germ is present in all eggs alike, it requires the
contact of the male element to give it vitality. This
contact takes place in the oviduct before the yolk is
surrounded by the white, or albumen, and the shell.
The yolk is the essential part of the egg, contain-
ing as it does the germ, and albuminous and fatty
matter and organic salts sufficient to support the germ
in its earlier stages of development. The white,
which is pure albumen and water, furnishes in the first
place a safe and congenial medium for the preserva-
tion of the life germ and afterwards contributes its
share of nutriment to the developing embryo.
The shell is a layer of carbonate of lime deposited
so as to give the greatest possible strength, and so ar-
ranged as to leave numerous pores through which the
water of the egg can escape and the external air can
enter.
About three-fourths, 74 per cent., of the contents
of an egg consist of water, 14 per cent. is albumen,
10.5 per cent. is fat, and 1.5 per cent. is ash. Of the
latter the principal part consists of phosphate of lime,
the element that enters so largely into the composi-
tion of bones.
These constituents of an egg furnish every ele-
ment, except oxygen, essential to the formation of
the living bird.
The egg is the beginning of all animal life. In
the case of mammals, this egg is hatched and the
young animal is nourished and developed for a certain
period within the body of the mother before it is cast
THE EGG. 15
upon the cold charities of the world. The egg of a
bird, or a reptile, is expelled as soon as it is perfectly
formed, and the germ of life within it is awakened or
destroyed by surrounding conditions.
The application of heat, loo degrees to 103
degrees Fahrenheit, to the egg of the domestic fowl
will cause the germ within to begin a process of trans-
formation. Within twenty-four hours after incubation
begins, an examination will show a zone of small
blood vessels formed around this germ. After three
days a temporary membrane begins to form inside of
the shell membranes. This new membrane serves as
lungs to the growing embryo; into its numerous hair- ©
like vessels the contents of the egg are absorbed and
changed into blood. This blood is exposed to the
oxygen of the air that enters through the pores of the
shell, and thus, purified and vitalized, returns to the
centre of life, circulation is established and develop-
ment proceeds rapidly until the entire egg is absorbed
and transformed into a creature having various organs
and a conscious life.
The different stages in the process of development
above described, may be observed by breaking eggs
that have been exposed for different periods to the
proper conditions for incubation.
The contents should be turned out into a saucer,
great care being taken not to rupture the delicate
membranes that are forming. A good hand reading
glass will greatly aid in making this examination.
As breaking the egg destroys the embryo, this
method of examination is useful only to train the eye
and judgment of the observer to examine the embryo
16 BIGGLE POULTRY BOOK.
through the shell. This may be done by holding the
egg between the eyeand astrong light. Various con-
trivances are used to assist the eye. One of the most
simple, is made like a tin horn having a piece of soft
leather or rubber over the large end and a hole in it,
oval in shape, and a little smaller than the eggs to be
tested. Such a tester may be made of tin or card
board.
To test an egg, grasp it between the thumb and
finger of the left hand and holding it large end up
against the aperture of the tester look directly through
it toward the light. While doing so revolve it slowly
to get a view from all sides and to observe the motion
of the embryo.
Figure I illustrates a tester that any handy person
can make. ‘The box is six inches square
by eighteen inches high, open at top with
a sliding door on oneside. This holds a
lamp. Opposite the lamp flame isa hole
one and a half inches in diameter and
around this a washer cut from a rubber
boot. Back of the lamp place a piece of
looking glass, and paint the rest of the
| box inside a dull black.
Have holes at bottom of box to ven-
tilate lamp.
A fresh egg looks like Figure 2,
almost perfectly clear. With a strong
light and a thin white-shelled egg the
outline of the yolk can beseen. Eggs
with thick brown shelis are difficult
to test.
FIG. 2.
THE EGG.
On the fifth or sixth day of incu-
bation, a strong, fertile egg will look
like Figure 3. Theair-sack is slightly
enlarged and from a dark center fine
red lines are seen to radiate. There
is also a slight cloudiness about this
dark spot or germ, and the germ can
be seen to move slightly as the egg
is revolved.
17
FIG. 3.
It often happens that the germ begins to develop
and dies before the sixth day. Im this case the red
FIG. 4.
lines are indistinct, or absent, and in
their place is a dark circle enclosing
the germ as appears in Figure 4. When
the egg is revolved this dead embryo
floats aimlessly about in the surround-
ing contents.
All infertile eggs that were fresh
when incubation began, will remain
clear up to the sixth day, or even lon-
ger, but a stale egg shows a cloudy spot in the center
and a large airsack. When opened, the yolk sack is
apt to break and the contents to run together, or, as
we say, become ‘‘addled.”’
All such eggs, as well as those that contain dead
embryos, and all clear or infertile
eggs should be removed at this first
testing.
A second testing of eggs should
be made on the tenth day. By this
time the air sack has still further en-
larged and the growth of the embryo
18 BIGGLE POULTRY BOOK.
has so clouded the egg contents as to render the out-
lines indistinct. The appearance of the egg is now
shown by Figure 5.
After the tenth day Ae tester is of little use.
On the eighteenth day the embryo is nearing the final
stages, the yolk upon which it subsists is nearly all
absorbed. On the nineteenth and twentieth days it is
chipping the shell, and on the twenty-first it emerges,
fully developed, into a new and larger world.
FOOT NOTES.
The shell of an egg is porous and any filth on it will taint
the meat. This is a good reason for cleaning eggs as soon as
gathered. Allstains and dirt should be wiped with a moistcloth
and then allowedtodry. A little vinegar will often remove the
niost obstinate stain.
Sometimes dirty looking eggs are fresher than some that
are clean, but buyers will not believe it, and, as they must judge
an egg by its outward appearance only, eggs should be made as
attractive looking as possible before being sent to market.
Eggs are preserved intwo ways: By cold storage ina dry
atmosphere, at a temperature of 36 to 40 degrees, and by im-
mersing in a pickle of lime and salt in clean oak barrels. The
pickle is made by slaking two pounds of lime in hot water, and
adding one pint of salt and four gallons of water. Twenty gal-
lons will cover 150 dozens. Put fresh eggs in the clear pickle
until the vessel is nearly full, spread a clean cloth over them
and cover this with the settlings of the lime.
Ice-house eggs and pickled eggs are edible if put in fresh
and properly kept, but are greatly inferior to fresh stock. If
sold for what they are it is all right, but it is all wrong and a
fraud on consumers to palm them off as newly-laid eggs.
SHLLOGNVAM GHOWVI-YSATIS
Il ALW'Id
CHAPTER III.
EGGS FOR HATCHING.
To me eggs ave like morals—they have no middle ground. Lf
not good, they are bad.—Harriet.
O. W. Holmes is credited with the
observation that a child’s education should
begin one hundred years before it is born.
In this witticism the poet and sage ex-
daa | presses his appreciation of the law of
a keredity, that like begets like, a principle
as Pyieable to the raising of fowls as to the training
of children.
The successful chicken rearer must begin his
operations long before the advent of the chickens.
Hens that have been stunted by neglect and abuse or
debilitated by too frequent intermingling of blood,
will not lay eggs containing strong, healthy germs.
The breeding birds of both sexes should be of hardy
stock, fully matured and in a high state of health.
Young pullets forced into early laying by stimu-
lating food do not make good breeders. Hens that
are over two years old, hens that are over fat, or have
been weakened by disease, should never be used to
furnish eggs for hatching. Pullets that have reached
their full size, and well preserved two-year-old hens
mated with a vigorous male, make the best breeders.
A good plan is to mate hens witha cockerel from eight
22 BIGGLE POULTRY BOOK.
to twelve months old, and to mate pullets with an active
cock not over two years old. The exact age when a
bird reaches maturity cannot be given, as the different
breeds vary greatly in this respect.
In order to obtain eggs with germs of strong
vitality, the diet of the breeders must receive attention.
Eggs are produced from what we may call surplus
food, that which is not required for the sustenance of
the hen herself. As we have already seen, the egg
contains substances that make fat, lean meat or muscle
and bones. ‘To reproduce these in eggs the hen must
eat and digest substances out of which these are made.
Starchy foods contain the necessary oil or fatty matter.
These are represented by the grains, especially corn,
wheat, buckwheat and barley, and vegetables, espe-
cially potatoes and sugar beets. ‘The mineral element
that is found in eggs is found also in nearly all foods.
Of the grains, oats have the largest percentage, then
follow bariey, sweet corn, buckwheat and rye, wheat
and corn in the order named. Wheat, bran, clover
hay, linseed and cottonseed meal and buttermilk are
all rich in this element. Of the twenty-six per cent.
of solids in an egg, fourteen consist of albumen, from
which may be seen the absolute necessity of supplying
the laying hen with food containing a large proportion
of albuminous matter. The alchemy of nature work-
ing in the body of the hen cannot elaborate albumen
out of starch or fat, nor out of carbonate and phosphate
of lime. Food abounding in these will not enable the
hen to produce eggs, if it be deficient in what are
called albuminoids or nitrogenous elements. While
the grains contain these they are not contained in
EGGS FOR HATCHING. 23
sufficient quantity to form a proper diet for egg pro-
duction when the grains are fed alone. Resort is had,
therefore, to foods rich in albuminoids. Meat-meal,
made from lean meat dried and ground, is the richest
in this respect of all the foods found in the market.
After meat-meal, follow in order green cut bone,
cottonseed meal, linseed meal, wheat bran, clover
hay and milk.
The hens when running at large in the warm
season of the year supplement the ration of grain
supplied them by their keeper with worms, grubs and
insects of various kinds, which contain the needful
HE FINDS A WORM.
albumen. While providing themselves with this they
obtain succulent and bulky green food in the form of
grass, and gritty particles to grind the whole mass.
Along with the needful quantity and variety of
food, hens roaming the fields secure the exercise so
essential to good health and the production of healthy
progeny.
Eggs of strong vitality for hatching may be ob-
tained even from hens in confinement when the con-
ditions noted here are complied with.
The same conditions that promote health and in-
duce the hens to lay are favorable for giving vigor to
the cock also.
24 BIGGLE POULTRY BOOK,
It is difficult to lay down definite rules in regard
to the number of hens to be allowed for each male
bird. Breeds and individuals of each breed differ in
activity and vigor ; but speaking generally, it may be
said that for a flock at liberty, one Leghorn male may
be allowed for each flock of twenty to twenty-five
females; one Plymouth Rock male to fifteen to
twenty females; and one Brahma male to ten te fifteen
females ; these breeds being taken to represent the
small, medium and large fowls. When confined in
yards, reduce the number of females by a third, unless
two males are allowed each pen, alternated weekly.
Never have more than one male with the flock at the
same time.
To be sure that eggs for hatching are fertile, none
should be saved for this purpose from a flock until
the third day after mating.
After mating, though the male be removed, the
eggs laid from the third to the tenth day will nearly
all be fertile. It follows from this, that in breeding
pure-bred fowls, contamination of the blood from the
introduction of a strange male need not be feared
after the tenth day.
Never shake an egg designed for hatching.
Wrap eggs kept for hatching in old flannel or
woolen cloth, or stand on end in bran and cover with
flannel. Avoid a hot, drying atmosphere.
Beware of breeding from cocks with crooked
breasts, wry tails, long, slender shanks, or any other
bodily defect indicating a lack of vigor. Like begets
like. Use only the best for stock birds.
"III ALVW' Id
CHAPTER IV.
HATCHING THE EGGS.
Eggs are close things, but the chicks come out at last.
—Chinese Proverb
Incubation is the application of the proper amount
of heat to the egg under proper conditions. Nature
has provided for this by bringing upon hens after lay-
ing a certain number of eggs, the brooding fever,
which runs its course when its purpose has been
fulfilled.
In some breeds this broody instinct has been bred
out toa great extent. This is true of the smaller, or
Spanish breeds generally, yet even these will occa-
sionally become broody. Nearly all the medium sized
breeds, and the larger ones, too, are persistent sitters.
Of all the standard breeds, perhaps the Cochins are by
nature the most quiet and gentle, and have the moth-
erly instinct the most strongly developed.
Whatever may be the breed, it is best, as a
rule, to select for sitters and mothers, medium sized
hens, and such as are not too fat and clumsy. It isan
advantage, also, to have those that are gentle and will
not fidget and fight and break their eggs. Wild,
squalling hens are a nuisance; accustom them to
being handled, remove them at night to a room apart
from the laying hens, let them sit for a day or two on
uest eggs, and if they promise well, give them as
many as they can cover well.
28 BIGGLE POULTRY BOOK.
No invariable rule can be laid down respecting
the number of eggs to be put underahen. The size
of the hen, the size of the eggs and the season of the
year will determine the proper number, which ey
be from nine to eighteen.
The manner of making the nest, a very simple
operation, apparently, has much to do with the suc-
cess or failure of a hatch. The box in which the nest
is made should be so large as not to prevent the hen
from turning about freely, and so situated that she
cannot be interfered with by other hens. One of the
cheapest and most satisfactory nest
boxes for general purposes is illus-
trated herewith. It isa large soap box
with two-thirds of the top removed,
turned on its side. A box of this kind FIG. 1.
set on the floor of the laying room or on a shelf with
the open side toward the wall but a few feet from it,
makes a handy and secluded nesting place. When
a hen becomes broody, the box can be moved near
the wall and other hens shut out, and at the proper
time she can be carried on her own nest to the hatch-
ing-room.
If a new nest must be made it should be of some
soft material, broken oat straw or hay, carefully spread
out and pressed down, hollowed but slightly, and the
edges raised a little to prevent the eggs from rolling
out. If the bottom be made too flat the eggs roll
away from the hen and she cannot cover them ; if too
convex, they roll close together, and when the hen
enters the nest and steps on them or among them
they do not separate or roll away and a fouled nest is
HATCHING THE EGGS. 29
the result. Whenever eggs are thus smeared or
fouled in any manner, they should be carefully washed
in warm water and at once replaced under the hen.
In selecting eggs for hatching, such as are very
large or very small, all having unusually thin, rough
or chalky shells, should be discarded.
It is a good plan to mark on every egg with pen
and ink the date of sitting, and when they are due to
hatch, and-to make a record of the same in a book
kept for the purpose. Always put the eggs under the
hen after dark, unless she is known to be perfectly
gentle and trustworthy.
To save labor it is a common custom to set several
hens at one time, and when the chicks hatch to put
two or more broods with one mother.
About the best food for sitting hensis corn. With
corn, water, gravel, charcoal and a place to dust
supplied, they will need little else. Their attendant
should see that they come off the nest once a day and
that their eggs are not fouled or broken.
The modern man-made hatcher, the incubator, is
largely used for winter hatching when hens rarely be-
come broody, and also for hatch- =
ing on a larger scale than is con- «&
venient with the natural mother.
While the names and makers
of these machines are numerous
they are divided into two general
classes, those warmed by hot air,
TYPE OF
and those warmed by radiation HoT-arr INcUBATOR.
from a tank of hot water, the heat being supplied
in both cases by a lamp flame or a gas jet. A very
20 BIGGLE POULTRY BOOK.
uv
few are still made that are heated by drawing off the
cooled water from a tank and pouring in hot water as
required.
Each kind and each make has its friends, and nearly
all are fairly successful. An expert having knowl-
edge and experience in artificial hatching can make
a success of the crudest incuba-
tor, while a person ignorant in
=e such matters may fail with the
| ~~ most improved.
| The running of an incubator
tvpror With only a few eggs in it at first,
HOT-WATERINCUBATOR. to learn how to manage it and to
gain experience, is the part of wisdom for a novice.
The directions sent by all manufacturers with their
machines should be carefully studied during these
experimental hatches.
The best location for an incubator is in a room
where a mild and fairly uniform temperature can be
preserved in spite of changes in the weather. Such
a location is afforded by a light, dry and well ventil-
ated basement or cellar. The machine should stand
on a firm foundation, and where
the direct rays of the sun can-
not shine upon it.
Before filling the trays with
eggs run it empty for a day or
rans Seek : TYPE OF
two to see that it is in working HOME-MADE INCUBATOR.
order, and that the heat can be maintained at 102 de-
grees to 104 degrees Fahrenheit.
Eggs for incubator hatching should be fresh, the
fresher the better. None should be over ten days old,
HATCHING THE EGGS. 31
although they will hatch when much older if carefully
preserved under woolen covers, and turned daily.
The trays should be crowded at first, since, on testing
the eggs on the fifth day, many may be found infertile
and will have to be taken out.
After an incubator full of eggs has once been
started, no additional eggs should be put in until the
hatching is completed. This may be accepted as a
rule to tie to without giving all the reasons for it here.
Eggs to hatch well must lose a part of the water
contained in them. This loss occurs by evaporation
through the pores of the egg-shell. Under the hen
‘evaporation is checked just at the right time by a
slight film of oil from the hen’s body that shows itself
in the gloss that appears on eggs that have been in
the nest fora few days. In the incubator the evapor-
ation will continue for the whole period of incubation }
and be excessive unless checked by supplying a moist
atmosphere to the egg trays. Each manufacturer has
his own method for furnishing the required moisture,
or retaining it by proper ventilation. There isenough
moisture in an egg to hatch it, but improper ventilation
will drive it out.
A reliable thermometer is one of the first essen-
tials to success in artificial hatching. The secret of
many failures may be traced to thermometers with
scales inaccurately marked between the points Ioo
degrees and 105 degrees, just where accuracy is
especially required in hatching eggs.
_ The proper temperature for hatching is considered
to be 102 degrees to 103 degrees. This is the tempera-
ture, not of the egg chamber, but the temperature of
Manes |
32 BIGGLE POULTRY BOOK.
the upper surface of a fertile, live egg. The tempera-
ture of an infertile egg, or of an egg containing a dcad
embryo will be lower than that of a live egg lying ad-
jacent inthe sametray. It is important, therefore, in
testing the temperature to place the bulb uponaliveegg.
By the tenth day the animal heat that has been
stored in the living embryos in the process of incuba-
tion becomes quite a factor in the temperature of the
machine. If the operator is not experienced or the
machine cannot be trusted to regulate its own tem-
perature, the thermometer is apt, about this time, to
shoot up to 110 degrees and the whole incubator full
of eggs to be destroyed. From this period to the end
less artificial heat is required. In a warm room a
large machine containing several hundred eggs will
hold its heat for hours at a time without the applica-
_ tion of any external heat whatever.
It is thought necessary to give eggs in incubators
a daily airing, after the fashion of the hen. This is
less essential when the hatching is done in a cold
room. In airing eggs it is best to remove them from
the machine in the trays and immediately close the
doors so as not to lower the inside temperattre.
While the eggs are being aired they should also
be turned. Nearly all machines have devices for doing
this, a trayful at a time, or automatically, by a clock-
work contrivance, but in small machines it may be
done by hand and the relative position of the eggs in
the trays changed so as to better insure an equal
chance forall. After the nineteenth day they should
not be handled, except as the shells are chipped the
broken side should be turned up.
SVNAVAdE AAV
CHAPTER V.
CARE OF YOUNG CHICKS WITH HENS:
Keep all chicks out of the wet grass in the early morning.
It is not the wet feet, but the wet feathers that do the harm.
—Tim’s Wife.
When the chicks begin to break the
shell, the importance of a mother-hen with
a quiet and gentle disposition becomes
apparent. Theadvice commonly given to
* let the hen alone until the chicks are all
out, is sound only in cases where hens are so wild and
pugnacious that handling them will endanger the
young, or the attendant is ignorant of the proper thing
to do.
It is often good policy to take from the nest the
chicks that come out first. This leaves more room for
those that are to hatch, and when out of the nest they
cannot be trampled on. This is especially wise when
the mother is heavy, clumsy and fidgety and lacking
motherly instinct. When several hens are hatching
at the same date, it will often be found prudent, while
the chicks are coming out, to transfer all the chicks
and eggs from an unruly hen to those that exhibit
more hen-seuse.
All empty shells should be removed from the nest
at once. Occasionally a chick is unable to get out
after it has chipped the shell. The experienced hand
can frequently give aid by carefully breaking the shell
36 BIGGLE. POULTRY BOOK.
a little more, or tearing the tough surrounding miem-
brane. Caution and experience are needed in the
operation.
Eggs late in hatching are benefited by putting
them for a few minutes in warm water tempered to
about 103 degrees. If containing live chicks they will
be seen to move in the water. If the chicks are dead
they willremain perfectly still. After this warm bath
the eggs should be put back at once under the hen
without suffering them to become chilled.
Never in any case take all the chicks from the
nest of a hen that is afterwards to be used as the
mother of a brood; and if the chicks are of several
colors, leave at least one of each color in the nest.
Attention to these points will avoid trouble when the
brood is returned to her.
Chicks taken from the nest should be put in a
basket covered with woolen cloth, and placed near a
stove. Do not remove from the nest until their down
is dry. Such as show unusual weakness may be
revived by pouring down their throats a few drops of
warm, new milk.
Strong chicks need no food for twenty-four hours
after hatching. If this time expires before it is con-
venient to return them to the hen, they may be fed in
a box by a sunny window, and be put in their basket
nest again until evening. The hen and her ‘‘sample
lot’’ may, in the meanwhile, be fed near the nest.
After dark the rest of the brood should be returned to
her, and by the next morning mother and chicks are
ready for the coop, which should be ready forthe brood.
In cold weather it is best to set coops in an open
SS en ad ee I OR re ed
CHICKS WITH HENS. 37
shed. They should always be set on a dry, slightly
elevated location, so that they cannot be flooded by a
sudden rainfall. Where the soil is at all wet they
should be set ona platform made by nailing boards
on two pieces of scantling. This platform should be
of such a size that the sides of the coop will just fit
overit. If allowed to extend outside of the walls the
rain from the roof will keep the floor damp.
While the styles of coops are as numerous as their
makers, the one here illustrated, having roof with
double pitch and triangular ends, is as
cheap and serviceable asany. To make
it, take four pieces of 2 x 3 scantling, cut
exactly 33 inches long and halved together
at the top at such an angle as to make the base line of
the front extend three feet. The coop is made two
feet deep, thus giving a floor space of 2x3 feet. The
roof may be covered by regular siding, or by fillis-
tered barn boards cut into lengths of 2 feet 2 inches.
The rear wall is boarded up solid, the front half way
down, and the lower half is slatted. A loosely fitting
door of boards may be hinged to the upper half to
cover the slats and keep the brood in the coop when
desirable. For summer weather, ventilation should
be provided for by raising slightly the lower edges of
the two uppermost roof boards, one on each side.
Here is shown a folding coop. The sides are
hinged by iron pins seen at the dots on the upper front
board in the cut. The solid rear end and slatted front
are both hinged to the side and fold
inward, which permits the sides to
come together. When ‘‘ knocked
38 BIGGLE POULTRY BOOK.
down’’ a coop occupies but little room when stored
under shelter, as all coops should be when not in use.
Whatever the style of coop used, the chicks should
be fed as soon as they are put into it. This is best
done at first on a clean board laid on the floor or just.
in front of the coop.
As to what the first few meals should consist of,
there is some difference of opinion even among prac-
tical poultry keepers. It is certain, however, that the
traditional hard-boiled egg is not essential for the first,
or for any other meal. When a hen steals her nest
and brings off a brood, she feeds them successfully on
weed seeds, insects and sundries until she brings them
to the poultry yard and they can get the food fed to
the rest of the flock.
Bread crumbs, moistened with sweet milk, are
acceptable and nourishing for the first meal. Thou-
sands are started every year on a mixture of corn meal
and bran, half and half by bulk, scalded. It is well to
scald this sometime in advance of feeding, and allow
it to soak up the water and swell. It should be
crumbly and not pasty. This mixture of corn meal
and bran may be fed perfectly dry, and is so fed by
successful poultry growers. A person of much experi-
ence uses bread crumbs and rolled oats, dry, the first
week, and then for two weeks a mixture of equal
parts by bulk of bran, middlings and corn meal, with
a handful of meat-meal to the quart of the mixture.
This is scalded an hour before feeding. If the bowels
of the chicks are too costive he adds more bran, if too
loose, more middlings.
Many make mixtures like the above into a stiff
:
CHICKS WITH HENS, 39
batter with miik and baking powder, bake well and
feed it dry. A woman who has been successful in this
line gives her recipe for chick-bread as follows: take
equal parts of sifted ground oats, corn and wheat,
with wheat bran added equal to the whole bulk of
ground feed, moisten with skimmed milk, add suffi-
cient powder and bake. A little raw lean iieat or
finely cut raw bone and meat is beneficial. A little
only should be given at first ; a piece as big as a grain
of corn is sufficient for a chick a few days old. This
food is not essential when the grain ration is mixed
with milk or dried meat.
In feeding chicks, as well as fowls, grass or vege-
tables should not be omitted. Inthe absence of grass
in their runs, and in cold weather, chopped onions, let-
tuce, cabbage or other succulent vegetables should be
supplied. Short clippings from the lawn, fresh, grassy
sods, and the sweeping from the barn floor carried to
their runs will be relished, and furnish the needed
bulky vegetable food and afford healthful exercise.
Little chicks should have five or six meals a day until
three weeks old.
Gritty matter is required by chicks at the very
beginning. To supply it, sprinkle coarse sand over
the board on which they are first fed. If confined in
houses or yards, or in runs where grit is scarce, it
should be as carefully supplied as food. It is well to
have asmall trough or box in a convenient place filled
with gravel, broken oyster or clam shells and granu-
-lated charcoal. The latter is not valuable as grit, but
is very useful in correcting disorders of digestion.
40 BIGGLE POULTRY BOOK.
WATER VESSELS.
Water should be given to the chicks from the
start. It is best at all times to supply it in fountains
from which they can drink but cannot get in with
their feet. Ifsupplied in open vessels they will foul
it and contract colds, bowel disease or cramps.
A convenient water vessel for chicks
may be made from an old fruit can and
a flower-pot saucer, Figure 1. Cut a notch or punch
a hole in the side next to the opened end, have the
saucer just a little larger than the can, fill can with
water, put on saucer and invert [ij
quickly. When chicks are older, iy
the stone or earthen fountain
shown here, Figure 2, holding a
half-gallon or more, can be substituted. A
very convenient fountain is shown in Fig-
ure 3, as the handle enables
it to be carried around like
a bucket. A tile fountain, preferred by some, is
shown in Figure 4.
A common wooden bucket, cut down as shown ~— FI
: in the cut, makes a first-class water alee
vessel, convenient to carry. It should have a board
over the top, or be placed under a stool to keep the
water cool and tc prevent the chickens from soiling
it.
Before feeding ground oats and corn to little chicks sift out
the oat hulls.
It is all right to have coops wind-tight, but all wrong to have
them air-tight. Chicks must have ventilation as well as warmth.
If insufficient air be admitted, the atmosphere of the coop be-
comes not only foul, but damp.
As soon as the brood is out of the coop in the morning, turn
it up to the sun and air and spread dry earth over the floor.
Whitewash the inside often. At midday turn down again.
“Sweetness and light’ applied to coops !
A strip of wire netting, one-inch mesh, two feet wide and
about ten yards long, is ‘‘just splendid’’ for making a tempo-
rary yard for a hen and her young brood. Easy to put up, easy
to move, and much better than the old style yard made of foot
boards set on edge.
To make small runs for little chicks, make the sides of wide
boards and cover with wire netting. This is better than making
high fences. Old fowls cannot get into these covered runs and
the chicks cannot crawl out through the wire, even if the mesh
be wide.
PLATE V.
BUFF COCHINS
CHAPTER VI.
CARE OF YOUNG CHICKS IN BROODERS.
Feed young poultry of all kinds early and late and often.
—Harriet,
The rearing of chicks in
brooders does not differ mater-
ially from the ordinary method,
except that the intelligent in-
stinct exercised by the hen in
caring for her brood has to be
exercised by the attendant.
Whether the chicks should be removed from the
incubator soon after hatching or be left until nearly
all are out of the shell, depends a good deal on the
construction of the maciine, especially of the egg-
drawer. On this point the manufacturer should give
explicit directions. Asarule, it is advisable to darken
any windows that may admit light to the egg-drawer
during the hatching process, to remove chicks as their
down becomes dry, and all empty shells, but to open
the incubator as little as possible. While the chicks :
are hatching the temperature is apt to rise but should
not beallowed to goabove 105 degrees. The removal of
a basketful of chicks will cause the temperature to drop
suddenly, a large amount of animal heat being thus
withdrawn. Care must be taken to replace it by a sur-
plusfromthelamp. If the regulator at this stage fails
to act, the chicks and eggs left in the machine may
WORLD.
SL ae ae ee eee. oe
44 BIGGLE POULTRY BOOK.
suffer a chill that will prove fatal. The attendant must,
therefore, be very watchful at this time.
As soon as the chicks are dry there should bea
brooder ready into which they may be put to remain
for thirty-six hours, where they may learn to eat and
run out and into the shelter of their silent mother.
The natural mother is just as warm when hovering
her brood as when sitting on the eggs. The proper
temperature of this first brooder must, therefore, be
close to the hatching heat, say 90 to g6degrees. This
should be the heat of the center of brooder around
which the chicks hover and from which they can move
away when too warm. A brooder shaped like a box,
that has warm corners, or that has a uniform tempera-
ture at all parts from which the chicks cannot escape
is not safe. Ina properly constructed brooder they
quickly learn when too warm to move away from the
heat just as they do from the body of the hen. They
also learn where the source of heat is and will run to
it when cold, but for the first two days it may be
necessary to occasionally push them under cover to
show them the way.
Instinct teaches the young bird to eat. The cluck
of the mother hen and her pecking at the food calls
attention to it and they follow her example. When
feeding brooder chicks for the first time, it is only
necessary to place them in the light and to drop the
food before them in such a mannez that their attention
will be called to it.
* or the first week the brood should be fed either
in or beside the brooder and be confined near the heat
so that they cannot stray away and become chilled.
CHICKS WITH BROODERS. 45
Much of the sickness and mortality that befalls brooder
chicks is due to chilling while they are very young, or
from foul air and dampness in badly constructed
brooders.
After ten days, the temperature of the brooder
may be reduced to 80 or 85 degrees, and still lower in
two weeks more. As chicks grow they generate more
and more heat when they nestle together, and so re-
quire less in the brooder. When the weather becomes
warm it may be necessary to shut off all heat in the
day-time and during warm nights.
Manufacturers are prone to rate the capacity of
their brooders too high. A brood of fifty is large
enough no matter what the capacity of the brooder
may be. Broods of one hundred can be handled until
a month old, but after this stage is reached such a flock
outgrows the largest single brooder or apartment.
Much harm is done by the common practice of put-
ting large numbers together.
Each brood of fifty chicks should have an outside
run of not less than one hundred square feet in which
to exercise until a month old. After this age they
should have free range.
There are many kinds of brooders, some warmed
by hot air, others by hot water; some furnish bottom
heat, others top heat, and still others diffuse a current
of warm air from the center outward.
One of the latter is shown in Figure I.
Some are built for indoor and others for
outdoor use; a double outdoor brooder
is shown in Figure 2. In raising large BiGa1.
numbers, single brooders in separate buildings are
AD SRA eS 2-5 el
46 BIGGLE POULTRY BOOK.
used by some, while others prefer long houses con-
taining many apartments, with an individual brooder
in each. In these long houses some employ a green-
house heating apparatus, warming the brooders by a
system of hot-water pipes.
On general principles it may be said that bolton
heat is practicable in mild weather only, when little
artificial heatisrequired. Top heat, such asis obtained
by radiation from a tank of hot water overhead, is un-
natural and gives good results ouly when the tank is
narrow and so placed as to
prevent crowding into
corer “under Wit eae
system nearest to nature
is that which tempers the
floor and the whole atmos-
phere of the brooder and gives off the greatest amount
of warmth either by radiation, or by diffusing a current
of warm pure air from the center.
It may be said in favor of long brooder houses
containing many apartments that they are economical
to build and manage; against them, that they are ex-
pensive to maintain unless run at full capacity.
In favor of individual brooders and small movable
houses it may be said, they may be moved to new,
clean ground whenever desirable; the flocks can be
kept separate when disease comes to one part of the
poultry yard; if fire breaks out in one house it need
not destroy all, and when the birds are old enough the
brooder can be removed, perches put in and the house
affords a home for the flock until sold or moved to the
hennery.
SNIHOOD HOCIALAVd
CHAPTER VII.
GROWING EARLY BROILERS.
The early bird catches the worm.
Early eggs, early sitters ; early sitters, early chickens ; early
chickens, early eggs and early profits.—Tim.
Broiler chickens are chickens of suitable size for
broiling. The size established by convenience and
custom is a weight of one totwo pounds each. When
much above this weight they pass as roasting chick-
ens. Birds of this weight are tender and toothsome
and are consumed mostly by persons who are able to
pay well for the gratification of their tastes. The
demaud comes from wealthy private families and
high-class hotels and restaurants.
The market for broilers opens soon after the New
Year begins but is not at its best until asparagus
appears. From the middle of March to the middle of
June, a period of three months, there is generally a
brisk demand for them. With the beginning of July,
light-weight broilers are little called for, heavier
weights are wanted, and as the weight goes up the
price goes down, so that the poultry keeper finds it to
his interest to keep his birds and feed them until they
reach the ‘‘roasting’’ size, say six to eight pounds per
pair. Growing broilers is winter work, as they must
all be hatched and reared during the most unfavorable
season for such operations. Hatching begins in No-
vember and ends with April, for the chickens, except
50 BIGGLE POULTRY BOOK.
such as are to be reserved for breeding, must all be in
market soon after the last of June.
During the first half of this hatching period it is
difficult to secure eggs of any kind, and especially
such as are fertile and will produce strong chicks.
The difficulty is the greatest just when the need for
eggs is most imperative.
Provision must be made for overcoming this diffi-
culty or the whole business will fail. To buy eggs in
the general market is a very unsatisfactory method of
obtaining them. They are apt to be stale or infertile,
or from undesirable stock.
The only safe way to get zood eggs is to own and
feed the breeding stock, or to buy of those who know
how to produce eggs for this purpose.
As the hens are to lay in winter they must be sur-
rounded to some extent with summer conditions.
This means that they must have comfortable houses,
food suitable for producing eggs and plenty of exercise.
Whatever treatment hens may receive they will
not lay weil if moulting, nor if they have been put
through a forcing process during the summer. The
first eggs laid by pullets are of little value for hatch-
ing. The hens selected for making up the breeding
stock should be well over their moult, not too tat and
in good health. If pullets are chosen they should be
from the early broods.
The hens most likely to meet the requirements
of the case during November and December will be
found among those hatched late in the previous sum-
mer and fall. By the time these are exhausted the
older hens and early pullets will be ready to continue
the egg supply.
EARLY BROILERS. Su
Suitable hens having been secured they should be
mated with early-hatched cockerels.
Since the work of caring for the chicks in winter
weather is arduous, and as prices decline rapidly after
a certain date, it is of much importance to the poultry
keeper to have chicks that grow to the proper size in
the least possible time. There is a difference in
breeds and crosses in respect to quickness of growth.
Some will attain to a merchantable weight in eight
weeks, while others will require from ten to sixteen
weeks.
Among the pure breeds that make quick-growing
broiler chicks may be mentioned Wyandottes, Ply-
mouth Rocks and Light Brahmas. Leghorns grow
quickly to the broiler stage, but are rather small.
They make a good cross with Brahmas and Cochins,
Leghorn males being mated with the Asiatic hens.
As broilers when they are dressed for market are in
the pin-feather stage, it is desirable that these feathers
should be light in color, for if dark the smallest one
left on the carcass is apparent, and the large ones
when plucked leave a stain on the skin. For rearing
broilers, therefore, fowls of light plumage, other
qualities being equal, should always be chosen. Buff-
colored fowls have light colored pin-feathers and are
always safe to use for this purpose.
When the appearance of the carcass is not a mat-
ter of importance it is safe to use any Mediterranean-
Asiatic cross. Houdan males may also be used with
Asiatics or with Dorkings with good results. A-Ply-
mouth Rock or Houdan cross with a breed having any
black in the plumage is apt to produce progeny with
52 BIGGLE POULTRY BOOK.
solid black plumage. To secure both light pin-
feathers and the yellow skin so much prized in some
markets, a White Leghorn-Buff Cochin cross will fill
the bill. A White Plymouth Rock-Buff Cochin cross
is also to be commended both for broilers and larger
roasting chickens.
The hatching of broiler chicks on a large scale
must be done with incubators, since but few hens are
broody in fall and early winter. The brooding must
also be done in artificial mothers, and for the most
part, under cover of a good roof.
An individual brooder house in
common use among broiler raisers
is shown here. It is five feet four
inches by eight feet on the ground.
The roof in front is divided into
two parts, three feet are covered by wire netting and
over this cotton cloth which may be rolled up when
weather permits; the other part is the door for the
attendant. The rear wall is three feet six inches and
the front one foot nine inches. A yard four by six-
teen feet extends from one side.
A section of a good type of a long house is shown
in perspective at Figure 1. Itis eighteen feet wide,
divided into pens three feet wide, each containing a
brooder designed to hover fifty chicks. By reference
to Figure 2 it will be seen that the glass run is shut
off from the house by
m a solid, hanging door
that swings inward
against the front wall.
This is opened in the
gape Coe
EARLY BROILERS. 53
day-time to give plenty of sunlight, and closed at
night to shut out the cold that enters through the glass.
It is seven feet high in front and four and one-half
at the back. The passageway is at the rear and is
sunk sixteen inches, thus allowing the building to
be made low without compelling the attendant to
stoop. The brooders are set along this passageway
in such a manner as to bring their floors on a level
with the floor of the house. Light and ventilation
are both supplied from the rear
as well as from the front wall.
One who has raised thou-
sands of broilers successfully
gives his method of feeding as FIG. 2.
follows: ‘‘I give no feed for thirty-six hours, and don’t
allow them to go more than a foot from the brooder.
‘‘ For the first two weeks I feed them cake made
as follows: two quarts coarse corn meal, one quart
bran, one quart middlings, one teacup ground meat
(be sure that there is no pork or fish about it), one cup
fine bone, wet with a scant pint of water. Thesecret
in making this cake is in not getting too much water
in it and in baking it thoroughly in a quick oven.
Feed three times a day all they will eat up clean in a
short time. Overfeeding is a cause of bowel trouble.
Give them all the water they want, with the chill
taken off. -
‘* After they are two weeks old I take one quart of
corn and oats sifted, one quart bran, one pint each of
middlings and coarse corn meal, a cup each of meat
and bone, moisten with hot water and let it stand a
short time. I add some of this to the cake gradually
54 BIGGLE POULTRY BOOK.
until they are three weeks old, then I drop the cake
and feed the other until they are six weeks or two
months old. Then I take two quarts corn and oats
ground, one quart corn meal, one quart middlings, one
pint of bran, one pint each of bone and meat, wet
with hot water, using more water than for the small
chicks. Let it swell before feeding.
‘‘Charcoal is very necessary to keep chicks
healthy. Have it ground fine and keep before them
all the time, also ground flint. I hash them up onions
and cabbage occasionally.
‘“Don’t let the chicks run out in the yard in
winter until they are a month old.’’
SPRING CHICKENS.
Rub off the dusty windows and let in the light.
Lettuce affords a quick-growing and choice green food.
The market has never yet been overstocked with broilers.
A thrifty chick will weigh one pound when six weeks old.
It does not pay to feed runts. Weed them out and fertilize
the garden.
Dry earth is the best and cheapest disinfectant and deodor-
izer obtainable. Store plenty of it.
If you can’t get milk and can get creamery whey, use it
While not equal to milk itis a good substitute.
Raw chopped onions fed at night aresaid to be a safeguard
against roup. They are wholesome at any rate.
Let the flock have a space on the ground somewhere covered
with litter, and keep them in a state of activity.
Pour boiling water on wheat and let it soak over night.
Give the broilers in the fattening coop an occasional feed of it.
Cash in the pocket is not in danger of gapes, cats, crows,
rats, roup or cholera, and therefore is better than the chickens
in the coop, if they are old enough for market.
Boiled rice, sweetened with brown sugar, is excellent for
putting the finishing touches on theearly broilers. Give them
one ot two meals a day for a week before sending them to mar-
ket. Broken rice can be bought cheap.
SNVHSONVW’I
‘TIA HLW Id
CHAPTER VIII.
HENS EXPRESSLY FOR EGG PRODUCTION.
The best “egg producer’ zs good food and plenty of tt.
The hen that sits on the roost or fence in zero weather, or
stands on one leg in the snow all day,ts not a winter layer,
—Hatriet,
Keeping hens for laying purposes chiefiy is a
profitable part of the poultry business when rightly
conducted and when the surrounding conditions are
favorable.
The selection of the laying stock is a matter of
much importance. There is the ‘‘laying type’”’
among hens just as there is the ‘‘ milk type’’ among
dairy cows. These are founa
to some extent among all
breeds but in larger propor-
tion among the Mediterranean
class. Generally speaking,
good layers are fine-boned.
This is seen in the shank which
is slender and relatively short.
This feature isdetermined by one oF THE “LAYING
comparing specimens of each ee
breed by themselves, that is, Leghorn hens must be
compared with Leghorn hens; Brahma hens with
Brahma hens, etc. A small feminine head with promi-
nent eyes and a slender neck are also indications of a
good layer, just as similar features in a cow betoken a
copious milker. The body of a good layer is rather
long and wedge-shaped, smaller in front than back.
58 BIGGLE POULTRY BOOK.
The good layer is of a lively, active, restiess disposi-
tion, ready to play or fight with her companions and
always in search of something to do or to eat.
Any one who has been a careful observer of hens
will recognize the business hen as soon as his eyes rest
upon her. Hens of the opposite character are just as
readily detected by their coarse-boned shanks, thick
necks, masculine heads and masculine make-up.
The breed to be chosen for layers will depend
partly on the taste of the poultry keeper, to some
extent on the market in which the eggs are to be sold,
and on whether the owner wishes to combine meat
production and the sale of pure-bred eggs for hatching
HOUSES AND YARDS OF A FANCY POULTRY RAISER.
with the market-egg business. The breed that every-
body pronounces ‘‘best’’ for laying or for any other
purpose has not yet been discovered. Some prefer
pure-bred hens, others crosses. /
It is generally conceded that the Mediterranean
breeds lay the largest number of eggs. Their eggs
are mostly white or but slightly tinted, and have thin
HENS FOR EGGS. 59
shells. Their color is objectionable in some markets
and their fragile shells render them more liable to
break in shipping. When the surplus hens have to
be marketed for meat, they do not make first-class
dressed poultry. What, therefore, is gained in the
number of eggs may be partly or wholly lost in sell-
ing the dressed meat. This is the argument on one
side. On the other side it is maintained that the
small breeds seldom become broody, mature quickly
and come quickly into profit, and that these facts
combined with the increased number of eggs laid,
compensate for any loss in weight or price of carcass.
Those who combine the raising of broiler and
roasting chickens or capons with the production of
eggs, generally choose the American breeds or crosses.
When a poultry keeper can find sale for pure-bred
eggs and fowls in connection with his egg business,
the breed that is most popular with buyers is the breed
he is apt to prefer.
Those who have a special or private trade for
darkly tinted eggs should select Wyandottes, Plymouth
Rocks, Rhode Island Reds and Brahmas.
Cochins, Poland and the English class are seldom
chosen for stocking an egg farm.
Whether a poultry keeper shall raise his own hens
or buy them, depends on various circumstances. Fully
one half of all chickens raised will be cockerels. If,
therefore, five hundred pullets are wanted, one thou-
sand chickens must be raised, and more than this must
be hatched, for some will always die before reaching
a marketable size. Some who practice the rearing of
their own layers, give at least plausible figures to prove
60 BIGGLE POULTRY BOOK.
that the sale of cockerels yields enough profit to pay
for the raising of the pullets to the laying age, so that
they cost practically nothing. This may be a rosy
view, true only in certain favorable conditions. It is
undoubtedly true that those who grow their own stock
can have the kind they want, and are not compelled
to take a motley collection such as can be gathered by
promiscuous purchase.
The managers of some of the large egg farms fur-
nish eggs for hatching, from such stock as they choose,
to farmers in the surrounding country to hatch for
them, and buy the pullets at a certain age and price
agreed upon between the contracting parties. This
plan works well, as it leaves the operator free to give
his entire time to the care of the layers, and also per-
mits him to conduct his business on a smaller area and
with less capital. For without the rearing attachment
less land, fewer buildings, and less labor are required.
The most successful hen farms consist mainly of
houses with yards of only moderate size. Freerange
is not a necessity for hens kept chiefly foreggs. Itis
stoutly affirmed by those who have had experience
with both methods that with proper care a flock will
produce a fifth more eggs in confinement than when
at liberty. Greater care is required with shut-in hens,
but there are compensating advantages: they are
under the attendant’s eye at all times, are easily con-
trolled, fed and tended, and out of danger from en-
emies, and cannot commit depredations on the field or
garden crops of their owner or his neighbors.
Except in sections where land is low in price and
deep snow does not fall, the plan of colonizing hens in
HENS FOR EGGS. 61
small houses scattered over many acres, and giving
them free range, is not at all feasible when the object
‘is to produce market eggs.
The style of house most economical to build, and
that best serves its purpose on an egg farm, is a long,
low shed-roofed structure, divided into apartments
and facing south or southeast. Several typical build-
ings of this description are owned by a noted egg
farmer. They are each two hundred and sixteen feet
long, ten feet wide, seven feet high in front and four
and one-half feet in the rear. The front leans back
one foot, making it exactly ten feet wide, saving two
hundred and sixteen feet of roofing, and giving the
windows a slant so as to get a stronger sunlight on the
floor. Hemlock frame and boards are used, tke front
battened and the roof and rear wall covered with tarred
felt. The interior is partitioned off every twenty-four
feet, giving two hundred and forty square feet of floor
Space to each apartment. There are two large win-
dows to the front of each room, these are made to
slide and serve also as doors into the yards in front.
The partitions are boarded up three feet, and wire
netting used above the boards. There is a gate two
feet wide on the front side of each partition, hung
with double-acting spring hinges, so the attendant can
walk right throuzh with two pails of feed or water
without stopping to open or close them. A platform
twenty-eight inches wide, two feet above the floor,
runs along the rear of each room, and ten inches above
this platform isa perch. The nests are placed under-
neath the platform on the floor, the hens entering
from the rear. These houses all have earth floors
62 BIGGLE POULTRY BOOK.
Each apartment accommodates thirty to forty hens,
and each flock has a yard in front of its apartment
twenty-four by sixty-four feet, in which are growing
one or two peach or plum trees. These houses for
convenience, cheapness and practical business cannot
easily be excelled.
The general rules of feeding given in Chapter II
when treating of the best method of getting fertile
eggs for hatching, will apply in this case.
it will, however, be entirely safe in feeding hens for
market eggs alone to force them a little harder by feed-
ing more highly seasoned and more nitrogenous foods
than would be advisable when hatching eggs are wanted.
On every egg farm there should be a large boiler
or steam cooker for cooking vegetables and making
compounds of meat, ground grain and vegetables A
good morning ration may be made of equal parts of
corn meal, fine middlings, bran, ground oats and ground
meat. This should be stirred into a pot of cooked
vegetables while boiling hot until the mass is as stiff
as can be manipulated by a pair of strong arms. Sea-
soned with salt and cayenne pepper. Potatoes, beets,
carrots, turnips, onions or any vegetable clean and
free from decay will be acceptable. Cut clover hay
may be substituted for vegetables for an occasional
meal. The above contains a variety of food elements
such as compose the egg, bone and muscle of the hen,
the fat-forming elements not being prominent. For
the noon meal, wheat is the best single grain. It may
be mixed with good oats and scattered in chaff or
leaves on the feeding floor. The night feed should be
a light one, consisting of whole corn.
HENS FOR EGGS. 63
Plenty of fresh, clean water is just as essential as
food. Sharp gravel or grit of some kind is as much
needed as food and water, and should be accessible at
all times.
Green bones and meat shaved in the modern bone
cutters is a prime article for laying hens. It may be
fed to advantage in place of the ground, dry meat,
three days in the week, an ounce toeach hen. Those
who are near large cities can sometimes get cooked
lean meat and bone from bone-boiling establishments.
This is an excellent form of meat for use in cool
weather. All forms of meat should be fed cautiously,
a little at first and more as the fowls become accus-
tomed to it.
Some of the most successful persons in this busi-
ness have land in addition to their poultry yards and
taise a considerable portion of the food the hens eat.
The farm is run in the interests of the hens. If
cows are kept the skim-milk is fed tothe hens. All
vegetables except such as are used in the family, or
are extra fine and command an extra price, find their
way to the poultry yard. Clover, oats, wheat, rye and
corn fodder are harvested green, run through a fodder
cutter and fed to the hens. Cabbages are raised and
buried, turnips and beets are grown and stored for
winter feeding. Any clover not needed for summer
feeding is cured and used in winter.
For the health of the hens, and to secure the
largest egg production, it is necessary to furnish an
abundance of succulent and bulky food along with the
more concentrated grains and meat. It is cheaper
to raise this than to buy it, while the grains and
64 BIGGLE POULTRY BOOK.
meat can probably be bought cheaper than they can
be raised.
On an egg farm the most exacting labor is required
in winter, for the wise manager aims to produce win-
ter eggs, since prices are then at theirbest. Summer
is a season of comparative leisure in the hennery and
the extra help required in the winter may be profit-
ably employed on the farm in growing necessary
supplies.
As to how long hens should be kept for laying
authorities do not agree, but it is doubtful if they
should ever be retained long after they have passed
the spring months of their second year. During
spring and early summer dressed hens command
good prices. So fast, therefore, as they show signs ot
breaking down with too much fat, quit laying and
become broody, they should be started on their way to
market. By midsummer the stock in the houses
should be reduced to one-half or less of the full win-
ter complement and consist only of the best of the
yearlings.
Cut green clover fine, and feed it to all fowls confined in
yards. Splendid.
Observe how a flock will nestle on a well-liitered floor in
winter. A hint to the wise.
Snow isa poor substitute for water. Fowls should not be
compelled to eat it to quench their thirst.
This is a fairly well balanced daily ration for one hundred
hens:
Clower Haye 334.7 tals sa ein see bel aap anetme 2.74 lbs.
POtatOes ete eee! ao Biene aa oe akc wa slelie a notaries 2A ae
Corn Meal AOR OUR Ie, ene isis ey na ea 5.48 “
Ground (Oats eno ek Soa ee enroee De ghle
CoftonseedisMeallie aaa wreers ir ieee iaseneen ener 27 Aa
Barley se Mieal). st we ocoieater eee eae joo Ree PESOS
otal: cies 16.166 Ibs.
or in round numbers, sixteen pounds of the mixture.
PLATE VIII.
LEGHORNS
SINGLE-COMB BROWN
CHAPTER IX.
THE FARMER’S FLOCK.
Give the hen a good chance to scratch and she will raise that
morigage for you.
A hen will eat anything a hog will eat and make a good deal
better use of it.—Tim’s Wife.
The larger part of all the eggs and poultry sold in
the markets of the great cities and smaller towns
comes from the farmer’s flock. The amount from
each is small, but the aggregate immense. When
proper attention is given to this flock the profit is as
large, if not larger, than from any other part of the
farm operations.
The mistake of keeping too small a number of
fowls is sometimes, though rarely, made. Fowls, with
their omnivorous and voracious appetites, are excellent
scavengers, and if allowed the privileges of the prem-
ises will utilize much that would otherwise go to waste.
This wastage on large farms is sufficient to supply a
flock of one hundred laying hens three-fourths of all
the food they need; if but ten or twenty be kept
there will be more or less loss.
The much more frequent mistake is made of over-
stocking. The wastage is consumed, the crops in the
vicinity of the buildings are destroyed, large quanti-
ties of grain in addition are fed, the houses are crowded
to suffocation, and the ground in the entire circle of
the farm buildings becomes befouled. All may go
68 BIGGLE POULTRY BOOK.
well for a few years and then disease invades and dis-
aster comes, and the farmer arrives at the conclusion
that there is no profit in chickens.
The size of the flock should be regulated by the
circumstances surrounding each case. Large stock
farms where large quantities of grain are used, where
there is plenty of grass, numerous shelter-sheds and
no truck gardens near the house, furnish favorable
conditions for keeping a large flock with profit.
Dairy farms,
- also, where
" grass and
skim - milk are avail-
able, will support eco-
nomically a big flock of lay-
~~. ing hens or grow capons of
good quality. One who follows
trucking or small fruit growing
must limit his flocks
or confine them in
yards during the grow-
ing and fruiting season,
which adds to the ex-
as wim pense andcare. If
PETER TUMBLEDOWN’S POULTRY properly managed the
BOSE expense and care will
be repaid, because on such farms there is a con-
siderable offal that can be utilized for poultry food.
Too little care is given by the average farmer to
the breeding of his flock. The quickest way to raise
the standard of such a flock with little expense is to
cull out and sell old, broken down, scrubby and infer-
THE FARMER’S FLOCK. 69
ior specimens and mate the balance with pure-bred
males. If it is desired to increase the size use males
a Jittle larger than the common stock. Very large
males should never be used with small or medium
hens. If the hens are large and heavy use a male a
little smaller. This process may be continued to ad-
vantage each year, but always use pure-bred and
never the cross-bred males. The pure-bred birds may
be hatched from eggs bought or they may be pur-
chased late in summer or autumn from breeders who
will sell such as are slightly off color, or have some
slight defect in comb or in other minor points that do
not affect their value as a farmer’s fowl.
In planning and erecting farm buildings too little
attention is given to providing proper shelter for
poultry. While elaborate and
costly structures are not re-
quired, they should be storm
proof, free from drafts in
cold weather, have ample
ground-floor space, and be
convenient for the attendant.
The last point should not be overlooked, since a very
little saving of time and labor each day of the three
hundred and sixty-five, amounts to a considerable sav-
ing in the year, and this may be accomplished by a
small additional outlay at the start.
The style, size and cost must be determined by the
builder’s needs, taste and pocket-book. ‘There is no
““best’’ house for all situations and all persons. A few
are given rather as suggestions than as models to copy.
The style illustrated by Figure I is economical of
70 BIGGLE POULTRY BOOK.
lumber, as it consists chiefly of roof. It will be an
advantage, especially on low ground or clayey soil, to
have the floor filled in six or eight inches deep with
cinders or broken stone and covered with gravel
or sand. The ventilator is for summer use alone and
should be tightly closed in winter. The cut repre-
sents a house twelve by sixteen feet, set on a wall two
feet high, the point of the roof being eight feet above
the floor.
Figure 2 exhibits a oe type of house for general
use. As will appear from the illustration it has two
enclosed apartments with an open shed in the center.
Both the apartments
being raised thirty in-
ches from the ground
the whole floor space
is available as a scratch-
ing-room. The house
is twelve by twenty-
four feet, the shed and end parts being eight by twelve
feet each. One end is the roosting-room, and the
other the laying and hatching-room. The fowls reach
these rooms when the doors areshut by means of cleated
boards extending from the ground to an opening in the
floor. A passageway from one to the other
feighteen inches wide and enclosed by
wire netting is shown in the cut along
the rear wall of theshed. Figure 3 shows
the plan of this house.
A serviceable and good all-around house is shown
at Figure 4. A good width for a building of this
character is eighteen feet, this allowing three feet for
THE FARMER’S FLOCK. 71
the hall or passageway in
the rear, nine feet for the
main house and six fect for
the scratching-room or shed.
Figure 5 shows how this
house may be divided for
two flocks. The nests are accessible from the hall.
It is always convenient to have a yard of generous
dimensions, securely enclosed, in which it is possible
to confine the flock while crops are young, or when-
ever desirable to do so. This yard should
be large enough to plow with a horse and
be planted with plum or peach trees, and
grape viues to afford shade in hot weather, Fie. s.
and for growing fruit.
The matter of fencing the poultry yard may be
left in the hands of the owner, with the suggestion
that it is cheapest in the end to build a substantial
fence at the start. The cheapest temporary and mov-
able fence that can be erected is one of wire netting.
This should have posts every eight feet, a board at the
bottom, but no rail or board at the top. The posts
need not be heavy.
The farmer’s flock should have as careful feeding
and attention as any other stock on the farm. To in-
sure such attention some one member of the family
should take the matter in hand and make it his or her
business. Regularity in feeding is essential to the
best results. Economical feeding means that all the
wastes of the family table, the dairy, the garden and
the field should be turned into eggs and poultry meat.
a
Fait OP) sie,
72 BIGGLE POULTRY BOOK.
NEST NOTES. |
Use small hens to hatch thin-shelled eggs.
If the hen deserts the nest for a few hours and |
allows the eges to become chilled, do not throw the |
egesaway. Letitheni have another trial;they will
stand exposure for a long while and yet hatch well.
In April showers look after the young broods.
A “‘saturated solution” of chicken is N.G.,except HANGING
for soup. NEST.
Boil beef or pork cracklings with small potatoes, add corn
meal, mash all together and make a dish fit for the chickens of
a king.
The most acceptable lays of spring are furnished by the hens.
It is bad policy to keep the big, slow-motioned fowls and the
small, nervous, quick-motioned breeds together in one flock.
They require different feeding and treatment; they do not nar-
monize.
A hen’s teeth are in her gizzard. Sand, gravel and like sub-
stances are the teeth. Keep them sharp.
A state of fear and excitement is unfavorable to egg produc-
tion. Every movement among a flock of hens should be gentle.
The wide-awake poultry keeper is up and around among his
flocks early in the morning and late in the evening.
Drinking water in cold weather should be neither hot nor
ice-cold, but simply cool, and always clear and fresh.
A good dry-mash mixture: 100 partseach of bran, middlings,
ground alfalfa and beef scraps.
A GENERAL-PURPOSE HEN,
eS ae ee ee
SOAMNANVH GHa’IIDNHd-NACIOD9
HsitTOd YHA'TIS
"XI ALV Id
CHAPTER X.
THE VILLAGE HENNERY.
In cold weather keep your eyes open and the cracks in the
hen house closed.—Harriet.
The hen turns grass into greenbacks, grain into gold, and
even coins silver out of sand.
Persons living in towns and villages may often-
times find pleasure and profit in keeping a small
flock of poultry. The mistake most frequently made
by those who undertake to do so is in attempting to
keep too many. When confined in small yards they
become unhealthy and unproductive; if permitted to
roam they become a nuisance in the neighborhood
and a prolific source of unneighborly feeling and
of disputes which ouly a justice of the peace can
settle.
To maintain a peaceful mind and a quiet com-
munity attention should be paid to the variety of
fowls kept, and to the yard fences. The Asiatic
breeds are particularly fitted by their quiet nature and
indisposition to rove for stocking a village hennery.
They not only thrive better in close confinement than
the smaller and more active breeds, but are more
easily confined. A fence four feet high will restrain
them. If the fence be made of wire netting, a six-
inch fence slat at the bottom and three feet of netting
above it will be sufficient. Temporary runs can be
made for them in the garden or anywhere, by driving
down stakes and attaching yard-wide netting.
76 BIGGLE POULTRY BOOK.
The tendency of these fowls is to lay on too much
fat, but this can be regulated by feeding but little
grain or other fattening foods, and compelling them
to exercise by scratching in leaves, chaff or soil.
The bane of small flocks is overfeeding and this must
be avoided to get the best results from Asiatics. All
scraps from the table that commonly go to prowling
dogs and cats should be fed to the chickens. Milk or
other liquid wastes may be mixed with bran. They
should have a liberal supply of grass from the lawn,
and waste green vegetables from the garden, and only
a small ration of grain. Thus fed they will lay and will
not grow fat. Lawn clippings, dried in the shade and
stored in bags make the choicest of winter greens for
a village flock, or indeed for any fowls.
: Those who prefer the smaller and more active
breeds must provide higher fences, or where the runs
are small, make the fences Jow and cover the entire
top with netting. Sometimes in towns where the
housesare crowded close
together it is difficult to
= get sufficient sunlight
f and air in the poultry
bet. yard to render the quar-
A i ters dry and healthful.
™ Insuch cases high picket
fences make the diffi-
culty still worse, and wire netting is much to be pre-
ferred both for utility and appearance.
While an expensive house is not a necessity in a
town, it need not be rude and unsightly. Some simple
ornamentation is within the reach of nearly every
THE VILLAGE HENNERY. 77
one, and if it could be more generally applied would
greatly add to the attractiveness of a rear view of a
village street. The house on page 76 may be called
the Harm Journal village poultry house. It repre-
sents a structure ten by twenty feet, with eight feet of
the length enclosed and twelve feet left open for a
shed. The interior arrangements as well as the size
and exterior ornamentation may be left to the needs
and fancy of the owner.
Another building well
“Sx adapted for a small flock is
%, shown by Figure I. This
ie house is ten by fifteen feet,
FIG. 1. five feet high in the rear and
seven feet in front, with a hood or overshoot. The
roosting-room occupies five feet of the length and is
elevated two feet from the floor. A board along
the front keeps in any litter that may be thrown into
the shed. Sucha house permits the flock
to live out of doors and to enjoy plenty of
air at all times. During stormy weather
they may be confined to the house by
covering the front with a screen of wire netting. The
plan of this house is shown in Figure 2.
A flock of Bantams will be found useful where
room is limited. Although their eggs are small, they
are prolific layers. The birds themselves being small
do little injury to lawns or gardens when at liberty,
while they destroy many harmful
insects. ult
The small, portable house and ie
run here illustrated is admirably santam HovsE.
by
78 BIGGLE POULTRY BOOK.
adapted to accommodate a flock of these little
beauties. The netting door is divided so that the top
of it may be opened by the attendant and feed and
water put in the run, without entering or letting the
chicks out. The whole structure should be made of
light material and of a size to render it easily movy-
able by two persons of ordinary strength.
As the purpose of keeping poultry by the average
villager is to supply his own table with eggs and
poultry but few chicks should be natched. These
should be kept separated as much as possible from
the flock of fowls ; colonized, if possible, in a differ-
ent quarter until ready for the table or to take the
place of the laying stock in the common runs.
When no hatching eggs are required no males
should be kept in the flock. They are useless board-
ers and will soon ‘‘eat their heads cff,’’ and should
themselves first be eaten.
The rooster, speaking botanically, is the crow-cuss of the
poultry yard.
Dump old mortar and broken plaster in the poultry yard.
Damaged grain may be used if scorched slightly before
feeding. :
Puny, sickly birds are only profitable for fertilizing trees
and vines.
A good cat and vermin-proof
coop for the village hennery is
often necessary. A simple one is
shown herewith.
As an egg persuader, try equal
eae parts of bran, corn meal and ground
oats, mixed with one-eighth part of linseed meal; that is, four
quarts of the linseed meal to one bushel of the grain mixture,
If snow that falls on the roof is likely to melt and drip
through, shovel it off. A shower bath of snow-water means
roup and death later on.
SNVGNOH
Py | aed
eptel trem
‘XxX ALVId
CHAPTER XI.
BREEDS OF CHICKENS.
Dow t estimate the size of theegg fromthe length of the cackle
Fine birds ave not made by fine feathers.—Harriet.
The American Poultry Association publish a book
called the ‘‘American Standard of Perfection,’’ that
contains a description of all kinds of fowls the Asso-
ciation thinks worthy of recognition as pure-bred
| poultry. The descriptions of this book are of ideally
perfect specimens of the kind, and are intended to sct
up a model for breeders to follow. Every few
years the Standard is revised to admit new breeds.
A scale of
points is given
by which fowis
are compared
with one anoth-
er and by which
they are judged
and rated when
on exhibition.
Certain disqual-
ifying marks
are also men- WHITE PLYMOUTH ROCKS.
tioned that exclude all specimens having them from
competing at exhibitions.
This ‘‘ Standard of Perfection’’ is, in fact, the
$2 BIGGLE POULTRY BOOK,
fancier’s text book. Thoroughbred chickens are
divided into ten general classes.
The first is the American class. This includes six
breeds: Plymouth Rock, of which there are three
varieties — the Barred, White and Buff; Wyandottes,
of which there are seven varieties — Silver, Golden,
White, Buff, Black, Partridge and Silver Penciled ;
Javas, in two varieties — Black and Mottled ; American
Dominiques, Rhode Island Reds and Buckeyes.
Plymouth Rocks, Wyandottes and Rhode Island
Reds are the most numerous and widely known.
The characteristic shape and appearance of the
Single-Comb Barred Plymouth Rock is well exhib-
ited in colored Plate I. The color of the plumage
is a grayish-white, each feather crossed with bars of
blue-black. The color is the same as that of the
Dominique. They are a general-purpose chicken,
wy are superior
layers and
make shapely
dressed poul-
try. Bet ms
well adapted
to farm con-
ditions they
have: Lome
been popular
WHITE WYANDOTTES. as the ‘‘farm-
er’s fowl.’’? A full-grown cock should weigh nine and
one-half pounds, and a hen two pounds less. The other
varieties of the breed differ only in comb or plumage.
Wyandottes, in all of the many varieties, have
BREEDS OF CHICKENS. 83
also a reputation for general usefulness. The Silvers
are shown in colored Plate Il. They are compactly
built and make a fine appearance as dressed poultry,
at any age. A mature male should weigh eight and
one-half pounds, and a hen two pounds less.
Javas and Rhode Island Reds
have some peculiarities of their
own, but are similar in size and
other respects to Plymouth Rocks.
Buckeyes are a dark, rich,
velvety red, have pea combs, and
_ weigh : Matured male, nine pounds;
matured female, three pounds less.
Dominiques have rose combs,
a neat, trim shape and a gray, prack JAVA PULLET.
hawk-colored plumage. They are the oldest American
breed and from a cross of these, with a larger breed,
the Plymouth Rocks originated.
The second general division is the Asiatic class,
which includes Brahmas, Light and Dark ; Cochins—
Buff, Partridge, White and Black; Langshans—Black
and White.
Light Brahmas, illustrated in colored Plate III,
are the largest of all the breeds. They are a modifi-
cation, by careful breeding for many years, of the old
Brahma Pootras. As now bred they are a noble and
attractive fowl and have also great practical merit.
As layers they equal, if they do not surpass, any large
fowls. For making heavy broilers at eight and ten
weeks of age they are among the very best. After
they are three months old they do not make first-class
dressed poultry until well matured, on account of
84 BIGGLE POULTRY BOOK.
their rapid growth and bony frame. The standard
weights for matured birds are twelve pounds for cocks
and nine and one-half pounds for hens, but they
frequently exceed these figures.
Dark Brahmas are shown in colored Plate IV.
These are usually a pound lighter in weight than the
Light Brahmas, and while they have the Brahma
carriage, their shape resembles their Cochin cousins,
thus betraying their probable origin ina Light Brahma-
Cochin cross. There is a marked difference in the
plumage of the male and female. When carefully
bred to feather a flock of Dark Brahmas presents a
very attractive appearance. They have for many
years been highly prized for market purposes, espe-
cially by those who grow capons.
Buff Cochins, colored Plate V, are the old yel-
low Shanghais with their stilted legs and long necks
reduced by careful breeding. The illustration is
a faithful likeness of well-bred Buffs of the present-
day type. They have no more neck or length of leg
than seems absolutely necessary, their bodies are
blocky and covered with an abundance of soft, fluffy
plumage of a creamy, golden hue. Their plump form
and yellow skin make them popular with market
poultrymen. In disposition they are gentle, quiet,
even lazy, and are easily restrained. They are only
fairly good layers, but are persistent sitters and good
mothers. Since their introduction into this country
Buff Cochins have probably been used for crossing
upon the common stock of farmers toa greater extent
than any other single breed. The standard weight of
mature birds of the breed is, for cocks, eleven pounds ;
and for hens, eight and one-half pounds.
EE ———— ——
- hornsare the most widely
BREEDS OF CHICKENS. 85
The other varieties of Cochins differ only in color.
The Partridge Cochins are admirably represented by
colored Plate VI, a reproduction from life of supe-
rior specimens of the variety. The plumage is very
beautiful, being like that of the famons Black-Breasted
Red Game, and suggests an origin in a cross of Game
and Cochin.
Langshans are a valuable accession to the Asiatic
class, having reached us by way of England. As will
be seen by referring to colored Plate VII, they have
a shape and carriage peculiar to themselves. Their
plumage is abundant but not so fluffy as that of the
Brahmas and Cochins. The plumage of the Blacks
isa glossy black, showing a beautiful greenish metallic
sheen when viewed in a good light. Langshans are
considered to be the best layers of their class ; although
their skin is white they are a good market fowl and
their meat of superior quality.
The third class is the Mediterranean. This em-
braces Leghorns, of which there are seven varieties —
Brown, Rose-Comb Brown,
White, Rose-Comb White,
Buff, Black, Silver Duck-
wing; Minorcas — Black,
Rose - Comb Black, and
White; Andalusians,
White - Faced Black
Spanish and Anconas.
Of these, the Leg-
disseminated and most
numerous. The Single- BUFF LEGHORNS.
86 BIGGLE POULTRY BOOK.
Comb Browns are well illustrated by colored Plate
VIII, which exhibits, also, the general type of the
breed in respect toshapeand carriage. They aresmaller
than any of the American class, sprightly, active,
light of wing, early to mature and famous for laying
the greatest number of eggs of any of our domestic
fowls. Their eggs are of medium size, but large in
comparison with the hens that lay them.
The brooding propensity has been bred out of the
whole class to a great extent, and they are commonly
referred toas non-sitters. This is only relatively true,
for the best-bred hens among them will occasionally
become broody. It is, eee true of all that they
cannot be depended
on for hatching and
rearing chicks.
The Minorcas
have a general resem-
blance to Leghorns,
but have longer, deep-
er and heavier bodies.
The weight of a full-
grown male should be
a S eight pounds, and that
BLACK MINORCAS. of a female six and
one-half pounds, which is fully a pound heavier than
Leghorns commonly reach.
Minorca hens are famous for producing large
numbers of eggs, and when they have attained the
age of two years and over the size of their eggs is
quite remarkable.
BREEDS OF CHICKENS. 87
The White-Faced Black
Spanish are a distinguished
looking fowl, and may appro-
priately be classed with the
Light Brahma as belonging
to the aristocracy of the
poultry yard. While having
the general characteristics of
the class, their white face,
black, silky-glossed plumage,
a body of peculiar shape set
well up on long, slender legs
gives them an appearance OE bia Nh BANE NES.
quite distinct from all others. SPANISH.
They lay a large, creamy white egg. Andalusians
‘might be called Blue Leghorns. They area beautifui
fowl, but for some reason are not largely bred.
The fourth-class is the English breed, the Dork-
ings, of which there are three varieties—White, Silver-
Gray and Colored. Colored Plate XI is a good
representation of the Silver-Grays, The Dorkings
have a characteristic shape that is well shown in the
cut. The body is long, deep and full, neck and legs
short and the whole appearance solid and substantial.
The standard weight of mature males of the Silver-
Gray variety is eight pounds, and of mature females
six and one-half pounds. Colored Dorkings should
weigh a pound heavier. These all have white flesh.
They are good layers, but are especially prized
for their market and table qualities. The Orping-
tons, several varieties classed according to color of
plumage, have of late years been imported from
88 BIGGLE POULTRY BOOK.
England. They are good layers and good table
fowls, and in size compare favorably with our Ply-
mouth Rocks. Redcapsare also included in this class.
A fifth class is the Polish, which embraces eight
varieties, namely — White-Crested Black, Golden,
Silver, White, Bearded Golden, Bearded Silver,
Bearded White aun. Buff-Laced. The Silver Polish,
and the general ap-
pearance of the breed,
are seen in colored
, Plate IX, Both fowls
@ and eggs of this breed
are rather small and
are mostly bred for
fancy purposes. They
are prolific producers
= = of rather small eggs,
WHITE-CRESTED BLACK POLISH. and very pretty.
The sixth class is known as the Dutch, which
includes six varieties of Hamburgs—Golden Spangled,
Silver Spangled, Golden Penciled, Silver Penciled,
White and Black. The Golden Penciled Hamburgs
are shown in colored plate IX. Hamburgs, like the
Leghorns, are celebrated as egg producers, but their
eggs are small, —like the fowls. They have been
used with larger fowls, to increase their laying quality.
The seventh class embraces the French breeds;
Houdans, Crevecoeurs and La Fleche. The Houdans
are shown in colored Plate X. They are distin-
guished by alargecrest, V-shaped combs and plumage
of mottled black and white, the black predominating.
A full-grown male should weigh seven pounds, anda
BREEDS OF CHICKENS. 89
female six pounds. Houdans are good layers, have
compact, well-proportioned bodies, and are superior
table and market fowls. The flesh of all the French
breeds is white, the bones are small and the meat
juicy. Like the Dorkings, they have five toes on each
foot. The Crevecoeurs and La Fleche have black
plumage and are larger than the Houdans. For some
reason they have not become popular in this country
and are not so well known as the latter.
The eighth class comprises — Games and Game
Bantams, of each of which there are eight varieties.
The typical Game shape is well exhibited in the Black-
Breasted Red Game Bantam in colored Plate XIII.
They all have single, erect combs and wattles, but it
is the fashion to cut these appendages off. It is this
operation, called ‘‘dubbing,” that produces their
fierce and war-like appearance. Contrary to a com-
mon impression the varieties of Games named in the
‘‘Standard ’’ are seldom ever bred for fighting, but
almost wholly for exhibition or practical purposes.
Being a hardy race and having a good muscular
development about the
breast, ‘they are used with
good effect to cross on com-
mon stock, or on other
pure-bred flocks. Game
heas; (make —the best of
mothers, and are very cour-
ageous in detending their
broods.
The ninth class includes
Oriental Gamesand Bantams wuirr cocurn BANTAMS.
90 BIGGLE POULTRY BOOK.
which also contains Cornish, Indian and White
Indian Games; Black Sumatras, Black-Breasted Red
Malays, and Bantams of the last named.
The Cornish Indian Games were some years ago
introduced into this country from England, and while
they at the time gave promise of becoming a popular
market fowl, they for some reason or other, are not
much bred here at the present day. Their weight is:
cock, nine pounds; hen, six anda half pounds. See
Pilate srk
The tenth class comprises Ornamental Bantams,
other than Games. The breeds and varieties are
numerous, but I illustrate only a few popular favorites
in colored Plate XIII.
SILVER-LACED WYANDOTTES.
Bantams are bred mostly as pets for children, but
are often profitably kept on city yards and village
lots for their eggs and meat. For this service the
Seabrights are an old and popular breed. For show
BREEDS OF CHICKENS gI
purposes Bantams are bred down as small as possible,
matured male specimens weighing only twenty-six to
thirty ounces, and even less.
The well-fed pullet is an early layer.
The swill barrel. may become a chicken tr :
with a lid. €n trap unless provided
The wagon house makes a poorhennery. The cow shed and
sheep pen are little better.
To break up a broody hen, shut her in the coop the first night
you find her onthe nest. The longer she sits (hese “set Fin
her ways she becomes.
Chain the doginr the poultry yard at night. Prowlers will
catch his scent and keep away.
Darkened nests will do much toward preventing the egg-
eating habit. Use plenty of China nest-eggs. Leta few lie on
the floor.
A good scarecrow, scarehawk and scarecat is a good i
the hands of a good marksman. = cdot
Set the fodder cutter and crusher to cut fine, and run an arm-
ful of cornstalks through it. Scatter a bushel basketful every
day on the floor of the poultry house,
Take the crabbed rooster out of the breeding pen.
Work is the main factor in successful poultry raising.
Kindness will work wonders among the fowls. Treat them
kindly in all ways and they will appreciate it.
Utility isthe science and beauty the art of poultry keeping.
Study your subject and throw your heart in your work, and
success will attend you.
No need of fixing up some excuse for your neglect of work.
Better not neglect it and have no need of excuses.
Many a success in life has been traced to a right beginuing.
Many a failure was caused by a wrong start.
The poultry business is not adapted to sluggards.
Side-track care means a switched-off profit with poultry.
Poultry culture is made up of a chain of little things, one
link out ot place makes a bad kink in the whole chain.
Poultry keeping is not a get-rich-quick business. It is real
business, requiring careful attention and patience that can wait
for results.
More than one-half the failures that occur among those who
undertake the poultry business are brought about from the
want of a definite aim at the outset,
g2 BIGGLE POULTRY BOOK.
Be equal to all emergencies.
Note the cause of your failures, then follow it up with
success.
Don’t become disheartened if everything don’t come your
way—try again.
Unless careful attention can be given the work, poultry
culture should not be engaged in.
A kind-hearted person will look after the welfare of his
flocks.
Failures are not without cause. There is a reason for all
things.
“Make haste slowly”—rushing pell-mell into the work will
avail nothing.
GOOD MORNING !
SILVER-GRAY
CHAPTER XII.
TURKEYS AND GUINEA-FOWLS.
—_—_
Plow up your dogs and plant turkeys.—Joaquin Miller.
This noble bird, next to the chicken
in importance among the denizens of the
poultry yard, isa native of North America,
and is found in a wild state from Mexico
to Canada east of the Rocky Mountains.
It is supposed that the wild turkey of
Mexico is the parent stock from which
our domesticated bird is derived.
Years ago the farm-yard flock was a somewhat
variegated lot, but by skilfulmating modern breeders
have fixed certain characteristics of color and size so
that we now have six quite distinct varieties, recog-
nized and described in the ‘‘ Standard of Perfection.”’
The names of these, with the standard weight of adult
birds, male and female, are the Bronze, thirty-six and
twenty pounds; Narragansett, thirty and eighteen
pounds; Buff, twenty-seven and eighteen pounds;
Slate, twenty-seven and eighteen pounds; White,
twenty-six and sixteen pounds; Black, twenty-seven
and eighteen pounds.
The weights above named are only reached, as a
rule, by birds that are two years old or over. Some-
times they are exceeded even by younger specimens.
In 1866, a Connecticut woman sent to President John-
son a gobbler, not quite two years old, that tipped the
beam at forty-seven pounds.
96 BIGGLE POULTRY BOOK.
Of the six varieties the Bronze, illustrated in Plate
XIV, is the latest introduction. This originated by
crossing the common with the Northern wild turkey.
In plumage the Bronze resembles closely its wild
parent, but the color is more brilliant. The lustre is
like burnished gold in the sunlight, and it is almost
an impossibility to properly reproduce it on paper or
canvas.
WHITE HOLLAND TURKEYS.
The prevailing color of the Narragansett is a
mixture of black and white, over which, in the sun-
light, is seen a beautiful greenish-bronze lustre. The
plumage of the Slate turkey is a grayish-blue. The
White, or White Holland, is pure white, except the
——————— OO OOO EE EE
TURKEYS AND GUINEA-FOWLS. 97
beard of the male, which is deep black. The red
wattles, black tuft on the breast and the snow-white
plumage of the rest of the bird make a striking con-
trast. A photograph from life of a pair of these birds
is given on the opposite page.
The breeding of turkeys is more difficult than the
breeding of chickens, because of the difference in the
nature and habits of the birds. The turkey is not as
thoroughly domesticated as the chicken, having been
under the controlling influence of man but a com-
paratively short time and still retaining many of its
wild traits. Their love of freedom, their roving habits
and their shyness all indicate their recent introduc-
tion from the forest to the domestic state.
Young turkeys or poults, as they are called, are
generally regarded as very tender until they reach
the age of ten or twelve weeks. This is partly due to
the unwise treatment of the breeding stock during
the winter and early spring.
In the domestic state, turkeys pass the winter
months in comparative inactivity. During this time
they are fed principally on corn. When the breeding
season arrives they are in prime condition for the
table—fat and glossy, but are lacking in the vigor so
essential for producing strong and healthy progeny.
To this state of things may be attributed much of the
weakness supposed to belong to them by nature.
As soon as the surplus stock has all been sent to
market, the birds intended for breeding should be fed
less corn and more muscle and bone-making food.
One-third of their grain ration should consist of oats,
and one-tnird of wheat, and the other third of corn,
98 BIGGLE POULTRY BOOK.
or corn aud buckwheat. They are fond of cabbage,
apples or any raw vegetables, and breeding stock
should be well supplied with food of this kind. As
the laying season approaches they should have nitrog-
enous food in the form of ground raw meat and
bone or meat-meal, the former fed alone and the latter
mixed in a mash of bran and corn meal.
When chickens and turkeys run together and are
fed together the former will get at least two grains
to the latter’s one. For this reason, for fattening
turkeys as well as for breeding stock, it is advisable
to have pouets so made that the turkeys can feed at
pleasure without interference
§) from chickens. ‘The illustration
a 7 represents a cheap and handy
TURKEY TROUGH. feeder. It is made of six-inch
fence slats nailed together for a trough and elevated
to sucha height that the other poultry cannot reach it.
The end pieces and the lid are made of a foot-wide
board, the lid being four or five inches above the trough.
Slats at the bottom of end pieces give it stability.
For breeders it is best to select hens two or three
years old. If hens of the previous year are used they
should be from the early broods. An early-hatched
yearling male should be mated with old hens. When
yearling hens are selected it is better to mate them
with a two-year old gobbler. Young and undersized
birds should in no case be used. Large, heavy toms
should never be mated with small hens. One male is
sufficient for five to ten females. 3
The turkey hen begins to lay in March or April,
according to season aud latitude. Her marked traits
TURKEYS AND GUINEA-FOWLS. 99
at this time are great shyness and secretiveness. She
will seldom deposit her eggs in houses or nests where
hens lay, but will choose rather a secluded fence
corner or a bush, or bunch of weeds, or briars at
some distance from the premises.
Before the laying season begins the poultry keeper
should provide the hens with suitable nests not far
from the buildings. This may be done by setting a
few boards or an old door against a fence corner and
throwing a bunch of hay under it, or by laying barrels
or boxes on the ground in some secluded spot and
putting alittle hay inthem. Bya little strategy they
may be induced to locate near by, and thus save the
keeper much labor in looking after them and their
broods.
As fast as the eggs are laid they should be removed
from the nest, placed ina basket or box lined with
woolen, and turned every twodays. A nest-egg should
always be left in the nest. By removing the eggs in
this manner the hens will not become broody so soon
and will lay a greater number. When the hens
become broody, if there are more eggs than they can
cover, set the rest at the same time under -chicken
hens, aud when they hatch, which will be in thirty or
thirty-one days, put all the poults with the turkey
hens to brood and rear.
When the hens are tame and can be handled the
young birds may be removed from the nest to the
house, as they are hatched, until the whole brood is
out, and then returned the night before the brood is
put into the coop.
During the period of incubation the hen will
100 BIGGLE POULTRY BOOK.
require nothing but corn and water and freedom from
molestation. While the young are hatching feed and
drink should be placed before her on the nest.
The poults require nothing to eat for twenty-four
hours, and need not be fed until placed in the coop.
A familiar sight wherever turkeys are reared is
the coop and yard made of foot-wide boards, here
shown. For the first three days the mother should
be kept in the coop, but after this may have her
liberty. She will not go far away
while her flock is confined. The
pen should be located on well-
drained ground, where there is
short and tender grass. In the absence of grass in
the runs finely chopped onions, lettuce or other
vegetables should be supplied.
The diet of poults need not differ greatly from
that of chicks. Hard-boiled eggs, so generally pre-
scribed, may be safely left out of their bill of fare.
Dry bread soaked in sweet milk is good for the first
week. This may be given three times a day, anda
little oat meal, finely cracked wheat or corn be kept
where they can peck at it when so inclined. Ten
young turkeys are killed by kindess in overfeeding
for every one injured by starvation. It is not neces-
sary to feed every two hours, as it is sometimes
enjoined. It is more in accordance with nature to
furnish them with food in such a manner that they
cannot gorge themselves quickly, but will be com-
pelled to peck a little at a time and often. Wet and
sloppy food and fermented messes should be scrupu-
lously avoided. Cottage cheese, made by scalding
TURKEYS AND GUINEA-FOWLS. IOI
clabbered milk and pressing out the whey, makes a
wholesome side-dish, and so does a custard of egg
and milk mixed with bran and corn meal. Grit and
water should be supplied from the beginning, as both
are essential to health.
When the poults are able to hop out of their board
pen they are strong enough to follow their mother.
But as dampness is particularly injurious until they
are ten or twelve weeks old, they should not be let out
of the coop in the morning until the dew is off the
grass, and it is always well to get them under shelter
when a shower comes. Eternal vigilance is the price
of sound and healthy turkeys at this early stage of their
existence. If overtaken ina storm it is sometimes nec-
essary to bring the little fellows in the house and dry
them by the fire. As soon as they feather out and
‘‘shoot the red,’’ as it is said when the red appears in
their faces, they take on new vitality and can stand
more hardships than chicks.
After this time they may be allowed to ee. at
pieasure. With a suitable range they will be able to
gather in the fields and woods the greater part of their
living. It is always prudent, however, to feed them
twice a day, supplying them a light meal in the morn-
ing early and giving them all they will eat when they
return at night. By taking care to feed them regu-
larly in this manner they may be trained to come
home every evening instead of perching on the
fences out in the fields, or in the woods. But as
“‘turkeys will be turkeys’’ now and then, and remain
away from the premises, they should be hunted up
the very first time their absence is noticed and driven
home and fed.
102 BIGGLE POULTRY BOOK.
If located near neighbors who also have flocks,
the young poults should be marked with marking
punches in the web of the foot. If the neighbors
will agree to have different marks it will be an easy
matter, if the birds get together, for each one to pick
out his own.
In the fall when the harvest fields are gleaned,
the grasshopper crop gathered in and _ insects
become scarce, the birds are well-grown and lusty.
The corn fields are now their favorite haunts and they
are inclined to linger longer around
the farm yard, and are eager for
anything in the way of eatables their
owner has to offer.
Thanksgiving comes along about
this time and the first installment of
the flock should be prepared for
market and one of the best of the
lot reserved for the farmer’s own
table. The illustration represents
one of the flock the day after Thanks-
giving. He is laughing all over his
face now; perhaps Christmas day he
~ =,will wear a different expression.
GUINEA -FOWLS.
The Guinea is closely related to the turkey and
was originally brought from Guinea, on the West
African coast, where it is still found in a wild state.
Their peculiar cry when alarmed will scare hawks
and crows in the day-time. At night they are light
sleepers and when aroused by thieves or other marau-
GUINEA-FOWLS. 103
ders their noise will arouse the neighborhood. They
are great rovers and foragers, destroying many insects
and weed seed, but doing little damage tocrops. For
making a gamey pot-pie no other domestic fowl equals
the guinea. They lay many small but rich eggs and
have a habit of secreting their nests in the fields and
along fences, seldom ever laying near the farm build-
ings. Inthe hennery they are pugnacious and abusive
toward other fowls, and their unceasing chatter is
annoying to some people. Their good traits over-
balance their bad ones and a few should be in every
farm-yard.
-* One male is sufficient for a flock of six to ten
females. It is well to set the eggs under a chicken
hen. Reared in this way they are more domestic.
They will follow the mother-hen, to her great annoy-
A FLOCK OF PEARL GUINEAS.
ance, until they are full-grown. The young are quite
hardy and require no special treatment or care differ-
ent from chickens or turkeys. The plumage of
the Pearl Guinea, the most common variety, is a
groundwork of blue sprinkled with pearl dots of
104 BIGGLE POULTRY BOOK.
white. The males usually have some white on their
breasts, have larger wattles and larger bodies than
the females. The Whites differ only in color, and
are probably a sport of the Pearl.
—_——_—
THE PEA-FOWL,.
The most gorgeous in plumage of all our domestic
birds is a native of Southern Asia and the Malay
Archipelago. They are kept for ornamental purposes
only, being of no practical value. One pair is enough
for a whole neighborhood, as by their shrill cry at
night they can awaken everybody within a radius of
half a mile. The mother-hen usually steals her nest
and brings up her brood without any assistance.
SHINVD NVIGNI
‘TIX HLVId
CHAPTER Xeni
DUCKS.
Ducks and rats do not thrive in the same house.—Tim’s wife.
A duck’s appetite ts as big as the feed bin.—Tim.
The domestic duck is believed
to be a descendant of the Wild
Mallard, the most common and
numerous of the wild species.
Ten varieties are recognized in
the ‘‘ Standard of Perfection ’’ —
the Pekin, Aylesbury, Rouen,
Cayuga, Call, East India, White
Crested, Muscovy, Indian Runner and Blue Swedish.
Rouens are regarded as a French breed and
appear to be the Mallard domesticated and enlarged
by selection and breeding. The pair seen in the fore-
ground in colored Plate XV, fairly represent the
shape and beautiful plumage in which this variety
isclothed. The standard weights of adult birds, male
and female, are nine and eight pounds respectively.
They are hardy and are prolific layers of large green-
ish eggs.
The Cayuga is an American variety, jet-black in
plumage, supposed to have originated near Lake
Cayuga, New York, from a cross of Mallard and the
Wild Black, or Buenos Ayres duck. The standard
weights for these are eight and seven pounds respec-
tively.
The Aylesbury is the favorite English variety.
eo ° aa
1o8 BIGGLE POULTRY BOOK.
The plumage is a pure ‘‘dead-white ’’ throughout, the
beak a pale flesh-color, and the shanks a light orange.
The standard weight is the same as for Rouens.
The Muscovy belongs to a different genus from
the varieties already described, and is a descendant of
A LONG ISLAND DUCK FARM.
the wild Musk Duck of South America. There are
two varieties, the colored and the white. The latter
is shown in the background in colored Plate XV,
which well illustrates the peculiar shape and appear~
ance of this duck, which differ decidedly from that of
DUCKS. 10g
the common varieties. They will breed with other
ducks, but the hybrids are mules, orsterile. While kept
mostly as curiosities, or for ornamental purposes, the
crosses are said to make excellent market poultry.
The Pekin is an Asiatic variety having been first
imported from Pekin, China, in 1873. The plumage
is white with a creamy-yellow shading, the feathers
being downy and fluffy like Asiatic chickens. While
the ‘‘Standard”’ gives their weights as a pound lighter
than Rouens or Aylesburys, they are commonly
regarded as a larger duck than either.
The introduction of the Pekins to this country
gave a new impetus to duck breeding, and many
persons have entered into it on an extensive scale.
While they are prolific layers of large eggs, mostly
white-shelled, they are also the great market duck.
Their bills and shanks are a deep orange-yellow and
their skin also is yellow. As the plumage is white
and the pinfeathers leave no stain on the flesh, they
make the finest dressed carcass of any variety.
The keeping of ducks for eggs is a profitable part
of the duck business, when rightly conducted, and
the keeper is within easy access to a city market.
During the early spring months duck eggs bring
higher prices than hen eggs, and it is at this season
that ducks are most prolific. To obtain the best
results from eggs the laying ducks should be hatched
the latter part of the breeding season, in June and
July. The spring-hatched will grow larger and will
make better breeding stock, but with proper care
these late broods will lay as soon as the severity of
winter is over, as soon, in fact, as the early-hatched,
IIo BIGGLE POULTRY BOOK.
and will not require to be fed during March, April and
May. The proper feed for such ducks, to induce early
and prolific laying, is well illustrated by the practice
of a successful breeder who commonly winters about
five hundred. He feeds them on equal parts of boiled
turnips, wheat, bran, and corn meal, witha little—say
ten per cent.—of ground beef scraps thrown in. This
is mixed thoroughly together while the turnips are hot,
and constitute the entire feed during the winter and
spring. About the first of January or a little later,
when they begin to lay, the proportion of bran and
meat scraps should be increased.
This mess is fed morning and evening, and at
noon they have a light meal of dry food composed of
equal parts of cracked corn, oats and wheat.
Ducks kept expressly for market eggs require no
drakes with them, which is one of the points in favor
of this part of the business. As soon as the price
drops and the egg supply begins to run low the layers
should be sent to market.
When large numbers are kept, either for laying
or breeding, large houses properly constructed are
required. The character of these houses will be deter.
mined by the climate and other circumstances. Where
the winters are mild and snow seldom tarries long on
the ground long open sheds will suffice; but where the
winters are long and severe and snow lingers, large,
storm-proof houses are needed. While ducks are
hardy and can endure more cold and wet weather than
chickens, when early laying is the object sought the
layers must be shielded from the severity of the
weather. James Rankin, in his excellent treatise on
DUCKS. III
Duck Culture, described the house in which he keeps
his breeding ducks through the winter as covering
fitteen by two hundred feet floor space, having five-foot
posts in the rear and four-foot posts in front, and an
uneven double roof, the short slant being in the rear.
There is a walk through the rear, three and one-half
feet wide. The building is divided every twenty-four
feet into pens, in each of which forty ducks are
wintered. The partitions are but two feet high. The
walk is separated from the pens by lath three inches
apart, to allow the birds to feed and drink from
troughs placed in the walk. This arrangement enables
ONE OF JAMES RANKIN’S DUCK HOUSES.
an attendant to feed and water the whole houseful in
a few minutes, a wheelbarrow or truck being used for
carrying supplies; it also prevents waste of feed or
fouling of the feed or water. Only ten feet of this
slat partition along the walk in each pen is used for
feed, and four feet is made movable so that the attend-
ant can enter with barrow to clean out the pens. The
other ten feet along the walk is lined with the nests,
which are fifteen inches square, the back and division
boards being a foot high and the board next to the
pen but four inches, or just high enough to keep the
nest materialin. This latter consists of cut straw or
hay, which is kept dry and clean, thus preventing the
eggs from becoming soiled and stained. With sucha
112 BIGGLE POULTRY BOOK.
house there should be either joined or situated nears
by a feed and cock-room containing bins, a root-cutter
and a capacious boiler. The front of the building is
one-third glass. From the front the yards extend one
hundred feet, making each one twenty-four by one
hundred feet. Experience has proved that free range
and water are not essential to success in keeping
ducks, especially Pekin ducks, for laying or breeding.
Ducks as a part of the farm poultry should be
kept apart, as much as possible, from the chickens,
and away from the barnyard and farm-yard and out
of sight of the dooryard. With the chickens they
foul the drinking water and the food and their feathers
become soiled in the hen-house. In the barnyard
they are liable to be trampled by the stock, and they
are too filthy to be tolerated in the farm sheds, or
on the grass of the lawn. They should have houses,
shelters and yards of their own in all cases. These
need not be expensive. The houses may be low, and
no fence for Pekin ducks need be over two feet high. |
An excellent shelter for a farm flock is a shed,
one-half of which is open and the other half closed.
The open half should have a movable slat fence or
gate for use when it is desirable to confine the flock.
If they have free range it is necessary to confine them
to a house or yard for two or three hours after daylight
during the laying season, otherwise they will drop
their eggs in the fields and meadows, or along the
streams, and many will be lost.
A convenient form of duck-house is here shown.
As ducks are humble-minded creatures they do not
require a lofty building, and therefore one for their
DUCKS. 18 «3
accommodation may consist principally of roof. It
is a movable house six by ten feet, set on plank run-
ners fifteen inches wide. This structure, set on a well-
drained site, bedded with short hay or straw and
moved occasionally, will serve as headquarters for a
flock of ten to twenty-five.
-Breeding ducks should be carefully selected for
their size and typical shape, and only mature birds
should be used. An active yearling drake may be
allowed for each five or six ducks.
As the drakes are not so pugna-
cious as cocks, flocks may contain
several of them without danger of
their injuring one another.
As a general thing it is better to hatch duck eggs
under bens than under ducks. The period of incuba-
tion for duck eggs is twenty-eight days, and the
temperature required is the same as for hen eggs.
They have strong vitality and are easy to hatch either
in the natural way or artificially.
Ducklings. when hatched are animated balls of
down, seldom quiet and never so happy as when eat-
ing or dabbling in water. They do not require so
much warmth from the mother and do not need to
be hovered so muchas chicks. Hence, it is safe to
put thirty to forty with a single hen. More also can
be put in a single flock in a brooder than of chicks.
While ducklings will take to the water as soon as
hatched, they do better if not allowed to swim until
they are four weeks old, and should not be allowed to
enter ponds or streams until they have their first
teathers. Thousands of ducklings die yearly from
314 BIGGLE POULTRY BOOK.
cramps and convuisions, because they are allowed to
enter the water too young or too early in the season
while the water is cold. Cold spring water even in
summer is fatal to them.
For the first ten days ducklings, with hens, do best
in small yards, like those described for confining young
turkeys. The coop should have a board bottom, to
prevent the hen mother from scratching earth over
her downy brood. All the water they need is enough
to drink and to dip their heads into, to wash out their
nostrils and eyes. It is aos for a duck to eat
- without the fre-
quent use of
water. A duck-
ling will drink
about one hun-
‘dred times, more
or less, while
eating a single
: meal. The water
AN UNNATURAL FAMILY. vessels, there-
fore, should be close to the feeding trough, but so
arranged that they cannot get in them with their feet
or dip their heads in deep enough to throw water over
their backs.
Healthy ducklings have a voracious appetite and
will eat whatever is set before them. Dry bread soaked
in milk is excellent food for the first two days. In
passing it may be said that it is not advisable to give
ducklings milk to drink; it should always be used for
mixing their feed. They will get it on their down
and in their eyes, and thus not only spoil their good
DUCKS. 115
looks but injure their health. After the first few
meals of bread and milk, equal parts of corn meal
and wheat bran, wet with milk or water, may be fed.
A little fine-ground meat scraps, or meat-meal, should
be added. After ten days every other meal may con-
sist of cracked corn and wheat. Care should be taken
to have all their food crumbly rather than doughy or
sticky. At first they should be fed every two hours,
but at the end of a week they can get along with four
mealsaday. Like all other birds they need grit as
soon as hatched. Tosupply this at first it is a good
plan to sprinkle a little coarse sand on the feeding
board or in their feeding trough. When a little older
put the grit in the bottom of the drinking vessel.
The yard in which the ducklings are placed should
contain short grass, but if it does not, green food in
some form must be supplied regularly and bountifully.
Lettuce, beet tops, cabbage, green clover, or green
corn cut fine, will be greedily devoured.
While they are hearty eaters they are, for this
reason, rapid growers and will increase in weight
about twice as fast as chickens. They are usually
slaughtered when from seven to ten weeks old.
In warm weather it is important to have some
shelters for ducks and ducklings confined in yards. If
the latter contain no trees, vines or bushes, temporary
shelter of boards, brush or canvas must be provided.
Temporary yards may be made for ducklings by
the use of wire netting two feet wide, stapled loosely
to stakes driven into the ground. Such a fence is
easily moved by pulling up the stakes with the wire
on them and rolling all up together.
116 BIGGLE POULTRY BOOK.
The Swan (Cygnus), first cousin of the duck and
the goose, is frequently referred to as the type of grace-
ful beauty in outline and motion. There are numer-
ous varieties, nearly all of them found in a wild state.
Formerly the bird was served at feasts on special
occasions, but it is now kept in private and public
parks solely for ornamental purposes.
DUCK NOTHS.
Quack! Quack!! Quack!!!
Harvest-hatched ducks make good spring layers.
Ducklings will kill yose-bugs, and rese-bugs in large doses
will kill ducklings.
Ducks being water-fowl are warm-blooded and like water,
but appreciate a dry floor to roost on. Having a water-tight
roof the floor can be kept in proper order with cut straw or
leaves and dry earth. The litter should be short. (
The sex of ducks can easily be distinguished by the quack.
The voice of the male is pitched in a high key and that of the
female in a low key; the male has a larger head and thicker
neck and when in full feather one of the tail feathers is curled
backward.
White clover sod does not make a good pasture for duck-
lings. Bees like white clover as well as ducklings,and conse-
quently the three get badly mixed up. The bee stings as he:
goes down the duckling’s throat onaclover head, and the career
of the bee and duckling both come to a sudden termination.
SINGLE FILE.
SNVINVE
WOVE GaATIV.L-AIV 1a
=
ASHYN Val LHOIMAVAS
NAG109
‘THX ALV Td
; CHAPTER XIV.
Z oo
GEESE.
fttsa@ stlly goose that comes to a fox’s sermon.
The goose that has a good gander cackles loudly.
—Danish Proverb.
In some places on the European continent goose
culture is quite an industry with the peasants, who
fatten them in large numbers, making it profitable.
Farmers who have rough, marshy land may, with a
little extra expense and labor, add to their incomes by
stocking it with geese. .
Our domestic goose has descended, it is said, from
the wild greylag goose of Northern Europe. The
common gray and white geese of the American farm-
yard need no description, since they are well known
everywhere. The Toulouse, a large, gray variety, has
come tous by way of England. Their shape and color
are seen in the foreground of colored PlateXVI. The
difference of the sexes may be plainly seen by observ-
ing the head and neck of each bird. The gander has
a larger head and thicker neck than the goose. But
it will be noted that the abdomen of the latter is
heavier and closer to the ground. The standard
weight for adult Toulouse is forty pounds per pair.
They sometimes attain greater weights than this, but
not until three or more years of age.
There isa large, white, pure-bred variety called the
Embden or Bremen, so named from two towns in
Hanover, in northeastern Germany, where they are
120 BIGGIE POULTRY BOOK.
supposed to have originated. The Embden has pure
white plumage, prominent blue eyes, a flesh-colored
bill and bright orange legs. The weight is about the
same as that of the Toulouse.
Chinese geese, or swan geese, belong to another
species, and are at once recognized by a peculiar
knob or protuberance at the base of their bills and
by their long, swan-like necks. There are two varie-
ties, the White and the Brown. ‘The latter is shown
in the background of colored Plate XVI. ‘The stand-
ard weight of these is twenty-eight pounds per pair.
African Geese, recognized in the ‘‘Standard,’’ belong
to the same species and are similar to the Brown
China, but heavier.
The American wild, or Canada goose, belongs to
a different species from either of the above, and will
not produce a fertile cross. It has never become
thoroughly domesticated and does not breed readily
in confinement. |
Geese are long-lived, and the females may be
kept for eight or ten years, but the ganders become
pugnacious and less virile after they are three years
old. It is best, therefore, to mate old geese with
young ganders, allowing one male to two or three
females. The geese agree better if selected from the
same flock. To avoid in-breeding, select the male
from a different flock. Geese incline to go in families
and are very jealous of their mates. For this reason,
when there is more than one flock or family, it is
prudent to have separate sheds for each one, and if
possible, separate runs.
In northern latitudes it is not well to feed breed-
GEESE. 12
ing geese too generously in the winter and start them
to laying early. Goslings and green grass should
appear about the same time. But conditions being
right, the earlier goslings hatch the better. About
the first of February in the Middle States the forcing
may begin, the breeders being fed in a manner
similar to that recommended for breeding ducks.
During the winter cut hay, ensilage and a little corn
with refuse vegetables will sustain them, but now
they should have nitrogenous food, like bran, shorts
and meat scraps fed with cooked vegetables.
The goose will lay two litters of twelve to fifteen
eggs each. If well fed this number may be increased.
The China goose is said to sometimes lay from fifty
to sixty inaseason. To get the eggs all hatched as
soon as possible the first laid may be hatched under
hens, allowing each hen to incubate from five to
seven eggs. When the goose has finished her first
laying and becomes broody she may be confined for a
few days and be well fed. When her brooding fever
is over she will lay again and may be permitted to
hatch and take care of the second litter.
The period of incubation is the same as that of
ducks, twenty-eight to thirty days.
Goslings are hardy, but should, like ducklings, be
kept in a pen for two or three weeks and allowed
only water enough to drink. Since goslings are
regarded as a great delicacy by snapping turtles,
minks and other varmints, it is well to keep them
from infested ponds and guarded at night in sheds
enclosed with netting. The later hatches, left to run
with the mother-goose, will require less attention and
I22 BIGGLE POULTRY BOOK.
care, but yet it is advisable to confine the flock ina
yard for a week or ten days.
When the goslings are to be sold in the Christmas
markets, or late in the year for breeders, they will
not need to be supplied with food if they have suit-
able pasture grounds, except a light meal of grain
morning and night. It is best to feed them in this
manner to induce them to return home every night.
There is a demand for ‘‘ green goose” in mid-
Summer and many prepare their early goslings for
this market. With this end in view they are fed all
EMBDEN GEESE,
they will eat until the flight-feathers grow out as far
as the root of the tail, then they are enclosed in a pen.
This must be in a dry situation where there is no
water or mud. A yard fifty feet square with shade in
it will hold seventy-five goslings. Treat them gently,
since they are timid creatures and will not fatten if
roughly handled or frightened. Have a large boiler
holding a barrel or more, fill with water and stir in
GEESE. 123
the boiling water, meal and twenty-five pounds of
meat scraps to the barrel. Mix till as thick as can be
stirred. Season with a little salt. Feed all they will
eat of this and give only enough water to drink.
Furnish gravel and put in the enclosure some rotten
wood. In seventeen to twenty days they will be
ready to slaughter. They should be in market before
the fourth of July.
One source of profit from geese is the feathers,
which are always in demand at good prices. These
are obtained not only from the slaughtered birds but
also from the live ones. When done with discretion the
practice of plucking is not so cruel as it might at first
sight appear. Four timesa year is often enough to per-
form this operation. Never pick when laying, nor in
cold weather, and pick only when the feathers are
“‘ripe.’? Thisripeness is detected by the experienced
eye by the dull, dead color of the plumage, and in
Pekin ducks by the absence of the yellowish tinge. To
test them pluck a few from the breast. If they come
easy and are dry at the quill end they are “‘ripe,’’ if the
least bit moist or bloody do not pick any more. In
picking, take only a small pinch of feathers in the
fingers at a time, and make a quick downward jerk
from tail to neck. Remove only a little of the down.
Never remove from a live bird the cushion or bolster
of coarse feathers along the side, that supports the wing.
The goslings may be picked as soon as they are
full feathered. An experienced geese breeder thus
describes his plan of making the most out of the
feather crop: I like my geese to hatch out about the
last of April. At that time I pick the ganders of the
124 BIGGLE POULTRY BOOK.
flock, the geese having lined their nest with feathers
they are not in condition to be plucked. About the
first of June the ganders are full feathered again and
the geese are ready too, as you will begin to find loose
feathers where they stay over night. Then in about
seven weeks the goslings are ready to be plucked
with the oldones. Don’t take the feathers off too
bare, as the sun is hot at this season. By the last of
September you will get a fine lot of good feathers
again. If you keep the geese for the holiday market
they are again ready in early November, but if the
nights are cold drive them up and give shelter. They
will soon feather at this time of year, and at killing
time you will get the finest crop of the year.
Fasten them up in a stable having plenty of clean
straw under them for half a day before you begin to
pluck the feathers, then they will be dry and clean.
Take a narrow strip of muslin, tie their feet together,
lay them on their backs, tuck their wings under
them, let an assistant take hold of the head, and as
soon as they are done struggling begin to pluck.
There are no disease germs in fresh eggs.
Poultry products sell for cash, and can be sold at any time.
Two important points in favor of the hen business.
In long houses, instead of an entry and tramway for carry-
ing feed and water have an overhead track and suspend a plat-
form car on which to carry buckets and boxes. Will be useful,
also, in cleaning the house, carrying manure out and fresh
gravel in.—Tim.
The crops of fowls should be empty when sent to market.
The best way to secure this condition is not to feed for at least
twelve hours before killing. If for any reason the crop be full
after killing, make a cut two inches long through the thick skin
on back of the neck, insert the finger in the incision, draw out
the crop and cut it off. The mutilation will not be apparent.
aaa
ra
CHAPTER XV.
——_.
PIGEONS FOR MARKET.
A bird in the loft ts worth two in the pot-hunter’s bag.
In a nerghborhood where pigeons fiy both peas and peace
take wing.—Tim.
The old practice of fastening nest-
boxes on the outside of building and
allowing the occupants to range at will is
not to be commended. However made
eee present an unsightly appearance, and pigeons at
liberty in a community are an intolerable nuisance.
It is better in every way to have a separate build-
ing for pigeons, and to have an outside fly of wire
netting connected with it and thus to keep the birds
confined at allseasons. This plan is especially recom-
mended when any considerable number is kept.
The accompanying
illustration showsa loft with
the breeding-room eight bv
sixteen feet and a cage or
fly sixteen by sixteen feet
that will accommodate twenty to tee pairs. In
building it posts are set firmly in the ground, paus
inverted over them to keep out rats and mice and
the sills nailed to the posts.
For larger numbers the house shown on the next
page illustrates a cheap and practical building. It is
128 BIGGLE POULTRY BOOK.
eight by thirty-two feet, but may be made any length
desired. The front is ten feet high and the rear six
feet. The roof, rear and end wall should be wind and
rain-proof, but it is well to
have a considerable pee
of the front open, especially @
in summer. Netting with 7"
two-inch mesh will confine pigeons, but where the
English sparrow abounds one-inch mesh is preferable.
The floor of the loft may well be of earth, but should
be dry.
On most of the large squab farms in this country,
the nests are constructed of rough yellow pine boards,
twelve inches high, twelve inches deep, and twenty-
four inches wide. No strip is nailed on the front of
the nest, as it renders cleaning difficult. Instead of
regular rows of nests of one pattern, some pigeon
breeders prefer to use large soap-boxes, starch-boxes,
irregular boxes, nail kegs or anything that will give
individuality to the home of each pair.
Figure 1 illustrates how a soap box may be trans-
formed into a first-class home for a pair of breeders.
____ A division board is placed in the mid-
fii] dle and alighting boards at either end.
; ing but a single nest, so made that no
FIG. I. alighting board is needed and the roof
sloped to prevent perching upon it. Two of g===
these will be needed for each pair and should ht
be placed adjacent. Nail kegs may be sus-
pended by wire to beams or rafters and have FIG. 2.
the open end a little higher than the other, or a piece
PIGEONS FOR MARKET. 129
of the head of the open end left in, to keep the eggs
and squabs from tumbling out.
The irregularity in shape and arrangement of
nests may shock the fastidious, but will avoid conten-
tion and confusion among the birds, which frequently
results in the loss of eggs and squabs.
i For raising squabs for market it has
been proved in late years that the com-
mon pigeon does not give the uniform,
plump, attractive carcass that the market
: = demands, and which is credited to the
poutER. Homer variety. Some advise crosses
with Runt and Dragoon, but it is generally conceded
among squab growers that the Homer in its purity
gives all the requirements of a squab to meet the
demands of the most fastidious.
It is desirable to have breeders that raise squabs
with light skin for they always bring the top price.
The color of the skin is not controlled, as is popularly
supposed, by the color of the feathers. Parents with
white plumage may have dark squabs, and those as
black as crows may produce squabs with fair skin.
A good plan to stock a loft is to buy enough mated
birds to fill it one-fourth full, and raise enough from
these to make up the complement, selecting the young
from the parents that prove to be prolific,
and raise the largest and whitest squabs.
As mated birds are not always obtain-
able the next best plan is to buy squabs
just able to fly. A good time to buy is
in June, July and August, when squabs JACOBIN.
are low in price. These birds will pass their moult
330 BIGGLE POULTRY BOOK.
and begin to breed in the following winter and spring.
Pigeons breed in pairs, and when once mated
remain faithful to each other unless the union is
broken by death or by the coquetry and intrigue of
unmated birds. The latter are sure to make mischief
and care should be taken to exclude them, or to
remove them from the loft when discovered. It is
always best to mate pigeons, that are not known to be
already mated, pair by pair, before turning them into
the loft. This may be done by placing the couple in
a coop or cage alone for two or three days. The
novice may attempt to mate two of the same sex.
If both be males, the cooing and strutting and fight-
ing will make the mistake evident. If both be
females, there will be no love-making, but may be
some quarreling. How to distinguish the sexes
frequently puzzles experts. The experienced eye
can generally detect the masculine or feminine
features of a bird, and will name the sex nine times
out of ten. There is no way to get this experience
except by long and careful observation. The female
is smaller, as a rule, than the male, and has a feminine
look about the head and neck, the eyes being milder,
the head narrower and the neck more slender than
the corresponding parts of the cock.
The hen lays two eggs and then
both birds assist in hatching them.
_ The hen sits all night and a part of
the day: the cock sits the balance
ee of the time. Both assist in feeding
TESTES the squabs. If the hen lays again
before the first brood are out of the nest the cock will
PIGEONS FOR MARKET. 131
usually take entire charge of the young besides doing
his share of incubations. The two eggs will usually
hatch one male and one female.
The natural food of pigeons is grain and the
seeds of grasses. They are fond of millet, clover
seed and peas, and if allowed to fly when these
crops are sown will prove very destructive. Hemp
seed is to pigeons what candy is to children. A
little may be given them on entering the loft to
tame them.
Fora steady diet the following is commended: twa
parts whole corn, two parts wheat and one part buck-
wheat, all to be old, sound grain. Screenings to be
economical should be purchased for one-fifth the price
of good wheat. New grain is not good for the squabs.
The corn should be a variety having small grains
and should in no case be cracked.
In order to supply feed for the very young squabs
it is well to keep equal parts of bran and corn meal
in self-feeding hoppers always before the
breeders. Experience has proved that
the old ones feed with greater regularity =
and fatten their young better when the === we
whole grain is supplied at regular hours, -+zpuupuer.
three times a day, all they will eat up clean. They
will not eat grain that is fouled, if they can avoid it,
and should not be compelled to do so.
For side dishes they should have ground oyster
shell in a box or barrel lid where they can help them-
selves, a lump of rock salt and a bit of salt codfish
tacked to the side of the loft by several nails, so they
can peck at it, but not tear it down.
432 BIGGLE POULTRY BOOK.
The floor of the loft should be kept reasonably
clean and be strewn occasionally with fresh sand and
gravel. Red gravel is the best, as it contains iron,
the oxide of iron giving it its peculiar color. Pigeons
will peck at clay and coal ashes, and also at weeds
and grasses. They use these substances, probably, for
medicinal purposes, as dogs eat grass and cats eat
catnip.
Pigeons drink a great deal of water, and it is
important that it should be kept clean. Open vessels
should never be used in a loft, unless a stream of pure
water can be kept running through
them. A wire cage like the cut, open
at the bottom and closed on top, set
#over a basin, makes a handy arrange-
ment. Stone or earthen self-feeding fountains, such
as are used for fowls, are good.
A daily bath in summer, and twice a week in
winter, is essential to the comfort and health of the
flock. Wide, shallow milk pans answer very well for
bath tubs. These may be set out in the fly filled with
water, and allowed to remain an hour or two and then
emptied.
An open feed-trough is quite as objectionable as
open water vessels. The feed in them becomes
foul and much of it is wasted. The
self-feeding hopper shown in the
accompanying illustration is one of
the best that can be found. These =!
hoppers can be made of starch or soap boxes, by any
one handy with tools. The lid should be broad enough
to cover completely the feed trough at the sides,
a
PIGEONS FOR MARKET. 133
and these troughs should be just broad enough to
allow the birds to feed without permitting them to
get in with their feet.
Pigeon eggs hatch in sixteen or eighteen days.
After the first few days the young ones grow with
wonderful rapidity, if the parents are supplied with
proper food and do their duty. In from four to six
weeks the squabs are old enough to kill. Some
develop so much more rapidly than others that no
fixed date can be given at which it may be said they
are of the right age to be in the best condition to
sell. When this period is reached the neck feathers
have passed the pin-feather stage, and the tail is
usually about three inches long, but the bird is still
unable to fly. When they begin to fly they are too
‘“hard,’’ as dealers say, and when the skin of the crop
and of the abdominal pouch is thin and transparent
and these parts are full and the breast undeveloped,
the dealers complain that they are too ‘‘soft.’’ It
often happens that one of a pair—it is usually the
male—is ready for market a week before its mate.
By marketing the larger and leaving the smaller one
to be nursed by the parents, it will be ready to go
with the next lot.
Squabs are killed and dressed just like chickens,
by bleeding in the mouth and picking dry. They are
in the best condition for killing in the morning before
the old ones give them their breakfast.
After killing and dressing they may be tied in
pairs, or in half dozens, and put into cold water, or
packed on ice until sent to market.
Where breeders are a long distance from market
134 BIGGLE POULTRY BOOK.
it is better to send squabs in crates alive. In this case
they must be old enough to fly, or, at least, old
enough to feed themselves.
There should be a weekly slaughter on a fixed
date in the week. On these occasions every nest
should be examined so that no bird that is old enough
may be overiooked or get away.
<A well-managed flock will raise, on an average,
five pairs of squabs annually for every pair of birds it
contains. Itis not safe to base calculations for profit on
a greater increase than this, although it is quite possible.
Prices vary with the season, rising in the winter
and spring and falling in summer. Near the large
eastern markets it is safe to reckon on an average of
forty cents a pair. This will make the returns from
one pair of breeders $2.40 a year. During this time
the parents and their progeny will consume food
worth at least $1.50. This will leave a balance to their
credit of ninety cents. The droppings of a pair of
pigeons in confinement are worth ten cents a year,
which will make the profit, not counting labor, an
even dollar. It is possible to do better than this and
possible also to do worse.
SNONG Nanow
SNDNG AADDSDOAW FALIHM
“AX ALV' Id
CHAPTER XVI.
FATTENING AND MARKETING CHICKENS.
Well-fattened and cleanly dressed poultry ts half sold.
The market ts never overstocked with strictly fresh eggs.
Ti
It is a waste of time and food to sell any but well-
fed, well-conditioned and well-dressed poultry. Sound
yellow corn is the best grain for fattening purposes.
The more of it fowls can be induced to eat and digest,
the quicker they will fatten. Whatever else is fur-
nished should be given as a condiment to aid in the
assimilation of the corn. Two of the three meals of
fattening fowls should consist of corn meal mixed
with milk and seasoned with salt. For the noon meal
whole corn and wheat with a little vegetable food of
some kind anda little meat may be given for a change.
Clean water, plenty of sharp, gritty gravel anda box
of granulated charcoal should be kept before them at
all times. Food should not be permitted to le before
them but they should have at each meal all they will
eat up clean, and every bird should have a chance and
time to get his portion. Fowls will continue to im-
prove just as long as they continue to eat witha relish.
How long this will be depends much upon the skill of
the feeder. From ten to fourteen days is the time
usually allowed for fattening chickens. It is difficult
to carry on the process longer in coops, but in small
yards and under'skilful hands it may be prolonged for a
138 BIGGLE POULTRY BOOK.
month. Asa rule the operation can be most quickly
and economically done in a properly made coop.
PU SETS 3 1 illustrates one that is admirably adapted to
FAte the purpose. A portion of the
le. front wall is cut away to show
§ mr, itsinterior. It iseight feetlong,
mre a three feet wide and four feet
high in front, two-and-a-half feet high in the rear,
and set two feet from the ground.
A pole is attached to a movable partition, which
slides on slats. When it is desired to catch the fowls,
by laying hold of the pole where it protrudes through
the end the fowls are all drawn up close to the door.
The bottom is made of slats. The feeding trough is
six inches wide and four inches deep and has a lid.
When large numbers are to be prepared at one
time a fattening coop is not available. But wherever
it may be done the birds should be kept in a quiet
and restful state. This will preclude the putting
together those of different flocks and ages that are
likely to fight and keep up a turmoil in the pen.
Ducks and ducklings do best in small pens or
yards. The same may be said of goslings. Old geese
will fatten while running at large. Water fowl need
more vegetable food while fattening than do chickens.
No poultry, however, should be fed green vegetables
or grass for two days before being killed. , Onions,
turnips, cabbage, fish or other food having’ a pungent
odor should not be fed during the fattening period.
Turkeys do not thrive well in confinement and
can best be fitted for market while on the range, but
special care should be taken for a month or six weeks
FATTENING AND MARKETING. 139
to let them have all the fattening food they can be
tempted to eat.
The caponizing or emasculation of male chickens
may be mentioned here, as it pertains to their better
preparation for market. The manner of performing
the operation can best be learned under a skilled
operator, but those who sell the necessary instruments
send with them instructions from which, with prac-
tice, any one may become proficient in the art. The
effect on chickens is the same as on animals, it makes
the subject quieter in disposition and greatly improves
the quality of the flesh. Capons, therefore, are easier
to manage, easier to fatten and bring a better price
than any other poultry except early broilers.
It is generally the later hatched cockerels that are
caponized. The earlier ones pay best to sell as
broilers or roasters. All hatched before the ist of
April can be marketed before the July drop in price
occurs, or kept over for the early fall trade. The
cockerels of the April, May and June broods are ready
for the operation in from three to four months from
hatching and will have ten months in which to grow
for the capon market, which includes the period
between the middle of January to the middle of April.
The breeds best adapted for capons are the
medium and large ones or their crosses.
In preparing and dressing poultry for market the
intelligent poultry keeper will seek to learn what the
general market requires and what special requirement
is made by the market to which he is about to ship.
Dry-picked poultry sells best in all markets. By this
manner of dressing the skin retains its color and the
140 BIGGLE POULTRY BOOK.
flesh its natural firmness. When scalded the skin
turns blue, tears easily and peels off, giving the carcass
an aged and uninviting appearance. It pays to dry-
pick and when the art is learned it is a peau
method than scalding.
To dry-pick with ease and dispatch the bird
should be hung up by the legs at a convenient height,
and bled by making a cut across the back of the
mouth, finishing by a deft thrust of the point of the
knife into the spinal cord at the base of the brain.
This paralyzes the bird, relaxes the muscles and
loosens the feathers. This iast thrust is acquired by
practice and makes dry-picking easy and rapid.
ee for the New York and Philadelphia mar-
kets should be plucked clean.
_ Capons should have the feathers
of the head and neck, tips of
_wirgs and the tail lefton. The
, first joint of the wings of ducks
’ and turkeys is usually removed
along with the feathers and
retained by the farmer’s wife
or sold for dusters.
Boston must have its poultry
CAPONS FOR PHILADa. ‘‘drawn’’; that is, the entrails
MARKET. removed. Broilers need not be
drawn. Ducks should have the tips of wings left on
and the wings tied to the body, to retain the shape of
the carcass.
Baltimore also requires poultry to be drawn.
Chicago wants its poultry dry-picked, with heads
off and the skin drawn over the neck and tied, and
the entrails removed.
FATTENING AND MARKETING. T41
In all cases when dressed poultry is sent to mar-
ket undrawn, the crop should be entirely empty.
This condition may be secured by not feeding them
for twelve hours before killing.
Some markets demand yellow-flesh fowls, others
prefer white, but all want plump, nicely fattened
stock.
In packing poultry dry for shipment to market
use clean barrels or boxes holding about two hundred
pounds. Line the case or barrel with clean manilla
paper, but use no packing. Place the poultry in
breasts down and legs out straight, crowding them
together closely so as to fill the entire space. Put
paper over the top layer and fasten a cover of burlap
over the barrel and slats over the case. Poultry can
be shipped in this manner in cool weather. It must
be thoroughly cooled before packing and all blood and
stains wiped off.
For warm-weather shipments poultry must be
packed in ice. For this purpose sugar barrels are
commonly used. Holes are first bored in the bottom
for drainage and a layer of broken ice put in the
bottom. A layer of poultry is put on this ice, breast
down, heads out and feet towards center. The layer
of poultry complete, a layer of ice is put on and then
a layer of poultry until the top is reached, when one
or several large lumps are piled on top and a burlap
cover over all.
_ The address of the consignee and the weight of
the poultry should be placed conspicuously on the
cover, along with the address of the consignor.
When mixed lots are sent, if large enough, it is best
142 BIGGLE POULTRY BOOK.
to pack separately, or, if packed in one barrel, they
should be grouped together and the weight of each
noted on the cover.
All shipments should be made so as to be sure to
reach the market before the close of the week and at
least three days before a holiday.
For long-distance shipments poultry is usually
cooped alive in crates or hampers made for the pur-
pose of slats or of wire and splints. Different kinds
of poultry and birds of different ages and sizes should
not be crowded into one hamper or the smaller and
weaker may be trampled to death by their stronger
companions. To be sure of rapid transit it is safest
to ship poultry by express, but as to this every one
must be guided by circumstances.
Eggs are now nearly all shipped in crates having
what are called pasteboard ‘‘fillers.’? The standard
crate holds thirty dozen and the gift form of it that is
sold with the eggs is popular with dealers. The pro-
ducer of eggs who can ship once or twice every week
to a dealer or grocer having good customers, and who
will send only clean and strictly fresh eggs, can usually
get a few cents above the market price. The vicious
system of collecting and marketing eggs in vogue
in this country is responsible, to some extent, for
the low prices that prevail at certain seasons. The
eggs are left in the nests a few days, then kept in the
house for a week, then traded for groceries at the
village store. In a week or two they are sent by the
groceryman to the city and through a dealer are dis-
tributed to city grocers, finally reaching the con-
sumer as ‘‘ fresh country eggs.”’
FATTENING AND MARKETING. 142
~
A successful egg farmer who made money at the
business always shipped his eggs in sealed crates to
a dealer who had a gilt-edged trade and guaranteed
every egg to be fresh and sound. The dealer sold
them under this guarantee to customers who were
willing to pay an advanced price for such stock. The
result was satisfactory to all parties concerned.
Ragga igi
A POOR FATTENING PROCESS.
If you have bought tarred felt to line the poultry house with,
to keep the flock warm, don’t do it. Put it on the outside.
Brighten up the inside with lime wash.
Keep wood ashes out of the hen house. A small portion
may be mixed with the loam in the dust-box for medicinal
purposes. Wood ashes bleach the shanks of fowls and when
mixed with the droppings cause the ammonia to escape.
Notice with what pleasure a hen scratches among the forest
leaves in summer. This is a hint to save the leaves to scatter
on the floor of the poultry house in winter.
Corn meal fresh from the mill will quickly heat and svoil.in
warm weather if not looked after. Mix with bran andstirit up
occasionally. If it becomes mouldy and caked throw it on the
manure pile ; do not feed to fowls.
To preserve eggs for family use, pack strictly fresh ones in
fine salt, small end down,so they do not touch each other. When
the box is full screw lid on and turn twice a week. .
A person who formerly kept a large flock of laying hens and
had an old-fashioned stationary boiler, put in whatever vegeta-
bles and meat he had to cook about the middle of the afternoon,
filled the boiler nearly full of water and started the fire. By
supper time the vegetables and meat were tender, the fire nearly
out, but the water still boiling hot. Just at this time he would
stir in the corn meal and bran until the mush was as thick as
could be conveniently stirred, covered it up tightly and in the
morning there was the most delicious breakfast for a flock of
hens that could be made.
144 BIGGLE POULTRY BOOK.
Put a dash of red paint on the left wing of your turkeys, let
your neighbors paint theirs on the right wing or on the shoulder.
Have an agreement in the matter and then there will be greater
harmony in the fall.
Feather-duster makers buy turkey feathers. The long tail
feathers (1)and the wing feathers (2) are the most valuable. The
pointers (3) growing on the first join. they do not
want. Thrifty housewives cut off and dry the first
joint for kitchen use. The long feathers at the root
of the tail are also utilized in making dusters. All
feathers for sale should be dry-picked and free from
soil and blood. To pack these large feathers, put
sacking in a box the size of the proposed bundle, lay feathers in
flat and straight, press down, draw the sacking over and sew
up. Donot put different kinds together. The price of turkey
and chicken body feathers is generally low, but by picking over
a barrel or box they may be saved without much extra labor.
The importance of saving duck and geese feathers need hardly
be mentioned.
A most excellent remedy for many sick fowls is composed of
a sharp hatchet and a good spade.
A hen hatching ducks is simply brooding over treuble fort
herself
<4
WUE zz
— SS SSAA
Te Poy
(Nine
i
u
EE — SSS
SOI VNIHY NMOUH
ena ca Saar eg
“TAX
CHAPTER XVII.
DISEASES AND ENEMIES.
Dampness, filth and voup occupy the same quarvters and are
fast friends.
A bucket of whitewash ts better than a chestful of medicine,
—Tim’s Wife.
Many of the ills that poultry flesh is heir to are
directly traceable to bad breeding and treatment.
In-and-in-breeding is practiced and the law of the
survival of the fittest is disregarded until the stock
becomes weak and a prey to disease.
Yards and runs occupied for any considerable
time become covered with excreta and a breeding
ground for all manner of disease germs.
Dampnuess from leaky roofs or from wet earth
floors, and draughts from side cracks, or from over-
head ventilation slay their thousands yearly.
A one-sided diet of grain, especially corn, moldy
grain or meal, decayed meat or vegetables, filthy
water, or the lack of gritty material are fruitful
sources of sickness.
In the treatment of sick birds much depends on
the nursing and care. It is useless to give medicine
unless some honest attempt be made to remove the
causes that produce the disturbance. Unless removed
the cause will continue to operate and the treatment
must be repeated.
It is an excellent plan to have a coop in some
secluded place to be used exclusively asa hospital. If
148 BIGGLE POULTRY BOOK.
cases cannot be promptly treated it is better to use
the hatchet at once and bury deeply, or burn the
carcasses. This is the proper plan in every case
where birds become very ill before they are discovered.
Sick birds should in no case be allowed to run
with the flock and to eat and drink with them.
In giving the following remedies I make no
pretence to a scientific handling of the subject.
Homeopathic remedies are given along with the
common drugs. Readers can ‘‘ pay their money and
take their choice.’’
When the former are used they should be pur-
chased of a homeopathic physician or homeopathic
pharmacy. In administering them to fowls able to
eat and drink, fifteen or twenty pellets, or five to ten
drops of liquid, may be put in a pint of drinking
water, or the water may be used to moisten their soft
food. If administered to the sick bird directly, a few
pellets, four or five, or a tablespoonful of the medi-
cated water may be put down the gaa eu s throat four
or five times a day.
FEVERS, from colds, fighting of cocks, ete. Symptoms:
unusual heat of body, red face, watery eyes and watery discharge
from nostrils.
Give dessertspoonful citrate of magnesia and, as a drink,
ten drops of nitre in half a pint of water.
Homeopathic remedy—Aconite, 3, in drinking water.
APOPLEXY AND VERTIGO, from overfeeding or fright.
Symptoms: unsteady motion of the head, running around, loss
of control of limbs. Give a purgative and bleed from the large
veins under wing. Homeopathic—Belladonna, 3. Give a light,
non-stimulating diet and keep in a quiet place.
PARALYSIS, from highly seasoned food and over stimulating
diet. Symptoms: inability to use the limbs, birds lie helpless
DISEASES AND ENEMIES. 149
on their side. Allopathic treatment—The same as for apoplexy.
Homeopathic—Nux vomica, 3.
LEG WEAKNESS occurs in fast-growing young birds, mostly
among cockerels. <A fowl having this weakness will show it by
squatting on the ground frequently and by a tottering walk.
When not hereditary it usually arises from a diet that contains
too much fat and too little flesh and bone-making material,
such as bread, rice, corn and potatoes. To this should be added
cut green bone, oats, shorts, bran and clover, green or dry.
Give a tonic pill three times a day made of sulphate of iron,
I grain; strychnine, 1 grain; phosphate of lime, 16 grains;
sulphate of quinine, % grain. Make into thirty pills. Homeo-
pathic—Calcarea silicata, 6. If occurring in young birds after
exposure to dampness or a sudden change to cold weather, give
dulcamara, 15.
CANKER OF THE MOUTH AND HEAD. The sores character-
istic of this disease are covered with a yellow, cheesy matter
which, when it is removed, reveals the raw flesh. Canker will
rapidly spread through a flock, as the exudation from the
sores is a virulent poison, and well birds are contaminated
through the soft feed and drinking water. Sick birds should be
separated from the flock and all water and feed vessels disin-
fected by scalding or coating with lime wash. Apply to sores
with a small pippet syringe or dropper the peroxide of hydro-
gen. When the entire surface is more or less affected, use a
sprayer. Where there is much of the cheesy matter formed,
first remove it with a large quill before using the peroxide. A
simple remedy is an application to the raw flesh of powdered
alum, scorched until slightly brown. Homeopathic—Mercurius,
vivus or nitric acid internally, with the use of sulphurous acid
spray.
SCALY LEG, caused by a microscopic insect burrowing beneath
the natural scales of the shank. At first the shanks appear dry,
and a fine scale like dandruff forms. Soon the natural scale
disappears and gives place to a hard, white scurf. The disease
passes from one fowl to another through the medium of nests
and perches, and the mother-hen infecting her brood. To pre-
vent its spread, coat perches with kerosene and burn old nesting
material and never use sitting hens affected by the disease. To
cure, mix 4% ounce flowers of sulphur, % ounce carbolic acid
150 BIGGLE POULTRY BOOK.
crystals and stir these into 1 pound of melted lard. Apply with an
old tooth brush, rubbing in well. Make applications at inter-
vals of a week.
WoRMsS in the intestines of fowls indicate disturbed diges-
tion. Loss of appetite and lack of thrift are signs of their
presence. Givesantonin in 2-grain doses six hours apart. A few
hours after the second dose give a dessertspoonful of castor oil.
Or, put 15 drops of spirits of turpentine in a pint of water and
moisten the feed with it. Homeopathic—Cina, 3.
BUMBLE-FOOT, caused by a bruise in flying down from
perches or in some similar manner. A small corn appears on
the bottom of the foot, which swells and ulcerates and fills with
hard, cheesy pus. With a sharp knife make a cross cut and
carefully remove all the pus. Wash the cavity with warm water,
dip the foot in a solution of one-fourth ounce sulphate of copper
to a quart of water and bind up with a rag and place the bird
on a bed of dry straw. Before putting on the bandage anoint
the wound with the ointment recommended for scaly leg or
coat it with iodine.
‘“GAPES, caused by the gape-worm, a parasite that attaches
itself to the windpipe, filling it up and causing the bird
to gasp for breath. The cut shows the natural size
of the parasite as it appears attached to the windpipe. oF
The worm is about three-fourths of an inch long, smooth Fe
and red incolor. It appears to be forked at one end, but Fie
in reality each parasite is two worms, a male and
female, firmly joined together ; the male is shown at D,
and the female, which is the larger of the two, is seen at }
EK. Bisasection of the windpipe. ‘This parasite breeds
in the common earth worm. Chicks over three months old are
seldom affected. If kept off of the ground for two months after
hatching, or on perfectly dry soil, or on land where affected
chicks have never run, chicks will seldom suffer from the
gapes.. Old runs and infested soil should have frequent
dressings of lime.
In severe cases the worms should be removed. To
do this put a few drops of kerosene in a teaspoonful of
sweet oil. Strip a soft wing feather of its web to
within an inch of the tip as shown in thé illustration,
dip in the oil, insert feather in windpipe, twirl and
—s,
DISEASES AND ENEMIES. I5]
withdraw. Very likely some of the parasites and mucus will
come with it. The rest will be loosened or killed, and event-
ually thrown out. It may be necessary to repeat the operation.
To kill the worm in its lodgment, gum camphor in the
drinking water or pellets of it as large as a pea forced down the
throat isrecommended. Turpentine in the soft feed, as advised
in the treatment for worms in the intestines, is said to be effect-
ive. Pinching the windpipe with the thumb and finger will
sometimes loosen the parasite.
When broods are quartered on soil known to be infested,
air-slaked lime should be dusted on the floor of the coup, and
every other night, for two or three weeks, a little of the same
should be dusted in the coop over the hen and her brood. To
apply, use a dusting bellows and only a little each time.
CHOLERA is due to a specific germ, or virus, and must not
be confounded with common diarrhcea. In genuine cholera
digestion is arrested, the crop remains full, there is fever and
great thirst. The bird drinks. but refuses food and appears to
be in distress. There is a thickening of the blood, which is
made evident in the purple color of thecomb. The discharges
from the kidneys, called the urates, which in health are white,
become yellowish, deep yellow, or, in the final stages, a greenish-
yellow. The diarrhcea grows more severe as the disease pro-
gresses. A fowl generally succumbs in two days. The virus of
cholera is not diffusible in the air, but remains in the soil,
which becomes infected from the discharges, and in the body and
blood of the victims. It may be carried from place to place on
the feet of other fowls or animals. Soil may be disinfected by
saturating it with a weak solution of sulphuric acid in water.
Remove at once all well birds to new and clean quarters and
wring the necks of all sick birds and burn their carcasses and
disinfect their quarters.
For cases not too far gone to cure give sugar of lead,
pulverized opium, gum camphor, of each, 60 grains, powdered
capsicum (or fluid extract of capsicum is better, 10 drops),
_ gtains,1o. Dissolve the camphor in just enough alcohol that
will do so without making ita fluid, then rub up the other ingre-
dients in the same bolus, mix with soft corn meal dough,
enough to make it into a mass, then roll it and divide the whole
into one hundred and twenty pills. Dose, one to three pills a
!
t}
152 BIGGLE POULTRY BOOK.
day for grown chicks or turkey, less to the smaller fry. The
birds that are wellenough to eat should have sufficient powdered
charcoal in their soft feed every other day to color it slightly,
and for every twenty fowls five drops of carbolic acid in the hot
water with which the feed is moistened.
Homeopathic—-Arsenicum, 6, or arsenicum iodatum. Asa
preventive, use a few drops of camphor in the drinking water.
Rourp. The first symptoms are those of a cold in the head.
Later on the watery discharge from the nostrils and eyes
thickens and fills the nasal cavities and throat, the head swells
and the eyes close ap and bulge out. The odor from affected
fowls is very offensive. It is contagious by diffusion in the air
and by contact with the exudations from sick fowls. To disinfect
houses and coops burn sulphur and carpolic acid in them after
turning the fowls out and keep closed for anhour ortwo. Pour
a gill of turpentine and a gill of carbolic acid over a peck oi
lime and let it become slaked, then scatter freely over the
interior of houses and coops and about the yards.
For the first stages spray the affected flock while on the ~
roost or in the coop with a mixture of two tablespoonfuls of
carbolic acid and a piece of fine salt as big as a walnut in a
pint of water. Repeat two or three times a week. Or, if a dry
powder is preferred, mix equal parts of sulphur, alum and
magnesia and dust this in their nostrils, eyes and throat with a
small powder gun. The nasal cavities should be kept open by
injecting with a glass syringe or sewing machine oil-can a drop
or two of crude petroleum. A little should be introduced also
through the slit in the roof of the mouth. Give sick birds a
dessertspoonful of castor oil two nights in succession, and feed
soft food of bran and corn meal seasoned with red pepper and
powdered charcoal. A physician advises the following treat-
ment: hydrastin, 10 grains; sulph. quinine, 1o grains; capsi-
cum, 20 grains. Mixed in a mass with balsam copaiba and
made into twenty pills ; give one pill morning and night ; keep
the bird warm and inject a saturated solution of chlorate potash
in nostrils and about 20 drops down the throat.
Homeopathic—Aconite, 3, in first stages ; mercurius vivus,
6, when the discharge becomes thick ; and spongia, 15, when
there is a rattling and croupy condition in the throat.
Pip, so-called, is not a disease but only a symptom. The
DISEASES AND ENEMIES. 153
drying and hardening of the end of the tongue in what is
called ‘‘ pip” is due to breathing through the mouth, which the
bird is compelled to do because of the stoppage of the nostrils.
By freeing the natural air passages the tongue will resume its
normal condition.
DIPHTHERIA is a contagious disease. The first symptoms
are those of a common cold and catarrh. The head becomes red
and there are signs of fever, then the throat fills up with thick,
white mucus and white ulcers appear. The bird looks anxious
and stretches its neck and gasps. When it attacks young chicks
it is frequently mistaken for gapes. When diphtheria prevails,
impregnate the drinking water with camphor, a teaspoonful
of the spirits to a gallon of water, and fumigate the house as
recommended for roup.
Spray the throat with peroxide of hydrogen or with this
formula: 1 ounce glycerine, 5 drops nitric acid,1 gill water.
To treat several birds at once with medicated vapor, take
a long box with the lid off, make a partition across and
near to one end and cover the bottom with coal ashes. Mix a
tablespoonful each of pine tar, turpentine and sulphur, to which
add a few drops, or a few crystals, of carbolic acid and a pinch
of gum camphor. Heat a brick very hot, put the fowls in the
large part and the brick in the other, drop a spoonful of the
mixture on the brick and cover lightly to keep the fumes in
among the patients. Watch carefully, as one or two minutes
may be all they can endure. Repeat in six hours if required.
Homeopathic treatment—Use sulphurous acid spray, and
give internally mercurius iodatum, 1, every two hours.
CROP-BOUND. The crop becomes much distended and hard
from obstruction of the passage from the crop to the gizzard by
something swallowed ; generally, it is long, dried grass,a bit
of rag orrope. Relief may sometimes be afforded by giving a
tablespoonful of sweet oil and then gently kneading the crop
with the hand. Give no food, except a little milk, until the
crop is emptied. Wet a tablespoonful or more of pulverized
charcoal with the milk and force it down the throat. Should
the crop not empty itself naturally pluck a few feathers from the
upper right side of it and with a sharp knife make a cut about
an inch long in the outer skin. Draw this skin a little to one
side and cut open the crop. Remove its contents, being careful
254 BIGGLE POULTRY BOOK.
not to miss the obstruction. Have a needle threaded with white
silk ready, and take a stitch or two in the crop skin first, then
sew up the outer skin separately. Put the patient in a comfort-
able coop, and feed sparingly for a week on bran and meal ina
moist state, and give but little water.
SOFT OR SWELLED-CRoP arises from lack of grit, or from
eating soggy and unwholesome food. The distended crop con-
tains water and gas, the bird is feverish and drinks a great deal.
By holding it up with its head down the crop will usually empty
itself. When this is done give teaspoon doses of charcoal
slightly moistened twice at intervals of six hours. Restrict the
supply of water and feed chopped onions and soft feed in modera-
tion. Homeopathic—Nux vomica, 3.
EGG-BOUND, DISEASES OF THE OviIDUCT. Overfat hens are
often troubled inthis way. Forcing hens for egg production
will sometimes break down the laying machinery. Give green
food, oats, little corn, and no stimulating condiments. Let the
diet be plain and cooling in its nature. Torelieve hens of eggs
broken in the oviluct, anoint the forefinger with sweet oil and
deftly insert and draw out the broken parts. When the hen is
very fat and the egg is so large it cannot be expelled, the only
way to save the hen is to break the egg and remove it as above
directed. Homeopathic—Pulsatilla, 3, one day, and calcarea
carbonate, 15, the next.
WHITE-COMB OR SCURVY, caused by crowded and filthy
quarters and lack of green food. The comb is covered with a
white scurf. This condition sometimes extends over the head
and down the neck, causing the feathers to fall off.
Change the quarters and diet, give a dose of castor oil and
follow this with a half a teaspoonful of sulphur in the soft food
daily.
Homeopathic—Sulphur for one day, followed by graphites, 6.
RHEUMATISM AND CRAMP caused by cold and dampness.
Chicks reared on bottom-heat brooders are particularly subject
to these troubles. Damp earth floors and cement floors in poul-
try houses produce it in older birds.
Give dry and comfortable quarters, feed little meat, plenty
of green food, and soft feed seasoned with red pepper.
Homeopathic—Rhus tox, 3, followed by bryonia, 3.
DIARRHG@A of chicks with clogging of the vent. Homeo-
$$$ $<.
DISEASES AND ENEMIES. 155
pathic — Padophyllum, a few drops in the drinking water.
Also remove the hardened excretion and anoint the parts.
Chamomilla is also useful in this complaint.
DYSENTERY. The symptoms are frequent straining and the
passage of urates streaked with blood. Homeopathic—Mercurius
corrosivus is indicated.
Loss OF SIGHT AND WASTING AWAy. Homeopathic—Phos-
phorous, 6.
FROSTED COMB AND WATTLES. As soon as discovered
bathe with compound tincture of benzoin.
For LIcE on perches, walls and coops, use kerosene or lime
wash. To make the lime-wash more effective, pour a little crude
carbolic acid on the lime before slaking or mix with plenty of
salt.
For use in nests, pour crude carbolic acid on lime and allow
it to air-slake. Put one or two handfuls of the carbolized lime
dust in the nest box.
Pyrethrum powder, sold as insect powder, is the dry leaves
and blossoms of Pyrethrum roseum ground to a fine dust. This
kills by contact and is effective for dusting in nests, and through
the feathers of birds. It is not poisonous to animal life. Its
judicious use in the plumage and nests of sitting hens will in-
sure immunity from lice for the hen and her young brood.
Chicks and poults are often killed by large lice that congre-
gate about the head, throat, vent and wings. To destroy them,
soak fish berries (coccolus indicus) in alcohol, take the birds
from under the mothers at night and slightly moisten the down
of the infested parts with the poison. Kerosenc oil, clear, or
mixed with sweet oil or lard may be used in the same way if care
be taken to use only a little.
Rats, of all vermin, are probably the most destructive
because of their number and because they harbor in and around
poultry buildings. Cats, terrier dogs, traps and poisons should
all be used for their annihilation. Rats have a great liking for
ducklings and it is necessary to guard them with special care.
OPpossuUMS will lodge in rail piles during the day-time and
raid the coops and houses at night. They killa few at a time
and gnaw the neck and head only. A steel trap set inside at
the hole where the animal enters and screened by boards to
prevent the fowls from interfering will catch the rascals.
I50 BIGGLE POULTRY BOOK.
MINKS AND WEASELS will kill a whole coopful in one night.
They do not eat but only bleed them in the neck and suck the
blood. These vermin live in swampy ravines, whence they come
and lodge a few days in brush and rail piles, or along fences
while engaged in their work of slaughter. Dogs and traps may
be used against them. ,
Foxes are also night maurauders and their sly games may
be foiled by closed coops and houses and a watchful dog.
A good arrangement for trapping all these varmints is
showu by the illustration given herewith. It
consists of a large box open at both ends
i, having the central part securely enclosed by
strong wire netting. A hen and her brood,
or a few half-grown chicks or ducklings are put in through the
trap-door on top. In both ends steel traps are set and concealed
by litter or bits of thin cloth, the traps being securely chained.
In the cut the side of coop is left off, to better show its construction.
Cats, generally the innocent-looking pet cat, often acquire
a taste for young chickens and will eat two or three daily with
great regularity. The best remedy is lead from a shot-gun, or,
if the fur is wanted, put pussy and an ounce of chloroform
together in a close box.
HAWKS AND CROWS in the vicinity of woods are often
troublesome. When they have once caught a chicken at a
certain place they will usually come at the same hour the
following day. Guineas are useful as alarmists. A shot gun
well handled will bring down the enemy. Screens of brush or
boards in the yards into which the flocks may run,
afford protection. Seta pole with pegs in, to make*
climbing easy, in the vicinity, nail a small board on
top, put a piece of recently killed chicken on it
with a steel trap on the chicken and fasten trap
with a chain.
Crows catch only small chickens. Suspend in the
runs small panes of glass, or pieces of mirror, or bright
tin by cords from leaning poles orstakes. These swing-
ing in the wind and glistening in the light are feared by the
Suspicious thieves. An upright pole may be set in the ground
with cross arms and wind-wheel on top, as shown in the illus
tration.
DISEASES AND ENEMIES. 157
POT-PIE.
Asan evening feed in cold weather nothing is better than
whole corn slightly warmed.
Wading in slush is not the kind of exercise that keeps hens
healthy and makes them lay in winter.
The public know where Peter Tumbledown’s chickens roost
by the appearance of his wagon when he drives into town.
An M. D. says that thirty-grain doses of salicylicate of soda
will cure fowls of rheumatism.
A large proportion of the substance of anegg iswater. Eggs
cannot be made out of dry grain and dried grass. Hens that
lay in winter have a liberal supply of water from some source.
Sods from a gravelly loam furnish grit, insects, seeds and
dried grass. Those who have not tried sods for winter use do
not know how valuable they are. Store a big pile in one corner
of the hennery.
Moulting fowls require nitrogenous food. Milk, wheat
bran and linseed meal, animal meal, cut green bones and the
like will furnish it.
The place for unoccupied coops is in a shed or temporary
shelter. Clean out and whitewash before putting them away
for the season.
Dry feathers in the shade; the sun draws the oil from the
stems.
Rotten eggs as nest eggs are an abomination; medicated
eggs for keeping away lice are humbugs.
If you have a hen noted for her laying qualities save her
eggs and hatch them and raise a few cockerels for next year.
This is the way to increase the egg production of your whole
flock. Stick a big pin in this item.
A roof that is to be covered with felt of any kind should not be
made very steep. If the house is, say, ten feet wide, the roof ought
not to have more than twelve or eighteen inches pitch. If twa
or three feet pitch is given it the wind will get undr the felt and
tear it off. We’ve had experience in the matter and speak “‘ by
the book.’’
To catch a chicken or turkey quick and easy, take a cord
and make a slip-noose on one end about twenty inches in diam
eter. Way this on the ground and stand off some distance with
the other end in your hand. Throw some corn about the noose
158 BIGGLE POULTRY BOOK.
and when the right fowl gets his feet within the circle of the
cord, pull quick and you have him.
Clover hay is excellent for laying hens. It is rich in the
chemical qualities needed in producing eggs. It is also much
cheaper than to feed them altogether on grain. Give them grain
at night, but in the morning take a pail two-thirds full of fine
cut clover and cover with boiling water, cover closely and let it
steam until the clover is swelled, then add enough meal, ground
oats or bran to make a crumbly mass.
Two handy coops areshown in the illustrations. Figure has
aes ends made of canvas or bagging, and Figure 2
LES is provided with a sliding false —<2z7=———
Ly side, which may be drawn to the @eagien -
front by means of the pole, thus FIG. 2.
bringing the chickens within reach.
Here are some of the many causes why chicks die in the
shell : eggs from immature pullets ; cock too fat ; hens too fat;
hens beginning to moult ; shells of eggs too thick ; cock inactive ;
feeding highly-seasoned food ; lack of exercise of hens ; exposing
the eggs just when the chicks are coming out; lack of bulky
food for hen; natural weakness of parents, in-breeding ; lack
of vigor in male; inherent lack of vitality in chicks ; too close
and persistent sitting by the hen, thus overheating the eggs;
hens once affected with the roup ; cockerel not matured.
A good condition powder for laying hens or fattening stock :
Ground bone, one pound (phosphoric ¢ cid and lime) ; ground
meat or blood, three pounds (nitrogenous, forming albumen) ;
linseed meal, one-half pound (nitrogenous, carbonaceous and
laxative, used for regulating the bowels) ; charcoal, one pound
(used for promoting digestion and assisting to correct acidity) ;
salt, half pound (very necessary. and often neglected) ; ground
ginger, two ounces ; red pepper, one tablespoonful ; gentian,
one ounce (stimulant and corrective); citrate of iron and
ammonia, one ounce (an invigorator of the system). A small
handful daily to each ten fowls in soft feed.
A good condition powder for sick fowls : gentian, one pound;
red pepper, half ounce; salt, one ounce; citrate of iron and
ammonia, one ounce; Peruvian bark, one ounce; black anti-
mony, one ounce; charcoal, half a pound. Give a tablespoonful
to two hens in the soft feed once a day.
FIG. I.
INDEX.
A
Age, breeder..... a iaisteje-aevereie 21
BEG? | CARER BUC RECIENTE 30
Parydmos WETS. .c:o15 oils ee - 64
JNDO DIET Rano Garcenoaenas 148
B
Breeders, age for.......-. 21
SOME (sessbesbeseoca 2
Gefonmitty: ule c20 sce ce oe 24
MAPA CTING Mise yers ier oc hae 21, 2¢
ETA KC ivgan ct aisteks Settee Serer ainitye 97-98
HeLCCMINE PENS: ...2cn oc -elee 24
SRE CO SERRE eon coeine oa 81-92
Onl ete Sawesame sesso doce 51
village. Wentte#ny. =e 75-77
Pp iaad ens ee oe ciaciste(ele se vleve <-cal 49
DPERGS Sirs aaoreadusouemec 51
neGGliiner peqenadoacuaceebac 53
AT Uiak Gs MOT wees ie cere 49
WUGIICAMES Weligeeeg Soret toe Gen 49
Brooder capacity.......... 45
cChicksees cco: Sale Few avere Aste 43
INOPIKS.« sh oeen seumeeaae ocoe 52
EGIIMNDSHNNEERS Go aeetSAcoooc 45
Brooders, style of........ 45
Broody hens, instinct..... 27
AT ATU ONTO hele veletets c/a cine 27-28
SGlEChINOM ean siseein ee joe aoe 27
Bimbletootiecss.o es. . sese 150
c
( CET Kes eer at a SAS Se eae 149
CAIXOIS Sores aaa aE er 139
REELS Bere ee ois tioyeyntare cis sane sats Se 156
Chickicoops. ss 9sse- emcee. 37, 40
SFBINSN GAS b oc ROn rer 40
@hicken=catchere cece eee 157
Chickens, fattening........ 137
POASUIMG eyed. see eee eee 49
@hicks wae en cuseeees 35-36
brood ens a. snecapaeneeeees 43
dead imeesie lees alert 158
TeediImGkex ance cee ete 38-40
helping out of shell..... 35
THEUNOVVINE? Cenoacagueaanor 36
water vessels for........ 40
Cholerabneas ets eae eae I51
Cockerels, caponizing..... 139
Sale mOPahenias soe
Conth se inostedese see 155
Condition powder......... 158
Coops Hatteninioaeeee ase 138
Goops' chicks petrrcseie 37, 40
Cramp Jaatecoscss cose cee 154
Crop-boundyerererce-eceaa- 153
Soft on Swellledincs. as 154
Erows! “sStect esses es cates 156
D
Deformities in cock....... 24
IDyewrdN@Se) ssoeoceuaeeoanscc 154
IDNA, Beeoccecosocsdec 153
DiSeasestencsaaleeser 147-155
apoplexy ......-.-.---.-- 148
Dumble=t0Of. ssc 150
Cankcene nes ceis aise ess aeisiens 149
IMDS. CacgccgoncaaccoDus 151
Gis Boddesosssbaccesc 154
royaowInGl <ososoqooscous 153
diarrhoea ...........-.--- 154
Gipltivertay eiefern aero 153
GySEntenyruece cies cee ele 155
ege-potundiee sce emcee - 154
TEVICESIA Siok cia neterclessleeios <5. 148
baal
160 BIGGLE POULTRY BOOK.
frosted! VCOND siete ase 155 white of anisic. semen 14
frosted jwattles:..... 2... 155 yolk’ of <anwsi, 322 sees 14
PAP ES wise ocr eco ea ee ag Mis 150 Eggs, airing J...) pee -
leg weakness ............ fa) sold storage > inate eee 38
loss of sight............. 153 construction) Of). .4neeeee 13
Oviduct ........-- se eee, 154 contents, of. Wena 14, 22
Paralysis ................ de dirty’... st. acne eee 18
HIRE ROSS GC UO DOORS SOCK noe feeding Tome. ee uneeeeee va 22
preventing ....-......--. 147 fertile 2... dee ere a i | 17-18
relaeiboaneneision. Gagqscdacnac- 154 how produced........... 22
LOUD Ei ees ee loins erteetes 152 intertile 6. 17, 31-32
scaly legs .....--+++++++- te Stale i... (chee 17
Sra SCOR at eae eet a turning isccheee eee 32
TOD Neen aaeoe ‘ :
Secon 154 Bees for hateein ee
Ver lmOgci ct aneietere eta ne 148 POR ID SOF OAS OS oon 30
WASEITIGU AWA coosds Jose: 15s duel eec mere ae 113
"davies (elopeleb maven sagen 154 abe rg = OL. - eee sean 3t
W.OIgIS wertesiteiiei hae ierseretere 100) Meta COD OOS ISOC bobo Koc 2
: pullety :.. ace 50
Dressing for market...139-141 selecting. Jick cae eee 2
GESEYO) OISSOWSs 565500550 - 133 shipping “1.0 142-143
IDoveldbboves SsS4Gq500000¢ 113-138, emice ae 155-156
CAmeMOl sar raeeicteicie-seierare oxalate 114 cats lic, cue 156
IBNHSNUOE? Ao sogoudsoHodoT 138 Crows <.t0b ee 156
food for......-.+-+++. ele el foxes... :scchceaece Cee 156
shelter mtOt. o. 0... cee 115 hawks... lois eee 156
yarding ...--.++++se++ es TI5 Sci ERAN ALES SG aoe b00 + 155
ID nS EG Woconnesosnemae on 107-116 minks, ccs eee eae 156
ieSOteNe! “Sdscoococaguo0gdaac 110 OPOSSUIMS: \tee-e ee eee 155
POT) CQASei eens weenie 109 TALS | occ .elsjaretelercireeee Meche 155
hatching eggs.......--.- 113 weasels sJicanueseeenneeee 156
MOCUSESHO electra eievere 110-113
SMELT” GoonosbhoqoocdcoseL 113 F
GEL “GDNisgouocdanpoogoddaden 116
WaAGletlesmOnarrecreinere TO7-200))) parece senile eee 67
IDWVSSMWBAY oodooducocs0K0 C6 155 culling). koa 68
feeding. Jiiccnie acters 71
E housing" eens aeeeee 69-71
IM PE OVINE Serie eee 69
Egg-bound sd ftv? Se AN a eRe BI 154 size of © (fee .e\e'\e)s\ 0 etava\jeleiele ehsie 68
aural. MENKCieagassodcoboeadd 64 Fattening chickens........ 137
TSI SHGN Oieoshsgoorsac 15 COOp!|. keke eee eee 138
mye. SoognnooesodNOt asd 59 ducklings) -eceeatee ee 138
pickle .......-...-----+.- 18 geese ee ee 138
slrakan ancy ccieiyalitsciese 24 turkéys> 40. ioe eee 138
shell ........+.s02.000- 14, ie Feathers, geese............ 123
studying incubation of.. turkey s..22505. ce eee 144
tester, how made........ 2 Fertil
LESEiTicre Meh seer ek etic: 16-18 ertility ....-.ee sees ee ee eee a2)
wien tenttlizedens «ser 14; 24. . Pevers J 2ihet enemies 148
INDEX. I61
Foods, balanced ration.... 64
EOUGEE 2-2 -ssic = 52> = 53
CHIC ciao se wicie eens 38-40
GUCE essdaotgsuecdsaseces 110
CRANE ie. o'- =-= -- 114-115
egg-making ....22, 23, 63, 78
PAEEICEGS HOC ots) chase) <1l21 71
fertilitwvnen cas. ckeeciecee: 62-63
de eke RAILS oye) /-/e) es everare. 0s 23
POSING: (ass acne w ee srs 122-123
PUZEOM ys wigccn ae aes seers 131
Setniner INST oasogaeacaneee 29
EUnK Gyaee crate Soren erls 97, 100
IOKES siscccessciclevs sels er nsees 156
HTOSteduCOmbace «mie els seit: 155
WHEHES! Geocadcoosanenoess 155
G
GapeSinin telnet cree os cies saves 150
(GEESD Soe SRCeeEnUeS I1g-124, 138
BOO Cys vars soieiers Siers eieis Gcavas 121
SIGE COLGN see ere ciclseae ei 121
PALLETS): eo. sc ci ceictcicis cre 138
PeAatMETS) OF Vee ceis cow cere tie 123
incubation of ...121, 123-124
Wfemolesccalcs access cake 120
ATV ADIT Saw for ctave wks isccieley< elaleie 120
Wanletves) Ob ac secmincse 119-120
Germs, strong ..........21-22
GOSINGS a8 sce eee eee 121
NESONMes Sooo 5ounasode 122-123
WVIAC EITC) © ele Sere oes 122
DICK IN Gace fais slow oes Se 123
Gutnea fowls ~22.-...- 102-104
THON eee es Deere Cee 103
Mature NOtas.essecce ee 102-103
VOUIMCH eect Poise eiee os we 103
H
Hatching, eggs late in ... 36
(RETRY DISTARESURE Soocccoggn ces 31
EUR KEY Stns cs che sicictoinre.cies aise 100
EMS). oa sist sien tte cet cs 156
ARLEN PACTS esc) scisiecieeiseieck 60
HOUSES! ais ec creeteeie te 2 61, 69-71
Hens, age of laying....... 64
Colomizime Seems cele cies 60
food for sétting.......... 29
SOOd slayinic eases 57-58
liatchitigeecrycrernccceae: 35
eilayanicatsy pes Ol== jer ee 57
MAGKEEIIM PE eee eee 64
OVEblat wes cynic eoerichrele 21
Setbiniog teaches eceeioeee 28-29
EWOnyieGat- Older esse cece: 21
Homeopathic treatment...148
Hospital. Susctcsemic sector 147
House, brooder <2---.5-.- 2
GUC ty eke caetcine aoe I10-113
INSTA GUoR EO SOL 61, 69-71
DIVO | Gognedsodacocccdce 127
Willac ecmilennetsyareeersiet 76-77
I
Incubation ....15, 27-28, 30-31
buying eggs for ........ 50
geese eggs ...... I2I, 123-124
femperature for ......-- 30
LITE EOL eeraicys Solelsioieloresrerels 49
Incubator
LOCA OST One eile 30
removing chicks ...... 43-44
Svahyihares Cag gadondscouuedc 15
NT CUbatonsmacnceae seer 29
L
Wesmweakalessm cette 149
IDs Ga pooocdeoenoosboncoods 155
M
Mating breeders ...... 21, 24
GhiekS Srocansuocese0a00ec 113
PEESE Haas smeiciec ms aislsie soe 120
SITIE Ay LOWS) (eles ee cele 103
DEOMNS Ssscopascscer 129-130
Maturity, when reached.. 22
itl RSS Sapa seonconcoonaTeds 156
Molting fowls ............. 157
N
INIGSISS | TNE) ITER oSoneaoaanac 28
162 BIGGLE POULTRY BOOK.
oO SWALM s.) vis e's baie eles siaaeiane ene mam
Opossums ........ RAGE Oe oti 155 Swelled@cropriasceeeer area:
@VEESTOCKRII Gy pet miclelereojs)sroe 67 T
@wviductmdiseasesecc ceca: 154 Thermometer.
P placing: sees seco sree
P Turkeys. 3. jacqie 95-102
Paralysis .....seeeeeeeeeees 148 breeding °)) 4 pee 97-08
PPEASEO Wily Weiler erases sereveleeeo's 104 care ef VOuNS Seneca IOI
PReOMS went eine jas eas 127-134 diet of young ......... 100
Greece Sq ua bie Ree 133 fatteninioh eee 98, 138
egg incubation .......... 133 feathers, Of. ioe ciae tare 144
GER MOR hears ones ae eae 127 food. fOr .- «5-5 -cloe planets 97
LI eee eee 129-130 hatching: (ooo emai 100
WESUSINLOT Ge aeeias severe 128 ee Settee teen ee eee ee 144
profit in squab ei raw A 134 SCTUING peewee ee nee eee eens 99
AUIGMIee, SepeBlon Kocoosncane 129 time of laying ........ 98-99
é i VATLELLES MOL tee retaleener teers 95
Pati nln Sia eyetnrs olavetoe eante epate euateceteit 152 weights of j4.5, 5430 0noee 95
PPPS SF el etefercreisereoser sl 50
Janes, IDA. Joassecn 500 60 NM
FOTCING - +e sees ee eee esses 20) Varieties metickcnt eee 107-109
SEEOSE. dogyesfeie es eee 119-120
R turkeys: wich weno 95
TRRENISEN DOE SESAISENE Ay a ao iss Vertigo) 2) mee siete 148
iUneienanolsiay PAG ene enoa Tee 154 Mae Hee nee wsilelaiecers alate 75
Roasting chickens ........ 49 pice a of, nee pes
Roup wee cece ewes cesuceees 152 housestot seget eee 76-77
idGonaisy "Cline She sodonsoadosc 40
Ww
S Wiastinic Hawai critter 155
Scalliy Meow tasre aueisaiete ce 149 Water vessels) 2s2ep.neere 40
SGuritewavautans encreretayey tee sie somaya tele 154 Wattles, irosted 2. css. eras 155
Sexton Ghiiclhke Bod ones suuedns 116 Weasels: Os sotineeas es latte 156
Shelter for ducklings ..... 115 White <comib) cesses 154
Slama!” Soponnansoase 141-142 WY OFS osc ercieleieleiers ete rere enataes 150
TES aes Wea anne 142-143 i,
SHiedmiey MOSSY Oree Sa Gon oon sar events Y
SolteschoOpurecue Buena ce teins 154
VYarding ducklings eek eceean5
>
*
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS
I
Live Music Archive
Librivox Free Audio
Metropolitan Museum
Cleveland Museum of Art
Internet Arcade
Console Living Room
Books to Borrow
Open Library
TV News
Understanding 9/11