ayia hha we Di
ASAE NAN OPS NINE FWP ELAR UE Donk Fann Laan wb
OAHU on NA i Nn Hult hs
ert ¥ Ri ; ‘ Ienine Pedi, hs iN) ainda hate dsm BOOT IAM a
‘ A) CAEN iia oS Ke alk oh as i ie choeetaannes
Wa i i MAYER MTA Th aoales md Pe A i
VF starnuart ay \ MURRety niin toa Gina ha atk ne lala he sa
Val id ars
nhs
ice hon oe
Darra Mn Enable ete i Sees
siaitee aig sans reahanabelh fies singin victeleurtrlr pita dre
ihn wh beeen oa c sitet
iin ae ne MANN ah aagnnelbl as Pe Dither tat,
NH Te RT Ae hanini athe hy nie oe ars ma iano Gint ul rienanih ace Sevan ne aTanuhe tae
iy fly bree Rent pine eka bia netstat ee
Nan
iN
a wu
at Saas : ee Dacae cs merece seceimeeae
nn ser pel aera curr et settee nee to
ma rect
ih
sens Has firma inhi pvebinbrtidirls Urea HCE tet
peer rs heat het tasenn abe :
tei faa siebresrenice reel tetra y sec ces
LOO Gensel hate hati tar hai
Teed fren
"
i mu RAUNT
ny rena) Mt a Wh CUNT n UWE
nt
a
tee .
tebe inalisiys adm hh
IA Wnt tn seleens sa ana abe hy
ri) ia Ade Dah
pinvibny
ne i nnn
ml
ete ita rhumens ieeaat nema io ‘ie
im
Ep van a tea Pana er obese sneer fbn Ta aynbneibe ma batha Bei pi airetritrarsa
ris mens a helene he betes
eles aca sharepenime ene jeter neabica in nahe eciepaem aah
sina Aubin aa ‘acho ena hch ag irteacte eben lahat
ee ret acti toa ar tek Nantes eta ce anes
a ee rele
he Pinbeatnis brane neha coerce once as eet
nny hr iDaisiebeoteaanatatean hs anlage peed Deine Nate tche aaa ppomecintas
t saith Abs aon viking ica aa hy Srey Shatieecrantenetie Tana a ee nope at eatin asta
Hebel nts Hitgiteimpoceh ty 7) chee miphabanceees Re ee Ros
pets : as ;
ta se Mntparnnsctint eee eae a ions create ene cpr
a kackkeee ee ane be Senn ancee Hen patcon et aan
- * ae lala
a hope orate aon os
Aye sh eee ac wae
Beeye
ae ty
PN Cer ine aera a Haigh a Phere
bi a e) “ vty Neth a nant fat \iihe aa fon fl ed
(Uru urdu ere crt Fintan baat [anor aecrire rae tess scansiwreti he Sac aatr Teint
7 siti ui anette onl scien eset certo
egitim
ibane tans
dag
regnabetat wetrt hee waco
Nas a eee ah Minsdtnehe athe toe poten pee fen teartetcu Reha tnt nite? a3 hah oh
Wiehe se eaten tah hema cDaeh pseviatetatrs
MORRIE what Fane eaeer x erieee a sr
been aera Erie sree et oie etree
Creeley rare beavis
Peitatntatsileiahahabe orate
ala at
al
utes ei als Sinetron a
= renin be seattle toot
hetero aed neta a eg rtm ahe B cere
he rele chef ona Scheele elias hat tcl bab-Sobctatotct
peat A. Layee die teh oe artat =
ea
Eerie ahi
Pein trea eo Seog Pate
ein ha b= tse pape aera ee
sh rivera ATS EY
ie Aue urate
Baye vi:
ign ‘hea veinhe
ria race es
iia tebe ington sais
ny
Pesereres
ae itt Sattalites
Hg
eed hpi h
Fone: bapyremepeite al
eal ed a hal essere
Annee eo dreahclas
eve! res
(anak Sica
ee Beri art Deora
- on ey eee
sin reas
ae + cialis
sree of Be
Fee State
re
Loppers
ene aie a,
Tob sintered
pe cts Weeoeene
HEE pDeieess ee
Pe ecniccee
* one pee
Peg in be
heaeade beer icurerins HOY
ae see eet ve oles
Papers x
Disp ieminte eer mrerae et
aes alee we
gia ys ices
oe Macicennenieon ye
aie ieee Ais tot 6
A Upiiancaebe 1 fe
Pu hs ea eat paras
y ete ea al Pera io vopaetere at See ae ie
uy Siiencirgieg pee otaetten
eippor sar eoh a epee aie ear ae quan mesic
Sah Vievsotesncipinben tao Sproat stasis aN Pehl tos pe aenaeet
Zpdieqes wae b eet report isin abn Ae coc rmemnnene es 2 espe Poel ae Acree
uf Paes or ene idee ict bee efoet se eet cain anit So fiereee sect nari
plat he IF panei re pone ete i Ueaeefirt pie stair, esis en! PRG ila ied deeseeasees f rene Sete ennarare toe So
ie pee ciate, etenor gata prec ecg wi neers CA cant etn - neroninde
me, tpibain fa ieee ae Pali i Siege rape bree eamns mires Sree
De i tiapuomadieenbrtaas iit ries yoirraserip- ar sytr : foo 7 “ine oe
ieee ie coir ppt hg igre teeter inceerercle eee “f ~s
ot Hie beara “e ip OS lett cea opt netial es retets
et aiid ernen retest nip geet ie gaia i raaeeae pasion te Sener
Catala heaner eRe ase pues carereran teers Prorarorel Caceres ee Freeper Spare ee ar
Li eels oe i rien neque fa Soren ees poeta
*i piieangeis Py Moaitheribs cheery read Petar paitine aa a niin ere Ginn nT la ase
lp roe Seta deoes einer ree) ee ea et patel
wean anon OE ecient Rona
Lot irae ead ier eins
ies iran trmerne i Poi pOe PM wt A en fester
pine yar ees ert
HA eI ied iH biota cia fae
CSREES pe NUM ha i i satay) iris regi nic =
| Meena i tains 5 * fi taiieee pisos meno barre robe
Fi Ji tinigio oie “us feretet ate
Hjabeiet Goh-¥ Seine ditier views ies) rains ie crntiarrt a
DON ner ie ‘ir eG pines i .
Hipieoes lr Eee Cn ct Meta co 2 seen nctonaentel et iad (epepige puaatoriel ela
riguatek a prises oa
nn insta, of rs ete ale a
tpansieg i Fie Sea pci asimazinesgees ie 2
4 Pie bene af ne ieidisenieiew peasiesiaanrr stir ee
So aaninkca lane Ta ea oe ran i jie rern acini purine
at i a he ez a wipe paeainysta penaws alee Weare au
: aplie saa ie ea vse Aiea serere titel
Nie ¥ Vy ‘ are bewejrr ees gt se Poni peap a ioe temene
Oia one reed rs pi gvewe repro rau
Lee, bye “2 ee sito
es irene
ir aie nner
pio
ee
‘amide bse
fe Cana vei in pa relat
Lipa R chalet iety start Stic
sive tis Age Ae Se kipecdewroeish so" seek
ii sibur vsthhb ae Y pateu ran spi cic e eu ie et Bros Cie
cosiveatosbana by Priel bide tha eda ee Bore Be ditet i Lig igang chef
on jeinieaes oe qe aR alert a paidet Ga iinet
a ia ah tise piiros yeni ene St! Ge tse patng ee
Me Meeps pba curs ea bee ge Ursire re OP nee ied
aa if i cCied tial ek nee Secs priate ose piste
te evade ne Tater re ssa
‘ilsaghe ieee i ee nae Ray ae im bavi frit ri iste that
oe ing! ender fi lecenenaitinn etry pete eve
me iaitigieins=e
i 7h A a “ ap bs Tha,
, atete ee iy relic poepiene sree:
inh ies
fn sti
wed Hale eh ia fae ae
Sebi tisisatinetie eben ei
Cicicaaniananden: ee dieell cient 0 iit
anise a cay facta fed
is banana ae een
sath oe Bris ine (vale a PP yes i poalges
rr tana
amex E Rice
MEMORIAL POULTRY LIBRARY
CORNELL
UNIVERSITY ‘ALRowanory
THE GIFT OF
ALBERT R. MANN LIBRARY
New York STATE COLLEGES
OF
AGRICULTURE AND Home Economics
AT
CORNELL UNIVERSITY
niversi
SF 487.R384
Cornell University
The original of this book is in
the Cornell University Library.
There are no known copyright restrictions in
the United States on the use of the text.
http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924003058272
PN
ELIABLE POULTRY JOURNAL
PUBLISHING COMPANY
QUINCY ILLUSA
.. THE..
CHICK BOOK *.
FROM THE BREEDING PEN THROUGH THE SHELL TO
MATURITY
- Contains the Experience of the World’s Leading Poultrymen
and All the Latest and Most Trustworthy Information About
Hatching, Rearing, Fattening and Marketing Chickens......
PRICE, FIFTY CENTS
PUBLISHED BY
RELIABLE POULTRY JOURNAL PUBLISHING COMPANY
: _' QUINCY, ILLINOIS
hc
e Bs Tan
E7454 ©
COPYRIGHT BY
RELIABLE POULTRY JOURNAL PUBLISHING COMPANY
QUINCY, ILLINOIS
1905
arg it
Sse
A SUGGESTION OF PLEASURE AND PROFIT.
THE CHICK BOOK—INTRODUCTORY.
Success in Hatching and Rearing the Chicks Is a Chief Essential to Profitable Poultry Keeping—How to Obtain
the Knowledge Required for Success and How to Apply that Knowledge.
HE poultryman’s profit depends in a great meas-
ure upon his success in rearing the chicks. Suc-
cess is attained only by intelligent use of cor-
rect methods. If the incubation, growth and
development of the chick are not attended by
such conditions as produce and maintain the good health
necessary for building a vigorous body and strong consti-
tution, the grown bird does not have the power to produce,
or earn, more than a nominal profit for its owner, however
well it is housed and cared for. Nor does the negative ef-
fect stop at the profit of the first year; the progeny of such
birds is not only weak and unremunerative, but if raised
under like conditions will be less valuable than the parents
and such rapid deterioration will render the flock abso-
lutely unprofitable in two generations. On the other hand,
chicks well hatched, from good eggs, if given intelligent
care and surrounded with the essentials required for proper
growth and robust development, will mature into fowls
which are capable of returning to their owner the last cent
in payment for the food and accommodations provided. Such
methods increase the productive efficiency of succeeding
generations and the road to a competence is auspiciously
opened.
If the chicks in hand are to be marketed as squab
broilers, broilers or roasters, the problem of improving
them for stock purposes is eliminated; but the necessity
for painstaking effort is not lessened, if indeed it is not in-
creased, ;
The chick destined for the market must make a very
rapid growth; not so much of bone and muscle, as of flesh
and fat, and to do this in the least time assures the great-
est profit. Conditions, too, at the time when such chicks
must be grown to command the top price must be largely
artificial. Natural conditions must be approximated as
closely as may be, or the young birds cannot stand the
heavy feeding necessary to produce the results that count.
To one whose heart is in the work, it is as interesting as
it is important and offers opportunity for the full exercise
of both his mental and physical faculties.
That a large per cent of all strong chicks hatched can
be raised to the age for maketing, or to maturity, is not
disputed. The present-day appliances greatly facilitate the
work, and prepared foods, selling at reasonable prices,
simplify the problems of feeding. Establishments properly
. equipped and handled are raising chicks in numbers that
were scarcely dreamed of two decades ago, and by placing
them on the market in good condition at a time when the
majority of producers have nothing to offer, they obtain ex-
treme prices. Later in the season when the market is
filled with chickens from farmers and Jess energetic and
less up-to-date poultrymen, the large raisers, with their
better equipment and thorough knowledge of the business,
are able to place their goods on sale in more attractive
condition and at a lower cost of production than their com-
petitors, securing a better price and larger profit.
This is not intended to indicate that large plants are
the only ones that can and do accomplish satisfactory re-
sults. Small plants are doing good and remunerative work
on a smaller scale; some are growing chicks for market, and
others for stock purchases; some are doing the work by
artificial methods, while not a few hold to the motherly
hen of thirteen eggs capacity.
After giving due credit to the appliances and improved
foods, for the part they play in producing good chickens,
the major share is left to be distributed between hard, con-
scientious work and well grounded knowledge of the busi-
ness. Of all these factors knowledge is the greatest and
the one most difficult to secure. When it is found it com-
mands its own price.
How Knowledge Is Obtained.
There are two ways of acquiring this knowledge: by
years of costly experience and by careful study of the best
poultry literature, supplemented and verified by practical
experience. The former, although gocd, and enduring as
the hills, plates a man too near the far end of life’s jour-
ney when it staduates him and burns up money which
ought to be saved ‘and invested in the business. The latter
is the shorter road and enables one, by taking advantage
of the experience of others and avoiding their mistakes,
to cut cross lots to success with money in his pocket.
. The printed wisdom of poultry culture is as far ahead
of that of ten years. ago as can be imagined. In gathering
the material for this book the same sources of information
have been drawn upon that furnished the matter for the
other popular books published by this company; that is,
the poultrymen and women who have made a substantial
success in the business and who are specially fitted to write
upon the subjects assigned them,
Such information, though difficult and expensive to
obtain, is valuable almost beyond estimating. It consists
not in dry rules and dogmatically expressed theories, but
in the live experience of men in the field, with the whys
and wherefores for every step and dependable guidance at
every turn. It is information that can be trusted to the
letter. By following it the mistakes of the novice can be
avoided and the methods of the more experienced may be
improved.
This is not a one-man book, but a broad-gauge one,
holding out to the reader several courses which have proved
successful so that he may choose from them whatever seems
best adapted to his requirements.
Condition of the Breeding Stock.
Securing good condition in breeding birds is not ditri-
cult. Any poultryman worthy the name selects each sea-
son birds having the development and style that denote
vigor and constitution while selecting the shape re-
quired for the variety at hand. It is a fact that birds of
standard size and shape are not produced year after year by
any but healthy, vigorous stock. Constitutional vigor is
the source of strong procreative power and is built up only
by careful breeding for a term of years.
With this characteristic well established, it remains
only to maintain good health and normal condition of flesh
6 THE CHICK BOOK
to produce eggs that will bring forth chicks that live, thrive
and make a profit. In this connection it is safe to remember
that appearance, although a good indicator of health, is"
not infallible, for a bird may seem to be in the best of
condition, when it is unable to produce a fertile egg. Sup-
ply the food and conditions required and trust to nothing
less, whatever the appearances, to bring about the desired
results.
Every effort should be made to conserve the energy and
maintain the strength during the winter, when conditions
are largely artificial. This does not mean that all profit
from the birds in a practical way must be lost or that hens
may not lay well during the winter and produce fertile
eggs in the spring. The best rule to follow is this: provide
as well as possible the exercise, fresh air and foods that
the hen would get if allowed her freedom on @ grass range
in summer.
We cannot lay down a rule for feeding. What will pro-
duce good results in one yard will not always do so in an-
other, because of different conditions. Sufficient informa-
tion upon the feeding values of all commercial foods and
their effects upon birds under various conditions is avail-
able, so that a little experience and intelligent observation
will enable any one to compound the ration best adapted
to the needs of his flock.
Incubating the Eggs.
That the up-to-date hatchers can be depended upon to
do their full share toward making the poultryman inde-
pendent requires no argument, Good eggs and proper hand-
ling by the operator will assure good hatches of vigorous
chicks. An understanding of the machine and how to con-
trol it, with some knowledge of how te treat eggs during
the period of incubation and of the essentials of correct
environments, constitutes the wisdom required for successful
hatching.
We find incubators operating in dark cellars, where
there is no light except that of burning kerosene; where
good air enters by chance and not from intention, and the
atmosphere is damp and laden with germs of decay and dis-
ease. Again we find them located in rooms above ground,
in houses built for the purpose, in dwellings and in rooms
partitioned off in the barn, poultry house and shed where
the air, though dry, is seldom renewed and light from the
sun is rigidly excluded that a more even temperature may
be maintained.
A strong man could not stay in one of these places an
hour and the flame that heats the incubator frequently has
difficulty in collecting enough oxygen for perfect combus-
tion. To expect to develop so delicate an organism as an
embryo chick under such conditions, is nothing less than
folly; yet some people attempt it and, failing, denounce the
machine and artificial incubation. How to provide the
proper environment and successfully operate the machines
is plainly told in succeeding pages.
Brooding the Chicks.
There are good brooders and brooding systems, and
good foods ready to feed. These ready made factors in
success are easily obtained, but for their efficiency they
-depend upon the discriminating mind of one skilled in the
work. In no other branch of the business is the effect of
level thinking and well directed effort more noticeable.
Five minutes in a brooding house will frequently enable
the intelligent observer to estimate correctly the ability of
the man in charge; for the appearance of the chicks is the
best possible evidence and no flock of chicks is healthy and
vigorous that does not look so.
It is of primary importance that every aid to good
health is supplied, for enfeebled constitutions are as fre-
quently caused by bad housing, brooding and care as by
improper feeding.
Cleanliness, good ventilation and exercise exert more
influence than the novice is prone to believe. As the black-
smith’s arm grows strong by constant use, the physical
structure of the chicks grows strong and is kept in trim by
running about and scratching in clean quarters, where fresh
air supplies the material for myrials of life-giving blood
corpuscles and the digestive organs are made capable of
converting to the bedy’s use all the nutriment the food con-
tains. a
Hatching and Raising With Hens.
There are more than a few who, though they admit
the practical worth of artificial methods, still cleave to the
ways of their grandparents and find satisfaction and profit
in so doing. The usefulness of the broody hen is by no
means a ‘thing of the past. The breeder with a sitting of
eggs from a favorite ‘hen to be hatched and the chicks reared
by themselves, the owner of the farm yard flock and the
village poultryman with a dozen hens find biddy up-to-
date and sufficient for their needs.
So much latter-day intelligence has been applied to
chicken culture that sometimes it becomes too great a bur-
den and the then is divested alike of her natural responsi-
bilities and of her opportunities. Our forefathers allowed
the old hen to have pretty much her own way and she,
taking advantage of the good things that nature provides,
not alone hatched and raised the chicks at less cost, but
presented better chicks. Nature’s ways are more resultful
than the made-to-order methods sometimes recommended.
The hen that is allowed to run with her chicks in the day-
time, searching for the nutritious worm and balancing the
supplied ration by the food selected from field and swamp,
will raise a brood that is a credit to the breeder and that
will stand him in good stead the following winter. The guc-
cessful raisers approximate these conditions as closely as
the circumstances permit,
Maturing the Flock.
A chick well started is half raised; but it must be well
cared for, or it will not win in the show room, or command
a premium in the market. Good care does not mean that
manner of feeding and housing which pampers the birds,
but the care that supplies them with plenty of good food
and an environment conducive to their physical welfare.
The plan of colonizing the youngsters in roomy, open front
roosting coops, works wonders toward the production of
sturdy stock and hopper feeding not alone reduces the
labor involved, but in many cases seams to hasten growth
faster than the time honored system of three meals a day.
The Value of Common Sense.
This is an age of practical things in poultry culture
and the application of common sense to all its problems is
fast clearing it of much of the theory which has been
“thrust: upon” it. It is the person who goes at the work
with sleeves rolled up whose success can be counted in big
round dollars and whose advice is worth all it costs to every
earnest worker.
The experience of such men, and women, too, is given
in detail in this book and we recommend their articles to
the reader with full assurance that their advice may be
taken for its face value. H. A. NOURSE.
OPERATING AN
INCUBATOR.
Hints on Buying the Incewbator and Becoming Acquainted with Its Use—The Advantages of Testing the Eggs—Why Pure
. Air is Necessary—The Difficulties of Late Hatching—The Importance of Good, Hatchable Eggs.
By A. F. Hunter.
brooder, and some suggestions to that end will be
timely. Do not put off puying too long. Do not
wait until you need to begin hatching. There are
very manifest advantages in getting the incubator into your
possession, and becoming to a certain exteut familiar with
it. We know a man who intended to buy an incubator, but
put it off, for one reason or another, until it was time to
pegin hatching, and, indeed, he nad actually begun saving
eggs for hatching. He then sent the money for the incuba-
tor and asked the manufacturers to “nlease hurry it along.”
They shipped it at cnce, but he, after waiting some ten days,
wrote to know why his incubator nad not arrived. As it
was on the way, all the manufacturers could do was to start
a “tracer” after it, and the incubator and tracer reached the
man’s railway station practically. together-—the incubator
having been thirteen days on the road.
While such a delay may be unusual, still, there are pos-
sible delays, owing to the transfer of the machine from one
railway to another at a junction, aud that means unloading
it onto one platform, trundling it to another platform and
loading on another car, etc., etc., etc., any one who is ac-
quainted with freight shipments knows the vexatious delays
that are possible. Therefore, we say buy your machine in
good time so as to avoid the possible misfortune of delay
in transportation. Another point is that you get an oppor-
tunity to get the machine set up at a time when you have
plenty of leisure to do it right and get the conditions right;
you can also take time to get acquainted with the machine
so ag to run it to the best advantage and greatest conven-
ience to yourself. That point of getting acquainted with
the machine is a most important one.
We have a letter from a lady in Montana who says that
she bought an incubator last spring, got it home to her
house about noon, went to work uncrating it and setting it
up as soon as she had eaten her dinner, and at 5 o’clock in
the afternoon put the eggs into it. A little consideration of
the risks those eggs were subjected to will illustrate the
point. She had never seen an incubator before and had no
idea of running one excepting what she got in the directions
sent with the incubator. As fortune favored her, she got a
good hatch, but the chances were certainly very much
against it; and it is very foolish to take chances when we
can avoid them by taking time by the forelock. It is good,
sound advice to take three or four days in which to gradu-
ally warm up the machine to the desired temperature, see
Mi ANY people are intending to buy an Incubator and
that the regulation is properly adjusted to the desired point,
become familiar. with the individuality of the lamp so that
the flame can be set at pretty nearly the same point after
each filling and trimming,—in fact, become “familiar” with
the methods of operating the incubator. This is purely ele-
mentary advice, but the great bulk of incubator buyers are
amateurs, and.very many of them have never operated in-
cubators before, hence these same “A, B, C” points have to:
be gone over every season in order to best, nelp those who
are just starting with incubators,
Test the Eggs.
A not uncommon fault of-inexperienced incubator oper-
ators is to neglect testing the eggs. This is a mistake for
several reasons. First, there is always a proportion of eggs
that are absolutely clear, running usually from 10 to 25 or
30 per cent, und those clear eggs are perfectly good for cook-
ing. They are not quite fresh, of course, since the six or
seven days that they have been in the machine have
“staled” them to a certain extent, but no more than if they
had lain on the counter of a country store for a few weeks—
as is very frequently the case. Large operators usually sell
those infertile eggs to bakers and confectioners, and they
are used up in making cakes, pies, custards, etc
A decided advantage in removing from the trays those
clear eggs is that there is more room for the fertile eggs in
the trays, and they can be turned and handled more easily;
even if no second test is made, a first test, to take out the
clear eggs, certainly should be made.
A second test about the fourteenth or ffteenth day, to
remove germs that have died since the first test, is a help
to a good hatch. Those dead eggs usually throw off slight
odors or deleterious matter, hence a good hatch is promoted
by getting them out of the machine. Another argument for
testing eggs is that it increases one’s knowledge of embry-
onic life and development, and enhances the interest of
artificial incubation. A good tester is sent out with every
incubator sold and we strongly urge the buyer to start
right,—and learning to test his eggs is an important part of
that start. ;
Dark shelled and thick shelled eggs are more difficult
for an amateur to test than are the more common white-
shelled eggs, for the reason that the light does not shine
through them so well, and even an experienced tester may
mistake a clear egg for a probable germ; that is, the yolk
may throw a shadow that will have the appearance of a
good, strong germ.
$s THE CHICK BOOK
It is well in learning to test to break a few eggs that
one is doubtful of and learn the appearance of clear eggs,
dead germs, strong-living germs, etc. Do not be afraid to
sacrifice a dozen or two of eggs in the interesi of gaining
knowledge—it is a good investment in the long run.
Supply Fresh. Air.
Be certain that there is an abundant supply of fresh air
in the incubator room at all times. A serious mistake of
beginners is being afraid that a little fresh air will jeopard-
ize the hatch. It is important to remember that if you
have 150 living germs in an incubator all of those 150 living
organisms are consuming oxygen very day and every min-
ute of the day, hence it is important that they be abundantly
supplied with that life-giving element. If the incubator is
in a moderately warm place, say about 60 degrees, more air
or soft-roasters early in the spring. _Having the incubator
and brooder equipment and the winter season being 9 time
when the farm work does not crowd so hard, it is natural
to think of having some chickens to bring forward to mar-
ket; the cash received from selling them is always welcome.
A most important point in starting the incubators is that
they .be carefully and thoroughly cleaned up, especially on
the inside where the actual work of incubating is done. It
is not so well known as it should ‘be that disease germs
lurk in uncleaned incubators and brooders and that not a
small proportion of the mortality of baby chicks is due to
the unsanitary condition of incubators and brooders. A few
years ago the Rhode Island Experiment Station was much
troubled with this mortality of baby chicks, and some hun-
dreds of cases were carefully examined for the purpose of
Aa Incubator House Banked with Earth to Protect It Against Changes of Temperature.
can be admitted to the machine and the eggs can be cooled
and aired a longer time than if the machine is in a consider-
ably colder place. This means that cooling and airing the
eggs should be much less in coid weather than in mild,
spring weather; then, too, you can do decidedly more cool-
ing and airing the last third of the hatch than earlier, and
the living embryos will be the better for it. The practice
of operators varies considerably, some cooling and airing
the eggs a great deal after the firsc week, and there are some
who cool and air from the very start almost. Generally
speaking, however, if the incubator is in a cool place it
will be found that the eggs get sufficiently cooled and aired
at the daily turning the first week, then a few minutes a day
the second week, and the last week (up to the time of pip-
ping) five to ten minutes a day is none too much. In-
deed, if the animal heat in the eggs is strong and the tem-
perature of the incubatcr room is 60 degrees or above, quite
a long airing daily will be beneficial.
Some of the Difficulties of Late Hatching.
Some poultry raisers start hatching in the fall, with
the purpose to have broiler chickens to séll in the winter
locating the cause, and one of the causes given in the report
is: “Imperfect sanitation; lack of ventilation, sunlight,
etc., e. g., tuberculosis flourishes in dark, poorly ventilated
brooders; 15.1 per cent of the posi-mortems showed more or
less evidence of tuberculosis.” A similar case was reported
as afflicting several practical poultry farms last winter and
so serious did the trouble become that an experi on poultry
diseases was called in to carefully examine a lot of the dead
chicks to see if he could locate the cause. He hadn’t pro-
ceeded far when he located tuberculosis as being the princi-
pal cause; a thorough cleaning up and disinfecting of incu-
bators and brooders was prescribed and within a week the
deaths practically ceased.
“Prevention” is so very much better, simpler and easier
than cure! How much of both pecuniary luss and trouble
those poultrymen would have saved if they had simply
cleaned up and disinfected the incubators and brooders be-
fore commencing operations in the fall. Improper. feeding
and overcrowding are also prominent causes of the loss of
baby chicks, but those are easily preventable causes; any
one losing chicks’ from those ‘causes has only himself to
THE CHICK BOOK 9
blame for it! And the disease germs also are easily prevent-
able; cleanliness and disinfecting will down them and keep
them down; hence any one who allows them to breed in his
incubators and brooders and pounce upon his baby chicks
has only himself to blame for it.
Getting Good, Hatchable Eggs.
Another difficulty to overcome in hatching fall and
winter chickens is getting good, hatchable eggs, but practi-
cal market poultry raisers overcome this diffculty, as is
proved by the fact that they hatch and raise faii and winter
chickens. Eggs of all kinds are very scarce in the fall and
early winter, and lo get good, full-bodied eggs, eggs that
will produce a fair proportion of strong, healthy chicks, is
the problem. If pullets have now begun to lay, their eggs
are rather small in size, and, as a rule, if they are used
for hatching the chicks one gets are likely to be small and
weak. Eggs from mature hens are the best, but they are
mostly just recovering from the molt and iay few, if any,
eges. Hens can be induced to molt in summer and be
wholly recovered from it and in full lay again by October
if handled for that object, and if one has eggs from such
hens of his own, or can get a supply from farmer neighbors,
he is fortunate and can hatch winter chicks.
‘There is great difference in egzs, and marketmen speak
of the best as being “full-bodied and strong;” others are
classed as “weak and watery.” It is only the best “‘full-
bodied and strong’ eggs that will hatch strong, vigorous
chicks; it is well known that eggs which are weak and
watery cannot produce strong chicks. The food and bodily
condition of the fowls control the quality of the eggs, hence
the hatchability of the eggs is largely in the control of the
manager of the fowls. The West Virginia Experiment Sta-
tion has recently reported some tests of “mash feeding com-
pared with whole grain, and heavy feeding coiapared with
light feeding as affecting the number of eggs laid and their
hatchability;” also, “beef scraps, ground fresh meat and
bone, and milk albumen as affecting the hatchability of
eggs.” The conclusion of the first series of experiments
says: “It is seen that the eggs from the fowis fed liberally
hatched better than those from the fowls fed scantily;”
also, “The results from these two tests should be construed
as indicating that when the conditions are favorable for
normal egg production, then the eggs will hatch better than
when the conditions are unfavorable.” It is quite possible.
that the above tells us nothing new, but it is a restatement
‘of an important truth which we need to have frequently
put up to us. The iiberal feeding is :mportant, but the
good care, right sanitary conditions, fresh air and sufficient
exercise for good health are equally importani factors for
the production of good, hatchable eggs, of eggs that are
“full, strong bodied,’ well shelled, and ail right in every
way. A. F. HUNTER.
THE ENVIRONMENT FOR INCUBATORS.
Fresh Air and Sunlight are as Essential for the Processes of Incubation as the Correct Degree of Heat.
By H. A, Nourse.
machines that will do their part if the operator will
provide proper environments, give them necessary
care and furnish good eggs. The fact that any
‘thatch at all is secured where the operators are careless of
everything but the machine itself, is a telling SCONES
tion of the present day hatchers.
Aside from the proper control of heat in the machine,
nothing is of greater importance than a favorable condition
of the surrounding air. Oxygen is a necessary factor in
success and must be provided. To shut an incubator in a
‘small, dark room where to confine the heat every door and
window is shut tightly, or to place it in a dark, musty cellar,
where but little fresh air enters frcm autuma to spring, is
to deprive yourself of its benefits.
Sualight is one of the best air purifiers and germ de-
stroyers, but should not be allowed to shine through the
glass doors of the machine. For this reason few cellars are
fit for incubator rooms; yet, when one has ventilation suffi-
cient to keep the air pure at all times and windows above
ground through which the sunlight may shine, it is the very
‘pest location for a macitine, because the temperature will be
less variable than in a room or building that is wholly
‘above ground. In the absence of these conditions an ordi-
nary room in a dwelling, without heat, will be found best
adapted to the requirements of those who do not need or
-eannot afford a building especially for this purpose.
Ventilation may be secured and controlled by dropping
‘the windows at the top and raising them at the bottom, pre-
T HERE is no question but we have good incubators—
ca
venting a draught in severe ur rough weather by inserting
cloth-covered frames in the open spaces. By having these
frames in two or three sizes and one or more windows the
situation may be thoroughly mastered.
It is a fact that small buildings designed for the pur-
pose do not, as a rule, provide the favorable conditions de-
scribed, therefore are not very satisfactory. Of those above
ground few are well enough built to protect the machines in
severe weather without closing every source of fresh air,
in which case that confined in the building, usually of small
contents, is soon impoverished by the lamps, which abstract,
the oxygen, leaving unhealthy gases in its place. Houses
partly or wholly below ground to the eaves almost invari-
ably lack sufficient ventilation, because it is more difficult
to introduce fresh air. The best room of this kind is one hav-
ing a building above to temper the heat in summer and the -
cold in winter; walls extending five feet below the ground,
and two feet above; one-fifth of this exposed area of walls
being of glass. Good ventilation necessitates a constant
changing of the air by bringing in fresh air from without
the building and removing the air which has become laden
with impurities. To accomplish this, fresh air must be in-
troduced near the ceiling of the room, preferably through a
cloth diaphram, and the foul air drawn out from near the
floor by means of tubes extending from within one foot
thereof, up through the highest point in the roof of the
building. In. this manner the room may be freed from
all gases without the aid of direct draughts and the chicks
will be strong and healthy, if other conditions are favorable.
H. A. NOURSE.
VENTILATION AND MOISTURE IN INCUBATORS,
The Greatest Problem in Successful Artificial Incubation Is in Ventilation and Moisture—The Egg Contains a Proper
Proportion of Elements to Build Up the Embryonic Structure—Death of the Embryo
Follows Abuse of Nature’s Laws.
By H. E. Moss
day is the diversity of treatment to whieh eggs are
required to be subjected under the instructions
of the makers of the various machines now on the
market and their ability to furnish pages of testimonials in
support of their claims of the merits of their particular
machine. There can be but one correct process or method
of incubation, and that is nature’s method. If we would
duplicate nature we must conform to her method. I have
before me thirty catalogues from as many different incuba-
tor manufacturers. I have been examining these books and
comparing the claims and theories of the different makers
©": of the anomalies in the incubator business of to-
Two Incubater Houses in Use on an English Poultry Farm.
‘so far as they pertain to the essential requirements of a suc-
‘cessful hatcher. There is but one point upon which they
all agree, and thai is the proper incubating temperature.
The ease with which this fact can be determined accounts
for this, but there are other conditions besides temperature
upon which successful hatching depends, and in these they
not only advance contrary theories, but in some instances
proclaim them as self-evident truths. Turning and cooling
‘the eggs are provided for in various ways, some even going
so far as to furnish a cooling schedule for each day of the
hatch, each one differing from the other. It is not with this
‘question, however, that I propose to deal at this time, but
the one embraced in ventilation and moisture.
We are told very emphatically by some that at the end
‘of a certain day the egg must show an air space to corre-
spond with a given diagram, and at the end of certain other
days it must show certain other fixed lines of air space,
and that if the eggs are placed in warm water on a certain
day and they float with an exposed surface equal to a silver
quarter in size, the evaporation is right. Now this may all
be approximately correct and agree with normal conditions,
but they go further and say that if they are found deficient
the ventilation must be increased and if excessive it must be
diminished and moisture introduced.
This sounds very plausible to the unthinking or those
who jump at conclusions. That all eggs lose a certain
amount of moisture during incubation is very apparent, but
the question is how do they lose it? From the rules they
lay down for the purpose of increasing or diminishing the
air space, we must assume their hypothesis to be that there
is a certain amount of water created in the egg that does
not belong there and that the Creator made the incubating
body a party to the reproductive process, and did not create
a perfect egg in a perfect condition to reproduce the species
without the intervention of this outside agency to rear-
range, as it were, its contents.
The absurdity of such an hypothesis is apparent.
Can we imagine for one moment that in His infinite
wisdom He would establish any incomplete or imperfect
thing, or law, as must be inferred in this case, whereby
some species are taught to deposit their eggs in suitable
locations and never see them afterward, and that such eggs
should not contain the proper proportions of all the ele-
ments necessary to build up the embryonic structure? No,
we cannot conceive of any such condition. We must assume
that whatever is placed within the egg is necessary to the
perfect development of its germ, and that if we wish to incu-
bate it successfully we must not rob it of any one element
or any part of one, and that if we do it suffers in conse-
quence and in proportion to the degree of abuse to which we
/ “subject it.
i
It has taken a number of years for incubator makers
and operators to correct their ventilation. Carbon dioxide
has been a bugbear. They find they need no longer fear
this. They now unintentionally. cease robbing the egg of its
moisture and realize the fact that under the new conditions
the hatches approximate natural methods. The moisture
pan is now a back number. The only benefit it ever worked
was to partially equalize the aqueous tension between the
inner and outer air, a condition which need not exist in a
modern incubator. A current of cold air drawn in through
the ventilating flues increases its capacity for moisture in
proportion to the increase in its temperature. Its relative
humidity being lower than the outer air, it gathers mois-
ture from the eggs in sufficient quantity to restore the equi-
librium. The allantois is robbed of its fluid and the mem-
brane becomes dry, destroying its function as a respiratory
organ, and death of the embryo follows. The greatest mor-
tality from this cause occurs during the third week,
The ventilating flues and forced drafts with which many
machines of to-day are equipped are wrong in principle, al-
though it is possible to operate fairly well with them, pro-
vided the apertures are reduced to the minimum and em-
ployed solely for the purpose of maintaining the air pure in
THE CHICK BOOK 11
the egg chamber. Natural variations in the atmospheric
humidity exert no influence, provided the aqueous tension
is held the same within the egg chamber as without, and
this is attainable in very few machines,
From the hour the egg reaches the incubating tempera-
ture there is a condition present within it which I have
never seen noticed or described by any investigator. It is
what might be termed a partial vacuum, a tension, or a ten-
dency to shrinkage or contraction, which would naturally
cause the absorption of oxygen to be more rapid than if
it were compelled to depend upon diffusion only. This ten-
sion is more apparent on about the fourteenth day than at
any other period. It seems to be rythmic or intermittent
and is suggestive of the process of breathing as we perform
it, except that its operation is so slight as to be impercep-
tible except under certain conditions.
Every atom of water contained in the egg is intended to
pass through the circulation of the embryo in combination
with the other elements, and is absolutely essential to the
perfecting of the structure, and after having been so util-
ized it is, as with any other elements that have beeen chem-
ically transformed and served their purpose, thrown off
as waste matter in the form of gases or urates. A weak
germ, and by that I mean one that has not had a strong
vitality, or life principle or impulse, implanted in it by the
parent, or that has been reduced to this state by abuse, is
retarded in its development. The impulse has either been
checked or was weak to begin with. The normal diminution
of the contents is checked or ceases entirely. The operator
is told that he is using too much moisture and not ventilat-
ing enough, SO Out come the water pans and open go the
slides, and at the same time an examination of all the eggs
would perhaps show many at the normal stage. A strong
current of air is now driven through the machine under the
delusion that all that is necessary to make these weak
germs hatch is by some means to extract the surplus mois-
ture they seem to contain and increase the air space, and I
have no doubt but some would be tempted to draw it out
with a hypodermic syringe if it were contained in a pocket
in the egg and they were not convinced by actual experience
that a rupture of the membranes would be fatal.
I would suggest to any who have doubts on this ques-
tion to select a tray or a machine full of eggs showing small
air spaces, say about the tenth to the fourteenth day, place
them in a machine by themselves, take out all the water
pans, open wide all ventilators, force all the air you can
through the machine, and if you wish drive a warm blast
through it by a fan motor, and see how many of them will
come to exclusion. You can evaporate them fast enough
and the faster, the quicker and surer the death.
There are some things about incubation we can never
know. The life principle or impulse is beyond the grasp of
finite minds. Starting with germs that in every living thing
are identical in structure and appearance, and developing
them from one plane to another until they reach the limit
to which their impulse carries them, they become men, birds
or fish, and thus perpetuate their species, the fittest always
surviving. We mortals may speculate and theorize upon it,
but we cannot fathom it.
Our hypothesis is that the Creator placed in the normal
egg just what is needed there—no more, no less—and that
if we can duplicate natural conditions we can successfully
incubate them. artificially, presuming that the parent bird
in the incubating process contributes nothing but heat. If
we can do this, and at the same time furnish oxygen suf-
ficient to sustain the process we will succeed, but it must
be just enough—no more, no less. The right amount to
gauge the machines for, varies with the outer temperature,
the stage of hatch and the machine used, as all vary in
their power to induce currents—some are forced, others are
natural. All these points must be taken into consideration,
H. E. MOSS.
A Substantial, Practical Brooding House Ia Use at White Leghorn Poultry Yards,
CARE OF BROODER CHICKS.
The Brooder Chick from Egg to Maturity—Ventilation, Moisture, Temperature and Floor Space Discussed by Breeders
Who Know the Requirements of Brooder Chicks—Brooding Houses and Coops—Foods
and Feeding—General Advice on Management.
_ [This symposium is devoted to brooder chicks exclusively. To hatch chicks in an incubator is comparatively easy, and may be
‘done by a novice, but to raise the chicks after they are removed to the brooder requires a knowledge which does not stop at a
thorough understanding of brooder operation. The movements and appearance of the chicks inform an experienced observer what is
necessary for their well-being. To obtain the greatest growth in the shortest time, chicks must be healthy, comfortable and always
on the jump for food. Improper conditions result in death. It is from men who are competent to raise brooder chicks with the
lowest possible mortality that we have obtained the following useful information for our readers.—Hditor.]
ADVANTAGES OF BROODER RAISED CHICKS—
RATIONS AND CARE.
NE of the most necessary appliances connected with
© the poultry industry is an A No. 1 brooder, even
though a hatcher is not in use. It is an easy mat-
ter to find a number of sitting hens, and by placing in the
brooder the chicks hatched by them, you avoid feeding the
chick’s food to the hens, and they will soon begin laying.
The chicks can be cared for and reared safely, no matter
what weather prevails outside the brooder. They are free
from vermin and if the brooder is kept clean they will not
be troubled with lice. ‘There is no need of losing a chick if
Properly cared for.
more easily handled than those reared by hens.
For from fifty to seventy-five chicks arun of twenty feet
is sufficient for one to two weeks, after which the chicks
should be placed in a larger inclosure or allowed to run at
large. I believe in plenty of range, as chicks confined to
small inclosures very seldom develop well, but often do de-
velop off colored feathers in plumage, which nature provides
against if they have large range. The run may. be made of
boards twelve inches high, a portion of which may be cov-
ered with cheese-cloth. This will afford protection from
winds and storms, also from sun. :
Chicks when first out of the shell can have no better
food than bread for two or three days, then a mixture of
cornmeal and bran (half and half in bulk), to which add a
small quantity of bone meal, about one part to eight of the
mixture of meal and bran. Wei this with water and it
makes an excellent food for morning and noon. Ar night
good, clean wheat and cracked corn, with oat flakes or hulled
A Group of Fast Growing Chicks.
They will be much more tame and
oats is unsurpassed. Milk is very beneficial if placed where
fowls or chicks can drink it, but should not be mixed with
the food.
A good brooder, an abundance of the right kind of food,
coupled with a fair amount of common sense, will bring
good results, W. F. BRACE.
LESSONS FROM NATURE—INTERESTING EXPERI-
ENCES—LIMIT THE FOOD SUPPLY.
While we have most of our chicks raised with hens on
farms we still raise some in brooders. We allow the chicks
to remain in the incubator from ten to twelve hours after
they are all hatched; then we put them into a warmed
brooder with the floor covered two inches thick with wheat
bran. After they have been in the brooder two days we
scaiter a little millet seed in the bran, but not much for a
week. This season we have used a prepared chick food al-
ternately with millet and have had success. When a few
weeks old we feed cracked corn and whole wheat, in fact
anything the chicks will eat, as great a variety as possible,
and not too much at a time, keeping them in good appetite
all the time, so they will take plenty of exercise. It is well
to have plenty of chaff or cut straw, hayseed or anything of
that kind to scatter their grain food in to make them work,
not forgetting grit and green food.
Use only a brooder so constructed that the chicks can
get any degree of heat they want, and one that allows the
chicks to get away as far from the heat as they want to, and
they will take care of themselves.
One thing in raising brooder chicks seems to us to be of
more importance than anything else, and that is the feed-
ing of the chick the first week of its existence. When a
chick is hatched nature has supplied it with enough food
so it can easily do without eating or drinking for a week or
over. We will give one instance that will prove this with-
out a doubt.
A few years ago we had a hen that would fly through a
ventilator and get above a board ceiling in one of our
chicken houses; there she laid a lot of eggs and hatched a
dozen chicks. Judging from the looks of the chicks when
we first found them they were about ten days old, and dur-
ing that time they had neither food nor water. A stronger
lot of chicks I never saw and they were as wild as deer.
In 1890 we took two hens with fifteen chicks each and
put them into a cornfield a quarter of a mile from our build-
ings and left them to hunt their living as best they could.
The chicks had no water or food, except what the hen found
for them. After they were ten days old we went to see them
and note results. We found the hens had not been ten yards
from the place we put them, and such a sleek, healthy and
THE CHICK BOOK
vigorous lot of chicks we never saw. Being satisfied with
results so far, we left them another week, but wheD we went
to see them we only found a few feathers from the hens, as
a@ pack of dogs had put a stop to our experiments, but we
learned this one fact, that very little, if any food should be
given to newly hatched chicks for the first three or four days
at least, and we believe there are more chicks killed by
overfeeding in the first ten days of their lives than at any
other time. This hardly ever affects the chicks until about
the seventh day, when they get diarrhoea and stand around
with full crops and soon die from indigestion, caused by
strong food and feeding. We all know what a hen that
steals her nest does after her chicks are hatched. She does
ncething the first few days but brood her chicks, then after
they are three or four days old she will commence to scratch
for them, but very little do they get for the first ten days.
They secure a few small seeds at a time, and as they grow,
and their digestive organs get strength they find more food,
and most of the chicks live and grow to maturity; they de-
velop very fast, too. Let us watch the old hen and learn
lessons that will help us much in raising chicks with
brooders.
We think exercise is of great importance, and if one is
so situated as to allow the chicks a good run it will be found
very beneficial. If the room is limited use plenty of litter
with dry food scattered through it. Avoid sloppy food.
Remember dry food is nature’s food and always remember,
too, that little food is far better than too much.
AUG. D. ARNOLD.
ON BROODERS AND BREEDING.
Four years of experience with artificial incubating and
brooding has settled definitely in my mind the fact that
with it we can raise “better poultry and more of it.” I
mean by this, that we cannot only raise a larger quantity,
but a better quality. This is from the standpoint of a fan-
cier as well as a marketman.
In my hands brooder raised chicks are superior in
growth and development, shape and plumage to those raised
by hens. There are many reasons why this should be so,
and these will be apparent to the unprejudiced poultrymen.
My exhibition specimens have invariably been brooder
raised.
If I could have but one I would prefer a brooder to an
incubator. I do not think an incubator superior to a hen
for hatching, put I do think a brooder superior to her for
raising chicks. To be successful the floor of the brooder
should be built as near the ground as possible, should be
capable of generating sufficient heat, and should have a
regulator that will maintain the correct temperature. I
believe a regulator on a brooder in which you expect to
place newly hatched chicks is as important as that on an
incubator. The heat should come from above, with just
sufficient bottom heat to keep the floor dry. The tempera-
ture under the hover should be ninety degrees Fahrenheit
for the first two weeks, with a gradual lowering from that
on. Overheating is just as injurious and will cause bowel
trouble just as quickly as will a chilly atmosphere.
Let me caution readers against buying cheap brooders,
for they prove very expensive in the end. Out of the many
brooders made and advertised, there should be no trouble
to select a good one. Buy the best or none at all.
I have absolutely no use for an outdoor brooder, unless
it is to be used indoors, and then I prefer an indoor brooder.
Imagine shutting up fifty to two hundred chicks in a brood-
er three by four feet for two whole days when the weather
is stormy, and expecting them to do well.
I have made small houses, six by eight feet, with a
window and door in front. In a corner of this house I place
A Vigorous Brood and Their Brooder.
the brooder, and after the chicks are three days old I give
them the run of the house. On pleasant days the door to
this house is left open and the chicks are given the run of
the yard. In stormy weather they are kept in the house.
On the floor of this house is four to six inches of chaff and
into this the food is placed. At the end of eight or ten
weeks the brooders are removed and roosts are put in their
place. The young are left here until placed in winter
quarters.
For food, for the first four weeks I use bread soaked in
milk, squeezed dry as possible, millet seed, cracked wheat,
and cat groats. After the fourth week cut green bone is
fed twice a week in place of bread and milk, and cracked
corn alone for night food. Chick grit, granulated bone and
dry bran is kept before them at all times. Be careful and do
not overfeed. Small chicks will commence to scratch as
soon as hungry, and they should be kept at it.
It is needless to say attention to details is necessary to
success. Clean the brooder frequently and keep the sur-
roundings in a sanitary condition.
_ Fresh, pure water should be kept before them. Get the
chicks out on the ground as soon as possible, if but for a few
minutes every day.
With me the brooder chicks and their care are a source
of pleasure, and their attention means a friendship between
us which is noticeable when they become adult fowls.
DR. 0. P. BENNETT.
THE TEMPERATURE OF THE BROODER IS OF FIRST
IMPORTANCE.
We have been raising chicks since 1893 and with the
exception of the first year we have raised nearly all of them
in brooders. We have at times raised nearly every chick
put into them, and again, we have lost every solitary one,
with many varied and interesting experiences between the
two extremes, but the method with which we have had the
best success is that which we here describe.
‘When the chicks are hatched we have the brooders all
ready and warmed to a temperature of ninety degrees, which
we consider nearly a perfect temperature (that is ninety
degrees in the coolest part of the hover and not exceeding
one hundred degrees in the warmest.) We place the chicks
under the hover and for one week keep the temperature at,
or aS near ninety degrees as it is possible to keep it. The
second week, if all has gone well, we reduce the temperature
to eighty degrees, and after the second week and for as long
as the chicks need the heat in a brooder we run it at seventy
to eighty degrees, or at whatever temperature the chicks.
seein to be contented. We consider the heating part of this
brooder business of more importance than the method of
14 THE CHICK BOOK
feeding;-as-too much or too little heat-will wipe out a whole
brooderfultof chicks before one is aware anything has gone
wrong. Another thing—in thé night when there is a change
in the ,;weather from one extreme to the other, oue will,
many & time, save a bunch of chicks by going out and
changiiig ‘the lamp flame, either up or down, as may be
necessary. No matter if you are sleepy, if you wish to
raise the greatest number of chicks, you must attend to this
duty.
As to feeding, we have wheat, cats and corn, equal parts
of each ground together, and, with one-third its bulk in
bran mixed with water to a stiff mass, a little soda added,
and sometimes two or three eggs to a gallon of the food,
This we put in a deep
pan and bake thor-
oughly for two hours in
a good hot oven. We use —
this food crumbled fine
with a little more dry
bran added for the first
four days and feed three
times a day just what
they will eat up clean.
At noon, after the fifth
day, we feed a little
wheat, cracked corn and.
millet seed until they
can eat cracked wheat,
oats and corn, when we
feed equal parts of
wheat and oats, but
only half as much corn.
After the first. week we
add a small quantity of
green cut bone every
week day in the evening
food. When they are
five weeks old we feed
whole grain morning
and noon and soft food
(not cooked) and green
bone at night, until they
are nearly matured,
when we omit the noon
feed entirely.
We keep them in their
regular brooders until
they can do without the
heat; then they are
PI
KEEP THE BRUODER CLEAN-—-WHAT TO FEED—
HENS BRING LICE.
Yes, I lave had some experience raising chick
brooders. As to the number of chicks to a brooder,
yet to find one that would accommodate more than thirty or
forty chicks for me. There is much danger of over-crowd-
ing where more than forty are placed in the same brooder.
Special care is needed to keep the chicks very clean, and
the fresher and cleaner the surroundings of the chicks the
less liable one is to lose them.
In regard to feeding—I like pin-head oatmeal or rolled
oats for the first four or five weeks, with a change to bread
and milk or Spratt’s patent chick food. An excellent change
also and one that pro-
3 with
I have
Al duces growth is fine
cut green bone. As to
the quantity, I give
them what they will eat
up clean. I would much
rather keep them a little
hungry than have them
stuffed with food.
I feed about five times
a day the first week;
after that four times a
day till they are near-
ly grown. Cracked corn,
wheat, buckwheat,
ground oats and green
cut bone is what I give
them from six weeks
old upwards. I keep
plenty of grit before
them, also plenty of
fresh water in clean
fountains or dishes.
When weather per-
mits I allow them to
run at will, giving them
practically free range. I
have five acres devoted
exclusively to White
Wyandottes and raise
about two hundred
chicks on the home
place. I farm out extra
ones on different farms.
I find that they do much
better in small num-
changed to a cold brood-
er for a week or ten
days, and from there to
our open front roosting coops. They remain in these coops
until they become troublesome to the smaller ones, when we
put the first hatched lot in our large pens, separating the
males and females.
We give our young chicks unlimited range of an old
orchard, except during the first two weeks, when we use a
small pen ten feet square around each brooder for fifty
chicks. We never put more than that number in one
brooder.
For our early chicks, for green food, we use a small
amount of clover meal in their food. Young chicks should
be placed on the ground just as early as possible after the
second or third day. The little chicks in cool weather
should ‘be placed in a sunny spot and in extremely tot
weather in the shade. Close attention to details and all ef-
forts to make the chicks comfortable are well repaid by
faster, better growth. CLARK & TROLL.
The Heater which Feeds the Pipe Systems in a New Jersey Brooding House.
bers. It is not how
many I try to raise, but
how many good ones.
I raise some by natural way, but have to be on the alert for
fear of lice. But frequent use of lice killing powders and
lice killing paints will keep them down and out. All my
weaned chickens are quartered in roosting coops where they
get plenty of air and grow fast.
Cc. S. WETMORE.
FIVE DOLLARS AN HOUR EARNED BY RAISING 400
BROODER CHICKS.
I had a little experience a few years ago which I think
will illustrate the possibilities of chicken growing on a lim-
ited area and may interest and benefit some of your readers.
During the latter part of March I got out a hatch of
Light Brahma chicks, four hundred and one in number. I
kept them in the brooder house for a few days, then, being
short of room, put them outside in two outdoor brooders.
THE CHICK BOOK 15
inclosing them in a little space of six square rods, inside a
wire fence one foot high. I think I have never suffered so
small a mortality in all my experience with chicks, losing
but three of the whole number and one of those killed by a
“dog. Those chicks commenced growing from the first and
in three weeks’ time began to hop over the wire. I hastily
placed a four-foot wire around the pen, intending to move
them to different quarters when convenient, but they made
such a remarkable growth and seemed so healthy, I thought
I would see how long they could be kept growing in that
limited space. I attended them myself. The yard was
swept every day with scrupulous care and the excrements
removed. The birds were fed systematically and always
Kept a little hungry. They never left that yard till they
went to market, then weighing from five to six pounds each,
dressed, and there was not a cull in the lot. Their plumage
|
4
In fact nothing came amiss; they greedily devoured every-
thing I gave them and appeared to have every confidence in
my judgment. They brought thirty cents per pound in Bos-
ton market, aggregating nearly six hundred dollars, thus
paying me for all food consumed and nearly five dollars an
hour for all time in caring for them and had they been
hatched two weeks earlier they would have brought thirty-
five cents per pound. With one exception, this was my
most successful experience with chickens,
JAMES RANKIN.
RAISING CHICKS IN BROODERS.
We use both indoor piped sectional and outdoor hot-air
brooders. To begin with, our chicks are well hatched and
come out strong, plump and active. Very early in the sea-
son, when the weather is still cold and frosty and no grass
View Showing the Location of Hovers and Other Interior Fixtures in a New Jersey Brooding House.
was glossy and fine. The birds were gentle and could be
taken up at will.
When a little over four months old and about ready for
market, I notified Mr. Hunter, then of Farm Poultry, that
I had a show for him. He came out the next day and when
he saw those chicks he would not believe that they had been
grown in that yard, as there appeared to be but little more
than standing room for them. He asked my men if I was
not hoaxing with him, and he finally acknowledged that
they were the finest lot of chicks he ever saw together.
They were fed four times per day till a month old, after
that three times. They were started in with bread crumbs
and hard ‘boiled eggs chopped fine. One part egg to five
parts crumbs and plenty of grit mixed in. After three days
their food was equal quantities of wheat bran and cornmeal
witb a little fine beef scraps, and I gave them one feed each
day of rolled oats and cracked corn. As they grew older
they had a bucket of clotted milk each day, boiled potatoes
and green grass. Toward the last, one feed of whole corn
and ever one-half bushel of finely cut corn fodder per day.
>
growing, we use the indoor brooders. These machines are
Set up, thoroughly warmed and tested before the chicks are
put in. The brooder floors are sanded and the house floor
covered with chaff or cut straw. During the first few weeks
we keep the hovers very warm and if the chicks are too
warm they crawl out where it is cooler. At night in par-
ticular we are careful to have a good surplus of heat, so
that the chicks lle partly outside the hovers, as from mid-
night to morning the temperature of the room will lower
considerably, so the chicks will go under the hover and be
very comfortable. Were it not for this surplus of heat
when left at night the chicks might be chilled before morn-
ing and then bowel trouble would make its appearance and
many chicks die. Each room is sixteen by twenty feet and
not usually over four hundred chicks to each brooder.
The first few days the chicks are fed granulated oat-
meal only, with clean water (not too cold) for drink, and
some good, sharp grit before them constantly. The first
week we feed four times daily and but little at a meal. We
then begin gradually working them on to a diet of cake,
16 THE CHICK BOOK
varied with cracked wheat. The cake is made of ground
oats (hulls sifted out), cornmeal and best coarse wheat bran,
about equal parts by bulk, with a very little high grade beef
scraps mixed in while dry. The mixture is then moistened
with some milk or buttermilk, salted as for the table, leav-
ened with soda, and baked.
The baking tins should not be quite full, as when the
bread is done we turn it upside down on a board so the crust
will be softened hy the steam. As the chicks grow older
the amount of heef scraps is gradually increased. This
feeding goes on until the chicks are five to six weeks old,
when a warm mash of about the same material as the cake
is fed once a day, and whole wheat and cracked corn twice.
This mash is moistened with warm water with a little salt
dissolved.
Just as soon as we can get fresh clover or grass it is fed
daily, cut in one-eighth-inch lengths. Chard, lettuce, beet
tops or any such green stuff is also good. The hard grains
are fed in the litter to induce exercise after the chicks are
older and strong enough to work it out.
When the chicks are ten days to two weeks old and the
weather is suitable they are let out in yards about fifty by
two hundred feet in size, care being taken that they can
find their way to the house when stormy. When they are
about eight weeks old the yards are opened and the birds
given free range.
When the chicks show a disposition to roost on top in-
stead of inside the brooder, roosts are placed back of the
brooder and the chicks encouraged to occupy them, when in
a short time the brooder can be removed.
Just as soon as grass starts in spring, we begin putting
chicks in the outdoor brooders, and when they are four to
six days old we let them out on the ground in small yards
in front of the brooder. As soon as they get familiar with
going in and out and learn to go inside when the weather
is stormy we give larger yards, running entirely around the
brocder, and finally when the chicks are three or four weeks
old we allow them free range.
as in the indoor brooders, except that cut grass is omitted,
as they help themselves to the fresh, growing article, and
the exercise they get in pulling it off and running around
the yards is a wonderful aid to growth.
In my opinion an outdoor brooder should have a light,
cool chamber attached, where the chicks can feed and exer-
cise when very young, or when the weather is bad, and into
which they can retreat in case the brooder chamber should
become overheated. Outdoor brooders have some advan-
tages over those indoor, but they require more waichful
care. Their greatest point of superiority is that the chicks
can be got cut on the ground at a much earlier age, and in
running about their yard, picking the fresh grass, etc., get
much healthful exercise. When the weather gets very hot
the outdoor brooder should be placed in the shade, and a
shady run provided for the chicks when very young, as the
intense heat of the sun kills a great many. When running
at large the chicks will seek shade of their own accord.
We like both kinds of brooders, use both, and would not
wish to be deprived of either. H. J. BLANCHARD.
THE BROODER CHICK FROM EGG TO MATURITY.
Early in our experience of artificial brooding we became
convinced of the fact that the foundation of successful
brooding was laid months before the chick was hatched. By
this we mean that unless the breeding stock is in the best
of physical health we cannot hope for the best results in
raising Our young stock. Too many Of the reasons assigned
for the large mortality among chicks are, to say the least,
of very uncertain signification, and not enough attention
is paid to the poor condition of the breeding stock, which
These chicks are fed same.
is, to our way of thinking, the main reason why @ larger
percentage of chicks do not reach maturity. Sag
Our first attempt at brooding chickens artificially re-
sulted in disastrous failure, but by close observation and
many costly experiments, we finally adopted @ method
which is giving us gratifying results, and we feel sure that
those who will try it will be pleased with it. :
It goes without saying that the eggs must be well incu-
bated, and every attention given them while under process
of incubation. We leave the chicks in the incubator forty-
eight hours after they come out of the shell, The morning
of the third day we take them out of the incubator and carry
them to the brooders, which have been previously warmed
for their reception. We then give them their first feed,
which consists of whole wheat bread, moistened with milk.
We never place more than fifty chicks in each orcoder,
sometimes only forty. The temperature of the brooders is
regulated by the disposition of the chicks on the brooder
floor: if well spread out, we know they have sufficient heat,
if all crowded in a corner we know they need more heats
That is our thermometer, and a reliable one.
We wish here to relate an experiment we made inorder.
to determine the length of time chicks can be left in the in-
cubator without food. Five chicks were left in the machine,
the ventilators wide open, and the heat regulated to 100 de-;
grees. At first it was our intention to leave them in until.
they showed signs of weakness, but on the fourth day, our
courage weakened, and we fed them. They had up to this
time showed no other signs but that of being very hungry,..
running to the glass front of the machine upon hearing the,
least noise. We marked these chicks and let them run with
the rest. At maturity two of the cockerels weighed eight
and three-quarter pounds each; three of the pullets six
pounds, six and one-quarter pounds, and six and one-half.
pounds respectively. All of them lived to maturity ,and.
were always bright. Since then we always left our chicks
forty-eight hours without food and believe this to be the
very best way to siart chickens growing. 4
Our brooders are placed inside of a house eight by ten
feet, with yards eight by twenty-five feet, each brooder oc-
cupying a separate house. The floor of the brooder is car-
peted with cui clover, but the brooder house is filled in to
above the sills with clean, sharp sand. The chicks are left.
in the brooder for two days, then let out into the house for
three or four days, then the slide door to the yard is left
open and they are given the run of their yards. When the
chicks are six weeks old we take away the fence to the yards
apd give them the free run of the farm.
For the first ten days of their lives our chicks are fed
only whole wheat bread moistened in milk every four hours,
Water (warmed in cold weather) is always before them from
the start, and is renewed twice or four times a day accord-
ing to the weather. When the chicks are ten days old we
still continue the wheat bread morning and night, the other
two feeds are made up of the following mixed grains:
Cracked wheat, 50 pounds; coarse oatmeal, 25 pounds;
cracked corn, 10 pounds; millet seed, 5 pounds; fine meat
scraps, 10 pounds. When fine meat scraps are not procur-
able, boil some liver, chop it up into fine pieces, and use
that instead. Some heresy hunters will prick up their ears
upon reading this and criticise us for giving meat to our
young chicks, especially when given free range, but we
know that it is impossible to grow the finest chicks without
the free use of meat, but it must be used with judgment
and be of good quality.
At six weeks old we make the mixture of whole grains
instead of cracked, still feeding it twice a day, but at this
age the bread is replaced by a mash fed morning and night,
composed as follows: Wheat, 50 pounds; shelled oats, 25
THE CHICK BOOK 17
pounds; pearled barley, 15 pounds; corn, 10 pounds. We buy
the grains whole and have them ground up together into
ameal. To every 100 pounds of this meal we add 10 pounds
of the finest quality meat scraps. We continue to feed our
chicks four times a day until three months old, then we drop
one meal, and feed only three times a day, mixed grains in
the morning and noon, and mash at night. We aim to feed
all they will eat at each meal, without overfeeding. Now
and again when they do not appear hungry we drop a meal,
and they are benefited by it.
At three months old we separate the sexes, giving the
cockerels one part of the farm, the pullets the other.
We have said nothing about charcoal, dry bran, tonics
and condition powders, simply because they are unneces-
sary. Grit of course we use and find we cannot get along
without it.
While we are painfully aware that our method is not
perfect, we cannot overlook the fact that by following it as
here described, we have succeeded in bringing to maturity
over ninety per cent of all chicks put in the brooders. Our
chicks grow steadily from the shell up, our pullets begin
laying at six months old always. They have produced two
hundred eggs in one year. A good deal of this large egg
yield was due to the care given the pullets while growing
and after they began to lay, but had they not been bred
from layers we could not have reached these results. If only
those who decry the practice of breeding layers by the indi-
vidual record system would try it, they would soon become
couverts to it. However, the proof of the pudding is the
eating of it; give our way a trial before you condemn it,
you will be pleased with the results. C. BRICAULT.
FOOD AND CARE GIVEN FLOCKS OF BROODER
CHICKS. ;
As our present plan of feeding is giving such good re-
sults we will here give you a description of the care and tood
given our chicks. We leave the chicks in the machines until
the morning of the twenty-second day, taking out the trays
the night of the twenty-first day, thus giving the chicks
more room and light.
The morning of the twenty-third day the chicks are
taken out and put into outdoor brooders and given a break-
fast of dry rolled oats, which we feed for a week or ten days.
A little chopped lettuce is much relished by the chicks also.
From rolled oats we go to a mixed food consisting of a pre-
pared poultry food with a little more rolled oats and meat
meal added to it. This we mix up with curdled milk until
it will crumble in the hand. This we feed until it is time
for whole grain and cracked corn, and we find it is giving
grand results. We neglected to state at the beginning that
first and foremost the chicks are given plenty of fresh water
as well as good food, all of which make chicks grow and
keep them growing. Charcoal and fine grit are also among
the necessities of proper feeding.
Great care should be taken to keep the brooders cleaned
at least once a week, and aired every day.
Our predecessor always used indoor brooders, but he
always had a great deal of trouble in keeping the chicks
warm early in the season and cool as the season advanced,
and the result was the loss of chicks. There is one point
in favor of indoor brooders, and that is in rainy weather
the chicks have more room, but with the style of brooders
we have now in use we have had no trouble on this score,
as we only put seventy-five into each brooder, which is but
half their capacity, thus giving the chicks plenty of room
for different kinds of weather.
Attached to each brooder is a small wire run, where the
chicks are let out for a week or ten days, until they get used
to going in and out of the brooder, then the fence is removed
and the chicks have free range every pleasant day until
they are separated and put in the brooder house and taught
to go onto the roost.
We think we have the best plan for young chick roosts
we have seen. We use four saw-horseg placed at even dis-
tances apart. On these we have eleven roosts, four inches
wide by twenty feet long, placed about two inches apart.
These are fastened to the end horses by boring holes
through the slats and horses and putting spikes through
both, thus holding them all in position. We find them easy
to build, easy to clean and easy to take down and store,
These eleven roosts will accommodate from three to four
hundred half-grown chicks. Our brooder house is situated
in a large pear orchard covering about eight acres; the soil
is gravel and sand and is seeded to clover. We also have
two living springs, so our stock get plenty of good pure
water, lots of shade, ample range, with plenty of insects
to keep them busy between meals. GRAY & STORKE.
BROODER CHICKS AND GROWING STOCK—CARE
AND FOOD.
It is a delightfully easy thing to tell how to raise chick-
ens. It is not quite so easy to successfully raise them.
There is little need for any extended directions for raising
chickens by the natural method other than in the points of
food and cleanliness, with some little attention to the de-
tails of housing and shade. With artificial hatching the
business takes on a development and calls for much greater
care and decidedly more attention to food and management.
Little need be said of the hatching, except that the best
incubators should be used; the second rate cheaper machines
being generally unworthy of confidence; that is, the prob-
Jem of hatching is of sufficient importance that only the
very best means to this end should be accepted.
In producing eggs for hatching the very best attention
must be given to the breeding stock, and if good results are
to be had the. birds must be the product of several genera-
tions of hardy, vigorous stock.
The strongest emphasis may be placed upon the fact
that it is much easier to hatch chickens than it is to raise
them after they are hatched, and the first two weeks in the
little bird’s life is a crucial period, and under some condi-
tions the second two weeks is harder to tide over than the
first fortnight, yet with due care and proper attention to
the warmth and food they may be and are successfully car-
ried to an age after which death is generally the result of
accident rather than ailment or disease.
What they shall be fed when taken from the machine
at the expiration of twenty-four or thirty-six hours’ is a
question which has exercised the mind of every producer
of chickens. Every conceivable sort of food has been sug-
gested, recommended and tried in more or less cases. We
believe that the simpler the ration the better the chicken
and the surer the success in its raising. All fancy mixtures
and fussy feeding notions may safely be eliminated. The
oldtime mixture of boiled eggs and cracker crumbs is now-
a-days pretty generally neglected. In some instances breed-
ers are using this mixture successfully, but in more cases
they are killing their chickens apparently by its use. We
have tried practically every system from the egg and crumb
diet to that of dry food alone, including baked cakes, bread
crumbs and various oat foods and so on, et cetera, et cetera,
and have gradually simmered down to the point where we
now feed exclusively for the first two days a mixture of two-
thirds wheat bran and one-third Indian meal moistened
with milk, and to this we add about five per cent of fine
gravel or grit. The chickens are fed all they can eat,. in
fact it is before them practically all the time for the first
forty-eight hours, and from then until a week or two of age
18 ' "HE CHICK BOOK
there is very little of the time when food is not within
reach. After the first two or three days they are fed in ad-
dition finely sifted cracked corn and rolled cats, chopped
oats, cracked wheat or, in fact, any grain or food which
they will eat. We conclude it makes very little difference
so long as they have a fair proportion of animal food,
which, with us, is in the form of ground beef scraps, and it
may be just as well or better in the form of milk, either
sweet or sour, Skimmed or whole. When milk is fed to very
small,chickens it is better to moisten their food with it than
that they have it to drink. If they have it as a drink they
are quite apt to smear themselves with it, making them
sticky and dirty, and both ill-feeling and ill-looking. After
the first three or four days the grit is left out of the food,
a supply being kept constantly within reach, which they
eat as they require it. The warmth in the hover is started
at ninety-five degrees, with the chickens all in. From that
it is gradually lowered, more attention being paid to the
action of the chicken than to the temperature as registered
by the mercury. When the chickens are comfortable and
Settle down conteniedly without over-crowding or pushing
too much to the outside, it is concluded that the conditions
are right and they are doing well. When, on the other
hand, they crowd and cry, not enough heat is supplied, and
we give them more. It is impossible to give small chick-
ens a satisfactory treatment where the brooders are run
altogether by the thermometer, regardless of the outside
weather conditions, and the indications of comfort, which
may be observed from the chickens themselves. The brood-
er floors and pens should be scattered with chaff or covered
with sand to induce action and exercise through scratching
and working for particles of dry food, which may be thrown
about in the litter. The one thing essential to the health
of the chicken is abundant exercise. Without this they will
not thrive, and success cannot be attained. In order to get
the necessary exercise it is imperative that they have an
abundant supply of fresh air and an outdoor run at all sea-
sons of the year. A few minutes in the open air will do the
smallest chicken good, and after they are a week or ten
days old they may be trusted to run back and forth in pleas-
ant weather almost regardless of how cold the outside tem-
perature may be. Fussy coddling and over-heated compart-
ments have been responsible for the death of more chickens
An Ideal Place for Brooder Chicks on the Plant of Mrs. H. W. Hand.
than any other cause. Whenever trouble appears in a flock
of chickens the first question with the average beginner,
and sometimes with the more experienced person, is what
their food has been. The attention and investigation is
generally directed toward the food. The facts are that the
strong, healthy chickens having abundant exercise and @
good supply of fresh air will stand almost any sort of food
without taking harm. The main thing is to get the exer-
cise. It perhaps might be noted here that this is practically
the secret of success in managing breeding stock as well as
chickens. .
Clean water should be always within reach of the chick-
ens, and it should be kept in some such fountain as will
make it im-
possible for
t he little
birds to get
into it. This
will save
frequent
drenching
and occa-
sional
deaths by
drowni n g.
In extremely cold weather it is better that newly
hatched chickens should have luke-warm water than that
it should be given to them icy cold. Many breeders do not
give the little chickens any water until several days old,
some even keeping them several weeks without it. We have
not thought it the best way, and we give water from the
first. From their very evident pleasure in drinking, it must
taste good to them, and we doubt any possibility of harm
from drinking over much clean, pure water.
There is a good deal of question what the limit is in
the numbers that may be kept together safely. Many advo-
cate fifty as the best limit, while others keep from one hun-
dred to two hundred in the same pens and under the same
hovers. There is little doubt that for the beginner, at least,
flocks of fifty or sixty will do better, and there will be a
lower death rate than in flocks of one hundred and upward.
We have built our brooder building with the pens three by
ten feet, which are designed to accommodate from fifty to
seventy-five small chickens, They will easily hold fifty
chickens until six weeks of age if the chickens have an out-
door run. They are then put in a pen four by ten feet and
kept until feathered out, when they are removed to colony
houses of one description or another. Of course the early
hatched and winter chickens must have
heat practically throughout the winter.
Late birds do very well without arti-
ficial heat after the last of March, and
may be safely colonized in suitable
coops at a few weeks of age—almost
every kind of coop is used for this
purpose, and it really matters very lit-
tle what the style of the structure be
so long as it conserves the essential
features, which are dryness and free-
dom from direct draught. For some
years open front and bottomless roost-
ing coops have been strongly advo-
cated as being the best fitted for grow-
ing chickens colonized in groups of
from thirty to fifty. Our experience
has led us to do away altogether with
open fronts and coops without bot-
toms. There is a constant trouble from
colds caused either by driving rains or
bunching up on the ground, thus drawing up the dampness,
which ends in running nostrils, wheezing and general de-
bility,
As the chickens grow older they are fed rather differ-
ently. They have their regular morning feed, with one at
An Even Half Dozen—Just Out.
THE CHICK BOOK
noon and another at night. Generally the morning and the
night feed are mashes composed of bran and meal of about
equal parts, with from ten per cent to fifteen per cent of
beef scraps added. Oyster shell and grit are always by
them, and green food is supplied as abundantly as is conven-
ient. Where the runs are large enough so that the green
food is not eaten down. no other need be
given, but in yards devoid of grass some sub-
stitute will have to be added to the grain ra-
tions. In addition to these regular feeds
three times a day many of the most prac-
tical and successful poultrymen keep a box
of cracked corn.open to them, from which
they may eat at pleasure. Many also keep
a box of coarsely ground scrap, which is kept
constantly filled and which may be had at all
times.
As the chickens gain in size and the
cockerels mature they are separated from
the pullets, leaving from twenty-five to
thirty-five or forty pullets in a flock. The
cockerels are removed to another yard and,
if designed for market birds, are fed all the
fattening food which they will take, and as
fast as they are in fit condition they are sent to market.
The earlier hatched pullets should not be fed quite so much
meat or animal food as the later hatched ones, or they will
begin laying too early and will molt out in the fall, thus
jeopardizing the supply of winter eggs. It is possible by
forced feeding of animal food to induce very early laying,
and we this season, without extra heavy strain, have started
our Wyandotte pullets to laying at four and one-half
months, which is too early to get the best size on the birds
or the best results in constant egg production. Too early
maturity is as much to be avoided as too late, that is, the
pullet which grows along freely and gets a suitable frame
and size before beginning to lay will make the strongest
and most vigorous breeding bird and will in the end prove
the most profitable.
We feed very little whole corn, as the cracked corn gives
them more exercise in scratching and feeding, and does not
pack so closely together in the crop. Considerable shelled
and whole oats are fed, together with some wheat; the
wheat, however, is more sparingly fed on account of the
extra cost. We are able to get the same growing value
from wheat bran and beef scrap at a much less cost
19
very little difference and that the chicken that is properly
fed and is in the right condition will be good to kill for
broilers without any extra preparation, and chickens which
are good broilers will, if kept, mature into good roasters.
One of the really necessary things to do is to get rid of
about nine-tenths of all the accumulated wisdom which has
A Flock of Future Money Makers.
been loaded on to the chicken business, in many cases until
it has nearly swamped it, and to get back to a few very
plain principles. These brietiy stated would be, sufficient
warmth, cleanliness, plain food, and plenty of it; these, to-
gether with a good range, will produce chickens at a satis-
factory profit, if the breeding stock has been properiy se-
lected and bred.
One of the very necessary points is good shade, and it
must be had in some way, either by trees, boards or brush
sheds or otherwise. We have killed two birds with one
stone, or rather saved several birds with one idea by build-
ing a number of houses on posts, which leaves them ele-
vated about twelve inches or fifteen inches from the ground,
These coops are floored, which keeps the birds high and
dry and free from dampness, and at the same time allows
them sufficient shelter from the sun and. the draught
which is generally found nearest the ground, and
on rainy days they. bunch together under the buildings and
enjoy themselves much better than they would were they
obliged to stay inside. A board runway leads from the
chicken door to the ground, giving them convenient pas-
sage to and from the inside. Since we have adopted this
method of keeping the chickens we have
Making a Good Start.
than we can get it from wheat, of which the best grades
only should be fed. Smoked and damaged grains, such as
are commonly on sale for poultry, are unfit for this purpose.
Very many fancy formulas are to be had for broiler
feeding as distinct from roasters. We believe there is really
*
had very much less trouble from colds and
greater thrift than by the former method of
colonizing in open front coops without floors.
These coops are built four by eight feet and
are four and one-half feet high in front and
three feet at back, giving a sharp pitch to
the roof, which sheds the water readily.
They are covered with tarred paper and have
one sash, six lights, nine by twelve inches,
and a door twenty-four inches wide, and full
height of the building, which is fitted with
a screen for hot weather. The birds may be
carried in this building through the winter
if necessary, and before the chickens are
large enough in the spring to be placed in
them they are used for breeding pens
and are very convenient for this pur-
pose. These buildings are, as are all other quarters,
inhabited by chickens, thoroughly disinfected at frequent
intervals, with a solution of carbolic acid and water. Care
must be exercised that too much carbolic acid is not used
immediately before the chickens are shut in:for any. length-
20 THE CHICK BOOK
of time as tco much acid is quite fatal to small chickens.
Any high grade disinfectant would answer the same pur-
pose, the idea being to keep the house free from disease
germs and to help the sanitary conditions.
G. H. POLLARD.
BROODER CHICKS—FEED AND CARE.
I want to tell you of my mode of feeding and caring for
chicks. After the chicks are hatched I leave them in the
machine at ieast twenty-four hours before placing them in
the brooder. This makes them strong and vigorous. As
soon as they are placed in the brooder I give them sand or
fine grit and water. I keep water by them all the time, good
clean, fresh water.
My first feed is hard boiled eggs chopped up fine. After
that I feed millet scattered among the chaff that is on the
bottom of the brooder and run. I feed both millet and hard
boiled eggs at intervals (just what they will ciean up and
work for) for the first week, after that I give them a feed of
cooked rice (cooked dry) for a change, also cut oats and
corn bread. As the chicks: grow older I add whole wheat
and also feed some mash with a little blood meal in it about
twice a week. One of the great points in feeding and care
of chicks is “common sense and judgment,’ Study your
brood and you can see at a glance how much and what to
feed to supply their wants.
I remember one season I tried not feeding any food or
-water for the first forty-eight hours, etc. Weil, the result
was I lost all the chicks. As brooders (the leading machines)
are Dearly all properly constructed it remains for the oper-
ator to do his or her part, which if done there will be no
trouble. I rear and have raised by farmers from 1,000 to
2,000 White Plymouth Rocks every year, and must say if the
farmers follow the above method of care and feed we Jose
but few chicks. U. R. FISHEL.
THE VALUE OF EXERCISE, LIMITED FOOD AND
EVEN TEMPERATURE.
Our experience with brooders has been somewhat varied
and not all “clear sailing’ by any means. We had some
very disheartening times while we were getting our “ex-
perience.”
The poultry journals are full of advice regarding the
operating of brooders. These methods sometimes seem di-
rectly opposed, and still, no doubt, they are the truthful ex-
pericnce of the writers. We believe that the greater num-
ber of failures with brooder chicks are caused by too much
heat and overfeeding. We do not believe that brooders can
be run successfully, generally, in cold weather without the
use of thermometers. Chicks taken directly from the incu-
bators and placed in the brooders will stand a far greater
amount of heat than is good for them. Consequently if we
judge altogether by their actions we may keep them at a
much higher temperature than is good for them. This is
reasonable, for we can so accustom a child to a high tem-
perature that it will be uncomfortable in a room under nine-
ty degrees, and none will deny that this amount of heat is
injurious to the child. Ninety degrees three inches from
the floor in the hover of the brooder is about right for the
‘first week. This should be reduced gradually to eighty-five
degrees the second week and to eighty by the end of the
third week.
We have killed a whole lot of chicks, both in brooders
and with hens, with kindness, i. e., with too much food.
Now; we never feed oftener than three times a day from the
very start, either with brooders or hens. This way works
well with us and we shall stick to it. The danger of over-
feeding with brooder chicks is especially great, as they do
not and cannot take as much exercise as those with hens.
Don’t worry if they get hungry enough between meals to
scratch good and hard. This is the making of them. It will
help digest their food and ward off diarrhoea, which is only
the result of indigestion.
All brooders should have an open runway or yard, and
the chicks should be accustomed to running in this for at
least a short time from the very start. Give fresh water to
drink from the first. Keep fine grit in the brooders all the
time. Keep the temperature right; have them take plenty
of exercise; feed only three times a day, and ‘“what you
feed” will not be so important. ;
Weare very partial to millet seed. In fact we have said
that we could raise chicks on this alone, with water and
grit. Equal parts of corn meal, bran, shorts and clover meal,
baked with soda or baking powder, makes a good winter
feed. Stale bread, soaked soft and squeezed dry, is an ex-
cellent food for starting chicks. Put chaff in the yards or
runs and sprinkle just a little millet seed in it and watch
them scratch for it. This is our way, no theory, all practice.
If your way is different, and you are successful, stick to it.
W. B. GIBSON & SON.
FEEDING THE BROODER CHICKS.
1 have used several kinds of brooders. I first began with
outdoor brooders with bottom heat, but had little success,
put that was about twelve years ago, before brooders were
as well perfected as at the present time. For a while after
that I hatched with incubators and brooded with hens and
since have used top heat indoor brooders with success.
The brooder with which I have had the greatest success
is one having a hot water pipe system, and with this I can
raise a larger per cent of the chicks hatched than with hens,
and the same number with much less trouble and expense.
I feed chicks after they are about thirty-six hours old,
once every two hours through the day till about four weeks
old. No one need fear that any food is too fattening for
young chicks. They need carbonaceous or fattening food to
keep them warm while they are small and to sustaip their
vigor during the period of rapid growth. There is no one
food which is as good as cornmeal, either in mush or bread,
but I think a variety of foods is better than any one alone.
A very excellent food for chickens is bread made from two
parts corn meal and one part wheat middlings, with two
tablespoonfuls of animal meal added to each quart of the
mixture; this stirred to a stiff batter with sour milk, in
which enough soda has been dissolved to make it light, and
baked in thin cakes to be fed warm or cold. This bread may
form the main food till the chicks are large enough to eat
cracked corn, broken rice and small grain and the bread
may be supplemented by hard boiled eggs chopped fine, and
other palatable foods. I save the infertile eggs from the
incubators to boil for the chicks. After they can eat small
grain foods I feed a mash once daily of the same meal mix-
ture as described for bread, and a variety of grain foods,
such as steamed rolled oats, wheat and creacked corn, plenty
of oyster shells and grit, and clean fresh water, give access
to a good grassy run, and a clean brooder. In short, to get
the best results, chicks should be kept steadily growing from
the time they leave the shell till they are fully matured.
As they grow older they require proportionately more of the
bone and muscle forming food and less of the more fatten-
ing materials.
The best way to care for the brooder is to clean it everv
THE CHICK BOOK 21
morning and put clean sand on the floor to absorb moisture
and to ease the chickens’ tender feet from the hard floor.
GEORGE H. NORTHUP.
CARE OF BROODER CHICKS—COLONY COOPS AND
NEW GROUND.
After many years with Buff Cochins we have almost
adopted and belfeve the saying that, “If you hatch ten
Cochin chicks and a board does not fall on them, you are
almost sure to raise the whole ten.” <A good brooder, proper
food, pure water, plenty of shade and green grass, freedom
from lice, and the proper attention, will make Cochin rais-
ing the simplest thing in the world.
Our chicks are hatched both by hens and incubators,
and we find absolutely no difference in the chicks, with the
exception that those hatched by incubators are free from
lice.
It is almost impossible to raise to maturity chicks from
unhealthy and improperly cared for parents. It is equally
impossible to raise chicks that have been improperly incu-
bated, whether by hens or incubators.
It is just as probable that you will get improperly incu-
bated chicks from heds as from incubators; for how often
do you See a poor, run-down, emaciated hen bring into ex-
istence a flock of chicks when she is so weak, poor, and run-
down that she is barely able to stand. This is not the fault
of the hen, but of the failure of the proper attention having
been given her. One can readily understand how impossible
it would be to start and develop into active and vigorous
life chicks that have been brought into the world under such
unfavorable circumstances. Therefore, our first aim is to
get our chicks from healthy, well cared for parents, and then
to have them hatched under the most favorable conditions.
When the chicks are hatched we leave them under the
hen or in the incubator at least twenty-four hours. If they
are taken out sooner than this, they are not so strong, and
the chance of raising them is much lessened. They are then
given a thorough dusting of Persian insect powder. This is
very important, as they cannot thrive when lice are present.
We raise our chicks in outdoor brooders, using two hun-
dred chick size, and put from forty to fifty chicks in each
brooder. The brooder is gotten clean and is heated to ninety
degrees the day the chicks are due to hatch, so that every-
thing is in readiness for them. They are given plenty of
water at once, and their first food consists of fine dry rolled
oats. During the first ten days they are fed exclusively on
rolled oats and millet seed. They are fed six times a day,
alternating with rolled oats and millet. On the tenth day,
they are given in addition to the rolled oats and millet, well
baked corn cakes, chopped fine. If they become droopy we
add to and mix thoroughly with the corn cakes some finely
ground prepared grit. This is the only medicine little
chicks need. It is surprising to note how quickly they
brighten up on this treatment. When three weeks old we
gradually add to their rations cracked wheat and finely
cracked corn, cutting out the rolled oats. We continue to
feed the millet and corn cakes in conjunction with the
cracked corn and cracked wheat until they are six weeks
old. We then cut out the millet and corn cakes and substi-
tute hulled oats and American poultry food. The American
poultry food is given at noon, and to this is added twice a
week fresh ground green bone.
We believe in feeding frequently and in small quanti-
ties at a time, as overfeeding is sure to make chicks dull
and stupid and eventually bring on indigestion and inflam-
mation of the crop. Jn giving the different rations we alter-
nate and change as much as possible in order to keep them
from tiring of any one ration. We give them fresh water
twice a day, being very careful to keep the same in the
shade. As we use outdoor brooders we are able to have
them constantly on the move and thereby give the chicks
pure fresh earth and grass.
It is very imporiant to provide plenty of shade in sum-
mer. It is equally important to place the brooder for one
hour each day, while open, where it will be subjected to the
direct rays of sunlight, as this method and cleanliness are
the only means of preventing the origin and spreading of
tuberculosis, which is sure to occur in a close, crowded
brooder, especially if dark and damp.
When the chicks are first put into the brooder they are
confined for from one to three days, the length of time de-
pending on the state of the weather. The brooders being
placed on a nice green grass plat, we then provide for each
brooder, one hundred yards of wire netting, one foot wide,
with one inch mesh. When the chicks are first liberated
from the brooder we drive stakes into the ground and make
a coil enclosing about three square feet of space. As the
chicks become more active, and readily cover this space, it
is gradually enlarged from week to week, until the whole
hundred yards are in use. This method has saved us lots
of worry and trouble, for when the chicks are young and are
first liberated, if given too much space they are almost cer-
tain to stay away from the brooder, and it is very difficult
to teach them to return to it. Then again, brooder raised
chicks have no mother to look after them and in case of a
storm they can be very readily found and driven to a place
of shelter. We have found that it is not so much the size
of the run that makes healthy chicks, but it is the frequency
with which they are changed from old to new quarters.
When they weigh about one and a half pounds or are
nicely feathered, we divide them into lots of twelve each,
being careful to have each lot the same size and develop-
ment. These are placed in colonies, each colony being all
cockerels or pullets. Each colony is provided with a coop
four by five feet, three feet high in front and two feet in the
rear. These coops are provided with a storm door, and also
with another door covered with fine mesh screen. This lat-
ter door is used on warm nights, and protects the chicks
frcm vermin, etc., and the outer door, which is hinged at
‘the top, is lowered about one-third, which protects the
chicks in case of storms during the night. The bottoms of
these coops are covered with a thick bed of straw. This is
to prevent the breast bones of the chicks from becoming
crooked, which is very prone to occur with Cochins. We
never provide them with roosts until they are one year old.
When they are eight months old they are provided with
more commodious quarters, and those showing promise of
becoming choice exhibition specimens are cooped either in
pairs or singly with the object of preserving their massive
foot and leg feathering. A. W. RUDY & SON.
LIMIT THE NUMBER OF CHICKS IN BROODERS.
The most successful way that I have found to raise
chicks in brooders is the following: Build a brooder house
for each brooder, say about six by eight feet, with a door
and a window to the south. Have these brooder houses
scattered about the orchard, about one hundred feet or more
apart, each house to be furnished with a one hundred-chick
brooder. In this put from fifty to seventy-five chicks. It
is not advisable to put more than seventy-five chicks in any
brooder, fifty would be better, as I find that I usually can
raise more of the chicks when I only put fifty chicks in a
brooder than when I put in seventy-five or one hundred, be-
sides you will have stronger and healthier chicks at matur-
ity. I have no yard for the chicks, but give them free
range. I do not lel them run out until about a week old,
22 THF CHICK BOOK
after which I let them run out on all fine days, but always
keep them in until the dew is off the grass, at least until
they are well feathered. If this is done you will not have
much trouble with gapes. Begin feeding when chicks are
about twenty-four hours old. For the first few feeds I find
nothing better than bread crumbs. Feed the first week
about four times a day with bread crumbs and oatmeal.
After the first week, when I let them run out, I feed three
times a day, soft food in the morning and either oatmeal,
cracked wheat, cracked corn or millet at noon and evening.
Change about from one kind to the other and then the
chicks will always have an appetite. When chicks are four
or five weeks old I feed only twice a day. Feed whole wheat
and corn just as soon as they can eat it. Always have plenty
of grit standing around for them, and give them fresh drink-
ing water. Keep the brooders and brooder houses clean and
look for mites each time you clean brooders. Saturate the
sides and bottom of the brooders with coal oil once in: two
weeks, and then the mites will not trouble you.
The foregoing is for chicks raised on a farm where there
is plenty of range. I also find that farm raised chicks, as
a rule, make stronger and healthier chicks at maturity and
ought to be sold at better prices than those raised on small
city or town lots, but they seldom are. You find that city
breeders always ask double the price for their inferior stock,
although it is no better than that raised on the farm. The
best chickens for either the show room or for business are
those that are raised on the farm which have unlimited
range. EMANUEL SCHEIBER.
BROODING AND FEEDING CHICKS.
In raising chicks in brooders the first thing to be con-
sidered is the brooder. A brooder should be used that will
give the chicks plenty of warm fresh air. Some people have
the erroneous idea that air must be cold in order to be fresh,
‘which of course is false. A brooder may be so ventilated
that the outside air is sufficiently warmed before reaching
the chicks. Due attention should be given to see that it is
kept at the right temperature, for if the temperature be
kept too low or too high for a considerable length of time
the result will be an unnatural growth of wings, and weak
and sickly chicks. The chicks should be kept so that they
will lie down and go to sleep and not be obliged to huddle
together to keep warm, neither be forced to the coldest cor-
ner of the brooder to cool off.
Another thing to be considered is the number to be
placed in one brooder. The brooders that I use are two and
one-half by three feet, placed in one end of coops, which are
three by six feet. Such a brooder will accommodate seventy-
five chicks nicely; we have raised more than that, but that
number or less is better.
After the right brooder, with the right temperature and
the right number of chicks, is obtained, the next thing to
be thought of is the food and drink.
There are many different methods of feeding, many of
which we have tried with good results, but perhaps as good,
if not the best method of feeding, for the first four or five
days is oat flake and millet, with a few bread crumbs fed
four times a day. After that gradually work them on to a
mixture of cornmeal, wheat middlings, and wheat bran, with
a few beef scraps for their mixed food, and cracked corn and
wheat, which shouid be given after they have eaten their
mixed food. Close attention should be given to the drop-
pings, and if they do not become hard in two or three days
a little black pepper may be mixed with bread crumbs mois-
tened. Care must be taken that none of their mixed food be
sticky or gummy.
Another and perhaps one of the most important things
to be looked after in raising vhicks is their drink. They
should have fresh water placed in clean drinking fountains.
A fountain that cannot be opened and cleaned never should
be used, for a slimy substance will form on the inside of the
fountain and unless removed will surely cause bowel trouble.
Many persons have lost nearly all their chickens from this
cause and then wondered why they are not successful. If
by reading these suggestions some of your readers are
helped in their struggle to make poultry pay I shall feel
repaid for my effort. A. A, HARTSHORN.
BETTER TOO MUCH HEAT THAN TOO LITTLE.
How easy to rear young chicks if we only knew what to
feed, how to feed, when to feed, and how much to feed, and
a thousand other hows, ifs and ands,
In our years of experience in rearing chicks in brooders
and by mother hens we find the results about the same in
regard to the number raised and cost of food. But chicks
reared in brooders are more peaceable and quiet and much
more easily handled, hence make better show birds. We also
find that we are not troubled so much with lice and disease,
for the simple reason that remedies are more easily applied,
Again, we have the use of the hen in the breeding yard, and
save the food which she would eat if left with the chicks.
This is a large gain in rearing thousands of chicks per year,
as the food for young chicks is quite costly.
Our method of raising chicks in brooders is as follows:
After leaving chicks in the incubator or under the hen until
twelve or thirty hours old, we place them in the heated
brooder, with the thermometer registering ninety degrees,
allowing the temperature to fall until the chicks are three
weeks old, after which we use no artificial heat.
In regard to pen room, I have raised as high as two
hundred chicks in brooders four by eight feet, and one hun-
dred and sixty-five chicks in brooder three and a half by
six feet, and lost only one chick (and that one in the small
brooder) this season. We never have had as good results
with small brooders. We leave our chicks in brooders the
first two or three weeks according to the weather, and give
them a run in the yard ten by twenty feet, until six to eight
weeks old, after which we place them on the farm. After
trying many experiences with good as well as poor results,
we find this the most successful of all, with no extra trouble
or expense. Any one can rear a brood of chicks in this way.
We offer a few suggestions in regard to feed and heat
while chicks are in brooders and small yards. If you wish
to avoid bowel trouble, give clabber milk once a day. We
have learned this rule: Better have chicks two degrees too
warm than one too cold. When chicks are too warm they
will scatter over brooder and when too cold will crowd over
one another, smothering weaker chicks.
We always feed one teaspoonful of sulphur in food to
fifty chicks, twice per week during dry weather. This we
think aids the feathering. IRA T. MATTESON.
HOW TO SUCCESSFULLY RAISE BROODER CHICKS.
One of the first things to be considered in raising brood-
er chicks successfully is the parent stock, which must be
in perfect health, properly fed and given abundant exercise
to insure fertile eggs and strong chicks. A first-class incu-
bator must be selected, one that will hatch from 75 to 90
per cent of fertile eggs, and when you get such hatches you
will get strong chicks that will live if properly cared for.
The next thing to be selected is a brooder, and this is equal-
ly if not more important than the incubator. You must get
a brooder that imitates a hen as closely as possible; one
that will let in any amount of fresh air; one that has a round
cylinder with no corners for chicks to crowd in, and one
THE CHICK BOOK
easily heated with a lamp that will not blow out nor smoke,
I prefer the single brooders to the pipe system. In winter
heat your house to 60 and 70 degrees and keep your brooders
90 degrees at the start, gradually lowering the temperature
after twelve days. Do not let the chicks get chilled at any
time nor allow them to crowd, for if you do bowel trouble
will be the result, which will take off a large per cent in a
short time. Too much heat will weaken them and cause
many to die, so you must be very careful, especially at
night, about obtaining the right temperature, as it often
grows very cool the latter part of the night, so a little extra
flame should be left on in cool nights.
I use runs five feet wide, ten feet long inside of house,
and outside runs fifty feet long well shaded in summer.
The next and most important of all is food. I wish to
say right here that overfeeding for the first four weeks of a
chick’s life has put more people out of the business than all
other things combined. You can hardly feed too little. We
feed four times a day for the first five weeks. The first
three weeks we use principally dry food and make them
scratch for every meal but that given at night. We feed
prepared dry chick food morning and night. At ten and
two o’clock we feed millet seed, pinhead oatmeal and
eracked wheat. We keep them well bedded with cut clover
two or three inches deep, and throw all their food in this.
They also eat much of the clover. We feed very sparingly
at first. Keep them hungry at all times. Much depends
on keeping them at work; it assists in keeping them in good
health. We keep grit and charcoal before them all the time,
and fresh water is always before them. Care must be
taken to keep their drinking dishes free from slime; they
should be washed daily. Clean your brooder every other
day if you bed with cut hay, and every day if you use sand
or bran.
After three weeks your chicks will begin to tire of this
feed; then we give two meals a day of soft food composed
of one part stale bread soaked in water, or better, milk, one
part bran, one part hominy meal, ten per cent finely
ground meat. The same mash with ten per cent good
beef scraps is a grand growing food and much more easily
prepared, but more expensive. We continue feeding chick
feed once a day for two weeks longer, giving mash morn-
ing and night, using cracked corn and wheat once a day.
If running for broilers make your mash one-half cornmeal.
We run but fifty to sixty chicks in one lot, as this is enough
for any single brooder if you want them to live.
After they are old enough to leave the brooder and you
cannot give free range make yards twenty feet wide by one
hundred feet long and put sixty to seventy-five in a flock on
grass yards with plenty of shade, dividing the pullets from
the cockerels. Keep them free from lice and you will have
birds of fine quality for breeders. EDGAR BRIGGS.
PRINCIPALLY A QUESTION OF MOISTURE.
“T can hatch the chicks easily enough, but to raise them
is the question.” This expression is very frequently heard
from those raising poultry by artificial methods,
I have done a great deal of experimenting along this
line during the past eight years. Some seven years ago I
thought I had struck the right idea for brooding young
chicks when first hatched. I had three separate houses,
7x12. I built flues on each of these houses and put indoor
brooders in them, also a Small stove. Now, for the results.
The chicks did fine for about a week and I thought now I
am on the road to success, but, lo! I went to feed them one
morning and a number of them looked like big toads swol-
len to nearly double size. I removed the stoves and the
trouble stopped. I then worked along a few years with in-
23
door brooders and cool, dry houses with varied success. In
1899 I commenced with outdoor brooders. This season I
have used nine of them, raising some broods nearly to a
chicken, while losing some broods almost entirely—all losses
except a few with the universal disease, bowel trouble.
Those brooded with hens occasionally died in same propor-
tion. I concluded from observation that it was moisture
and not the food that caused the trouble, as I noticed if the
weather was dry whether the temperature was high or low
I raised about all the chicks, and also if I got them by the
first ten days without bowel trouble they were all right.
To satisfy myself that it was moisture the first week or ten
days that gave them bowel trouble I put several hens with
chicks up in a loft for a week. It was perfectly dry in this
loft and I never lost a strong chick after this experiment.
From this experience I shall construct a room in the loft of
some of my buildings next season with plenty of light and
ventilation without fire except in the brooder and keep all
incubator chicks up above the ground for the first ten days.
A good many perusing this article will say, “He has
not said a word about food.” I don’t expect to say much
about food, as it is immaterial what you feed if you solve
the moisture problem. I can raise every chick hatched, as
I have done it, on the same food I feed old fowls when there
is no moisture to contend with. Give the chicks plenty of
grit and clean water, a little green food and you can safely
feed them any food you may have, if you keep them free
from moisture the first two weeks of their lives.
As to space required for brooder chicks, of course the
more the better. With my outdoor brooder chicks I use
three boards, making a triangular yard, the sharp angle
coming up to the brooder, using two sixteen and one twelve-
foot boards one foot wide. I keep them in this yard with
plenty of chaff to scratch in until they get large enough to
fly over the board. Then I cut small openings in the boards
for them to go out and in at will. If you have limited space
this yard will accommodate probably forty until near frying
size if you are careful about sanitary conditions. I am en-
abled to put forty to sixty in brooders three feet square, and
keep them in these at night until frying size is reached. I
then cull and run them in a movable brood house until four
or five months old, gradually moving the brood house
nearer to permanent house, and finally moving brood house
away. O. BE. SKINNER.
CARE OF BROODER CHICKS.
It might be of some advantage to some of the readers
of this book to know how we raise brooder chicks. While
I have never raised brooder chicks extensively I have been
very successful, raising from 75 per cent to almost every
chick. At one time, out of a hatch of seventy-nine chicks,
I raised seventy-seven to maturity.
These birds were brooded in a home-made brooder
heated with hot water put in gallon jugs, using two of them.
I used flannel strips tacked to common laths resting at each
end on a cleat nailed to the side of the hover. I use a broad
board for a partition dividing the brooder into two com-
partments, cutting a small opening in the partition board
for a passway for the chicks to the run. This part of the
brooder has a glass in the top about 16x24.
These birds were hatched about March ist. The first
thing we do with our chicks after hatching them is to place
them in small baskets with some flannel cloths in them,
wrapping up good and warm—keeping them in that way
until twenty-four hours old. By that time I have some
fresh corn bread baked just as we use it for our table. Be-
fore feeding them I place them in the brooder, which is now
heated up to a temperature of about 85 or 90 degrees. The
24 THE CHICK BOOK
bottom of the brooder is covered with coarse sand, which I
allow them to work in about an hour or two before feed-
ing—then I feed them the corn bread crumbled up fine, put-
ting it on the floor in the sand. By this time the little fel-
lows are getting hungry (having absorbed all the egg food
that nature has left for them from the egg) and they begin
to eat the little bread crumbs and sand with a pretty good
appetite. Only feed them a little. In about two hours or
more I put in a little more of the corn bread, and so on,
feeding four or five times the first few days. When they
are three days old I give them a little warm water to drink,
but not much. After drinking I take out the little water
pan, and again in the afternoon give them a little more.
When three days old, I boil an egg thoroughly done until
the yolk crumbles and feed them that, changing off with
the bread crumbs. After four or five days old I begin to
feed.them a little rolled oats or fine cut oatmeal and some
small bits of meat reduced small enough so they can eat it.
Now I vary feed quite a little. Feed boiled potatoes, oat
meal, corn bread, chopped onions and potatoes, ground corn
and whole wheat. When two weeks old I feed them ground
corn mixed with bran and shorts, one part corn to two parts
bran and shorts. I pour hot water over the mixture, scald-
ing it, but only enough to mix it in a stiff or crumbly mass
and feed when cool. 1 never feed wet and sloppy food, as it
creates bowel trouble. We aim to keep our chicks in
medium small runs until feathered out, then we give them a
good deal of range until about half grown, and then I turn
them out to all the range they want, allowing them to go
at will over the farm.
After chicks leave the brooder I divide them into broods
of fifteen to twenty to each coop, giving them plenty of
fresh air at night, except when it is cold, then close brood
coops up so as not to chill them. There are lots of good
brooders made, and if properly run they are a success.
There is a great deal in keeping the proper heat for the
little fellows, and proper food and regular attention. Never
allow your chicks to get chilled if you can help it, and after
the second week don’t let the heat in the brooder run over
80 degrees, and at night always see that the little fellows
are snug under the hover, and when you feed always leave
them a little bit hungry, and the next time you come to
feed them they will all be glad to see you. .
Cc. B. SAYERS.
BROOD COOPS AND METHODS OF BROODING.
In answer to your letter asking me to give my experi-
ence in raising chicks with incubators and brooders and my
way of feeding
young chicks, I may
say that I have had
experience with in-
cubators and brood-
ers in a small way
only, as it is qual-
ity not quantity
that I have been
striving for the last
fifteen years. I try
to mature only
about five hundred
birds each year, and
those as good as
possible, ,
The first forty chicks I hatched I put in a brood house
nine by sixteen feet, with a partition across the center, giv-
ing them one-half of the house. Attached to this house I
have two yards, one for each part of the house. These yards
are nine by sixteen feet each, and I keep them dug up for
Home-made Brooder Coop.
the chicks to scratch in. Next to these yards I have a grass
run, and as soon as the chicks have been in the house a few
days I give them full range, always feeding and watering
them in the yard or house. They soon get used to the place
and will go in and out themselves. In this house I place a
home made brood
box about three by
three feet, and two
feet high. At the
side of the box down
near the bottom I
make a small door
for the chicks to run
in and out. The top
I use as a door, hung
on leather hinges,
with a small pane of
glass in it to admit
light. This lid I raise
and lower for venti-
lation. In the center
of the box I place a
wire screen about the size of a peck measure, and the first
night or two, or any night that the weather should be cold,
so that there might be danger of the chicks crouching or
piling up, I place a lantern in this center screen.
When my second hatch of one hundred and one chicks
were three weeks old I took them out of my brooder again
to make room for the third hatch, which I found this time
to be one hundred and two chicks from one hundred and
nineteen eggs. The second hatch of one hundred and one I
put in the other half of the brood house and handled them
the same as the first lot. I found when I took the second
lot to the brood house at three weeks old that I had lost
two chicks, leaving ninety-nine strong, healthy chicks. The
two hatches that I put in the brood house were put in the
last of April and the first of May, and until the time of this
writing (July 12th) I have lost but one chick.
The third hatch of one hundred and two chicks at three
weeks old I took out of the brooder again to make room for
the fourth hatch, which proved to be one hundred chicks
from one hundred and twenty eggs.
The third hatch of one hundred and two and all chicks
hatched at this time of year at three weeks old I put out-
side in a home-made brood coop made three feet wide, five
feet long, four feet high on high side and two and one-half
feet high on low side. The whole top I hang on hinges,
and use it for a lid or door. In the center of high side I
place a pane of glass so as to open and shut, with a wire
screen over the inside of opening. In each end of the coop
up near the top I leave an opening covered on inside with
wire screen. Over these openings on the outside I hang &
lid to open and shut for ventilation, which, when open,
forms a roof to keep out the storm. In one end of coop
down at the bottom I make a small door for the chicks to
go in and out, and in the other end of coop I place a brood
box made the same as the one described for the brood house,
and when the chicks are old enough I take out the brood
box and put in place of it a roosting rack made out of slats
placed a little way apart, so as to admit air from the bottom.
This rack is made so as to fit in one end of the brood coop
on cleats nailed to sides of coop ten inches from bottom, so
that I can take the rack out to clean it. In front of this
rack and hinged to it I place a slat gate which drops down
from rack to floor, forming a gate to keep the chicks from
running under the roosting rack and also forming a ladder
for the chicks to run up and down on.
I put these brood coops around in different parts of the
yard under trees, placed so that the morning sun will strike
Home-made Brood Box.
: THE CHICK BOOK 25
one end of coop and so that it will be in the shade through
the middle of the day. In front of these coops I place a
small yard in which I shut the chicks for the first two or
three days, till they get used to their new quarters, then I
open the yards and let them have full range, always feeding
and watering in or near the coops. In this way of brooding
I have had the greatest success raising chicks.
My experience has taught me that it is almost impossi-
ble to raise chicks that are. not properly incubated, when
the weather gets real warm I find it necessary to cool the
eggs for a long time. I leave them out of the incubator
and leave the door open from an hour to an hour and a half
till they are thoroughly cooled, and then the chicks will
hatch out strong and quick and are easily raised.
T find it best not to put more than fifty chicks in one
brood coop, as they will do much better than though there
were more in One coop. Fifty chicks in a coop the size that
I have described will do well and grow one-third faster than
one hundred in the same coop; even if you make the coop
twice the size, the fifty will do far better than one hundred
or more in one lot.
My method of feeding young chicks is as follows: For
the first five days I give them nothing but steel cut oats.
and dry wheat bran, keeping grit and fresh water before
them at all times. For the next five days I feed much the
same with a little variety added, such as cornbread made
out of corn meal and wheat bran. I also feed a little
cracked wheat. After they are ten days or two weeks old
I begin to feed cracked corn, whole wheat, a little millet and
sugar cane seed, green cut bone twice a week and later on
a few sunflower seeds. Chicks are like Yankees, they like
a variety. WILLIAM WEBB.
HATCHING AND RAISING THE CHICKS.
A Discussion of Simple, Practical Methods of Hatching, Brooding, Growing, Fattening and Maturing Chicks, Wherein
Exercise and Pure Air Play Prominent Parts.
By H.A. Nourse.
AN has invented and built machines to supplant the
mM hen in the motherly functions of hatching and
raising, but the old hen still has a monopoly of the
egg producing branch of the business. Still she
can supply such eggs as hatch strong, vigorous chicks only
when she is well taken care of.
The matter of conditioning the breeding stock is not a
difficult or intricate proposition. If the birds are kept in
good flesh, not fat, and have plenty of good food, fresh air
and exercise, there will be no trouble getting fertile eggs
that will hatch. Eggs with weak germs will sometimes
hatch well, but the chicks will not be worth the trouble.
Eggs intended for hatching should rot be chilled, but in
cold weather should be collected very frequently and placed
in a dry room where the temperature is about stationary at
45 degrees. Although it is desirable to set all eggs as soon
as possible after they are collected, they may be held for
two weeks without much deterioration if the above condi-
tions prevail. Cases are recorded where eggs have been
kept four and even six weeks, and have hatched. Only such
eggs should be selected for incubation as are of medium size
and good shape, with perfect or nearly perfect shells. Small
or extra large eggs seldom give good results and porous
shells allow too rapid evaporation or too rapid absorption,
as the condition of the surrounding air varies.
From Shell to Brooder.
It is not difficult to secure good hatches from good eggs;
almcst any one having a good machine can obtain a satis-
factory hatch. Authorities differ somewhat as to the bene-
fits derived from cooling the eggs and a few deny that any
good can come of the practice; but the consensus of opinion
seems to be that reasonable cooling is decidedly beneficial.
In cold weather the best hatches seem to be secured from
eggs which are cooled slightly the twelfth day and for an
increasing period each day until the eighteenth, inclusive,
when they are allowed to remain out of the machine until
the shells feel but slightly warm to the touch; but in warm
weather they are cooled a few minutes on the fifth and the
time increased daily up to the eighteenth day, after which
they should not be touched again. On this day they remain
out fifteen or twenty minutes and sometimes, on a very
warm day, for a half hour. Cooling should be done when
turning the eggs at evening. Do not disturb the trays from
this time until the hatch is complete. When all the chicks
“ appear to be pretty well dried, open the machine, remove
the trays and closing the door, except a minute crack for
better ventilation, leave the little fellows in the egg chamber
for twenty-four to forty-eight hours, gradually decreasing
the temperature until the thermometer registers ninety-five
at the end of twenty-four hours. As the thermometer hangs
above the chicks, it is probably a degree less at the chicks’
heads. I have found this plan to work very satisfactorily.
The chicks go into the brooder accustomed to a lower tem-
perature and ready to eat anything that they can find. I
believe that most machines do not furnish enough fresh air
for the little chicks after they are well dried off and open
the door just a little that they may be supplied.
The temperature of the brooder should be fixed at nine-
ty before the chicks are put in, as its complement of chicks
adds two to five degrees when they are under the hover.
Feeding the Little Chicks.
So many different methods of feeding brooder chicks are
advised by people whose experience and success entitle
them to consideration, that what one man says should be
taken merely as an opinion until one tries it and finds it
satisfactory for his own use. For years I believed that
nothing could equal the time honored corn meal cake baked
hard and fed dry to the baby chicks. I doubt if anything
can beat it much to-day, but the prepared chick feeds, now
on the market, offer a well balanced ration of dry grains
with the proper allowance of beef scrap, grit, charcoal, etce.,
in a convenient form and at a reasonable price.
I believe that chicks often get too much food when they-
are first placed in the brooder and that heavy losses fre-
quertly occur from that cause alone. The best results have
been obtained when the chicks were left in the incubator for
a day and a half without food after the hatch has been com-
pleted, and when placed in the brooder fed one light feed
the first day, two the second and three the third. Beginning
on the fourth day five feeds may be fed daily; but they
26 THE, CHICK BOOK /
should be very light and never more than enough to satisfy
the chicks for the time.
Exercise Necessary for Health.
Every inducement should be offered the youngsters to
scratch and dig and the exercising apartment in the brooder
and the adjacent pen in the house should be thickly carpeted
with some good scratching material to that end. Hay chaff
is one of the best things for this purpose and can be easily
obtained. Any one who stores or feeds hay has more or
less of it and is usually glad to get rid of it. It contains
mauy small seeds and bits of clover, which the little fellows
make good use of and for which they will search diligently
if healthy and not too well supplied by the attendant. The
temperature of the brooder house should not be too high.
Some will deny that it is well to heat the house at all, and
many, either from preference or lack of equipment, supply
no heat to the house except that which escapes from the
brooders. When the chicks are small, however, I believe
that a moderate degree of heat, about sixty degrees, is desir-
able in cold weather in that it enables the chicks to spend
more time on the floor of the pen getting up their muscle.
It should be remembered that sixty degrees recorded when
the thermometer is three feet above the floor is not sixty
degrees down where the chicks are. Place the thermometer
within a few inches of the floor.
The best manner of feeding is the one that will best
promote exercise. If dry food in the form of grain is given
it is best, especially in cold weather, when the little birds
cannot get outdoors to exercise, to mix this in the litter
and compel them to scratch it out.
Pure Air of First Importance.
In rearing chicks pure air is a very important factor
that seldom gets due recognition. Cheap as it is, and neces-
sary for the vital processes concerned in maintaining and
developing all forms of energy, it is not unusual to find
brooder houses with no provision for any where near an
adequate supply. Brooder stoves and heaters are burning
out what little oxygen there is while owners and managers
are wildly endeavoring to figure out some intricately bal-
anced ration to reduce the frightful mortality. Provide plenty
of good air under the hovers and wherever else there is a
Interior View of Brooder House, with Pipe System, Hovers on White Leghorn Poultry Yards.
chick, and the science of feeding will be wonderfully sim-
plified.
' Pure, fresh water should be always accessible if a dry
grain ration is fed. Opinions differ as to the advisability of
supplying water when feeding a mash ration and some poul-
trymen seem to have greater success when giving water and.
others when withholding it. The writer’s opinion is that
no water need be given for the first two or three weeks
when feeding a moist mash, and that chicks will do well.
without it.
From the Fourth to the Eighth Week.
Whatever method of feeding is employed for the first
three or four weeks, the scheme to be followed for a few
succeeding weeks may be the same.
The degree of heat will have been gradually reduced to:
eighty at the end of four weeks and may be further reduced
to seventy at the end of six weeks, where it may remain so-
long as the chicks need a hover. No more heat is needed in.
ie.
the house than is necessary to remove the chill in the air in
cold weather.
A gradual change from the baby food of the first four
weeks to the more substantial diet of mash, cracked corn
and wheat should be accomplished in ten days or two weeks.
This is a period of growth; and the chicks should have all
the food they can make use of. More fresh air, exercise,
and as much outside run as possible are potent factors in
their development. Green food must be furnished. If in
spring and the grass has started, fresh short grass cut in
the fields when the dew is on, is the best to be had, next to-
that obtained by free range. But if nothing green is growing.
a supply of cabbage, mangel wurzels, and clover meal for
the mash (one or all three) is the best that can be offered.
and is of substantial value.
I have had success feeding a simple mash of two-thirds
wheat bran, one-third corn meal, with ten per cent of beef
scraps added, fed three times a day—morning, noon and
night, with an allowance of wheat at mid-forenoon and of
cracked corn at mid-afternoon. Grit and charcoal should be-
kept in the pen, preferably in a hopper where it will be clean.
No more food should be given at any time than will be-
consumed at once and if any mash is left it should be takem
THE CHICK BOOK av
up when the attendant takes up and cleans the troughs or
boards, as he ought to do after each meal.
It is understood, of course, that the grain is fed in litter
on the floor of the pen and of sufficient quantity to induce
vigorous scratching, but no more.
After the Eighth Week.
From the eighth week forward different treatment must
be accorded those intended for stock purposes or large roast-
ers and those intended for broilers; only the broilers-to-be
should remain longer in the brooder house. The others
should be placed out in the field in roosting coops if the
weather is warm or housed in warm (not necessarily heated)
quarters if the weather is still severe. Occasionally broiler
chicks may advantageously be placed outside, especially if
errors or carelessness in feeding have noticeably reduced
their vitality or if, in the latter part of the season, it is im-
possible to maintain a temperate heat in the brooder house.
Usually it is best to keep them in the house where they will
take but a moderate exercise and will lay on flesh and fat
without the toughening of the muscles which takes place
when they have free range in the fields.
From the eighth weck to killing time plenty of green
food should be supplied every morning; the grain should be
fed as before and the mash materially strengthened. Three
parts corn meal, one part wheat bran and one part first
quality beef scraps makes a simple and effective fattening
food, which if fed to chicks in good health, supplemented by
green stuff, fresh water. grit,and charcoal, as directed, will
make a full fleshed, fat broiler of unbeaten quality. One of
the most important points to remember is that no mash nor
troughs must be allowed in the pens except during the few
minutes when the chicks are eating. No other than freshly
mixed mash should be fed, and any that remains when the
troughs are removed should be taken away and may be fed
to old birds. ;
A potent cause of trouble is overheating in the hovers.
When the older chicks, from eight weeks forward, are al-
lowed hovers they will frequently crowd into them at even-
ing, cause a high temperature and lose in the night all the
flesh they have gained in the day time. If they have access
to hovers sufficient ventilation must be provided to keep
down the heat. Always look through the brooders before re-
tiring and arrange for the comfort of the occupants during
the night. Much can be done to that end after the chicks
have settled down.
For chicks intended for roasters no change in composi-
tion of the ration need be made except that a larger propor-
tion of hard grain and less of mash should be fed and the
number of meals reduced to three per day. Mash may be
fed at morning and noon or only in the morning as best
suits the judgment and convenience of the feeder, the re-
maining feeds being of grain, principally corn, wheat and
oats,
When it becomes necessary to fatten roasting chickens,
they may be confined in yards of moderate area and fed the
same as advised for fattening broilers. Occasionally it may
be advisable to place some of the quarrelsome males in
a room which may be darkened except when they are eating.
The hatching and raising of chickens, while requiring
constant and painstaking attention, is by no means a diffi-
cult proposition or one beyond the ability of the man or
woman of average intelligence, and the application of com-
mon sense will produce satisfactory and profitable results.
H. A. NOURSE.
REARING BROODER CHICKS IN FLORIDA.
Good Foods, Good Brooders and Love for the Work Produce the Same Results in the South as in the North,
By H. Friedlander.
book points on a subject on which so much has
been written, and by so able and experienced
writers, but I simply wish to give an account of
my suceess in raising chickens by artificial means.
I used to raise chickens in Ohio for pleasure. Fif-
teen years ago I lost my health and was given up by physi-
cians as a hopeless case of consumption. But I came to
Florida, and among the pines I regained my health, and to-
day I feel much better than I did fifteen or twenty years
ago. Two years ago after losing my orange trees by freezes
I took a notion to raise a few chickens. I started with a
pen of ten hens and one cock from Ohio. That spring I
raised two hundred chickens and sold twenty sittings of
eggs, but I found it was such a trouble to raise them by
hens that I bought a small incubator the following fall. I
did not, however, depend on the incubator to hatch all my
early chickens, but had some of my neighbors hatch some,
and as soon as they were hatched and delivered to me, I
put them in the brooders.
Of course the climate here and in Illinois is quite dif-
ferent, and what I did here will not do there. I kept the
brooder outdoors, and at a temperature of 80 degrees. When
l SHALL not attempt to-give the readers of this
the sun was warm enough I let the chickens out in the sand,
making a square yard about a foot high around the brooder.
I think between incubator and brooder the latter is as im-
portant as the incubator. But whatever you do in the poul-
try business, incubator or brooder, you must have your
whole mind on it, and love it. Many times I got up in the
night to see if everything were all right, and often it was
not. 3
I feed the first day toasted and ground up bread; a few
days later fine cracked corn, then some wheat. Sometimes
I make bread out of cracked corn and sour milk. Occasion-
ally I give them dog meat, that is, not the meat of a dog,
but meat that only dogs will eat, of which we have plenty
in Florida. This meat I grind up with a meat grinder. I
feed as often as possible—six times a day at first. Every
time I look at the chicks I give them something. I had
chickens nine weeks old weighing one and one-half pounds
and when I left Florida for the north (May 1) I had three
hundred ehicks and had not lost a single one. By May 1st
I had sold 2,100 eggs for hatching and 1,000 more during the
summer, and all out of forty-five pullets. This year I have
seventy hens and pulleis, and expect to raise at least 500
chicks on a lot 100x400 feet, H. FRIEDLANDER.
BROODER CHICKS, THEIR FEED AND CARE.
One Who fas Raised Flocks of Incubator Hatched Chicks Without Loss Tells How to Feed and Care for Them—Bowel
Trouble a Result of Careless Feeding—Regularity In Feeding Desirable.
By Mrs. Bert H. White.
Tl HERE can one make a beginning in this never
W ending, inexhaustible subject? I consider the
feeding of little chicks the most important part
of poultry raising. The welfare not only of the
chicks themselves, but of future generations of chicks de-
pends upon how we feed and care for the young. ‘The hand
that rocks the cradle is the hand that moves the world”
holds good in poultry as well as with humans, and the hand
that has fed the little chicks and fed them right this year,
is the hand that will move the poultry interest in the coming
‘years.
I raised two hatches last year, one of seventy-nine, the
other of sixty-three chicks, and did not lose a single one.
This fact has given me the presumption to venture to let
others know how I did it. We hatch our chicks with incu-
bators and hens—when the hens will sit. I am a great
friend of the incubator, and while I have just as much re-
spect now for the old biddies as I ever had, I have less con-
fidence in them. I feed the incubator hatched chicks just
the same as I do the chicks hatched by the hen-mother. I
do not think there is quite as much danger from over-feeding
the chicks with the hen, as they are less liable to lack the
proper exercise. After the hatch is over I remove the chicks
to the nursery brooder, which is heated and prepared for
them, and feed. We read so much in the various poultry.
journals about not feeding chicks until they are twenty-four
to thirty-six hours old. I do not believe you could make a
ehick eat before it is ready to eat, and that is when it is
strong enough.
The first food consists of hard-boiled eggs, cracker or
bread crumbs, and grit, made very fine. This is in propor-
tion of two parts of the crumbs to one of egg, and a little
grit mixed in. There are several kinds of grit for little
chicks, but I prefer the shell grit and roll it fine myself.
If this food is prepared right it will be a crumbly dry mix-
ture. That is always the first food, and I remove all they
do not eat. This, with a little pin-head oatmeal and rolled
oats, and a little millet seed sprinkled in the litter in the
bottom of the brooder, is the first three or four days’ bill
of fare. I give water on the second day and after that sweet
milk once a day. On the fifth day I add baked corn bread
to this bill of fare. And this is how I make it—two parts
coarse cornmeal, one part prepared poultry food, one part
bran (counting quarts as parts), a small handful of salt,
and a tablespoonful of soda. I prefer to bake it in one large
pan rather than several small ones, as there is not so much
crust. Bake it until it is thoroughly done, and if it is just
right it will be dry and crumble fine and not stick to the
hand, This I always keep on hand, and it is one of the
principal meals of the day until the chicks are old enough to
eat wheat and cracked corn. I always mix a little grit in
one of the feeds of the day.
After the chicks are two weeks old I feed some coarse
cornmeal moistened with sweet milk, and it can be made just
moist enough so that it will be mealy. I know it is right
when I take a handful and squeeze it and no moisture sticks
to the hand. If it is mealy and not sloppy there will be no
danger from bowel trouble. Feed this sparingly at first, as
well as any other change in food. I always feed five times
a day until after the third week, and then only three times a
day. Great care must be exercised in order not to over-feed.
I believe a great many chicks die from over-feeding, and
those that do survive over-feeding are stunted. I think one
must always govern the amount of food by the number of
chicks in a brood, and no particular amount can be specified
for each meal. All conditions being equal, just what they
will clean up each time, and no more, js about the proper
amount.
I begin to feed a little wheat and cracked corn at the
end of the third week, and when the chicks are four or five
weeks old I feed wheat in the morning and cracked corn at
night, with oats for variety. I think oats is a splendid food
for growing chicks, but I never have dared to feed it with-
out first boiling it. It takes some time to teach them to
like oats, but after a time they will relish it as much as they
do wheat and corn. I think that chickens of all ages are
fed too much corn. Wheat and oats are the best grains
for chicks. I like to feed a little millet seed wherever the
chicks are in the habit of scratching. It makes a nice little
lunch for them at noon—just a few handfuls sprinkled
around the brooders, so that they will find it when they
come back for a drink and a rest at noon. Once or twice a
week I boil the wheat for their breakfast. I boil it the
evening before and let it stay on the stove until morning
‘and it is just warm enough to feed. I do not pretend to
say that all this is strictly necessary for the successful rais-
ing of chicks, but I have tried it and have had good results.
Variety in feeding forms an important item. 1 never
mix the grains for variety’s sake. ‘Try feeding the same
kind of grain every night for four or five nights without any
change, and the chicks will not seem to care whether they
eat or not. They seem to say to me—“That old stuff again!”
It may be partly imagination, but I believe that variety is
necessary to keep their appetites in good condition. I al-
ways keep a box of oyster shell and grit near each brooder.
Hatch your chicks early, “the quicker the sooner,” as
David Harum would say. Spring is the only nesting time
for wild birds and it is the only good time for domestic
breeds. If by any mischance or continued spell of damp
weather, any bowel trouble may result, the feeding of boiled
rice or scalded sweet milk will very soon adjust that trouble.
I never feed any condition powder, pepper or any of the
poultry cures advertised, but I use plenty of prevention, and
never need any cures. Regularity in feeding is a very im-
portant matter in successful poultry culture. Have a regu-
lar time for each meal and do not vary from it. The first
meal should be at daylight, and the last as late as possible
before the chicks go to roost. Chicks are early risers and
should be let out of the brooder as soon as it is daylight.
I always build an enclosure around each brooder, and do
not let them out of the brooder, and do not let them out of
this enclosure until after the dew is dried off, or on cold
windy mornings I can keep them there and put them back
in the brooder to keep them from getting chilled. It is a
THE CHICK BOOK 29
great mistake to allow too many chicks to run
together in a brood. Scatter them and have
brooders enough so that not over forty chicks
are brooding together in the same brooder. I
think thirty about the right number. Familiar-
ity breeds worse than contempt with chick-
ens, it breeds lice and disease.
The care of the brooder is very important.
I exercise great care in keeping the nursery
and brooders clean. How the chicks do enjoy
clean quarters, and how they always begin
scratching and working, with their little song
of ‘“‘weeting” all the while. If that does not re-
pay you, you have not that love for the work
that is necessary for successful poultry culture.
The first week I clean the brooder twice, and
after that usually give it some attention every
day. I put dry sand in the bottom of the nur-
sery and brooders and cover that with chaff or cut straw, and
by taking off the top each day the sand need be renewed
but once a week. I like the sand in the bottom of the
brooders better than chaff alone, as the chicks do not slip
in it. I have had chicks lame themselves by slipping on
the smooth floor of the brooder.
I keep the temperature very near 90 degrees for the first
three weeks. After that govern the temperature by the num-
ber of chicks in the brooder and the outside temperature.
Trim the lamp every evening and fill it so as to insure an
even blaze ali night. Sometimes it is not necessary to keep
the lamp lit all day in the outdoor brooder. On warm, sun-
shiny days the lamp can be put out and lit towards even-
ing. If the brooders are not new or have been used before
keep an eye open for lice, for like the poor they are always
with us, and it is almost impossible to keep the brooder
chicks from visiting witk biddy’s chicks.
After my chicks are six weeks old I remove them from
the brooder and put them in a box to sleep. I get a large
dry goods box, and put a tarred paper cover on what is to
be the top. This prevents dampness, which is the greatest
foe of little chicks. Nail a board on the top and bottom of
the open side, or what is to be the front, and put on lath
close enough so that the chicks cannot get through. At one
end make a gate or door, whichever you wish to call it, out
of lath and hang it with a piece of old leather or heavy
cloth for hinges, with a hook to fasten it. (I use screen
door hooks.) Put in sand and litter, and you have a good,
substantial brooder coop that will last for years. I face
these boxes to the south, and if there is a south wind I put
old pieces of carpet over the opening for the first few nights.
My chicks sleep in these coops until they are old enough to
go to roast. Sometimes they grow so they fill the
original box too full, and then I have to either give
them a larger box or set another right beside the first one.
These box coops are moved frequently, and each one is as
Just Let Out for Morning Exercise.
Subjects of Experiment at Rhode Island Experiment Station.
far from the other as it is convenient to have them. They
soon learn which is their very own place to roost, and I am
always sure I will find each brood in its place. Of course
it is work, but not trouble, and in bad weather I forget all
about the work, in the satisfaction of knowing that my
chicks are tucked in cozy and dry at night.
Keep the drinking fountains clean. Scald them at least
twice a week. If you are a close observer you know how
foul they become without any one telling you. When it
can be had I give all my young chickens sweet milk to
drink once a day until matured. I always wash the fountain
out after it has had milk in it, before putting water in it,
and when the weather is warm enough to sour the milk
that is left in the fountain, warm water is used to wash it
out. I would just as soon eat my dinner off the same plate
that I did my breakfast, without washing it, as to put water
in a drinking fountain that had had milk in, without first
washing it. I do not think it a good plan to let chicks drink
in the morning before they have had their morning meal. I
have had the best results by giving milk for their morning:
drink after they have had their morning meal. When it is
cold T think it is best to warm the milk, and in a continued,
damp spell, sometimes scald the milk.
I believe in little things, and it is the little things that
count with little chicks. A little draught, a little too much
food, a little neglect, cause all sorts of big evils and play
havoc with the chicks. I do not believe there is a particle
of excuse in poultry fanciers allowing so many chicks to die.
In nearly every hatch there are one or two runts, and they:
will make up their minds to live or die in a few days, but
after that if I lose a chick I feel that Ihave been slack or care-
less in some way. I believe that every year the true fanciers.
are raising a greater per cent of chicks hatched than they:
did a few years ago. Of course there are people who start in.
the poultry business not knowing or trying to learn any-
thing about the habits and nature of chickens. They fail
to raise even ten per cent of the chicks they hatch, but they
seldom stay in the business long enough to either help or.
hinder it. But the true fancier of the stick-to-it type every
year will raise “better poultry and more of it.”
The care of chicks does not end until they reach the
breeding pen. All through the long hot months of J uly and
August they must be under our watchful care. This is the
time that is most trying to the beginner, and this is the
time that they usually make up their minds to stay or with-
draw. Plenty of fresh water constantly before them is very
essential for growing chicks. I always want my chicks
to have full crops at night, but I want them to be hungry
enough through the day to be willing to look out for their
dinner themselves. Twice a day is often enough to feed the
early hatched chicks through the months of summer. Ags
the cool days and nights come on in the fall, they will let
you know when they need an increase of rations. Let the
chicks grow lanky and leggy, you can soon put the weight
on them when cool weather comes. Care for the little chicks,
remember it is always the prize winners that die—that is the
reason why we get so few. MRS. BERT WHITE.
SUCCESS WITH BROODER CHICKS.
Poultrymen Agree that the Strength of the Germ in the Egg Is of First Importance—With Well Hatched Chicks, the
Problem Is More than Half Solved—Raw Eggs Advised for Small Brooder Chicks.
By J. W. Hodson.
HEN one begins to think of raising young
\W chickens, the first and mest important thing
that needs attention is the fertility of the
eggs. If you have good, strong, fertile eggs
the battle is half won. To be sure,-judgment must be
used in the operating of the incubators and brooders. The
nearer we run the machines to nature the better the results;
but if the eggs are poorly fertilized, the germ being weak,
the best incubator that is made, operated by the foremost
expert in the land, cannot get out a good hatch, and there
are nine chances out of ten that the chicks that do get out
of the shel! will die before they are two weeks old, and
those that do not die will never grow as they should. But
if the eggs have the life and kick in them you need not
worry. If you give the little peepers half a chance they
will soon show you that they came into the world to stay.
It is in the winter when the courage of the poultryman
is tested most severely. Sometimes we have filled our incu-
bators with eggs in January and February and at the end
of twenty-one days wished we had sold the eggs at the store.
Sometimes at the end of the fifth day, when we made our
first test, our hopes were high and we were telling our broth-
er poultrymen what good hatches we were going to have,
for we had taken only eight or ten infertile eggs out of a
hundred; but by the time the fourteenth day came our as-
surance began to wane, and at the end of the twenty-first
day we have found that nearly all the little chicks had died
in the shell, getting perhaps twelve or fifteen out of eighty-
five or ninety tertile eggs.
We could not blame the incubator, for it had been tested
befere. The troubie was with the eggs, and the lack of a
strong life germ in them was due to some fault either in
the hen or male bird, and their inability to produce well
fertilized eggs was probably due to some fault of our own—
either they were not properly housed or fed, or may be both.
The houses may have been too cold or the chickens too fat.
In either case you will not get many strongly fertile eggs.
We keep our incubators in a cellar where the tempera-
ture is about the same all the time. Outside changes make
little difference in the temperature around the incubators,
therefore when we once get our machines regulated we have
little trouble with them, and when we go to bed we sleep
and get up in the morning to find the thermometers within
one degree of where we left them the evening before.
Care of the Little Chicks.
As soon as the little chicks are thoroughly dried we take
them out of the incubators and do not allow them to remain
in the temperature of 103 or 104. As long as they are damp
we believe they are better off in the incubator, but no longer.
We have a brooder ready to receive them that is heated to
about 100 around the hover, 85 or 90 about one foot from
the hover. We let them remain in the brooders thirty-six
to forty-eight hours before we give them anything to eat or
drink. They will show signs when hungry. We keep the
bottom of the brooder covered with clover chaff or cut clo-
ver, and when the iittle ones get hungry you will see them
picking and hunting for semething to eat.
Our first feed consists of a mixture of cracked corn and
wheat that has been put in the oven and parched, or roasted
as they do coffee, only it is not quite so brown. To this we
add a littie rolled oats, grit and oyster shells. This mixture
is sprinkled in the litter and they must work for what they
get.
When about one week old we feed once a day a soft
mash, consisting of one part wheat bran, one part middlings,
one part corn and oats ground together (with the oat hulls
sifted out), and about five per cent of beef meal. Mix this
well together and take enough raw eggs to make it stiff and
crumbly. We use incubator eggs that have been tested out
on the fifth day. We think this is one of the finest foods
we can get and the way our chicks grow satisfies us that
they have about what they need. After the chicks are one
week old we feed only three times a day; when less than a
week old, four times. We want to see the chicks hungry.
J. W. HODSON.
a Pee: |
Colony Houses and Some of the Piano Box Brooders on Beaver Hill Farm, Described by Charles P, Glogger.
BROODING AND FEEDING CHICKS.
A Large Brooder Which Can be Converted Into a Roosting Coop—Plenty of Room Essential for Growth—The Correct
Degree of Heat—The Food and Manner of Feeding.
By Charles P, Glogger.
particularly extensive, I have learned something
about the rearing of chicks
will benefit the amateur at least. A good
brooder is essential. If one intends doing much of
any work with brooders, they should be five and one-
half feet square, or large enough to hold comforta-
bly fifty chicks until twelve weeks old. No matter how
large or now small the brooder is, never place more than
threo or four chicks to every square foot of floor space;
overcrowding must be avoided. The best success I have had
with young chicks has been with our piano box colony
brooders. They are closely and neatly covered with heavy
paper, are five and one-half feet square, five feet high in
front, three feet high at the back and have a solid shed roof,
wit a door at the side and a window in front. We set
B\ partion my experience with brooders is not
artificially that
A Flock of Promising White Leghorn Chicks.
them twelve inches off*the ground, so that the lamp box
underneath can be reached conveniently. The heating ar-
rangement is very simple; we cut a hole in the floor.fourteen
inches square six inches from the rear wall, making the
center of this hole midway between the ends. Into this we
fit closely the ordinary square tin’ radiator, the bottom com-
ing flush with the floor of the brooder and resting on pro-
jecting cleats, with the fume pipe projecting through the
roof of the brooder. We use a No. 3 lamp burner, which
gives enough heat in cold weather.
a half inch air space we place a board hover twenty-six
inches square so that it projects six inches beyond the ra-
diator on all sides. From it are suspended the usual cotton
fiannel curtains. The thermometer is attached to a round
stick twelve inches long which projects through a round
hole-at-thebac -the brooder and- which reackes-past the
middle of one end of the hover. One great advantage of
this broodeér ig that when vour chicks no longer need artifi-
Over the radiator with
cial heat you can in five minutes convert it into a colony
house by simply lifting out the radiator and nailing a board
fourteen inches square in its place. Put in perches and
thirty chicks can perch there until ready for the breeding
pens.
From my individual experience in raising chicks with
brooders I find my greatest success is secured when I have
less, rather than more, than fifty chicks together. When
I do not exceed this number I have no cases of bowel trou-
ble if my chicks are healthy when placed in the brooder.
Warmth and Food.
I start my chicks in the brooders at ninety degrees of
heat and the warmth of fifty chicks will soon increase it to
one hundred. This temperature, however, should not be
maintained more than a week, when it should be gradually
reduced to eighty by the time the chicks are three weeks
old. This is my plan in the winter or early spring, but later
in the season I do not get over eighty-five degrees to start
with and gradually reduce to seventy degrees. My exper-
ience has been that chicks coddled too much are never
strong. For the first week I keep them as near the hover
as possible. One cannot be too careful, and a board placed
six inches from the hover will keep the little fellows within
bounds and they will not become chilled. Should they feel
the cold they can easily get back under the hover again
and warm up.
As to the manner of feeding, I may not conform to the
generally accepted order of things. In the first place I am
no believer in soft food for young chicks, but am fully con-
vineced that it produces more bowel trouble than any other
one thing, not excepting crowding. Therefore it is very sel-
dom my young chicks get mash. Forty-eight hours after
hatching I sprinkle a few dry bread crumbs on the brooder
floor with a little fine grit. I keep milk or water before
them all the time, and the second day feed them three times
a few broken crackers. The third day T start with my chick
feed and I find the little fellows can pick out the small par-
ticles in great shape, and how they do grow! In feeding
dry food, composed mostly of grain, with the necessary
quantity of meats and bone, I believe we imitate nature
closer than by feeding a mash.
I believe in exercise and see more real benefit in the
heat produced in the body by scratching than that which
is given artificially. Clover cut in about one-fourth inch
lengths is light material and if cracked grain or millet is
scattered in this litter, how the little fellows will work!
Another thing:1 never neglect is the use of bran to pre-
vent bowel troublé. In each brocder I keep a small box of
dry bran and charcoal and the quantity of bran these little
-fellows will eat-htd the good condition of the bran fed chicks
is surprising. Our early chicks are fed plenty of cabbage or
appies for green food. CHARLES P. GLOGGER.
CARE OF BROODER CHICKS.
If Labor is an Item of Expense. then a Successful Way of Raising Chicks With One-third the Usual Labor
Deserves a Fair Trial. }
By W. H. Bushell,
66 OW shall we best care for the brooder chicks?”
We leave the chickens in the incubator twelve
hours after all the chickens are hatched, which
gives them strength; then we remove them
to the brooder that is heated up to ninety degrees under
the hover and seventy degrees outside the hover. We leave
the chicks alone in the brooder twenty-four hours before
feeding or watering them. The floor of the brooder is cov-
ered with sand and cut clover, the clover being used to pre-
vent the chicks from slipping.
When the youngest chick is thirty-six hours old, we
feed and water them for the first time, some of the little
ones being forty-eight to sixty hours old. We give them
prepared chick feed and clean water in a fountain that is
made so that the chick can drink, but cannot get into the
water or soil it.
The chick food consists of all kinds of seeds that grow
in the fields, with some grit and beef scraps. We feed three
‘times a day and only what the chicks will eat up clean.
We feed it in the cut clover so as to force the chicks to ex-
ercise. We do not have any bowel trouble nor sickly chicks;
nor do we have to run out and feed them every two hours;
nor do we keep the cook busy baking johnny cake and all
kinds of foolish things and washing dishes; nor do we give
milk to drink—it is too mussy. We simply feed the chick
feed and give clean water three times a day. The work is
cut down and we raise the chickens. It is seldom that we
find a dead chick in the brooder.
We are often asked by visiting poultry people if the
chick feed is not expensive. I always reply that it is the
cheapest food you can get, because it saves two-thirds of
the labor and you can raise the chicks successfully on it.
Besides, it is of great help in keeping the brooders clean. I
know we had less trouble to raise nine hundred chicks last
year than some people did who raised only one hundred.
We use the hot-water, over-head pipe, continuous brood-
er system and we keep from thirty to forty chicks in one
pen, changing them every week to a fresh compartment.
The pens are all built alike, except that some of the pipes
are higher to allow for the growth of the chicks and so
that the hover will be cooler. By having each pen alike the
chicks do not mind the change. They know where to find
their hover and they do not “pile up.”
My house is twelve feet wide, seventy feet long, and is
piped the entire length. The pens are three feet wide by
nine feet long, which leaves an alley-way three feet wide in
which to work. We have been very successful in raising
chicks in this house and are well pleased with it.
I use a little air-slaked lime on the floor and dust the
hover of my brooder once a week. We clean the brooder
under the hover every morning and change the straw in
the pen every fifth day, I have never had a louse in my
brooder house. Ww. H. BUSHELL.
A Substantial Brooding House That Is Well Shaded in Summer—A Building for Storage, etc. (Attached) is Shown at the Right.
HATCHING AND REARING CHICKS WITH HENS.
The Locatien for Nests and Protection from Lice and Weather—Care of Hens and Newly Hatched Chicks—
Cooping and Feeding the Brood.
By H. A, Nourse.
HE process of hatching and raising chicks by
a natural means is simple and easy on the face
of it; the hen does the work and in proof of
her ability we cite a case wherein the hen
steals away and in due time returns with a big brood
of chicks which she raises with little or no loss. Granting
that this may be the uniform result, we must give some
credit to the conditions and not all to the hen. This satis-
factory result does not often occur when the weather is
cold, but rather when it is warm, and the hen selects a nest-
ing place with natural advantages. The nest is surrounded
by the pure air of nature, and the hen can leave it without
danger of the eggs becoming chilled. She dusts herself
thoroughly and often in the damp earth and thus keeps her
plumage clean and comparatively free from lice.
When the hatch is completed the chicks are not immedi-
alely stuffed with food, but exercised gently and brooded
frequently while gathering from the pure air oxygen for a
myriad of strength giving blood corpuscles, until the nour-
ishment with which nature provides all well hatched chicks
is assimilated and stronger food may be digested and made
most of by a system ready for the work.
But if we want early chicks we must set hens in the
celd and changeable weather of early spring. Sometimes
we set them in a place poorly protected from the weather
and often the hens are neither allowed a dust bath nor given
any protection whatever from the irritating pests—lice.
A setting hen deserves about as much protection from
cold or heat as an incubator, but seldom gets it. In cold
weather a well built warm room is a great advantage and
in warm weather, which frequently overtakes the poultry-
man before he has finished hatching, well ventilated and
moderately cool quarters will be of considerable assistance.
Setting the Hen.
The nest should be carefully built of fine, soft hay and
of such size and shape that the hen will fit nicely into it,
affording perfect protection to the eggs. It should be rea-
sonably flat on the bottom at hatching time or the chicks
attempting to leave the shell at the bottom of the nest will
often be crushed by the unhatched eggs rolling down from
the sloping sides.
" ‘Hivery means should be used to secure the absence of
lice. Nothing is so likely to bring about a poor hatch of
good eggs or to prevent the successful rearing of the chicks
as lice. A dust bath for the sitters to dust in should be
provided if practicable and each bird should be thoroughly
dusted with insect powder at least once a week, the last
dusting to be done three days before the hatch is due.
If a pedigree record of the fowls is kept the nest should
be marked with the number representing the parentage of
the chicks and each chick punched:as it is taken from the
nest, thereby avoiding all chance of mistake and making
the mark when it will hurt the chick least and be least
likely to fill up.
There is danger of empty shells capping unhatched eggs
and imprisoning the chicks and it should be prevented by
reaching under the hen and removing the shells at frequent
intervals during the exclusion of the chicks,
Nothing is gained by hurrying the chicks from the nest;
if the hen desires to leave the nest as soon as the hatch is
finished (or even while it is in progress) the nest may be
covered with a light cloth (if the weather is cold) and the
hen allowed to stretch, eat and drink, after which she will
again seek the brood and quickly make them warm and com-
fortable. It is well to give the hen a little food and water
while on the nest if the chicks come out slowly, confining
her to the nest for two or three days.
Caring for the Chicks.
After the chicks have been out of the shell twenty-four
hours it is early enough to move them to their coop.
A Stolen Nest.
As each chick is taken from the nest, and the identifica-
tiou mark punched in the web of its foot, its head should be
anointed with vaseline or lard sufficient to smooth the down
closely about the skull to kill head lice. The hen should
be well dusted and the action repeated once a week so long
as she remains with the chicks.
If small coops are used it is an advantage to be able to
put them under a shed with open front to the south where
the chicks will be protected from inclement weather and
winds while getting plenty of exercise upon the ground; the
hen remaining confined to the coop.
I am much in favor of large coops, at least three feet
square on the bottom, tightly built to keep out dampness,
yet permitting sufficient ventilation to keep them cool in
warm weather.
Care of the Brood.
The first day in the coop the hen should have a good
ration of whole corn, but the chicks need only a very light
34 THE CHICK BOOK
_ feed of crumbled stale bread, johnny cake, or prepared chick
feed. I incline toward the prepared foad, because it can be
bought ready to feed at a reasonable price and gives excel-
lent satisfaction.
The second day the little ones may have two light feeds
and on the third day three. After that three, four or five
feeds may be offered each day according to the time and in-
clination of the feeder, but no more should be given at any
time than will be eaten within a few minutes. During the
first few days the hen may be fed any large grain and the
brood won’t make much effort to eat it, but after a few
days the young ones will try to eat any and everything that
the hen does. Cracked corn and whole wheat may safely
be fed with the chick feed, the latter being gradually elimi-
nated after the second week and its place taken by the
cracked corn and wheat, with an occasional feed of mash
at the feeder’s option. Clean water should be provided
from the start and fine grit for the chicks and coarse grit
for the hen should be given with the first feed and be al-
ways accessible.
A small proportion of animal food is desirable after the
first week. Most of the prepared foods contain this in the
proper proportion, but if it is supplied by the feeder, sifted
of each day’s rations will
e first two weeks or for
s and
beef scraps to make five per cent
be found very satisfactory for th ;
four weeks if the chicks have a chance to hunt insect
worms.
When the weather is warm and the birds are saf
birds and beasts of prey the hen may be given her freedom
and: permitted to run with the chicks after the first week.
This is of great value to the chicks, giving them wider range
and providing all sorts of little seeds, pugs, worms and in-
sects. whieh nature intended they should have. It makes
the chicks self-reliant, too, and better able to take care of
themselves, while making the most of their opportunities,
when the ken leaves them to shift for themselves. ;
A cropful of food collected by the chick from nature’s
resources is worth two of that fed by an attendant and con-
sumed by a chick confined within a narrow enclosure. It
is gathered a little here and a bit there, some vegetable and
some animal, by vigorous exercise taken under conditions
which cannct fail to promote a healthy action of the diges-
tive organs. Thus the nourishment is absorbed and the
body strengthened and properly developed. Nature’s meth-
ods are always best when the work is done in nature’s
season. H. A. NOURSE.
e from
THE NATURAL METHOD IS SATISFACTORY.
How an Expert Hatches and Rears Winners for the Largest Shows—Making the Nests—Sitting the Hens—
Cooping and Feeding the Chicks.
By M. S. Gardner.
4
O MANY writers of late have told us how to hatch
chickens in incubators, and raise them in brooders,
that little remains to be said upon that subject.
-Very little has been written, however, in regard to
the other and older method of letting the hen rear her own
brood. While I usé incubators for hatching my earlier
chickens, I still hatch the greater part of the May and June
chicks under hens, and for two reasons: First, because I
believe it gives the hen a rest from laying that is beneficial
to her, and second, because I find that chickens hatched and
reared by hens prove better foragers and grow faster for me
than those grown in brooders.
To successfully raise chickens with hens, several things
are absolutely necessary. First, strongly fertilized eggs
from perfectly healthy and vigorous breeding stock. Second,
quiet, medium sized hens, and properly constructed nests.
Third, a man to care for the hens who will exercise eternal
vigilance, and who can control his temper under most try-
ing circumstances. Doubtless evéry man who raises chick-
ens has a way of hisown. I do not claim that my way is the
only one, or even that it is the best, but simply this, that
I have been raising thoroughbred chickens for more than
twenty-five years, and with success, by the method I shall
describe. During the season of 1902 I raised more than five
hundred chickens under hens. Although May and June
were the wettest months ever known in this state, my loss
from all causes did not exceed five per cent of the chickens
hatched.
Setting the Hens.
As March is a cold month in northern New York, we do
not attempt to set any hens until April. When the weather
moderates so that we feel sure the eggs will not chill, we
prepare to set our first hens. Several pens are reserved for
our sitters, from four to ten hens being placed in each pen,
depending upon the size of pen and also upon how much
room we can spare for this purpose. The nests are made on
the floor of straw or swale hay which is held in place by two
by fours placed upon the floor or else by narrow strips of
board nailed to the floor and not more than four inches
high. It is desirable that the hens be able to walk onto the
nests, and not be compelled or allowed to fly into them.
Sometimes if crowded for room these nests are not more
than three feet apart. We usually set several hens at one
time. When we have the required number of broody hens
we take them carefully from their nests after dark at night
and place them in their new quarters, having previously
prepared the nests in the manner I have described. In each
of these nests we have placed one or two glass eggs or possi-
bly cheap hens’ eggs. By the side of each nest is a potato
crate or a frame covered with wire netting. Each hen is care-
fully set on the glass eggs and a potato crate placed over
her. A hen that has been broody for several days and is of
the proper disposition to make a good mother will at once
settle down upon her new nest and go to sleep. Occasionally
one will resent such treatment and proceed to kick up a
rumpus. Such hens should be removed at once, as they
disturb the quicter ones and seldom prove successful mothers.
T do not find more than one in ten that will refuse to sit
in a nest of this kind. The first day we keep the room dark-
ened and do not let the hens come off to eat. The morning
of the second day the crates are removed and sufficient light
let in to enable the hens to see the corn, grit and water
that have been previously placed there. A large dust box
is also provided for them. Sometimes two hens will fight
THE CHICK BOOK 35
when first let off the nests, if taken from different pens in
the breeding houses, but this seldom proves a serious affair,
as they are usually too hungry to waste any time in this
manner. After eating and drinking four out of every five
will go back to the nest in which we placed them. Some
few will exchange nests, but it is very seldom a hen refuses
to go back to one of the nests. As all of the eggs are in
plain view from all parts of the pen, two hens seldom try
to occupy the same nest,
In making the nests we use great care in preparing the
bottom so that the eggs will not come in contact with the
floor. We also make them rather flat and large enough in
diameter so that the eggs can roll from under the hens’
feet as they step into the nests. My reason for making the
nests upon the floor is this: Under natural conditions all
fowls no doubt built upon the ground, as partridges do.
When a hen can walk onto her nest she does it very care-
fully and seldom breaks an egg. If compelled to fly or jump
up she usually succeeds in falling into the nest and breaking
one or more eggs. Another advantage in placing the nest
upon the floor is that the eggs do not
When the chicks begin to hatch we disturb the hens as
little as possible. Sometimes if they are very quiet I run
my hand very carefully under them and remove all the
empty shells so they will not slip over the unhatched eggs
and smother the chickens.
Cooping and Feeding.
Nearly all our chicken coops are dry goods boxes covered
with tar paper, to keep the rain out. These are boarded up
tight about half way across the front, and slatted the rest of
the distance, so the chickens can run out and in, but the hen
cannot. Into these coops the hens and chickens are removed
when the chickens are about twenty-four hours old, a little
bran, chaff or dry sand having previously been sprinkled
upon the floor. Not more than a dozen chickens are given
to one hen and we often give them only seven or eight
chicks each. The coops are scattered out through the corn-
fields and in other protected places so that each breed has a
fresh run and plenty of grass. When the chicks are placed
in the coops they ere fed dry oatmeal and hard boiled egg
dry out as badly as when placed far-
ther from the ground.
The Eggs Require Attention.
Now to return to the sitting hens.
We have them fed and watered and
back on their nests. If one fails to go
back the room is darkened, the hen
is carefully caught and placed upon
her nest, and the potato crate drop-
ped over her. If at this time all re-
main quiet the eggs for hatching are
brought and placed under them.
From ten to fifteen are given to a
hen, the number depending upon the
weather and the size of the hen. In
very early spring not more than ten
eggs are placed under each hen, as
the outer ones may become chilled or
at least get cold if more are used,
then as the hen rolls them over the
v
chilled eggs are pushed further un-
der her and others are rolled to the
outside to be spoiled during the next cold night. I am sat-
isfied that many poor hatches in early spring are due to the
fact that too many eggs are placed under the hens.
We now have our hens properly started on their three
weeks’ task and have only to watch them carefully and see
that they have fresh water every day, with an abundant
supply of grit and corn. A lousy hen never should be set.
We keep a good supply of fine dry dirt for dust bath before
our fowls at all times, so we have no trouble with lice. By
the second day we usually remove the potato crates from
over the hens and thereafter they are at liberty to come off
to eat or roll in the dust bath as often as they desire. Every
day when they are off each nest is inspected and if any eggs
are broken the others are carefully washed, but we seldom
have any trouble of this kind. I have no use/for a ten pound
hen as a Sitter or anywhere else. For hatching purposes I
prefer one weighing not more than six for seven pounds.
Where it is possible to do so we set all the hens in one
pen at the same time. Where some are put in later they
usually disturb those that have been sitting, then when the
first chicks began to hatch it makes those set later discon-
tented. If the weather is very hot and dry and the eggs
are drying down too much, we sprinkle the nests with
warm water once or twice during the last two weeks.
A Fine Place for Growing Chicks on the Farm of Gardner and Dunning.
chopped up very fine. They are also given some fine grit
and a cup of water, which is refilled as often as necessary
and not allowed to sit in the sun where it will become
warm. The second day they are fed on cooked food. ‘Three
parts cornmeal and one part “red dog” flour or wheat mid-
dlings are mixed with skim milk and a sufficient amount of
baking soda to make it light. It is then baked until well
done. This is softened with milk or water and fed five times
a day for the first ten days. At the end of ten days if the
weather is suitable the hen is let out of her coop and allowed
to go where she pleases. After this they are fed but three
times per day. At six weeks or before we begin to feed
cracked corn and wheat. Occasionally a hen fails to return
to her coop the first night and we must find her and drive
her in, but usually they come back without trouble. :
As each brood of chickens is placed in the coops they
are punch marked and examined for head lice. If any are
found their heads are greased with pure lard, which usually
answers the purpose and a second application is seldom nec-
essary. Each night every coop is shut up to keep out the
rats and skunks which abound in northern New York. For
this purpose a frame covered with a fine wire screen is used.
This admits plenty of fresh air, which is absolutely essential
to growing chickens.
36 THE CHICK BOOK
Some of our hens take their broods fully a quarter of a
mile from their coops every day, and in this way teach them
to hustle for themselves. Nothing will develop a Barred
Rock cockerel’s muscle and make his bones grow like chas-
ing grasshoppers through a cornfield. It answers the same
purpose as foot-ball for a boy. When the hens begin to
wean their chicks, great care must be exercised to prevent
crowding in the coops at night, as several broods will often
be found in one box. If they are not separated, crooked tails,
twisted wings and small, stunted chicks will be the result.
I believe crowding and overheating in the coop or brooder
to be the cause of more poor chickens, more crooked, de-
formed birds, more attacks of roup and other contagious
diseases, than all other causes combined. We do not intend
to allow more than ten or twelve chickens in one coop, no
matter how large it may be, and as soon as possible teach
them to roost, as they are less liable to crowd and pile up in
a heap on the roost than in a coop. For this purpose we
use a weaning coop, or colony house, set up from the ground,
‘into which we move our growing chicks as soon as they
evince a desire to fly upon the top of their small coops at
nignt. M. 8. GARDNER.
HOW I MANAGE SITTING HENS.
A Well Known Breeder Tells How He Has Reduced to a Minimum the Work of Hatching with Hens.
By Or. H. F. Ballard.
O BEGIN with, breeders of Asiatics should have, or at
alli least they like to have some early sitters. To have
early sitters we must have early layers. To have
early layers we must begin to feed for eggs early,
say January 1. Then if you get a few hens to start the in-
cubating fever in February you have done well. I aim to
set every hen that goes to sitting early, and I do not wait
for two hens to sit at a time so early in the season. I have
an old shed barn in which I set all my hens, and they are
never allowed outside of the barn from the day they are
set until the chicks are three days old. Each hen has a nest
box about eighteen inches square that can be closed in front.
I generally get boxes at the grocery or drug store and nail on
boards in front and use a barrel stave as a door, which can
be slipped down in front when closed.
The first evening the hen is placed on two or three
china eggs to test her persistence as a sitter and her charac-
ter as to temper. If she settles down quietly the first thing
she is A No. 1. If she stands and begins to poke her head
out between the boards, she is A No. 2. But do not pay any
more attention to her now, just go quietly away and let her
think it over. The chances are she will be sitting quietly
in the morning, but whether she is or not I do not let her
off the nest, but place food and water before her where she
If she is
can reach it, and do not disturb her otherwise.
A Prize-winning Hen and Healthy Brood.
quiet the eggs can be given her the second evening, but if
she is restless it is better to wait until the third evening be-
fore giving her the eggs. Some hens will do better after
they get a nest full of eggs. They seem to know that the
china eggs are a delusion and a snare.
If the hen persists in standing up and cackling and
tramping over the nest regardless of the eggs, the quicker
you break her up the better. For the last five years I have
never seen a sitting hen that I could not break from sitting
in three days, and I am breeding Cochins, a breed that are
considered by many people as good for nothing but sitting.
Those people simply do not know much about Cochins—that
is all. I have bred Langshans, Brahmas and Plymouth
Rocks, and the Cochins are no worse than any of them
about sitting, while they make the best mothers of the
whole list when they sit and hatch a brood.
In the same building where I set my hens, I keep all my
extra cocks and cockerels. These are divided up into coops
of one, two, or three or more, according to their fighting
propensities. Into one of these coops our contrary sitting
hen—that thought she wanted to sit and would not—goes
instanter. If she is a white hen, of course she is put in
with a white male bird; if a Partridge, with a Partridge,
and so on. Inside of three or four days he has persuaded
her to give it up as all a mistake, this sitting business any-
how, and you can then turn her into the regular pen again.
So much for the breaking up, and it will work every time,
whether your hen has been sitting three days or three weeks.
_. To return to the sitter, providing she sits all right, on
the morning of the third day, when she has been on the nest
about thirty-six hours, open the door of the coop so she can
come off. Do not take her off, but let her come off in her
own way. She will be much more apt to go back to the nest
of her own accord, but if she does not, try to gently drive
her back. If she won’t go back, catch her and put her back
and fasten her up again. If she goes back of her own free
will you may leave her nest open, as by that time she is
getting used to things and will perhaps need little further
attention. Sometimes it requires two or three trials before
she will go to her own nest, but she must be taught to do so,
or fastened up each time until she learns it. In the house
where my sitting hens are I always keep plenty of food,
water, grit and ash heap to roll in.
After your hen has been sitting about eight days you
THE CHICK BOOK 37
should test out all the infertile eggs. All the tester I use is
a common lantern and my two hands. I set my lantern on
top of the box in which the hen is, any time after dark, on
the eighth day, or on up to the tenth day. I take each egg
between the thumb and first finger of both hands and hold
it up between my eyes and the light, so I can see through.
If the egg is infertile it will be a clear yellow color all over.
If there is a chick started in it the embryo can be seen.
Testing in this way is the simplest thing imaginable. I
leave the in‘ertile eggs in a basket until morning, when they
are broken into the ground feed and fed to the laying hens.
Tf you have a pen of hens that have taken to eating their
eggs feed them to them without breaking them. Feed them
all they will eat and they will get foundered on eggs and
soon let them alone.
Some writers advise setting two hens at once, and when
you test out a part give what eggs are left to one hen, and
set the other on fresh eggs. Do not do it. It makes the
second hen have to sit too long and about the time she
comes off with her chicks you may lose her. But let each
hen keep her own eggs and if there are not more than eight
or nine chicks when they both hatch, one hen can take all
and the other, for her own good,must be broken up. Another
thing that I do for my sitting hens is to sprinkle every hen
onee a week with some good insecticide. I make a mixture
of crude carbolic acid one ounce, sulphur four pounds, and
sifted coal ashes about eight or ten pounds. This dilutes
the carbolic acid sufficiently, so it is not dangerous and can
be sprinkled over the backs of the hens on the nests, with
the bare hand.
As I said in the beginning my sitting hens are among the
least of my troubles, but if somebody can tell me how to
The Brooder of Our Forefathers.
keep my neighbors’ dogs and cats and rats and weasles and
minks from killing my birds, without my getting into a
racket with my neighbors, such information will be thank-
fully received. H. F. BALLARD, M D.
HATCHING WITH STRANGE HENS.
Orange Boxes Made Very Good Double Nests—The Care of Sitting Hens that are Moved from One Farm to Another.
By C. A. Dutton.
seasons in managing sitting hens has given very
good results, and I will attempt to explain it with
the hope that some reader may glean a kernel of
helpful information therefrom.
I use 2 small room in the barn for sitters, partitioned
off for that purpose. For nests I have found nothing better
than orange boxes, which generally can be had at any gro-
cery or fruit store for the asking. They are about the proper
size, each box holding two hens. They are made so as to
give a free circulation of air through the nests, which is
very essential to the comfort of the hen in warm weather.
I have a hinged door to each box to make it handy in letting
the hens off and on their nests. For nest material I use
straw. : 7
Being a Leghorn breeder, I have to buy sitters from the
neighbors. I gather them at night and place them in the
nests on china eggs. They are not let off until the second
day after they are put on the nests. After this they are
taken from the nests each day and fed whole corn and grit.
The hens are often quite wild, but by being gentle with them
they soon become quiet enough to place eggs in their care.
Each day these hens are taken from the nests, fed and re-
turned again in about fifteen minutes and shut up. This
prevents hens from leaving their nests and fighting with
T HE plan which I have followed for the past three
other hens, which generally results in broken eggs. I then
darken the room aud all is quiet till the next day. By this
method I have had hens hatch two sittings of eggs and come
off looking well.
When buying sitters it is best to make sure that each
one has taken up the business in sober earnestness before
they are moved to their new location. Those who sell
them naturally desire to get them out of the way as soon
as possible, and will often urge the buyer to remove them
before they have been broody long enough to be reliable.
A hen should sit three or four days before she is trans-
ferred to another piace. Then, if they are handled care-
fully and made comfortable during the journey, they will
continue to behave well in their new home, even when the
surroundings are entirely different. The man who care-
lessly pulls a hen off her nest, thrusts her into a sack and
jolts her home on his shoulder, ought not to expect the
hen to sit. But sometimes she does, for some hens can
scarcely be induced to change their minds by the harshest
treatment.
During the past three years I have bought from twenty-
five to forty sitting hens a season and out of this number
have had only three which positively refused to sit; and I
have had an average hatch of eleven chicks per hen, the
season through, by following this plan. C. A. DUTTON.
}
A HOUSE FOR SITTING HENS.
A Southern Poultryman Hatches With Hens and Incubators, but Prefers Hens for Brooding the Chicks—
How the Hatchery is Equipped.
By F. E. Winge.
+
WILL give my way of hatching and plans of the kind of
hatching houses I use. On account of oil being so ex-
pensive in this locality, and for several other reasons,
I consider a kind of half artificial half natural mode
of conducting the hatching is the best way. Of course my
“better half’ gives me a hand and I don’t see how I could
manage without it, because hired help down here is, to say
the least, very unreliable.
We have prepared for fertile eggs and vigorous chicks
by selecting our best birds, keeping them in good condition,
but not in any way forcing them for the sake of winter
|
io]
LOR,
= 4
LIB
é
ah a he a
z
She will as a rule be waiting for this and greatly enjoy a dust
bath, a good drink and a quantity of whole corn. Only one
nest door being open, there is no one to fight with and she
cannot make a mistake in nests, so no eggs will be broken
or chilled. After the expiration of twenty minutes, during
which time we are employed with something else, we again
visit the hatching house, when as a rule the hens at liberty
will have resumed their duty. Thesecond hen in each pen is
then liberated and after another twenty minutes the third
one. Thus we must be at hand for about one hour, but the
actual work in caring for all thirty hens will not take more
than ten minutes. The best of it is
ss that any one can be entrusted to do
: the work now and again should it be
necessary.
We place a couple of handfuls of
mint (which grows wild here) in nest
material and there is no trouble with
HAY in
wy
(a=
Bec TT
2
a
PLAN NO 2
SECTION OF NEST BOXES
z
z
LI
i=)
CI
vermin. Above each nest is a piece of
pasteboard tacked, with number «if sit-
ting, number and kind of eggs, when
due, number of chicks and punch mark.
10°
CO
I
[El
a
ke gg te
a
When hatch is over it is copied in the
PLAN Na{
eges, and by keeping two males for each pen, placed therein
on alternate days.
I aim to set six hens and to start a fifty egg incubator
at the same time, and as soon as the chicks are dry I divide
them among the hens, so each hen gets from twelve to six:
teen chicks to care for, depending on the season of year. If
there are too many chicks, some of the hens waiting for
eggs are made to breod them.
We hatch during February, March and April, and in the
fall during September and October.
Hatchinzg houses are 20x20 feet. The sills are two feet
from the ground. The houses could be made any length,
but we use them for curing cow-pea hay in and this size has
been found most convenient. They are made entirely of 2x4
scantling and 1x12 inch rough boards. Boards on walls are
left one-half inch apart and of course not battened so as to
admit air for the curing of the hay.
Plan 1 shows the floor plan with ten pens. I place three
sitters in each pen, thus the house will accommodate thirty
sitters at one time. The letter N in plan 1 shows position of
nest boxes in hallway; A shows feed and grit boxes; W,
water pans, and D, dust boxes. As may be understood, all
work in setting and caring for hens is done from the hallway.
Plan 2 shows a section of nest boxes without bottom;
W is a wire used in closing front door; T top doors; P being
nail used for fastening the wire of the front doors.
The pens having been cleaned out, water and feed boxes
filled, we begin letting out one hen in each pen at 4 p. m.
PLAN No 3
Plan of House and Equipment for the Use of Sitting Hens Described by F. E. Winge.
hatching record book. It should be re-
membered that good accommodations
for the sitting hens, not only make the
work for caring for them easier, but
often are of considerable assistance in securing good
hatches. The poultrymen further north, who desire to set
hens very early, must protect them from 'the cold, or good
hatches cannot often be obtained. The hen will generate
enough heat to keep the eggs at the required temperature
during very cold weather, if the building in which she sits
offers sufficient protection so that her comb will not be
‘touched by frost and if the nest is deep, warm and snug.
In the south we have less of the extreme cold to guard
against, but late in the season wa find it advisable to see
to it 'that the sitting hens are afforded some protection from
the heat. A hen is not comfortable, and will not often
bring off a good hatch when she is confined in a hot-box.
The building should be sufficiently well ventilated to keep
it fairly cool and frequently cleaned anid disinfected to
make the air fit for the hens to breath.
On poultry farms ,where the natural means of hatching
are employed and scores, or perhaps hundreds, of sitting
hens must be cared for, the time required to do this part
of the routine work is considerable and any plan that prom-
ises ‘to decrease the time required, ana consequently the ex-
perse, for “time is money,” is worthy of serious attention.
It is not well to let off a group of ‘hens in the same
‘apartment at one time, for they are almost sure to fight,
or cause trouble in some way. To take off each one sep-
arately requires too much time. The house and equipment
described enables the one in charge to care for the hens in
the best manner and the least time. F. E. WINGE.
SECTION
THE SITTER AND HER BROOD.
(Making the Nest and Setting the Hen—Feeding and Caring for the Hen and Chicks—A Satisfactory
Coop and Runway. ;
By Mrs. S. E. Hurlbut.
is an empty barrel. Cut a hole niné.inches from the
bottom end. Make this hole seven inches wide and
nine inches high. Put about three inches‘of dirt in
‘the bottom, leaving it about level.
pili HE best thing I have ever found in which to set hens
of china eggs in the nest and putin the hen. Stand the bar-
rel on end and put a board across the top for shelter and to
darken the nest, so it is more secluded. This also prevents
the hen from flying upon the top where she is liable to foul
tthe nest and eggs. 4
If the hen is uneasy put a board or wire screen in front
of the hole in the barrel so that she cannot get out for a day
or so. Let her sit on the china eggs for a couple of days so
ithat the nest will be thoroughly warm, then put the eggs
under her. Keep plenty of good: clean water and ground
corn where she can get it and give her a chance for a dust
bath. If you have a shed or vacant coop where the ground is
.dry the bath is assured. You can place several of these
nests side by side, as the barrel gives seclusion so that the
hens cannot see each other.
After the hen has been sitting about a week dust her with
some good lice killer, and dust again a few days. before
hatching time is due. The cover can be lifted from the bar- °
rel to do the dusting and if for any reason you wish to take
the hen off the nest you can lift her out without disturbing
the eggs. Leave the chicks in the nest at least twenty-four
‘hours after they are hatched, and it is well enough to put a
piece of board in front of the entrance, so that the chicks
cannot fall out. It often happens that, if one of the chicks
gets out and peeps loudly, the hen will leave the nest and
‘brood the lone chick, leaving the others to get chilled. At
the proper time take the hen and put her in the coop and
‘give her the chicks. After the chicks are a few days old
turn the coop over in the evening and dust the hen with
powder, which will work down through her feathers onto the
chicks. I occasionally turn the coop bottom side up and
sprinkle kerosene thoroughly on the inside.
Runway Used With Mrs. Hurlbut’s Brood Coop.
Feeding the Chicks.
The first food given the chicks is usually bread and
milk, and for a water dish for small chicks a low tin baking
dish, not more than an inch high, is all right! The food I
Put in a double handful |
.of tobacco stems or waste tobacco, laying it level, then put in
enough fine hay or straw to make a good nest. Put.a couple,
_ grit and oyster shells. |
give after the first day is meal and middlings (equal parts
by. measure) mixed, with about one tablespoonful of animal
meal to one quart of the food. .This is thoroughly scalded
and fed cool five times a day for about two weeks. After
that'I feed the mash three times a day and in the middle
‘of the fore-
noon and af-
ternoon they
are fed hulled
oats and
wheat screen-
ings mixed. I
increase the
animal meal
gradually un-
til they are
well feathered Sl
out, when I = | Ney
feed about one PAB
part animal
meal to eight ; ; :
parts meal and middlings—say eight pints of ‘food and one
[
| | As Lr
WD RL Ay Cia Woe
jn ‘i iW. Mi. ile +
ft hw pee wh!
Wy HG
Mrs. Hurlbut’s Brood Coop.
-pint of animal meal, or that proportion. I occasionally feed
chopped onions, which they always relish, and give them
I throw it into. the runs and let
them eat what they want of it. During the winter, when
the hens ‘have picked out the coarse shell and grit, I put
_the fine grit in a box and keep it to feed to the chicks in
the spring.
I keep the chicks in the runs until they are well feath-
ered out, moving the runs as fast as they eat down the
grass, in hot weather being careful to place them in the
shade. JI take the hens away from the chicks when they are
large enough, and that depends on the weather. In warm
weather they will do without the hen younger than when
‘it-is colder. Each breeder must use his own judgment,
and in fact the keynote of success is good judgment.
There are no ironclad rules that fit all conditions. My
yards are about fifty by one hundred feet and well shaded.
I put the chicks into these yards when they are about ten
weeks old. After the chicks eat off the green
stuff in the yards, I feed green food once a day
and gradually reduce the regular meals to three
times a day. Anything I can get that is green
I feed them—grass, clover, weeds, radishes, cu-
cumbers, cabbage, lettuce, green corn, tomatoes,
apples, etc., all help. I have a good garden and
the surplus goes to them.
After the first hard frost in the fall I let
them run at large and lthey have a picnic in
the garden and fields until cold weather. I
keep grit and shell in the boxes by them all
the time in the yards. I give them plenty of good clean
water, keep them free from lice, give them shelter from rains
and sun, and when cold weather comes good, comfortable
houses. I raise Barred Plymouth Rocks and have no troub'e
40
in raising spring hatched cockerels that will weigh nine
pounds and over, and pullets that will weigh seven pounds
and over by Christmas,
Coop and Run for Hen With Chicks.
I have seen many sketches of coops, runs, etc., and pres-
ent herewith one that I have used for the past ten years with
good success. Some of my friends have adopted this style
of coop, and one man says of it, “It is the only thing with
which I can have any success in the village, as cats are so
A Prosperous Brood of Prospective Money Makers.
thick they get all my chicks if they are allowed to run.”
This coop is proof against hawks and crows as well, or any-
thing that does not’dig. ‘I like the old-fashioned A coop for
several reasons. The chicks can get down near the bottom
of the coop under the sides, and if the hen scratches they
are out of the way. They are cheap and easy to move, are
water-proof and easy to free from vermin. I cut the sides
thirty inches long, twenty inches wide, using ten-inch wide
boards with a‘batten of tin or wood over the middle joint.
Take three’ pieces of board, one by two, one for the ridge
pole, and the other two for battens near the bottom. Nail
these to the sides, as shown in shaded places in front of
coop. Take a piece, one by three, and put across the front.
THE CHICK BOOK
five inches from the bottom, as shown in the sketch. Nail
a piece, two and one-half inches wide, in the middle, leav-
ing a space two and three-quarter inches wide at each side.
Then nail the rest solid. Nail a board of matched stuff
lengthwise on the back, or bevel the edges so the water will
shed properly if not matched. You can leave a small hole
at the top of back for ventilation if necessary. I usually
cover the ridge with a strip of tin to make it water-proof.
When the chicks get large enough to jump up onto the cross-
piece and get out, put a piece
of one-inch wire netting across
the upper part of the front.
To make the runs take a
sixteen-foot board ten inches
wide, cut in two for the sides,
eight feet long. Then take
another board and cut two
pieces three feet ten inches
long for the ends, and two
pieces four feet two inches
long for the cover and top
board. Take four pieces ten
inches long, two by two, for
corner-pieces. Nail the three-
foot-ten-inch pieces to them,
place them ‘between the sides
and nail them securely. Take
one piece of the four-foot-
two-inch, place it on the end
of the run, lay the other piece
next to it and nail it securely.
Take two straps or T hinges
and hang the first board to
the one nailed and you have
the door by which to feed
and water. Cover the balance
of the top with one-inch mesh
wire netting four feet wide.
Saw a hole for the opening
fn one end eight inches long
and five inches wide from
the bottom. Move the coop
up to it so that the open-
ing will correspond with the end of the run. On cold
nights or in rainy weather put a board in front of the coop
on top of the run. This is necessary during rain storms,
as ihe rain falling on the boards will spatter into the coop
and make it damp unless protected.
In ‘hot weather I put the coop and run in the
shade, and move them every few days onto fresh
ground. These measures are notarbitrary, as the runs
can be made longer or shorter, or higher, to suit the fancy
of the breeder. I am giving you a general idea. The cover
and board adjoining make a good shelter for the chicks to
feed under when it rains and furnish a shade when the sun
shines, ° MRS. S. BE. HURLBUT.
REARING CHICKS NATURALLY AND ARTIFICIALLY.
The Difficulties and How to Avoid Them—Conditions That Affect the Health and Growth of Young Stock—Hatching
and Brooding—Feeding Chicks With Hens and In Brooders—Soft Food
Best to Produce Early Maturity.
By H. E. Moss.
HERE is such a multitude of ‘‘Don’ts” associated not
only with the poultry, but with every other business
that to attempt to enumerate them would be an end-
less task. What is often called “horse sense,” or
good judgment, or brains, must determine between the right
and the wrong; but many occasions will arise where ex-
perience is necessary upon which to base judgment and
where the experience of others can be had and applied. It
is equivalent to so much time and money saved, for with-
out it we must test the question ourselves and if found to
be a failure it is just so much paid for experience or paid
up capital. We shall, therefore endeavor to be as clear and
explicit as possible, assuming that the large majority who
will avail themselves of this advice are amateurs or begin-
ners who are willing to profit by the experience of others,
and to whom success or failure means much. We shall
avoid the don’ts and write from the positive, not the nega-
tive viewpoint.
The rearing of domestic poultry should show a profit
and will do so in proportion to the intelligence with which
it is conducted precisely as in any other busness; but where
the highest order of talent is employed, the profits on the
capital invested will far exceed those in any other legiti-
mace business.
We Will Start With the Chick
As it emerges from the shell. If the eggs begin to pip
in the evening they should all be excluded by the next morn-
ing. In cool weather compel the hen to keep her nest for
twenty-four hours longer; this will permit the chicks to
sleep and gain strength, which they will very rapidly, as
the absorption of the yolk now begins and the new functions
are fully established. Then remove her with the brood to
the coop, but before doing so, dust her thoroughly with a
good insect powder and apply a little grease or oil on top
of the chicks’ heads and under the wings. This will pre-
vent much future trouble in fighting lice. This should be
repeated once a week until they are past danger and can
dust themselves in soft moist earth as their instinct teaches
them. ,
Have Your Coops Ready.
In severe cold weather they should be placed under shel-
ter, but where they get as much direct sunshine as possible.
An open shed facing south or east is preferable where the
chicks can have a dry run when a late snow covers the
ground. A gravel or sand floor is very desirable, and if
dry, will be found very satisfactory. Your coop will require
no bottom, but can be shifted its width every day, thereby
insuring a clean floor. Otherwise a wooden floor is’ indis-
pensable and should be covered with chaff, fine litter, ashes
or any suitable material and renewed. frequently.
Food and Warmth
Are now the two factors upon which success depends.
The latter need not be considered here, as the hen is to
B
brood them, and she will take care of them; but in cold
weather we render it more comfortable for them by placing
the coop in a sheltered location, at the same time allowing
the chicks liberty to run in the sunshine during the middle
of the day. Should the snow be deep, clear a place for them.
They thrive better, grow faster and make stronger, hardier
fowls than the later hatches that have the extreme heat of
summer to contend with before they are half grown. A
long protracted hot spell checks their growth in a very
marked degree. Cold does iess harm than heat, provided
.they can run under the hen and get warm whenever they are
so inclined, and if the hen or the warmth is always to
be found when they want it, there is little danger of
them becoming chilled. The best results will usually be
had where the hen is kept in her coop until the chicks are
weaned, thereby compelling her to hover the chicks when
ever they demand it and avoiding the enforced excessive
exercise she would often subject them to, tiring them out
and making them leg weary. Scatter a shovel of sand in
frout of the coop, which will serve as their first grit. Have
a feeding board or trough ready; also drinking fountain,
which wash out daily and keep filled with pure water, After
your chicks have been out of the shell thirty-six hours, give
them a feed of stale bread crumbs soaked in milk and
squeezed almost dry. They wiil eat sparingly at first, as
they should. They have been nourished by the yolk which
was taken into the abdominal cavity just before hatching
and they would not suffer from the lack of food for three
days.’ The bread and milk does not overtax the delicate
digestive organs, which as yet have been unemployed, and it
cleanses the crop, gizzard, and intestinal tract and prepares
it for its functions. Feed every two hours for the first
three days, but only what they will eat up clean each time.
Little and often is the rule for little chicks up to ten days
old, then the capacity of the crop increases and the inter-
vals can be lengthened.
We have seen so much of the hard boiled egg nonsense
and the fatality from it that it is surprising that any one
should recommend it. Others will advise corn meal,
johnny cake, meat stew, hash—anything. Now, it would
be just as consistent to feed these things to a new born
babe as to a chick. It has been done and no doubt some
survived, put only because green food happened to be ac-
cessible, and the chick after eating the poison, found the
‘antidote. A dog can eat Rough on Rats and then ‘rink a
pan of milk and suifer no injury, but that does not justify
me in advising it as a steady diet for dogs. Those who pre-
fer the dry grain ration should after the third day use pin-
head oat meal and a little millet seed until they can eat
cracked wheat, finely chopped corn, and hulled oats, which
latter should constitute the main food for a growing chick.
Add to this a little millet or chopped sunflower seed with
a little (very little) cut green bone or lean meat daily after
they are ten days old, the amount depending on the season
42 THE CHICK BOOK
and the number of insects and worms obtainable on range.
Green food or bulky vegetable food should be fed daily and
as regularly as a horse cr cow is fed hay. It is just as es-
Sential and serves the same purpose in the digestive process
in one case as in the other. Accustom them to eat whole
wheat, buckwheat and cracked corn as soon as possible.
A Preference for Soft Food.
Our preference and that of many others, especially
where the chicks are raised for market, is soft food, for two
reasous: First, because we can combine all the necessary
elements and secure the proper ratio of food constituents
at each feeding. They cannot select certain seeds or parti-
cles which they prefer and waste the remainder, as they will
in dry feed. They usually hunt out all the millet seed first.
as this is “candy” to the little chicks and a luxury even to
old hens. Bury a handful under a haystack and they will
leave no straw unturned until they find it. No matter how
accurately we figure out our dry feed ration, we can’t force
them to eat the less palatable after they have filled up on
“candy” and our calculations are knocked out. Second, be-
cause a soft, properly compounded food needs no accessories
A Flock of Chicks That Will Grow Fast if Well Fed.
except green food, which is imperative in either case, and it
Saves much energy which would be expended by the chicks
in grinding it. Bear in mind, we are raising these chicks
for profit and not us pets. We must, therefore, force them
to the limit of their ability to eat, digest, assimilate and
grow. Quick maturity is what we desire. In order to achieve
this we must meet all the demands made by the growing
powers for material to grow on. You can’t deceive nature.
If it calls for nitrogen, carbon will not answer; if it calls
for water, nitrogen will not serve, and any ration that is not
‘balanced as it should be feeds one side and starves the other,
If any system of feeding could be devised whereby we could
mature a chick in four weeks, we should all quickly adopt it,
and if we were raising chicks exclusively for market we
should not depart from it. Again, a ration may be balanced
and its ratio of protein (albuminoids) to carbohydrates,
free fat, and mineral salts properly determined and yet fail,
as il surely will if the protein is derived exclusively from
vegetable or grain sources. The experiment stations have
lately proved this fact, which some of us discovered long
ago by costly experience, at that time our only teacher. A
ration bearing precisely the same nutritive ratio but with
‘a certain percentage of animal protein will be highly suc-
cessful, but if lacking it they famish and die from starva-
‘tion in the midst of apparent plenty. A chick properly fed
will be very eager for the next feed. When they are not,
there is danger ahead. Never feed all they will eat up by
lingering over the feed trough. They will overload their
crops if permitted and where dry food is given, especially
rolled oats, the swelling takes place in the crop faster than
the food is passed into the gizzard and often proves fatal.
An excess of bran is also dangerous. A little is necessary
in some cases and desirable in others, as the husk or shell
acts as a stimulant to intestinal action, but an excess causes
irritation and bowel trouble.
The above is comparatively an easy matter to follow,
for when natural brooding is employed more than half of
our anxiety is removed, and when the business is to be con-
ducted on a small scale this method will answer, but where
large numbers are to be hatched and grown, any but the
artificial system would be entirely too laborious and out of
the question. The above being fully understood, the only
change to be considered is
Artificial Brooding.
Unless we can furnish a uniform and constant supply of
heat of the right temperature trouble begins, and once
begun there seems to be
no end. Get this one fact
clearly in your mind, that
warmth is more essential
than food in handling an
incubator brood. They will
manage 'to live on almost
any kind of food even if
they do not grow and
thrive, but variable heat in
the brooder is faltal. The
chemical and nutritive
changes that food must
undergo in the digestive
process can only be carried
on at a high temperature.
This is the vital tempera-
ture; below it the process
ceases. This! at once checks
nutrition. Doctors describe
health as the perfect har-
mony of nutritious changes, or physiological ease.
Tf the temperature of the body falls below the vital
point, nutrition is disturbed and disease follows. If the
chick is chilled before the yolk is fully absorbed, nothing
will save it. The nutritive process has been checked. What
food is taken afterward passes wholly or partly undigested
and death soon follows. Fatal as cold is when prolonged to
discomfort, it is necessary after the chick has learned where
to run to hover and get warm, to allow them a little exer-
cise in an outside run in moderately cold weather when they
can take in the sunshine. If left to their choice, they will
seek the warmth before they become chilled to the danger
point, provided they know where to find it. Here is where
the artificial brooder is better than many old hens, that
often keep going, no matter how cold it is, while the chicks
cry and beg for the warmth that is denied them. Their
plaintive peep is sure sign of discomfort, and whenever
it is heard it is high time they were looked after. Where
chicks are tc be raised by the thousands for market, arti-
ficial incubating and brooding must be adopted, as it would
require too much help at too great an outlay to make it
profitable with hens under the natural method. Three sit-
ting hens would cause me more trouble and annoyance than
one incubator, and with their broods would require as much
attention as a brooder house holding several thousand.
ai
Any
THE CHICK BOOK 43
The Brooder House
Must be warm and dry. There are many good plans
published. One that will be found very satisfactory is six-
teen feet wide, four’ feet high in front, and six in the rear
with the hip of the roof plumb with the face of the hover’
so as to allow head room in the passage. Divide your space
into three feet at the rear for a walk; two feet for width
of hover and ‘eleven feet for pen. This building can be ex-
tended any length desired. Don’t attempt to heat the hovers
with lamps in any latitude north of Birmingham, Ala., or
you will fail. You might be able to get the temperature under
the hover high enough, but the pens would be chilly and
there is where they must spend the greater part of the day
if they are to thrive. Use a water jacket stove and double
loop of inch and a half pipe in the hover and a single loop
under the windows, of which there should be one in each
pen, raised twelve inches from the floor. Make the pens
four feet wide, this with eleven feet in length outside the
hover is sufficient to start one hundred
of their digestive organs and prepare them for the active
work demanded from the eleventh day until two weeks before
marketing. I feed a narrow ration, the basis being oats in
some form. I then hasten the finishing with the best pos-
sible material, adding more corn, and aim to add flesh faster
than frame or feathers and to distribute what fat is deposit-
ed in globules throughout the meat, making it tender and
juicy instead of accumulating layers of internal fat or
patches under the skin, all of which is wasted and lost in
cooking and serving the fowl. A properly fattened fowl
should not show any visible fat when dressed, but not one
in a thousand poultry raisers knows how to put meat on
a growing chick, and the only way they can turn out what
might pass for a plump broiler or roaster is to work on such
breeds as develop the quickest and then cover them with as
much fat as possible in addition to the meat. This is all
wrong. Soft, tender, juicy meat and a round, plump breast
is what.is wanted and the fatty delusion must stand aside.
chicks in, but they must be thinned out as
they grow older. A movable lid over the
pipes is all the hover consists of. They will
be contented and scratch and exercise all
day long and run under the pipes when they
wish extra warmith. No curtains are re-
quired when the building is heated as we
describe. They are undesirable at best,
When the hover is curtained off it cften is
allewed to become filthy, and impure air and
amnonia fumes are held there for the chicks
to breathe. If the hover registers too high i
a temperature and the pens too low, lift or
lap the covers so the heat from the pipes
can rise more readily.
Crowding works much mischief. Out-
door and indoor brcooders heated by lamps
are frequently rated at too high a capacity.
Tf one-half the chicks were assigned to them #@
there would be less loss and better chicks.
The action of the chicks is a perfect indi-
eation of their feelings. Whenever they
stand around humped up and chirping, they
are in danger and are losing ground instead
of gaining. In ordinary winter weather they should be
given access to the outside runs for a few hours when the
sun is bright. They are better for it and will run in and
get warm when they feel inclined.
Keep your supply of coarse sand and fine grit and clean
drinking water constantly before them. After they are ten
days old they are quite hardy and practically safe; and if
properly fed and of breeds suitable for broilers they can be
made to weigh one pound in forty days, one and a half
pounds in fifty-five days and roasters five pounds each at
four months. When reared with small yards for exercising
they move about much less than when on free range, and
while they have sufficient exercise to maintain good health,
they have not sufficient to waste energy or fiesh or toughen
their muscles. They gain in weight more rapidly and make
heavier, plumper broilers in a given time.
Feeding Brooder Chicks.
I use three distinct mixtures of food between hatching
and marketing time. The first ten days I take special care
These Chicks are Housed in Permanent Buildings and have Large, Well-shaded Runs.
No one grain has so great a tendency to deposit internal
fat as corn, and this is the very last source we should go to
for flesh forming food. I believe that in the near future
our best markets will demand machine crammed or crate
fattened poultry. They have for many years demandcd
crammed ducklings. The only reason they have not been
known by this name is because no machine is necessary to
cram a duckling—he will stuff himself-if given the food.
The rations fed for any specific purpose may vary great-
ly as to material, and in different localities will naturally
be compounded of the most available material if suitable,
but for a growing chick they should always consist of oats
(minus the hulls) in some form as the base, and this forms
one-half the ration. Other grains can be varied, whether
cracked or ground, but five per cent of the bulk must con-
sist of meat or ground bone in some form after they are ten
days old as well as an abundant daily supply of succulent
green food or steamed clover. If you omit the meat or green
food trouble begins and shows in weak legs, naked bodies,
stuated and uneven growth and blue, skinny carcasses when
dressed. H. E. MOSS.
BROODING, COOPING AND FEEDING CHICKS.
A Writer who is Regarded as Authority Discusses Brooders and Brooding, Foods and Feeding, and Describes the
Proper Care for Chicks of Different Ages.
By A. F. Hunter.
ATCHING the chicks is but half the battle, if, indeed,
JBI it is half the battle, as many a poultryman who
has rejoiced in good hatches by either hens or in-
cubator has afterwards learned to his sorrow. With
incubator chicks raised in brooders elbow room seems to
be a most important factor, and want of elbow room. is one
cause of great mortality in brooder chicks. It is quite nat-
ural to suppose that a brooder which is three feet square
(giving nine square feet of floor space), is abundant room
for seventy-five or one hundred chicks, and, indeed, it is for
chicks as they come out of the incubator, and if we dio not
want our chicks to grow it is all right to. crowd into a brood-
er twige as many as should be init. A point that we should
keep in mind, however, is that these chicks will be fully
twice as large at three weeks old and probably four times
as large at five weeks old, or by the time we move
them from the brooder, and that factor we should have in
mind in gauging the capacity of a brooder. I have come to
believe that for good results fifty chickens are as many as
should be put in any brooder; that to increase the number
‘peyond that point is to induce crowding, which kills some
and stunts others, and is extremely unfortunate if quick
and profitable growth is our aim. If, as not infrequently
happens, we find we have one hundred and fifty chickens in
the incubator when we only expected about one hundred,
and have but two brooders heated up to receive them, no
harm will result in putting seventy-five chicks in each of
the two brooders for a couplé of days, but another brooder
must be made ready at once and the one hundred and fifty
chicks put into the three, which gives reasonably abundant
room for all of them and they have a good chance to grow.
We raise chickens on our farm for two purposes, first
for market, second for breeding stock. The chickens for
market are hatched usually from about Christmas time to
the middle of March. Those intended for breeding stock
are hatched from about the middle of March to the middle
of May. To have chickens out by Christmas time we have
an incubator started early in December, and at that time
it is our custom to start one incubator a week, or, possibly,
four incubators in three weeks, gradually increasing to two
incubators a week through January and February, and so
on. For these winter chicks we have a brooder house 130
feet long by ten feet wide, partitioned into sixteen pens
eight feet by ten feet, each pen having a door and window
in front which faces the south. This brooder-house is
double walled, with a four-inch air space between the inner
and outer walls (it would be better still if the wall and roof
spaces were packed with straw or swale hay), and the only
artificial heat used in this house is in the brooders them-
selves, excepting that in some severely cold weather we put
a small oil stove in each pen to take the chill out of the
air, in order that the chicks may be out in the pen. We
use brooders which are three feet square, heated by an oil
lamp with a one and one-half inch wick, the air which
passes into the brooder being heated by passing over a sheet
iron ceiling to the lamp chamber, and by this method of
applying the heat indirectly a slight current of warmed
fresh air is passing into the brooder all the time. Herein,
we think, is one of the great faults with many brooders, as,
for example, the hot-water pipe brooders in use in many
brooder houses. Those hot-water pipes simply heat the air
already within the hovers, which air is practically confined
to the hovers by the felt curtain in
PART OF LONG BROODER HOUSE,
The Foreground Shows Brooders Out of Doors, Each Brooder Enclosed in a Pen 20 Feet
Square, Made of 18-inch Netting.
front, which is supposed to enclose the
warmth within the hovers. It does
that very ‘well, but it likewise encloses
the air, which the chicks have to
breathe over and over again, and in
that defect I think we find a clue to
not a little of the mortality and conse-
quent shrinking of profits on brooder
house chicks. A current of warmed
fresh air supplied to the hovers would
overcome this serious difficulty, and
would, in my judgment, materially re-
duce the mortality of brooder chicks.
‘The brooders are set in the ground
to a depth of six or seven inches,
which serves a twofold purpose. The
lamp chamber is enclosed go as to cut
off currents of air, and the chicks run
out and in upon a level. For our win-
ter chickens the brooders are set in
the middle of the pens in) the brooder
houses, or, say, about four feet
back from the window, and two
THE CHICK BOOK » 45
pieces of board are fitted into slots at each front corner,
extending to the side of the pen, so that the chicks are kept
in that warm, sunny half of the pen until they are a week
to ten days old. The first day after being removed from the
incubator they are usually kept confined to the brooder, the
food being put on gmall platters
placed in the corners of the brooders
for them. After they are old enough
to be let out they are fed and watered
outside, just in front of the brooders.
These winter chickens will need the
warmth of the brooders until they are
seven or eight weeks old, but the
temperature of the hover is gradually
reduced from 95 degrees at the begin-
ning to 90 or thereabouts at the end
of the second week, then to 85, then
80, then 75, and the last week or so
that the chicks occupy the brooder the
flame of the lamp is kept as low as it
can be run, to give just the least
amount of warmth, 65 to 70 degrees
being sufficient.
The chickens that we raise for
breeding stock are brooded out of
doors (it being our custom to begin set-
ting brooders out about April 1st, the
brooders being set in the ground, just
as formerly inside the brooder house,
but as we have much rainy weather
in April and May, we have “shel-
ter boards” to serve as protection from the rain, set a little
way in front of the brooders, and under which the chicks can
take refuge from storms. The chicks put out of doors are
kept within the brooder for about one day, then a little pen
a yard square made of three pieces of board three feet long
set up to the front of the brooder gives them a snug little
enclosure for the few days of babyhood. Next we make
a pen about twenty feet square of one-inch mesh wire net-
ting tied to temporary stakes, and the chicks have the range
of this pen until they are big enough to be weaned from the
brovder, which, in May and June, is at about six weeks
old. Then they are moved back to a grassy ridge bordering
the pasture on one side and mowing field on the other.
There they are colonized in “A” coops (as we call them)
for five or six weeks, when it is time to separate the pullets
from the cockerels, and put the pullets out in the grass
fields, in reosting coops, in families of about twenty-five
each, colonized about fifty yards apart. The cockerels in-
tended to be raised for breeding are confined in pens about
50x100 feet, while the cockerels intended for market are
taken back to the pens in the brooder house, which have
small yards 10x20 outside, and there they are fed and grown
for market.
The coops for these chickens play a not unimportant
part in chicken raising, and a brief description of them may
be interesting. The “A” coops are three feet six inches by
two feet three inches on the ground ‘and two feet high at
the apex of the roof. They are built throughout of half-inch
tongued and grooved pine and well painted. The front is
all slats, as shown in the illustration, with a slatted gate
sliding in grooves to close the front. We originally built
“A” coops to slope down to the ground, but found it an im-
provement to have a square base four inches high, with the
corners turned to an angle, to prevent the chicks from
crowding back under the eaves and smothering one or two
at a time. We find it a most decided advantage to have
these well built coops always at hand, and as we have coops
now in use which were built ten years ago, and are as good
to-day as when made, the economy of well made coops will
be apparent. When we say that the tongues and grooves of
the roof pieces are painted before they are put together, the
BROODERS AS USED OUT OF DOORS.
The One in Foreground has a Very Small Pen for Baby Chicks.
reader will realize that they are thoroughly well built.
The roosting coop, which is chiefly intended for raising
the pullets in, is six feet long, three feet wide, two feet high
at back and three feet high in front. The roof, ends and
back side are all of half-inch tongued and grooved pine, the
front being laths, set a lath width apart, except that a strip
of board is nailed to each corner for stiffening. Two roosts
stiffen it. A coop like this will comfortably house twenty-
five to thirty chickens until they are nearly grown; in fact,
we sometimes have pullets begin to lay before they are
brought in from those roosting coops. It is quite light and
can be easily moved on a wheelbarrow, or moved its length
and width to fresh ground, or it can be tipped up and drop-
pings removed, and it is a perfect summer shelter. If they
are to be used in the spring or fall, when the nights are
cold, an improvement would be to make a front of half-inch
boards, hinged at the top edge, so it could swing outward
and upward and rest upon folding legs hinged at the bottom
corners, which would become a roof to shelter the birds
from ‘rains. One disadvantage of this light coop is, that
it may be easily tipped over by a high wind, especially
when the chickens are all out of it, as during the day. ‘ro
prevent it from so tipping over a flat stone should be placed
on each front corner of the roof.
The gate space in front of the coop gives access to the
whole inside when the pullets are to be removed. The gate
is made of laths nailed to two strips one inch square, the
left hand ends of which are long enough to slip in behind
the lath front, the right hand side being secured by one or
two buttons. If one prefers, these gates can be hinged at
one side or the other and secured by a hook or a button, but
of two by three scantling, slightly rounded at top, run the
whole length and are a foot apart, being securely nailed to
a frame of furring (one by three stuff) nine inches from the
ground. To this frame we nail] the ends, back side and
front corner boards and then fit in at the top a frame
of inch-square stuff to nail the roof boards to and
46 THE CHICK BOOK
we have found it a convenience to have them wholly de-
tachable, and so make them.
Shelter from rain and sun is of quite as much help as a
good coop to sleep in. By experimenting in different ways
we learn that it would pay as well to have “shelter boards”
always ready, just as are the coops; hence we make them of
the half-inch, tongued and grooved pine, taking five strips
three feet long by six inches wide for each shelter board.
These strips are securely nailed to pieces of inch-square
spruce at top and bottom, and then the weather side is well
d painted. We make a
light frame of the
“jnch square spruce
strips and laths to fit
up to the “A” conps
when we want to put
the shelter close to
; the coop, using one
of the 242x3-foot shelter boards, as shown in the illustra-
tions. As the chicks get a little older we move the frame
out a little, set athwart the froat of coop, and put two
shelter boards over it side by side, setting it so that it fur-
nishes shade if the sun is shining, or protects from a driv-
ing rain, of course adapting it to the direction of the wind.
When we move the pullets out into the field and into the
roosting coops we set upon stakes and a strip of furring, a
shelving roof seven and a half feet long by three feet wide,
slightly sloping to the south, about eighteen inches high in
front and a foot high at the back. By these devices we more
than double the available shelter from rain and sun and cor-
respondingly increase the comfort of the growing chicks.
Obviously, if they have to be crowded into their narrow
sleeping quarters on a leng rainy day or to get away from
the hot sun, they are not making good growth, and by so
simple an expedient as we have here outlined we more than
double the protection and by so much promote their com-
fort.
The A Coop.
Foods and Feeding.
As we stated at the beginning of this article, we raise
two kinds of chicks, chickens for market and chickens for
breeding stock. The food for the first month or six weeks
is practically the same for each class, but at the end of six
weeks we begin to feed the market chicks a richer and more
fattening food, they
of coursa being kept fs;
separate from the }k,
chicks imtended for [}
breeding stock.
Feed often and
fecd but a little at a
time is the rule for
young chicks. We feed five times a day until they are about
six weeks old. It is important that no food be left standing
for the chicks to trample dirt into or to get sour in the sun;
if they have not eaten it all in twenty minutes to half an
hour, remove it. Nothing causes more bowel looseness and
dysentery than sour fool. Our chief foods for the first six
weeks are coarsest oatmeal, slightly moistened with sweet
milk if we have it; if not, with water, and waste bread
ground to rather coarse crumbs in a bone mill. This also
is moistened with sweet milk or water,—slightly moistened
so that it is still crumbly and not “pasty.” The oatmeal
is just such as is cooked for a breakfast dish on our table;
in other words, it is oat ineats grcund very coarse. This we
buy of wholesale grocers, by the barrel, at a cost of about
two cents a pound. The waste bread is the broken pieces,
part-loaves, rolls, corn cakes, etc., from hotels and restau-
rants and costs about a cent and a half a pound. This
Roosting Coops for Large Chicks.
bread we buy by the hundred weight and spread on the barn
loft to dry; when thoroughly dry it igs ground into eoaree
crumbs in a bone mill. The first food early in the morning
is the bread crumbs, slightly moistened with sweet milk or
water; the second, about nine o’clock in the morning, 18
oatmeal, slightly moistened a little pefore noon, bread
crumbs again, about half past two oatmeal again and abeut
5 o’clock a little cracked wheat or finely cracked corn. Twice
a week a little lean meat is boiled, chopped fine and mixed
with one of the bread or oatmeal feeds, or the infertile eggs
(clear eggs) from the incubators are boiled hard, chopped
fine, shells and all, and mixed with the bread crumbs or
oatmeal.
It is very important that the chicks have grit to grind
‘their food, and as baby chicks are hardly to be trusted to.
supply themselves with good grit, we sprinkle a pinch of
fine grit (or coarse sand) upon the small tin plates once a
day just before feeding, or, if preferred, it can be mixed
into the food. Grit in the gizzard to grind the food is a
most important factor in preventing indigestion and loose-
ness of the bowels.
Green food is another important aid to good health. If
the chicks are cooped upon fresh grass the problem is easily
solved, because they will help themselves. Obviously, the
January, February and March hatched chicks cannot have
access to fresh
grass, neither can
the larger chickens
shut up to be fatted
for market, hence a
supply of green food
must ‘be provided.
Cabbages, onions,
lettuce and onion
tops all make a good green food supply, and the same can
be said of weeds from the garden, which are easily obtained.
It is a comparatively easy matter to supply the green food
if one has the wiil.
We are well aware that many readers cannot get waste
bread from hotels and restaurants, and to such we recommend
the making of “johnny cake” of mixed meals, paked very
thoroughly, and we will give also the rule for “Excelsior
As a Shelter from Sun.
Meal bread” as recommended by Mr. I. K. Felch. “Grind
into a fine meal in the following proportions: Twenty
pounds corn, fifteen pounds oats, ten pounds barley, ten
pounds wheat bran. Make the cakes by taking one quart
sour milk (or buttermilk), adding a little salt and molasses,
one quart of water in which a large heaping teaspoonful of
saleratus has been dissolved. Then thicken all to a little
stiffer batter than your wife makes for corn cakes... Bake in
shallow pens until thoroughly cooked. We believe a well-
appointed kitchen and brick oven pays, for in the baking
of this food enough for a week can be cooked at a time.”
It is very certain that a cooked food of this kind is a decided
help to good growth in chicks, and as we on our farm want
a good growth, we study to promote it by feeding a good
food.
Not a few farmers and poultrymen think that oatmeal
as a food for chicks is a luxury. Wright’s “Practical Poul-
try Keeper” says: ‘With regard to feeding, if the question
be asked what is the best food for chickens, irrespective of
price, the answer must decidedly be, ‘oatmeal.’ After the
first meal of bread crumbs and egg no food is equal to it,
if coarsely ground, and only moistened so much as to remain
crumbly. The pric? of oatmeal is, however, so high as to
forbid its use in general except for valuable birds; but we
should still advise it for the first week in order to lay a
good foundation.”
THE CHICK BOOK 47
We are obliged to differ from Mr. Wright as to oatmeal
being an expensive food for chicks. It may look expcnsive
to pay $4 a barrel (two cents a pound) for oatmeal for chick-
en food; but it goes so far we have found it a decidedly
economical food. We use perhaps fifty dollars’ worth of oat-
meal a year and it makes about one-fifth of our chicks’ food
ration for the first three months of their life. Considered
simply as a food ration it is economical, but when we con-
sider that is a good foundation for the future usefulness of
the birds, and that a good foundation for chicks means eggs
in the basket next fall and winter—then we realize that
oatmeal is a cheap food in the best sense of the term.
By the time the chicks are six to eight weeks old the
principal dangers of chickenhood are past and the two dif-
ferent methods of feeding are inaugurated. The chickens
intended to be raised for breeding stock are put out in the
fields, where they have a grass run and a free range. The
chickens intended for market are kept confined in the
brooder house pens and yards and fed a slightly different
grade of food. The principal difference is in increasing the
amount of cracked corn and corn meal of the market chicks
and cutting off the oatmeal, of course the green food being
plentifully supplied and grit being constantly accessible.
The chicks in the field intended for laying and breeding
stock must have a liberal supply of nourishing, strengthen-
ing food, which will build up a strong, healthy and vigorous
body, with stores of strength to lean upon when maturity
shall come. The breakfast is bread crumbs, continued
usually until the chicks are about ten weeks old,
when they are graduated into a morning mash of
cooked vegetables (which makes about one-third of
the whole) and mixed meals, being equal parts by
weight of corn meal, ground oats, fancy middlings and
bran (or shorts); this is salted about as it would be if it
were food for the table. The vegetables are potatoes, beets,
turnips, carrots, onions—anything in the vegetable line,
thoroughly cooked and mashed fine, the mixed meals being
stirred in until it is stiff as a strong arm can make it. The
breakfast in the morning is this mash; in the middle of the
forenoon a light feed of coarse oatmeal, moistened; just
after dinner a light feed of cracked wheat and about five
o’clock whole wheat or cracked corn, one one day the other
the next. About twice a week we have fresh meat (butch-
er’s trimmings), which are boiled and then chopped fine.
This we mix with the oatmeal (about half and half) for the
second feeding. We have also a bone cutter and twice a
week the chicks have a good time wrestling and trampling
over each other in their eagerness to get the fresh cut bone.
Cut bone, if perfectly fresh and sweet, is one of the best
animal food sup-
plies that we have,
but, if this is not
available, meat
meal or beef scraps
should be mixed in-
to the morning
mash, about one-
quarter ounce per bird per day, for young birds, increasing
to about one-half cunce per day as they approach maturity.
We vary the food ration continually within the range
here described. For instance, one day the food will be mash,
bread crumbs, cracked wheat and cracked corn; next day,
mash, oatmeal and chopped meat, cracked corn, and whole
wheat; the next day bread crumbs, cut bone, oatmeal,cracked
As & Shelter from Rain.
corn and su on. The intention is to feed only what the chicks.
will eat up clean and quickly; but we break the rule so far as.
the last feed is concerned and the boy goes around a second
time twenty or thirty minutes after feeding, and if the food.
is all eaten up clean three or four handfuls more are put
down so that all shall have a chance to “fill up” for the
night. If a handful is left uneaten it quickly disappears
in the morning, and as it is always dry grain it does not.
sour and there is no danger from leaving it out.
We have = said
nothing about fresh
water because it
goes without saying
that fresh, clean
water must always
me accessible to the
chickens. We water
them three times a
day, morning, noon
and late afternoon; sometimes going around between
whiles if it is hot weather and the chickens are
likely to drink a good deal. ‘The water dishes are care-
fully rinsed once a day and water which is fresh and cool
is always accessible to them. Grit to grind the food is an-
other necessity, a pan of which is placed near each food
trough out in the field, or a small box of it in each pen in
the brooder house., We have personally noted that chickens
when let out of the coops in the morning would go to the
grit dish for two or three bits of grit before going to join
their mates at the food trough.
Thus far we have been writing about chicks raised for
breeding stock. When the market chicks are six to eight
weeks old we cut off the oatmeal (or ground oats) from the
food ration, double the quantity of corn meal and cracked
corn, feeding also on wheat or barley, feeding them occa-
sionally, say once a week, a feed of whole oats for a change.
The corn meal and meat meal are gradually increased and a
week to ten days before the chickens are to be marketed a
very little gluten meal is added to the ration and the meat
meal practically doubled in quantity until we are feeding a
full ounce per bird per day. With this decidedly fattening
ration the birds should go to market in first-class condition
and bring top prices for market chicks.
The chicks intended for breeding stock have free range
and can roam over the fields at will in search of insects,
worms, etc., the exercise of ranging promoting growth and
good health. We study to promote the comfort and well
being of the chicks, believing that it pays to do so. The
coops are kept scrupulously clean by being moved to fresh
ground every other day, and every reasonable pains is taken
to insure steady, continuous growth. It is the full egg bas-
ket in November, December and January, when eggs bring:
top prices and pay the creamy profits, that is being planned
for and worked for in this good care and good feeding, and
we have abundantly proved on our farm that this good care
and good feeding pay richly. We cannot get a valuable
thing for nothing; the good things in this world come by
working for them, and the good profits that are to be gained
in poultry raising have got to be worked for. With us the
problem is early hatched pullets kept growing so that they
shall come to laying maturity in October, and then kept lay-
ing. Our pullets are kept growing, and after they reach
laying maturity are kept laying, by good care and good food,
A. F. HUNTER.
A Shed-Roof Shelter.
JUNE HATCHED CHICKS.
Mr. Sewell Recalls Prominent Winners That Were Hatched in June—To Produce Them One Must Study Nature’s
Whims and Prepare Alike for Rain and Shine.
By F. L. Sewell.
best conditions for rapid growth at the time of
fruit blossoming. That is about the middle of
May in this latitude—but in seasons so backward
as some are, June is not a bad month in which to start.
Rearers of pheasants look to this month as their best
season for hatching—when the season is well settled and
rains are not too frequent. The haying season is the time
when the quail hatches her first broods. The June hatched
Mediterraneans, Games, Hamburgs and some others will re-
quire no special urging to bring them into fine form and
feather for the early winter shows. Our ambitious fanciers
WW" BELIEVE chicks come into the world with the
June Hatched and Vigorous.
who are not content with any but the very large breeds,
weighing eight to twelve pounds, must remember that they
are handling races developed through artful selection and
most advantageous environments.
The fancier who sets out to win in the present day com-
petition at our best shows and reap the high prices that are
paid for the prize-takers will keep in mind that every day
must bring gain in growth to his June chicks; he will see
that they have everything that adds to their comfort and
are well protected from all that retards their growth or
spoils their general condition and plumage.
No doubt at the winter show you have stood admiring
some splendid specimen in the American classes or even of
the grand Asiatics and a proud owner assured you that the
bird was ‘only a baby—a June hatched chick,” and you
wondered how he produced such freshness of feather—such
perfection of bloom; and a question brought the reply, ‘“Why
he has not had time to lose it—he just seemed to grow every
day from the time he was hatched until now.” Therein
lies success—not an hour’s neglect when natural, healthful
development could lag. Many of the finest show birds we
have seen at the great eastern shows of New York and Bos-
ton we have known to be June hatched. It is an old saying
among the fanciers that pullets appear at their finest just
the few weeks prior to laying their first egg, and if the show
birds can just reach maturity on show week they will ap-
pear in the pink of condition—with vigor at its height and
the plumage at its finest.
We mentioned the settled condition of June weather as
being favorable; however, a protracted dry season may be
far from beneficial, when a liberal supply of green and insect
food cannot be obtained. No birds can grow well without
them. Between a season of continued droughts and exces-
sive rains we would choose a season where the birds had
proper protection—dry coops and covered runs attached for
wet days. Between showers the birds will find abundance
of green food, insects and worms, while in the season of
drought they are apt to lack for both these. It is always
a safe provision to have a patch of young clover or some
good crop for green food. We know of nothing better than
a small field of white clover that can be watered and kept
green (a part to be cut for winter use) for the birds to for-
age over. During continued dry weather when the surface
of the soil seems to present no insects or worms a strip can
be occasionally. plowed up, giving a fair supply of worms
and bugs. A pile of small chips and partially decayed leaves
will afford excellent scratching, especially if partially in the
shade. Insects are constantly gathering in such a place.
The perfectly clean swept poultry yard may look to some
eyes most tidy, but to the chicks that hanker for a hunting
ground where they may stir up bugs or worms such a place
without its rubbish pile is a mockery to their nature. A
few wagonloads of old rotten wood and leaves from the
forest present a constant picnic to the chicks in summer.
Place the pile partly in the shade. The frequent visits to
it by the chicks will prove their appreciation for it.
The exercise taken in scratching for the insects will in-
duce thrift and add to the strength of the birds. Have you
not frequently received among your purchases, birds seem-
ingly lacking in all thrifty habits actually spoiled in their
bringing up? Some breeds, notably those nearest the orig-
inal type of the wild Bankiva fowl, hunt all day, turning
over the leaves as they search about, while others seem to
care for nothing beyond the dooryard and the granary. This
disposition and habit can be largely due to the methods em-
ployed in feeding while the chicks are growing up. A cer-
tain amount of range, encouraging the chicks to hunt and
scratch for at least a part of their food, will add value to
the birds in health and thrifty foraging habits. These last
remarks apply especially to chicks leaving the brooder or
hen in a dry season when the natural food may be scarce
and the temptation strongest to depend entirely upon the
feed bucket.
We learned through sad experience not to allow chicks
THE CHICK BOOK 49
to nestle or roost upon the bare ground. There should
always be a board platform raised a few inches above the
earth, keeping the birds dry under foot at all seasons.
‘We note that small, movable coops for weaned chicks
are rapidly growing popular, a number of very practical
patterns now being made to take down and ship in a small
space. We know that the value of these movable coops can
hardly be estimated. With such well planned and conven-
ient coops the chicks can be constantly on clean, fres.
ground and with the movable covered runs attached the
long rainy days are not nearly as much to be dreaded by
those ambitious to see their birds growing every day. Much
of the failure to succeed with young turkeys and pheasants
during the last two seasons is due to the lack of this kind
of protection. The fine young chicks can be weathered
through many a wet week to our entire satisfaction and the
coops made to pay their way many times over in the saving
they will be to young stock, among which we look for our
next winter’s prize winners.
With vigorous parent stock we always expect to pro-
duce rapid growing chicks, and with constant attention to
securing for them the best foods and giving them protection
from vermin and ill weather we look for many of the most
perfectly conditioned show birds to come out of these June
hatched broods.
FRANKLANE L. SEWELL.
JUNE HATCHED BIRDS FOR WINTER SHOWS.
The Season Naturally Favorable to Growth—Free Range for Hens with Chicks—A Shaded Location for Coops and
Brooders—Green Food and Clean Water Important.
By H. A. Nourse.
able conditions usually prevailing and chicks hatched
this month will often make bone and muscle faster
than those of earlier hatches. This is especially true
when the owner is without facilities for properly housing
the chicks during the chilling storms which April and May
some times furnish. In June not much protection is neces-
sary. The brood may be out in the fields where the requisi-
ticn of fresh air, exercise and green grass will build strong
bodies, able to take care of all the food that the chicks can
eat. No conditions are more favorable for securing good
growth at the least expense for labor and food.
| | UNE is a month of growth if most is made of the favor-
Some of the winners at the largest shows in recent
years were hatched in June. In the Plymouth Rock, Wyan-
dotte and Leghorn classes June hatched birds are frequently
awarded the ribbons and asuccessful breeder of Buff Coch-
ins, asserts that some of the best January show pullets he
ever raised were hatched in June and July.
Chicks With Hens.
The man who broods his chicks with hens, and has a
range of fair area, can make the most of his chances by con-
fining the hen to the coop only at night and in bad weather.
At other times she should be out with the chicks teaching
them to find the natural food intended for them and protect-
ing them from their natural enemies. Such a course not
only strengthens them physically, but makes them self-
reliant and able to take good care of themselves when they
are deserted by the hen. This freedom also allows the hen
to dust frequently in the cool, moist earth, keeping her
feathers clean and assisting to rid herself of lice, which in-
crease faster in warm weather and must be kept down. To
this end, hen and chicks must be treated for body lice and
head lice. If the hen is confined most of the time, a roomy
coop and good ventilation should be furnished. In warm
weather coops should be located in the shade, or if this is
impossible, they should face toward the north. If the hen
is free she will find a cool place, but if confined, she is likely
to suffer from the heat and the chicks remaining near her
while young, will suffer also and fail to prosper.
Brooder Chicks.
Chicks in brooders are supposed to be, and should be,
free from lice. No chick that has had a chance to get a
louse on it should be put in the brooders or in a brooder
bouse and, if that is looked to, brooder chicks have an ad-
vantage over chicks with hens. Most of the June brooder
chicks are housed in outdoor brooders and the shade ques-
tion becomes one of major importance. A brooder placed
in the sun, however well it may be ventilated, will reach a
high temperature during a hot day and cool rapidly at night,
making it necessary to extinguish the lamp during the day
and start it again at nightfall. This does no particular
harm if the chicks are old enough to take care of themselves
and can find shade during the day; but it is unfortunate for
little chicks as the temperature will vary widely.
Under a group of shade trees or in an orchard is the best
place for a brooder at this season, the shade tempering the
heat of the sun. If the cover of the brooder is raised, there
will be no difficulty in keeping the heat under the hover
within bounds. To place a brooder where it will be exposed
to the midday sun and confine the chicks in a smail yard
also without protection is nothing less than cruelty, and
good results are impossible. 4
Feeding and Watering.
The feeding of June chicks need not be different from
that advocated for those hatched earlier. The green
food should be young, tender blades of grass gathered by
the chicks themselves; if the young ones must beconfined
to yards, fine lawn clippings or the delicate leaves and stalks
of new clover, rape or alfalfa should be handed out liberally
every morning while they are still fresh from the night’s
dew. Cool, fresh water constantly accessible is a decided
‘advantage and far more difficult to provide than in cool
weather, The supply should be renewed with fresh water
three times each day and the fountains cleaned and disin-
fected frequently, for germs multiply rapidly in tepid water.
The need of being thus careful is obvious when we under-
stand that the germs of diseases affecting the lungs, throat
and head find drinking water a ready means for distribution.
Prevention is not difficult and is better than cure. Take
care of the June chicks and they will take care of you.
H. A. NOURSRE.
JUNE HATCHED CHICKS.
Leading Breeders Give Their Experiences With Late Hatched Chicks—Evidence That With Care and Correct Treat-
ment Chicks Hatched in June Make Winners in December, January and February.
[The following short articles from experienced and well known breeders will encourage those who, from any ca
on hand as they need and instruct beginners in the care and feeding of late hatched chicks.
use, do not have as many early chicks
i thods advocated by the best author-
On ena nos the mistakes that spoil the
ities the reader can readily determine how to make the most of the natural advantages within his reach and how to avoid t ere ae that
profits. Opinion among these experienced breeders is practically unanimous that food, water, shade and lice are the main considerations,
with the exercise of care in raising the birds many a June hatched chick will win fame for its owner at next winter's shows. ]
RAISED UNDER SUITABLE CONDITIONS, J UNE
HATCHED CHICKS ARE UP TO WEIGHT FOR
WINTER SHOWS.
HILE IT is true that early chicks do better, still a
\W great many good birds can be, with proper care
and feeding, raised from chicks hatched in that
month. We have had June Barred Rock pullets
laying in January and February, and continue laying until
late in the spring before becoming broody. The cull cockerels
can be sold early in the fall, when they make excellent fries.
The others should be separated, cockerels from pullets, put
in light, dry, warm coops, and kept for the spring trade.
They must be made to scratch for their grain, and positively
must have grit, green food and a dust box to insure steady
growth through the winter.
One of the greatest difficulties in raising June chicks is
the extreme heat. Shade and plenty of fresh water are in-
dispensable.
shade, or rape seed sown early in May makes good shade,
and green food, too. Sometimes on the lawn we drive stakes
in the ground forming a square, and fasten burlap to them,
making a shelter about two feet high, which breaks the
sun, but allows a free circulation of air.
Our chicks are free to roam at all times. We do not
think the wet grass, early in the morning, hurts them in
the least, but rather believe it toughens them and speeds
their growth.
We feed rolled cats and whole wheat; it makes bone
and muscle and they thrive on it. They get but little corn.
Feed June chicks sparingly during the hot months of July
and August, keep them a little hungry and they will forage
better, cat more grass and green stuff, find more bugs and
worms, and you won’t know what a sick chick looks like.
You can force their growth more when the cool nights of
September come by giving them all they want to eat for
supper of a good mash food, composed principally of bran,
shorts and chop feed, with a handful of salt occasionally.
We use open front, shed roof coops, without any floor,
about four by six feet on the ground, which can be easily
moved, thus keeping them clean and wholesome. If the
chicks want to roost on the ridge, or on a brush heap, or in
the trees, we let them; it makes them tough. Keep them as
near natural conditions as possible and a great Many June
chicks will be up to weight for the winter shows and for
winter layers. W. S. PEASE.
An orchard or a berry patch makes excellent:
CARE; CLEANLINESS AND VARIED FOODS CAUSE
CHICKS HATCHED IN JUNE TO WIN IN DE-
CEMBER, JANUARY AND FEBRUARY.
I will give you my views on the raising of June hatched
chicks for exhibition purposes.
Chicks hatched before June 15th can be virtually ma-
tured by January 1st following, by close attention to feed-
ing. wide range and sanitary, well ventilated cooping. Food
for first two weeks should be given every two or three hours,
dry mixed cracked grains, hulled oats, wheat, millet and
corn. Fresh milk twice daily and pure water and grit at
all times. After the second week and up to four weeks of
age a little chopped fresh meat daily. When one month old
allow free range, shaded. Provide a dusting box made up
of equal parts of fine lake sand and road dust, with a litile
powdered suiphur added, and place where it will keep dry.
This will keep them free from lice.
Do not crowd the roosting coop. Young chickens must
have plenty of room in order to thrive. _
Separate the cockerels from pullets at fourteen weeks.
Have your winter quarters ready by October 25th. After
this time provide fresh ground bone and vegetables daily in
addition to the oats, wheat and corn. Clean, well ventilated
houses are particularly essential. I remove the droppings
daily.
Chicks raised in this manner will be ready for the De-
cember shows and will be of standard weight. The first
prize White Wyandotte Cleveland cockerel, December, 1902,
was hatched June 10th. A full brother hatched the same
date headed the second prize pen at Pittsburg show in Feb-
ruary, 1903. At the Painesville show in January, 1904, the
pullets I exhibited in the first prize pen were hatched the
first week in June, and all were standard weight or over.
So do not be discouraged over the late spring and de-
layed hatches, but redouble your care and you will be up
in front when the winter show season arrives.
DR. WM. H. HUMISTON.
JUNE SAID TO BE “ONE OF THE BEST” MONTHS
FOR HATCHING WINTER SHOW BIRDS.
As a matter of fact I have always considered June a
splendid month to get out “Ringlet” Barred Rocks and have
hatched a great many winning show birds as late as July.
Every bird In one of my New York first prize exhibition pens
was hatched in July. Some of my first prize pullets at New
York were hatched August 10th.
Birds hatched in June are ready to show in J anuary and
THE CHICK BOOK 51
July chicks, if well cared for, are ready to show in January
and February. I have had July pullets lay in January.
Many breeders calculate to get out their January and Feb-
ruary show birds in June so the birds will be ‘‘on edge” or
in the pink of condition at show time and not be past their
beauty period.
I care for June hatched chickens just the same as those
of any of the spring and summer months. My chicks have
all the shade they want as well as sunshine, and sunshine is
as necessary as shade.
While 1 do not say June is the best month to hatch in, I
know that it is one of the best and I get out several hun-
dred “‘Ringlets’’ every June and have done so for years.
I feed chicks the same in June and July as in April and
May. E. B. THOMPSON.
JUNE HATCHED CHICKS REACH MATURITY
EARLY ENOUGH TO LAY WHEN PRICES OF
EGGS ARE AT THEIR HEIGHT.
Chicks hatched in June can be made profitable both as
layers and show birds, if raised under conditions to promote
a healthy growth. ~ Their treatment '
The greatest objections to raising late hatched chicks are
lack of shade, improper attention to drinking vessels and
crowding one hundred chicks where only fifty should be
quartered, but these objections are easily overcome, and
where they are, June hatched chicks are profitable.
Cc. BRICAULT, M. D. V.
SATISFACTORY EGG PRODUCTION BY JUNE
HATCHED CHICKS.
Year after year we generally have more or less chicks
come off in June. This year, owing to the long and severe
winter and backward spring, we expect to hatch between
200 and 300 during that month. The main object with us is
eggs. We want pullets to lay early and lay lots of eggs.
We have, in most cases, found June hatched chicks profit-
able; the pullets especially. June hatched White Wyandotte
pullets have begun to lay with us in October or November,
just before cold weather, and have continued to lay all
winter.
We place the brooders, cr hens with chicks, in a cool,
shady place under the trees and arrange the yards in such
differs but little from that which is
given the early ones; the difference
can be summed up in a few words,
namely, plenty of shade and cool,
clean water to drink at all times.
Up to four years ago 7] shared in
the belief that late hatched chicks
were undesirable, but after giving the
matter a thorough test 1 find that
White Wyandotte pullets hatched in
June reach laying maturity in less
time than the early hatched ones, and
many experienced breeders are of the
same opinion.
Our late chicks are fed the same as
the early ones up to a certain age,
then they are fed differently. A pre
pared chick food is fed until they are
gix weeks old, three times a day
the first week and five times a day up to the seventh
week. They are then changed gradually to hulled oats,
whole wheat and cracked corn. This is fed four times a day.
Several boxes containing ground oats, bran and beef scraps
(equal parts) are placed at different points on the range
and trom these they help themselves at will. It is astonish-
ing the amount of this mixture they will consume between
their regular meals. Being housed on a good grass range,
they have all the green food needed. About the middle of
September I begin to feed a mash to the pullets,-and this is
where the difference in feeding occurs, the late pullets being
fed this mash at an earlier age than the early ones, for at
this season all are fed alike. The mash is composed as fol-
lows: Ground oats 50 per cent, bran 25 per cent, middlings
15 per cent, corn meal 10 per cent. It is mixed with boiling
water at noon and left to cook in its own heat until 5
p. m., when it is cool enough to feed. It is fed in several
long troughs so that every pullet has its share. No crowd-
ing at this meal is allowed, and the whole grain is scattered
so well that crowding is not necessary; all get their share.
Pullets hatched June 20th and treated as above began
laying December 27th and were persistent layers for months,
If I were forced to delay hatching till June I would follow
the above method and have eggs for market when prices
are highest.
Many of our best layers were hatched in June, and I
shall never again hesitate to hatch chicks in that month.
Where Chicks Grow Rapldly on the Plant of Mrs. H, W. Hand.
a fashion that the chicks may have a little sunshine.
Our method of feeding late hatched chicks does not vary
very much from that pursued in feeding earlier chicks; the
only difference being that we increase the beef scraps a
little after the chicks are four or flve weeks old.
We have tried in the past the dry feeding method for
small chicks, but have given it up for the mash and dry
grain combination. We can in this way get our birds to
mature quicker and lay earlier, without affecting their size.
We are using this spring one of the widely advertised chick
foods, twice a day, with cracked wheat, hominy grits, pin
head oatmeal! and a little cracked corn. These small grains
are fed dry three times a day for the first week and twice
a day for the second and third weeks. After that time we
begin to feed a little hulled oats and whole wheat and a little
cracked corn once a day. We have lost less chicks this year,
up io the present time, ‘han we ever did before when dry
food was used exclusively.
We are careful in raising late hatched chicks to give the
little fellows plenty of shade, good pure drinking water and
to keep them free from lice. Our chicks when old enough
to leave the brooders have the range of a meadow and a piece
of woodland, where they have plenty of shade. We use
colony houses 6x8 with shed roof, and four feet high at the
back and seven feet in front, with door and window, which
are replaced through the summer by screens,
HAITZ POULTRY FARM.
Ut
LICE, FOUL RUNS AND WANT OF FRESH AIR THE
MAIN OBSTACLES TO SUCCESS WITH JUNE
HATCHED CHICKS.
Some people claim that June hatched chicks do not grow
as quickly as those. which are hatched earlier. The reason,
perhaps, is that the millions of lice and mites that have been
incubating and brooding through rain and shine of the early
spring are not kept in check when the warm weather comes.
For this pest the Iowa Agricultural Experiment Station rec-
ommends coal oil emulsion.
The next disadvantage is a swarm of chicks have pre-
ceded the late hatch, the runs are befouled by the earlier
chicks and the old fowls, and the little fellows suffer for
pure air day and night and are tramped on and crowded to
death. Besides this the weeds, berries, etc., claim our atten-
tion and the late chicks are not as well cared for as the
earlier ones.
Nature teaches and my experience proves that May and
June are the months to hatch birds, and with the same
care they should do as well or better than the earlier birds,
for insect food is more plentiful and sunshine more abund-
ant; but now we must provide shelter from the hot sun in-
stead of from cold winds; also good, roomy, well ventilated
coops or brooders.
If brooders are used they must be constructed so that
the chicks can have free access to heat or fresh air as they
prefer. Both coops and brooders must have at least one
side made of screen wire netting; a few holes in a box 1s
not sufficient ventilation; a damp, perspiring chick
turned out in the cold morning dew to chill might as well
have its head snipped off at once. A chick can eat almost
anything any time of year, if it is not over-heated or chilled,
but a chilled chick will have bowel trouble and no brand of
food will cure it. MRS. S. P. ROGERS.
MUCH DEPENDS UPON THE CARE LATE HATCHED
CHICKS RECEIVE.
I have had good results with last of May and early June
hatches. For late December and January shows there is no
better time to get them out than May 25th to June 15th,
as they mature after the weather becomes cool, and
the plumage is bright at show time. My winners,
both cnckerels and pullets, at the late Peoria, Ill., show
and at late Illinois State Show, all up to weight, were
hatched from May 25th to June 10th. This is ample evi-
dence that June hatched chicks will make show birds.
A Group of June Chicks Ready to be Fatted for Market.
® THE CHICK BOOK
Unless one is well fixed to handle these late ones I
wouldn’t advise getting out too many of them, but a tow
will prove what I am stating is true. The great trouble in
handling late hatched chicks by many is they lose interest
in them. Early in the spring the hen fever is up to 95 or
higher, but it gradually cools off as the weather gets warm
and the chicks are negle*ted.
1 would brood at thai time with a hen. Place coop,
which should be of sufficient size to give ample room and
fresh air through the hot nights, in a dense shade—a large
apple tree or north side of a building is the best for June
hatched chicks. Feed mostly dry food at this time. Pro-
vide fresh water often, and afler chicks are a few days old
give the hen her liberty, and all the chicks have to do is to
grow.
I have for several years raised a few late hatched birds,
even as late as July Ist. This season I will be compelled to
get out even more than usual owing to the lateness of the
spring and the immense early egg trade.
To those who are prejudiced against late hatched chicks
I will say that a sitting or two of eggs at this time will
prove that what I am saying is true, provided you do your
part in caring for them. oO. L. KING.
ADVOCATING JUNE HATCHED CHICKS OF THE
LIGHTER BREEDS FOR WINTER SHOWS.
I have hatched many S. C. White Leghorns in June with
great success for both market and exhibition. I have raised
many winners of both sexes which were hatched in June and
won in December. They were fully developed and weighed
from four to six pounds, and as all Leghorn breeders know,
that is good weight for them.
I always feed young chickens for the first five weeks
with prepared chick food. Have used this for several years.
I have not known of a single case of bowel trouble in feed-
ing this food. After the chicks are four or five weeks old I
commence feeding them cracked ccrn and wheat; keep fresh
water before them all the while, also oyster shell and grit.
One must have a good shelter for them and protect them
from drafts which give them colds. Do not crowd and over-
heat them; this will affect their health. Give them just
enough food so they will eat it up clean and not have any
left. Keep the vermin down. I use lice killing powder on
the chickens, and kerosene on the roosts.
It never pays to half raise a chicken or any kind of an
animal.
If I were starting in the poultry business and were de-
layed in getiing eggs on account of the cold spring, that
would not prevent me getting eggs in June. I would get
some eggs from some reliable breeder who has the breed I
like best. Everybody has his favorite breed. After the
chickens were hatched I would do my utmost to feed them
right and keep them free from lice and colds. When fall
arrived I would have a fine lot of choice chickens, especially
if of the lighter breeds, which will mature in four and one-
half to six months and commence laying in five or six
months and lay about two hundred eggs per year on about
one-half the feed that it takes for a larger breed.
‘ R. C. COLLIN.
HAS NO EXTRA TROUBLE RAISING JUNE CHICKS.
J will give you my method in hatching and raising June
chickens. I give the hen a nest free from chiggers, lice,
and mites, and set her where no laying hens can bother her.
THE CHICK BOOK 53
I keep the eggs and nest clean. When the chicks are hatch-
ing I take the shells out of the nest to give the chicks room.
I leave the chicks in the nest twenty-four hours to give them
strength.
Chicks don’t need tood for thirty-six hours after hatch-
ing. The first food is oatmeal, dry, mixed with fine grit or
prepared chick feed. Give them cold water and very little
at a time when young. Take the hen and chicks off the
nest and put them under a good shade tree. Make a coop
for hen and chicks two feet long, eighteen inches wide,
twelve inches high. Don't nail the top—leave it loose so you
can look in at the chicks from the top. Make a slat coop
four feet long, two and one-half feet wide and fifteen inches
high to put in front of the coop. Let the hen and chicks
out in the slat coop so the chicks can run around. Keep the
hea in the siat coop for a week, until the chicks get strong
and learn the hen’s cluck. Let the hen and chicks run out
over the farm to hunt bugs and other insects. The exercise
makes them strong, and gives plenty of muscle. Feed June
chicks by themselves. [I don’t have any more trouble rais-
ing June chicks than I do raising April hatched chicks.
JOHN W. TANNER.
PUT THE LATE HATCHED CHICKS IN A CORN-
FIELD AND RAISE THE BEST COLORED BIRDS
OF THE SEASON.
I have often wondered why there were not more eggs
set and chicks hatched during the month of June. To be
sure it takes some precaution to successfully rear chicks
hatched in the months of June and July, but not nearly so
much troubie and expense as is needed in the months of
January and February. To readers of this book who have
no brooder houses I will give you my plan for successfully
rearing late hatched chicks. Supposing you are aware of
the fact that you must not take the chicks off the nest or
out of the incubator until fully forty-eight hours old, it is
unnecessary to go over that part of my method. If you have
a small poultry house or an outhouse where rats cannot get
at the chicks place the brood in this building, keeping them
in it for three or four weeks. This gives the chicks size and
strength enough to withstand the hot sun and small grass
lice. When you move them from the building put them, if
possible, in a shady place. If you can do so, by all means
place them in a cornfield, for there is no place where a late
hatched chick will grow as fast as in a field of corn well up,
as it affords them plenty of shade, keeps them off the dewey
grass and the fresh cultivated ground gives them plenty of
insects, worms, ete.
I feed my chicks while in the brooder, or say for the
first six weeks, a chick food composed of wheat, kaffir corn,
hog millet and rice, mixed and cracked, the greater portion
of the food being wheat. To this I add a little pin head
oats (very little), hard boiled eggs, some green cut bone,
etc. Keep granulated charcoal by them all the time, as
well as fresh water. Do not feed too much, but often.
Make the little fellows work all you can. After you
take them from the building they will find plenty to do and
require little food. After they are six weeks old change
the food to a mixture of rolled oats, cracked corn and whole
wheat, feeding three times a day, or better yet, hopper feed-
ing, which I believe to be the best way to feed chicks from
_ Six weeks of age until matured. The White Rock cockerel
which won first at Chicago and for which I refused $400 was
a June hatched chick. {
There is no use arguing the question, the best colored
specimens 1n nearly all breeds are late hatched chicks. The
difference in caring for late hatched chicks and early hatched
ones is in keeping one cool and the others warm.
U. R. FISHEL.
A Shaded Yard for Growing Chicks.
INSECT LIFE SURROUNDS THE JUNE HATCHED
CHICK WITH DELICACIES ITS EARLIER
HATCHED RELATIVE CANNOT ENJOY,
AND HELPS TO MAKE IT
A WINNER.
To all those interested we most heartily commend the
June hatched chicks, for various reasons.
Many people think, and especially amateurs, that they
must hatch a chick in February or March if they wish to get
a prize winner, but with our experience nothing is farther
from the truth. A truly healthy chicken and one that can
successfully combat the pests and diseases that afflict it
must start on the voyage of life with all conditions as fav-
orable as possible, and there is nothing so conducive to vig-
orous growth and good health as warm sunshine; the sun's
rays also have a wonderful influence in bringing out and
beautifying the plumage, especially in a two or more colored
fowl. Another advantage that the June hatched chick has,
and one of very material worth to him, is the warmth com-
ing from mother earth at that time of the year. Warm feet
are a great incentive to rapid growth, but the greatest bless-
ing that can probably come to this bird in his race for
maturity with his older brother is his opportunity to prey
on insect life in his pillage for food. From the very first
day that he emerges from the place of his birth to comfort-
able quarters on some grassy plot he begins to enjoy his
existence in the warm sunshine and ‘to prey on the little
worms, spiders and flies, and as he grows older and larger
and his courage comes to him he becomes a bold hunter
and wanders farther from home, making conquests on larger
game, like the cricket, and eventually as his strength and
endurance come to him he is able to capture that greatest
of delicacies to the chicken appetite, the grasshopper. These
advantages the earlier hatched bird does not have. At the
time of his advent into the world, in March or April, when
the atmosphere is usually damp, and there are more or less
cold winds and a great deal of cloudy weather; consequently
the chicken hatched at that time of the year has to be shel-
tered, carefully fed and supplied with artificial heat, which
except in brooders cannot be kept at an even temperature.
These difficulties make the raising of early chicks not only
very troublesome, but also very expensive.
One of the greatest obstacles, perhaps, in raising late
hatched chicks comes in the extremely hot and dry weather
54 THE CHICK BOOK
of August and September. The birds raise themselves, so
to speak, so easily up to this time that breeders are apt to
become careless and allow their shelter to become foul, and
a coop that was plenty large enough six weeks before is
wholly inadequate now, and they crowd and pack themselves
together during hot and sultry nights until some are smoth-
ered, and mites and lice kill many more.
We receive some inquiries asking if one is unable to pro-
duce a prize winner from chicks hatched in June. To such
we tell what we have noticed by observation and personal
experience. That some of our best show birds have been
late hatched, and it is the personal experience of one mem-
ber of this firm, who is also interested in the firm of J. M.
Williams & Co., that the Buff Orpington cockerel that won
first at Chicago in 1902 was hatched in July and weighed
eight and one-half pounds in the show room in January.
These facts, together with others we might cite, if time
and space would allow, prove to our own satisfaction that
June hatched chicks are just as profitable to raise as those
hatched earlier, for every purpose except. broiler raising.
FILLIO, WILLIAMS & CO.
A CAUTION TO WATCH FOR LICE AND GIVE THE
CHICKS RANGE, AND SO MAKE WINNERS
OF THE JUNE HATCHED BIRDS.
Where most peuple have trouble in raising June hatched
chicks is in letting the hen run loose as soon as she gets
through hatching and sometimes neither she nor the chicks
have shelter. The little chicks should have a dry place to
sleep. Those who do not watch for lice find this a great
drawback to the June hatched chicks. You should look at
your chicks about every four weeks and dust them. A June
hatched chick should have plenty of that good free range.
There are prize winners hatched in June as well as in
the earlier months. At Indianapolis in February two of the
pullets in our first prize Buff Rock pen, also our third prize
pullet, were hatched in June and there was not a larger
boned pullet in the class than the third prize bird.
When we take the hen from the nest with her chicks or
take them from the incubator we let them run out on a dry
floor and give them a fine chick grit. In about twenty-four
to thirty-six hours after we feed them a little chick food.
Do not feed too much, but just keep them hungry. We feed
the chick food for about four to six weeks and then we feed
them wheat and cracked corn till they get large enough to
swallow a whole grain of corn.
We have sold on the market in January chickens that
were hatched in June. They weighed five to eight pounds
each and have showed pullets that weighed from six to seven
and one-half pounds and cockerels that weighed seven to
eight and one-half pounds.
In raising late hatched chicks one of the main things is to
get them started right and then keep them on the right road,
I have given the method of feeding, but the main thing is to
fight the lice and give them plenty of range; that is what
makes them grow.
Lice will take the strength from the chicks and often
will kill them and people say it was the cholera when it is
nothing but the lice. Sometimes too many chickens are
crowded in one house and this will give them colds and stop
their growth.
If I was starting in the poultry business the month of
June would suit me just as well if not better than the other
morths. I find the Buff Rock chicks have a better color in
June, better wings and tails than the earlier chicks and if
you watch the lice and give them plenty of range they will
get as large as the early hatched ones. If you are feeding
a drove of hogs let them run with them and they will get
the size and will have that large bone we want.
W. REESE PAETZBEL.
PROOFS THAT CORRECT CARE AND FEEDING DE-
VELOP JUNE HATCHED CHICKS INTO WIN-
NERS AND WEIGHTY SPECIMENS.
In regard to late hatched chicks, especially those
hatched in June: are they profitable? I say most emphati-
cally: Yes! Such birds make good winter layers, especially
the Wyandottes, and (barring the early fall shows) make
exceilent exhibition specimens.
Partridge Wyandotte pullets commence to lay when
about six months old, and it is generally conceded that such
birds as a rule are in their best condition to show just after
having laid their first egg; therefore a pullet hatched the
20th day of June should commence to lay about the 20th day
of December, at which time she should be in the best con-
dition. The majority of our largest shows are held during
the months of December and January, and late hatched
birds have an equal chance of winning in competition with
many of those which were hatched much earlier.
One season I hatched chicks as late as the first day of
August with good results; and it may be of interest to many
to know that some of the very best cockerels and pullets
that I raised were hatched the 20th day of July, among them
being the first prize pullet at North Abington, which show
was held the 25th day of December. The same pullet also
took third prize at Madison Square Garden, New York, Jan-
uary 5th, and another of the same age and in fact out of
tke same brood took fifth prize at that show. It will be
seen that the pullet which won first at North Abington was
just five months and five days old when exhibited, and the
two when sbown at the New York show were just five and
one-half months old. These two birds were exactly stand-
ard weight when shipped to the New York show, -and the
third prize pullet had laid her first egg. The fifth prize
pullet then had many chicken feathers and was not filled
out and finished, but was penciled all over with good open
penciling and gave promise of developing into one of the
most beautiful birds that I ever raised. The manner in
which this bird developed during the following month was
something surprising, and had she been hatched June 20th
instead of July 20th, she would in all probability have been
placed much higher at that show. She is to-day one of my
most valuable specimens and lays a large, brown, well-
shaped egg.
I have seventeen pullets that were hatched last July,
that are up in weight and all are high scoring birds, and as
hens some of them will in all probability be a trifle over
weight next fall when in show condition, which rather dis-
counts the idea of many that late hatched birds are always
small and stunted.
One of the first questions naturally asked is, How were
these birds fed?
For the first three weeks they were fed entirely upon
a chick foed, which was fed to them every two hours; for the
next three months they were fed upon prepared chick food.
beef scravs and what little scraps I had to give them that
came from the kitchen. During this period they were fed
four times a day. After they were four months old they
were given a mash in the morning consisting of chick food
and beef scraps mixed: at noon they were given oats and
wheat, and at night they were given wheat and cracked
corn; besides this they were often given cabbage, lettuce
THE CHICK BOOK
and dainty bits of anything that I was able to get which I
thought would induce them to grow.
There are many reasons why we should recommend the
setting of eggs all through the month of June, and especially
to those who are just starting in the business of raising
poultry. My experience has been that during the month of
June eggs as a rule are very fertile, and a large percentage
of them hatch, in many instances, every egg put under a
hen. Weather conditions during this time of the year are
generally such that both eggs and chicks will stand more
hardship and neglect than is the case during the early
hatching season. Fanciers (myself among them) who ad-
vertise to replace all infertile eggs occasionally have to
replace many that were shipped during the early part of
the season, even when we know by repeated tests that at
least 85 per cent of them were fertile. Such conditions prove
to my mind that the manner and place where eggs are set
(especially early ones) and the way hens sit upon them, or
the manner in which they may be manipulated in an incu-
bator, combined with weather conditions, cause many poor
hatches, which not only is a loss to the fancier to the ex-
tent of the infertile eggs returned, but often discourages
customers who have had but little, if any, experience in the
business. If an equal number of eggs had been ordered
later in the season a greater number of chicks would have
been hatched and both parties would have been better
satisfied.
55
lt is also claimed that a larger per cent of late hatched
chicks are pullets, which is desirable to most purchasers.
The main question to be considered in raising late
hatched chicks is to get them far enough advanced before
Movable House to Serve as a Roosting Coop or to Protect Small
Chicks in Bad Weather.
the cold weather sets in, that they will not be stunted there-
by. I have proved to my own satisfaction that it can be
done, and birds raised io full standard weight from eggs
that were set the last days of June. J. B. HADAWAY.
FEEDING YOUNG CHICKENS.
Dry Feeding and Unlimited Range. Make Large, Healthy Chicks.
By C. B. Bristol.
HATCH all chicks with hens, but as soon as they are
lI hatched I take them from the hens and put them in
brooders, which I believe is the only way to rear chicks
satisfactorily. You have them where you can watch
them at all times. I use indoor brooders and believe them
to be far superior to outdoor machines that are used with-
out shelter. The outdoor brooder works well and is fairly
ecorvenient to use when the weather is fair, but when it is
stormy, or there is a high wind, it is neither convenient nor
agreeable to attend to the lamp. When it rains hard, it is
almost impossible to open and clean the brooder and the
chicks suffer from being confined in very small quarters and
from breathing the impure air of a dirty brooder.
If the brooder is in a building, the chicks can have the
run of the floor, when the weather is not fit for them to be
outside. An open shed built over an outdoor brooder for
shade and protection from rain and Leavy winds is consid-
erable advantage, for it protects one when he fills and trims
the lamp, or adjusts the flame, and when he feeds and cares
for the chicks. If such a shed is provided with a muslin
curtain to be let down in front when the weather requires
it, it makes a good exercising room for the chicks, when
they would otherwise have to be confined ‘in the brooder.
I do not feed anything until the chicks are twenty-four
hours old; then I feed hard boiled eggs. For the first week
I feed corn meal bread that is baked until it will crumble.
This « feed as often as they eat it up clean. After the first
week I feed cracker crumbs and stale bread which can be
purchased of bakers very cheaply. As soon as the chicks
will eat whcle wheat and cracked corn I feed it. I also feed
peef scraps twice a week, and keep plenty of grit in the
prooder. This is very mectessary, as it aids digestion.
I am aware that some poultrymen, who have reason to
know, advise against the use of hard boiled eggs, but I
have never found anything equal to it for the first meal.
The corn bread is an excellent food, but must not be de-
pended upon after the first week, because it is too much
trouble to bake it and ‘because itt is not by any means a
complete and well balanced ration.
I keep the chicks in the brooder until they are a week
old before I let them out in the brooder house. After they
ara four weeks old I have small coops, which are set in
different parts of the place, so they will be by themselves,
and all of the same age then are together. The smaller
ones are not crowded by the larger ones.
This is a point worth noting and acting upon, for if
small chicks crowd into ‘the same coop with larger ones,
the former are frequently overheated at night and pre-
vented from getting their fair share of food in the day time
This prevents growth and arrests development, and the
chick never makes so good'a fowl as it wouid if it hada
better chance. Those of one age should be fed separate
from the other flocks, or the younger ones will be crowded
away from the food ‘by their larger brothers, and will not
get enough to properly nourish their bodies.
My chicks have unlimited range at all times. I breed
Barred Plymouth Rocks and the above mode of feeding and
earing for them has been very satisfactory to me, as I
hardly ever have a sick chicken and I have pullets hatched
late last year that weigh eight pounds. I feed grain entirely
to all my fowls, and no ground feed except cracked corn.
My first hatch this season, the 15th of March, was ten chicks
from thirteen eggs; from eggs laid in February, the coldest
month we had this year. C. B. BRISTOL.
FEEDING CHICKENS BALANCED RATIONS.
From Hatching Time to Maturity—Sulitable Foods and Quantities for the Different Periods of Growth—Feeding
the Newly Hatched Chick—Balancing the Rations—Ration for Growthy Youngsters—Forcing Late Hatched
Chicks for Show—Analysis of Food in Common Use by Poultrymen.
By Robert H. Essex.
HICKENS need a far narrower ration than do ma-
@ tured fowls—a ration containing considerable ani-
mal food, and this is one of the points I wish to
impress upon readers. Experience has caused me
to realize its importance. In the early days of Buff Ply-
mouth Rocks, their combs were too large, and knowing that
meat, even in smal] quantities, tended to increase the size
of the combs, I avoided its use as much as possible. By
this course the size of the combs was governed to a certain
extent, but what a difference was visible in the growth of the
young birds which were supplied with animal food and those
which were deprived of it. We all like to experiment, and
it took me a few years to find out that not only do chicks
need animal food, but they need it in liberal quantities. It
has long been demonstrated that some meat is necessary,
but in the case of young chicks it is not generally fed in
sufficient quantitics.
Feeding the Newly Hatched Chicks.
Study nature. Wild birds in feeding their young have
preferences, even in the selection of vegetable foods. Some
prefer weed seeds, others the young buds of trees; many are
partial to fruit and other vegetables, but a very large ma-
jority gather in the flies, bugs, beetles and worms that ven-
ture within their range, and upon these the young warblers
thrive, grow fat and feathers, and are in a very short time
in show condition. Have you ever noticed the quills on the
nestlings? How fast they grow. Seldom do we see a chick
feather so fast. The food that produces feathers rapidly is
the best food for chickens, and they should be well supplied
with it, at least until they are through their first molt. Such
food will be chiefly animal food and will compose a very
narrow ration.
It is well known that the yolk of the egg is absorbed
by the chick before and after hatching. That is nature’s
food and must be good. Is it a wide or narrow ration? It
is extremely narrow. One part protein to three parts fat is
considered very narrow, but this first food of a chicken is
even more so. It is composed of one part protein to about
two parts fat (15.7:33.3), and please remember it is about
fasta Boe alps
E CHICKS
‘‘A’" Coops and Runways for Young Chicks.
one-half water—one-half water. Milk is another natural
food for the young, and just as good for chickens as for
babes. How is it proportioned—3.3 protein to 4 fat. Add
the starchy contents, and approximately it reaches the BIOS
portion of 1:2. Quite narrow, is it not? Yet the young live
and thrive upon it.
Nature teaches us, therefore, that the food of young
chickens should contain about one part protein to two parts
carbohydrates and fat. This is from two to three parts
narrower than is generally advocated, but it has given bet-
ter results than any other I have tried and my experiments
have been not a few. Then, too, as we have shown nature
upholds it.
Do not feed hard boiled eggs in large quantities. Such
food may be balanced correctly, but it is indigestible for
the very young chicks, and remember that of all foods only
the portion digested provides nutriment. If you must feed
it, let it be well broken. Let the particles be thoroughly
separated by the use of stale bread crumbs, then nearly the
whole of it will be digested. It is far better, however, to
use uncooked eggs. Mix them with bread crumbs, shorts,
cornmeal or all of these, so that the food shall not be sticky
or pasty. Use some bran if you choose, but not too much,
and if you are tempted to add a little clear sand, don’t be
timid about it. The shorts or middlings may be found too
sticky; bread crumbs are best for the purpose and if you
have only a few chicks it will be well to separate the yolk
from the white of egg, using only the former and so avoid
mixing toc much at a time. This refers, of course, to the
first week. After that the chicks will take care of it all.
Steei cut or granulated oats make a good food for the sec-
ond week, also millet seed.
As the chicks become older—say from two weeks of
age, beef scraps, dried blood, animal meal or fine ground
green bone may be used with benefit. These foods contain
in large proportion the protein we want, and their use en-
ables the feeder to make a ration suitable for chicks. Care
must be taken that too much of this is not fed at first, Some
of these foods are too strong for young chicks, and I use
them at this age only when I can’t get fresh meat—liver,
etc., ete.
Without the aid of beef scraps or one of the other ani-
mal foods mentioned the eastern duck growers would never
have been able to place ducklings upon the market in such
desirable condition as they do.Their growth would not be so
fast, their flesh would be less tender and the ducklings less
plump. This means that demand would decrease and prices
would be lower. Just so with young chickens. If intended
for market as broilers they must have animal food to hasten
growth and keep them in health. The forcing to which
they are subject would run them off their legs in a short
time. if their food consisted exclusively of grain either
whole or ground. A most desirable feature of these animal
foods is that their protein contents produce flesh without
an excess of fat. The breeder of exhibition stock will ap-
preciate the importance of this fact, especially if the cock-
erels which he has been forcing for early fall shows give
signs of leg weakness. The food they have been getting
THE CHICK BOOK at
has produced too much fat and not enough muscle and flesh.
A change of food—the addition of animal protein to the
ration—goes to the root of the trouble and in a short time
the birds are again “on their feet.”
Animal protein works wonders with fowls, and while it
is so plentiful in green bone, dried blood, animal meal and
beef scraps, etc., and considering that these foods are so
easily obtainable, no breeder of fowls can afford to be with-
out a supply. In animal meal and beef scraps there is
nearly as much protein as there are carbohydrates and fat.
In green bone there is about half as much, and in dried
blood there is little else than protein.
How chickens delight in a little crisp lettuce, grass or
clover. Provide it if possible; otherwise cook some carrots,
cabbage, turnips, beets or mangels for them, or let them
pick away at the raw roots, or a few raw potatoes. Clover
is now sold in such convenient forms (both cut and ground)
that no breeder should be without it if he has any difficulty
in providing green food. Lettuce and clover contain a large
proportion of protein.
Let your chicks have enough food, but do not stuff
them. Little chicks will begin to cry for you when they dis-
cover that you are their attendant, and if you are at all soft
hearted it will be hard to refuse the continued stuffing they
ery for. Feed little and often. Chicks are never so happy
as when scratching in shallow litter for little crumbs or
seeds. Wilt they do this if overfed? No. Limit the food
and keep them singing, but let them have enough to repay
them for their work.
Some breeders keep one variety of food continually be-
fore their chicks and a number of them are successful poul-
try raisers. This seems contradictory following immedi-
ately after the suggestion to feed little and often, but it is
not so strange as it appears at first glance. If one kind of
food is kept continually before them, the chicks partake of
it only occasionally as ‘they need it. If they have been fed
on the plan first suggested—little and often, it is likely
they will gorge themselves when first allowed access to
large quantities of food, but if they have been used to it,
they simply nibble and run, and although their crops are
never empty, neither are they overloaded. If such a method
be adopted the food to be kept before them must always be
of the same variety. Cracked corn is generally used. A
change from corn to wheat would be an inducement to over-
feed. It would tempt their appetites and induce them to
overload their crops. We do not advocate this method of
feeding, but if it is adopted, as it sometimes is for a time-
saver, the other food supply should be made up largely of
protein.
Balancing the Rations for Chicks.
The reader has now been duly impressed with the value
of protein and its use in the ration, and we will give an
example of balancing the ration so that anybody with any
foods will know how to go about it.
Following along the lines of our argument the ration
shall possess about one part protein to two parts carbohy-
drates and fat, ani is intended for newly’ hatched chicks.
Our first chick food is egg, both white and yolk well
beaten. In this the proportion of protein and carbohy-
drates is about equal.
This we mix with bread so as to render it comparatively
dry. We will assume that we have a flock of chicks that
require about a pound of dry matter each meal. Dry mat-
ter is the total bulk of food less water or moisture. In one
pound of eggs, that is the edible portion, there is twenty-
seven per cent of dry matter that is made up of thirteen
per cent protein and twelve per cent fat, in addition to ash,
etc. In a pound of bread crumbs we find eighty-eight per
cent of dry matter made up of eleven per cent protein,
seventy-five per cent fat, etc. If we add the total amount
of protein and fat contained in the eggs and bread, we find
we have twenty-four parts protein and eighty-seven parts
fat; that is, about three and a half times as much fat as
protein, the actual figures being 3:6. The nutritive ratio
of this mixture would be 1:3.6. To make the ration nar-
A Shelter That Can be Opened or Closed, as the Weather Requires.
rower we might reduce the bread crumbs to three-quarters
of a pound, but that would make the mixture too “pasty.”
We will therefore leave it as before and instead of securing
the narrower ration by that means we feed in addition a
little meat. Take beef scraps for instance. These on an
average contain about ninety-three per cent dry matter, of
which forty-five per cent is protein and forty-seven per cent
is carbohydrates. The protein and carbohydrates being
about equal it will need only a little beef scraps to bring
the nutritive ratio down to 1:2, the ration we have sug-
gested before as being a desirable one for chicks.
We do not advise the use of beef scraps at this early age,
but having the analysis before us, we used it as an example.
Fresh meat will analyze much the same, so far as protein
contents are concerned, and should be used in preference.
If a little more bread is necessary to mix with the egg, it
may be used. +
After the chickens are one or two weeks old the egg
food will become scarcer or perhaps too expensive and it
becomes necessary to have a substitute. We wish to make
the change of food without making too great a change in
the ratio. In looking around for a suitable food we think
of cracked wheat. One pound of cracked wheat contains
about eighty-nine per cent dry matter, of which .075 is pro-
tein and .700 carbohydrates. Once more we take beef scraps
to be fed in conjunction with it. We have given the amount
of protein and carbohydrates in beef scraps. Now add the
total to that contained in wheat and we have .525 protein
and 1.170 carbohydrates and fats. Dividing the latter by
the former gives us a ratio of 1:2.2.
Finely cracked corn may be substituted for the wheat.
In which case the following result would be attained:
Dry Matter. Protein. Carbohydrates,
One pound corn .............. 89 -062 752
One pound beef scraps ........ 93 45 AT
512 1.222
INULEILIVG: PATIO: sc 55:4 edseeeinid Boise da a tldeo ened 28.4 1:2.4,
58 THE CHICK BOOK
By the time the chickens have been fed this way for
another week we reduce the proportion of beef scraps to
one-half, which, in connection with cracked wheat, gives
us a nutritive ratio of 1:3.2. This is a very satisfactory
ration until the chickens are three weeks old.
As far back as we can remember we have known eggs
and bread crumbs to be a first food for cage birds and for
chicks, and now having examined the composition of these
articles of food, what does it prove? Simply that the “old
woman’s nonsense” of eggs and bread crumbs is scientifi-
cally and naturally correct and that, knowingly or unknow-
ingly, our grandmothers have been following nature’s way
as closely as possible.
Tf it is not desirable to go to the trouble of figuring out
a ration, the easier way is to choose from the list such a
variety of foods as will give a ration near enough for general
purposes. It should be remembered that the larger the pro-
portion of carbohydrates and fat, the wider the ration. If
you wish to make the ration narrower take a food that pos-
sesses little carbohydrates and fat; bran, for instance, is
one of the best of foods, but too bulky and idigestible for use
except with a more concentrated food.
' In this connection we must warn the reader to use very
little, if any, cottonseed meal. We have before informed
readers that it is very indigestible. Linseed meal is more
easily digested, but it, too, should be used sparingly. .
Remember to give the chickens all the green food they
need. There is nothing better for them:than clover, lettuce
or cabbage.
From the age of three weeks or a month to the age of
two months, nearly any grain may be fed that is suitable in
size; that is, anything except whole corn. I generally feed
hulled oats, finely cracked corn, millet and wheat, the
greater the variety the better. If the fowls are on a good
sized range they will provide themselves with nearly enough
animal food. At this period the basis of the ration is wheat,
I feed as much wheat as all the other grains combined.
Ration for Growthy Youngsters.
_ Early hatched birds cause little worry, little trouble,
and it is a pleasure to see them grow.
An extensive run where shade is available is desirable.
A grass run, an alfalfa patch, a clover or cornfield are alike
ideal poultry runs and provide an abundance of insects that
coax the rangy youngsters to exercise while furnishing them
with a substitute for meat. Chickens from two to five
months old gain size and health under such conditions. If
they are on a farm where range is unlimited they need only
a little additional food morning and evening, the variety
depending upon what the fields afford. Where the range is
less extensive it provides fewer insects and little or no grain.
We wili assume that green food is plentiful.
Of what then shall the ration consist? Such foods as
promote the formation of muscle and bone,—that means
size; flesh and fat—that means vigor.
What shall the foundation of the ration be now?
Oats.
“But oais are so seldom fed,” you say, “particularly in
sections where corn is plentifully grown.”
Where oats have been tried they are seldom discarded.
They are the best grain I know to put size on a fowl, and
they have formed the foundation of my ration for growing
stock for many years, and my strain is noted for its size.
To form feathers which are continually being renewed
in fowls of this age we require more animal matter than can
‘be secured on the range. It is better to give more rather
than less at such a stage and a ration of about one part pro-
itein to four parts carbohydrates is none too narrow. It may
be composed of the following each day: One feed of oats,
one feed of wheat and one of meat or cut bone and corn.
For the purpose of forming the ration we will take one
pound of each with exception of meat and corn, of which we
give half pound each. More or less than these quantities
may be used, depending upon the number of fowls to be fed,
but the proportion will be the same. :
Upon examination of the list of foods given herewith
we find that.in a pound of oats there is .092 protein and .532
carbohydrates and fat; in a pound of wheat .075 and .700 re-
spectively; in a half pound of corn .035 and .392, and ina
half pound of beef scraps .225 and .235 respectively. To
illustrate, we will add these quantities:
Carbohydrates
Protein. and Fats.
One pound Gats ........cc cee rece eee eee 092 532
One pound wheat ........... eee eee eens .075 -700
One-half pound corn .........eeeeeeeeee 035 892
One-half pound beef scrapsS.......+-.++-- 225 235
427 1.859
Upon dividing the carbohydrates and fat by the protein
we find the proportion of these important constituents to be
one part protein to 4.35 parts carbohydrates and fat. This
is a little wider than we intended, but it is near enough for
all practical purposes, even if we did not consider the green
food and insects secured in the run during the day. The
addition of these will bring the ration down to the desired
point. ,
The foods composing the ration will be changed fre-
quently with the exception of the oats. We will use oats
every day. Sometimes we may substitute buckwheat for
wheat or corn, at other times barley, etc., etc. Occasionally
we feed a mash in which we use considerable bran. This
will assist in keeping the daily ration narrow even though
we may feel it wise to give a feed of peas or barley or an
extra supply of corn (these grains containing large propor-
tions of carbohydrates and fat).
With the example and analysis of foods here given there
will be no difficulty forming a ration from such foods as are
plentiful. Prices vary, as we have said, and the variation
should be accepted as a hint to change the food. The fowls
will not object.
During the month immediately preceding a show the
birds may be fed as suggested for late hatched chickens,
but unless they are under weight there will be no necessity
for feeding them after the usual evening meal, which is
given before sundown.
Forcing Late Hatched Chicks for Show.
Both the fancier and the breeder of poultry for market
are well on the way to successful feeding when they have
realized that different foods produce different conditions and
have decided to select such foods as will aid them in secur-
ing the condition desired. It is clear that a change of food
is necessary when the chick merges from its babyhood, takes
on a new suit of feathers and becomes a full-fledged young-
ster. Every poultryman we believe sees the necessity for a
change of food at that period, but the majority are governed
simply by the knowledge that the chicken is then equipped
with better means of digestion and can do with less costly
and more bulky food. True it is that in most cases the
breeder desires rapid growth and generally provides, or at
least intends to provide, that which will induce it. Is it not
in addition necessary to consider what requirement the fowl
is intended to fulfill? Take the exhibitor, for instance, His
fowls are destined for the show rooms, yet this does not mean
that they shall all be fed alike or in equal quantities. Some
must be prepared for the early fall and winter shows; others
for the later winter shows. If the exhibitor is blessed with
- THE CHICK BOOK 59
incubators te hatch early chicks, brooders to accommodate
them, and experience that enables him to carry them health-
ily through the early spring when conditions are unnatural,
then indeed he will feed his fall exhibits as he will his later
show birds, because there is little or no necessity for forcing
them; but if his chicks are late hatched, he must adopt heroic
measures to ‘“‘bring them along” if he would gain a place
among the successful exhibitors. These late hatched, forced
youngsters seldom attain the size of those which are fed for
growth and vigor and allowed to develop size before putting
on the gloss and finish for the show room.
What method of feeding is practiced to hurry these
young candidates along?
A ration composed of animal matter supplemented by
fat forming foods; and during the closing stage the addition
of foods known to contain considerable oil. The first is in-
tended to hasten maturity; the second to put on weight, and
the third to put on the finishing touches—the gloss to the
feathers. Bulky vegetable food is added to keep the diges-
tive organs in good working order, and frequently condi-
ments are given to coax the fowl to eat more and more of
the concentrated food. Frequent change of food is neces-
sary so that the fowl shall not go “off its feed.” Few, foods
are too expensive to be procured at this season, for winning
in the fall means sales for the winter shows.
In the days when the writer was exhibiting—where the
winters stole well into the spring and the big fall show
seemed to advance to meet the summer—the principal event
being held in August—many were the rations tried, and
feeding sometimes extended well into the evening hours.
“Little and often” was found to be a good motto, and only
at the last meal (aboyt 9 p. m) were the fowls coaxed to eat
more than they wanted, then they got the tempting tit-bits
which had been saved for the last moment—scraps of meat,
green cut boue, bits of bread, oatmeal porridge (well
sugared), cooked rice, cooked potatoes—fed by lamplight.
Result: Winners at the fall shows; delicate birds
later on.
These fowls: were not allowed extensive range. They
were confined in yards about eight by fifty feet, in flocks of
eight or ten. Their roosting pens were kept scrupulously
clean; wooden floors well sprinkled with sand every week,
and droppings raked every day. They were confined to
the house during inclement weather.
Tame? Sure! A little training in good sized coops
built upon the walls above the roosts—handling every day—
gue Al
Ay atten
Set NG DU
ti
TRC |
is ak
i wan Hn
ru wll
A Closed Roosting Coop for Cool Weather.
induced a confidence in their attendants that made all the
difference during show week.
The daily food during these forcing days consisted of
mash early in the morning (a small amount), wheat, oats or
barley or buckwheat in litter at about ten a. m. and two
p. m. and corn at six p.m. Sunflower seeds were frequently
¢
given in place of the barley, wheat or oats, and during the
two weeks precediug the show, hemp seed was provided, or
linseed meal mixed with the mash. Cabbage was hung in the
pens continually; grit of course always before them—some-
times put in their mash; and they had all the milk they
could drink.
rin f
An Open Roosting Coop for Warm Weather.
We are enabled to present analyses of foods that have
been made by experiment stations throughout the country.
First it must be understood that analyses differ slightly be-
cause the foods analyzed differ in composition. It would be
extremely difficult to procure two samples of wheat that
contain exactly equal proportions of protein, carbohydrates
and fat; similarly with regard to other vegetable formation.
This applies also to animal matter. The quantities given
therefore are usually average quantities, yet are Seer
exact for practical purposes.
Proportion of Protein and Carbohydrates and Fat in
Foods Used by Poultrymen.
Digestible Matter in One Pound.
(Parentheses are used where we: a
the digestibility is estimated 6 ¢ Fs} Be a $ :
from that of other similar feed- ee a yt) Ss 28
gu rs) an fom os
ing stuffs.) Paes Ko] 6G a Ey
ee] © | Sar. a
w
GRAINS: '
Wheat 896 | (.075) | (.700) |>.775 | (1:9.3)
Corn 912 | .070 +784 | 854 1:11 2
Oats 890 092 532 +624 1:5.8
Barley 891 087 +962 «719 1:8.0
Buckwheat 87 ( 078) ; (.548) | (.626) | (1:7.0)
RVC varies scotia pselgeiod (.064) | (.703) | (.767) |(1:11.0)
Peas 2.0 wwe ee 856 | .188 5 7 1:2.8
Sorghum Seed. .| 873 | (.054) | (.668) | (.722) |(1:13.3)
BRANS, MIDDLINGS 4 AND ) MEALS.
Bran (wheat) . in! seas as + 881 | .120 454 -574 1:3.8
Bran’ (tye)ice0c sinniaie tae eve e..] 884 | (.115) | (.488) | ( 603) | (124.2)
Middlings (wheat)................. -879 | .128 -609 737 1:4 8
Middlings Conch yaaa ls -868 | (.237) | (.505) | (.742) | (1:2 1)
Shorts (wheat) . 892 | .122 -586 - 708 1:48
Corn Meal. 850 | .055 e711 - 766 1:12.9
Corn and Cob Meal. 849 | .044 +665 709 1:15.1
Barley Meal...... 881 | .074 -668 762 1:9.3
GARE | Guotticwiite atone uray ev seen °95 | .168 531 699 1:3.2
Linseed Meal.... 0.0... cee eee 899 | .289 49 738 1:1.6
Cotton Seed Meal...............0005 -918 | .372 437 -809 1:1.2
MANUFACTURED FEEDS,
Gluten Feed........... 0. eee ee eee | 917 | 194 +633 827 1:3.3
Gluten Meals iacccesiecesusabisiinansiciaeies 922 | .323 +725 | 1.048 1:2.2
Hominy Chop....... ae -889 | (.071) | (.795) | (.866) |(1:11.2)
Brewers’ Grains (dried) 917 168 471 639 1:2.8
Brewers’ Grains (wet).... «| 243 7.043 «128 -171 1:3.0
Malt Sprouts........... .. ...| 898 | .186 -403 589 1:2.2
BULKY VEGETABLE FOODS,
Potatoes 211 | .009 +157 -166 1:17 4
-114 | (.009) | ( 089) | (.098) | 1:9:9
Beets (Sugar 135 | .016 -109 125 1:6.8
Mangel-Wurzels. 091 oll 054 06S 1:4.9
Rutabagas sicge os oe vais worsiage 114 010 085 -095 1:8.5
PULDIPS sccnsiwensag sa seveens cocci 6095 | 010 077 087 LET
Red Clover icsseeiivg asso: sisuet aioe: -280 | (.028) | (.153) | (.181) | (1:5.5)
ALLA fai ce sore sranereceiiss asieihle cele eace acs -916 | .104 -430 534 1:4.1
DAIRY PRODUCTS.
Buttermilk 2, 028 050 078 1:1.8
DMA EE coc topes sa cho nisae ei ataterwisl tsa cheranorarer ole 127 (31 aT 168 1:4.4
Skim Milk.......... S| 035 057 092 1:16
WEY) sors sree ccsisians siete case ay 070 {| .008 -059 067 14
ROBT. H. ESSEX.
CARE OF THE GROWING STOCK.
Successful Poultry Raisers Give Their Favorite Methods of Caring for and Managing Chicks from Six Weeks to Six
Months of Age--Original Plans of Roosting Coops—Range for the Youngsters—
What and How to Feed.
[In line with the s
symposium on ‘‘Feeding Brooder Chicks,” and ‘‘Care of June Chicks,” we present the following additional methods in use
among prominent breeders for bringing their growing stock to a vigorous maturity. The advice here given is of great value, as it is the result of
experiment and observation by men whose successes qualify them to take rank among the foremost producers of good poultry. —EpiroR].
COLONY COOP FOR GROWING FOWLS—GRASS RUNS
AND SHADE—CONDITIONS AND FOOD THAT
PRODUCE BIG COCHINS.
UR chicks (Cochins) are hatched by both hens and in-
© cubators. We use outdoor brooders, called 200-
chick size, and place from forty to fifty in each
brooder. When the chicks are about six weeks old
and are nicely feathered we divide them into lots of twelve
each, keeping the cockerels and pullets separate. They are
then placed in weaning coops, which are 5x6 feet, ground
plan, and three feet high in front and two feet at the
rear. (Fig. 1.)
These coops are provided with frame doors hinged on
the inside and covered with one-fourth inch mesh screen.
On the outside a sol-
id wood door is
hinged at the top.
This door can be
raised or lowered
or closed entirely,
fas the state of
weather may re-
quire. On warm
summer nights the
screen door is closed
and the wood door
is lowered and
propped to provide
shelter in case of a
windstorm or hard
rain. This arrange-
ment gives the
chicks plenty of fresh air, and at the same time protects
them from vermin and night prowling animals.
Having an abundance of green. grass and shade, these
weaning coops are almost constantly on the move. This re-
duces to a minimum the possibility of disease arising from
accumulated filth, as is almost sure to occur if the chicks are
compelled to live on ground saturated with poisonous excre-
ments. During these stages of development they are given
-a thorough dusting of Persian insect powder once a week.
This treatment we consider to be very important, as we have
found by experience that lice cause more trouble than all
other ailments combined.
rH) cm
min)
HM
==
=
f "A
Fig. 1—Coop with Double Doors Used by
A. W. Rudy & Son.
From the ages of six weeks to six months the chicks are
fed cracked corn, pure ciean wheat, hulled oats, and at noon
are given a mash feed of some good poultry food, and once
a week we add to this ration, fresh ground green bone.
We never use any drugs or condiments and have no se-
cret method of getting our Cochins so large, as we have
found that if fresh pure food is used, combined with a little
brains while using it, and the chicks are kept under condi-
tions that will enable them to assimilate what is given
them, their growth will be rapid and their development
perfect.
We are very careful when selecting the chicks to make
up a colony, to see that they are all of the same size and of
equal development. If any show a tendency to going back,
or slow development, they are immediately removed and
placed with a younger flock, where they will have at least a
fighting chance to keep up with the procession. When six
months old they are placed in larger houses, the floors of
which are covered with a thick bed of straw. Cochins have
no use for roosts till they are at least one year old.
A. W. RUDY & SON.
RAISED IN AN ORCHARD—ALLOWED TO “HAVE
THEIR OWN WAY”—VARIETY OF FOOD.
In regard to our care and management of chicks from
six weeks to six months old, we have a large apple orchard
near the house which has been fenced in and made into four
large yards. A brooder house, or ‘summer home” for chicks
has been placed on the dividing line between the yards, so
that at this age we are able to separate the young pullets
and cockerels, giving them separate yards and roosting
places in the buildings. We have low, flat, movable roosts
standing on four legs, which are placed in the buildings soon
after the brooders are removed, and here you will find our
chicks at night until they are from one-half to two-thirds
grown.
Some of them prefer the low branches of the trees which
are so conveniently near by, and as we find it means con
stant warfare to compel them to seek the buildings. while
they dwell in the orchards, we allow them to “have their
own way” until the unpleasant fall weather sets in, when
they are removed to winter quarters and sheltered at night.
We have a “cornfield” adjoining the yard in which the pul-
lets are allowed to roam one day, and the cockerels the next.
They always come home to roost and be fed. We usually
put about as many in each yard as we can get of the same
age and sex, varying from forty to seventy-five to the yard.
In the morning we feed a mash composed of equal parts
of cornmeal, ground oats and wheat br an, with a little meat
scraps added, also a very little salt. Have sometimes used
a prepared poultry food in place of this mash. The mash we
scald with equal parts of sweet milk and water, and feed
while just a little warm. The chicks are given all the fresh
skim milk and water they will drink, and a basin of “dutch
cheese” is sometimes added to the mash. A little fresh cut
green bone is fed once or twice a week if we can get it. At
noon oats, wheat or buckwheat is scattered in the yards for
them to hunt for, and at night they are fed all the wheat or
THE CHICK BOOK 61
corn they will pick up. They of course help themselves to
apples in the late summer and early fall, and we occasionally
give them cabbage and tomatoes to pick at after the grass
gets dry, or any little “treat” we happen to have for them,
to give variety. C. W. JEROME & CO.
PLENTY OF RUNWAY AND YARD ROOM—LEAN-
TO COOP.
I use both incubator and hens for hatching. Tf the hens
are slow in laying, requiring too long a time to supply a suf-
ficient number of eggs for an incubator, I put the first two
or three broody hens that 1 can find to work. I never get
one hen singly. If
the hens lay we!l
I set the incuba-
tor. I much pre-
fer _ ‘incubators
and brooders, es-
pecially the
brooder. I have
hatched out
chicks) by hens
raised them in
brooders without
any loss of chicks
to speak of and
with much less trouble than watching the old hen.
I never use outside coops, even for broods with hens. I
have on the south side of a main building a lean-to shed
six by fourteen feet with a glass front. (See Fig. 2.) This
shed I use for my young chicks. I have movable partitions
and can divide it into from three to five compartments, de-
pending on the number and the size of broods, each com-
partment containing a brood of chicks. From this they can
run cn the outside in good weather either with the hen, or
with the hen confined on the inside, so the chicks can run
in and out at will.
In this coop they remain until they are weaned, which is
from six to ten weeks. Of course this coop must be cleaned
three or four times a week, with plenty of litter or chaff on
the floor, with dry food fed in litter to make them work, and
plenty of fresh water. They grow and thrive from the very
start. After chicks are weaned they are moved from this
lean-to coop into the main room adjoining, which is 12x14.
In this room they are put to roost, while other youngsters
take their place in the first or young chick coop. The last
lot of chicks I allow to grow up in this shed, while the first
lot remain in the main room of the big building until about
October 1, when the cockerels are separated from the pullets.
My cockerel house is in another part of the yard, with
plenty of runway and yard room. Pullets go into my main
hen house, which is 12x15, divided into two parts, with
plenty of yard rcom to each part. I do not allow my hens
and pullets to run together. I find hens get too fat on a
ration that would keep a pullet starving hungry.
As to feeding chicks I find little trouble to keep them
growing from the time they are six weeks to six months old
on plenty of sound small grain, wheat and chopped corn be-
ing my main ration. Twice a week I feed them a full mess
of wheat bran, middlings and oil-mea!l well mixed. I be-
lieve that vil-meal has a splendid effect in producing fine,
glossy plumage. Of course, we all know that plenty of grit
and fresh water are two essentials. It is the little chicks
that give most trouble in getting them up to six weeks old.
Tam always making a fight on lice, both on fowls and
in buildings. Lice kill more chicks and grown fowls, for
that matter, than all other diseases combined.
JOHN HETTICH.
Fig. 2—Style of Lean-to Coop Used by Mr.
John Hettich.
MOVABLE COOPS IN BLUE GRASS PASTURE—
METHOD OF FEEDING—CORNFIELD AND
CLOVER FOR RANGE.
I do not have any particular style of coop—a good roof
and bottom of boards always, made so that it can be conven-
iently cleaned. Twenty chicks to a hen I think about right.
The coops are placed near the house for convenience while
the chicks are young, moving them further away as they
grow older. At about five or six weeks they are located
near a blue grass pasture, with a number of apple trees for
shade. Here they have range until cold weather drives
them into winter quarters.
My first food for little chicks is dry wheat bread, moist-
ened with sweet milk. This is good enough for the first
day; the second day, oatmeal and millet seed are given,
with good grit. They get water from the start. Up to four
weeks old their food is bread, moistened in milk, millet seed,
oatmeal cornbread, baked as for the table, and cracked
wheat. After they are four weeks old I discontinue the oat-
meal and bread and milk. and feed millet seed, whole wheat
and cracked corn, with cornbread for breakfast, baked the
day before. After the chicks are two months old I feed a
bran mash, consisting of one-third each of ground oats,
corn and wheat bran, moistened with milk, clabber or sour
milk preferred. This I feed in the evening, all they will eat.
I follow this method of feeding the old fowls, believing
the evening the proper time for soft food. For late hatched
broods (say the last of June or first of July hatches) I know
of no place better for cooping than a near cornfield, with a
clover meadow near by. The corn furnishes plenty of shade
through the warm days, and the clover field supplies grass-
hoppers. I have had good results from late broods raised in
this manner. O. L. KING.
ROOSTING COOP FOR YOUNG STOCK—THREE FEEDS
A DAY AND PLENTY OF RANGE AND WORK.
In raising chicks, if they have been fed and cared for as
they should, are free from mites and diseases until weaning
time, or until they are large enough to be taken from the
brooder to the roosting coop, I find that the greatest work
and care of the season is over. After my chicks are six to
eight weeks old I give them their liberty all through the
day, except when the weather is too bad to let them run.
I feed them three times a day and make them work for it all
except the morning feed. For a roosting place I use coops
with a floor space two and one-half feet square. (Fig. 3.)
I also use these coops with a run attached for the hen
and brood when I let the chicks run with the hen instead
of using a brood-
er, so when the
chicks are wean-
ed they will con-
tinue to go home
to roost.
These coops are
made of seven-
eighthsinch
matched lumber,
wel easoned.
: A 5 b Fig. 3—Roosting Coops for Young Stock Rec-
The sides can be ommended by Mr. G. E. Read.
made of lumber
taken from dry goods boxes. The front should be two feet
high, the back sixteen inches high. This gives sufficient
slant to the top to run the water off when it rains. The
back is left open and has slats nailed across to keep the
hen in and to allow the chicks to pass out. This open side
adinits plenty of fresh air at all times. The top shouid pro-
ject over about eight inches at back of coop to prevent the
62 THE CHICK BOOK
rain from biowing in. In the front there is a door twelve
inches wide. There is a bottom made by nailing boards to-
gether on two cleats, made so that the coop will slip down
over the fioor onto the ground. This prevents the rain from
blowing under and wetting the floor. The cleats keep the
bottom from resting flat on the ground. The coop should
be given two coats of paint.
This kind of a roosting place is very easily cleaned or
whitewashed by lifting it off the floor. When the ground is
dry and warm the floor is not necessary, simply move the
coop to a new spot when it begins to get foul. Twenty-five
or thirty chicks can, without being crowded, roost in a
place of this kind until they are three or four months old.
When the chicks are raised in a brooder I prefer a roosting
coop large enough to accommodate fifty. This number is as
many as should be put in one flock until three or four
months old. I then move them to a large roosting house,
where they continue to roost on a floor until five or six
months old. Sometimes I put as many as one hundred in a
place of this kind. From here they go to their permanent
roosting place, which is on perches made of two-by-four-
inch scantling, with the top rounded a little. Whatever
kind of place chicks have to roost in, it should be kept
clean and free from mites. Unless you do this you will
surely fail. *
I have no mechanical arrangement or fixed method for
feeding chicks. I always feed what I think the time and
occasion demand. I believe that as much depends on the
way food is prepared and manner of feeding, as on the ma-
terial. For the morning meal I tually give a light feed of
cornbread baked just the same as for table use, or a mash
composed of bran and middlings. They will still be a little
hungry, and will start out hunting what they can find to
pick up. Along toward noon I scatter wheat among the
leaves and litter in a large part of their range. This gives
them something to do that greatly interests them until
along in the afternoon. When the sun is about one hour
high I scatter cracked corn, and perhaps some millet seed
or wheat in some litter. This will keep them busy until
about sundown, and by this time their crops are full, they
have done a good day’s work and are ready to go to their
coop and enjoy a good night’s rest.
There is always plenty of fresh water and grit where
they can go to it whenever they choose. G. EB. READ.
RAT AND STORM PROOF ROOSTING COOP.
The brood coop I have had most success with is
made as follows: Length, twenty-four inches; height,
in front, twenty inches; rear, twelve inches; width,
eighteen inches (inside measurements). I make the
coop of matched
pine, with board
|
il
f floor, the cleats
a
as to raise the
coop off the
ground. The top
projects three
inches at the
sides and four
finches at the
rear. I make a closed front (boards the same as the coop),
the front being hinged to the top, and the top and front
mitered, so as to close tight when down. The coop front
is kept in place by cleats on the inside, these cleats allow-
ing about seven-eighths of an inch space on both sides for
ventilation when the door is down.
The fronl has iron strips with three or four holes fast-
fon the outside, so
|
Ni
uN
Fig. 4—Coop with Adjustable Hood Front.
ened about the center for the purpose of forming a hood to
the coop, which can be set at different angles by placing
screw eyes to the sides of the coop. This feature of the coop
is grand, as by the hood the hot sun can be kept out as well
as driving rains.
saneee coops save me many chicks each season. They
are rat proof and storm proof. The hen is kept in by a lath
front fastened just at the edge of coop. By painting these
coops and storing when not in use, they last a long ye
and repay for their cost many times over. When the chicks
are older 1 utilize dry goods boxes, cut down to about the
same shape, only I make a hood of the lower eighteen inches
only REV. Cc. A. SMITH.
ROOSTING COOP FOR STOCK UNTIL READY FOR
WINTER QUARTERS—MAKING THE MASH—
GRAIN FOOD. oH
As soon as the hen weans the chicks (or if raised in a
prooder, as soon ag they are large enough to take care of
themselves) they are removed to roosting coops made and
used exclusively fur this purpose. These coops are scat-
tered along a ,
ing a large orch-
Fig. 5—Mr. F. E. Mow’s Roosting Coop.
ard, where they
can get range and
shade at all
times. The coops
are made from
cheap lumber,
but are strong and tight. We have them from six
to ten feet long, but prefer them ten feet long, two
feet high at back, three and one-half feet in front, the roof
projecting over the front to keep out rain. Ends and back
are boarded tight, and there is also a tight floor. Front is
of wire netting nailed to the frame just fitting, and hinged
at the top, so as to be closed at night and to shut the chicks
in when getting them used to new quarters. The coops have
roosting poles lengthwise the whole length of coop. We do
not find so many crooked breast bones from roosting on
these poles as are found by chicks roosting on the floor. The
coops must be kept far enough apart so the different fiocks
will not try to crawl into one coop. If possible we put pul-*
lets in different quarters from the cockerels. We have kept
chicks in these coops until snow flies.
We feed only three times a day when chicks are this
age. The morning and noon ration consists of corn meal
(ground fine) two parts, bran one part, middlings two parts,
thoroughly mixed. To this we add salt and to a peck we
add cne quart of meat meal. This is placed in a light ves-
sel, boiling water poured over it and mixed to a stiff dough.
We use a grain sack to cover the vessel, and pack very
tightly to keep in all the steam. Let the mixture cook in
its steam and feed only when cool. They are fed all they
will eat up clean. At night they are fed corn, wheat and
oats—very little oats, however, as we have had poor success
with oats. The grains are fed alternately so they will not
get tired of either grain. F. E. MOW.
EXCELLENT CONDITIONS FOR GROWING HEALTHY
BIRDS.
Living as we do on a farm, we have plenty of range,
grass and shade. We have a large apple, plum and cherry
orchard, also raspberry and blackberry patches, which af-
ford fine range for young chicks. As for food, we use only
such grains as we raise on the farm. When the chicks are
about six weeks old we put them in flocks of fifteen to twen-
ty-five, each flock roosting at night in a large coop having
a movable bottom, so as to make it easy to clean out. There
THE CHICK BOOK 63
is a wire screen door in front, so as to give plenty of air,
also to make it vermin-proof at night.
As to our method of feeding, we give corn ground rather
coarse, so the chicks will have something to pick at. Hach
morning we take what corn meal we want for a day and
moisten it with milk that has been heated to the boiling
point, being careful to mix thoroughly so all the meal is
scalded, thus preventing danger of bowel trouble. We feed
three times a day just what they will eat up clean each time.
‘When they are about three months old we omit the corn
Higa) and give whole oats in the morning and noon, and
whole ‘corn at night. We let them forage through the day
for bugs, grass, etc., which they need to keep in good grow-
ing condition. There’ is plenty of good clean water for them
to drink at all times. This is one of the most important
parts in raising healthy chicks. H. TIBBETTS.
BEST OF CARE— PLENTY OF FOOD—WELL VENTI-
LATED COOPS.
We give our chicks farm range (farm consists of 269
acres) and Breaky of fresh well water, also a variety of food
ez ——_— consisting of
= eracked corn,
wheat screenings,
corn bread, pota-
toes, etc, and
plenty of natural
grit from a grav-
el bank. In au-
4 ein Larter erate st MGR ¥! tumn their range
, affords a good
Fig. 6—Coop Used by Simon Lynch & Son. supply of grass-
hoppers. Wesweepthefeeding space each day, scald and clean
the drinking vessels, and try to keep the chicks as free from
lice as possible by keeping the floor of the roosting houses
clean and the walls, etc., whitewashed frequently. We aim
to give at all times the best of care and plenty of food. We
keep our fowls well sheltered at night in well ventilated
roosting houses, ranging in size from four by eight feet to
six by twelve feet. The illustration (Fig. 6) shows a build-
ing six by twelve feet; front, six feet six inches; rear,
four feet. The roof projects one foot to protect
ventilators from rain. The door (D) is two by six
feet. C C are doors twelve inches, hinged at bottom, to be
opened for light and thorough ventilation. Above this door
is a wire screen six inches wide (B) for ventilation at night
or when other doors are closed. Above the door, running
full length of house, is a board four inches wide to give
support to roof. SIMON LYNCH & SON.
FARM RANGE—PLENTY OF GREEN FOOD—ROOMY
QUARTERS.
We have never aimed to raise over four or five hundred
chickens a year, as we raise geese and turkeys and cannot
accommodate a much larger flock. The young have good
comfortable coops, with board floors, closed up according
to the weather, with the brood hen confined accordingly.
They have farm range, an abundance of grass, good water
at all times and plenty of grit. Our coops are too small to
accommodate them after they are quite large, So aS Soon as
they begin to think about roosting on top of coops or a limb
of the nearest tree, we put them in our large buildings,
where the most of them are to be kept through the winter.
Most of our old stock, kept for sitting, laying, etc., has been
marketed by this time.
Our buildings are clean and free from vermin. The
youngsters, if they like, can use the perches, which are two
inches wide and have rounded edges; or they can roost on
the floor, which is earth, thickly covered with straw. There
is plenty of room either place, with no crowding (chicks
won't crowd if comfortable). When the cold rains and win-
ter snows come unexpectedly they are comfortable. They
are free from colds, nor do they have crooked breasts as
some might think, for they do not have to go on the percneg
till they want to. We have had to put as many as one hun-
dred and fifty in a large room, but that is too many; fifty
to seventy-five are better.
These chicks are taught to roam and scratch when quite
young, and are not over-fed on grain too easily gotten.
When past their chick food they are fed twice a day with a
mash consisting of corn meal, middlings and bran, about
equal parts, scalded and salted. A third meal, the night
one, consists of cracked corn, wheat or screenings, fed in
the straw so that they have to work for it. A little meat in
some form is fed every few days, and they are given any-
thing in the form of vegetables, cooked or raw, that they
will eat that we happen to have, and we usually have some-
thing of the kind. Our large orchard and grove furnish an
abundance of shade, sometimes too much when it is a little
cool. We never neglect the young, nor feed them more or
less in quantity than they require, which varies according
to age and weather, and no one but the feeder can tell how
much. We used to overfeed, which is easily done, though
some people actually starve their poultry and of course have
“bad luck,” while the real cause is death from neglect.
We do uot expect to raise every chick, but are satisfied
with a good per cent. We lose but few after they are placed
in the large buildings, and those are by accident. This
season we expect to keep many of the incubator chicks in
the brooder houses till late fall or winter. The flocks spoken
of were raised by hens. B. F. HISLOP.
A COOL AND SAFE COOP FOR FORTY YOUNG FOWLS
—MOVED TO FRESH GROUND WEEKLY.
I have several coops for young chickens that are two
and one-half feet high at back, three and one-half feet
in front, three and one-half feet wide and from six to
eight feet long, with heavy water-proof paper on top of
roof. I try to set from three to five hens at one time and
put all the chicks with two or three of them in one of these
coops. When the chicks are about a week old, if the
weather is good, I let them out. They will return at night
and when weaned will roost in these coops of their own
accord. Then I make a frame in front (two feet wide) € cov-
ering it with
poultry netting
(small mesh). I
leave an opening
in the back eight
inches above the
roosts and cover
with wire netting
The fowls are
then safe from
Fig. Mr. D. F, Palmer’s Movable Coop
for Forty Chicks.
minks, rats, or any other animals, and still have a circula-
tion of fresh air.
the ground,
I clean the coops once a week and set them on fresh
ground. These ccops will accommodate about forty chicks.
Late in the fall I line them with paper to prevent drafts,
and when cold weather comes the chicks are in fine shape ta
go into the houses. As to food, I am feeding small shrunken
wheat from the mill. Of course fresh water is before them
at all times. D. F. PALMER.
The roosts in coop are about a foot from
ot
FEEDING THE CHICKS.
We have had experience in raising chicks in brooders
for many years and we have been successful. We never
put more than seventy-five chicks in a lot and we use the
dry food method entirely. Some years ago we found that
it was not possible for us to give the chicks the time neces-
Sary to success, as our fruit business at times claims almost
all our atlention. We therefore dropped the brooders, re-
taining our incubators and giving the chicks to broody hens,
placing the hens in the house formerly used for brooders
until the weather allowed us to put them outdoors.
The method of feeding which we employ for chicks
after being fed for a week or so on crumbs, boiled rice, etc.,
is for morning: One quart sifted cereals, ground fine, one
pint wheat bran, two ounces meat meal and moisten just
enough to adhere slightly together. Noon, feed cracked
corn, barley, hulled oats. Feed just what they will eat up
quickly. .At night we feed cracked corn, hulled oats, wheat,
and a mixture of any small grain we may have. We find
that the meat meal ‘has been a great help, and all our chicks
made splendid growth in bone, and we have not the propor-
tion of puny birds that are so common in nearly every flock.
We prefer hen-raised chicks for many reasons, and we
will name some of them. First, you do not get so many
crowded in a bunch; second, the hens exercise them hunt-
ing bugs and teach them to hunt for something to eat in-
stead of lying around waiting for the feeder to come; third,
d thirty hens will
raise us three
hundred chicks,
which is as many
as we wish for
our present quar-
ters. We give
Game hens Game
chicks, as they
will hover them
‘unttil full feath-
ered and raise
nearly all given
Fig. 10—Slatted Front Coop with Door at
Side. them. White Wy-
andottes leave them in six or seven weeks to do for them-
selves, and they get colds and the attendant diseases and
die off. We would rather raise one well developed chick
than ‘twelve poor ones, and by our method we have few
5. D. & J. W. RILEY.
culls.
TAIT
iit (b
a
b
th
as 7: y LA
a Nee Me
THE CHICK BOOK
THREE GOOD COOPS—MOVING THE YOUNG STOCK
—COOKED FOOD AND GRAINS.
I send a pencil sketch of coops used by me. NG: 8 is
the old A coop for hen and chicks. I have found this to be
about as satisfactory in the long run as more expensive ones,
No. 9 is a little area
more expensive Tr
We
| HHH a
and if made right
is very conven-
ig. 8-9—Half-way Coops to Use Between
Plas Brooder and Fig. 10.
ient, easily kept
clean and safe
from night prow-
lers. I often
make use of
these coops as a
half-way house from the brooders to ‘coop or house No. 10,
as I can limit the number of chicks to guit size, weather
and other conditions. If the: weather is cold and damp I
often use a jug of hot water, set in the middle of the
coop. It is a good thing and the chicks appreciate it, as
one cau soon tell.
I use one incubator, and with it I have three prooders—
No. 1, one nundred chick; No. 2, three hundred chick; No. 3,
five hundred chick size, so-called.
They go from the incubator to brooder No. 1, which I
have ready for them with a temperature of about 90 degrees
to start with: from No. 1 to No. 2, then as age and size war-
rant they go to No. 3. No. 2 has outside runs; No. 3 is an
outdoor brooder and chicks have a good grass yard and
plenty of shade. I bunch them up in small colonies of
about fifteen in the No. 9 coops. Fresh water and grit are
where the chicks can get to them all the time.
The food question is one that bothers me more or less.
All my fowls, old or young, get one cooked ration every day
—in the mornings. For this I use oats, corn chop, clover
(cut), bran, shipstuff and beef or blood meal. This is pre-
pared the night before, and as soon as the young stock get
old enough they get a pertion, the same as the old stock. I
feed corn chop, wheat and millet, green cut bone and vege-
tables, table scraps, and anything I can find that is good for
them. I aim to give my chicks as much variety as possible.
Oat groats is a principal factor in my food for growing
chicks.
E. M. DURHAM.
‘ih See
ihe
Nf
Patty
A Shelter Coop for Growing Chicks.
PROFITABLE BROILER RAISING.
This Profitable Branch of the Poultry Industry Discussed in Detall, from the Hen That Lays the Egg to the Profits
That Go Into the Pockets of the Successful Broller Ralser—Suitable Breeds for Brollers—Vigor and
Shape in Breeders—Seasons of Incubation and Prices of Eggs—Seasons of Sales and
High Prices for Broilers—Perlod of Growth to Marketable Size—Special
Foods an Aid to Growth—A Clue to the Profits.
By A. F. Hunter.
ferent lines of poultry work, and not the least of
them is the fascination of broiler raising for the
beginners. That the promised profits of turning
eggs into a choice marketable fowl product does fascinate the
beginner is well known to those who have studied conditions
in the poultry business, and perhaps the most frequently
recurring question coming to the poultry editor’s desk re-
lates to one point or another of broiler raising. Nor is this
surprising when we consider that the changing of an egg
into a chick is but a matter of three weeks’ time, and the
growth of the baby chick to a marketable broiler is but a
matter of eight to twelve weeks’ time. Somebody says, “An
egg costs two or three cents, and in three months we can
turn it into a two-pound broiler which will sell for a dollar;
that certainly looks an easy way to make money. And it
would be if every egg produced a chick and every chick
grew to broiler size and good, marketable condition, and
sold for fifty cents a pound; but, there are eggs and eggs,
and there are broilers and broilers, and there are not a few
diffculties in the way of realizing the Klondike profits which
look so tempting. That there is a good profit in broiler
raising there is ample evidence in the sections where market
poultry is made a business, and where men have continued
the raising of broilers and soft-roasters for ten, fifteen,
twenty or more years. That many who embark in broiler
raising gradually outgrow “the broiler stage’ and develop
into larger things is not surprising. We have in mind
such widely known poultrymen as A. G. Duston and Wm.
Ellery Bright as examples of broiler (and market poultry)
raising having been the stepping stone to the great poultry
business they have built up; indeed, not more than six or
eight years ago Mr. Duston wrote interesting and helpful
articles for the Reliable Poultry Journal upon this subject
and his poultry plant was planned and built with the inten-
tion of making broiler raising a prominent feature in his
poultry work.
There are great poultry farms where broiler raising is
a considerable part, or even the chief part, of the work, and
where incubators are kept. running practically the year
around. On others the broiler work is simply one feature
of the general poultry work; the intention being to have
a good crop of broilers to meet the high-priced market, and
a succession crop of soft roasting chickens to meet the high-
priced market for roasters, and a general “market poultry
and eggs’ business for all the year. There is still another
class of brciler raisers, those who turn off their young
cockerels to market just as soon as they are of marketable
size, considering them simply a by-product of the general
poultry work.
alk HERE are several interesting features manifest in dif-
Prices Go Up, Then Down.
There is very little sale for broiler chicks in October,
November and December, at least in the general market;
some sale there is, to private trade, and in such case very
little attention is paid to market quotations, the prices being
simply between the grower and his customer. In January
there is a light call for broiler chicks, which steadily in-
creases through February and March and culminates in
April, then gradually decreases through May, June and July,
and by August the lowest prices are again reached. These
lowest prices range from twelve to twenty cents a pound,
and the highest prices range from twenty-five to fifty cents
a pound, the sale price depending upon the quality of the
product and the demand in the market. The chickens must
be “gilt-edged” to command the highest figures, and if of
extra, fine,, J gilt- edged” quality they not only sell quickly,
but frequently command a premium above highest market
prices.
These broilers are in greatest demand in April,
with a good demand . in March - and May, with a
moderate demand from . _New Year’s to August. In
the best. markets, which are those of our greater eastern
cities, the prices range from about twenty .cents a pound
in January up to fifty cents a pound in April, then gradu-
ally fall off to about twenty cents again in August. Not all
two-pound chickens, however, are “high-class” broilers and
command the highest current prices; to command the high-
est prices they must be of “the best’ quality, must be plump,
full-breasted, yellow-skinned and fine-boned, and the quicker
a chicken can be grown to broiler size-the better in quality
it will be. The better the quality the higher the price and
consequently better profit to the grower. If a two-pound
broiler costs twelve and a half cents a pound to raise and
is of such fine quality that it sells for forty or fifty cents a
pound, there is a profit of twenty-seven and a half or
thirty-seven and a half cents a pound: if, however, it is
“off” in quality and sells for ten cents less per pound, there
is hut seventeen and a half or twenty-seven and a half cents
a pound profit. This one point of poor quality and conse-
quently lower price has discouraged (or disgusted) not a
few broiler raisers, hence the importance of getting eggs
from stock of the much desired fine-boned, plump-breasted
yeliow-skinned class of fowls, to the end that, if fed right
and cared for as they should be, they grow (and grow
quickly) into broilers of the very best class.
That there has been little change in market conditions
in the past dozen years is shown by the price-list given in
the circular of Messrs. W. H. Rudd, Son & Co. in 1891, which
reads as follows:
Quotations for Broilers.
January, demand light...............45 .15 to 20c
February, demand improves........... 20 to 22c¢
IMPAT OM: 6s isa eae oouardsiavalitces Lace seat ein AUN idee ees 28 to 35¢
PTE eat odd sbarece tetacusican Neve weno eeataate Se 35 to 50c
MAY ii eiceaiiniecies Sais ce ahem es 40 to 30¢
DUDE® rere aia’ acece foe De REDS cok kam SS 30 to 25c
JULY. sats esa eeR sora tak edad tisewars nts 25 to 20¢
August, prices fluctuating ries Selisc havens 16 to 23c
Septem ber acawnnieces san aves shee ward 12 to 16c
Oct., Nov. and Dec., little demand...... 12 to 15¢
66 THE CHICK BOOK
PROFITABLE
MARKET
CHICKENS.
Wlustration Referred to by Mr. Hunter.
In November, 1901, Reliable Poultry Journal, we told Table of Shipments and
Mr. Twining’s figures give
us a clue to profits. He tells
us his two-pound broilers cost
him twenty-five cents apiece,
and divides the cost as fol-
lows:
Two C228 .-.eeeeee 5c
DLad0r %eawr secane Te
Food .....- .eeeee 8c
Picking ...... -++- 5e
MOtAL: a sare. cinierses 25¢
As he and his son did all
the work, it is obvious that
the seven cents for labor was
put into his own (and son’s)
pockets, and that they got the
full price of their labor in ad-
dition to the profits returned.
The figures give us twelve and
a half cents per pound as the
cost of a two-pound broiler
and the market prices ranged
from twenty to fifty cents a
pound. A two-pound broiler
selling at twenty cents a
pound pays fifteen cents prof-
it, while the same broiler sell-
ing at fifty cents a pound
pays seventy-five cents profit.
Quite a difference there, and
the figures show the impor-
tance of ‘having the product
ready to market at the time of
highest prices. This is the
month of April, but March
and May also give high prices.
It takes nine to twelve weeks
to grow a two-pound broiler,
and that means that the
chicks must be hatched in De-
eember, January and Febru-
ary to come upon the market
in time for best prices. ;
Returns of Mr. Twining’s
of a decidedly successful broiler raising business, and gave Broilers.
a table of shipments of about four thousand broilers, with
prices taken directly from Mr. Twining’s books. We re- i
print the table so that prices may be compared with those DATE, chicks, Returned. pe pean,
of Mr. Rudd, published ten years earlier.
These returns are from (practically) weekly shipments, eae. cane a By $ Bop re
while the prices in the first table are designed to give the Mav 3-0. -- jedeaoieeeen | 50 23.01 3s
average prices for each month. Another point worth notic- a an eid “seas, ence 80 49 3
ing is that Mr. Twining shipped to both Philadelphia and 29 a tee 40
New York markets, and sometimes could get a few cents 44 38
better price in one market than in the other. For example, ma 3
May 3rd and 8th shipments to Philadelphia only returned a a
him thirty-five cents a pound. He shipped no more for 132.44 “32
nearly two weeks and then shipped to New York and re- 109.88 %
ceived forty cents for them; another shipment returning ed se
him thirty-six cents, and not until June 8rd was the New 81 19 28
York price down to thirty-five cents, which was the Phila- 07.33 50
delphia price just a month earlier. It is worth noting that 13 8 a
the Boston prices for May are given as forty to thirty cents, 94.02 20
which approximates closely 'to Mr. Twining’s actual returns ia ca
$1,839.03 |
ten years later; a comparison of these prices shows that
there is but little variation in prices from year to year.
Average Price per chick, 46.45 cents.
THE CHICK BOOK
Eggs for Hatching Broilers.
The first problem, and one of the most important to the
broiler raiser, is the eggs from which to hatch the chicks. It
is November, December and January eggs that pro-
duce the December, January, and February chickens,
and eggs in those months are scarce and high. Eggs at this
writing (February) are selling at forty-five cents a dozen,
wholesale; nearly four cents apiece. It is evident, then, that
eggs at this season are worth decidedly more than‘the two
and a half cents apiece figured by Mr. Twining. His fig-
ures, however, extended into and through the period of low-
est prices for eggs, and the books showed that his average
for the (about) nine thousand eggs incubated was nearer
twonty-five cents a dozen than the thirty cents of the fig-
ures. We visited a large practical poultry farm early in
December and found the owner just closing
a case of fine looking eggs he was sending
67
shape <o hatch good chicks unless the hens that produce
them are in high condition. They must be in per-
fect health and be fed a food ration that supplies the ele-
ments of which good eggs are made in addition to
the food (which must include a sufficient supply of
green food to “balance” the grain and animal foods), the
fowls must be kept in clean quarters, must be kept free from
verinin, must have an abundance of fresh air to breathe,
and must nave sufficient exercise to keep the circulation
active and promote good digestion. This looks formidable
at first, but is really nothing more than common prudence
dictates, because “‘the hen that lays is the hen that pays,”
and the hens must have good food and care if we expect
them to lay.
The term “quality of the eggs” means much more than
the average reader
will realize. It is most
to market. We asked him if he was selling
any eggs to market poultry raisers and he
replied, “No, sir! It don’t pay to bother with
that trade. I'm getting forty-five cents a
dozen wholesale for these eges, and the most
that market poultry raisers will pay is five
dollars per hundred; that isn’t difference
enongh to pav me for packing them to ship
by express and pay for
' -eorrespondence, time,
etc., that it takes.” As
we had visited a mar-
ket poultry raiser only
a couple of days before
and he had exclaimed
about the difficulty of
getting good hatching
eggs to fill his incuba-
tors,.a comparison of <7 =
the two differing points _7
of view is interesting. /7 .
The one man had the \“
eggs in good supply,
said he was getting a
hundred and over a day
and could no doubt ship
five or six hundred eggs
a@ week if the other
would offer a_ price
which would make it
worth while taking care
of the orders. Five dol-
lars per hundred did not
tempt him, possibly six
dollars per hundred
would.
“Good Hatchable
Eggs,”
important that eggs
for market be of good
quality, be strong-
bodied and _ full-bod-
ied; if less than this
they are seconds or
thirds and sell for a
lower price. Of how
much greater impor-
tance that they be
strong bodied and full
bodied if they are to
be incubated. If weak
Next to getting eggs
to put in the incubators
the most important matter is the quality of
the eggs, is the getting of good, strong bod‘ed
eggs that will hatch out strong, vigorous
chicks. Indeed, it may well be stated that
the quality of the eggs is the most important point;
it isn’t an impossibility to get one or two or three
thousand eggs, but to get eggs whch will turn out a
reasonable proportion of sturdy, ‘““bound-to-live’ chicks
is more difficult. This brings us to “the hens behind
the eggs,” as it is impossible that eggs be in the best
The Profitable and Unprofitable Type
Illustration referred to by Mr. Hunter,
and watery they can
not hatch good,
strong chicks. There
may be sufficient body to
the egg to nourish the em-
bryo (and beyond) the critical
period of exclusion, but the in-
fant chick will be so weak and
feebla it cannot ‘“make-a-live”
in Market Fowls.
68 THE CHICK BOOK
of it; or it may be still poorer and the embryo die in the last
week of incubation; and scme eggs are so poor the germs
die in the first few days of incubation. When eggs are ve.y
poor in quality there will be many of these dead germs
found in the incubator at the end of the hatch, or thrown
out at the second test; it is perhaps unnecessary to say that
such poor quality eggs are the most unprofitable and most
unsatisfactory for the market poultry raiser to buy.
The Hens That Lay the Eggs.
The witty “Autocrat of the Breakfast Table’ said that
the education of a child should begin twenty years before
the child is born, and, similarly, the strength and vigor of
our broiler chicks must be planned for one or more years
before the eggs are laid from which the chicks are hatched.
The laying hens must be birds with strong constitutions
and themselves descended from birds that had strong con-
stitutions. An old poultryman, in an article written for
the Reliable Poultry Journal a few years ago, says:
“Instead of beginning with the egg which is to produce
the chick we go farther back, even back of the hen which
lays the egg, and find the health and strength of her ances-
try. In other words, we examine her family tree. If, on
due investigation, we find the hen which is to lay our eggs
is the offspring of some generations of strong, healthy birds,
we may safely depend on her giving us the proper material
on which to build our broiler structure. There never has
been, and never will be, a successful broiler business built
up on eggs from other than stock in perfect health and of
strong vitality. The reasons are plain to see. In order to
get your quick grown, juicy carcass there must be a forced
growth from the very hatching, and the chick: must have
the stamina and vitality which alone come through inher-
itance, and which enable him to stand the hardest feeding
and keep him busy and happy. ‘The chicken from poorly
fed, ill developed parent stock of hit and miss breeding
cannot and will not fill the bill.”
‘How to get the desired strong constitution is an impor-
tant consideration, and it is evident that we should both
breed for it and “select” the breeding birds for it. Prof.
Graham, of the Ontario Agricultural College, Guelph, has
given much study to this subject, and in an excellent article
published in the Reliable Poultry Journal he discusses the
question of the constitution of the breeding stock, and illus-
trates his points with photographs from birds of both the
desired and undesirable types. Mr. Graham says:
“I am of the opinion that one of the mcs: important
points to be considered is constitution. This may have no
actual market value, but it certainly has much to do with
the bird’s ability to grow and put on flesh. What we want
is a good feeder and an economical producer. Generally, a
bird with a short, stout, well curved beak, a broad head,
not. too long, and a bright, clear eye, will have plenty of con-
stitution. Furthermore, I have noticed that when a bird
has a long, narrow beak, a thin, long comb and head, and
eye sunken ir the head, it is lacking in constitution. It a'’so
has a narrow, long body, and in many causes legs which are
long, and upon which the fowl seldom stands straight. There
are some exceptions to these points, yet, upon the average,
if a bird has a good head, the chances are favorable for a
good body, and if a poor head, the opposite may be said. I
have frequently noticed in Rose Comb breeds, such as Wy-
andottes, that you seldom see a good shaped one that has
a long, narrow comb.
“The neck of the market fowl should be moderately
short and stout, indicating vigor. The breast is the most
important point in a market chicken. It should be broad,
moderately deep; and, if fairly long, will present a fine ap-
pearance and appear well fleshed. It is quite possible lene
ely
a broad, dcep breast will carry more meat than a modera:
deep breast of the same width, yet there is no doubt but that
the latter will present much the better appearance and
thereby sell quicker, and at a higher price in the market.
“When considering the length of breast, we must try
to get it to come weil forward (see Fig. 1), and not cut off
at an angle, as seen in Fig. 2. The body, in general,
should present the appearance of an oblong, when the head,
tail and neck are removed. We frequently see birds that are
very flat in front and cut up behind as seen in Fig. 8. This
class of chickens gives a very short breast; and if it happens
to be deep, as it is in this bird, you will have, when dressed,
about as poor a looking chicken as ome could wish to see,
there being a lack of width and length of breast, with ex-
cessive depth. (Notice the head is narrow and long, the
body is narrow, the eye is bright, but slightly sunken, the
legs are long and not straight under the body.) Im Fig. 2,
note the very fiat breast, the length of back, the long neck
and head, the narrow comb, the sunken eye, and the length
of legs. The breast comes fairly well back, but not well
forward. In Fig. 1 the bill is short and stout, but not as
well curved as I should like. Note the breadth of the head,
the prominence and brightness of the eye, the short and
stout neck, the great width of the breast, the fullness caused
largely by the breastbone extending well forward, the short,
stout legs that are straight under the body, and the width
between the legs. There is an expression about this chicken
that impresses one as being the essence of vigor.
“The back should be broad to give lung and heart capac-
ity, and, further, this width should extend well back to the
tail-head. Avoid the wedge-shaped back as seen in some
fowls that have great width at the shoulders and taper
rapidly toward the tail-head.
“Tt is much easier to get good shaped market females
than it is to get good cockerels. * * * The farmers have
gone to raising big chickens and are asking for large, over-
grown cockerels for breeders and, further, birds that have
excessive depth. The result is, we get chickens when dressed
weighing fcur to five pounds each that have immense, high
breastbones and very long legs. These are not attractive
to the buyers and sell at a less price per pound than plumper
birds. For example, if given two birds of the same width
of breast, one is one and a half inches deeper in the breast
than the other, the result will be, the one bird looks plump
and sells readily, the other lacks plumpness and sells
slowly. This can be bred out by using such males as Fig. 1.
“T wish to have birds as well built as we can get them.
Fig. 1 is as near the ideai market chicken as I have seen in
the breed he represents. The hen as seen.in Fig. 4 is of a
good market type. Note the width and fullness of breast.
As a breeder she is a little fine in bone, and rather too
small. She has, however, that blocky appearance that is
cesirable.”’
There has been tar too great a use of big, coarse breed-
ing males, the thought appearing to be that size (mere
“bigness’”’) indicated a strong constitution, and the rote
cof warning sounded by Prof. Graham is most timely. In
broiler chickens, too, fineness of bone is most important.
The fine-boned carcass gives a larger proportion of meat
to bone (waste), and the coarser framed bird has the knife-
edge breast, rather than the round, plump breast which has
so attractive an appearance. Then, too, the finer boned
birds take on fat more readily; it will generally be found
that the birds which will not fatten and that it ig seemingly
impossible to get in good, marketable condition, are the
long-legged, thin-bodied, angular birds begotten by the big,
cecarse ancestors which have come to be used because of this
THE CHICK BOOK
craze for mere “bigness!’’ If we will but take heed of the
suggestions given us by Prof..Graham there will be a nota-
ble improvement in the “type” of bird we send to market;
the improvement in type resulting in a bettering of quality,
an increased price, quicker sales and better profits to the
poultryman.
I spoke of the remarkable attraction that broiler raising
sgemed to have for the beginners in, poultry work, and to
such the very great bettering of incubators, brooding
and feeding comes as a great boon. The distressing fail-
ures, such as I have seen many of, should now be less com-
mon. One such, in a pleasant town about thirty miles west
of Philadelphia, is worth citing as a warning. In this case
two young men frcm the city had thought to better their
pecuniary condition by broiler raising. They built a hot
water pipe brooder house a hundred feet long, bought five
hundred eggs and went to work. A friend with whom I was
making an over-night visit told me of their poor success,
and suggested that we drive over in the morning and see
them. When we arrived we found them contemplating an
incubator full of eggs which should have hatched the day
before, and from which not one chick had come. Closing
the shutters (the incubators were being run in the old
HO eR: Wiad
a
69
dampers as the tcmperature falls or rises from the paint
desired. Moreover, the hovers are not back against the
walk partition, but out about three feet from it; there is
no confined (dead) air under such hovers and no possibility
of chicks crowding each other back against a back wall and
smothering some. Of course such a brooder house costs
more than a cheaply built and inadequately heated one, but
it “raises the chicks,’ and therefore pays the added cost
over and over again, instead of aiding to pass them along
to the fertilizer heap.
Must Be Well Hatched.
Chicks tc grow well must be well batched. It is a seri-
ous handicap to the baby life to have great difficulty in
getting out of the shell; sometimes the struggle for exclu-
sion is so violent and exhausting that the chick has little
chance of making a live of it. There are various causes for
this, such as too high or too low average temperature in the
incubator, irregularity of temperature, and other eccentrici-
ties; poor eggs, owing to the laying stock being out of con-
dition, is ancther potent cause. With the well made, up-
to-date and well ventilated incubators of to-day there is
no reason for poorly hatched chicks if directions are closely
Colony Houses and Yards for Maturing the Growing Stock on the Farm of J. D. Nevius.
farm house parlor), we tested about half the eggs, and told
them they hadn't ventilated the incubator at all (appar-
ently), and their eggs were only about half fertile, so they
were only entitled to about one hundred and fifty chickens
anyway. ;
The air was “blue” there for a little while, but talking
did no good, and while they in their lurid dreams had pic-
tured a chicken hatching from every egg (in winter at
that!), the potent fact was their work was a failure. They
had already incubated over two thousand eggs and
hatched less than three hundred chickens, and the
brooder house showed at a glance the moment we
entered it that no one could “raise” chickens in it.
There was a “chill” in the air that went to the mar-
row, and chicks cannot possibly be grown in such an atmos-
phere. The brooder house had been built with half-dried
lumber, after freezing weather came in the early winter, and
to save fifty dollars or so a heater two sizes too small had
been bought. There was no heat except the two flow and
two return pipes under the hovers, and the hovers were
close up against the partition along the walk. Compare
such a defective brooder house with the one in use at Lake-
wood Farm, illustrated on pages 14 and 15—A New
Jersey Brooding House. There is a, brooder house equip-
ped with abundant heating pipes under the hovers, having a
bank of auxiliary heating pipes along the walk, to warm
the house, and an adequate heater for the coldest weather.
Then there is an electric regulator connected with a thermo-
stat under one of the hovers, and which opens or closes the
followed, provided, of course, that the eggs are good and
strong. The most important thing is that the right tem-
perature be maintained in the incubator, and that it be
steadily maintained. It is wiser to err upon the side of a
bit too high temperature than letting it run low; it is the
opinion of incubator operators that just a little too much
is better than running the risk of the temperature going
too low.” This is especially true in winter hatching. As a
general rule, the colder the weather the stronger (or slight-
ly higher) the average temperature should be.
Running an Incubator.
The daily task of running an incubator consists of turn-
ing the eggs. twice a day, morning and night, and daily fill-
ing and trimming the lamp. Ordinarily the lamp trimming
can best be done about the middle of the afternoon, in the
interval between feeding the chicks and before the last
feeding of the hens. About the seventh day the eggs should
be tested, which is the simple operation of passing the eggs,
with the large end up, before a testing light and notiug if
the egg contains a living germ. The germ is a dark (almost
black), spider-like spot upon the side of the yolk, and the
stronger and darker the germ appears the better. An egg
which is absolutely clear is infertile, and should be saved
out to be eaten in omelettes or scrambled, or sold to the
bake shop to be used in cooking. Now and then a dead
germ will be found, evidenced by reddish circles about the
yolk or a generally cloudy appearance of the egg. - These
should be thrown: in the manure pile, or may be fed to hogs.
70 THE CHICK BOOK
* After the test there will be fewer eggs left in the ma-
chine, but as each egg contains a life and life means animal
heat, we may soon expect to note a slight increase in the
temperature. This should be met by slightly turning down
the nut on the regulator rod each day, or every other day,
as the conditions seem to require. The directions sent out
with each incubator are the guide to follow, and these direc-
tions say 103 degrees is the proper temperature to maintain.
As we said above, we would err cn the side of a bit more
thar the designated temperature, rather than fall below it.
Ons of the most successful incubator operators of our ac-
quaintance does not pretend to keep his machines at ex-
actly 103. He says that atmospheric conditions vary, caus-
ing variations in temperature, and if he keeps between 101
and 105, with an average close to 103, he gets good hatches
of strong, vigorous chicks.
Most operators test the eggs a second time about the fif-
teenth day, testing out the dead germs and leaving in only
the strong and vigorous germs. An expert operator can tell
on the fifteenth day pretty nearly how many chicks he
will get from the hatch, so familiar does he become with
appearance and condition of the strong, vigorous embryo
chicks.
When the first chicks begin to pip the shells close the
ventilator slides almost wholly and keep the doors of the in-
cubator closed until the hatch is well over; it is better to
leave the machine entirely alone for the twenty-four to
thirty-six hours during which the chicks are hatching. A
good, strong heat, even up to 104 or 104%, is desirable at
hatching time, as the chicks come out faster and better.
When the hatch is well over open the ventilating slides
again, to give the baby chicks more air, but do not take
them from the incubator till twenty-four hours after the
hatch is over.
Brooding and Feeding the Chicks.
The temperature under the brooder hovers should be
about 95 degrees at first, gradually lowering it to 90 degrees
when the chicks are about a week old, and thus dropping
about five degrees each week. An experienced chicken
raiser says he wants the heat under the hovers to. be 90
when the chicks are put in, and that their heat will bring
the temperaturé up to about 95 degrees; lower it to 90 by
end of the first week, 85 at end of second week, 80 at end
of third week, 75 at end of fourth week, and so on. In such
a brooder house as the one at Lakewood Farm (mentioned
above), the hover pipes are about three inches from sand
floor in the small pens next the heater where the baby
chicks are put. The space between pipes and floor gradually
increases until it is about eight inches at the end furthest
from the heater where the oldest chicks are brooded. It
is the custom to move the chicks along as they increase in
size, they being driven from pen to pen through a sliding
gate in the partition between the pens.
One of the most successful broiler raisers of my acquain-
tance has smaller brooder houses (ten of them), each about
sixty feet long, and the chicks are never moved from the
pens in which they are first put until they are taken out td
dress for market.
_On another very successful broiler (and roaster) farm,
they have removed the hovers from the brooder pens, built
up the sand floor an inch higher, and the chicks put their
backs up against the warm pipes,—just as they do against
the hen’s body when brooded by a hen. It looks comical
to see the chicks under and between the hover pipes, their
tiny heads sticking above the pipes quite frequently. The
owners say they get better results since they removed the
hovers, that the chicks grow better and faster. On page 78
we give an illustration made from a photograph of the in-
terior of a brooding house on the Jordan Farm, where no
hovers are used.
Feeding the Chicks.
Feeding has been the stumbling block over which many
a would-be broiler raiser has fallen. The dismal wail of
“powel trouble,” usually caused by improper feeding (al-
though too much or too fittle heat, or a “chill” may coutrib-
ute) has marked the beginning of failure. Here is where
the great gain in feeding methods has come in, of which
we spoke at the outset, and which has brought about what
appears new to be a revolution. Instead of the mixed
messes of meals, etc., the ready mixed chick foods, consist-
ing of a large variety of seeds and grains, are fed; with the
gratifying result of comparatively little infant mortality
and a much more rapid growth.
The frontispiece of the August, 1903, Reliable Poultry
Journal was a group made of photos from life, of White
Wyandotte chicks of different ages, and the article describ-
ing them gives the following weights of the chicks:
Newly batched chicks, per pair......--- 4 ounces
Four days old chicks, per pair.....---+- 4 ounces
Ten days old chicks, per pair........- . 8 ounces
Three weeks old chicks, per pair.......- 16 ounces
Four weeks old chicks, per pair........ 1% pounds
Hight weeks old chicks, per pair......-- 4 pounds
Ten weeks old chicks, per pair........-- 6 pounds
Experienced broiler raisers expect to bring broiler
chicks to two pounds weight (apiece) in ten or eleven weeks,
and here we have eight weeks old chicks of full two pounds
weight, and ten weeks old chicks weighing three pounds
apiece. That difference of two to three weeks clipped oft
from the old time ten to eleven weeks considered necessary
to grow a two-pound broiler makes a tremendous gain in
profits. A saving of twenty to twenty-five per cent in time
greatly increases the capacity of the brooder houses, as well
as saves so much labor and food; and this in addition to
the practical elimination of the vexing “bowel trouble”
problem and the dreaded infant mortality. Assuming that
the business paid a fair profit as formerly conducted, such
a saving of time and labor will greatly increase the profits.
This most successful broiler raiser’s method of feeding
is worth quoting, by way of getting “a point of view.” It
was given as follows: ‘‘The chicks are fed five times a day
on hulled oats mostly, with a little cracked wheat and millet
seed added. The cracked wheat is changed to whole wheat
when they are about a week or ten days old, and cracked
corr. is fed after they are a week older, which brings them
to thiee weeks of age. After this they were fed three times
a day; a mash in the morning, wheat at noon and cracked
corn at night, with a feed of cut fresh bone the middle of
the afternoon. The mash is made of either corn meal or
gliten meal, and wheat bran, with a ration of meat meal,
light at first and more of it towards the ‘finishing off.’
Green food they get each afternoon, in the shape of lawn
mower clippings when the grass is growing; later in the
shape of rape. In winter finely cut clover is steamed ard
fed them.”
Feeding, he claims, is the crucial point. Said he, “A
careless or indifferent feeder will do more harm and waste
more food than the profits amount to. ‘The test of good
feeding is to keep the chicks just a trifle hungry, and the
best judgment of the feeder should be brought to bear. His
rule is to give no focd to a pen if there is any left uneaten
from the last feeding. Many chick raisers mistakably. think
that one feeding missed is a step in growth lost. In a lim-
ited sense this is true, but a greater loss in growth comes
from the chicks overeating and the appetite becoming
THE CHICK BOOK 71
cloyed. Not only does a careless feeder waste the food, but
he puts the chicks out of condition and checks their growth
by cloying them, by taking away their appetite. If food is
left before them all the time they will actually eat less, and
make a slower growth than if fed judiciously and kept a lit-
tle bit hungry.
Another writer, describing the methods of a New Jer-
sey broiler raiser, says: “At first the chicks are fed the in-
fertile eggs, cooked, mixed with bread crumbs and rolled
oats; then gradually corn meal and bran are added to the
ration.
“Fattening these small birds is a difficult problem. The
natural tendency is to make growth instead of laying on
fat. For the last ten days before killing the ration consists
of two parts corn meal, one part bran, about ten per cent
cottonseed meal and from twenty-five to thirty per cent
beef scraps. This seems like a heavy feeding of meat, and
of course would not do for chicks that are to be raised to
maturity. The proper weight for killing, twelve ounces,
is reached at about six weeks; however, some
the broilers would be a cheaper looking lot in consequence,
snrinking the price perhaps four or five cents a pound.” In
other words, quality pays in broilers as well as in other
things, and the fact that this man’s broilers frequently bring
him five cents a pound above the highest market quotations,
‘approves the policy of paying the picker a good enough
price to insure having the chicks carefully picked.
A good many farmers and small poultry growers ship
their chickens alive to a commission dealer, who, in turn,
sells them to a picker, who kills, dresses and markets them.
Almost always these chicks shipped in alive, are not really
good broilers; they are usually “lean” and thin, not plump
and round, not well-fattened. A good business is done in
buying up these “range” chickens, feeding them a fattening
ration for two to three weeks, and then dressing them for
market; which is somewhat similar to the fattening done
in England and France, the birds there being almost always
bought from farmers and small growers, brought to the fat-
tening station and fattened for market. There is a substan-
reach that weight sooner than others.”
This writer gives six weeks as the time of
raising these twelve-ounce squab broilers by
that feeding method. The White Wyandotte
chicks told about in the Reliable Poultry Jour-
nal, and whose weights are given above, grew to
the same weight in exactly four weeks; a saving
of thirty-three and a third per cent of time,
brooder house room and labor. That saving
would fully double the profits, and that saving
is made by the improved method of feeding,
by feeding a ready mixed ration of seeds and
grains.
Marketing the Broilers.
Most broiler chickens are marketed “dry
picked.” This is partly due to the fact that
the people educated up to appreciating fine
broilers are critical, and ‘the better appearance
of the dry picked chicken both enhances its
value and increases the consumptive demand.
Most of the picking is done by professionals,
who are paid so much apiece, and who go from
one broiler plant to another as work is offered. The usual
price paid for picking broilers is three to four cents
apiece, and the picker engaged to pick them not infrequently
employs “pinners” to assist him. He does the killing and
“rough-picking,’’ and passes the chicks on to the pinners
to finish; the pin feathering and cleaning up requiring
patience and nimble fingers.
Several excellent articles on “How to Kill and Dry
Pick,” ‘by competent authorities have appeared in leading
poultry journals, in which the process is most carefully de-
scribed and the illustrations, showing the different miove-
ments, greatly aid to a clear understanding of the operation.
We recommend a close study of these articles to those inter-
ested in dry picking.
Nice Work Important.
it is of great importance that the work be nicely (care-
fully) done, as a torn and marred chick is less attractive
and fetches a lower prices. The successful broiler raiser
qucted above pays five cents per chick for killing and pick-
ing, and when we commented upon the rather higher price
than is generally paid he said: ‘I would rather pay that
price and have the chicks carefully picked, the man picking
fifty to sixty chickens a day, than to have a man earn the
same amount of money by hurriedly picking one hundred a
day. It is quite easy for a picker to ‘skimp’ his work, and
fie.
iat a wl
Well Grown Light Brahma Youngsters.
tial loss to the grower who does not fatten his own chick-
ens; selling them in the “‘lean’” condition means that they
are very poor in quality and sell at a low price if marketed
at once, if bought by a fattener and put in good, marketable
condition the fattener gets the bulk of the profits; he gets
pay for the increase in quantity of flesh and the premium
paid for the better quality.
In an article published in the Reliable Poultry Journal
a few years ago, a writer said: “In dressing chickens
for market, they are killed by cutting the vein and penetrat-
ing the brain at a point well back in the roof of the mouth.
A deep cut at just the right point will so paralyze the nerves
of the bird that the feathers will pick very easily, and much
of the trouble in tearing the skin will be avoided. The
chickens are dry picked. All the feathers are taken from
the carcass with the exception of the tips of the wings, and
from these all the quill feathers are picked. If the birds
have feathered legs these are also picked. The heads are
left on, and the entrails are not drawn. After picking and
carefully pin-feathering, they are dropped into huge tanks
of water and left a suitable time to cool. In hot weather
this water is iced in order to more quickly remove the ani-
mal heat. They are then rinsed and the blood cleaned
from their heads, and are laid on a bench for the water to.
drain off. After draining those that are nearest alike are
paired together, the legs being tied with twine, and they
>
nw
are hung in a cool, dark room until the following morning,
when they are packed and shipped to market.”
There Is Profit in Broilers.
That there is good money made in raising broilers a
careful study of the business ‘reveals. There is a great
demand for this class of poultry meat, and of the best grade
there is never a sufficient supply; furthermore, the demand
is constantly increasing and will be still further increased
by a better average quality of broilers marketed. Another
point in favor of broiler raising is that the work-season of
broiler raising for the highest prices comes at a time
when ctier work is slack, hence the time utilized in
the broiler raising is not wanted in other departments of
the poultry work. Take advantage of the highest prices of
March, April and May, and produce the very best quality of
broiler chicks, and the resulting profits will be eminently
satisfactory.
The Best Varieties for Broilers.
The best broiler chick is one that is grown quickly and
fattens readily, is tine-boned and plump, full-breasted, has
a ‘rich, yellow skin, and the strong constitution that will
stand forced feeding. Undoubtedly the American breeds
most nearly fill the bill. The white and buff varieties have
the added advantage of freedom from dark pin feathers. ~
Visits to the great market poultry raisers south of Bos-
ton reveal many varieties of stock, used with the Light
Brahma most in evidence; this is probably due to the fact
that while raising broilers for market they are by no means
exclusively broiler raisers, but grow large numbers of soft
roasting chickens and capons. Next to the Light Brahmas’
a cross of Barred Plymouth Rock male on Light Brahma
female is popular, and the well-known market poultryman,,
Mr, J. H. Curtiss, places the White Plymouth Rocks at the
very top of the list for all-around utility qualities. The
same can be said of the “May R. Poultry Plant,’ while the
Mr. Twining quoted above grew his broilers from Barred
Plymouth Rock eggs bought of farmers living in his neigh-
porhood. In all cases excepting possibly the ‘‘“May R. Poul-
try Plant” the stock described is “farmers’” stock of the
THE CHICK BOOK
varieties, and would no doubt be found lacking in some
points essential in show birds.
Different Kinds of Broilers.
Frequent mention is made of “squab broilers,” and yet
we do not recall ever seeing them quoted in the market
reports. Generally the squab broilers are little six or seven
weeks old chicks that weigh, dressed, three-quarters of a
pound to one pound each; they are split down the middle
and broiled for individual orders in high class hotels, res-
taurants and clubs. Mr. Duston tells us he “sold hundreds
weighing eight ounces each,” which is half a pound, and are
the smallest broilers of which we have ever heard. There
is a quite steady sale for squab broilers throughout the
year, but, practically, all the trade is in the hands of dealers
who have the finest private family trade and that of the
swell hotels and clubs.
The broiler of commerce is a one and a half to two
pound chicken, is split in half and served, broiled
(“grilled”) to two customers; a half to an individual cus-
tomer. In a few instances we have known of these tender
morsels of chicken flesh being stuffed and roasted, then
split in halves and served to two individual customers.
A change has been gradually coming about, in the intro-
duction of prepared (mixed) chick foods, and these special
foods have given remarkable results in quick growth. Mr.
Twining (quoted above) told us he couldn’t grow a two
pound broiler in eight weeks; that it took him nine weeks
(on‘an average) to grow a one and a half pound broiler
and about eleven weeks to bring them to two pounds weight.
In the frontispiece of August, 1902, R. P. J. are shown some
White Wyandotte chicks that grew to two pounds apiece at
eight weeks old, and those chicks were not “forced” at all;
they were fed one of the special chick foods and made the
splendid growth there chronicled in the natural manner.
Obviously there is a decidedly greater profit in two pound
chicks at eight weeks old than in two pound chicks
at eleven weeks old; we cut off a fourth of the labor
and food-charge, and coal for heat, at a stroke. We have
seen that there was a goodly profit in the plump and juicy
broiler that grew to two pounds weight in eleven to twelve
weeks; it is easy to see a still greater profit in the same
product grown in eight weeks. A. F. HUNTER.
A View Showing Some of the Colony Houses Used by the Poultry Department of the Maine Agricultural Experiment Station
Where Much Good Work is Done in the Interest of Profitable Poultry Raising. :
SUCCESS AT THE START.
Thirty-Three Hundred Chickens Alive and in Marketable Condition on the Piant of a Beginner—HIs Methods Dis-
cussed—His Plant Illustrated and Described, and It Only Remains to Estimate His Profits.
By P. R. Park.
HE town of Hingham, Mass., enjoys the distinction of
being the home of ex-Secretary Long of the U. S.
Navy, and one of the largest flocks of thrifty spring
chickens in New England. The latter are to be
found at the home of Mr. H. G. Jordan, upon whose large
farm they are having an unusually favorable opportunity to
devclop. They are improving all their chances. This seems
somewhat at variance with the supposedly established rule
that experience is necessary in order to produce large num-
bers of chicks and have them thrive from the start. Here
we have a comparatively inexperi-
The writer has long believed that the principal source of
mortality among brooder chicks is caused by improper air
and incorrect temperature surrounding the chicks the first
three weeks of their lives. With the novel method adopted
on this plant there can be no doubt that so long as the air
in the building is pure that of the hover must be equally so.
When Mr. Jordan first contemplated going into the
chicken business, he spent quite a little time visiting the
successful plants and also the other kind in his vicinity,
and with rare foresight for a novice, traced most of the mor-
tality among the various flocks to the
enced owner, and the young man in
charge of the plant will, we think, take
no offense if we say he has had almost
no previous experience with incubators
and brooders; yet at the time of our
visit, the last of May, out of about
3,500 chicks hatched, they had almost
3,300 alive and promising to stay with
them until] the hatchet intervened. Of
this mortality of 200, ninety died that
_were hatched from a lot of three hun-
dred eggs purchased. Here we have
over three thousand chicks raised, we
may say, by beginners, and a healthier
and more robust lot it has not been
our pleasure to see.
We have long been convinced that
luck does not enter into the keeping
of poultry. There are certain condi-
tions which must be met, and if these
are as they should be, there can be but
one result, namely, a good lot of
| absence of pure air surrounding the
chicks and stock in the several stages
of their development. When he con-
structed his plant, he kept these two
facts in mind, and as will be seen in
the view of his incubator room, he
gives an inlet for air through the top
and an outlet of two holes on the level
of the floor, one on each side of the
building opposite each other. Certain-
ly under these conditions it would be
impossible for foul air to stay for any
length of time in ‘this room.
Following cut this idea, he has his
brooder house built with a large num-
ber of windows in the south side,
insuring plenty of light and air on
favorable days, and he uses ventilators
in the middle of the house in bad
weather. Pipes, as will be seen in the
illustration, are eight in number, four
outward anid four return flows, abso-
chicks hatched from the eggs incupal-
ed, and a large number grown of those
hatched. We think two of the princi-
pal elements which have participated
in the success of the Jordan plant this season have been
cleanliness, both as regards old stock and young, and a
novel method of brooding, which we have not seen before.
In the brooder house for the youngest chicks, as well as
the older ones, there is not a vestige of a hover of any kind,
simply eight lines of pipe, four running inward and four
return, kept at a uniform temperature by an electric regu-
lator. These pipes vary in height from two to three inches
in the primary class up to eight to ten inches for the larger
chicks. It is rather a novel sight to see one hundred and
fifty to one hundred and seventy-five chicks in a brood
warming their backs upon these pipes apparently the hap-
piest youngsters in existence without any vestige of the imi-
tations of Dame Nature that have prevailed in other broeod-
ing systems.
The natural method, namely, eight to twelve chicks
cared for by one mother hen, is so distant and different
from the artificial method that imitations seem fruitless.
Ventilating Openings in Ceiling and Window in
Incubator Room on Jordan Poultry Plant.
lutely devoid of any hover, and the
temperature is kept at a uniform heat
by an. electric regulator, near the
heater. This insures a steady tem-
perature with no probability of crowding, for with
the correct temperature, the chicks have no occasion
to crowd; and if the air in the building is right, that under
the pipes cannot fail to be equally pure. These pipes are
from eight to ten inches from the dirt floor of the house, the
distance being varied by the placing of more or less sand
‘in the runs as the chicks vary in age, thus starting in their
first or baby pen with only about three inches between the
sand and pipes, and in the end pen, from which they gradu-
ate to house number four, the distance is ten inches, thus
hardening them off for the cooler temperature of their next
home.
In this house the pipes are placed upon the wall and the
temperature of the building kept at from sixty to seventy
degrees, otherwise under the same conditions.
From this latter house they are moved to colony houses,
which we show in the view of the farm. The rule has been
this season to place cne hundred and fifty chicks in each of
74 THE CHICK BOOK
these runs, commencing with the younger ones in the first,
which is five feet by ten feet, and as they grow
older, removing them to the large runs, which are
ten by ten feet. These flocks are unbroken until
they reach the colony houses, when they aim to keep
fifty in a house eight by eight feet. The chickens, how-
ever, have hatched so remarkably well this season that in
many cases they have been obliged to put over two hundred
in a pen, with seemingly no discomfort to the occupants.
The method of feeding may be equally of interest to
many, asthisalsois quite a radical departure from established
methods. Here we find chicks started upon nothing but
hard grain until they reach the age of four days, when they
are given a dish of ground beef scraps, which is kept con-
sorb all the beef scraps and cracked corn that their appetites
dictate is best for them, and with a supply of green cut
clover, of which the farm furnishes an abundance, they have
nothing to ask for in the way of food and care. AChat they
are improving under all these good things a visit to the
plant will convince the skeptical. ;
Mr, Jordan buys nothing but the best of grain and beef
scraps, for the keen business foresight with which he man-
ages one of Boston’s most successful coal handling estab-
lishments, has convinced him that it ig not the cost of the
food or equipments that ruins the unsuccessful poultryman,
the mortality of the youngsters between the age of one and
four weeks being the cause assigned for nearly every case
where the “plant did not pay.”
A Promising Flock in Front of One of the
stantly before them through the rest of their happy lives.
This way of providing food gives all an equal chance and
there is no possibility of there being any of the grain sour,
to cause bowel trouble and other ailments. The chicks are
‘given the run cf a yard after they reach the age of seven
days, which yards are also kept pure by the growing cf
green stuff between seasons,
After they reach the age of six weeks, cracked corn is
added to their diet, and is kept always before them. This
system of feeding is, we think, the only one that couid be
carried out with such large flocks as we find on this plant.
Under the old system of mash feeding, the rush and scram-
ble for their share soon make it a case of the survival cf
the fittest, and the younger and weaker ones do not get
their proportion of the rations, so the gap between them
and their more successful brothers grows wider with each
day. Under this system each one has plenty of time to ab-
Brooding Houses on the Jordan Plant.
The previous experience of the foreman, Mr. Young,
with poultry is represented practically by a cipher, he hav-
ing lived in the state of New Jersey on a large stock farm,
with no special liking for the poultry business, simply un-
dertaking it at Mr. Jordan’s request, possibly until he could
eet an experienced man. The success which came to him
from the first rapidly interested him in the business, and
at the present time he is fascinated with the business as the
rankest enthusiast of years’ standing.
There is a sanitarium in East Bridgewater for curing
consumption in the human family simply by makng the
patients sleep out of doors, or what amounts to that, winter
and summer, and why should mot the chicken man adopt
for his feathered pets, who are much more creatures of the
air than the human family, similar methods?
That Mr. Jordan’s plant will be a success this season is
an assured fact, for at the present time the Boston market
THE CHICK BOOK 15
is paying for soft roasting chicks 87 cents per pound, and
be has three separate buyers offering 80 cents a pound alive
at his door. All the male birds have been caponized and
cannot fail to suit the most fastidious market in the coun-
try, namely, Boston.
Jealous neighbors are telling Mr. Jordan and his fore-
man that they cannot repeat their this season’s success
another year. Whether they can or not, of course, time
only will tell, but Mr. Young is very confident, and we think
with good reason, that if given the same conditions, he can
repeat the success and better it in some particulars. We
would offer him only a few suggestions—that a little more
elbow room be given the growing stock and a number of
the three hundred and sixty-five broad acres which Mr. Jor-
dan owns be added to the yards now used in caring for the
birds after they leave the brooder house. We suggest also
that they be allowed to pick their own clover instead of
bringing it to them. Good grazing land is, in our opinion,
as important to the successful and cheap growing of poultry
as to that of any other class of stock. Good birds have no
opportunity to develop on a sand bank, and should not be
forced to exist there. Bugs and worms make up a large
part of their living and these are uot to be found without
plenty of good grass for them to grow among.
PROFITABLE ROASTING CHICKENS.
How Large, Soft-Meated Chickens Are Produced for the Season of High Prices—The Advantage of the Balanced
Ration—Caponizing the Males to Be Sold as Roasters—A Profitable Adjunct on the Farm.
By A. F. Hunter,
HAT there is a goodly profit in growing soft roasting
T chickens for market is very evident to the student
of poultry conditions, and there are many poultry
growers who maintain that the turning of eggs into
chickens and growing them to soft-roaster size is not only
the most profitable, but is the most satisfactory line of poul-
try work. When talking one time with Mr. Rankin about the
profitableness of poultry work, we stated that we could make
three dollars profit in a year from a pullet that came to lay-
ing maturity in October, laid one hundred and fifty to one
hundred and seventy-five eggs within a year, and then was
sold to market. ‘“‘Yes,” said Mr, Rankin, “and I can make fer-
ty dollars a year profit from the same bird, by turning her
eggs into chickens and growing them to market size.’’ AS ex-
perienced growers estimate that there is a hundred per cent
profit in the business, it would need that eighty chickens
be grown to roaster size and average to sell at a dollar each
to give the forty dollars profit Mr. Rankin said he could
make, and as an experienced poultry grower recently told
me he planned to raise about two thousand chickens a year,
and that they cleaned up about one thousand dollars a year
profit, apparently Mr. Rankin’s forty dollars a year profit
per hen, if her eggs are turned into chickens and the chick-
ens grown to soft-roasters, is reasonable.
Obviously the price at which the chickens are sold has
not a little to de with the amount of profit in the business,
and as soft-roasting chickens are highest in price in May
and June, with March, April, July and August giving good
prices, it is the chickens raised especially for marketing
during those months that pay the best profits. In the an-
nual circular of Messrs. Rudd & Son, of Boston, the prices
for roasters were given as follows:
Month. Prices.
January ......-+-- dp a lbuastesnse (sueraserpd ican 15 to 20c
February ..ccce cece eect cere reece 20 to 22c
IMAPGH: o cssescaceestas ¥ 2G o Bereta 5005 eee 20 to 25¢
01+) 8 20 to 25c
May caeietscess sie ebzeietece is eee eapeonicnced Hips ae 25 to 30c
JUNG ys eoeaads cei oes Beka 80 to 40c
TOY ec ccackeaiees 3 <4 aneeees sees eae 36 to 25¢
AUIBUSE? 60 sve ce eaaed Ses Sones Be TE 20 to 23c
September ...... Baz eveeyaaaigus NebeaeaGe 14 to 20c
October, November and December.... 12 te 18¢
It takes four or five months to grow a chicken to from
four to six pounds weight, and with May and June giving
the highest prices, it is evident that the chickens should be
hatched in January and February to be grown for market-
Ing in the months of highest prices. As a matter of fact,
we find soft-roaster growers hatching their chickens all
through the late fall and winter, as the supply of hatchahble
eggs permits, and they are marketing the chickens all along
from March to July, as the demand of the market and the
condition of the chickens warrants.
In a great poultry growing section of South Jersey
there are chickens hatched late, say in June and July, and
grown to an average size of about six pounds, or as large as
they can be grown and still retain the “soft”? condition of
flesh, then dressed for market; if the market conditions do
not warrant their being sold at once they are put in cold-
storage and held until wanted. An illustration of this I saw
at the poultry shipping depot of Mr. Thomas Allen, in Feb-
ruary, 1902. Mr. Allen’s teams had brought in about
two tons of soft-roasting chickens that day, and they
were being packed in barrels to go into cold-storage to await
the market demand. Mr. Allen told me he had paid one
man that day forty dollars for thirty-three birds, an average
of about one dollar and twenty cents apiece, and he said
those birds were probably hatched in July, which would
make them about seven months old when killed for market.
Visiting the great poultry section south of Boston last
November I found poultrymen with one to two thousand
chickens already out, started on the road to become soft-
roasters. The Messrs. sarrar Brothers, of Assinippi, had
over two thousand chickens then, and were going on to
about forty-five hundred, which is their usual number; the
Jordan Farm had then over a thousand growing and were
hatching right along. The Messrs. Farrar get their chickens
to from four to six pounds weight, and report their highest
price last season as thirty-two cents, with an average for the
whole season of about twenty-five cents a pound. At that
average price their birds sold for one dollar to one dollar
and fifty cents apiece, with a mean price of one dollar and
twenty-five cents apiece, and something like fifty per cent
of that may be fairly estimated as profit; in other words,
16 THE, CHICK BOOK
they make about one hundred per cent on the cost of hatch.
ing and raising a four to six pound soft-roasting chicken.
The Breeds Preferred.
In nearly all cases it is found that the Asiatic, or crosses
of Asiatic and American varieties are used to make these
extra fine soft-roasters. In the poultry section south of
Boston from which so many roasters come to market the
Light Brahma is the breed used; in south Jersey it is gener-
ally a cross of Light Brahma-Partridge Cochin, or of Light
Brahma-Plymouth Rock. It is necessary that the birds be
of great size normally, then they will attain the desired
large size while still having the essential “soft” flesh of the
young chicken. A change in conditions is gradually coming
about, however, partly due to the farmers of south Jersey
taking thought of the profitableness of the egg side of the
business, which is bringing the better laying American varie-
ties into favor. Then, too, the introduction of improved meth-
ods of feeding, making it possible to grow a Plymouth Rock
chicken (for example) to as great size and more quickly than
an Asiatic, is causing a gradual change in front, even in the
great stronghold of the Brahmas south of Boston. In a
recent number of Reliable Poultry Journal is an illustration
of a pair of soft-roasters that made the astonishing growth
to twenty-three pounds, alive, at six months old, and the
larger one weighed eleven pounds dressed. Those chickens
were Barrea Plymouth Rocks, and that wonderful growth in
six months is an eye-opener. Those chickens were grown
by one of those south-shore poultry growers and dressed for
market by the great market poultrymen of that section,
Messrs. J. H. Curtiss & Brother.. The change of front in that
section was indicated by a remark made to me by Mr. Cur-
tiss a few days ago, when he emphatically stated that he con-
sidered the White Plymouth Rock to be the best all-around
variety of fowls in the world. When we remember that he
is a life-long lover of the Light Brahmas, and has always
considered them the best market poultry variety, we may
well be surprised at such a change. The explanation lies in
the simple fact of the quicker growth of the Rocks by the
improved method of feeding the prepared (and accurately
balanced) ration.
The Males Are Caponized.
All the males are caponized by these south-shore poul-
try growers, even though almost all of them are sold as soft-
roasters; but very, very few of them go to market as capons.
They are caponized at about three months old, and the gain
is in the fact of their more peaceful disposition. The unca-
ponized cockerel is of a most pugnacious and quarrelsome
disposition, and his quarreling hinders his growth, besides
the greater activity promoting the hardening of the flesh.
As it is essential that the flesh be “‘soft,’”’ it is easy to under-
staud that capovizing is necessary to the keeping of the
right condition. In the south-shore section of which we
have been writing there are many thousand chickens raised
each year, and Mr. J. H. Curtiss, who is an expert caponizer,
caponizes the males for scores of the poultrymen. For this
service he charges four dollars per hundred chickens, and
is much in demand among his neighbors. The influence of
such a man as Mr. Curtiss, in promoting the growing of
“better poultry and more of it,” is beyond estimating. With-
in a half dozen miles of his home there are from thirty to
fifty thousand chickens grown for market each year, all fine
soft-roasters and capons, and the importance of that small
section of country as a poultry center is made manifest by
its having given a name to a superior quality of chickens
grown there; ‘‘south-shore’ chickens are quoted as the
highest standard for quality!
As a Farm-Product.
The poultry growing above described is chiefly in the
hands of those who make a specialty of growing fine soft-
roasters for market, but that the business is highly profit-
able to farmers, who make the growing of two or three or
four hundred chickens for market annually an adjunct of
their regular farm work, there is ample evidence. In the
south Jersey section of which I wrote the chickens are al-
most entirely grown by farmers. In the Reliable Poultry
Journal not long ago, I described these south Jersey poultry
growers as follows: “It may not be quite fair to speak of
these poultry growers as ‘poultrymen,’ because, as a rule,
the birds are grown on the farms as a branch of: farm work,
and are mostly grown by the women of the farms, while the
men are engaged in the regular farm occupations; two. or
three hundred up to five hundred would be the usual yearly
product of a farm. It needs but a little arithmetic to dem-
onstrate that a branch of farm work which produces three
hundred (or even two hundred) roasting chickens which
bring one dollar to one dollar and twenty-five cents apiece
when sold is a quite important department of the farm; we
doubt whether any other one department produces so much
cash income for the amount of labor and capital expended!
“Comparatively few of these poultry growers use incu-
bators; the bulk of the chickens are hen-hatched. Incuba-
torg were attempted here and there some years ago, but the
generally poor results discouraged their use; latterly, since
a better class of incubators is being put out, they are com-
ing to be used more. It is interesting, too, to know that
these choicest chickens are not artificially fattened—no
cramming machine is used. They are put into large coops,
that are four feet wide by six to ten feet long, with a
trough along the front to hold the food. The food is a corn
meal mash, mixed up with skim-milk when it can be ob-
tained. Sometimes the milk supply is not equal to the
demand and then water is used. The fattening takes from
four to six weeks.
That the profit is not all for the grower of winter chick-
ens is also evident. I have before me the account of a poul-
try buyer, which shows the figures of the poultry sales of a
small farmer in Worcester county, Mass. These chickens
were hatched in the late winter, and sold alive during May
and June as soft-roasters of about four pounds weight. The
farmer said that branch of his farm work had paid him
over fifty dollars a month net profit for the six months’
work. The figures of the sales, taken from the pbuyer’s book,
are’as follows: °
No. of Chickens.
_ Sum Paid,
DH sles bve, Sn ia eeynenieaedeanne ers ee er ae $ 52.90
DAi cid seariirs yn toneuaptaigt vogue aeegu nen ale eau adund 48.95
MOG 25a re cesar eran Baiee yori shgesGywenele ides wckaen 94.87
MOG! ae xcenen engpastacartiaca xs hues svacavactetvesateageen Soares 95.04
FLO GS asec ase acag seh dal ountbeerenineica lie ta hora vas 98.72
Mpeg atc tidigteeie ue a til Noe werent oat aoc, 69.96
Oh ects weairglavamenadns yaad Sasha ttcetee 51.10
OS! eceremupa wyelyertta et Paice sraenmneleacesox cams 58.50
I ae Be a ahaha gine aepaba dried 39.12
Poa sade cacttcce ENN woe nce Allert ei eh 27.79
HMM vane eea ne noe oicchiesdea aera saath $636.95
This is an average of about ninety cents per chicken,
aud as the grower claimed that they cost to raise not far
from forty-five cents apiece and sold for just about double
that, he made about one hundred per cent profit on them.
He dces not keep a hard and fast account with his chickens;
he knows they pay him a very substantial profit, and that
satisfies him!
THE CHICK BOOK e.
The Demand Is Greater Than the Supply.
The market is never over supplied with the best quality
of poultry products, and this seems especially true of fine
soft-roasters. Marketmen tell us they can never get enough
of them to supply ‘the demand, and such commonplace re-
marks as: “I could sell twice as many, if I could only get
them,” is the answer to a question as to there being too
many of them grown. We all know the reply Webster made
to the man who asked if the legal profession wasn’t over-
crowded,—'‘There is plenty room at the top.’’ This applies
with especial aptness to the best soft-roasters we have been
describing. There may be an over-supply of a cheaper
grade, but of the best there is never enough to meet the
demand. The increase of wealth end population has result-
It is a truism to say the best pays the best; we all know
that. And not only does it pay the best, but there is the
most satisfaction in growing the best! Here is a double
reward. We not only get the greater profit which comes
of producing the best, but we get the satisfaction of being
producers of a high-class article of food that is always in
demand in the market. It is the plump, full-breasted, fine
meated birds that the consumers want and are willing to
pay a good price-for,—and if we but produce that article
our reward is sure.
A considerable study of the soft-roasting chicken re-
veals several surprises, and one of them is the almost in-
numerable methods of feeding employed. In fact, it is with-
in the bounds of truth to say, there is no one “method” of
interior of a Brooding House on the Jordan Poultry Plant, Showing Pipes for Warming the House.
ed in a steadily increasing demand for the best prcducts of
the voultryman’s art. Wealthy families, leading clubs,
hotels ard high-class restaurants, all compete for the gilt-
edged soft-roasters of the expert poultrymen, and they are
willing to pay almost any price, within reason, if the desired
quality is presented. In fact, they will pay what they have
to pay in order to get what they want. Poultrymen should
study the market requirements, and then strive to meet
them. ‘The well-known fruit grower, Mr. J. H. Hale, of
Connecticut, in an address in which he urged fruit growers
to study the market conditions so as to know what the peo-
ple want, said: ‘The fine appearance opens the customer’s
pocketbook, and then quality keeps it open.” There is a
most important cconomic principle completely stated in
those few words. The fine appearance of an article induces
a customer to buy, and good quality in the article keeps him
buying.
feeding; each poultryman feeds what he esteems to be a
good growing ration, and, indeed, this is the one essential
thing. The great point to be aimed at is a steady, con-
tinuous growth till market maturity is reached, then market
in the best condition: Within the past two or three years
prepared chick foods have come into very general use, and
have given such excellent results they are likely to be still
more generally used. The method is to feed them exclusively
for the first five or six weeks, adding a little beef scraps
or meat meal, and after about six weeks adding cracked
cern to the ration. The essential thing is the increase of
the meat food and cracked corn until, the last half of the
period, half the ration is of those two foods. With this
ration a continuous and rapid growth is secured, and the
birds are in fine, fat condition all the time, and are ready
to market any time wanted. Of course such a rich ration
would not ds for laying-breeding stock. Birds grown upon
78
it would be soft, and wholly lacking in stamina, or con-
stitution. Where the birds are to be marketed by the time
they are four to seven months old the constitution need not
be considered, if the birds have sufficient to stand heavy
feeding and continue putting on good, fatted flesh. The
important thing is that growth shall be continuous and
rapid, and the best quality of flesh attained.
Marketing Soft-Roasters.
The chickens above described are all dry picked, and as
a rule are marketed by special dealers. In the south shore
section the birds are generally sold alive, to such dealers as
Messrs. J. H. Curtiss & Brother, or Mr. Farrar, and picked
by their men. In the south Jersey section the birds are
THE CHICK BOOK
visible under the skin of the breast. That discolored ap-
pearance of those two chickens distinctly marred their
otherwise fine appearance, and cheapened them. HExperi-
enced caterers know that the juices of the meat are less
fine and not as pleasing to the palate where that decaying
bunch of food is left in the crops and gizzards, and refuse
to buy such chickens if better are getable. The seller has
sold a few more ounces of weight in each dozen birds, but
had lowered the price several times the gain in weight.
Lowering the quality invariably lowers the price of chicken
meat, just as of everything else in the world!
There is no one thing that poultry growers S0 much
need to learn as that good appearance and fine quality are
most important factors in their profits.
LA
interior View of a Brooding House, where no Hovers are Used, on the Jordan Poultry Plant.
mostly picked by the farmers, and bought up by such deal-
ers as Allen of Glassboro, who packs and ships them to New
York, Boston or Philadelphia, as the markets in those cities
warrant.
It is of the greatest importance that the work of pick-
ing be nicely done. The tender, “soft” skin may be so torn
and marred that a decidedly lower price will be returned
for the birds. The importance of a good appearance cannot
be too frequently urged. It is safe to say that thousands
of dollars are lost to poultry growers each year because cf
their ignoring this point. Take the one simple matter of
the birds being starved (literally not fed or watered) for
twenty-four to thirty-six hours so that the crop and gizzard
shall be entirely empty at time of killing. Only yesterday
we stopped at a marketman’s window in Boston to look at
a display of fine roasters. Two of them had not been
starved before killing and there was a small greenish crop
Many poultry growers cannot understand that it is the
“condition” in which stock arrives in the market that, deter-
mines its value, and seem to think that because it was good
stuff when they sent it they should have the highest market
price for it. A shipper who sends chickens into the market
that show the effects of the soft weather will not receive the
price of that which is marketed bright and fresh.
An amusing case of this kind came up in Boston a few
years ago. A farmer sent a case containing two dozen
ducks on a Saturday morning in summer, and they lay in
the express office over Sunday. When they reached the
commission dealer on Monday morning they were so “soft”
they were practically unfit for human food. Just as the
dealer got them wpen the keeper of an Italian boarding
house came in, looking for special bargains, and the
dealer called his attention to the ducks. The boarding
house man turned them over, felt of them, and then said
THE CHICK BOOK 79
he’d give ten cents a pound for them. The oifer was ac-
cepted joyfully; the case quickly nailed up and delivered to
the buyer; and a letter written to the shipper detailing the
facts and enclosing a check for the full amount received;
the dealer was so glad to get them out of his place before
the food inspector got a whiff from them and condemned
them to the garbage cart he didn’t say anything about com-
mission on the sale. The farmer came right in, raving;
said ducks were quoted at twenty-three cents a pound the
day he shipped them, thai his ducks were as good as Blank’s
that the dealer had returned twenty-three cents for, and he’d
have the full price for those ducks or he’d sue the dealer.
denounce him as a cheat, etc., etc. He didn’t sue, the dealer
never saw or heard from him again, but that poor farmer
probably still thinks (if he is living) that the commission
A reader in Sandy Point, Maine, writes: “We have
been much interested in your articles in regard to the ship-
ments of eggs and poultry to Boston. We had an experience
which leads us to desire a little more information. We
have made a specialty of growing large roasters for our local
‘market, and up to last fall were unable to fully supply the
demand. The birds most desired are those weighing six to.
eight pounds apiece, as the people say they have something
to cut from (instead of picking bones) with birds of that
weight; but last fall the mills were obliged to close, throw-
ing many people out of employment, and the poultry market
here collapsed. We accordingly sent a portion of our sur-
plus to our egg commission merchants at Boston. The birds
were hatched late in May and the first shipment made
October 27th weighed sixty-tive pounds to the dozen; the
Bird’s-eye View of a Part of the Jordan Poultry Plant.
dealer is a fraud and cheat, and put in his own pocket the
difference between ten and twenty-three cents a pound for
that lot of ducks!
The old, old saw: ‘Water always finds its level,” ap-
plies with great force to poultry sent to market. If it is
stuff of the best quality be assured you will get the price
of the best; if it is only second, or third, or fourth rate
stuff be assured you will not get the price of the best. If
you send poultry to market and get only the price of second
or third quality stuff, don’t sit down and swear that the
commission man is a cheat and fraud. Write him and ask
why he didn’t give you the higher price, and then go to
work to improve the quality of your stuff until you can send
the best. Grow the best standard-breds, ship them to mar-
ket in the pink of condition, and you will have no worries
about the price!
second, made November 12th, weighed sixty-seven pounds
per dozen, and the third, made December 9th, weighed sev-
enty-two pounds per dozen. The first two lots sold at eigh-
teen cents a pound, then practically the top price, but the
third brought only sixteen cents a pound. Now in our local
market the last would have been regarded as the best, but
the Boston commission men wrote us they were “large, but
coarse and staggy,” and they could not obtain the highest
price; that ‘‘soft-roasters” were wanted. These birds were
all of the same age, but the interval between Novmber 12th
and December 9th, while adding to the weight, placed them
in a lower class.
What we would like to know is:
First—When the soft-roaster becomes a stag?
Second—Did we not grow our birds fast enough, when at
five to five and one-half months old they dressed five and
80 THE CHICK BOOK
one-half to six pounds, or don’t they want birds of that size?
Third—Should we have shipped them at four io five
pounds weight?
We want to meet conditions which will give us top
prices; it is easy to get bottom prices any time.”
Replying to these questions:
¥First—Cockerels of different varieties become “‘staggy”
at different ages, and as you fail to mention the variety you
raise we are in the dark. As most of the stock raised in
Maine is either Barred Plymouth Rocks, R. I. Reds or White
Wyandottes, we will assume that yours are of one of the
American varieties, and cockerels of those varieties begin to
get staggy when about six or seven months old, depending
on the treatment. The method of feeding has an influence
in hastening or retarding maturity.
Why didn’t you ship your birds all in at once, and so
be rid of them? ‘The dozen shipped November 12th brought
you twelve dollars and six cents, while the dozen sent in
December 9th brought you but eleven dollars and fifty-two
cents; you had fed them about four weeks longer and then
got less money for them. This is one of the commonest
mistakes of farmers, they don’t market their stuff when it is
ready for market, but carry it along at a loss of the food
consumed.and at the risk of getting a lower price.
Second—We think you didn’t grow the birds fast
enough, when they only got to five and one-half to six
pounds at five to five and one-half months old, and they
would have been of a better quality of flesh,—would have
been “softer,” if fed a quicker growing ration and brought
along earlier. That is another point on which many poul-
try raisers do not discriminate; they raise all the birds |
alike, feeding them the same foods, whether they are to be
killed for market or raised for laying-breeding stock. Then, :
too, the amount of range allowed them is a factor. Free%
range encourages the growth of muscle, and muscle is
“hard” flesh. If you want to grow fine, “soft” ehickens do
not let them run all over the farm,—keep them confined to
moderate yards, and feed them more heavily of corn meal
and beef scraps (or meat meal).
You would probably have done better to have shipped
the birds at four to five pounds weight. The great bulk of
the trade prefers chickens weighing eight to ten pounds the
pair, although there is a good sale for larger birds, and in
the spring (say in March), the larger birds sell more read-_
ily. If your local trade prefers large birds you should
caponize the cockerels, and then they are “soft” ever after,
and will grow to eight to ten pounds without becoming
“stagey.” You are not obliged to sell them as capons be-
cause you have caponized them. The popular “south shore” |
chickens of which you have been reading are caponized,
but dressed and sold as soft-roasters. ,
Caponizing is so easily done, and is so great a benefit :
in many ways, it is surprising that more poultry growers
do not adopt it. A set of special tools can be bought of
poultry supply dealers for about three dollars, and with it
the nagging, scrappy cockerels are easily turned into docile,
tractable birds, that have nothing to do but eat and grow.
They remain “soft,” and their flesh doesn’t harden into
muscle, as the cockerels do when they turn “staggy.” Capon-
ize all the males not wanted for breeding birds.
A. F. HUNTER.
POULTRY 2222 “BOOKS
TELL HOW TO MAKE MONEY
_ They are filled with the ee of eminently successful poultrymen—the cio eee ex-
rts in the subjects they deal wi.h; they explain clearly how to conduct every branch of the poul-
business successfully; they give the methods, the schemes and the latest ideas in actual use by
f emost poultrymen of the world, Every detail is described so minutely that you can adapt
it to your own business with slight trouble or expense,
SUCCESS WITH POULTRY contains the successful methods of feeding, housing and mating fowls, hatching, rearing
and marketing: chickens; dncks, geese and turkeys followed by the most prominent poul-
en, No other work on the utility or standard-bred business gives such practical, reli-
*
ttym o
able and money -making information, A trustworthy'guide for every poultryman. Fifth Edition, 116 pages, 105 $1 00
: Cerra a
SU USt rea thorns esau eis sreyicas stores iso tcele sieic cSo sd lV REE ata AS OinN's giace nevSiSaiin ay dine o Violate tor dieisiniSa elMalta ene: sNORSE aaa Nees
ARTIFICIAL INCUBATING AND BROODING frie ee eee rece creed fertils epas bow to oper:
ate incubators and brooders, et the greatest percentage of chick-
ens, build incubator cellars, brooder houses, brooder and chick shelters, etc. 92 pages of resulis gained from : 50c.
practical experience. An indispensible work, Second Edition, 71 itlustrations, ..........:s.ssssseeesresreneceroenserees, °
‘Make money and save years of useless breeding by adopting
BARRED, WHITE AND BUF F ? P LYMOUTH ROCKS the ruies of mating followed by the most qacceseral Plym- —
: : -outh Rock breeders of America, A..C, Hawkins, E. B.
Thompson, Bradley Bros., A. C. Smith, I. K, Felch, C. H, Latham, D, J. Lambert, Robt, H, Essex, W. S, Russell, F, W. Richardson |
3 Sud many other eee coe popes clearly me pouty Lael ms er of ees ces ‘gay ar omer aaa of each
—reproduced from ofl paintings made by tue World’s greatest poultry: st, F. 1. Sewa! :
tion, 18 pages, 3 color plates, 82 illustrations... ....ccccesstcenecces acesetsnSan scons teem ebencaceccos sensewen sees cessteReenee 50c.
THE WYAN DOTTE Tells how to”mate, breed and exhibit all (6) varieties of Wyandottes, Includes the complete
methods of such successful Wyandotte specialists as Henry Steinmesch, = C. Keller, A.G, Duston,
c.'S. Mattison, Ezra Cornell, etc. You can judge your Wyandottes by the numerous full-page
- standard charts—every secticn is illustrated and described. Haudsome color plates of White and Partridge W :
anduttes by F. L. Sewell. Second Edition, 8 pages, 2 color plates, 76 illustrations. ........scccesesecstveesees is 50c.
THE LEGHORNS The best illustrated Standard of all varieties of the popular Leghorns, Mating schemes are described
ths clearly for each variety—including the double mating of the Browns. You cannot afford to be without the
. valuable information written by such renowned experts as I, K. Felch, F. H. Shellabarger, Ezra Cornell,
W.S. Russell, F. B. Zimmer, W. EH. Bright, etc. Color plate of prize winning White Ieghorns by F. L,. Sewell,
Second Edition, @ pages, 37 illustrations, 0.0. ..ceecseeeeueeeee 50c.
ASIATICS Breeders of Brahmas, Cochins and Tomales can't afford to be without this modern work. Contains the “inside”
information so necessary to success and impossible to secure elsewhere. Written by the leading fanciers of each
—a————_ breed. Contains standard or ideal charts of all the varieties. Consult this work before you select specimens for
the breeding pen or for the exhibition. Color plates of Buff and Partriage Cochins by F. L. Sewell. 100 pages of ais
~ practical advice, 2 color plates, 72 illustrations...6..00.....sseeee : Ce
EGGS AND EGG FARMS The most practical work published on the profitable production and marketing of eggs. A
. few of the si rego chapters are: how to obtain eggs in winter; how to secure strong: —
ae eae i ~~ .germed fertile eggs, pullets vs. hens as egg-producers, at what age to sell hens, Lose Com
breeding to luce & see strain, requirements of egg trade, egg preservation, etc. Foremost poultrymen of the
world give latest methods of selecting, feeding and housing layers. Second Edition, 100 pages,.62. illustra- - 50c.°
BONS. ce erences receee sigs Mec eeNeisea Saws ORR SR ES MaRS eee ween Said Veeeeneaes eisistesiounianet Sie eSeere
POULTRY HOUSES AND FIXTURES Stay: piss oton-cort
_breakiag up enna
keeps few or many fow!
Be cede rece anes cece cone cncen owes gees sane Casa cous Cereanseavas
ene OOO arene meee eae OOOO OEE R Ee aare sens ene meee veer enne oe
OMG. oeeocserane pistes cnersarees
TURKEYS Every detail of the tur
pain plate,
50c.
POULTRY REMEDIES Points out the causes, describes the symptoms so that every one can understand
RELIABLE j them, and gives simple.and tested remedies for roup, colds, cholera, gapes, crop-
Ee ‘bound, scaly-legs, bumble foot and all other diseases. Tells how - — 25
to care for poultry to prevent disease, Fifth Edition, 8 pages (5 by 6 inches)... ..sssccseessssscerseeneoneenecessseaeee oe: Ce.
books are sold.on approval. They are 9 by 12inches in size, with the’exception of Reliable Poultry Remedies. If
esheneadt satisfactor : they can be eaiiediately returned in good order ani the purchase money will be promptly refunded,
‘The above prices include payment of postage to any addressin the United States or &ina da,
: Reliable Poultry Journal Publishing Company, Quincy, Illinois, U.S. A.
Tipe tt el te ot ona ted eAled
a abirdt heft iienoregenstaneea dict
PREP PEMA utp
areal
on of
ed Vee ts
o rap ed heed tele
Mirek en cael
RA Eh
atlstren'a
Witten
Lehane be ea 8
Vaceeyn HOG HN! hy
yl
Cu
Wheat f
iatntuiveae’
Mente rh abs
baat t ee,
4
eee lf
sataaant ed
Rita
Ha ted 4
item i fou vi bse ch tat
ati tecqiycy ca be riGr hb D
wigehe bag
ace
niet
en greet fea
Mtge
Tat
Wiayen
ett 9
Uae
Wares
Moped
fa
qaemanet y
Arne a
Merge bit
hy tog eh
iat
Sab
rane dictiet
re ;
Ad RE
Pru
revi
ee iets
rere
Th eB
rat
peers
eels
Seceedctel ~
eee tt Sans
¥ AT acid caetats!
Can
eh te
Popeater ire ey
cht at
Segura tases
Sit nspee saa 3
Bera }
i ;
3 e ‘
‘
:
i peer rs \
peer Lage em ; ‘ 2
EE
eeepc
et atlas
Agari ern Pest ergs
i Spal re
A iaked yong aH re f
ihe WU ty yons syeate t
hee ep ‘ <5
She Sates i) ‘
rari gS pitt x ‘ 0
Sarasin tru wi whet ; ie ‘
ieledeae ;
ee Lele bew :
isi aire paler '
ina Se bei RRR
Sire
‘ 7 1
iat) (Hiss Wry OUR onset ae
AGuecceee Herat, ONE + ‘
Papa th Pe enon hat ‘ MR
Sri ality hist miei ee aK I
Phen eet kta) is iSstas ;
Sethe pred ere hAe aerate pice M Gt Ney ‘
ue Peay tied ushisgcaren te!
Gacenenety : yiaparicy Seen ctusueat .
Rha pet Means ASSAY
Botte Saye ireuniceet
ae erp tert ta te ht
Mes 4 Scheie ah; ti
ee a pias
ele trtrt Biot a
A Ueoencas
cipal et
ea
Sa eprane eng Uh raaneu sess Se x seve wi
io Retracement win ark ‘
ieiny yan bh ovr" 5 i
ahah t hebben ttt meat ete Hine RECS tata pa By
Sei gencaraseon recat tttetehemen it i stra HO SSeS eS TN TRAE MOR ENS ACHE tg
maine eect fete ei sarneuta rN VP iy eueg eeNOPe HH ipuy ca uewen Rau U MALI Y Tihs rhe Ht
es ree etieusa man rAAy Te sav itunrapaseel i say a CONLADA EA AMM SPUCEPCRPE RCE TOAD ARICA SE be Nant let Get ick Eee
: be NGeye Vacerbatyry Com amaucdeurime st trertenel NANCE G petits
Cashed teary eat ee prior s eget AVRICATR HOM EN er Mts pr a Hasyn
evita titer aes nant Yate bie hreryseet ae rush USERUT pay:
et eee be Tice his Se Ae } :
7 ma act eoraney S00 » Le]
: ¥ Wy Catan:
me ire Few re Natit
rte a wary
eh i Reet ty!
aie revadcane) Coes OE itensict
Ria vegultatckcd satus hstot ;
AN tecuey fea WCE Tat "
oir hese aWsk WhO NG
Grdadedcgeasgseyec sand ORY
OHNO
WU Ebro de eh EUG
Aes ier
area pee tet Y
(vba etie aes boa
nists
Wii ved
Ved ue Greet
Tee Gib
Live Music Archive
Librivox Free Audio
Metropolitan Museum
Cleveland Museum of Art
Internet Arcade
Console Living Room
Books to Borrow
Open Library
TV News
Understanding 9/11