Efl 1S3 10 O WESTERN MRS. A.BAJLEY" DEW1TT & SMELL5KQ BOOKSELLERS 9 TELECBAPH AVE. OAKWMD, CM. GIFT OF WESTERN POULTRY BOOK BY MRS. A. BASLEY TELLS YOU WHAT TO DO AND HOW TO DO IT THE CHICKEN BUSINESS FROM FIRST TO LAST WITH Questions and Answers Relative to Up-to-date Poultry Culture Published by MRS. A. BASLEY Los ANGELES, CALIFORNIA PRICE -ONE. DOLLAR THE NEUNER COMPANY PRESS Los ANGELES 1910 r t\ ESERVATION INTRODUCTION PAINED In the hope of helping beginners and others of my friends in the poultry business, and in response to urgent requests for a book on poultry culture from my pen, I wrote a small volume a year ago. The whole edition was sold in a year, and on account of the interest taken in it and the demand for some- thing more, I have re-written it and added chapters on breeding in line, fireless brooders and other new features in the poultry business. The book is a synopsis of many chapters of my "Woman's Work in the Poultry Yard" and other talks on poultry, and embodies the personal, practical experiences I have been through myself in many years of pleasant work in the poultry yard. Its object is not necessarily to urge anyone into the business, but to encourage and help beginners and especially newcomers on the Pacific Coast, where conditions differ materially from those in the East and where there is an increasingly large demand for both poultry and eggs; where the poultry business is about as profitable as any that ca.n be undertaken and a good living may be made in the pure air and sunshine by any industrious man or woman. Having for many years been lecturer at the Farmers' Institutes in the Extension Courses of the University of California, for two years instructor in poultry husbandry at the poultry school of the University of California, and having been editor or associate editor of four agricultural and other news- papers on the Pacific Coast, many questions have during this time been pro- pounded to me relating to the poultry business, its difficulties, the troubles of poultry raisers and the ailments of fowls. Some of these questions will be found in this book with the answers to them, also remedies for the diseases or ills of fowls in this climate. Hoping and feeling sure that my little book may prove a help to all its readers, I am, Very cordially your friend. Mrs. A. Basley 260152 Copyright 1910 by Mrs. A. Basley TABLE OF CONTENTS Common Sense Poultry Houses 9 What Variety to Choose 18 Eggs for Breeding 27 Eggs for Market 30 The Feeding Problem 34 Sample Rations 35 Feeding Beans 39 Sprouting Oats 44 Breeding-in-Line 45 Fertile Eggs 53 Testing Eggs for Incubation 56 Natural Incubation 59 Artificial Incubation 64 Care of Brooder Chicks 69 Fireless Brooder 73 White Diarrhoea in Brooder Chicks 74 Vigor 77 One-Day-Old-Chick Trade 79 Broiler Ranches 80 Summer Work 81 Trap Nest 85 Grit and Gizzard 89 Pests of a Poultry Yard 92 Diseases of Poultry (Roup) 95 Town Lot Fowls 98 Moulting Season 101 Value of Economy -. 105 Preserving Eggs 109 Capons 112 Turkeys and How to Raise Them 116 Ducks and their Varieties 124 Something about Geese 131 Basley Formulas 134 Questions and Answers 135 Cause and Cure of Sickness 137 Lice, Mites, Ticks and Worms 159 Feeding in General 165 Egg Question 1 73 Hatching with Incubator and Hen 176 Yard Room 183 Mating and Breeding 184 Miscellaneous Questions 185 ' Turkey Questions 190 About Ducks and Geese.. 195 CLASSIFIED INDEX Acute Indigestion . . . 148 Age for Mating 184 Air Puff 137 Airing Eggs in Incubator 176 American Class 19 Analysis of Hen and Egg 32 Analysis of Beans 41 Animal Food 165 Apoplexy 137 Artificial Incubation 64 Asiatic Class 21 Aylesbury Ducks 125 B Bad Meat 166 Balanced Ration 31-100 Bald Head 138 Basley Formulas 134 Beans, Feeding 39 Bedbugs 92 Beet Tops 166 Blind Chicks 138 Blood Meal 166 Blood Spots in Eggs 174 Body Lice 159 Breeds and Classes 18 Breeding 45-184 Breeding Chart, I. K. Felch 49 Breeding Chart, Mrs. Metcalf 50 Breathing Difficulty 146 Broiler Ranches 80 Broilers, Ration for 36 Broken Glass and China for Grit.. 171 Brooders 182 Brooders, Fireless 73-187 Brooder Chick, Care of 69-182 Broken-down Hen 189 Bronchitis 138-142-152 Buff Orpington Ducks 128 Bumble Foot 137 Burglar Alarm 183 Cancer 139 Canker 96-139 Cannibalism 139 Capons 112-185 Capons as Mothers 114 Capons, Training 114 Catarrh 94-144 Cat and Hawk Proof Coup 133 Caponizing 112-113 Care of Brooder Chicks 69 Care of Fertile Eggs 29 Castor Bean Bushes 185 Charts for Breeding 49-50 Chart for Marking Chicks 52 Chicks Choking 141 Chicks Dying in Shells 178 Chicks, Rations for 71-72-189 Chicken-pox 140 Choosing Eggs for Hatching 29 Colony Houses 9-16 Comb Discolored 141 Comb White 142 Common Sense Poultry Houses ... 9 Composition of Hen and Egg 32 Congestion of the Lungs 143 Cold in the Head 141 Cooling Eggs 66 Corns on Feet 137 Cough and Sneeze 141-142 Crippled Chicks 177 Crop 77 Crop Bound 144 Crude Oil 186 Diarrhoea, White 75 Different Breeds 18 Dipping for Lice 159-188 Diphtheritic Roup 96-145 Diseases of Poultry 95-137 Douglas Mixture 134 Dropsy 158 Dry Feed System 35 Dry Hopper Method 83-166 Dry Mash 166 Depluming Mites 162 Duck Eggs vs. Hen Eggs 195 Ducks 24-124-195 Ducks Need Grit 90 Ducks, Died in the Shell 197 Ducks, Feeding for Eggs 196 Ducks, Weight 196 Ducks, Incubator 195 Ducks, Indigestion 195 Ducks, to Secure Fertility 195 Ducks, Rations for 129-130 Economy in Different Ways 105 Elbow Room Needed 70 Egg, Analysis of 32 Egg Bound 173 Egg Eating 175 Egg Route 84 Egg Tester 58-66 Eggs for Breeding 27 Eggs for Hatching 29-65-179 Eggs for Market 30 Eggs, Thin Shells 90-174 Eggs, 200 a Year 30 English Class 22 Essentials 30 Exercise 31-167 Eyes Swollen 156 F Fatten Fowls 38 Fatty Degeneration of Liver 145 Feather Pulling 146 Feeding Chicks 71-72 Feeding Problem 34 Feeding for Fertility 28 Feeding Beans 39 Feeding for Color 104 Feeding During Moult 102 Feeding Ducks 129 Feeding in General 165 Feeding for Market 170 Feeding for Young and Old 168 Feeding, What and How 170 Feeding Turkeys 117 Fertility in Eggs 53 Fireless Brooders 188 Fertile Eggs, Care of 29 Fleas 92-160 Flea Powder, Cheap 161 Formula for Chick Feed 189 Formula for Laying Hens 189 Formulas, Basley, Tested 134 Formula, Government, Lice. . . . ^. . 93 Formula, Govt., Spray or Paint... 94 French Class 23 From Far-away Alaska 186 Fooling the Hen 178 Food, Good and Bad for Ducks... 195 Food Elements 34 Formula, Feeding 100-134-168-189 G Game Class 23 Geese 25-197 Geese and Ducks 196 Green Droppings 146 Green Food 108-171 Grit and Gizzard 89 Grit, Best 89 Grit, Starved for Lack of 90 Geese Varieties 132 Geese, Hatching and Feeding. .131-132 Geese, Toulouse 197 H Hamburg Class 23 Hatching 62 Hatching Ducks 129 Hatching Turkey Eggs 194 Head Lice 160 Heart Trouble 146 Helping the Hatch 178 Hemorrhage of the Oviduct 147 Hen, Analysis of 32 Hens, Rations for a Dozen 37 Henpecked Husbands 186 Heredity 30 Hopper Feeding 35-166 Houses 9-17 Houses, Town Lot 98 How Many on Two Acres 183 How to Make Nests 160 How Much to Feed. . ..... .28-169-173 How Long Before Laying 187 Hump Themselves 161 Hatching and Brooding Ducks. . . .129 Hatching and Feeding Geese 131 Incubator Chicks Dying 179 Incubators 67-181 Incubation, Testing Eggs 66 Incubation with Hens 59 Incubators, Trouble with 180 Increasing Size of Eggs 184 Indigestion 148 Indigestion and Liver Complaint. .147 Instrument for Testing Eggs 190 Indian Runner Ducks 127 Infertility • 176 Influenza 147 Inflammation of Crop 147 Insecticide 61-93 Insects 92 Intestinal Worms 163-164 K Kaffir Corn 172 Keeping Eggs for Setting 29 Kerosene Emulsion 93-160 Lack of Oxygen 177 Lame Hen 137 Largest White Eggs 174 Layers 190 Laying Hens, Ration for 36 Leg Weakness 148 Lice 93-159-164 Limber Neck 148 Lime Formula for Preserving Eggs Ill Liver Complaint 149-147 Liver Complaint in Turkeys 194 Liver Enlarged 145 Location of Incubator 65 M Male Bird 28 Mange 149 Manure 197 Marking Chicks 62 Market Eggs 30 Market, Feeding for 38 Mash System 35-166 Mating 29 Mating and Breeding 184 Meat 166 Mediterranean Class 20 Millet Seed 171 Mites 92-161 Mixing Foods 169 More About Turkeys 120 Moult 102 Moult, What to Feed 102 Mushroom Houses Ill Muscovy Ducks 128 N Naked Chicks 149 Natural Incubation 59-181 Nests for Setting 59 Novel Nests 175 Number on Five Acres 183 Oats Sprouting 44 One-Day Old Chicks 79 Operating Incubator 67 Orpington Breeds 22 Ovarian Tumor 150 Over-fat Hens.. 150 Packing Eggs for Hatching 190 Painting Houses 17 Pekin Ducks 126 Pendulous Crop 150 Pests of a Poultry Yard 92 Poison 151-152-153 Polish Class 23 Poor Hatches 176-179 Proper Range 82 Preserving Eggs 109 Proper Eood 31 Protein 40-43 Pip 152 Pneumonia 153 Ptomaine Poison 151-152 Pullets Dying 145 Pulling Feathers 146 Purple Comb 141 Quantity to Feed 167 Questions and Answers 137 Range 82 Rations 35-100-167 Rations of Successful Breeders.... 37 Rations During Moult 102 Records, Keeping 60 Red Worms ., 163 Rheumatism .153 Roasters, Breeds for 26 Roosting, Teaching 83 Rouen Ducks 128 Roup 95-153-155-173 Roup Remedies 96-97 Roupy Catarrh 95 Sample Rations 35 Sand Fleas 160 Scaly Legs 156 Scratching Pens 31-167 Selection of Breed 18-25 Selecting Eggs for Hatching 65 Setting Hens 59-176-177 Shipping Turkeys 194 Shipping Young Chicks 185 Sickness, Cause and Cure 137 Skimmed Milk 1 72 Sneeze 141 Soft Shelled Eggs 174-187 Something in Throat 157 Sick Chicks 144 Sore Eyes 156 Sore Throat 157 Sorghum Seeds 1 72 Speck of Blood in Egg 174 Spoiled Food 107 Spray for Houses 94-165 Sprouted Oats 44 Spurs, Saw Off 187 Stick-tight Fleas 160 Stone Bruise 137 Straw for Pens .31 Stuck up Behind 76 Sudden Death 1 75 Sulphur for Lice 189 Summer Work 81 Sunshine and Shade 81 Swollen Feet 138 Swell Head 156 Swelled Eyes ....156 Symtoms of Grit Craving 90 Tape-worm in Turkey 193 Teaching Chicks to Roost 83 Technical Names 186 Temperature Hatching 67 Testing Eggs 56-60-66 Testing Incubator 56 Thermometer 57-1 78 Testing Out Infertile Eggs 190 Throats, Sore 157 Ticks ' 92-162 Toe Eating 157 Tomatoes .' 167-190 Town Lot Fowls 98 Trap Nest 85 Trouble with Incubator 180 Tuberculosis 157 Tumor 158 Turkey Questions and Answers. .. 190 Turkeys 24-191 Turkeys — How to Raise 116 How Many Toms 194 Lame 191 Keep Separate from Chickens. .. 191 Over-fed Little Ones 117 Keep Liver Healthy 119 Chicken-pox 190 Lack of Green Food 192 Blackhead Disease 121 Liver Complaint 122 Turkey, Sick Tom 193 Turning Eggs 66 Value of Economy 105 Varieties of Ducks . 24 Vertigo 158 Vigor Necessary 27-77 Vent Gleet 158 W Warts on Comb and Eyes 140 Water-glass 109 Weight of Ducks 196 Weights, Standard 18-26 White Comb 142-158 White Diarrhoea 75 White Wash for Houses Wind in Crop 1 59 Worms . ..163-164 Yard Room. . . Yard, Plan of. 183 99 Arlington Egg Ranch PART I. COMMON SENSE POULTRY HOUSES The poultry business is one of the most fascinating as well as the most profitable, considering the amount of capital invested, in the West. The conditions here, however, differ so greatly to those in the East and other localities, that the ways of treating the fowls must also be different. The needs of fowls do not vary; the resources of the places do, and the success of the poultry raiser greatly depends upon adapting the conditions of the locality to the need of the fowls. Nothing is more important than the proper housing of chickens. The style of house a man builds for his birds will depend upon his means and inclinations. It is not always the most expensive house that gives the most eggs. In planning poultry houses and yards, two or three principles should be firmly held in mind : First, the house must have a liberal supply of oxygen, which can only be Mrs. Basley's Continuous Fresh Air House and Scratching Shed 10 MRS. BASLEY'S WESTERN POULTRY BOOK supplied by perfect ventilation ; secondly, it must be free from draughts and be dry ; and, thirdly, be easily accessible to the at- tendant, not only for cleaning and spraying, but to enable one to handle the fowls when on the perches. It should also be large enough to avoid crowding of the fowls. The laying hens should be kept in yards in permanent houses, easy of access, whilst the young and growing fowls will do best on free range with movable houses, called sometimes colony houses. These give the best results. After many years of experience here, the writer has found that c« o PQco O 3 Js V y PQ.> 'o '^ co ^ ^ ° •^ ° bftJ* "^ ^ there are two classes of houses admirably adapted to the needs of the fowls and to this climate. These are called the open front or the "fresh air" house and the "mushroom" house. What is meant by an open front house, is a house enclosed on three sides and roof, with one side open to the fresh air. This style house can be con- structed as a separate and movable house of as a continuous and scratching shed house. A plain open front house without a scratch- ing shed attached, is used in many places as a colony house where fowls have free range or where they are kept in an orchard. The "mushroom" house is built tight on four sides and roof, without any floor and is raised from the ground about twelve inches. COMMON SENSE POULTRY HOUSES 11 Cuts of both of these styles of houses will serve to show their construction. A "fresh air" house that proved excellent and which I used for years on my ranch was one hundred and twenty feet long and ten feet wide. It was divided into six houses with scratching pens. I also had another which suited me well. It was eight feet wide and a hundred feet long; besides that, I had twenty colony houses for the young and growing stock, and two brooder houses. The continuous house and scratching shed of which I give a photograph and part of ground plan were built of flooring, tongued and grooved. The other house was of boards, battened, and the colony houses of resawed redwood or of shakes. Some were of rubberoid or building paper. Many of the artistic looking house plans. which may be found in poultry books were planned by men who never owned a chicken, and if built in this, or in any other climate, would be highly unsatis- factory. The plans here described have all been used either by myself or by successful poultry raisers. I have seen them all and can assuredly recommend them for use on the Pacific Coast. The houses I am describing are of the inexpensive kind, for so great is the variety of plans of houses designed for fowls that it would be impossible to mention them all in a short article. We will, therefore, consider only a few of the cheapest and most satisfactory small houses adapted to this climate. The first requisite in the house is pure air. To secure this the ventilation must be at the bottom. Some people think that the bad air ascends, but this has been proved a mistake — the foul gases descend ; the pure air and the warm air are lighter and they rise and we want to keep them in, but if we have an opening for ven- tilation at the top or near the top of the house, we lose the warmth. A loss of warmth at night in the winter means a loss of eggs, or more food is needed to supply this loss. The ventilation 12 MRS. BASLEY'S WESTERN POULTRY BOOK should either be at the bottom, or one entire side of the house should be left open. A Variety of Houses The accompanying rough little cut of a "mushroom" house will give some idea of the bottom ventilation. Houses like this were used by a successful poultryman. He made a light frame five feet square and five feet high. This he covered with canvas and the roof he made of rubberoid roofing. He left a space below of ten or twelve inches. These "mushroom" houses were tipped over every day to be sunned or cleaned. I improved upon his plan by making OILED MUSLIM PANEL ISFT. Hoffman's Combination Open Front House and Scratching Pen a door of one whole side, for I wanted to be able to handle my fowls at night without tipping the house over. Perches should be placed about twelve inches above the open space, and in the case of heavy breeds, a small ladder or run board should be placed for them to reach the perches easily when going to roost. The advantages of such a house are its lightness, and the free circulation of air without draughts on the fowls. These houses can be covered with matched lumber, shakes, canvas, burlap, rubberoid, or even common domestic muslin, which may be oiled or painted with crude petroleum. The open front house is admirably adapted to California climate. It is now meeting with favor even in the rigorous climate of the East, where poultry raisers begin to realize the value of fresh air without draughts, if they want to have vigorous hens that will lay eggs in the winter time. I have been using the open front houses of various sizes for over twelve years and can assert that they are the only kind I ever want to use. Another style open front house that I have seen and like very much is fifteen feet by eleven feet six inches, and is seven feet high at the back and four feet at the open front. It is constructed of rubberoid or malthoid and is almost vermin proof. It is divided in the middle by chicken wire, so form- COMMON SENSE POULTRY HOUSES ing either one house or two as required. The roof is first covered with two-inch chicken wire to support the rubberoid. At the bot- tom of the walls next to the ground it is boarded up for about two feet all the way round ; this is to keep in the straw, for all the floor space of the house is used as a scratching pen. The sides and back above these boards are made of panels of rubberoid nailed to light frames withovt the chicken wire. These panels are taken down on all fine days to sun and air the house. The panels are kept in place by large wooden buttons. The front is entirely open or only closed by chicken wire except wheji it rains, then a burlap curtain is let down. The perches are. near the back of the house about six inches above the dropping boards. The dropping boards are made of the rubberoid on frames. They are four feet wide and are placed on cleats two feet from the floor. This is a double house and each side will hold from twelve to twenty hens. The above description is of the Hoffman house pictured on page 12. A cheap and substantial house can be made of two piano boxes. The simplest way to make such a house is a?, follows : Removing the backs of the piano cases, place the cases back to back thirty inches apart, on light sills. Use the boards which were the backs to fill up the thirty inches on the sides and roof ; cover the roof with rubberoid or with oil cloth, and you have a comfortable house, that will hold about a dozen or twenty hens, at a small cost. The front of the piano box house should either be hinged so it can always be kept open except during the rain or it may be entirely dispensed with and a burlap curtain used to keep out the rain. The cost of this piano box house is about three dollars. Inexpensive Colony Houses An inexpensive colony house is pictured below. This house is of resawed redwood, four by six feet. It is light and easily moved. Open Front House Without Scratching Shed The front is on hinges and it is always kept open except during rain, and when it is closed it only comes down six inches below the perches, leaving an open space of about fifteen inches across the entire front. Still another style of colony house and one well adapted for use in an orchard or in the colony plan has been in use for some years 14 MRS. BASLEY'S WESTERN POULTRY BOOK on a large poultry ranch in California. The house is eight by ten feet and two feet to the eaves; all the framework, including the runners, is of two by three-inch stuff, and the walls and ends are of one by twelve-inch boards, shiplapped so as to avoid using bat- Biddy's Bed-Room tens. The rafters are five feet four inches long, and three pairs are used ; a one by six inch strip is run all around the outside of the roof to form the eaves and also to make it tight ; eight pieces of one by four are used for sheathing, and the sawed shakes are close so that there is no draught from that source ; the only opening is from the front, which is open at all times. The houses do not require cleaning, for they are on runners, and are slid along about fifteen feet each time. Thus they are on fresh ground and much cleaner than one could do it in any other manner. The Two-Story House Among the hen houses, or chicken coops, as some -people prefer to call them, that are being used very satisfactorily west of the Rockies, must be mentioned the two-story houses. There are especially adapted to the "intensive" method of poultry culture, and for limited space. Two-story breeding houses are being used by the immense broiler plant near Inglewood, of the Pacific Poultry Co. The houses are 500 feet long and only eight feet wide, and have no outside runs. It is a close-housing proposition, that is, the fowls are never allowed outside their quarters. The houses are parti- tioned off into pens every five feet, and these are divided into an COMMON SENSE POULTRY HOUSES 15 upper and lower story. Each pen contains ten females and one male for breeding purposes. The ground floor is covered with sand to the deptfi of six inches; this is raked off clean every week and the sand renewed entirely when necessary. A board ladder gives the fowls access to the IS" L J second floor, which is two feet above the sand level. On the second floor is located the scratching pens — a space 5 x 5 feet, par- titioned off next to the open front. A board eight inches high at the back keeps the straw in place. The remaining three by five feet is divided into nest boxes and a broody coop, over which extends a dropping board, with roosts above. The front of the house from eaves to ground level is five feet ; the rear of house, five feet six inches, thus giving the fowls plenty of head room over the roosts. Everything on this floor, roosts, dropping board, nests, broody coop, etc., is movable and can be taken out, and the house thoroughly cleaned and disinfected when necessary. Another two-story coop has been named by the inventor, Mrs. A. J. Badger, the "Twentieth Century Coop." It makes intensive poultry culture appeal to those cramped for room. The "Twentieth Century Coop," designed by Mrs. A. J. Badger, is also a two-story coop, intended to house from twelve to fifteen adult fowls, enclosed all the time, and to supply sanitary quarters 16 MRS. BASLEY'S WESTERN POULTRY BOOK in all kinds of weather. It occupies a ground space of 3 x 12 feet, front elevation 5^4 feet, rear 4^ feet. It can be completely closed during storms or opened to sun and air. For convenience in tak- ing apart for moving, it is built in sections. Canvas forms the outside covering for the coop. This coop might be suitable for those with limited space. Closed Open A. T. Badger's 20th Century Coop In conclusion, to quote Mr. Harker, "If every poultry keeper on the Pacific Coast would make his roosting houses absolutely draught proof on three sides, yet leaving the front entirely open so that the fowls have an abundance of pure air, yet not to be exposed to a draught, the manufacturers of roup remedies would have to go out of business, for this disease would then be com- paratively unknown from Seattle to San Diego." Arlington Egg Ranch Continuous House and Scratching Shed COMMON SENSE POULTRY HOUSES Painting the Houses 17 For painting the houses I have found nothing better than the crude petroleum. I add to it for all my houses, red Venetian paint mixed with a little kerosene or distillate oil, to thin it. This colors them a handsome chocolate. Creosote stain of a dark green is also a very good color, harmonizing well with the landscape, and both of these are preventive of mites and keep their color well for several years. A good whitewash also is quite suitable. The color is a matter of taste after all, and I am only describing the inexpensive Roseneath Egg Ranch methods I and others have successfully used. The whole plant, irrespective of size, should be planned symmetrically; the houses made all alike and placed in line; the large in one row and the smaller in another and all arranged so as to save as many steps for the care-taker as possible. A little forethought in this matter at the beginning may save many steps and dollars later on. WHAT VARIETY TO CHOOSE "Poultry for profit" is the slogan. We are all looking more or less for the "almighty dollar." Every week, almost every day, I am appealed to for information as to which breed is the most profit- able. I can and often do tell which breed I have found the most profitable in the twenty years I have bred, but I cannot decide for another person what his or her likes or dislikes may be, nor can I tell what poultry will suit another's location or market. That, each one must decide for himself or herself, and then get the best of that breed to start with. A hint as to what to start with may help some of our readers. First of all study your market, decide whether it requires a brown or a white egg, and choose accordingly ; secondly, decide what you will do with the surplus chickens, although this may seem like counting the chickens before they are hatched. Will you sell them as broilers and fryers or use them as roasters or capons? Thirdly, it is always a good plan to look ahead and choose a breed with a prospective value and demand — one of the breeds that may be rare in your neighborhood, or one of the newer breeds, such as the Orpingtons, Columbian Wyandottes or Faverolles. Choose a breed for which there is likely to be a large demand for eggs for hatching and for breeding stock. Or else take one of the best old breeds that you know will make you money from the start. What- ever breed you decide upon, get the best of that breed, and from a reliable breeder. Different Breeds A brief review of the different classes and breeds of domestic fowls may be of use to beginners. There are a large number of breeds in this country suitable to any branch. of the business, with White Wyandotte Cockerel WHAT VARIETY TO CHOOSE 19 all colors of plumage and size. Some especially adapted to the farm, others to closer confinement, as on the city lots, and still others — like the beautiful little bantams — adapted to lawns and front yards. The American Class The American class consists of what are called the dual-purpose fowl. That is, they are good for market as well as excellent layers, so when their day of usefulness in the egg basket is over, they can end their existence on the table. This class gives us the Barred, Buff and White Plymouth.Rock, the Silver, Golden, White, Buff, Silver Pencilled, Black and Columbian Wyandottes, the Single and Rose Comb Rhode Island Reds, the Buckeyes, the Black, White and Mottled Javas, and the American Dominique. Of the list no doubt the Barred Plymouth Rock is the best known and most popular; it may be said to lead the American class. Next to it in popularity is the White Plymouth Rock. This breed led in numbers at a late show in Madison Square Garden in New York, which is a sure indication of its popularity. The order of the rest might be given as follows : White Wyandotte, Rhode Island Reds, Buff Wyandotte, Buff Plymouth Rock, Silver Wyandotte, Part- ridge Wyandotte, Golden Wyandotte, Buckeyes, American Domin- ique, Black Java. The standard weights of the above are as follows : All of the Plymouth Rocks, cock, 9}/2 pounds ; cockerel, 8 pounds ; hens, 7l/2 pounds, and pullets, 6l/2 pounds. All of the Wyandottes, cock, 8^ pounds ; cockerel, 7l/2 pounds ; hen, 6]/2 pounds ; and pullet, Sy2 White Wyandotte Hen (1st Prize) 20 MRS. BASLEY'S WESTERN POULTRY BOOK Typical White Leghorn Cockerel (1st Prize) pounds. The Rhode Island Reds, cock, 8^ pounds ; cockerel, 7]/2 pounds; hen, 6l/2 pounds; pullet, 5 pounds. Buckeyes, half a pound heavier, except pullets. The Javas are of the same weight as the Plymouth Rocks, and the American Dominiques, cock, 8 pounds ; cockerel, 7 pounds; hen, 6 pounds; pullet, 5 pounds. The Mediterranean Class In the Mediterranean class we have the Single and Rose Comb Brown, Single and Rose Comb White, Black, Buff and Silver Duck- wing Leghorns; the Black and White Minorcas; the Blue Andalu- sians, the Black Spanish and Mottled Anconas. First Prize White Leghorn Hen WHAT VARIETY TO CHOOSE 21 The Mediterranean class is particularly well adapted to the cli- mate of California, which greatly resembles that of their home in the old countries. In point of popularity and merit, the kinds might be classed as follows : White Leghorn, Brown Leghorn, Black Minorca, Blue Andalusian, Black Spanish, Rose Comb Brown Leghorn, Rose Comb White Leghorn, Buff Leghorn, White Minorca, Anconas, Silver Duckwing Leghorn and Black Leghorn. The Black Minorca, White Leghorn and Black Spanish give the largest sized eggs. All of the Mediterraneans have white shelled eggs. There is no standard weight to the Leghorns. They are small birds, weighing 3 or 4 pounds. Of the Black and White Minorcas, the cock weighs 9 pounds ; cockerel, 7l/2 pounds ; hen, 7l/2 pounds ; pullets, 6l/2 pounds. The weight of the Andalusians are, cock, 6 pounds ; cock- erel, 5 pounds; hen, 5 pounds; pullets, 4 pounds. The Black Spanish weights are, cock, 8 pounds; cockerel, 6l/2 pounds ; hens, 6l/2 pounds ; pullets, Sl/2 pounds. These lay an extra large handsome white-shelled egg. The Blue Andalusian has the unique distinction of wearing the national colors — red, white and blue — its plumage, being blue, its face and eyes red and its ear-lobes white. The Asiatic Class The Asiatic class consists of the Light and Dark Brahmas, White and Black Langshans, the Buff, Partridge, White and Black Cochins. In point of popularity they would be about in this order : First Prize Black Cochin Hen (Never defeated in ten years) 22 MRS. BASLEY'S WESTERN POULTRY BOOK Light Brahmas, Black Langshans, Buff Cochins, Partridge Co- chins, Dark Brahmas, White Cochins, White Langshans and Black Cochins. The standard weights are : Light Brahmas, cock, 12 pounds; cockerel, 10 pounds; hen, 9l/2 pounds; pullet, 8 pounds. Weights for Dark Brahmas are: Cock, 11 pounds; cockerel, 9 pounds; hen, 8^ pounds; pullet, 7 pounds. Buff, Partridge and White Cochins: Cock, 11 pounds; cockerel, 9 pounds; hen, &V2 pounds ; and pullet, 7 pounds ; Black and White Langshans : Cock, 10 pounds; cockerel, 8 pounds; hen, 7 pounds; and pullet, 6 pounds. The eggs of all of the Asiatic class are a dark brown. The English Class The English class is composed of the W'hite, Silver-gray and Colored Dorkings, the Red Caps and the Buff, Black, White, Span- A Pair of Black Orpingtons gled and Jubilee Orpingtons in both single and rose combs. The White Dorking weighs as follows : Cock, 7]/2 pounds ; cockerel, 6l/2 pounds; hen, 6 pounds; and pullet, 5 pounds; Silver-gray Dorkings, cock, 8 pounds ; cockerel, 7 pounds ; hen, 6y2 pounds ; and pullet, 5^2 pounds; Colored Dorkings, cock, 9 pounds; cockerel, 8 pounds ; hen, White Orpington Hen WHAT VARIETY TO CHOOSE 23 7 pounds ; and pullet, 6 pounds ; Red Caps, cock, 7^ pounds ; cock- erel, 6 pounds ; hen, 6 pounds ; and pullet, 5 pounds ; Orpingtons, cock, 10 pounds; cockerel, 8^2 pounds; hen, 8 pounds; and pullet, 7 pounds. The French Class The French class is composed of the Houdans, Crevecoeurs, La- Fleche and Faverolles. The Houdans weigh : Cock, 7 pounds ; cockerel, 6 pounds ; hen, 6 pounds ; and pullet, 5 pounds ; the Cre- vecoeurs, cock, 8 pounds ; cockerel, 7 pounds ; hen, 7 pounds ; and Typical Houdan Hen pullet, 6 pounds. The Crevecoeurs and La Fleche are favorites in France, but are rarely found in this country, as they are not popu- lar in the market here on account of their dark colored shanks. The Hamburg Class The Hamburg class is composed of most excellent layers, of white eggs. They are the Silvered Spangled, Golden Spangled, Silver Penciled, Golden Penciled, White and Black Hamburgs, and the Silver and Golden Campines. No weights are given for the Hamburgs and Campines. The Polish Class The Polish are more of a fancy fowl. They are the White Crested Black, Golden, Silver, W7hite, Bearded Golden, Bearded Silver, Bearded White and Buff Laced. They lay white eggs; no weights are given in the Standard for them. The Game Class In the Game class we have the Black Breasted Red, Brown Red, Golden Duckwing, Silver Duckwing, Red Pyle, White, Black and 24 MRS. BASLEY'S WESTERN POULTRY BOOK Birchen Games, Cornish and White Indian Games, Black Sumatras and Black Breasted Red Malays. The standard gives no weight for Games, excepting for Indian Game (now called Cornish Fowl), viz.: Cock, 9 pounds; cockerel, 7y2 pounds; hen, 6l/2 pounds; and pullet, 5l/2 pounds; Malays, cock, 9 pounds ; cockerel, 7 pounds ; hen, 7 pounds ; and pullet, 5 pounds. Turkeys The most popular variety of turkeys is the Bronze ; then comes the White Holland, another splendid variety. Among others we have the Black, Buff, Bourbon Red, Slate Narragansett and Wild. Typical Pair Bronze Turkeys The weights for Bronze are, cock, 36 pounds ; yearling cock, 33 pounds ; cockerel, 25 pounds ; hen, 20 pounds ; and pullet, 16 pounds ; for White Holland, cock, 26 pounds; cockerel, 18 pounds; hen, 16 pounds; pullet, 12 pounds. Ducks The Pekin is "The American Duck" with its white plumage and heavily meated body. Their weight is as follows : Adult drake, 8 pounds ; young drake, 7 pounds ; adult duck, 7 pounds ; young duck, 6 pounds. Another white variety, very popular in England, is the Aylesbury. Weight for adult drake, 9 pounds; young drake, 8 pounds ; adult duck, 8 pounds ; young duck, 7 pounds. The colored Rouen have similar weights and plumage to the Wild Mallard, the drakes having bright green heads. Other popular varieties are the WHAT VARIETY TO CHOOSE 25 Indian Runners, both colored and white, called the Leghorn of the duck family, being rather small, very active and immense layers of fine white eggs. Then there are the Buff Orpington Ducks — Indian Runner Ducks becoming very popular; the Blue Swedish, Black Cayuga, Colored and White Muscovy, Call and Black East India, these latter being more ornamental varieties. Geese Perhaps the easiest kept and noisiest of all our large variety of domestic fowl are geese, and where conditions are suitable, they prove very profitable. The Toulouse, a large gray variety, and the White Embden, seem the most popular of the pure bred varieties, and the weights for either variety are, for adult gander, 20 pounds ; young gander, 18 pounds ; adult goose, 18 pounds ; young Toulouse goose, 15 pounds ; and Embden young goose, 16 pounds. Other varieties are the African, Brown and White Chinese, Canadian and Egyptian; these are either used for ornamental purposes or for crossing. Selection of Breed Knowing the values and weights of the different standard breeds, the beginner will be enabled to make his choice, and have no trouble in finding the proper selection. Supposing egg production is the principal object, the beginner will have to decide according to the demand of his nearest market. Boston requires brown eggs, San Francisco white eggs, while Los Angeles seems to be content with either. If you are living near San Francisco, one of the Mediterranean breeds will prove the most valuable to you. The Minorcas, Black Spanish and some of the strains of White Leghorns lay the largest and finest looking eggs. One correspondent who asks for justice for the Minorcas says he has Minorca hens which lay eggs weighing nearly three ounces, and there were Leghorn eggs on exhibition in a late poultry show which weighed five eggs to the pound, but these were from hens "bred to lay." The Brown Leghorns and Hamburgs give many eggs — white eggs also — but smaller, which is an objection in a good market. Should broilers be the object, we should choose 26 MRS. BASLEY'S WESTERN POULTRY BOOK the White Wyandottes or White Plymouth Rocks. These latter are exceptionally fine winter layers. For roasters and capons, the Light Brahmas or any of the Plymouth Rocks are the favorites. If two breeds are wanted, we should personally prefer the White Leghorns and White Plymouth Rocks. The White Plymouth Rocks will give the winter eggs and the White Leghorns the spring and summer eggs in great abundance, although they may not lay as many eggs in the winter as the White Rocks. In the early spring the White Rock eggs can be set for early broilers and roasters, while the Leghorns are doing their heaviest laying, and in April and May the Leghorn eggs can be set for the following season's eggs. In this manner there will be a constant succession of eggs for market, and broilers and roasters in season. Always having something to sell means a regular income. Something to market at least once a week. A poultry and egg route and the reputation of having none but the choicest goods to offer is the secret of success. WINNER op * SPECIAL PRIZE- FoR ' BEST SHAPED MALE ~ EGGS FOR BREEDING Having chosen the breed which suits us best, let ws talk on how to get the most out of that breed, for I think we are all agreed that if we keep poultry for profit, we want to make as much as we can out of it. Therefore, having got our fowls, we must treat them right. The natural instinct of a fowl is to make a nest for itself and raise a family of its own in the spring time. It never considers its owner's profit or loss ; therefore to make it answer our purpose, to develop it into a money-maker for us, we must either change its nature or deceive it. We must let it imagine that it is the time of year for nest making and family raising. We must supply it with the conditions of springtime. Our own lives are artificial and the conditions surrounding our domestic hens are also artificial, but we must, if we want success, copy as far as possible Nature's ways with fowls and follow Nature's plans. In the spring not only do we want egg production, but we want Eggs for Breeding, Packed Correctly for Shipment good, strong fertility in our eggs. We want fertile eggs now, for are we not pre-arranging to have plenty of vigorous pullets to lay those high-priced market eggs next fall? Are we not anticipating sturdy cockerels to win prizes at next winter's shows, or to make toothsome frys or delicious roasts? Fertile eggs are now in order. How shall we get them ? First, we must have vigorous and healthy parent birds ; we usually have healthy birds in the spring of the year, for the moult is well over and the ailments which prevail in the fall — colds, catarrh and sore throats, all classed as roup — have yielded to treatment, or the vic- tims are no more. The chicken pox, which also is a fall disease, has about disappeared, and the birds are in good condition. Vigor is Necessary Vigor is the first requisite for fertile eggs. To have vigor, the hens must have exercise ; every grain they eat should be scratched 28 MRS. BASLEY'S WESTERN POULTRY BOOK or dug out of the straw or litter in their scratching pen. A hen that is very fat — over iat — will not have fertile eggs and will not have strong, sturdy chickens. It is neither kind nor wise to over- fatten your breeding hens, but they must be fed the proper food for fertility. How can we decide what food to feed for fertility? Let us interrogate Nature again. The wild bird, the Gallus Bankiva from which sprung all our domestic fowls, lays her eggs and raises her young only in the spring. She only has two broods of about thirteen eggs each, but those eggs are rarely infertile. What does she eat? Principally insects and the tender green grasses or small leaves, not much grain, for the seeds have fallen and have begun to sprout and grow. During the winter Nature has supplied the birds with grains in plenty, so they have put on fat to withstand the cold ; but now there are only a few grains left and the fowls are becoming thinner, yet Nature does not starve them, only gradually changes the ration and gives them worms and larvae, insects of all kinds, for the insect life has also commenced to pulsate and develop; the buds are bursting, too, and the tender green appears and beautiful spring is here, pro- viding all the green food they can eat. How about our captive hens? In our bare back yards, with only the ration we choose to give them? Poor things; they have a natural craving for the tender green, a wild desire for the succulent insect or animal food ! See, how they will fight over or scramble for the meat that is thrown to them, or for the head of lettuce ! They try to tell us in their own way what they require to produce fertile eggs at this season of the year. How to Feed How shall we follow their teachings? Increase the amount of their animal food and give the breeding fowls more green food. How shall we do this? Increase gradually whatever animal food we are now feeding until from 20 to 30 per cent of their daily food is animal food. The best animal food is fresh meat of some kind ; the scraps and bones left over at the market ; this ground or chopped finely is the best I know of. Rabbits, squirrels, gophers, are all good fresh meat. If fresh meat cannot be obtained, you can get at the poultry supply houses granulated milk, dried blood, blood and bone, beef-scrap and other animal food. The best green food is fresh-cut clover lawn clippings, green alfalfa, lettuce, cabbage and other vegetables. The Male Bird The male bird is considered as half the pen. The germ or seed of life of the future chicken is from the male. Be sure to have the male vigorous and healthy, and see to it that he gets sufficient food of the right quality. The male bird is often so gallant that he calls up his wives and they greedily eat all the best part of the food, choosing first the meat or animal part, which is the most necessary for fertility, and the husband, the father of future chicks, on which so much depends, is half starved, becomes thin and light. Every EGGS FOR BREEDING 29 male bird when being used to fertilize eggs should be fed extra, either in a pen or corner by himself, or out of your hand at least once a day. Mating In mating up the pens I have found the most satisfactory num- ber to mate is about eight or not over ten females of the American breeds to one male. From twelve to fifteen of the Leghorns or Mediterranean birds, and from six to eight of the Asiatic class to one male. Some breeders advocate using two male birds in one pen, alternating them day about, or three male birds for two pens, allowing one bird to rest every second or third day. I never did this, because I was keeping a pedigree of my fowls, and never found any necessity for it. Caring for Fertile Eggs Having the fertility assured, the next thing is to take care of the eggs from the time they are laid until incubation begins. Eggs should be kept in a moderately cool, quiet place; not in a draught. I always imitate Nature and turn the eggs, just as a hen would, every day, keeping them in a box either in the cellar or a large, dark, but airy, closet. Some people keep them in fillers with the little end down, but I prefer following Nature's ways and leaving them on their side. To Choose Eggs for Hatching To choose the eggs for hatching I use an egg tester or I roll up a copy of the Pacific Poultry Craft in the shape of a telescope, put- ting the egg at one end in the sun and my eye at the other end. If the egg shell is speckled or thin at one end, or has thin blotches on it, or is misshapen in any way, or if it feels chalky to the touch, I reject that egg, relegating it to the kitchen, for these eggs will not hatch. I also reject very small eggs, as they are laid by pullets or by over-fat hens and if they hatch, the chickens will be weaklings. The very large eggs should also be rejected, as they may have double yolks, and these seldom hatch healthy chickens. Above all, never sell for hatching eggs those as described above. The best eggs are the egg-shaped eggs, with good, firm, smooth shells and not narrow waisted. EGGS FOR MARKET The hen in her wild state lays about thirty eggs per year. The farmer's average hen lays not over one hundred. On egg farms the average is 150, and some of the fowls of the "bred to lay" strains will average even more. There are 365 days in the year, and I do not see why a pullet that is fully matured, that comes from an egg-laying strain, a pullet properly fed and cared for, should not lay over 200 eggs per year ; in fact, I have had hens that will do even better than that. I will admit that a hen will not lay 200 eggs a year without constant and intelligent care, and the question confronting us is, will the addi- tional number of eggs pay for this care? Also how shall we give this care and secure these results? You hear of heredity and pedigree in cows, in horses, in dogs. Heredity is as important with hens as with any other stock. Here- dity has as much to do with the success of hens as the right hand- ling. Heredity (or pedigree) and handling must go together. The two-hundred-egg hen must be "bred to lay." She must come from an egg-producing family. No matter how scientifically a hen is fed, or how well housed, you cannot make an extra fine layer out of one whose parents for generations past have been poor layers. It is impossible -to take a flock of mongrels and scrubs and get 200 eggs each a year from them, although good handling will greatly increase the yield of even mongrel's. The different breeds require different handling, but no matter what breed you have, there are three essentials to egg production- comfort, exercise and proper food: Comfort Under the head of comfort comes first of all cleanliness. A hen that has lice, or fleas, or mites, or ticks on her cannot lay her full amount of eggs. You must help the hen in her efforts to make you money. Give her every encouragement to lay. Cleanliness every- where. A comfortable, enticing nest, rather dark, where she "may stealthily deposit her precious egg. Renew with nice clean straw once a month. Do everything to coax the hens to lay. If trap- nests are used, there should be enough of them so that the hens will not be kept waiting, for by keeping a hen off the nest she will frequently retain her egg until the next day, and will soon learn to be a poor layer. Cleanliness means a clean, sweet-smelling roost- ing place, where she may sleep undisturbed by lice or mites. Just think for a moment how in the human family a fresh, clean bed in a quiet room will court slumber. I have passed the night in an Arab's tent in Africa that was infested with fleas, and my heart is full of sympathy for a hen that has to live in some of the mite- infested henneries I have seen in California. Under this head comes freedom from draughts. A draught in this country will give hu- man beings face ache, neuralgia, earache and a swelled face. It has exactly the same effect on hens. Influenza, swelled head, roup, al- EGGS FOR MARKET 31 ways or almost always commence from a draught (combined with lice). Comfort means also pure, fresh air without any draught, and pure, fresh water to drink. Exercise You know how in the human family exercise is recommended. Physical culture, gymnastics, Ralston exercises, Swedish move- ments, fencing, etc., and those who may be too feeble to exercise for themselves, pay others to rub, pound and knead or massage them to get the same effect. Exercise is as necessary for the hen as for the human being and more so, for the hen's exercise of scratching develops the egg pro- ducing organs and strengthens them, and hens which exercise lay many more eggs than lazy hens. If you have a vigorous scratcher among your hens, you may be sure she is a good layer. Exercise a hen must have to develop the egg-making organs. She absolutely must scratch if she is to make a living for herself and you. I consider a scratching pen as necessary for hens in con- finement as food. My scratching pens were twelve or fifteen feet long and eight feet wide, but in small yards I have made very satis- factory little pens by nailing four boards six feet long together, forming a square. The boards should be twelve inches wide and the pen filled with wheat straw or alfalfa hay or any good litter. I do not like barley straw on account of the beards, which some- times run into the hen's eyes, nostrils, or mouth and cause death. Foxtails, burr clover and wild oats are all dangerous on this ac- count. I feed all the grain scattered over the straw and my hens scratch and dig happily all day long. The straw or hay is soon broken into short pieces and fresh straw must be added about once a week, and the whole cleaned out and used for mulching trees when the straw becomes dirty. This will depend upon the size of the pen and the number of hens using it. Proper Food ' What it is and how much to give. The scientists tell us that the proper food or the "balanced ration" is composed of one part of protein to four parts of carbo-hydrates. Before discussing this "balanced ration," let us interrogate Nature and find out how a hen balances her own ration. Let us take a hen as she comes in from foraging in the fields after a long day in summer. Let us kill her and examine her crop. What do we find? Grains of wheat, barley, corn, according to where her rambles have led her ; bits of grass, clover and vege- tables ; some bugs, worms and grasshoppers ; here and there a bit of gravel and a lot of matter partially digested that we cannot recognize. The first thing that impresses us is that the hen likes variety, and the second thing that this variety consists of animal food (bugs, worms, insects), grains and green food. This is the "balanced ration," balanced by the hen herself to suit her needs in the summer time when eggs are plentiful. If we want eggs in the 32 MRS. BASLEY'S WESTERN POULTRY BOOK winter, we must, as far as possible, give the same conditions, the same variety of foods, with plenty of pure, fresh water, never for- getting that about seventy per cent of the egg is water. But to return to the "balanced ration." We know that a hen requires a certain amount of food to keep her alive and thriving; above that the surplus goes either to making the egg inside her or to making fat. The hen is an egg-making machine, but if you put into that ma- chine none of the elements of the egg, you cannot expect the machine to turn out eggs. Therefore, the scientists analyzed the egg, and not only that, but also analyzed the body of the hen with the feathers, and discovered as follows : The very large number of different substances found in the hen may be grouped under four heads: 1, water; 2, ash or mineral matter ; 3, protein (or nitrogenous matter) ; 4, fat. The proportion of each of these groups alter with the condition of the hen. Water is the largest ingredient and amounts to from forty to sixty per cent of the weight of the bird. Ash or mineral matter forms from three to six per cent when the hen is not laying, and from six to ten per cent when laying. The groups called protein constitute from fifteen to thirty per cent of the weight. Fat seldom falls below six or rises above thirty per cent. The feathers are composed of protein and ash, the ash being largely silicate of potash and lime. The accompanying analysis of the hen, pullet and egg has been kindly sent to me by Professor Jaffa ; that of the egg was made by him at the University Laboratory of California. Analysis of Hen and Egg Typical Pullet in Capon, Leghorn full laying, Plymouth Eggs as Eggs, edible Hen Leghorn Rock Purchased Portion Water 56.8 57.4 41.6 65.6 73.7 Protein 21.6 21.2 19.4 11.8 13.3 Ash 3.8 3.4 3.7 .7 . .8 Fat 17.8 18.0 35.3 10.8 12.2 Shell ... ... 11.1 Total 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 Composition of Hen and Egg Calculated on a Water-free Basis Protein 50.0 49.8 34 3 50 5 Fat 41.2 42.2 31.4 46.4 Ash 8.8 8.0 2.1 3.1 Shell 32.2 Total 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 It is interesting to compare the analysis of the hen and egg with some of our grains and poultry foods, but it would take more time than is permissable in a short talk. In all our grains are found more kor less the elements of the egg, but they are not in the right or EGGS FOR MARKET 33 proper proportion for making the egg. There is usually too much of the fattening element in the grains and not enough protein or nitrogenous element, which forms the meat, musple, bone and feather. This is the most valuable and most expensive part of the ration. In order to keep up the strength of the hen and have her produce the largest amount of eggs, it has been found that for every pound of protein in the food, she must have four pounds of carbo hydrates. This will vary slightly according to the heat of the weather and the needs of the hen. I wish I could go more fully into this interesting and important subject, but space forbids it. I would urge you to send a postal to the University of California at Berkeley, asking for the Farmer's Bulletin No. 164 on Poultry Feeding. This bulletin, by Professor Jaffa, is one of the most valuable bulletins ever published. It con- tains the analysis of the different grains, vegetables and meats and of most of the proprietary foods, besides formulas for the best rations. Roseneath Ranch Long Breeding House THE FEEDING PROBLEM The three essentials of egg production, the three essentials of profit in poultry keeping, the three essentials for vigor and health in fowls are — comfort, exercise and proper food. Let us consider (1) the proper food, (2) the methods of feeding it, and (3) recipes for a few tried balanced rations. Practical knowledge and skill in feeding can be acquired without the study of science. Feeding fowls for good results is a com- paratively simple matter. Requirements in Feeding The food which a fowl consumes has three chief functions to perform: (1) to sustain life, promote life, repair waste and produce eggs ; (2) to keep the body warm ; (3) to furnish strength or energy which is expended in every movement. The fowl is also able to store food, not needed at the time it is eaten, for future use; this store is chiefly in the form of fat, which serves as a reserve supply of fuel. Food Elements To supply the three functions in the life of a fowl there are three principal food elements : Proteins, carbo-hydrates and fat ; all of these are contained in the different grains and foods used for poultry. (1) Proteids (or protein) albuminous or nitrogenous matter. Protein is the nourishing matter, the principal tissue former, sup- plying material for bone, muscle, blood, feathers, eggs. Its latent energy can also be converted into heat and energy; but it is more costly for such purposes than the non-nitrogenous foods. (2) Carbo-hydrates, carbonaceous matter, starches and sugar. Carbo-hydrates form the bulk in nearly all foods and are the prin- cipal sources of heat and energy. (3) Fats are found in almost all foods. They furnish heat and energy in addition to the supply from the carbo-hydrates. Fat also enters largely into the composition of the yolk of the egg. All three food elements are necessary. The proper combin- ations of these three is called the "balanced ration." It is, in other words, a "complete" ration, containing in proper proportions the necessary food elements to promote (1) growth, including egg production, (2) warmth, and (3) energy or strength. The needs of a fowl's system are not always the same; it does not always need the different elements to be in the same proportions ; the ra- tion properly balanced (or suitable) for a growing chick would be unbalanced (unsuitable) for the mature hen. The food to be a balanced ration must be adapted to the present needs of the fowl. Methods of Feeding The question of how to feed and what to feed for the best results in egg production, is the most difficult problem in poultry keeping, and has for some time been engaging the attention of the various THE FEEDING PROBLEM 35 Government Experiment Stations in this and other countries. The two successful systems in use at the present time are the Mash system and the Dry Feed system. The mash system is one in which a mash is fed once or twice a day. The foundation of the mash is bran, middlings, and corn meal or chops. It is mixed wet, raw, scalded or cooked. The dry feed system is when a dry mash is fed, consisting of the same ingredients as the wet mash, but dry. Dry feeding is used by many regularly, and is becoming more popular every year. The advantages of a mash are that by its means the food ration for the whole day can be properly balanced ; the nutritive ratio varied and controlled and the waste vegetables and table leavings utilized to the best advantage. In mash feeding the errors to be avoided are : Too concentrated a mash with too much meat or fat; too light or bulky, that is, composed principally of bran or hay; too wet or sloppy or sour or mouldy. Experience has shown that feeding wet mashes more than once a day has bad effects, producing indigestion in various forms. The advantages of the dry-feed system are : A saving of labor to the feeder, is lighter to handle and much easier to mix. It can be fed in the morning. The fowls are obliged to eat it slowly; they cannot swallow it in a few minutes. It will not freeze in cold weather nor become sour in hot weather, and the fowls will not over-eat with the dry feed. An Excellent Feed Hopper, Good Both for Young and Old Fowls These hoppers are made 8 feet long and the trough is 8 inches wide and 4 inches deep, with a projecting strip on top ^ inch to keep the chicks from pulling out the feed. The slats are 3 inches apart. The chief consideration in dry-feeding is that fowls require about three times as much water to drink as with the wet mash ; also unless the dry food is placed in hoppers or fed in boxes at least four inches deep, it is apt to be wasted. The two systems supply the requirements of the fowls in slightly different ways and both are used very successfully. SAMPLE RATIONS The rations here given have been tested and proved excellent by some of the most successful poultry breeders in this country. 36 MRS. BASLEY'S WESTERN POULTRY BOOK Ration for Chicks Intended for Breeders First meal, when chieks are 36 hours old : Rolled or flake break- fast oats, dry ; give scattered on sand every three hours, then feed chick food. This is a number of small or broken dry grains which can be bought at the poultry supply houses. The use of hard grain diet like chick feed, develops the digestive organs and keeps them healthy. The chick feed prepared by reliable firms is excellent. For those who prefer to mix their own chick feed, the following is a good recipe : Cracked wheat, 30 pounds ; steel-cut or rolled breakfast oats, 30 pounds; finely cracked corn, 15 pounds; millet, rice, pearl barley, rape seed, finely ground beef scraps or granulated milk, dried granulated bone, chick grit, 10 pounds ; granulated char- coal, 5 pounds. In the chick feeds wheat, oats and corn are the staples, the most necessary part of the ration. Feed at 6 a.m. chick feed scattered in chaff; 9 a.m. rolled or steel-cut oats; 11 a.m. green lettuce; 1 p.m. chick feed; 3 p.m. green feed, lettuce, clover or potatoes chopped fine ; 4 :30 p.m. hard boiled eggs (4 for 100 chicks), chopped shell and all, with the same amount of onions and twice the amount of bread crumbs or rolled oats or Johnny- cake. One fountain of skim milk and one of clean water always before them and renewed three times a day. Very coarse sand and granulated charcoal should be always before them. Toward the end of the second week mix a little whole wheat, hulled oats and kaffir corn with the chick food, gradually increasing it, until at the end of the sixth week they will be eating this entirely. Ration for Broilers For the first two weeks use the same feed as given for the breed- ers. Third week, 6 a.m. chick feed; 9 a.m. mash, 1 part each of bran, cornmeal and rolled oats, and a little salt ; mix with skim milk, making a crumbly dry feed in a small dish or trough, taking away all there is left in fifteen minutes; 11 a.m. lettuce or clover; 1 p.m. rolled oats; 3 p.m. chopped raw potatoes; 4:30 p.m. mash same as in the morning. Fourth week, 6 a.m. chick feed; 9 a.m. mash, adding 5 per cent beef scraps or cracklings; 1 p.m. chopped potatoes; 4:30 p.m. mash, same as in the morning. Keep grit and charcoal always before them, with skim milk and pure water. Fin- ish off at six to eight weeks by gradually adding from five to ten per cent of cotton-seed meal and a little molasses with the mash. Ration for Laying Hens In order to keep up the strength of the hen and have her produce the largest amount of eggs, it has been found that for every pound of protein in the food she must have four pounds of carbo-hydrates. Many instances may be cited in which the rations fed to laying hens differed greatly, but have been productive of excellent results, pro- vided they contain a sufficient quantity of digestible protein. The following rations have proven successful : I will^give a formula that I have used for many years after ex- perimenting with others, and will give some that are being used THE FEEDING PROBLEM 37 at the present time by prominent and successful breeders near here. There are many other breeders, but I happen to have these by me and have not those of the others. The Basley formula is as follows : By measure, 2 parts heavy bran, 1 part alfalfa meal, 1 part corn meal, 1 part oatmeal (called Breakfast Flaked Oats), 1 part beef scraps or meat meal or granulated milk, a little pepper and salt; keep this in a hopper or feed box. At noon green feed. In the evening grain, wheat, kaffir corn or cracked corn, barley, hulled oats, equal parts, mixed and scattered in straw in the scratching pen. Fresh water constantly before them ; if they run out of water, the egg yield will stopu I keep before the fowls at all times sharp grit, crushed oyster shells, charcoal and granulated dried bone. At moulting time I add to the grain sunflower seed, and to the dry mash linseed meal. The reason I feed oatmeal is that I always feed for vigor. I want the parent birds to be vigorous and the eggs to have such an amount of protein in them that the chicks will not fail in being vigorous. There is no food equal to oats for giving vigor. The reason I feed alfalfa is that although it shows on analysis almost the same protein content as bran, it gives the yolk of the eggs a rich orange hue which bran fails to impart. All fowls need plenty of green food and clean water. The green food is the cheapest food you can give and keeps the digestive organs in good condition. Green food must be given daily with the fol- lowing : Rations of Successful Breeders Wilcox Standard Mash — 50 Ibs. heavy wheat bran, 20 Ibs. corn meal, 14 Ibs. ground barley, 5 Ibs. oil cake or cotton-seed meal, 10 Ibs. beef scrap, 1 Ib. fine charcoal. Johnson Formula — 80 Ibs. wheat bran, 15 Ibs. alfalfa meal, 15 Ibs. cracked raw bone, 1 pint of home-made condiment. Bickford Dry Mash — One part corn meal, 1 part middlings, 2 parts heavy wheat bran, 1-10 part meat or blood meal, 1-10 cot- ton-seed meal, a good handful of salt to one hundred pounds. Goodacre Standard Mash — Ten Ibs. wheat bran, 2 Ibs. corn meal, 2 Ibs. fine meat meal, 1 Ib. linseed meal. Walton's Dry Mash — 12 parts wheat bran, 4 parts corn meal, 2 parts beef scrap, 2 parts alfalfa meal, 2 parts granulated milk, y2 part charcoal. Cowles Dry Mash — One part each of corn, wheat and barley ground up together. To 80 Ibs. of the above add 5 Ibs. of blood meal, 5 Ibs. of bone meal, 10 Ibs. of meat meal and a little charcoal. For One Dozen Hens Rations for one dozen breeding hens, American class, in con- finement, for three days' rotation. Monday morning — One pint and a half grain, wheat, cracked corn and hulled oats, equal parts mixed and scattered in straw or litter in scratching pen. Noon : Cut clover or lawn clippings. Even- ing : Mash, 1 pt. heavy bran ; 1 qt. ground oats ; 1 pt. corn meal ; 1-3 38 MRS. BASLEY'S WESTERN POULTRY BOOK of the whole cut clover or alfalfa meal ; 1 tablespoonful each of salt and pulverized charcoal ; Y? pt. beef scraps. Tuesday morning — \l/2 pts. mixed grain, wheat and rolled barley. Noon : green feed, pumpkins or clover ; 1 pt. green cut bone. Even- ing: Mash, 1 pt, cooked vegetables and table scraps, 1 qt. bran, 1 pt. cornmeal, a little salt and pepper. Wednesday morning — \y2 pt. mixed grain; wheat, hulled oats, kaffir corn. Noon: Cabbage or beets. Evening: Mash, 1 pt. peas or beans soaked over night, boiled with a little soda until soft ; l/2 pt. dried blood, or beefscraps, 1-3 cut clover. If you cannot get beans cheaply, use potatoes or other vegetables. Follow the same system the remaining three days. Sunday, instead of the mash, scald three pints of rolled barley in the morning, cover and leave to steam. Feed in the evening in- stead of the mash ; this makes a pleasant change and saves work for the Sabbath. The reason for feeding the mash at night is to keep the hens busy scratching all day and so send them to roost with their crops full. There is danger of the American and Asiatic fowls becoming too fat and lazy without exercise if given the mash in the morning. Fattening Fowls Fowls to be fattened should be confined in small yards or in coops or crates, especially adapted for feeding. The object in keep- ing them in confinement is to prevent the forming of muscle and sinew, which would occur if allowed to run at liberty-. The crate used for fattening fowls can be four or six feet long. Mine were composed of lath six feet long; the frame of the crate JDL Three-Compartment Fattening Crate is 6 feet long, 18 inches wide and 18 inches high, divided into six little stalls or compartments. The frame is covered with lath, placed lengthwise on the bottom, back and top the width of one lath apart. The first lath on the bottom should be two inches from the back to allow the droppings to fall through, otherwise they would lodge on the lath at the back. The lath are placed up and THE FEEDING PROBLEM 39 down in the front, the spaces between them being two inches wide to enable the chickens to feed from the trough. A k'V" shaped trough is made to fit into two notches in cleats in front of each crate. The crate stands 15 inches from the ground; the droppings are received on sand or other absorbent material and removed daily. The coop is large enough to hold 12 or 18 young chicks (2 or 3 in a stall) or six full grown fowls. Fowls are fed three times a day all they will eat in 15 minutes. See cut of fattening crate. Formulas for fattening : (1) Equal parts of bran,»-cornmeal and -oat meal (rolled break- fast oats) mixed with skim milk, fed three times a day. (2) Buckwheat flour, pulverized oats, cornmeal in equal parts, mixed thin with buttermilk. (3) Equal parts barley meal and oat meal and a half part of cornmeal, mixed with buttermilk or skim milk. (4) A favorite French combination is two parts barley meal, one part cornmeal, one part buckwheat flour. A little salt and coarse sand should be added to their food. Three weeks is the length of time to continue the feeding. Chickens do not seem to be able to stand the confinement for a greater length of time. The last week of the fattening process, five per cent of cotton seed meal and a little tallow may be added to any of the above formulas. Feeding Beans Our readers know our "Rule of three" — or the three essentials of egg production — Comfort, Exercise and Proper Food, and how very necessary each of this trio is for filling the egg basket. The successful poultry breeders, those that are really making money in the poultry or egg business, all and each follow our Rule of three. Some put more emphasis on one of the three conditions, and some on the other, but I find the man that uses all three essen- tials about evenly balanced is the successful man. Just at present there are several of our readers who are seek- ing for advice on the problem of the proper food and have appealed to me for information about the use of beans and some other foods which are available or cheap in their locality. I would like to help them discuss this subject together with the different breeds they are feeding. We all know that food is first necessary to sustain life, to enable the young fowls to grow and make their feathers, while it also enables the mature fowls to make and produce eggs. We have learnt that the body of the hen and the egg also is composed of water, mineral matter, nitrogenous matter and fat, and that to sus- tain life and growth and to produce eggs, the hen must be supplied with these elements. It is exceedingly interesting to learn the right proportion of these different elements that have to be supplied to the hen, all of which may be found in the analysis of the different foods given in the valuable bulletin "Poultry Feeding and Proprie- 40 MRS. BASLEY'S WESTERN POULTRY BOOK tary Foods/' by Professor Jaffa of the University of California. The third edition of this bulletin is now in the press. Professor Rice of Cornell, in one of his lectures, says, "Feeding poultry is a science and an art." The science is in the knowing why, and the art is in the knowing how to do it. Our Professor Jaffa divides the food (this is the science part) into three classes : The protein, carbo-hydrates and fat. He explains that the word protein comes from a Greek word which means the chief thing — or the first thing — and the protein is the most important part of. the food, for by it is made or produced the bone, muscle, blood, nerves, tendons, etc. The protein or nitrogenous matter of the hen's body and of the egg is formed by the nitrogenous matter (the protein) that is fed to the hen or that she finds in hunting on the range for her food, so any one can see how important this element is in the food. The carbonaceous part of the food, which includes the fat and carbo-hydrates (sugar and starch), is mainly used as a fuel supply to the body and is the substance which is consumed in the pro- duction of heat and energy. We know or have learnt that an active fowl, such as a Leghorn that is always on the move, scratch- ing, running, flying, uses up more of the fat-producing food than a quieter, tamer, heavier fowl, such as the Plymouth Rock or Wyan- dotte or one of the Asiatics. The scientists have analyzed the food as well as the hen and have decided that a hen requires as a balanced ration for egg pro- duction one pound of protein to four pounds of carbo-hydrates, and we believe this and act on it by giving the hens animal food, green food and grain. We also want to get the food as cheaply as possi- ble to save our pocketbooks, and yet give the hens food that will bring the best results, this is usually eggs when eggs are dearest. The protein is the most expensive part of the food, consequently when we find a food that is inexpensive but contains a large amount of protein, we are glad to buy it, and then we must find out how to mix it or with what other food in order to get the right balance of one part of protein to 4 or 4.5 of carbo-hydrates. A ration means the food for a whole day. I am always glad to talk over the different foods and to help beginners decide what is the best and cheapest food for them to use in their locality. Several have lately asked about BEANS, how to feed them to the best advantage. Some years ago I had an opportunity of buying a large quantity of navy beans that had been held as seed beans but several sacks of them had become weevily. I studied Professor Jaffa's bulletin and decided that it would be a good plan to buy them, thinking that as they were small, the hens would eat them, but my hens did not take to them at first, so I sent the beans to the mill and had them coarsely ground, and I then soaked them over night with a little bicarbonate of soda in the water, and the next morning when the fire was lighted for breakfast, I put on the beans and let them cook at the back of the stove, taking them off at noon and mixing in bran and cornmeal, THE FEEDING PROBLEM 41 also a little alfalfa meal, and seasoning with salt and pepper as for the table. The hens like this mash made of bean soup, and never hens laid better than these. It was certainly a famous egg food. Recently I received letters from several of our readers asking about feeding beans, and I replied, giving Professor Jaffa's analysis, but I afterwards received a letter asking me for the analysis and the value of "broad Windsor beans," and as there was no analysis of them in the bulletin, I sent some of them to the Agricultural College to have them analyzed. Professor Jaffa not only analyzed them, but also analyzed some "horse beans," as I said that Windsor beans were sometimes called horse beans and were largely fed to horses in some places. The horse beans that he bought were larger than the Windsor beans that I sent him and he found both of them so exceedingly rich in protein, that to be certain there was no mistake, he had the analysis duplicated, done over twice. Analysis of Horse Beans Per cents Water 14.05 Ash * 2.10 Protein 25.10 Fat 1.60 Fiber 6.63 Starch, etc 50.52 Total 100.00 Analysis of Windsor Beans Per cents Water 10.98 Ash - 3.02 Protein 18.80 Fat 1.58 Fiber 6.65 Starch, etc 58.97 Total 100.00 Analysis of Navy Beans Per cents Water 12.60 Ash 3.50 Protein 22.50 Fat 1.80 Fiber 4.40 Starch, etc 55.20 Total 100.00 It will be seen by these analyses how rich in protein are the beans, and therefore what a valuable food for fowls. Realizing the value of this, in order to help other of our readers, I wrote to A. A. W. for further information about the beans he had sent me, and received the following reply: "The beans are commonly known in England (where they are very popular) as 'broad Windsor beans/ but to the best of my 42 MRS. BASLEY'S WESTERN POULTRY BOOK remembrance these are a smaller species. I raised these here on rich soil apparently high in nitrogen, judging by the rank top growth of various crops planted therein ; the vines averaged a height of over seven feet, which is more than double that claimed for them by the seedsmen, who do not usually underestimate the vigor and prolificacy of their well advertised goods. I have a copy of your poultry book and believe I have derived much profit from it, as I am raising broilers and feeding them entirely according to your di- rections* ; some of them weigh close on to two pounds each, and none of them are over six weeks and four days old, raised in brooder coops without hens or artificial heat, but with the best possible care and attention to details, and with less loss than I expected, as this is my first experience of this way of raising them. May I trouble you to inform me of the best method of feeding the beans to chicks of various ages, as I have others at different stages. I have fed them occasionally to month old chicks in small quantities by soaking until the skins will slip, then chopping up fine with bran to make a crumbly mash. I would much like to know if this is a good combination or otherwise, and how best and when to feed, and the proportion of beans, and whether chopped up dry, soaked or cooked. "My idea in discarding the skins is that being very tough and leathery, they might possibly be indigestible." In reply to this, the skins are very tough, that is, the skins of both horse beans and Windsor beans, and it was a wise precau- tion to take them off for the little chicks, but that would scarcely be possible or profitable if you are feeding much to mature hens, as it would take too much time and labor. In feeding either old or young you can make one-fifth of the food of the beans if you have plenty of them, but I would advise not more than that. Your way of mixing the chopped-up beans with bran and milk is good, but I would suggest adding a little cornmeal about one-fifth of the amount of the mash. This would be a better balanced mash. As you have had such good results from following my instructions and formula for feeding broilers, I think you had better continue it and not make any change, or if for any good reason you are obliged to make a change in the food make the change very gradually, that is, add only a few spoonsful of the new food each day until at the end of about two weeks you have got them to willingly accept the new food. A sudden change of almost any kind will stop the egg out-put partially or sometimes totally. You have to remember there is a difference between va- riety, which is excellent for fowls, and change, which almost in- variably results disastrously. The best way to feed the beans (Windsor or horse beans) would be to have them ground and feed them in the dry mash for all the chickens, large or small ; for the very little fellows nothing could be better than the way you are now doing. When I received this letter I wrote to a successful poultryman *See page 36. THE FEEDING PROBLEM 43 and egg farmer, who has been feeding beans for sometime very successfully, and I copy his letter for the benefit especially of those residing in bean-growing districts, where beans can be often bought very cheaply. The writer can be thoroughly relied upon as to accuracy. "Your cordial letter reached us today, and I take pleasure in answering your questions concerning our use of beans for hens. "The variety we used and are still using is what is called here the black-eyed bean. I think it is called 'cow peas' in some parts of the country. The flavor of this bean is more like that of the pea than of the bean. For a long time we fed them whole, with corn, wheat and whole barley, equal parts of each. The hens ate them as readily as they did the other grains, except wheat. "We fed it also in the mash, with ground barley, cornmeal and beans, about equal parts of each. We found that our hens increased their egg productoin about twenty per cent. These beans are rich in protein, about 22%, and are about 85% digestible, so you will see that fed with wheat, corn and barley they are a valuable addition to the dietary of hens. If we could get these beans, we should continue their use, but we are unable to get any more of them. If you know where they can be had for a reasonable price, we should be pleased to have you inform us. I have no doubt that hens could be induced to eat lima beans, at least in the mash, as you know lima beans are rich in protein, but possibly may not be as digestible as the black-eye. I hope this information may be of use to you." In this article we give the scientific side, the analysis of three kind of beans, and also the practical use of them by three different poultry breeders. This will answer several other inquiries on the subject, and we hope prove 'useful to many of our readers. Buff Orpington SPROUTING OATS By W. S. Willis The following method of sprouting oats has been kindly sent to the author by Mr. W. S. Willis, of the celebrated Arlington Egg Ranch. Mr. Willis has found the sprouted oats a splendid addition to the hen's ration, lending variety to the daily bill of fare and in- creasing the egg output. Three quarts of oats will, make a fine morning meal for 100 hens if properly sprouted. Place the grain in a pail and let it soak for twenty-four hours ; then transfer it to a box one foot square and six inches deep, with a few small drainage holes in the bottom. Sprinkle with water daily and allow the grain to remain in the box until the sprouts are from two to three inches in length, at which time it will be ready to feed. As it takes from eight to ten days to secure the proper growth, a number of boxes or compartments should be provided for the grain, keeping each day's allowance separate, and a new lot should be started daily. For larger flocks of course it is necessary to increase the size of the boxes — a day's feed for 600 hens, for instance, requiring a sprouting space of two by three feet. In all cases care should be taken not to have the grain over two inches deep when placed in boxes, in order to guard against heating and mildew. The boxes should be placed in a level position and kept covered with a board or burlap, in order to keep the grain in a moist condi- tion. In cold weather the sprouting operations should be conducted in comfortably warm quarters, and warm water may sometimes be used to advantage in sprinkling the grain. Redwood is better than pine to use in making the sprouting boxes, being less liable to swell and crack when water soaked. Should it be impossible to get oats that will grow well, barley may be substituted, but it may be found necessary to stir the barley until it begins to sprout, to prevent fermentation. Black Orpington Hen BREEDING, LINE-BREEDING, IN-BREEDING, ETC. The subject of breeding for best results in the poultry yard is exceedingly interesting, and is being developed more and more every year, not only by poultry breeders, but I believe, by some of the government experiment stations. There is "in-breeding," "line-breeding," "out-breeding," "cross- breeding," and no breeding at all. Many people are afraid of in-breeding. By this is usually meant breeding brother and sister together for generations, without the infusion of new blood ." This kind of in-breeding is very apt to result disastrously, because in such a flock the best, biggest and most vigorous are sent to the market, and the inferior ones are kept at home for breeders, unless a neighbor steps in and lends a cockerel to solve the difficulty. For fear of the flock deteriorating, many people think it abso- lutely necessary to have new blood in their flock every year, and here is where the danger comes in for those who are raising thor- ough-breds. If you buy pure-bred male of the same breed to mate with your pure-bred female from another strain or family, you may get one that will improve your flock, or one which will bring you disqualified birds. This getting new blood of the same family is called "out-breeding." J. H. Robinson says: "Most of the evils assigned to in-breeding are not due to in-breeding, but to careless selection. There is no evidence that in-breeding necessar- ily initiates degeneracy. There is abundant evidence that with proper selection for stamina to avoid common defects, very close in-breeding can be followed for a long time without injuring the stock. There is also abundant evidence that breeding unrelated fowls without careful attention to vigor, and avoidance of common defects is at once attended with precisely the same results as breeding fowls of near kin under the same conditions." In making the new breeds, in-breeding is necessary to fix the color, shape, etc. If it is necessary to fix superiority in color, it is necessary to fix it in shape. If it is necessary to fix it in shape, it is necessary to fix superior laying capacity, or rapid growth and vigor. In-breeding is necessary because there cannot be intelligent breeding without in-breeding. "Line-breeding," or breeding in line, is keeping to the same family, the same blood. It is very careful in-breeding. When we line breed we simply limit the number of ancestors in the fowl's pedigree. By so doing we intensify the qualities in the fowl, for it has been established beyond doubt that the mating of nearly related individuals has a tendency to intensify the traits or char- acteristics which they possess in common. As an example, I had a White Plymouth Rock hen (Snow Queen), a 95^ point bird. She laid 225 eggs in 9 months. I mated her, when I discovered her wonderful qualities, to my first prize male. Four of her daughters from that mating were prize-winners. The following year I mated her to her best son, and the third year to her son who was also 46 MRS. BASLEY'S WESTERN POULTRY BOOK her grandson. By this last mating, the offspring were 15-16 of her blood. I sold a few settings of this mating, one to a gentleman in Sacramento. He wrote me afterwards that he won first cock, first hen and first pen at the Poultry Show, with seven of her offspring; but, he added, "the great recommendation to your fowls is their wonderful vigor and healthfulness. All my other fowls have had roup and chicken-pox; in fact, I have lost more than half, and while yours were brought up with them, they seem absolutely im- mune to all sickness." Another setting of eggs I sold to a party south of town. I heard later than one of the hens hatched from that setting laid 105 eggs in 110 consecutive days. By careful in-breeding it is possible to intensify the good qualities of great egg-laying and great vigor. A hen to be a great layer must have vigor. To illustrate what is meant by line-breeding, I would take a good pair or trio of the best birds procurable; raise the young, carefully feeding for strength and vigor. The vigor of a flock is sustained not by introducing new blood, but by selecting breeding birds for vigor. Vigorous birds beget vigorous offspring; weak birds weak offspring, whether kin or not. The second year I would mate the father with two of his best daughters and the best son back to the mother hen, and use these two families as two different strains for new blood, each year selecting the best from either family. By the best, I do not mean only the handsomest ; I mean among the cockerels the most vigorous, active and up-to-standard birds, and among the pullets the best layers as well as the earliest maturing, largest and handsomest. Let it be understood that to breed from birds because they are related without making selections of points desired, is as wrong as to refuse to mate related fowls. By breeding from only vigorous stock, and observing the rule not to mate fowls having the same bad defects, mating together only fowls which in individual merit and in pedigree (whether akin or no kin) are what they should be for the purpose of the mating, you may be sure of avoiding mistakes. "I am afraid of in-breeding," said a lady to me recently. "The book says change cockerels with your neighbor." I do not know from what book she was quoting, but I went to see her fowls. She had really fine standard bred fowls to commence with, but she had ruined the flock by trading cockerels. A friend of mine intending to purchase them asked me to look at them, but I could not recom- mend them, as I knew the offspring would not be desirable. Many persons wishing to purchase fowls from me (when I was in the business) would say, "Can you sell me two or four hens and a cockerel not related?" I replied that I could and would if they wished, as I had fifteen separate pens and marked all my young fowls, but if they asked me to mate for best results, I would give them hens from my best layers, mated to a cockerel that was partly related to them, for I knew then the offspring would be of as good quality as the parents. To know this takes some years of "close observation and close selection," which is the rule for line- breeding. BREEDING, LINE AND IN-BREEDING 47 When I wanted new blood of late years, I would get a setting of eggs from the best breeder I knew. Select the two pullets from this brood, mate them with one of my own males, and then await results. Some years they would be quite satisfactory; if other- wise, they were consigned to the table and proved delicious eating. When the results were good, I had fine young ones and new blood which I knew would mate with mine and not deteriorate my fowls in regard to looks and standard points, but I could not tell for two years how the laying qualities of the offspring might be af- fected. Here is a place where "close observation" comes in. The pullets were trap-nested for a season, and then if they came up to my ideal I had the satisfaction of knowing I had made another success. This getting in new blood of the same breed is called "out-breeding." I know a farmer's wife who had good pure-bred Plymouth Rocks, prize winners. She sent away and bought a first prize win- ner— a beautiful cockerel. She thought she would have prize win- ners for the next show, when to her grief she found that all the progeny of that cockerel were disqualified birds. The cockerel did not "nick" with the hens, though they were of the same breed. This out-breeding was a failure. If she thought fresh blood neces- sary, she should have purchased a cockerel from the same breeder of whom she purchased her original flock, and she should have had one that had some of the same blood as the pullets, or if she could not do that, she should have bought a good pullet and mated her to the best male, and if the cockerel from that mating proved good, she could have used one the following year. "Out-breeding" as she did, is a sort of lottery, and one cannot be certain of results. Crossing, cross-breeding or out-crossing, all of which mean the same thing, is introducing blood from a distinctly different breed. The first cross will usually give better layers, and occasionally will produce good birds, but the progeny of these will be mongrels un- less a pure-bred male is introduced each year. The new breeds, such as the Orpington, etc., are made by cross-breeding and then by close in-breeding. There is, however, one breed in America which has been made entirely by out-crossing; that is the Rhode Island Reds. This breed has been made by bringing vigorous blood on the male side "Red cocks" from China, Chittagong, Malay, etc., and mating them with the farm fowls of Rhode Island. This out- crossing has produced a breed of great vigor and prolificacy. Crossing as a rule, is not advisable, because one can never be certain which parent the young will resemble; they will be large or small, some of one color, some of another, irregular in maturing and irregular in shape for market. However, I knew a farmer's daughter in New York who wished to improve her flock of mongrels of all shapes and colors. She bought a "line-bred" Plymouth Rock cockerel, and the following summer she found that nearly all the young stock had Plymouth Rock markings, even the offspring of the Cochin hens had feathers to their toes. The next year she bought again from the same 48 MRS. BASLEY'S WESTERN POULTRY BOOK breeder another vigorous Plymouth Rock, and by the end of that season she had, apparently, a flock of line Plymouth Rocks. I say apparently, because if she had mated them together, she would have had mongrels the following season, but as it was she worked the mongrel old stock olt and had hue looking Plymouth Rocks that proved excellent layers. A line-bred cockerel has greater prepo- tency than one indefinitely bred, 'lhat is, he will reproduce him- self or leave his marks strongly upon his progeny. This was the case with my New ^ork friend's birds. Hers were "cross-bred," or what farmers would call "grade ' Plymouth Rocks. The male bird, it he comes from a line-bred family, will be more prepotent than the female. He will impress his qualities or characteristics, good or bad, on his progeny more than a male that is not line-bred, and the male is considered half the pen. His part is the germ, the seed, from which will grow the chick. Jbor this reason, choose the good, strong, vigorous cockerel, active and stirring, to head your pen and take a pure-bred instead of a mongrel, because in this way you will build up a rlock of fine birds. ".Line-breeding" is keeping in the same family for years, each year choosing the most vigorous of both males and females to con- tinue the succession. Line-breeding is very careful and closely selected in-breeding. "Out-breeding" is introducing new blood, but of the same breed. "Cross-breeding" or "out-crossing" is introducing distinctly new blood of an entirely different breed. There is some diversion of opinion as to the best ages of parent stock to produce the strongest chicks, but is is usually accepted that fowls are generally at their best at twenty to twenty-four months of age. if they are not then in good condition, the breeder should look for something wrong in his method of handling stock. A hen coming two years old will, if properly handled-between sea- sons, lay as well the second year as the first, and lay larger eggs which will hatch stronger and better chicks. A cock of the same age should be in his prime. The mating of males and females of this age will, other things being equal, give better results than any other age. However, well grown young fowls would make better breeders than two-year-olds not in good condition. Many breeders advise mating a cock bird to pullets, and a cockerel to hens. Generally these matings give better results than the matings of cockerels and pullets, but not as good as matings of two-year- olds. The principal quality looked for in mating birds is vigor, whether you are mating for market or for egg laying or for fancy feathering. Breeding Chart A clear conception of the methods followed in line breeding may be had by reference to the accompanying chart which has been drawn from one published several years ago by I. K. Felch, the veteran Light Brahma breeder. In this chart the solid circles and segments represent the male blood elements, and the solid lines BREEDING, LINE AND IN-BREEDING 49 that a male has been chosen from the group from which they start. The white circles and segments represent the female blood ele- ments and the dotted lines that the females have been chosen from the group from which they start. The shaded circle represents a scheme for the admission of new blood. Suppose we have two extra good birds which when mated together produce high-class offspring. Then the problem is how to perpetuate the quality of the parents and offspring without the dangers of close in-breeding Lir/E BREED/KG CHSIRT W/U.E LINE. FEWLE L/QIE; J^J / s* '\Z By the courtesy of the Editor of "Poultry" or of destroying the results of several years of work, by violent out-crossing. By following line breeding, three blood lines may be developed, one of which shall contain a preponderance of orig- inal male blood, one a preponderance of original female blood, and the third equal proportions of original male and female blood. In the chart let 1 represent the original male, and 2 the original female. Then by crossing 1 and 2 the result is group 3, which pos- sesses equal parts of the blood of 1 and 2. Selecting the best pullet from 3 and mating to her sire 1, group 4 is produced, which con- 50 MRS. BASLEY'S WESTERN POULTRY BOOK W CQ 0) fe Id Q PH w c 1 •5 o o -1-1 PH «! 1 ° 05 J™J M- »jj 2 u« ^ o ^^ C j-i « ^ "o.U I fc |^o 0 g D^ U * i > pg o «5 £ 2." 5^0 *o v IP < w 13 PH ^05^ S^g PI P || Srf r* «£§ g^g gleg PQ-S « 2 O O CO ^ ^? *^ Tj- *C> j CO •* H -I III & o 0 ||i| If O C3 g PH >-» 1—1 U ^ ,Q O m In g £P |||| ci tn l"ll sSJ! ^ 13 Q III <-8 51 |l PH Q P u c X 0 25X « 2^ 5 ** s{ 5^3 HI" ll1 |rf ill •sj 0 O OJ 1 BREEDING, LINE AND IN-BREEDING 51 tains three-fourths of the blood of the original sire and one-fourth of the blood of the original dam. In a like manner tjie best cock- erel from 3 mated to his dam 2 produces group 5, which is made up of three-fourths of the blood of the original dam and one-fourth of the blood of the original sire. Proceeding in a similar manner by mating the original parents to their offspring in the third gener- ation, we obtain at groups 6 and 7 offspring which contain either seven-eighths the blood of the original sire and one-eighth of the blood of the original dam, or seven-eighths the blood of the original dam and one-eighth the blood of the original sire, as the case may be. Thus the blood of the original sire has been practically eliminated Rhode Island Red Cockerel from the female line, and the blood of the original dam from the male line. If the original parents were. still in breeding condition, the blood of each could be intensified to 15-16 in the fifth genera- tion. To obtain the original cross, however, at any generation after the second, it is only necessary to select parents from corresponding groups on each side of the line, as for instance, a cockerel from group 6 mated to pullets from group 7 will produce, in the fifth generation group 9, which contains mathematically one-half the blood of the original pair. Similar results can be obtained by se- lecting parents from 4 and 5. The fifth and sixth generations, as shown in the chart, indicate only a few of the possible groups that may be obtained from various matings. The danger of using new stock not akin to one's own is far greater than the danger of line-breeding vigorous birds of known pedigree, as is proven by the following case in point : A breeder of Reds who had sold a fine pen two years previously of such excel- 52 MRS. BASLEY'S WESTERN POULTRY BOOK lence that she felt safe in buying back a cockerel raised from them, resembling in every way the sire sold, for the pen had been care- fully line-bred and mated for best results; she used this bird with her finest hens and sold eggs from them, and every chick of this cockerel's get had white feathers enough to disqualify it. After this cockerel moulted, the beautiful red of his plumage was sprink- led all through with patches of white feathers. Close inquiry di- vulged the fact that the breeder had allowed his Reds and Whites to run together until a few weeks before mating time, trusting to this short period of time to remove the bad effects of commingling. Now, scientific men maintain that the danger of contamination of the female is far greater than is generally believed. Some even assert that a pullet's first mating influences her whole progeny, no matter how carefully she may be mated thereafter, and that the taint of foreign blood can never be eliminated from her offspring. There is much of truth in this theory, for the blood of the mother partakes of the blood of the sire through the blood of the unborn germ, whether egg or foetus, circulating through her. We can never be too careful to keep our hens and pullets safely yarded, and we should beware of strange males as of the plague itself. The accompanying chart for the toe-marking of the chicks ex- plains itself. There are sixteen different markings possible. A small punch called a chick-marker will be found indispensable. The toe marking must be done while the chicks are a day or two old, as later on the web will bleed and the others may learn to peck at the blood and get into cannibal habits. A book must be kept for this one purpose, to keep a record of each chick's pedigree by not- ing its particular toe-mark, as soon as the hatch is taken off. Then when mating time comes it is a simple matter to select our breed- ers and mate them according to rule. TV /^ ^ /1Y P/IS /1*§ k/^ ^ > WORMS 161 for I have tried it. Another given by a friend of mine is, get the druggist to mix some corrosive sublimate with the best pure alcohol, take the tooth brush and brush the chickens' heads with this, being very careful not to let any of this get into the eyes (or it will blind them) or into the mouth, as it is very poisonous. This will not only kill the head lice and their nits, but it will also kill stick tight fleas, ticks and any insects. It is very difficult when once the pests get into henneries or on chickens to get rid of them. It is far easier to keep the enemy out by constant and thorough cleaning at fre- quent intervals, especially in the sum- mer time. I find using tobacco stems for making the nests of setting hens a good preventative; besides this, I see that all the fowls have good dust baths in damp and mellow earth. Hump Themselves — I will have to come to you with my sick chickens. It seems to be chicken raisers' only refuge. I have lost several half-grown and whole-grown. They kind of hump themselves all together, do not care to eat; do not stir around. I never no- ticed any bowel trouble; it looks to me like their heads turned dark; live several days. What shall I do? — L. H. E. Answer — It is very difficult to diag- nose a case like yours with so little in- formation about it, but from your de- scription of the chickens humping themselves and appearing sleepy, I think they have worms. You should open one and make a thorough exam- ination; then you will know what really is the matter. If it is worms, give them thirty drops of turpentine in a pint of water. Let them have no other water to drink for a week, and I think it will cure them. Possibly they may be taking cold and very probably may have lice. Examine them and dust them, and try to dis- cover what is giving them cold. Give them a little poultry tonic and follow my directions for the general care of fowls. ever. He uses lime, sulphur and car- bolic acid. Is there any way corrosive sublimate could be used as a spray, and would it be safe for the hens in the houses? How long would the hens need to be kept out after the spraying was done? Am having the worst pos- sible luck with my chickens. Have probably hatched 550 chickens this year and have less than 200 now. When a week to ten days old they begin to droop, refuse to eat and starve to death. What is the matter? No bowel trouble; no cold; no lice, or only a few. Does cholera ever attack such young chickens, and if cholera, would they not have bowel trouble? Would greatly appreciate an immedi- ate answer, as the mites, get all over me and drive me nearly frantic — Per- plexed. Answer — The thing that is killing your little chickens is not cholera, otherwise they would have bowel trouble; it is only the swarms of mites. If they drive you nearly fran- tic, think how the chicks must suffer. The mites simply drain the life out of them. The corrosive sublimate can be put on with a spray, but it is dan- gerous to do so, as if it splatters into the person's eyes who is spraying, it may blind him for life. One pound of this costs $1.25 and that is sufficient to make 120 gallons of the solution. As it takes some time to dissolve in wa- ter, it is usual to dissolve it in alcohol. I have used it dissolved in alcohol to paint henneries and nest boxes, and it will destroy all insect life. You must turn the hens out of your hen- neries for several hours, or until the walls are dry. Mites — We are fighting mites, but apparently with no success. We hired a man who makes poultry ranch spraying a business. We paid him $10 and he guaranteed to rid the place of the pests, but they are worse than Flea Powder— Mrs. C. B. R, Los Gatos — I do not think the "flea pow- der" you mention would kill the little turkeys, but as you ask what I use, I will tell you. It is here called "Buh- ach," and can be bought at any of the poultry supply houses. It is made from the "Pyrrethrum " daisy and is perfectly harmless to all fowls, from tiny canaries to mammoth turkeys, but deadly to insects. It contains a small quantity of an essential oil which asphyxiates all insects, fleas, ants, lice. etc. It must be kept in an air-tight jar or tin box, as the es- sential oil easily evaporates. Next in value come the insect powders, the foundation of which is tobacco dust. 162 MRS. BASLEY'S WESTERN POULTRY BOOK: The kind of lice that are so deadly to little turkeys are the same as the head lice of chickens. They are to be found on the heads and necks of the turkeys, and also on the large feath- ers at the edge of the wing. They seem to sap the life out of the turkeys. I always rub the "Buhach" powder well into the down on the head and at the roots of the wing feathers, whether they have signs of lice or not, for it is better to be sure than sorry. Ticks — In trouble again. We are renting a place until we can build on our own, and every building on it is simply alive with little brown ticks; they bury themselves in the heads of the chickens, the ears of the dogs, the feet of the animals and all over our bodies. What shall I do? Please tell me and tell me quick. A neighbor says lard and carbolic acid on their heads and spray with distillate, but neither seems to do any good so far. I am out of the chicken business since moving here, except a few for our own use. Yours sincerely, J. J. W. Answer — The easiest way to get rid of them is to pour coal oil over the buildings and then set fire to them, but as you are in a rented place, that would scarcely be possible. The next best plan is to paint the place thor- oughly with corrosive sublimate; it is what I recommended to you for the plague of mites at your other place. Ticks are one of the worst plagues in Southern California. They are so thin and flat that they hide between the shingles and boards. They really are no thicker than a bit of paper, and nothing kills them but the corrosive sublimate (bi-chloride of mercury). This can either be put on with a brush or be sprayed on the houses. You remember that it is very poisonous and great care must be used in hand- ling it. When once your coops are free of ticks, or other vermin, you can keep them so by spraying with kero- sine emulsion that I have so often given. Distillate, liquid lice killer, coal tar and other preparations of car- bolic acid or creosote are all good to keep out vermin, but I know they will not drive out ticks. Depluming Mites — Two years ago I started to raise White Leghorns, com- mencing with two cocks and twelve pullets of as good strain as I could secure at the time. This spring I had a splendid looking flock of 100 females and twelve males. They were beau- ties, but recently developed the feath- er pulling habit and are now a sight. Never in moulting time have I seen poultry look worse. Many of the hens look as though plucked for market, and not one of the roosters has a ves- tige of tail. The hens still keep up laying as well as before (from fifty to sixty-five daily), but I cannot believe this will hold out in their present con- dition. I have them on a two-acre range and feed them cut green bone in large quantities four times a week in addi- tion to all the other grains obtainable. My experience can only suggest two causes for such a state of affairs:! — Insufficient animal food. 2 — Close confinement. But neither of these causes enter into the present state of affairs. Can you advance a reason and suggest a remedy. By so doing you will greatly oblige one who is getting interested in raising fine looking birds. — F. S. S., Tucson, Ariz. Answer — Your birds have what is called ''Depluming mites." The prin- cipal symptom of this trouble is a loss of feathers from spots of various sizes, situated on different parts of the body. The feathers break off at the surface of the skin, and at the root of the feather is seen a small mass of epi- dermic scales which is easily crushed into powder. A microscopic examina- tion of this powder reveals numerous mites and the debris which they pro- duce. The disease appears in poultry yards as a consequence of the intro- duction of one or more birds already affected. It is readily communicated, develops rapidly and in a few days a whole flock is contaminated. It us- ually begins on the rump and spreads rapidly to the back, the thighs and the belly. An infested cock will rapidly infest all the fowls in a poultry yard. Often the head and the upper surface of the neck are affected early in the course of the disease. The feathers fall off at all these points and finally the skin is denuded over a large ex- tent of surface. The large feathers of the tail and wings and the wing cov- erts are generally retained. The denuded skin presents a normal appearance; it is smooth and soft, of a pinkish color and not perceptibly LICE, MITES, TICKS AND WORMS 163 thickened. By pulling out the feath- ers which remain near the invaded parts, it is easy to find, with fowls, a mass of epidermic scales at the end of the quill, which contains a number of parasites. The general health of the birds is apparently not disturbed. They remain in good flesh and con- tinue to lay as though they were not affected. It seems probable that much of the irregular moulting, feather pulling and feather eating are due to the irritation caused by the Sacroptes Laevis. The treatment for this is not very difficult, but must be persisted in until a cure is effected. Carbolic salve should be rubbed over the affected portions of the skin and the adjacent parts, or a salve may be made by mix- ing one part of carbolic salve, one part of flour of sulphur, one part of pow- dered aloes with ten parts of lard or vaseline. A large surface of the body should not be covered with strong- carbolic acid preparations, on account of the danger of absorption and poisoning. The affected parts of the body may be rubbed every fourth day until a cure is affected. It is well to finish the treatment by dipping the birds in a two per cent creoline bath and to whitewash the houses with carbolated whitewash. This will kill any mites which may be left in the feathers or about the roosts. From Wild Birds — Some years ago my fowls became afflicted with a round worm, also tape worms, and in one article you mentioned several remedies, such as santoine, turpen- tine and tincture of male fern. I dug up the yards and seeded to green feed but all to no purpose; it has prac- tically driven me out of business. Last spring I invested in some outside stock (just hatched baby chicks), but they also became infested, although they were on new land. However, I managed to keep down those pests by occasionally dosing the hens with the above mentioned medicines. We do not feed anything unclean to our fowls and it always has been a puzzle to me where such worms came from. A few days ago our house cat brought home a small bird, which she began to devour on the house porch, but leaving the intestines, out of which crawled two good sized round worms such as fowls have. As we live in the woods, do you think this has anything to do with it? I am al- most afraid to |tart my incubators this season, as it may only result in future failure. — W. E. B. Answer — Your fowls undoubtedly get the worms as the wild birds do, from the droppings or eggs of worms from the other birds. By the persist- ent use of turpentine, using thirty drops in a quart of water, or mixing it in that proportion in the food, for a week at a time, you can get rid of them. Also disinfect the ground. The only thing that I can see is for you to keep up this treatment, for a week every two months, giving tur- pentine either in the food or water. I would not be discouraged because that is a sure remedy and by watch- ing and noticing the droppings, you need not fail in rearing the chickens. From Pigeons — My chickens' giz- zards are affected by red worms about the size of a pin. All the stock I raised last year seemed affected, al- though the eggs came from different places. I have the Brown Leghorns, Brahmas and R. I. Reds. I feed all the various grains, plenty of greens and good meat and bone. The only thing you recommend that I have not fed is charcoal, still as chicks they got it in the chick feed. I have given them turpentine in food and water at various times and it seemed to. have the desired result, but today I learned different, the gizzard is penetrated and has a sore spot caused by these worms. All the stock in different yards are affected. I get plenty of eggs and the chick- ens look good, combs nice and red, nevertheless I find them all affected the same way. — Mrs. G. S. L. Answer — I have been through the same trouble myself and so can help you. The difficulty is to find the source. I found out that my chickens were getting the worms or the eggs of the worms from neighboring pig- eons. The droppings of the pigeons contained the eggs of the worms and in a short time the droppings of the chickens also had them and the other chickens ate them and so on they kept increasing. First of all I gave the chickens the turpentine which I recommended to you. A teaspoonful 164 MRS. BASLEY'S WESTERN POULTRY BOOK in a quart of water. Mix the food with that water, also put a teaspoon- ful in a quart of the drinking water and allow no other water for drink- ing. Keep this treatment up for a week. Meanwhile clean up the yards by having them either ploughed un- der or dug up and a crop of some kind planted, something that will grow quickly, such as wheat or bar- ley, and as far as possible destroy the birds that are bringing you the trouble, for I cannot but think it must be pigeons or some other wild birds. The worms will kill the young chick- ens, but they do not always kill the older fowls. Sometimes the worms come from unclean or spoiled food, from "webby" grains and bad animal food. You will have to discover for yourself where they are getting the worms from and cut off the source of supply. Intestinal Worms — I wish a little information and advice in regard to a valuable Buff Orpington cockerel I own. He has become mopy and goes away under the trees by himself, and has lost over half of his weight in a month. He eats like a horse, though, of everything, I give my hens, but shakes his head an awful lot, as though something was wrong. I looked in his throat and it looks all right. He has changed in color from a light buff to a very dark red since acting unwell, and has grown to be a homely, dopey bird, from a real beau- tiful lively one a short time ago. — M. J. Q. Answer — I think your Buff Orping- ton cockerel has intestinal worms. You had better give him 25 drops of spirits of turpentine on a lump of bread, or in a spoonful of water, and follow that immediately with two tea- spoonfuls of castor oil. Keep him shut up so you can watch the drop- pings and remove and burn or bury them deeply. If you do not find worms in his droppings, give him ten drops of tincture of male-fern on a lump of sugar, followed in an hour by a dose of castor oil. This is for tape worms. Both the remedies should be given after twelve hours or more fasting. noticed what look like worms. She is thin and looks like she has catarrh. Can you help her? Also a Plymouth Rock rooster who has a film over his eyes and sleeps all day, begins to take exercise about sun down; appetite fair. I feed every variety of chicken food alternating, and keep shells, charcoal and green food, and they are not fenced in. — J. L. Answer — Your little bantam hen undoubtedly has worms, as you see them in her droppings. Your Ply- mouth Rock male bird also has them, for sleepiness is one of the chief symptoms of worms in the intestines. The best cure I know is turpentine; ten drops in a teaspoonful of castor oil, after the chickens have fasted twenty-four hours. If you have other chickens, and think they may have worms, you had better give the whole flock some tur- pentine in their drinking water. Thirty drops of turpentine to a pint of water. Do not let them have any water without turpentine in it for a week. Bantam Affected — I have a little hen, bantam, in whose droppings I Several Kinds — I am in despair and it is lice, lice, lice. We have Brown Leghorns, and as they will not sit, we borrowed a setting hen and she only stayed with us long enough to give our hens a supply of grey head-lice. When we discovered them we went to work with a lice killer, sprayed the coops, ground and nests, put the chickens in a box and left them three hours. We also used crude oil, poured gallons on the ground, painted nests, roosts, etc., but still the lice stayed on the hens' heads. Last week we bought six Buff Orpingtons; yesterday we found they were alive with body lice, yellow lice, especially around the vent; there were thou- sands; then we examined the Leg- horns, found they were infected also. What shall we do? Do you think it would hurt them to wash them now with the kerosene emulsion? Am afraid it might give them a cold. — Mrs. C. S. B. Answer — What I should do were I in your place would be to get some Buhach powder, rub it well into the chickens' heads for the head lice, and well into the fluff under the wings and on the backs for the body lice, then put the hens, six or a dozen at a time, LICE, MITES, TICKS AND WORMS 165 into a large size dry-goods box, at the bottom of which is a newspaper thoroughly painted with a good lice killer; cover the top of the box with a carpet and leave them in for three hours, then look them over thorough- ly and pull out every feather that has nits on it. The nits hatch out about every five days, so in a week's time look the hens over again, powder them again, and again put them into the box painted with the lice killer. Two applications should cure them. After this, once a month, at Anight, powder them with bubach and look them over occasionally, and if neces- sary, go through the performance again. You can paint the roosts with lice killer, but do not put any in the nests, for it will not only flavor the eggs, but will kill the germs and make the eggs unhatchable. The best thing to use for the nests is a kettleful of boiling water with a large handful of salt added to it, or scalding soap- suds, putting in fresh straw, or better still, making the nests of tobacco stems. You can get these for 25 cents a gunny sack full. Spray for Houses and Dip for Hens • — Last summer I found a recipe in one of your articles for spraying hen houses. I used it to good advantage, but have misplaced the recipe and cannot remember the mixture exact- ly. It was composed of coal oil, car- bolic acid and soap, with a certain proportion of water. If you will kindly send it to me, I will appreciate it. — C. W. _ Answer — I gladly send you the re- cipe, which is excellent. I have used it for ten years or more. It will kill fleas, lice, mites or any insect pests in the henneries. It will also thorough- ly disinfect the premises from infec- tious diseases and if used for a dip for hens in warm, sunny weather, will rid them of lice and will assist the moult: Dissolve one pound of hard soap (or soap powder) in one gallon of boiling water, remove from the fire and add immediately one gallon of kerosene and one pint of crude car- bolic acid. Churn or agitate violent- ly for twenty minutes or until you want to use it. If the oil and water separate on standing, then the soap was not caustic enough. Add to this ten gallons of water. I keep the stock solution on. hand, dip out a quart and add to it ten quarts of water and use it for spray- ing the houses once every three weeks in summer and every month in win- ter. Putting it on hot in summer and slopping it well into dark and dusty corners will kill fleas, which are ex- ceedingly troublesome on sandy soil in this part of the country. FEEDING IN GENERAL Feeding System — I am not perfectly satisfied with my feeding system and I follow yours on the food question. I note that you advise dried blood and other food dried in the oven, green cut bone and bone meal. Would you ad- vise boiled liver, lungs and scraps in- stead of prepared meat scraps? Are ground clam shells good in place of cut bone? Could there be any danger from feeding too much ground shell? Should gravel be furnished to chick- ens to pick from? — D. F. Answer — Boiled liver and lungs chopped fine are excellent for fowls. I prefer them to prepared meat scraps. They must be fed while fresh, as spoiled meat may poison the fowls. Clam shells cannot take the place of cut bone. Crushed oyster and clam shells contain lime, which is very good for making egg shell. There is no danger of the hens eating too much of this. Gravel or grit should always be furnished to chickens. Animal Food for Fowls — Kindly in- form me as to the difference, if any, between beef scraps, beef meal, meat meal and blood meal. Which is con- sidered the best to feed laying hens and growing chickens? I have fed beef scraps for nearly a year and had good results from it; at least I think I have. If .some of the others are better, I would like to know what one it is.— G. K. W. Answer — Beef scraps, beef meal and meat meal are the same, only the lat- ter is ground finer than the former. Blood meal is made from the blood, 166 MRS. BASLEY'S WESTERN POULTRY BOOK cooked, dried and ground. Pure dried blood contains more protein than the others, therefore is considered better in most cases. The beef scraps and beef meal are the refuse of the slaugh- terhouses, heads, lights, etc., boiled down or cooked with steam, pressed, dried and ground, and are frequently called tankage. If you have a good brand, keep to it, because some are no good, and if al- lowed to become damp or heated are injurious to the chickens. Bad Meat — I had twelve laying hens, they averaged seven eggs a day, were healthy and never were sick un- til I bought five cents' worth of green ground bone from a wagon that passes my door. It was wet and slimy, and smelled, but he said it was all right. I gave it to the chickens at noon; fed them nothing else then. At four o'clock I went out and found two dy- ing and six more droopy and by eight that night had lost eight. Next day two large Buff Orpington hens died. I looked for some of your remedies giving asafoetida pills and the soda you spoke of in the water. I showed the bones to the butcher, and he said he never heard of such a thing as spoiled meat poisoning chickens. He sold it when it smelled like that all the time. — Mrs. D. M. Answer — That meat poisoned your chickens evidently. It is called pto- maine poisoning. Butchers sometimes put formaline or some preservative on the meat, which has a very poisonous effect on chickens, but yours were un- doubtedly poisoned by the putrid meat. You had better not buy any ground bone unless it is quite fresh. Blood Meal — Will you please tell me how much blood meal to put into the mash for thirteen chickens, or in other words, what proportion for each hen?— L. S. Answer — Half an ounce per hen ev- ery day at this spring season of the year is about what they need of blood meal mixed in the mash. Weigh out enough for the thirteen hens and measure that in a cup or by a spoon, then you will know how much by measure. ducks? Also for fowls and turkeys? Are they as nourishing as alfalfa? My hens are 1iot laying well. The eggs have suddenly dropped off, and I did not know but what the cause might be beet tops. — J. S. Y. Answer — In September one is glad to get anything green for the fowls, ducks, geese or turkeys, to eat. Al- most anything green is better than nothing," but alfalfa contains more protein than any other green food except white clover. The per cent of protein in white clover is 15.7, and in alfalfa 14.30, while in beet tops it is only 1.3. By this you will see that alfalfa is worth about 14 times as much as beet tops. There is about as much protein in alfalfa as in wheat bran. You complain that your hens do not lay. I think probably they are moulting. You cannot expect hens to lay all the time without tak- ing a rest. Dry Hopper Method — I write you regarding the dry hopper method of feeding. How much space do you leave at the bottom for the feed to come through, and how wide do you leave the space for the chickens to eat out of? We made one, but it is not a success, for the box is bloody from their combs hitting against it. They stand and eat all the time and do not go and drink as you say yours do. — D. S. M. Answer — I had the same experience with hoppers injuring the combs of the fowls, and now I make my hop- pers like those used at the Maine Experiment Station, simply a box with a roof over it. The box is twen- ty-four inches long and eleven inches wide. The sides are cut like a gable, the highest point being sixteen inches high. The gable roof keeps the food dry and the hens waste scarcely any of it. The roof lifts off cr c:m be slid back to fill it. Beet Tops — Will you kindly tell me if beet tops are a good green food for Dry Mash — Will you kindly inform me as to the best method of feeding calfalfa meal to hens and pullets? I use hopper constantly filled with dry mash consisting of bran, shorts, feed meal and beef scraps, accessible at all times, and would much prefer add- ing the calfalfa to this. Or would you advise soaking it in water and feeding it separately? The fowls get grain twice a day and now if I add FEEDING IN GENERAL 167 the calfalfa to the mash what propor- tion shall I make it? Also, is it as well to add the charcoal, two or three per cent, to the mash or feed separ- ately? I wish to simplify the routine work as much as possible. — Mrs. O. K. Answer— I advocate adding the cal- falfa meal to the dry mash. It would make a very good ration to simply add one part of calfalfa meal to your present mash, making it One part each of bran, shorts, feed mea4, beef scraps and calfalfa meal. I feed this with excellent results, but at first the hens did not like the calfalfa, so I only added one iron spoonful, in- creasing the dose every day, adding one more spoonful until, within a month, they were having the right proportion. You can mix the char- coal in the same way, but I prefer to keep it separate with the grit and the crushed slu" Exercise for Fowls — I was greatly interested in an article of yours on feeding. You say give a hen a chance to work and no matter how fat, etc. Now what interests me most to know is just how you manage to give them plenty of work in a limited space. We, who occupy only a village lot, will be greatly helped if you will tell us how to keep hens busy in such limited quarters. — G. P. C. Answer — To keep hens busy, give them what is called a "scratching pen." Put a 12-inch board across one corner of your lot and fill that full of good wheat straw or hay; scatter all the grain you feed in that, and the hens will work all day digging out the grain; every grain they scratch out they will bury two, and so will keep up the exercise. If you are feeding the hopper method, put the hopper at one end of the pen and the water vessel at the other end; this will give them the exercise of walking back and forth. You can also hang up a cabbage for them to jump at, but scratching is the natural and best exercise for developing the egg organs. beginners know what a good balanced ration is. We are just as apt to over- feed as to underrfeed. Would you kindly give me formula for a good egg ration? In giving ration, kindly state quantities of each kind of feed used in ration, amount to be fed to twelve hens, whether to be fed wet or dry, morning or night; also amount of grain for twelve hens; in other words, a full day's egg ration for twelve hens; when to feed, how to feed and quantity for daily ration. I have some White Plymouth Rocks, over eight months old, large and well developed, but only two of them have commenced to lay. I feed morning mash of 2 parts bran, 1 shorts, 1 bar- ley meal, 1 cornmeal, 1 alfalfa meal, y2 blood meal. Wheat at night, about 1/4 pints for twelve hens; good clean yards and houses; fresh cut kale at noon.— W. S. F. Answer — The ration you are now feeding is a very good one, but at this time of the year (early spring), I would advise you to double the amount of blood-meal in the mash. I would feed the mash perfectly dry, without mois- tening it in the least, in the morning; the green feed at noon, and the wheat at night, or I would reverse it, feeding the wheat in the scratching pen in the morning, green food at noon, and the mash slightly dampened with table scraps you may have, at night, giving the hens at their supper time what they will eat up clean. Pullets that are ready to lay will sometimes retain their eggs if they do not have com- fortable nests; also sometimes they require a slight shock or stimulants to start they laying. I find chili pepper seeds excellent for starting the laying, or failing to get this, a teaspoonful of red pepper three times a week for a dozen hens, will often start them laying. The ration you are feeding, if you add more blood meal (or animal food) is a well bal- anced ration for eggs. Ration for Twelve Hens — I take great pleasure in reading your ar- ticles. One thing I have failed to find and that is a good balanced ra- tion; many writers say, feed a good balanced ration, but few of us new Tomatoes — Do tomatoes tend to make the hens quit laying? — J. W. Answer — Tomatoes will not do the hens any harm unless fed in very large quantities. There is not much nourishment to them and consequent- ly they will not improve the laying qualities; otherwise a reasonable amount will benefit the hens. 168 MRS. BASLEY'S WESTERN POULTRY BOOK Formula for Feeding — Your formu- la for feeding — two parts bran, one part cornmeal, one part alfalfa meal, one part shorts, one part beef scraps — is the simplest I have ever seen, so shall try it. 1. Will the same formula hold good with hens with free range but no green food? 2. In case they have access to fresh alfalfa hay, would it be neces- sary to use the alfalfa meal? 3. Could I substitute shorts or middlings for the meal in case they are cheaper, and if so, in what pro- portion? 4. Does the balanced ration keep up the egg yield during moulting or is it necessary to add oil meal or some similar meal during that period? — Mrs. G. H. G. Answer — The same formula is good for hens with no green food, but it is much better to give them green food, or roots, beets, turnips, carrots, pumpkins, or some succulent vege- table if possible. 2. No, not absolutely necessary, but I always continue the alfalfa meal so the hens may not forget the taste of it, as it is sometimes difficult to break them into the habit of eating it. 3. You could not substitute shorts or middlings for it. 4. During the moult, add oil-meal or linseed meal, about one-fourth of one part, to the feed. This ripens the feathers, makes them fall out easier and grow more quickly. For Young and Old Stock — I am very much interested in your articles and would like to ask you for a little advice. Being away from home all day, I have to feed in the morning enough to do all day. This I can manage for the old stock by feeding scratch food in the litter and dry mash in hoppers. But how can I manage the growing stock? Please give a formula for dry feed. Do you con- sider the scratch food sold by the poultry houses good food for the young stock? My chicks will not eat the baby chick food after a week or ten days. I also give them lawn clip- pings or lettuce every evening. Is a handful of scratch feed to the hen once a day enough where they have the dry mash and table scraps? Is cracked corn good food to feed alone to young stock? I have Rhode Island Reds.— R. L. P. Answer — Your questions relate principally to the feeding of the young stock, and you do not say whether you want to keep them for fattening for the table or for future egg layers. There is of course a dif- ference in the way of feeding, or rather in the quality of the food to be given to them. However, I will tell you the way I feed for egg laying. As soon as I think the little chicks will eat whole wheat, I add it to the baby chick feed, a small quantity. If they pick it up quickly I add more each day, and in a few days I give also some kaffir corn or finely cracked corn. It should be finely cracked, as it is difficult of digestion. When it is too long in digesting, the corn ferments in the gizzard and that gives the chick diarrhoea, which often proves fatal. We never want to over- tax the digestion of a chick, so I give corn carefully. This applies to the last question in your letter — it is not good to feed corn alone. It has been clearly proven that chicks do better, grow more quickly and mature ear- lier if they can have a great variety of seeds to eat. This is the reason we prefer to buy the chick feed al- ready mixed from the supply houses. They have greater facilities for get- ting a variety of grains than we have. When the young stock is old enough to eat the wheat and kaffir corn, they can be fed as you do the old hens, only remember to give them nice, clean litter to scratch in. It will need renewing oftener than that of the old hens, for if it gets foul and they pick up some of their own drop- pings, you will soon have a set of sick chickens. Feed the grains in the scratching pen to the little chicks, and also give them in a hopper bran, al- falfa meal, corn meal, ground bone and either granulated milk or dried blood in equal proportions. The lit- tle chicks will prefer the grains in the scratching pen and eat those the first, which is just what they want, but if they are hungry they will go to the hopper. Most of the poultry supply houses now make an excellent scratch feed; they realize the need of it and are able to mix it scientifically. I al- ways buy from them, and if I think there is too much corn and that my fowls will become too fat, I say, FEEDING IN GENERAL 169 "Please economize the corn." You will find most of the poultry supply houses willing to mix the scratch food just as you want it. You are feeding the mature stock all right. One hand- ful of the scratch food in the litter is about right for the hens. The green food is quite important, the lawn clip- pings should be of clover or as much clover as possible, for the blue grass becomes so hard and stiff as the sum- mer continues that there is not much nourishment in it and the hens will not eat it. Lettuce is good but is sometimes quite expensive and diffi- cult to get, but there is another green food that has been found excellent and is within the reach of any one. This is sprouted oats. Take half a bucket of oats, pour warm water on them and leave them covered all night, then spread them in boxes. Any box will do. Have the oats about two inches deep and keep them damp. In four or five days .there will be a mass of tender green sprouts. The hens will eat eagerly of this. A friend of mine has also done this with barley for many years with great success. This green food is as good for the young stock as for the old. In your place I would feed as you do, throwing scratch food (a handful to each fowl) in the litter in the early morning, keeping the dry mash in the hopper, and feed the green food in the evening. Some of it may be left till morning, but will not wilt much, and they will eat it the first thing. Be sure they have plenty of water and have it shaded from the sun, either in a box on its side or in some sort of shelter. Mixing Foods — I want to ask you if there is any good reason for not mixing foods at the same meal. Prof. Jaffa of the U. C. said on one occa- sion that it was best not to mix foods — in feeding wheat, to feed that alone; the same of barley or of corn. Make either an entire meal. I have ob- served in feeding my chickens that they seem to enjoy a variety of grains fed together. Which method would you think best? I am feeding rolled barley dry. Would you think it better to soak it? I give the mash at noon, dry, and green feed morning and evening. The fowls seem to like the green feed better at those times than at noon. Would you set eggs from well grown White Minorca pullets that are now nearly eight months old? They are now with a rooster of the same age; or if not now, would it be safe to set them after they are nine months old? — G. S. H. Answer — The reason Professor Jaffa thinks it best not to mix foods is because some hens will pick out all of a certain grain in a greedy man- ner, and by giving only one grain at a time, they are forced to eat what he chooses to give them. I would not venture to differ from so learned a man, but like you, I notice my hens enjoy a variety, so I give it to them, and for the little chicks I am posi- tive a great variety is by far the best for them. I found that the hens en- joyed an occasional feed of soaked barley, so I poured scalding water over a few pailsful of barley, covering it with gunny sacks to keep in the steam and when thoroughly soaked, fed it to the hens. I would not set eggs from such young pullets. I would wait until they are nine or ten months of age; especially as they are mated with a cockerel of their own age. The off- spring of immature fowls is often weakly and delicate. I have found it much more satisfactory to hatch only from two-year-old birds. Then you have the foundation of a vigorous flock of fowls, and I never hatch from Mediterraneans of less than a year. It really pays better and is much less anxious work having only vigorous chickens, chickens that can- not help but grow and develop as we want them. How Much to Feed — Can you tell me how much feed an average Leg- horn should have in weight with a free range of two acres of alfalfa? Is green ground bone necessary all the year round or only in the winter? My hens will not lay and I may not be feeding right, although a few Wyandottes I have are too fat, but they get exactly the same food as the Leghorns. I have 72 hens and only got 12 eggs yesterday. Am not satis- fied with the results and desire to have them do better. Answer — An average Leghorn hen should have in weight for every 170 MRS. BASLEY'S WESTERN POULTRY BOOK pound weight of hen an ounce of food. As Leghorns weigh about five pounds each, they would require about five ounces of food each per day. Animal food of some kind is necessary for hens if you want them to lay. If you can give them milk in large quantities, that will give them all the animal food necessary. Green ground bone is, of course, the best food, but it is very difficult to keep it fresh and sweet in the sum- mer time, therefore dried bone and dried blood, or beef scrap or milk must take the place. A hen requires about half an ounce of green ground bone every day or of the dry stuff (bone and blood) half an ounce every other day. If the fowls have plenty of green food and are not laying well, give them more animal food. Per- haps your Leghorns are two years old, in which case you had better get younger fowls, as their days of great- est usefulness are over. bonaceous food than hens, and I am afraid if you increase the corn, be- fore you want to fatten them for the market, you will have liver trouble in the flock. Be very careful how you increase the corn or corn meal. Feeding for Market — What shall we feed young cockerels to prepare them for market? Our turkey hens are still laying. Will they lay next year in time for hatching season, say January or Feb- ruary? Of course, I do not expect you could tell exactly what a turkey hen would do, but would like your idea of it. If I thought they would not lay before March, I would rather sell them. What would you advise? -S. L. J. Answer — For fattening your cock- erels, coop them in a small place, so they will not exercise. Feed them three times a day a mash composed of one part each of corn meal (feed meal), bran and rolled pats, with a little charcoal, and mix it with milk, if possible. Take away the food in fifteen minutes, leaving only water and grit before them; give them all they will eat of this, and in from two to three weeks they will be delicious, fat and juicy. The last week add five per cent linseed or cotton seed meal. Your turkeys that are laying now will moult late and probably not com- mence to lay again before March or April, although as you say, one can- not be very certain what a turkey hen will do. I do not think it would be advisable to shorten their ration of meat. Tur- keys require more meat and less car- How Much Grain— I have been feeding three times a day grain morn- ing and night and a mash at noon. I feed a good handful of Kaffir corn, wheat or Indian corn in the scratch pens. I have a mixed flock; I cannot well use the dry mash. How much of the grain should I give if I only fed once a day? I have fifty or sixty hens kept only for eggs and no good way of weighing grain, so please state quantity per hen and not weight. — C. A. B. Answer — It is a good rule to feed a pint of grain for every dozen hens, the grain to be buried in the scratching pens, so they will have to dig it out. Give all the green food, clover, lawn clippings, alfalfa, lettuce, cabbage, vegetables, that they will eat, and one tablespoonful of green cut bone for each hen, three times a week. You do not mention how you make your mash. Remember that a hen needs animal food, green food and cereals; that is the balanced ration that will give plenty of eggs at all times. What to Feed and How— Will you kindly tell me what to feed my fowls? I am a stranger in California and cannot make my flock pay for its feed. Four months ago I bought 25 hens and two cockerels (Buff Orpingtons), ten four-months' pullets and twelve Minorcas. The pullets have never layed, the hens only a few eggs. They have new houses and are in an or- ange grove 100 feet by 65 feet in two pens. I take the Minorcas out of the trees each night. I feed an egg food sold at the supply house here. Grains, alfalfa meal, etc., is in the egg food. The hens have dust baths and I paint the roosts with a lice killer. I get no eggs; one cockerel rattles in his throat. The leading poultryman here has been up and can find no fault. Will you please tell me what and how much and at what time of day they should be fed? They are high-priced fowls and I want to make them lay eggs. The grove is kept cultivated during the summer and everything is new. It seems to be only a question FEEDING IN GENERAL 171 of food and exercise. I get so many different opinions I do not know what to do; some say they are too fat, others not fat enough. How can I make them scratch any more? I would like to feed as cheaply as pos- sible. Where could I get the Cali- fornia Experiment Station Bulletin? —Mrs. L. S. Answer — Your fowls, especially the Orpingtons, should be laying well. It is, as you say, a question of fejsd and exercise. I find the best results with Orpingtons is to feed grain in the scratching pen in the morning; one small handful scattered in deep straw for each hen. I keep the following mixture in a hopper, or box, before them all the time; also I give them crushed oyster shell, charcoal and granulated bone in a hopper by itself: Mix two quarts of bran, one of corn meal, one of alfalfa meal, one of beef scrap, or of granulated milk. To this I add, on cold days, a tablespoon of ground red peppers, and when they are moulting, half a cup of linseed meal. If you feed in this way you cannot fail to have eggs. Besides this, I give the hens lawn clippings, table scraps and refuse vegetables. Hens do much better in this climate when they can have plenty of green food. All the bulletins of the Agricultural Experi- ment Station can be had by writing to the Director of the Station, Univer- sity of California, Berkeley, Cal. They are free to residents in this state. like slivers, because they may pierce the crop or gizzard. For several years when I c^uld not get grit I used broken crockery for the chickens and I know it does well. Broken Glass for Chickens — Have started in poultry in a small way. Have had very good success so far. However, 'tis somewhat of a trial to get enough gravel or grit for a good sized flock on a small lot. Now, what I want to know is, is pounded glass fit to feed hens? Two of my neighbors have advised its use in the poultry yards, but I am afraid it would act on the chickens the same as it did on foxes we used to poison with it up in the wilds of Wisconsin. — J. G. F. Answer — Broken glass or broken crockery make a very fair substitute for grit and gravel. It should be broken not smaller than a grain of wheat and have three sharp edges or corners to each piece. In using glass be sure not to take pointed pieces Substitute for Green Food — Will you kindly tell me what would be the quickest and best vegetable for green food I could grow for my poultry? I planted a patch of white clover, but it does not seem to grow at all. Is al- falfa meal a good substitute where green food cannot be had? — G. K. Answer — An alfalfa patch is a good thing to have for poultry, but if you cannot have either clover or alfalfa, plant for the little chickens, lettuce, and for the older ones, kale, swiss- chard, cabbage, beets, etc. These in the order in which I have mentioned them are the best foods that I know of. You, of course, must judge what will grow best in your section. Alfal- fa meal is a very fair substitute for green food, but of course does not come up to the crisp succulent fresh growing greens. Lack Green Food — I have three pens of White Plymouth Rocks and what bothers me is I only get from four to six eggs from them. They all look fine. I think they are rather fat. As to feed, I give them a small handful of grain in the morning in deep straw, either wheat or barley; about eleven a dry mash — eight quarts bran, four quarts middlings and nearly a quart of beef scraps; at night I give them the dry grain again. Once in a while a tablespoonful of pepper in their mash. They are not troubled with lice or mites, and have grit, oyster. shell and coal before them all the time; also good clean water. Can you advise me how to feed them so as to get them down to business? — J. B. Answer — What your hens lack is; green food. At least one-third of a hen's food should be green — clover, alfalfa or some succulent vegetables. They cannot do well upon the abso- lutely dry food you are giving them. Add the green to your present ration and you should get eggs. Millet Seed — Can you tell me what makes my chickens that are from ten weeks to three months old, droopy? Is millet seed good for little chicks 172 MRS. BASLEY'S WESTERN POULTRY BOOK for the first two or three weeks? I mean millet seed alone. — Mrs. P. E. N. Answer — When chickens are droopy it is a sign that they may have either lice, worms or indigestion. If you are feeding millet seed, that may account for it. Millet seed is very hard, round and slippery, and passes through the gizzard and intestines without being digested, and I have known of several chickens dying from it. A little used in their food may not hurt them, but an exclusive diet of millet is certain to cause trouble. Skim Milk — Will you kindly inform me whether skim milk is a good food for young pullets or laying hens? Which is best, sweet, clabber or curd? Is there danger of feeding too much curd or skim milk? Is curd of more value to young stock or to laying hens? I have a bunch of ten-weeks- old pullets that I am feeding clabber and bran mixed until it makes a crumbly mash. Is it a fattening or muscle or bone making ration? How would it do to feed to laying stock? I give skim milk to my laying hens in troughs which set in the sun. Will that kill diseased germs or not? — L. E. E. Answer — Skim milk is one of the best foods for chickens or hens at any stage of their lives. It can be fed either sweet, clabber or curd. By curd, I mean cooked. If you cook it, be careful not to heat it above 100 degrees or it will become tough and indigestible. There is no danger of feeding too much skim milk or clab- ber to fowls. The crumbly mash is good feed, but you would succeed just as well by giving them the bran dry and letting them drink or eat the milk as they want it. It is a good bone, muscle and egg-making ration. I give my fowls all the milk I can spare, pouring it into troughs and leaving it till they eat it. The sun does not seem to affect it badly when it is pure milk, but if bran were mixed with it, the sun might make it ferment and then it would disagree with them. Sorghum Seed — Will you tell me the value of sorghum seed for poul- try? Is it fat producing or an egg food, and how would it do for tur- keys?—C. B. C. Answer — Sorghum seed, broom corn seed and Egyptian corn have al- most the same nutritive value. They can be fed to both chickens and tur- keys with the same satisfactory re- sults. One year when on the farm I had several tons of broom corn seed which was left where the threshers worked and the fowls had free access to it and the green-growing wheat; they got through the moult early and layed all winter, eggs galone. I never saw better laying and the turkeys did well on it. Professor Jaffa in his most valuable bulletin (Farmer's bul- letin 164) on poultry feeding, gives us the nutritive value of broom corn and of sorghum seed as both the same — 1:8.4; of Egyptian corn, 1:8-6; Sor- ghum seed is more fattening than wheat and less fattening than corn. If your fowls are on free range and have plenty of green food and animal food or milk, sorghum seed will be an excellent food for them. You should write to the Director Agricul- tural Experiment Station, University of California, Berkeley, and ask him to send you "Bulletin 164 on Poultry Feeding," then you can see just the right way to balance your ration. Kaffir Corn — 1. Is Kaffir corn the same as Egyptian corn, and is it an egg food or simply a fattening food? 2. About what should a White Plymouth cockerel weigh at four months old? Answer — 1. Kaffir and Egyptian corn belong to the same family and are very much alike. They are both fattening grains, and I prefer mixing them with other grains, such as wheat, barley, oats or buckwheat. 2. A White Rock cockerel at four months of age should weigh about four pounds; at six months, six pounds. THE EGG QUESTION Egg-Bound — I have the White Minorcas. Have 15 hens and get from 12 to 14 eggs per day. I have a pullet and an old hen that seem to droop and sit around all day, and sometimes stagger; they had been lay- ing all the time and their combs are still red, but they do not lay now. I feed them bran mash in the morn- ing with alfalfa meal and egg-niaker, and once a week chopped onions and red pepper, and at noon we give them green grass, and at night wheat, be- sides this they get lots of meat scraps from the table; they have oystershell and grit before them all the time. They have not eaten anything since they felt this way, but seem to kind of gasp for breath, and they do not seem to have anything in their craws. Thanking you in advance for a reply, I remain. — Mrs. J. W. S. Answer — Your hens certainly have been doing very well. Minorcas very often get egg-bound, as their eggs are so large they have difficulty in laying them. This may be the case with yours, and I would advise you to examine them. You might also give them some Epsom salts, half a teaspoonful in a tablespoonful of wa- ter. If they are egg-bound, inject a little olive oil and hold the body of the hen in a pan of warm water, as warm as you can bear your hands in; this will relax the parts and en- able the egg to pass. If it is indi- gestion, the Epsom salts will help that. I think your hens may not be getting green food enough. Egg-bound is most common in sluggish birds, or those closely con- fined without opportunity to exercise. Active fowls, such as Leghorns, sel- dom take life easy enough to get fat, hence are not subject to this disease^ which is largely owing to an over-fat condition of the entire system, in which the egg passage is pressed upon by the accumulation of fat, hindering the passage of the egg. Not only are there large collections of fat in the ab- dominal cavity, but much of the mus- cular tissue is replaced by streaks of fat. This weakens the muscles of the egg passage, so that the egg may be arrested in the passage where it sets up inflammation. This same egg- bound condition sometimes causes death from heart disease. The bird goes on the nest to lay, strains vio- lently to pass the egg, the heart mus- cles are decidedly weak from fatty de- generation, the extra exertion is too much for the weakened heart, and it gives out, the bird being found on the nest dead. In the early stages when the irri- tation is slight, it is sufficient to in- ject a small quantity of olive oil and gently manipulate the parts. After- wards give cooling green food, and if the hens are too fat, reduce the ration. In case the expulsion of the egg cannot be obtained by the injec- tion of oil, immerse the lower part of the body in water, as warm as can be used without injury, and hold it there- half an hour or more, until the parts are relaxed. Then in- ject oil and endeavor to assist the bird by careful pressure and manipu- lation or by gentle dilatation of the passage. It Cured Them — How long can eggs be kept for setting and do they require any special treatment? I have a favorite hen and I want to set as many of her eggs as possible, but I do not know how long they will remain fertile, as I have no hen want- ing to sit at present. Several of my fowls had a touch of roup and I tried a remedy that you gave (castor oil, camphorated oil, kerosene, turpentine and a few drops of carbolic acid) squirted up her nostrils. I also mixed another remedy that you gave (cay- enne pepper, mustard, vinegar, lard and flour) and gave it to the fowls, in pills, as you said. I happened to leave it where they could get at it, and found that I need not give it in pills for they were eating it with relish. I have made .the mixture several times since and they seem to be very fond of it. Their combs have become very red and although they are moulting, they are laying well. Would you advise allowing them to eat all they want of it? They are entirely well of the roup. — Mrs. H. A. H. Answer — In reply to your first question, it is well to remember that the fresher the eggs you set, the stronger will be the chicks. I have always set them as fresh as I can get them, and I never sold eggs over a 174 MRS. BASLEY'S WESTERN POULTRY BOOK week old for setting. However, I have kept eggs from a favorite hen for three weeks and had a very good hatch. To keep them, I always lay the eggs on their side on sawdust or on grain (oats or barley) to keep them from rolling and I turn them every day. By this means the yolk does not adhere to one side, and I have a good hatch. Some advise standing them on the small end, but it does not succeed as well as my way. I am glad your fowls have gotten over the roup. I would not advise you to let them eat their medi- cine, because that remedy is a very powerful stimulant, and although ex- cellent for a cold, often curing it in one day, it will prove an irritant if continued too long. It is even now stimulating the egg organs and digest- ive organs greatly, as is shown by the comb, and I advise you to dis- continue it, increasing the animal food; and, as yours are Rhode Island Reds, I would advise adding some oil cake (linseed meal) to the food. This will help to give a fine gloss to the new feathers. Soft Shelled Eggs — Having read a great deal of your advice, I will ask of you a favor. Would you please tell me what can be the reason chick- ens lay unshelled eggs? They some- times drop them while on the roost or out among the brush. Mine have been very bad of late; I get as many as three or four a day, sometimes, from about thirty hens. I should be real thankful to find out what to do for them. — Mrs. L. E. L. Answer — Soft-shelled eggs are not exactly a diseased condition, but may be a symptom of approaching danger. It is usually due to a lack of shell- making material in the food, or to inflammation of the shell-forming chamber of the egg duct, which no longer secretes calcareous matter. Over-stimulation of the egg organs by the use of pepper or stimulating egg foods, will have this effect. Worms in the intestines may also pro- duce the irritation that will affect the oviduct, and an over-fat conditkm will increase the tendency to laying soft- shelled eggs. This is the common cause of soft-shelled eggs. Treatment — Provided the cause is an over-fat condition, it can be reme- died by giving a ration low in fat-pro- ducing elements. Give the fowls plenty of shell-forming material, such as crushed oyster shells and grit, cut bone and green food; make them work for the grain, which should be wheat in preference to other grains. One heaping teaspoonful of Epsom salts to a pint of drinking water kept before the hens for a day twice a week, will help remove the layers of fat. Feed a properly balanced ration and do not try to increase the egg yield by using stimulants that irritate the organs of reproduction. Blood Spot on Yolk — I have 150 Brown Leghorn pullets just starting to lay, and I supply a few customers with eggs and they have been com- plaining of finding a little blood spot on the yolk. I have plenty of nest room so they are not crowded. I have been picking 70 to 80 eggs a day. They have abundance of green feed. I feed soft feed in the morning, wheat at mid-day, corn at evening, so if you will please let me know what the cause of this is, I will be very much obliged, because my customers are getting dissatisfied. — W. W. M. Answer — The small blood clot you describe results from a slight hemor- rhage which has generally occurred in the upper two-thirds of the oviduct. Such hemorrhages are the result of great functional activity and conges- tion of the blood vessels. They are excited by any of the causes which lead to congestion and inflammation and are to be counteracted by green feed and less animal food and by the suppression of red-pepper or any stimulants. Give a little Epsom salts in the water and add about twice the amount of salt you are giving to the mash in the morning, leaving off the red-pepper. Largest White Eggs — I am start- ing or trying to start a poultry ranch and would like to ask you a question recently asked by some one else, but in a little different way. Which of the good laying breeds lay the largest white eggs? My aim is for good city trade.— E. A. M. Answer — The Black Minorcas have the reputation of laying the largest white eggs. The White Leghorns are their close competitors. It very much depends upon the strain or family. For instance, one set of fowls may THE EGG QUESTION 175 have been selected for beauty of fea- ther and form and their owners may not have chosen those that layed the largest eggs, whilst some have care- fully chosen the largest egg-layers, and bred from those, not caring for ex- hibition birds, and again a third party might have united these two qualities and have both prize winners and the best of layers. It depends upon the ability of the breeder and also upon his object. Black Minorcas do admirably in the climate of Southern California. I do not know how they would grow in a damper, colder climate. You would have to inquire of people who have had experience in that kind of a cli- mate. Sudden Death — Lately I have ha4 three hens die suddenly, and apparent- ly without cause; my neighbors have also lost several. Perhaps you can enlighted us and suggest a remedy. The hens were laying, combs red and large, crops full of wheat, etc., but die on the nest over night. I held a post mortem examination and could find nothing radically wrong. Each had well formed eggs and many of them. They roost high in the open air; run out nights and mornings on. alfalfa. I feed wheat mostly, and once every other day, hot bran mash with a spoonful of egg-maker. Have had over 40 dozen eggs without inter- ruption since January 1st, from twelve pullets — Minorcas — of my own raising. This is the first death I have ever had except of the little chicks. Pens are clean, no lice or mites. Have studied closely and can't "savy." Perhaps you can. The heart of the first one seemed the only cause for death, as it had a large inforct, probably fatty degeneration; the other was normal. — Dr. J. A. B. Answer — I think, as your hens died on the nest, that they had some diffi- culty in laying, and were probably egg-bound. The Minorcas laying a large egg, are frequently subject to this trouble, more so, in fact, than the other breeds which lay smaller eggs. Straining in laying frequently is the cause of a blood vessel break- ing in the head, which, of course, re- sults in apoplexy. Minorcas rarely suffer from an over-fat condition, as they are a very active breed. Egg-Eating Hens— Would you kindly tell me how to treat egg-eating hens? What will 'cure them?— Mrs. R. E. G. Answer — The best way is to cut the head off the offender and eat her, for she is certain to be fat. The in- formation you ask for is as follows: Mr. Morse (a chicken expert) gives five remedies for the bad habit of egg- eating. First: Fit up an arrange- ment whereby the eggs, as soon as layed, slide down and out of sight, into a sort of false bottom under the nest. The hens will not eat them because they cannot get them. Sec- ond: Have a lot of China eggs lying about promiscuous-like on the floor. Trying to eat such eggs is likely to discourage egg-eating. Third: Fix up a hollow egg with aloes. One bite is enough. Consult the corner druggist as to how to make the mess. Fourth: Have grit and crushed oyster shells about in abundance in self-feeding boxes. Fifth: Do not stuff your hens full of mash in the morning and let them sit around all day, like "Father" in the song, "Everybody Works But Father," but feed them grain in litter and make them hustle all day. This keeps them out of mis- chief. Mr. Morse's advice may be good, but I recommend using trap nests by which means you will easily discover the guilty hen, and if she is not too valuable, the verdict should be decapitation. Keep oyster shells, grit and charcoal before your hens and there will be very little egg-eat- ing for it is a vice which always com- mences with weak or soft egg shells. Novel Nests — Do you know the name of the maker of a nest with an opening in the bottom so that the eggs will drop through into a box below to prevent the hens from eat- ing the eggs? Answer — I have seen the mention of such nests but have never in all the many poultry ranches I visited, seen such nests in use. You might try darkened nests. They are simply a curtain of burlap hung in front of the nest with a split up the middle. When the hen has layed and stepped off the nest the curtain closes behind her and she can not see the egg to eat it. This has been found suc- cessful. 176 MRS. BASLEY'S WESTERN POULTRY BOOK HATCHING WITH INCUBATOR AND HEN Poor Hatches— We have been run- ning our incubator since February and our hatches have been quite poor. Our hens are two years old and so are our roosters. The hens are fed regularly, and have a large run with plenty of alfalfa; a clean airy coop. The chicks, when hatched, are strong and vigorous. We have some six weeks old and we have not lost one, but when they are hatching many die in their shells. Out of 450 eggs 77 tested out not fertile or dead germs, and out of 373 remaining eggs, only 182 hatched. We are hatching White Leghorns. Can you tell us what to do, or what the matter is? We have been following your advice in many things. Do you think that slamming of doors or jarring is bad for incubators when hatching? — Mrs. M. F. De W. Answer — I think the fault in your incubator is that it has not sufficient ventilation. An insufficiency of oxy- gen will cause poor hatches such as you describe. With the care you give your fowls and their being two years old, the fault does not lie in the par- ent bird or their eggs, therefore it certaintly comes from a faulty incu- bator. In the future, air the eggs three times a day; fan out the stale air of the incubator each time you air the eggs, and if you find they are dry- ing out too much, sprinkle them, af- ter the first week, twice a week with warm water . Slamming the door or jarring the incubator during incuba- tion is not advisable, but on the day of hatching it would not injure them. Infertility — Will you kindly tell me what to do to make eggs more fer- tile? I have a fine pen of Colum- bian Wyandottes, eight pullets mated with a cock two years old. They are fed on dry mash of bran, ground bar- ley, corn meal, alfalfa meal and beef scrap with plenty of grit, shell, char- coal and ground bone before them all the time, and are running in a -corral of grass and clover; they have plenty of fresh water and the hens lay well. What chicks I do get are strong and healthy; out of fifteen eggs only two were fertile. I have another pen, four hens, two years old, mated with a cockerel one year old. Fed the same in every way; their shells are smooth but full of clear spots. What shall I feed to make shells better?— Mrs. E. H. G. Answer — The usual requirements missing from the food when eggs are infertile are green food and animal food, therefore, I would advise you to feed more green food, more animal food and a great deal less barley and corn meal. Wyandottes are apt to get too fat to have good fertility un- less they have plenty of exercise. From your account, I think neither pen has sufficient exercise and the four old hens require more lime. Mix some fresh quick lime in water to the consistency of pancake batter; let it stand 24 hours, then pour out a cake of it on the ground. It will socn dry, and by crumbling a little of it every day, the hens will pick it up. Add a teaspoonful of baking soda to a quart of their drinking water and keep this before them for a week. By this means I think your egg shells will improve. Airing Eggs in Incubator — You have stated that you aired your eggs about one hour daily. Would that have a tendency to make your hatch come off late, or did you run the ma- chine higher to offset the cooling? Did you start in from the first week to air that length of time, or was it gradual? If I aired them longer without chilling, could I get them out in time, or does airing make them late? The chicks that come out were very wet; some of them stuck in the shell; the stuff drying down and glue- ing them in. — Mrs. N. A. R. Answer — After the eggs have been in the incubator 48 hours, I com- mence airing them about five min- utes twice a day, gradually increasing the time two minutes each time. By the third week I am airing them 20 minutes twice a day, or if the incu- bator is a hot-water machine, I air them three times a day in a room that is not lower than 70 to 75 de- grees, because I do not want to chill the eggs. If they are too much chilled or cooled off, they are apt to be weakly, the hatch retarded, and the chickens have difficulty in coming out of the shell, such as you describe. Evidently you have either cooled the eggs too much or you have run the HATCHING WITH INCUBATOR AND HEN 177 incubator at too low a temperature. We want to give the eggs as much oxygen (fresh air) as possible without chilling them. Cripples — Some of my incubator chickens are almost cripples when they are taken from the incubator. Some have crippled, crooked and crumpled up toes, others have one leg too short, or turned out the wrong way, and some of them are not able to stand up — they hold their head back so far that they fall backward. —A. H. S. Answer — The cause of cripples in- variably is irregularity of tempera- ture in the incubator. Your incuba- tor has been too hot at some period, probably the last week; this causes cripples. Those that hold their heads back do so from the eggs not having been turned sufficiently during incu- bation. As you do not mention the name of the incubator, I cannot tell you just where the lack is. It may be poor oil; it may be it is run in a draught and it may lack ventilation. Lack Oxygen — I took 200 thrifty chicks from the incubator about eight weeks ago. They did very well for about two weeks, when they began to die and today I have 50 left, and these look too scrubby to be worth raising. I have given them extra attention and the best feed. They get pale around the head, grow weak and are skin and bone when they die. I think they have consumption. The brooder is a tight box and no ventilation, ex- cept the lid has a round hole about as large as a teacup, and the little entrance window about six inches square. An iron pipe running through is the heating arrangement. Inside the box, to fit close over the pipe, is a cap of wood with flannel curtains dropping to the floor under which the chicks hover. Don't you think this is too close a place? The outside box is only 6 inches deep, then they hover inside; this only gives 4 inches space for the chicks. Please tell me if you think the lid to brooder would be better of wire or where do you think the trouble is? Also tell me how granulated milk is prepared. We have lately begun feeding to every- thing in the poultry yard, beef scraps, bone meal and linseed meal in what we think proper proportions once a day. Should chicks only eight weeks old be fed this ration the same as hens? What causes eggs to be ridgy and uneven? Can one feed to produce larger eggs? Our hens are large, but lay small eggs — Mrs. J. B. S. Answer — I think that the lack of oxygen in your brooder is the only difficulty with your chicks. Still I am very much afraid that tuberculosis may have got in, and infected the brooder. If possible, move your chicks into a weaning house, open en- tirely on one side (or only closed with chicken wire). Make a little frame of gunny-sacking or out of a piece of blanket that they can go un- der. This will rest upon their backs to keep them warm. Give them no other heat. At this season of the year (August) eight weeks old chicks should have no heat whatever, at night. I think you are keeping your chickens too warm, without enough fresh air and possibly they may have mites or lice. Air their sleeping place well; put the hover out into the sunshine every day. This will kill the germs of tuberculosis better than anything. Granulated milk is made at Bing- hampton, N. Y. I do not know the process. Chicks eight weeks old can have the beef-scraps, bone meal and lin- seed meal in the same proportions as hens. Uneven eggs are caused either from defect in the oviduct or from an in- sufficiency of lime or hurried laying. Some strains of hens lay small eggs and over-fat hens will lay small eggs. More protein added to their food will often increase the size of the eggs: By choosing the large eggs for hatch- ing, you can increase the size of the eggs in the next generation. Setting Hens— Can you tell me what is the matter with my chickens? They seem good and healthy until they start to set, then they invariably develop a severe case of diarrhoea, which causes them to leave their eggs after a few days. I have now a hen that wants to set, and have just re- ceived a setting of thoroughbred eggs., but today I noticed the same trouble as with the others, except that she seems to be a great deal worse, for her droppings are of a bloody na- 178 MRS. BASLEY'S WESTERN POULTRY BOOK ture. Can it be from too much blue- stone in their water or because of too much egg-food? I feed them a mixed food from the feed yard, consisting of corn, wheat, Kaffir corn, beef scraps, bone, charcoal, oyster shell, barley and some other grains I can- not classify. They get this twice a day together with all the table scrap and all the grass they can eat. They also have plenty of exercise. Is there anything I can do for this particular hen? Shall I try to set her or get some other hen for the eggs? Still another question, what causes a milky, watery substance in the whites of the eggs; it runs out after the eggs have been cooked?— G. W. Y. Answer — It is the bluestone in the water that thoroughly disagrees with, or poisons the setting hens. Feed a setting hen only grains, wheat and corn mixed, and give her fresh water to drink without any medicine in it. You should not be giving your hens bluestone at this season of the year at all. They do not need it, and it will injure the fertility of the eggs and make the chicks hatching out weakly. Do not set the hen you men- tioned, as in all probability she will leave the eggs. All setting hens should be in perfect health and entire- ly free from lice or mites. You had better get another hen for those eggs. The milkiness in the whites of your eggs is an indication that they are perfectly fresh, that is, new layed, and is a great recommendation for the quality of your eggs. Chicks Dying in Shell — A large per cent of my chicks, fully developed, die the day they are due to hatch, even after pipping the shell. They seem to dry in the shell. — Mrs D. D. Answer — Float the eggs in warm water. That will help the chicks to break through the shell better than anything I know of. Next time try sprinkling the eggs after the eighth day twice a week with warm water. I think you will find it is what is needed in your dry climate, and is likely to help matters. Answer — If your hen has been sit- ting for a week or ten day, she will "take to" the chicks as well as though she had hatched them herself; espe- cially if she is a Plymouth Rock or Buff Orpington. Those two breeds have a greater affection for chickens than some of the others. Be sure that the hen is entirely clear of lice, and if she is a large hen, put from 15 to 18 under her at night; a smaller hen should have from 12 to 15, not more, if you expect the chickens to do well. I have trained capons to act as mothers; they do even better than the hens. Thermometer— Will you kindly tell me where I could get tested thermom- eter for incubator; also where I could have one tested which I already have? — H. H. C. Answer — At any good drug store you can have your thermometer test- ed. If you want to buy a new one, go to the agent selling your make of incubator. Take the new one also to the druggist and have him test it thoroughly, because the thermom- eters, as they are seasoned some- times vary some degrees, and even a new one cannot be trusted. Fooling the Hen — Is it possible to fool a setting hen into caring for some incubator chickens when she has not hatched them herself — Mrs. C. R. Helping Them Hatch— I find my White Plymouth Rock eggs are very slow about hatching and some I know would die in the shell if I had not dropped a few drops of lukewarm wa- ter on their heads, as it seemed they would get about half out and then the white skin would dry on their heads and hold them fast. After having two die in the shell, I found they would free themselves if a few drops of warm water were sprinkled on !hem. I kept moisture in the pans all three days and part of the fourth and they are still slowly hatching. This is the twenty-third day. Do you think I should keep the moisture pan full for a week — I mean the last week of in- cubation? Please send me an ;dea on chick feed, as I can not get good clean chick feed here.— Mrs P. W. B. Answer — If you had only men- tioned the name of the incubator you are using, I could have better diag- nosed your case. As it is, all I can say to you is to follow the rules and directions they give you as closely as possible. With some machines it HATCHING WITH INCUBATOR AND HEN 179 is very advisable to sprinkle the eggs twice a week after the twelfth day with warm water; this seems to make the shells more brittle and prevents the inner ' lining skin from toughen- ing. I have found this better than keeping much moisture in the ma- chine. The moisture in the machine, seems to make the chick grow, but does not make the shell brittle. Your Plymouth Rock eggs should hatch promptly on the 21st day. The de- layed incubation indicates that part of the time the temperature has been too low. Are you sure that your ther- mometer is perfectly correct; have you had it. tested? On the efficiency of the thermometer much depends. Many thermometers that are accurate at first become, through the use of unseasoned glass in their manufac- ture, absolutely incorrect after a few months' use. Others are really only within two to four degrees of being correct, therefore, be sure you have your thermometer tested. About the chicken feed, write to the Experiment Station, University of California, Ber1 keley, for bulletin 164 on poultry feed- ing. This gives you the lists of foods available in your part of the country, with the proper proportions for mix- ing them, see page 36. Eggs for Hatching — Will you kind- ly tell me what is the matter with my eggs? They will not hatch well. Our hens are Brown Leghorns and Rhode Island Reds. I only got fifteen chick- ens in my last batch. When we break the eggs after we know they will not hatch we find the chicks dead, but fully formed and just ready to hatch. Perhaps the shells are too hard. Will you please tell me what to do to make a softer shell? Feed according to your directions. Is it necessary to put moisture in the incubator? Does it hurt the eggs to sprinkle them with warm water if we think the shells are too hard? I will be very thankful if you will an- swer this, as I want to know before I commence to save eggs for next in- cubator lot. I do not keep them over two weeks and keep them in a cool, dark place, turning them every day. — Mrs. G. A. M. Answer — I wish I could tell you for certain what causes chickens to die in the shell. I have my theories about it, and I believe it comes from the eggs not being aired and cooled sufficiently. Cooling them and then warming them up again seems to make the shells m6re brittle, and this is the same under hens. If I notice that a hen is setting too closely, I take her off twice a day to cool the eggs. With an incubator I would air them and turn them three times a day, and either sprinkle them three times during the last ten days or float them in warm water two days before the hatch is due. Float them from three to five minutes, and then put them back into the tray while they are wet. I do not believe in putting moisture into the incubator unless the direc- tions call for it. Incubator Chicks Dying Off— We have started in with the R. I. Reds, and have been fairly successful until our last hatch. Out of 65 eggs 44 came out. Last Saturday they com- menced dying off, just fell seemingly from weakness and died soon after. We have fed them chick feed, bran, Indian meal, cayenne pepper, beef scraps, twice per day, and a little germazone in water occasionally. — C. R. H. Answer — From your description I am afraid that the chickens have either been chilled or may have been over-heated. Either one of these conditions will cause the symptoms you describe. All you can do now is to give them rice boiled in milk, add- ing a tablespoonful of ground cinna- mon to each pint. Give them also chopped lettuce and onions. Do not give any cornmeal or beef scraps. When chicks have been over-heated either in the incubator or brooder, it so weakens their bowels that they cannot digest their food and they die of starvation. Poor Hatching — I should like very much if you can give me some infor- mation about my hatching eggs in an incubator. I bought a new incubator this spring. I have set it twice and had the same results both times. The chicks form fully and then most of them die in the shell. As the same eggs do fine when put under a hen. I think it must be that I make some mistake in my treatment of the in- cubator. I have as nearly as possible followed the instructions that came 180 MRS. BASLEY'S WESTERN POULTRY BOOK with it. If you can give me any as- sistance, it will be appreciated very much.— Mrs. W. D. W. Answer — Your incubator is a good one. Its fault, for they all have some little fault, is that the ventilation is insufficient. Take the eggs out and air them after the first week three times a day. This will counteract the lack of ventilation. This cooling and then heating up again of the eggs makes the shell more brittle, so that the chick is able to break its way out much more easily. Another thing I found in using that incubator is that by taking the middle eggs out of the row, one in each hand, and putting them at the end of the row, and then pushing the others along into the vacant places, I got a ten per cent better hatch. I got the idea from Egypt. Of course, you must be sure the machine stands level and that the thermometer is correct. Trouble with Incubators — I want to ask your advice about our incubator. We bought it new in January. Out of 200 fertile eggs we got 75 chickens, and all but nine died before they were 10 days old. We thought it was the fault of the brooder. There were many cripples among them, but they, all died of bowel trouble. On April 30th we hatched 117 out of 150 fer- tile eggs, and gave the chicks to old hens, as we had laid our previous trouble to the brooder. But now the last are going the same way. Chicks hatched under hens at the same time are healthy and strong. We have only lost one so far. We feed pre- pared chick feed and take the best of care of the chicks. The incubator runs perfectly, always 103, until the chicks begin to work out of the shell, when it runs up to 104 and 105. We have set the incubator again. It will hatch May 29th. We do not intend to give up. — W. S. R. Answer — The trouble is in the in- cubation. At some time or other the heat has been too great. This is shown by there being cripples. I know it, because I have had the same experience several times myself. Once a hat was thrown on the machine; just touched the regulator; was only on for half a day. Another time a newspaper did the same thing. My big cat slept on the incubator another night and lost me the hatch. Each of the times I worked with the little chicks, giving them everything I could think of, but without saving them. Now, I think there is a possibility that your incubator does not stand level and that, therefore, one side or corner of the machine is a very little higher than the other. That side or corner would be hotter than the other side without it affecting the ther- mometer and would cause all or most of the trouble. Again, are you sure the thermometer is correct? Borrow the doctor's clinical thermometer. This is what I did and put them both into a bucket containing about two quarts of water at 103 degrees and compared the two. You do not men- tion if the hatch came out on time. I feel sure that the eggs have been overheated, or part of them have, and in this way the bowels of the chick- ens have been weakened, the yolk of the egg has not been digested and they have dwindled and died, or bowel trouble has come on from the undigested yolk putrifying inside of them. I have made so many post mortem examinations that I feel sure of what I am telling you. Examine your incubator with a spirit level to see that it is level. Test your ther- mometer and then try again, at the same time setting one or two hens, and as incubation proceeds examine the eggs, comparing them. I think you will find that the eggs under the hen dry out less quickly than those in the incubator. However, if this is not the case, if your incubator eggs dry out too quickly (the air space be- ing larger than that under the hens), you will have to regulate this by; the ventilators of the incubator.' Keep them closed. As yours is a hot-air incubator, there is no need of fanning out the stale air. The fault, if any, with your incubator is too rapid a circulation of air, thereby dry- ing the eggs out too soon. I think you had better run it half a degree cooler than you have been doing. I say this because the cripples and bowel troubles denote too high a tem- perature. I hope these hints may help you. Let me hear from you again if you have any more trouble. Willing to Learn — I am thinking of starting in the poultry business and would like to ask a few questions. Are incubators a success? Why is it nee- HATCHING WITH INCUBATOR AND HEN 181 essary to test the eggs? Is it best to put young chickens in a brooder or to give them to a hen? Why could one not put eggs in the incubator as they are layed, say two or three a day and take the chickens out as they hatch? -F. L. Answer — Incubators are a success if you get a good standard make. Find out what your neighbors are using successfully. It • is necessary to test the eggs to take out the in- fertile ones and use them for- eating or cooking so as not to waste them, also the infertile egg, not having life in it, is cold and chills the neighbor egg which has life in it. If you use an incubator, it is neces- sary to have a brooder, as you will hatch too many chickens to go under a hen. It is not best to put eggs into the incubator as they are layed, because for the last two days of incubation the incubator should remain closed, also for the first two days — and between those periods the eggs have to be moved, turned, and taken out of the incubator and cooled, consequently it is best to save the eggs until you have enough either to put under the hen or fill the incubator. Incubator— (Mrs. O. B. J., Los An- geles)— Will you please tell me if you have ever used the Cycle Incubator, how you like it and is there any place where I could buy one in Los An- feles? I have inquired, but can not nd out, and as you answer questions, I hope you will reply to me as soon as possible. Answer — Personally I have not used the incubator, but I have known of it very favorably for some years. And I have heard that one of the most prominent business men in Los Angeles has just bought a large num- ber to supply his broiler plant. It is a charming little thing, about the size of a dishpan, easily carried around and could be operated very easily in any living room. It is ex- tremely simple and easily operated. Holds fifty eggs, is heated with a lamp which only needs filling once for a whole hatch. I think there is an agency for it in the Chamber of Commerce Building. There were some of these incubators at the poultry show. The incubator has also a brooder attachment and can be used as a very efficient brooder at the bottom while another setting of fifty eggs is being incubated above. From what I hav'e heard from others, [ think it well adapted for a small place or for any one who does not want to keep eggs for hatching until a large number can be collected. It is called "Cycle" from its being round. Natural Incubation— I am a reader of your articles and get much good from them. Am a beginner and have a great deal to learn. Will you kindly answer the following questions: 1. Should a setting hen be shut on the nest and be let off each day? If so, how long should she be allowed to stay off the nest? 2. Do the eggs get enough mois- ture in natural incubation? 3. Is it good to sprinkle the eggs with water? If so, how often and in what stages of incubation should this be done? 4. How long should chick feed be fed to chicks, and what is best after discontinuing this food? — R. M. Answer — It is best not to shut a hen on the nest, but to allow her to get on and off as she pleases unless there are other hens that can get to the nest to disturb her. It is a good plan to take the hen off the nest at a regular hour every day. I prefer about five o'clock in the evening, as then she will go back before supper time. A hen can be off the nest in pleasant weather from twenty min- utes to half an hour. She should be allowed to stay off long enough to eat all she wants and to dust herself. It is necessary for her to come off at least once every twenty-four hours. 2. Eggs usually get moisture enough from the perspiration of the hen. I like to float the eggs in warm water two days before the hatch comes off. I think it helps the eggs to hatch well and it also shows, by the eggs bobbing about on the water which eggs have live chicks in them. 4. Chick feed should be fed about six weeks, but it is best to begin when the chicks are three or four weeks old to add wheat and Kaffir corn to the chick food and make the change gradual. Commence by one- fourth of the larger grains and three- fourths of chick feed. Then gradu- ally increase the Kaffir corn and wheat until that is the principal feed. 182 MRS. BASLEY'S WESTERN POULTRY BOOK Brooder Chicks — I shall have to come to you for help about my little chickens, as I know that you know what to do. I am only a beginner. I have an incubator and hot water brooder, and before I bought your book I could not make them hatch, but now, with its help, following your directions, I have a fine hatch. I turned and aired the eggs as you said. Now my chicks (White Leghorns) are two weeks old and I have lowered the temperature in the brooder about one degree a day; but about every other day one will die. I have thirty-two in the brooder, so they are not crowded at all. I have put insect powder on them and they are fed chick food; they have plenty of fresh water in a fountain, which I keep in their yard. I make them work in alfalfa for their feed, as you instructed. They are not stuck up behind, as far as I can tell, but when one is about to die, it goes up into a corner of the brooder under the pipe. If you will give me advice about what to do, I shall be very much ob- liged, as I am afraid I shall lose them all._N. H. H. Answer. — I am glad you had a good hatch. The fault with that incubator is lack of ventilation, and of the brooder is that there is a draught on the floor, so that the chicks' feet are cold. I tried a good many plans with that brooder, and finally I built them over. However, the best plan before I changed them I found was to put on the floor a gunny sack or bit of warm old carpet, and on that put near- ly two inches of chaff or finely cut straw or hay. I also left the lid a lit- tle bit open. Before that the chicks' heads got too hot on the pipes and their little feet too cold. I am rather surprised that they have not been troubled with diarrhoea. Faulty Incubation — I am a begin- ner in the poultry business and would like to ask you a few questions that have' been troubling me: 1. I have been hatching chickens and ducks in an incubator and they don't hatch as well as with a hen. I find quite a number dead in the shells. I do not understand it as I follow the directions that come with the ma- chine. 2. A number of the chicks "walk around on their knees." Some ot their legs stick straight up and they flop along on the joint with the aid of their wings. They soon die. Why is this? Is there any way to avoid it? 3. I had twenty ducks hatch with hens and have only eleven left. We first notice them to lag behind the rest, then as they grow more stupid they fall over with their heads thrown back as people do when they have spinal meningitis. Can you tell by this description what was the matter with them? — L. B.,. Corcoran. Answer — The trouble is that, the heat has been irregular in your incu- bator, and probably the eggs have not been aired sufficiently. 2. Cripples, such as you describe, invariably come from over heating, especially the last ten days in the in- cubator. It may be only for a few hours. It is such a pity, for it always, seems to be the biggest and best chicks. I have once or twice suc- ceeded in straightening out the legs and setting the knee, fastening it with a rubber. 3. The trouble with the ducks is severe indigestion. It may be they have not had sand enough in their food, or they have eaten some animal food that was not fresh — was decay- ing. Lack of shade will give the same symptoms. The drinking vessel must be deep enough for them to get their entire bill under water, for they require to rinse their nostrils many times a day and will die if they can- not. Brooders — (Mrs. S.M.G.) — I would like to tell you about the brooders I made from your description of them. I have used the Fireless Brooder for five months and have had no trouble in . getting the chicks to go inside when they are cold. When I first put fifty chicks into the Fireless, the weather was cold and at first I found, like others, that the little fellows did not know where to go when they felt cold, so on the third day I put a gallon jug of hot water in the center of the brooder, covering the jug with a hood made of several layers of newspaper. I took two or three chicks and held them against the jug until their happy chirping brought all the others; after that I had no trouble. They no longer needed to be shown. I removed the jug at night and put it back in the morning for a few days, filling it with YARD ROOM 183 less warm water each morning. Dur- ing the summer months I did not find it necessary to put any attraction in the brooders as the chicks seemed warm enough from the first to spend the entire day in the sun. This account from Mrs. G. will in- terest and help many of our readers. The brooders are those made by Mr. Hammons of the Mammoth Pa- cific Poultry Plant at Ingleside, Cali- fornia. YARD ROOM How Many Chickens to Keep on a City Lot— Will you kindly tell me how many chickens can be kept on a city lot seventy-five by a hundred and eighty feet? Do you think chick- ens will lay well during the rainy sea- son in Seattle, Wash., if they are properly fed and housed? How big a house do we need for fifty chickens? Last September we bought thirty Plymouth Rock hens and thirty pul- lets. We got from ten to sixteen eggs from the hens per day, until about the middle of December, when they began to fall off. We are still getting that amount, but half of them are from the pullets. Do you think they are doing as well as we could expect? — Mrs. L. E. S. Answer — In your climate it would very much depend upon the shelter from the rain that you can give the chickens. Fifty chickens should be divided into two pens with two houses. Each house not less than ten by twelve feet in size. I would ad- vise a good scratching pen to be made either adjoining the house and cov- ered with a roof, or else make the scratching pen to extend underneath the dropping boards. You might keep several hundred hens upon land 75 x 180 feet, if you have ample house room for them so they would be well sheltered from the rain. Hens that are wet every day will not lay well. Your fowls are doing well consider- ing the wet weather you are having. How Many on Two Acres — I have two acres of land, of which I will have a hundred feet by one hundred feet for an alfalfa patch, the rest for chickens to run around and have the patch for them to feed on for an hour or so before going to roost. Kindly let me know how many chickens I can raise on the two acres at the most.— M. J. P. Answer — I think you can keep a thousand chickens on your two acres. You must be careful not to have more than fifty to roost in one house. It is the crowded condition of houses at night that brings trouble and disease. Be sure to give them shade during the day and plenty of good fresh wa- ter, besides, of course, the balanced ration. Allow them two hours a day on the alfalfa patch. Five Acres— Will you kindly tell me how many White Leghorns I can suc- cessfully raise on five acres of land? I want to grow alfalfa and some vege- tables for feed. Will you also tell me if I can hatch turkeys in an incubator? — J. W. L. Answer — You can raise a large number of Leghorns on five acres of land. I know one party that has 3,000 Leghorns on three acres, but it entirely depends upon knowing how to do and, doing it right. Better be- gin with a small number and when you succeed with those, increase your flock. Turkeys can be hatched in an in- cubator and raised in a brooder, but must be kept entirely separate from chickens or they will die. Yard Room — I want to raise about 60 pullets for next winter. I have about a hundred chicks hatched out. All the yard room I can spare is on a town lot about 50x75 feet. Do you think this would be enough room for them?— Mrs. J. F. Y. Answer — It all depends upon the care you give them; if you can sup- ply them with shade, plenty of green food, clean water and a good scratch- ing place and the proper food, it will be plenty large enough. Be sure to keep them clean and free from mites and lice. Burglar Alarm — I refer to the men- tion made by you of an electric burg- 184 MRS. BASLEY'S WESTERN POULTRY BOOK lar alarm to protect poultry houses, and would venture to inquire whether such an alarm may be installed by one not a professional electrician. Upon what principle is it based, and what are the materials needed? — H. M. Answer — I put in the burglar alarm you speak of myself. I am not a professional electrician, but I went to the electrical supply house, bought from them the ordinary alarm fixtures which are used at the door and win- dows of residences; they explained to me how to set them, and I did it by their directions. I did not find it dif- ficult. None of the doors or windows in my hennery could be opened four inches without the alarm gong at the head of my bed, ringing. I should think you would have to understand a little about it to put them in. MATING AND BREEDING Age for Mating — I wish to ask if a cockerel should be mated after he at- tains a year in age or can he just as well stay till a year and a half or two years old before being mated? Also I wish to know if it is quite as andvantageous to mate a rooster with a pullet of his own clutch, sup- posing the pullet and rooster are both a year and a half old. I would like to do that if you think it advisable. — M. S. H. Answer — The earliest age at which a cockerel may be mated should be about ten months, not earlier if you want large, vigorous chickens. I con- sider the best age for getting sturdy chicks is for both parents to be about two years of age. You can keep a male bird as long as you wish with- out mating him, but he should be en- tirely out of sight and out of hearing of the hens, otherwise he will fret to get to them. I have known several to drop down dead from getting too much excited at seeing other young males in the pens with the hens. From a year and a half to three years of age is undoubtedly the best age at which to mate the fowls, but you can have very good results with older fowls. In your place I would certainly mate the year and a half male with the year and a half hen and expect good results, for they should both be in their prime. are all old enough, say a year and a half or two years old? — Mrs. G. S. H. Answer — It is considered best not to mate brother and sister together, yet this is always done in making any new breed, and as yours comes from a three hundred egg a year hen, I would advise you to do so. Mating Brother and Sister — Is there any objection to mating a rooster with hens of his own clutch if they Breeding — I have a nice R. I. R. cockerel. He is good shape and color but he is not up to standard weight. If I breed from him will he produce chicks larger than himself if they are well taken care of? Is there any chance of getting perfect specimen from fowls under weight? I bought some very fine looking hens, but their breasts are uneven. I also got eggs from the same stock and the pullets have crooked breasts. Kindly tell me if that trouble will be handed down if I breed from them. — Mrs. C. R. Answer — As a rule, the chicks take their size from the mother. If your R. I. R. hens have a good size, the chickens will be larger than the cock- erel, if you feed them for large frame. If the hens are under weight and size, you may have difficulty in increasing the size of the offspring. Some peo- ple think that crooked breastbones come from chickens roosting on a narrow perch when they are young; however, I think it is generally con- ceded that crooked breastbones are often hereditary. You will know if your chickens have roosted at too early an age. If not, it is hereditary and you had better change the strain. MISCELLANEOUS QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS Shipping Young Chicks — Do you think I can order eggs incubated 31 miles from here and have the young chicks sent by stage with perfect safety? We are feeding corn of our own growing which is quite musty. I have been afraid of it, but so far cannot see that it has hurt them, although yesterday a hen sat around all day droopy like. I wondered if the" musty corn affected her. Last summer I brought into the house some small chicks that seemed about to die, and seeing they had lice, I dusted them thoroughly with bu- hach. The lice soon dropped off of them, but the chickens died. Can too much powder be put on them? — Mrs. C. S. Answer — Chickens could travel a thousand miles before they are twen- ty-four hours old, if packed in a box carefully. That is, of course, before they are fed. Last year I sent some from Los Angeles to Berkeley. They were out 36 hours, but arrived in per- fect condition, all vigorous and ready for their first meal in their new home nearly a thousand miles away. Musty wheat or corn is very un- wholesome for chickens. Buhach would not kill the most delicate chick- en or turkey, but is death to all in- sect life. The chickens were doubt- less dying before you powdered them. Castor Bean Bushes — I have been thinking of planting castor bean bushes in the chicken yard for shade, but was advised by a neighbor not to do it, as the beans would drop off and if chickens ate them they would be poisoned. Would like your advice, please. The bushes grow quickly and make good shade, so would like to try them. Do you think it would be O.K. — J. H. S. Answer — Castor beans are poison- ous to both ducks and chickens if they eat them, so I would advise you to plant something else. Get cuttings of fig trees, about ten inches long, bury the whole length except one inch, water well, and you will have shade in a few months and fruit in two years. I find figs excellent in the chicken yard, and the chickens do not eat the leaves and bark. Would advise your planing also other fruit trees, such as plum, peach, apricot. The chicken droppings fertilize these trees and the quantities of fruit you will have will soon repay the trouble. In the meantime you might plant sunflowers. They make good shade and their seed is excellent food for the chickens. Capons — Will you kindly give us an article on capons? What is the de- mand for them, if any? What do you think of the difference in profits be- tween them and broilers? If there is any truth in the statements published in regard to capons in the Eastern markets, they ought to be money- makers here. Am fitted for the busi- ness, but desire more information in that line before attempting much. I think the R. I. Reds would make extra good ones, and I should like market- ing mature birds instead of those a few months old. Capons for the Philadelphia market have to be a year old to command the best prices. — • H. J. K. Answer — Capons bring a good price now in Los Angeles, especially if you can make a contract with some of the large hotels for them. This you can only do by having a large and regu- lar supply. The price last year was from 30c to 35c per pound, which is a paying price. Broilers pay about as well when you take into considera- tion that you can turn them off at eight weeks of age. This would be your better plan, as you are limited for space and you would not have the expense and trouble of carrying them for another ten months. I would advise you to sell as broilers all the young males you do not wish to keep for breeders. This will give you more room for the pullets and you need space to have your pullets develop well for the fall and winter egg market. Capons are, undoubted- ly, money-makers for those who have plenty of space, and where food is cheaper than it is here this year. Per- sonally I found that capons did not pay as well as roasters. These were young roosters that were about eight months old and that I milk fed. I found I had to keep my young males until I could see how they would de- velop. I began by caponizing, but 186 MRS. BASLEY'S WESTERN POULTRY BOOK being economically inclined, I found the milk-fed, uncaponized eight- months youngsters paid me best. Since then the market for capons has improved here, and if you had more room and could buy up young cock- erels, caponize them at about three months of age and turn them off in the following spring, just when tur- keys go out, you might make some profit on them. It has been found that the Brahmas or crosses of the Brahmas are the best for capons. same time. Some chickens will eat it earlier than others; mine, a large breed, usually will take it at three weeks. From Far Away Alaska — Commenc- ing with the first of March for the last three years my chickens begin to lose their feathers in front of their neck. I feed them wheat, corn, shorts, cooked potatoes and cabbage. They have no lice. I also give them plenty of charcoal and grit. I have a chick- en house 30 x 30, logs with moss be- tween, lined inside with shakes. I also keep fire in a stove to keep out dampness. — H. C. C., Sumdum, Al- aska. Answer — Not knowing your climate, scarcely like to venture an opinion, about the reason for your hens los- ing their feathers. Your rations seem good, all except there is no ani- mal food in it. I think you should give them fish with their cooked po- tatoes. Do not feel alarmed about their losing their feathers, as it may be on account of the climate. Technical Names — Will you please tell me how old "friers," "broilers" and "springs" are? When is it safe to feed wheat and mash to chicks? — Mrs. M. N. Answer — It is not by the age that we decide upon the size of the chick- ens, or their names. "Squab broil- ers" weigh one pound and are usually from a small breed, fattened as quick-, ly as possible, the age being about six or seven weeks. "Broilers" weigh from one to two pounds, the age be- ing about eight weeks. "Friers" weigh from one pound to two and a half pounds; age, about ten weeks. Young "roasters" from two and a half to three or four pounds, age about three months. Feed the wheat to chicks as soon as they will eat it, commencing to add it to the chick feed. I com- mence also to add Kaffir corn at the Henpecked Husbands — I cannot keep my hens from picking the combs of the roosters. Could you tell me the reason for it? Also a remedy for it? I have tried everything I know for it. I feed meat twice a week. — R. M. Answer — This habit or vice usually comes from a lack of green food or meat in the ration. Very often the habit is acquired by imitation and thus it may be introduced into a flock by a new bird which had contracted it elsewhere, or it is spread through the flock from a bird which is led to it by indigestion or other disease of the stomach. It is sometimes started by lice. The hen sees one crawling on her mate's comb and tries to peck at it, wounds the comb, tastes the warm sweet blood and keeps up the habit. The others imitate her until the poor henpecked husband is in a sorry plight. The preventive is plenty of green food, plenty of exercise and animal food. The cure, the hatchet for the worst hens, or if they are too valuable, let them run without the male bird, only admitting him to the pen for an hour a day in the after- noon. Give the hens a good run in a grass-covered yard. Feed plenty of green vegetables; onions chopped are particularly efficacious. If the . yard is small, prepare a scratching shed, covering the floor deeply with straw and scatter grain in the straw for the morning meal, so the fowls will be compelled to scratch and work to find it. Add bi-carbonate of soda to the drinking water in the proportion of about 20 grains to the quart; put a small quantity in the food, or nail up a piece of salt pork for the hens to peck. Will you kindly tell me if painting the brooder on the inside with crude oil will injure little chicks? We have ordered 100 Brown Leg- horns for March 15, and have got a second-hand brooder. Of course, we want it perfectly clean, as we are beginners and are striving for success. A friend of ours, gave us five gallons of crude oil and insisted on our using it, but I thought it wise to ask some MISCELLANEOUS QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS 187 one more experienced. Thanking you in advance, yours truly, Mrs. G. S. McW. Answer — I would not advise you to paint the inside of your brooder with anything as strong as crude oil. It will do very well to paint the outside of the hen house and the outside of the brooder house, and will last for several years, preserve the wood and keep away vermin, but is too strong for the little chicks. I will tell you what I would cTb were I in your place. I would take good hot suds and a brush, either a whisk broom or a scrubbing brush, and thor- oughly scrub out the brooder. If I thought there were any mites or lice in it, I would add a cupful of coal oil (kerosene) to the suds. I would then put it in the sun to dry, and when it was dry I would wash it all over — hover, felt and everything — with a so- lution of bi-chloride of mercury. You can get tablets of it very cheap at any drug store. Put about four or six tablets in a pint of water and when it is dissolved wash all over the brooders with it. Or get corrosive sublimate; have the druggist dissolve it in alco- hol, and paint that over the inside of the brooder. This will destroy all germs of any disease or any vermin. This way of soapsuds, followed by the mercury, is the most perfect dis- infectant you can find. It will kill tuberculosis, chicken-pox, cholera, etc., germs, and has no bad smell to injure chicks. How Long? — Would you kindly an- swer how long after the eggs have started in the hen does it take before the hen lays? Thanking you in anti- cipation.— W. B. M. Answer — As soon as a pullet . is three months old there will be found inside her a bunch of tiny embryo eggs. These are called the ovaries or egg organs. If the hen is active, in good health and properly fed, these will, one after another, turn into eggs, but the hen must be fed the elements of the egg in order for her to make the eggs, and it all depends upon the food how long it will take the hen to accumulate the proper proportion of each element to make the eggs, that is, the elements of the egg rightly bal- anced, enough fat and protein to make the yolk, enough albumen and water for the white, enough lime for the shell, each in its right proportion. Soft Shell Eggs— Please tell me why my chickens and turkeys lay soft shell eggs. — R. A. D. Soft shell eggs come either from an insufficient supply of lime in the ra- tions or over stimulation of the egg organs by the use of spice or so-called egg foods. Worms may increase in the intestines to such an extent as to stimulate the egg passage to push along the egg beyond its usual dis- tance. An over fat hen has a ten- dency toward laying thin-shelled eggs. Dr. Woods gives this advice: "Fowls kept closely confined in cold weather and not given a sufficient va- riety of food are apt to lay soft- shelled eggs. The trouble may be due to some disturbance of the egg or- gans, or to improper food, careless feeding and lack of exercise. It us- ually responds very promptly to treat- ment. See that the birds are supplied with plenty of good grit and oyster shell. Feed green food, scalded short- cut alfalfa or clover. Also give cab- bage, beets and turnips fed raw when- ever they can be obtained. Feed a va- riety of good, sound grain and some animal food. The grain should be fed in the scratching pen." Saw Off Long Spurs — I wish a little information in regard to a rose-comb Rhode Island Red rooster two and a half years old. He has very long spurs, which makes it difficult for him in scratching when I feed them in the scratching pen. Is there any way o£ taking them off? Answer — It is very advisable always to cut the long spurs off the male birds, as they are very apt to injure the hens with them. I find the best way is to saw them off with a fine meat saw about an inch from the leg. I do not saw them close enough to draw blood. You can also file them off, but sawing is quicker, and if the edges are rough, use a small file to make them smooth. Chicken Manure — Please answer immediately. How can chicken man- ure be preserved, and where can it be disposed of, and at what price? Answer and oblige, Mrs. M. A. S. 188 MRS. BASLEY'S WESTERN POULTRY BOOK Answer — The easiest way of pre- serving chicken droppings is by plac- ing dry earth or sand or kainit under the perches, sweeping this up two or three times a week and placing it in barrels or boxes. Anyone with a cit- rus orchard is glad to get it for fer- tilizing the trees. I know one man who pays $7.50 per ton for it. I do not know what the market value is, but I know that it is considered worth just four times as much as stable manure and that it is a most excellent fertilizer. Fireless Brooder — I make bold to ask you for a little information. Will you kindly tell me of the fireless brooder? Can you give me the plans for constructing one, or tell me where I can get the plans? Can little chicks just hatched be put in the fireless brooder? — Mrs. W. W. G.» Arizona. Answer — Take a box about ten inches deep, and from a foot and a half to two feet square. Rip the box six inches from the bottom to four inches from the top, so there will be two boxes, one six inches, the other four inches deep without cover. Hinge them together so they will close as they were before being sawed in two. Near the top make three one- inch holes in the two ends for venti- lation. For the hover make a frame of one-and-a-half by one-inch lumber, so it will fit inside the box. On the under side of this frame tack cloth loosely so it will hang in the center nearly two inches below the frame. The cloth is to touch the chicks' backs. Nail cleats across the ends of the lower box to hold the frame in position. The top of the frame should be even with the top edge of the lower box. Cut a hole on the oppo- site side of the bottom box to the hinges, for the chickens to go in and out. A friend who made this brooder tacked a piece of burlap on the floor and then filled it almost up to the cloth on the frame (the hover) with finely cut straw or hay. He then scooped out a nest in the center of it and put the baby chicks into it. The two-foot size is large enough to con- tain from one dozen to fifty chicks for one week, twenty-five till they are three weeks old, and twenty till they are six weeks old, or about that age. On very cold nights at first he put a little piece of blanket on top of the hover. As the chicks grew older he lessened the amount of straw or chaff, when the chicks were large enough to raise the heat sufficiently. After using this brooder (home made) all last winter, he said he would never be without it. Personally I think it would be a good plan to let in a slide of glass at one side, as chickens do not like to go into a dark place. I do not know where you can get plans for making a brooder, but you can buy fireless brooders at any of the large poultry supply houses advertising in this paper. This is Mr. Killifer's brooder. Dipping Hens— Would you be so kind as to write and let me know about dipping hens, etc? I have a flock of somewhere between five and six hundred. I notice some of them have lice and bunches of nits on their feathers. Whenever I have caught a hen I have greased her well, but this would take too long to go through the bunch. Is there any dip that would be strong enough and do no harm to the birds that would kill the nits with only one dipping? — W. B. Answer — As you have so large a flock of hens and do not seem able or inclined to pull out the feathers that have nits upon them, I think you will have to dip them twice, with an inter- val of five or six days. The nits are sure to hatch out in about five days after they are deposited by the lice, and by twice dipping them you should get most of them. It is an excellent plan in warm weather just at the com- mencement of the moult to immerse the fowls in a diluted kerosene emul- sion, wetting them thoroughly to the skin, or dip them in strong tobacco water, or a solution of two per cent creolin or chloro naphtholeum. A well-known poultryman gives the fol- lowing advice: Take the strongest and purest tobacco, 25 cents' worth being ample to clean off three hun- dred fowls. Make the decoction quite strong. If the user will observe a few points, no one will ever regret using tobacco to kill lice and not a solitary one will be left. First, if the dipping is done out of doors, the thermometer should be at least 80 in the shade; second, the water should never be more than blood warm, say 98 degrees; third, MISCELLANEOUS QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS 189 and this is the most important point, every solitary feather must be made soaking wet, else you will not make a clean job of it. In dipping all fowls having heavy plumage, like the Brah- mas and Cochins, the feathers must be raised with the hand and the water allowed to thoroughly wet the bird to the skin. This takes from one to two minutes for large, well feathered fowls. If a dry feather is left there will be lice upon it. Do not dip the head under, but when the *,fowl is quiet, dip the head until alt is under up to the eyes. When they will not hold still, use a small sponge and wet the top of their heads. No one who has fowls troubled with lice need fear to try this. It is very effective. You must thoroughly clean the houses to get rid of the lice, and paint the perches with a good lice paint or liquid lice killer. Give the hens a nice freshly dug up dust bath and they will keep them- selves clean of lice. You can add one of the good lice powders to the dust bath if you wish. Sulphur for Lice — Have you ever had any experience with feeding sul- phur to poultry for exterminating lice? I have been told that sulphur fed to poultry will make their feathers smell of sulphur and kill lice. — C. W. B. Answer — I never heard of applying sulphur internally for lice externally. It is not impossible, perhaps, that feeding sulphur would affect the lice. It has a tendency when fed liberally to make fowls very susceptible to colds. This is said to be because it opens the pores of the skin too much. If that is correct, there would be ap- parently some reason in the idea that sulphur taken internally was objec- tionable to lice. However, it is better to use external applications for these parasites. Formula for Chick Feed— The formula for chick feed that you want is as follows: Chick feed for little chicks from the time they are hatched: 30 Ibs. cracked wheat, 30 Ibs. rolled or steel-cut oats, 15 Ibs. finely cracked corn, 10 Ibs. each of rice, millet, pearl barley, mus- tard or rape seed, granulated or ground bone, dried blood or granu- lated milk, chick grit, 5 Ibs. granu- lated charcoal. Mix and keep always before the chicks. Also clean water and skim milk if you have it. Note in the chick feed tha't wheat, oats and cracked corn are the chief ingredients. The others are to give a variety, and if you cannot get them, you just will have to leave them out. The bone and the dried blood are the animal part of the ration and can be substi- tuted by fresh meat or milk or clab- ber or cottage cheese. A formula for laying hens which I have used for years is: Two meas- ures of bran, one measure of alfalfa meal, one measure of beef scraps, and in the breeding season one measure of oatmeal or rolled oats. This mix- ture can be used as a dry mash or mixed with water as a moist (but not sloppy) mash. I add a little pepper and salt to it to season it. At moulting time I also add a quar- ter of a measure of linseed meal, or, if I cannot get that, half a measure of cottonseed meal, and sometimes a little tonic to help on the moult. The linseed meal gives a gloss to the new feathers that nothing else will give. The hens should have before them all the time good, sharp grit and oyster shells crushed. The oyster shells is to supply the lime to make the egg shell. Broken Down Hen — There are two things I am anxious to know and I think you can help me from your ex- perience. I have a hen whose hind part has been gradually swelling until now it nearly touches the ground. The feathers have all dropped out of her head. I think an egg may have been broken inside, but she seems so healthy that hardly seems possible. Please state cure, if any. — G. F. M. Answer — Your hen has what we call a "break down." This is the re- sult of a too fattening diet or too much corn, and too little of the mus- cle, bone forming and egg elements. There is a large fat deposit in the abdomen, bulging and dragging down the skin and muscles, giving an un- gainly appearance to the bird. It is a question whether to diet her or to eat her. I would 'advise the latter, as she will not prove a very good layer after this. The bareness of head also indicates an unbalanced ration and an insufficiency of "protein," the feather making element. A little carbolated 190 MRS. BASLEY'S WESTERN POULTRY BOOK vaseline rubbed in twice a week and more green food and more ariimal food in the ration will rectify this. For Layers. — Will you please an- swer the following questions: Will hens lay as well without the male bird? Which would you advise me to keep for breeders, pullets hatched last spring, which are laying now, or the one-year-old hens? Which is the best feed for them to produce eggs, the warm mash in the morning and corn at night or the dry feed?— Mrs. O. G. L. Answer — 1. Yes, and the eggs will keep better. 2. Keep hens for mothers and pul- lets for your winter layers is the best rule. 3. I prefer to give the mash, if I give any, at night; then I can use up the table scraps, mixing them with bran, corn meal and alfalfa meal, giv- ing the fowls either dry mash in hop- pers or grain in their scratching pen, to induce them to exercise for their day meal. In this way I get more eggs. Testing Out Infertile Eggs. — I note in the paper an advertisement for an egg-tester which claims that it is pos- sible to test out the infertile eggs be- fore setting. Will you please tell me if you think this is possible? — Mrs. J. F. Y. Answer — The advertisement which you mention was misleading. The way in which it tested the eggs was by floating them with the instrument in water; if they proved heavy enough to sink to a certain depth it showed that the egg was rich enough to sup- port the life of a chick, should there be a germ in that egg. The machine could not show whether there was a germ in the egg, consequently it could not show if the egg was fertilized or not. The little germ is so infinitesi- mally small that it would make no appreciable difference in the weight of the egg. Packing Eggs for Hatching. — Will you kindly answer the following: 1. How long can one keep eggs for setting? 2. How is the best way to ship eggs for setting so they will not get broken?— Mrs. C. D. D. Answer — 1. You can keep your eggs three weeks or even more by turning them every day, but you must remember that the longer you keep them the fewer will hatch and they will not be as vigorous chicks as if the eggs had been fresh when set. 2. You can now get egg boxes made for packing eggs for express- ing or you can pack them in common slat baskets or peach baskets. I real- ly prefer the baskets. I put a layer of excelsior in the bottom of the bas- ket, then wrap each egg in a piece of newspaper about six inches square; set them little end down, packing ex- celsior between them, then put a lay- er of excelsior on the top, and cov- er with burlap, sewing it into the basket with twine. Mark plainly, "Eggs for hatching, handle with care." In the many thousands of eggs I have sent out, only two baskets had any broken eggs. TURKEY QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS Tomatoes for Turkeys — I am feed- ing my turkeys a small ration of ripe tomatoes. Is this a proper food for them?— W. F. G. Answer — A small amount of ripe tomatoes will not do your turkeys any harm. They are very fond of them, and it will benefit them, al- though there is very little nourish- ment in the tomatoes; the acidity seems to agree with them. Turkeys Have Chicken-Pox — What is the matter with my young turkeys, and what shall I do for them? All over their heads and bills there are lumps forming like warts. Some of them have just a few while others have their heads covered with them. The turkeys are about half grown They are not penned up and have plenty of green alfalfa. We feed wheat and meat scraps occasionally. — Miss M. M. Answer — Your turkeys have chick- en-pox. The cure is to apply car- bolic salve, or carbolated vaseline. In three days bathe the affected parts TURKEY QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS 191 with warm soapsuds in which are a few drops of carbolic acid, and again apply the salve. Add a little sulphur to their food. This will hasten the cure. They should be cured in a little over a week. Be sure to separate all the fowls affected from the flock. This will prevent the spreading of the disease. Turkeys Lame — Will you kindly tell me what to do for my turkeys? My early hatches did fine, but of the late hatch, four of them were troubled with stiff legs, one died, and one got well, but the other two are still lame, the knee joints are swollen and kind of pink color. Their appetities are good. -K. C. Answer — Your turkeys have rheu- matism. This comes from their liver being affected, by cold or damp wea- ther. Give each of the affected tur- keys a small liver pill, followed by a one-grain quinine pill every day for a week. Bathe the knee joints with the following: One cup of vinegar, one cup of turpentine, one heaping table- spoon of saltpeter. Mix, keep in a bottle, shake before using. I think this will cure them. Be careful not • to give them any corn or corn meal, and give plenty of lettuce. General Care of Turkeys— I would like to ask a few questions about tur- keys. You mentioned raising them in a brooder. 1. How warm should one have the brooder when the poults are first put in? 2. At the end of the first week what should the tem- perature be lowered to? 3. Is al- falfa meal necessary or of any benefit to little poults or to little chicks if they have all the green barley they will eat, cut fine? — A Beginner. Answer — The heat under the hover should be about 95. The reason I say "about" is that on a very warm, sun- ny day it might be a little lower, but should the outside temperature be cold or the weather damp and gloomy, it might be up to 95 for the best results. 2. About 85, depend- ing somewhat on the outside air and weather. Gradually lower the tem- perature till you get it to 70 or 80, according to the weather. 3. No! Little turkeys require the succulent green, not the dried hay, ground up. Give them lettuce chopped up at first with every 'meal; then either lettuce, dandelion leaves, onion tops chopped fine, or cabbage or the tender leaves of beets. Any, green vegetable that you would eat yourself will do and also the green barley as long as it is succulent and tender. Barley soon gets tough and hard and then it not suitable for the little turkeys. Keep Separate from Chicks— Will you kindly give me some information concerning newly hatched turkeys? We have two hens and a torn. Would you advise keeping them away from chickens? — Mrs. C. B. Answer — Little turkeys do much better when kept away from chickens. They require, or do better, on differ- ent food, and when very young re- quire to be kept quiet, whilst the chicks like to scratch and rustle. Turkeys move more slowly and need rest and quiet. Then, again corn, Kaffir corn and corn meal suit chick- ens, but ferment inside the little tur- keys and give them diarrhoea, which is often fatal. Let the turkey mothers take care of the little turkeys and give them grass or alfalfa to run on and they will do well. Turkeys — I am glad if I have been able to help you with your turkeys, and will try to reply to your ques- tions, but I wish you could give your turkeys free range as they are the Bronze, for that most beautiful breed is nearer to the wild than any other and, therefore, need more than any, a good wide free range to keep them healthy. A turkey on the range eats a few seeds, then sees an insect, may- be a grasshopper, and chases after that, which is good exercise. After a run he finds perhaps a nice little pebble or a few green leaves or twigs, and so on. He only eats a very little at a time and exercises between each mouthful and this is the way a tur- key, should eat. The nearer we can come to copying nature in feeding turkeys, the better success we shall have. Now, with this prelude I will try to answer your questions to the best of my ability. 1. How much grain and what kinds should I feed? 2. Should I give them bran and beef scraps? 3. Or do you prefer granulated milk? 4. How much of the milk should they have? 5. Should I feed more than 192 MRS. BASLEY'S WESTERN POULTRY BOOK twice a day? 6. Is there any food which should be always before them? —Mrs. C. F. S. Keeping twenty young three- month-old turkeys yarded is a very serious proposition, unless your yard is an unusually large one with plenty of shade and sunshine. 1. Wheat is the best grain for turkeys until about two or three weeks before you want to kill them, then you can add corn. 2. You can give bran and beef scraps but, 3. I prefer granulated milk and bran, as it seems to agree better with the turkeys. 4. About an ounce each per day. 5. Twice a day is consid- ered about right for yarded turkeys. 6. Turkeys need plenty of fresh, green succulent food, such as clover lawn clippings or lettuce, swiss chard, beet tops, cabbage or the curly kale. They must have green food to do well and should have all they can eat of it, and grain only twice a day. Almost any kind of fruit or nuts or olives suits them. It you want to leave any food always before them you might leave a box of granulated milk and another of bran. Always keep charcoal, grit and granulated bone before them. If you had a wal- nut orchard in which they could roam I would say leave a box of wheat where they can get to it and they will not over eat; they will roam away and only go to it when hungry, but in a yard with nothing to occupy or interest them, I think the bran would be better. Give them at least three or four times a week, onions chopped up and mixed with dry bran. The onions are a wonderful tonic to liver and kidneys and will do more to help you keep the turkeys healthy than anything. They are also a preventive to intestinal worms and roup. Fresh, clean water as cool as possible is also a necessity. Turkeys — I have just moved into this valley, on a 120-acre farm and want to raise turkeys. Now, is the White Holland as good to raise for market as the Bronze, if so, do you have their eggs to sell? If you do not have them, will you please send me the address of someone who does. Also the address of someone who has the Bronze? Do you have Guinea fowls, and if so what do you charge for a setting of eggs; if you do not keep them will you give me the ad- dress of someone who does? I also want to ask you if you think it will pay to raise geese for the feathers, if so, what kind is best? And where can I get the eggs? We have plenty of alfalfa and plenty of water. — Mrs. S. E. S. Answer — White Holland turkeys will do equally well with the Bronze. They are not quite as heavy when two years old; they are smaller boned; but I have had them at six months weighing eighteen to twenty- two pounds, which size is preferred on the market to any larger. The White Holland seem to stand hot cli- mate exceedingly well and they do not roam as far as the Bronze. I will try and send you a list of breed- ers of both kinds. There are, how- ever, quite a number of persons in the interior valley breeding turkeys, and my advice to you would be to get the eggs from two or three different parties near you. I saw a large flock at El Centre, and heard of others at Imperial, Thermal and Coachella. The Guineas do not begin to lay here before April; if you will write to me then I may be able to give you the address of farmers having some. I think it would pay to raise geese, As they are grazing animals they re- quire very little grain and will live almost entirely upon alfalfa. But they must have plenty of grit as well as crushed shell to make egg shell, There is not grit enough in the soil of Imperial valley for domestic fowls of any kind. The Toulouse geese are usually the most popular. They are gray and white. I like the Embden; they are the same size but are pure white. I will send you the address of a party keeping the Toulouse geese and will try to find out where you can get the Embden. A Lack of Green Food— I have a torn turkey that is sick. He was a year old last May and about six weeks ago he would not eat. He did not look sick, and would strut and gobble a little, but did not eat. I gave him Carters' liver pills and he soon got all right. About a week ago he be- gan to get off his feed again, and I at once began to doctor him. Have given him liver pills and germazone, but he has not eaten anything since last Wednesday. Can you tell me TURKEY QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS 193 what ails him and what to do for him? He is a very valuable bird and I am anxious to have him get well. His usual feed is bran, barley meal, al- falfa meal and beef scrap in the morn- ing and wheat and Kaffir corn at night, with plenty of grit and oyster shell.— Mrs. G. H. B. Answer — I think your turkey re- quires more green food than you are giving him as you only mention al- falfa meal. Give him now, 3.. quinine pill (two grains) every night for a week. Add charcoal and chopped on- ions to his mash in the morning, and plenty of green food once or twice a day. Give him as large a range as possible, or if you cannot give him range, let him out on your own lawn for two hours before sundown. What he needs is fresh green food and chopped onions for the liver tonic. up the trees to the turkeys. Pour a little stream of crude petroleum at the foot of the .trees to keep off the ticks. Turkey's Chickenpox — I have some young turkeys several months old. On the heads of some are round things like warts; on one they are sore looking and are also on each knee-joint of the legs. The turkeys don't appear sick. We have rubbed, the heads with axle-grease, as once before that seemed to help. What is the cause of this disease? How can one cure or prevent it and are the fowls good for food if they recover? My turkeys have free range and have had plenty of animal food in the shape of bugs, etc., all summer, also of course, green food in as large a quantity as they cared for. I have only fed them wheat. Chicken ticks, these flat bugs, are bad here, but the, turkeys roost outside, so should not be bothered much. — M. A. Answer — Your turkeys have chick- enpox. It comes from a microbe which gains entrance under the skin from some slight abrasion, such as a scratch, or the bite of an insect. It is very prevalent during the fall, but except in the case of very young chickens, is easily curable, and the remedies you are using will effect a speedy cure. Carbolic salve, or carbolized vase- line is the usual cure — or you can wash the spots in hot soapsuds to get off the scab and then grease just only the spots. The carbolic acid in the salve kills the microbe. The turkeys are perfectly fit for food. You had better be sure the ticks do not crawl Turkeys — Will you kindly tell how to raise little turkeys without any milk, or can't it be done? We value your writing very much. — H. D. C. Answer — The milk that we use in feeding little turkeys, either as plain skim milk for them to drink or as a curd for them to eat, is given be- cause it is found to be the best substi- tute for the insects that would be Na- ture's diet for the little turkeys. The next best substitute is hard boiled eggs and after that ground-up meat, either raw or cooked. Here in Los Angeles we can get the granulated and the dried milk and these make a good feed, both for tur- keys and chickens. I should think you could get either of these at the poultry supply houses in Santa Cruz. Sick Gobbler — I write again in re- gard to a fine gobbler. He was hatched last May. He has been sick about ten days. Just sits around and does not walk much. Eats very little, and his droppings are nearly all white and small in quantity. His food has been rolled barley, wheat, and we have nine acres in green barley. He has plenty of clean, pure water and is not lousey, as I dust my turkeys with insecticide every week. When he first drooped around I gave him some liver pills, but he does not get much better. I hope you may be able to tell me something that will help him as I should feel very badly to lose him. — Mrs. S. H. J. Answer — I would advise you first to stop dusting that gobbler with in- sect powder, as.it may be disagreeing with him. Secondly, I would give him small liver pills, and at the same time, for at least a week, a pill of one or two grains of quinine every night. Also notice his droppings, if possible, because he may have in- testinal worms, although the symp- toms are more like kidney trouble. Tapeworm in Turkeys — I have over 100 turkeys that seem to be healthy but do not grow as they should. I find now they are full of long worms, 194 MRS. BASLEY'S WESTERN POULTRY BOOK probably tape worms. What shall I do?— Mrs. L. B. D. Answer — If your turkeys have tape- worms, the best remedy I know is male-fern (felix mas). It may be used in the form of a powder; (dose thirty grains to one dram) or of liquid extract (dose fifteen to thirty drops). It should be given in the morning and evening before feeding. Oil of tur- pentine is an excellent remedy for the common round worm; dose one to three teaspoonsful in an equal amount of castor oil. Feeding stewed garlic or raw onions will help the cure. Shipping Turkeys— Can turkey eggs be hatched successfuly in an incuba- tor or are they more apt to die? Will it hurt the little turkeys to be carried on the car any great distance? —Mrs. A. P. Answer — Turkey eggs can be hatched in an incubator, if you don't mix them with other eggs, other- wise they do better under the hen. They can be raised in brooders, and it will not hurt them to travel on the cars if they do not get chilled. How Many Toms? — I want to ask you how many turkey toms I should have for 24 hens. I have tw^o fine toms weighing about 22 pounds each. Their beards are well developed and they appear to be very good birds. Will those two be enough for 24 hens?— Mrs. C. B. L. Answer — It really would be better to have three toms, but under the cir- cumstances I would rather risk hav- ing two good toms than to buy a third of unknown quality. The rule is one yearling torn to ten hens. One torn will do for twenty hens some times, but ten hens is about the best number. Liver Trouble — We are in trouble with our little turkeys, and would, like to ask you to help us. They were fine, strong fellows until a few days ago, when four of them suddenly died. I just noticed two of them, a little droopy in the afternoon, and four were dead the next morning. There was the slightest touch of diarrhoea noticeable, and I immediate- ly put a little gerrnazone in their water, and they have had it for sev- eral days. They have no signs of it now, but four more died last night, and several others are droop- ing. We made an examination this morning and found the liver all blotched and spotted all over in dark rings. That is all we could find wrong. The gizzard was healthy and full of grit and seemed perfect and in order. — Mrs. A. H. Answer — The spotted liver is all that killed them. It denotes conges- tion of the liver. This is usually brought on by wrong feeding, or over- feeding, but it also comes from their taking cold; either from being too warm at night, under the chicken hen, getting them hot and sweaty, and then coming out in the morning into the cool, foggy air, which gives them a sudden chill. This would affect the liver, and make even the proper food disagree with them. They may take cold and get a chill affecting the liver, from running in damp alfalfa; or the chicken hen may drag them about and make the exercise too much, and this also would weaken their liver and make them susceptible to cold, which would affect their liver. I can only give you these suggestions, as I do not know all your conditions. One of the best remedies for diarrhoea in both chickens and little turkeys, is rice boiled in milk, with a tablespoon- ful of ground cinnamon to every pint of milk. Rice given even dry will help in a case of this kind. ABOUT DUCKS Duck Eggs vs. Hen Eggs— What difference, if any, should there be in running an incubator with duck eggs from hen eggs? I am very success- ful with hen eggs but never succeed- ed very we'll writh duck eggs; the same eggs hatch 90 per cent under a hen, and the first test from the incu- bator is about 90 per cent and then they die in the shell. — J. W. *-L. Answer — Duck eggs require differ- ent treatment than the hen eggs. Af- ter the first test when you take them out to turn them, sprinkle them every day with warm water. Leave them out a few minutes to partially dry off, fan the stale air out of the incubator and then replace them. By this means I think you will have a better hatch. Duck eggs require more dry- ing out than hen eggs and yet the shell must be dampened to make it brittle. Putting water into the incu- bator does not do as well as sprink- ling. Food— Good and Bad — 1. Would lettuce make good greens to sow in runways for Indian Runner ducks? 2. Will some whole wheat hurt them if they are provided with grit? 3. At what age should ducks hatched in March commence laying? 4. Will beef suet and chopped fresh beef do to feed them? — Mrs. F. H. Answer — 1. Lettuce is good for all fowls and would be good for the ducks as long as it lasts, but I am afraid the little fellows would soon pull it all up. 2. Whole wheat is not as good for little ducks as bran and corn meal. See article in this book. 3. Indian Runners hatched in March will commence laying in Sep- tember. 4. Beef suet is not the food for ducks, but if you want to fatten them, you might add a little of it to their mash. Indigestion — What is wrong with my ducks? They are almost full grown, and they turn over on their backs and are unable to get up; they are very weak; their eyes scale over and some of them have died. They act very much like chickens with the roup, only they clo not swell around the head.— Mrs. J. G. C. Answer — Your ducks are suffering from indigestion and also from their heads being stopped up. The indi- gestion comes partly from their not having sufficient sand with their food, and their heads being stopped up, comes from the drinking vessel not being deep enough so they can rinse their nostrils out many times during the day. If you remedy these two causes of trouble in the duck yard and feed them properly, giving but little whole grain, I think they will soon recover. Incubator Ducks — We want to know the proper way to operate an in- cubator to hatch ducks. I have had fairly good luck hatching chickens but not with my ducks. I got only 40 out of 112 fertile eggs, and this time we should like to have a few directions to go by. Do they require as much as chick- ens as to moisture; do you sprinkle, also how often, and as to airing the eggs, what time of day and how long do you advise to leave the machine open; how often do you test the eggs? — Mrs. W. Answer — Duck eggs require quite as much heat as those of the chickens; they require more airing. Should be sprinkled with warm water once the first week, twice the second and every day thereafter, but do not put any water in the pans. Sprinkling the eggs helps to make the shells more brittle so the ducks will get out easier. Test the 5th day and again about once every week to take out the dead germs, as they putrify and are injurious to the rest. When you air the eggs, which you should do twice a day, that is every twelve hours, fan the stale air out of the in- cubator and then close up. Com- mence to air the eggs when you com- mence to turn them, that is 48 hours after they have been in the machine. The air space in the egg should be at the large end. I think if you follow the directions from the maker of the machine, and these hints, you will have a good hatch. To Secure Fertility — I am starting to raise Indian Runner ducks and 196 MRS. BASLEY'S WESTERN POULTRY BOOK want to ask you how many ducks to put with one drake of this variety, so as to secure the highest possible fer- tility of eggs without keeping unnec- essary drakes? I have a flock of 20 ducks and within a few days will be ready to start my incubator, so if you will kindly reply as soon as possible, I will be very much obliged to you. — L. F. R. Answer — The number of Indian Runner ducks to one drake is ten. This has been found to be the best number for Indian Runners, although you can mate fifteen ducks to one drake and have good fertility. I want, however, to warn you that the eggs are not nearly so fertile in the fall and winter as they are in the spring, so you must not be disap- pointed if at least half of the eggs are infertile at this time of the year. To increase the fertility, would advise you to increase the amount of animal food you are feeding. You can tell in five days of incubation whether the eggs are fertile and those that are not fertile should be removed from the incubator and can be used for cook- ing or eating. They are merely in- fertile eggs that have been kept in a warm place for five days, and are better than most store eggs. Weight at Ten Weeks— Will you please inform me what weight most of the duck men can put on Indian Runner ducks at ten weeks? — I. L. R. Answer — Indian Runners at ten weeks of age weigh as much as do the Pekins at that time, namely, about eight pounds per pair. They should be sent to market at from eight to ten weeks of age. After that the pin feathers develop, making them very hard to pick. I think you will be greatly pleased with the ducks when you try them. Their flesh is very de- licious, fine grained and the bones are small. They have very much the flavor of the canvas-back, and I have heard, are sometimes sold instead of them. They are also the greatest layers of any known fowl; the eggs are white and very delicious, with no strong taste like the eggs of other varieties of ducks. Feeding for Eggs — I bought some Indian Runner ducks, thirty-six in all, and six drakes. They were lay- ing up to the middle of December; since that time have layed none. I feed them about everything that would come from a first-class hotel — bread, meat, oat and corn-meal mush, all kinds of vegetable and fruit. Three times a week I mix cracked corn and bran. I feed in the morn- ing, twelve quarts, same amount at night. They have access to plenty of running water and keep perfectly clean. The pen is covered with for- est leaves that makes it warm. What I want to know is, am I feeding right for laying later on? Is it customary to pick them? Does it affect their laying? I have over two hundred eggs engaged at 10 cents a piece. I want to raise all I can the coming season. — J. W. A. Answer — I think that your hotel waste may have rather more bread in it than is good for egg production. Indian Runner ducks usually stop lay- ing in October, commencing again in December, and getting into full lay in February. The best time for hatch- ing Indian Runners is from the first of February to the end of July; the eggs are very fertile at such time. It may be that you are fattening the ducks too much, as over-fat ducks do not lay well. They require much more animal food than chickens. In their wild state they live on grasses, fish, frogs and insects, with but very little grain. If you think they are getting too much bread, you might save some of it for chickens, and in- crease the amount of meat; keep them well supplied with coarse sand, grit and crushed oyster shells. Picking the ducks affects their lay- ing, and it greatly prevents the drakes from being fertile. While they are moulting the eggs are never fertile. Eggs, Goose and Duck — I would like to know what care duck and geese eggs should have when a hen is sitting on them instead of the goose or duck. Also, what feed should they have when first hatched? — Mrs. J. A. P. Answer — Goose and duck eggs re- quire more heat and a longer period of incubation than hens' eggs. Five goose eggs are sufficient to place un- der a hen, and be sure that she turns the eggs every day or the gosling will be a cripple. The goose eggs are heavy for a hen to turn, and for this reason, and also because they require GEESE 197 more heat, the hen should not have more than five to care for. From nine to eleven duck eggs are the number, for the same reasons, that should be given to a hen. Goose eggs require thirty days of incubation; duck eggs twenty-eight. Hens are apt to desert them towards the last and should be watched, as they get tired of waiting for their chicks to come out. I also have had hens that were so much afraid^of the queer, green looking babies they hatched out that they would kill them. They seem to know that they are not proper chickens. I feed the little geese hard-boiled eggs, chopped fine, and cracker crumbs moistened with water, and sprinkle a little sand on the food. This is the first food. The next day they get the same, with lettuce chopped fine. After this I add break- fast oats with it and bran. As early as possible I put the geese out on the lawn, take the hen away from them and put them into a box in the wood- shed or kitchen, if the nights are cool, or if I am afraid of cats or other marauders. They do not require heat after a few days, sometimes not aft^r the first day. It depends upon the weather. Geese are the easiest of fowls to raise. They are a grazing bird and must have a pasture of something green to graze on. When young they should not have whole grain, but a mash of bran and corn meal with a little animal food in it, and always grass or alfalfa to graze on. Ducks do well treated in the same way, remembering to give them a lit- tle sand with each meal. Died in the Shell— I had two hens sitting on duck eggs and the ducks all died in the shell. The eggs were pipped, but it seemed as though the ducks could not get out. I dipped the eggs the last six days in lukewarm water once a day. I opened two eggs and there was jelly around the ducks. Could you kindly let me know why and how it is, as I have two more hens setting?— Mrs. C. F. N. Answer — Sprinkle your ducks eggs, if the weather is warm and dry, three times a week after the first week; let the water be just as hot as you can bear your hand in, and sprinkle it out of a little sprinkling pot or use a whisk broom to sprinkle the eggs with as you would clothes for ironing; leave the eggs damp for the hen to go on them. This is better than float- ing them in the water. Little ducks can be easily helped out of the eggs and still live and be strong; if they seem slow in hatching, bring them into the house and put a warm damp flannel around them and place at the back of the kitchen stove, and I think they will then come out without as- sistance; if not, help them out. GEESE Geese — I have a few geese and just lately they have started to lay; gather from four to six daily. Do you think by turning them daily I might save them up for incubation? About what degree should be kept up for them? I put seven eggs under a hen. Would you also tell me what should baby geese be fed?— J. W. Answer — You can keep geese eggs, by turning them every day, for three weeks. They take thirty days to in- cubate. The incubator should be about 102^ for the first week and 103 afterwards. Five eggs is plenty to put under a hen. See instructions in this book for hatching duck eggs in an incubator. Treat goose eggs in the same way. Feed baby geese the same as baby ducks for the first week, gradually adding chopped lettuce un- til at least half their food is green food. Geese are grazing animals and require plenty of green, succulent food. They are very easy to raise and do not re- quire brooder heat more than a few days. Toulouse Geese — First, I have a few geese. I had eight Toulouse goslings. I fed them boiled eggs, bread crumbs, oatmeal (dry), and sometimes clabber cheese with a lot of fine cut grass and young rye from the rye patch, as I have no lettuce yet, plenty of gravel and a pan of water, but they all die from a week to three weeks of age. 198 MRS. BASLEY'S WESTERN POULTRY BOOK Now what is the cause and what can I do to raise the others, as I hate to lose them so bad. — Mrs. J. B. M. Answer — You feed your young geese wrong. Geese are grazing ani- mals and need grass or young tender clover to eat. Next time you have any give them bran (three cups full) and corn meal (one cup full) moist- ened with water, with a teaspoonful of sand sprinkled over it. This should be fed every two hours, after the first day, when they should have nothing at all to eat, they should be turned out on the grass or on a clover lawn. From the very first they must have grass or clover to crop from. After the first week leave the food where, they can get it all the time and they will feed themselves without any trouble. Geese are the easiest of all fowls to raise. They must not have water to swim in until they have their mature feathers. "Huskins" Whi*e Wyandottes and White Orpingtons Kellerstrass Strain WINNINGS, 1910 Wvandottes 1st Cockerel 4th Cockerel 2dpullet The GRANDEST UTILITY and FANCY £': Breeds on record to-day. They are the Big Winter Layers, quick growing, and make the finest Broilers of any breeds known. - -wwr « «v T^I »*• w m. Y^I A. W. HUSKINS 713 Waterloo St. (Dept. B) Los Angeles, Cal. 700 REDS 20 BREEDING PENS HAYES, R. B. Rhode Island Red Specialist Our birds win their share of the prizes on this coast and are from Eastern stock that have been line bred for fifteen years and win in New York and Boston. Visitors at our yards say they are the best flock of Reds they have ever seen. Yards in Arroyo Opposite Ostrich Farm PHONE EAST 1631 Box 35, Garvanza Station LOS ANGELES, CAL. if Owned by S. P. Moore 958 Spence St. Los Annies, Cai. White Wyondottes I am ready when you are ready, to supply you with stock and eggs from STERLING WHITE WYANDOTTES while my stock is of the best quality, my prices are always reasonable. I will feel highly honored to receive your favors S D O" • 958 Spence St. Los Angeles, Cal METAL INCUBATORS AND BROODERS The demand for a practical, simple and inexpensive hatcher and a closer study of the principles underlying the natural process of incubation has enabled us, after twenty years of practical experience in incubating and brooding, to place on the market the Cycle Hatcher, which has been thoroughly tested out during the past five years and which we believe more closely follows natural methods than any other form of incubator heretofore produced. All the necessary essentials are provided ; a warm nest, a cover to take the place of the hen and the means of supplying a sufficient quantity of fresh air, at the same time retaining the natural moisture contained in the egg and preventing its escape. The heater being circular in shape, with the lamp directly in the center, insures an even distribution of heated air in all parts of the machine, with no corners for dead air spaces. Eggs to hatch well must be newly laid, and where the number produced is small, they will not be as fresh when several hundred or more are placed in one incubator as when set more often in separate machines. We make only one size machine, holding fifty eggs, and for large hatches the required number of machines are used. By having the eggs in smaller units they can be more easily controlled and there is never the danger of having the entire hatch ruined. The advantages of a small machine are many, as practical poultry keepers will readily appreciate by a careful consideration of the requirements for sucessful incubation. CATALOGUE MAILED ON REQUEST Brooder Hatching Doing Double Duty Cycle Hatcher (for hatching only), 50-egg size $5.50; two for $10.50 Brooder Hatcher (for hatching and brooding together) 8.00: two for 15.00 THE PHILO SYSTEM of progressive poultry keeping is unlike all other ways of raising poultry, and in many re- spects it is just the reverse, accomplishing things that have always been considered impossible and getting results that are hard to believe without seeing. This system covers every detail of poultry work from selecting the breeders to marketing the product. It tells how to get eggs that will hatch, how to hatch nearly every egg laid and how to raise nearly all the chicks hatched. It gives complete plans in detail how to make all appliances necessary to run the business at less cost than is required to handle poultry successfully in any other manner. There is nothing complicated about the work and any man or woman who can handle a hammer can construct the apparatus. Two-pound broilers are raised in a space less than a square foot to a broiler and the broilers are of the very best quality, usually bringing from three to five cents above the highest market price. Six-months-old pullets lay in a space of two square feet for each bird and breeding pens are allowed three square feet for each fowl. No green cut bone is fed and the food used is inexpensive compared with prepared foods others are using. The latest edition of the Philo System Book gives full particulars regarding this method of poultry raising in a simple, easy-to-understand manner with full directions that are right to the point and has fifteen pages of illustrations showing all branches of the work from start to finish. A COPY WILL BE SENT BY RETURN MAIL UPON RECEIPT OF $1.00 WESTERN OFFICE '•> 11 MADISON ST., OAKLAND, CAL. Branch, Los Angeles, 541 Chamber of Commerce Building CYCLE HATCHER CO. izo CALIFORNIA CULTIVATOR The bier rural weekly of the Pacific Coast, gives more poultry news than any poultry or farm paper published west of the Rocky Mountains. ONE YEAR (52 issues) FOR $1.00 The only paper for the advertiser to reach the FANCIER AND UTILITY MAN 14200 bona-fide subscribers. Write for sample copy and advertising rates CULTIVATOR PUBLISHING COMPANY 115 N. Broadway, Los Angeles, Cal. I88NARRED PLYMOUTH RO(KS=I9IO OCEAN BLUE STRAIN Twenty-five regular and special prizes this season on 21 entries under three judges. At Los Angeles, the quality show of the coast, we won 17 regular and special prizes on 15 entries, 4 silver loving cups. Shape, color and head specials. Champion male, 1st and 2d pens. Sweepstakes pen and others too numerous to mention. Eggs always for sale, $3.00 to $5.00 per 15 MR. and MRS. D. T. WIELAND Moneta, Los Angeles County, Cal. ROSENMTH EGG RANCH IOSWALDMJ [ROBERTSON ARLINGTON CALIFORNIA S. C. WHITE LEGHORNS WYCKOFF and GREGG STRAINS. Two of the best laying strains in the World. DAY-OLD CHICKS (My Specialty) 12^ cents each. $10.00 per 100. $90.00 per 1000 (No charge made for chick boxes if returned, express prepaid, within one week) I attend personally to selecting and filling all orders, endeavor to treat every patron honorably, and to give full value for their money. Everything as repre- sented. Visitors welcome. Inspection invited. Yours faithfully OSWALD M. ROBERTSON Home 4154 Phones (Riverside) Sunset Red 4926 WEST COAST SEED CO. No Better Place to Buy the Best POULTRY SUPPLIES AT LOWEST PRICES Also RELIABLE SEEDS at RIGHT PRICES Catalogues Free 115 W. SEVENTH ST. LOS ANGELES, CAL. Red Feather Farm Home of Buckeyes and Bourbon Red Turkeys the Stay-at-Home A-\ Turkeys Pea-comb Buckeyes are the only Standard American breed originated by a woman. They are beautiful dark red, gamy looking birds, splendid winter layers, good sitters and mothers, and the best of table birds, having abundance of fine-flavored breast meat. No eggs will be shipped from Red Feather Farm hereafter, but the originator and proprietor will herself raise and select pairs, trios and pens of her own breeding at reasonable prices. MRS. FRANK METCALF ( Red Feather Farm, Inglewood, Cal. Heavy Laying White Leghorns Exclusively I ADMIT HAVING THE HEAVIEST LAYING STRAIN ON THE COAST 1 000 LAYING HENS Trap Nested Records I have a limited number of settings from my 220-227 egg hens that I will accept orders for at $4.00 per 15. Cockerels from these hens at $7.00 each. Our 18 years breeding a heavy strain is what does it. Our birds never quit laying; they are healthy and happy and almost as large as Rocks. Nice Cockerels from $3.00 to $5.00. EGGS— $2.00 per 15, $7.00 per 100 from the cream of the layers that average 192 eggs each. Send for our new 24-page catalogue. Los Angeles, May 20th. My Dear Sir: I have been intending writing you to let you know how the hens that I raised from yours eggs are doing. I have just 50 hens out of the 108 eggs, and they started to lay when only four months old. I intended to keep a record of the number of eggs laid, but failed to do so; when the San Francisco "shake" occured, my wife was in that city, so I placed feed and water in the yard to last them a week and I struck out to find my wife. I was gone just seven days, and I found that the hens had filled the nests and laid in the corners of the house and around on the ground. Wife and I gathered up just 329 eggs, which was an average of 47 eggs per day from the 50 hens, and they have never gone below 40 eggs since. We are more than satisfied, and ought to be. J. B. STONE. RICHLAND EGG RANCH (W. C. MacFarlane) Phone Suburban 287 HANFORD, CAL. rlinlton ROBT. I. PETERS, Prop. ORIGINAL WYCKOFF STOCK S. C, White Leghorns THE BUSINESS HEN When it comes to egg production, it would be extremely difficult — probably impossible — to find a more satisfactory breed than the White Leghorn. In choosing the foundation for a money-making flock of White Leghorns, you will make no mistake if you adopt the famous Wyckoff strain, which has stood at the head of the heavy laying class for more than a quarter of a century. Our breeding pens include a splendid collection of high-class stock — hens of proven merit as egg producers, carefully selected from our heaviest layers, and properly mated to insure best results in the development of the ideal White Leghorn of the genuine laying type. Eggs for hatching and high-grade breeding stock furnished at reasonable prices. Cor- respondence solicited. "BREEDERS" The Blue Ribbon Strain Mammoth White Holland Turkeys Of all varieties, the Mammoth White Holland is the easiest raised and at the same time the most profitable. Our strain of these beautiful birds is of extra large size, pure white, vigorous, healthy, prolific layers and very domestic. Pen A. — Headed by the First Grand Prize Tom, Madison Square Garden, New York OUR GRAND BREEDING PENS are far the best that we have ever mated, also great care has been taken and much money expended to produce birds of the highest type. EGGS READY ABOUT MARCH I5TH Stock and Show Birds a matter of correspondence W. A. DEXTER, R.F.D.NO. IBS, PALMS, CAL. IMPORTER AND BREEDER Mammoth White Holland Turkeys NELSON'S WHITE BEAUTY, age 11 mo. California Tom. First Prize Winner Chutes Park, Los Angeles, Cal., Jan. 10, 1910 In mating our stock for 1910, great care has been taken, and much money expended to pro- duce the highest type of birds for utility and the show room. The big demand for stock and eggs has compelled an in- crease in the size of our plant. Our pens are all headed; by birds of the highest type, and every order is filled with great care. THOMAS E. NELSON R. F. D. No. 2, Box 150 Los Angeles, California GOODACRE BROTHERS Breeders of the World's Best Buff Orpingtons Rhode Island Reds White Leghorns and Buff Orpington Ducks Stock and Eggs for sale the year round Thirty-two First Prizes, two Silver Cups, two Sweepstakes Silver Medals, show season 1909 - 10 at Alaska- Yukon - Pacific Exposition, Seattle; the Great Chicago Show, Sacramento, Phoenix, San Jose, Oakland and Los Angeles. We keep abreast of the times, and our stock prove good layers as well. We are adding to our present stock ANCONAS The World's Great Layers GOODACRE BROS., Box W, Compton, Cal THIS BOOK IS DUE ON THE LAST DATE STAMPED BELOW AN INITIAL FINE OF 25 CENTS WILL BE ASSESSED FOR FAILURE TO RETURN THIS BOOK ON THE DATE DUE. THE PENALTY WILL INCREASE TO SO CENTS ON THE FOURTH DAY AND TO $t.OO ON THE SEVENTH DAY OVERT