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Copyright N°
COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT,
THE HOME
POULTRY
BOOK
WIY} J9[SI9U 0} SV I[PpOd O} sNOdA}seSIpP sv JsOWW]e sI }]T ‘aqissod se AyAva
se jsnf punois oy} UO jas 0} paMmol[e oq plnoys puke sdUepUNqe UI JTe YsaIZ poosu syotyD
THE HOME
POULTRY
BOOK
BY
EDWARD I. FARRINGTON
NEW YORK
McBRIDE, NAST & COMPANY
1913
oO
{
Copyright, 1913, by oe?
McBrRIDE, Nast & Co.
°
-aer”
%e s®
a
—_ esl
Published February, 1913
PREFACE
O doubt the experts whose eyes chance to
fall on this book will say that it is ele-
mentary. It is, and purposely so. It is
designed first and last for the amateur who has no
time or inclination to read technical and semi-tech-
nical books on poultry keeping. It aims to tell the
man with a few hens what to do and how to do it.
There are certain statements with which some poul-
try keepers will disagree. We may look for the
millennium when the men who keep hens come to
be of one mind as to the management of them.
However, no pet theory has been put forward or
new system advocated. What has been written is
based largely on personal experience and what has
been learned in visits to many poultry plants, large
and small, in different parts of the country. It is
sent out with the hope that some amateurs may find
in it a suggestion or two which will help them to
get more eggs with less expense and have more fun
doing it.
CHAPTER
I
II
XII
XIII
CONTENTS
How To MAKE AV BEGINNING . . « «© |.
SELECTING A BREED TO KEEP .
Tue Kinp oF House To BUILD .
FEEDING A LITTLE FLOCK .
HATCHING CHICKS W1TH MACHINE AND HEN .
BRooDING THE NEWLY-HATCHED CHICKS .
How To Get Eccs In WINTER .
KEEPING POULTRY ON A Town Lot
BREEDING Fancy POULTRY AS A PASTIME
Ducks, GEESE AND GUINEA FOWL .
SoME OPEN SECRETS
INsEcT PESTS AND OTHER TROUBLES
THE YEAR’s Work, MontH spy MONTH
APPENDIX .
INDEX .
GLOSSARY .
. 105
Pa |
ee =
. £38
- 145
- 159
. 169
° L771
THE ILLUSTRATIONS
Chicks need fresh air in abundance
White Plymouth Rock cock .
White Wyandotte cock
White Leghorns
Black Langshans Me ss
Barred Plymouth Rock hen .
Silver Wyandotte hen
Houdans ES ey J earn
White Indian Runner ducks .
Black Orpington hen .
Eggs for private customers should be uniform .
Shingled house for a small flock .
House made of building paper .
An ideal home poultry plant .
An excellent semi-monitor house .
“A” house of the open front type .
Combined exerciser and feeder .
A simple rack for sprouting oats .
A homemade trap nest and feed hopper .
An incubator cellar ha
An incubator house of hollow tile .
A flock of well-bred hens :
Shelter with yard for growing chicks .
A simple fireless brooder .
a da VA
Frontispiece
FACING PAGE
2
av
THE ILLUSTRATIONS
Feeding trough which prevents scratching .
Outdoor brooders :
Excellent colony house for growing chicks .
A large semi-monitor type of house .
Openings for ventilation .
A roosting closet
Vine-covered poultry yard
Washing a hen .
Toulouse geese .
Guineas
Pekin ducks .
Indian Runner ducks .
A flock of bantams
A home poultry plant .
White Cochin bantam .
Tolman fresh-air house
FACING PAGE
78 |!
82
88 y
THE HOME POULTRY BOOK
THE-HOME POULTRY BOOK
CHAPTER I
HOW TO MAKE A BEGINNING
HEN a man—or for that matter, a
woman—is smitten with the poultry
fever, he usually knows little about
‘
breeds or methods or “systems.’’ Only one fact
presents itself — he wants to keep a few hens.
Too often the beginner makes so little distinction
between hens in general and those of particular
breeds, that he accumulates a flock of mongrels.
Beginning in that way, he may, perhaps, get as many
eggs in a year as though he had started with a
flock of pure-bred fowls, but the chances are that he
will soon tire of poultry keeping. It is impossible
to work up much enthusiasm over a lot of birds
which have uniformity neither in color nor size and
which show in their feathers an intermixture of
many breeds and varieties.
I
2 THE HOME: POULTRY Soa
On the other hand, there is rare pleasure in
watching the movements of a little flock in which
every cock and hen has the size, shape and markings
typical of a recognized breed. For that reason, and
because his poultry keeping ought to be a recreation
and a joy, the beginner is urged to make his start
with representatives of a breed which he has found
to approach his ideal of what a good hen ought to
look like. He will be limited to some extent in his
choice, as will be seen when the chapter on breeds is
reached, but he may rest assured that almost any
breed which he may decide upon will give him a
plentiful supply of eggs if intelligently cared for.
And in the long run, it is safe to say that the well-
bred bird will prove more profitable than the scrub.
Moreover, a flock of handsome, stylish hens is al-
most certain to receive better care than an assort-
ment of mismatched fowls which make no appeal to
theweye.
The time to begin keeping hens is just when the
opportunity offers. There are several ways in
which a beginning may be made. In the Fall, it is
customary to buy a few pullets which were hatched
fairly early in the Spring,— March if the breed
chosen is about the size of Wyandottes or Plymouth
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7
HOW TO MAKE A BEGINNING 3
Rocks, a little later if smaller. It is well to have
them in their new quarters by the first of October,
in which month they may be expected to begin
laying. If moved after the first eggs come, they are
likely to cease laying for several weeks.
Pullets should be chosen in preference to older
hens, because experience has shown that they lay
better. No male bird will be needed; in fact, it is
well not to have one in Winter. Eggs which have
not been fertilized are preferred by discriminating
buyers.
In February, a first-class, well-matured rooster
of the same breed as the hens may be put with the
flock. If the amateur lives in a closely settled
neighborhood, he may find it advisable not to have
a cock bird at any time, but to buy the eggs from
which to hatch his chicks from a reliable breeder
who has good stock.
After the first of the year, it may be well to buy
a few two-year-old hens and a yearling rooster in
order to secure eggs for hatching. Hens two years
old are considered rather better to breed from than
pullets, when mated with a younger male bird, and
will cost no more—perhaps less. The beginner
who starts at this time and in this way, though,
4 THe HOME POULTRY Bow
should make it a point to buy his breeders from a
man who has a flock of hens known to be good lay-
ers. It is the strain and not the breed that counts.
Two men with adjoining plants may keep fowls of
the same breed and yet one may get twice as many
eggs as the other. He is the man who has selected
his best laying hens year after year to breed from
and so has perfected a prolific strain. The begin-
ner who can get breeding stock from such a man
will be fortunate. If he must, however, he can buy
his birds at a poultry store in the city, but it will be
the part of wisdom for him to admit his lack of
expert knowledge and take an experienced poultry-
loving friend along with him when he makes his
choice. If he is able to buy his stock of a poultry
keeper near home, he may not need to pay more
than a dollar a head. Perhaps he will have to
pay two dollars. If he seeks really fancy stock he
will go to a professional breeder and pay according
to his inclinations and the length of his purse.
When a start is made after the first of March
and up to the middle of May, eggs for hatching may
be purchased. More amateurs begin in this way
than in any other. The eggs will cost from one
dollar a setting up. In the country, it is often pos-
HOW TO MAKE A BEGINNING 5
sible to get eggs from a farmer who has good util-
ity stock for seventy-five cents for a setting of
thirteen eggs. A motherly old hen to sit on the
eggs can be bought anywhere in the country for a
dollar. It is wise, though, to make sure of the
hen before ordering the eggs. Eggs may be sent
by express many hundred miles and hatch well,
although it is safer to buy them nearer home.
One should plan on setting one hundred eggs if
he wants a flock of twenty-five laying hens the
following Winter. To hatch and raise fifty per cent.
will be a satisfactory record, and half of the chick-
ens raised may be expected to be cockerels. Of
course the latter may be served on the table or sold,
thus reducing the cost of rearing the little flock.
The twenty-five pullets left will be about the right
number for the average amateur and may be con-
fined in a ten-by-twelve house.
There is another way of beginning in the Spring
and one which is growing in favor. Day-old chicks
of most of the common breeds may now be pur-
chased at from fifteen to twenty-five cents each, and
may safely be shipped for long distances, as newly
hatched chicks require no food for forty-eight hours,
due to the fact that just before they break their
6 THE HOME POULTRY?) BOOK
shells, they absorb the yolks of the eggs, which pro-
vides them with an abundant supply of nourish-
ment. Secured in this way, the chicks may be put
under a broody hen at night or they may be raised in
a brooder. This plan does away with all the work
incidental to the care of sitting hens. Some ama-
teurs find it desirable to hatch no chickens at all,
but to renew their flock every year in this conven-
ient manner. If it is too late to set eggs when
the momentous decision to keep a few hens is finally
made, this method of making a start is a very satis-
factory short-cut.
The one draw-back to the purchase of day-old
chicks is the fact that the buyer generally knows lit-
tle about the stock from which the birds come. He
may have bought into a good-laying strain and again
he may not. Likewise, if he finds pleasure only in
birds which are well-marked, he is participating in
a lottery when he secures his chickens in this way.
Custom-hatching has come as the solution of this
problem. The amateur gets his eggs from what-
ever source he likes. They may come from his own
flock or from that of a breeder known to have su-
perior birds. The eggs are entrusted to the hatch-
ery and the chicks turned over to the owner when
HOW TO MAKE A BEGINNING 7
they have pecked their way to freedom at the end
of twenty-one days, a nominal fee compensating the
man who owns the incubator for his work.
The perfection of mammoth incubators which
have a capacity of several thousand eggs has given
a tremendous impetus to this business of hatching
chicks on a large scale and has made it possible for
the man with a small flock to dispense entirely with
sitting hens. However he acquires his chickens, the
beginner will do well to bear in mind the point al-
ready brought out, that he will inevitably lose some
in the course of the brooding period, and half at
least of the number raised may reasonably be set
down as cockerels.
I have said that twenty-five hens is a good num-
ber for the amateur, but there is no reason why the
flock should not be smaller. It is a reassuring fact
that the small flocks lay the largest percentage of
eggs. There are little portable houses costing about
ten dollars in which eight hens can be carried through
a Winter and that number of hens will keep a small
family in eggs under proper conditions.
It is not necessary to have an outside yard for
the poultry to run in, although such a yard is pref-
erable because less work is required than when
8 THE. HOME POULTRY BOGE
the hens are confined all the time. It is perfectly
feasible, however, to keep a small flock housed all
the year round if the houses are of the open-front
or fresh-air type and not placed in too hot a situa-
tion. Asa rule, though, it is not advisable to breed
from hens kept in such close confinement, so ama-
teurs who use this plan, sell all their laying hens in
the Summer and buy well-grown pullets in the Fall,
unless they care to purchase eggs or day-old chicks
in the Spring. The custom of stocking up in the
Fall with pullets just ready to lay and selling off the
hens in the course of the Summer as they cease to
lay makes poultry keeping a very simple matter and
solves the problem for the would-be amateur who
hesitates to begin because he has no time to give
sitting hens or an incubator and no place in which
to rear young chickens.
It must be said, though, that growing the chicks
is one of the most fascinating and interesting phases
of poultry keeping to the amateur who is a genuine,
seasoned enthusiast. There are professional men
who find their chief relaxation in the Spring of the
year, when business cares weigh heavily and
vacation days are yet far away, in the care and over-
sight of a little flock of chickens — sometimes Ban-
White Leghorns are the most popular of the strictly egg
breeds. They lay white eggs
Black Langshans are large, docile and handsome, but have
pinkish-white flesh and feathered legs
HOW TO MAKE A BEGINNING 9
tams, which have many admirers among busy
lawyers, doctors and ministers.
The amateur who is wise will not waste a lot of
money on elaborate houses for his birds. It is a
curious and amusing fact that almost every poultry
keeper has a pet theory about the best kind of hen
houses. The theory held to-day, however, may be
quite different from the one held yesterday, so that
it is well to allow for alterations and remodeling.
Furthermore, simple houses are by all means the
most practicable. It 1s well enough to spend as
much money as one can afford in giving the poultry
house an architectural finish to make it harmonize
with the other buildings on the estate, but there
should be no frills within doors and every fixture
should be detachable, so that it may be removed and
cleaned.
If the beginner must count the cost, he ought not
to spend on his poultry house more than a dollar
for every hen which is to be confined there. This
is a good basis for the prospective poultry keeper
to lay his plans on when he is figuring the expense
of the venture.
Of course, poultry houses in suburban sections
which must occupy somewhat conspicuous situa-
ike) THE HOME POULTRY) BOGE
tions will need more attention to external appear-
ances than those in less prominent locations. There
are always one’s neighbors to consider and it is
altogether selfish to put up a building which will
prove an eye-sore to anyone. Then, too, there is
a false economy. The poultry house should be
well and strongly built for the sake of the birds
that are to occupy it. The owner will find more
satisfaction in caring for his fowls if they are kept
in neat, attractive quarters.
It is a mistake for anybody who has not had ex-
perience in keeping a large flock of poultry to begin
on a large scale. Failure is almost sure to follow.
Some amateurs expect to make a considerable profit
from a small flock, and that, too, the first year. Of
course, they don’t do anything of the kind. Keep-
ing hens is not a royal road to wealth. One dollar
per year per hen is considered a fair profit. Some
men and women make more, but even though the
profit be twice that amount and the flock number
a thousand, which means hard and constant work
for one person, it will be seen that the amount of
money to be made is not great.
Keeping a few hens for recreation and to supply
the family table with fresh eggs and chicken is,
OE
HOW TO MAKE A BEGINNING DE
however, to be highly commended to every man and
woman who has the time and opportunity to give
the birds the very little care they demand. The
scraps from the family table will go far toward
supplying the rations of a small flock and the sat-
isfaction of eating eggs laid the day previous may
well be imagined by those unfortunate people who
are never certain whether their breakfast egg was
laid a month or a year before it appeared on the
table.
CHAPTER II
SELECTING A BREED TO KEEP
PEAKING broadly, the amateur will be wise
S to select the breed and variety which makes
the strongest appeal to him. He will have
a wide choice, both as to size and markings. Yet
there are several points aside from appearance
which demand consideration. For example, some
breeds lay pure white eggs, which in certain quar-
ters is felt to be a distinct disadvantage. | Leghorns
are bred in comparatively small numbers in New
England because the people living there have a strong
prediliction for brown eggs, such as are produced
by Plymouth Rocks and Rhode Island Reds. New
York epicures, on the other hand, are willing to pay
a premium for pure white eggs, and so Leghorns,
the most famous breed laying eggs of that color,
are bred by most of the poultrymen catering to that
market. Following the fashion, the majority of
New England amateurs keep hens of breeds which
lay brown eggs, while in New York, New Jersey
I2
SELECTING A BREED TOQ.KEEP 13
and Pennsylvania the white egg hens are more pop-
ular.
Of course, this matter of color preference is
merely a notion, fostered by custom. ‘There is ab-
solutely no difference in the quality of a brown-shell
_egg and that of one with a white shell. On the
) Pacific coast an effort is being made to lead peo-
ple away from their unreasoning prejudice for white
eggs, so that the amateur will be encouraged to keep
—,
the general purpose breeds, which lay brown eggs. ©
In most sections, though, the professional poultry- .
men who have a white-egg market are well satisfied,
for the White Leghorn is the nearest approach to
an egg-producing machine which has yet been de-
veloped.
There are other points to be considered, too.
Hens like the Leghorns and Anconas, which are
marvelous layers, are very small and so of little
value as table fowl. Moreover, they are non-sit-
ters, which means that it is impossible to hatch eggs
under them or to raise chickens with them, making
it necessary for the amateur to keep a few hens of
another breed or to rely upon incubators, if he
raises his own birds. Also, these light hens are
high flyers, so that more fencing is needed than for
14 THE HOME POULTRY BOOK
the heavier breeds, and they are not so contented
when closely confined, while they always remain
rather wild and cannot be petted like the representa-
tives of the larger breeds. f
Some of these qualities, however, commend them
to certain amateurs. The fact that they hever sit
is much in their favor if an incubator is to be used.
or if no chickens are to be hatched or raised, or
if day-old chicks are to be purchased and reared in
a brooder. Broody hens are a nuisance under such
circumstances. The fact that.these light breeds eat
much less than the larger ones is distinctly in their
favor and the difference in the amount of food con-
sumed by a Leghorn and a Rhode Island Red, for
instance, is surprisingly large, especially when it is
considered that the smaller hen will lay the most
eggs, as a rule, and that the eggs are often as large.
The author has been keeping a pen of Anconas side
by side with a pen of Reds, and the eggs of the
former have averaged notably larger.
It should be said, though, that the matter of strain
enters into this proposition as well as into the num-
ber of eggs produced. Some strains lay much
larger eggs than those of other strains of the same
breed, for some breeders make a point of breeding
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SELECTING(A: BREED TO KEEP) a5
for large eggs. One other point in favor of the
light breeds is found in the fact that more of them
may be kept in a house, four square feet to each
bird being sufficient, while at least five square feet
are required if the larger breeds are to be com-
fortable.
The matter of color is also to be considered. If
kept in a town where the air is filled with smoke
or where the soil is highly colored and heavy, white
fowls are not easily kept in a presentable condition
and black ones or those with dark-colored feathers
are to be preferred. White fowls in a clean city
look especially handsome when allowed to run on
the lawn and may be preferred for their ornamental
value. But if the chickens are given a wide range,
those which are white will become shining marks
for hawks.
The poultry of to-day is divided into several dis-
tinct classes, known as Asiatic, American, Mediter-
ranean, English, French, in addition to which there
are Games, Bantams, and a few miscellaneous
breeds. Fowls of the American and Mediterranean
breeds are those most commonly raised in this coun-
try. The American class comprises the great utility
breeds like the Plymouth Rocks, Wyandottes, and
16 THE HOME POULTRY) BOOK
Rhode Island Reds, which are prolific layers of
large brown eggs and which are heavy enough to
dress well for the table. These are the breeds usu-
ally found on the farms where pure-bred fowls of
any kind are found. They are hardy, easy to care
for and tame; they are good sitters and make good
mothers.
Most breeds are divided into several varieties and
some into many like the Wyandottes, of which there
are white, buff, silver, golden, silver-penciled, par-
tridge and Columbian. There are barred, white,
buff and Columbian Plymouth Rocks, but the Rhode
Island Reds are confined to one variety, except that
some have single and some rose combs. They orig-
inated in the state from which the breed takes its
name and among professional poultrymen who were
seeking a superior all-round fowl. The Red has
grown amazingly in popularity and is now closely
crowding the Barred Plymouth Rock, which for
years was the one breed seen everywhere. A Rhode
Island White has now appeared.
The one objection to the Reds from the point of
view of the amateur who has a liking for handsome
hens is the difficulty which is experienced in get-
ting uniformity in coloring. There are many varia-
SELECTING A BREED VO KEEP 07
tions from the reddish buff desired, but by close
culling, as well as careful breeding, it is possible to
get a flock in which the color of all the birds is
practically the same, and such a flock must delight
the eye of any amateur.
‘All the breeds in the American class have yellow
flesh and yellow legs, which is to be expected of
birds bred in this country, where much weight is
given to these points by the buyers and sellers of
dressed poultry. _
The fact that ithe flesh is white is a serious draw-
back to the popularity of the Black Langshan, which
is the only representative of the Asiatic class com-
mended to the consideration of the amateur. The
Langshan is smaller and more active than the other
Asiatics, but has feathered legs like the others. The
cock is a regal-looking bird and there are few hand-
somer or more stylish fowls than a Black Langshan
hen. A very low fence will confine the Asiatics,
which are very quiet, slow-moving birds. Years
ago the Light Brahmas were immensely popular and
many old-time admirers of this breed have now taken
up the Columbian Wyandotte, an American breed
which has practically the same markings, but which
is smaller and with clean legs.
18 THE HOME, POULTRY (BOGOR
Of the Mediterranean class, the Leghorns easily
take the lead in popularity. Probably there are
more heavy egg-laying strains of White Leghorns
than of any other breed. There are rose-comb
as well as single-comb white and brown Leghorns,
the rose-comb varieties often being recommended
for very cold climates, as the rose combs are not
frosted as easily as the longer single combs. The
single-comb white Leghorn is generally admitted to
be without a peer as an egg producer and the eggs
are valued so highly that the best trade in New York
often specifies them.
Like all members of this class, the Leghorns are
non-sitters.. They have yellow flesh and legs but are
too small to be considered as table fowls, and so are
not so popular in the country and in the yards of
many amateurs as all-round fowls like the Rocks
and Reds. The meat, however, what there is of it,
is especially fine-grained and sweet and the chickens
make fair broilers. Mature Leghorns are hard to
fatten, though, and must be set down as belonging
to a strictly egg-laying variety.
The two varieties of Minorcas, white and black,
are somewhat larger than Leghorns. They, too,
are prolific layers of large, white eggs, but they have
*
re
Houdans are of French origin and have large crests. They
are hardy, attractive and easy to keep
- iva f
White I
ndian Runner Ducks are handsome and prolific
and seem likely to become as popular as the older varieties
SELECTING A BREED TO KEEP 26
white skins and dark shanks, which puts them at
a disadvantage on this account. The Black Minor-
cas are the more common.
Anconas have achieved unexpected popularity
within the past few years, especially in the West.
They have most of the characteristics of the Leg-
horn, being small, active and exceedingly prolific,
while their eggs are large, white and well shaped.
Anconas are black, except that every fifth feather
has a white tip, giving the birds a very pleasing mot-
tled appearance, which doubtless has helped to win
the favor of breeders with an eye for striking and at-
tractive markings.
The Black Spanish andthe Andalusians are satis-
factory breeds for egg production but are bred
mostly by fanciers, being, for one reason or another,
not in great favor with the majority of practical poul-
try keepers. Their markings are odd and interesting.
The Andalusians are especially curious, as their
feathers have a bluish tinge. Interest in blue fowls
has increased and there are blues in other classes.
Of the English class, the Orpingtons in white,
buff and black varieties are enjoying considerable
prestige in this country, surprisingly large entries
being made at some of the Eastern shows. They
20 THE HOME POULTRY Book
are splendid all-purpose fowls and so aristocratic in
manner that they make a strong appeal to many
beginners. They are a trifle larger than the Amer-
ican breeds and doubtless would speedily come into
great favor if it were not for the fact that their
flesh is white.. They lay brown-shelled eggs and
produce them in generous numbers. The meat is
excellent and a bird which is well cared for carries
a lot of it, especially on the breast, so that for home
use, the black Orpington is highly satisfactory, par-
ticularly when it is desirable to have a breed with
plumage which will not show stain or dirt.
The Houdan is the French fowl best known in
this country and is an excellent breed for the ama-
teur, as the birds are tame, unusually attractive,
contented in confinement and good layers. The
eggs are white and the meat is too dark for market
poultry, but exceptionally fine in texture and flavor.
There is not so much meat on the carcass as is fur-
nished by birds of the American and other larger
breeds, but more than the Leghorns offer. The
flesh of Houdans is highly prized in France, where
dark-meated fowls have the preference. The Hou-
dans have crests or top-knots and are mottled black
and white in color. They are hardy and non-sit-
SEREC TING Ay BREED TOURER P21
ters. It is a characteristic of Houdan eggs that
they are unusually fertile, while the chicks feather
out rapidly and come to maturity very early. Hou-
dans have one peculiarity in the form of a fifth toe,
like a very old English breed, the Dorking. The
Hamburgs and the Polish in several varieties com-
prise two classes very popular with fanciers.
The Games and Bantams in various breeds are
freely bred by fanciers and afford much pleasure to
their owners. Many of the Bantams are pocket
editions of larger breeds, as, for example, the white,
black and buff Cochins and the Light and Dark
Brahmas. Probably Buff Cochin Bantams are
bred more widely than any of the others, but all
of those named, as well as several other kinds, will
afford their owners no little pleasure. Most of
these Bantams lay a considerable number of eggs,
especially in the Spring, and the eggs, although small,
are rich. Three are equivalent, as a rule, to two
eggs from ordinary hens. The breeds mentioned
are large enough to dress for the table. Bantams
can hardly be surpassed as pets for children, when
the latter are old enough to care for them. A pack-
ing box is large enough to house a small flock and
the amount of food consumed is very small.
22
THE HOME POULTRY)BOOK
Below is a list of the more common breeds of
poultry, with notes on some of their marked char-
acteristics:
Weight
Name lbs.
Cocks Hens
Light Brahmas...12 9%
Dark 3 ate LU 8%
@ochiite® Sean ctcicels It 9%
Lanesham ....sees 0% 7%
Yes
ASIATIC CLASS
Color of Color of
' eggs flesh
Brown Yellow
Brown Yellow
Brown Yellow
Brown White
AMERICAN CLASS
Plymouth Rocks... 9%
Wyandottes
Rhode Island Reds 8%
72
6%
6%
Yes
Yes
Yes
Brown Yellow
Brown Yellow
Brown Yellow
MEDITERRANEAN CLASS
Lechorns’ fei sien'is es! i No White Yellow
Manorcas: 4.05. s7. otf 7%tNo White White
ANCOMAS: Tie cee enk % No White Yellow
ENGLISH CLASS
Orpinstons s.%..% 10 8 Yes Brown White
FRENCH CLASS
Hotidansa... ska 7% 6% No White White
* Have no standard weights.
+ Weight of single comb black.
Varieties
Buff, partridge,
white, black.
Black, white.
Barred, white, buff,
silver, partridge,
Columbian.
White, buff, silver,
Columbian, golden,
partridge, black,
silver penciled.
Single and _ rose
comb.
Single and_ rose-
comb white, sin-
gle and rose-comb
brown, single and
rose comb buff,
black, silver.
Single and _ rose
comb black, sin-
gle comb white.
White, black, buff.
ap re
The other varieties are a pound lighter
posiq iejndod Asada & SI Jojod pue 9zIs Ul W4oftun
uoJsUIdIO 9yL ‘Usey uojsuIdiQ yxoe[_ aq plnoys ssowmojsnd o}eAlId JO} Sosy
e Fag
SELECTING, AYBREED TO \KREEP | 23
It seems almost impossible that the almost in-
numerable breeds and varieties of poultry the world
over should all have sprung from one common par-
entage, and yet it was Darwin’s theory that the
jungle fowl of India was the progenitor of all known
kinds. As the fowls were scattered over the earth,
they were developed in many different ways. The
poultry of China and Japan is quite different in ap-
pearance and characteristics from that of this coun-
try. In France breeds with white flesh and dark
legs have been perpetuated, because the Frenchman
likes that kind. In this country breeds with yellow
flesh and yellow shanks have been made by crossing
older breeds and carefully fixing the type in order
to satisfy the Yankee prejudice.
The whole subject is full of interest, and it be-
comes plain that,the amateur has wide latitude in
making his selection. Almost every breed has some-
thing to recommend it! and no breed is entirely free
of faults, so that it is not wise to skip from one to
another if the first breed chosen does not prove as
satisfactory as expected. The better plan is to give
that breed a little more study in order to learn if
the fault is not with the keeper instead of with the
24 THE HOME POULTRY BOOK
hens. And finally, it is not the part of wisdom to
keep more than one breed at a time, when one first
begins his poultry work.
CHapter Ii
THE KIND OF HOUSE TO BUILD
HAT a satisfactory thing it would be if
\) \) one could draw a plan and say, “ That
is the best kind of poultry house for the
amateur to build.” But what a riotous time the man
who should attempt that sort of thing would have!
Poultry experts differ no less radically than doc-
tors, and probably more time has been devoted to
planning poultry houses than to designing churches.
Of course the writer has his personal pet theory
about poultry house construction, but he is not
parading it, for it may change in the future as it
has in the past. Few poultry keepers indeed would
construct to-day the kind of house they would have
built ten years ago. A distinct advance was made
when the discovery was announced and proved to
be true that poultry would thrive better in cold but
dry houses in which there was an abundance of fresh
air at all times than in very warm houses in which
the ventilation was poor with the result that moisture
25
26 THE HOME. POULTRY BOOR
collected on the walls and made the houses damp.
No longer are houses built with double walls packed
with sawdust and with tightly closed windows filling
the front. Many poultrymen have gone so far as to
omit all glass, either substituting muslin curtains or
making their houses entirely open in front.
The conservatively radical house, if the expres-
sion may be permitted, has much muslin and a little
glass, the latter admitting light on very stormy days
when it is advisable to have the muslin covered
frames closed, and also, if properly arranged, allow-
ing sunlight to strike directly on the floor at the
front of the pen early in the morning, something
quite desirable in cold weather, when the sun is slow
in rising.
There is no better type of house, in the opinion
of many experts, than one which has a long hori-
zontal opening, the bottom of which is two feet
above the floor, with a window of glass under it or
a taller window at the end, placed upright and with
the bottom close to the floor. The long opening
should be fitted with a muslin-covered frame, which
may be hinged at the top and hooked up out of the
way when not in use. Of course the opening should
also be covered with poultry netting, and it is well
Bn RE Ei
D a ~
Shingled house for a small flock. The door is left open
on all fair days
This house is made of building paper laid on poultry
netting, without boarding
THE KING OR HOUSE PO BUILD ’ «27
to use one-inch mesh netting, so that sparrows will be
kept out, as these birds often steal much more grain
than they are entitled to, for any good they do. A
house of this type, in use at the Perdue University
Agricultural Experiment Station, Lafayette, Ind., is
illustrated. The bottom of the window is low
enough so that there is direct sunlight on the floor
of the house early in the morning during the win-
ter months and the opening is made high enough
from the floor so that the wind will not blow di-
rectly on the birds. In a house of this character
almost every interior part is reached by sunshine
at some time in the day.
In these fresh-air houses the muslin curtains are
not to be used except when the mercury is unusually -
low or when the rain is being driven in. Their only
disadvantage is the fact that they collect a great
deal of dust and need to be cleaned frequently, so
that light may penetrate them. It is a good plan
to have them on pin hinges, so that in Summer they
may be taken down by drawing the pins, and put
away until cold weather comes again.
It is a common practice in very cold climates to
have a second set of curtains in front of the perches,
to be dropped when necessary. Such curtains should
28 THE HOME POULTRY BOOK
_ Part af this plate tg cel soe a
berween 3 middle sleds fo a wa
ellew ath efredelation Z Atpetin windeweien
swing in CF ee
of Aooks
4
% C
tre screenel mesh
is
g
Zz
gue
IF
. we
4 oe
eat
i a Al
y
Shy Soardedup
6” Concrete
Cross Section ;
Aeefing paper
‘praedee enclosed
a iy eep oé
wl ths wire we
Side Elevation
Side elevation and cross section of the Perdue University |
house. The ventilating device at the rear is well planned |
and the broody coop of poultry netting is a valuable
feature
i.
THE KIND OF HOUSE TO BUILD 29
not be used unless the temperature is much below
freezing and burlap or old bagging run on a wire
will answer as well as muslin tacked to a frame.
It should strike the front of the dropping boards or
hang to the floor. The great advantage in cloth is
that it admits air freely but without drafts. Ex-
periments have shown that buildings where muslin
has been used at the windows have been only a de-
gree or two colder than when glass was used, for
glass radiates cold.
Poultry houses in the South need no protection
at the windows and the type which has the entire
front open gives full satisfaction. Indeed, open-
front houses are being largely used in the most
northerly states and many poultry keepers are en-
thusiastic in praise of them. They certainly simplify
the keeping of poultry, for there are neither win-
dows nor curtains to look after, the front of the
house being entirely open except that it is covered
with poultry netting to keep the birds in and in-
truders out. In some cases a canvas curtain 1s
dropped over the front when necessary to keep out
snow or a beating rain, and occasionally curtains
are used in front of the perches on extremely cold
nights, but the average owner of an open-front house
30 THE HOME POULTRY BOOK
= ee
Moved/e
Roosts
ia
SSS EE
| coor fo
| Sroo dy
Broedy Coopwith coop 12°X19
| movable slat Seftom
~
x
| :
ae .
| ; ;
z s
| ‘
AY
on
| - 7
'
= ee 9 Se 5 ee
1 Of Drop srry
Tt
~4Is- 2-22 - ee --
So” Concrete
ee eee es
Front Li Jevarion
Details of the Perdue University house. It can be made with
one pen as well as with two
sSulusdo dy} 1OJ SUIeIIND Ul[sNU 91e IIa] Pue JOO FY} O} JsOW]e Spus}xo9 MOPUIAM ssKis
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2 eS = * . on sisi
THE ENE SOE HOUSE PO BUILD. 3%
goes to the extreme of giving the hens no additional
protection at all. Strange as it may seem, too, this
method gives excellent success in scores of instances.
The hens show no evidences of suffering from the
cold, seldom have frosted combs, lay steadily through
the coldest weather and are obviously in the pink of
condition.
Several things need to be considered, however, in
building a house of this kind, or the results will not
be so satisfactory. In the first place, a deep house
is required. If the house is only eight or ten feet
deep, the birds will be sure to suffer. Then, there
must be an opening on one side only or the house
will be too cold. When the pen is a deep one and
open only at the front, the wind meets an air cush-
ion when it strikes this opening, for the air within
cannot be forced through. Such a house should be
perfectly tight as to walls, and may have a glass
window on the west side, if deemed desirable in or-
der to get the afternoon sun. This is an advantage
in a house of the type which is rather low in front. |
The well-known Tolman house is an example of
this type. It is a long house, with a double-pitched
roof, the ridge being about two-thirds the distance
from the front, so that there is a long, gradual slope
32 THE HOME POULTRY BOOK
in front and a sharper pitch at the rear. The hens
roost at the back of the house and the air cushion
keeps the room so warm that Mr. Tolman finds cur-
tains unnecessary, although he lives near the coast
in Massachusetts.
On the famous Hayward farm at Hancock, N. H.,
““A” shaped houses are used, each accommodating
a dozen birds. The front is covered only with poul-
try wire and no protection in the form of curtains is
given.
Houses of a type which is the acme of simplicity
are in common use in Southern New England, many
of them on the farms of men who make poultry
keeping a business. They have a double pitch roof,
seven feet at the ridge and about four at the walls.
The length of the house is about sixteen feet and
the width about eight feet; one end, facing the
south, is open. The fowls roost at the opposite
end, of course, and thrive in a house of this char-
acter, which fact satisfies the men who build them
that the plan is a good one. It is needless to say
that such a house is inexpensive; and it will provide
quarters for thirty or more fowls.
Unless one is prepared to brush off his muslin
curtains every other day and can resist the impulse
THE KIND OF HOUSE TO BUILD 33
to close them when the weather gets a little chilly,
he had better consider the open-front house care-
fully, always bearing in mind that he can drop bur-
lap in front of the perches if he finds it necessary.
Curtains that are not frequently cleaned, soon be-
come clogged with dust, so that they admit little
more air than a board. ‘Then, of course, their chief
merit, that of providing ventilation, has departed.
The tendency in the direction of open-front houses
has brought about another change, in the form of
deeper houses than have been common, the reason
of which has already been explained. Houses
twenty feet deep or more are now being planned,
but in such a house the sunlight will not reach the
roosting quarters unless a shed roof is used and
raised to a quite impracticable height in front. As
direct sunlight is most desirable for sanitary rea-
sons, windows in the roof have been devised.
Sometimes the semi-monitor type is adopted.
Such a house is in use at the New Jersey Experi-
ment Station, and the type is warmly commended
to farmers in particular by practical men. More
than ordinary interest is being shown in this house
because it is a radical departure from the type which
has been generally recommended of late years, It
34 THE (HOME POULTRY (BOG
is 40x20 feet, there being two pens each twenty
feet square, which might be made the size of a
smaller house. If this house were but ten feet
deep, it would have to be eighty feet long to give
the same number of square feet. A square house
is more economical to build than a long and narrow
ofie, for it requires less material. The arrange-
ment of the windows at the top of this house makes
it light in Winter and helps to keep it cool in Sum-
mer. A house that is only four feet high at the
rear, where the fowls roost, is warmer at night
than one which is higher, but this is a distinct dis-
advantage in Summer, and poultry often suffer as
much from a high as from a low temperature.
Another way of lighting and ventilating deep
houses and a somewhat cheaper one, is to have win-
dows placed sky-light fashion in the front slope of
a double-pitched house. The plan has sometimes
been tried but reported a poor one because water
came in around the windows. This trouble may
easily be overcome by attaching zinc strips to all
sides of the windows, so that they will come outside
the sashes when the windows are closed. Of course,
it may be necessary occasionally in Winter to clean
the snow from the windows, but as a rule the
THE KIND OF HOUSE TO BUILD 35
: FLOOR PLAN
Be ee ee a ee, ee ee |
Details of the Clark semi-monitor, open-front house at the
New Jersey State Experiment Station. A photograph of
this house is shown on page facing 36
36 Toe ROME POULTRY Book
slightly higher temperature resulting from the
warmer air in the house will cause the snow on
the glass to melt and run off.
Speaking broadly, the most satisfactory house for
the average beginner is one the dimensions of which
are about 10x12, with a shed roof seven feet high
in front and four feet at the rear. Such a house
will accommodate from twenty-five to thirty fowls
comfortably.
Renters look with favor upon portable houses,
for if they move, the house can be taken apart and
carried along to the new place of residence. Houses
large enough to care for a dozen or fifteen hens cost —
from twenty to thirty dollars. They have dirt
floors but are tight and well made, being high
enough so that the attendant may work ir them with
ease.
Another form of portable house is much smaller
and not high enough for a man to enter, but made
to accommodate eight or ten hens. The roof is so
arranged that it may be raised from the rear in
order to facilitate cleaning the dropping board and
any other work inside the house which may be re-
quired. A house of this kind with a scratching
shed attached costs about ten dollars and a dollar
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MeN ou) fo SBE 1 Vv. 3°4d Aq paustsap odA} Jo}UOUI-j[eY sy} JO ssNoy jusT]IOxe UY
nn
atime a
THE RIND Ob HOUSE TO BWILD: ‘37
or two more will be needed to pay for the roofing
paper needed to cover it so that it will be suitable
for use in cold weather. Houses of this type have
been tested and proved wholly practical. Muslin
is used in place of glass, and being low, the house
is quite warm enough.
Unless the question of ornamentation or archi-
tectural finish figures, a thoroughly satisfactory
house, as has been stated, need not cost more than
one dollar for each hen which is to occupy it. Con-
sidered purely from the financial standpoint, a poul-
try house should cost no more. Many practical
houses in which paying flocks are kept cost less.
Many houses, on the other hand, which have cost
much more have proved a failure. The writer once
visited an amateur’s plant on which there was an
expensive house plastered on the inside and with a
stove to keep it warm. It was large enough for
many score of fowls, but only a few lonesome-look-
ing birds were to be seen wandering about.
Single boarded walls covered with roofing paper
are sufficient. Paper is also to be preferred for the
roof, as a rule, because it wears well when the roof
slopes toward the north and because the pitch of the
roof need not be as great as when shingles are em-
38 ELEY HOME POULTRY BOOK
ployed. The principal point in building the poultry
house is to have it dry and perfectly tight. With
matched boards and a good quality of patent roofing,
this purpose is accomplished.
The floor may be of earth, boards or concrete,
depending largely upon circumstances. In _ loca-
tions where water seeps away quickly, earth floors
answer as well as any, but they should be built up
at least a foot higher than the surface of the ground
outside. The earth should be packed solidly and
several inches of gravel thrown on top, to be re-
moved and renewed once or twice a year. If rats
bother, inch-mesh poultry wire may be laid several
inches under the surface and made fast to the foun-
dation. Another plan is to shovel out the earth
around the outside of the house to the depth of a
foot and the same distance from the foundation,
and to place poultry wire so that it will extend down
a foot into the ground and then a foot away from
the house. This will prevent the rats digging in,
as they always work close to the foundation.
If the house is on a side hill or elevated from
the ground, board floors may be used; but they
should not be laid over damp ground with the ex-
pectation of keeping the house dry. An earth floor
THE RIND OP HOUSE: TO BUULD. 26
well elevated is better under such conditions. If,
however, several inches of stones or cinders are
placed under the boards, the result will be satis-
factory. When there is an opening under the house,
the floor will be cold unless double boarded. Of
course, a layer of building paper between the boards
will help. Rats may be kept from coming through
a double-boarded floor by putting wire with a close
mesh between the boards.
Cement floors may be good or bad. If laid on
the ground, moisture is very likely to rise through
the cement. Some experiments of this kind have
been most unsatisfactory. If the earth is dug out
and replaced with a layer of stones or cinders a foot
deep, this trouble will be avoided. Cement floors
are cold to the feet and should be covered with sev-
eral inches of sand, with a deep litter above. If well
made, a cement floor is durable and rat-proof and
the cost is not great. Whatever kind of floor is
used, it should be several inches higher than the
ground outside, that there may be no possibility of
water collecting on it.
The foundation walls for the permanent poultry
house may be made of cement to advantage, al-
though stones are often used. A cement wall is
40 THE HOME POULTRY 200K
easily made by digging a trench to a point below
the frost line, lining it with boards and filling in with
layers of small stones and cement. Boards fastened
to stakes will hold the cement above ground. Such
a wall keeps out the rats.
Cedar or hemlock posts set into the ground deeply
make good supports for the small poultry house.
In England, a favorite plan is to have the house on
runners, so that it may be moved from place to place
about the grounds, and sometimes wheels are used.
The use of small houses which can be moved helps
to make the work light, if there is plenty of room, for
they can be moved instead of being cleaned out.
It will be seen from all this, that the question of
poultry house construction is not as simple as the
novice might be led to believe. However, the fact
remains that for the beginner there is nothing bet-
ter than a simply made, shed-roof house with a com-
bination of muslin and glass. Even this assertion
may be disputed, too, so that it is not made dog-
matically.
The furnishings of the poultry house should be
as simple as the house itself. Lice the poultry-
man always has with him. By that is meant that
there will always be a considerable number in the
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oie Aayy Ayyenss_) ‘ajqeadrages pue aatsuadxeut ate odd} yuor-usdo 9y} FO Sasnoy ,V,,
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THE KIND OF HOUSE TO BUILD 41
house, but if care is not exercised, he will have
them literally with him, for they will swarm over
his person every time he enters. Nothing will
make the beginner more thoroughly disgusted with
the poultry business than this experience. In order,
therefore, that every part of the house may be
cleaned, the furnishings should be detachable as well
as simple, so that they may frequently be taken out
and given an application of kerosene or some other
liquid for which lice and mites have no liking.
The best perches are made of 2x3 scantling set
on edge and with the top corners rounded. If
there is more than one perch they should be the
same height and not arranged stepladder fashion,
for then every hen will seek the highest round and
there will be nightly confusion and quarreling.
The perches should be not more than three feet
above the floor and rest in a slotted board at each
end, so that they will not need nailing. If perches
are made very high, heavy fowls often suffer injury
when jumping down.
The dropping boards may be some twelve inches
lower and should fit tightly against the wall at the
back. It is well to have the boards cleated together
so that they may be taken out at any time. A piece
42 THE HOME POULTRY BOOK
of scantling nailed to the wall at each end will sup-
port them. Some amateurs have adopted the plan
of supporting the dropping boards on wooden horses,
so that the wall may be kept free even of braces,
thus lessening the number of cracks in which in-
sects can hide.
Other poultry keepers have abandoned dropping
boards entirely, but set a board upright in the floor
to confine the droppings to the rear of the house.
Practical poultry keepers find that this plan greatly
lightens the labor as there are no dropping boards to
clean, and that by keeping a little earth, peat or
old litter under the perches, there is no trouble from
odors if the accumulation is removed every month
or two. Probably the average amateur will con-
sider it neater to use dropping boards and he can
perhaps handle the manure to better advantage.
Still, they have no place in some of the portable
houses now being exploited as especially adapted
to the needs of the amateur. If boards are used,
coal ashes, peat or dry earth should be dusted over
them to act as an absorbent. Wood ashes should
not be used if it is desired to retain the fertilizing
qualities of the manure.
Nests twelve inches square and as high are serv-
THE, KIND) OF SHOUSE TO “BUILD -t43
iceable and may be hung to the walls with screw
eyes. Often the nests are put under the dropping
boards and entered from the rear, but such an ar-
rangement makes it difficult to reach any eggs which
may be dropped in the alley back of the nests as
well as decreasing the floor space.
Dark nests are not required, but there is less dan-
ger of the hens acquiring the egg-eating habit if
they are used. One amateur makes boxes three feet
long with an opening at one end and a hinged cover.
He finds that there are fewer broken eggs and less
quarreling when several hens crowd into such a
nest at the same time than when they are given
individual nests.
The covers should always have a sharp pitch so
that the hens cannot roost on them. In many cases,
egg or orange crates turned on their sides are prov-
ing very satisfactory nests. Nest eggs are of value
in teaching or rather coaxing the hens to lay in
the nests instead of in the corner.
It is a good plan to have a platform for the feed
and water dishes, so that the hens cannot scratch
litter into them.
eoua “4 4 OMe otf Bi yay gE ar < at
"a
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=
The slanting board prevents the hens scratching the grain
out oi the trough
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BROODING THE CHICKS 79
A very little lard rubbed on the head of the chicks
will help, too.
Chicks reared in a brooder require more attention
than those raised with a hen, although, happily, the
lice nuisance is escaped, at least, for the first few
weeks. The lice seem to appear even on incubator
and brooder chicks after a time, coming from no-
body knows where. However, when a hen has the
chicks, you can scatter chick feed generously in the
litter and go away for the day with a reasonable ex-
pectation that biddy will look after matters while
you are gone and that the youngsters will be safe
and happy when you get back. But you can’t play
truant when using a brooder. Feeding must be
done regularly and the heat must be properly regu-
lated. If the chicks get too hot or get chilly, the
results are likely to be equally unpleasant. And
yet, running a brooder is not an irksome or difficult
task. Of course, something depends upon the time
of year. If the season is well advanced and the
chicks can be put on the ground early, the work is
made easier. There are both indoor and outdoor
brooders. The latter may actually be used out of
doors with the ground covered with snow and in
zero weather, but caring for them is not a job to be
80 THE HOME POULTRY BOOK
welcomed. Later in the season, they give excel-
lent satisfaction.
The chicks should not be removed to the brooder
until thoroughly dry, and it is well to start the
brooder lamp by the time the eggs begin to pip, so
that it will be nicely heated and ready for the chicks
as soon as the chicks are ready for it. The floor
should be sanded like the hen’s coop and a supply
of clover or alfalfa cut into short lengths for litter
provided. The heat should be from ninety-five to
a hundred degrees for the first week and decreased
at the rate of five degrees a week thereafter, making
the reductions gradually, of course. When the
chicks are put into the brooder they will run up the
temperature several degrees, which should be an-
ticipated.
Although the thermometer is necessary, observa-
tion will determine more accurately the degree of
comfort which the chicks are enjoying. If they
are found stretched on the floor and panting, the
heat is too great; if they huddle closely, it is insuf-
ficient. If they settle down contentedly slightly
apart, perhaps with some heads sticking through the
felt, they are satisfactory proof that the heat is
just right. Lack of ventilation is a frequent cause
BROODING THE CHICKS 81
of trouble. The brooder chicks need fresh air in
abundance. This point is too often overlooked.
After a few days the chicks may be allowed brief
excursions outside the hover, but in order to prevent
their getting lost, it is well to make a little yard of
poultry netting arranged in a half circle, so that as
a chick moves along it, he will be guided back into
the hover and comfort. Corners should be avoided;
chicks get into them and huddle there until chilled.
The same kind of feed as that described for
broods with hens will answer as well for brooder
orphans. It should be fed regularly, though, and
four times a day for two weeks. Too much should
not be given at a time, the purpose being to keep
the youngsters busy from daylight until darkness,
except at napping times. They will soon learn to
scratch in the litter. The mash should be given at
ten days. If a commercial growing mash is not
available and something more than bran and beef
scraps is desired, a very good mash may be made by
combining three parts of bran, one part of corn:
meal, one part of middlings and one part of high-
grade beef scraps. ‘There is an easy way of mixing
a mash of this kind, which is worth knowing about
if there is much mash to be made. If a revolving
82 THE HOME: POULTRY BGok
churn is secured and the various ingredients put into
it, a few brisk revolutions of the handle will blend
the mixture perfectly.
Fireless brooders are much in evidence and ap-
parently have come to stay. Although not having
the wide latitude of usefulness first promised, they
often can be made to serve the amateur very well
indeed, and cost only a dollar or two. Indeed, such
a brooder is easily made at home with the aid of
a cheese box, from which top and bottom have been
removed. An opening is cut for the chicks and a
piece of burlap tacked over the top, being allowed
to sag in the middle. The interior is partly filled
with hay and as much padding placed on top as may
seem necessary.
A well-ventilated room is the best place for the
fireless brooder until the weather becomes warm,
when the porch proves an excellent location. Fresh
air in abundance is most important. The chief dif-
ficulty in the use of fireless brooders is to induce
the chicks to go in after they all have come out.
Of course, the brooder is warm only when it con-
tains the chicks, for it is the plan of the device that
the occupants shall generate their own heat. Con-
sequently, when it is not warm, there is no induce-
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BROODING THE CHICKS 83
ment for the chicks to enter. This difficulty is
overcome by placing a hot water bottle on top of
the brooder. That provides the warmth needed
and acts like a magnet. Once the chicks get the
habit of running into the brooder when cold, they
will keep it up after the water bag has been re-
moved and will keep each other warm. When only
a few chicks are to be raised and after the season
is well advanced, the fireless brooder is to be recom-
mended.
After the chicks are gotten onto the ground, they
will make rapid progress, but must be protected
from hawks and cats. There is no better place
for them to run than a patch of corn, where they
will be safe from the hawks and will have ade-
quate shade. Wherever confined, shade of some
kind must be given or growth will be checked. An
orchard run is good, but it must be remembered that
after grass gets old, it is so tough that young chicks
cannot eat it, and so must be given other green
stuff. When the young birds are eight or nine
weeks old, the sexes should be separated for best
results. The surplus cockerels should be fattened
and marketed, and by the first of October the pullets
should be in their winter quarters.
CHAPTER VII
HOW TO GET EGGS IN WINTER
HEN eggs are sixty cents a dozen, the
amateur finds no little delight in bring-
ing in a daily basketful from his poultry
house. Unfortunately, though, he is often denied
this privilege. All too frequently the hens refuse
to do their part.
Getting eggs in Winter is a problem which has
received much attention. It is no longer a matter
of hit or miss. Given pullets which reach the lay-
ing age before settled cold weather, house them in
their permanent winter quarters by the first of
October, keep these quarters dry and free from
drafts, but with fresh air entering in abundance at
all times, keep a deep litter on the floor so that the
hens will be obliged to scratch energetically and per-
sistently for their grain, give them a wide variety
of rations, and the eggs will be reasonably sure to
come. The better the strain, the larger the num-
ber of eggs.
84
HOW TO: GET EGGS IN WINTER 8&5
There are no secrets about the production of win-
ter eggs. It is just a matter of foresight and care.
Pullets undoubtedly are the best layers. Hens in
their second year will lay fairly well, but it is bet-
ter to start fresh with pullets each season. Hens
that molt very late will not prove profitable to keep.
If pullets are hatched too early, they may molt the
same season, which is not desirable. And yet if
hatched too late they will not begin laying until
after the New Year. Leghorns will lay when from
five to six months old. Some Plymouth Rocks
commence laying at six months. The other hens
in the same classes begin laying at about the same
ages. The larger breeds like the Brahmas require
more time before producing their first eggs. In or-
der to make sure of winter eggs, the pullets should
reach the laying age in October. If they are neg-
lected during the Summer, they will not lay as early
as though given good care, which is entirely logical.
As a rule, hens lay better in flocks of not over
thirty. And yet, some of the most successful egg
farmers keep 500 birds together and get satisfactory
results. Long houses give the fowls plenty of room
when there are no partitions, which is an advantage.
The average amateur, however, will not carry more
86 THE, HOME POULTRY BOGE
than fifty hens, so that this matter of large flocks
will interest him only in an academic way.
The use of litter on the floor is most important.
It may be two or three inches deep at the beginning
of the season and more thrown in as the first be-
comes broken into fine pieces. Of course, there is
such a thing as having it too deep. The main
thing is to keep the hens working early and late
seeking food. A little millet or hemp seed in the
litter will act as an extra inducement to scratch en-
ergetically and persistently.
It must be remembered that in mid-Winter the
hens keep short hours. With two-thirds of their
time spent on the roost, they should have no time
to waste during the day. The poultry keeper wants
them to eat all they will and a busy hen has a much
better appetite than one which stands around idly.
Green food is essential. Sprouted oats have been
mentioned in another chapter. Wheat and barley
may be sprouted in the same way. Some amateurs
who are handy with tools make a little frame which
contains four or five trays on which the grains are
spread after they have been soaked over night in
warm water. The bottoms of the trays have slats
placed so closely together that the grain will not
HOW TO GET EGGS IN WINTER 87
pass through although the water will drain away,
or are covered with copper screen cloth, copper be-
ing used because it does not rust. The water sprin-
kled on the top tray will work down and wet the
grain in all the trays underneath.
Of course the hens should be given all the water
they need, as well as grit and oyster shells. A box
of charcoal is also worth while. It is even more im-
portant in Winter than in Summer to provide every-
thing that is needed for the making of eggs and to
keep the hens in first-class condition.
Few people realize to what extent eggs are af-
fected by the food given. An experiment was tried
at one of the agricultural colleges a few years ago.
Limburger cheese was fed to a number of hens and
when the eggs from these hens were broken, the
odor alone was sufficient to prove the truth of the
theory. Some of the eggs strayed to the presi-
dent’s table, it is reported, through an oversight,
and — well, what the president said has not been
recorded.
In order to have the highest grade eggs, and of
course the amateur wants no other kind, only the
best grain should be fed. Likewise, the water
should be fresh at least once a day. It is well to
88 THE HOME POULTRY: BOOK
gather the eggs twice a day, at least; otherwise some
of them may be incubated by the succession of lay-
ing hens for several hours. If the eggs are fertile,
this is enough to start the germ into development.
As a matter of ‘fact, it is better to have no male
bird with the flock. There probably will be more
eggs and less danger of broken ones. If an egg
is broken in the nest, it should be removed from the
pen. If thrown on the floor, the habit of eating
eggs may be established. The nest should be thor-
oughly cleaned out and fresh hay substituted.
The color of the yolks is influenced by the feed-
ing. Yolks which are yellow to an objectional de-
gree indicate an almost exclusive diet of corn. A\l-
falfa, clover and grass clippings tend to give the
yolks a rich shade of yellow, just as they affect the
color of milk. Rape fed to excess gives a very pale
shade to the yolks, over-much cabbage makes them
thin.
Eggs should be kept in a cool, dry place. Dry-
ness iS very important because germs cannot pene-
trate the membrane of the egg unless it becomes
moist. Sometimes eggs absorb the odors of other
food stored close by, if highly scented like bananas
and onions.
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HOW TO GET EGGS IN WINTER 8&9
It is useless to expect the hens to lay well if they
are preyed upon by lice, so that a dust bath is very
necessary, unless there is an earth floor into which
the birds can burrow. A few upright boards may
be fastened together to make a dusting place and
earth or ashes with a little lime added given for
the dusting material. Coal ashes are good except
that they tend to rob the plumage of its luster.
Hens like coal ashes and will eat many of them.
Dry sand is often used, but the fowls seem to pre-
fer heavier earth. It is well for the amateur to lay
in a barrel of earth or road dust in the Fall to be
used in the course of the Winter. Whenever hens
are purchased, it is advisable to give them a thor-
ough application of lice powder, dusting it with a
generous hand into the fluff around the vent.
If the fowls are slow in beginning to lay, a little
green cut bone may help start them. It is doubt-
ful whether the average amateur is justified in the
purchase of a bone cutter, but in many large cities
it is possible to buy green cut bone ready for use.
Of course, it must be fed at once, as it will keep
but a short time.
Another plan is to try feeding a warm crumbly
mash, containing a liberal amount of beef scraps or
ele) THE HOME POULTRY BOOK
meat of any kind, once a day two or three times a
week. A teaspoonful of mustard for each twenty-
five hens may be included in this mash, which, for
the rest, may be made of two parts bran, one part of
ground oats and one part of corn meal.
A laying hen is usually a singing hen. Likewise,
the hens which are off the roost first in the morning
and on the last at night may be put down pretty
safely as being good layers. It pays the amateur
to spend a little time with his flock; he can learn
a lot in that way. When a hen is laying well, her
comb is full and bright red. She may begin lay-
ing before her comb gets its color after the molting
period, however, but it will gradually become fiery.
There should be enough nests so that the hens
will not break the eggs by crowding. It is a gen-
eral rule to allow one nest to five hens. If the
amateur seeks to build up an egg-laying strain, he
can make use of trap nests providing he has suf-
ficient time so that he can give them the attention
they require. These nests hold the hens which have
laid until an attendant has released them and by
banding a leg on each hen and keeping a record, it
is possible to tell just how many eggs each hen lays
HOW 10 GET BaGGaS IN WINTER. ‘or
in a given period. Then the best egg producers
may be used for breeding stock.
With a trap nest it is possible to identify the hens
which lay the large eggs and those which go onto
the nest but seldom lay an egg. In fact, it gives
the poultry keeper a working knowledge of his flock
not to be obtained in any other way. Trap nests
require close attention, of course, but not so much
of the poultry keeper’s time as might be imagined,
if there are nests enough. Allowing a nest to every
four hens, he will not have to visit the poultry
house oftener than four times a day, and no hen will
be confined long enough to suffer, unless the weather
be very warm, and trap nests are not commonly
used in the warm season.
There is a simple plan by which the results se-
cured by the trap nest may be approximated with
but little trouble to the attendant. A box contain-
ing a nest is placed in the partition between two pens,
one end of the box being open while a trap door is
arranged at the other end, so that the hens can en-
ter but not leave that way. The hens may be put
into the first pen in the morning and as fast as
they lay will pass into the second pen, so that when
92 THE HOME POULTRY ‘BOUE
night comes it is an easy matter to decide which
hens have laid during the day. If a male bird is
placed in the second pen, the hens which lay and
pass into that pen may confidently be used as breed-
ers. Of course, some hens will go onto the nest but
not lay, so that this test is not quite as accurate
as that imposed by a regulation trap nest.
The average amateur, however, will hardly take
the trouble to trap-nest his birds. A simpler plan
is to select and mark the pullets which lay first in
the Fall and use them to breed from. Experiments
have shown that the pullets which begin laying earli-
est also make the heaviest layers, as a general rule.
These pullets may well be kept until the second year
and then mated with a well-developed cockerel.
Poor flocks may be improved by securing a male
bird from a breeder who is known to have a good
laying strain. Yet, it is not wise to continually
introduce new blood. If the first cock bought for
improving the flock proves satisfactory and another
is needed later, it is well to secure it from the same
source. Males from eggs laid by heavy-laying hens
are to be sought. They transmit the trait to the
pullets they sire.
Old hens should not be kept with pullets as a
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HOW TO GET EGGS IN WINTER 93
rule. They require rather different treatment. If
you are going to keep over a number of extra good
hens to use as breeders in the Spring, they should
not be forced as hard as the pullets. Fowls forced
for eggs are not in proper condition to make good
breeding stock when the breeding season comes.
All the other left-over stock should be disposed of
before the pullets are put into winter quarters.
They will bring low prices if kept until November or
December.
It will be seen from all this that there is no royal
road to winter egg production. It is all a question
of properly hatched hens, properly reared and prop-
erly fed. The requisites are not numerous, after
all, but they are exceedingly important.
CHAPTER VIII
KEEPING POULTRY ON‘ A-TOWN LOG
P AN HE no-yard system makes it possible to
keep a few hens on a very small lot. To
be sure, this is not the best system, all
things considered, but it offers a very satisfactory
solution of the poultry-keeping problem where only
a little land is available. By a little land is meant
enough to provide the site for a house 10x12 or
smaller, with sufficient open space around to admit
air in abundance and sunlight for at least four or
five hours every day. When this system is fol-
lowed, the hens never leave the house. In order
that the birds may be kept in good condition when
confined so closely, the house should have unusually
large openings in front, with muslin curtains to
drop when the weather becomes exceptionally cold
or when the rain beats in. If the Summers are very
hot, something in the way of an awning may be
needed to protect the fowls; a hinged shutter is often
used. The house may also be made cooler by cut-
94
POULTRY ON A TOWN LOT 9
ting an opening in the rear wall just under the roof,
with a shutter to cover it when the weather is cold.
At least four square feet of floor space should be
allowed each bird when this system is followed, and
the nests and all the furnishings should be high
enough so that the hens can waik under them, mak-
ing the whole floor area available. It is customary
for amateurs who keep hens on the no-yard plan
to buy pullets in the Fall, and to dispose of their
old hens as fast as they stop laying in the course
of the Summer. Before the new flock is installed,
the house should be thoroughly sprayed with a lice
paint or with kerosene in which a little carbolic acid
has been mixed, or the interior may be whitewashed.
New litter should be substituted for the old, and
it is well to replace an inch or two of the earth, if
earth floors are used, with fresh sand. Cleanliness
is one of the most important matters when hens are
confined closely and the amateur will inevitably find
that eternal vigilance in this matter is the price of
success, especially in Summer, when vermin multiply
with exceeding rapidity. It will be necessary to re-
move all the fixtures frequently and wash or spray
them with kerosene or a liquid lice killer and to
frequently renew the nesting material.
96 THE HOME POULTRY BOOK
A spray pump is a great convenience as well as a
saver of time. An air sprayer, which may be pur-
chased for less than eight dollars, is especially de-
sirable, for it may be charged with a few strokes of
the plunger and then slung over the shoulder by a
strap, while the operator guides the stream in any
desired direction and regulates it with a thumb
screw. Whitewash may be used in this machine,
if it is mixed thin, and the amount of time needed
to cover the walls greatly reduced. Incidentally, a
spray pump may also be used to advantage in the
garden when insect pests make their appearance.
When the no-yard system is followed, the floor
must be kept covered with litter at all times, for
the hens must be induced to exercise. And of
course there must be water, always at hand, for
each laying hen averages to drink half a pint a day
when the weather is warm. The water dish ought
to be refilled several times a day in Summer, if this
is feasible, in order that the hens may find the water
palatable. In Winter, the water is likely to freeze
after a short exposure to the cold. Water as warm
as the hand can be borne in it may be given, in
order to lengthen the time which will elapse before
it turns to ice,
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POULTRY ON A TOWN LOT 97
Often the problem is not lack of land as much
as lack of time. Many commuters would like to
keep a few hens if they did not find it necessary
to leave home early in the morning, perhaps with
no assurance of getting home again until after dark.
If the wife or some other member of the family
may be interested in the hen-keeping project, the
birds will not suffer for lack of feed and water; but
it frequently happens that nobody in the family
wants to bother with them—and the work is a
bother unless one has a genuine liking for well-bred
poultry.
There is a way of meeting this difficulty and keep-
ing even a good-sized flock with only ten or fifteen
minutes attention each day and with an extra hour
on Saturday or Sunday, when a general cleaning
may be indulged in. By means of a patent feeder
and exerciser which costs $2.50 and a patent water
fountain costing one dollar, combined with the use
of hoppers for dry mash, as already described, the
commuting poultry keeper can entirely dispense with
daily feeding and watering.
The feeder holds from eight to thirty-two quarts
of grain, a few kernels of which drop out every time
a bait bar under the machine is moved. This bar
98 THE HOME POULTRY BOOK
is made of wire netting and filled with cracked corn.
None of this corn escapes, but the hens see it and
peck at it. The slight blow is enough to turn the
bar a trifle and down comes a shower of corn,
which is scattered by a deflector in a wide, even
circle. If there is a little litter on the floor, the
hens will scratch in lively fashion for a few min-
utes, after which another peck at the bait bar will
result in another deluge of grain. In this way, the
fowls are kept active and there is no waste of feed.
All that falls out is eaten and neither mice nor birds
can extract any from the feeder. When the hens
tire a bit of this exercise or of the food which it
brings them, they turn to the hoppers of mash.
These hoppers may be large enough so that they will
not require filling oftener than once a fortnight and
the grain feeder will contain enough for from two
to three days to a week or more, depending upon
the size and the number of hens using it.
The water fountain is attached to a butter tub,
which is the reservoir, one filling of which will
suffice for several days. The tub is covered, so
that the water is kept clean, and the fountain is so
constructed that the water is always several degrees
cooler than the atmosphere. This is, of course, a
POULTRY: ON: A TOWN LOE 99
summer arrangement. For Winter, a fountain with
a safety lamp attachment may be used, the heat be-
ing just sufficient to keep the water from freezing
at any time.
Such devices as these simplify poultry keeping to
a remarkable extent, and eliminate the “ haven’t
time to look after hens” excuse. And the flock
does not suffer when they are used, the disadvan-
tages being the fact that the hens do not become as
tame as when an attendant is among them frequently
and that it is not so easy for the owner to observe
the condition of the various individuals in the
flock.
Feeder and fountain may be used out of doors in
Summer, if deemed desirable, care being taken to
place the fountain in a shaded spot. The feeder
gives excellent results when standing on sod, the
grass taking the place of litter. All of these de-
vices may be used for chickens as well as for ma-
ture hens, although it is hardly a wise plan to let
the young stock go all day without being looked at
occasionally, to make sure all things are going well.
Plowing or spading the poultry yard is the ounce
of prevention worth a pound of cure. Probably no
one cause has resulted in the untimely demise of
100 THE HOME POULTRY 206k
more chickens than tainted ground. If possible, the
youngsters should be raised each year on ground
which has not been used for poultry since a green
crop of some kind has been grown on it. Plowing
up the land and sowing oats or rye will help to
purify the soil. If the land used for the young
chickens can be planted to winter rye in the Fall, a
double purpose will be accomplished, for the ground
will be put into condition for chicken raising the
next season and the rye will give the hens green
food in Winter, for they can be allowed to range
over it when there is no snow on the ground.
Where there is little land, the chicks with hens
may be confined in small coops easily made of dry
goods boxes with a chicken wire run. The end of
the run may be divided into a small feeding com-
partment for the chicks by making a partition of
laths far enough apart so that the young birds can
pass freely through. If fed here the chicks can
be given any kind of food and it will not be wasted
or spoiled by the hen. If coop and run are made
solid, that arrangement is an advantage, for the
whole outfit can easily be moved by two people and
a shift every few days will keep the chicks always
on fresh ground. Even when it is safe to give the
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POULTRY ON A TOWN LOT IOI
chicks free range, it is best to confine the hen if
the poultry plant is on a town lot.
Sometimes it is difficult to get enough green stuff
for the hens and chicks if the town lot is a small
one. Usually, though, it is possible to find a few
feet of ground where Dwarf Essex rape can be
sown. Seed put into the ground on Decoration
Day has yielded a cutting by the first of July, an
illustration of the rapidity with which this crop
grows. A few rows of rape will produce enough
green food to supply a small flock of hens all Sum-
mer.
In the Fall, it often is possible to buy imperfect
heads of cabbage for which farmers or market gar-
deners have no regular market, and at a very low
price. The cabbage may be stored on the north
side of a building under a foot of soil, with straw,
leaves or cornstalks as additional protection.
A considerable number of mangel wurzel beets
can be raised in a small space and may be stored
in any vegetable cellar. It is not economy to cut
them into small pieces; a better plan is to split
them in half and drive a spike through them into
aboard. Then the soft part will be eaten out with-
out loss. A hot bed is a decided advantage, if the
102 THE HOME POULTRY SOOKE
man with a little land has time to look after it, for
lettuce can be grown all Winter. Swiss chard
started in the Summer can be kept along several
months by covering it with a cold frame.
If the town-lot poultry keeper cares for the com-
fort and craves the respect of his neighbors, he will
make it a point to keep his hens and chickens con-
fined to his own premises, and he will not have a
rooster. The matter of fencing is important, for
some hens fly high. Yet a very high fence is ob-
jectionable. If six feet of wire will not keep the
fowls out of the neighbors’ garden patches, a strip
of netting a foot wide should be run around the
top, covering the yard to that extent. When the
hens try to fly out, they will meet this obstruction
and be thrown back. Most hens find it difficult to
scale a fence unless they can see the top and so
gauge their distance. For that reason, there should
never be a bar at the top of the wire. If a bar
is needed for appearance or support, let it be more
than a foot below the top.
It is a great convenience to have a gate wide
enough so that a wheel-barrow will pass through
and to have it swing both ways, with springs to shut
it. When an amateur puts up a poultry fence, the
POUBTRY ON A. TOWN EOP 103
gate usually gives the most trouble, if he does the
work himself, so it is well to know that a gate with-
out the wire may be bought for one dollar.
When a single hen escapes from a poultry yard,
she commonly displays as much anxiety about get-
ting in again as she did about getting out. Yet she
is not willingly cornered and caught. There is a
way to get such hens back into the yard without any
effort on the part of the owner. As all poultry
keepers have observed, a hen will run along the en-
tire length of a wire fence, pressing against it and
trying to find anopening. Let the amateur poultry-
man make a little gate and fit it over an opening at
the bottom of the fence just large enough to admit
a hen. Let him have this gate open into the yard
only, and so hung that it will close automatically
but yield to gentle pressure. This may be done by
the proper placing of the hinges. As the hen out-
side the pale pecks along the fence, she presently
comes to this little gate. Finding that it yields, she
pushes against it a little harder. Behold, it flies
open. She walks in and the gate closes behind her.
Obviously, it cannot be opened from within and so
makes a perfect self-acting trap for wandering birds.
A flock of twenty-five hens given intensive cul-
104 TEE. HOME POULTRY BOOK
ture, as it were, on a town lot, should produce a
considerable larger number of eggs than the average
family will use. On many days the hens should lay
from 12 to I5 eggs, perhaps more. There is sure
to be a good sale for these eggs at a very satisfactory
price, if the poultry keeper cares to deliver them
properly packed in egg boxes. Care should be
taken to have them absolutely fresh, for a single
bad egg is sufficient to ruin the seller’s reputation
as a reliable hen man. ‘The parcel post offers an
excellent way of shipping eggs to a few city cus-
tomers.
It pays to put eggs of the same color and size in
a box, as appearance counts for much. If an egg
becomes dirty in the nest or afterwards, it should
not be washed, but wiped with a damp cloth. Egg
shells are porous. Clean nests are important be-
cause an egg is moist when it is laid, so that dirt
adheres to it. Many commuters have regular cus-
tomers in the buildings where they are employed
and the square, neatly wrapped parcels so often seen
in the hands of incoming suburbanites spell, to the
initiated, fresh eggs.
CHAPTER IX
RAISING FANCY POULTRY AS A PASTIME
ROBABLY no hobby or pastime occupies the
leisure moments of so many doctors, minis-
ters and other professional men as the rais-
ing of thoroughbred poultry. Hundreds of business
men, too, and many women breed fancy stock be-
cause they enjoy owning and working with a flock
of aristocratic birds. A visit to any poultry show
will lead one into the company of people from many
different walks in life, but all finding a common in-
terest in well-bred fowls.
Breeding high-class stock does not necessarily
mean, though, that it is to be exhibited. Many peo-
ple are satisfied with the pleasure which comes from
the owning of good birds. The number of ama-
teurs entering a few birds in the big shows is con-
stantly growing, however, and the judging is
followed with keen interest by men of wealth and
position, who are in the game only because they en-
joy the good-natured rivalry and competition. The
105
106. “THE HOME POULTRY ‘BOOK
fraternity of poultry fanciers covers the whole coun-
try and its members are enthusiasts. They are or-
ganized into a national body known as the Amer-
ican Poultry Association and most of the popular
breeds are represented by specialty clubs.
In order to have poultry eligible for admission to
a show, one must work along somewhat different
lines from the utility breeder. The birds must con-
form to certain requirements set down in a book
called the American Standard of Perfection and if
they possess various defects in form or otherwise
will be disqualified at the start and receive no con-
sideration. The birds in some shows are judged by
comparison and in some shows scored. Scoring is
an advantage to the amateur, as it shows him in what
points his birds are weak.
If money counts with the amateur, the ability to
breed birds scoring high and winning important
prizes will prove a source of no little profit. The
writer enjoys the friendly acquaintance of a clergy-
man who keeps about 100 thoroughbred Plymouth
Rocks on a town lot. A few years ago he began
showing a few birds each year and was gratified
to be awarded a number of premiums. Other
breeders noted his birds and his winnings and be-
PANGY (POULTRY TAS ALPASEIME, | 107
gan writing him for eggs and stock. Now his
bank account is annually swelled to a substantial
degree — being a minister, it was never very large
—by the profits he receives from his fancy fowls.
However, it takes skill and experience to breed
prize winning poultry. Some people never acquire
the knack, while to others it seems to come naturally.
The best way to begin is to buy a trio of carefully
bred birds of the breed decided upon from a man
who has a well-earned reputation at stake. Fifty
dollars is not too much to pay for a male and two
hens of really first-class stock. If that is more than
the beginner can afford, he can buy less high priced
birds, of course. An even less expensive way to
begin is to buy a setting of eggs from a pen of
high-grade birds. Starting with the best stock one
can afford, simply puts one that much farther ahead.
Having secured birds from a good strain, the
amateur who works intelligently will seek to per-
petuate the qualities of that strain. To carelessly
introduce the blood of another strain would be rank
folly. Ifa trio of birds has been purchased from
a breeder who is wholly dependable, the amateur
may be reasonably sure that the mating will pro-
duce good chickens. The pullets hatched may be
108 THE’ HOME POULTRY BOOK
bred to the original male the next season and
again the following Spring as mature hens. Then
additional hens may be secured of the breeder from
whom the first purchase was made and mated with
a cock descended from the original male or with that
very bird. This plan will prevent too close inbreed-
ing.
The cockerels used for breeding ought to be prac-
tically counterparts of their sire, this being an in-
dication that the points which make the latter
desirable are well fixed. For the rest, the amateur
breeder must learn by experience and study how
to make his matings in order to get the best results.
By keeping a copy of the Standard of Perfection,
costing $2.00, close at hand, he will be able to learn
just the shape, weight, color and markings which a
perfect bird of his. favorite breed would have to
possess. This will be his guide.
It often happens that hens bred strictly for fancy
purposes will not lay as well as strains developed
for utility. Egg production is neglected in order to
secure certain physical characteristics. This is nat-
ural and the amateur should not expect to develop
a strain along both utility and fancy lines. More-
over, the fancier wants to give his chickens every
All light-colored birds need to be thoroughly washed be-
fore they are entered in a show
VANCY POULTRY “AS A) PASTIME. 109
possible advantage and so will not force his breed-
ing stock for eggs. He will, on the contrary, try
to keep his hens in the best possible condition, so
that the eggs will have a high percentage of fertility
and produce robust youngsters.
Matings should be made soon aiter the first of
January and only a few hens kept with each male.
While the utility poultryman may keep his fowls in
a single large flock, the fancier will need several
pens, so that it will be easy to keep his matings
separate. It would be a calamity if occupants of
the different pens should become mixed, even for a
day.
After the breeder acquires something of a repu-
tation, he finds it an easy matter to sell his eggs
for hatching purposes and at a much higher price
than they would bring in the market. Hundreds
of amateurs with no more than a local reputation
have no difficulty in disposing of a considerable
number at a dollar for thirteen. Indeed, if a man
has a flock of particularly good looking hens of an
attractive breed, he usually finds a local demand for
hatching eggs, even though he does not pretend to
be a fancier. Indeed, one dollar a sitting is com-
monly paid for eggs from a strain bred solely for
110 LHE HOME: POULTRY BOGE
high egg production. A small advertisement in one
of the papers often helps to bring in a few dollars
for eggs and if the amateur starts with a breed not
common in his locality, he will be sure to be asked
for setting eggs.
The chickens raised must be carefully culled and
on this point the amateur will need advice the first
season. Not more than fifty per cent. can rea-
sonably be expected to prove of value as fancy
stock.
To be a fancier does not necessarily mean to keep
what are commonly spoken of as the fancy breeds.
Indeed, some of the best-known fanciers specialize in
Plymouth Rocks, Rhode Island Reds and Leghorns.
The Barred Plymouth Rock breed, by the way, is
one of the most difficult in which to secure first-
class specimens.
There are many amateurs, however, who are not
fanciers, strictly speaking, but who keep the more
ornamental breeds because their beauty of plumage,
stylish carriage or pert manners appeal to them.
The Houdan and Polish fowls, for example, with
their curious topknots, have a host of admirers, who
try to keep their pens filled with high-grade birds
just because they enjoy looking at them and being
PANGY POULTRY (AS 2 PASPIME: 114
among them. The Langshans, Hamburgs, Andalu-
sians, White Faced Black Spanish and Silver Wyan-
dottes are exceedingly ornamental and are prized
for that reason.
The Bantams, too, are highly popular among ama-
teurs who breed poultry simply as a recreation.
Physicians seem to have a special fondness for these
dainty little fowls and some of them are well-known
exhibitors. It is not an easy matter to breed show
Bantams, but there is no little fascination in en-
deavoring to produce prize specimens.
Fowls which are to be exhibited require special
training, so that they will submit to the handling of
the judge and pose properly for inspection. This
means that they must be worked with from chicken-
hood and made accustomed to being lifted and car-
ried about. Patience is required to get them to
stand motionless sufficiently long to have their pic-
tures taken while they “look pleasant.” Gently
stroking the throat seems to have a soothing effect
when the birds are being taught to pose.
White birds which are to be shown need wash-
ing before being shipped to the show room. The
usual method is to prepare three tubs of water, one
cold, one warm and one lukewarm, a little bluing
112 THE HOME POULTRY BOOK
being added to the cold water. A warm room is
needed, for poultry shows come in cold weather; in
practice, the kitchen is commonly made use of. The
bird is first scrubbed with warm water, using a brush
and always rubbing downward. Soap should be
used freely, but thoroughly rinsed off in the second
tub, the victim being soused in the cooler water.
Then a dipping or two in the bluing water will give
the finishing touch to the bath. Next in order is a
thorough drying with sponge and towel, after which
the bird is placed in a coop, the bottom of which is
covered thickly with sawdust, and the coop given a
location near the fire, but not close enough to cause
the feathers to crinkle from the heat.
While fowls with dark plumage are not often
washed, all need a certain amount of attention and
the man who sends his birds to the show in the best
of condition has an advantage over his more slovenly
competitor. Whatever the breed, the legs, comb,
wattles and lobes should be carefully cleansed with
warm water, using soap and a soft sponge.
It will be realized from what has been written,
that the breeding of fancy poultry is not an under-
taking to be entered upon lightly if one is really
ambitious for success in the show room. And yet
FANCY POULTRY: AS A PASTIME | i793
beginners sometimes have most unexpected success.
Time and again a new exhibitor has come before
the judges and carried away some of the most im-
portant prizes. And whether one wins or loses, the
fascination of breeding thoroughbred poultry does
not soon pall.
CHAPTER X
DUCKS, GEESE AND GUINEA FOWL
UCKS, geese and guinea fowls are not for
1) the amateur who has only a very small lot.
The man or woman, however, who has
enough land so that the stock need not be confined
too closely will find these birds profitable, as well as
providing meat for the table at low cost. One va-
riety of duck, the Indian Runner, may even be de-
pended upon for eggs, for it is remarkably prolific,
laying from 140 to 200 eggs a year.
It is only of late years that the Indian Runner
duck has become popular. Now, birds of this
breed are being raised in constantly increasing num-
bers. Many women are taking up the Runners,
seeming to consider that they are somewhat easier
to care for than hens. Perhaps this is a fact, for
they are hardy and strong, grow quickly and never
need to be coddled. It is not at all improbable that
some amateurs will substitute them for the more
common kinds of poultry in the years to come, for
II4
DUCKS, (GEESE AND GUINEAS: ris
the eggs are large and of good flavor. Some
strains lay white and other strains greenish-tinged
eggs. Of course the pure white eggs are to be pre-
ferred, so that when buying stock, one should be
careful to learn the color of the eggs produced.
Day-old ducklings may be purchased for about 25
cents each and are easily reared with a hen.
There are three varieties of Indian Runners —
penciled, fawn and white and pure white. The
penciled Runners represent the English type, but
the American standard recognizes, as yet, only the
fawn and white variety. Some breeders insist that
the penciled birds are more certain to lay white eggs
than the American type, and are more prolific, but
the latter are more commonly seen. Doubtless all
three varieties will be standardized eventually.
The whites are rather scarce at present and bring
higher prices than the other kinds.
Given proper care, Indian Runner ducks are easy
to raise and require no water to swim in, although
they demand a surprisingly large amount to drink
and dabble in. It is necessary that they have water
always before them and in a receptacle deep enough
so that they can dip their beaks into the water to
the nostril openings, for these openings often be-
116 THE HOME POULTRY BOOK
come clogged with soft food or mud and the birds
are in danger of smothering unless water is at hand.
The ducks should be kept in a yard by themselves
and in clean, dry quarters free from draughts. If
allowed to run with the other poultry they will gob-
ble up more than their share of the food and make
nuisances of themselves in other ways. The duck-
lings must not be allowed out in a shower nor per-
mitted to swim even in a mud puddle until they are
feathered out— and they acquire feathers much
more slowly than chickens.
Low, rough shelters are sufficient for the ducks.
A dry goods box will answer for a small flock and
one side may be left open or covered with muslin
tacked to a light frame. There should be a liberal
supply of sawdust, shavings or straw on the floor
for a litter, so that the floor will be dry, and this
litter will need frequent renewing, for the webbed
feet of the ducks carry much water and mud. The
ducks should be confined until the middle of the
forenoon in the laying season, for they almost in-
variably lay their eggs in the morning, often drop-
ping them on the litter wherever they happen to be,
but sometimes fashioning temporary nests.
Indian Runner ducks eat about as much as hens.
Toulouse geese are noisy, but are profitable if they have
grass land to run on
dy btu a3 ae
9%
DUCKS, GEESE AND GUINEAS 117
The ducklings, however, are very greedy, but their
rapid growth may be considered sufficient justifica-
tion for their astonishing appetites. No food
should be given for the first 36 hours, although
water should be provided and in a dish which the
youngsters cannot climb into. The activity of a
day-old duckling is surprising to people who are ac-
customed only to chickens.
Bread soaked in milk or water and sprinkled with
coarse sand or chick grit may be fed four times a
day for three or four days and then a soft mash
gradually substituted. A good mash is made of
four parts bran, one part ground oats, one part corn
meal, two parts of green stuff and one part of
beef scraps. A little chick grit and charcoal may
be added. Some breeders put the grit in the water
dish, as the ducklings will usually pick it out. The
green stuff may be dandelions, lettuce, clover or
alfalfa. The mash should be crumbly and not wet.
It is well not to include the beef scraps until the
ducklings are a week old and to begin with some-
what less than one full part.
When the ducklings are eight weeks old, cracked
corn and wheat may be fed at night. Whole corn
may be substituted when they grow old enough to
118 THE, TOME: POULTRY ‘S0CK
eat it easily. When matured, a laying ration made
as follows may be fed: Two parts bran, one part
ground oats, one part corn meal, one part of beef
scraps, one part of alfalfa. Waste vegetables may
be added and corn and wheat fed at night, the
mash being given in the morning and at noon. Grit
and oyster shells should be kept where the birds can
have free access to them.
This is the conventional way of feeding~ ducks
and ducklings and serves to keep them in prime con-
dition. Yet simpler methods will answer. Being
pressed for time, the writer tried feeding rolled oats
dry at frequent intervals and found that the duck-
lings both relished and thrived on them. He even
went so far on many occasions as to sprinkle rolled
oats all about the grass run where the ducklings
were confined and to leave them from early morn-
me until late 4a the-aiternoon, ‘a larse covered
drinking fountain supplying the water. No bad ef-
fects followed, either. Coddling is no more neces-
sary than for chickens. And yet this hit and miss
method of feeding is not recommended, if more than
a very few birds are being raised.
A yard made of single boards will confine the
ducklings at first, and the location should be shifted
DUCKS? GEESE AND GUINEAS... (139
several times a week. If the ducklings are being
cared for by a hen, she may be allowed to jump out
and roam around. The youngsters have no use for
her, anyway, except as a source of heat, and pay no
attention when she gets excited over a bug or worm
and tries to call them to the feast. The hen is
likely to get disgusted with her charges rather early,
but that does not matter, for they become large
enough in a few weeks to dispense with her services.
Even after the ducks are full grown a low fence
will confine them and they give much less trouble
than hens. They may be driven like sheep from
place to place, as the flock always keep together,
and suffer little from vermin.
If given a wide range, the Indian Runners will
pick up a large percentage of their rations, for they
are excellent foragers. When confined, it is most
important that they have green food in abundance.
Grass clippings and the refuse from the garden
should go into their pen and it is well to grow let-
tuce, cress or other vegetables for them.
The birds of this breed do not dress as heavy or
as attractively as Pekin ducks, which are the table
ducks par excellence, but the meat is fine-grained
and unsurpassed in flavor. The Runners make ex-
120 THE HOME POULTRY BOOK
‘cellent broilers. This particular breed has been
discussed at length because it is less well known than
the Pekin and because it has qualities which com-
mend it especially, the writer believes, to the ama-
teur. Most beginners, at least, do not care to raise
poultry purely for the table. The suggestion of
taking life is made too emphatic. The Indian Run-
ner may be raised mainly for the eggs produced,
with the meat supply as a supplementary item.
It is true that breeders of Pekin ducks often are
able to sell the young birds alive, although at a de-
creased profit. There is no question that Pekins
are money-makers; perhaps they are the most
famous of market fowl, for they are distinctly a
meat breed. Being pure white, they dress to good
advantage and the feathers are worth forty cents
or more a pound. If properly grown, these ducks
are ready for market at ten weeks or a little more,
when they weigh five or six pounds.
Pekin ducks and ducklings may be given the
rations and general care described for Indian Run-
ners, except that a larger percentage of corn meal
is needed when the ducks are being fattened for
the table. The ducklings are timid and easily
stampeded, sometimes piling up in a corner when
Spilq dues
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DUCKS, GEESE AND ‘GUINEAS |: ‘tei
startled, with serious results to the birds at the bot-
tom of the pile. Some breeders keep a lantern
burning in the house at night, as a partial protection
against this sort of thing.
The one other kind of duck which the amateur is
likely to keep is the Rouen, which is a particularly
good table fowl, but not so popular as the Pekin be-
cause of its dark-colored feathers and slower
growth. Rouens are hardy, gentle and good layers.
They are not so easily stampeded as the Pekins and
may be kept in larger flocks. The amateur with a
small farm will find a few of them an excellent in-
vestment, for they will shift for themselves to a
large extent, requiring but little care.
When ducks of any breed are yarded, the ques-
tion of sanitation becomes an important and some-
times a vexing one. Too large a number should be
avoided so that the birds may be shifted from one
yard to another occasionally, the yard vacated being
spaded or plowed and sowed to a thick-growing
crop like rye. Shade must also be provided if there
is no natural shelter, and may take the form of
strips of burlap or old grain sacks fastened to a
light frame. It should not be dense.
Only amateurs living in the country should try
122 THESHOME: POULTRY BOOK
raising geese, for they require more room than
ducks and chafe at confinement. Geese are grazing
creatures like cattle and need pasture. Meadows
and marshes are ideal for them, if they also have
access to land which is high and dry. They are
very easy to raise, cost almost nothing to keep and
bring a satisfactory price when marketed. Many
people miss an excellent opportunity to add to their
incomes by not keeping a few geese.
Geese live from twenty to fifty years if given the
opportunity. Indeed, instances of geese living to
be a hundred are not rare. Ganders, however, are
likely to become vicious after they reach the age of
six years and usually are disposed of when com-
paratively young, for they have powerful wings and
are able to seriously injure women and children.
It is not a sign of cowardice to run from an enraged
gander.
Often three settings may be secured if the eggs
are removed from the nest. Hens may be allowed
to hatch the first lots, the eggs laid last being given
the goose to incubate. Goose eggs require from 28
to 31 days to hatch, those under geese often hatch-
ing quicker than those under hens. As geese do not
begin laying until late Winter or early Spring, the
DUCKS, GEESE AND GUINEAS 123
goslings usually may be put on grass at once, being
given a light mash of bran and corn meal twice a
day the first week. If they are to be fattened for
the early summer market, the mash should be con-
tinued, but otherwise the youngsters will get along
very well on grass alone, plus what bugs and insects
they are able to secure, although an occasional mash
with the addition of cooked vegetables and some
beef scraps will help promote growth, as well as
teaching the birds to come home from their roaming
every night.
Simple sheds to protect them from the biting
winds and driving rains are all that geese need.
They do not feel the cold. Indeed, a goose will
settle down in a blizzard and appear comfortable
enough, changing her position only to prevent being
buried under the snow.
The Toulouse and Embden geese are the breeds
commonly kept. Both are large, massive and at-
tractive. They are much alike in appearance except
that the Embdens are pure white, while the Tou-
louse geese have a large proportion of gray feathers.
The Toulouse geese are the more prolific, but the
Embdens make the better mothers. Probably the
former are to be preferred if yarding is necessary,
124 THE HOME POULTRY, BOOK
as they endure confinement with some degree of
patience.
Gray African geese are good layers and excellent
for the table, as the meat is fine-grained. They can
be made to weigh eight pounds in ten weeks, so that
they rival the Pekin duck. Many breeders find
them profitable. Geese have strong lungs and are
prone to exercise them when startled or when stran-
gers approach. Sometimes this is an advantage;
every schoolboy knows that a flock of geese once
saved Rome.
When it comes to noise, however, the guinea
fowl claims attention. Its raucous cry may be
heard a long distance and often unpleasantly early
in the morning. But then, even the gorgeous pea-
cock offends in this way. It often happens, too,
that the cry of the guinea fowl is not to be deplored,
for it is highly effective in keeping away hawks and
may be depended upon to give the alarm if intruders
attempt to enter the poultry house at night.
Guineas are being grown in increasing numbers be-
cause of the demand created by high-class hotels,
clubs and restaurants. Game has become scarce
and guinea chickens are the best substitute which
has been discovered. Formerly they masqueraded
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DUCKS, GEESE AND GUINEAS 125
under some other name, but now they are often
served frankly as guinea chickens, for their merits
have been recognized.
The meat of old guineas is tough, but that of
birds a few months old is tender and delicious to a
degree few people realize. These birds are well
worth growing for the family table, although they
may be made decidedly profitable. People who
have only a little land can purchase eggs, set them
under a hen or two and dress the young birds as
they are wanted. By this plan they may be had
for the table without the necessity of wintering
breeding stock. Mature guineas rebel at being con-
fined, although it 1s quite possible to keep a few ina
comparatively small yard. However, they do but
little damage when allowed their freedom, for they
do not scratch up the garden like ordinary hens, but
walk sedately up and down the rows of vegetables,
stopping at frequent intervals to gobble down a
bug.
Guinea hens like to make their nests in secret
places, and if they are yarded, it is well to provide
piles of brush for their use. When at liberty, the
location of the nest often may be discovered by
watching the male, who stands guard close by dur-
126 THE HOME POULTRY BOOK
ing the period of incubation. If left to her own
devices, the hen will lay many more eggs than she
can cover, so that it 1s customary to remove them.
This proceeding is one which demands caution, for
the guinea hen is a wise and suspicious bird. Peo-
ple say she can count to five. Anyway, that num-
ber of eggs should always be left in the nest and
those which are removed, while the hen seeks pro-
vender, must be lifted out with a wooden spoon.
The amateur may laugh at this statement, and call
it an old wife’s tale. He will learn better when he
sees nest after nest abandoned.
The eggs removed should be given to hens, al-
though the latter might refuse to take them if they
realized the task confronting them. Guinea chicks
are strange little creatures. They fairly pop out of
their shells when the day of hatching comes, and as
soon as they are dried off, they are ready to start
out to see the world. Unless boards or netting 1s
placed around the nest, there is danger that the ven-
turesome young guineas will wander away and be-
come lost. Although they grow rapidly and soon
become quite capable of caring for themselves,
they refuse to be weaned and continue to tag after
the hen which has mothered them until they
DUCKS, GEESE AND GUINEAS ‘127
are matured, much to the ill-concealed disgust of
biddy.
Guinea fowls, if there are more than two or three,
should not be yarded with the other poultry, for
they are confirmed mischief makers and will make
life a burden for the common hens, chasing them
from one end of the yard to the other and driving
them away from their meals. As a matter of fact,
it is not easy to keep them yarded at all, unless their
wings are clipped or the yards covered, for they have
well-developed flying powers.
Amateurs usually experience no little difficulty in
distinguishing the sexes. The males commonly are
larger than the females, possess larger wattles and
have some white on their breasts. Then, too, they
are not as talkative as their mates and have a shorter
note than the “buck-wheat” call of the hen. A
pen of guineas usually consists of one male and from
six to ten females. The young birds are often sold
by the pair and are not dressed. Indeed, the ama-
teur should have no difficulty in disposing of a few
birds alive, and so avoid the unpleasant task of kill-
ing them. Where there is sufficient land available,
it is worth while experimenting with a pen of
guinea fowls.
CHAPTER XI
SOME OPEN SECRETS
UCCESSFUL poultry keeping is not a ques-
tion of secret methods. If it were, the few
who had been initiated into the mysteries of
the craft would reap the harvest of eggs, and the
rest of us would fare but poorly. There are certain
“short cuts,” to be sure, which have been widely
advertised and some of which have merit. Very
few of them, however, are not known in a general
way to experienced poultry keepers all over the
country.
Take a much-exploited method of picking out the
laying hens, which is dependable to a limited extent.
The pelvic bones, which must spread to admit the
passage of an egg that is being laid, are examined
to determine their relative location. If three fingers
can be placed between these bones, the hen is sup-
posed to be laying prolifically. If room is found for
two fingers, she is laying fairly well. If however,
128
SOME OPEN SECRETS 129
there is barely space for a single finger, few eggs
are being produced. My personal faith in this test
is not great.
The limitation of the method lies in the fact that
it shows only what the hen is doing in the egg-
laying line at that particular time. At the sea-
son when eggs are coming abundantly, all the hens
of the same age and brought up together should
be laying and one may feel safe in disposing of
such as are derelict. This test may be used when
one is reducing his stock in the late Spring, and the
hens apparently not laying at that time selected for
market. It is a decided saving to get rid of such
hens as are not laying in June and July; and of
course, it is foolish to keep drones at any season.
The condition of the comb and general appearance
of a hen are indications to practical poultry keepers
as to whether a hen is laying or not.
‘
Amateurs often find it wise to “ put down” eggs
in the Spring, when they are cheap, for use the fol-
lowing Winter. There are several ways by which
eggs may be preserved, but the best one is so simple
that there is no reason why it should not be gen-
erally used. Silicate of soda, or water glass, may
be purchased at any drug store and is diluted with
130 | DHE HOME POULTRY Boor
ten times its bulk of water. It is then poured into
a crock and the eggs completely submerged. If
kept in a cool place, the eggs will remain in good
condition for months. It is necessary, of course,
that they be fresh at the beginning, and it is better
to use eggs from hens with which no male birds are
running. These eggs should not be sold, however,
for the shells break easily when placed in hot water
and the eggs often pop when boiled. And apart
from that fact, the wise amateur makes it a point
never to sell eggs which he is not sure are less than
two weeks old, even to his unsuspecting relatives.
The easiest way to keep track of chicks in order
to tell at a glance from which pen they came is to
punch the webs of the feet with punches made for
this purpose and costing twenty-five cents. Al-
though some breeders wait until the chicks are a
month old, it is safer to do the work before the end
of a week, for then there is little bleeding and con-
sequently less danger that the chicks will acquire the
reprehensible habit of picking each other’s feet, as
happens when they get a taste of blood. In some
instances the feet of chickens have been picked al-
most to pieces.
The punching should be done quickly and the hole
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SOME: OPEN SECRETS 131
made well up in the web, but not far enough to in-
jure the bones. By making the holes between dif-
ferent toes and punching both feet it is possible to
make a large number of combinations. It follows,
of course, that a record of these marks must be kept,
or the work will go for nothing. Leg bands are
often used for marking poultry; they are adjustable
to legs of varying sizes and cost but fifteen cents a
dozen or seventy-five cents for a hundred. Each
band is numbered and a record of the numbers must
be kept.
When a broody hen deserts her nest, as a broody
hen sometimes will, the amateur should not become
needlessly alarmed. If the weather is not exceed-
ingly cold or the hen off for several hours before her
defection is discovered, the chances are that the
eggs will hatch, although the chicks may be a day or
two later in coming out. There usually is even
time to go to a neighbor’s home to borrow a sit-
ting hen if there is not an extra one at hand. The
new hen’s head should be covered when she is be-
ing moved to meet such an emergency and the nest
should be made dark when she is put on the
eggs.
If a hen deserts a nest, her action is likely to be
1332 THE HOME POULTRY ‘BOOK
inspired by the presence of lice in greater numbers
than she can endure. There is no reason why a
hen should not hatch two broods of chicks in suc-
cession, if she is given good care. The first chicks
may be removed to a brooder or given to another
hen with only a few to look after.
Capons may be used to brood young chicks and
will care for them with the utmost patience and
solicitude. They are better for chicks several weeks
old than for very young ones, for they are so heavy
and clumsy that they frequently crush their charges
unless the latter are active enough to get out of the
way, and they are so stupid that they will not think
in time to lift their feet in spite of the victim’s fran-
tic appeals. Apart from this failing, they are very
satisfactory guardians of growing chicks. Some
amateurs find it an advantage to have their cock-
erels caponized, the cost being five to ten cents
for each bird. The capons grow very large and
make surpassing table fowl, while they may be kept
in large numbers in small yards without any sign
of quarreling among them. The plan is a good
one when it is desired to keep a considerable num-
ber of cockerels on hand to be served on the home
table from time to time.
SOME OPEN SECRETS 133
When chickens are killed and dressed for home
consumption, the ax is usually the weapon relied
upon, although professional pickers use a knife with
which they pierce the brain through the mouth. The
amateur’s job, always an unpleasant one, is sim-
plified by using a block into one end of which a
spike has been driven. Then a stout bit of cord
may be made into a loop passed around the chick-
en’s head and slipped over the spike. Holding the
legs of the bird in his left hand, the operator is
able to use his ax in his right hand with assurance
that the first blow will be the only blow needed, for
the chicken will not be able to dodge.
It is as easy to pick a chicken as soon as it has
been killed as to let it become cool and then scald
it, for the feathers come off quickly while the flesh
is warm. The breast and neck should be picked
first, as there is most danger of tearing the skin
there. A strawberry huller such as is found in
most kitchens is highly useful in removing the pin
feathers. As soon as the chicken has been freed
of its feathers, the carcass should be plunged into
cold water and allowed to remain until thoroughly
chilled. The experts say that the bird should not
be drawn until it is to be made ready for cooking,
i34. THE HOME POULTRY 00k
as it keeps better than when the intestines are re-
moved.
If the amateur prefers to scald his chickens before
picking them, the carcass should be immersed in
water just below the boiling point, and the water
allowed to penetrate the feathers to the skin. As
soon as the feathers have been removed, the bird
should be thrown into very hot or even boiling water
and quickly withdrawn and plunged into ice water,
where it may be left several hours. This practice
will give the carcass a plump and attractive appear-
ance. Ducks must be left in the hot water con-
siderable longer than chickens in order to have the
water penetrate the feathers, but ducks may be
picked dry as readily as other poultry. A good plan
is to pick the longer feathers of ducks dry and to
then scald off the others.
Nest eggs are of value in teaching the pullets to
lay in the nests and to prevent several hens piling
into one nest. A nest egg is easily made by pierc-
ing the end of an ordinary egg and blowing the
contents out, afterward filling the egg with plaster
paris, warmed so that it can be used readily. When
the plaster hardens, a strong, durable nest egg is the
result.
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SOME OPEN SECRETS 138
When fanciers sell eggs for table use after the
breeding season is over, they sometimes plunge them
into boiling water, smear them with grease or prick
a tiny hole in one end so as to prevent the buyers
taking advantage of the low price to set the eggs.
All these methods damage the product and the seller’s
reputation. The only safe way to make sure of the
infertility of the eggs sold is to remove the male
from the pen in which the hens are confined. In-
fertile eggs are always best for the table — some
people who sell eggs to a high-class clientelle ad-
vertise the fact that they market infertile eggs only.
If milk is fed to chickens, it should always be
sweet or always sour. It is the alternating of sweet
and sour milk which causes trouble. Milk is a
splendid food for growing stock and may be used
to advantage when clabbered.
In order to get a preponderance of pullets, a cock
considerable older than the hens should be used
and the breeding pen consist of twenty or more
birds. Probably there will be some decrease in fer-
tility, but the object aimed at will be gained in most
instances. The amateur hatching his chicks late in
the Spring is more likely to get a large number of
pullets than the man who hatches extra early chicks.
36 |) THE TOME POULTRY BOOk
Although oats are the grain commonly sprouted
for green food, barley, wheat or rye may be used
just as well. The grain should be covered with
warm water and soaked over night. In the morn-
ing it may be spread in shallow boxes having drain-
age holes in the bottom and sprinkled every day with
a watering can, using hot water. When the sprouts
are an inch or two long they are just right for
chickens, but they may be allowed to grow to a
length of five or six inches for mature fowls. If
the grain is turned or stirred every day, the shoots
will not grow as thick as otherwise. This is the
much advertised secret of food at fifteen cents a
bushel.
If the chicks must be raised in the same runs year
after year, it is a great advantage to cover the sur-
face with coal ashes, which should be replaced each
season. The ashes keep the soil from becoming
foul, tend to keep the ground dry and are relished
by the chicks, which consume considerable of
them.
When laying hens or pullets must be moved, they
should be kept rather hungry for several days and
fed in a fresh, deep litter. Being busy hunting
‘food, they will be less excited or disturbed over
SOME OPEN! SECRETS 137
the change in their surroundings, and the yield of
eggs will not fall off materially.
It is an economical practice to feed dried grass
clippings in a little rack. An excellent plan is to
spread the clippings three inches deep on a section
of two-inch poultry wire four feet long and then
roll the wire very tightly. The roll should be hung
within easy reach of the fowls.
CHAPTER XII
INSECT PESTS AND OTHER TROUBLES
T is to be regretted that the little word lice must
be writ so large in a poultry keeper’s hand book
as is the case. Somebody has said that fleas
should be welcomed by a dog because they help him
to forget that he is a dog. Perhaps this is true of
lice in their relation to the hen; at any rate, they
encourage activity on the part of the poultryman,
who is obliged for his own comfort to keep his
poultry house comparatively free of this pest. Lice
spell failure for the lazy amateur, as well as for
the professional. The only way to be free of them
is to keep everlastingly spraying and dusting — and
above all, to keep the premises clean.
Three kinds of lice are found in practically every
poultry house, in spite of what some indignant ama-
teurs may say. First, there is the common gray
body louse, which feeds at the roots of the feathers
and causes the fowls untold irritation. Then there
is the head louse, a large and blood-thirsty insect
138
INSECTS AND OTHER TROUBLES 139
which causes great mortality among young chicks,
although it is also found and is propagated on mature
birds. Finally, there is the red mite, which preys
on the poultry at night and seeks shelter during the
day in crevices and corners and under the roosting
perch. Turn over these perches in many hen houses,
and the under side will be found fairly red with
tiny mites. Like the head louse, they suck the blood
of the hens and sap their vitality as well as causing
extreme discomfort.
The fecundity of hen lice is amazing. Start with
one female under favorable conditions and in two
months her progeny will number 125,000. Is it any
wonder that constant activity on the part of the at-
tendant is necessary?
And yet the amateur need not be discouraged.
It is not impossible to keep the pests in subjection.
Filth is most favorable to the increase of vermin,
and so the house must be kept reasonably clean.
Plenty of opportunity to dust themselves will be
all the hens ask, as a rule, in order to keep them-
selves fairly free of lice on their bodies in the day
time. The fowls are completely at the mercy of
the red mites, however, and the poultry keeper must
take a hand in their extermination by making fre-
140 THE HOME POULTRY BOOK
quent use of kerosene or one of the prepared liquid
lice paints. He should thoroughly cover the walls,
the perches and the nests once a month the year
around and twice a month in Summer. A spray
pump will help to minimize the work as well as to
economize on material and to reach every part of
the house. If detachable fixtures are used, they
may be removed in order to facilitate the work as
well as to make it more thorough. Special atten-
tion should be given the roost and the boards or
blocks which support it at the ends. It is best to
apply the kerosene or other liquid in the morning
on a bright day, so that it will dry and evaporate
before the fowls go to roost.
Whitewashing the interior of the house is an ex-
cellent plan, especially if a little carbolic acid be
added to the whitewash.
If a poultry house is found to be badly infested,
it is well to give it a thorough spraying with kero-
sene or a liquid lice killer and then to dust the hens
after they have gone to roost with Persian insect
powder (Dalmatian powder) or with a prepared
lice powder. If the Persian insect powder is used,
care should be taken to have it fresh. A box with
a few holes punched in the bottom may be used as a
INSECTS AND OPMER TROUBLES. (141
sifter. A ten-cent box with a sifter top may be
bought at many drug stores. The hen should be
grasped by the legs and held head downward while
the powder is dusted into the fluff around the vent
and under the wings, favorite haunts of the lice.
The powder should be well worked into the fluff
and the birds put back on the roosts. It is well to
do this work by lantern light, so that the fowls will
“stay put.”’ Special attention should be given the
roosters, as they are not likely to dust themselves as
thoroughly as the hens.
A large proportion of the chicks which perish
every season succumb to the ravages of lice. It
often is difficult to make the amateur realize this
fact, but it is a fact, nevertheless. When the chicks
hatch, the head lice at once leave the mother hen
for them, speedily exhausting their vitality. The
body lice, too, accumulate rapidly. or the latter,
powder dusted on the chicks and under the wings
of the hen, where the chicks hover, will suffice.
This powder will not exterminate the head lice, how-
ever; a very little lard or proprietary ointment
rubbed on the head of each chick is necessary in order
to secure freedom from these pests. Several ap-
plications of these insecticides while the chicks are
142 THE HOME POULTRY BOOK
young will be needed. In fact, there is no likelihood
that this work of warring on lice will be overdone
abenmy. tine.
After lice, the cause of the greatest loss to poul-
try keepers is tainted ground. It is not necessary
to enumerate the troubles which come from this
source. Indeed, it is not worth while to suggest
remedies to use after they come. The one impor-
tant point to make is that new ground must be
sought at frequent intervals or the old ground kept
sweet by plowing, spading, the use of lime or ashes
and the growing of green crops. Air-slacked lime
is valuable both outside the house and in.
There are a number of common troubles which
may come up to puzzle the amateur. One of them
is frosted combs. There is no remedy after the
comb becomes black, but while the comb is still white
with frost it may be held in cold water until the
frost has been taken out and then rubbed with car-
bolated vaseline, drawing the fingers rapidly from
the head to the tips of the comb to promote the cir-
culation of blood.
Shelless eggs are the result of too hard forcing for
eges and the use of condiments, among other things.
The absence of shell forming material like oyster
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INSECTS. AND OTHER (TROUBLES 143
shells is an obvious cause. If green food is lacking
that may have a tendency to cause this trouble.
There seem to be few shelless eggs when a hopper
of bran and beef scraps is kept in the pen. Sudden
fright may cause the dropping of an egg before the
shell has formed.
Egg eating is a bad habit and often difficult to
eradicate, for a whole flock may contract it from a
single hen. The original cause usually lies in a lack
of shell-making material or of meat. Ifa hen with
this habit is discovered, she should by all means
be removed from the pen. Sometimes a number of
nest eggs scattered about the floor will put a stop to
the practice, the hens soon becoming tired of testing
their beaks on the hard surfaces. Another remedy
may give better results, although calling for a little
more work. The natural contents of several eggs
may be removed and the shells filled with a mixture
of soft soap and red pepper, the openings being
closed with bits of court plaster. After breaking a
few eggs of this sort and sampling the contents, the
hens are likely to be sickened of this habit. Keep-
ing the nests dark is also advisable.
Feather eating is another bad habit, and may arise
either from a craving for more animal food or from
4: 6 THEHOME POUETRY BOOK
lack of exercise. The best remedy is to give the
fowls wider range or to use a deep litter in the house
and force them to scratch persistently for all the
grain they get. Busy hens rarely have time to in-
dulge in these evil practices. Of course, a generous
supply of beef scraps should be given, if the trouble
may be traced to a lack of sufficient meat in their
rations.
Scaly legs are caused by a parasite and the remedy
is three tablespoonfuls of lard, two of kerosene oil
and one of glycerine, which should be mixed warm
and two drops of carbolic acid added. After wash-
ing and drying the legs of the birds, this mixture
should be applied generously and when warm. Two
applications a week for a month will usually prove
sufficient.
Sick birds are not worth bothering with, as a rule.
The amateur who keeps his flock well housed, well
fed and in a sanitary condition will have little trouble
with disease, anyway, if cautious about introducing
strange birds.
CHAPTER XIII
THE YEAR’S WORK, MONTH BY MONTH
JANUARY
HE hen’s working day is short. Be sure
that she is kept busy every minute.
Give the evening meal at least an hour
before the hens go to roost. Whole corn is the best
evening ration at this season. If wet mash is used,
feed it early and give a feeding of corn an hour
later.
Gather the eggs several times a day; otherwise
they may freeze.
If the fowls are closely confined, it is well to shovel
some of the snow away from the door so that they
can get out on the ground a few hours on bright
days.
Don’t make the mistake of shutting the house up
tightly, even at night. Fresh air in abundance is the
one thing needful.
The beginner starting this month can order breed-
145
146 THE HOME POULTRY SOK
ing pens, say from six to ten females and one cock
bird. It pays to buy high-grade stock to breed from.
FEBRUARY
Orders for eggs to hatch should be put in early,
even though delivery is not desired until March or
April.
Incubators should be bought this month, although
the first of March is early enough for the amateur
to start them, unless eggs from heavy breeds like the
Cochins and Langshans are to be set. It pays to
make a careful study of the incubator question before
making a purchase and it does not pay to buy a cheap
machine.
Eggs to be used for hatching should be gathered
several times a day and kept at a temperature of be-
tween forty and sixty. Eggs over two weeks old
should not be used.
If one is breeding fancy poultry, the first of this
month is none too early to make up breeding pens.
If the dry mash is not being eaten freely, yet is
sweet and inviting, cut down on the supply of whole
or cracked grains.
If there is glass in the house, wash it. If cur-
THE YEAR’S WORK Be,
tains are used, brush them thoroughly several times
a week.
Dampness and draughts are to be watched for.
Dry, cold air is much less to be feared.
Keep a deep litter on the floor, but fresh enough
so that the grain will disappear from sight. Old
litter becomes packed down hard.
MARCH
This is the hatching month for the amateur. Set
the eggs for breeds like the Rocks, Wyandottes, Or-
pingtons and Rhode Islands Reds the first of the
month. Several weeks later will answer for the
smaller breeds like the Leghorns and Anconas.
When using hens, set several at one time, so that
the chicks will come off together, making it pos-
sible to double them up and so release some of the
hens.
Even when an incubator is used, it is a good
plan to set several hens at the same time. Then
the eggs under the hens which test fertile may be
used to replace those tested out of the machine.
This is the way to make the most of a small in-
cubator.
148 THE BOME POVETRY, BOOK
Be sure that the hen is dusted with lice powder
several times while she is sitting, the last time just
before the chicks hatch.
Spade up the poultry yard as soon as the ground
can be worked. If it has been neglected, scrape
up and remove an inch or more of the surface dirt,
which is sure to be very foul.
The strongest chicks will come from hens which
have not been forced hard for winter eggs. Se-
lecting hatching eggs from those laid by overworked
pullets is not a wise plan.
Duck eggs usually run fertile this month and
this is early enough for the amateur to set them,
especially those laid by Indian Runners.
Study the brooder catalogues. Outdoor brooders
will be satisfactory for chicks hatched as late as
March. Small colony houses with a good hover
set in each give good results. After the need for
heat has passed, the hover may be removed and
the chicks allowed to use the house for a coop.
APRIL
Chicks of the smaller breeds hatched this month
will mature in time to begin laying in the Fall.
THE YEAR’S WORK 149
The brooder must not be overcrowded and re-
quires close watching. The actions of the chicks
are the best indications as to temperature.
Sunlight and fresh air are most important if a
large percentage of chicks is to be raised. Look
to the ventilation. Often muslin can be substituted
for glass in at least a part of the window.
The little chicks should get on the ground as
soon as possible. A little yard of poultry wire
can be used at first, but must be round, so that the
chicks working their way along the fence will soon
find themselves back in the warm hover.
Chicks with hens require less attention, but biddy
should not be allowed to drag them through the wet
grass and they must be treated for lice frequently,
using powder on their backs and a bit of grease on
their heads.
Clean the incubator and give it a thorough sun
bath before filling it a second time.
All litter should be cleaned out of the poultry
house this month. If there is an earth floor, it is
well to remove an inch or more of the surface and
replace it with clean sand. This is also a good time
to remove all fixtures and give the house a thor-
ro)C[U} THE HOME: POULTEY BOOK
ough renovation. It may be whitewashed, sprayed
or washed with kerosene or treated to a coat of
prepared lice paint. Some of the latter are very
efficacious, one application sufficing for several
months.
Remove the broody hens to the breaking-up coop
the first night they are found on the nest, if they
are not to be set. The longer they sit, the more
difficult it becomes to make them forget that they
want to sit.
It is a simple matter to start in the poultry
business this month by buying a few broody
old hens and several sittings of eggs from good
stock.
MAY
Day-old chicks purchased the first of this month
will begin laying early in the Fall, if they belong
to the smaller breeds. This is a good way for the
amateur to begin. The chicks may be put under a
broody hen at night, raised in an ordinary heated
brooder or grown in a fireless brooder. The latter
will give satisfaction now that the weather is fairly
warm.
Teaching a White Cochin Bantam to pose. Bantams are
very tame and friendly
THE YEAR’S WORK ISI
should be disposed of, unless of special value. It
is poor policy to feed a lot of useless roosters all
Summer.
The chicks should be carefully shut in at night,
so that they will not fall victims to rats, skunks or
thieving cats. It is better to use wire netting with
a very fine mesh on the windows and doors, how-
ever, than to shut out the air.
If there are hawks about and the chicks are on
range, provide numerous brush heaps where the
youngsters can find shelter.
Dwarf Essex rape may be planted this month and
will make excellent green feed in a few weeks. It
should be cared for like cabbage. When the plants
are a foot high, break off the leaves, and they will
grow again.
If chicks of different ages are running together,
the small ones may be crowded away from the feed
boxes. To avoid this, make a covered frame of
slats sufficiently far apart so that the little chicks
can pass through, while the older ones can not.
Feed the babies in this frame and they will be able
to eat in comfort. The same method may be used
to prevent the old hen wasting the rations of the
chicks.
152 THE HOME POULTRY BOOK
JUNE
Give the incubator a thorough cleaning before
putting it away. Empty out the oil and remove the
old wicks.
The growing chicks must have shade. So, for
that matter, must the laying hens. In a Pennsyl-
vania farmer’s bulletin, Mr. A. Theo. Wittman ad-
vocates planting Jerusalem artichokes in the poultry
yard, and the plan seems a good one. They will
propagate themselves from year to year and the
fowls dislike the taste of the leaves too much to
eat them.
Fresh water in abundance is needed for hens and
chicks alike. Labor may be economized by using
a kerosene or other barrel which will hold several
gallons. The barrel should be elevated on blocks
and a small hole bored near the bottom. A plug
with a groove in one side may be driven into this
hole and will allow water to drip slowly into a
basin beneath. The amount of water escaping
may be regulated by the size of the groove in the
plug. Of course, the barrel should stand in a
shaded spot.
Remember that cleanliness is exceedingly im-
4 te a
THE YEAR’S WORK 153
portant in hot weather. All the feeders and drink-
ing dishes should be cleaned daily and twice a week
should be taken to the house and scalded.
The chicks should have beef scraps always before
them and should be given green food of some kind
daily, if confined.
It is well to spade up a portion of the yard each
week. A little grain dug into the ground will en-
courage the birds to take exercise.
Begin getting rid of the old hens this month.
Those which obviously are not laying and those
which are persistently broody should go first.
JULY
Take extra precautions against lice this month.
They multiply with amazing rapidity in hot weather
and the hens are not in good condition to resist their
attacks.
If the house is very hot, make an opening in the
back just under the roof in order to have a cross
current of air.
The old hens should be disposed of as fast as they
stop laying. Feeding largely of corn will help to
put them in good condition for market unless the
weather is very hot.
0 C FHE OME. POULTRY (BOOK
Eggs should be gathered several times a day so
that they will not be incubated by the laying hens.
The nesting material should be renewed at fre-
quent intervals and the nest boxes thoroughly
cleaned each time.
Treasure your lawn clippings. They are excel-
lent to feed now or to dry and feed next Winter.
Sometimes changing from the regular laying mash
to the growing mash fed the chickens will help to
increase the yield of eggs in the laying house.
gk ag AUGUST
An off month for the poultry. The hens are
molting and the production of eggs not large.
Continue to market the old hens as fast as they
stop laying. Get rid of surplus cockerels, too.
The supply of corn should be reduced consider-
ably in extremely hot weather.
The molting hens should not be annoyed by a
rooster, but should have a shaded yard and cool earth
to dust in. Loam is better than dust for the hen’s
dry bath.
Dwarf Essex rape may still be sown this month
to give a supply of late green stuff. Slight frosts do
not hurt it.
THE YEAR’S WORK Iss
Be sure that the chickens are not crowded at night.
When confined, pullets and cockerels should not
be allowed in the same flock after it is possible to
tell them apart, even though hatched late.
SEPTEMBER
An excelient time to build the new poultry house,
so that it will be well dried out before Winter comes.
Haul clean sand into the old houses and get them
into condition for the season’s pullets.
If the chickens must be confined on account of
bad weather, give them litter and throw grain into
it, which will help to keep them interested. When
chicks that have been accustomed to free range are
closely confined, they fret themselves fairly thin.
Let the pullets be used to open air houses from
the first and they will grow a heavy coat of feath-
ers, so that they will be ready for fresh air laying
houses in Winter. In other words, they will be
inured to the cold.
This is a good month for a beginner to start with
mature birds, which often can be secured at a bar-
gain. If the amateur wants to build up a good
strain, he can afford to buy yearlings from a re-
liable breeder. He may get fewer eggs than from
156 THE HOME POULTRY BOOK
pullets, but he will be prepared to hatch out a fine
lot of chicks in the Spring.
Plow or spade the garden and plant rye for the
hens to feed on in Winter.
OCTOBER
Leaves make cheap litter. It is a good plan to
gather many bags full and to store them in a dry
place.
The pullets should be in their permanent quar-
ters by the first of this month, for it is poor policy
to move them after they commence laying.
Start feeding rather more heavily and induce the
birds to eat dry mash freely.
If the pullets are slow in laying, give them a warm
crumbly mash several times a week. If a daily
mash of table scraps is given, no stimulant will be
needed probably, but a teaspoonful of mustard to
the mash for 25 hens may be added. A little salt
is a help. Also, a handful of hemp seed may be
thrown into the litter once or twice a week.
Keep litter in abundance on the floor and make
the pullets scratch for their grain. Exercise and
contentment are very important.
Make note of the pullets which lay first, if pos-
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THEY EARS WORK 157
sible, and put a band on one leg of each. These
will be the hens to breed from.
Don’t hold the cockerels any longer, unless wanted
for your own table.
NOVEMBER
If the pullets are laying freely, you will know
that your season’s work has been properly done.
If they are not; well, what was the trouble? If
you have kept a record of your work, that will help
you to decide.
More corn may be fed now. Indeed, it may well
be fed exclusively for the evening ration.
This is a fine month to sell eggs, but a poor one
for dressed poultry. There should be no old fowls
left to sell.
Busy hens make a full egg basket. A handful
of millet scattered in the litter occasionally will be an
extra inducement for the hens to scratch.
Be sure that the pullets have plenty of green
food. Cabbages are not the best, for they do not
add to the flavor of the egg. However, they will
answer, but do not make the fowls jump for them.
Mangels are better. Cut alfalfa may always be pur-
chased of grain dealers.
138 THE HOME POULTRY BOOK
DECEMBER
It is often possible to buy a high-grade breeding
male this month at a reasonable price, especially a
yearling.
The hens which remain on the roost last in the
morning and go on first at night are not likely to
be good layers. Watch your birds at this season.
Go into the house at night and feel the crop of each
hen. Note those hens whose crops are only half
full and test them several nights in succession. If
the same condition is found, you will be safe in
saying that those hens are not laying.
Scald the water dishes several times a month,
even in mid-Winter. By giving the water warm,
you will not have to fill the dishes so often, in freez-
ing weather.
Beware of new corn. You can feed it freely,
however, if you first put it in the oven and parch
it. The hens will relish it, too, especially if it is
fed warm. In fact, warm corn is in the nature of
a gentle stimulant, although not of sufficient value
to warrant the work of preparing it except in the
case of a small flock.
APPENDIX
EXPERIMENT STATIONS
MATEUR poultry keepers will find it greatly
to their advantage to keep in close touch
with the experiment stations nearest them.
The various stations are located at the places named
below:
Alabama — Auburn, Union-
town, and Tuskegee.
Alaska — Sitka.
Arizona — Tucson.
Arkansas — Fayetieville.
California — Berkeley.
Colorado — Fort Collins.
Connecticut—Storrs and New
Haven.
Delaware — Newark.
Florida — Lake City.
Georgia — Experiment.
Hawai — Honolulu.
Idaho — Moscow.
Illinois — Urbana.
Indiana — Lafayette.
Iowa — Ames.
Kansas — Manhattan.
Kentucky — Lexington.
Louisiana — Baton Rouge,
New Orleans, and Calhoun.
Maine — Orono.
Maryland — College Park.
Massachusetts — Amherst.
Michigan — Agricultural Col-
lege.
Minnesota — St.
Park -Si. Pant
Mississip pi— Agricultural Col-
lege.
Missouri— Columbia and
Mountain Grove.
Montana — Bozeman,
Nebraska — Lincoln.
Nevada — Reno.
New Hampshire — Durham.
New Jersey—New Bruns-
wick.
Anthony
159
160
New Mexico — Mesilla Park.
New York — Geneva and Ith-
aca,
North Carolina — Raleigh.
North Dakota — Agricultural
College.
Ohio — Wooster.
Oklahoma — Stillwater.
Oregon — Corvallis.
Pennsylvania — State College.
Porto Rico — Mayaguez.
Rhode Island — Kingston,
THE HOME, POULTRY’ BOOK
South Carolina—Clemson Col-
lege.
South Dakota — Brookings.
Tennessee — Knoxville.
Texas — College Station.
Utah — Logan.
V ermont — Burlington,
Virginia — Blacksburg.
Washington — Pullman.
West Virginia— Morgantown.
Wisconsin — Madison.
Wyoming — Laramie.
POULIRY LITERATURE
HE following bulletins are for free dis-
tribution and copies will be sent to any
address on application to any Senator, Rep-
resentative, or Delegate in Congress, or to the Secre-
tary of Agriculture, Washington, D. C.:
No. 41. Fowls: Care and Feeding.
No. 51. Standard Varieties of Chickens.
No. 64. Ducks and Geese.
No. 128. Eggs and Their Uses as Food.
No. 141. Poultry Raising on the Farm.
No. 177. Squab Raising.
No. 182. Poultry as Food.
No. 200. Turkeys.
No. 236. Incubators and Incubation.
No. 287. Poultry Management.
The following bulletins contain short articles on the subject
mentioned, while those above are entirely devoted to poultry.
Raising Geese for Profit — No. 65.
Feeding Poultry — Nos. 84, 97, 107, 144, 186.
Preserving Eggs — Nos. 103, 273, 206.
Dressing and Packing Poultry — No. 144.
Selling Eggs by Weight — No. 114.
Early Molting of Hens— No. 186.
Cost of Eggs in Winter — No. Igo.
Poultry Appliances — Nos. 316, 317.
Fertility of Eggs— No. 251.
161
762 THE HOME POULTRY BOOK
Incubation — Nos. 281, 300.
Cause of Death of Young Chicks — No. 300.
Healthy Poultry — No. 305.
Snow for Poultry — No. 300.
Digestibility of Fish and Poultry — No. 276.
Guinea Fowl — No. 262.
The bulletins of the Bureau of Animal Industry,
United States Department of Agriculture, treating
on poultry topics, may be purchased of the Super-
intendent of Documents, Union Building, Washing-
ton, D.C. A circular giving titles, prices, etc., may
be had upon application to the above address. Most
of the state experiment stations issue free bulle-
tins, some of which are of great value.
OFFICIAL SCORE CARD OF THE AMERICAN
POULTRY “ASSOCIATION
Choners.. s+ See ee oaine 1 a ES ag icy CO Ae a
Shape | Color Remarks
SUIS Se Sng een ete ene Se ne oe eae Se or cep en
Perel OF SIZE. os edb abs sas e SIERO MER Oe as eae nae ce ai
Percent em oes eens awe GRATE dt aie atin eee ee ee Es
Peers ICCC. wdc, 08 oid oasis aul SER eto Ree GE oe oO ext eeteara kc
BS faa ees oe eich atorw aaa. Ny Sas ou ca: SNe OT tae Buel Wea) lw Gt) Widate ©
MURAL ee ee ee ai cl ase Teas whe Oar URE Beis Udi Sree ate eh reais cutters
Body and Fluff......... neta CUE Oe Patty EEO 4 ah Teka ata
MCL AI OES anf eis ten Sh Maid antarectasete sk a 3) Wn oo Bar et See Roe
Erareness or MEAtNEr s/f
2 AN AN
ao MN A
M1.
@2.
SSDS>D>
>d>DdD>
INCUBATION PERIODS
HERE is considerable variation in the time
required for the incubation of eggs laid
by the different fowls, as the following
table shows:
Cammnon Mey o.oo. ea Rs 21 days.
[PE a Ta (2 aa Mae Meat oe oe 24 days.
Peas ate borin av ¢ = sheers. Meee 25 days.
GANT) 2 cle Ieee ee Paneer ee san grec 25 days.
CT omumnaeig oh ticle, 6 oy 54 tates wy tavacas 28 days.
ed We cas a os 2x se eee ee 28 days.
i natalensis! aaah tend oe Se ew Mies Boaters 28 days.
EES Ra ee eines err gO Sra 30 days.
165
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INDEX
A
American Poultry Associa-
tion, 106
American Standard of Per-
fection, 106, 108
Artichokes for shade, 152
B
Bantams as layers, 21
as pets, 2I
for pleasure, 8, 111
show, III
Breeds
Anconas, I3, 14, 22
Andalusians, 19
Bantams, 8, 21, III
Brahmas, 17, 22, 85
Cochins, 22
Cornish, 19
Hamburgs, 19
Houdans, 20, 22, 110
Leghorns, 12, 14, 18, 22, 85
Eangshans, 17, 22
Minorcas, 18, 22
Orpingtons, 19, 22
Plymouth Rocks, 2, 12, 16,
Gay”
Polish, 19, IIo
Rhode Island Reds, 14, 16,
22
Wyandottes, 16, 22
Breeding, stock for, 92, 93
cockerels for, 108
Brooders, fireless, 82
operating, 79
temperature, of, 80
Brooders — Continued.
ventilation of, 149
where to use, 148
Broody hens, breaking up, 150
coop for, 44
superseding, 131
0:
Capons for the home table,
132
to brood chicks, 132
Charcoal, feeding, 54
Chickens, day-old, 5, 150
feed box for, 151
how to feed, 74
how to dress, 133
how to mark, 130, 164
in brooders, 79
protection for, I5I
when to hatch, 72
with hens, 73
Classes
American, 15, 17) 22
Asiatic, 17, 22
breeds included in the va-
rious, 22
division into, I5
English, 22
French, 22
Mediterranean, 18, 22
Coal ashes, use of in chicken
yards, 136
Color of eggs, 22
of flesh, 22, 23
Coops for chicks, 73
with runs, 100
167
168
Corn, feeding new, 157, 158
Curtains clogged with dust,
33 f
in fresh-air houses, 27
D
Day-old chicks,
with, 5, 150
cost of, 5
Disinfecting poultry houses,
beginning
95.
Dropping boards, 41
Ducks, how to dress, 134
how to feed, 117
Indian Runner, 114
Pekin, 120
Rouen, 121
shade for, 121
Dust bath, how to make a, 89
E
Eggs, brown, 12, 22
care of, 104
cooling, 68
effect of food on color of,
88
effect of food on flavor of,
87, 88
for hatching, 4, 59
in winter, 84
preserving, 129
sale of, 104
sprinkling, 69
storing, 88
testing, 69
turning, 67
white, 12, 22
Expenses for stock, 4
for buildings, 9, 37
Experiment stations, loca-
tions of, 159
F
Fancy poultry as a source of
profit, 109
INDEX
Fancy poultry — Continued.
fitting for shows, III
kept for recreation, 105
Feeding balanced rations, 46
bees, ‘seraps, (535 75, Diy
chickens, 74, 81
ducks and ducklings, 117
goslings, 122
grain, 46, 5I
laying hens, 46
with patent feeders, 97
milk to chicks, 135
sprouted grains to chicks,
3
Feeds for chicks, 75
Sree, 56, 76, 66, TOL, Tro
influence of, on color in
eggs, 88
influence of, on flavor in
eggs, 87-88
Fencing, importance of, 102
Foundations for poultry
houses, 39
Floors, different kinds of, 38
Frosted combs, remedy for,
142
G
Geese, age of, 122
dispositions of, 122
Embden, 123
feeding, 123
Gray African, 124
Toulouse, 123
Grass clippings, how to feed,
137,
Grain, kinds to feed, 46
sprouted, how to prepare,
136
Green cut bone, value of, 89
Green feeds
alfalfa, 56
beets, 57
cabbage, 57
clover, 56
for ducklings, 119
INDEX
Green feeds — Continued.
importance of, 56
lawn clippings, 57
lettuce, 57
on town lots, IOI
rape, 57, 76
sprouted oats, 76, 136
Swiss chard, 57
Grit, importance of, 53
Guinea fowl as a substitute
for game, 124
as mischief makers, 127
cry of, 124
H
Hatching, dates for, 72, 147
goose eggs, 122
guinea eggs, 125
Houses, deep, 33
double pitched roof, 32
for ducks, 116
for geese, 123
fresh-air, 26
portable, 7, 36
to keep cool, 153
Tolman, 31
year-round, 8
Hoppers, home-made, 52
I
Incubation periods, 165
Incubators, operation of, 66
purchase of, 65, 146
Insect powder, a satisfactory,
63
Insurance and incubators, 66
i
Jungle fowl, what Darwin
says of, 23
L
Lamps, incubator, 67
Laying, how to stimulate, 80,
156
169
Laying hens, how to move,
136
pelvic test for, 128
simple test for, 158
Lice, how to get rid of, 140
in summer, 153
on chicks, 78
on sitting hens, 64
varieties of, 138
Literature for poultry keep-
ers, 165
Litter, depth of, 86
feeding in, 51
kinds of, 55
M
Mash, dry, 49
home-made, 52, 89
wet, 49
Matings, when to make, I09
Movable houses, value of, 4o
Mustard, use of, 53, 90, 156
N
Nest eggs, how to make, 134
Nests, dark, 43
for sitting hens, 63
of guinea hens, 125
size of, 42
trap, 90
No-yard system, plan of, 94
O
Oyster shells, necessity of, 53
Ec
Perches, arrangement of, 41
Profits from fancy poultry,
106
usually small, Io
Pullets best for laying, 3
buying in the fall, 8
laying ages of, 85
to secure preponderance of,
135
marking, 156
170
R
Rats, how to combat, 38
Roofs, best material for, 37
S)
Salt, use of, in mashes, 53,
6
15
Scaly legs, remedy for, 144
Shade for ducks, 121
how to provide, 152
Spray pumps, use of, 96
Silicate of soda for preserv-
ing eggs, 129
Sitting hens, use of in con-
nection with incubators,
61
care of, 63
in the laying house, 64
Strain, importance of, 4, 14
T
Testing eggs, methods of, 60
Thermometers, need of test-
ing, 67
INDEX
V
Vices
egg eating, how to prevent,
143 :
feather eating, cause of,
143
W
Washing show birds, 111
Water for chicks, 76
glass for preserving eggs,
129
in winter, 96
patent fountains for, 98
Weights of different breeds,
22
Windows, importance of low,
27
in roof, 34
¥
Yards, for ducklings, 118
not necessary, 7
spading, 99, 153
GLOSSARY OF COMMON POULTRY
TERMS
Brassy — White plumage with yellowish tinge.
Breed — Groups of fowls with distinct characteristics.
Brood — Number of young chicks being raised together.
Broody — Showing a desire to incubate.
Carriage — Characteristic attitude of a bird when at rest and
in motion,
Class — Divisions in which various breeds are associated.
There are fourteen in the American Standard of Perfection.
Cock — Male bird at least a year old.
Cockerel — Male bird under a year.
Condition — The state of a bird’s health, plumage and clean-
liness.
Crest — Tuft of feathers on the head.
Crop — Receptacle which receives and softens the food before
it passes into a bird’s crop.
Cushion — Feathers at the rear of the back of a fowl.
Disqualification — A defect which renders a bird unworthy to
compete for a prize. Disqualifications are named in the
Standard of Perfection.
Down — The fine hairy covering of chicks.
Drake — The male of the duck family.
Duckling — Young of the duck family.
Ear-lobes — The skin just below the ears. It varies in color
with the breed.
Flights — Long feathers of the wings used in flying, but con-
cealed when the bird is at rest.
Fluff — Soft downy feathers on a fowl’s posterior.
Gills — Another name for wattles.
Gosling — The young of geese.
171
172 THE, HOME: POULTRY BOOK
Hackle — Long neck plumage.
Hen — Female at least a year old.
Lacing — Feathers edged with a color different from the main
color of the wing.
Lopped comb — A comb falling to one side as often seen on
Leghorns.
Mandibles — The upper and the lower parts of the beak.
Mottled — Feathers marked with surface spots of another
color or shade.
Pea comb —A triple comb having short serrations.
Pen — One male and four females placed together for breed-
ing.
Penciled — Feathers with narrow or concentric stripes.
Poult — A young turkey before the sex can be determined.
Pullet — A female under one year.
Recognized — Conceded as a standard breed.
Rose comb—A solid, low, thick comb, covered with small
points.
Rooster — Common term for a male bird, but not used in the
fancy.
Saddle — The rear part of the back of a male.
Shank — The part of the leg just above the foot.
Sickle feathers— The long curled feathers at the top of a
male bird’s tail.
Spur — Pointed or knob-like growth on the inner part of the
shank.
Squirrel tail — So called when any part leans toward the neck
beyond an imaginary line perpendicular to the back of its
junction with the tail.
Under color — The color of the plumage close to the body and
hidden by the feathers.
Wattles — Fleshy growths hanging near the beak.
Wry tail— Term applied when the tail is permanently one-
sided.
MAR 10 1918
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