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mann
SUCCESSFUL
POULTRY PRODUCTION

BY

J. W. HURST

AUTHOR OF
“THE LIFE STORY OF A FOWL” “SUSSEX FOWLS”
ETC, ETC,

CHICAGO
MONTGOMERY WARD & CO.
1911.
E 6509
CHAP.

II.
ITI.
Iv.

VI.
VII.
VII.
IX.

XI.

XII.

CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION ‘ é
THE Usiquitous ‘‘Domestic’’
PouLTRY FarMING

Pouttry FarM MANAGEMENT

FARMERS’ AND CoTTacErs’ Fow.s .

BAcKyYarD POULTRY KEEPING
BREEDING EXHIBITION POULTRY
PROFITABLE EcG PRODUCTION .

CHICKEN REARING

CHICKEN FATTENING ‘
TURKEYS

GEESE 7 : ‘
Ducks ‘ F ‘

INDEX . . .

PAGE
vii.

13
37
59
73
85.
97
115
127
135
143
151
159
INTRODUCTION

THE time would appear to be opportune for a plain,
common-sense handling of a subject which has in
recent years aroused much controversy, during the
course of which there has been a great deal of
exaggeration, and no little vituperation, upon both
sides. That the interest in the domestic fowl, and
the question regarding its profitableness, is wide-
spread and increasing is undoubted. The daily
Press, with its finger on the pulse of public
thought, has duly noted this curiosity, and we have
been told, in one instance, that the British farmer
has ‘‘lost fortunes in turkeys’’ by his neglect of
the festive bird; and in another, that profitable
fowls of any class are a myth. There have been
pamphlets written to prove that a mechanic’s wage
may be earned by a few hens in a backyard; and
large books have been published in ridicule of the
very idea that any profit is possible.

Tue TrutH asouT Poutrry Prortrs.

Somewhere between these extremes there is a
balance of common-sense and profit; and what
follows is an attempt to justify the title ‘‘Successful
Poultry Production.’’ It will be observed that the

vii
vili INTRODUCTION

title presupposes at least the possibility of the
profitableness of poultry keeping; and it is wide
enough to embrace the various classes of profitable
fowls, and the methods of making them so. It is
not, however, intended to suggest that every man,
woman, or child, is naturally fitted to become a
poultry keeper; or would even be able to make
fowls profitable in the most favorable circum-
stances. In most cases the fowls would be all right,
but their keepers present the chief difficulty in the
matter of making a profit.

It is difficult for the countryman, or those ac-
quainted with agriculture, to understand why the
ery of ‘‘back-to-the-land’’ should have had such a
vogue—it is at the best an attempt to deal with a
great economic problem from the wrong end, and it
is perhaps less easy to realize how it came about
that so large a section of ‘‘returned’’ townspeople
(in many cases ‘‘returned empties’’) should have
hoped to make large incomes from poultry culture
alone, to the entire exclusion of all other stock.
There has been, in most instances, a total ignorance
or disregard of the factors-that make it possible for
farmers and cottagers to be successful poultry
keepers, on a more or less extensive scale. There
has been a similar failure to realize that the
dweller in a suburban villa will almost certainly
reduce the profits from his fowls in proportion as
he increases their numbers beyond certain defined
limits. There have been very many other mis-
apprehensions regarding the various directions in
which fowls may be made profitable, and the most.
INTRODUCTION ix

of them have erred rather on the side of optimism
than pessimism; but all the time the leaven of
common-sense has been quietly working, and the
old, specialized poultry-producing industries (which
existed long before ‘‘poultry farming’’ became a
name to conjure with) have been steadily and
unobtrusively extending and flourishing. More-
over, aS an outcome of the new movement several
fresh branches have sprung into existence, and
have been more or less satisfactorily worked
according as opportunity has made it possible to
take them up with advantage; and there is some-
thing to say for, as well as against most of them.

The various methods of poultry keeping that
pay, and some necessary references to the forms
that do not, will be dealt with, from a practical
point of view, in the following chapters. There
will be an endeavor to base all statements and
facts upon actual experience, either of the writer
or of those known to him; to avoid any exaggera-
tion, and the jugglery of figures; and, above all, to
say nothing to encourage ‘‘fools to rush in’’ where
the experienced dare not venture. On the other
hand, the writer will not be timid to point out
where and how fowls may be profitable stock in the
right hands; in town and country, on the farm and.
common, in the suburban garden, and in the
proverbial ‘‘backyard’’—even in the show pen. In
short, the writer would a plain, unvarnished tale
unfold. ,
CHAPTERTI -

THE UBIQUITOUS ‘‘DOMESTIC”’
CHAPTER I

THE UBIQUITOUS ‘‘DOMESTIC”’

ALTHOUGH the profitable side of turkey-breeding,
as well as of ducks and geese, will demand more
than a passing reference in the following chapters,
it is only proper to accord the place of honor to
that bird which occupies the chief position in most
poultry-producing schemes the world over, and
which is popularly known as the Domestic Fowl.

It is not necessary to our present purpose to
deal at any length with its history prior to its do-
mestication, further than to note, by way of con-
trast, that in its original state it would not be con-
sidered a profitable fowl; nevertheless, no other do-
mesticated bird has responded so freely to the art of
the breeder. The journey from the jungle to the
trapnest, and the scratching shed, has been a long
one, and the present stage finds us in possession of
breeds and varieties which may be fairly classed as
profitable, or capable of being made so. It is not
proposed to refer in detail to the bewildering
multitude of modern breeds and varieties; only
such as are most suitable for the various branches
of profitable production will be mentioned as
oceasion arises. For the general and particular
characteristics of all those officially recognized, the

3
4 SUCCESSFUL POULTRY PRODUCTION

reader may turn to the more technical works of
reference, and to the standards of excellence issued
by the Poultry Club.

BENEFITS OF DOMESTICATION

In the making of the breeds originally introduced
into Europe, various peoples have taken part. It
is concluded from the best available evidence that
the domestic fowl reached us from India, by way
of Persia, Greece, and Rome; but that before it
traveled West it had previously been carried much
farther East than its place of origin, and that many
of its marks of domestication are due to the patience
of old-time Chinese breeders. Undoubtedly these
ancient fanciers were responsible for a considerable
increase of the varieties of type and color markings,
but although their work shows them to have been
fanciers, and although they had a strong predilec-
tion for Bantamizing, yet we must remember that
from the East came such types as the Cochin and
the Langshan. There are still to be found useful
strains of these breeds, exemplifying some of the
earlier benefits of domestication, despite the less
useful tendencies of some subsequent breeders.

There was a period, not so very long ago, when
practically the only poultry breeders in this country
who conducted their breeding operations methodic-
ally, were those who set more value upon the
color and markings of feathers than the production
of flesh and eggs for food. They did more than they
realized, and more than they are generally given the
THE UBIQUITOUS ‘‘DOMESTIC”’ 5

credit for. They set an example, and taught a les-
son, and those whose aims are more professedly use-
ful have now largely adopted their methods of ar-
tificial selection and rejection. Farmers and cot-
tagers, who are the chief producers of‘poultry and
eggs, are not now so foolish as some would have us
still believe. A very considerable percentage rec-
ognize the possibilities of the domestic fowl, and
have adopted the course of carefully selecting and
mating their stock; they have come to understand
how to improve the laying record, and how to breed
for the production of table chickens.

Dancers oF DOMESTICATION

There is no good without its corresponding evil,
and although by domestication man has used fowls
for his own benefit, yet he has not succeeded in
doing so without creating an evil. In taking over
from Nature the direction of breeding, the natural
safeguard for the perpetuation of races has been
very largely misunderstood and mismanaged. The
natural law regarding the survival of the fittest has
not been very generally appraised at its full value;
as a consequence we have seen the practical de-
cadence of whole breeds in the past, and even now
there are not wanting signs of coming débdcle in
extreme specialization for egg-production. Nature
is giving strong hints that there are appointed
limits, which may not be overstepped with im-
punity.

Hitherto, it has been pointed out, for the in-
formation of the novice, that the breeds of poultry
6 SUCCESSFUL POULTRY PRODUCTION

were divisible into two classes: those which were
suited to the fancier (or which he had made his
own), and those which were useful for the utili-
tarian. It has now become necessary to impress
upon the beginner that there is a new school of
poultry keepers, who claim to be the friends of
utility, and the producers of profitable fowls for the
egg-producing farmer. They are the breeders of
“‘record layers,’’ and the builders of pedigrees. Al-
though one may admit that it is quite as legitimate
for breeders to produce what have been termed
“‘sprinters,’’ for laying competitions, as it is for
avowed fanciers to turn out bundles of fluff and
stilty frameworks for exhibition, yet it is necessary
to warn the novice against the inclusion of such
productions in the category of fowls that pay—
unless, indeed, he elects to join the ranks of such
producers, a percentage of whom make their profit
(as we shall presently see), but it is not the profit-
able production primarily intended in our title.

The domestic hen is still, however, possessed of
many useful qualities, which are capable of de-
velopment in various directions, and within cer-
tain natural limits; and the poultry keeper who
avoids mongrels on the one hand, and too highly
bred fowls on the other, can find much good, work-
able material in the average specimens of many
pure breeds.

BREED AND STRAIN

It should be almost unnecessary to condemn the
keeping, with a view to profit, of the mongrel
THE UBIQUITOUS ‘‘DOMESTIC’’ y

domestic, so frequently has that unprofitable fowl
been slain in the agricultural and poultry journals;
and it is perhaps noteworthy that the advocacy
of even first crosses is not nearly so frequent as was
once the case. It may be taken as a generally
accepted fact, there are quite enough pure breeds to
meet the requirements of all ordinary poultry
keepers. Old prejudices die hard, however, and in
some remote districts pure-bred fowls are still
regarded with suspicion, especially when they are
bred with any approximation to their standard.
When the writer first bred Sussex fowls, many of
the surrounding farmers spoke of them disparag-
ingly as ‘‘fancy birds,’’ probably because, being
bred to a standard, they exhibited some sort of uni-
formity of color and marking, which had hitherto
been neglected in the neighborhood. The same
breed had been kept by many of the farmers, and
their ancestors, for many generations; but being
without any ideal beyond that of shape, they had
neglected the other points, and had therefore been
less rigorous in their methods of artificial selection
and rejection—the breeder’s imperfect substitute
for the natural ‘‘survival of the fittest.’’

There is no more necessity to neglect and dis-
parage the external beauties of a breed, when breed-
ing for utility, than there is to sacrifice shape,
prolificacy, and soundness of constitution, when
breeding for feathers,

It is just at this point that the novice should
learn to appreciate the vast difference that exists
between breed and strain.
8 SUCCESSFUL POULTRY PRODUCTION
AN ILLUSTRATION

White Leghorns will furnish an apt illustration.
Imagine three breeders, X, Y, and Z, all of whom
stock White Leghorns only, which they have kept
and bred for a succession of seasons.

The first breeder, X, bought his birds one or
two at a time, as he had opportunity; they were
nearly all unrelated, but they were more or less
white in plumage and yellow in legs—undoubtedly
White Leghorns. These birds were too far removed
from natural conditions for natural laws to have
their original beneficial effects, and X knows or
cares nothing about artificial selection and rejec-
tion, so that if his flock has not degenerated it cer-
tainly has not progressed. A few of his hens lay
150 eggs per annum, more lay 100, and most lay
less; while the majority of them show external de-
fects, either in the color of their legs and ear-
lobes, or in the straw (or worse) coloring of their
plumage. The fowls belonging to X are an un-
qnown quantity, although nominally White Leg-
horns.

The next breeder, Y, is a man of a different
calibre; his craze is for size, and he aims to
produce it in White Leghorns. He has already
bred birds that are so large and blocky that they
are the very antithesis of the older, slender,
sprightly Leghorn type—which is practically that
of the Spanish, and should not therefore ap-
proximate to the Dorking. Nature had deprived
this type of size, and in the effort ‘‘to improve’
THE UBIQUITOUS ‘‘DOMESTIC”’ 9

this, the laying power (which was there, awaiting
development) has been ‘‘improved’’ away. In-
creased size has added weight, and weight is no
incentive to activity, while activity is a charac-
teristic of a free layer. To secure this result,
and the prizes awarded in these days to this
ephemeral type, Y has selected, rejected, and mated
his stock with care and skill worthy of a better
object. It is a case of misdirected art, utility
being the real test of permanence.

The third breeder, Z, started well, but has
recently exhibited signs of justifying his initial
by ending as a zany. He took good, typical birds,
the most of which approximated to the original
Leghorn type; he also took trap-nests, and by
their use was enabled to unhesitatingly condemn or
approve each fowl individually upon the recorded
evidence of its utility or inutility. The most
approved were mated and their progeny tested in
their turn, until he had evolved a fiock of hens,
all of which produced annually as many, and
more eggs than the few best of those kept by
the breeder X. So far he had done much to
show his wisdom, and his appreciation of the laws
governing these matters, but the idea was too
great for him, and carried him away. Up to a
certain point he was able to breed fowls approxi-
mating to the external standard of their breed,
the greater proportion of which produced eggs
equal to the former very exceptional ‘‘record’’
layer, and this without any loss of vigor or hint
of degeneracy. The decadence commenced with
10 SUCCESSFUL POULTRY PRODUCTION

his effort to ‘‘go one better’? in a competition;
this tendency will probably destroy the whole fab-
ric, and necessitate a fresh building up to a fixed
stopping point.

The fowls of these three breeders are of one and
the same breed; the difference is that of strain.

A breed is suitable or unsuitable as raw material
for a given purpose, but it is the family or strain
of the particular breed, selected and built up
bird by bird, that the poultry-keeper must look
to as most likely to meet his requirements and
give him his profit. The novice may commence
at the beginning and make his own strain, or he
may acquire the strain of another; but if his
poultry keeping has any purpose (beyond the mere
feeding of feathered things for amusement) he
must have strain as well as breed.

THe AVERAGE HEN

Under existing conditions of poultry breeding,
and having in mind the extremes to which breeding
operations have too generally been pushed, the
novice would do well to endeavor to secure, as
his initial stock, birds that are fair average
specimens of their class—no less, and no more.
Beginners are frequently advised to commence
with -the ‘‘best’’ specimens only; but ‘‘best’’ is
relative, and the description may have relation
to a variety of standards of excellence, according
to the point of view.

The unitiated might very reasonably be excused
THE UBIQUITOUS ‘‘DOMESTIC”’ 11

for supposing that the cup-winner at the Inter-
national would be the best for the reproduction
of its particular type; and yet in the hands of
the novice it would probably be worse than useless
for breeding purposes, as it would very possibly
be to its owner, who has the advantage of knowing
its course of breeding. ‘‘Best’’ might be some
persons’ description of the prize-winning pullet in
a laying competition, and yet it might conceivably
be found that the constitution of the bird had
been destroyed, and that it would be incapable
of perpetuating its strain. There are many others
who judge the quality solely on the evidence of
the price, and for such there are many caterers.
In these, and in other directions, the ‘‘best’’ is
more often than not quite unsuited to the purposes
of the beginner; for him, the hen of average,
mean, or moderate value and qualities is un-
doubtedly his best bird. Specimens that are too
much below the average will not pay for their
food; and in the case of egg production especially
it has been found that to rise too much above the
average is to increase the cost of production (which
means more than the value of the food) out of due
proportion to the value of the produce. To secure
the average hen at the commencement is to obtain
the best material for the future workmanship;
experience will teach how far a strain may be
raised above the mean, without endangering its
proportionate profitableness—and this in whatever
branch it is sought to make the keeping of poul-

try pay.
CHAPTER II

POULTRY FARMING
CHAPTER II

POULTRY FARMING
“* ANY OTHER NAME’’

THe term ‘‘poultry farming’’ is so generally mis-
understood, that could any other name be devised
it would probably be very widely acceptable,
especially to writers who seek incisive terms, free
from ambiguity. Although the present writer is
no stickler for names, he is unwillingly obliged, for
want of a better, to head this chapter with the
fatal words. ;

Poultry farming pays. Poultry farming does
not pay. These statements, although opposite,
are equally true; the difference lies in the meaning
that is read into the words. The poultry farming
of popular imagination has never paid, unless we
admit a possible proportion of one success to 999
failures; but to set up the thousandth case as an
example for the encouragement of others would be
a mischievous proceeding.

EXTRAVAGANT STATEMENTS

It is unfortunate that the extravagant statements
respecting poultry farming should have been
15
16 SUCCESSFUL POULTRY PRODUCTION

coincident with the wonderfully infectious wave of
desire for the country life; and it is particularly
regrettable that responsible publications should
have lent the weight of their authority to the
grotesque theories of unpractical writers, and that
seekers after sensational ‘‘copy’’ should have
turned their attention to fowls.

The result of this ignorant and ill-advised (to
use no harder names) exploitation of poultry farm-
ing is now made plain, and the public Press pro-
vides with more startling ‘‘copy’’ and large type
headlines, recording the failures for which many
of those very prints were primarily and morally
responsible. The half of this evil has not been
told, being known in its fullness only to those
countrymen who keep their eyes and ears open,
and have quietly noted the comings and goings of
the strangers within their gates.

Some Exampues

Within the narrow compass of a single parish, in
which many families have for many generations
subsisted mainly upon the profits they have made
from poultry (kept according to knowledge) the
writer has witnessed the careers of many other
“‘poultry farmers,’’ who have been attracted by the
glamour of an industry they fondly hoped would
save them from the drudgery of other walks in life.
One, a tailor, hired a cottage and three acres of
fowl-sick land; he stocked a few hens of no breed,
tried to feed them with dry, unmixed ground oats,
POULTRY FARMING 17

and sat down (from force of habit) to await the
profits. To learn the use of the needle and thread
is no sufficient apprenticeship for farming of any
description, and he has since returned to his tailor-
ing, being more fortunate than some in finding
vacant the niche he had left. Another, a sea-
captain, with all the sailor’s love and ignorance of
the country, expected to achieve great things upon
an acre and a half; disease dispelled his illusion,
and by quickly killing off the fowls relieved him
of further trouble on their account, and left him
with a disgust as deep and unreasonable as was his
previous confidence. A third, a man of education,
and fortunately with an assured income, who has
sunk a considerable sum in his ‘‘plant,’’ has ad-
mitted that his season’s sales have just about
balanced his food account—no mention being made
of labour, rent, interest on capital, or depreciation
of plant and stock. Yet within a few hundred
yards of this case of capital without the knowledge
of experience, there lives a successful farmer of a
considerable acreage, who owes his present position
to the taking up at the commencement of a branch
of poultry keeping that pays, with nothing but his
experience and the initial capital of a few dozen
chickens.

As bearing upon the popular use and interpreta-
tion of terms, it is curious to observe that the first.
three examples, with whom fowls have not been
profitable stock, were all spoken of (and described
themselves) as ‘‘poultry farmers;’’? whereas the
fourth example, the successful man, who has made
18 SUCCESSFUL POULTRY PRODUCTION

a living for himself, his family, and those who
work for him, and who owes the foundation of his
success, and his continued prosperity, to poultry,
would neither call himself a poultry farmer nor
his holding a poultry farm.

Pouutry FARMERS AND FARMER POULTRY
KEEPERS

Dismissing as impracticable the popular con-
ception of poultry farming, and yet retaining the
term for the sake of convenience, it is necessary to
discriminate between poultry farmers and farmers
who keep fowls. The latter are general farmers,
who raise crops and breed and feed stock of various
classes, and who incidentally keep fowls as
scavengers and consumers of otherwise waste pro-
ducts, rather than as profit-makers in any par-
ticular market. This form of poultry keeping that
pays will be dealt with in a subsequent chapter.

The poultry farmer proper, who sets out to farm
fowls on common-sense lines, has in view the
making of his poultry department the most im-
portant section of his work, but recognizes that it
also involves ‘‘farming.’’ He understands that he
must farm or cultivate his land; and that his hold-
ing is rented for cultivation or pasturage ‘‘accord-
ing to the rules of good husbandry.’’ He knows
not only that those rules imply more than the
stocking of fowls, but that fowls will need the
support of other stock, or form of farming, to bring
his venture to a successful issue. This may seem,
POULTRY FARMING 19

to some, to be a distinction without a difference,
and it may be argued that there is nothing to
choose between this common-sense form of poultry
farming and the farmer’s method of keeping fowls;
that, in effect, the keeping of fowls in both cases
is, or should be, regarded simply as an adjunct to
cultivation.

INSTANCES AND OPINIONS

Granted that fowls are small and labour-com-
pelling stock, and are insufficient of themselves for
‘‘farming’’ operations, it is no mere labouring of
the question to cite instances and opinions in con-
firmation of the statement that they are, with many
farmers and small holders, regarded as the most
important department of their business. It is ob-
jected by many that poultry fatteners, as such, may
not be fairly classed as poultry farmers, so for
the present they will not be considered; but, on the
other hand, it may reasonably be claimed that a
man who fattens the fowls he has reared is a
poultry farmer—within the meaning of the term.
There are so many large and small holders up and
down the country in which the writer is living and
writing, who devote all their energies to the rearing
and fattening of fowls for the London markets, to
which end all their other farming and cultivation
is subsidiary, that it may appear, to those who
know, almost unnecessary to select any as an
example,
20 SUCCESSFUL POULTRY PRODUCTION

A farm of 200 acres is beyond the wildest dreams
of the ordinary ‘‘poultry farming’’ aspirant, but
the writer knows of one such (by no means an
exception), upon which from eight to ten thousand
chickens annually have been raised for many years,
the other stock including cows, bullocks, and horses.
The main cereal crops are grown for the fowls, and
although the cows are kept as complementary to the
fowls—for the purpose of fattening by the mixing
of the meal with milk—it has often been necessary
to purchase from other farmers to supplement, for
this purpose, that which is produced on the farm.
Another farmer, of about half the acreage, who also
feeds the most of his home-grown corn to his fowls
and uses the bulk of his milk for chicken-fattening,
rears a sufficient number to send regular consign-
ments of dead poultry to London twice every week,
and often three times, and who also rears large
numbers of Aylesbury and wild ducks, geese and
turkeys, has continually assured the writer that he
regards poultry production as his chief business,
and that all his farming operations lead up to
that. Another, the holder of some ten acres only
(too small to be called a farm in the ordinary ac-
ceptation of the word), whose stock, other than
fowls, includes two cows and some young stock, and
who also markets fowls regularly once or twice a
week—all of his own rearing and fattening—and
who has reclaimed and cultivated a considerable
portion of rough ground, and added to his stock,
buildings, and appliances, in addition to the sup-
port of his wife and himself, has avowedly done so
POULTRY FARMING Q1

by making poultry production the aim and end of
his labour.

It remains to add that these specimen cases,
chosen at random from among those in the writer’s
neighbourhood, are all instances of what is being
done by men born and bred in a district of poultry
producers; due weight should, however, be given
to the fact that they have all been to the manner
born, and may not therefore be easily imitated by
those who have been reared in towns. It cannot
, be claimed, though, that any of these cases are on
‘‘all fours’’ with the farmer who keeps fowls inci-
dentally; because they are, in truth, instances of
common-sense poultry farming.

In this connection it has been ironically asked,
how many horse or pig farms there are in the
country ; and although there may be some analogy
to be found in sheep farms, yet it is said that the
comparison of even these with a poultry farm will
not bear pressing. Probably not, but it is interest-
ing to note that in reply to the question of an,
Assistant Commissioner of the Royal Commission
on Agriculture, a practical farmer of both fowls
and ewes, made the statement: ‘‘If 100 fowls are
properly looked after they will yield a larger return
in twelve months than 100 breeding ewes.’’ This
farmer’s books showed his gross annual returns
from the sale of unfattened chickens to range from
£300 to £350 per annum, against an average annual
purchased food bill of £120. Here, again, the
novice should note that the farming was not con-
fined to poultry.
22 SUCCESSFUL POULTRY PRODUCTION

Wuart Is A PouuTry Farm ?

The reader will by this time be looking for some-
thing constructive and definite, and will desire to
abandon generalities for particulars. The answer
to the question ‘‘What is a poultry farm?’’ would
be that it is a holding upon which poultry produc-
tion is made the chief consideration; that such
production may be specialized or all-embracing;
that the holding may be large or small, according
to the capabilities and capital of the holder; and
that common-sense presupposes the adequate culti-
vation or pasturing of the land as being necessary
to success with the fowls and the above-mentioned
‘“‘rules of good husbandry.”’

The man, therefore, who takes up poultry pro-
duction as the main source of his income must,
above all things, be a man of experience; his ex-
perience must include more than he can gain by
the keeping of a pen of fowls in a garden, and
more than he can acquire by attending a course
of lectures which are confined to fowls.

THe Man

It cannot be too plainly stated that poultry
farming is not the ideal occupation it has been
imagined by clerks, countermen, or those who seek
new outlets for ‘‘gentility;’’ that is to say, it is
not the best conceivable work for them, or at least
most of them. The man who has been trained to
work at a desk from about 9:30 am. to 6 p.m.
POULTRY FARMING 23

can have no real conception of even the mere
physical demands of work in the fields. The writer
venteured to point out a few unappreciated facts
to one fastidious specimen of this class, and among
other things mentioned such unpleasant duties as
coop and roost cleaning, and the work of preparing
dead fowls for market, to be met with the retort:
“Oh, well, I always dust down my desk!’’

It is forgotten, too, that there are but few oppor-
tunities for recreation. Bank holidays are as
though they were not, and Sundays are as other
days. Club day is the one holiday of the farm
labourer, and most poultry producers must work
harder than the labourer. Moreover, the man of
any intellectual activity is confronted with the
monotony of manual labour, a strain which all can-
not equally endure; the awakening of the dormant
rustic intellect is responsible for more migrations
to the towns than the educational authorities are
in most cases aware of—at any rate, they do not
appear to appreciate this depopulating trend of
their syllabus in rural districts. Will the average
graduate be content with the simple life the rustic
is fast abandoning? He who looks to poultry farm-
ing as a means of escape from what he regards as
the uncongenial surroundings of his present occu-
pation, must ask himself such questions as these.
‘When the glamour has dissolved, and things appear
in their naked reality, will the life be more con-
genial than that to which he has been trained?
These questions must be faced, and truly answered,
before the change is made.
Q4 SUCCESSFUL POULTRY PRODUCTION

The writer cannot avoid the statement that
among the many he knows who are profitably en-
gaged in poultry production, as a means of liveli-
hood, the percentage who have not been born and
bred to it is terribly small. To gloss such facts
would be unjust to all concerned; but, having
stated them, the individual must himself duly
weigh them, and act according to his own discretion
and knowledge of himself.

KNOWLEDGE OF THE WoRK

Next to knowledge of himself, and his capacity
to undertake a constant round of manual labour,
the individual must possess a thorough knowledge
of the work by which he hopes to earn a living.
As I have indicated, this is most satisfactorily
acquired by daily contact with it from the cradle
upwards; but it may be learned later by a man of
energy and determination, who is content to take
his coat off and start from the beginning.

The usual mistake of the novice is to regard the
agricultural colleges as institutions for the manu-
facture of farmers (poultry or otherwise), whereas
it has before now been pointed out that their raison
a’étre is the techincal education of farmers—an
altogether different thing. The writer has no word
to say in disparagement of these most excellent
institutions, which have done, and are doing, much
for agriculture; so far as a theoretical training is
concerned they are admirable, they give the worker
the reason for the acts he performs, and working
POULTRY FARMING 25

in the light of knowledge his work is better done.
It is the student, rather than the teaching body,
that the writer has in mind; and he has always
been impressed with the fact that about the average
poultry student there is too much of the ‘‘young
gentleman,’’ and too little of the worker. Unless,
therefore, the student is already possessed of that
practical knowledge which can alone be adequately
obtained by life on a commercial farm, all the
theoretical knowledge in the world will be insuffi-
cient to equip him for his future.

THE PractTicaL SIDE

The work of the training farm is nowadays made
a prominent feature of the curriculum of most
agricultural colleges, but it can never have the
same practical value as the work performed on an
ordinary holding, where it must be carried out on
such a commercial basis as to cover rent, labour,
food, depreciation, interest on capital, ete. In the
one case the management has access to the pockets
of the ratepayers of a county; while in the other
the proprietor labours to pay his way from his own
pocket, without emptying it. It is not in human
nature to avoid some differences of method, and
it is just those differences that the novice needs to
understand.

The learner should try to get taken into the
family of a hardworking farmer who makes a
feature of poultry production, and makes it pay.
He should rise with the others, work with them
26 SUCCESSFUL POULTRY PRODUCTION

through the long day, and go to rest when they go,
not only watching how the competent do their
work, but himself working under their constant
supervision. To do this there are initial difficulties
to overcome, such as the reluctance of the really
competent to be troubled with pupils, and their
almost certain refusal to do so upon any other
basis than that of a substantial premium and a
weekly payment of board and bed. Too many
beginners think their services of sufficient value to
set off such items, but they are not, and the speedy
realization of this will save much waste of time.
If a farmer has anything to teach worth knowing,
it should be worth paying for; and why should the
bed and board be free to the bungling greenhorn,
who cannot be entrusted with the least responsi-
bility ?

Locality

Presuming that the man is in every way fitted
for the work by knowledge, experience, tempera-
ment, health, and a sufficient capital, he will run
the risk of nullifying all these natural and acquired
advantages by commencing his operations in the
wrong locality, which he is more than likely to do
unless he has his wits about him. It is a great
mistake to start in a hurry, or to accept open-
mouthed ‘‘the very thing’’ offered by the first land
agent to whom he applies. Those who have land
to sell, or holdings for which there is a difficulty
in finding tenants, are not necessarily authorities
POULTRY FARMING Q”

on poultry farming, nor are they always as dis-
interested as they would wish to appear.

Really desirable holdings in suitable localities
are seldom advertised, the agents having the choice
of several applicants long before the vacancies
occur. Moreover, it not infrequently happens that
when there is any suitable land for sale in a favour-
able district, the acreage is altogether too extensive
for the resources or requirements of the would-be
poultry farmer; and, on the other hand, that the
little parcels of ‘‘cheap’’ land are too often far
removed from markets and means of communica-
tion; or are, from the nature of the soil, or some
other vital cause, totally unsuited for the purpose
for which they are offered. It is not too much to
say that a considerable proportion of the failures
has been primarily due to the choice of a wrong
locality, for which the blame must be apportioned
between the faulty descriptions of vendors or
agents, and the gullibility of the victims—both of
which are blameworthy.

Sprcray Districts

There are certain districts which have become
recognized as sacred to the several branches of
production carried on in them as specialized indus-
tries; such as East Sussex for chickens, and Buck-
inghamshire and Bedfordshire for ducklings, and
so on. The beginner in any special branch must
discover the particular district with which it is
connected, and then endeavour to obtain a footing
28 SUCCESSFUL POULTRY PRODUCTION

within the recognized radius; by no other means
can he obtain to the full the benefits of his labour.

Specially concentrated industries imply far more
than the novice may at first imagine. There are
advantages in connection with the purchase of
foodstuffs, both as regards quality and price, the
systematised collection and delivery of produce, the
special rates, and greater facilities for marketing,
the higher value set upon produce from a well
recognized centre, and many other benefits which
gather around a community of like producers, but
seldom (and never to the full extent) round an
isolated individual.

Although the average beginner would generally
be wise to endeavour to get in line with an old-
established industry, situated in a definite locality,
it must not be forgotten that there is considerable
difficulty, not only in acquiring a holding within a
charmed circle, but also that the old producers are
shy of new-comers, and do not encourage their
settlement in their neighbourhood. It requires a
man of considerable tact to gain a footing in a close
and exclusive community ; but it has been done suc-
cessfully within the writer’s experience, and there
is a modicum of truth in the saying that ‘‘what
man has done, man can do.”’

Apart from special districts and industries, there
are very many unworked localities well worth the
attention of energetic men who are capable of
starting and working up a connection on the basis
of an allround production. Such openings are to
be found within a reasonable distance of large
POULTRY FARMING 29

towns, populous residential neighbourhoods, and
coast or inland health and pleasure resorts. If a
suitable place can be found, from which London
and the coast are equally accessible, so much the
better—the one helps the other. And there are no
better all-round markets than those of London, for
those who know or can learn how to cater for them.

THE HowLpIne

A holding is a farm held of a superior, and the
question arises as to whether it is better to hold
the farm, or by purchase to own it. In the majority
of cases, the former is preferable for the beginner,
and this because the beginner is so liable to make
a mistake at commencing. Unless a man is thor-
oughly familiar with all his future requirements,
and the conditions of a district, it will probably
happen that he will eventually discover a more
ideal farm than that of his initial occupation, and,
it is generally easier and cheaper to retire from
a farm held of a superior than it is to advanta-
geously dispose of a freehold—unless the circum-
stances are very exceptional, in which case the de-
sire to sell would not probably arise.

It is therefore better, at the commencement, to
hire the land, and as the conditions under which
land is held vary in different parts of the country,
and sometimes to a considerable extent, due con-
sideration and expert advice are necessary before
signing an agreement. There are, however, in most
cases, restrictions relative to the manuring and
30 SUCCESSFUL POULTRY PRODUCTION

cultivating of the land in a good and husbandman-
like manner, the consuming of hay, straw, and fod-
der grown on the premises, and the return of the
manure arising therefrom to the land. The land-
lord also generally reserves all game and fish, with
the exclusive right of hunting, shooting, and fish-
ing, for himself and persons authorized by him,
subject only to the concurrent rights of the tenant
under the Ground Game Act, 1880.

The question of building is an important one,
because, on a small holding (such as would be
suitable for the poultry farmer), they are very
often quite inadequate. Stabling cow-byres, cart
lodges, piggeries and stores will, at least, be neces-
sary. The houses for the poultry will, of course, be
provided by the tenant. If the farm buildings are
sufficient for the size of the holding, their state of
repair and drainage claims attention before occupa-
tion, as also does the provision of the agreement
relative to their future upkeep. Of the fitness of
the dwelling-house, the future occupier should be
the best judge, although the legal meaning of the
clauses relative to same should be fully appreciated
in common with the rest. of the agreement.

With regard to the land itself, it is a mistake to
suppose that any poor waste will be good enough
for the fowls; even if there were no other stock to
consider, fowls do better on good land. Then there
is, in addition to the character of the soil, the aspect
and general situation to be considered; it is ad-
visable, if possible, to see a holding during opposite
seasons, and to ascertain that it is neither too wet
POULTRY FARMING 31

in the winter nor too dry in summer. The water
supply is another important consideration, not only
as regards its sufficiency, but also its position and
accessibility relative to the various fields and en-
closures—this in view of the needs of all possible
classes of stock. A man may have to carry a bucket
or two of water for some of his fowls, but he won’t
need to expend much energy and time carrying it
for cattle. Running streams, which do not run
dry in the heat of summer, are the best for all
purposes.

If possible, it is much better to secure a holding
divided into small enclosures, rather than large,
bleak, wind-swept fields; the hedges should serve
as a protection as well as for barriers, and so long
as the bottoms are not too thin, a fair height and
luxuriance of growth serves to shelter and keep
warm the enclosures. The fowls will not only need
good sheltering hedges, but a fair number of trees
(both orchard and timber) should be looked for,
as well as shaws or coppices; when the novice gets
to work on his holding he will quickly discover the
advantages of all these things.

RENT AND VALUATION

It should be obvious that a really desirable hold-
ing (viz., as regards locality, nearness to town
and station, character of soil, aspect and general
convenience) will be cheaper at £2 per acre than
a worked-out tract of land, five miles from any-
where, and generally ill-equipped for the business,
82 SUCCESSFUL POULTRY PRODUCTION

would be at twenty shillings. For the running of
fowls alone even the latter price would be too high
a rent to pay, but for the method of poultry farm-
ing we are considering it would in most cases be
too little. It may be said that there are plenty of
farms to be had at £1 per acre, and so there are;
but they are not the sort that would be suitable
for the novice. At that rent they would, in the
majority of cases, be far too large for the kind of
tenant we have in view; and it is generally under-
stood that one must pay a higher proportionate
rent for a small than a large holding—which is
economically just.

Small holdings are more expensive to the land-
lords as regards buildings, roads, fences, and the
incidentals of management; and they will not, as
a rule, flourish, except on good soil; the large
farmer can turn a proportion of poor soil to ac-
count, but the small one cannot. Moreover, the ad-
vantages of small holdings on permanent pasture
land, near a town or centre of industry, are at their
maximum; as the disadvantages are at their
minimum. Economically, therefore, the gross
rental per acre must always be at a higher rate for
a small than a large farm.

To the townsman, who would turn countryman,
it frequently comes in the nature of a shock to
discover that it is as impossible to enter into pos-
session of a farm, without paying money down,
as it is to rent an hotel as easily as one would a
villa. The writer has known several such to figure
out the proposed expenditure of a small capital up
POULTRY FARMING 33

to the last farthing, without making any allowance
for the payment of that which it is customary to
take over by valuation at ingoing. Upon such a
holding as would be suitable for the purpose, there
would, in nine cases out of ten, be at least some
sort of a stack of hay, a large or small heap of
yard mixen, and probably from half to an acre, and
upwards, of growing underwood; there are also
very frequently some fixtures, other than those
usually appertaining to a dwelling-house. There
may also be further items, but those mentioned
would be the ordinary minimum, and their valua-
tion upon a small holding would run approximately
into about £2 per acre of the occupation.

THE PLant

It has become quite the correct thing to refer
collectively to all the paraphernalia, incidental to
the farming of fowls, as the ‘‘poultry plant;’’ it is
an American phrase, and, despite its grandiloquent
flavour, it will serve. The term includes all the
appliances and implements of the trade, from the
huge brooding house down to the earthenware nest-
egg.

The ‘‘plant’’ of size has immense attractions for
the average novice, who dreams of mazes of wire-
netting; avenues of buildings with weirdly-shaped
roofs; and catacombs full of incubators. The more
ambitious have even gone the length of power-
driven mills, and over-pen trolley ways for the
wholesale feeding from miniature railway trucks—
34 SUCCESSFUL POULTRY PRODUCTION

it has been done in that country of large ideas
which invented ‘‘poultry plants.’’

Let the beginner put all such extravagant ideas
of ‘‘plant’’ severely behind him; thére is very little
evidence of costly ‘‘plant’’ on places where fowls
have been proved to pay. It is not, of course, sug-
gested that appliances are unnecessary, but that
they are not the ‘‘be-all and end-all’’ of the under-
taking; and that a lavish and showy expenditure
at the start more often precedes failure than suc-
cess—that is actual fact, very easy of confirmation.

The writer has witnessed some of these attempts
to run what may be described as chicken factories,
and they have failed in the objects for which they
were set up; he has himself attempted the same
thing, tentatively upon a comparatively small scale,
and was only too pleased to revert to more primi-
tive methods after a fair trial of the ‘‘down-to-
date.”’

Such appliances as incubators and foster-mothers
cannot be very well ignored; they have their place,
and in some circumstances have become a necessity.
They are somewhat similar to motor-cars, in that
they have come to stay, but that they also require
keeping within bounds. They cannot entirely
supersede the old hen, any more than the destroyers
of rustic peace and comfort can drive the horse off
the road. It is the wise man who feels his way in
the matter of artificial hatching and rearing, and
it is the far-sighted appliance maker who restrains
rather than encourage large initial expenditure in
this direction. It is in the long run better for
POULTRY FARMING 35

trade that a man should begin in a small way, and
increase and expand with growing experience, than
that he should make a large show during his noviti-
ate, and in twelve months increase the flooding of
the second-hand market.

As the result- of considerable observation and
experience the writer is strongly of opinion that
incubators and brooding contrivances are at certain
seasons indispensable as adjuncts to the natural
method of hatching and rearing; but that only
under very exceptional circumstances are they
profitable to the exclusion of the hen.
CHAPTER III

POULTRY FARM MANAGEMENT
CHAPTER III

POULTRY FARM MANAGEMENT

THE financial success of any commercial enterprise
depends upon its economic administration, an
axiom which is as applicable to poultry farming as
to any other business undertaking. A man may
be thoroughly au fait with the intricacies of breed-
ing; may be a successful rearer of stock; may be
an expert finisher and preparer of fowls for mar-
ket; and may know just where and how to market
in order to secure the best prices. But unless he
has learnt how to keep down expenses and the cost
of production, how to obtain the maximum price
with the minimum outlay, this defect of his man-
agement will defeat his object—which we assume
to be poultry keeping that pays.

From personal experience and extensive obser-
vation and inquiries, the writer is convinced that
the cost of production of fowls, for commercial
purposes, cannot be kept sufficiently low to allow
a reasonable margin of profit, unless the range of
grass land be sufficient to provide a fair proportion
of natural food; and then only when the land is
used in such other ways as shall relieve the fowls
from the burden of its rent and other incidentals.

39
40 SUCCESSFUL POULTRY PRODUCTION

The latter point has been, perhaps, made sufficiently
clear in a previous chapter, and it does not come
within the scope of the present purpose to expati-
-ate upon the management of the farm and stock,
except in so far as poultry is directly concerned.
It must therefore be assumed that the poultry
farmer is sufficiently experienced as to know how
to farm and stock his land, so as to make the most
of every opportunity arising from his occupation
of it primarily for poultry production.

GENERAL ARRANGEMENTS

The occupation of a considerable acreage—viz:,
in comparison with the acre or so of popular
imagination—is not only of great economic value
in its relation to the purchase of food-stuffs, but it
also minimizes the outlay on such items as wire-
netting, and largely reduces such risks as. disease.
Management is further simplified by the keeping of
a single breed or variety, which (excepting the large
breeders of exhibition stock) is the general custom
of the large producers of chickens or eggs for
market. It must be remembered that if even two
varieties are stocked, the rearing grounds, pullet
and cockerel runs, houses, breeding pens, etc., must
all be duplicated, and a fresh set of arrangements
made for every additional breed or variety. These
items alone add considerably to the initial expense,
and multiply proportionately the labour of attend-
ing to the birds; in every direction the cost of pro-
POULTRY FARM MANAGEMENT 4

duction is increased, without any adequate com-
pensation.

Although it is, on economic grounds, better to
restrict the layers or chicken breeders to one breed
or variety, and under ordinary conditions to make
the production of chickens or eggs the main object,
it is not always wise to entirely ignore the rearing
of turkeys, geese, or ducks. In some circumstances
it is even preferable to specialize in one or other
of these last, but, as a rule, they are more profitable
as side lines, the production being limited according
to the extent of the profitable outlet. Moreover, the
demand for these other classes of poultry is season-
able, and not an all-the-year-round one, as is the
case with chickens and hens’ eggs. In this con-
nection, it must not be overlooked that although
there is always a market for chickens and eggs,
yet the values vary so greatly with the seasons that
good management is necessary in the regulation of
the supply to make a fair average of the year’s
output.

A more detailed account of the management of
the various descriptions of poultry must be de-
ferred to a subsequent and separate chapter, imas-
much as they are more or less applicable to the
various classes of poultry keepers, some of whom
remain for future reference.

It is generally more convenient to make perma-
nent breeding pens, and to situate them within easy
access of the homestead. Here, again, the ad-
vantage of plenty of room is apparent, because if
the stock birds can be run afield out of the breeding
42 SUCCESSFUL POULTRY PRODUCTION

season, the birds will benefit, the pens will have
that time in which to sweeten, and one grass run
will therefore serve where two for alternate use
would be rendered necessary by the constant con-
finement of the stock fowls. The position of these
pens should be sheltered and dry, in view of the
fact that the eggs will be required chiefly during
the months of bad weather. In addition to the
grass, gravelled runs or yards are very useful, if
they can conveniently and inexpensively be pro-
vided.

The house of each pen should consist of a roomy,
light, and well-ventilated roost, with a scratching-
shed communicating, the front of the latter being
wire-netted, and furnished with screens or shutters,
for use as occasion requires—the nest boxes should
be under the same roof. Trap-nests have become
the vogue with a large section of breeders (of ad-
vanced laying strains), but they are seldom used by
the breeders of chickens for market, who depend
upon their own observation in such matters, and
by constant association can generally pick out the
good layers from the bad. Beyond this selection
by observation it is not perhaps wise for the chicken
grower to go, because the quality of the germ in the
egg is, for him, of greater importance than the
breaking of the record in the numbers produced;
even the producer of eggs for eating only should
not practice the theory of trap-nesting without
great caution, if he wishes to preserve and perpetu-
ate a hardy strain of layers.
POULTRY FARM MANAGEMENT 43
THE Rearing Grounp

Although sheltering hedges are desirable as
windbreaks for the protection of young and grow-
ing chickens, as are trees for shelter from the sun,
yet the rearing grounds should not be so confined
and shaded as to bear the same relation to the open
ten-acre, wind-swept field as does a close and stuffy
room to a draughty concert hall. The very young-
est chicks need plenty of space and fresh air, and a
hardy method of rearing is more profitable in the
long run than a system of coddling. The soil and
situation must be such that the ground does not
remain sodden, even after a long and heavy rain;
and the grass must be kept well cut or grazed (pref-
erably by horses or sheep—the former feeding
more readily after fowls), otherwise it will become
foul, and the chicks will also suffer from the undue
amount of moisture retained by long, overgrown
herbage.

In apportioning the space to be set aside for
rearing, it must be remembered that growing
chickens foul the ground much more rapidly than
adult fowls; therefore a small area quickly becomes
fowl-sick. Rest alone can cure this, the chickens
meanwhile being removed to untainted ground. If
the ground has been allowed to become very badly
fouled, a crop should be taken off before chickens
are trusted on it again.

The usual appliances for use on the rearing
ground are just ordinary coops, and hutches or
arks. If artificial rearing is resorted to, the easily
44 SUCCESSFUL POULTRY PRODUCTION

moved type of hot-air foster-mother is preferable,
in this climate, to the large size, permanent brood-
ing house—except under exceptional circumstances ;
small colonies of chicks do better under the con-
ditions we are considering, and the mortality is, for
many reasons, lower. It is as essential to move
foster-mothers quite as frequently as coops and
hutches. They must not on that account be of too
cumbersome a build, and as the lamps must be
maintained in an upright position, the rearing
ground upon which they are to be used must be
fairly level.

THe OTHER FIELDS

Having set apart the space necessary for the
breeding pens, and determined upon that portion of
the land best suited for rearing purposes, the re-
mainder must be apportioned so as to provide for
the necessary separation of the cockerels and pul-
lets, and also for such change of ground as may
be anticipated according to the number of birds to
be reared, the possible length of the breeding and
rearing season, and such other eventualities as
disease—which may put a section out of use for
atime. A portion will, in most circumstances, be
reserved for hay, thus putting it out of use for
stock of all sorts during some three or four months;
but, after allowing for that, the remainder should
never be so overstocked as not to leave some un-
occupied by fowls, and in reserve for possible un-
foreseen contingencies. Moreover, if water-fowl of
POULTRY FARM MANAGEMENT as

any description be included in the anticipated pro-
duction, the arrangements for the housing of the
stock birds will naturally be somewhat influenced
by the position of possible ponds or streams, all of
which, and similar details, must be taken into ac-
count in the preliminary planning of the land for
the various purposes.

THE HatcHERY

It is essential to the success of the subsequent
proceedings that adequate accommodation should
be provided for incubating fowls or machines—or
both. There is no possibility of good management
when hens are allowed to sit upon eggs in places of
their own selection, although such a course may do
well enough where fowls are few or of no import-
ance. Upon a poultry farm there must be a method,
strictly adhered to throughout; to leave things to
chance is unprofitable, and to scatter work increases
the cost of labour.

In the case of natural incubation, upon an ex-
tensive scale, the sitting hens must all be in the
one house, which must be a good one—roomy, clean,
dry, well ventilated, and capable of ample lighting
when necessary. To conserve the space, the nest
boxes should be made in tiers and numbered for
record and reference. To expedite feeding and
necessary attention, the door should open to a court
or paddock, where the fowls may be tethered to
pegs driven in the ground, and all the necessary
work done at the one time.
46 SUCCESSFUL POULTRY PRODUCTION

Among the more unlettered producers (who form
the bulk of those who produce fowls profitably)
artificial incubation has not made much headway ;
partly because of their native conservatism, and
partly because they are seldom acquainted with the
principles and requirements. One has seen incuba-
tors in draughty passages, in flimsy sheds, and
under roofs subject to the extremes of temperature
—and their users have condemned them in no un-
certain language. If these useful adjuncts to the
hatchery are to be used, they must be properly
housed, and the writer has operated them most suc-
cessfully in an ordinary farmhouse cellar. Where
such a chamber is available, it should be reserved
for the purpose, because in such an underground
situation the temperature will be more equable all
the year round than elsewhere; there must, how-
ever, be a good window, and sufficient ventilation,
to ensure a constant change and purity of air.

Broopine Houses

Although not generally desirable for the rearing
of table chickens, these houses demand some refer-
ence. They have their uses in some circumstances,
and the writer, having operated them, is in a posi-
tion to make a few practical suggestions regarding
their working. The style of house is probably
known, at least by sight, to many readers, having
been shown with chickens in occupation at the
Crystal Palace, the Dairy, and other large shows,
since 1903. They may also be seen in use on
POULTRY FARM MANAGEMENT 4Y

various large breeding establishments in different
parts of the country, although their cost—ranging
from about £15 to £50—naturally limits the
number.

The actual brooding portion consists of a series
of from two to eight brooders (called sectional
brooders), with room for one hundred chicks in
each. All the sections are heated, by means of
hot-water pipes, from one heater placed at one end.
That is the essential part, and sectional brooders
may be purchased alone, for use in an existing
shed, or with the specially built brooding house
made for the purpose. The whole thing is very
ingenious, and the many contrivances give a fair
amount of control over the heating for winter
rearing; it is, however, the difficulty of keeping
the temperature down at other seasons that renders
them unsuitable for practical commercial use. One
recognizes, of course, that such appliances are
chiefly required for winter use, but it is question-
able whether mere market production is remuner-
ative enough to warrant the outlay on such ex-
pensive houses, if their use must be limited to so
few months. Personal experience suggests that it
is not, a conclusion which is more than confirmed
by a very extensive experiment in this direction, in
which the writer was closely interested, and the
progress of which he watched from start to finish.

One practical difficulty, which continually con-
fronts the user of such houses, is their forcing
tendency, and consequently the danger attending
the necessary hardening off of the inmates. Until
48 SUCCESSFUL POULTRY PRODUCTION

about the eighth week the chicks thrive and grow
wonderfully well, but, unfortunately, there is no
sufficient market for birds of that size, and the
change to other quarters, which then becomes im-
perative (if not sooner), discloses the drawbacks
of the system; those that survive cannot compete
in the fattening coop with others reared naturally,
and outside, from the shell upwards. The over-
coming of this difficulty is to be found in the more
constant use of the grass run in front of the house,
and matters are improved in proportion as the
chicks can be brought to use the outside as well as
the inside of the house. To keep them entirely
confined, even in severe weather, is a fatal mis-
take—they must be accustomed to the external
temperature from the commencement.

THEIR ADVANTAGES

Against these drawbacks—which will not affect
all purposes alike—must be set the advantages, and
they are undoubtedly considerable. As compared
with an equal number of small foster-mothers, the
labour of attending to the birds and the apparatus
is simplified, and the amount of oil consumed in
heating is proportionately reduced. Moreover, the
attendant benefits in that he works under cover,
which is desirable in winter, when there are a
number of young chickens to see to and feed.
Further, the feeding is simplified, and there is the
opportunity for using ‘‘dry feed’’ if desired.

For this purpose the considerable floor space,
POULTRY FARM MANAGEMENT 49

between the brooder proper and the glass front, is
bedded thickly with chaff or cavings, and the seeds
of the mixture scattered in this. The exercise of
scratching for the food helps growth and develop-
ment, aids digestion, and the use of the system of
dry feeding reduces bowel troubles to a minimum.
The necessity for green food may very well be
overcome by the use of sliced swedes, which
chickens thoroughly enjoy. The extent to which
this system of feeding is beneficial, is limited by
the object for which the birds are being reared ; for
market chickens it must be always limited, used
alternately with soft food, and not continued after
the first few weeks; for such as are to be raised
for stock or other purposes, it may be used more
freely, and continued longer. In this connection it
may be of use for the writer to mention that he has
successfully applied the dry-feed method in dealing
with broods reared under hens, the coops being
placed round an old thrashing-floor in a large barn,
and the chicks run out and fed in litter placed on
the floor. This was only done in the severity of
winter, but the barn-doors were always left open at.
one side (that opposite to the wind), thus accustom-
ing the chicks to plenty of fresh air, and also
allowing an optional run outside.

Buying AND StorInG Foop

A well-ordered store-room is necessary for the
storing of food in bulk, and to purchase in any but.
large quantities is uneconomical. A sufficient
50 SUCCESSFUL POULTRY PRODUCTION

number of bins or tubs, with close-fitting lids for
the exclusion of rats and mice, should be provided,
and it may be stated at once that two such recep-
tacles are insufficient—a meal-tub and a corn-bin
will not meet all requirements. There are various
meals or grains ground to powder, and there are
many varieties of grain; good managers will not
feed one description of meal for all purposes, nor
always use mixed grains, or one sort of grain ad
nauseam. There are very few reliable warehouse
mixtures, the proportions of most falling short of a
genuine nutritive ratio, and nearly all containing
a percentage of damaged or useless grain; it is
cheaper to buy each variety separately, and to do
one’s own mixing in such a way as to combine a
change of diet with a well-balanced ration.

The writer’s own experience goes to show that
the staple meals and grains should include all the
following: Sussex ground oats (not oatmeal), fine
sharps or middlings, barley meal, bran, wheat, oats,
buckwheat, barley, and maize. There are others,
which circumstances (as they arise) may render
desirable; but those mentioned will meet all
ordinary requirements, and each should be stored
in its own receptacle. If ‘‘dry-feed’’ is to be used,
the storing arrangements will need considerable
extension—but the home mixing of ‘‘dry-feed’’ is
almost too elaborate an undertaking for the
ordinary man who is working for a living. The
use and mixing of the ordinary meals and grains
will be referred to later.

With regard to the purchase of food-stuffs, low-
POULTRY FARM MANAGEMENT 51

priced and damaged lines are never cheap, even
at the very lowest figure; those poultrymen who
market the best produce, and command the highest
prices, invariably take infinite pains to secure the
best quality only. The writer has known such men
to drive many miles, and pay a higher price, to
secure a better meal than can be obtained locally;
and the miller or dealer (particularly in a fatten-
ing district) who allows quality to deteriorate, or
become unreliable, will quickly lose the custom of
the large feeders. The novice will realize that he
cannot afford to use cheap foods, which are not
good enough for the experienced. The use of
inferior food-stuffs defeats the object of the user,
increasing instead of minimizing the cost of produc-
tion; only the best will give the best and quickest
results—the obtaining of which is a test of man-
agement.

Buyine Stock

The amount to be invested in the purchase of
the initial stock depends upon many things, and is
usually primarily dominated by the sum of the
capital available for all purposes connected with
the enterprise. It is customary for writers to take
some round sum, by way of example, and roundly
apportion so much to each object, a course which
the present writer intends to avoid, because no two
sets of circumstances and capital will ever agree,
and also because no reader ever takes much notice
of such advice. No arm-chair estimate of this de-
52 SUCCESSFUL POULTRY PRODUCTION

scription is of much practical value, and dogmatic
statements regarding the safe minimum, upon
which to start business, will always be disregarded
by the obstinate possessor of a £20 note. Suffice it
to say, therefore, that the acquisition of stock
should be gradual, and that if due care is exercised
in selection, and a fair price paid for suitable birds,
there should be no need for any great future ex-
penditure when once the pens have been made up
and their quality proved. Although many recom-
mend it, it is bad policy and bad management to
buy fresh stock year by year. To profitably farm
fowls the farmer must be a breeder, and if he be
that he should (under normal conditions) know
how to become largely independent of other
breeders.

In the purchase of stock for such a specific pur-
pose as the production of meat or eggs, it is neces-
sary to previously ascertain what breeds are being
used successfully for the same object in the same
locality, and with a like soil and situation. Ex-
periments are never safe for the beginner, and the
theoretically best bird of the text-book should be
passed over unhesitatingly for that by which the
neighbours are making money—if they are not,
and only then, should theory be proved by the tyro.
The writer has learnt far more practical knowledge
from old country producers—despite their ignor-
ance of technical terms—than he has from all the
standard works he has ever read.

The purchase of stock for the breeding of exhi-
bition fowls is another matter altogether, and those
POULTRY FARM MANAGEMENT 53

who intend to combine the breeding of such stock
with marketable production will need a very special
knowledge. Here, again, it is better to specialize
than to attempt the breeding of several breeds or
varieties. It is better and more profitable to excel
as the breeder of one than to be a mediocre pro-
ducer of many.

It is advisable to make the initial purchases from
a breeder of known experience, who has devoted
his energies to the perfecting of a strain of the
desired breed. Having found such a man, it is
foolish to try to appear to possess equal knowledge;
not being deceived, the seller is tempted to leave
the selection and subsequent responsibility with,
him who poses as the expert. It is far wiser to
acknowledge some limitations of knowledge, to
plainly say what is wanted, ask for advice in selec-
tion for mating, and generally to rely upon the
honour of the seller, as the breeder must know
more about the fowls than the buyer.

DISPOSAL OF PRODUCE

The business part of poultry farming consists in
the keeping down of the cost of production, and the
disposal of the produce to the best advantage ; some
of the main factors dominating cost have been
broadly dealt with, and it remains to consider the
important question of marketing.

There is something very attractive about the idea
of selling direct to the consumer, yet the majority
of those who have tried it have found it to be un-
54 SUCCESSFUL POULTRY PRODUCTION

workable for the individual—and most collective
attempts have so far been abortive. Although the
producer secures the whole profit by passing over
the middleman, he also, on the other hand, con-
siderably increases the cost of marketing—a dozen
eggs to one, a couple of fowls to another, a goose
here, and a duck there, implies increased labour and
time in preparation and packing, many journeys to
rail or post, multiplication of the various kinds of
packages, and a much bigger total for postage and
railway charges. Even then, allowing that the
extra margin of profit is more than equal to the
increased cost of marketing in this way, it is not
possible for the individual to meet the continual
and all-the-year-round demands, of a sufficient
number of consumers, for the various descriptions
of poultry and eggs. There would be a surplus at
some seasons, and a shortage at others—which
would disgust both the producer and the consumer.

The same difficulty is found to militate against
the disposal of such produce direct to the shop-
keeper; the uncertainty and inequality of the
supply of one producer soon extinguishes the in-
terest of the tradesman. In some localities it is
worth while to cater for a few local consumers, who
are willing to pay a good price, but generally. only
as an addition to the usual mode of marketing by
direct consignment to a market salesman.

It comes to this, therefore, that, apart from
exceptional circumstances, the best existing method
of disposing of the fowls and eggs for eating is to
employ a salesman. This has been the writer’s
POULTRY FARM MANAGEMENT 55

experience, and he has also found that it is the
method employed in a general way by the largest
and most successful commercial producers. In
some districts there are various marketing organiza-
tions for the benefit of producers, more or less in
an experimental stage, which may be taken ad-
vantage of. But, broadly speaking, the markets
present the most practical existing outlets, and
must be accepted with whatever advantage or dis-
advantage they offer. One immediate advantage
of selling through a market salesman is that such
Sales are ready-money transactions, at any rate as
between salesman and seller; whereas private cus-
tomers and shopkeepers generally expect, and take,
very considerable credit. It is the quick turnover
and ready money that is, as a rule, essential to the
success in a poultry farming undertaking.

Pure Stock anp Ecas

In addition to the sale of eggs and fowls for
eating, the poultry farmer who keeps a pure breed,
as previously suggested, can find a certain amount.
of spring demand for settings of eggs, and an
autumn sale for pullets and cockerels. Naturally,
such outlets are limited, but as they exist they must
be taken advantage of—and the demand and value
will increase with a growing reputation. The most
obvious and satisfactory method of finding custom-
ers for stock fowls and settings is to advertise, and
a great real depends upon the character of the
56 SUCCESSFUL POULTRY PRODUCTION

advertising medium—it must circulate among the
class most likely to be attracted by the description
of fowls and eggs for disposal.

As regards the prices asked for pure stock and
eggs, the producer must act as a business man,
and not a philanthropist on the one hand, or a
swindler on the other; he must be just both to
himself and the buyer. Buyers make as great a
mistake in purchasing cheap stock fowls and set-
tings of eggs, as they do in paying exorbitant
prices; and sellers who ask too much, kill the goose
that lays the golden eggs, but by asking too little
they underrate the value of their skill and time
as breeders of good stock. A fair price is remuner-
ative interest on past expenditure, and a good in-
vestment for future returns.

The value of stock birds and settings of eggs
is considerably enhanced if some of the breeder’s
stock is so fortunate as to win some prizes at the
shows; or, in the case of laying varieties, in the
laying competitions of the Utility Poultry Club.
There is no need for the commercial poultry farmer
to become a rabid fancier, or to follow the shows
all over the country (like a backer of horses)—he
must do neither; he should rather strive to secure a
good position in the show pens of his county agri-
cultural society, the Dairy Show, and a few of the
more important events that provide good classifica-
tion for utility breeds and table fowls. In sending
fowls to compete at a show, it is often very useful
to include a few good average specimens in the sell-
ing classes, which ofter the double chance of a
POULTRY FARM MANAGEMENT 57

purchaser and a cash prize—but they should never
be catalogued at an unreasonable figure.

SELLING To HIGGLERS

So far, we have considered the question of the
profitable disposal of the finished product, rather
than what may be termed the raw material—in the
form of lean chickens—for another’s finishing. Of
course, in some districts there is no adequate outlet
for lean chickens, in which case they would most
profitably be fattened at home and marketed as in-
dicated ; but where there is a system of higgling in
operation, near enough to a centre of fatteners to
make the prices remunerative, many producers con-
fine themselves to the one branch of rearing. Over
large districts in Ireland and Wales, and in some
English counties, there are collectors who buy the
birds for transmission to the Sussex fatteners, and
the rearers apparently find that it pays them better
to supply this demand—even from such distances
—than to attempt their own marketing; but, con-
sidering the intermediate commissions, and:rail and
boat charges, the margin of profit is exceedingly
narrow for the actual producer, and no one would
advise the undertaking of such production on a
large scale, or as a main object of poultry farming.

In fattening districts—such as exist in the south-
east—the case is different, and many small holders
make the raising of chickens to higgler’s size a
main department of their farming. For the skilled
chicken-grower, in such a neighbourhood, the prices
5g SUCCESSFUL POULTRY PRODUCTION

are sufficiently good to make the business worth
while; these range from 1s. 9d. to 3s. 6d. each for
birds ranging frora twelve to sixteen weeks old, ac-
cording to the seasons.

It is perhaps necessary to add that in such
districts the native generally has the advantage
over the new-comer, in that he has grown up in
the business, which he understands as thoroughly
as he does the methods of the higgler—and it is
very necessary to know the latter. Higglers are
fair-dealing enough, as the phrase is generally
understood, but they are sufficiently human to exact
a little more size in the chickens of the novice, and
to drop or raise the price a fortnight or so in the
front or rear of the current rates if opportunity
offers, and it is in just these little details that
profit is made or lost, and in the strictly business
attention to which the. good management of the
poultry farm is manifested.
CHAPTER IV

FARMERS’ AND COTTAGERS’ FOWLS
CHAPTER IV
FARMERS’ AND COTTAGERS’ FOWLS

WHEN we turn to the consideration of farmers’
and cottagers’ fowls, and leave the more debatable
ground of so-called ‘‘poultry farming,’’ we find
ourselves in accord with all the recognized authori-
ties in the assertion that these classes of poultry
keepers—and more particularly the former—are in
a position to make poultry pay, and pay well
After all that has been, and can be said about
poultry farming, after all that has been done in
actual practice (whether of success or failure),
there is no getting away from the fact that the bulk
of the home-grown poultry and eggs marketed in
this, and probably in any other country, taken as a
whole, is the produce of farmers and cottagers. In
comparison with the volume of their output, that
of all the poultry farmers combined is very in-
significant.

It is not that individual farmers and cottagers
turn out any very large number, but that, like the
“little drops of water and little grains of sand,’’
they aggregate. That the accumulation might very
well be much greater, with an all-round benefit, is
true enough, and has been already emphasized, but.
even at the present rate the output shows a con-

61
62 SUCCESSFUL POULTRY PRODUCTION

siderable increase upon that of a few years ago;
an increase not only in quantity, but also in quality.

There are many reasons why such producers are
so well placed to make poultry profitable, and they
are so familiar to the average reader as to need no
more than a brief recapitulation. As regards rent,
both the poultry farmer (as we have defined him),
and the farmer who keeps fowls, make other stock
pay that—the latter, of course, with a much bigger
surplus than the former. The farmer also has a
very much larger proportionate range for his fowls,
and consequently more natural field food (includ-
ing stubbles), and is in a position to entirely feed
his fowls with grain and roots grown upon the
farm. Moreover, the keeping of fowls on the farm
does not involve anything like the same amount of
labour as is necessary in poultry farming; such as
there is is incidental, rather than the chief occupa-
tion—-which is not to say that there must be no
adequate attention, and no system in feeding.

The cottagers’ fowls are also rent free, roaming
the roads and commons, and their food is mainly
such as they find on the highway, supplemented by
garden and other refuse. These constitute the main
advantages of these two great classes of chicken
and egg producers—in both cases the cost of pro-
duction is minimized.

Hovusine

Although the keeping of large numbers of fowls
in and around the farmyard is to be condemned
FARMERS’ AND COTTAGERS’ FOWLS 63

upon many grounds, the breeding pens should not
be too far removed from the homestead; and if
these, in common with the whole of the feathered
stock, be entirely excluded from foraging in stack-
yards and stables, a great deal of good, and other-
wise waste food, is absolutely lost or left for the
encouragement of vermin. There is a medium in
all things; to allow all the stock to centre round the
buildings is to encourage disease and loss in various
ways, but to exclude all is to cause waste and add
to the cost of production—but it does not appear
that there is any immediate danger of the disap-
pearance of the domestic fowl from the average
farmyard.

Such birds as are kept near the buildings should
not, however, be left to choose any or all of them
for roosting and nesting places. They need their
own quarters, and must be kept to them for these
purposes, and they will readily do so, provided they
are clean, light, comfortable, and generally whole-
some. For the rest, the colony system of housing—
which has been so largely adopted during recent
yéears—is the most suitable on the farm, as taking
to the full the natural advantages offered under the
circumstances. The farmers’ poultry keeping may
consist of hens kept for egg production, or chickens
reared for the direct marketing or sale to higglers;
in either case, the colony system is the best for him,
the chief difference consisting in the type of house
suited to each purpose, and the character and ex-
tent of the hand-feeding.

For the accommodation of laying hens, most
64 SUCCESSFUL POULTRY PRODUCTION

successfully run in colonies of about twenty each
and without male birds (infertile eggs being best
for eating, retaining their freshness longer), there
are many houses advertised by the best makers at
reasonable prices—better, and generally cheaper,
than they can be made by amateurs; such should
combine roost, shelter, and next-boxes, strongly
made, but not too heavy to be easily moved on
broad wheels of not too small diameter. For
colonies of growing chickens, after they leave their
coops or foster-mothers, nothing is better than the
Sussex ark, or hutch, constructed with a barred
floor (which saves much cleaning, and evenly
manures the ground), and provided with handles
at either end to facilitate easy removal.

The cottager has less choice in the matter of
housing, but his stock is so much smaller that his
few hens are easily accommodated in the garden,
whilst his coops and hutches generally find standing
room upon the broad strips of grass to be seen in
the majority of country lanes.

CHOICE OF BREED

Perhaps the chief factor which has in the past.
prevented farmers and cottagers from obtaining
the maximum profit from their poultry keeping has
been the unfortunate fact that they have been con-
tent to keep mongrels rather than pure breeds, and
to ignore those vital principles of breeding which
they generally apply in the mating of larger farm
stock. Something has already been said of the ad-
FARMERS’ AND COTTAGERS’ FOWLS 65

vantages of keeping one breed, and of maintaining
its purity and approximation to standard type by
careful mating; and what applies to others applies
equally in such particulars to the classes under con-
sideration. Whatever the object, there are existing
breeds to supply the material, in every way better
than can be done by the use of the now rapidly dis-
appearing mongrel—because it really is disappear-
ing, even if its exit be slow.

The farmer and cottager, living as they do in
the country, have a wide choice of breeds for their
purpose, being much better placed in this respect
than the town-dwelling poultry keeper, whose sur-
roundings impose many limitations. For the pro-
duction of table chickens different districts have, of
course, their various likes and dislikes; the most
commonly used breeds being Dorkings, which are,
however, in some situations delicate to rear; Indian
Game, more suited to those who kill straight from
the run—they do not fatten well in coops—Fave-
rolles, a French breed, which has become popular,
and has largely replaced the Houdan; Orpingtons
and Rocks (really general purpose fowls) are bred
for table in many places; but for general excellence
for this purpose, and as suited to most situations, it
would be difficult to find a better breed than the
Sussex.

It has already been pointed out that for laying,
strain is of far greater importance than breed al-
though the strain would most naturally be evolved
from one of the so-called laying breeds, viz., such
breeds as are built that way, which are birds of a
66 SUCCESSFUL POULTRY PRODUCTION

lighter make than those most suitable for table.
Some of the all-round breeds, such as the Wyan-
dottes, have produced some wonderful laying
strains, but speaking generally, there should be no
need to look further than such breeds as Leghorns
and Minorecas to find the best fowls for egg pro-
duction.

MAINTAINING THE STRAIN

It is a mistake for poultry and egg producers,
who live on farms and in country cottages, to think
that if they have once secured a likely breed for
their purpose all further responsibility may be left
to the fowls—and that some of the blame for bad
results may thereafter be apportioned between the
weather, and that elusory influence expressed in the
convenient Low German word ‘‘luck.’’ These
classes of poultry keepers, when they give the
subject a thought, are too apt to treat it with a
certain amount of contempt, as concerning the
fancier (whom they despise as a weak creature),
rather than those whose purpose is more com-
mercial. The gradual disappearance of the mongrel
marks a great advance upon old-time methods, and
those who have arrived at the point of stocking a
pure breed will no doubt make further progress—
by easy stages. Hitherto, no doubt, the maintenance
of a strain has been very generally ignored by all
but breeders of exhibition fowls, and has by them
(in most cases) only been considered in relation to
feathers—their colours and their patterns; but the
FARMERS’ AND COTTAGERS’ FOWLS 67

same broad rules apply as well to internals as to
externals, and those who desire material qualities
more than the purely esthetic, cannot escape from
the necessity of applying such natural laws as are
understandable.

The more advanced among egg producers have
recently shown their appreciation of these facts,
with perhaps an excess of zeal; but they also apply
to the breeding of chickens for table, and that
is also beginning to be realized. If the farmers
and the cottagers want to keep abreast of things
they must learn the lessons so constantly set before
them. In some directions fanciers have become
laughable, because they so frequently caricature
great natural truths in their feathered productions;
but the truths are there, and otherwise had prob-
ably been overlooked by the utilitarian. The secret
of the fancier’s success lies primarily in his study
of the laws of breeding, and his consequent skill in
mating—points insufficiently appreciated by farm-
ers and cottagers in their mating for fowls and
eggs.

MarKETING DIFFICULTIES

The material difference between the marketing
opportunities of the poultry farmer, and the farm
and cottage producers, lies in the fact that the
former selects the most suitable district for his
purpose, whereas the others are in all sorts of
situations—more or less accessible—up and down
the country. The neighbourhood of these last is
68 SUCCESSFUL POULTRY PRODUCTION

primarily selected for reasons other than poultry
and egg production, and all the conditions of such
an incidental must be governed by the individual
circumstances. It is in providing opportunities,
which would not otherwise exist, for such as these
(whose production is too insignificant and uncer-
tain for direct marketing), that co-operative so-
cieties, and such a system as that of the National
Poultry Organization Society, are endeavouring to
be of use to small producers.

The demand for the produce is undeniable, and
the ability to largely increase home production is
equally undoubted, but the great difficulty lies in
the marketing. Particular cases are so entirely
influenced by circumstances, as the following ex-
treme instances will show. The writer knows
cottagers who can always obtain at least one penny
each for eggs in summer, raising to half a crown
(and even three shillings) per dozen in winter—
making a better average than probably any society
or organization would be prepared to guarantee.
On the other hand, he knows of farmers in out-of-
the-way districts, in Wales, who throw new-laid
eggs to their pigs, because they cannot get them to
any market where the price would cover the cost
of carriage and production.

It is a common argument that foreign competi-
tion cannot injure the English egg producer, on
account of the greater distance that foreign eggs
have to travel—which is a very comfortable theory.
Meanwhile one notes that although ‘‘Calais’’ eggs
can be had on sale in our grocers’ shops when
FARMERS’ AND COTTAGERS’ FOWLS 69

they are no more than three days old (viz., ‘‘new-
laid’’), it does not appear hopeful that any ade-
quate system will be able to deal with our own
eggs, to any considerable extent, in that period, for
many years to come—and by the time we have a
really national system, in full and complete work-
ing order, one wonders what will be the condition of
the trade. The fact of the matter is, that things
have gone far enough already to permanently
establish some brands of foreign eggs in our mar-
kets, and, one doubts whether their position could
be materially shaken even if producers and col-
lectors really ‘‘got a hustle on’’ in the matter of
marketing. The best imported eggs are so well
graded and packed, and the guarantee of age is
found to be so reliable, that on these points they
have already established a very enviable reputation.

Although all this may not sound very cheerful,
. the fact remains that (even if the foreign eggs may
not be displaced) dependable new-laid English eggs
will never lack buyers, provided there are inex-
pensive and rapid facilities for carrying the
produce. The same applies to the production of
really first-class table poultry, which is at present
untouched by foreign competition, except in so far
as the quantity of second-quality fowls sent into
this country tends perceptibly to lower the value
of all—including the best.

EQuaLizING THE SUPPLY

It would be unfair to blame the grocer for the
poor price, because he really does not want them—
70 SUCCESSFUL POULTRY PRODUCTION

but why will farmers and cottagers continue to
literally throw their eggs at him when they are
plentiful? The system of unloading the egg basket
upon the man who supplies the producer with tea
and sugar is not a sound one—although it does
reduce the bill for groceries. In the summer the
farmer says the grocer must take them because he
let him have the more-to-be-desired winter eggs;
and in winter the grocer expects to monopolize the
output in return for ‘‘obliging’’ in the matter of
the summer surplus—but very seldom does the
average reach a fair market value. If it is not
the grocer, it is the collector (the tale is one), it is
the middleman who buys up, and preserves the
surplus for the season of scarcity and more re-
munerative prices.

When eggs are most plentiful the farmer and
cottager are, as a rule, best able to do without
their value, and when they are scarce and dear the
money is generally more acceptable—facts which
are disregarded by the producer, and taken advan-
tage of by middlemen. Water-glass, as a preser-
vative, is well worth its cost, and a few shillings
spent upon suitable receptacles for storage are not
thrown away. Is it too much trouble? Another
question one would like to ask these producers, and
that is: Why do they always produce so many
eggs in summer and so few in winter? But that
is a matter for a subsequent chapter.

In many districts (most, in fact) it is the same
with chicken-raising. People would be surprised
to see hundreds of newly-hatched chicks in
FARMERS’ AND COTTAGERS’ FOWLS "1

December or January; and yet those who under-
stand the business are seldom free from hatching
operations. The great majority of the chickens
raised in this country are reared when rearing
presents least trouble, with the result that they
are most of them marketed within the same few
months—months when the demand is entirely dis-
proportionate to the supply, and prices are in conse-
quence at their lowest. Farmers and cottagers must
equalize their production, both of poultry and
eggs, in order to secure a remunerative average
price for the year’s output.
CHAPTER V

BACKYARD POULTRY KEEPING
CHAPTER V
BACKYARD POULTRY KEEPING

Backyarp poultry keeping is individually a very
small affair, but collectively the produce of back-
yard pens is enormous, and of considerable eco-
nomic importance. It would obviously be difficult
to estimate the volume of the production, but the
vastness of the figures may be guessed at by any
close observer of suburban districts and the work-
ing-class neighbourhoods around great manufactur-
ing and mining centres. Those who keep fowls in
yards or gardens are in the best possible position to
make their undertaking profitable; such poultry
keeping is generally regarded primarily in the light
of a hobby, but, unlike many other hobbies, it may
be made to pay well. In situations where pigs are
impossible, fowls are possible, and if all the house-
hold scraps and garden refuse be systematically set
aside for their feeding, the sum necessarily spent
with the corn-chandler should be very small in pro-
portion to the egg-yield. The hen turns the other-
wise waste material into the concentrated nourish-
ment of eggs. Such poultry keepers are therefore
—to the extent of their good management, in this
matter—practically getting something for nothing,
which is the real, if unacknowledged desire of most.
715
"6 SUCCESSFUL POULTRY PRODUCTION

It is almost unnecessary to say that the back-
yard poultry keeper is generally confined to the
production of eggs; the limitations of space prevent
him, in most circumstances, from becoming a
breeder—even of his own renewal stock. He is
therefore dependent upon the reliability of an-
other’s breeding skill, from whose production he
must select his stock of hens—cock birds are un-
necessary for his purpose in most cases. In very
many circumstances the keeping of a rooster would
be regarded as a nuisance, and a general cause of
strife among neighbours.

RENEWING THE STOCK

When breeding is entirely out of the question,
and the fowls must always be confined to the same
small house and run, the pullets for renewing the
stock must of necessity be bought—a proportion
each year. The method of renewal advocated by
the late Mr. Lewis Wright is particularly applic-
able in the case of small poultry keepers who are
compelled to buy their renewal stock. He says:
‘*Regarded as laying stock, one-third should consist
of pullets hatched in March, another third of hens
hatched the March previous, and the remainder of
birds a year older still, which will be killed at
moulting time.’’ No method could be more suited
to the circumstances of the small poultry keeper.
Suppose him to possess six fowls, in couples of the
ages suggested, his renewal will be simply a matter
of the annual purchase of two pullets hatched in
March of the same year. The two oldest hens
BACKYARD POULTRY KEEPING wy

would be killed in the autumn, and used in the
house; in such case it is more economical to eat
than to sell them, and (by the way) if they are
steamed instead of the usual boiling, they will
become as tender as chickens.

It will be perceived that age is the keynote of
this system, its most profitable working depending
upon the date of hatching the renewal stock, and
the killing off at the correct time of the oldest
birds. The hatching date may vary considerably
for various other objects in rearing, but for the
class of poultry keepers under consideration there
should be, speaking generally, no great deviation
from the rule that the renewal pullets should have
been hatched in March. They will then be profit-
able as pullets as well as hens. Regarded from
the sole point of view of profitable egg producers,
the hens must be killed when they have produced
their profit, and before they commence to reduce
it. That period is attained at the age of two and a
half years, when they go out of profit at the com-
mencement of the moult.

SvuITABLE BREEDS

Whilst the backyard producer is well placed to
make his limited production a profitable one, he is
also considerably restricted in his choice of breed.
His space being extremely limited, his fowls must
be such as have been found to maintain health and
productiveness in the severest forms of confinement ;
and as the production of eggs alone is practicable
(there being no room for healthy rearing), the
"8 SUCCESSFUL POULTRY PRODUCTION

hens, to attain the maximum of profitableness, must,
ipso facto, belong to a non-sitting variety. Colour
will doubtless be taken into account in relation to
the general surroundings; the man who keeps a
few fowls, for laying, in the neighbourhood of
much smoke, would naturally see the advantage of
a black over a white plumage.

Among the non-sitting breeds, which bear con-
finement well, any of the following would be more
or less suitable for the purpose: Anconas are good
layers of medium-sized, white-shelled eggs, and are
hardy on a fairly dry soil; they are small sized,
close, compact birds, and their plumage in general
is a beetle-green, with a white mottling. Andalu-
sians are blue-plumaged birds, rather larger than
Anconas, and laying rather larger eggs. Campines
(silver and gold) are very active and hardy, and
lay white-shelled eggs of medium size. Hamburghs,
although non-sitters and remarkably good layers,
should not be attempted in a very small run.
Leghorns (about ten varieties, of which the white
or black are most suitable) are first-clas layers of
large, white-shelled eggs. Minorcas (black or white)
are probably the most suitable, as they are the
most popular, for the purpose; they are layers of
large, white-shelled eggs in abundance. The old
Black Spanish would also meet the case, provided
birds from an undegenerate strain are procurable.

ACCOMMODATION

The real financial safeguard of backyard poultry
keepers is that very limitation of space, which
BACKYARD POULTRY KEEPING "9

probably nine out of ten enthusiasts deplore.
Bricks and mortar, and the duty to one’s neighbors,
compel the restriction of the number of hens to
some half-dozen or so. The poultry-yard must be
self-contained—the surrounding amateur garden-
ers, by insisting upon that, are instrumental in sav-
ing the amateur poultry keeper from himself. It is
the success of a few hens in the garden run that
has furnished the unwisely ambitious with an
unsound argument; such success being impossible
of increase, in the same proportion in which the
hens may be multiplied—as many have found to
their cost. Let the back-yarder be content with
small things, secure in the knowledge that no
larger producer can make such a proportionately
good profit.

The accommodation being therefore a matter of
yards and feet, the house and run will not need
to be very elaborate, so that a few shillings will
furnish all that is necessary in the way of ‘‘plant.’’
Where there is a good garden wall, the lean-to
type of house is generally the one adopted, as
saving labor, space, and material. In some
situations, where there is more space, and a better
style and appearance is desirable, it is advisable to
buy a movable roost and scratching shed combined.
Many of the appliance makers turn these out in
small sizes, specially to meet the requirements of
small, suburban poultry keepers, and they cannot
be made as sheaply, or as substantially and
attractive looking, at home. In any case, the house
should not be built too low, or it will be unhealthy
80 SUCCESSFUL POULTRY PRODUCTION

and difficulty to clean ; it should be possible for the
attendant to easily clean the whole of the interior,
and he cannot do this properly unless he can get
right inside. A suitable house and scratching shed
(lean-to type), for use in a garden, should measure
about twelve feet long, five feet wide, and at least
four feet high at the lowest part (viz., at the
eaves). The portion used as a scratching shed
would, of course, be wire-netted in front, and the
roosting compartment should be provided with a
good-sized window. It is a mistake to suppose that
fowls like to be shut up in a dark place; on the
other hand, dirt, disease, and vermin dislike the
light and flourish in the dark.

The number of fowls a given house will accommo-
date in health and comfort and productiveness
depends entirely upon the cubical contents of the
erection; each fowl should be allowed ten cubic
feet of air space.

MANAGEMENT IN CONFINEMENT

The aspect of the garden or yard poultry-house
and run cannot always be chosen in relation to the
position of the sun. It should, if possible, face
south or south-west; but being once built, in the
best position available, the fowls are to some
extent at the mercy of the weather, except in so
far as adequate provision is made for their protec-
tion from wind and rain. As regards the house
itself, the best way to overcome the difficulty of
the open-fronted, wire-netted portion, used as a
BACKYARD POULTRY KEEPING 81

scratching shed, is to make light-framed, canvas-
covered shutters in sections; as many of these
being closed, and in such positions, as the
exigencies of the weather suggest. Glazed shutters
may be used in some circumstances, but, provided
the lower portion of the front he boarded (about
eighteen inches to two feet), and the eaves given a
sufficient projection to throw off the bulk of the
rain, canvas will answer the purpose.

Keeping suitable fowls in confinement is a
system offering many advantages, but the chief
difficulty lies in the run beyond the building
proper. In the building, the floor being made of a
suitable material (and bedded with peat moss if
necessary), may easily be kept sweet and clean with
very little labor, provided the cleaning be regular
and systematic; in the outer run, however, the
prevention of fouling is not so simple under
average conditions. It is almost impossible to
keep any garden or yard run in decent order,
unless it be covered over its entire length; of
course, if there is enough room, two runs may be
used alternately, but the backyard poultry keeper
seldom his this opportunity. For covering in a
run, weather-boarding may be used, and, if regu-
larly tarred, it will answer the purpose, and last
well enough. For roost and scratching shed, how-
ever, weather-boards are not sufficiently draught-
proof, and nothing less than tongued and prooved
matching, covered with a good quality felt, will
prove satisfactory in the long run.

Supposing, therefore, that alternate grass runs
82 SUCCESSFUL POULTRY PRODUCTION

are out of the question, and premising that the one
permanent run be entirely covered in, the bottom
has to be considered, and for this purpose a fair
depth of good gravel is best. If gravel be beaten
and rolled until it makes a flat, solid floor, regular
sweeping will keep it sweet for a year or more; it
must then be renewed, and that which is taken out
may be heaped in the open and weather-cleaned for
future use.

Although fowls kept in such a state of strict
and constant confinement are debarred the oppor-
tunities which country-kept fowls enjoy, chiefly
that of foraging for necessary natural food, yet
their owner has practically all that is necessary
for their well-being, in the waste from his own
kitchen and table—but he must use judgment in
feeding it to his birds. In the first place, a sauce-
pan should be set apart for the preparation of the
fowls’ food exclusively, and into it all bones and
meat scraps should be put (as a matter of kitchen
routine), and boiled in sufficient liquor. This
broth should be used for mixing with the meal for
the soft food, and will provide those constituents
which fowls at liberty procure in others ways.
Potato parings must be boiled separately, because
the water in which they are boiled is not good for
fowls; and other root vegetables and the outer
leaves of cabbages and lettuces (or at least some
portion of them) should be given the fowls un-
cooked. Too much green food should not be given
at one time, and all that remains unconsumed at
the end of the day must be removed from the run.
BACKYARD POULTRY KEEPING 83

On no account must stale vegetable matter be left
within reach of the birds.

Fresh water and grit (small flint preferable), of
which fowls at liberty can generally find sufficient,
must also be always before them. The necessary
material for egg-shell formation may be provided
in the form of broken-up old mortar, or other
available calcareous matter; but it is necessary to
remember that the fowls, being confined, cannot
help themselves, and are unable to produce egg-
shells without the material.
CHAPTER VI

BREEDING EXHIBITION POULTRY
CHAPTER VI
BREEDING EXHIBITION POULTRY

Pouttry farmers, farmers, cottagers, and back-
yard poultry keepers have all been referred to
before the breeders of exhibition stock, because we
are dealing rather with the useful than the orna-
mental; but inasmuch as there is a profitable side
to the question, the breeding of exhibition stock is
a branch of poultry culture which demands some
consideration. Of course, as was pointed out in
Chapter III., the poultry farmer—or, indeed, the
farmer or cottager—may, by breeding a pure breed
for his chicken and egg production, supplement his
profits by the sale of a limited number of settings
of eggs and stock birds, at sufficiently enhanced
values to remunerate him for a more particular
selection than would be requisite for his immediate
utility purposes.

In that chapter we were dealing with those
whose prime object is the production of food, but
who are wise enough to take what extra profit they
can secure for fine feathers. In this chapter we
are approaching the matter from the other side,
from the point of view of those whose first aim is
to produce prize-winners, and whose connection
with utility is subordinated to the claims of what

87
88 SUCCESSFUL POULTRY PRODUCTION

27

is called ‘‘the fancy.’’ It is a standpoint which
makes no special appeal to the writer, in so far as
it tends to destroy useful qualities for the gratifi-
cation of an esthetic taste—or worse ; for one doubts
whether the most perverted art can see any beauty
in some of the exhibited abnormities. Yet, what-
ever the object (and the objections), there are many
who find it profitable, although the sensational
sums, running into hundreds of pounds, are not
everyday prices.

UTILITy AND BEAUTY

If the object of the poultry fancy were restricted
to the preservation of the beautiful there would not
be much cause for cavilling—some of the most
useful breeds combining with their utility the most
graceful symmetry of form, as well as richly
colored and delicately marked plumage. In many
cases, however, there is an unfortunate want of
balance, and certain more or less desirable points
become accentuated at all costs—-and they will
be, so long as prizes are awarded to the particular
and peculiar superficial characteristics. This is, of
course, quite legitimate for those whose fancy takes
such a direction, but the writer can only repeat
that he has not sufficient sympathy with it to
advocate it.

Happily, however, there are several useful breeds
which are also bred for exhibition, and fortunately,
also, the general tendency is for the profit of such
breeding to be more consistently steady than sensa-
BREEDING EXHIBITION POULTRY 89

tional, where the breed has some economic value.
This point is noteworthy in the breeds of modern
manufacture, nearly all of which have some very
useful quality; their makers have been quick to
see that, in order to make any sort of lasting
success, their novel introductions must appeal to
as wide a circle of poultry keepers as possible.

The Orpingtons furnish an excellent example.
They hold a high place as ‘‘general purpose’’ fowls,
they are extremely good layers of rich, brown-
colored eggs (producing a good winter average
under suitable treatment), and in some districts
are highly valued for table purposes. They are
hardy, are good foragers on a wide range, or may
be kept profitably in confinement. In their many
varieties they appeal by their outward beauty to
various fancies, and their wonderful and sustained
popularity as exhibition fowls is manifested in the
well-filled classes at the shows. Although there
is a tendency to elevate color above other consider-
ation, yet size and type are prominent character-
isties of good exhibition specimens of the varieties
of this breed.

Another very popular ‘‘made’’ breed—popular
with both fanciers and utilitarians—is the Wyan-
dotte. In this instance, also, the number of varieties
offers outward attractions for various tastes, while
from a utility standpoint the Wyandottes stand
high in the lists of ‘‘all round’’ breeds. They are
good winter layers of brown-shelled eggs, and
(despite yellow skin and legs) make first-class table
fowls, and will thrive in almost any situation.
90 SUCCESSFUL POULTRY PRODUCTION

It is unnecessary to point to more than these.
two most generally popular breeds, to show that it
is possible to combine utility and beauty; and that
the man who wishes to make poultry keeping pay
by breeding of exhibition stock, may try to do
so without necessarily committing an outrage upon
Nature.

Some Facts

Lest any mistake should be made, it should be
clearly understood by the novice, before he com-
mences operations, that the breeding of exhibition
stock is not a suitable undertaking for him, if he is
looking for an occupation which shall house and
feed and clothe him. The exhibitors who make a
living, out of what is a hobby with the majority,
are very few—they are the exceptions. They are,
moreover, men who are reaping some sort of reward
‘(mostly inadequate) for lengthened toil, unusual
skill, and a business capacity which would probably
have produced better financial results in any other
line.

If the beginner has an assured income from
another source, he may well use such surplus as he
can well afford (but no more) in the cultivation of
this branch of poultry keeping—as a hobby; and
if he has the rare and peculiar instinct of the
breeding fancier, -he may eventually make it pay—
as a hobby. The tyro with a limited capital could
not well make a greater mistake than to venture it
in such an enterprise, with the idea of making it a
BREEDING EXHIBITION POULTRY 91

sufficiently profitable concern to support him. He
would probably be many years before he commenced
to clear the expenses—even if he reached so satis-
factory a position, which many fail to attain.

The initial outlay in suitable stock is consider-
able, and the finding of such birds with which their
owners are content to part, at even a fancy price,
is no easy matter—that is if they be really suitable ;
in which connection it may be mentioned that a
successful exhibition specimen is seldom fit for
breeding purposes—a fact the novice does not
understand. The intricacies of breeding show birds
successfully are much beyond the ordinary skill
and knowledge of even the average poultry keeper,
to say nothing of the beginner, and can only be
thoroughly mastered after years of experience and
many bitter disappointments. Moreover, the ex-
penses of showing are very considerable, and the
competition of more experienced and moneyed ex-
hibitors almost overwhelming; so that by the time a
name has been achieved by means of the successes
in the show pen, the outlay will have been very
considerable—and all this before the possible profits
can be made. It is, however, an undoubted fact
that a limited number do make it pay; and yet a
more limited number make it pay well.

Martine

It is to be supposed that the man who contem-
plates breeding prize stock is already fully ac-
quainted by practical experience, with the ordinary
92 SUCCESSFUL POULTRY PRODUCTION

management of poultry, and that he has learnt
something of the laws of breeding, and the methods
of rearing, as applied to fowls of asort. If he is not
in possession of this comparatively elementary
knowledge, he should acquire it before undertaking
the more advanced work of breeding to standards.
Having arrived at the desired point, he should not
at first attempt the breeding of more than one
variety, and when he has decided upon the breed
and variety best suited to his purpose he should
carefully study all writings and recorded experi-
ences which bear upon the one selected.

It is necessary here to again emphasize the
importance of knowing the pedigree of the birds to
be mated, a subject to which brief reference was
made in Chapter III.; and the past peculiarities of
the strain must be ascertained as far back as its
history extends (in records or memory). Without
this knowledge, the mating will be but a blind
affair, and the chance of producing high-class stock
very remote; even with the most intimate knowl-
edge of the course of breeding of a strain, there
remains an element of chance, which it is the
business of the breeder to continue to reduce (with
increased experience) to a still lower factor.
Disappointments are practically certain to occur,
but unexpected results often prove the most val-
uable object-lessons, and give the breeder just that
clue that he needed for his next season’s mating.
Progress towards a profitable success is therefore
very frequently a lengthy and—to the man whose
enthusiasm is not lasting—tedious affair.
BREEDING EXHIBITION POULTRY 93

There probably never has been a breeder of any
variety who has been in the happy position of
being able to mate two perfect birds of a strain
with which he is thoroughly familiar; there is
inevitably some defect upon one side, and generally
upon both, but a man of any experience will never
mate two fowls possessing the same fault. Such
a blunder would almost certainly accentuate the
defect in the progeny. As, however, birds that
are defective in one way or another must be used,
it is necessary, in making a selection for mating, to
choose those possessing faults which are unusual in
the strain, in preference to such as are observed
to be repeated in several individuals of the same
family—the former are less likely to be hereditary
than the latter. We are thus brought back to the
main point, the necessity for a knowledge of the
pedigree of the strain.

IN-BREEDING

Some reference must now be made to a practice
about which many breeders disagree, and which it
is customary to condemn from prejudice rather than
knowledge—viz., the practice of breeding from
fowls of near kin. In general, the objection to in-
breeding is primarily based upon the erroneous
assumption that it must of necessity result in
degeneracy—more or less rapid, but in any case
certain. In support of this argument it is very
easy to produce stocks of pure-bred fowls which
have been in-bred for some superficial point, to the
94 SUCCESSFUL POULTRY PRODUCTION

neglect and detriment of their practical qualities;
but it is inadmissible to base any argument upon.
the mongrel, which is the result of indiscriminate
breeding—a very different thing from in-breeding.
Must the results of in-breeding be necessarily evil,
and is the argument from the fancier-spoilt breed
conclusive? Is it not more generally true that
where such degeneracy, or loss of utility, takes
place, it is because the breeding stock has been
selected entirely on account of desirable externals,
without any reference to the constitution or other
useful qualities of the individual specimens?

It is undoubtedly true that many utility breeders
accept without question the oft-repeated theory of
the maintenance of stamina by the infusion of
fresh blood, as the only possible means to the end;
and are consequently apt to attribute all signs of
degeneracy, seen elsewhere, to the practice of in-
breeding. It is, however, not always the in-breed-
ing practices of the fancier that are really responsi-
ble for the decay of some pure-bred stocks; it is
rather due to the neglect or sacrifice of all the quali-
ties he does not prize, in favor of the ones he does.
On the other hand, it may well be asked whether
the utilitarian who regularly introduces his vaunted
fresh blood gains or loses in comparison with
another who in-breeds for the maintenance of
those practical qualities already possessed by his
strain. To quote the late Mr. Lewis Wright:
‘*Good or evil results from in-breeding will chiefly
depend upon how it is managed.’’

In dealing with the idea that’ in-breeding is
BREEDING EXHIBITION POULTRY 95

useful, and even necessary, to develop external
points, but is destructive in other respects, it has
been well pointed out by Mr. John H. Robinson
(in Farm Poultry, America) that the contention
involves two absurd assumptions :—

1. That in the progeny of a union of fowls
near akin, the universal law that ‘‘like
produces like’’ is operative in regard to
one class of characteristics, but inoperative
with respect to another.

2. That in the progeny of a union of fowls
not near akin, the law ‘‘like produces like”’
operates as to the qualities in which in
mating of related fowls it is not operative.

In proportion as the birds mated are as near the
perfection of their standard as possible, and are
bred on the same lines, and have most or many of
the same ancestors in common, so there may
reasonably be expected to be a uniformity among
their progeny, similar to that which exists among
themselves. In proportion as unrelated fresh blood
is introduced into a strain, the chances of repro-
ducing the type of the immediate parents are
considerably lessened by the introduction of an
unknown element—viz., the ‘‘latent characters’’
of the ancestors of the unrelated new bird, any of
which may be recovered by the simple fact of
crossing with characters of the original-strain.
CHAPTER VII

PROFITABLE EGG PRODUCTION
CHAPTER VII
PROFITABLE EGG PRODUCTION

Havine devoted some considerable space to gener-
alities, as they concern the various classes of
poultry Keepers, it is now necessary to consider
more particularly the practical details of produc-
tion which more or less concern all. All producers
for profits are either interested in egg production,
chicken raising, or chicken fattening—whether for
the purposes of marketing, or in view of the
domestic economy of home-grown food for their
own tables. Egg production takes the first place,
as being of interest to the greatest number and
concerning all in varying degrees. It is the
least difficult branch for the novice to take up;
and, if marketing be the object, the demand is so
constant and increasing that the opportunities are
considerable—given suitable conditions.

CoNSTITUENTS OF THE Ecce

The food value of the egg is a matter of common
knowledge, and that it contains the elements of
a well-balanced food, in the necessary proportions
for the development, growth, nourishment, and

99
\

100 SUCCESSFUL POULTRY PRODUCTION

heating of the human body, is well known to most.
It is probably not so well known that the cost
of production is only about one-third that of the
average cost, to the consumer, of beef of an equal
dietetic value; so that the man whose fowls pro-
duce eight two-ounce eggs will have a pound of
nourishing food, at a prime cost of fourpence
(and they should cost no more), which will be die-
tetically equal to the pound of best steak for which
his butcher will charge him one shilling.

With regard to the chemical constituents of an
egg, it will be sufficient (without giving the weights
to a grain) to say that they consist, in the correct
proportions, of six parts white, three parts yolk,
and one part shell—by weight. A considerable
portion of the white consists of water, with a little
over 15 per cent. of dry albumen, and a little more
than 4 per cent. of salts. The yolk is a strong
solution of albumen, with oil in suspension, but
about half the total quantity is water; in fact,
there would be about two-thirds of a pint of water
in a pound of eggs. The shell consists of calcareous
matter.

FEEDING FoR Eacs

It may almost be said that the egg is, as it were,
a by-product, at any rate from the point of view
of the hen. There is, of course, the consideration
of perpetuation by reproduction, but in a state of
wild nature this is sufficiently effected by the pro-
duction and hatching of a clutch of eggs, at the
most seasonable time of the year. If production
PROFITABLE EGG PRODUCTION 101

is to be extended beyond the natural period (as
is the case in domestication) it is necessary—apart
from the improvement of laying strains by artificial
selection—to make such production possible by the
suitability of the feeding to the constituents of the
desired product. The egg is the finished article;
the food the raw material. The raw material must
be of such a character as is needed for the manu-
facture; and its cost must be sufficiently low to
make the production of the finished article a profit-
able undertaking.

It is, however, necessary to bear in mind the
other processes in course of operation, the organism
of the hen making a first claim upon the food
consumed, for the renewal of constantly wasting
tissues, and the upkeep of bodily heat. It must
further be remembered that in pullets there are
also the further claims consequent upon unfinished
growth and development. All these claims, to-
gether with periodical feather formation, must be
fully satisfied before there will be any available
surplus for the development and production of
eggs. The novice must not hastily conclude, from
these remarks, that the quantity of the food is the
main consideration—it is the quality. As regards
quantity, it would be quite impossible to advise,
the necessary amount being influenced so largely
by the conditions under which the fowls are kept,
and the characteristics of the breed—but suitable
foods will be indicated. As regards the quality,
some reference must be made to proportions in re-
lation to the nutritive or albuminoid ratios.
102 SUCCESSFUL POULTRY PRODUCTION
Tue ALBUMINOID Ratio

No practical producer can afford to disregard
the theory of foods, but although a certain amount
of scientific knowledge is necessary to the correct
arrangement of a suitable food table, yet in practice
the feeding must be, to an extent, subject to
individual local conditions. The constituents of
foods must be broadly known, in order to avoid
feeding any that are unsuitable for the immediate
purpose, and to understand approximately the cor-
rect proportions in which to mix them, the al-
buminoid ratio must be understood. In plain lan-
guage, the nutrient, or albuminoid ratio, is the
proportion of meat and muscle-producing con-
stituents (albuminoids) to the energy and heat-
producing constituents (carbohydrates). For such
stock as we are considering, the ratio should range
from 1 to 4, widening to 1 to 5, as the weather
gets colder.

It may be mentioned that probably no two tables
of the constituents of foods will be found to agree,
on account of the fact that in the samples of grain
and meal analyzed the proportions are seldom ex-
actly the same. The variations are chiefly due to
the state of maturity of the plant producing the
grain, the peculiarities of the soil in which it grew,
and the want of uniformity of seasons. For our
own purpose, however, it is not necessary to repro-
duce long tables of analyses, but simply to give
the approximate albuminoid ratios of the most
useful grains and meals :—
PROFITABLE EGG PRODUCTION 103

   

Albuminoid
ratio.
5
6
6
7
8
4
4
2
Sussex ground oats 43
Oatmeal sicsie's saseihin die @andhe ad ade aes Weelece 1‘ 6
Prepared meat..... ccc ees ece cece ee eneee 1‘* 0

It is further necessary, in fixing the proportions
in which grains and meals are to be fed, to do so in
relation to the feeding value of green food, re-
membering that (where fowls have a good grass
run) the albuminoid ratio of grass in early summer
is about 1 to 4, but that it has widened to 1 to 7
by the end of the summer, and become still wider
later on.

In place of good summer grass, good clover chaff
may be used, the clover being especially suitable on
account of the large proportion of lime it contains.
If this is not easily procurable, cabbage may be
used; but except for fattening fowls (which we are
not now considering), potatoes should only be used
occasionally, and in small quantities—their ratio
being 1 to 10.

FoRMATION OF THE Eac

It is essential to a comprehensive understanding
of such a subject as egg production to have at least
a general knowledge of the formation and develop-
104. SUCCESSFUL POULTRY PRODUCTION

ment of the egg within the egg organs of the hen,
and before she excludes it as the finished product,
the appearance of which is so familiar to all. In
its primitive form the egg is so minute as to render
it impossible to determine how many are contained
within the ovary (which is a glandular body situ-
ated in the abdominal cavity of the hen). We
have it upon the authority of Mr. W. B. Tegetmeier,
that even the ‘‘most careful microscopic examina-
tion’’ has failed to number them. Originating
within the ovary, they are of varying sizes—ac-
cording as they are more or less developed—before
they leave that organ; at that stage they consist
simply of the yolk substance, and what are termed
the germinative vesicle and dot, enclosed in a mem-
branous envelope.

When the individual egg arrives at that maturity
which marks the close of this initial stage of de-
velopment, the thin stem, by which until then it
has been attached to the ovary, becomes parted and
the egg drops into the oviduct. This duct, or
canal, is about twenty inches in length, having a
wide mouth at the end which receives the eggs
from the ovary, the termination at the other ex-
tremity being the external opening—the point of
exclusion of the finished egg.

The stage of progress at which the egg leaves
the ovary for the oviduct is termed ovulation,
between which, and the final stage of laying or
expulsion, the formation proceeds rapidly. During
its progress along the oviduct the egg (which en-
tered it as yolk substance) receives the addition of
PROFITABLE EGG PRODUCTION 105

the ‘‘white,’’ or, in other words, layers of albumen
of different degrees of density are added; these, in
turn, are enclosed within the outer membranes,
around the whole shell is formed, and the perfect
egg is expelled.

Fertiuity In Eaas

Reference has been made to the germinative
vesicle and germinative dot, which, with the yolk
substance, make up the primitive egg; and it should
be further noted that these are present in all eggs
—both fertile and infertile. Eggs having no em-
bryonic life are generally spoken of as being in-
fertile, although, of course, they contain the germ
cell, which is produced in all primitive eggs by the
formative organs of the hen. It is the presence of
the sperm cell that produces the state of fertility,
to secure which a bisexual condition is necessary ;
but the presence of the male is in no way essential
to the production of eggs as such.

As bearing upon the object of the egg production,
the poultry keeper should remember that during its
progress through the oviduct the egg is subjected
to a temperature of about 110 to 112 degrees.
This fact should serve to emphasize the advantage
of a state of infertility in such eggs as are produced
for table purposes, because it is an ascertained fact
that fertile eggs undergo important changes during
their passage along the oviduct, under the influence
of that degree of heat—changes which, in very hot
weather, do not entirely cease after the expulsion
10g SUCCESSFUL POULTRY PRODUCTION

of the egg, and which therefore reduce the period
during which such eggs are edible.

BREEDS AND Eaes

As this chapter deals more particularly with the
production of eggs for table than that of eggs for
hatching, it is only necessary here to consider
breeds in their relation to that object; and it must
be at once stated that as all the year round pro-
duction is essential to success in this matter, at-
tention must be given to other than the so-called
laying breeds, because, although some of these are
excellent in their season, they frequently fail in
winter—the critical period as regards profit.
Speaking broadly, and entirely apart from partic-
ular strains, but considering breeds merely as such,
those that are generally classed under the heading
of ‘‘general purpose’’ fowls are, as a rule, the best
winter egg-layers, and the non-sitting breeds pro-
duce most of their eggs in the summer.

For some purposes it is necessary to keep both
summer and winter layers, in order to obtain the
maximum supply the year round; but when it is a
question of keeping only one breed, the aim should
be, not so much to secure record layers, as fowls
that will produce their eggs at such seasons as to
secure the highest profit on the year’s output.
Probably the most profitable average can be ob-
tained from either Wyandottes, Orpingtons, or
Rocks—provided the strain be a good one.
PROFITABLE EGG PRODUCTION 107
Strain Maxine

-It cannot be too strongly impressed upon the
novice that his flock of layers must contain no
drones, or they will soon eat up the profit of the
workers; that not every bird of the most suitable
breed will act up to the supposed reputation of its
kind. A continual process of artificial selection
and rejection must therefore be rigorously enforced.
The name of the breed is as nothing (commercially)
against the evidence of accurate individual records.
To secure a profitable flock of layers, a strain must
be built up bird by bird, and the average improved
with each succeeding generation—to such a point
as is consistent with the maintenance of a sound
constitutional vigor. It is impossible to define that
point, the individual poultry keeper being the best
judge of the health and condition of his own birds;
but he must avoid the mistakes of such fanciers
as sacrifice everything for the attainment of per-
fection m some one detail.

If, therefore, the hen with the highest egg-
record of the year is found to be deficient in the
qualities essential to the production of a healthy
progeny, her record must be ruthlessly sacrificed
to the firm determination to maintain the strain
through the agency of the physically fit. When
egg production reaches a point at which the strain
is too great for the stamina of the fowl, such
production ceases to be profitable—and attempted
perpetuation must inevitably result in a disastrous
and rapid degeneracy. In fact, there can be no
108 SUCCESSFUL POULTRY PRODUCTION

perpetuation, but rather a decadence, ending in
oblivion.

For the securing of accuracy in selection and
rejection, the use of trap-nests is rendered essential
if any number of fowls be put to the test, and the
writer has known most experienced and observant
poultry-men to be at fault with regard to the laying
powers of some hens, and it is scarcely to be
wondered at where the flock is at all a large one.
On the other hand, of course, the cottage woman
probably knows as much about her half-dozen hens
as any mechanical contrivance could tell her, and
for such small poultry keepers trap-nests would be
superfluous encumbrances.

AGE AND Eas

The question of age affects eggs, their production
and sale, in three ways: the age of the pullet very
largely influences the date of the commencement
of her laying; the age of the hen dominates the
period of the cessation of profitable production;
and the age of the egg determines its marketable
value.

In saying that the age influences the beginning
of production, the statement must be qualified by
the further remark that the correct age must be
attained at a suitable season; or, in other words,
that the hatching of the laying stock must take
place during a certain month or months. As a
general rule, birds hatched in March and April will
commence their laying at a profitable age and
PROFITABLE EGG PRODUCTION 109

season. Later-hatched birds will, as a rule, require
to be fed for a much longer period before they
commence to make any return—unless the variety
is known to be precocious in this matter; and to
hatch earlier than March or April for egg produc-
ing pullets is seldom a wise proceeding. As regards
the age at which profitable production ceases, re-
peated experiments and long experience fix the
limit at two and a half years (the completion of
the third laying season), when all hens that are
regarded as egg producers only should, without ex-
ception, be killed, or sent to the live poultry market.
Relative to the age of the egg, the generally ac-
cepted rule is that no egg should be regarded as
“‘new laid’’ after three days; a rule which the
producer cannot ignore without ultimately dam-
aging his reputation and business.

CoLor AND SizE

In producing eggs for market it is essential to
remember that their color and size have an im-
portant bearing upon marketable value; consumers
prefer the appearance of brown eggs, and will al-
ways choose them, and pay more for them than
they will white, particularly if they are uniform in
size and shape. As in so many other directions,
people are very considerably influenced by appear-
ances. The best size is that represented by a
weight of two ounces, which is the size demanded
by restaurant keepers and the proprietors of tea-
110 SUCCESSFUL POULTRY PRODUCTION

shops—eggs of that size most effectively filling their
egg-cups.

Color is essentially a matter of breed, and so is
size to some extent; but in this latter particular
very considerable improvement may be brought
about by careful selection, and size is therefore a
question of strain, as well as of breed. It happens,
however, that, apart from the selection of strain,
the best-sized eggs are those naturally produced by
the layers of white eggs (Leghorns, Minorcas, An-
dalusians, ete.), but Orpingtons, Plymouth Rocks,
Wyandottes, Langshans, and Sussex, are among
those that lay tinted or brown eggs of a good
medium size, which may be improved in the way
indicated.

i

GRADING Eaes

For trade purposes the producer must grade his
eggs, which is one of the strong points of the
methods of the foreigners whose eggs are so largely
imported into this country; their eggs are, as a
rule, graded to three sizes (first, seconds, and
thirds), and so reliable are they in their grading
that English buyers are content to buy upon the
evidence of the grade number marked on the out-
side of the cases. Home producers who neglect
grading, and indiscriminately market eggs of all
sizes in one case, may depend upon being paid on
the basis of the value of the small ones—the buyers
thus paying themselves for the labor of sorting.

The terms ‘‘firsts,’’ ‘‘seconds,’’ and ‘‘thirds,’’
PROFITABLE EGG PRODUCTION 111

carry another interpretation relative to the quality
of the contents; the grade in this reference being
determined by testing. When an egg is held
before a candle, or other strong light, the chief
indications of quality are the size of the air space
and the consistency of the contents—the size of
the air space increasing, and the contents becoming
more fluid with increasing age.

UsE oF SCRATCHING SHEDS

Before closing this chapter, it is necessary to say
something more about the use of scratching sheds
than has been done in previous casual references.
The aim of the egg producer being to secure as
many eggs as possible at the time of their natural
scarcity, a great measure of his success must depend
upon his ability to overcome and counteract adverse
(though seasonable) climatic conditions, the chief
being cold and wet. Laying hens must therefore
be provided with the opportunity of keeping dry
and warm, yet they must not be so housed and fed
as to render them indolent, because it is only the
busy hen that earns the profit.

The good management of laying hens in the win-
ter months consists in judicious feeding and suit-
able housing, which may best be combined in the
use of scratching sheds. Without reducing the
fowls to strict confinement (unless the exigencies
of the case make this imperative) their range
should be limited, because fowls kept under some
control produce more eggs than those allowed full
112 SUCCESSFUL POULTRY PRODUCTION

liberty—especially in winter; and the system of
control should extend to their restriction to the
scratching shed, upon such days (or portions of
days) as those upon which they could do nothing
but get into a wet and draggled condition if
allowed outside. If they are permitted to run
free under such conditions they will require more
food to keep up the normal bodily temperature,
and the egg-yield must decrease in consequence;
but if reasonably confined as indicated, both food
bill and egg production are saved.

As the floor of the shed must be deeply bedded
with some suitable scratchable material, the soft
food must be trough-fed; but the corn, which
should be sparingly scattered in the litter, will
provide active employment that will replace, for
the time being, the exercise of liberty. No fowl,
unless it be out of health, will remain apathetic
with the possibility of corn for the scratching. A
succession of days of such necessary confinement
would, of course, suggest the extra supply of cab-
bage or roots, in addition to the meal and corn.
Of course, no opportunity should be neglected of
allowing the hens to run out on the grass, when
the conditions are at all favorable.

Scratching sheds should not be regarded as suit-
able places in which to shut up fowls all through
the winter—this would be to abuse the system.
Their use should be directed by common-sense,
which will not lose sight of the fact that to keep
fowls healthy their hardiness must be maintained,
and that to unnecessarily restrict them to their
PROFITABLE EGG PRODUCTION 113

buildings is not only to produce enervation in them,
but also to neglect the advantages accruing from
running them over the ground.
CHAPTER VIII

CHICKEN REARING
CHAPTER VIII
CHICKEN REARING

As the different objects for which eggs are produced
should be considered in the treatment of the stock
birds, so the various purposes of chicken rearing
should be remembered in the feeding and general
management of the growing birds. The methods
of exhibition breeders, and raisers of birds intended
for stock breeding or egg production, would be
unsuitable (and, therefore, unprofitable) in the
case of those whose sole aim is to produce rapid
growth for early marketing. Even the method of
hatching should bear some relation to the ultimate
purpose. For instance, the man who is rearing in
a more or less wholesale manner for a quick mar-
ket turnover, may often find it to his advantage
to use large capacity incubators, and rear his
chickens in fairly large flocks; the profit on the
individual bird would, in this case, be relatively
small, and he must therefore rear extensively—
calculating in advance a fair margin for the per-
centage of chickens he will inevitably lose, as a
consequence of his system of rearing. On the other
hand, the man who wishes to rear valuable exhibi-
tion stock would probably not care, in most cases,
to entrust his precious clutch of eggs to a machine;
117
118 SUCCESSFUL POULTRY PRODUCTION

nor attempt to rear his chickens amid the risks of
such a crowd. In his case the value of each bird
brought to maturity is so much greater, and the
number reared so much smaller, that the attention.
may profitably be more individual—and he has a
greater incentive to avoid the wider margin allowed
for loss by the market producer.

To go further back (to the production of hatch-
able eggs), all rearers should endeavor to start
from the same point—viz., a strong, healthy, vigor-
ous breeding stock, well mated for the purpose. In
this particular all are upon common ground, be-
cause here are the foundations of successful rear-
ing for any purpose. In the selection of eggs for
setting, the same principles apply all round, inas-
much as they should be set as soon after laying as
possible, after having been handled carefully and
not more than is absolutely necessary. In shape the
eggs should be normal, neither too round nor too
pointed ; and in size they should be medium, avoid-
ing unusually large or small specimens. !

The writer’s experience is that, although artificial
methods of hatching are practically unavoidable,
if rearing is extensive or constant, in addition to
hatching under hens, for rearing (for any purpose)
hens are in the long run much more satisfactory
than appliances—although at some seasons the lat-
ter must be used to some extent, if rearing at such
times is a necessity. As far as possible it is bet-
ter to distribute the incubator hatched chicks
among the hens whose naturally hatched broods
have been timed for the same date, and good sitting
CHICKEN REARING 119

hens can generally be depended upon to take sev-
eral more chickens than they themselves hatch.

Rearing in coops is therefore the method advo-
cated, and these should be strongly made, draught-
proof, but well ventilated; and in suitable situa-
tions and seasons may be used upon the grass with-
out the bottom boards—a method which avoids the
labor of scraping out, and upon fresh ground en-
sures clean, sweet, and more natural conditions.
Boards should, in any case, be readily available for
use in emergency, and, of course, they cannot be
dispensed with if rats are troublesome. When they
are in use in wet weather it is most important that
they should be dry before shutting in the birds at
night, and it is the custom of many practical rear-
ers to scrape them in the evening, and dust them
over with fine, air-slaked lime, shutting in the
chickens for the night, before they have time to
run in and out long enough to carry much wet
with them.

If the soil is sufficiently well drained to prevent
the collection of surface water, it is much better to
keep the coops on the grass, but in an unduly wet
situation choice should be made of a graveled run
or path—or even of the side of a firm roadway.
Upon a farm there is frequently a convenient, open-
fronted building, with a firm, dry floor, but any-
thing in the nature of a closed shed or house should
be avoided. To rear healthy, hardy birds, the open-
air system is immeasurably superior to any other,
provided the ground be as firm as possible and the
floors of the coops kept dry—especially at night.
120 SUCCESSFUL POULTRY PRODUCTION

When the chickens are sufficiently feathered to
make further brooding unnecessary (taking into
account the season and state of weather), they
should be moved to entirely fresh ground and sur-
roundings, and housed in hutches; the type in
general use in Sussex is the best for the purpose,
being easily movable, and the open, barred floor
saves much labor in cleaning, and distributing the
manure.

FEEDING

So far, the general principles of rearing are
such as practical common-sense would dictate for
all whose aim is to rear healthy birds for any
profitable purpose, and as delicate birds can serve
no useful purpose, the writer does not intend to
advocate the hothouse methods of such as rear
them. It is in the feeding that is chiefly essential
to differentiate, according as the fowls are destined
for the market, the breeding pen, the laying house,
or exhibition. Broadly speaking, the rearer has to
divide his growing birds into two main classes—
chickens for market and stock birds, although some
slight difference of treatment may be desirable for
the sub-divisions of the latter.

Any one who has regularly read the poultry pa-
pers during recent years cannot be entirely ig-
norant of the fact that there are two methods of
feeding growing stock—viz., with various meals fed
as soft food, and with a mixture of grains com-
monly referred to as ‘‘dry feed.’’ The latter is a
CHICKEN REARING 121

recently boomed method, although it had long been
in use in a more or less modified form in many poul-
try-yards in this country; but in consequence of
its wide advertisement by its various mixers or
blenders, and its ready adaptability to the require-
ments of chickens reared in some modern forms of
appliances, its use has been rather extravagantly
advocated as suitable for all sorts of purposes—
for many of which it is, as a matter of experience,
most unsuited.

Before proceeding to a description of the two
classes of food, and the methods of feeding them,
it should be noted that although a dry food mixture
may be used with advantage in very many circum-
stances, it should be used very sparingly, or not at
all, in the case of those whose chickens are intended
for early marketing—particularly if coop fattening
and machine cramming are to be included (as they
should be) in the final stages of the process. A
practical fattener does not care (and the writer has
known such to refuse) to buy lean chickens for
finishing that have been reared on hard corn.
There are two reasons for this, and they should be
obvious to the rearer of any experience. In the
first place, the tendency of such a system of grain
feeding is to harden and toughen the flesh—the
action of soft feeding being in the opposite direc-
tion; and in the second place, the bulk of the
food fed in dry feeding is insufficient to develop
the crop for the reception of the necessary quan-
tity of fattening food during the final period of
preparation.
122 SUCCESSFUL POULTRY PRODUCTION
Dry FEEDING

The advocates of the dry feeding of chickens
maintain that it is a system that practically ob-
viates the risks of those internal disorders to which
young chicks are especially liable, a statement the
writer can confirm from his own experience; with-
out admitting, however, that there need be any par-
ticular risk, of the kind indicated, in the feeding of
soft food—provided the quality be good and the
mixing properly done. A much stronger argument
in its favor is its adaptability to some modern
methods of rearing, on the floors of appliances or
sheds; but practical commercial rearers do not con-
firm the statements of those who claim that birds
so fed grow faster and are hardier than if given
soft food, except when the dry mixture is used
in a modified form, and its use very limited. In
any case, it is advisable that the feeding of soft
food should at least predominate from the fourth
week, and that dry feeding should not be continued
beyond the second month—except in the case of
birds to be saved for stock, when the dry feed
mixture may be merged into the ordinary feeding
of whole grain as fed to adults. Whole oats, wheat,
or barley are suitable for the older chickens, but.
not until they are about three months old.

The user of dry food will generally find that it
is more satisfactory to buy the separate ingredients,
and mix them himself; and where the use of such.
a mixture is limited to the first few days of
chickenhood, or when chickens must be confined
CHICKEN REARING 123

to a nursery on account of weather, a simple and
sufficient mixture may be made with the follow-
ing :—

3 parts of canary seed.

3 parts of millet.

1 part of hemp seed.
1 part of peas (finely kibbled).

For more extended and complete use the following
is a satisfactory mixture :—

3 parts-of wheat.

2 parts of millet.

2 parts of oatmeal (pinhead).
2 parts of canary seed.

1 part of old maize.

1 part of rice.

1 part of hemp.

1 part of fine flint grit.

1 part of granulated meat.

Some users prefer barley to maize. The barley
or maize, wheat, and rice must be crushed to a
size suited to the age of the chickens. After well
mixing, the whole must have the dust sifted out,
the dust being used with the soft food. In very
cold winter weather the maize may be increased by
one or two parts at discretion, according to circum-
stances.

When dry feeding is resorted to from climatic
considerations, and the chicks are consequently
confined, it must be remembered that they will
need something to take the place of natural grow-
ing green food; for this purpose swedes are very
suitable, and should be cut in thick slices for the
chicks to peck at—this they will soon do with
avidity when they have once learnt the taste.
124 SUCCESSFUL POULTRY PRODUCTION
Sort Frepine

Where it is essential that the birds should put
on flesh rapidly there can be no question about the
method of feeding the growing chicks—they must
have soft food. The largest and most experienced
practical market producers generally confine them-
selves to the use of Sussex ground oats, mixed with
a sufficient quantity of sharps to prevent stickiness,
which it is difficult to avoid in mixing ground oats
alone. They also frequently use wheat as an al-
ternative, by way of change; but it is always
boiled, before feeding, until the grains are soft and
burst; it is then strained (the meals may be mixed
with the liquor) and the grains are dusted with
enough meal to absorb any excess of moisture.

The writer has found nothing to equal the above
for soft feeding, and the chicken-rearers of Sussex
practically confine themselves to the use of the
ingredients mentioned. Those who intend fattening
their chickens, or rear them for another to fatten,
cannot do better than adopt the same method. It
is noteworthy that one reason why the professional
fatteners cannot do so well with Irish or other
imported birds, as they can with those reared by
the home rearers, is that the previous method of
feeding and the character of the food used gen-
erally unsuits them for the sudden transition to the
fattening coop diet of ground oats. Other soft
food mixtures which rearers, whose object is not so
particular, have found satisfactory for ordinary
purposes are: scalded biscuit meal, scalded bran,
CHICKEN REARING 125

barley meal, and buckwheat meal—in equal parts;
or, scalded bran, barley meal, and sharps—in equal
parts; or, again, scalded bran (two parts), oatmeal
(two parts), and sharps (one part). Chickens
reared for laying may have a soft food mixture of:
one part barley meal, two parts sharps, one part
bran, two parts ground oats, with the addition of
a little prepared meat or fresh ground bone, as an
occasional extra.

The age of the chickens and the circumstances
of their surroundings will naturally decide, to a
considerable extent, the number of the daily meals.
A large number of beginners rather incline to
overfeeding, but in most circumstances five times
daily would not be too much for the first fortnight ;
by the time the birds are getting their feathers, if
they have a good run well stocked with natural
food, they should need no more than three meals—
a number of experienced rearers never give their
birds more at any period of their existence, except
in the autumn and winter.

ConTINUITY OF TREATMENT

Whatever the object of the rearing, if the best
results are to be obtained it is necessary that the
particular treatment suited to the case should be
sustained throughout growth and development; and
that there should be a continuity of method steadily
leading up to the state of maturity, whether it be
the quickly attained fattening coop, or the longer
126 SUCCESSFUL POULTRY PRODUCTION

deferred admission to the breeding pen, or inclusion
in the laying flock.

Where many fail is with their older chickens,
which are more or less neglected owing to unneces-
sary fussing with the later hatched broods. It is
true that the older chickens can, to some extent,
look after themselves, but as bare existence is
insufficient they cannot do so profitably; it there-
fore happens that there comes a period when their
advance towards maturity sustains a check, and
birds that are not kept growing and developing
all along the line never fully recover the lost
ground.

Apart altogether from the question of their feed-
ing, there are innumerable details connected with
the treatment of the older birds that are of less
importance in connection with (or do not enter at
all into) the management of the young chickens.
Overcrowding, and its attendant ills is a common
fault; the use or non-use of perches demands more
attention than some imagine; the separation from
the younger chickens, and the further separation of
the sexes of the older, are among the many items
of the special continuity of treatment essential to
.the good management of the older birds.
CHAPTER IX

CHICKEN FATTENING
CHAPTER IX
CHICKEN FATTENING

A PROPERLY fattened chicken is more profitable,
alike to producer and consumer, than an unfattened
one; and the killing of lean chickens is an economic
loss to the community. In support of this state-
ment, it would be easy to show that the consumer,
by paying the advanced price demanded for a
fattened fowl, gets a proportionately greater weight
of edible meat than he does in the other case where
the weight of bone is disproportionate. With re-
gard to the enhanced value to the producer, it is
noteworthy that the fattener makes a relatively
larger profit on food than the rearer, and that.
therefore the combination of the two branches of
rearing and fattening means the securing of the
two profits—of which the second is better worth
having than the first.

There are many reasons why the combination on
a very large scale is so unworkable as seldom to be
found, the chief being the inadequacy of the supply
of the rearing department to the demands of the
fattening; the undue increase of the labor item;
and the difficulty of that entire separation of the
departments, which experience shows to be neces-

129
130 SUCCESSFUL POULTRY PRODUCTION

sary. It has generally been found that the pro-
duction of one holding is quite insufficient for the
continual supply of an extensive fattening estab-
lishment, the expenses of which can only be met by
keeping the concern continually running at or near
its full capacity. Further, although the fattening
branch will bear the expense of the necessary
labor (which is often very considerable), the rear-
ing department will not do so in anything like the
same proportion. Moreover, as running chickens
never thrive in close proximity to the fattening
birds and plant (however clean these may be), it is
not always easy to find a holding sufficiently adapt-
able to the efficient working of the two branches
entirely separately.

Upon a moderate scale, however, the combination
is workable, and the writer knows many general
farmers who rear such chickens as the women and
lads can attend to in conjunction with their other
duties; and who also have a fattening shed where
the birds are finished in such numbers as they can
be produced, but without the unduly large expenses
which make a large and regular output essential.
By this method the most is made out of the chick-
ens, and the farmers who practice it are (within
the writer’s knowledge) so satisfied with results
that they regard the poultry section as a by no
means to be despised branch of the general farm
work. They have passed the ‘‘pin-money’’ notion,
and welcome the periodical cheques from their
salesmen as no mean additions to ready money.
CHICKEN FATTENING 131
Tue AGE

It is in every way advantageous to bring the
chickens to a suitable size for fattening at as early
an age as possible; the cost of labor and food for
rearing is thereby reduced ; young, well-conditioned
birds are the most satisfactory in the fattening
coops; and the consumer appreciates the delicacy
and tenderness of a real chicken. It is, however,
rather a pleasing fiction of prospective balance-
sheets, than the actual fact of experience, that
chickens can in any considerable number be of
sufficient growth and development for the purpose
in as few as twelve weeks. That the desired con-
summation can be attained in that period is, of
course, undoubted—the writer has several times
done it himself, in exceptional circumstances of sea-
son and demand; but not with sufficient frequency
to warrant the use of such data as a safe basis of
ealculation.

Naturally, the age at which birds are fit (the
suitability of breed and strain being presupposed)
varies with the seasons; and, given correct feeding
and management, would, as a rule, range from
fourteen to sixteen weeks, with a small proportion
of quick-growing, early birds at twelve or thirteen
weeks—put up small on account of scarcity, and
consequently enhanced values. Some men who fat-
ten their own birds prefer to run them a few
weeks longer for the sake of the increased size, a
great advantage in some markets; and inasmuch as
they realize the whole of the ultimate marketable
132 SUCCESSFUL POULTRY PRODUCTION

value, they are justified in their course. On the
other hand, those who rear for another to fatten
aim rather at the reduction of the rearing period,
and are somewhat helped in this by the competi-
tion among the higglers, who in some districts over-
run one another.

TroucH FEEDING

Where the production and marketing of table
chickens is more or less a side issue, the fattening
is very often confined to such improvement as may
be effected by trough feeding alone. Although the
improvement may be considerable, the finishing
period lessened, and the cost of food and labor
consequently reduced, the trough-fed chickens can-
not be said to be more than half-finished—but, of
course, they are that much better than running
fowls. Anyway, whether cramming is to succeed
or not, trough feeding is the preliminary stage of
the completed process, and needs detailed reference.

During the process the birds are confined in
fattening coops, either in a shed or outside near a
hedge; in the latter case the position chosen should
be secluded to avoid any interference with the
quiet, uninterrupted calm that so materially assits
the putting on of flesh. The coops must also be
sheltered from rain and wind, the influence of cold
wind being especially inimical to the desired object.
Wooden troughs, the length of the coops, are sus-
pended along their front, and in these the chickens
are fed twice daily (morning and evening) with as
CHICKEN FATTENING 133

much of a thickly liquid mixture of Sussex ground
oats, fat, and milk, as they can consume at a sitting
—the troughs being removed and cleansed when
no more can be eaten. As a rule, the healthy chick-
ens, that have been fasted when first put up, will
feed satisfactorily in this way for from ten to four-
teen days, and sometimes longer, steadily putting
on flesh and increasing in weight, until the arrival
of the inevitable period when they tire of the con-
ditions and cease to eat ravenously. This evidence
of approaching satiety, together with the condition
of the birds (ascertained by periodical handling),
generally determines the duration of the trough
feeding, and marks the time when they must either
be killed and marketed, or cramming must be re-
sorted to.

CRAMMING

: Cramming, as the name implies, is filling with
food to the point of superfluity—that is from the
fowl’s point of view; but although the fowl may
have become careless of the further increase of
obeseness the food is not superabundant from the
standpoint of the thorough fattener. Having
reached the stage referred to, a fowl would (if left
to its own devices) retrograde, and lose weight in
the very presence of a trough full of food; the
fattener therefore takes the bird in hand, and feeds
it when it would not feed itself sufficiently for his
purpose.

The old-fashioned method, which, despite its
134 SUCCESSFUL POULTRY PRODUCTION

tediousness and slowness, still obtains in a few
instances of bucolic conservatism, was to cram by
hand by means of pellets of food placed in the
gullet—swallowing being encouraged and assisted
by an external downward pressure towards the
crop. Funneling was at one time a favorite
method, but although it was an advance on the
pellets it was still very slow and tiresome; a liquid
preparation of food being administered by means
of a funnel. Nowadays, such antiquated methods
have been almost entirely superseded by the cram-
ming machine, at any rate wherever time is of any
consequence.

As illustrations of these machines are to be
found in the catalogues of most appliance makers,
and in the advertising columns of the agricultural
Press, they need no description here. Suffice it to
say that once the knack is acquired the process of
machine cramming is simple and expeditious, and
fowls will continue to improve under the treatment,
from a marketable point of view, during a period
of about ten days or so, some becoming fit to kill
earlier and some later. The whole time occupied
in trough feeding and machine cramming ranges
from three to four weeks. The same food mixture
is used as in trough feeding, but the mechanical
process requires a more fluid consistency.
CHAPTER X

TURKEYS
CHAPTER X
TURKEYS

Havina, for the convenience of arrangement, di-
vided poultry keepers into classes (a course that
does not preclude the recognition of possible ex-
ceptions), it must be said at once that the inclusion
of turkeys under the general title must be regarded
as applicable only in the case of farmers; with the
further reservation that these birds are more profit-
able on a large or fairly large farm, than on a small
holding—the extent and character of the range
dominating the degree of possible profit upon the
cost of breeding and feeding.

The relation of the size and character of the
range, over which these birds may be allowed their
liberty, to the cost of production, will be more
readily understood when the length of the rearing
period (from April to December) is remembered,
and the voracious appetite of the birds has been
observed—from the standpoint of a feeder. Not
only is the health, development, and general well-
being of turkeys affected by any approach to close
confinement, but the increased cost of feeding un-
der such conditions is out of all due proportion to
their ultimate market value.

The limitations of space prevent any attempt at

137
138 SUCCESSFUL POULTRY PRODUCTION

a detailed account and comparison of the merits or
demerits of the different breeds; but those most
commonly used for marketable purposes are the
American Bronze, the Norfolk Black, and the
Cambridge Bronze. Efforts are being made to
popularize the white turkey in this country. The
writer’s own experience and observation has con-
vineed him that these birds are not necessarily
delicate because they are white in plumage, but
that, on the contrary, they may (under equal con-
ditions) be as successfully reared as the Bronze and
Black varieties.

Hovusine TURKEYS

The ideal turkey house is a thatched lodge or
shed, with an open wire-netted front. The floor
must be bone dry and hard enough to enable its
thorough cleansing daily; but although the whole
front should be open, the walls and roof must be
proof against wind and wet. The perches should
be rather broad, and run from side to side, so placed
that the birds cannot roost one over another. As
turkeys will, as a rule, remain on their perches
until the doors are opened in the morning, the
whole of the wired front should be made to open
after the manner of folding doors—otherwise in
cramped quarters the birds, not being able to fly
right out on to the grass, will almost certainly
damage themselves.

Many farmers retain the old-fashioned opinion
that turkeys are remarkably delicate and difficult
TURKEYS 139

to ‘‘save,’’ whereas the truth is that the chicks of
matured healthy stock are no more trouble than the
early chickens of ordinary hens. Adult turkeys are
naturally very hardy birds, and are much more
easily kept in health in such an open style house
than in a closed shed; it is the next best method
to that of roosting in trees, which is generally their
own choice. The adults should be let out about an
hour before feeding time in the morning, and their
morning meal should consist of a soft food
mixture, as fed to the'other fowls, with a grain
ration at night—-also as fed to the other fowls.
More than this should be unnecessary.

TuRKEY BREEDING

The breeding stock should consist of birds at
least two years old, and preferably three; from six
to eight hens being about the ordinary number run
with a vigorous, healthy, and at least equally ma-
tured male. The period for profitable hatching
ranges from April to June, the best broods being
those of the first-named month, but those hatched
later than June can seldom be profitable under or-
dinary conditions.

During March (the usual time for nidification) it
is necessary to keep a strict watch upon the move-
ments of the hens, instinct leading them to search
for some strange place in which to nest—for which
purpose they will frequently fly considerable dis-
tances, and surmount barriers which are quite suf-
ficient to restrain them at other seasons. Turkey
149 SUCCESSFUL POULTRY PRODUCTION

hens are generally excellent mothers, but if the
production of the greatest number of eggs is a
consideration, ordinary hens should be used for
hatching; in this case the turkey hens may be
brought on to lay again more quickly. If pre-
vented from sitting they will produce three batches
of eggs in a season, of from ten to fifteen eggs each
batch. The eggs are twenty-eight days incubating.

Rearine TurKEy CHIcKS

Open-fronted coops (covéred with wire netting,
and canvas when necessary) should be used for
these chicks; badly ventilated or over-heated sleep-
ing quarters render them liable to that state of
delicacy which is foreign to their nature. There
is, however, one condition that they cannot with
safety be exposed to—at any rate until they have
“shot the red,’’ viz., developed the coral-like ex-
crescences upon head and neck—and that is damp,
against which some special precautions must be
taken during the early weeks of rearing.

As regards food, some large and very successful
rearers make no difference in their treatment of
turkey chicks and those of other descriptions, but
the beginner would be wise to make some distinction
during the first few weeks. The diet for the first
week should consist of hard-boiled eggs and dan-
delion leaves, chopped very fine and mixed with
small flint grit; the rule for feeding being to feed
little, but often—and to mix frequently. During
the second week, continue the same mixture, alter-
TURKEYS 141

nated with steamed rice and biscuit meal. During
the third week, gradually introduce a change to
Sussex ground oats; and from the fourth week feed
as other chickens, but continue the supply of
chopped dandelion. If the latter is easily procur-
able in sufficient quantity there is no need to give
onions, as so many recommend, althought they may,
of course, be used if wished.

TuRKEY FATTENING

Having been run free from the time of ‘‘shoot-
ing the red,’’ they should be confined to a roomy,
open shed, for the finishing period, about a month
before they are required for killing. The trough
feeding should consist of four full meals daily, of a
soft food mixture composed of equal proportions of
Sussex ground oats, barley meal, and maize meal—
with the addition of melted fat every other day.
They will, of course, require a supply of clean fresh
water, good grit, and vegetables—such as whole
swedes at which to peck. If thought desirable,
they may be machine-crammed during the last
week, but this is generally unnecessary. When
killed (preferably by dislocation of the neck) they
should be dressed according to local custom.
CHAPTER XI

GEESE
CHAPTER XI
GEESE

THat which was noted with regard to turkeys is
also, and in a greater degree, applicable to geese;
they possess individual qualities, wherein they dif-
fer considerably from other fowls, and which neces-
sitate special conditions for their profitable breed-
ing and rearing. In the case of geese these char-
asteristic differences are more marked than in tur-
keys: both require a large range, but a suitable and
sufficient grazing ground is more especially neces-
sary for geese, inasmuch as grass forms the most
important item of their food. The keeping of these
birds is therefore absolutely impossible for large
numbers of poultry keepers; but, on the other hand,
two geese and a gander (with the annual flock of
goslings) could find the bulk of their food on the
fields the year round on most holdings, and on
many waste lands.

Some farmers have unreasonably given the goosé
a bad name, and especially begrudge it the amount
of grass it will consume. In the case of a farm,
it is of course absurd to talk of the goose as costing
nothing to feed—even if a distinction is made be-
tween growing and purchased food—but it is
equally incorrect to ignore the profit it is capable

145
146 SUCCESSFUL POULTRY PRODUCTION

of producing. According to the writer’s experience,
two geese and a gander are capable of producing in
a season an average of £3 worth of eggs, showing
a high percentage of fertility; that is, selling the
season’s production for setting at an all-round price
of sixpence each, which is surely sufficient to show
a reasonable margin of profit upon the cost of
production—consisting chiefly of the value of the
grass consumed.

Three geese are reputed to eat as much grass
as one sheep. The writer, in common with the
other holders in his district, has taken in Kentish
sheep to ‘‘keep’’ from September to March, for
which he received payment at the rate of fourpence
per head per week—which is reasonably profitable.
Assuming, therefore, for the sake of argument that
his two geese and the gander eat as much as one
sheep, their grazing would cost 17s. 4d. per annum;
assuming, further, that the cost of bought food does,
not on an average exceed one penny per week per
head (and they often fail to leave the grass at meal
times) this would add another 13s. for the three,
and bring the annual cost of feeding the trio up to
£1, 10s. 4d.—against an egg production worth
£3. It must further be remembered that the basis
of this approximate calculation, the fourpence re-
ceived for the sheep, shows in itself a profit on the
grass consumed and the labor involved in attention ;
it would therefore be well within the mark to say
that under favorable conditions geese will pay cent.
per cent. Moreover, in the case of waste lands,
and those over which grazing rights involve no
GEESE 147

consideration of rent, the cost of production is
reduced to the extent of the value of the grazing.

In the event of the eggs being retained and
hatched on the place, and the goslings sold at the
““oreen’’ stage, the percentage of profit over cost of
production is of course increased; the goslings
selling at prices ranging from 4s. to 7s. apiece after
three months’ feeding—mostly grazing. Further,
such as may be reserved for home consumption
provide the producer with cheap meat.

SIMPLICITY OF MANAGEMENT

Geese being so hardy and independent, and their
young so quickly acquiring the characteristic self-
reliance, the details of management are very few;
this fact should be of itself sufficient to reeommend
them to the favorable attention of busy working
farmers, who are generally indisposed to allow
much time to the management of poultry of any
description. Geese do not need much looking after,
and very seldom suffer from any disease; within
certain limits they do much better if left to their
own devices. Their breeding and rearing is there-
fore much easier, and far less labor compelling,
than that of any other class of feathered stock.

The adult birds should preferably be housed
apart from other feathered stock, as they are very
jealous of intrusion in their sleeping quarters,
more particularly during the laying season, when
they will fiercely attack and probably injure other
birds that venture into their house. Requiring
148 SUCCESSFUL POULTRY PRODUCTION

plenty of room and air, an open-fronted shed is
the best place for their accommodation. Of pur-
chased foods, a small quantity of meal in the
morning, and a small handful of corn at night,
is all that is necessary at any time for the stock
birds; as a proof of its superfluity at some seasons,
the writer’s geese frequently went straight to the
pastures when let out in the morning, without
waiting for the arrival of the food bucket, and
returned only when, the fall of night compelled—
but that is chiefly in the early summer, when the
albuminoid ratio of grass is at its narrowest (about
1 to 4).

A very useful pen for the farm may be com-
posed of an Embden gander run with Toulouse
geese, a cross productive of good, marketable gos-
lings; moreover, it is better to use Toulouse geese,
because, not being good sitters, it is comparatively
easy to break them almost entirely off the inclina-
tion, and thus keep them laying right on until the
end of the season. They commence to lay in Feb-
ruary or March, and will continue to produce eggs
until May or June. The eggs should be set under
hens, but they must be steady, reliable sitters, be-
cause the period of incubation extends to thirty
days. The eggs of young geese are never so reliable
as regards fertility and strength of germ as are
those of old birds.

The goslings do not really need any very special
treatment, the writer having frequently reared
them successfully upon the ordinary meal diet of
chickens, with the sole addition of dandelion leaves.
GEESE 149

At from a week to ten days they may safely be
penned by themselves, and the hens returned to
other duties. When they have made a little prog-
ress, and are firm on their feet, they may be al-
lowed the freedom of a small meadow, and fed
twice daily until fit to kill at the ‘‘green’’ stage;
but if they are to be kept beyond this period they
should be allowed their full freedom when suffi-
ciently advanced, and only specially fed on fatten-
ing foods for the last month before killing, during
the time of fattening being confined to a building.

Earty MARKETING

One cause of the reluctance of many farm poul-
try keepers to breed these birds is undoubtedly
to be found in the fact that the goose is no longer
the standard dish at Michaelmas; and the failuré
to realize that there is, on the other hand, a com-
pensating and growing demand for goslings in the
early summer. It appears to the writer that this
change in gastronomic custom is all in favor of the
producer, an opinion that is confirmed by his own
experience. According to present fashion, the birds
are out of hand at from three to four months, when
their production has cost (comparatively speaking)
very little more than the value of the grass con-
sumed. The value of the early profit is enhanced
in that it has involved very little out-of-pocket ex-
penditure, and the pasture is relieved of their pres-
ence at the earliest possible moment. The writer’s
experience and observation is all in favor of early
150 SUCCESSFUL POULTRY PRODUCTION

marketing, and he has found that, as a rule, the
relatively small numbers raised under the con-
ditions indicated, can be disposed of privately or
in near-at-hand market towns. If no such outlets
are available, the goslings should be consigned to
a London market, presuming that the producer is
sufficiently in touch with his salesman as to market
at the right time.
CHAPTER XII

DUCKS
CHAPTER XII
DUCKS

Durine recent years the raising of ducklings for
market has been undertaken, with successful re-
sults, in many parts of the country where this
branch of poultry production had hitherto been
neglected; and so extensive have these operations
become collectively that the lower prices realized
for the production of Buckinghamshire and Bed-
fordshire (the original and chief centres of the in-
dustry) during the past few seasons, have been by
many attributed mainly to this cause. Whether
this be correct or not, it is a fact that the rearing
methods of Aylesbury ‘‘duckers’’ have been widely
and profitably imitated in many particulars. It
should, however, be noted that in some important
details the ‘‘duckers’’ of the district. referred to
have the benefit of the advantages that accrue from
the localisation of their industry; there is, for ex-
ample, the system of forwarding, and—as always
happens when produce is consigned in bulk—the
rates are more favorable than where the parcels
are small and irregularly sent. Apart from such
considerations of marketing facilities, there is in
their case the long-established division of labor
by which the rearer is not, as a rule the breeder;
153
154. SUCCESSFUL POULTRY PRODUCTION

in consequence of which arrangement the rearer
can conduct extensive operations upon a much more
limited area than would be consistent with the
keeping in health of a sufficient breeding stock.

Those who have, in other districts, attempted
extensive rearing (without breeding) have hitherto
always been confronted with the difficulty of ob-
taining sufficient eggs for their purpose locally.
However, in districts where the Aylesbury con-
ditions are capable of reproduction to the extent
that the farmers run the breeding stock, and pro-
duce eggs in quantity, the surrounding cottagers
and small holders might profitably undertake the
hatching and rearing of the ducklings, upon such
small plots of ground as would be far too confined
for any other proportionately remunerative poultry
production. The ordinary farm duck-keeper would,
however, need to learn the importance of earlier egg
production than is generally the case outside the
districts where the demand for hatchable eggs has
been long established.

BREEDS

Of the various breeds of ducks, there are four
which possess economic qualities of sufficient value
for the market producer; they are the Aylesbury,
the Pekin, the Rouen, and the Indian Runner. Of
these, the last-named are exceptional layers, and,
aS a consequence, are of no use to the producer of
ducks or ducklings for table; their relative position
and value to that of the other breeds may be com-
DUCKS 155

pared to that of the Leghorn fowl to the Dorking,
Sussex, and other fowls of the recognized table class
—they are therefore invaluable as the foundation
of laying strains.

The Aylesbury is pre-eminently the breed for
the production of ducklings, particularly on ac-
count of their capacity for rapid growth. This
characteristic is essential to bring the ducklings
to a killing size and condition before they are nine
weeks old, at which period their feathering places
them out of the duckling class, and their value is
consequently lowered. The Pekin, for the purposes
of English duckling raisers, is chiefly useful for
crossing with the Aylesbury, with the object of
improving the size of the progeny; the usual
method being to cross an Aylesbury drake with
Pekin ducks, a further advantage of this cross being
that the number of eggs is increased, Pekins being
better layers than Aylesburys, and their eggs are
generally more fertile. The ducklings produced
by this cross are generally disappointing in their
live appearance, but they grow as quickly as the
pure-bred Aylesbury, are generally larger, and
dress well.

The Rouen is much slower of development than
either the Aylesbury or the Pekin, and as it will
not put on much flesh until its frame has grown,
it is not suitable for the duckling trade; it is there-
fore frequently and profitably used for the pro-
duction of large ducks for the autumn and winter
demand, by which time it may be developed into
a heavy-framed bird with a great aptitude to fatten.
156 SUCCESSFUL POULTRY PRODUCTION
BREEDING

Ducks, in common with other classes of water-
fowl, may be successfully bred on low-lying,
marshy, and well-watered ground; and their breed-
ing is therefore in some circumstances the only class
of poultry production possible. More or less suit-
able conditions are generally to be found on the
majority of farms—except such as are in very high
or dry situations; and duck breeding may be carried
on where there is a good pond or running stream,
and a sufficiently large grass range. Water and
freedom are essential to the maintenance of a
healthy, reliable breeding stock, and the production
of a hardy and vigorous progeny, but it is very
important that the stock be dryly housed; ducks
enjoy and require swimming water to ensure the
best breeding results—they find much of their food
in damp situations, and generally thrive where
fowls could scarcely exist—yet damp in their sleep-
ing quarters will result in disaster.

The autumn is the best time to acquire suitable
breeding stock, and the birds purchased should be
early hatched ducks of the same year, which should
be ready to commence laying not later than De-
cember; with these should be mated an unrelated
drake, about eighteen months old—but not older
than two years. Many successful breeders recom-
mend a change of blood every third year. Breeding
flocks may consist of a drake and two ducks, or two
drakes and five ducks; mated in this way, a high
DUCKS 157

percentage of fertility, and strong ducklings,
should result.

Ducks are very large eaters, and stock birds,
when allowed their freedom, will find a great deal
of their food—worms, slugs, insects, ete.—in the
water and the grass. The supplied food should
consist of two meals daily of a mixture of half
barley meal and half sharps; in the breeding season,
if natural food is scarce, some lean meat should
be added to the meal mixture—but no fat or food
of a fattening nature should be given.

REARING

Incubators can be successfully used for hatching
ducks’ eggs, but it is perhaps preferable to use
hens as far as possible; ducks are practically out
of the question for commercial hatching purposes,
and are in general unreliable. The eggs hatch at
the twenty-eighth day, and the ducklings are easy
to rear, being good eaters and thriving well; they
do not require much brooding, and may be taken
away from the hen or brooder at from a week to a
fortnight, according to the season. At from three
to four weeks they only need the protection of a
dry, well-ventilated hutch or shed, well littered and
airy.

The first food should consist of a little oatmeal
sprinkled on water in a shallow pan, with some of
the oatmeal sprinkled around the vessel to en-
courage them to peck; when they do this, scalded
biscuit meal will induce them to eat freely. Subse-
158 SUCCESSFUL POULTRY PRODUCTION

quently their diet should be composed of barley
meal, sharps, rice, and tallow greaves—alternated
with ground oats, biscuit meal, and granulated
meat, as a change. Birds reared for stock may be
fed on in this way, but with oatmeal in place of
barley meal, and the addition of a little bone-meal;
they should also be allowed their freedom, gradu-
ally, until it is complete.

Those reared for early marketing, atioat’ be fed
as indicated, for five weeks, when they may be
quickly developed upon an almost entire diet of
cooked rice and tallow greaves; or the previous
feeding may be continued with the addition of fat,
and a large proportion of barley meal. Three meals
a day should be fed, with the addition of green
food—and a supply of gravel is essential from first.
to last.
INDEX

Accomodation, 78

Age, 131.

Age and eggs, 108.
Albuminoid ratio, the, 102.
Arrangements, general, 40.

Beauty and utility, 88.
Beauty and utility, some
facts, 88.
Benefits of domestication, 4.
Breed and strain, 6.
Breed, choice of, 64.
Breeding, turkey, 139.
Breeds and eggs, 106.
Breeds (ducks), 154.
Breeds, suitable, 77.
Brooding houses, 46.
Brooding houses, their ad-
vantages, 48.
Buying and storing food, 49.
Buying stock, 51.

Chicks, turkey, rearing, 140.

Color and size of eggs, 109.

Confinement, management
in, 80.

Continuity of treatment (in
feeding), 125.

Cramming, 133.

Dangers of domestication, 5.

Disposal of produce, 53.

Districts, special, 27.

Domestication, benefits of,
4 .

Domestication, dangers of,
5.
Dry feeding, 122.

Ducks, breeds, 154,
Ducks, rearing, 157.

Egg, constituents of the, 99
Eggs and age, 108.

Eggs and breeds, 106.
Eggs, color and size, 109.
Eggs, feeding for, 100.
Eggs, fertility in, 105.
Eggs, grading, 110.

Eggs and pure stock, 55.
Extravagant statements, 15

Farmers poultry keepers, 18
Fattening, turkey, 141.
Feeding, 120.

Feeding, dry, 122.
Feeding for eggs, 100.

' Feeding, soft, 124,

Feeding, trough, 132.
Fertility in eggs, 105.
Fields, the other, 44,

Food, buying and storing,
, 49.

Geese, early marketing, 149

Geese, simplicity of man-
agement, 147.

Grading eggs, 110.

Hatchery, the, 45.

Hen, the average, 10.

Hagglers, ae to, 57.

Holding, the, 29.

Houses, brooding, 46.

Houses, brooding, their ad
vantages, 48.

Housing, 62.

Housing turkeys, 138.

In-breeding, 93.
Knowledge of the work, 24

159
160

Locality, 26.

Man, the, 22,
Management in confinement,

Marketing difficulties, 67
Mating, 91.

‘*Name, any other,’’ 15.

Plant, the, 33.

Poultry farm, what is a? 22.

Poultry farmers, and farmer
poultry keepers, 18.

Practical side, the, 25.

Produce, disposal of, 53.

Pure stock and eggs, 55.

Rearing ducks, 157.

Rearing ground, the, 43.
Rearing turkey chicks, 140.
Rent and valuation, 31.

Scratching sheds, use of,
111,

INDEX

Selling to higglers, 57.
Size and color of eggs, 109
Soft feeding, 124.
Statements, extravagant, 15
Statements, extravagant,
some examples, 16.
Stock buying, 51.
Stock, renewing the, 76.
Strain and breed, 6.
Strain, maintaining the, 66:
Strain making, 107.
Supply, equalizing the, 69.

Trough feeding, 132.
Turkey breeding, 139.
Turkey chicks, rearing, 140
Turkey fattening, 141.
Turkey housing, 138.
Utility and beauty, 88.
Valuation and rent, 31.

Work, knowledge of the, 24
 

 

From the Personal
Reference Library of
PAUL IVES