The BEGINNER | in POULTRY} or. VALENTI Pe Cornell University Library The original of this book is in the Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http :/Awww.archive.org/details/cu31924003058520 ornell University Library The beginner in poultry; the zest and th THE BEGINNER IN POULTRY THE MACMILLAN COMPANY NEW YORK + BOSTON + CHICAGO DALLAS + SAN FRANCISCO MACMILLAN & CO., LimitED LONDON - BOMBAY + CALCUTTA MELBOURNE THE MACMILLAN CO. OF CANADA, Lrtp. TORONTO GdVHS ANVL OL NVOUM ONIGTING AYLINOG ALVLS AgSUaf MAN V AO WvaNC AHL’ NAHA\ THE BEGINNER IN POULTRY THE ZEST AND THE PROFIT IN POULTRY GROWING BY C. S. VALENTINE Nets Bork THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 1912 All rights reserved LE COPYRIGHT, 1912, By THE MACMILLAN COMPANY. Set up and electrotyped. Published September, rgr2, Norwood Press J. 8. Cushing Co. — Berwick & Smith Co. Norwood, Mass., U.S.A. CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE I. WHAT MAKES A POULTRYMAN? . f 2 : I II. MAKING THE REAL START . : : . : 9 III. CHOOSING AMONG THE BREEDS : ‘ A a, 720 IV. HATCHING AND BROODING WITH THE MOTHER HEN . ; : : : : : : - 33 V. BEGINNING ARTIFICIAL INCUBATION é : a VI. HANDLING AND FEEDING THE YOUNG FROM Ma- CHINES . : : : : 2 : : . 63 VII. STUDYING FEEDING VALUES . : . : 5 275 VIII. A Stupy or Juicy FEEps . ‘ : : = 192 IX. How TO PREVENT DISEASE . : : : . 103 X. Mops, SMUTS, AND BACTERIA. ; , 2 ORES XI. MEDICINES, DISINFECTANTS, AND INSECTICIDES . I24 XII. METHODS OF CIRCUMVENTING VERMIN . : . 131 XIII. Types oF MODERN HOUSING. é ‘ : - 147 XIV. HomME-MADE CONVENIENCES . F 3 : . 166 XV. THE IDEAL BirD . 2 4 ‘ A : « 477 XVI. LiNnE BREEDING AND MENDEL’s Law . : . 186 XVII. RECORDS FOR FuTURE STUDY ‘ : : - 199 XVIII. Prorir AND Loss . . : ‘ ; + 211 XIX. Cost or PRopucinG EGGs, CHICKS, AND FOWLS . 222 XX. StTuDyING EGGs . 2 . . : : - 244 XXI. THE FIELD OF THE AMERICAN STANDARD OF PER- FECTION, AND THE ASSOCIATION : : & 254 XXII. PouLtry SCHOOLS . é a : 3 ‘ . 267 XXIII. PRAcTICAL LAYING CONTESTS s 5 i . 287 Vv ae vi CHAPTER XXIV. XXV. XXVI. XXVII. XXVIII. XXIX. XXX. XXXI. XXXII. XXXIII. XXXIV. CONTENTS QUALITY IN WIRE FENCING Ducks AND GEESE THE NATIONAL BIRD . GUINEA FOWL AND QUAIL . DRAWING AND DISMEMBERING POULTRY ADVERTISING FANCY STOCK SHIPPING TO NEW YORK FEATHERS AND THE MOLT . THE QUESTION OF SUPPLIES EFFICIENCY THE KEY TO SUCCESS THE BEGINNER’S FOES AND HIS FRIENDS GLOSSARY OF BREEDER’S SPECIAL TERMS ACTING HEADS OF STATE AGRICULTURAL COLLEGES . INDEX PAGE 303 312 331 339 355 364 381 393 402 4II 422 431 435 439 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS New Jersey Poultry Building Foundation : Frontispiece PAGE” Sympathy. : : : : . : : : : 3 Strength : ‘ : % é . 3 5° Social Kinship, kinivn bs Pride ‘ : : ‘ 3 ‘ 6 The Peach Orchard Poultry Yard . : 5 : F ; 9 One might buy Some New-hatched Chicks. F ‘ EE Lice-killing Machine : : . : . : : . 13 Connecticut Field Meeting . . : : . - 15 Picturesque New Jersey Poultry pias . 3 3 ; ne of Attractive Open-front Colony House : : ; é $5 211 Prize Dorking Male : : : : : . : 84 White Wyandotte Fowls. Typical of American Ideas . a 25 Cornell Feed Hopper. F : : ; : ‘ . 26 Dark Cornish Fowls i i : ‘ F : ; 5 28 Columbian Wyandottes . é : : . : : - 31 Buff Fowl Showing Mottling . : ‘ : . ; s. 232) Winter Chicks ‘ ‘ , : ‘ i « 36 Rose-comb Brown Leghorn Chidks ‘ : : ; » 380 The Easiest Egg Tester : : : : ; : S AF Improved Water Fount . 3 : F , - 49 Cornell Brooder House, New jemey Station : ; : eo 953 Weak White Leghorn Chicks, Cornell . i ‘é ; ~ SS Hatching Test Report Chart, Cornell. : : ‘ «» 57 Incubator Cellar, West Virginia Station . : é i 59 Ostriches Five Days Old : r 3 ‘ ‘ a - 67 Cornell Gasoline Brooder : : : ; : : = 7 Standard Poultry Feeds . ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ . 76 Sprouting Oats ; Beet Pulp; Restaurant Waste : ; UF Minnesota Flax. s : ; : : : : >» 83 Peanut Plant . ‘ : 2 . . : . . - 89 vii vili LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS Sprouted Oats, Four Inches High Millets . : Pearl Millet Cornell Water Fount Automatic Grain Feeder Diseased Gizzard The Best Medicine Chest “Inspiration is Perspiration ” Apple Tree injured by Meadow Mice Great Horned Owl . Sharp-shinned Hawk Alfalfa ruined by Mice Carson Meadow Mice Adapted Tolman House Roost Platform and Nests Rear View, West Virginia House : Skeleton of Clark House, New Jersey Statin, New Jersey Roof Chart . Solid Concrete Foundation Cornell Rat-proof Feed Hopper Nests in Vertical Series . Soap-box Feed Hopper . Swinging Jail for Sitters Piano-box Large House . Head of Rose-combed Leghorn Male White Leghorn Female, Nearly Ideal Reshaping the Wyandotte, through Breeding and judging Indian Runner, ‘“ The White Queen” Campine Hen, Near-perfection in Type . How Not to do lt . : Leghorns, Weak and Strong . Home-Made Trap Nest Series A Year’s Feed for One Hen Four Vital Points . “The Rosy Side” . Eastern Cotton Tail Rabbit Variations in Retail Prices of Eggs Variations in Cost and Weight of Eggs . PAGE 97 99 Io! 105 107 IIo 129 134 136 137 I4I 143 144 151 153 154 160 162 164 168 169 170 171 175 178 181 183 184 184 199 201 204 209 212 214 217 219 225 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS Home-Made Fireless Brooder One Month’s Egg Product Three Systems of Yarding ‘ Farm Hopper Feeding and Watering Devices: Eggs, Comparative Size, Hen and Pullet Feathers Variously Marked White Indian Runner Ducks . White Laced Red Cornish Cock : Prize Winning Black Minorca, “ Perfection” . New Jersey’s First Poultry Class Cornell Poultry Class Concrete Floor Construction . Sicilian Buttercups New Jersey Long Laying House Pen Silver Wyandottes bred Abroad Partridge Rocks in Storrs Contest . Competition Pen of White Wyandottes . International Competition Pen Silver Wyandottes . Competition Laying House, Storrs . International Competition Plant ; Black Orpington Competition Pen, Missouri . Wire Netting rusted in Roll Barley growing in Frame Wire Netting and Drinking Fount . Home-Made Coop . Silo for Beets . : Walton Indian Runners . Efficient Duck Houses New York Winning Embden Gaae Young Embden Geese on Pond White China Geese White Holland Turkeys grown in Tete. White Guinea Fowl : Quail Chicks feeding from Hand Breeding Quail at Connecticut Agricultural College Quail Two Months Old . Cooper Chicken Hawk Drawing and Dismembering a Fowl facing xX LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS Dismembering Cuts and Egg Duct of Female The A. L. Clark Poultry House Fancy Stock acquiring Hardiness Cornell Strong Leghorn Chicks An Effective Wind Break Well Fledged Leghorn Chick Mercantile Exchange Cold Storage Chicken Freshly-killed Chicken A Starting Feather Ostriches Five Months Old Specimens of Down Enlarged Laced Feathers of Silver Wyandotte Automatic Feeder . Patented Feed Trough “ Stoneburn” Trap Nest Nitrogen Gatherers Nodules of Velvet Bean . Boys’ Corn Exhibit Wire Netting Curing Cribs Detail of Pen Construction Plucking the Ostrich Social Joys THE BEGINNER IN POULTRY THE BEGINNER IN POULTRY I WHAT MAKES A POULTRYMAN? Effect of Business on Character — Dealing with Sen- tient Beings —Sympathy a Necessary Factor — The Rights of Animals— Justice Tends to Profit— A Pro- tector — ‘‘Good Luck ” — Hen Reasons AT the risk of seeming, for the time being, unpracti- cal, I wish to discuss this question from the standpoint of the fowls themselves. I believe this to be fumdamen- tally practical. It is not merely the keeping or even the breeding of many fowls through a series of years that makes a real poultryman ; efficient, systematic, successful. Students of men have made and reiterated the statement that horticulturists, as a body, are the finest group of men on earth. This is the impression almost sure to be gained by close observation of gatherings of men of this pro- fession, in conference or convention. But, why should horticulture be looked upon as a profession more than poultry breeding is looked upon as a profession? Why should the actual practice of these “professions,” or, if you prefer it, “trades,” differ in its effect on the men who follow them? Or, if you are not willing to allow Photographs not otherwise credited, or obviously from the Experiment Stations, are by the Author. B I 2 THE BEGINNER IN POULTRY that this is the case, what is the difference of tempera- ment or of feeling which draws a man to the one or the other? And why should the one elevate the character of the men who follow it, while the other (as is asserted) tends to do just the reverse ? Both these occupations lead man closer to Nature. But, in the one, he handles and creates new forms with living things which have not feeling or response ; in the other, he controls — as far as a human being may —- living things which are sentient, and which have what we may term “personalities”? which respond to him, and which communicate with him to a considerable degree. This, it seems to me, is the fundamental difference, and this difference is what makes the difference in the effect upon man himself. This is because, if a man does not deal out justice and kindness to sentient things, he becomes, in the very nature of things, ¢he less a higher bcing. This morning, a ten-year-old lad passed my door, angrily whipping an old horse lagging in the spell of unprecedented heat; yesterday, a farmer’s daughter soused a too-persistent sitting hen in water till the bird was nearly drowned, to “break” her of the natural im- pulse. These common occurrences are unjust, and, be- cause unjust, they are callousing. And there are scores of ways in which man may, and does, make callous and bru- talize himself, in dealing with the living things subject to his will. This does not affect these animals alone, for calluses grow and fester, and the man who iscruel to his stock becomes insensibly cruel to his wife and children. I have spoken at the outset of sympathy as anecessary factor in the successful handling of sentient things. This sympathy will not be shown, in the majority of WHAT MAKES A POULTRYMAN? 3 instances, unless the person concerned has been educated to it; first by teaching and example, then through train- ing, and eventually through observation and study of the animals. For real sympathy is not merely a chance matter of tender-hearted- ness ; itis funda- mentallya matter of seeing condi- tions, at least in part, from the point of view of the other being. One who is to deal with living, sentient crea- tures, needs, then, to study these creaturesas creatures of feel- ingsand of rights. He needs to ob- " serve their ways of doing things when they are free to doas they will; their ways Sympathy — A Necessary Factor as a group or class, and also as individualities— separate _ members of the group. Indeed, one who goes much among any groups of animals, with eyes at all open, can- 4 THE BEGINNER IN POULTRY not but observe these many things. But, to delve into the reasons for certain phases of group behavior and also for certain individual habits will render them far more interesting and attractive. The former can often be traced ; the latter far less often. Observation of the habits of groups and of individuals leads directly to more and more interest; therefore to increased sympathy, and to a senseof the rights of even the lower animals. Not until we have studied rather deeply into the reasons for common behavior and for exceptional be- havior in animals sub- ject to us are we fitted, in any real sense, to become complete mas- ters of their fate. For masters of the beings within their posses- sion, men, women, and children always are, as long as these beings are weaker than they, or believe themselves to be weaker. The strength of man thus lies in the weakness or the submission of that which he com mandsorcontrols. It may be weakness of character, or of will, or it may be weakness only physical (although phys- ical weakness leads logically to the other weaknesses). Strength WHAT MAKES A POULTRYMAN? 5 The beings under the dominion of man must, then, appeal to him, through their weakness, to his sympathy and his sense of justice. The sympathy of one man will be aroused by the thought of a bird as a pet, which his feelings will not allow him to kill. The sympathies of another will be far more practically shown in the kind care and regular attention to their needs which he apportions to the creatures under him. That this is pre- cisely what tends to make them most profitable is cause for thanksgiving; were it not the case, life might be one long torture to the subject animals. While many, are too kindly natured to feel justified to raise animals for the express purpose of killing for profit, yet the dominion of man zs over the lower animals, and the greater pain which accrues to them through his handling comes from his neglect of. their daily needs and hourly. comfort, rather than in death; since they do not usually antici- pate death and it can be made painless by the use of the right methods. We need to assure and reassure ourselves that it is especially hunger and fear and pain from which we are in duty bound to defend the lower creatures, to whom we are as gods. Maeterlinck appre- hends and expresses this attitude of the creatures, when he makes the dog in the play, “ The Bluebird,” address the man as “ My little god.” As the sympathy and the sense of a certain social kinship is aroused in the dominator, man, toward his underlings, he grows into the attitude of a pvofector for justice's sake, rather than merely for profit’s sake. It is at this point that every method of manipulation of the flocks turns into “good luck” in his hands. His chicks grow rapidly and evenly; his hens sing joyful 6 THE BEGINNER IN POULTRY lays for his ears and deposit profitable “lays” in the nests which he carefully and sensibly provides. It is a simple matter, this of providing a nest just to the hen’s taste; so simple that any one ought to be able to do it Social Kinship shown by Pride. This, with Sympathy and Strength common to Man and His Birds exactly right, it would seem. Scores of unsympathetic “practical”? people may tell you it is all bosh to consider the whims of the fowls in matters of so little moment as this. The hen is due to lay anyhow, they will argue, and why should any sensible, practical person go to the trouble of doing things in any special way, just to please the whim of a stupid hen? But, in the first place, and answer enough, the hen is not “stupid.” There is nearly always a well-defined WHAT MAKES A POULTRYMAN? 7 (hen) reason for the special course which she desires to follow. Because it is a part of her nature to steal aside and lay a nestful of eggs for the incubation of her pro- spective brood, she likes a rather dark and quiet stow- away nest, even when housed under artificial conditions, and she likes it better and better as it becomes fuller and fuller of eggs. Because of this innate feeling, she will choose a nest containing a nest egg before one which is empty, other things being equal. But, suppose that it is not a matter of nest eggs. Suppose that there is a full tier of nests made comfort- able and inviting, each with its dummy egg, and placed just where you want her to lay; suppose that she persists, as one hen, though there may be a dozen or more of her, in laying in another, less desirable, nest, or even on the floor in the corner? The average handler will be sure to ‘“‘ Drat her!” as a silly, stupid, and, above all, obsti- © nate good-for-nothing, when all the time the probable reason—and a perfectly logical one —for the bird’s seemingly erratic action is that the man has omitted to provide a suitable alighting board in front of the nests. In her efforts to fly full tilt directly into the nest from the floor, her outspread wings strike its sides, and, fail- ing to double herself up into it, as she drops back, she goes tothe floor. A dozen failures bruise and discourage her. After watching her tillshe becomes discouraged, and obstinate in depositing her egg in the floor litter, shall we not rather say: a stupid, unseeing man who has not tried to learn the needs or the ways of the hen, but has insisted on her doing things in his way when ctrcum- stances which he has provided made tt tmpossible, or at least very difficult, for her to meet his wishes? SYINYD 94} 10} Apeay 3u}aH = “pirgA AIQI[Nog pseyr1g yoveg oy, Il MAKING THE REAL START Waiting on the Hens — Imprisonment for Life — Buying Sitters —Imperiling Success — Prices of Hens — Cost of Chicks — Quick Product from Hens — Maturity of Pullets — Large Investments Unsafe — Who Furnish the Failures? Now we strike a puzzle: ow are you going to start ? In a large, or a small way? With machines, or hens? Or with baby chicks, made ready for you by some one who has experience? I cannot decide this for you,-al- together, because so much depends on what you are going to put into the proposition, aside from the money investment. One might begin with half a dozen hens, a dry- goods box for a house, and with a cracker box or two for nests. One might be very intensive, and keep these hens shut within their box all the time. That would mean that every morsel of food and water and litter which they receive must be supplied them, and all the waste incident to the life of the hen must be removed carefully and promptly by you, if you are to handle them yourself. Are you ready for the task? And what if you eventually increase to several hundred fowls? Will you then be willing to become such a slave to your expected money-makers? Again, are you willing to imprison for life these sociable helpers of yours? If so, any poultry supply house can furnish you a book which will tell you, in detail, almost every move you must make in thus handling the birds. There 9 ine) THE BEGINNER IN POULTRY is even a school —a private concern — where all these points are taught. If you are not willing to take on so imperative a serv- ice, you will provide a good, green range for the birds, let them wait on themselves just as much as may be during all open weather, feed them each a handful of grain once a day, with a few meat scraps from the table or a little milk instead of the scraps, if this is handier. They will begin to lay for you in April if you have procured them in March (and this is about as early as you can well begin, on this plan) at the north. But, it will be several weeks before you will have any hens ready to hatch for you, so that you can do no early hatching unless you can buy some sitters. This sounds feasible; but there will be the difficulty of moving them to their new quarters, and the possibly greater difficulty of finding any for sale at all. For, at this special sea- son, all who make any specialty of poultry are quite likely to need all the broody hens for their own work; and this, even though they use several hatching ma- chines. You will hardly find it good business to buy incubators while you have few layers and little experi- ence, especially as you might not be able to procure eggs in sufficiently large numbers. Besides, when eggs are not plentiful, they are likely to be held too long for best hatching. The Beginner, of all workers with poultry, needs good tools and good eggs; else, he can- not tell whether any trouble which arises is due to his own errors, or to the eggs, or to a poor machine. I wonder whether you would not rather buy some new hatched chicks outright, from some one who is known to have good ones, and begin with them? You MAKING THE REAL START II might procure a good brooder, or, if you thought it better to go to no further expense, this first spring, you could raise them in cracker boxes or fireless brooders. That means that you will keep them in the dwelling at One might Buy Some New-hatched Chicks night, if you begin early in the season; but, you can put them out in a sheltered place whenever it is sunny. It won’t do to let the wind blow on them much, but they would rather be warmed by the sun, when it shines out warmly, than by any indoor heat that could be furnished. Will you get fifty to start with? Or twenty-five at first, and perhaps fifty more three weeks later? There is a great advantage in buying chicks in this way, just the number you can handle comfortably, and just when you want them. All in a bunch are of the same age and have an equal show, as far as it can be given them. There will be none older and much stronger to crowd and trample the young ones, as is almost sure to be the case if the chicks come along eight or ten at a time, and are bunched in one flock after a few weeks. If you want to try two or more lots the first year, don’t make the mistake of letting them run together. This is about 12 THE BEGINNER IN POULTRY the worst blunder a Beginner can make. It is one that probably eighty out of a hundred do make, for lack of forethought. Perhaps fifteen more of the hundred do it in spite of warning, because it is so much easier, and because they cannot apprehend the vital importance of keeping the different ages separate. The result is that very few really first-class chicks are raised, because the majority of learners have thus imperiled their own suc- cess at the outset. And this error affects them at every stage of the work from this period of early chickhood on. If it were not for just one thing, I might advise you to buy two or three mother hens with their broods, for the start. But, unfortunately, nearly all sitting hens have lice. And when the chicks have parasites to fight, from the first, you have a slender chance to raise any really good ones. The strongest may keep themselves pretty free by vigorous use of the dust bath which they find in any plot of soft, dry earth. But they cannot make good headway against those on top of the head, which are so often found when they are taken from the nest for cooping. You, too, must fight these lice all the time. Don't you see that the real question, all along the line, is how far you can be trusted? Have you noticed how almost universally those who ask information ask for the good points of fowl, or ma- chine, or whatever may be the subject of inquiry? Yesterday, I saw in horticultural print, a query as to the faults of a certain popular peach. Every one who writes about this peach praises its good points. The inquiry brought out the fact that it had several very bad points, one of them being that it succeeded only in a few localities. Its praise, then, was utterly misleading MAKING THE REAL START 13 to most readers, unless the bad points were mentioned at the same time. With this thought in mind, I am trying to show the pitfalls that go with each method of beginning with poultry raising. There is a difficulty with brooder chicks which the average Beginner will not be expecting, and which may send him stum- You, too, must Fight These Lice.” Lice-killing Machine. Introduce Birds and Lice Powder, and Rotate bling beyond recovery of his balance. If not bought from some one known to have good, free-range, healthy, vigorous stock, these machine-hatched chicks are quite liable to develop ‘white diarrhcea,” the most dreaded scourge of the incubator chick. This is said to be in- cipient even in the egg before it is incubated, in some cases. In case this should occur, you might lose every one before they were three weeks old. 14 THE BEGINNER IN POULTRY The production of day-old chicks has become tre- mendous, and you who are new to the work are almost sure to argue that in buying chicks you know exactly what you are to get, while with eggs you buy only a “chance.” It is quite true that baby chicks can be shipped safely for some hundreds of miles. But, as long as white diarrhoea has the upper hand, they may be looked upon as pretty much of a gamble, if incuba- tor-hatched. One firm said, in a letter in March, 1911, “We expect to sell 50,000 this coming season” ; another returned $4000 received for orders which it could not fill. One seller says, concerning this method of getting stock: ‘“‘The buyer receives his chicks and sees what he gets, and does not have to watch the old hen and can- not come back on the seller and say eggs were infertile. In this one way alone the chicks business is best.” As a discerning Beginner, however, you may notice that here is no argument whatever for you; that is, no argu- ment for the actual value of the chicks. If they die ' after receipt, — well, you are a Beginner. Of course, it is all your fault, and you “cannot come back at the seller!” On the whole, though it is easiest, and requires less initial investment, possibly, to buy chicks, it may be safest and cheapest for you, in the end, to start with the six hens, or ten, if you prefer. You may not get chicks so early, by this method, nor can you have them all of the same age, unless you can buy additional sitters and set them all at once. But I donot know but you will be more certain of reaching the autumn with a decent flock of pullets to repay you for your trouble and expense. Ten common hens will cost you $7.50 (if you are very HUIS B OYET OF ABM 9UQ “Buna Pply ay} : s103g ye soidoy, ANjJNog Apnig 07 IQ SUN], NdIW9NU0_ 16 THE BEGINNER IN POULTRY lucky) to $10. But, if you prefer to begin with fair, pure-bred birds of the breed which you think you will like best, you may get the six layers for $9, possibly, and four common hens for sitters for $4 more. But prices now tend to run higher than this for even ordinary pure stock, especially in the spring, when most of the surplus has been sold and the supply is likely to be short of the call. The two lots of chicks which you considered buying would have cost you anywhere from $7.50 up according to quality and your location. In favorable places, pos- sibly even a little less; I see them advertised, at times, at eight cents apiece, but this is rare. The specially good point about starting with the hens is that with six good ones you can count on about thirty-five eggs a week for a short time, and with ten hens, if you de- velop skill in feeding, you may get fifty or sixty eggs a week for a short time in spring. Thirty-five eggs a week would supply five sitters with work every eleven days, if you wished to use them all that way. It is not wise to save them up much longer than this. If you can get the sitters for them, you will be lucky, for this brings your lots of chicks only eleven days apart in age. You can sell the hens for nearly what they cost, when the chicks leave them, and your own layers will be yielding eggs right along more or less until the middle of September, perhaps, giving you eggs to sell. You may get enough for the table till well into October ; but November and possibly Decem- ber will be months of all outgo and no income, unless your pullets are early enough to begin with October. A good pullet commonly takes six or seven months to “Ig ‘sapepy Aruazy ‘WaaoT Suryicd pamq-usysuq ue Aq pouag ‘asno}yy AryNog assaf MaN anbsemjo1g VW 18 THE BEGINNER IN POULTRY develop, so that, if not hatched till May, you cannot depend on them to give much yield of eggs before November or December. I have purposely taken you through this maze of figures and possibilities, in order that you may see how many chances there are for you to make irreparable errors during the first season, and how necessary it is for you to study the chicks, the chances, the pitfalls, etc. It is almost equal to Greek, but far more interest- ing and profitable, provided only that yow can be de- pended on. The matter of beginning in a large way with incuba- tors, which demand eggs in lots of fifty and upward, I think best not to consider favorably at all. The chief reason is that, if you are a genuine Beginner, you have not been tested, and, until this is at least partially done, it is decidedly better not to incur large risks. Opera- tions on incubator scale, continued throughout the spring and earlier summer seasons, demand a consider- able investment; as there must be brooders, weaning coops, feed for large numbers, and housing for the winter stock. All of this investment must be made within the first seven months. The chances are great that, if you should begin in this way, you’ would meet with so much discouragement and loss that your ma- chines, coops, etc., would be for sale within a year or two. You could not get half price for them even though ‘“‘little used,’ as there is very little call for second-hand poultry supplies; all but Beginners acraze over poultry know better than to buy them. And most Beginners will prefer to start on a smaller, safer basis. Besides, everybody is suspicious of the enthusiast who MAKING THE REAL START 1g quits too soon, and this alone will “ queer” the sale of his appliances. Do not be deluded, therefore, into getting a large lot of expensive buildings and supplies at the outset, before you know the real necessities of the work, or what you really want. Zhe Beginners who fall tnto this error furnish most of the class known as “ The Failures.” iil CHOOSING AMONG THE BREEDS Breed and Class — Study Classes First — Making and Molding Breeds — The Important Classes — Which Standpoint ?— Outstanding Breeds—The Champion Laying Breed — Size of Eggs STRICTLY speaking, shape is the determining feature of a breed. But among poultrymen, the word “ breed” is so often carelessly applied to varieties, that it is nec- essary to know this habit of theirs in order to make sure of understanding them always. The Standard of Per- fection is always changing, partly because new varieties or new breeds are admitted from time to time, and partly because it is revised once in five years. For this reason, it is scarcely wise, in a book like the present one, whose life may cover many years, to state definitely the special requirements of the Standard, or to refer to special con- tents except in a general way. Thus, I may say that the Standard of Perfection, at the time of this writing, contains about 140 variety descriptions. Perhaps the strict meaning of the word “ breed ” would seem different to different people. Some would say that there are something above fifty real breeds; others would contend that there are more. The term ‘ Class,” as applied to group units of similar kind, is rather an arbitrary word. . But its key point is that the units which compose it, of whatever name they may be, have common characteristics. It would be a puzzle of puzzles, indeed, for a Beginner to try to select - 20 SSt[Q ULILTOMIY VY} UI eIe SYDOY “asnoFY Auojod ywosj-uedgQ sarpoRIIY Ayjeledsgy ue pue ‘syooy YInousA[g sunox 22 THE BEGINNER IN POULTRY from the many breeds and varieties, if jumbled together, just the one variety which would best suit his own aims and his own personal likings as well. He may be ner- vous, and thus inclined to abhor nervous fowls ; he may be just snappy enough to abhor a slow and apparently stupid variety, etc. How can one select from such a large number, with any degree of certainty of getting just what he wants? Fortunately, the grouping of breeds into Classes is a great help just here. And I regard the Class to which a bird belongs as the oneimportant thing for a Beginner to study first. Under each Class, he will find placed the birds which are nearest alike in certain general charac- teristics. If those characteristics appeal to him, he needs to study more definitely only the breeds under this class, and the varieties under these breed names which appeal most to him. Before he goes very far, he will wonder how breeds come into existence, and who makes breed laws. For, each breed must have its law, or it would soon be changed beyond recognition, by the many breeders into whose hands it passes, each of whom may like to mold it a bit to his better liking. The making of a breed or variety is, at the initial stages, a matter of individual work ; or, sometimes, of accident. Sometimes, two or more people agree to work together to perfect a certain type of bird. After atime, they begin to tell the public about it, and when they have bred it to a uniformity sufficient to comply with the rules of admission to the Standard of Perfection, — that sum of all poultry law, —the originator, or origina- tors, apply to have it “admitted.” Sometimes there is CHOOSING AMONG THE BREEDS 23 an intermediate step. Various breeders may get together, form a Club for the new candidate, formulate a Standard for it which seems to them best fitted for the ideal de- velopment of the new variety, or breed, and offer both the bird and its Standard for acceptance. If accepted, this Standard is incorporated in the Standard of Perfec- tion, with the other recognized laws of the many breeds and varieties. This is done as soon as is feasible after the formal admission. It may be when a new edition is needed ; it may be when the Revision year comes around again. Should it chance to be formally accepted only a year or two after a formal revision, it might be in the Standard, with description, for some time before a spe- cial, ideal illustration appeared. I think this was the case with the Columbian Wyandotte, when it first en- tered the Standard of Perfection after having complied with all the rules for admission. The Standard of Perfection separates the many vari- eties of fowls which it describes into ten distinctive Classes, before it reaches the “ Miscellaneous ”’ breeds; of these, there are three, grouped together. Then, there are three additional Classes for turkeys, ducks, and geese. The important Classes among those allotted to the domestic hen have been, for many years, the American, the Mediterranean, and the Asiatic Classes. But, with the phenomenal rise of the Orpington fowl, in its many varieties, comparative popularity has changed somewhat, and it is probably true that the English Class, at the present time, stands next after the American and Medi- terranean Classes. This class includes the very old Dorkings, the Red Caps, which have made little head- 24 THE BEGINNER IN POULTRY way in this country, and the Orpingtons, which, in the 1905 edition of the American Standard of Perfection, were represented by only one variety, the Buff Orping- tons, but which in 1911 can show three varieties there. There are several other varieties in England, where the breed originated. Dorking Male from Prize Stock. Representing the English Class Suppose that you, not even yet a Beginner, it may be, but planning to be one, are reading up on Breeds, Classes, etc.; in fact, on everything connected with domesticated fowls. You will have made up your mind, possibly, whether you want to take up poultry from the utility or the fancy standpoint; because this one thing is likely to be decided largely by your financial status and your business leanings and characteristics. This is, really, the first point for you to decide, as upon it must depend, CHOOSING AMONG THE BREEDS 25 to a great extent, your choice of a breed. At least, if you decide on commercial poultry, first, last, and all the time, you may cut out from consideration most of the breeds, without further parley with yourself or any one else. The commercial line has its own two divisions, which are not wholly sharp, because, even though one go in for eggs especially, the conditions are such that _WOSUMONK WHITE WYANDOTTES. The Most Typical Representative of American Ideas among General Purpose Fowls. American Class. (Courtesy of Mrs. Benigna G. Kalb, Texas) he must produce more or less poultry meat for sale. If you are planning on a large scale, the matter of two or three cents a pound will be of moment to you, and you will be careful not to select a breed which has black pin- feathers. The Houdan, the Langshan, and the Black Minorca will each present its appeal to you, it may be, but you will not listen, because, although each of these has its “ talking points,” it has not become an outstand- ing breed in this country. And, when this is true of a long-tried variety, this one fact alone is sufficient to warn 26 THE BEGINNER IN POULTRY the Beginner to let it alone. The commercial growers of poultry meat in America have, in the great majority, found the American breeds to meet their needs, and this is especially true if they desire to combine meat and egg production. In any case, it is safe for you not to let your first questionings cover any beyond the American Cornell Feed Hopper in Active Use. White Leghorns, representing the Mediterranean Class varieties, the Orpingtons and the Mediterraneans. The first two are sufficiently good general-purpose groups, in nearly all their varieties, for any poultryman who chances to like them; the last is in some quarters ac- credited to be the champion egg producer of the world, among domesticated hens. All the Mediterranean breeds are very superior layers. There are five breeds, in thirteen varieties, under this class. Two of the Minorca varieties, and one of the Leghorn varieties are black; which fact shuts them out of the consideration of the CHOOSING AMONG THE BREEDS 27 large producer. The Minorcas have large size and lay a handsome large white egg; but they make little head- way, so far, against the Leghorns. The Leghorns, White, Brown, and Buff, have a host of admirers, the White being most popular. All are prolific, hardy, non- sitting in instinct. The Standard of Perfection says that they are identical except in the distinctive colors. But, if you would like to hear some comment on this point, talk Leghorns with from ten to fifty Leghorn breeders. I feel rather sure that you will find none among them who will agree that the seven Leghorn varieties are thus identical, with the single exception of color. Very similar, in many points, all will admit them to be. But identical? In theory, perhaps. But, not even the White Leghorn flocks of various poultrymen who have them in purity are in fact zdentzcal in charac- teristics with one another. Among the Rose-Comb Brown Leghorns, for instance, there is a wide variation in type, among different flocks. I do not think it is very generally known that there are twotypes. These are really very distinct, when we con- sider that they are supposedly bred to the same Standard of Perfection. Until recently, it was a standing puzzle to me that the authorities should so often say that the Rose- Comb Brown Leghorn laid a smaller egg than the White Leghorn. Some years ago, too, I sold, through a poul- try supply house, a sitting of eggs from this breed. They were refused, on the ground that they were not from pure stock, the proof adduced being that the eggs were not chalky white. On one other occasion, I re- ceived a card, saying: “Eggs received in good shape. Would like to have you explain how the eggs come to be 28 THE BEGINNER IN POULTRY not pure white. I have raised Leghorns a number of years, and have always had pure white eggs.” Upon this, I wrote to one or two poultrymen whom I knew to Dark Cornish Fowls. In Oriental Class. (Storrs Experiment Station) have had other Rose-Comb Brown Leghorn eggs besides my own, inquiring as to the color of these others. One of the other lots was sold by the man who, at that time, was winning all the first prizes in the largest show in the country. The replies stated that all the eggs seemed CHOOSING AMONG THE BREEDS 29 much alike to their writers, and I dismissed the com- plaints as perhaps whims of the complainants in question. But, withal, I could not see why such a small egg'was frequently attributed to this variety; as, in my hands, its eggs were of larger average size than those from the best White Leghorn breeders, three of whom were repre- sented in my stock. In the spring of 1910, however, I bought some eggs for hatching from a leading winner at the New York show for a number of years in succession. These eggs were very white, but nearly every one was ridged or abnormally shaped in some way, and they were scarcely more than two thirds the size of the eggs which my own Brown Leghorns had always produced. Then I began to understand why I received testimonials, now and then, saying the eggs were larger than the writers had expected to see. The fowls themselves differ almost as much. In the case of the producers of the chalky eggs, double mating had been practiced, and all the red color bred out of the birds, eggs, feathers, and all. In the other type, single mating was the rule, and the red showed in the handsomely colored males, the lovely seal brown of the females, and the cream-white rather than chalk-white of the eggs. All this does not explain why the chalk-white eggs are so much smaller; but the fact remains that, as produced by pullets, not one of them from our hands goes to a customer for table eggs, as we feel it an imposition on the buyer to offer them even to this kind of customer. I think this type must be largely responsible for the well-known lack of size in “ grocery eggs.” In the matter of prize winning in public competition, the Rose-Comb Brown Leghorn holds the breed prize ~ 30 THE BEGINNER IN POULTRY for most profit above cost of feed and greatest average number of eggs for all in competition; most of the best prizes other than this, for some years in succession, have gone to the White Leghorns. Successive contests have reaffirmed results to such an extent that the manager of the birds in competition has reported his conviction that the best layers are within the Leghorn, Orpington, and Wyandotte breeds. These results are reported from the other side of the globe. A report said to be from a government poultry expert credits a White Leghorn pul- let with 152 eggs in six months, and a Silver Wyandotte hen with 193 eggs in her second-year test. This report comes from New Zealand, where women have the suf- frage. Whether this makes any difference in the poultry reports, tradition as yet sayeth not, but it is generally conceded that hens lay better in this part of the world than they do in America. It may be worth your while to fix firmly in mind one dictum of the American Standard of Perfection, to the effect that the most useful specimens of the Leghorn breed are those which approach nearest in size and also in shape to the requirements of the Standard. If this be true, it disposes at once of your idea that because you are to breed only for utility purposes, you will not need the Standard. I hope, however, that the day is not far distant when separate Breed Standards may be available, at least for all the more important breeds. Such com- pendiums could be sold cheaply, and would meet a brisk demand. In choosing a fancy breed, remember these vital points : — (az) A new breed gives more culls than an old one. Si9kv'T SIG oY} SUOMI “sse[ UROWUY ‘aWOFY Je SazJOpueAM\ UeIquINjo> 32 THE BEGINNER IN POULTRY (2) A parti-colored breed is more difficult to breed to perfection than one of solid color. (c) A buff breed is more difficult to breed than it appears to be, mixture of breeding color leading to mot- tling of shades; and fading of older plumage giving a similar appearance when any new feathers are present. (dz) A white breed is difficult to breed chalk-white. (e) A red breed gives difficul- ties somewhat similar to those connected with buff birds. Buff Birds often Show Mottled (f) A black breed tendstoward Shades purple sheen instead of the com- monly desired greenish sheen. (g) The white, the red, and the buff breeds are usually higher in popularity than black or parti-colored breeds. These points may be vital to the Beginner who wishes to become a fancier. Too often he learns then by making wrong choices, which he must correct later. IV HATCHING AND BROODING WITH THE MOTHER HEN The Right Kind of Eggs — Deterioration in Eggs — The Fierce Sitting Hen— The Novice Learning — ‘“‘ Made to Sell to Amateurs ’’ — You and the Hen — Handling the Sitters— Good Quarters for Sitters — Nests for Sitters — Warding off Difficulties — Moving the Broody Hen — Testing — Brooding WHEN one loves fowls, it is most fascinating work to keep company with them through the various phases of their life history, as it develops. Most people approach it backwards, making acquaintance with the matured bird first, the infant and developing progeny later. Every year, every month, — almost every day, —there is some- thing to learn. Even after one has been a poultryman almost a lifetime, he will still learn new facts, if he be open-minded and open-eyed. When one is to hatch with hens, it is one of the nice tasks to make sure that the right kind of eggs in the proper number are ready and as fresh as possible, just at the right time. Because one may be uncertain as to just when the hens will be ready to sit, eggs may chance to be kept on hand awaiting their pleasure, during several weeks. During all this time, but especially after the first ten days of holding, these eggs are deteriorating. Experiments. by Station workers have shown us the per- centage of deterioration found by these workers. This D 33 34 THE BEGINNER IN POULTRY may vary, and would vary with the temperatures, and perhaps with other variations in handling, but these figures may be taken as fairly showing the average facts when eggs are well kept in favorable temperatures. The Cornell Station found that, after three weeks’ hold- ing, the hatch was 12 percent; after five weeks, 6 per cent. The chart gives other percentages found. Of all the fearsome lions in the way of the genuine Beginner with poultry, none, I think, is so fierce and forbidding as the sitting hen. Forbidding, in fact, as you feel certain when she warns you, with frequent and shrill threatenings, to keep a safe distance. Fierce, according to breed and individual disposition, as she attacks, with wing and beak, the thief who would touch her precious chicks; actualities, or possibilities only, though they be. The question as to how to handle the sitting hens is possibly the commonest of all. It comes from nearly every Beginner whose previous life has not been brought into touch with poultry except at the table end. And, strangely enough, it is one most frequently neglected by writers. It is difficult, as I have found by trying, for one who has always known about fowls and their handling, to imagine the state of mind of one who knows nothing at all about their ways and needs. Poultry workers are a unit on one point, at least, viz. that failure will be almost assured if the sitter is left to her duties in the company of the other birds. Good practice universally favors moving the sitter to a quiet, secluded place, comfortably warm during February and March, and comfortably cool during the heated term. Though I have never seen this statement made, my repeated experiences convince me that a good hatch HATCHING AND BROODING WITH MOTHER HEN 35 depends very largely on the comfort of the sitter. If she is ailing, or harbors vermin, or even if her nest is not properly built, she will be so uneasy as to imperil the hatch. Even if she is thin in flesh, she is not so likely to give a good hatchas is the fat hen. Breeds, varieties, and individuals differ in this matter, but the average hen in good condition, with a well-made nest, and no disturb- ing conditions, has a good chance to bring a good hatch from good eggs. Those varieties which have Asiatic blood, or this blood combined with Mediterranean (a common combination), may be uncertain in their individual tendencies. Some will be good sitters and mothers, some poor; the more purely of Asiatic blood, the more uncertain, clumsy, and generally irritating they may be. Such hens may take “the sitting fever” so hard that they will not eat for the first week; some never eat properly while sitting. This is one chief reason why a sitter should be in good condition when her task begins. Else, she will become but skin and bone in the course of the month which is near the real sitting period; even though hens’ eggs need but 21 days’ incubation, the days consumed in moving and settling the hen, and the two or possibly three days before it is wise to attempt to remove her with her chicks will nearly make the month. Practically all the large and the intermediate breeds have more or less of Asiatic blood. Many of those which do not are non-sitters. The White Wyandotte is the best sitter and mother with which I am familiar. These are a little more easily moved than others, al- though hens of most breeds can be handled almost at will, if one know how. 36 THE BEGINNER IN POULTRY Webster’s Dictionary says that the word ‘broody,” meaning “inclined to brood,” is rare. I think his inti- mates were not poultry people. I use the word “sitter” mostly ; but many always speak of “ broody hens” and even use the word as a noun, speaking of the hen as a “broody.” “ Brooding,” proper, is warming and shel- tering the chicks after hatching. Winter Chicks in Large Open Shed. Columbian Mother. Columbians Have Some Asiatic Blood There are people who hatch with the incubator and brood with the hen. Others have a different idiosyn- crasy, and hatch with hens, to bunch several broods together and brood with the wooden mother. They believe that they do the work with less trouble, or with better ultimate success, than when working in the regu- lation way. Yet, in doing this, they but add the disad- vantages of both methods together; for their hen-hatched brooder chicks will have lice and their incubator-hatched chicks, brooded with the hen, will have been subjected to every handicap that may come from machine hatch- ing, before the hen is given a chance to show what she HATCHING AND BROODING WITH MOTHER HEN 37 can do. For this reason, it seems to me that these methods are to the last degree inconsistent and unde- sirable. The hen-hatched and hen-mothered chick is at the least free from the handicaps which are almost univer- sally, at the present time, conceded to weight down the incubator chick. The hen starts fairly, and the handler, if the right kind of a student, will really learn more pertaining to his business by hatching with hens, while he is still a novice, than he can possibly learn through the use of the machine. One significant quotation from the manufacturers of one of the modern incubators may illumine the mind of any Beginner. They say: “Fully two thirds of the incubators made each year are made to sell to amateurs and Beginners.” It is added that such machines are never seen on the sol- idly established places, where the workers “know the ropes.” But they are sold by the thousands to Begin- ners, who fail with them and quit the work, or else get decent machines later, when they have gained some expensive experience. It is to save the Beginners from most of this expensive experience that this book is writ- ten, by one who has been through the experience school. If you, reader, grasp, at the outset, this idea that a large proportion of the very cheap incubators are virtual traps to get your money, you will be far more ready to give the hen a little sympathy in the place of vitupera- tion, or at the least to make some allowance for her when you are tempted by poor results to lay all the blame upon her. I cannot too strongly impress it upon you that you and the hen are to do team work, and that if you do your part wisely and well, adding the full 38 THE BEGINNER IN POULTRY quota of brains to the combination, you can overcome her lacks very largely, and the team will win out to- _ gether, But I wish to say this very plainly: /f your brains will bring you more money and more satisfaction in some other combination, you are committing only folly to cast in your lot with poultry, unless it becomes a matter of health. I think this is the rock on which many poultry raisers split. If the business becomes large enough to furnish a living income, it will take a man’s time, and he must ponder well whether or not this is the best investment of his time and strength, all things considered. It is in handling the hens which are to perform the service of incubators for you that the knowledge of hen nature on which I have so strongly insisted will early and freely be drawn upon. It is usually essential that the sitters be moved to a special brooding apartment, and one who does not understand a hen can seldom move her successfully, for use as a sitter. The Medi- terraneans, being “non-sitters,” do not often manifest the sitting instinct, and it is common belief that when they do, they are fickle and unreliable. However, if handled by one who knows how, most of them prove as reliable as those of the heavier breeds. And, when not too fussy, they make the best of mothers for the baby chicks. One who reasons on the subject will easily see in advance that a nervous, flighty breed like most of those in the Mediterranean Class, could not be expected to make as good sitters and mothers under all circumstances, as would the hens of quieter nature. Especially is this true under the close surveillance of modern methods. In some circumstances, — for in- HATCHING AND BROODING WITH MOTHER HEN 39 stance, when a hen was raising her brood alone, out in the fields, — a bird of the Leghorn or Game type, which would fight fiercely for its young, might prove better than a bird of the more sluggish breeds. And there are some kinds of eggs, notably those of pheasants, for which a light-weight sitter is usually considered very superior. The Bantam breeds are sometimes thus used. Rose-Comb Brown Leghorn Chicks. A Nervous but Sprightly Breed , The ‘apartment house” for the sitters does not need to be made to order, if it have natural advantages. Early in the season, it needs to be, though warm, well ventilated. Later, it needs to be cool, and even better ventilated. The loft of a barn, or an airy cellar, may fur- nish good conditions early in the season. Later, they may become, the latter too close and the former too hot, even to the extent of ruining the hatches. I often use the second floor of the barn for early hatches, although it is not very convenient; the main floor or the barn cellar does very well for the later ones. If no such good, secluded place is ready to hand, one may then, with a clear conscience, spend a little money to prepare a special room for the sitters. Such a room, at its best, is so placed that it will be sheltered from the heaviest 40 THE BEGINNER IN POULTRY winds, yet in a sufficiently airy location. It is in shed form, at least as far as being open on one side is con- cerned, and it is placed in at least partial shade. In- deed, if small, it may be movable, so that it may have more shade as the season advances. To my mind, it will be decidedly better without a board floor, provided that you raise the dirt floor sufficiently; storms must not flood it with surface water. Dirt floors are usually filled in to the top of the sills, when there are sills. The nests may be made in a series, half-a-dozen or less being united. These are less trouble to move about than the detached nests. An invalid might find the detached nests better, because lighter to handle. It is decidedly better to have the nests open at the front, rather than at the top, as the hens often break eggs in stepping down into the latter kind. To make a series, seven-eighths by twelve-inch material may be used for ends and partitions, half-inch stuff for the tops and backs. Indeed, they may be all in skeleton form but the back, if desired; but in practice we find it better to have the tops solid. A three-inch strip will make the front firm enough, and retain the eggs. This is, of course, nailed across the lower front of the series. One may get almost the same results by using cheap cracker or soap boxes, provided only that they can be had in the right sizes. The size needed will vary with the breed, but the general-purpose hen, weighing about six pounds, will need a nest about seventeen or eighteen inches long, and at least a foot deep. If the nest is shallow from front to rear, the hen will sit sidewise al- ways, but she cannot be so comfortable as in a nest which permits her to assume any desired position. I HATCHING AND BROODING WITH MOTHER HEN 41 think the one worst mistake made by the majority of poultry handlers, even those who are not Beginners, is to make the nests and coops too small. A foot added to the length and width of a small coop may double its capacity and more than double the possibilities of secur- ing a well-raised brood. In speaking of depth, above, I meant depth from front to rear. The actual depth of the nest, which car- ries the eggs to be hatched, is really one of the impor- tant points, taken in conjunction with its shape. Upon these two points often rests the fate of the expected brood. If you ask me what is the one thing most to be feared in connection with the sitting hen, I shall be compelled to answer, “ Broken eggs.” It is this that leads to every other evil. It fouls both hen and nest, and this leads to attacks of vermin. It closes the pores of the eggs so that many chicks are almost sure to die in the shell. With many chicks dead in the shell, and the rest swarming with lice, what chance have you left for success ? There are three things which you can do to ward off these evils; these ‘three things are worth more than all the after work of every kind that you can possibly give. You can make the nest of such shape in the bottom that the eggs will neither lie upon their fellows, nor roll away from them and out from under the sitter; you can pow- der the hen carefully with ifsect powder at the begin- ning of each week of incubation, holding her head downward, and making sure that the moderate amount of powder used works down to the skin where the lice hide; you can select your eggs very carefully for firm, substantial shells. If you do these three things, feed 42 THE BEGINNER IN POULTRY and water properly, and give her fertile eggs, you will usually have no need whatever to berate your sitting hen. I should warn you again, however, that the con- dition of the hen at the beginning of the hatch is a most important point. Some of your hens will not make good hatchers because their temperature is too low, especially early in the season. A hen that is too fat will be clumsy ; but one in high condition, plump and in finest health, will be the one that will usually give you the best hatches, other things being equal. Your sitters should be kept quiet, and be subject to no interference, either from other birds, or from chil- dren or adults who are not their regular attendants. They should leave the nest at least once a day, for feed and water. Most people remove them all at the same time during the morning round, in order to save uncer- tainties, and see that they all get back properly. This is one of the regular morning chores. It is altogether better to start several sitters at the same time. If eggs are strongly fertile, from a good even lot of hens, you will have a fine bunch of chicks, all of similar age and strength, so that they start fair, at least, if from good stock. If anything is wrong with the eggs, as shown at testing time, the good eggs can be divided among a part of the hens, and fresh clutches given to the rest, thus saving their time. I would not give one hen more than eleven hens’ eggs during February or March, at the north; but from April I onward, it is usually safe to use thirteen, and large hens will cover fifteen nicely. But one should always consider that the hen must move her eggs about in the nest continually. Therefore, the more eggs she has, the greater are the chances of acci- HATCHING AND BROODING WITH MOTHER HEN 43 dent in newly placing them and therefore, also, the need for a little “ play” of the eggs; if they lie too closely together, it will be difficult to change them about; if the nest is too large, they will roll too freely. It is wise to let the hen shape the nest well before more than one or two dummy eggs are put in; then the size which conforms to her body will detérmine how many she can cover well. All outlying empty corners should be filled with the nesting material. Speaking of the dummy eggs reminds me that I have omitted to describe the best way to move the broody hen from the laying house to the sitting apartment. The first, and perhaps the chief point, is to let her grow to be a determined sitter before you attempt to move her. Not even the most experienced handlers can move, with uniform success, hens that are newly broody. Let them remain on the laying nest about two or three days, or till the sitting fever is fully established; then, having prepared the nest, remove the hen carefully and quietly, just at dusk, to the new location. Give hersome dummy eggs, and, if the nest be a detached box, face it toward the wall, leaving only sufficient space to give the bird air. About twenty-three hours later, rotate the box, offer feed and water, and let her come off of her own initiative, if she will do so. If not, take her off. She will then, probably, fizs¢ become aware that everything has changed; she is in a strange place! She will probably cackle, in great consternation, and may attempt to fly out. Do not interfere with her in the least. As dark comes on, she is rather likely to look about, see the eggs, and scramble on to the nest. If not, replace her, and face the box again toward the wall. Repeat 44 THE BEGINNER IN POULTRY the process on the next afternoon, just before dusk, and each day thereafter until she goes back of her own accord. Then leave the box facing outward, and after one more day she may safely have the real eggs which she is to incubate. If you give her the good eggs when first moved, it is your risk. If the nests are in a series, the procedure is the same, except that the box cannot readily be faced toward the wall. In such cases we throw a loosely woven phos- phate or feed bag over the front of the nest. Should the hen prove obstinate, it may become necessary to use a board to shut her-in; or, the series can be made with a wire netting front, which opens asa door, all in one piece. This is probably the best plan, for one then knows just where his sitters are, all the time. If the nests are of separate boxes, with board floors, I usually throw in two spadefuls of fine moist earth before adding the generous armful of soft hay, which makes the best nest. I often use excelsior, but this makes a very poor nest unless one is careful to pull and fluff it till there is not a knot or lump left. Any bunch in the bottom of the nest makes much trouble. The, rim of the nest is very important. The hen likes it high, so that she may snuggle deepinto it. This is good, if one does not make it so high that she tends to break eggs when returning to the nest after absence. Again I say, study the hens. Knowledge of their habits and likings will help you out of nearly every diffi- culty. Lack of it will keep you always an unskillful poultryman. Individuals will be exceptions that prove the rule; but as a flock, the birds will have the same general tendencies. HATCHING AND BROODING WITH MOTHER HEN 45 There are several so-called “natural” systems of handling sitters, the gist of them being that the hens are confined, together, in a system of nests built asa series, yet each having its own little run, so that no hen may be interfered with, and none can get on the wrong nest, —an unfortunate habit with some hens which is responsible for a good percentage of lost “ sittings” of eggs. As the process of incubation must be practically continuous, and at a sustained and even temperature, the sitting hen must leave the nest but briefly. Gener- ally speaking, the eggs should not become so cold that they feel cold to the touch. From the second to the twelfth of the twenty-one days required, however, the danger of a fatal outcome from too long cooling is con- siderably greater than it is after the chick is well formed in the egg, and generating animal heat. Near the end of the period, I have known eggs to be left overnight by the hen, and stil] hatch well. One does not care to assume the risk voluntarily, however. One’s “ Jack-at-a-pinch ” system may consist only of the needed nests placed near enough together to be handily cared for, in any vacant room; or in a rough shed under a spreading tree when it becomes warm. The crucial point is that the hens shall be under such control or surveillance that they shall not be able to “mix those children up” to the extent of leaving any without warmth, or to give a surplusage of two or more mothers to one clutch of eggs while otherschill. Neither must they fight for place. Plain, nutritious feed and water and a bath are all the sitter needs daily, except to see that she “stays put.” Whole corn and grass or clover are by far the best 46 THE BEGINNER IN POULTRY feeds for the sitting hen. With these and careful at- tention, she will be in better condition at the end of incubation than when beginning. A dust bath will be her great delight and help, throughout. If eggs are not strongly fertile, time can be saved by setting three hens at once, and giving the fertile eggs to two, reset- ting the third after the first test. I prefer always to set two to four hens at once, if conditions permit this. The question of resetting after a full period is one which often bothers the Beginner. In a poultry paper, I recently saw the proud announcement that the author of it (presumably a Beginner) has kept one hen sitting from March to September. So far from being a matter of congratulation does this seem to me that I feel like rebuking sharply any one who thus practices cruelty to the helpless in his power. A fat hen may, on occasion, sit twice; this will mean not less than seven successive weeks, and probably more. But I think this should be the extreme limit; it is really too long. With goose eggs, especial care is needed to make a comfortable nest. It should be fashioned deeper than for hens’ eggs, as the eggs are often about three inches in diameter. The nest should be deep enough so that the hen may rest, in part, at least, on the rim of nesting material. Three eggs is an uncomfortable number of goose eggs, as they do not lie well together; five is a good number on which the hen may sit in fair com- fort, and which she can cover properly in a well-made nest. Testing is such a simple, desirable, and informing act that I feel that no one should omit it. Through its in- formation, one may, at least in part, count the chickens HATCHING AND BROODING WITH MOTHER HEN 47 before they are hatched. This is one of the ways in which we discount the knowledge of our fathers. People say that the Egyptians of thousands of years ago did count their chickens in advance, at least to the extent of offering from the public hatcheries three chickens for every four eggs brought them. But this was banking on the skill of the breeders and of the superintendents of the hatching process. I wonder if the “clever Yankee” has, even yet, reached the point of equaling the bare-legged Egyptian in skill and clev- erness ! ; If you have a reflecting lantern, the easiest tester is a large tube or cylinder of pasteboard, set on end, form- ing a well into which a lantern is dropped. Or, it may be set over a lamp with a large wick. Just opposite the flame, a hole is cut in the pasteboard. — I have used heavy build- ing paper. — Over this is gummed a bit of black felt or other materialimpervious to light, itself having a cen- tral hole scarcely an inch and one half in diameter. Working in a darkened Th Ess Sole Beg Tower Se room, one holds the egg up to the hole; the light, shining through the translucent egg, showing what has taken place inside the shell. With a white-shelled egg, one may test at the end of the fifth day, and plainly see the lively, spidery body 48 THE BEGINNER IN POULTRY within which means a developing chick. This small body lies on one side (but is mobile within the egg to some extent) and toward the large end of the egg. Around it, and tending to lie lengthwise of the egg, is an indistinct nebula, a bit reddish or darkened ; but much of the egg is at this time still clear. The infertile egg, or the one which has died very early, may show only a central, floating globe a bit darker than the body of the egg. As the chick develops, the darker portion spreads and intensifies, day by day, till, when the hatch is about two thirds through, the shell is nearly filled with the body of the chick, which makes it opaque except for the air space. Your part of the brooding is very simple. It will consist, first, in seeing that the mother’s feathers are entirely free from matting. A bit of soft feed or of white of egg may have caused them to stick together near the tips. One morning you may go out to find your best chick hung by the neck in this natural noose, if you have not made sure that the feathers are free. Then, it is rather safe, even if you have powdered the hen carefully, to rub one or two drops of liquid oil like sweet oil or hens’ oil into the down on the head of each chick. If there is any reason for distinguishing these chicks, set the foot of each one squarely on a soft pine board, and punch through the web with a hollow, hand awl punch. This works better than any spring punch I have seen. The chicks do not need any feed till thirty- six hours old, but you can throw in a bit of pulverized egg shell, or some chick grit, at once, if you like. Feed the hen some whole corn, water her, and leave her to care HATCHING AND BROODING WITH MOTHER HEN 49 for them. The two points you need to make sure of are that there are no rats or other vermin to carry them off, and that the coop is placed, if early in the season, ina spot sheltered from wind and open to all the sunshine possible. Later in the season, you will select a place shaded, at least in the heat of the day. Dense and complete shade is at all times to be avoided. Air and sunshine in moderation are the fowls’ best friends. Improvised Water Fount The water vessel for tiny chicks is to be either a patented “fountain” of chick size, in two parts for care- ful cleaning, — which may be had in glass, — or an im- provised fountain consisting of a tin can reversed ina saucer, having one or two holes near what is now the bottom, which works on the same principle as the more expensive sale fountains; or, you may use a very shal- low dish with a flattish stone in the center to keep the chicks out of the water, lest the down get wet when they run through it and jostle each other. The matter of feeding will be taken up in another chapter, and that of the best kinds of coops will also E 50 THE BEGINNER IN POULTRY be treated in another connection. When the chicks are very small, I like to inclose the coop with a strip of wire netting, making a tiny yard which hinders them from straying away, and keeps out most marauders. Permanent framed netting panels are neater, and al- ways ready. V BEGINNING ARTIFICIAL INCUBATION “Follow Copy ” — Good Eggs the First Requisite — Work that is above Average —‘“‘Cold Storage’? Eggs for Hatching — Exigencies of Trade—February rather Early — “Fertility” — Eggs at $150 per Sitting — Temperature Controls Development — Advance Care Waite I believe that the Beginner may learn more about that which he is really studying, the fowls them- selves, by hatching first with hens, rather than with the machine, I am aware that a fair proportion of people will prefer to begin -with the incubator. Perhaps the best general rule I can give them, which will cover everything, is, ‘Follow copy!” In other words, the most common mistake made is in trying to follow the notions of many writers who think they know more about incubation than the manufacturers of the machines can know. The printed instructions which go with the machine are to be followed, for success. That circum- stances alter cases is a truism. The machine which you have bought may require different handling from those which A, B, C, and D wrote about, and only the manufacturers are supposed to know the best way to handle those particular machines. Absolutely the first requisite for artificial incubation is good eggs. Is this not true of all incubation? Cer- tainly; but the egg has a harder gauntlet to run in arti- ficial incubation than it has under natural incubation, and, say what we may about incubator chicks being “just 51 52 THE BEGINNER IN POULTRY as good,” the fact remains that white diarrhcea most commonly attacks broods of incubator chicks. More- over, the spirit of the age has no use for the “just as good” article; it wants the best to be had. When any one at all familiar with hatching conditions will declare positively, as Mr. Milo Hastings has done, “It has been thoroughly demonstrated that with good parentage, good incubation, and good brooder conditions, white diarrhoea is unknown,” it becomes entirely a question of the man back of the work, 7f we admit that these affirmations are true. Hastings places all diseases of poultry in three divisions: (a) those inborn; (4) those induced by unfavorable conditions, whether of food or of environ- ment; (c) those which are due to noxious bacteria. The last would include all the contagious diseases, those which are endemic, etc. It has been said that excessive cost of production and excessive losses in raising the stock cover much of the reason for failure, when that comes. It goes without saying that no man sets out, in any business, to be a failure; he sets out to be the exceptionally successful one. He may not be aware of this, but it is in “the back of his mind.” If you, then, who read these lines, expect to be a success, 7¢ 7s necessary that you do work that is above average in giving your chicks a heritage of health and vigor, andin surrounding them with favorable conditions as to food, sanitation, etc. “Just as good” positively will not do! I think the greatest difficulty the novice poultry raiser meets is in finding some one ‘‘reliable”’ on whom to rely. Down at the bottom, however, it is too often the worker himself who is not sufficiently reliable. BEGINNING ARTIFICIAL INCUBATION 53 It may be because of lack of time, or it may be because of lack of ability to handle details. In the case of most Beginners, probably, this detail poultry work is added to the “‘day’s work” so that the worker does not have afairshow. This means that he cannot give the poultry a fair show, either. The Cornell Gasoline Brooder House at New Jersey Station; One in Process of Construction. Saves on Cost of Production Early in March, one year, a suburban Beginner de- lightedly announced to me that she had an incubator full of chicks ready to hatch. She wanted me to see them when they came off. She was full of enthusiasm. The actual hatch was twenty-two chicks, as I learned later. A month later I asked about her chicks. Her face fell. “All dead.” The cause was white diarrhea; a related fact, that she was using a second-hand incubator, probably carrying the germs of the disease. 54 THE BEGINNER IN POULTRY The machine, the egg, and the handler are the three great factors to a successful machine hatch. Inasmuch as the handler furnishes both the eggs and the machine, it looks as though he were the most important of all. The greatest temptation a modern business man has, it may be, is to press the button before he is ready. So, the Beginner with artificial hatching and brooding. To send for the catalogues of six or eight of the best machines, to study them carefully wth reference to their weakest points, and to attend some show where they are on exhibition, and where he can question the agent, should be possible to almost any Beginner. The mistake he makes most frequently, is to buy be- fore he has digested this information ; to buy, perhaps, from a silver-tongued agent of number one or number two, before he has heard the silver words of numbers three, six, and as many more as he can capture; or, as can capture him ! A book like this can scarcely recommend any one machine. I will say, only, that, personally, I prefer a well-made, copper-tanked, hot-water machine; but that the hot-air machine is at present more popular. Also, that the trend is more and more toward the sand-tray machines, as events seem to point to the fact that non- moisture has been the cause of many failures in the past. The manufacturers of the older machines are, in the large, more conservative in statement than the newest claimants of the Beginner’s money. Whether a Begin- ner is wise to trust himself to other Beginners in such a fundamental matter, let the good sense of the buyer decide for him. One of the Bright Ones has recently said: “The BEGINNING ARTIFICIAL INCUBATION 55 Cold Storage Egg is all right—as long as it is LEFT THERE!”’ But, the real Mission of the cold-storage egg is zot to remain in storage. It was put there with the one idea: to await its coming out; and its bringing- out party is a masquerade, in which it takes the part either of a fresh egg, or a “ Just-as-Good-As.” A Part of Cornell’s White Leghorn Record. Chicks Artificially Hatched and Brooded, and Graded as “ Weak ” If I should have the temerity to ask you, “ What about incubating a cold-storage egg?” you would not even consider the subject. You would only laugh scorn- fully at the folly of such a proposition. Yet, I suspect that there are very few fanciers who do not send out eggs for hatching, and very few poultry raisers of any kind who do not try to incubate at home, eggs which have several of the qualities which go to make cold- storage eggs to you, wzthinkable, as possible producers of chicks. 56 THE BEGINNER IN POULTRY I believe that the real reason for the failure of thou- sands of incubator eggs to produce vigorous chicks, and of other thousands of incubator chicks to come to ma- turity, is to be sought in the quality of mind of the man or woman who handles the stock and eggs. To this may be added the exigencies of the fancier’s trade. These exigencies usually demand that birds be kept in yards. As the trade begins earlier each year, it comes about that a goodly proportion of the eggs for hatching are laid at a season when eggs are produced contrary to nature, by fowls in unnatural conditions, supplied with foods that are not natural to the breeding season. Some time ago I inspected the brooder houses at one of our State Agricultural Experiment Stations. I had thought I noticed a slight hesitancy, when I had asked to see the brooder stock. While I was looking them over, the poultryman in charge told me confidentially that he kept the brooder houses locked, and showed the chicks as little as possible, because he was ashamed of ‘them. Yet the plant itself was good, the man clever and systematic; and he told me that he had done abso- lutely everything he knew to be for the welfare of the chicks. Still, even the best of them could scarcely be said to look rugged, and a large proportion were actu- ally drooping, or sick; this was in February. We may admit that February, at the north, is still rather early for hatching and brooding. Stock is con- fined, and supplies of eggs are not wholly regular, so that some will be kept in storage (if not ‘“cold-storage’’) several weeks, it may be, before being incubated. And, even if the eggs were all right when gathered, they may be far from all right—for anything but “ just-as-goods’”’ toneys JusuIedxY JJauIog 4say, Zur eFZ Jo yeyD Woday rz 98 ge ra | 9) 9 So09 1VLOL dO HOAVH Naud Ze Zz! 91 ‘9 fe) 3 SMSIHD 40°ON ge ge g ¥ fe) 9 O3ddJd°ON ) 7) 8 g ¥ ! SWUAD GVAG JO°ON 98 og -92 33 61 8 FLL aS -LNADAAd I Zz rT lz gs @e LdIN SAVG SOON og SDDa 4O°ON og oe og og og SHAADI 9 FANLYATd WAL ADV ATAV WOOU DNIAFI NI AlNIVG GSNaNL NVA GAHSVANN SASVO DOF NI GNA NO Lda¥ SOD] T1V Buy} VY JO} SHB9 dady 0} SUWIL 58 THE BEGINNER IN POULTRY and baking purposes—by the time they are shipped to the customer, or insultingly offered to a self-respecting hen at home. Then, there is another view of the mat- ter which I think is often overlooked: this is, that a pretty good proportion of the eggs gathered in January and February will have been chilled before they were stored at all. Much is said about the low fertility of eggs, from January to March. In my opinion, this supposed “infertility” is more often due to chilling of the eggs than to any other cause. Many use the word “fertility ’’ very loosely. When an authority states, gravely, that eggs from the same lot showed perhaps 75 per cent of fertility in the machine and 85 or 90 per cent under the hen, we know that no strict mean- ing can be put on the word “fertile” in this connection. But, be this as it may, there are other causes for poor hatches than real infertility. Eggs laid in these three early months are more than likely to be held longer than at any other period of the year. Thus, age and low temperature, both of which have affected the cold- Storage egg at which you may gest when considered as to hatchability, are very likely to be conditions also of the loudly advertised Eggs for Hatching at five to $150 — they say!—per sitting. Even though you could be convinced that any eggs are worth that amount of money, if of the best, the pampered hens that lay eggs held at $150 a sitting cannot be made exempt from Nature’s laws. If subjected to exposure, their eggs chill, even as the five-cent eggs of the grocer type; and, if the stock be kept under conditions such that the eggs cannot chill during the extreme season, the balance of Nature pulls down in another direction, BEGINNING ARTIFICIAL INCUBATION 59 and the eggs become largely unhatchable through lack of stamina in the breeding stock. , Professor Horace Atwood recently expressed, in a bulletin from the West Virginia Station, a universal rule, as follows: “The temperature at which the eggs are kept is the factor which conrRoLs the rate of de- velopment of the embryos.” He was applying it to the Incubator Cellar, West Virginia Experiment Station eggs under incubation, and went on to say: “/f the temperature at which eggs are kept (in the machine) is slightly too high, the eggs will hatch before the twenty- first day; while temperature which is slightly too low may delay the hatch till the twenty-second or the twenty- third day, or possibly even later.” We who have prac- ticed artificial incubation did not need that Professor * Atwood should tell us this. We know it since long ago. 60 THE BEGINNER IN POULTRY But, we often ignore che related fact that the growth of the embryo is a process only suspended, between the period of exclusion and that of being put to incubate, and it is a process suspended because, avd only because of the temperature in which it ts held. Subject the em- bryo, accustomed to a temperature of 104 to 107, — which is the temperature of the hen’s blood, —immedi- ately upon exclusion to a temperature of 32, or below, and what right have you to think that it will not be injured, or die outright? Subject it, on the contrary, to a temperature of 100 to 140 degrees in an express car, and what right have you to expect that it will do other than take up the arrested development when the temperature is favorable, or die when it is fatally high ? All the foregoing is simply to lead up convincingly to this: The proper care and handling of chicks de- mands, IN ADVANGE, all that combination of favorable conditions which will insure the production of a perfect egg, well-shelled: but it demands no less the best of care for that egg while the process of development is suspended; and also that this process shall not be suspended too long. A fertile egg, after it is presented to us, is a living, young animal, existing in what may be termed an abnormal environment. In a temperature of 40 to 50 degrees, or thereabouts (50 preferred), it will remain in excellent condition (if kept dry) for about ten days, and will hatch, up to that time, nearly as well as what we term “strictly fresh.” Ina damp place, however, it may very soon be attacked by some injurious fungus which finds its way through the shell. Despite the discouraging ravages of white diarrhoea, in its varied forms, the season of I9I1I saw an access BEGINNING ARTIFICIAL INCUBATION 61 of confidence in artificial hatching, among many who rank as leaders, before unknown. I attribute it chiefly to the poultry world having passed from under the domination of the non-moisture idea. One worker, who said he would scorn to get less than 70 per cent or 80 per cent of the eggs put in, in good, livable chicks, attributed his own success, so uniform, to the use of a first-class hygrometer. In selecting a machine, the crucial point seems to be to get one well ventilated, with a good case made of seasoned wood, and with proper packing and a good thermostat regulator. The trouble does not usually, in these days, lie with the regulator. I once bought a one-hundred-egg machine for ten dollars. It had double doors (the inner one of glass), the best lamp I have used, the best outside case I have seen on any machine, and a good regulator. In all these it was almost faultless. Yet it would not keep up heat in a room below 60 degrees and it had an egg tray that sagged and billowed enough to make a dangerous vari- ation in temperatures. The brooder that went with it was worthless, even as a “‘fireless.” I could never see why, with so much that was above the average, two slouchy points should have been permitted to spoil the machine. Once the eager Beginner has become possessed of a machine of good, all-around type, and enough un- chilled, well-graded, well-shelled, fertile, uniform eggs, we may bid him good speed toward the goal, reiterating once more the warning: “Follow the directions of the man who has used the machine the most times, under every imaginable condition ; namely, the maker.” 62 THE BEGINNER IN POULTRY Concerning the comparative quality of the eggs from hens and pullets, as sources of vigorous chicks, the re- sults of eight experiments at the West Virginia Station tabulate as follows: O_pv Hens PULLETS Total number of eggs incubated less those cracked in turning . a: 8 =} OO4! 871 Average weight of eggs per hundred. . 12.96 lb. 11.19 lb. Total number of chicks . . . . . . | 840 sgl Per cent hatched of eggs incubated . . 76.7 67.8 Average weight of chicks per hundred when removed from incubator . . . 8.28 lb. 7.12 |b. Average weight of chicks at second weighing, per hundred . . . . 29.56 lb. | 23.07 lb. Total number of recorded deaths. . . 2 85 Per cent of chicks which died. . . . 5 14.5 In every item the hens have a decided advantage. VI HANDLING AND FEEDING THE YOUNG FROM MACHINES Brooding Equipment—Vital Points in Brooding—The Best Brooder — Disinfected Common Sense — From Incubator to Brooder — A Fair Chance for Life — Sav- ing Chicks, Saving Work, Saving Money — Keep the Chicks Outside — A Warm Back — A Fireless Brooder — Shipping Baby Chicks — Good Feeds SPECIFICALLY, this chapter deals with handling chicks, although much that is general will apply also to all young domestic birds. For years, it has been an opinion very generally expressed among poultry writers that good brooding was a much more difficult matter than good incubating. One of the keenest men I know of, closely and largely connected with poultry work, says he knows of no phase of poultry keeping that requires more thought than the proper selection of brooding equipment for the young. This equipment is always high-priced in the best grades. But, because the builders of brooders are more likely to know the principles underlying the matter than are those who have bestowed less thought on it, it is vital to the Beginner to secure the best brooder to be had, unless he should decide to use a “ fireless.” The one reason why he can do this is that the “ fireless’’ does not have to deal at all with the principles of artificial heating and of ventilating such heated space. Beyond this, the question of using the fireless brooders is simply é é4 64 THE BEGINNER IN POULTRY a matter of substituting close personal care for the automatic work of the higher priced heated brooders. One who handles a fireless brooder must expect to give time instead of money in order to have his chicks ‘properly brooded.” “When does one cease to be a Beginner?” inquires one whom poultry people generally call an expert. “ For myself,” he says, “I can say that I am still very much in the Beginners’ class.” Had he said, ‘the learners’ class,” we could all agree; for he who ceases to learn has ceased to be a reliable worker, or a reliable teacher. The best article I ever saw on brooding chicks dis- cussed “four vital points in brooding.” These four points were exercise, feed, space, and uniformity in age and size of chicks brooded together, in the order here given. You may notice that a// these are points depending on the operator; hence it must be taken for granted that they are based on the use of the best brooder attainable. Two of the stock questions which editors receive but never answer, are, “ Which is the best incubator ?”’; “Which is the best brooder?”’ I shall not try to give the name of the best brooder, but that brooder is the best which affords the least chance for the Beginner to go wrong. This means, one in which the heat cannot go fatally high or drop to a fatally low point; one in which the chicks are free to select for themselves from several temperatures, at any given time. It must be one which has good circulation of fresh air, and no cor- ners where chicks may tend to crowd and smother. Because the round hover mects most of this demand, HANDLING AND FEEDING YOUNG FROM MACHINES — 65 it is the favorite type. To my mind, a hover should al- ways permit ventilation above the chicks; hence, I would have it made of a porous material, instead of wood. A thickness of felt, or two of burlap, could be used, fastened upon a wooden rim. I would not use a hover at all, were it not for the fact that the chicks may huddle in a corner of the brooder, if there be no hover. The first point in handling the chicks is to leave them in the hatching machine till they are strong. More chicks are lost for lack of this precaution than from any other one cause, in my belief. Nearly every incu- bator operator is in such a hustle to lose no time get- ting his machine “set” again, that he hurries the chicks out of it before they can all stand, and before they have sense enough to do anything but huddle toward warmth. On the way, he exposes them to cold, and possibly does not get the brooder just running right, and soon he has a beautiful bunch of crowding, soiled, hollow-eyed chicks, and two weeks later, he wont have any, and will be so discouraged that he will be glad of it! He will suspect the feed, the eggs, the brooder, anything except the real cause, and will pos- sibly write to some Station which will tell him he should have disinfected his eggs and his incubator. Too many people need to disinfect their common sense, so that it may grow strong and robust enough to inform them that a chick just out of the close, warm egg is in no state to grapple with the universe the first day! His mother’s feathers, or the close, warm spaces of the in- cubator are a big enough world for him to learn to use at first. When he can safely take more air, open the machine ventilators wide; then, when he has had a few F 66 THE BEGINNER IN POULTRY hours of this, open the door a crack, but keep your heat well up; after a few hours, make the crack wider, still keeping the heat at not less than 95 down where the chicks are. Most machines will show about five degrees difference between the bottom and the trays, when the door is closed. At all events, keep heat enough so that the chicks will spread about happily, and always follow this rule as long as you handle them. When they be- gin to pant for air, that robust common sense of yours will tell you that they need less heat and more air. Do not neglect its counsel, no matter what the thermometer, the Experiment Stations, and all the poultry papers and books combined tell you! The chick is the only one that knows, and he is telling you the facts youcan bank on. When the chicks are hardened a bit, as above, and can all stand, remove them, under cover, to the brooder, which you have started 24 hours before, and which reg- isters 95 before the chicks are placed in it. If some are still weak, remove the strong, but leave the weak in the incubator till they are ready. One grower of chicks estimates that sorting the chicks so that none of any special lot are stronger than the rest will make a differ- ence of from 10 to 20 per cent in numbers raised. This is a low estimate. Let the variation be great and the room limited, or any other condition not wholly favor- able, and 50 per cent may not cover this loss. ‘“ Noth- ing is more bewildering and exhausting to the little chick than struggling constantly for life in the midst of an immense crowd of his own kind,” says the writer noted. He puts it strongly; as the conditions demand. Will you give this bit of downy life a fair chance for his life by furnishing him with air, warmth, room, so (S061 ‘yooqivax eInyNousy apr4) ,, Burpy, Jadorg ay) sty 900 38 Iday « AlyNog ,, sWosag aaey sayrjsQ “PIO SAC PALLY saqoUIsC Jepoorg payepuaayaM Y,, “eououry uy 68 ' THE BEGINNER IN POULTRY that he may have an even start? Not till this is done, may you go on to that which comes next. The “next” will consist of food, in variety, water, and a chance to exercise; simple enough to provide, surely. If you want to save work, you can get chick scratch feeds and - patent cracker feeds of the supply houses; if you pre- fer to save money, you can hustle around till you find stale bread—wot moldy—at a bakery or restaurant possibly, then you can buy a little bran and middlings, corn meal if you wish, pin-head oats (steel cut, some call it) and cracked corn, and, if you provide clean, short litter for him to scratch in, the chick will grow thankfully. In cold weather, use effort to make sure he cannot get too cold; in hot weather, make sure he cannot get too warm. A brooder house open to the south and having much glass is a trap to the Beginner. Even an open shed, permitting the sun to shine fiercely on a brooder with glass in the top, may bring ruin on the entire brood, when the weather passes suddenly from cold to hot at mid-spring. A Beginner is almost sure to turn out his lamps, when he finds the brooders getting much too warm. This will prove fatal when night comes on too cool, and the brooder has to be heated slowly while the chicks shiver. Better open zt up wide, turn the lamp low, but keep the brooder itself warm, so that it needs only closing to be soon ready to warm the chicks, when they need it. The real point is to have the chicks in the brooder just as little as possible. For a day, perhaps, confine them to the inner room; for one or two more, according to season, confine them to the outer, cooler room, en- couraging them to exercise, by giving fine grains in an HANDLING AND FEEDING YOUNG FROM MACHINES 69 inch of chaff or clover. Then, as soon as you dare, get them on the ground, but see that they are sheltered from cold wind. In summer, always provide some shelter from the sun, no matter what the age of the chicks. A fiercely hot day may take off some of your four-months- old specimens, if they have no shade. A rule to cover all conditions might be “ Reverse the conditions, for hot and cold weather.” In cold weather, make sure that the heat cannot get too low; in hot weather, watch the other extreme, and make sure that it cannot get too high. I never like to close the sliding glass window of the brooder entirely, unless it is where strong wind affects it. And I don’t like the top windows of glass. They are seldom safe. We must have light in the brooders ; but it should come from side windows; else, we would better raise the cover more or less, and use a screen to keep the chicks within, when necessary. Top glass radiates away too much warmth when it is cool, and bakes the chicks during hot sunshine. Any one may read, in these days, about “ Old Trusty ” Johnson, an incubator manufacturer. His one principle of brooding, judging by the way he harps upon it, is that about all a chick needs to bring him up successfully is to have his back kept warm! Mr. Johnson never gave any explanation of the reasons — so far as I know. But Professor Atwood, of the West Virginia Experiment Station, referring to the fact that a chick, when cold, runs to the hen and shoves its back against her warm body, adds: “ There isa good and sufficient reason why the chick warms itself this way, rather than by jumping on the hen’s back and sticking its feet down among the feathers. The reason is this: A chick’s lungs are very poorly 7° THE BEGINNER IN POULTRY protected, anatomically. Surrounding the spinal column and projecting in between the ribs, the lungs of a small chick are covered only by a bone so thin as to be partially transparent, and by the skin with its accompanying down. When a chick becomes cold, its lungs are apt to be the first organs affected, and, unless they are soon warmed, a cold may be contracted and the lungs may become inflamed or congested. In many cases, the congestion may become so acute that the tissue is broken down, with the formation of small nodules of a cheesy consistency. Thousands of brooder chicks die annually from this cause.” His conclusion is that top heat, with little or no bottom heat, contact top heat, if possible (or, as next best, radiated heat from above), is a necessity to the best brooder system. The Prairie State Universal hover and the Cornell Gasoline brooder are named by Professor Atwood as the ones he has used which best meet these requirements. : The fireless brooder can be used by any one, probably with greater safety than any other brooding device, provided it is used in a room of moderate temperature at night, and in sheltered, sunny positions during the day, if in very early spring. Any kind of a grocery box may be the foundation. The larger the floor space, the better; but if this space is large, it is better to par- tition off a room at one end for the sleeping apartment ; while the chicks are still very small. After two weeks, or as soon as the chicks begin to prefer coolness to heat, the partition may be removed. The best cover I know consists of two sheets of soft cheesecloth, cut some inches larger than the top of the sleeping room. At its — best, it may be padded with feathers; or, with cotton, HANDLING AND FEEDING YOUNG FROM MACHINES 71 an inch or two thick. If padded not quite to the edges of the sleeping box, it may be dropped to any position above the chicks, — of course very close while they are tender. Thus, it allows a bit of ventilation along its edges. On an extra cold night, another cushion may be used. If this is a bit larger than the first, it may be The Cornell Gasoline Brooder as used among West Virginia Daisies adjusted to cut off as much ventilation as is safe. The one rule as to this is that the chicks can stand rather close air when but a few days old, but become more subject to smothering as they grow older and the weather becomes warmer. As to brooder space, remember that the manufacturer's Space estimate fits the baby chick. As it grows, one of two things must happen: to provide sufficient room, the space must be enlarged, or some chicks must die. It is for you to choose; but not for you to whine later 72 THE BEGINNER IN POULTRY if you have chosen to believe that they “ will get along allright” when crowded. They will not! Down t bank on tt. Many people wonder how it is that infant chicks can be shipped halfway across the country and arrive in good condition. Itis because they are supplied by Nature with nutriment for a short period. It may even be bet- ter for them to be thus out of the way of a too kind feeder for the first two or three days. If chicks are kept quiet and warm, with not too much light, —in other words, if they are not stimulated by the conditions provided, —they will not be anxious to eat until they really need food. If stimulated, they will be likely to eat too soon, and will thus upset the work of the diges- tive apparatus at the beginning. When they begin to manifest active interest in things about them, it is usually time to offer feed, in small quantity at the first. I notice Dr. N. W. Sanborn says, “My chicks remain on the tray of the machine until thoroughly dry; then the tray is removed, and the chicks stay on the floor of the incubator for a day and a half.”” His brooder, warmed to 100 degrees, with the floor covered with litter, then receives them and offers them an invitation to scratch a little. A board confines them within four inches of the hover, so that they can- not become chilled by losing their bearings. Water is before them, but they get no food other than the weed seeds and clover leaves and grit found in the litter, until four days old. He says: “The yolk that was absorbed just before hatching supplies plenty of good food until the fourth day, when I begin to give cracked wheat. When the chicks are seven days old, a small hopper of HANDLING AND FEEDING YOUNG FROM MACHINES 73 high-grade beef scrap is put before them.” Dr. San- born’s chicks are never again without this beef scrap till they go into the laying house. He feeds nothing but cracked wheat and beef scrap till the fourteenth day, when half the wheat is replaced by cracked corn. He always gives a full feed of cracked grain just before dark, and does not limit the cut grass or clover, lettuce, turnip tops, or whatever may be available as green feed, after the fourteenth day. He says, also, that it reduces the cost of raising the chicks to feed a dry mash of “ground grain and meat,” and that it raises nice chicks, though not leading to so much exercise as the cracked grain in litter. After three weeks, the grain and meat are fed in separate hoppers. The hoppers, the water dish, and the litter may be outside the brooder as soon as the chicks are strong enough, if the conditions are favorable. If the chicks are kept inside, the ventilation is watched very carefully, the heat being kept a little in excess, in order to keep the windows open more. He says, “A brooder that can be shut up tightly is a dangerous one to put into the hands of a beginner.” (With this I agree heartily.) He adds that the very best feeds will be wasted if chicks are allowed to get chilled or wet. He speaks of “the chill which is the usual cause of white diarrhoea,” and says: “When I visit my brooders, if I find the chicks lying with heads just in sight, outside the felt (fringe) of the hover, I know the heat is all right. I much prefer this test to the best thermometer I can buy.” Most of those of experience will agree with him in this. But a thermometer is a good help in knowing the temperature when the chicks are not under the hover. 74 THE BEGINNER IN POULTRY It is rather common to argue that brooder chicks are far better because they have no lice. Watch out, all the same ! Feeding hen-hatched chicks does not differ essentially from feeding machine chicks; the real measure of quan- tity is the amount of exercise the chick is getting. If plenty, it can stand heavy feeding; if little, the feeder must be careful. It is rather difficult to feed a hen and chicks together, as one cannot tell how much feed the chicks are getting. Whole corn for the hen and soft feed or granulated feed outside where the hen cannot touch it, is the way out. And hen-hatched chicks, like others, need feed, always available, after they once get safely on their feet. VII STUDYING FEEDING VALUES Losses from Feeding Errors — Adapting Feeds — Good Feeds the Basis of Hen Health —Chief Sources of Protein — The Common Grains — Tables of Food Val- ues — Grouping Feeds for Economic and Rapid Food Combinations for Daily Use THE matter of right feeding presents itself with the first bunch of chicks or the first lot of fowls acquired. It has such an important bearing on the whole question of success or failure that it must needs be studied with earnest care by all who would handle stock of any kind. In the case of poultry, a single loss among common stock counts for nothing as compared with a loss among the larger animals, the latter often being a tragedy to the poor man. But, inasmuch as there are large num- bers of individuals in all important flocks, and necessarily housed in groups, it must follow that a feeding error (or any error) will affect the matter of productiveness at a multitude of points, and may determine by itself alone whether or not there shall be any profit whatever. Iam not of those who would make a change in the feed every time the flock fails to begin laying at the exact period when eggs are expected. The frequent expres- sion, “ Those hens ought to be laying,’ may mean, in essence, only that their owner ought to know more about his work, or have more conscience toward it. I would rather make a careful study of the feeding habits of the fowls and of the prominent classes of feeds, and 75 76 THE BEGINNER IN POULTRY get from this a plain, everyday “rule to go by” that will serve practically as a general basis for all feeding. Having such a foundation, one will then be fitted to bring common sense to bear in any individual case of failure of the birds to meet expectations. Good Standard Poultry Feeds. Beginning at Left, Front Row: Middlings, Cracked Corn, Oats, Beet Pulp. Middle Row: Bran, Cut Clover, Gran- ulated Charcoal, Linseed Meal. Back Row: Pigeon Feed, with Many Peas, Corn and Oats Mixed, Commercial Mash, Commercial Scratch Feed It is fortunate, indeed, for the feeder on a farm that the family within the home and the group families in the farmyard subsist substantially on the same, or related, foods. They are not served in the same ways; yet the very fact that the fowls which are most widely noted for giving a liberal income are those that subsist largely on table scraps goes to prove clearly that the proper ration for our fowls is one not greatly differing from those which we provide for ourselves. Inasmuch as the chief natural foods for fowls are grains, grasses, and other vegetable products, the ques- tion at once arises: What is it, in table scraps, which SYIYD pure suazy WO 107 poay Pooh ‘spNysayxeg GIO pue ‘soy :oiseAy JuRINe say e0yD IWsy “ding yog ‘YET ‘mopag “‘peaq WaT[aoxy IBS Inq ‘pone ATpeg SIPPY -“e8eig ysegq 0} psoueApy ‘IPT ‘payeig Apaeg s}00y JysTy ‘sie@Q Burnoids ‘aaoqy Le 78 THE BEGINNER IN POULTRY makes them a better egg producer, on the average, than the same quantity of grains and grasses av naturel ? Three points which may be mentioned are: (a) variety, (4) cooking, (c) the addition of meat. The breads, cakes, crackers, dumplings, macaronis, etc., are naught but cooked grains chiefly, but higher in feeding value than pure grains, because fiber, etc., have been taken out; the cheeses, custards, starch puddings, etc., are chiefly eggs and milk, both animal foods; and the meat forms a supply of animal food more sure than that which may come from insects in summer. In winter, insects, worms, etc., are unattainable, in many localities, even by fowls supposably “on range.”’ Unless the ground is bare and the herbage somewhat green, “on range” in winter can mean little more than at liberty to go and come. We may see at a glance that here is nothing that can- not be obtained through the right handling of the com- mon, regulation poultry feeds. But, another point presents itself: it takes more planning to secure variety, and it takes more work, to provide cooked food for the birds, especially when flocks are large. (Caldron kettles are part of the regular equipment of many large establishments.) And, there is another consideration: feeds are of varying degrees of concentration and of palatability, and upon a clear understanding of the proper proportion of course fibrous feeds to those which are rich and smooth and concentrated, rests the value of any given feed mixture. Upon its palatability rests the amount eaten. Ifa feed is not good, from the hen or the chick point of view, it may mean poor chicks and non-laying hens, even though it may contain the proper STUDYING FEEDING VALUES 79 elements for growth and productiveness. This is one of the reasons why beans cannot be fed in large proportion: fowls do not like them, and, when fed, they must be partially disguised by combining them with something well liked. It is to be understood that feeds for herbivorous animals must always consist almost wholly of herbage, and that the animal eating mixed vegetable and animal rations in a state of nature must always be kept severely on the safe side; as a surplus of rich, animal food is almost sure to result in slow poisoning, undermining, and finally ruining the bird’s health. This is a cardinal error, since on keeping an animal in health depends, in the final test, the per cent of profit. Men, in general, are sick, it is said, because they do not eat properly ; or because they are dissipated ; or be- cause they lack self-control in some one or more of many ways. If we cannot feed ourselves so as to keep in health, what chance is there that we can do better with the animals in our charge? These animals are not under their own control. They should be free from all damage caused by lack of self-control, because they and their feed are under our control. But that fact may only make things worse; it depends on us. Yet, as soon as we begin to handle them for expected profit, the profit question takes hold of the handling and we tend no longer to feed them for the best health, but for the best immediate production, which we presume to be for the best profit. This presumption is, to a degree, false, because founded on a wrong premise. The premise is that the feed which brings the most winter eggs—for instance 80 THE BEGINNER IN POULTRY — will bring also the most profit. This by no means al- ways follows. We have to consider not only whether or not this feed can carry the fowls forward in the most rugged health, but also whether or not it is the feed which will produce a given number of eggs at the least cost. All feeds are made up largely of muscle-makers, energy-makers, and pure fats, in varying proportions. It is also true of nearly all foods that it is the muscle- making portion, passing by the name of proteids, or protein (sometimes called nitrogenous feeds), that costs most money, weight for weight. The amount of protein in a feed needs to be considered, always, in rating it as high or low in price, in connection with the actual money to be paid for it. That feed at two dollars a hundred which contains 20 per cent of protein is a much cheaper food than another at the same price which contains only 10 per cent. We may often see this illus- trated in the prices of brans and buckwheat middlings. I suppose we might be astounded, were we to study into the matter, to find how much of our table and household supplies are made from the wastes of other manufactures! Certainly, this is even more true of our stock feeds. Most of them are by-products. Yet, it is often said that we use the poorer portions of the grains on our own tables and give the best to the domestic animals. The wheat middlings which we relegate to the farmyard stock is 15.6 protein (an average of 32 samples), while spring wheat patent roller process “family and straight grade” flour averages less than II per cent; not to mention that we have taken out, also, much of the salts so essential to perfect health, In feeding fowls and chicks, any small plot of ground STUDYING FEEDING VALUES 81 may be made to furnish vegetable growth, and many weeds are almost as good as more aristocratic plants. The grains and meat will furnish an abundance of actual fat and fat makers. But we need more protein, and it is the wastes from other manufactures which largely sup- ply the proteids wherewith we enrich and balance the coarse “roughage,” in making a combination feed for any kind of stock. Just here we must feel the need of a simple table which will show at a glance the chief sources of the protein or muscle-making portion of our feeds. The United States government is authority for the correct- ness of these analyses. TABLE A.—COMMON HIGH PROTEID FEEDS PROTEIN eee Fat Buckwheat middlings . 28.9 41.9 7.1 Cottonseed meal . 42.3 23.6 13.1 Linseed meal . 32.9 35-4 7-9 (old process) Linseed meal . 33.2 38.4 3.0 (new process) Malt sprouts 23.2 48.5 1.7 Brewers’ grains (dry) 19.9 ps7 5.6 Gluten meal . . . . 20.4 52.4 6.3 Soja (or soy) beans. . 34.0 - 28.8 16.9 Cowpeas: 2 s 4 4-3 20.8 55-7 1.4 The meat meals and scraps put out by various firms may run anywhere from 40 per cent upward in protein. Milk albumen, another commercial animal feed, is also high in this most precious element. Gluten feed, which is the form now more easily procured (possibly the only one), may run a little lower in protein and one half higher G 82 THE BEGINNER IN POULTRY in fat than the gluten meal given in the table. The glutens are the waste of starch manufactured from corn. Malt sprouts and brewers’ grains are a by-product of malting, as theirnamesimply. The source of cottonseed meal is also known from its name, but it is a by-product, the cotton itself being the chief aim. Buckwheat middlings, a good egg feed, is the refuse from manufac- turing buckwheat flour, and there is a buckwheat bran, coarser, containing more fiber, and of less feeding value. Linseed meal is the waste from producing linseed oil. The old process did not extract so much oil as the new process, hence the difference in analysis. A ground linseed is also to be had, but, as it contains over 30 per cent of fat, is not recommended as poultry feed. I desire that you will give much thought to the above table, because upon the proper combination of the pro- teids with the other food elements may rest your ultimate success. It is really primer work. Other things count strongly, but this point must be emphasized. The fact before mentioned that protein is often more costly in some one of these feeds than in the others has much bearing. This feature is not constant. That is, supply and demand or market manipulations may send the price of the very one you like best up to such an ex- tent that the protein, in which it is rich, may cost you possibly twice as much as the same amount of it in some other item from the table. If you cannot classify the feeds, here is an excellent chance for you to stumble over a pitfall. Suppose that flaxseed is very high in comparative price, this year, while buckwheat is very low. This may mean that the two by-products from these grains will have about the same comparative actual pee, Arpnog uldjolg YSIET panea ke SI ‘UOTRNXY TO ey} Wory jnpoid-Ag ve Yeay{ passurT “jsaavp{ 0} Apeay xe] eOSOUUIP 84 THE BEGINNER IN POULTRY value. Will you be quick enough to change at once from the high-priced to the low-priced source of protein, and open-eyed enough to change back, or discard both, if next year’s prices change radically ? This is the basis of successful and economical feeding. The by-products may follow the staple grains up or down in price, or may increase in continuous ratio as prices go on up- ward, and as certain things are more universally called for by poultrymen who are learning fast. Some staple feeds are becoming almost prohibitive in price. The editor of Poultry, living in the far West and contending with heavy freight rates, finds meat scrap costing him five dollars a hundred. We used to get it here for less than two dollars ; now, in the East, we pay three dollars, or perhaps more. One cannot go far wrong in the use of the common grains, if these are plump, in good condition, not too new, and not fed to excess. The word “excess” may have two meanings here: one may feed to excess by giving more feed than the birds can digest, or he may feed any one element to excess by using too much of it, in pro- portion to the other elements. Feeding too much starch, proportionately to the other elements, is a very general mistake — possibly the one most frequently made in feed- ing grains for egg production. Yet when feeders learn that it is the protein that brings the eggs, when it is added, because the ordinary feeds do not contain enough for heavy egg production, it becomes a temptation to use too much protein; which may bring on bowel diffi- culties or satiety. In a state of nature, the fowls ate many seeds (grains), it is true; but the majority of wild- ing seeds are small, and they were well balanced by the STUDYING FEEDING VALUES 85 green vegetable feed and the insects which the birds could usually find. Besides, they needed an egg ration only during a very small portion’ of the year, before the grasping hand of man “improved” them for his own ends. The matter of green feeds is soimportant that it must have a chapter to itself. When poultrymen speak of “balance” in a ration, they are very likely to mean only the proper proportions between the amounts of protein and carbohydrates present. But in balancing for perfect health, the pasturage Becomes one of the most important items. A few years ago, all the advanced poultrymen were splitting hairs over the proper balance of the various elements in all the feeds used, with the emphasis, as stated above, on the two chief elements as to quantity. This phase passed, and we now hear far less about it. But it remains true that a rough balance between the muscle makers, the fats, the true energy makers and, in the case of partly herbivorous animals, the green feed, must always be maintained. The feeder needs to have in mind a general idea of the proportions of each in any ration which he may “throw together” at any time. These proportions must be such, first, as to keep the animalin rugged health; second, they must also be such as will render the stock productive to the highest degree that can be reached with safety to the producing animal. The United States Department of Agriculture exists only for the purpose of making life more tolerable and work easier and more productive for all the people whom it reaches. It has analyzed practically all table foods for the good of the households, and every common grain 9 86 THE BEGINNER IN POULTRY and mill stuff for the benefit of the stock. These analyses were repeated again and again, in order to get a fair average of figures in the ratios. In some cases, over 300 samples were analyzed. Some very simple tabulated forms will give our eyes the information which they seize so much more quickly than do other servants of the brain : — TaBLeE B. U. S. TABLE OF AVERAGE VALUES FOR WHOLE GRAINS COMMS ek se de ee ES 10.5 49.0 3.4 2.1 Wheat! s 3 og & & 4 « 11.9 71.9 2.1 1.8 Oats>. 293s tet var, ees ae 8 11.8 59-7 5-0 9.5 Bableyia. sips Oct Ra Se ee, ok 12.4 69.8 1.8 2. Buckwheat . . . . . . 10.0 64.5 22 8.7 Sorghum seed . . . . . g.1 70.0 3.6 2.6 RICE! grec he ee ee eS 7.4 79.2 2.1 1.8 TABLE C. U.S. TABLE OF AVERAGE VALUES FOR GROUND GRAINS Maxeas | Maxess | Fats | Finer Gorn-meal 2 2 * 2 = 4 9.2 68.7 3.8 1.9 Oatteed) in pik ah ee Be oe 16.0 59-4 7.1 6.1 Corn and oats (equal parts) 9.6 71.9 4.4 5.8 (est.) Barley meal. . 2. 2. 10.5 66.3 2.2 6.5 Wiheat. brats oo of) aos 15.4 53-9 4.0 9.0 Wheat middlings . . . . 15.6 60.4 4.0 4.6 Wheat shorts . . . . . 14.9 56.8 4.5 7-4 Rice. bran: “x sf <%.