JF 487 
 C6S 
 /opy 1 
 
 The Business Hen 
 
 [A New Brood] 
 
 Published by 
 THE RURAL NEW-YORKER., NEW YORK 
 
 4 
 
THE BUSINESS HEN 
 
 {A NEW BROOD) 
 
 HERBERT W. COLLINGWOOD 
 
 EDITOR 
 
 ASSISTED BY 
 
 PROF. JAMES E. RICE GEO. A. COSGROVE 
 
 MISS F. E. WHEELER DR. COOPER CURTICE 
 
 W. W. HIGGINS F. Q^ WHITE 
 
 J. E. STEVENSON O. W. MAPES 
 
 PROF. G. M. GOWELL H. E. COOK 
 AND MANY OTHERS 
 
 PUBLISHED BY 
 
 THK RURAL NEW-YORKER 
 NEW YORK 
 

 LIBRSBY nf 0ON8RESS 
 Two Oooies Received 
 SEP 15 1904 
 
 ^Oopyrljrht Entry 
 $44 /S-l ?<>¥■ 
 CLASS <XxXo. No. 
 
 ' COPY B 
 
 Copyright, 1904 
 By The Rural Publishing Co. 
 
 All rights rmrvcd 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 During the past ten years The Rural New Yorker has given much 
 space to poultry matters. It was necessary to do this in order to answer 
 the thousands of questions asked by readers. These questions were from 
 practical men and women — not fanciers — who asked how to obtain a good 
 hen, and how to feed and care for her in a business-like way. In order 
 to answer these questions we found it necessary to scour the country from 
 one end to the other and to obtain help from hundreds of practical poul- 
 try keepers. We find that from year to year many of these questions 
 are repeated — by new readers or by those who have mislaid their papers. 
 This has led us to prepare this book, for it is evident that the informa- 
 tion will be far more accessible in book form. These thousands of 
 questions were grouped and analyzed. We then went to the most practi- 
 cal poultry keepers for information. The vast amount of information thus 
 obtained has been sorted, cut down and rewritten to fit into this book. 
 There are of course many details which cannot be crowded into these 
 pages. New conditions are constantly arising, and the most expert 
 poultry keepers are often puzzled by things which they cannot under- 
 stand. We must all know also that many of the most important things 
 can only be taught by experience. Any reader of The R. N.-Y. is welcome 
 to ask for further information. We can obtain it for him, and in this 
 way supply all the details which he may need. We have avoided all 
 reference to "big stories" or fancy operations, and attempted to give a 
 statement of methods which practical men have found safe and useful. 
 While hundreds of men and women have helped with experience and ad- 
 vice, I wish to express special thanks to Prof. James E. Rice, who pre- 
 pared the chapter on "What is an Egg" and "Marketing the Egg" and to 
 Dr. Cooper Curtice, who wrote the article on "Health of the Hen." 
 
 H. W. COLLING WOOD. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 PAGE. 
 
 Chapter I The Business Breeds 5 
 
 Chapter II The Scrub Hen Turned to Business 10 
 
 Chapter III Parents of the Egg 13 
 
 Chapter IV What is an Egg? 18 
 
 Chapter V Hatching the Egg 29 
 
 Chapter VI The Chicken's Nurse 3G 
 
 Chapter VII Care of the Baby Chick 40 
 
 Chapter VIII The Young Bird 45 
 
 Chapter IX The Hen's House 49 
 
 Chapter X Feeding the Hex 58 
 
 Chapter XI The Colony Plan GS 
 
 Chapter XII The Market Gardener's Hens 73 
 
 Chapter XIII The Boy's Hens 77 
 
 Chapter XIV Marketing Poultry Products S3 
 
 Chapter XV Marketing Eggs 88 
 
 Chapter XVI Companions of the Hen 93 
 
 Chapter XVII The Health of the I [en 98 
 
 Chapter XVIII. .. .Purebred Poultry Ill 
 
 Chapter XIX Who Should Keep Hens? 113 
 
 Chapter XX Odds and Ends 120 
 
CHAPTER I. 
 The Business Breeds. 
 
 To succeed with poultry, a man must be "half hen." That 
 means that he must love the business and understand the hen. Such 
 a man naturally likes the breed best adapted to his business. There 
 are different kinds of men and thus there are different breeds of 
 poultry, each one 
 best fitted for some spe- 
 cial purpose. The key- 
 note of this book is the 
 fact that no man can sup- 
 ply another with that 
 element known as good 
 judgment. We try to 
 give here facts about 
 poultry. The reader is 
 urged to apply them, 
 and learn for himself 
 what will suit him best. 
 Business hens may be 
 roughly classed under 
 three heads, — Mediter- 
 ranean, or non-sitters ; 
 American, or general- 
 purpose breeds which 
 have been obtained by 
 crossing ; and Asiatics, 
 or meat-p r o d u c i n g 
 breeds. Briefly stated, 
 their business qualities 
 may be described about 
 as follows : 
 
 MEDITERRANEAN OR NON-SITTERS.— The Leghorn is the 
 best example of this class; a small, nervous hen with a very largfe 
 comb. The Leghorn, without doubt, is the best breed for those who 
 want an abundance of large, white eggs, or those who want a small flock 
 for a small enclosure. With us the Black Minorca lays a larger white 
 egg, but is more tender, not as hardy as the Leghorn, and requires more 
 feed, though standing confinement better. The Brown Leghorn is smaller 
 
 Fig. 1. TUREP.RED WHITE LEGHORNS. 
 
(3 
 
 The Business Hen. 
 
 than the White, and lays a smaller egg, except some families which have 
 been bred for large eggs. The Brown is thought to be hardier than the 
 White, and with us seems to stand confinement better, and on the whole 
 will lay a few more eggs. The Brown Leghorn, however, is more difficult 
 to breed true to color, and makes a poorer carcass when dressed. The ob- 
 jections to Leghorns are the small size of some families, the large comb, 
 which makes them tender in Winter, and to some extent the fact that 
 the hens rarely sit, so that incubators must be used. The White Leghorns 
 make good broilers, but are too small to make the size of poultry known 
 as roasters. A prominent breeder of Leghorns, speaking of the profit to be 
 made in young White Leghorn roosters, says : 
 
 "In eight weeks I can make these birds weigh V/ 2 pounds per pair. 
 They look like a squab and bring $1.50 per pair. They make a more 
 attractive broiler, are meaty and of high quality. It takes the heavier 
 breeds longer to mature; it costs nearly twice as much to house them, 
 and fully double as much to feed them." One argument in favor of Leg- 
 horns, for town lots, is that they occupy less space in houses. A house 
 that will comfortably house 40 Leghorns would be small for 25 Brahmas, or 
 30 Plymouth Rocks, while eggs are the chief consideration for town 
 poultry. As a rule eggs from the Leghorns are more fertile than those 
 from larger breeds. The young Leghorn hen shown at Fig. 1 laid a clutch 
 of eggs and hatched them before she was five months old. 
 
 AMERICAN BREEDS.— This class includes such breeds as Ply- 
 in o u t h Rocks, 
 Wyandottes and 
 Rhode Island Reds, 
 produced by crossing 
 older breeds and 
 selecting birds true 
 to a fixed type 
 through a number of 
 years. For example, 
 the Plymouth Rock 
 resulted from cross- 
 ing the Dominique 
 and the Java with the 
 Brahmas. It is also 
 stated that the Pit 
 Games were used to 
 produce this breed. 
 The Wyandotte came 
 from a non-sitting 
 Pig. 2. A 237-EGG PLYMOUTH ROCK. breed on one side, and 
 
The Business Breeds. 
 
 Fig. 3. A GOOD WHITE WYANDOTTE. 
 
 ought therefore to 
 average better lay- 
 ers. These Ameri- 
 can breeds have the 
 same general fea- 
 tures, plump, well- 
 shaped bodies, 
 clean, yellow legs, 
 and a yellow skin. 
 The English Or- 
 pington is much the 
 same general type, 
 but has not yellow 
 skin. This yellow 
 color is important, 
 as the American 
 market calls for yel- 
 low meat. These 
 
 American breeds not only lay well, but also furnish a good carcass of sala- 
 ble meat. They are larger than the Leghorns, consume rather more feed, 
 and do not as a rule lay as many eggs. The eggs of the American breeds 
 are brown in color, and generally not as large as those from the White 
 Leghorns. While brown eggs are preferred in some markets, such as Boston 
 and other New England cities, the general demand is for white eggs. For 
 farm stock where the flock is kept to supply meat and eggs for the farm, 
 with a surplus of each to sell, one of the American breeds will prove 
 very satisfactory. They may be compared with the general-purpose cow, 
 while the Leghorn represents the special-purpose Jersey. Both the Ply- 
 mouth Rock and Wyandotte are bred in different colors, but the color 
 adds little of value to the breed except the pleasing effect to the eye. 
 The Barred Plymouth Rock is one of the strongest and hardiest of breeds, 
 but the White of both Plymouth Rock and Wyandotte are more popular. 
 Some years ago the flocks in farmers' yards were largely speckled, but 
 now a large proportion of them will be found white. Why is one Ameri- 
 can breed better than another? The answer will be largely a matter of 
 opinion. A Plymouth Rock breeder, when asked why he prefers that 
 breed to Wyandottes, gives the following answer : 
 
 "I do not consider there is much difference between the Wyandottes 
 and the Plymouth Rocks, at least not a contrast as exists between either 
 one of the above and the Leghorn, or such as is between the Leghorn 
 and Cochin. I think which one a person prefers — Wyandotte or Plymouth 
 Rock — is much a matter of fancy, but I consider that there are these 
 differences : First, the Plymouth Rock equals them as layers, but sur- 
 
8 The Business Hen. 
 
 passes them in color and size of egg. Second, the Plymouth Rock equal? 
 or excels the Wyandotte as a table fowl, and surpasses it in weight. The 
 latter point I consider the strongest. Anyone raising poultry for market, 
 and especially farmers, 1 think should have the heaviest fowls, provided 
 they are good layers. Good laying and large size are best combined, 1 
 think, in the Plymouth Rocks." The picture of a serviceable Barred Ply- 
 mouth Rock hen is shown at Fig. 2. This hen is known to have laid 
 237 eggs during her first year. 
 
 A Wyandotte breeder, in reply, makes these claims: "White Wyan- 
 dottes are smaller birds, maturing quicker, commencing to lay two or 
 four weeks earlier than the Plymouth Rocks. I am aware that this will 
 be disputed by Plymouth Rock breeders, especially those with flocks 
 below standard size, and I am willing to admit that Rocks of Wyandotte 
 size may lay as quickly. The White Wyandottes when dressed for market 
 have no dark pin feathers, but show a clear yellow skin, while the Ply- 
 mouth Rock chicks have a mottled appearance, owing to the coloring 
 matter in the pin feathers. The Wyandottes do not have so deep a breast 
 bone, consequently are rounder breasted and have a meatier look than 
 the P. Rock chicks of the same age. The larger the breed is the longer 
 it takes to reach the egg-laying stage, and in selecting a breed of fowls a 
 man must determine whether a month's earlier production of eggs in 
 November or December isn't worth more than an additional pound oi 
 meat, which by the way cannot be produced for nothing, but must be paid 
 for in feed. Another point in favor of the Wyandottes is uniformity of 
 color, without the trouble of special matings for cockerels and for pullets, 
 which are necessary to obtain uniformity in breeding Barred Rocks. 
 This objection does not obtain as against White Plymouth Rocks, of 
 course, but all the other objections hold. Another factor in determining 
 me to change breeds was that my Wyandottes seemed to be much better 
 layers. Against the Wyandottes was the fact that in muddy seasons the 
 plumage would get badly soiled, giving the flock a dirty appearance, not 
 noticed in Barred Plymouth Rocks. As layers the White Wyandottes 
 are not excelled by any other breed except possibly the Leghorns, and in 
 Winter months, under similar conditions, I think they will surpass the 
 Leghorns." The White Wyandotte shown at Fig. 3 laid 219 eggs in 
 her first season, and kept up her record later. 
 
 THE ASIATICS. — The Light Brahma is the most popular type of this 
 class, a large, slow, well-feathered and well-shaped bird, quiet in disposi- 
 tion, laying a fair number of dark brown eggs. The legs are well feathered, 
 the comb small, and the hens seem well dressed in fur for Winter work. 
 The Brahmas and Cochins are docile and stand confinement well, but 
 they fatten readily, and it is harder to keep them free from vermin than 
 the lighter and thinner-feathered breeds. The feathers on the legs are 
 
The Business Breeds. 
 
 objectionable in damp or muddy situations. We are more likely to over- 
 feed the larger breeds, and make them too fat for good layers. The good 
 points of the Brahma are fairly stated by a leading poultryman as follows : 
 
 "The Light Brahma is a very tame breed; will bear close confinement 
 and do well. They may be kept in a yard with a fence three feet high, 
 made of wire netting. The chicks will grow very fast; at the age of six 
 months they will weigh seven pounds, and will bring the highest market 
 price, because they have nice yellow meat and are well fattened. I sold 
 my chickens last Fall, and they brought me 18 cents per pound dressed. 
 I can fatten them up quicker than the lighter breeds. They are just the 
 breed for the city. They are one of the oldest breeds, and have come to 
 stay. They are good layers for Winter and Summer, good sitters and 
 mothers. For an all-'round breed they cannot be beaten. My objection 
 to the smaller breeds is that I live in a village and have not the 
 room. Any one who has little room ought not to keep Leghorns or the 
 like. They need more run, and more run means more feed. A breed 
 that does not run requires less feed, and that is the light Brahma." 
 
 The Cochins and Brahmas have yellow legs and skin, while Langshans, 
 another Asiatic breed, have dark legs and white skin. There are many 
 other excellent breeds, such as Polish, Hamburg, Orpingtons, Redcaps, 
 Javas, Houdans and others. Some of them are profitable in the hands 
 of breeders who know and love them, but we do not class them here as 
 business hens. The Orpingtons are said to represent a cross between 
 the Langshans and the Minorcas. They are classed as excellent layers 
 and are gaining in popularity. They lack the yellow skin which is a 
 strong feature of the American breeds. The Dorkings are large birds, 
 fair layers, and good mothers, perhaps the first of all table fowls, but 
 not as hardy as others. The Games are active birds, and while of little. 
 value for business, when bred pure are often useful to cross with othei 
 breeds, especially when the birds are to run at large on a farm. The half- 
 bred Games make good foragers and fair layers, and are able to defend 
 themselves against vermin . A half-bred Game hen has been known to fly 
 into the air and fight with a hawk in defense of her chicks. It is often 
 asked if the new colors which are constantly appearing in all breeds add 
 anything of practical value. It is safe to say that there is nothing in the 
 color of the plumage of any of the varieties (or strains), of the several 
 breeds that indicate superiority. The color is barely skin deep. Each 
 variety has its admirers, and each is claimed as something better than the 
 others. We have not found color to add merit to a breed, and the onlv 
 difference between varieties of the same breed is that the colors are not 
 alike. Breeds that are "not very numerous are sometimes lacking in hardi- 
 ness by reason of being inbred, but this applies only to Javas, Dorkings, 
 Polish, Hamburgs, Redcaps, etc. 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 The Scrub Hen Turned to Business. 
 
 By "scrub" is meant the hen that runs in the barnyard, roosts in a 
 tree in Summer, and either in the barn or in some broken henhouse in 
 Winter. She is usually of no particular breed. She leaves her mark over 
 the machinery, scratches up the garden, when there is any, and keeps busy 
 generally. She is not fed regularly. Sometimes the farmer throws out 
 a little corn, or the women save some table scraps from dog or cat, but 
 the hen lives for the most part on what she can pick up around the barn 
 and yard; clover chaff, grain dropped by the stock, anything that her sharp 
 eyes can find. In Summer, when insects abound, the scrub hen balances 
 her ration better than a chemist could do it for her. A grain of corn, a 
 bug, a blade of grass, a nip out of a ripe tomato, a worm or a bit of 
 ground feed that the horse dropped out of his mouth, fill the scrub hen's 
 crop to overflowing. When lice worry her she rolls in the dust and 
 deserts her so-called house. She can usually clear herself of all but head 
 lice in this way. Roup and cholera trouble her little — her outdoor life keeps 
 her strong ami well. She has the reputation of being a mighty layer, 
 because she does about all her laying in the Spring and early Summer, and 
 makes a big fuss about is. She rarely lays 50 eggs during the year. No one 
 keeps her record. Without care she will go back to the condition of her an- 
 cestors, who only laid eggs enough to fill a nest, like the other wild birds. 
 She finds her own nest, for those man fixes for her are not to her taste. 
 Sometimes she sits on her eggs for several days before they are picked up, 
 regardless of the fact that before two days of incubation are over the 
 heart of the little chick inside the egg can be plainly seen. The scrub 
 hen is not responsible for the fact that thousands of such eggs are sent to 
 market to disgust those who ought to buy more eggs ! During the Winter 
 the scrub hen quits, and gives a fair imitation of a woodchuck living on 
 his fat. No one can blame her! She has all she can do to keep life in 
 her body, to say nothing of laying eggs! Many of these scrub hens would, 
 if they had the chance, rank well as layers, with some of the purebreds, 
 but what can a hen do without a chance? 
 
 In spite of all, many of these flocks of scrub hens are profitable. It 
 costs little or nothing to feed them in Summer, and the eggs they lay and 
 the meat they furnish are nearly all clear gain. They usually deprive the 
 family of a good garden, for few men who will not care for a flock of 
 poultry will ever build a fence that will keep them out of the garden. 
 Through the Winter they are usually an expense and little more. The 
 
The Scrub Hen Turned to Business. 11 
 
 ordinary flock of scrub poultry contains a large number of surplus 
 roosters — too many for any practical use. Lice, starvation, lack of shelter 
 and surplus roosters are the chief reasons why many of these worthy 
 hens remain scrubs. In every such flock there is the foundation for a 
 class of poultry that will be a credit to the farm, and pay better in propor- 
 tion to value than any other stock. If the farmer does not care for the 
 job of improvement some woman or child may well take hold of it. 
 
 What can be done? 
 
 The flock is probably inbred — that is, all of one family. Kill off all 
 the roosters and eat or sell them. Pick out 15 or 20 of the best of the 
 hens, and make some good-sized yard where they can have a good run. 
 Make up your mind what class of poultry you want to breed, and then 
 buy a Leghorn, a Wyandotte or a Plymouth Rock rooster from some good 
 breeder. Don't go to a neighbor and "swap roosters," but get a bird that 
 cannot be closely related to your hens. If you can pick out yearling hens, 
 buy a young rooster. If the hens are younger buy an older male. Put 
 him with your selected hens, and use those eggs for setting. You need no 
 other rooster on the farm. If the flock is small you may not want to 
 pen up the selected hens, but unless you do you cannot be sure that your 
 eggs for hatching will be what you want. The improvement made in one 
 season by the use of a good male on selected hens is often surprising. If 
 you can do so, buy one or two settings of eggs of the same breed as the 
 rooster, and hatch them under your hens. Get them from different 
 breeders. Then you can select a good rooster from the chicks for the next 
 year's breeding. As soon as the young roosters are large enough to kill 
 sell or eat them. Keep only one good one on the farm — with your best 
 hens. Do not let the hens hatch where the other hens lay, or send them 
 off to steal their nests. You must control such things if you expect to 
 improve your stock. Find some old building or room, clean it up and 
 handle the sitting hens as described elsewhere in this book. It will takt 
 more time to give the hens and chicks this care, but it will pay, as man> 
 a farmer's wife has found. When cold weather comes, a warm house will 
 be absolutely necessary. This does not mean an expensive building, but a 
 shelter of any kind where the hens may be comfortable. In parts of the 
 West a frame of poles is set up and covered with straw in November. 
 The hens run inside this warm shelter and do well. In May the straw 
 is taken away and burned, or used for the garden. The success with such 
 rude shelter shows that it is not so much the kind of house, but the 
 warmth and freedom from drafts, frost, lice and foul air that makes the 
 hen think that Spring has come in February. On every farm where there are 
 hens there is some old henhouse. Clean it up and try it. Go at it with 
 hoe and boiling water, and make it clean ! Take out the roosts, paint 
 them with kerosene, and swab out the cracks and corners. Make a thick 
 
12 The Business Hen. 
 
 whitewash, add a little carbolic acid to it, and smear the whole inside over. 
 An old house is alive with lice, and you should kill them all before you 
 force a hen to stay there. Before cold weather comes make that house 
 tight. Either tack paper all around inside or put up lath or wire and stuff 
 in straw. Keep drafts away from the hens. Study what is said about 
 house building and feeding, and come as near to it as you can. The chiet 
 object of this book is to show how others have succeeded with hens. The 
 scrub grows into the true Business Hen by the application of business 
 principles which mean work, care and patience. You must work these 
 general rules out to suit your own case. Do not be satisfied with the scrub 
 that lays 50 eggs, but give her children the breeding and care that will 
 make them lay 150 eggs. 
 
 The history of one of our best American breeds, the Rhode Island 
 Red, will show a farmer what an ordinary hen may come to if well handled. 
 By carefully selecting his best hens and crossing them with an Asiatic 
 breed, a Rhode Island farmer obtained a class of poultry which became 
 noted for egg production and meat value. Others took up the hens, and 
 from them developed the Rhode Island Reds, which are considered by 
 many as strong rivals of the Wyandottes. The breed has not yet been 
 ' fixed" — that is, specimens will not breed as true in color or habits as 
 a breed like the Plymouth Rock. Its future will depend upon the breeders 
 who perfect it. If they favor large egg production, they will select hens 
 with that object in view and thus we shall have a smaller and more active 
 bird than the Light Brahma or even the Plymouth Rock. We speak of this 
 to show how a breeder may control the character of his poultry. 
 
 Another thing connected with improvement of the scrub hen is the 
 moral or civilizing effect it will have upon the family. The effect upon 
 any household of changing a lot of neglected mongrels into a flock of 
 handsome and uniform hens cannot help being beneficial. It will create 
 a new interest in farming and lead to efforts to improve the larger stock 
 on the farm. If some bright boy can be put in charge of the work and 
 given a fair chance to develop the hens you will begin to train a good far- 
 mer while improving the flock. On some farms the boy often has a colt 
 or a calf or pig to call his own, though he does not always get the money 
 for it. For many reasons a good flock of poultry would be much better 
 for him, and it would be hard to think of any better training for such a 
 boy than the patience and skill required to turn a scrub into a "Business 
 Hen." 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 Parents of the Egg. 
 
 The egg contains the future chick. It may be said to carry the character 
 of the parents wrapped up in a shell. Having selected the breed that is 
 best suited to his wants and conditions, the poultry keeper of course wants 
 the best specimens of that breed that he can produce. It is far better to 
 stick to one breed and select a definite type than to cross breeds. 
 
 PEDIGREE. — We know that with all animals, from cats to cattle, there 
 are good and bad specimens in every breed. We call some cows better 
 than others because the good ones give more milk than the poor ones. 
 We do not from choice raise calves from cows that we know are poor ones. 
 If we raise calves at all we save the daughters of the best cows in the 
 herd, because we feel sure that some of the good qualities of the mother 
 will be handed down to the daughter. We know that such things as color 
 and shape are carried in this way, and that character goes along with them. 
 If the mother is reasonably sure to give something of her character to her 
 daughter she is more likely to do so if her own mother and ancestors, for 
 several generations, have been selected for a similar purpose. That is 
 what we call "pedigree" in live stock, and improvement in the character 
 of the cow or the hen comes through our ability to make the daughter 
 better than the mother. The way to do this is to select the best mothers 
 for breeding. 
 
 How are we to know them? 
 
 A good dairyman can pick out a first-class milker by her shape and 
 various points which he can see or feel. His eye will enable him to make 
 a good guess, but he would not raise a calf from one of these cows until 
 he had a fair idea of how much milk she can give, or what her mother did. 
 Most men who try to improve their poultry must depend on the eye for 
 selecting breeding stock. They make up their mind what size, shape and 
 color will suit them. When that is fixed in mind they have a "type," and 
 they will naturally cull out the birds that fall short of it. By watching 
 their hens and observing their habits they soon find that they can pick out 
 the layers, just as they learn to separate the workers from the shirks in 
 men or in children. They find that the laying hen acts like a worker. She 
 is busy and active— off the roost early in the morning after food — a picture 
 of nervous energy. The lazy hen is slow to leave the roost, and shows by 
 her actions that she takes little interest in the things that attract the layer. 
 We cannot describe the "points" of a layer. A man must study them 
 for himself. Mr. C. H. Wyckoff, who selected his White Leghorn breeding 
 
M 
 
 The Business Hen. 
 
 hens by the eye — studying shape and what egg-laying habits he could see — 
 said that when he finally made his selection he found the hens about 
 as follows : 
 
 EGG TYPE. — "Large-boned, rather long in leg and neck, long on the 
 back, deep up and down, with legs set fairly well apart, breast bone some- 
 what prominent, flesh hard, strong and muscular, in good condition, but 
 not fat ; comb rather above average in size ; eyes bright and full ; disposition 
 lively, but not scarey; more inclined to follow after and crowd about than 
 to run and fly; large consumers of food, and always hungry when fed 
 regularly and given a chance to exercise." 
 
 Of course the type for other breeds would differ from this, but the 
 owner must first decide what he wants his hens to be, and then watch for 
 that type in his flock. In most breeds the best layers are broad and deep, 
 
 with rather long bodies, with a long 
 neck and small head. The shape of the 
 hen is not as safe a guide as with 
 other animals, for the hen is covered 
 with feathers which may seem to 
 change her shape. The actions of the 
 hen indicate her laying qualities far 
 better than her shape ; still it is well 
 to fix a certain type in mind and use it 
 for our standard. Strong and vigor- 
 ous chicks cannot be hatched unless 
 the hens are in good condition. If 
 they are fat and dumpy the chicks will 
 fail. The hens must be kept at work 
 and in good condition. 
 
 SELECTING BREEDERS.— When 
 a man is keeping poultry for profit, or expects to continue in the business, 
 he should keep these selected breeders by themselves with the best male 
 bird he can find. In this way he can use the eggs from these hens for 
 hatching. Usually he will have to select the male by his appearance, but 
 he should try to have him close to the general type of the hens, and be 
 sure that he is strong, vigorous and active. It is not a wise plan to select 
 these breeders in the Spring, just before their eggs are wanted for hatching. 
 All hens are laying them, the lazy as well as the good ones, and the hen 
 that lays 50 eggs a year may make more fuss while she is actually working 
 than the one that lays 150. We should watch the hens through the season, 
 and make the selection during the late Summer and Fall, when most of 
 them stop. 
 
 TRAP NESTS.— There is a way of picking the robbers from tht 
 workers by using what are called "trap nests." Two of such nests are 
 
 Fig. 4. TRAP NEST OPEN. 
 
Parents of the Egg. 
 
 15 
 
 shown here. The nest is a box with the door so adjusted that when the 
 hen goes in to lay this door closes and shuts her in. She cannot get out 
 until some one opens the door. Each hen has a band on her leg carrying 
 a number, and by marking her number on the egg she has laid, it is possible 
 to know what each hen in the pen is doing. Those who use these trap 
 nests tell some remarkable stories about their results. They have picked 
 out hens by the eye and found by testing that some of them laid twice 
 as many eggs as others. It is claimed that by testing hens with the trap 
 nests and using eggs from the best for hatching, through several gener- 
 ations, an "egg-laying strain" of great value can be developed. The plan 
 is not generally practiced, however. Most breeders think it requires too 
 much time. The hens sometimes refuse 
 to enter the nests and lay outside. It 
 is also claimed that the egg-laying 
 habit alone is not a safe guide, but that 
 the shape and vigor of the birds must 
 be considered. The "trap nest" at least 
 gives a chance for selecting a male bird 
 of good "pedigree." For the average 
 poultry keeper the best advice is to 
 pick out a type and study the habits of 
 the hens. Then select by the eye hens 
 enough to supply the eggs needed for 
 hatching. We would especially study 
 the actions of the pullets as they begin 
 to lay. 
 
 CARE OF BREEDERS.— These 
 breeders should be given as large a run 
 as possible, for exercise is necessary if 
 we expect healthy chicks. Yearling 
 hens are selected for breeders with a 
 younger male. There are several good 
 
 reasons why pullets are not used for breeding stock by experienced poultry- 
 men. They begin laying earlier than the older hens, so that when eggs 
 are most wanted for incubators the pullets have been laying steadily for 
 a long time. Such eggs are not so likely to be fertile as those laid 
 earlier in the laying period and the chicks from them will be weaker. We 
 want eggs from the hen in her full vigor, not after she has been exhausted 
 by long laying. The pullets too are young and not fully matured, and thus 
 not so likely to produce the best chicks. The older hens lay fewer eggs, 
 which are likely to be stronger. If pullets are used an older male should 
 be put with them, while a vigorous young bird is better for the older hens. 
 The number of hens to the male will vary with the breed and the size of the 
 
 Fig. 5. TRAP NEST SHUT. 
 
16 The Business lien. 
 
 flock. For the heavier breeds 15 hens are enough, while we have known 
 cases where one male to 50 Leghorn hens gave a large per cent of fertile 
 eggs. For the smaller breeds we prefer an average of 25 hens. In some 
 cases two males are used alternately in a small flock. One will run with 
 the hens for four or five days, while the other is kept in a small cage. 
 Then the caged bird will be set free and his rival put in the cage. This 
 double system is more likely to insure fertile eggs, but of course the two 
 males must be alike in type. Some successful poultrymen pay little 
 attention to selecting breeders, but take eggs from large flocks where 
 several males are kept together. Such men say that proper feeding will 
 make any hen lay, but unless hens are quite different from all other animals 
 their character is largely made by inherited qualities. 
 
 We give considerable space to this matter, because it is the foundation 
 of improvement in the flock of poultry. The proper selection and mating 
 of the parents of the egg may mean a difference of 50 per cent in 
 hatchable eggs and raisable chicks. In some farm flocks little attention 
 is paid to improvement by selection — the plea being that it takes too much 
 time to bother with such things, though a child might easily be interested 
 in it. Even in such cases it will pay to have a certain type in mind, and 
 cull out for eating purposes the birds that fall short of this standard. 
 We may undo most of our work of breeding by selection if we do not 
 bring in "new blood" from time to time. Some good flocks are ruined 
 by what is known as "inbreeding" — that is, breeding brothers and sisters 
 or closely related members of the same family. We can obtain "new 
 blood" by buying a good male bird from some breeder, or several sittings 
 of eggs. 
 
 From the chicks hatched from these eggs we should be able to pick 
 two or more good males to head our breeding pens; above all things, be 
 sure to select strong and vigorous stock. When we buy such eggs or 
 birds we buy a share of the skill and patience which other breeders have 
 spent in selecting. We may thus buy for a dollar results which would 
 cost us five years of personal study and work. 
 
 CROSSING THE BREEDS.— Mr. P. H. Jacobs says that it is the 
 common belief among many that to mate individuals of different breeds 
 is to insure greater vigor and hardiness, as well as avoid inbreeding. Such 
 a system among poultrymen is termed "crossing." Before crossing for 
 "vigor" it would be well first to ascertain whether the flock is lacking in 
 that respect, and, if so, the safer method would be to discard the individuals 
 and replace them with others of the same breeds. All breeds are the 
 result of careful and judicious crossing, and any attempt to improve a 
 flock of purebred fowls by crossing is to incur the risk of destroying all 
 the desirable characteristics obtained only after years of patient industry 
 and skillful selection. 
 
Parents of the Egg. 
 
 17 
 
 "It should not be overlooked that each breed possesses only one 
 dominant trait, or talent. It may combine several desirable characteristics, 
 but it will excel in one only. No breed is perfect, as it will surely be 
 found lacking in some respect. For instance, the prolificacy of certain 
 breeds may be offset by lack of hardiness, exceedingly large combs, very 
 small size, inability to endure confinement, etc., while the breeds preferred 
 in market may not equal some others as layers. 
 
 "When two purebred fowls are crossed — that is, when birds of different 
 breeds are mated — such breeding cannot possibly add to the progress more 
 than is possessed by the parent individuals. The crossing of Leghorn and 
 Brahma fowls does not prove beneficial, for the reason that such a cross is 
 not only what may be termed a 'violent' one, but the progeny is not a non- 
 sitter, like its Leghorn parent, does not possess greater activity than the 
 Leghorn, nor it is as hardy as the Brahma, losing in size as well as in 
 adaptability to exist under the same condi- 
 tions as either parent. A cross of Ham- 
 burg and Leghorn (within non-sitting 
 breeds) made by me, produced progeny 
 with persistent inclination to become 
 broody, while every attempt to secure 
 vigor, hardiness, improved market quality, 
 or prolificacy, by crossing dozens of 
 breeds, in various matings and selections, 
 has always failed to give me satisfactory 
 results. It is better to rely upon pure 
 breeds, and select them especially for the purpose one may have in view, 
 as each breed will be found adapted for accomplishing certain objects more 
 than others. 
 
 "Crossing is always disastrous to him who abandons the pure breeds. 
 The next generation (if the cross-bred fowls are used) produces nonde- 
 scripts, having no uniformity of color, size, or characteristics, seemingly 
 reverting to all the ancestors in their breeding, the whole being a motley 
 lot, on a par with scrubs. The first cross of two purebred fowls usually 
 shows the progeny to resemble the male parent in general appearance, 
 rather than the female, and the points of excellence of the parents are 
 lost rather than intensified. My experience has been that no one has ever 
 attempted the crossing of pure breeds who did not eventually find his flock 
 composed of scrubs, and crossing has done more to disgust admirers of 
 poultry than anything else, as by so doing they destroy the beauty of their 
 flocks and gain nothing from a utilitarian standpoint. If one wishes to 
 add vigor and hardiness to the members of his flock he can do so by pro- 
 curing males from other well-known sources, while even the common flock- 
 may be improved by the use of purebred males every year." 
 
 Fig. 6. 
 ■CHEAP JOHN" TRAP NEST. 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 What . is an Egg ? 
 
 The egg is the first stage in the reproduction of birds. Its function 
 primarily is to produce offspring, secondarily to furnish food for the 
 embryo and for man. The hen therefore fulfills dual purposes which in 
 a measure are antagonistic in their requirements. The first demand of 
 nature is that the hen shall produce eggs that possess all the qualities ot 
 life and nutrition necessary to produce strong chickens; the second, that 
 she shall furnish eggs good to eat and lots of them. In order to satisfy 
 the commercial requirements of man the hen often is compelled to sacri- 
 fice the higher demands of nature. It becomes a vital question therefore 
 for every poultryman to decide to what extent he can force heavy lay- 
 ing without sacrificing the fertility of the eggs or the vitality of the 
 chickens. It is well, then, that we inquire what an egg is and how it is 
 formed. 
 
 HOW THE EGG IS MADE.— The first stage in the development of 
 the egg is the formation of the "yolk." The "ovary" or "egg cluster," 
 which forms a part of the muscular tissue on the left side of the 
 spine, contains many yolks in various stages of development, depending 
 upon the condition of the hen, from the full-sized ripe yolk ready to bt 
 detached, to the microscopic cells so small that they cannot be discerned 
 by the naked eye. Within this ovarian tissue is the power to develop 
 countless other yolks not yet apparent. The number of these yolks or 
 "ova," which may be developed, is not a fixed quantity, certainly not 
 exactly 600, as is frequently stated. The number of eggs which a hen 
 will lay depends upon the inherited tendency of each hen to reproduce, and 
 upon her vigor and vitality to withstand the heavy drain upon her system. 
 The ovary of certain hens is absolutely sterile. Others have the power to 
 produce a few eggs in short litters, while some have an ovary so strong 
 and reproductive that they lay almost without interruption, and continue 
 to do so for years. The egg-laying power is a matter of inheritance. It 
 is a question of selection and breeding, and of stimulating the ovaries 
 to activity by proper feeding. 
 
 Fig. 1, next page, shows ovary of a hen; 2 is the yolk held within 
 the ovisac or follicle (5). When the yolk is fully ripe it bursts from the 
 follicle and drops into the neck of the oviduct (7). Here we see a wise 
 provision nf nature. In order to prevent rupture of blood vessels where 
 the follicle opens, there is a suture mark around the entire surface, where 
 the blood vessels meet but do not cross (4). If for any reason the folli- 
 
What Is An Egg? 
 
 19 
 
 cle is ruptured before it is matured, through rough handling of the fowl 
 or because of weakness due to debility, a slight clot of blood escapes, 
 which remains on the surface of the yolk or mingles with the white, which 
 leads the consumer to suspect an egg which is perfectly fresh to have 
 been slightly incubated. Occasionally, when hens are in perfect laying 
 condition, two yolks will ripen and burst their follicles at the same time, 
 
 Fig. 7. DEVELOPMENT OP A HEN'S EGG. 
 
20 
 
 The Business Hen. 
 
 and be encased within the same shell, producing a double yolked egg. It 
 is perfectly apparent then that if the yolk is the first part of the egg to 
 be formed that all the conditions for its development must be met, or the 
 hen cannot make the egg. The activity of development of the ovary 
 depends first upon good health. The hen in the best laying condition is 
 in the best health. Reproduction is a question of nerve strength which is 
 dependent upon physical vigor. The over-fat hen does not lay well, 
 because over-fatness is softness and weakness, which ends in debility. A 
 
 poor hen cannot 
 lay because there 
 is no surplus fat 
 with which to 
 make the egg. An- 
 alysis of the yolk 
 of an egg shows 
 it about one-half 
 fat. Unless the 
 fowl can sup- 
 ply the available 
 fat the yolk can- 
 not develop. 
 Therefore it will 
 be found that the 
 hens in their best 
 laying condition 
 will have a little 
 surplus fat in their 
 body. 
 
 When the yolk 
 has entered the 
 oviduct it is quick- 
 ly passed along 
 
 where the albu- 
 FORMS OP EGGS. men Qr „ whhe „ ; g 
 
 deposited (10). During the passage it is pushed forward by the con- 
 traction of the muscles of the oviduct, which, being twisted and convoluted, 
 gives the yolk a turning motion as it advances, so that the albumen is 
 deposited in several layers. These layers may be seen by examining care- 
 fully a hard-boiled egg. The twisting motion of the yolk in its passage 
 causes twisted string-like fibres of albumen to form on two sides of the 
 yolk. These are called the "chalazae," Fig. 3 (5). They cause the yolk to 
 swing in the watery albumen like a hammock. This tends to prevent 
 injury to the yolk by any jarring or jolting which the egg may receive. 
 
What Is An Egg? 21 
 
 Whatever way the egg is turned the yolk quickly assumes its natural 
 position. The yolk, containing a large amount of fat, is lighter than 
 the albumen, therefore has a tendency 'to float at the surface, which during 
 incubation allows the young germ of life, which is on the surface of the 
 lightest portion of the yolk, to float in the warmest portion of the egg, 
 which is in contact with the body of the incubating hen. 
 
 The yolk is covered by the "vitelline" membrane (11). The yellow 
 liquid within the membrane is called the "vitellus," which is used for the 
 most part to nourish the young chicken just before and for several days 
 after it hatches. The color of the yolk depends upon the kind of food fed. 
 Yellow corn and green food produce a deep colored yolk, while oats, 
 wheat and buckwheat produce a light yellow, due to the absence of color- 
 ing pigment in the grain. One of the first signs of weakened vitality in 
 hens is a tenderness of the vitelline membrane, which often ruptures when 
 eggs are roughly handled. This allows the vitellus to escape and mingle 
 with the white. The yolks therefore of perfectly fresh eggs from such 
 hens will rupture even when the egg is carefully broken. Keeping eggs 
 weakens the vitelline membrane. 
 
 Just under the vitelline membrane, and at the surface of the yolk, is 
 the "germinal vesicle," Fig. 1 (12), the vital life principle of the egg. With- 
 out fecundation by the male no life would be developed in the germinal 
 vesicle, and the egg would be infertile. If fecundation should take place 
 and the hen should not be in vigorous condition, life would not necessarily 
 be developed. Infertility is due quite as much to lack of vital force of 
 the hen, because of close confinement, excessive laying or improper feed- 
 ing as to any fault of the male. 
 
 Fecundation cannot take place until the yolk has burst from the 
 tough skin of the follicle, Fig. 1 (5), has entered the oviduct, Fig. 1 (7). 
 Here it comes in contact with the "spermatozoa" of the male, which there 
 swarm and live for several weeks, growing less numerous and less active 
 with age. The spermatozoa penetrate the vitelline membrane, unite with 
 the germinal vesicle and life is begun. If the egg should be retained 
 for any considerable time, which often happens, the body heat will start 
 the process of incubation, which will continue until the egg is placed in 
 a temperature too cold for development. Eggs which are not fertile will 
 therefore continue without danger of incubation in a temperature that 
 would allow life to develop with a fertile egg. 
 
 After the albumen has been secreted in the part of the oviduct, Fig. 1 
 (9), it is pushed along to a point where the shell membrane is formed, it is 
 supposed somewhere at or between 13 — 14 Fig. 1, after which another 
 membrane is added. Then the egg passes to position marked 14 Fig. 1, 
 and Fig. 2 (2), where the glands secrete a liquid which contains carbonate 
 of lime and other mineral matters. This hardening process is completed 
 
22 The Business Hen. 
 
 frequently while the hen is on the nest. A color pigment is sometimes 
 secreted with the shell-making liquid, which gives to eggs their character- 
 istic colors. The color of the shell is largely an individual characteristic, 
 and remains practically constant with the individual, except that the egg 
 shell gradually fades in color toward the end 01 the laying period. This is 
 particularly noticeable in comparing the first and the last eggs laid by 
 turkeys. The shell-making fluid appears to be secreted by tiny ducts, 
 which leave their impression by numerous fine depressions or pores in 
 the egg shell, which can be easily seen by close inspection. The importance 
 of providing mineral matter in the form of cracked oyster shell, mortar 
 and bone is seen in the fact that if the hen lacks these materials or through 
 debility cannot assimilate them, her eggs will be soft-shelled. Naturally, 
 when the egg production has drained her system of this material, her 
 appetite craves it, and if it is not otherwise supplied, she will instinctively 
 eat the egg shells. This is the most common cause of egg eating. 
 
 When the egg rests in the "cloaca," Fig. 2 (4), before being laid, it is 
 covered with a secretion that assists in the depositing of the egg, which 
 when dry gives the shell its natural fresh appearance, and which undoubt- 
 edly has much to do with controlling the evaporation of the egg contents. 
 Therefore eggs for hatching should not be washed unless it be to remove 
 dirt which would materially stop the pores in the shell. This oily coating 
 is particularly apparent on duck eggs. 
 
 It is to be doubted whether a hen can voluntarily stop the formation 
 of an egg up to the point of its completion. But she can retain the egg 
 at will for considerable time thereafter. It is perfectly certain, however, 
 that improper feeding, neglect, fright or any condition that interferes with 
 digestion or peace of mind will stop the process of egg-making in any 
 of its stages. Frequently the white is deposited without yolk or shell. 
 It is very common to find eggs devoid of shell, and occasionally a yolk 
 will be laid without shell or albumen. It is not uncommon to find an egg 
 with white and shell complete without the yolk. In rare instances a per- 
 fect egg has been found within an egg. This is brought about by the 
 completed egg being forced back by injury through the portion of the 
 oviduct where additional albumen is secreted and then returning to the 
 place where a new shell is deposited. When the egg evaporates, the outer 
 membrane, Fig. 3 (3), continues to adhere to the shell, while the inner 
 membrane follows the contents of the egg as it shrinks in size, thus form- 
 ing the air space, which is usually at the large end of the egg, occasion- 
 ally on the side and rarely on the small end. 
 
 The shape of the egg is determined by the form of the mold in which 
 it is cast, which differs with breeds, varieties, and even with individuals 
 of the same strain. The form of egg peculiar to an individual remains 
 practically constant, so much so that one can pick out an egg from certain 
 
What Is An Egg? 
 
 23 
 
 hens from a large flock with quite a degree of certainty, purely by the 
 shape of the egg. i he groups of eggs shown in Figs. 8-11 show this point 
 very accurately. The eggs marked (a) were laid by hen No. 56; those 
 at (b) by hen No. 148, both White Wyandottes ; those at (c) by hen 
 No. 70; those at (d) by hen No. 75, both Single Comb White Leghorns; 
 
 Fig. 9. FORMS OF EGGS. 
 
 those at (e) were laid by a White Plymouth Rock; those at (f) by a 
 Barred Plymouth Rock. It will be seen that each hen has a type of egg 
 which is peculiarly her own, differing only slightly from day to day, ex- 
 cept in a case of abnormality due to some unusual condition. The eggs 
 
24 
 
 The Business Hen. 
 
 marked a, b, c, and d, were picked out of a large tray full of eggs which 
 were laid by different hens. The selection was made strictly upon their 
 shape and color without looking at the number of the hen, which is 
 marked on the large end of the egg when it is gathered. The peculiar 
 
 Pig. 10. FORMS OF EGGS. 
 
 characteristics distinguishing the egg were so marked that scarcely any 
 error was made guessing the identity of the hen that laid them. The eggs 
 marked (a) were distinguishable by their large size, extreme length and 
 
What Is An Egg? 
 
 25 
 
 rich uniform light 
 brown color ; eggs 
 marked (b) by their 
 perfect egg shape, 
 large size and dark 
 brown color ; eggs 
 marked (c) by their 
 long, thin form with 
 a tendency to a slight 
 ridge in the center; 
 eggs marked (d) by 
 their almost abnor- 
 mal roundness ; eggs 
 marked (e) by the 
 peculiar wart-like ex- 
 crescence on the small 
 end of each egg. 
 
 Abnormal eggs are 
 due either to injury 
 to the fowl while the 
 egg is being formed 
 or to faulty nutrition. 
 The cuts represent 
 various types of ab- 
 normal eggs, (a) and 
 (1) are too long; 
 (m), (e) and (o) too 
 round; (k) is wedge 
 shaped; (o) has a de- 
 cided ridge at the 
 center; (f) and (q) 
 are flattened on one 
 side ; those marked 
 (j) are elliptical; (i) 
 
 are almost cylindrical; (a) is drawn out at the point; (p) are eggs with 
 rough, weak shells ; (g) is as round as a marble and about the size of a 
 hickorynut; (h) is about the same size, but elongated; those marked (r) 
 represent the two extremes, a double-yolked egg and a diminutive but 
 perfect shaped egg. These small eggs are nearly always devoid of yolks. 
 It does not follow that a hen that lays a diminutive egg has laid similar 
 eggs previously or that she will do so again. Eggs marked (g) were all 
 laid by the Single Comb White Leghorn hen No. 85 ; those marked (h) 
 were laid by the Single Comb White Leghorn hen No. 82, the two 
 
 Fig. 11. FORMS OF EGGS. 
 
26 " The Business Hen. 
 
 normal eggs in each case being laid a few days after the abnormal. The 
 abnormality, however, may continue. One hen laid seven diminutive 
 tggs continuously and then stopped laying. Of the five eggs marked (a), 
 Fig. 10, the first two eggs which are perfect and normal were followed by 
 the abnormal long-drawn-out egg which was so weak at the point that 
 it scarcely retained the egg contents. Within two or three days follow- 
 ing the other two eggs were laid which were perfectly normal and sound. 
 
 Just how long it takes for each part of the egg to be secreted is 
 not known. The whole process is supposed to take about 18 hours. Con- 
 siderable time is taken for the shell to be deposited and to harden. Two 
 eggs can be under way at the same time. When the hen is not laying the 
 oviduct is shrunken and not more than one-fifth its natural size. Like all 
 secretory glands, the oviduct enlarges with the activity of the organ. In 
 this one respect it may be compared with the udder of a cow "fresh in 
 milk" and one "gone dry." The oviduct when stretched out and congested 
 is normally a little over 20 inches long. 
 
 The development of an egg is more elaborate and more exhaustive than 
 a simple secretion like that of milk-making. It is both a reproductive and 
 a secretory process. The perfect egg contains the materials and the life 
 to form a new animal, a shell to protect it during subsequent develop- 
 ment, and the food to nourish it for several days after it is born. A good 
 hen is expected to lay, that is, to give birth to, about 150 offspring in a 
 year, which is equivalent to about five times her own weight. This is 
 a heavy drain upon her system. Something of its immediate effect will 
 be seen by the fact ascertained by one of our students (Henry Jennings) 
 that a hen's temperature immediately after laying is from two to three 
 degrees higher than normal, the normal being about 106. 
 
 The composition of the egg remains practically constant. This is 
 true even under different systems of feeding. Careful observation of two 
 pens of Plymouth Rock hens was made and the eggs analyzed after 
 they had been fed about three months on radically different rations. 
 Pen one was fed largely on protein-rich foods ; pen two was fed largely 
 on foods deficient in protein, the former being a ration for making muscle 
 and the latter for making fat. Nevertheless the eggs from the two pens 
 remained practically identical in composition. This illustrates one of the 
 highest laws of nature, namely, that the animal will sacrifice its own bodily 
 strength in order to make a perfect offspring, which is a necessary pro- 
 vision to insure the perpetuation of the species. There is little difference 
 in the composition of eggs from different breeds, or between light-shelled 
 and dark-shelled eggs. 
 
 There is a difference between hens that are well fed and those that 
 are improperly fed, as shown in their fertility, the strength of the germs 
 and the vitality of the chickens. The chemist may not be able to find it 
 
What Fs An Egg? 27 
 
 in the composition, but the difference is there nevertheless. Hens that are 
 closely confined to limited quarters where they do not get exercise nor 
 have access to sunshine and fresh air, even though well fed, are almost 
 certain to produce eggs low in fertility and weak in vitality. Over-fat 
 hens and very poor hens, if they lay at all, are certain to produce eggs 
 which are almost devoid of the life-giving principles. 
 
 While forced feeding of highly stimulating foods during Fall and 
 Winter might result in a condition of nerve exhaustion during the hatch- 
 ing season and would naturally result in less fertile eggs, it does not 
 follow that just because hens do not lay during Fall and Winter that 
 they will give more fertile eggs during the Spring. Most frequently the 
 hens that do not lay during the Winter have not been properly cared for, 
 they being either too fat from over-feeding or improper feeding, or too 
 poor because underfed. The fowl that lays the most fertile eggs is the 
 one that is in the best health. She may be the hen that has laid regularly 
 for a long period of time. To get fertile eggs, open-air exercise and 
 plenty of meat and green food are necessary. 
 
 The proportion of males to females in the breeding of flock depends 
 upon the breed, also upon the individual. One vigorous, active, prepotent 
 male will give greater fertility than three or four sluggish, effeminate 
 males. I have known almost perfect fertility with 36 White Leghorn 
 females to one male, and have seen almost absolute infertility where one 
 male ran with 15 females. Other conditions being equal, the Mediter- 
 ranean, Leghorns, Minorcas, etc.. class can usually be mated 20 to 25 
 females to one male; the American class (Plymouth Rocks, Wyandottes, 
 Javas, etc.) 15 to 20 females to one male; Asiatic (Cochins, Brahmas, etc.) 
 10 to 15 females to one male. Where fowls are kept in flocks wkich 
 require two males (for instance, 40 or 50 Leghorn females,) it is better 
 to allow only one of the males at a time with the flock. The other one 
 should be kept in a coop with plenty of water, grit and food containing 
 an abundance of meat. Two males running together in the same flock 
 dissipate too much of their energy in fighting. This is particularly true if 
 they are in limited quarters. Very good results, however, are obtained 
 by allowing one male to 25 females where fowls run together in flocks of 
 several hundred on unlimited range. 
 
 The shape, size and color of the egg being comparatively constant with 
 individuals, it is evident that like other characteristics they can be trans- 
 mitted from one generation to another, and therefore by selecting only 
 eggs of a certain size, shape and color for hatching, their characteristics 
 become fixed so that a strain of hens will be developed which will lay 
 eggs of the desired type with great regularity. This has been demon- 
 strated in my own experience, where for years we have used only eggs that 
 weigh two ounces or more, of perfect shape, pure white color, for hatching. 
 
28 The Business Hen. 
 
 Each year the percentage of hatchable eggs has astonishingly increased, 
 and the number cf eggs which would have to be thrown out because of 
 not fulfilling the requirements has materially decreased. The result is that 
 the average size and beauty of the egg has materially increased year by 
 year. This principle was strikingly illustrated during my boyhood days on 
 the old farm, where my aunt, who took charge of the hens believed that 
 round eggs would hatch pullets and long eggs slightly wrinkled at the 
 small end would hatch cockerels. For years she would select the round- 
 est eggs for hatching, with the result that year by year our eggs became 
 rounder and rounder, until they were abnormally so, and it became almost 
 a trade mark of the eggs from my grandfather's farm. Of course the 
 per cent of pullets continued as usual. Wise Mother Nature could not be 
 thwarted so easily. The sex of an egg cannot be determined by its shape 
 or by any other external conditions. 
 
 It is well to select only perfectly shaped eggs, uniform in color, of 
 good texture and firm shell, neither over large nor very small, because they 
 will be more apt to produce chickens that lay similar eggs, which look 
 better, and therefore sell for a higher price, and which also hatch more 
 satisfactorily. Eggs which differ in size get different degrees of heat in 
 the incubators, because the larger the egg the warmer it will become, it 
 being closer the source of heat above. The more uniform eggs are in tex- 
 ture of shell the more uniformly they evaporate moisture. Eggs, like 
 milk, being a direct secretion of the blood, are affected in color, flavor and 
 odor by the foods consumed. 
 
 Keeping eggs weakens their vitality. If they are held at too low a 
 temperature the chilling injures them. If they are kept in too warm a 
 temperature, development begins. Just what temperature is best for hold- 
 ing eggs for hatching is not known. It appears to be between 55 and 65 
 degrees Fahrenheit. Eggs evaporate moisture very rapidly if kept in 
 a very dry room. Therefore they should be kept from a direct draft of 
 air. They should be turned daily in order to prevent the yolks rising 
 to the surface and adhering to the shell, in which case the vitelline mem- 
 brane may become ruptured when the egg is turned. Eggs should prove 
 fertile within three or four days after the male has been introduced to the 
 flock. They should be fertile with the second egg after copulation takes 
 place and may be fertile with the first egg. 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 Hatching the Egg. 
 
 WHAT IS INCUBATION?— A barnyard hen of the larger breeds 
 will, if left to herself with enough food, "steal her nest." She finds some 
 secluded place, makes a shallow hole and lays a clutch of eggs in it. She 
 then sits on the eggs, leaving them at intervals for water and food and 
 to dust herself, until they are hatched. It is sometimes asked why such 
 a hen, operating in this crude way, will hatch more and stronger chicks 
 than an incubator, or than most hens when put on selected eggs in a com- 
 fortable nest. The chicks from the stolen nest are generally uniform be- 
 cause they are likely to be all from one hen ; thus they are sure to be 
 much alike, and more likely to be fertile than when picked from a flock. 
 They are strong because the hen works for her food, roaming about the 
 farm picking up a variety, and exercising so as not to be too fat or dumpy. 
 Left to herself, too, the hen lays eggs in her stolen nest just when they are 
 most likely to be suitable for hatching. Thus she sets an example in feed- 
 ing, selection and breeding. In trying to breed improved stock man 
 attempts to imitate the barnyard hen, and at the same time increase the 
 number of her eggs and make sure of her mating. In the same way when 
 we build an incubator we try to imitate the hen by putting the eggs in 
 a box in a chamber where they may be surrounded by the conditions of 
 heat and moisture which the hen puts around her eggs in the nest. 
 
 A broody hen is fat. The organ of incubation is developed. This organ 
 is a network of veins on the lower part of the hen's body. At the time 
 of hatching, that is, when the hen becomes "broody," these veins enlarge 
 and carry more blood, so that a warmer surface is presented to the eggs than 
 would be the case if the hen were not broody. The hen's feathers permit 
 a slight circulation of air to the eggs, and some little moisture comes from 
 her body. The hen leaves her nest at times, or stands up and shakes 
 herself, thus cooling the eggs. She also moves the eggs about from time 
 to time. It is a question whether the hen does this because she knows it 
 is necessary, or because she tries to arrange the eggs so as to make the 
 nest most comfortable. In artificial incubation it has been found best to 
 turn the eggs frequently, the chief reason given for doing so being that if 
 the eggs are not turned the germs may dry fast to the shells early in 
 the hatch. 
 
 In artificial incubation we attempt, to surround the eggs with temper- 
 ature and moisture such as the hen gives them from her body. Under 
 the influence of a steady, gentle heat the life in the egg develops rapidly 
 and in perfect order. An incubator cannot think, and the best of man's 
 
30 The Business Hen. 
 
 thoughts can hardly equal the instinct of the hen. Yet after long experi- 
 ence and observation a poultryman comes to acquire an instinct nearly 
 equal to that of the hen. We do not attempt to give here a scientific 
 essay on incubation. A few practical rules follow, but we know from 
 experience that this is one of the operations that a man must grow into 
 by his own study and practice. Some natural mechanics have made incu- 
 bators of their own which give fair satisfaction, but our advice is to buy 
 a good one rather than to tinker with a home-made affair. There is no 
 other machine now offered for sale which is so fully explained in the 
 catalogues of manufacturers, and one can hardly go wrong if he will 
 follow the advice given him there. It is a wise plan, when starting with 
 an incubator, to set a hen and compare the eggs under her with those in 
 the incubator. Where this is done day by day we get a clearer idea of the 
 way our incubator eggs should "test." While an egg can be tested by 
 an expert by holding it up in a dark room before a light, it is better foi 
 the beginner to obtain a "tester" made for the purpose. As all know, the 
 egg is tested by holding it, surrounded by a dark background, before a 
 flame, so that the light will shine through it. The light of the candle or 
 lamp reveals to us, in the egg, what the X-Ray does in the human body ! 
 
 HATCHING UNDER HENS.— There are many poultrymen who de- 
 pend upon hens to hatch most of their chicks, in spite of the ease with 
 which incubators are handled. When given a tair chance the hen does not 
 need regulating. The hens of the larger breeds lay their clutch of eggs and 
 then show by their actions that they are ready to sit. Everyone who has 
 handled hens knows how they act when broody. They get on the nest, 
 ruffle up their feathers, come as near as they can to growling when ap- 
 proached, and strike with their bills. The whole nature of the hen changes, 
 and if she be given a comfortable nest with the eggs that she can cover 
 with her body she will usually stay by them until they are hatched. Mr. 
 Cosgrove, of Connecticut, gives the following account of his method of 
 handling sitting hens: 
 
 "I have a little house 6 x 10 feet, with two rows of nests, one row 
 above the other; the ground forms the bottom of the lower nests, and in 
 the upper ones I put a large shovelful of sifted earth, pushing it up into 
 the corners so as to make it concave enough to keep the eggs together, 
 but not too much so. If the center is an inch lower than the outside edge, 
 it is sufficient. A board six inches wide by 10 feet long forms the front 
 of the nests, so the hens can step into them; they do not have to jump 
 down on to the eggs. 
 
 "The earth floor of the house dug up. and the stones taken out, makes 
 the best dust bath, and a feed trough and water pail are all the furniture 
 required. I keep feed in the trough all the time, also some grit and oyster 
 shells in one end of it. The trough is made with a cover to it so the hens 
 
Hatching the Egg. '•>! 
 
 can stick their heads in to cat, but cannot soil the food. Whole corn 
 is the main feed, but I give some wheat with it once or twice a week for 
 variety. Some people have, a great deal of trouble to make hens sit in 
 any place except where they have been laying, but if the change of place is 
 done rightly there is seldom any difficulty. 
 
 "Don't move them in the daytime. Don't take them by the legs and 
 carry them along with heads handing down and thrust them in on the 
 nests, as I have seen folks do — carrying three in each hand — and then 
 expect them to stay put. 
 
 "I save the unhatched eggs from my incubators to put in nests to try 
 the hens on. Let the hen sit at least two days on her own nest before you 
 move her where you want her to sit ; then after dark take the hen and 
 put her gently on the eggs. She will usually settle down on them at once 
 and stay on all night, but may come off in the morning and stay off all day, 
 but will generally go on the nest at night, and then it is safe to put the 
 good eggs under. If she does not go back on the nest at night, it is no 
 use trying that hen any further. It doesn't pay to try to confine the hen 
 on the nest ; a hen is feminine, and if she won't, she won't. 
 
 "My sitting house has three windows facing the nests, which make it too 
 light, so I tack grain bags over the windows, as hens like a secluded place 
 better. I give all sitting hens a thorough dusting with insect powdei 
 and scatter some in the nests before setting, and again about a week before 
 they are due to hatch. When the hens are sitting it is necessary to look 
 at them once or twice a day to see that all the nests have hens on, for 
 sometimes two get on the same nest, but don't be discouraged if the eggs 
 are cold; they will usually hatch just as well; it will delay the hatch, that 
 is all. 
 
 "Of course hens may be allowed to sit where they have been laying, by 
 marking the eggs put under them, and removing the eggs laid to them 
 every day, but there is considerable risk of broken eggs, also that the 
 sitter may be driven off and go on some other nest. In some cases the 
 nests in the 'sitting room' are made double; that is, they are deep, with 
 a partition at the center. The eggs are put in the rear part. The hen 
 may if she likes get off the nest and come in front. Thus a hen that is 
 tired of sitting is less likely to break her eggs. The nests are sometimes 
 closed with a gate, so that the hen is shut in, being let out once a day for 
 a few minutes to eat and drink and dust." 
 
 Hens of the larger breeds will sometimes remain broody for three 
 months. They will frequently hatch out two and three broods in succes- 
 sion—the chicks being taken away, and put in a brooder. Where a number 
 of hens are set together it is a good plan to test the eggs as we do those in 
 an incubator. By taking out the infertile eggs we can put what is left 
 under part of the hens and start the others on a new lot. 
 
32 The Business Hen. 
 
 BREAKING UP A BROODY HEN.— With the larger breeds the 
 sitting hen becomes a nuisance in May or June. They often become 
 broody too late in the season to rear chicks for Fall laying. To "break 
 them up" we must remember that they are in a feverish condition, with 
 the blood vessels on the lower part of the body enlarged. They must be 
 "cooled off." Do not duck them in water or tie them by one leg or put 
 them in a box with sharp spikes in the bottom. Make a "hen jail" at the 
 side of the henhouse — raised above the floor. Have the bottom of slats, 
 so that the air circulates under the hen. Put her there with water and 
 grass, but no corn. She will soon find that there are no chickens to be 
 hatched out of a slat, and she will keep off the nests where the other hens 
 lay. This is far better than putting the hen in a yard with a young dog 
 or a lively cockerel to chase her about. As the broody hen is fat do not 
 feed her on the fattening foods. 
 
 ARTIFICIAL INCUBATION.— It is well to start the season's labors 
 with a firm faith in our incubators, and that success or failure in results 
 rests with ourselves. 
 
 1. The hens whose eggs we use for hatching should be healthy young 
 fowls, and best returns are generally received where a single strain is 
 employed. In a mixed lot the shells are of all grades in thickness; con- 
 sequently some are apt to dry down too much, and others not enough. For 
 example, the White Wyandotte eggs require much more ventilation than 
 do White Leghorns. 
 
 2. The eggs should be set on the small end and turned half over every 
 24 hours. They should be placed in a cool, dry, clean, sweet-smelling 
 room. Hens' eggs, if carefully looked after, will keep for hatching pur- 
 poses three to four weeks. During the cool Spring days duck eggs, under 
 same conditions, will keep 10 days to two weeks. When warm weather 
 sets in they spoil very quickly ; in from four days to a week's time. 
 
 As a rule incubators do best in a clean, well ventilated cellar, because 
 (he temperature is likely to run more even, thus giving the operator less 
 trouble, and also because the atmosphere contains a moist, humid element, 
 favorable to the growth and development of the chicks in embryo. 
 
 The instructions regarding setting up and operating, which accompany 
 the incubator, cannot be too carefully studied and followed. There is 
 usually, however, a clause concerning ventilation and moisture, which 
 necessarily leaves much to the operator's good sense and judgment, because, 
 owing to the difference in climatic conditions in our country, which tend 
 to affect the results in artificial incubation, no cut and dried rule can be 
 laid down or successfully applied. 
 
 Where these conditions are normal, general directions on these heads 
 are all that the operator requires; but in low-lying sections and near lakes 
 or large rivers, where fogs or humidity prevails, very little additional 
 
Hatching the Egg. 33 
 
 moisture, and considerable ventilation are necessary ; while in a rarified 
 atmosphere, elevated or mountainous localities, a very considerable amount 
 of moisture is necessary to secure even a fair hatch, and not nearly so 
 much ventilation. The tea kettle or the drying of the roads are good 
 guides for evaporation and moisture. Also, in the same locality, there 
 are times when a change of method is necessary, as in sustained droughts, 
 when high, dry winds prevail, or during a long wet season, etc. If the 
 machine is run in a living room, more moisture is needed, and in every 
 case good care should be taken to keep the chicks well supplied with pure, 
 fresh air, by ventilating the room thoroughly at least twice a day, night 
 and morning, when the eggs are being turned. Kerosene odors and 
 exhausted air are very injurious to the hatch. 
 
 From the above it will be seen that the climate and atmospheric condi- 
 tions must be studied and the rig managed accordingly. If the chicks 
 hatch small and look shrunken, and the inner skin sticks to some and outer 
 skin is thick and leathery, they had insufficient moisture and too much 
 ventilation. If they simply failed to break the shell, the birds were weak- 
 ened by insufficient ventilation, and, perhaps, also, a wrong temperature. 
 If the birds are surrounded — "swim" — in a gluey, watery substance, too 
 much moisture was applied. If they come out ahead of time, the temper- 
 ature was run too high; if they run over time, it was too low. If during 
 the hatch, through accident, the thermometer registers high for several 
 hours, the hatch will probably be hurried out a little, while if it is low, 
 especially during the first five days, the hatch will drag along, even four 
 days after due. It is best to hang on to the eggs until hope is utterly dead. 
 A bath in tepid water helps such cases quite a bit, and those that "wiggle" 
 are apt to come out; give them time, and with care they will develop 
 usually into healthy chicks. 
 
 Regarding testing of eggs, and growth of air cells, dark-colored shells 
 do not show fertility very plainly until the hatch is about half over. 
 Usually in five days the germ is quite plain in white or thin-shelled eggs, 
 but it is well to place the doubtful ones together and give them one more 
 chance. About two days before exclusion at the final test, all that do not 
 show full development should be discarded. A very little experience will 
 enable the operator to detect the little black, spider-like form with red 
 pulses, and the gradual darkening of the egg as development progresses ; 
 the clear beauty of the infertile egg, and wavy, watery, cloudy appearance 
 of the bad one ; the red ring or black splotch of the dead germ. 
 
 As regards the growth of the air cell, our experience is that no com- 
 bination of circumstances, in our section, will coax them to enlarge in 
 the regular fashion shown in books. With us, two-thirds of the drying 
 down is done the last week. If everything has gone well, the eggs dry 
 down during those last few days about right ; if anything has gone wrong 
 
34 The Business Hen. 
 
 they show it then, either by drying down too much, or not enough. 
 Therefore there is no need to worry about the air cell ; it will take care of 
 itself, and it cannot be used as a guide for the application of moisture or 
 ventilation ; as it opens up too late to be of any use to the operator. Also, 
 if the chicks are vigorous, they will kick out of the shell with quite a 
 small air space, while weak birds fail to escape from those that are dried 
 down to "regulation." 
 
 It is best to trim and fill the lamps in the morning, and regulate the 
 machine then, for the next 24 hours. Never touch the lamp at night. 
 Turn the eggs early. 
 
 While chicks are usually all out of the shell 24 hours after the first 
 pip is noticed, ducks require 48 hours to finish up in. We say "the hatch 
 is over," and are ready to open and clean up when most of the birds that 
 we see are fully out of the shell and dried off. If partially liberated birds 
 that are sticking to the shell at some point can be found at just the right 
 time — not too soon or too late — they can be saved. Just how much this 
 sort of assistance pays it is difficult to say. The writer helped 22 duck- 
 lings out once, and tied a red string to the leg of each ; and so far as 
 one could keep track of the gang, they survived and throve with the best of 
 the lot. It seems well therefore to give the little fellows any chance for 
 life that we can, though undoubtedly the best way is to "get the right flop" 
 on managing the incubator and let it do the hatching. 
 
 Just before "opening up" prepare everything for a quick shift — an 
 assistant, pan of hot water, two flannel cloths, and let the temperature 
 run up to 106 or 107. Take out a tray and clean off all but pipped eggs, 
 and help the birds out, placing them on the wet flannej spread on the 
 tray; add to them the same sort of eggs from the other tray. Promptly 
 replace it in the incubator, and the other flannel steaming hot anywhere 
 inside the rig. Get the temperature to 104 T {. degrees quickly as possible. 
 A few hours more and the birds will probably all be liberated. If a 
 chipped egg has a live chick in it, you can hear its bill tapping on the shell 
 if you place it to your ear. 
 
 When eggs are shipped from a distance, if duck eggs, they cannot be 
 got into the incubator or under the hen too soon. If hen or turkey eggs, 
 they should be placed in a quiet, cool place till required, but 24 hours is 
 long enough to hold them. 
 
 Though nearly all incubators on the market can be made to produce 
 fair hatches, there is a great difference in the amount of time and care 
 needed to secure them. This is due to the variety of contrivances 
 employed to regulate the heat in the egg chamber. The incubator, there- 
 fore, of most value to the operator, is the one that has the most simply 
 constructed, conservative and accurate regulator. There are machines 
 that will hold the heat steady for nearly a week without the operator's 
 
Hatching the Egg. 35 
 
 help, and at considerable fluctuation in outside atmosphere. The need 
 therefore for bobbing up and down nights to watch refractory hatches is 
 practically past. If — through any accident — the heat runs up too high, 
 when regulating it back to normal figures, it helps the eggs to cool with 
 least injury, it they are well sprinkled with tepid water. The incubator 
 doors can be left open till the thermometer registers 90 degrees. In all 
 cases and at all times of handling them drafts should be avoided over the 
 eggs, and sudden jars. 
 
 DEVELOPMENT OF THE CHICK— We have seen tuat a ferule 
 egg is not a shell packed with a loose and unorganized fluid. It contains 
 definite organs and the material required to feed and develop them into 
 a living chick. When the proper beat is applied in the incubator or under 
 the ben life begins and develops rapidly until the last of the yolk in the 
 egg is passed into the body of the well-formed chick before it leaves the 
 shell. Before 12 hours of incubation the germ begins to increase in size, 
 and so rapidly does the development go on that by the end of the first 
 day what is to be the head of the chick can be cjuite plainly seen. A few 
 hours later the tail of the chick is apparent, to be immediately followed b) 
 a tube which later forms the heart. About 40 hours after the incubation 
 begins the heart begins to pulsate. The knowledge of this rapid develop- 
 ment may not be cheerful reading to those who let the eggs in the nest 
 remain for a day or two under a sitting hen, but by the fiftieth hour the 
 heart is usually so well developed that the different parts may be seen, and 
 10 hours later a vigorous circulation of blood has begun. Before the third 
 day has ended the rapidly forming chick is able to turn itself around and 
 curve into definite shape. During the fourth day the limbs begin to show. 
 They grow so rapidly that by the thirteenth day scales appear upon the legs 
 and nails upon the toes, and by the sixteenth day these, as well as the 
 beak become firm and bard and the chick can move its limbs. By the 
 ninth day the formation of bone begins and goes on rapidly until the 
 skeleton is well formed by the thirteenth day. The feathers begin as 
 little sacs by the tenth day and develop so that when the chick makes its 
 way through the shell it is well feathered. Thus this wonderful and 
 rapid development goes on inside the egg. We must remember that the 
 power of the delicate machinery which produces the chicks comes from 
 its parents. They must be vigorous, well fed. not closely related, and 
 able to exercise freely if we expect vigorous chicks. It may seem to the 
 novice that the egg hatches itself since the hen is usually successful. He 
 will change his views after trying to imitate her with an incubator, and 
 also find that he must learn the hen business by experience. 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 
 The Chicken's Nurse. 
 
 The beginner with poultry is often discouraged over losses of little 
 chicks. Where incubators are used, it is of course impossible to find 
 hens to brood the chicks. Hens will sometimes "sit" long enough to hatch 
 two broods. Thus several hens can be started at one time and the chicks 
 put together in a brooder, more eggs being put under the hens. A brooder 
 is a chicken nurse. In using it we try to confine warm air among pieces 
 of soft cloth — in imitation of the hen's warm body and soft feathers. 
 
 There are many different kinds of brooders, the best of them so arranged 
 that the warm air will come from above, just as the heat of the hen is 
 above the chicks. This heat may come from hot water or steam pipes run 
 above the chicks, or from kerosene lamps or gas burners below them, with 
 the heat forced above. Unless one is a natural mechanic and handy with 
 tools he should buy one of the readymade brooders. We would not advise 
 one to try to make an incubator, though it has been done, but it is possible 
 to make a brooder that will keep the chicks warm and provide them with 
 fresh air. The homemade brooder pictured here is known as the "Cos- 
 grove" and is described as follows. It will give an idea of the principles 
 upon which a hot-air brooder is built. 
 
 HOMEMADE BROODER.— "The material required is an empty one- 
 pound coffee can, a two-pound coffee can, a piece of galvanized sheet 
 iron 24x36 inches, with a hole in center that will just fit the one-pound 
 can, S5 feet of seven-eighths-inch matched pine and six feet of one- 
 half-inch pine. Make the four sides of the box nine inches high; that will 
 just take in the sheet iron; put strips V&xl inch inside the box two inches 
 below top edge, for the sheet iron to rest on. Take the one-pound can 
 and cut slits a half inch apart all around the top edge; cut just down to 
 where the bulge in the tin is (about one-half inch), put the slit part 
 
 through the sheet iron and bend 
 the slit pieces down flat on the 
 iron. The bulge prevents the can 
 from going through the iron, and 
 if the slit pieces are hammered 
 down tight it makes nearly an air- 
 tight job, but to make sure that 
 no fumes from the lamp get above 
 the sheet iron it is better to solder 
 Fig. 12. HOMEMADE BKOODER. it tight. Place the iron in the box 
 
The Chicken's Nurse. 
 
 37 
 
 and nail strips on top of iron, 
 pressing it down tight on the 
 under strips. Nail a floor of 
 7 s- inch stuff on top of box, cut- 
 ting a hole in center the size 
 of the two-pound coffee can ; 
 slit the can like the other, bend 
 the pieces out and nail on top 
 of floor, but first punch the top 
 of can full of one-fourth-inch 
 holes to let the hot air out. 
 Then bore five or six half-inch .Pig. 13. 
 
 holes on the two ends through VAN DRESSER BROODER HOUSE. 
 
 side of box between sheet iron and floor of brooder to let in air; also 
 four holes in each end of box one inch in diameter near bottom edge to 
 let in air for lamp. The rest is plain carpenter work. Take a piece nine 
 inches wide, length of box and nail or screw on back end, letting it come 
 down only an inch or so below the edge of box. Then nail on sides, using 
 two 2 x 2-inch posts 30 inches long to hold up front end. I line the 
 hover part with one-half-inch pine Q l /2 inches wide, nailing on strips at 
 top and bottom edge one-half inch square, so that it makes a half-inch air 
 space on ends and back. 
 
 "The hover cover of ^-inch stuff rests on this lining and is not 
 fastened, can be lifted out to clean out brooder, and as chicks get old 
 enough is removed entirely. To the front of hover cover are tacked 
 strips of cloth two inches wide, reaching the floor. Some of these cloth 
 strips can be turned up on top of cover to let out hot air on warm days. 
 On front part of sides bore holes as shown in figure, and make a sliding 
 cover so as to close or open these holes. The amount of air entering 
 the half-inch holes above sheet iron and passing over chicks is governed 
 by these ventilators. The front 
 half of roof is screwed to sides 
 and front and middle bar. The 
 back half is loose and projects 
 three inches under front part ; 
 can be lifted up as shown by dot- 
 ted lines, then by lifting hover 
 cover the floor can be easily 
 cleaned. 
 
 "The lamps I use have no 
 chimneys. Flame of lamp should 
 
 be about two inches below level Fig. 14. 
 
 of sheet iron. Cut a hole in COLD COUNTRY BROODER HOUSE. 
 
38 
 
 The Business Hen. 
 
 back of box to enter lamp and have a slid- 
 ing cover to it. If lamp flame burns dim 
 make more holes in side of box, or open 
 slide a little. Bore five or six half-inch holes 
 in back of box three inches below sheet 
 iron to let lamp fumes out, if there are 
 an)-. The front, with the exception of a six 
 or eight-inch piece nailed to posts at top. 
 is an independent piece held in place by 
 buttons, and comes out, so the whole in- 
 MArES' BROODER HOESE. terior can be got at. Make a frame to hold 
 a glass, say 12 x 20 inches (the larger the better), bevel top and bottom 
 edge of frame and nail beveled strips at top and bottom, so glass frame 
 will slide to make a hole as large or small as you want to feed the chicks 
 through. With lamp taking a wick only ? 5-inch wide I have had no 
 difficulty in keeping heat in these brooders at 90 to 100 degrees." 
 
 BROODER HOUSES.— We do not attempt to give details for a 
 brooder house. No one should try to build a house without visiting one 
 in successful operation. The principle is a long, low house divided into 
 pens, in each one of which is a brooder — that is, a warm box with hover 
 cloths. These brooders are heated by lamps or by hot-water pipes which 
 run through the house so as to pass through each brooder. Little runs 
 protected by wire netting are made so that the chicks can run out on 
 pleasant days. As the chicks grow larger they are taken from this large 
 nursery and put outdoors. There is much argument between the advo- 
 cates of the large brooder house and those who prefer what is called the 
 colony plan. The large house is evidently better in very cold weather, 
 and it is less work to care for a given number of chicks when they are 
 all in one house. There is greater danger from fire, and also greater dan- 
 ger in case of disease among the flock, 'those who use the colony plan 
 build a small warm house with a single brooder inside. This is heated 
 by a lamp or flame. Gasoline is now being successfully used for this 
 purpose. From 50 to 200 little chicks are put in this house, and the heat 
 kept up to a point that will make the entire house comfortable. The chicks 
 run about in the house, and except in very cold days, do not crowd under 
 the hover. On pleasant days they are let out and run on the grass. When 
 heat is no longer needed, and the chicks grow large enough, the brooder is 
 taken out and little roosts are put in so that the young birds early become 
 used to a house. Fig. 13 shows such a house and brooder used by 
 Henry Van Dresser, who uses these houses to scatter his chicks through 
 the orchards. Fig. 14 shows a colony brooder house used at the Maine 
 Experiment Station, where the Winters are very cold and the snow very 
 deep. These houses, it must be remembered, have nothing inside but the 
 
The Chicken's Nurse. 
 
 39 
 
 brooders. Fig. 15 shows a house used by O. W. Mapes, and Fig. 16 a 
 house used for young White Leghorns in New Jersey. These houses are 
 designed for sheltering the chicks when they are taken from the large 
 brooder house. They contain a brooder at first, but as the chicks grow 
 larger roosts are put in. The object in arranging these houses is to give 
 the pullets a place where 
 they may have heat if 
 needed, and at the same 
 time become used to liv- 
 ing in a house, while 
 having plenty of exer- 
 cise. As we shall see, 
 the best breeders separ- 
 ate the young roosters 
 early and put them by 
 themselves. It is abso- 
 lutely necessary that 
 these brooders and 
 brooder houses be kept 
 clean. Dirt and vermin 
 are far more fatal to lit- 
 tle chicks than to grown- 
 up hens. We must remember that what is clean to one man may 
 be filthy to another. The little chicks are weak and unable to care for 
 themselves when they are put in the brooder. Vermin and disease live 
 in filth and we cannot be too careful about cleaning the brooders before 
 a new lot of chicks are put in. The brooder should be made so that ij: 
 opens readily. When a brood has grown so that the chicks can be taken 
 away the brooder should be opened and thoroughly scrubbed out with hot 
 water. The corners should be smeared with kerosene and the hover 
 taken out and carefully gone over. The brooder should, if possible, stand 
 open to the sun in order to dry thoroughly before the new chicks are put 
 in. These things are emphasized by those who discuss the care of the 
 little chicks, but they cannot be made too plain. Those who have seen 
 little chicks suffer from damp brooders or seen them suffocated by lamp 
 fumes or chilled when the lamp burns too low, or wasted when it goes too 
 high, know the necessity of using a competent chicken nurse. 
 
 Fig. 16. NEW JERSEY BROODER HOUSE. 
 
CHAPTER VII. 
 
 Care of the Baby Chick. 
 
 Neither brooder nor incubator can think. Both require constant atten- 
 tion, or the eggs or chicks may be too hot or too cold. The old hen looks 
 after her brood, and sees that they are made comfortable. Man must be 
 half hen, and let his brooder represent the other half. Even when the 
 hen hatches the chicks she cannot be expected to nurse them as a cow 
 would nurse a calf! If it is possible to give it the chicks will do better 
 with a free range with hen, but hawks, rats and other vermin may get 
 too many of the little ones. If these pests are bad the hen may be kept 
 in a coop and a frame made for the chicks by placing four 12-inch-wide 
 boards on edge with inch-mesh wire netting over the entire top. This gives 
 the chicks a run and protects them. Even when free range is possible the 
 hen should not be given entire charge until the chicks are strong enough 
 to follow without being tired out. Do not think the hen can scratch a 
 living for a large family out of the dirt. Give hen and chicks when at 
 large at least two feeds a day of grain. The following account of the 
 care given the hen and her chicks is given by a successful poutlry keeper: 
 
 HENS AND LITTLE CHICKS.— "My little 'setting' house has nests 
 for 16 hens, and I try to set as many at a time as 1 can. When the chicks 
 are hatched I take them all out of the nests, put them in a big market 
 basket with a warm woollen cloth to cover them, then selecting the hens 
 that seem the most anxious about their chicks (for the mother instinct 
 varies as much in hens as in human beings, some even picking and killing 
 their chicks as fast as hatched) I put the hens in little "A" coops (see Fig. 
 17) made with the slats perpendicular, the back boarded up, the upper half 
 of back hinged to lower half and held in place by button at top. Made 
 in this way the hen can be got at easily, or a dead chick taken out of the 
 coop without difficulty, and on a cold windy day the wind does not sweep 
 through coop, chilling the chickens, as it does when both ends of the 
 coop are slatted. 
 
 "I place two of these coops about 10 feet apart, and connect them by 
 two frames, one covered with inch-mesh wire netting for front, and back 
 frame covered with half-inch matched boards, with a door at each end, 
 so as to get at the front of the coops with feed and water. As the top part 
 of the front frame is made of a board a foot wide, thus more than half 
 of the runway is kept dry, and the chicks can run around on a rainy day 
 without getting wet, and are safe from hawks and 'varmints.' As these 
 frames are only fastened to the coops by a nail or screw, they can be 
 
Care of the Baby Chick. 41 
 
 taken off and stored away in a 
 
 shed in the Fall. When chicks 
 
 are hatched in cold weather I 
 
 put only 15 with each hen; in 
 
 May or last of April I put 20 Fig. 17. HANDY HEN COOP. 
 
 to 25 with each hen. 
 
 "As the chicks are all the same color and age, the liens do not know 
 their own chicks, and will take any of them. The chicks remain with the 
 hen as long as she will mother them. Sometimes a hen will pick at the 
 chicks and drive them away, as soon as she wants to lay eggs again ; 
 others will go to laying and continue to brood the chicks. I let them 
 remain with the chicks as long as they will, until it becomes very hot 
 weather ; then I think the chicks are better off without the hen's heat. 
 I feed and water them three times a day, and as soon as the cockerels 
 weight two pounds each, send them to the market for broilers, reserving all 
 the pullets for layers. 
 
 "The most dangerous enemy of chicks in this locality is the little 
 Pigeon hawk, but in June they do not come around so frequently, and 
 then I give the chicks the run of the farm. While they are confined 
 green food is an absolute necessity if they are to thrive well, and lawn 
 clippings furnish this in the best form, especially if cut in the early morn- 
 ing while the dew is still on the grass; I tie a box behind the lawn mower 
 and the clippings fly into it, so it is no trouble to collect them. Insect 
 powder sprinkled on the hen and in the nest freely a week before hatching 
 usually drives away all lice. In hot weather, if the chicks and hens run 
 together, the chicks will get lousy; then I put some of the powder mixed 
 with lard on their heads, if they have head lice, and sprinkle it on their 
 bodies if they have body lice, which are very different things. Two or 
 three times in tne Summer I whitewash the coops with some crude carbolic 
 acid in the whitewash ; this is a good disinfectant as well as insecticide. 
 Roosters and pullets all run together until the males begin to pester the 
 females, then they are separated and the roosters confined, the pullets 
 running at large until snow drives them into confinement. 
 
 THE BROODER CHICK.— "With the first pipping of an egg in my 
 incubator I start the lamps under the brooders, that they may be warmed up 
 and regulated to 90 degrees before the chicks are ready to be put in. The 
 chicks are left in the incubators for 30 to 36 hours after hatching. I 
 cover the floors of brooders with sifted sand half an inch deep, laying 
 in a supply in the Summer for 
 that special use. Taking the 
 chicks to the brooder house in a 
 big market basket with a 
 warmed woollen cloth over p IG . i8. UNFINISHED HEN COOP. 
 
42 The Business Hen. 
 
 them I take out the front of brooder and put the chicks in, and now they 
 have their first feed of hard-boiled eggs, chopped very fine and purposely 
 scattered on the clean sand, so that the chicks will get some grit in their 
 gizzards with their first meal. Some so-called experts do not favor hard- 
 , boiled egg, but my experience is that chicks will eat it in preference to 
 anything else than can be set before them. I always save all the infertile 
 eggs for that use.* 
 
 "With the first little 'cheep' that shows they are getting too cool I take 
 a board half an inch shorter than inside width of brooder, and press the 
 chicks all back through the cloth strips into the hover, leaving the board 
 leaning against hover to prevent chicks getting out. This board is one 
 and a half or two inches narrower than the height of hover, so that by 
 turning up two or three of the cloth strips there will he sufficient venti- 
 lation. A better scheme would be to make a frame and cover it with 
 fine netting to keep the chicks in. I feed the first two or three days about 
 once in three hours, the third day making the feed half rolled oats (the 
 common oatmeal) and half boiled egg, chopped together. The chicks will 
 pick out all the egg first, but if you do not overfeed will eat the oatmeal 
 too. To have the chicks continue to thrive, overfeeding must be avoided 
 until they are five or six weeks old. After they are a week old we bake 
 a cake of wheat bran and cornmeal, with a teaspoonful of baking powder to 
 make it light, and feed fine cracked corn also. As soon as frost gets 
 out of the ground and worms come up, I make it a point to dig some 
 worms nearly every day fur them. It is live food, and the tenderest meat 
 to be got, but the chicks will be made sick if too many are fed. Green 
 food of some kind is almost a necessity after they are three weeks old. 1 
 put a cabbage head in tneir yards, and they will eat it clear to the stump. 
 
 "In from three to five days, according to the weather, I let them out of 
 the brooder, and begin educating them to go up the incline and into 
 their hover when cool. Some will huddle into a corner and get chilled 
 unless watched and pushed in. After four or five weeks they ought to be 
 left outdoors, if the ground is bare. I have seen chickens in a neighbor's 
 $300 brooder house gets pale and so weak they could not stand up, until he 
 put brooders and all outdoors on the grass, and in less than a week they 
 were all right. I make a cheap drinking fountain by cutting slits in a 
 tin can half an inch apart, bending in the slit part, filling the can with 
 water and placing on top of it the cover of a larger can, then by inverting 
 the two you have a self feeding fountain that the chicks cannot get wet in, 
 and that it may not get upset put a stone on top of the can, for damp- 
 ness in a brooder is to be most carefully avoided. My brooders are 
 cleaned out twice a week, all the sand scraped out; then with a fine sieve 
 sift out all the droppings and spread the sand around again. If it is 
 clean sand, not earth, it may be used many times." 
 
Care of the Baby Chick. A?, 
 
 ANOTHER METHOD.— At the Maine Experiment Station the fol- 
 lowing plan is carried out: — 
 
 "We make bread by mixing three parts cornmeal, one part wheat 
 bran, and one part wheat middlings or flour, with skim-milk or water, 
 mixing it very dry, and salting as usual for bread. It is baked thor- 
 oughly, and when well done if it is not dry enough so as to crumble, it is 
 broken up and dried out in the oven and then ground in a mortar or 
 mill. The infertile eggs are hard boiled and ground, shell and all, in a 
 sausage mill. About one part of ground egg and four parts of bread 
 crumbs are rubbed together until the egg is well divided. This bread 
 makes up about one-half of the food of the chicks until they are five or six 
 weeks old. Eggs are always used with it for the first one or two weeks, 
 and then fine sifted beef scrap is mixed witn the bread. 
 
 "When the chicks are first brought to the brooders, bread crumbs are 
 sprinkled on the floor of the brooder among 'the" grit, and in this way 
 they learn to eat, taking in grit and food at the same time. After the 
 first day the food is given in tin plates, four to each brooder. The plates 
 have low edges, and the chicks go on to them and find the food readily. 
 After they have had the food before them for five minutes the plates are 
 removed. As they have not spilled much of it, they have little left to 
 lunch on except what they scratch for. In the course of a few days light 
 wooden troughs are substituted for the plates. The bottom of the trough 
 is a strip of half-inch board, two feet long and three inches wide. Laths 
 are nailed around the edges. The birds are fed four times a day in these 
 troughs until they outgrow them, as follows : Bread and egg or scrap 
 early in the morning; at half past nine o'clock dry grain, either pin-head 
 oats, crushed wheat, millet seed or cracked corn. At one o'clock dry 
 grain again, and the last feed of. the day is of the bread with egg or scrap. 
 Between the four feeds in the pans or trougus, millet seed, pin-head oats 
 and fine cracked corn and later whole wheat, are scattered in the chaff on 
 the floor for the chicks to scratch for. This makes them exercise, and 
 care is taken that they do not find the food too easily. 
 
 "One condition is made imperative in our feeding. The food is never 
 to remain in the troughs more than five minutes before the troughs are 
 cleaned or removed. This insures sharp appetites at meal time, and 
 guards against inactivity which comes from overfeeding. Charcoal, granu- 
 lated bone, oyster shell and sharp grit are always kept by them, as well 
 as clean water. Mangels are cut in slices, which they soon learn to pick. 
 When the grass begins to grow they are able to get green foods from the 
 yards. If the small yards are worn out before they move to the range, 
 green cut clover or rape is fed to them. After the chickens are moved to 
 the range they are fed in the same manner, except that the morning and 
 evening feed is made of corn meal, middlings and wheat bran, to which 
 
44 The Business Hen. 
 
 one-tenth as much beef scrap is added. The other two feeds are of wheat 
 and cracked corn. One year we fed double the amount of scrap all through 
 the growing season, and had the April and May pullets well developed 
 and laying through September and October. To our sorrow they nearly 
 all moulted in December, so that month and next were nearly bare of eggs." 
 
 Still another simple method of feeding little chicks is thus described 
 by O. W. Mapes: 
 
 "Our hatch of chicks is doing very nicely on nothing but ordinary oat 
 flakes, with water to drink. They are now a week old. and the mash bal- 
 anced ration will be substituted for the oat flakes during the next week. 
 We got 240 chicks from this hatch, with five more that had to be helped 
 out of the shell; 241 of these are still lively and bright at the end of the 
 first week. Not a bad showing for the oat flakes, which are very handy 
 to feed. This hatch was from 360 eggs, nearly 300 of which proved to be 
 fertile. The incubator door was closed when eggs first began to pip, and 
 not opened for 48 hours ; 240 lively chickens were then removed and five 
 more were helped from the shells. They were all placed in two brooders, 
 given grit and water at once, and a few oat flakes scattered in the sand on 
 the brooder floor. They ate but little the first day, but on the second day 
 and since they have been ravenously hungry four or five times a day. I 
 have tried to give just what they would clean up in four or five minutes. 
 Some days they have been fed five times and others only four. There is 
 still little left of the 10-pound bag from which the 240 have been fed the 
 first week of their lives. A good rule is to begin at 7 A. M. and feed 
 regularly every two and a half hours until 6 P. M. for the first two weeks. 
 After that they can soon be reduced to three meals a day." 
 
CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 The Young Bird. 
 THE YOUNG HEN. — When the hen deserts her chicks, or when the 
 little things leave the brooders, the real business of their life begins. The 
 object is to push the young pullet rapidly so as to have her laying as 
 early as possible. It is best to give the pullets free range if possible — 
 the exercise develops them, and they do well to hunt part of their food. 
 An orchard with reasonably low trees is a good place for pullets. They 
 will do little harm, and benefit themselves if they can roost in the trees 
 during the Summer and early Fall. They should be fed an abundance of 
 about the same food that gives best results with laying hens. As the nights 
 grow cool the pullets should be put in the houses they are to live in through 
 the Winter. Where pullets run at large and roost in trees it is hard to 
 break the tree habit. They must be taught to come into an enclosure of 
 some sort. We can throw the evening feed inside the house and shut the 
 door while the pullets are inside eating their supper. If given a small yard 
 sne wing may be clipped. It is an advantage to get the pullets into Winter 
 quarters early. It is a great change from their life of freedom, and they 
 will require considerable time to settle down into business. They should 
 not, of course, be permitted to roost in trees or without shelter during the 
 cold storms of Fall. Before being housed for the Winter the pullets 
 should be dusted with insect powder and the houses should be thoroughly 
 cleaned. If we put vermin in with the pullets we can hardly expect to 
 get rid of it through the Winter. We must depend on the pullets for our 
 earliest eggs. The older hens moult during the late Summer and Fall, 
 and do not lay until they have recovered from this change. It is therefore 
 necessary to force the pullets steadily, so that they may be ready for lay- 
 ing as early as possible. The age at which pullets will begin to lay varies 
 with the breed, and depends much upon the care and feeding. Instances 
 are on record where Leghorns have begun to lay at less than 120 days 
 old, but this is exceptional. In good weather chicks are weaned at from 
 seven to 10 weeks old, and then run until late September or October. We 
 want a steady, rapid growth on the pullet if we expect them to pay for their 
 board in November and December. In order to have pullets laying by 
 November 1st they must be hatched by the middle of April and pushed 
 forward without stoppage. If they can be made to begin at this time they 
 have a full year for laying, while if they do not start until January the 
 pullets lose two of the most profitable months. The theory that if a pullet 
 does not lay at her best during her first year, she will make up for it the 
 
46 The Business Hen. 
 
 next year, does not work out in practice. She should be started early 
 and kept at it. 
 
 A hard test for a new beginner with poultry will often) come in the 
 Fall when the pullets demand careful and heavy feeding and yet do not 
 lay an egg. They must be fed heavily with a fair amount of meat if we 
 expect them to lay early, and it often seems like money thrown away when 
 grain is high and funds are short. It is a good time to dispose of old 
 hens and surplus roosters while the pullets are "eating their heads off," 
 for the income from these sources helps pay the grain bill. 
 
 THE YOUNG COCKEREL. — In many flocks the young males are per- 
 mitted to become a nuisance. They often run at large until Thanksgiving, 
 eating large quantities of grain, so that when they are finally killed they 
 have cost about all they bring. It is well understood that pigs or cattle 
 make their cheapest gain while young. We have found the cost of pro- 
 ducing a pound of pork on a pig weighing 125 pounds considerably less 
 than on the same pig when it is fed to 250 pounds. The same is true of 
 the young roosters in the average flock. The following plan of feeding is 
 followed at the Maine Kxperiment Station, and is much better than the 
 old method of letting the young birds run at large. 
 
 "When the chickens are moved to the field the sexes are separated. The 
 cockerels are confined in yards, in lots of about 100, and fed twice daily on 
 porridge made of four parts of cornmeal, two parts middlings or flour, and 
 one part fine beef scrap. The mixed meals are wet with skim-milk or 
 water — milk is preferred — until the mixture will just run, but not drop from 
 the end of a wooden ^poon. They are given what they will eat of this in 
 the morning and again towards evening. It is left before them until all 
 have eaten heartily, not more than hour at one time, after which the 
 troughs are removed and cleaned. The cockerels are given plenty of shade 
 and kept as quiet as possible. 
 
 "We have found our chickens that are about 100 days old at the be- 
 ginning to gain in four weeks' feeding, from l-)4 to 2J4 pounds each and 
 sometimes more. Confined and fed in this way they are meaty and soft, 
 and in very much better market condition than though they had been 
 fed generously on dry grains and given more liberty. Poultry raisers can- 
 not afford to sell the chickens as they run, but they can profit greatly by 
 fleshing and fattening them as described. Many careful tests in chicken 
 feeding have shown that as great gains are as cheaply and more easily 
 made, when the chickens, in lots not to exceed 100, are put in a house 
 with a floor space of 75 to 100 feet and a yard of corresponding size, 
 as when they are divided into lots of four birds each and confined in 
 latticed coops, just large enough to hold them. Four weeks has been about 
 the limit of profitable feeding, both in the large and small lots. Chickens 
 gain faster while young. In every case birds that were 150 to 175 days old 
 
The Young Bird. 47 
 
 have given us comparatively small gains. The practice of successful poul 
 trymen in selling the cockerels at the earliest marketable age is well 
 founded, for chickens, sold at Thanksgiving are expensive products." 
 
 Of course if the cockerel is to be kepi for breeding purposes he should 
 not be handled in this way, or he would be of little use as a breeder. In 
 that case he should be fed like the pullets and have a go; id range, so that 
 he can pick up frame and vigor instead of fat. We can never obtain strong 
 and profitable laying stock by breeding from tat and sluggish parents. 
 
 Experiments with young birds kept in small coops compared with a 
 large flock kept in one house, with a suitable yard, show that the latter 
 method pays better. The birds make a slightly larger gain, and there is 
 less work in caring for them. Where skim-milK can be had it is very 
 profitable for mixing the mash for the young roosters. The addition of 
 meat meal or beef scrap to the cornmeal increases the gain. One of the 
 most important things is to begin fattening while the birds are young. It 
 was found that when young roosters, 170 days old, were started at fatten- 
 ing over eight pounds of grain mash were required to make one pound of 
 live chicken. With similar birds, 95 days old, fed in the same way, 
 less than six pounds of grain were needed for one pound of live gain. 
 
 THE BROILER. — We must repeat the caution about putting either 
 cockerels or pullets into filthy houses. No bird can possibly put on flesh 
 while covered with vermin. When fattened as described the young rooster 
 makes a fine broiler. Formerly a larger bird was required for this trade. 
 but of late years a smaller carcass has found a market and is in demand. 
 These are called "squab broilers." Small breeds like the Leghorns make 
 excellent broilers when penned and fed on soft food as described above. 
 The experience of O. W. Mapes in developing this trade will help many 
 who wish to make the best use of the young roosters. The average young 
 rooster sold alive at Thanksgiving rarely nets the grower over 30 cents. 
 We may fatten them so that they will bring far more than this, and save 
 at least two months of feeding. 
 
 "It is quite a tedious job to pick 50 broilers nicely, without tearing the 
 skin. In picking squab broilers it is more difficult still. I stepped into a 
 store in New York, a couple of years ago, where game and poultry are 
 made a specialty, to look at some squab broilers I saw hanging in the 
 window. The proprietor told me that all his poultry must be dry picked, 
 as the eye of his customers had to be pleased as well as the palate. This 
 was in December, and I happened to have a lot of chicks at home about 
 the right size. He named a price per pair, which amounted to about 60 
 cents per pound, if I would dress them as nicely as the ones he showed 
 me. One of our local butchers pretends to be an expert, having worked 
 at it in the West, and he promised to help me out. I took him down a 
 few, but he tore them so badly that he soon gave up in disgust. Nothing 
 
48 The Business Hen. 
 
 daunted, I took them home again, and we pegged away at it ourselves. If 
 those who are looking for profitable employment in Winter for farm help 
 can succeed in raising a lot of broilers to be picked in Winter, there will 
 be no lack of employment. We do not pretend to know how to do it 
 quickly yet, but we can do it nicely, and sell them for top quotations or 
 more. We* are open for suggestions from those who know how to do it 
 quickly. The first thing, of course, is to have good plump birds. They 
 should have yellow skin and legs. Deprive them of food at least 12 hours 
 before killing, so that the crop will be empty. Hang the birds up by both 
 feet, and bleed by opening mouth and cutting main artery of neck, at base 
 of tongue. It is important to draw all the blood, or it may settle under 
 the skin where each feather is pulled, discoloring the skin. Pull large 
 wing and tail feathers first, then smaller feathers, and finally the pin 
 feathers. There are spots on each wing and on the breast, where the skin 
 tears very easily. Great care must be exercised at these points. Aside 
 from this, it seems to be simply a case where nimble fingers count. Our 
 best pickers still require from 15 to IS minutes for either a squab broiler or 
 a two-pound broiler. Immerse in ice water just as quickly as feathers 
 can be removed. This removes animal heat quickly and prevents dis- 
 coloration of the abdomen. When ready for shipment, remove from ice 
 ".vater, and pack in pounded ice. We wrap the heads of our S. C. Whit* 
 Leghorn cockerels in a neat paper before packing. This adds to the 
 attractive appearance of the shipment. The squab broilers should weigh 
 12 to 14 ounces each. They are used by the wealthy buyers, and demanded 
 just at the time when they are hardest to produce. If eggs that are laid 
 in November and December can be successfully converted into chickens, 
 they are sure to sell for big prices." 
 
CHAPTER IX. 
 
 ■ 
 Fig. 19. WHITE & RICE'S HEN HOUSE. 
 
 The Hen's House. 
 
 Men build various kinds of houses for their own use. Some are con- 
 venient and comfortable; others are never satisfactory. If we study 100 
 desirable houses, we find that they all agree in one thing. They are 
 planned to meet the needs of people with definite habits and purposes. So 
 with poultry houses, the breed, conditions of feeding, climate, size of 
 flock and purse, and other matters which concern the owner alone must 
 be considered. Therefore, without trying to lay down any definite rules 
 for poultry house -building we give suggestions from those who have 
 apparently solved the problem for their own conditions. 
 
 THE ESSEN- 
 TIAL PRINCI- 
 PLES. — On the 
 White Leghorn 
 farm of White & 
 Rice the following 
 rules of house 
 building are fol- 
 lowed. This farm 
 is 30 miles north 
 of New York: 
 
 "The three essentials in building a poultry house are comfort, con- 
 venience and cost, in their order. Comfort should be first, for the reason 
 if the hens are not comfortable no amount of work and feed can make 
 them lay in the Fall and Winter when the high prices of eggs make poultry 
 keeping so profitable. Then comes convenience. Have things just as 
 handy as you possibly can, for you will find when you keep a thousand 
 and more hens that having houses handy to feed, water and clean will 
 save many days' work in the course of a year. One hour a day means over 
 one month in a year. Last of all comes the bugbear of so many, cost. 
 Cost does not spell comfort or even convenience. There are many expen- 
 sive poultry houses that are both uncomfortable and unhandy. A hen needs 
 five square feet of floor space, and to keep her comfortable in cold weather 
 we must build the house low so she won't have to warm up an unnecessary 
 air space, but don't get it so low that you break your own head when 
 caring for the hens. Very good dimensions for a single house are 12 x 15 
 feet, seven feet high in front and four in the rear. 
 
 "The floor should be raised six inches, with stones and a good cement 
 floor put on that, making it proof against dampness and rats, two of the 
 
50 
 
 The Business Hen. 
 
 Fig. 120. 
 SWINGING ROOST AND NEST. 
 
 (rials p'oultrymcn are heir to. The sills 
 and ronf timbers should be 3 x 4-inch 
 hemlock or spruce, and 2 x 3-inch stuff 
 is heavy enough for all else. The siding 
 and roof boards may be of any cheap 
 lumber that is dry and free from loose 
 knots. Cover the roof with three-ply 
 tarred paper and a coat of roofing ce- 
 ment or paint. A modification of the 
 colony house plan is the best (see Fig. 
 19). Building six houses together makes it more convenient to care for 
 the hens, is warmer and costs less than single houses, while the flock is 
 none too large to run together in the Summer. Strong unbleached muslin 
 makes good partitions in such a house. It is also used a great deal for 
 windows, being warmer than glass in Winter and cooler in Summer. The 
 only thing against it is, it does not let in quite as much light on a dark, 
 cloudy day as the glass will., but where they have very cold Winters it is 
 the best thing to use. 
 
 "Have the interior of your houses as simple as possible for the sake of 
 cleanliness. The simplest way is to make your nests under the roosts and 
 suspend the whole device from the roof. Then there is nothing to bother 
 cleaning the floor, and no cracks between roosts and side walls to harbor 
 mites and trouble. For a house this size you would want a platform 
 six feet long and three feet wide with three perches on, and a row of 
 nests underneath (see Fig. 20). A shell or grit box, made like Fig. 
 21, is fastened to the wall so it is easily removable. The dust box, and • 
 water basin, complete the furnishing of the house. The scratching-shed 
 house is particularly adapted to breeding stock, and is a little more expen- 
 sive than the plans given here, but where you want the best results from 
 your breeders it is worth the extra cost. In Fig. 10 you notice the windows 
 are low and should be made of muslin tacked on stiff frames, the whole 
 hinged, making a door when you wish, and always 
 
 should be open when the weather permits. A six- 
 section house would be be 90 feet long, accommo- 
 dating over 200 hens, and should not cost over 
 $150 complete if built on this plan. It will be so 
 comfortable and convenient that with good feed 
 and care you cannot fail to make poultry keeping 
 profitable."' 
 
 COLD-COUNTRY HOUSE.— Fig. 22 shows 
 a section of the long poultry house at the Maine 
 Experiment Station. This is located in a very cold 
 
 Fig. 
 
 country, and great pains are taken to make the SHELL AND GRIT BOX, 
 
The lien's House. 
 
 51 
 
 hens comfortable. This house is 14 feet 
 wide and 150 feet long. The back is 5^ 
 feet high and the front six feet eight inches. 
 The ridge is nine feet front the floor. Fig. 
 23 shows the interior fixtures of one i 
 it being 20 feet wide. In this space — 20 x 
 14 feet — 50 hens are kept. The house is 
 boarded, papered and shingled on roof and 
 walls'. The rear wall behind the roosts and 
 four feet of the roof above are ceiled on 
 the inside of the studding and plates, and 
 
 \^- 
 
 Fig. 22. 
 C< M.I) COUNTRY HOUSE. 
 the space between packed hard with dry sawdust. As will be seen from 
 the picture, each room of this house has two 12-light windows screwed 
 on to the front. The space between these windows, eight feet by three, is 
 covered with wire netting. The lower part being boarded prevents 
 the wind from blowing directly upon the hens. During stormy days and 
 cold nights a curtain consisting of a light frame covered with 10-ounce 
 duck swings down in front of the wire and covers it. The picture shows 
 how this curtain frame swings from the top. The roost platform extends 
 the whole length of the room. It is three feet six inches wide and three 
 feet from the floor. The roosts are 2 x 3-inch stuff placed on edge and are 
 two inches above the platform. They are 16 inches apart; the backs are 
 11 inches from the wall. Two curtains similar to the one in front are 
 noticed hung over the roost platform. They are 10 feet long and 30 
 inches wide, hinged at the top and arranged with pulleys, so as to be 
 pulled up or let down easily. Six trap nests, as are shown on page 15, 
 are arranged in the corner as shown. The door leading to the next room 
 is 2 l / 2 feet wide. This door is a light frame covered with 10-ounce duck, 
 such as is used in making the curtains. It is made with double-acting 
 hinges, so as to swing both ways — a great advantage in passing through 
 such a house. Strips of old rubber belting are nailed to the studs, which 
 
 the doors rub against so they 
 will not swing too easily with 
 the wind. The wire front of 
 this house admits the air, but 
 the hens do not feel the direct 
 force of the wind. During 
 rougrt Winter storms or on 
 very cold nights the front cur- 
 tain is lowered and fastened 
 with a button, so that it comes 
 
 „ _- in front of the wire screen, 
 
 Fig. 23. 
 INTERIOR OF ABOVE HOUSE. thus shutting out the wind and 
 
62 
 
 The Business Hen. 
 
 taking the place of windows. 
 
 The object of the curtains in 
 front of the roosts is to make a 
 warm room for the hens on very 
 cold nights. On such nights, 
 after the hens have gone to 
 roost, the curtains are let down 
 and buttoned, so that the hens 
 are shut in a small room.' The 
 Fig. 24. heat ot their bodies keeps this 
 
 VAN DRESSER'S PARTITIONED HOUSE. room wa rm, and, strange to say, 
 the air behind the curtains does not become foul. It is said that when 
 these "sleeping closets" are used not a sick hen or even a case of bad cold 
 could be found. After passing the night in this warm place the hens 
 seem to enjoy coming down to the floor to scratch for their food in the 
 litter. We would not recommend this "roosting closet" except for use on 
 very cold nights. The plan of an open front with a curtain has much in 
 its favor. 
 
 HOUSE INTERIORS.— The interior fixtures for henhouses vary 
 almost as much as do those for human families. Fig. 24 shows an in- 
 terior of one of Henry Van Dresser's houses. A wire netting partition 
 divides a large room in two. The arrangement of roosts and nest boxes 
 is easily seen. Fig. 25 shows a little house used by Mr. Cosgrove, who 
 lives in a cold part of New England. He describes it as follows: 
 
 "This is the most economical house to build that I know of. The 
 house is 10 x 10 on the ground. A perpendicular front would (with the 
 same roof) be only 7 x 10, so I gain 30 feet of floor surface at a cost of 
 only 46 feet of boards. The house is made of seven-eighths-inch matched 
 pine, roof and back covered with red Neponset roofing paper. There are 
 no sills or plates; the boards are nailed to a 2 x 3 x 10 scantling six 
 inches from bottom edge, and three inches below top edge, so that the 
 ends of the 2x3 pieces that the roof is nailed to rest on the 2x3 that 
 
 the sides are nailed to. Each 
 part, top, back, front and sides 
 are made separately, and are 
 hooked together across the cor- 
 ners. The house can be un- 
 hooked, laid flat on the ground 
 and loaded on a wagon in five 
 minutes, and put together again 
 as quickly. Two large windows 
 
 which slide sideways allow near- 
 Fig. 25. J 
 
 COSGROVE'S MOVABLE HOUSE. ly ha ' f of the front to be open 
 
The Hen's House. 
 
 53 
 
 Fig. 26. 
 
 SCRATCHING SHED 
 
 ARRANGEMENT. 
 
 in hot days, as well as the large door in east 
 end (which is left off to show interior) and 
 which opens into an open front scratching shed 
 size of the house. The low windows let the 
 \\ inter sun shine on the earth floor, drying and 
 warming it, so the fowls make a dust bath of 
 the entire floor. Roost platform, with remov- 
 able roosts, nest boxes and feed trough, are 
 shown; on the east end next the door is a box with three partitions, one 
 each for shells, grit and charcoal." 
 
 Fig. 26 shows a plan for connecting the house with a scratching shed. 
 Fig. 27 shows how a boy with a small backyard kept a few hens in a 
 piano box, while Fig. 29 shows a henhouse on wheels, often used in 
 England for pasturing the hens on a grain stubble. This house or wagoii 
 is hauled about the field after harvest, and the hens pick up the grain that 
 was lost by the reapers. 
 
 WARMING THE HENHOUSE.— Some experiments have been made 
 in providing artificial heat. In Maine a house 150 feet long was well built, 
 yet cold in the worst of Winter. A hot-water heater was placed in a 
 pit at one end, and from it a line of two-inch pipes was carried the entire 
 length of the building and returned under the roosts. This gave suffi- 
 cient heat, kept the hens in good health, and the egg yield was main- 
 tained. Stoves have been used in some houses, but not with the best oi 
 success. A device for using a lamp in a small house is shown in Fig. 28. 
 On a large scale, and in very cold weather, the hot-water pipe might pay, 
 but the danger is in using the heat in milder weather — when the hens 
 would be better off without it. Some poultry keepers follow the plan that 
 has proved so successful with cattle; building a tight, warm building, pro- 
 viding for a good ventilation, and leaving the question of warmth to the 
 animal heat of the hens. H. E. Cook has described what he calls a "hen 
 sanitarium." This was a room 10 x 24 feet. In this room 125 hens were 
 kept, and though outside the mercury fell to far below zero, the temperature 
 inside ranged from 37 degrees to 42 degrees. Mr. Cook says : 
 
 "This house is thoroughly insulated upon all sides but one, which is 
 protected by another building, by a stuffed 
 wall of straw and straw above, and a ce- 
 ment floor, thus shutting off 'every chance 
 for air to enter around the wall or for cold 
 air contact or moisture from the soil below. 
 I have repeatedly said that it does not seem 
 possible to- secure large egg production in 
 the Winter in our northern sections, where 
 it storms often three days in a week and 
 
 I 
 
 Fig. 27. 
 PIANO-BOX HOUSE. 
 
54 
 
 The Business Hen. 
 
 Fig. 
 A LAJVa' HEATER. 
 
 is cloud}' rest of the time, and this exceptional 
 year these things things happen every day in the 
 week. But this warm henhouse is giving 40 to 
 53 e. 1 - 1 .'".? a flriy for the past six weeks from 125 
 hens, 7.") pullets, and 50 old hens, and 40 degrees 
 below absolutely had no effect otherwise than to 
 increase the production two eggs per day. This 
 room is ceiled upon the inside with unmatched 
 boards, the side walls filled with straw, about 10 
 inches space. In the loft straw is put in loosely, 
 and the space between the boards caused by 
 shrinkage is left open into the loose straw above 
 The door into the room does not shut air tight, 
 and therefore serves as an intake for fresh air; 
 then very slowly passing into the straw above. 
 In this way it would seem that a much slower circulation takes place than 
 would if there was an opening cut directly into the loft and the circulation 
 left free, as it would through even an ordinary out-take flue. I do not 
 feel like speaking with much authority upon the hen business, but it is 
 rather a lingering belief that henhouses as a rule are troubled with too 
 much change of air rather than a lack of it, and furthermore that the 
 apparent need of ventilation when one goes into a house comes largely 
 from filth, and a lack of sanitation due to droppings long preserved. 1 
 am not inclined to belittle the necessity of pure air, but to magnify the 
 value of cleanliness, and so secure pure air with less frequent change. 
 There is ground for debate whether open dead air spaces are preferable 
 to stuffed walls. My preference is for the stuffed space, provided it is 
 wide enough, for this reason: Each straw is hollow and cannot be abso- 
 lutely (if dry) packed so closely to another that there will not be air 
 between them, and hence with this means of insulation there will be pro- 
 vided a multitude of dead-air spaces, at moderate cost, while to secure even 
 two spaces with lumber at $20 per 1,000 means rapidly increasing cost 
 and there certainly should not be less than two. Furthermore, no lumber 
 can be so sound and thoroughly seasoned that 
 there will not, even if painted, be some shrink- 
 age after a few years' use, and when these pre- 
 viously considered dead-air spaces have open- 
 ings they are no longer dead-air spaces, because 
 air circulates in them and heat is quickly carried 
 away. A mistake, however, is often made when 
 stuffing is to be practiced in forming the space 
 too narrow. It should ordinarily be not less 
 HOUSE ON WHEELS. than 10 inches, more or less, perhaps, accord- 
 
The Hen's House. 
 
 Fig. 30. 
 HAY WARD'S 14-IIEN HOUSE. 
 
 ing to wind pressure against its 
 sides. When plain dead-air spaces 
 are used, then one-half inch will 
 suffice as well as more. I am of 
 the opinion that the ceiling will 
 be better if the lumber is not 
 matched, thereby leaving small 
 cracks to be covered with two or 
 three feet of dry, loose straw." 
 
 It will be noticed that Mr. 
 Cook allows less than two square 
 feet of floor space to each hen, but 
 the greatest care is taken to have 
 this floor clean. The litter is 
 changed frequently, and the floor is swept often, which is possible, since 
 it is made of concrete. The manure is cleaned out before it becomes 
 offensive. It would not be possible to keep the hens in health in such 
 crowded quarters if the house were not kept so clean. We have many 
 other reports of hens crowded into a small space and yet laying remarkably 
 well. In every such case the houses are well ventilated and kept thor- 
 oughly clean. It seems to be settled that we may safely use the animal 
 heat of hens or cows to keep up the temperature of their rooms if we can 
 provide for a supply of pure air and dispose of the foul air without creat- 
 ing too much of a draft. 
 
 THE DUST BOX. — This ought to stand in the sunshine out of all 
 drafts ; under the front window is a good place. Road dust is excellent. 
 It is well to secure a quantity of it during a dry spell in Summer. We 
 have found dry sifted coal ashes good. A large shallow box is best. Do 
 not fill it too full so the hens will kick the dust over the floor. In some 
 cases a small quantity of lime is added to the dust, but we do not like it. 
 as it takes the gloss from the feathers. Do not let the dust remain too 
 long. It must not become damp or 
 caked. In freezing weather the dust 
 box should be emptied frequently, so 
 as to keep the dust dry. 
 
 THE FLOOR. — Good arguments are 
 advanced for cement, board or earth 
 floors, just as different housekeepers pre- 
 fer carpets, matting or rugs with hard 
 wood. The wood floors are warm and 
 easily cleaned. Cement makes a solid 
 
 floor, and if properly built keeps out „ „ 1 
 
 rats and vermin better than the others. SWINGING HEN DOOR. 
 
56 
 
 The Business Hen. 
 
 It is easy to clean, the chief objection being that it is cold. With plenty 
 of litter this objection counts for less. Earth floors can be dug over from 
 time to time, and make a good natural place for the hens to dig and 
 dust. After some years they become foul, unless dug out and changed 
 yearly, and are more likely to carry disease germs than floors that can 
 be easily swept clean. Unless well drained they are wet in rainy weather. 
 A combination liked by many is a cement floor covered with several 
 inches of sand or dry dirt. Whatever floor is used a good covering of 
 clean dry litter must be kept on it and frequently changed. Cut straw 
 makes good litter; so do forest leaves or shredded cornstalks. Oat 
 straw in the sheaf is used by some poultry keepers. 
 
 ROOSTS. — Notice how a hen holds on to the perch and balances 
 herself upon it. A square strip with the edges rounded off gives her a 
 better grip than a round pole — a two or three-inch strip, according to the 
 size of the bird, will answer. Do not put them too high. The hens are 
 often hurt by flying up to them. The arrangement shown on page 50, 
 used in White and Rice's house, is excellent. There should be a dropping 
 board one foot under the roosts to catch the droppings. The roosts should 
 not be fastened, but put in notches so that they can be quickly taken out 
 for cleaning. In some cases duck or other thick cloth is tacked to the under 
 side of the roosts. This will be kept smeared with kerosene, and thus 
 prevent the mites from gathering there. The dropping board must of 
 course be cleaned off frequently. Its great value is that the hens can run 
 under it, and thus have greater floor space. 
 
 BARNS FOR HENHOUSES. — Sometimes a farmer wishes to change 
 from dairying to poultry-keeping. Men often buy farms with large build- 
 ings used formerly for sheep or cattle. How can such buildings be made 
 over to suit poultry ? While it is better to build houses exactly suited to 
 hens this is not always possible, and the larger buildings can be used. A 
 Maine man fitted up an old building, and this is what he says about it: 
 
 N 
 
 R-initi, 
 
 *7- 
 
 —B-S 
 
 «£L 
 
 *? 
 
 ^ 
 
 4--Vo 
 
 K 
 
 2 00 $&pui. H 
 
 H: 
 
 B- 
 
 * 
 
 2-6' O - *T 
 
 "I have used and am still using a barn 36 x 40 feet as a three-story hen- 
 house. The lower story is a basement open to the south; second floor 
 
The Hen's House. 57 
 
 is on the level with all the land except south of barn; third is up one 
 flight from entrance. In Summer I let each floor run as one flock, 
 having a large field and orchard, and only have division fences run- 
 ning about 300 feet, and I find that a hen very rarely gets around 
 the end. The upper flock have a run which starts about 10 feet from end 
 of barn, and runs through the middle pen to the ground. I use poultry 
 wire for partitions and doors. I have no walks, and have doors rigged 
 with pulleys and weights so that they keep shut. Troughs are made of 
 10-inch boards for mash, and I feed dry grain on floor in litter. Water 
 dishes are elevated on a wide board about 12 inches from ground, which 
 keeps water clean. For roosts I use 2 x 3-inch pine planed and simply laid 
 on stringers two feet from the ground, which makes them easy to clean, 
 and roosts are placed so that two flocks roost close together. Sometime I 
 want to use the space over the big beams as a pigeon roost to raise squabs. 
 I am only using two floors this Winter, as I have but 400 hens, but I would 
 not exchange my barn for any henhouse, as the work is all in a bunch. 
 
 CONFINE HENS.— Fig. 30 shows one of the COO houses on the 
 poultry farm of C. E. L. Hayward, Hancock, N. H. The houses are eight 
 feet square and of the same height, having a double floor with a square 
 base 15 inches high of two-inch plank, to which the roof boards are nailed. 
 The roof and back are shingled. The front is boarded down from top 
 and up from bottom about 15 inches. The door and spaces each side are 
 covered with wire netting one inch mesh. Thus the south end is nearly 
 open to the weather the year around. The houses are in rows two rods 
 apart, four rods between the rows, all facing the south. Each house has 
 14 hens. No chickens are raised. In October and November every hen 
 is sold and a new stock of pullets, raised by contract in Vermont and 
 Canada, put in. 
 
CHAPTER X. 
 
 Feeding the Hen. 
 A BALANCED RATION.— Nothing connected with poultry keeping 
 i\ quires more skill and judgment. than giving the hen what she needs* to 
 make feathers, llesh and eggs. A farmer who just throws corn out to 
 the hens now and thru will say feeding is easy, and there is no skill about 
 it. He is wrong, for the hen furnishes the skill and judgment. She eats 
 the corn, and then g and hunts for insects, seeds, grass — anything 
 
 that she can find. If we could gather everything she selects in this way 
 and analyze it we would find that it makes a "balanced ration," much 
 t'nc same as the mixture of grain and meat which the skilled feeder gives 
 his hens in the Winter. To prove this statement we have only to remem- 
 ber that in Summer, when the corn-fed hen has a chance to balance her 
 lation she lays eggs. In Winter, when still fed corn but denied the chance 
 to hunt for insects and meat she quits and lays on fit. 1 know a farmer 
 who for years fed corn in Winter and had few eggs. He bought a bone 
 cutter and fed cut bone, and had a good supply. Why was this? The 
 cut bone enabled the hen to balance her own ration as she did when she 
 hunted insects to go with the corn. The idea of a balanced ration was 
 suggested first by an effort to imitate the hen's natural food, when she 
 is shut in a yard or house. It is based on the fact that certain parts of the 
 hen's body cannot be produced unless certain distinct elements are sup- 
 plied in the food. For example the shell of the egg is composed largely 
 of lime. It will not be made of any other substance, and unless lime is 
 supplied in some way there can be no shell. The feathers, the white of 
 the egg, the muscles and lean meat of the hen contain an element known 
 as nitrogen, and the food must contain a fair supply of this muscle-making 
 material. The chemists call this part of the food protein, but we will call 
 it here muscle-maker. The fat of the body is made from starch, sugar, 
 and similar materials in the food. The muscle cannot be made from 
 these fatty foods. If we feed too many of them the hen will stop making 
 ban meat or laying eggs and simply lay on fat. We will call this part of 
 the food "fat formers." There is also a quantity of oil or pure fat in most 
 foods. It is more digestible than the fat formers and we call it "pure 
 fat." Left to herself, with plenty to choose from, a healthy hen will make 
 a nice selection of these three elements in her food, taking enough "muscle 
 makers" to keep up her bone and muscle and provide for the egg, and 
 enough of the others to suit her purpose. Human mothers need the 
 doctor or some other wise man to come and tell them that their children 
 
Feeding the Urn. 
 
 59 
 
 should eat oatmeal or other whole grain to provide the material for 
 teeth and bones. The hen knows by instinct what she needs, and in order 
 to cater to that instinct, when we cannot let the hen choose entirely, we 
 get the chemist to pick our grains and other foods apart so that we can 
 tell how to mix them and give the hen a good Winter imitation of her 
 Summer diet of worms, seeds and grass. For the hen must have mineral 
 matter to build her bones and shell her eggs. This "mineral matter" is 
 the part of the hen or her food which cannot be consumed by fire, but 
 which remains as ash. We must also remember that the hen cannot utilize 
 all the food she eats. More than half of its fertilizing value passes away 
 in the form of manure. We must give her fond enough to provide for all. 
 
 AMOUNTS IN TEN POUNDS OF EACH. ^ hof 
 
 Muscle-makers. Fat-former-. Pure fat. Min. .Mai. 
 P. C. Ozs. P. C. Ozs. P. C. Ozs. P. C. Ozs. 
 
 Wheat bran 12. 19.2 39. 62.4 2.7 4.4 G.4 10.2 
 
 Wheat 10. 16. G9. 110.4 1.7 2.7 1.3 2.8 
 
 Corn 8. 12.8 67. 107.2 4.3 6.8 1.4 2.2 
 
 Oats 9. 14.4 47. 59.2 4.2 6.7 2.9 4.6 
 
 Rye 10. 16. 67. 107.2 1.1 1.7 1.9 3. 
 
 Middlings 12.5 20. 53. 84.8 3.4 5.4 3.3 5.28 
 
 Gluten meal 25. 40. 4.;. 6S.S 11. 17.6 12. 19.2 
 
 Meat meal in. 64. 7.5 12. 10. 16. 38. 6. 
 
 Beef scraps 50. 80. 5. 8. 21. 33.6 15. 21. 
 
 Clover hay 7. 11.2 36. 57.6 1.7 2.7 62. 9.9 
 
 Buckwheat 7.7 12.3 49. 78.4 1.8 2.8 2. 3.2 
 
 Skimmed milk 3. 4.8 5. 8. 0.3 0.48 0.7 1.1 
 
 Eggs 12. 19.2 10. 16. 14.5 23.2 
 
 Cut bone 21. 33.6 32. 51. 22. 3.5 
 
 Barley 9. 14.4 65. 104. 1.6 2.5 2.7 4.3 
 
 Millet 9. 14.4 45. 72. 3.2 5.1 2.6 4.1 
 
 Sorghum 7. 11.2 52. 83.2 3.1 4.9 1.5 2.4 
 
 Sunflower seed 12. 19.2 21. 33.6 '29. 46.4 2.0 1.1 
 
 Linseed meal 28. 44.8 40. 64. 2.8 4.4 6. 9.6 
 
 Peas 17. 27.2 52. 83.2 0.7 1.1 2.6 4.1 
 
 WHAT IT MEANS. — It does not take us long to see why, when the 
 farmer added cut bone to the corn his hens laid more eggs. A dozen egc r s 
 will weigh not far from 25 ounces, requiring three ounces of muscle 
 makers, and nearly four of mineral matter. Ten pounds of corn do not 
 provide half enough mineral matter for :n cue;-, even if every bit 
 
 of the corn could be used and none passed as manure. The muscle makers 
 are also low in the corn, and when the hen provides for the growth of 
 body and feathers, animal heat and the fat necessary for comfort there is 
 
GO The Business Hen. 
 
 not much left in the corn to furnish the material for eggs. We see what 
 happens when cut bone is added. This is rich in muscle makers and min- 
 eral matter, and the hen was ready to provide for the needs of her system 
 and also lay eggs. 
 
 It does not follow from this that cut bone and corn is the best ration 
 for hens just because it gives her mineral matter and muscle makers. 
 You can put water in a steam boiler and burn coal under it and make 
 steam, but a hen is not fed that way. Like most humans she prefers one 
 kind of food to another, and will do best on food that she likes. You must 
 study her likes and dislikes and cater to 
 
 C ___\^ them. 
 
 ^^^^'■ ^■'- ■ ^^^jizs^^m Why, then, talk about "balanced ra- 
 
 tions," and what is the need of studying 
 Fig. 32. these figures? You cannot always afford 
 
 HINGED FEED BOX. to f ecd tne hen just what she likes best. 
 
 You must often substitute one food for another. How can you know 
 that you arc feeding the hen more or less than she needs unless you can 
 know just what the foods contain? If you could figure out what the hen 
 cats when at liberty and what the most successful hen keepers feed their 
 birds when housed, you will find that there is a definite proportion of 
 muscle makers to the other elements. If we call the fat worth 2\A times 
 as much as the fat formers and add the two together we shall find that 
 there is about T [ as much of the muscle makers in the ration. That is, 
 when the laying hen is left free to select the food that will best keep up her 
 body heat and vigor, and enable her to lay eggs she will select about one 
 part of the muscle makers to four parts of fat formers and pure fat, with, 
 of course, plenty of lime and other mineral matter. If you were fattening 
 poultry you would of course mix up a ration that would contain more of 
 the fat formers. 
 
 This in brief is the theory of a "balanced ration." No one expects a 
 farmer to feed his hens on exact scientific principles, but a little study 
 of these figures will often enable us to mix our feeds so as to save grain 
 and keep the hens supplied with what they need. Successful poultrymen 
 have different methods of feeding, but if we know what they feed we 
 shall find that the mixture comes close to our "balanced ration," which is 
 a good thing to take for the standard. 
 
 TWO WAYS OF FEEDING.— To illustrate two different methods of 
 feeding hens we give a report from the Maine Experiment Station of feed- 
 ing in cold weather when the hens are housed: 
 
 Years ago the "morning mash," which was regarded as necessary to 
 '"warm up the cold hen," so she could lay that day, was given up and it was 
 fed at night. The birds are fed throughout the year daily as follows: 
 Each pen of twenty-two receives one pint of wheat in the deep litter early 
 
Feeding the Hen. 61 
 
 in the morning. At 9.30 A. M. one-half pint of oats is fed lo them in the 
 same way. At 1 P. M. one-half pint of cracked c< rn is pivcn in the litter 
 as before. At :; P. M. in the Winter and 4 P. M. in the Summer they are 
 given all the mash they will eat up clean in half an hour. The mash is 
 made of the following mixture of meals: 200 pounds wheat bran; 100 
 pounds cornmeal; 100 pounds wheat middlings; 100 pounds linseed meal; 
 loo pounds gluten meal; 100 pounds beef scrap. The mash contains one- 
 fourth its bulk of clover leaves and heads, obtained from the feeding 
 floor in the cattle barn. The clover is covered with hot water and allowed 
 to stand for three or four hours. The mash is made quite dry, and rubbed 
 down with the shovel in mixing, so that the pieces of clover are separated 
 and covered with meal. Cracked bone, oyster shells, clean grit, and water 
 are before them all the time. Two large mangels are fed to the birds in 
 each pen daily in Winter. They arc stuck on to large nails, which are 
 partly driven into the wall, a foot and a half above the floor. Very 
 few soft-shelled eggs are laid. and. sn far as known, not an egg has been 
 eaten by the hens during the last five years. 
 
 We are testing another method of feeding with several pens of hens 
 this year. It consists of the morning. O.T',0 A. M., and 1 P. M. feedings of 
 dry food in the litter as • instead of the mash at 3 P. M. all the 
 
 dry cracked corn they will eat is given in trouj E scrap is kept 
 
 before the birds at all times, in elevated troughs where they cannot waste 
 it. They are supplied with grit, oyster shew, bone, and mangels. Dry 
 clover leaves and chaff are given them on the floor each day. One pen 
 of 30 hens were fed through last Winter in this way with good results. 
 If you figure this out by the table, multiplying amount of "pure fat' 
 by 2]/ 2 and adding to the "fat formers," you will see that the mash con- 
 tains the following : 
 
 cle Maker. Fat Former. Pure Fat. 
 
 200 Wheat bran 24 78 5.2 
 
 100 Corn meal 8 67 4.2 
 
 100 Linseed 2S to 2.8 
 
 100 Gluten 25 43 11. 
 
 100 Beef scraps 50 5 2.1 
 
 135 233 25.3 
 
 This is a proportion of about one to three and the corn, oats and wheat will 
 just about give a proportion of all the food ot one to four. \Y 
 quite sure that the hens which are fed on dry food eat enough of the 
 beef scrap to give about the same proportion. We do not give this ration 
 as a model one, but as an illustration of how hens can be fed. Tt will 
 pay to go over any ration in this way and see just what the hens are 
 receiving. We should have a few definite principles in mind, and then 
 
PIG. 33. HANDY FEED BOX. 
 
 62 The Business Hen. 
 
 try to satisfy our hens. There may be cases where skim-milk is cheap 
 and plenty. If we used it in place of water we should need less linseed or 
 meat, as we can learn from our table. In many cases corn is by far the 
 cheapest food. We can safely use large quantities of it if we use some 
 form of meat with it to provide the needed muscle makers. Taking 
 care not to have the proportion of fat formers in our ration too large, we 
 should feed to please the hens, making them work for most of their 
 food, and when once getting them satisfied making changes very slowly. 
 
 Another method of feeding 
 hens in Winter quarters is 
 given here. This is useful on 
 a dairy farm where skim-milk 
 is handy : 
 
 "In the morning they are 
 t'< d about 10 quarts of dry feed 
 in the litter in scratching sheds, 
 the litter pushed up into a heap, and the grain scattered through it so 
 they must scratch ; the grain is usually half cracked corn and half wheat, 
 sometimes oats in place of wheat, sometimes buckwheat, but always half 
 cracked corn. As I have two hundred liens, this is a light feed, about 
 one pint to ten hens. I want them hungry enough to work. Early in the 
 forenoon eight quarts of skim-milk are placed on the back of the kitchen 
 stove, where it will heat without burning, and at noon this is poured into 
 a large iron kettle, together with two quarts of animal meal, a table- 
 spoonful of salt and three times a week a tcaspoonful of red pepper ; then 
 stirred into it all it will wet thoroughly of bran and cornmeal, two parts 
 bran to one of meal. It makes eighteen quarts of feed, all the hens will 
 eat up clean. About every other day three or four quarts of boiled pota- 
 toes are cut up and mixed in the milk. Just before sundown they are 
 fed the same dry feed as in the morning, only more in quantity. I aim 
 tn feed at this time all they will eat. For green food' cabbages are 
 fed three or four times a week. The above shows what is fed, and how 
 much, but as a matter of fact, each coop is fed differently; and I do not 
 know of anything more difficult for the novice to learn than how properly 
 to feed fowls. Last night I sent my boy, 14 years old, to feed the hens ; 
 this morning, an hour after the hens were off the roosts, in three of the 
 coops there was still a lot of feed in the troughs. That means no scratch- 
 ing, no work, sitting around half the day in a bunch ; and if that sort of 
 thing was kept up it would soon mean few if any eggs. My fowls have 
 had no green cut bone, no cut clover, no bought grit; doubtless all these 
 things would be good for them, and ! might increase the egg yield, but my 
 experience shows that very good results can be obtained without them. 
 I keep ground oyster shells and fine gravel gathered from the wash by the 
 
Feeding the Hen. 63 
 
 roadside and sifted, also broken crnrcoal, in each coop all the time." 
 
 FEEDING HINTS. — The mash is useful, as it gives a good chance to 
 feed fine meat or to give ginger or pepper and salt when needed. No single 
 grain has just the right feeding "balance," wheat and oats coming nearest 
 to it. We can make the mash mto any proportion we like. By using a 
 good proportion of corn meal we can get the hens to eat many cheap forms 
 of food which they would not care for alone. For example, wheat bran 
 and gluten, two useful feeds will be eaten when mixed in a mash but not 
 well when fed alone. The common mistake is to feed a thin slop in place 
 of a dry, crumbly mash. The hens rightly object to the former. We 
 have tried the experiment of feeding a well-balanced mash alone. The 
 hens did not respond as they did when the same mixture of grains and 
 meat was baked into a hard cake and crumbled for them. The hen does 
 not chew her food like other animals. It is ground up in her gizzard by 
 sharp stones or grit which she swallows. The hen does not seem to 
 thrive for any considerable time when all work of grinding her food is 
 taken away. Part of the ration should be in the form of dry grain. When 
 hens are laying fast the mash is useful because the food it contains is 
 quickly available. The hen can utilize it at once. She may not get it fast 
 enough if compelled to grind all her own grain. 
 
 Experiments have been tried in letting the hens balance their own 
 ration by keeping a variety of food constantly before them. In our own 
 experiments this proved a failure. Some of the hens grew dumpy and 
 lifeless, while others remained active and fresh. They laid well for a 
 time, but the general observation is that after a time the self-balancing 
 system fails. With us the chief trouble was that, the hens missed the 
 incentive of hunger. With food always before them they saw little need 
 of scratching or working and became lazy, as most men would under sim- 
 ilar circumstances. 
 
 We conclude that most hens are more likely to eat too much of the 
 fat forming foods if given a chance to do so. They are not so likely to eat 
 too much of the muscle makers, hence the plan suggested of keeping beef 
 scrap before them and regulating the feeding of corn or other grain will 
 work better than the plan of keeping all before them. It is wise to remove 
 what the hens leave of the mash after ten or fifteen minutes of eating. 
 It is likely to sour in hot weather, and it is a good plan to make 
 the hens understand that eating is a matter of business. 
 
 GRAIN FOOD. — Corn is preferred by most hens. Throw down a mix- 
 ture of all grains and they usually pick out the corn first. When properly 
 "balanced" with meat or other forms of muscle makers corn is the best 
 grain we have for poultry. If fed in the form of whole or cracked grain 
 entirely some of the hens will eat little besides corn, and will put on fat 
 when they ought to lay. That is one reason why a mash or a baked cake 
 
64 
 
 The Business Hen. 
 
 Pig. 34. SELF-FEEDING GRIT BOX. 
 
 composed of a mixture of grain and meat is very useful for part of the 
 ration. As we might naturally expect, corn is the best single grain for 
 sitting hens where the object is to keep up the high animal heat, and for 
 feeding birds that are intended for fattening. Corn gives a high color 
 to the yolks of the eggs and to the meat. Wheat comes much nearer to 
 being a "balanced ration" than corn, and where it can be bought to advan- 
 tage is very useful. We can use our table of figures to learn whether 
 it will pay best to buy wheat or with the same money buy corn and some 
 form of meat. Wheat alone gives an egg with a pale yellow yolk. We 
 
 find that wheat bran, which is 
 the outer shell of the wheat ker- 
 nel, has much the same effect. 
 Oats are excellent in limited 
 quantities, but are seldom bought 
 to be fed whole, and on most 
 farms are considered better for 
 the horses. We have heard com- 
 plaints when dry oats are fed in 
 large quantities to hens. We 
 would rather crush them to mix 
 in the mash or boil them if fed 
 whole. Some experienced poul- 
 trymen say that oats give "spirit" to a hen as they do to a horse, and 
 for that reason are very useful — better fed whole than crushed. Oatmeal 
 is a favorite food for little chicks, the same as for young coifs or calves. 
 Buckwheat is largely fed in some sections where the crop is grown. Hens 
 probably give a better return for whole buckwheat than any other stock. 
 Outside of buckwheat sections it would hardly pay to buy this grain. It 
 is a stimulating food, as many people realize who eat too many buckwheat 
 cakes. On the average farm corn is the chief food for hens, and the 
 usual problem is to find some cheap supply of muscle makers in order 
 to "balance" the corn. The advice to throw the whole or cracked grain 
 into the litter in Winter so that the hens must scratch in order to find 
 it is sound, and is the general practice. If this is done, however, the litter 
 must be clean and dry. If we let the straw, leaves, hulls or whatever is on 
 the floor get damp and filthy we should not throw the grain there. Such 
 filth will give just the conditions needed to spread disease. We should 
 never throw the grain into the mud or into filth. If we feed in the litter 
 we must have clean floors with the litter frequently changed. 
 
 MUSCLE-MAKING FOODS.— Meat in some form may be considered 
 a necessity in the laying hen's ration. Left to herself the hen gets her 
 supply in the form of insects. "Animal Meal" and similar powders are 
 cooked meat and bone thoroughly dried and ground fine. They give a 
 
Feeding the Hoi. 65 
 
 high per cent of muscle makers and may be thoroughly mixed in the mash. 
 Cut bone is a very useful food which is not usually mixed with the 
 mash but fed by itself. It consists of green or fresh bone, sliced or shaved 
 into thin pieces by a bone cutter, which is turned by a crank and cuts 
 or gouges off the end of the bone. Where a good supply of fresh bone 
 can be obtained this cut bone is very useful. It cannot be kept sweet 
 like the dry animal meal. We have seen cases where part of the carcass 
 of a dead animal was hung up in the henhouse for the fowls to pick at. 
 In cold weather it will keep reasonably sweet, and it is surprising to see 
 how the hens will pick the bones clean. In some cases bones are roasted 
 and smashed as well as can be with a sledge. 
 Any form of meat is likely to loosen the 
 bowels of the hen when first fed. Especially 
 with cut bone or when feeding a carcass, the 
 hens should be watched carefully and not fed 
 too much. Linseed meal and skim-milk are 
 often used as substitutes for meat but do not 
 really take its place. Linseed is a laxative 
 food and should not be fed heavily. Skim- 
 milk is one of the most valuable of foods. ANOTHER SELF>EEDER 
 Some farmers go so far as to say that young pigs and chicks cannot be 
 properly raised without a supply of milk, but facts do not warrant the 
 statement. The milk is very useful for mixing the mash or for feeding 
 alone. We should always provide fresh water even when feeding milk. 
 The feeding value of skim-milk has been demonstrated in boarding-houses 
 and public institutions. Whenever the boarders are provided with all 
 the milk they desire, the meat bill always falls off. Still, no one but an 
 infant can depend on milk alone to supply all needed muscle makers. 
 
 VARIOUS FOODS. — While we do not regard green food as a neces- 
 sity in hen feeding there is no doubt that the hen feels better when pro- 
 vided with grass or a substitute for it. Cabbage is the usual salad fed in 
 Winter. It may be hung up by a string so that the hens must jump up to 
 get it. The fact that they do jump for it proves that they crave some- 
 thing of the sort. Beets or mangels are often fed, either chopped in two 
 so that the hens can pick at them on the floor or hung on a nail driven into 
 the wall. Clover hay is relished by the hen, and not only gives her a bulky 
 food, but supplies muscle makers and mineral matter. The chaff and heads 
 which fall on the barn floor when the hay is thrown down may be mixed 
 in the mash. Some feeders chop the clover hay into short lengths, steam 
 it thoroughly by pouring boiling water upon it, and then covering it up. 
 It is fed hot in the middle of the afternoon in Winter, and we have seen 
 hens devouring it as cattle would. Clover and Alfalfa are sometimes 
 ground into a fine meal, which is excellent for mixing in the uiash. Fish 
 
66 The Business Hen. 
 
 may be fed in moderate quantities to hens before it begins to decay. It 
 can be cooked and thrown down for the hens to pick over. We must 
 remember that the food has a decided effect upon the flavor of the egg, 
 and that decayed or foul-smelling stuff will surely taint the egg. Sunflower 
 seeds can be fed in small quantities. They, with buckwheat, are useful 
 just before and during the hen's moult. It is thought by some that sun- 
 flower seed will actually hasten the moult and induce the hen to shed her 
 feathers early. While cotton-seed meal is fed in some parts of the South, 
 we do not advise its use in the average tlock. Linseed or some form of 
 meat is much safer. Boiled beans or cow peas are relished by hens. We 
 prefer to feed them mixed with boiled potatoes or corn meal. 
 
 GENERAL ADVICE. — A vigorous hen in full laying will eat about 
 five ounces of well-balanced food each day. What is called a "mainte- 
 nance ration" means the amount of food actually required to keep up the 
 body of the hen without laying or gaining in flesh. When a mature hen 
 stops laying and becomes idle 2]/ 2 or three ounces of food will be ample 
 for her needs. When hens run in an orchard or in a grass park in the 
 Summer it is a wise plan to feed the whole grain in the grass, sowing it 
 broadcast, as one would for seeding. The hens hunt and scratch for it, 
 and if not overfed will get it all. The exercise is just what they need, and 
 they find many bugs and eat much grass while hunting for the grain. A 
 mixture of equal parts of corn, oats and wheat is good for this broad- 
 casting. Hens like a variety, and some win pick out corn one day, oats 
 another and wheat at another time. Where hens can run at large they 
 pick up 40 per cent or more of their food. The skilled feeder comes to 
 know when they have had enough. Hens of the different breeds vary in 
 their food habits. The lighter breeds, like Leghorns, seem to be more 
 intelligent than the heavier fowls, and are not so likely to over-feed. The 
 Leghorns will stand a heavy feeding of corn better than Plymouth Rocks 
 or Brahmas. The latter should have a fair supply of meat and seem to 
 require green food even more than the lighter fowls. Some authorities 
 have claimed that it is not necessary to keep oyster shells or other sup- 
 plies of lime before the hens, because the food contains enough of that 
 substance. The hens do not agree with these authorities, for they empty 
 the shell boxes and would not do so if the lime were not needed. We 
 should keep a full supply of lime before them. Ground bone is excellent 
 for this purpose, but in the Eastern States oyster shells are usually cheaper. 
 It is the practice of some farmers to haul a load or two of shells from 
 neighboring fish markets every year. These are scattered on the ground 
 in front of the barn, and the wagon wheels and horses' hoofs grind them 
 up gradually. The hens help themselves as they feel inclined, and if the 
 shells do not wear down as fast as needed a few minutes' work with an 
 old hammer will hurry them along. 
 
Feed iiiii the Ihn. 
 
 67 
 
 Fig. 36. STOVEPirE FEEDERS. 
 
 On sandy land hens will gener- 
 ally find all the "grit" they need. 
 The object in supplying this 
 "grit" is to furnish the sharp 
 little stones which, in the hen's 
 gizzard, grind up the hard food. 
 There is no grit in the little 
 chick as it leaves the incubator, 
 and it must be supplied in the 
 brooder. That is why many 
 poultry keepers keep the bot- 
 toms of the brooders covered 
 with clean, sharp sand. Some 
 of the "chick foods" consist of 
 mixed grains and a quantity of 
 crushed stones, the latter fur- 
 nishing the chicks with the needed "grit" ; of course the hens must be 
 supplied with fresh water, for they drink frequently, and we must remem- 
 ber that over 60 per cent of the egg is water. Avoid a drinking dish that 
 the hens can walk into. A covered feeding dish for the mash is best, one 
 that only permits the hen to put in her head. Salt in small quantities 
 helps the hen, but it is a poison when used to excess. It is more necessary 
 when hens are yarded than when they run at large. The proper feeding 
 of a hen can only come through long and patient experience. It "looks 
 easy" but proves a hard job. 
 
 The best feed troughs have a cover which protects the food and 
 prevents the hens from stepping into it. Two good forms are shown at 
 Figs. 32-33. These are hinged at the side or end, so that the cover is easily 
 raised for cleaning. A convenient self-feeding box for shells or grit is 
 shown at Fig. 34. Another simple style of self-feeder appears at Fig. 
 36. This is made from pieces of stovepipe. They are closed at one 
 end, with small holes cut at the side near the bottom. They are hung 
 from the roof by means of wires, so that the 
 bottom hangs near the roost platform. They 
 can be used for feeding charcoal, shells or grit. 
 A drinking fountain made by inverting a tin 
 can over a smaller dish is shown at Fig. 37. 
 For those who do not care to bother with home- 
 made devices, excellent drinking fountains may 
 be had from all dealers in poultry supplies, and 
 they are so cheap and durable that no one need 
 FlG 37 be without adequate means for supplying hens 
 
 DRINKING FOUNTAIN. and chicks with pure water. 
 
CHAPTER XI. 
 
 The Colony Plan. 
 
 By this is meant the plan of letting the hens run at large in a field. 
 They are housed in small buildings scattered about the field — 40 or 50 to 
 the house. Mr. O. W. Mapes keeps about 1,500 hens on the colony plan, 
 and the following story of one day's work will give a good idea of the 
 way such a farm is conducted. Mr. Mapes selects the best hens for breed- 
 ers, and they are kept by themselves in small houses. Under this system, 
 while the hens mingle during the day, they usually go back to their own 
 houses at night. The colony system is best adapted to the production of 
 Summer eggs. Mr. Mapes does not claim a heavy yield in Winter, yet 
 with his systetm of handling his hens averages a profit of over $1 each per 
 year. This is the way the work is done. 
 
 "My son and partner proposes to take full charge of the poultry and 
 pigs, while 1 care for the cows and horses. This will give us a chance to 
 form some opinion of how much poultry it would require to furnish a 
 full day's work for a man, under better and more ideal conditions. He 
 was up about five o'clock, and had things well under way when 1 
 reached the barn. While breakfast was being prepared he proceeded first 
 to mix his morning batch of feed for the hens. There are 1,482 of them, 
 and he dumps four baskets of balanced ration into the box on the old 
 buckboard. '1 his weighs 35 pounds to the basket, making 140 pounds in all ; 
 100 quarts of skim-milk are then poured on it, and the whole well mixed 
 with a shovel. This takes about 15 minutes. I have found the follow- 
 ing mixture to give very satisfactory results both where fowls have free 
 range and when confined in yards with nothing else whatever in the way of 
 food, not even green food of any kind. Oyster shells, grit and water were 
 supplied, of course, but I hardly class those as food : Wheat bran, five 
 pounds ; wheat middlings, five pounds ; cracked corn, 10 pounds ; cornmeal, 
 10 pounds; animal meal, two pounds. To this should be added enough 
 skim-milk to wet into a mash. It makes a very good mixture without 
 milk, using water instead, but milk is an improvement. For small chicks 
 the cracked corn should not be very coarse. It is as well to use coarse 
 ground cornmeal in place of cracked corn for the small chicks. For larger 
 chicks and for hens I prefer the cracked corn in order to give the gizzard 
 a chance to perform its normal functions. He passes the end of the long 
 brooder house on his way to breakfast, giving a pull on the end of a long 
 wire projecting out through the siding. This takes about two seconds, 
 and raises the small drop doors in each of the 10 brooder apartments, 
 admitting about 1,000 chicks to the outdoor runs for exercise, fresh air, etc. 
 
The Colony Plan. 69 
 
 FEEDING THE CHICKS.— "The first job after breakfast is to feed 
 the chicks in the brooder house. A barrel of balanced ration and a can of 
 skim-milk stand convenient in the long hall as he enters. This hall runs 
 the whole length (rear) of the 60-foot building, and is four feet wide. 
 The first two pens contain about 100 chicks each that are four weeks old. 
 For these he dips about IV2 pound of feed in his basin, and pours on 
 enough skim-milk to wet it. After giving it a few stirs with his big 
 iron spoon he is ready for business, but not more ready than the chicks 
 on the other side of the wire partition. To those who are not accustomed 
 to it, the feeding of 1,000 chicks is an interesting sight. To us who are 
 used to it it is only work. It requires a little skill to open the gate and 
 step into a pen of 100 hungry chicks, without stepping on them, or allowing 
 any of them to jump out into the hall. See him dash a morsel of feed 
 through the wire gate, to the farthest corner of the pen. The wild 
 scramble which follows furnishes his opportunity to step inside and allow 
 the spring to close the gate behind him. A hundred pairs of wings are 
 instantly spread, and as many of his white pets land on his basin as can 
 get a foothold. Brushing them gently aside, he places half of his feed in 
 the trough, giving the remainder to the chicks in the next pen. Pens 
 3 and 4 contain about the same number of chicks that are three .weeks old. 
 For these he mixes a little less of the feed, still less for pens 5 and 6, 
 which are two weeks old, and about 12 ounces for pens 7 and 8, which are 
 only a week old. Pens 9 and 10 are reserved for next hatch, now coming 
 out of their shells. They will get water to drink, and bread crumbs 
 moistened with milk to eat for first four or five days. After that they 
 get same as the rest, and nothing else whatever except grit and water. 
 This ends the morning duty for the chicks. 
 
 INCUBATOR WORK.— "The incubators come next. These are in 
 another building, partly underground, also used as a shop. The first 
 thing he does on entering is to light a lamp and take the reading of the 
 thermometers. No. 1 read 103 degrees. These eggs have been set a week, 
 and this heat would have been all right a few days ago during the hot 
 wave, but it has now turned decidedly colder, and he gives the set screw 
 a slight turn to the left. No. 2 is hatching to-day, and is not to be opened. 
 The chicks are crowding against the glass door so thick that it is almost 
 impossible to see the thermometer. Passing to No. 3 he reads 104 degrees. 
 The animal heat in these eggs has raised the temperature since yesterday, 
 but in view of the change in weather conditions, this is all right. The 
 trays of eggs are next removed to the long work bench, the eggs turned 
 and allowed to air while the lamps are trimmed and filled, when they are 
 returned to the incubator and the doors closed. 
 
 THE HENS.— "Tt is now fi.'io A. M. ; and he is ready to feed the hens 
 By the time he has done a few odd chores about the barn, harnessed his 
 
70 The Business Hen. 
 
 horse to the buckboard, and got under way, it is seven o'clock. His tools 
 are a small fire shovel for dipping the wet mash, a large iron spoon for 
 scraping any dirt from the troughs and a couple of feed pails. A medium- 
 sized shovelful represents 12 ounces of dry feed, and his aim is to allow a 
 shovelful of mash to each eight hens. Glancing at the figures on the 
 inside of the door of pen No. 1 tells him that this flock contains 49 hens 
 (last count) and he gives them six shovelfuls of mash, and opens the small 
 drop door which allows them free range and a drink of water at the brook 
 or pond. There are 35 flocks, and this is repeated until all are served. 
 He finds a few troughs that are damp, showing that yesterday's supper 
 had not been all eaten until morning. These have their allowance slightly 
 reduced. By eight o'clrck he is back to the barn, and has a couple of pails 
 of feed left in his box. We have settled down to two feeds a day of this 
 mash for the hens, and nothing else except what little grass, grit, water, 
 etc., they find in the fields. Price of wheat and corn has got so high that 
 we find the balanced ration at $30 per ton is less expensive, and I expect 
 less sickness and better health than where grain is kept constantly before 
 them. Jesse only found two dead chicks under the brooders this morning, 
 and no dead hens. This is less than our usual mortality. Crushed oyster 
 shells are. always kept scattered about in abundance. 
 
 PLAN OF BUILDINGS. — "The houses I use for laying stock are only 
 10x12 feet on the ground, with shed roof. The front is eight feet high, and 
 faces south. The north side is five feet four inches high. On the south 
 side is a door for general use, a small drop door 6x8 inches for hens to 
 pass in and out, and one good-sized window. The large door is near the 
 east end, the small door near the middle, and the window near the west end. 
 This permits the afternoon sun the greatest sweep of floor space in Winter. 
 The table for droppings is 2 l / 2 feet above the floor, and extends along the 
 whole north side of the room. Under the table, on this north side, is cut 
 a small door 2 l / 2 feet high and one foot wide. Aside from this, the house 
 is as near airtight and windproof as matched boards and building paper 
 will make it. The small door under the roosting table on the north side 
 is kept tightly closed in Winter, and in Summer it is protected with wire- 
 cloth and kept open. This permits a free current of air to circulate 
 through the house and out at the open window on the opposite side, with- 
 out striking the hens on the perches above the table. I formerly kept 
 40 hens in each house, but recently have increased to 50 each. The 1,500 
 hens probably roam over nearly half of our farm of 70 acres, as their 
 roaming ground covers quite a distance from the buildings in all directions. 
 
 BROODER LAMPS.— "Next on the programme come the trimming 
 and filling of the brooder lamps. These rest on the floor, and are put 
 under the brooders from the hall, through large openings in the partition, 
 leaving them exposed to full view from the hall, and giving them plenty 
 
The Colony Phut. 71 
 
 of pure, cool air. A long shelf at convenient height contains an oil can. 
 matches, lamp-rag, etc. The lamps are lifted to the shelf, the screw cap 
 removed and filled. A puff of the burning lamp tells him when it is full. 
 The oil can is always left open so that no gas can gather in ii to cause an 
 explosion. Now the lamp is extinguished, the hinged burner turned back 
 without removing the tin chimney, and a sharp knife drawn across the 
 top of wick tube, removing soot, charred wick, etc. As soon as the 
 burner is wiped clean, care being taken to remove all particles of dirt from 
 the perforated brass which admits fresh air to the flame, the match is 
 applied. The burner is still hot, and the piece of emery paper above the 
 shelf is so located that the same stroke which ignites the match, brings it 
 across the top of the wick, and lights it, without waiting to see whether the 
 wood of the match is going to ignite. Five quarts of oil and 15 minutes' 
 time are required for the 10 lamps. They will need no more attention for 
 24 hours. The brooders in Nos. 9 and 10 must be got ready for the chicks 
 now hatching. They are scraped as clean as possible, smeared with 
 kerosene as a preventive of lice, and the floor under the hover covered 
 with sand. They will be nice and warm by the tune the chicks are ready 
 for removal to-morrow. The drinking fountains are next filled with fresh 
 water, and the regular morning work is accomplished by 8.30 A. M. 
 
 PACKING EGGS. — "The work of cleaning, stamping and packing the 
 eggs for the market usually falls to some of the women folks, but Jesse 
 relieves them of it to-day. There are 845 eggs in the baskets gathered 
 yesterday. These are first placed in a large tin pan, and sufficient luke- 
 warm water poured over them to cover them. With a washrag spread over 
 the palm of the left hand he takes them out of the warm water one by 
 one with the right hand, gives one end of the egg a turn against the cloth- 
 covered palm of the other hand, reverses and gives the other end of the 
 egg a turn, laying them in regular rows on a thick soft cloth covering the 
 long table on which he works in the wash room. An occasional egg that 
 is badly stained is laid one side, to be recleaned later cai with vinegar oi 
 sapolio. The heat retained from the lukewarm water in the pan causes 
 them to dry quickly as they lie on the soft cloth, retaining the peculiar 
 glow of the new-laid egg. Before he packs them in crates, each egg is 
 touched with a small rubber stamp, made on a very soft air cushion, 
 placing the name and address of the producer on its shell. Every egg we 
 ship to market is expected to carry a little bit of character with it, and 
 send back in return a little bit of extra cash. It will take him about two 
 hours to clean and pack the 845 eggs, and while he is doing it I drive to 
 town with our regular shipment of eggs, and bring back our regular supply 
 of skim-milk. He would have had ample time for this also. The advent 
 of wife and baby has not spoiled his zest for the boyish sport of fishing. 
 Long before my return from town he is at the pond, with rod and gun, 
 
72 The Business Hen. 
 
 looking for a mess of fish, and a large hen hawk he has had his eye on 
 for several days. The chicks two weeks uld and less got a light lunch 
 of feed before he started out, from the same barrel as for breakfast. The 
 older chicks were getting hungry, too, but must wait for their regular 
 three meals a day. 
 
 AFTERNOON WORK.— "After dinner the same routine of feeding 
 the chicks is gone through as in the morning. He now has time on his 
 hands again until three o'clock, and improves the opportunity to clean up 
 his buggy and harness. At :s P. M. the buckboard is again loaded with 
 mash for the hens, using about 20 pounds less than for the morning feed, 
 since a little was left in the box. The hens are at liberty this time, and 
 come to meet him in large numbers, the wagon often being covered with 
 the greedy white beauties. This is the weak spot in feeding a number of 
 flocks that have free range. A little practice, however, enables one to 
 apportion the feed quite uniformly. 
 
 EVENING FEED. — ""J he pig? get their supper (same as breakfast") 
 as soon as the hens are all fed, and at 4.30 Jesse starts out with five big 
 baskets to gather up the eggs. It takes him a few minutes more than an 
 hour to gather them and carry them up to the house, and he has sot as th« 
 result of the day's work. By 5.45 the chickens are again fed. and the 
 eggs in the incubator turned. This finishes the day's work, all except 
 pulling the wire in the brooder house and closing the entrances to the hen- 
 houses. He has used 260 pounds of feed, costing at $H0 per ton, $3.90, 
 and 4 l / 2 cans of skim-milk, costing 10 cents per can. for the hens. This 
 is a total of $4.35. The market quotation for eggs to-day is Y! l / 2 cents. 
 We get five cents per dozen above market quotations, for our guaranteed 
 eggs at pre-t'i;t :.:' ' cents. The 804 eggs, which is rather under the 
 daily average for the past week, are thus wortli $15.07. leaving a margin oi 
 profit of over $10 aside from my prospective profits in the growth of the 
 I igs and br >ilers. This is not a big story, but it has the merit of being 
 literally true. When our henhouses were first built, we used to close the 
 entrances at night by pressing an electric button. The expense of keeping 
 the battery charged, and the trouble of keeping the line in perfect order 
 has caused it to fall into innocuous desuetude. We are now arranging to 
 drop and raise the doors by pulling a wire, after the plan in use in our 
 brooder houses." 
 
CHAPTER XII. 
 
 A Market Gardener's Hens. 
 
 We, that is my wife and I, own a small farm of 30 acres, which we 
 are devoting to a variety of interests; chief of these are the growing of 
 small fruits, market garden and truck crops ; but we also keep two cows, 
 about 20 hogs, a dozen hives of bees and a flock of from 125 to 130 hens. 
 We have kept accurate records, and find that in four years during the six 
 months that require more or less housing the flock has averaged 37 eggs to 
 each 100 hens per day. The flock comprised quite a number of older hens 
 a part of the time. A difference is plainly seen in the last year of the 
 table below, when the entire flock consisted of pullets. The number of 
 dozens laid each month is as follows: 
 
 1899. 
 
 1900. 
 
 November 29 
 
 December 64 
 
 January 145 
 
 February 143 
 
 March 162 
 
 April 162 
 
 There has been something of a variety of breeds in this flock. Good 
 grade mongrels with a large dash of Leghorn blood, purebred Barred 
 Plymouth Rocks, Black Minorcas and White Wyandottes all figured largely 
 in the flock at some time during the period, and they showed very little 
 difference in their laying qualities. What slight difference I could detect 
 was to the credit of the Wyandottes, and the entire flock is now composed 
 of that breed. As the hens have occupied the same quarters, and the treat- 
 ment has been practically the same during the whole period, I will describe 
 both in detail. Small fruits and truck crops are grown in considerable 
 quantities ; these are largely sold at retail, and between managing the work 
 in the fields and marketing the crops my time is pressingly occupied during 
 the Summer; but as we do not board the help my wife, who is a true lover 
 of hens and chickens, rears the young stock and takes general oversight 
 of the poultry department. Under her care the pullets are always in prime 
 condition in the Fall. Only Summer crops are grown, and the men are 
 hired only for the busy season. So after the season is closed by frost in 
 
 1900. 
 
 1901. 
 
 1902. 
 
 1901. 
 
 1902. 
 
 1903. 
 
 53 
 
 47 
 
 59 
 
 97 
 
 74 
 
 90 
 
 107 
 
 115 
 
 153 
 
 94 
 
 100 
 
 167 
 
 138 
 
 163 
 
 201 
 
 138 
 
 150 
 
 189 
 
74 The Business Hen. 
 
 the Fall there is no produce to market but eggs and butter, and these are 
 sold at wholesale and sent by a neighboring butcher. Our market, Harris- 
 burg, is eight miles away. Then, being relieved from the press of Summer 
 work, I give my first attention to the care of the hens and other live stock. 
 To show how well such work may be made to pay even in a small way, 1 
 will state that the gross receipts at present for the butter and eggs from 
 two cows and 130 hens are at the rate of about $60 per month. The five 
 or six hours each day that are not required for this work I usually devote 
 to pruning and general preparations for the next season's work. 
 
 WINTER MANAGEMENT. — Having on hand the proper number of 
 hens or pullets — the latter preferred — well-bred, well-reared and vigor- 
 ous as possible with the first approach of uncomfortably cool weather 
 in Fall they are confined to their houses in the early morning and on 
 stormy days. As the season advances they are shut in entirely, ex- 
 cept that when the weather is fine and there is no snow they are oc- 
 casionally allowed to run in the yard for 10 or 15 minutes, and then re- 
 turned. During mid-winter they have been constantly confined i< r 
 two months at a time with no bad results. The entire flock is housed 
 in two separate apartments which are by no means ideal. The larger 
 of these is a room 12x28 feet, arranged in the northwestern end of the 
 basement of a bank barn. Necessarily the windows are in the north- 
 west and southwest sides ; hence, they are not well adapted for the admis- 
 sion of either sunshine or ventilation. These defects are reduced by a 
 door which opens to the southeast under the "overshot" of the barn. This 
 door is fitted with a screen, hence can be left open when necessary. Tho 
 rear wall of this room of course is of stone, the other three are of matched 
 boards. The floor consists of packed clay, except a section 12x12 feet 
 in the rear, which is of boards ; this is occupied by the roost. As may be 
 supposed from its location, this room is just barely dry enough not to give 
 trouble. The smaller is a house of the common shed-roof construction, 
 measuring 7x30 feet. This is built of rough boards and battened. It has 
 a good exposure, but is too high and narrow, which makes it colder than 
 it would otherwise be. The floor is of clay throughout. The roost in this 
 house occupies a space of 7x10 feet. In each house the perches are low, 
 18 inches, are built in one. piece trestle fashion and rest on the floor, so 
 they are easily kept free from lice and moved for cleaning the house. 
 Besides the roosts the furnishings in each house consist of a row of a dozen 
 nest boxes, a self-feeding shell-box, a galvanized iron trough for water, a 
 box for the dust bath and several wooden troughs for feeding mash. 
 There is nothing about the buildings that may not be arranged or built 
 on almost any farm at moderate cost. The space not occupied by the roosts 
 is covered with a litter of forest leaves, in which all the grain is fed. 1 
 have never found anything near so well adapted to the purpose as leaves. 
 
. 1 Market Gardener's Hens. 75 
 
 GENERAL CARE. — Once a week the floors are thoroughly cleaned, 
 the manure is scraped up, the soiled litter removed, the whole floor 
 swept and then fresh leaves put in. This is very important, and must 
 not be postponed, as nothing will cause hens to lose their tone and 
 vigor more quickly than eating from fold litter. Of course vent' 1 
 is freely given by opening windows or screened doors so as not to i 
 a draft. In severe weather all is kept close, ventilating thoroughly 
 two or three times a day when the hens are busy. Clean water is 
 given every morning and warm water added when cold enough to 
 freeze. The dust bath is renewed once in two weeks. No roosters 
 are kept in the flock. The food consists of corn, oats, wheat, corn- 
 chop and bran, beef scrap, cabbage, hay and milk. The quantity the 
 hens will eat varies with the number of eggs produced ; but last Winter, 
 when the flock was at its best, and the quantity of food had been the same 
 for more than a month, I took a note of the exact quantity, and comparinft 
 this with the amount fed this season since they are in full laying condition 
 
 1 find it is practically the same. The quantity for 100 hens per day is about 
 as follows: Corn, 3% quarts; oats, six quarts-; wheat, five quarts; corn- 
 chop and bran, mixed equal parts by weight for the mash, six quarts; bee! 
 scrap, one pint every second day; cabbage, three or four small to medium 
 heads. About a peck of hay shattering?, mostly clover, such as collects 
 where hay is thrown down, is given every few days. 
 
 EEEDTNG SYSTEM.— Not less important than' the variety and 
 quantity of food is its proper distribution throughout the day. In 
 this it is well to remember the conditions in the Spring that usual!} 
 induce the laziest hen to lay. The warm weather, new grass and 
 insects coax her out. and she eats all day long, but only a little at a 
 time, she becomes interested and busy. This is the vital point. No 
 moping hen ever laid many eggs. With these facts in view the hens 
 arc fed little and often, six times in a day, a? follows: Early in the 
 morning they are given T .'■ quart of oats. They wake up and take 
 some exercise scratching for this, and then at eight o'clock they get their 
 mash. At 10 o'clock 1 r < quart of oats are again given and the same at 
 
 2 P. M, The noon feed consists of two quarts of wheat, and the evening 
 feed, which is intended to be all they will eat, is ?,V 2 quarts of corn, three 
 quarts of wheat and V/ 2 quart oats. The cabbage is invariably fed in the 
 evening after the grain. Milk and beef scrap are mixed in the mash. I 
 have found mangels a fair substitute for cabbage. Caution should be 
 exercised net to overfeed cither of these or any other "greens," as it is 
 sure to can^e a derangement of appetite. It will be noticed that oats are 
 fed in small quantities and often. I consider them a very important pari 
 of the ration on account of their bulk, but experience has made me cautious 
 of feeding any large quantity at a time. Now, to those not accustomed te> 
 
7C 
 
 The Business Hen. 
 
 giving any but the most ordinary care to their hens, the foregoing may 
 seem like all too much "fuss and feathers" to obtain eggs even in Winter; 
 but the hen trust has its price and it is doubtful if eggs can be had in 
 quantity for much less. After all if the work is done methodically it is 
 not such an endless round as may at first appear. Thus, in beginning the 
 morning chores, I first give the hens their bit of oats, a "scratch" we call it, 
 after doing the other work the mash is given. The noon feed comes in 
 with the rest of the stock feeding. The evening chores are begun by giving 
 the hens their grain; then after gathering the eggs the cabbage is dis- 
 tributed. This leaves no extra running after the chickens, but to give 
 them their "scratch" at 10 and two o'clock. This requires but a few 
 minutes when I am about the barn, and when in the field pruning or absent 
 from home my wife says it gives her exercise as well as the hens. Some 
 one will be sure to ask what is to be done if the hens lack appetite. I must 
 say I have had little trouble in this line. It is natural for hens to eat 
 heartily if conditions arc right. If they are fed lightly and often during 
 the day, with a full feed at night, a proper ration of proper bulk; if pro- 
 tected from drafts and floors are kept clean; if, when making a change of 
 food, care is taken to feed sparingly at first there should be little trouble. 
 I have never had anything so serious but what was easily corrected bj 
 feeding scantily for a day or two. Perhaps the old saying: "Eternal vigi- 
 lance is the price of success" does not apply better anywhere than to man- 
 aging hens in Winter, but I think where the vigilance is exercised the 
 success is sure. 
 
 HOMEMADE GRAIN SCREEN.— Examine a sample of cracked 
 corn and you will be surprised to see how much fine meal it contains. 
 
 When this feed is thrown on 
 the ground most of the meal 
 is wasted, as the chicks cannot 
 pick it up easily. Mr. J. E. 
 Stevenson saves this waste by 
 using the device shown here- 
 with. A hopper is arranged at 
 the top of the stairs. Screens 
 one foot wide and three feet 
 long are made out of three 
 sizes of wire netting. These 
 screens run under the stairs 
 and the hopper feeds into the 
 coarser one. These screens 
 sift the corn into three sizes and save a good share of the meal. 
 
CHAPTER XIII. 
 The Boy's Hens. 
 
 We moved to town one Winter and were able to hire a small henhouse. 
 We had sold the best pullets on the farm, and had left only a mixed lot 
 of old hens and young roosters. We took about 20 of these birds to town, 
 killing and eating them from time to time. Early in February there were 
 only three hens left, and the little boy begged for them, so that he might 
 try "the chicken business." His best argument was that the table scraps 
 would nearly feed the hens, thus turning what we would not eat into what 
 we would be glad to have. I thought he would soon tire of it, but to my 
 surprise he became interested, and gave his hens good care. By mixing a 
 small amount of wheat bran with the scraps he kept the hens laying and 
 in good condition. When I saw that he had become interested enough to 
 work for the hens I knew that he had caught the chicken fever. An indus- 
 trious hen may lead a lazy boy into habits of hustle. I told the boy that if 
 he could make his three hens lay 13 eggs in a week, I would start him with 
 a larger flock. The next week they laid 15 eggs. Of course the boy, like 
 most beginners with poultry, felt sure that if he could make three hens 
 lay well, there is no good reason why he could not do as well with 30, 300 
 or 3,000. It takes a large unpaid grain bill to cure one of that idea. 
 
 BUYING HENS.— We went to New York for new hens. Those left 
 on the farm were poor specimens, and the boy wanted to try different 
 breeds. I have bought live poultry. in New York many times. One year 
 I bought 150 hens and pullets, and imported roup, lice and various other 
 troubles. Eggs from those New York hens cost me eight cents apiece 
 through January and February, but they laid fairly well in the Summer, 
 and just about paid for their feed and original cost. I conclude that hens 
 usually sent to the live market are just about such culls as we had at the 
 farm. It stands to reason that no one will knowingly sell a good laying 
 hen for meat any more than they would sell a good Jersey cow for beef. 
 We found one place where a number of good hens had been sold to close 
 out an estate, and the dealer, who knew a good hen, had sorted out the 
 best to sell as layers. Crowded into his coops and fed nothing but corn, 
 they were laying eggs enough to pay for their food twice over. After 
 much debate the boy bought three Brown Leghorns, three White Wyan- 
 dottes, one White Leghorn and one Light Brahma. As it turned out he 
 would have done better if "he had bought all Brown Leghorns, but he 
 wanted to test the different breeds. You may read about such things, but 
 it is better to learn from your own experience ! 
 
78 The Business Hen. 
 
 STARTING THE HENS. — These birds came out by express, and the 
 boy was all ready for them. He had bought a package of "chicken powder" 
 which looked like a mixture of fine tobacco and sulphur. He took one 
 hen at a time, held her up gently by the legs and dusted the powder into 
 her feathers, taking care to work plenty of it under the wings and around 
 and under the tail feathers, and along the neck and shoulders, as these 
 are the hardest places for the hen to reach. The boy learned from the 
 poultry dealer not to run or shout at a hen if she gets away, or to pull and 
 shake her if she flutters in your hand. You must be as gentle as possible 
 with your hens if you expect them to lay. The laying hen is active, lively 
 and nervous, but she does not want you to string up her nerves. The boy 
 expected that when his 11 hens were put together in the house they would 
 act like sisters, and have only one ambition — that of laying eggs ! Instead 
 ot that the three original hens singled out the Light Brahma and attacked 
 her vigorously. Hens often sh< \v these strange dislikes, and when taken 
 to a new place they always "dry up" for a time and will not lay until they 
 feel at home. The Brown Leghorns were first to call their new place home 
 and begin to lay. The White Wyandottes followed, but the Light Brahma 
 was very slow.. 
 
 FEEDING A SMALL FLOCK.— The table scraps and wastes and 
 parings from vegetables and fruits gave these hens more than half the food 
 they required. In order to provide the remainder the boy mixed the fol- 
 lowing: Two parts by weight of wheat bran, one part cornmeal, one part 
 of wheat middlings and one-half part animal meal. This was fed in the 
 form of a dry crumbly mash in the morning, with a good handful of clover 
 heads and leaves mixed with it. The hot water used for rinsing off the 
 breakfast plates was good to dampen. this grain. Wheat bran is one of 
 the best grains for hens, but they do not like it when fed alone. Of all 
 grains corn in some form is best relished by poultry, and cornmeal or 
 cracked corn should go in the mash. There are only two good reasons 
 why a mash should be fed — it gives a good chance to provide warm food 
 and enables us to feed meat in the right proportion. I am quite sure that 
 the mixture of grain and meat baked into a cake and crumbled up for 
 feeding would pay better than a soft mash. The boy fed whole corn at 
 night, and made the common mistake of most beginners of overfeeding his 
 hens. He kept too much food before them. Some of it soured. The hens 
 lost their ambition to work and hunt for food. The Brown Leghorns 
 held their ambition longest, because it was part of their breeding, but 
 what hens or men ever do their best when they know the good things of 
 life are being wasted on them? It took the boy some time to learn what 
 every feeder must know, that the hens must be made to scratch for most of 
 their food. Maybe the boy learned something about his own habits of 
 industry by watching these hens. Some things at least he did well. He 
 
The Boy's Hens. 79 
 
 kept plenty of clean water and oyster shells before the hens at all times, 
 and he kept the house clean. The hens responded— at least some of them 
 did — and owing to the low cost of the (able scraps gave us eggs that cost 
 less than half a cent apiece while they were worth four cents in the local 
 market. 
 
 A LARGER FLOCK.— Of course the boy, like all poultrymen, wanted a 
 larger flock. Somehow we all come to think that if we could only have 
 more land, or more cows, or more hens, we can make growth on our 
 ability as we do on our stock. When we came back to the farm the boy 
 found nine more hens, and a White Wyandotte rooster. The hens were a 
 mixed lot, but the rooster was a good one. They had all had a hard 
 Winter, sleeping in the barn or in an old henhouse without much care. 
 The old farm chicken-yard was to be used as a garden, so the boy cut poles 
 in the woods and helped to build a new yard at the back of an aban- 
 doned ice house, which was a henhouse years before. He dug holes for his 
 posts, and then a six-foot chicken fence was tacked around with a base- 
 board nailed at the bottom. We have tried piling stones around the 
 base, but this does not answer. The boy made clean nests of straw, dust- 
 ing them well with his chicken powder. The roosts were not nailed 
 down, but put in sockets, so that they can be lifted out and cleaned easily. 
 Every morning he took a pickax and spade and dug up the ground in the 
 yard, thus providing worms for the hens. There were many leaves and 
 parings in the table scraps, but the boy pulled grass and weeds and fed 
 them freely, for hens like green food. The boy began to understand 
 something about the different kinds of lice that make hens miserable. 
 The little mites that pass the day on the under side of the roost are bad 
 citizens — night robbers, for they crawl up at night and attack the hens. 
 We can make life a burden to them by keeping the under side of the 
 roost well smeared with grease. Every now and then the roosts must be 
 taken out and washed with boiling water, and then painted with kero- 
 sene. The large gray lice that stay on the hens are easier to fight if we 
 give the hens a fair chance to keep clean. A vigorous hen will dust in the 
 dry soil or in a box of dry coal ashes and free herself of most of these 
 lice. A good dusting with some "chicken powder" or fine tobacco will 
 finish up. I know of people who read somewhere that kerosene is the 
 thing to kill lice with, so they took some hens and rubbed kerosene over 
 them! They could not have dine a worse thing, for it took hide and 
 feathers off the hens. A mixture of lard and sulphur rubbed under the 
 wings and at the base of the neck will help, but do not put pure kerosene 
 on the hen. The boy found that there is little use fighting the lice on the 
 hens if the building is neglected. Most old farm buildings are alive with 
 vermin, which breed in filth, so that they must be kept clean. The manure 
 ought to be scraped out twice a week at least. In spite of the "chicken 
 
80 
 
 The Business Hen. 
 
 powder" the nests will soon be alive. The hay or straw should be taken 
 out and burned, and the boxes painted with kerosene before new nests are 
 made. The whole inside of the house should be scrubbed out with boiling 
 water, and whitewashed or sprayed with kerosene. The boy found to his 
 cost that you cannot afford to neglect these things in an old house. He 
 also found that some old building fitted up in this way cannot be made 
 equal to a house built especially for hens. 
 
 KEEPING UP THE FLOCK.— The boy started with the notion that 
 "a hen is a hen," without much regard to her breeding or age. He had 
 heard some one say that "a hen is a machine," and he knew that we can use 
 the mowing machine and hayrake for many years. He was grieved to find 
 that some of his hens were sad loafers. Three of those he bought in New 
 York ate their fill of grain, and then instead of heading for the nests stood 
 about dumpy and lazy. What was the matter with them? They and four 
 of the farm hens proved to be at least four years old, and probably six. 
 They were like our old mowing machine— worn out. One day the men dug 
 through the yard to get at a cracked water pipe under the barn. They 
 threw out thousands of worms. These old veterans ate so many that the 
 next morning five of them were found dead, with their crops stuck full. 
 The boy buried his beloved hens around peach trees, and with many tears 
 learned that age in a hen is not entitled to respect. When Grandmother 
 failed to step about as spry as her daughters we expected it, and were all 
 glad to give her the most comfortable chair and the best light. The hen 
 is sure to fail with age just as Grandmother did, but we do not keep her 
 for the good she has done. So the boy began to understand that he must 
 plan for new pullets each year and dispose of the old stock. He now saw 
 that the hens he bought in New York were probably birds that had done 
 their best, laying for some one else, and were then sold for meat. We are 
 also likely to have accidents in the flock. One good hen tried to fly up 
 to a high roost, but failed, and fell and broke an egg inside of her. She 
 had to be killed. This taught the boy to have his roosts down low, and 
 made it clearer still that we must have young pullets each year. 
 
 PICKING OUT LAYERS.— Having seen the need of young hens the 
 boy began to see that one young hen may be better than another. He 
 could see that the men and boys we hired to work on the farm did not 
 do an equal amount of work. Some did more and better work than others, 
 though all wanted the same wages when working by the day. Sometimes 
 the man who did the poorest job of work would eat most, or break most 
 tools. There seemed to be much the same difference in hens. The Light 
 Brahma waited nearly a month before she laid an egg, though she ate her 
 full share, and then laid a dozen in succession. One of the Brown Leg- 
 horns proved to be lazy. Of course the boy did not want any more drones. 
 It may be fun to feed a lazy pet hen when some one else pays for the feed, 
 
The Boy's Hens. 81 
 
 Lut when it means a loss of your own money, you soon get tired of it. The 
 boy began to see if he could pick but the layers. He found it was not 
 hard to do so. You can catch most of them on the nest. They go around 
 singing and scratching, and the egg-layers are usually the liveliest hens and 
 the best eaters. It is not safe to go by any single one of these signs. 
 Sometimes a hen goes on the nest with no intention of laying. The lazy 
 Brown Leghorn made more noise after laying one egg than the other 
 two did over three, and the Light Brahma and the lazy Wyandotte ate their 
 fill and then moped on the roost. You cannot tell layers by any one 
 test, but after a good study of the actions of the hen you can pick them 
 out. The boy had specimens of four different breeds in his little flock, 
 and he found that all these breeds contained workers as well as drones. 
 Before long he learned that half the hens did more than three-fourths of 
 the laying. It was good business to eat the eggs from the lazy hens and 
 keep those from the workers for setting. The boy had noticed how many 
 children there are who "look like father and act like mother." This is the 
 principle of breeding which hen men ought to learn by heart. The boy 
 will learn later that some of the old hens may be good breeders, though 
 their granddaughters may outlay them. 
 
 BREEDING TO TYPE.— At first the boy though it wise to set eggs 
 from all the best layers, no matter what color and shape they might be. 
 Then he remembered that the poultryman wanted a dollar apiece for the 
 Leghorns, while the spotted hens of all shapes and colors sold at a price per 
 pound. Whenever people told him about a man who was doing well with 
 poultry he was sure to find on that man's farm hens of one color and 
 much the same shape. In years before, when we had all sorts of pullets, 
 no one cared to buy them, but when we had bred pure Leghorns and 
 Wyandottes a dozen people were after them. That showed him that if 
 you expect to get the best price for your hens you must have them uniform, 
 with the marks of some well-known breed. A spotted hen may be a fine 
 layer, but you cannot make a buyer think so as you could if the hen were 
 well marked, and had the true shape and appearance of one of the 
 breeds that people know about. For instance, suppose you have Brown 
 Leghorn hens and a White Wyandotte rooster, and you hatch the eggs 
 from your best layers. The pullets may "act like mother" and lay well, but 
 they will "look like father" and be spotted with all colors. No one would 
 pay as much for such birds as they would if a Brown Leghorn rooster had 
 been used. It is always an advantage to have birds that are salable as 
 well as good layers. The boy began to see that if he was ever to have 
 a flock of hens to be proud of he must make them as near alike as possi- 
 ble, and hatch the eggs from the best. He finally made up his mind that 
 he liked the Brown Leghorns best. When asked his reason he said : 
 
82 The Business Hen. 
 
 "They lay well. They do not eat as much as the others. They are 
 tame and not so "scarey" as the Whites. They do not try so hard to get 
 out of the yard, and they are pretty !" 
 
 As he grows older he will see a few more virtues and many more defects 
 than he now sees in the Browns. For instance, the very fact that these 
 little Brownies are so pretty with their varied plumage make- it all the 
 more difficult to breed them true. This was his first idea of a "type" of 
 hen that suited him, and I encouraged him in it, because it is the founda- 
 tion of success to try to develop and maintain the things that we love and 
 admire. 
 
 As the boy studied his hens he found that two of the Brown Leghorns 
 laid well, while the other was something of a shirk. One of the hens 
 laid a much larger egg than the other, and as the small size of the egg 
 is one of the weaknesses of the Browns the boy decided to keep all of the 
 large eggs he could for hatching, keeping close to the principle that he 
 wants his coming pullets to "act like mother." He wants to save his 
 money and buy a good Leghorn rooster. 
 
 Thus the boy begins to pick up the first principles of successful poultry 
 keeping. He is working out on a small scale some of the problems of 
 selection and feeding, the mastery of which have given men fame and 
 fortune. These successful men grew into their success just as the boy 
 is growing. At one time they knew less than he does. The reason they 
 succeeded is that they kept on growing and learned to reason things out 
 for themselves. One man may start with an old shed and a flock of 
 mongrels; form his idea of type and select for it; study the wants of a 
 hen and her comfort and grow into a comfortable business. People wiil 
 pay for his care and thought when wrapped in feathers just as they pay 
 for an author's thoughts when printed and bound into a book. Another 
 man may start with the finest flock of purebred hens, go by printed rules 
 alone, make no personal study of the hen, and fail. One man has hen in 
 the heart — the other hen in the first laver of the head. 
 
CHAPTER XIV. 
 Marketing Pouliry Products. 
 
 The professional poultryman, who keeps in close touch with his market, 
 knows its peculiar requirements and the problems that each season brings. 
 The man with only a few hens as a side issue, raising say 50 or 100 
 chickens, is seldom so well informed on market matters, and may make 
 mistakes that cut his profits in two. He may have sold through a careful 
 dealer, who has told him how to dress and pack, or through a commission 
 man of a type that takes whatever comes, and sells for what it will bring, 
 without giving the shipper any tangible suggestions that might help make 
 his offerings more salable. 
 
 The first requisite in shipping poultry to a large market is to have 
 something worth selling, and the next is to know a commission man who 
 is worthy of selling it. Such a man is found only through experience, 
 either one's own or a neighbor's, and when found he is worth sticking to. 
 He will appreciate this, and in 10 years more money will have been made 
 tnan by scattering the ship- 
 ments about. 
 
 In sections having a Hebrew 
 population there is a steady 
 demand for live poultry, which 
 must be slaughtered under Fig. 38. CRATE OF LIVE POULTR1. 
 
 supervision of their official 
 
 butchers. The trade is heaviest at seasons commonly known as Jewish 
 holidays, movable feasts. The exact dates for any year may be learned 
 from dealers in live poultry. The principal feasts are the Hebrew New 
 Years, Feast of Tabernacles, Feast of Laws, and Passover. In New York 
 the receiving stations are centralized, and from these distribution is made 
 to butchers. Fig. 38 shows a crate of live poultry, and Fig. 39 a lot 
 of crates as piled on a wagon in West Washington market ready to be 
 carted to the East Side Jewish sections where Kosher meat is sold. 
 Fig. 40 shows a typical retail shop. The cuts of rooster and animal's 
 head in the window indicate that officially prepared meats are on sale there. 
 In the basement door the artist has inserted a scene familiar betore the 
 recent regulations forbidding the exposure of meats on the street. The 
 market woman is dissecting a fowl for a fricassee while the customer 
 waits. This work is now done under cover. 
 
 Broilers are received in market live and dressed, the latter dry-packed 
 
84 
 
 The Business Hen. 
 
 Fig. 39. LOADING UP. 
 
 or iced. At Fig. 41 is a fav- 
 orite crate for shipping live small 
 chickens. Those shown weigh 
 from Z l / 2 to 4 pounds per 
 pair. Though many lighter are 
 sold, the best prices are paid for 
 those about the weight men- 
 tioned. The crates are made of 
 hard wood and are very durable. 
 Some are 2 I ^x3j4 feet, and eight 
 inches deep. Fig. 42 is a box 
 of dressed broilers as put up by 
 the meat-packing houses for 
 shipment in refrigerator cars. 
 The boxes contain two or three 
 dozen according to size. Other poultry is also put in similar boxes. The 
 farmer who ships in small quantities and does not have the advantage of 
 refrigerator cars must ice his dressed chickens unless very near market 
 or in cool weather. At bottom of page 85 is a barrel of iced poultry 
 minus the burlap covering. In warm weather the icing must be thor- 
 oughly done and the ice in close contact with the birds. This makes them 
 wet and messy, but they can be wiped off and dried so as to look very 
 well. There are various expedients for doing away with this bad appear- 
 ance, such as wrapping each bird in heavy paper, but this is only partly 
 effective, and about the best way is to pack alternate layers of cracked ice 
 and poultry, and a good sized chunk of ice on top. 
 
 As a rule the farmer is most interested in the Fall and Winter poultry 
 market. He has something to sell for Thanksgiving, and clears out the 
 rest of his surplus for Christmas and New Years. For Thanksgiving 
 
 trade the weather is generally 
 cool enough so that dry packing 
 is safe. Boxes get rougher usage 
 than barrels, being harder to 
 handle, but a barrel is not so con- 
 venient to pack in. Unless send- 
 ing a very small quantity it is 
 best to sort the poultry, putting 
 hen and torn turkeys in separate 
 packages, and the culls by them- 
 selves ; or better, keep the culls 
 to get in condition for a later 
 market. If boxes are used, they 
 Fig. 40. A "KOSHER" MEAT SHOP. should not be too large. Less 
 
Marketing Poultry Products. 
 
 85 
 
 Fig 
 
 A COOP OP BROILERS. 
 
 than a barrel in bulk is prefer- 
 able. In very heavy packages 
 there is some bruising from 
 rough handling by freight or ex- 
 press men, who seem to think 
 that a heavy box is an invita- 
 tion to them to do their worst. 
 Various rules for packing have 
 been given, such as putting them all one way, all breasts up, etc., but 
 it is not always convenient to do this with long-geared turkeys, and 
 about all that can be done is to fit them into boxes or barrels in what- 
 ever way they will fill up the space so as not to shake about. Some pack 
 in layers with straw or heavy paper between, which may be some ad- 
 vantage, although straw, unless entirely 
 free from chaff, sticks to the birds 
 and is a nuisance. The safest way in 
 packing is to follow the directions of the 
 man who will handle the poultry, as mar- 
 ket requirements differ, and he may have Fig. 42. 
 good reason for special preferences. DRESSED BROILERS. 
 
 In dealing with a large market it is necessary that the poultry arrive 
 early. In smaller towns, where the shipper sells direct to the retailer, 
 less margin is needed, but in New York most of it must go through the 
 wholesaler's hands. Poultry for Thanksgiving should be on hand not later 
 than Monday of that week, and the latter part of the previous week is 
 better, as many retailers stock up then. 
 If there is a scarcity, so that retailers 
 cannot get supplies early, late arrivals 
 may find a good demand, but the proba- 
 bilities are that they will have to drag 
 through the trade dullness always follow- 
 ing a holiday. 
 
 New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore and 
 Chicago demand undrawn poultry with 
 head and feet on. The crop should be re- 
 moved unless empty, but all poultry should 
 be without food for several hours before 
 killing. For Boston trade the general rule 
 is to remove head, crop and entrails, mak- 
 ing as small an incision as possible, and 
 leaving in heart, gizzard and liver. Part 
 of the neck should be cut off, the skin 
 drawn, over, tied and trimmed neatly. 
 
 Fig. 43. ICED POULTRY. 
 
8G 
 
 The Business Hen. 
 
 Fig. 44. METHOD OF KILLING TOT'LTRY. 
 
 The Massachus- 
 etts law forbids 
 the sale of un- 
 drawn poultry 
 except w here 
 there is no food 
 in the crop or 
 entrails, an ex- 
 cellent law from 
 a sanitary stand- 
 point. Pittsburg 
 demands drawn 
 poultry w i t h 
 heads and feet 
 off. 
 
 The b e s it 
 method of kill- 
 ing is sticking 
 in the mouth 
 with a sharp 
 knife, while the 
 bird hangs up by 
 the feet. Here is 
 the way it is 
 done by one 
 practical m a n. 
 The picture 
 shows the bird 
 in the proper 
 position. The 
 
 wings may be 
 locked together 
 at the back by 
 bringing one 
 under the other. The 
 The knife should 
 Put the 
 
 over the other and hooking the tip of the top win 
 
 head is held in the left hand, the knife in the right 
 
 have a good sized handle with the blade keen and sharp pointed 
 
 blade down the throat just behind the head and draw it across with the 
 
 point touching the bone. This cuts the jugular vein. Let the bird bleed a 
 
 few seconds. Then put the point of knife and cutting edge against the roof 
 
 of the mouth and force it into the brain cavity. Give a slight turn, 
 
 severing the spinal cord. This releases control of the feathers, and some 
 
 may be almost brushed off if done at once. This method is varied a little 
 
Mark cling Poultry 1' rod nets. 87 
 
 by some, but there are always two essentials; first to cut the jugular vein 
 and next pierce the brain, paralyzing the nervous system. The work is 
 done very quickly when one understands it. Of course it is necessary to 
 study out these details very carefully before attempting to kill a bird. 
 Dry picking is preferable for most markets, but the feathers do not always 
 loosen in the way described, and then it is necessary to scald. Scalded 
 poultry will sell about as well if the skin is not torn and the birds are 
 "plumped." This consists in dipping them in hot water for a few seconds 
 after picking and then at once into cold water, where they remain about 
 20 minutes. Roughly picked or bruised poultry is always discounted, so it 
 pays to handle the birds carefully before killing, and to take off the feathers 
 neatly. All animal heat must be removed before packing. This takes 
 longer than is generally supposed, and neglect of it causes loss every year, 
 when poultry known to be properly bled and only a short time on the road 
 arrives at market in spoiled condition. 
 
 Methods of working up a retail egg trade are described elsewhere in 
 this book. For the general wholesale market the 30-dozen case is the 
 standard package. Where one is near market these cases may be made 
 heavy enough to use many times, but for long-distance shipments, where 
 he expense of returning is too great, the crates are made of cheap 
 naterial and go with the eggs. The eggs are separated by pasteboard 
 partitions, which may be bought in quantity of any dealer in poultry 
 supplies. Very large quantities of eggs come to New York from the 
 Middle West and Southwest. As might be expected, those from the 
 southerly sections usually sell lowest, heat damage during the collection 
 of carloads being greater in the warmer latitudes. Eggs are graded as 
 fancy, choice, good, fair, inferior, checks and dirties. Fancy eggs should 
 be strictly fresh, and not more than a week old when sold, but what they 
 should be and what they are do not always tally. The quality of the 
 other grades is suggested by their names. Checks are slightly cracked 
 eggs that are sorted out, crated by themselves, and sold for immediate use. 
 
 Cold storage is the balance wheel of the egg and poultry trade, keeping 
 it going at a comparatively even gait the year around, preventing the 
 scarcity which causes prohibitive prices to all but the wealthy, and the 
 glutted market, with figures below cost of production. The range of 
 prices for a year will still show very high figures, such as 60 cents a dozen 
 for new-laid eggs and 35 cents for fresh-killed poultry, yet there is no time 
 when both eggs and poultry from storage, not fresh, but palatable and 
 wholesome, may not be had at prices within reach of almost anyone. The 
 scope of refrigeration has been much enlarged by dry air processes, which 
 have made it possible to handle products that get musty under the damp- 
 ness of ordinary ice storage. There are still many losses from improper 
 handling, but good eggs properly stored may be" kept for a full year. 
 
CHAPTER XV. 
 Marketing Eggs. 
 
 The easiest money to be made in the poultry business is in marketing 
 the products. A successful poultryman must be a good salesman. The 
 extra money that may be secured by selling eggs to a special trade at an 
 advanced price is almost clear sain. It should be 25 to 30 per cent addi- 
 tional above the profit in selling at the highest wholesale price. The 
 margin will vary from one cent per dozen in small towns to five to 10 
 cents per dozen in large cities. It is not an easy matter to secure this 
 high-class trade. Like everything else worth while, it requires years of 
 effort and painstaking care. A poultryman must grow into his trade. 
 High price is simply the premium paid for confidence in the goods. It is 
 a just reward for a good reputation. Any neat and careful poultryman, 
 however, should find no difficulty in raising his price two cents per dozen 
 above the highest market in his neighborhood. As his customers become 
 educated up to good eggs the price can be increased. The first essential 
 in working up a special market is the ability to produce and deliver the 
 goods. To do this three things are absolutely necessary; good eggs, an 
 attractive package and regular delivery every week in the year. One is 
 just as important as the other. 
 
 GOOD EGGS. — There is a great difference in eggs. They must, first 
 of all, be new laid, that is to say, not over one week old. If they are gath- 
 ered regularly each day and placed in a cool, dry room, they should suit 
 the requirements of the most delicate taste. Daily or twice a week ship- 
 ments are unnecessary with a private family trade, and would greatly 
 increase the labor of handling and keeping of accounts as well as multi- 
 plying express charges. On the whole "eggs is eggs" when they go to 
 or leave the average country store. A good farmer's good egg sells for 
 no more than the poor farmer's poor egg when they once get into the class 
 of ordinary "store-gathered" eggs, because they are in bad company. It is 
 a positive injustice to the hens that laid the eggs, to the man who grew the 
 grain to produce them, and to the one who gathers them thus to sell 
 good eggs for the lowest possible price. The element of uncertainty as to 
 just what is covered by the egg shell exaggerates the real difference and 
 magnifies the premium paid for guaranteed quality. In other words, 
 people are willing to pay an extra price rather than take any chances. 
 Eggs are bought and sold largely "under sight and under seen" in the 
 general market. While the general quality of market eggs has consid- 
 erably increased in some respects of late years, due to the systematic 
 handling of eggs by large dealers, the feature of age, which has much to 
 do with quality, remains the same. 
 
Marketing Eggs. 89 
 
 The eggs should be of large size. The customer who pays a good 
 price is entitled to eggs that weigh not less than two ounces each. Eggs 
 under two ounces should be sold to a special customer at a somewhat 
 reduced rate. Small or medium eggs always suffer by contrast with large 
 ones, but when placed in a crate by themselves th'ey always show off to 
 better advantage, and as they have the same quality of freshness and neat- 
 ness as the other eggs they should command a premium above the general 
 market. Good eggs should also be uniform in color, and the color should 
 suit the fancy of the customer. The New York City market requires a 
 pure white egg. Boston has a decided preference for a dark brown egg. 
 Other things being equal, a difference of at least two cents per dozen will 
 be paid just on account of color in these and other markets. It is a 
 common practice now to assort and ship eggs according to the color 
 requirements of the respective markets. Uniformity of grade counts for 
 as much in selling eggs as it does in marketing fruit. One would not 
 expect to ship red, green and russet apples of large, medium and small size 
 in the same barrel. Yet it is a rule, not an exception, to find all kinds of 
 eggs, big ones and litttle ones, long ones and round ones, eggs with brown, 
 white, speckled or cream-colored shells in the same crate when they leave 
 the farm. The very fact that they are mixed in colors and sizes brands 
 them as "common eggs" in the eyes of the purchaser. They give the 
 impression of not having come from any particular place or any special 
 breed, but from anywhere and everywhere; just "picked up" eggs. This is 
 a serious handicap. In order to produce the highest priced eggs one must 
 keep purebred fowls, not because their eggs are any better to eat, but 
 because they are better to look at. 
 
 Cleanliness is a necessity in selling fancy eggs. A dirty egg is a 
 disgrace. It may be fresh, but no one will believe it. There are many 
 degrees of cleanliness ; spotless clean, clean, tolerably clean and dirty. 
 Eggs as they come from the nest are usually tolerably clean. They are 
 never spotless clean until each egg has been carefully inspected and the 
 faintest trace of stain or dirt removed. Much can be done to keep eggs 
 from becoming soiled which will save a large amount of labor. Dirty hen- 
 houses and yards cause dirty feet, which make dirty eggs. Clean nests 
 will help to keep the eggs clean. Bright oat straw is one of the most 
 desirable nest materials. Sawdust or clover hay and some other materials 
 are apt to stain the shells. When cleaning eggs, both dry and damp cloths 
 should be at hand. Sapolio is good to scour off a stain. A little sal soda 
 in water will remove dirt more quickly. Vinegar and water will do the 
 same thing. One should use as little water as possible. Washed eggs 
 lose their natural finish and will not keep as well. Very dirty eggs, how- 
 ever, should be put to soak. All eggs should be perfectly dry when placed 
 in the crates, and covered so that dust cannot settle on them. This clean- 
 
00 
 
 The Business Hen. 
 
 ing operation is not expensive when done systematically. We pay under 
 contract one cent per dozen for grading, cleaning and packing all of our 
 eggs, both for market and for hatching. The person who does the work 
 makes good wages. 
 
 The quality of fancy eggs must be good as to flavor, firmness of white 
 and color of yolk. Care therefore must be taken in the feeding of fowls 
 to have plenty of green food and a certain amount of corn, both of which 
 give to the dull yolks a deep yellow color. Very pale yolks, which are 
 certain to follow prolonged feeding without the foods mentioned, are apt 
 to be looked upon with suspicion by particular customers. It is true that 
 
 excessive feeding 
 of laying hens up- 
 on foods which 
 have a very pun- 
 gent odor, such as 
 onions or cabbage, 
 will affect the fla- 
 vor of the egg. 
 Both turnips and 
 cabbage, however, 
 can be fed with 
 perfect safety in 
 limited quantities, 
 especially if fowls 
 are well supplied 
 with other foods. 
 THE PACK- 
 A G E. — A good 
 article is worthy 
 of a neat package. 
 Fig. 45. MAKING EGG CRATES. Appearances count 
 
 for much in catching the eye or pleasing the palate. If eggs go to 
 market in a neatly made, well varnished, carefully stenciled crate the 
 customer has reason to expect that the same care used in packing the 
 eggs has been exercised in producing and gathering them, and in this 
 he usually is not mistaken. Good serviceable egg crates can be made with 
 very slight expense. Most farmers should be able to make them. It is 
 the most profitable kind of rainy day work. Fig. 45 shows a group of 
 Cornell University poultry students making egg crates, which are used to 
 deliver eggs from the College poultry plant. These crates have a capacity 
 of multiples of three dozen; to hold either three dozen, six dozen, nine 
 dozen, 12 dozen, 15 dozen or 30 dozen. Regular commercial egg crates are 
 purchased for five to ten cents each with fillers. The best ends are used 
 
Marketing Eggs. 01 
 
 to form the ends of the new crates of various sizes. Three-eighths-inch 
 Georgia pine ceiling is used for sides and top, which is nailed with two- 
 inch finishing nails. The bottoms are made from the best of the material 
 taken from the sides of the old egg crates. Narrow cleats are placed on 
 the sides for handles, and upon the top of the cover to make it solid. Two 
 three-inch strap hinges and a hasp are placed on the cover. The whole 
 box is then sandpapered if necessary, covered with hard oil finish, which 
 makes a much neater looking package, easier to keep clean than one which 
 is painted. The name of the farm or of the proprietor, with the home 
 address and the products shipped, should then be stencilled on the top of 
 the package, also upon the sides where room will permit. The Cornell 
 stencil is in two parts. With the first part a large white egg, 10 inches 
 long, is painted upon the box. When this is dry another stencil is used 
 to print the words, "Cornell University, College of Agriculture, Poultry 
 Products, Ithaca, N. Y. Quality Guaranteed." A neat stencil on any 
 package is a splendid advertisement, and makes the chances of loss of 
 crates in transit very much less. As a finishing touch we purchase little 
 brass padlocks, with duplicate keys. They cost 12 l A cents each and they are 
 money makers, not so much because they prevent stealing eggs, but because 
 the wealthy customer is willing to pay a cent or more a dozen just for the 
 sake of having his neighbor see that he gets eggs direct from the farm by 
 express each week with a' padlock on the box. Our experience in working 
 up a large private family trade in and about New York City is that the 
 best advertiser is a pleased customer. To illustrate, we have one family 
 that has purchased eggs from us for many years. They referred a friend 
 to us, who became a regular customer, who in turn wanted us to send 
 eggs to another friend. Another string of customers started by a wealthy 
 man visiting the farm and finding us packing eggs for the private family 
 trade. He asked why he could not have eggs sent to him also. He is one 
 of our best customers at the present time, and through his friendship four 
 others have been secured. Farmers who take Summer boarders, or those 
 who sell produce to Summer hotels, have excellent opportunities for finding 
 city customers for eggs. The private family trade, however, is not without 
 its disadvantages. One of these is that there are a multitude of details 
 in looking after a large number of comparatively small shipments ranging 
 from six to 15 dozen. This makes a good deal of bookkeeping. Families 
 are apt to leave the city at certain times during the year which necessarily 
 interrupts the general output of eggs. However, some of our customers 
 continue to have eggs shipped to their Summer resort, where they are 
 willing to pay double express charges. The most serious difficulties 
 have been the breakage by express companies. Occasionally they make 
 good the loss, after much correspondence and delay. 
 
92 The Business Hen. 
 
 REGULARITY OF SHIPMENT.— The people who pay high prices 
 want their eggs on time, rain or shine. They usually want the same 
 number per week the year round. One's capacity, therefore, to cater to 
 this trade is somewhat measured by the number of eggs which he can 
 produce during the months of greatest scarcity, namely October, November 
 and December. We find, however, that our customers are very obliging, 
 and stay with us over these periods with a somewhat diminished supply. 
 In order to discourage excessive egg eating during the period of scarcity, 
 we make our prices according to the law of supply and demand. While 
 our prices are not as high perhaps as some are getting, we are quite well 
 pleased with the results, but we are always looking for higher prices. Our 
 scale of prices is 25 cents per dozen for April, May, June and July; 
 35 cents for August and September ; 40 cents for October and November ; 
 45 for December and January; 35 February and March. The customer in 
 every case pays the express charges and returns the empty box. We found 
 that there was less trouble from breakage where the customer who was on 
 the spot was personally responsible for settling 1 with the express company 
 for damage. These prices, therefore, net us about seven to eight cents 
 per dozen by the year more than the highest wholesale market quotation 
 for fancy nearby white eggs. During the Spring months, when most eggs 
 are laid, a large trade in eggs for hatching takes care of most of the surplus. 
 At the end of a hatching season the Summer hotel trade will handle any 
 surplus which we may have at about 25 cents per dozen. Whatever the 
 system of marketing, the problem of regularity of supply throughout the 
 rear is the hardest one to meet, and in a measure it remains unsolved. 
 With the best of care one cannot expect to get more than 10 to 15 eggs 
 per day per 100 hens in large numbers during the months of October, 
 November and December and not over 20 or 30 per cent from early-hatched 
 pullets. It is true that individual flocks should do much better than this 
 for a time, but if there are many flocks, some of the others will not be 
 laying as well. Even with the high price to be secured for eggs during 
 the late Fall and early Winter months, the net profits will be less than 
 at any other season of the year, but it does not follow that we should 
 only produce eggs during the regular laying season. It will most likely 
 be found that the flocks that have laid the most eggs during the Winter 
 will also produce best during the rest of the year. If hens do not lay 
 during the Winter they are a dead loss, which must be made up out of the 
 Summer profits. Unfortunately when a hen stops laying she doesn't stop 
 eating. A more potent argument still is that one cannot secure a satis- 
 factory market for Spring and Summer eggs only. Many customers pay 
 high prices in Summer simply to hang on to their supply for the Winter. 
 
CHAPTER XVI. 
 Companions of the Hen. 
 
 THE GUINEA FOWL. — There are two varieties of Guineas, Pearl and 
 White. There is no difference in their characteristics save in their color. 
 The Pearl variety should be bluish-gray in color, each feather covered with 
 white spots resembling pearls, hence its name. It should be free from any 
 white feathers in any part of the plumage. The neck is covered with black 
 hairs near the head, and between that and the feathers is a soft down, oi 
 a light brown color, that glistens in the sun. On the top of the head is 
 a horny spike that turns backward. The bill and legs are brown. The 
 white variety should be a pure white in plumage, with a yellow orange 
 or yellowish-white bill and legs, this being the only difference between 
 them and the Pearl variety. Some birds of the Pearl variety have white 
 feathers in the breast and wings, but are mongrels, being a cross between 
 the two varieties. They are great foragers, and will pick up enough bugs 
 and injurious insects more than to pay for themselves. They do not stand 
 confinement well, and will not lay more than one-half as many eggs as if 
 allowed to run at large. If fed regularly morning and night they will 
 always be on hand for their share. They desire to roost in trees near the 
 barn at night, and are most excellent guards either night or day; anything 
 out of the usual astir, they will set up a great cry. They roost so high 
 tnat they are out of the way of thieves or wild animals. In their wild 
 state they will fight and drive other fowls, but if used kindly as othei 
 poultry, they will stay and feed with other fowls without showing much of 
 this pugnacious habit. The Guinea hen is a Spring and Summer layer, and 
 lays from 90 to 120 eggs yearly. They like a secluded place to lay in. 
 When their nests are found, leave two or three eggs, nr they will leave 
 the nest for another place. Better set their eggs under hens to hatch, as 
 the Guinea does not sit until too late in this latitude to have the young get 
 grown before Winter. Besides, if raised by common hens, they can be 
 taken care of better, for they must be fed often, as the young eat but little 
 at a time. Fifteen to 17 eggs can be set under a good-sized hen, and with 
 good care all can be raised. Their eggs are small, but make up in quality 
 what is lost in size. Their meat is excellent, and has a gamy flavor. The 
 cocks can be distinguished by their screeching noise, also by the spike on 
 their heads being larger, and by holding their heads higher. Their ear 
 tubes are larger, and generally curl in a sort of semi-circle toward the 
 beak. The hens make a noise that sounds like "too quick," and seldom 
 screech. 
 
94 The Business Hen. 
 
 PIGEONS AND SQUABS.— J. E. Stevenson says: Almost any dry 
 and fairly warm room may be fixed to answer nicely for pigeons. Es- 
 sentials are convenience of attendant, a good roof, no holes or cracks in 
 sides, and above all strictly rat-proof, as if rats get a taste of your squabs, 
 they will do more damage than any one thing I can think of. Allow about 
 250 square feet of floor space for each 50 pairs of breeders. 
 
 Nest boxes should be arranged convenient for the attendant. Suitable 
 boxes may usually be obtained cheaply at your grocer's ; select boxes 
 from eight to 12 inches square. Nail a board three or four inches wide 
 across the front to keep eggs or small squabs from falling out. Bore a 
 hole in back near top and hang on nails driven in the walls. These may 
 be quickly taken down, cleaned and hung up again. There should be two 
 nest boxes for each pair of breeders, as often a good pair of breeders 
 will have a new nest and eggs in one box before their squabs are ready 
 to leave the other. It is best to hang the boxes in pairs close together, and 
 each pair of boxes far enough from the next, so that the occupants can't 
 stand in their doorway, or on their house top and fight with their neighbor. 
 
 Put in windows enough for light and ventilation in warm weather, but 
 don't worry about ventilation in cold weather; the problem then is how 
 to shut it out, as it is almost impossible to get a building closed too 
 closely in cold weather, unless overcrowded with stock. 
 
 The fly should contain about twice the amount of ground space as 
 the building, and may be made from two-inch poultry mesh netting, but 
 when sparrows are numerous it will pay to use one-inch mesh netting, so 
 as to exclude them from the fly. I use netting four feet wide and wire 
 together with pig rings. If the soil is not sandy or gravelly, the ground 
 in fly should be covered with three or four inches of sand and this renewed 
 occasionally, so that it will always be in good shape to feed the birds on. 
 
 Homers are unquestionably the best all-round breeders, and if they have 
 good food and care will produce first-class squabs, and lots of them. 
 Unless you can get good mated breeders, not over three or four years old, 
 I think it better to get youngsters from the nests when about four or five 
 weeks old, or ready for market, and raise your own breeders. It will be 
 six months before you begin to see any profit, but you have the advantage 
 of knowing the age of your birds, and that they are good for eight or 10 
 years' service. 
 
 It is best to start with no more than you can familiarize yourself with 
 and be able to tell which are mates, keeping the unmated birds separate 
 from those that are mated. You can mate almost any cock and hen you 
 wish mated together by placing them in a coop by themselves a few days, 
 and when once mated they are usually there for life unless forcibly sepa- 
 rated. When it is convenient to do so it is best to get the young birds 
 
Companions of the lien. 95 
 
 from two different breeders, and in mating use one from each breeder for 
 each pair, so as to have no possibility of inbreeding. 
 
 For feed use coarse cracked corn three parts, whole corn two parts, 
 wheat two parts, Canada peas two parts, hemp seed one part. Always 
 be sure that the feed is sweet and sound, and never feed any new grain 
 until it is well dried out and hard. When convenient I prefer feeding 
 three times per day on the ground in the fly, giving them all they will 
 clean up; if not convenient to feed at noon, cracked corn may be kept 
 before them all the time in a feeder so arranged that it will be kept clean 
 and dry. Always give fresh water when feeding, and have a pan of water 
 large enough for them to bathe in. 
 
 Keep good sharp grit and ground oyster shells before them all the time. 
 Also keep a mixture of ground charcoal six parts, old mortar or plaster 
 three parts and fine salt one part, where they may have free access to it, 
 and supply them with tobacco stems for them to make their nests with. 
 These may be either on the floor of the house or in the fly, and the birds 
 will use them as they need them. Any coarse hay or straw will answer in 
 place of the tobacco, but the tobacco is a protection against lice. The 
 squabs are ready for market when four to five weeks old, and first-class 
 squabs bring from $3 to $4.50 per dozen in New York markets, according 
 to the season. If you get good breeding stock and give them good care 
 they will repay you well. 
 
 CARE OF TURKEYS. — We have found young turkeys as easy to 
 raise as chickens when cared for in the following manner : The method 
 of hatching is immaterial — a reliable incubator, hens or turkey hens, which- 
 ever is most convenient. The time, however, is important. As the 
 Springs here are cold and often wet we find it better to have poults hatch 
 about June 1. Have sufficient turkey hens sitting to care for the poults 
 when hatched. If they have been sitting but a week you may put the 
 newly-hatched, but thoroughly dried, little poults under them at night 
 and they will care for them. Never try to raise turkeys in a brooder or 
 with common hens. Do not give more than 20 poults to each hen to 
 mother, and place turkey and brood in a triangular pen made of boards 
 12 inches wide and placed on edge. Place within this enclosure a house 
 of some kind. If the weather.be warm an A-shaped lath coop will answer. 
 Have the pen movable, and move to fresh grass frequently. Feed the 
 turkey plenty of corn, but do not feed the poults until 36 hours after the 
 last one is hatched. Provide fresh water in clean drinking fountains 
 and grit. 
 
 Sprinkle the hen with a good insect powder, and keep the poults at all 
 times free from lice. Between the third and sixth day spread the wing of 
 each little poult and pull out the six quills you will find starting to grow 
 along the outer edge. When the poults can fly over this pen let them 
 
96 . The Business Hen. 
 
 have free range with their mother, but see that they come home at night 
 if you are obliged to bring them a few times. Feed liberally when they 
 come home, and always have grit and fresh water where they may have 
 free access to it. Keep their house and pen clean. A turkey will not live 
 in filthy quarters, nor if lousy. If you are making a success of the dry- 
 feeding system with chicks you will succeed with the turkeys by the same 
 system. Pinhead or flake oatmeal, dry bread soaked with milk or water 
 and squeezed dry. curds mixed with chopped onion or dandelion tops are 
 all good foods. Sometimes we are able to buy through our grocer break- 
 fast food or pinhead oatmeal that has become wormy (not musty) at 
 greatly reduced prices, and they make excellent food for turkeys or chicks. 
 Feed no sloppy foods and not too much at one time. 
 
 BANTAM BREEDING.— Bantams need but little room, and little feed. 
 They are very attractive and useful, not merely pets, as they are good 
 layers of good-sized and rich eggs. I have used an incubator for hatch- 
 ing, but prefer hens. If I have Bantams that 1 can spare I use them, but 
 usually common hens. If large hens are used their nests should be in a 
 low box six inches deep, the nest made but little dishing, as the eggs will 
 move more readily as the hen steps among them. For this reason the 
 fewer eggs under a hen the better. The eggs are quite as likely to be 
 fertile and hatch as any larger breeds. A box should be placed over the 
 hen after she has been fed and watered each day. This not only secures 
 her from being disturbed, but prevents her from coming off many times 
 a day, as some will, each time endangering the eggs. I do not find the 
 chicks quite as hardy or as easy to raise as larger breeds until feathered. 
 They feather so young and fast that they need good feed and care at this 
 time. For a few days when first hatched, hard-boiled eggs and bread 
 crumbs chopped fine are best for them ; later cracked wheat, millet and 
 ground beef scraps, and some whole grain. For head and throat lice and 
 around the little cluster of feathers in front of the vent use a little grease. 
 Fresh butter is good; sweet cream is still better, and will not injure if used 
 liberally on turkeys or chickens. This will do little good, however, if the 
 hen has lice. This season I have taken a feather, and with a liquid lice 
 killer touched the hen under and above in many places. If this is done 
 in the morning when the chicks are a few days old, and the hen in an 
 open coop, so the chicks can get plenty of air, it will not hurt them, but 
 will rid both hen and chicks of lice for a long time, if not for the 
 season. 
 
 THE DUCK. — The principal breeds are Pekin, Rouen, Cayuga, Mus- 
 covy and Aylesbury. The Pekin is most extensively raised. The follow- 
 ing are the methods of a successful commercial breeder. For the first 
 four days after hatching they have a mixture of two-thirds bread crumbs 
 and boiled eggs, in the proportion of four parts of bread to one of egg, 
 
Companions of the Urn. 97 
 
 and one-third rolled oats. At the end of four days five per cent of sand, 
 not gravel, is added to the food, and each day following, until the end of 
 the first week, the food is gradually changed by substituting bran and 
 meal for egg and bread. After a week two parts of wheat bran, one of 
 cornmeal and 10 per cent of beef scrap are given, and the five per cent 
 sand is continued until the ducks are fattened. Salt is used for flavoring 
 at all times. About the time sand is given green food is begun. This 
 must be tender and succulent on the start, like clover, green rye or tender 
 grass cut fine. In Winter cabbage, turnips, beets, potatoes or any vege- 
 tables chopped into small pieces with a root cutter, or even nice clover 
 hay cut and cooked will do. The green stuff is mixed with the other food 
 in a large box, and moistened, but not made sloppy. At seven weeks old 
 fattening commences, using two parts cornmeal to one of bran, and lb 
 per cent beef scrap, fed four times a day, all they will eat up clean. At 
 10 weeks they weigh not far from five pounds and are then marketed. 
 At that time the temporary plumage is perfected. If allowed to go longer 
 the pin feathers of the adult plumage begin to start, and it would 
 be six weeks before they would again be in condition. The ducks to be 
 fattened are not allowed to go into the water, as the exercise works off 
 their flesh. Those kept as breeders swim all they wish. Tfiey are selected 
 when five weeks old, and never fattened. Their feed is one-third each 
 of bran, vegetables and corn and oats, with a little animal feed in the 
 form of beef scrap, fish scrap and fresh fish. 
 
 In marketing, the desired number are removed from the pen and 
 driven to another enclosure. There they find a bath with pure running 
 water. This being their first opportunity for bathing, they go at it at 
 once and soon come out clean and white. Then they go to the slaughter 
 house, where they are killed and picked in the usual way. 
 
 Ducks cannot stand the sun, so their yard should be well shaded. Plum 
 trees make an excellent shade, and usually thrive in a poultry yard. An- 
 other essential is plenty of pure water for drinking, so arranged that they 
 cannot get into it. Where one has water under pressure small streams 
 may be piped into little troughs and kept running steadily. 
 
CHAPTER XVII. 
 The Health of ihe Hen. 
 
 IMPORTANCE OF PREVENTION.— Vermin, germs and impropei 
 care are responsible for most poultry diseases. Yet when the conditions 
 favoring sanitary care of the flock are understood probably no other animal 
 can be more safely raised in large numbers. The slight value of the indi- 
 vidual fowl makes the employment of a veterinarian out of the question; 
 most that he can do is to advise as to stamping out disease and preventing 
 future outbreaks. It is sometimes claimed that successful doctoring can be 
 done at long range and at a considerable lapse of time, but the bodies of 
 fowls are as delicate and complex as those of other animals, and imme- 
 diate attention and nursing are needed. Ideally the poultryman should so 
 care for the flock that it could not have disease. The remedies of the 
 poultryman are not quinine, calomel and aconite, but the axe, the fence 
 and quick lime or other disinfectants judiciously used. 
 
 HEREDITY. — Hereditary diseases among fowls are few. Probably the 
 most important is lack of vitality inherited by young chicks as a result 
 of too close inbreeding of the parents, or the fact that either parent is 
 too fat. Inherited weaknesses, the result of inbreeding, cannot be cured. 
 The poultryman must either begin with new stock or replace some portion 
 of it with new blood, and so breed out the weakness. Very close inbreeding 
 may result in deformed bodies, wings or feet, in deranged nervous systems, 
 or in sterility. On the other hand, advocates of line breeding have secured 
 good results while trying to avoid the faults of very close inbreeding. 
 
 CORRECT FEEDING.— Improper feeding with the usual foodstuffs 
 does not cause many diseases, but it may cause loss in the productivity of 
 the underfed or overfed individual. Starvation and obesity approach dis- 
 eased conditions as extremes are reached. Overfeeding is attended by 
 the most serious difficulties. The fat being deposited to excess in various 
 organs as the liver, heart or oviduct muscles weakens them and often ends 
 in the destruction of the fowl. Ruptures of the liver and various veins 
 of the body seem to be brought about by fatty degeneration ; also a failure 
 of muscular power to extrude the egg. Clean, uncontaminated water aids 
 in dissolving the food, and grit, to assist in grinding it, should always be at 
 hand. While it is possible that chickens may survive some time without 
 grit it is certain that they grow much better and keep healthier when it is 
 at hand. The diagnosis of disorders from incorrect feeding is difficult. 
 The scales should soon tell whether the fowls are too heavy, even if the 
 caretaker has not discovered when handling them on the roost that their 
 
The Health of the Hen. 99 
 
 flesh is too fat or flabby, or possibly too bony. The condition of the 
 fowl must be noted by the sense of feeling as well as by the eye. The 
 only means of restoring too fat fowls to a normal condition is to deprive 
 them of a portion of the food they would otherwise need and make them 
 hunt and pick for what they get. Starve them into health. 
 
 "COLDS" OR INFLUENZA are caused by abrupt changes of tem- 
 perature. They may occur in Winter or Summer, but are always the 
 result of a draft. In an endeavor to secure more air to carry off odors 
 houses have been arranged so that drafts blew directly upon the fowls. 
 A cold is indicated by sneezing and a slight discharge at the nostrils 
 which collect dirt and straws. If severe cases the affected fowls droop. In 
 an outbreak of this character there may be inflammation of the lungs. 
 The only remedy for colds is to arrange the house so that there can be 
 no cross drafts from doors, windows or cracks. The use of muslin cur- 
 tains instead of some of the glass windows is a preventive. These act 
 by permitting the moisture transpired by the hens to pass though, by retain- 
 ing heat, stopping direct drafts and allowing slow diffusion of the inside 
 and outside air. Frozen combs, wattles and feet are prevented by keeping 
 the sleeping chamber as dry as possible and comfortably warm. This is 
 effected by muslin curtains which divide the roosting" place from the rest 
 of the room, and limit the space to be heated by the fowls. 
 
 SANITARY HOUSES.— Moisture in the henhouse should be avoided, 
 as it is most destructive to the comfort and health of the fowl. The only 
 economical method of doing this is by permitting the inside air to exchange 
 its moisture contents freely with the outside. The muslin screen seems at 
 present to be the cheapest and best. Many poultrymen make use of the 
 loft of the larger houses for ventilation by covering a loose flooring with 
 a foot of hay and opening doors in the gables. All inside structures should 
 be made so that fowls cannot injure themselves. The lighter breeds 
 usually suffer little harm from bruises, but the heavier may receive them 
 on their feet or their wings on account of the construction of the house. 
 As a rule the dropping board and perch should be well upon the side of 
 the house, so that the hens will have all the floor space and the roosts 
 will be in the warmer part of the building. For the heavier breeds run- 
 ways should be made leading up to the roosts and the roost wired in with 
 removable netting, so that the birds cannot fly down. Their wings are 
 as compared to their body weight so weak that in the short distance from 
 roost to floor they receive little help from them and fall instead of fly. 
 This applies to the heavier American breeds as well as the Asiatic. The 
 wings often get bruised by trying to fly through too small openings when 
 scared or by careless handling. Fowls contract but few diseases from the 
 yards aside from the parasitic. They are more liable to the effects of 
 improper feeding and the lack of exercise when confined, but when once 
 
 !>f C 
 
100 The Business Hen. 
 
 they are yarded the poultryman is compelled to supply the feed, water 
 and means of exercise in order to realize his profit. As compared to free 
 range the discomforts of the ordinary henyard are many. Too frequently 
 no provision is made for protection of the fowls from the cold Winter 
 blasts or fiercely hot Summer sun, against which the fowl when allowed 
 free range always chooses sheltered thickets or the lee of some fence, wall 
 or building. The chief protection against vermin, parasites and communi- 
 cable diseases is the wire fence. 
 
 WIRE FENCE. — The height chosen should be according to the fowla 
 kept and the size of the yards. For small yards those 40 or 50 feet wide 
 by 80 or 100 long, a height of seven feet for Leghorns, is ample; three 
 feet of woven wire, one inch mesh, is used at the bottom and buried at 
 least six inches in the soil. Four feet of two-inch mesh fills the top. The 
 corner posts are set like the others, whether in dug holes or driven. A stiff 
 pole for a brace is placed horizontally between the corner and next post, 
 provided the latter is not more than eight or 10 feet away, and at a height 
 of four feet from the ground. Notches may be made to hold the brace in 
 position or it may be nailed. A No. 9 wire is then passed around the 
 bottom of the corner post and top of the second post and back to the 
 corner post, where after pulling as tight as possible the ends are fastened. 
 Nails may be used to keep the wire in place while fastening. A short iron 
 rod should then be used to twist the wire by placing it between the two 
 strands near the middle and turning it over and over until the twisted wire 
 is taut. This completes a corner that will not give and will be heaved by 
 freezing very little. If displaced it may be easily driven back. The gates 
 are made four feet wide with a removable foot-wide board across the 
 bottom. These can be cheaply made of furring two inches wide, a few 
 nails and woven wire. Cut four pieces the width of the gate. Cut two the 
 length of the gate. Cut one to reach from the bottom next the hinge to 
 the top on the swinging side and miter its corners so that they fit against 
 the side sticks, especially at the bottom. When fastened together a space 
 is left between the top and bottom cross-pieces. The nails driven through 
 the three pieces and the cross brace together with the separated double 
 pieces make a very strong light gate. The advantage of this fence is that 
 fowls do not try to dig under. They rarely try to fly over. Only cats 
 and hawks can enter. The fence seems to be practically rat proof. The 
 tendency of animals to tunnel under seems to be avoided by the clear view 
 through the wire. Dogs, skunks and minks are surely kept out. No com- 
 municable disease can enter excepting when carried by some hen or by 
 the attendant. The disease that is carried through the air is very rare. 
 Even mites and hen lice are little likely to leave their haunts to invade 
 other pens. 
 
The Health of the Hen. 101 
 
 TREATMENT OF YARDS.— Manure from healthy fowls will so 
 pollute small yards as to make them unhealthy and render cultivation of, 
 the soil necessary. It is not likely that even disease germs would outlast 
 the attacks of the soil hacteria throughout a season when the ground is 
 properly spaded or plowed and cultivated. The uncleaned hen roost has 
 been called the greatest meance to the hens, but probably the yards and the 
 water furnish the larger part of the infection. Yards which are virtually 
 fields and can be cultivated for various crops in succession furnish the 
 best facilities for the hen and are the healthiest. By locating the houses 
 at the touching corners of four fields the fences can easily be arranged 
 so as to use either at will. The portable house has its sanitary value in 
 the warm months. The turning under of polluted soil and removal of the 
 fowls during the cultivation of a crop renew the fields so that they can be 
 used alternately year after year to the advantage of both crop and fowls. 
 Newly hatched and small chicks must be yarded somewhat diffierently from 
 old fowls. For these in Spring and Summer there is no better place than 
 some spot within the orchard which has been enclosed by a three-foot inch 
 mesh net wire fence, with lower edge buried in the ground. This will 
 keep them from being lost in the wet grass. 
 
 BROODING TROUBLES.— The diseases of brooding are mainly those 
 which arise from the lack of heat and food, the former by far the more 
 important. The result of brooding by the hens is the application of heat 
 to the chick, and when food is plenty the hen that is most successful is the 
 one that has paid the strictest attention to business. So in artificial brood- 
 ing success depends upon the application of heat. When disease occurs 
 in hatching and brooding artificially it is in most cases directly due to 
 the lack of heat or its improper application and not to the stock from 
 which the eggs came. The success of artificial brooding will depend upon 
 the brooder and its treatment. Artificially raised chicks being deprived 
 of the hen's care learn but slowly and must be housed and yarded for some 
 time. There need be no worry about chicks contracting such diseases as 
 gapes if they are kept from other fowls and on uninfected runs. It is 
 safer and more economical of labor to brood the chicks until they are 
 four or five weeks old even in Summer. 
 
 ROUP. — Bacterial diseases which show their main symptoms in the 
 head are known as roup, the nostrils become stopped by inflammation and 
 inflammatory products, the mucous sacs of the eye socket become filled 
 and often cause the head to swell and the eye to project. An examination 
 of the nasal opening in the roof of the mouth often shows a yellow cheesy 
 deposit. These discharges have a characteristic odor of dead tissue. The 
 cheesy deposits also extend to the opening of the windpipe. When the 
 breathing becomes obstructed the fowl emits a gasping noise which gives 
 rise to the name roup. It is probable that there are no less than three, 
 
102 The Business Hen. 
 
 perhaps four, distinct diseases which are all called roup. To the poultry- 
 man this fact has at present but little importance, as the same means are 
 taken in combating each. Wihile the main symptom exists in the head the 
 more severe forms involve the whole body. These diseases are readily 
 diagnosed by general droopiness, by visible inflammation of the head, by 
 roupy sounds and the odor. They are all caused by organisms which pass 
 from bird to bird. They begin by the introduction of a fowl carrying the 
 disease into the flock and their spread is greatly favored by conditions 
 which cause the fowls to catch cold. To avoid the disease one should 
 thoroughly examine the heads of each new purchase and keep all the fowls 
 separate from other flocks. The houses should be so constructed as to 
 avoid direct drafts on the hens, and neither be too moist nor too hot. 
 Fowls kept in cold sheds rarely take cold. When the fowls have once 
 contracted either of the roup diseases there is no medicinal remedy that 
 will be satisfactory or that it will pay to give. An affected flock should 
 be at once quarantined in a light, dry room with floor and without direct 
 drafts. The room should be whitewashed thoroughly in all parts, including 
 floor. The floor should be sanded, but during the virulence of the out- 
 break straw should be omitted. The hens should be fed sparingly so as 
 not to fatten too greatly during their quarantine. While medicine as iron 
 sulphate, carbonate or disinfectants, as often recommended, may be put 
 into the drinking water, the quantity advised is hardly ever sufficient to 
 make the water antiseptic. It is better to scald out the dishes regularly and 
 give pure drinking water. By remodelling or changing the quarantine 
 quarters and confinement on the board floor most of the fowls will get 
 better. Some may get worse and these it will be necessary to kill. There 
 is little use for disinfectants beyond the whitewash, which should be used 
 quite liberally each time the house is cleaned. If made thin a liberal 
 amount spread on the floor after sweeping up the sand will quite thor- 
 oughly disinfect. The whitewash should for this purpose be freshly made 
 from unslaked lime. If one preferred, any of the coal tar disinfectants 
 could be used. Whitewash is cheap and efficient for all purposes when 
 thoroughly applied. It would not be wise to allow a flock that had once 
 been affected with roup ever to have complete liberty again for fear of 
 a future outbreak from some undiscovered patient. They should be kept 
 securely yarded and housed. After they have become sufficiently aged 
 and all the eggs for hatching be obtained from them that are needed, they 
 should be killed, quarters thoroughly disinfected and their yards abandoned 
 for a time to allow disinfection through changes of the weather. This 
 may be aided by liming and cultivation. 
 
 DIPHTHERETIC ROUP.— Fowls with diphtheretic roup have been 
 treated by swabbing out the membranes and touching them with peroxide 
 of hydrogen, two per cent carbolic acid solution, borax and other more or 
 
The Health of the Hen. 103 
 
 less imperfect disinfecting preparations. These often succeed. While 
 diphtheretic roup in fowls seems from recent investigation to be an entirely 
 different disease from diphtheria in man, the operator should take no 
 chances and disinfect his hands and operating tools in two per cent carbolic 
 acid solution after a thorough scrubbing in soap and water. Above all, 
 should there be no carrying of buckets, brooms or hoes from the quaran- 
 tine hospital to other houses. It is better to provide a pair of rubbers 
 for use in the quarantine house and yard so as to prevent tracking infec- 
 tion from house to house. 
 
 CHOLERA. — The cholera type of diseases, or those in which the germs 
 enter the system through the intestinal tract and are disseminated through 
 the droppings, comprise three diseases perhaps more, all due to different 
 germs. They should be handled when an outbreak occurs much the same 
 as the roup diseases. However, in these diseases, especially the typhoidal 
 forms, there is more danger from infection contaminating the ground, and 
 great care should be taken with infected ground either by abandonment or 
 by intensive cultivation. Liming when necessary to correct acidity, spading 
 and cultivation will enable the nitrifying bacteria to grow which in warm 
 seasons will destroy the disease making germs. The author has frequently 
 collected infected fowls carried them for some miles placed them in a coop 
 with board floor, believing that they would die only to have them improve 
 under the changed surroundings. Little is known about the length of time 
 either of this class of diseases may live in the ground or in the animal. If 
 remedies are given it should be remembered that any alkalies as carbonate 
 of soda, Epson or Glauber salts create inflammation of the intestine and 
 permit germs to enter the system more readily. The acid stops diarrhoeas 
 when present and may possibly be helpful. The presence of the virulent 
 communicable disease of the cholera type is ascertained by droopiness of 
 the fowls and subsequent death. Oftentimes the droopiness passes unob- 
 served. Diseases produced by errors of feeding generally take some timt 
 to develop unless something acting like a poison is taken, and then a large 
 number are suddenly taken ; some die and the others recover. The various 
 forms of this class of disease cannot easily be told apart in the hen yard. 
 One of them, infectious leukaemia, causes death within three or four days, 
 with scarcely 12 hours droopiness and without any easily ascertainable 
 symptoms. Fowl cholera lasts from two to three weeks, is accompanied by 
 droopiness and may or may not be accompanied by diarrhoea. Diarrhoea 
 in fowls is indicated by frequent evacautations of soft greenish, brownish 
 or yellowish stools. The white watery stool sometimes seen is not indica- 
 tive of diarrhoea, but of lack of intestinal evacuations. It consists of the 
 lime products secreted by the kidneys and is usually in excess in fevers. 
 The disease called "going light" in fowls may arise from chronic forms 
 of cholera, from starvation produced by mechanical derangements of the 
 
104 The Business Hen. 
 
 system or possibly from bacteria] and parasitic forms. As the name indi- 
 cates the fowls become thin and light in weight. When communicable 
 disease is concerned there will be no attempt at diagnosis until the fowls 
 are visibly affected and begin to die. Should they die suddenly without 
 previous illness one may suspect infectious leukaemia. Should there be 
 some droopiness noted and the fowls stop feeding cholera may be the cause. 
 In both these diseases many fowls of the flock will be affected, while in 
 chronic forms of these and other diseases there will be but few at a time. 
 Since medicinal treatment will always prove unsatisfactory the exact 
 diagnosis of a disease will not matter, for the same thorough steps must 
 be taken to limit the spread of the disease whether it be one thing or 
 another. There is no help for the poultryman except in that perpetual 
 vigilance which wards off all diseases. ' 
 
 GAPJIS. — This is caused by worms one-half to three-fourths inch long, 
 which attach themselves inside the windpipe. They are always red from 
 the blood taken from the fowls. Here they breed and when adult are 
 coughed out upon the ground, when their eggs are sown broadcast. 
 Artificially raised chicks will not contract gape worms unless placed on 
 the ground where chickens have contracted or scattered the disease. Earth 
 worms may carry the trouble. Gape worms are indicated by the frequent 
 gaping or gasping of the chicks for air. The old familiar horse hair loop 
 or the feather end dipped in turpentine will remove them. However, time 
 and chicks may be saved during the succeeding year by removing the 
 coops to a new lot, cultivating the old place and keeping the chicks from it. 
 The time required for land to disinfect itself of gape worms is not known. 
 Since robins and other birds may perpetuate them it is possible that a given 
 space may never be exactly safe. Some poultrymen by keeping the chicks 
 on a board floor for some time have avoided this trouble. 
 
 SCALY-LEG. — Another parasitic disease caused by minute mites which 
 insert themselves under the scales covering the feet is called "scaly-leg." 
 While not particularly noticeable in early stages it is readily diagnosed by 
 the comparatively enormous roughening of the scales caused in the later 
 stages. Since it does not spread from fowl to fowl it should be treated 
 regularly until cured. The legs should be dipped in carbolized vaseline, 
 sweet oil, kerosene or washed with creoline dips. The oils act better than 
 water dips because they last on the legs longer, and thus draw out the 
 mites. If the dips are repeated the scales soften and the inflammation dis- 
 appears until feet that will seem beyond cure will again appear healthy 
 and comparatively smooth. 
 
 SURGICAL TREATMENT.— Crop-bound is a condition in which the 
 crop becomes packed with food because of stoppage of its outlet by coarse 
 material. It it easily remedied by cutting into the crop at that part which 
 is on top when the fowl stands. After emptying all its contents the raw 
 
The Health of the Hen. 105 
 
 edges should be treated with two per cent carbolic acid or creoline mixture 
 Then sew the crop by placing the raw edges together and tying each time 
 the needle is passed through. Coarse linen or silk thread is equally good. 
 Do not put the inside lining edges of the crop together, but the raw edges. 
 Then disinfect again and sew the raw edges of the skin together. Give 
 the hen water and feed a little soft feed for three days. Incisions into 
 swellings and abscesses do little permanent good, for there is usually no 
 cure effected. Blunting or removing the spurs of the cocks often saves 
 the lives of others and keeps them from gashing the sides of the hens. 
 
 DOCTORING POULTRY.— The general rules for guarding the health 
 of poultry, given above by Dr. Curtice., would, if followed out carefully, 
 prevent any serious outbreak of disease. There would be few deaths in 
 the flock except those from accident or old age. He does not advocate 
 dosing or fussing with sick hens, and he is largely right, because when 
 a hen becomes sick enough to make her condition evident she is often too 
 far gone for medicine. For those who wish to doctor their hens we add 
 a few simple rules of advice. Read the notes on Tonics for Poultry with 
 care, and do not be too anxious to stuff the fowls with medicine. Good 
 food and clean and comfortable quarters give a condition which no drugs 
 can possibly supply. 
 
 Lice are responsible for many of the so-called poultry diseases. They 
 weaken the hen's vitality and put her into a condition which makes it 
 impossible for her to do well. A lousy hen may have ruffled feathers, a 
 dark comb, looseness of the bowels and other symptoms which indicate 
 some form of chicken cholera. What folly it would be to dose such a hen 
 with medicines or "tonics" and leave the lice on her body or leave 
 vermin in the henhouse which she occupies. Would it not be just as 
 great folly to doctor a hen for roup, and spray her throat and then put 
 her back into some damp and breezy house where other roupy hens stay? 
 This will show the wisdom of what Dr. Curtice says and the need of 
 proper care. If one wishes to try a "roup cure" on the nostrils or throat 
 the following will be found as good as any : Equal parts ammonia, tur- 
 pentine and glycerine. We have seen cases of roup that seemed to be 
 relieved by dipping the entire head into kerosene. One ounce of chlorate 
 of potash in a pint of water makes a good wash for cases of sore throat, 
 but of course hens needing any such treatment should be put by them- 
 selves. Reports are made of successful treatment of cholera by giving 
 in the early stages one teaspoonful of a solution of one ounce of hypo- 
 sulphite of soda in a pint of water. Dry, unslaked lime is sometimes used 
 to help chicks dispose of gape worms. The chicks are put into a covered 
 box with a layer of lime at the bottom. The whole thing is shaken to stir 
 up the lime into a dust. Do not leave the chicks inside over two minutes. 
 
106 The Business Hen. 
 
 If combs are smeared with glycerine or vaseline they will not be so liable 
 to frost bite. A good dressing for all wounds on animals is one part' 
 carbolic acid in three parts of sweet oil. Feather pulling is usually caused 
 by idleness or a lack of meat in the diet. Generally there are a few birds 
 in the flock who do most of the mischief. If they can be caught at it 
 they would better be killed. Make the hens work or scratch for their 
 food and provide meat in some form. Little chicks sometimes kill and 
 eat each other. Members of a flock have been known to attack some 
 wounded bird and pick it to pieces. The victim usually has some wound 
 or sore that shows blood, and the others attack this spot. It usually indi- 
 cates a lack of meat in the ration. This should be supplied, and if the 
 trouble is bad the chicks should be separated, taken to fresh ground and 
 sorted so that the smaller ones are kept separate. 
 
 THE CHICKEN MITE.— This little insect is probably the worst 
 single enemy of the average farm hen. It does more damage than the 
 large body lice, and is harder to destroy. No hen can be profitable 
 when infested with these mites. The hen stops laying, the feathers are 
 roughened, the head becomes pale, the bird is a picture of unthrift. It 
 is not uncommon for hatching hens to die on the nest, or to be driven 
 away from their eggs by these horrible creatures. The mites also attack 
 the little chicks and kill great numbers of them. The insects work mostly 
 at night, and not only suck the hen's blood but destroy her rest. The 
 insect is very small and very active. Fig. 46 shows one greatly en- 
 larged. In life they are one-twenty- 
 fifth of an inch long, gray in color 
 except when filled with blood, when 
 they are red. They usually only re- 
 main upon the hen long enough to 
 secure a meal. They hide in cracks 
 or in filth and litter during the day, 
 and at night when the hens return 
 to the roosts crawl out and begin 
 
 their blood-sucking. The eggs are 
 Fig. 4G. CHICKEN MITE. , ., , , , , . ,, , • >• 
 
 laid and hatched in these hiding 
 
 places. The under sides of the roosts, the litter and straw in the nests 
 
 are favorite places. They breed rapidly, and unless destroyed will swarm 
 
 all over the house. There is no doubt that these mites can be carried 
 
 from one farm to another on poultry, coops, clothing or eggs bought for 
 
 hatching. That is one reason why no strange fowl should be put in the 
 
 house without a thorough dusting with insect powder. A good way to 
 
 use the powder is to put it in a large pepper box and shake it out among 
 
 the hen's feathers. In some cases hens are dipped in a warm tea, made 
 
 by steeping tobacco stems, or a preparation like Zenoleum. The "dipped" 
 
The Health of the Hen. 107 
 
 hen should be kept out of all draughts and kept in a warm, sunny place. 
 In clearing a house of mites, the litter and straw should be taken from 
 the floor and nests and burned. The manure must be taken out. As the 
 mites spend the day on the under side of the roosts they must be taken 
 out and painted with kerosene and smeared with grease. There will still 
 be millions of the insects left in cracks and holes. They can only be 
 killed by thorough scrubbing and spraying with some biting liquid again 
 and again until both insects and their eggs are destroyed. The two best 
 sprays are named below. In houses where 
 these mites are found all the fixtures should be 
 
 these mites are found all the fixtures should be S \ s \ f\ £\ { 
 loose so they can be taken out for cleaning. \ \ \ \ I 
 
 n 
 
 A form of nest used in Mississippi is shown in 
 
 Fig. 47. This is well suited to a hot country. / 2 / 
 
 In this the pieces C. C. are the only ones ' 
 fastened to the building. The whole thing can 
 be easily removed for cleaning. The Mississ- 
 ippi Station recommends cleaning the house 
 
 . , Al . , , Pig. 47. SANITARY NEST 
 
 every two weeks, and then using a dust of 
 
 three parts slacked lime and one part sulphur. This is thrown in the air 
 up to the roof of the house until the whole place is filled with the dust. 
 
 KEROSENE EMULSION.— This emulsion is better than pure kero- 
 sene, because it will dissolve in water and may be sprayed of washed over 
 the walls. Take one-half pound of hard soap and shave it into a gallon 
 of soft water; put it on the fire and bring it to a boil. By this time the 
 soap will be dissolved. Then remove the soap solution from the fire and 
 stir into it at once, while hot, two gallons of kerosene. This makes a 
 thick, creamy emulsion, which is made ready for use by diluting with 
 10 volumes of soft water, and stirring well. Make up as much of the 
 stock emulsion as it is thought will be needed. This can be kept in a 
 suitable vessel and a portion taken out and diluted as needed. If the 
 bucket or holder attached to the spray pump holds five gallons, one-half 
 gallon of the stock emulsion should be taken and put into the bucket or 
 holder and four and one-half gallons of soft water added, and the whole 
 well stirred. It is then ready to be sprayed on the places occupied by 
 the mites. 
 
 LIME AND SULPHUR WASH.— This is the wash recommended to 
 fruit growers for spraying to kill the San Jose scale. Some fruit growers 
 drive the spray pump right up to the henhouse door and thoroughly spray 
 the inside. The wash is made in the proportion of 40 pounds of lime, 
 20 pounds of sulphur and five pounds of caustic soda in 60 gallons of 
 water. Smaller amounts can be used in the same proportions. Slake the 
 lime by pouring water over it. Mix the sulphur into a thin paste and, 
 while the lime is slaking, pour it in, stir rapidly, add water and keep 
 
108 The Business Hen. 
 
 stirring. Have the caustic soda dissolved in water and stir it in with 
 the lime and sulphur. This makes a reddish brown mixture, and when 
 the proper amount of water is added it may be sprayed in the house or 
 scrubbed on with a brush or broom. It is a biting wash, and will burn 
 the skin where it touches, but it is sure death to lice, and will hold its 
 killing power for weeks. It is far better than common whitewash, either 
 lime alone or with carbolic acid. A few sprayings with this wash will 
 kill out the mites and give the hens comfort. 
 
 BODY LICE. — These are larger insects that remain upon the hen, 
 the eggs being laid on the feathers. They are not so dangerous as the 
 mites, for a healthy hen provided with a good "dust bath" will get rid of 
 most of them. When hens become feeble or unable to dust, the body lice 
 do great damage. Some of the larger breeds do not use the dust bath 
 regularly, and their feathers are thick and heavy. In Winter some poultry- 
 men go so far as to warm the dusting box by using an iron bottom with 
 a lamp under it. Lime mixed with the dust helps destroy the lice, but 
 takes the gloss from the plumage. "Insect powder," tobacco dust or 
 sulphur dusted through the feathers destroy the lice. There are sev- 
 eral devices for dusting hens rapidly. One of them works like a barrel 
 churn. The hen is put inside with a quantity of powder and turned over 
 and over several times so that the powder works all through her feathers. 
 Grease or fat will destroy the lice. A mixture of lard and sulphur, or 
 equal parts of lard and kerosene smeared under the wings, around the 
 vent and on the head and neck will protect the hen. The head lice which 
 attack little chicks are overcome by smearing with lard and sulphur, butter 
 or even cream, but as is stated elsewhere, the chick may be killed if too 
 much grease is used. We give some space to the question of vermin, but 
 it is an important one. Lice are probably responsible for more poultry 
 failures than any other single trouble. With a fair use of insect powder 
 and the lime and sulphur wash this fearful loss may be prevented. 
 TONICS FOR POULTRY. 
 
 When fowls are doing well it is not usually good policy to stimulate 
 them with drugs of any kind. A legion of nostrums in the way of "egg 
 foods" and "condition powders" has been offered poultry keepers from 
 time to time. While there may be a small measure of merit in some oi 
 them all probably do more harm than good in the long run. Good general 
 care, intelligent feeding and keen observation of the immediate needs of 
 each fowl are the keynotes of success in poultry culture. There are times, 
 however, when fowls, young and old, languish or lose the keen edge ot 
 their appetites and others when it seems advisable to force egg production 
 to the utmost that simple remedies, between food and medicine, in their 
 effects may be really useful. A few notes on the best of these tonics are 
 appended. 
 
The Health of the Hen. 109 
 
 RED PEPPER. — The red or cayenne pepper of commerce is made ot 
 the pungent fruit of Capsicum, or the common garden pepper ground to 
 powder. It is an excellent appetizer, and probably the safest of all stim- 
 ulants. It may be given in mashes or moist food at the rate of one tea- 
 spoonful to each two or more quarts. The fruits of any of the hot- 
 flavored chilies or garden peppers answer equally well if broken up and 
 added to the mash. 
 
 TINCTURE OF IRON. — In some forms of weakness associated with 
 loss of appetite tincture of chloride of iron does good service. It should 
 be given in the drinking water, 10 to 20 drops to the quart of water, given 
 fresh for several successive days. It is rather' caustic, but not poisonous 
 in small quantities. 
 
 STRYCHNINE is a dangerous poison, but in minute doses has pow- 
 erful tonic properties. It is especially useful in leg weakness and all forms 
 of paralysis, and in the general depression following illness. It is best 
 given fowls in the form of tincture of nux vomica, of which it is the active 
 principle. Ten to 15 drops in a quart of drinking water may be safely 
 given on alternate days. Nux vomica tincture is intensely bitter, and the 
 water thus prepared is not relished. 
 
 ARSENIC is a powerful tonic and probably stimulates egg production. 
 It may be given in the form of Fowler's solution, 10 to 12 drops in a quart 
 of water once in three days. Nux vomica tincture and Fowler's solution art 
 dangerous poisons and should be kept where children and animals cannot 
 get at them. 
 
 GOLDEN SEAL. — An excellent appetizer very little used is golden 
 seal or Hydrastis canadensis. It is harmless, and may be given at the 
 rate of half an ounce of the powdered root to each quart of mash. Pow- 
 dered ginger is also used in the same manner. 
 
 THE MOULTING HEN.— As all know poultry shed or cast off theii 
 feathers, after which a new growth appears. This moulting is an exhaust- 
 ing process, and the hen will not, under ordinary circumstances, lay 
 during her moult or for some time after. Old hens drop their feathers 
 during late Summer and Fall, and it is an advantage to force the moult 
 early, so as to have them laying or at least in good condition before Winter 
 sets in. Various plans have been tried for hurrying the moult. In some 
 cases the feathers are plucked from the live hens so that a new growth will 
 start early. Another plan often mentioned is described as follows by 
 Mr. G. H. Belding: 
 
 ''I took 10 White Wyandotte yearlings about the last of August and 
 shut them up in a pen, and did not feed them for twelve days, with the 
 exception of about a handful of grain every other day. I gave them all 
 the water they wanted during these twelve days. At the expiration of 12 
 
110 The Business Hen. 
 
 days I let them out, and commenced feeding a heavy ration, all they would 
 eat, in fact giving them a variety, and once a day a mash and also beef scrap 
 or animal meal. They had grass in the runs. Eight of them commenced 
 to moult in a very short time. They laid on their new coat very fast, and 
 were laying again in about six or seven weeks from the time I began. 
 These hens were laying at the time the experiment began. They laid 
 through the Winter and are still laying. One of the 10 it did not seem 
 to affect ; she moulted at the usual time, and did not begin laying until 
 towards Spring. The other did not moult at all ; she carried her old coat 
 through the Winter and moulted this Spring. I did not give them anj 
 medicine or tonic." 
 
 Dark spots are often noticed in eggs. They are probably caused by 
 the rupture of small blood vessels in the hen before the egg is shelled. 
 
 Bare backs on hens are caused by feather picking or by the male. 
 When hens eat each other's feathers they usually pull out the soft down at 
 the base of the tail. It is better to kill a confirmed feather puller. This 
 bad habit is usually caused by idleness or lack of meat in the ration. 
 
 The egg shells may be crushed fine and fed to the hens. When crushed 
 in this way they are not likely to cause egg eating. 
 
 The best cure for egg eating is to kill the hen that is guilty of it. We 
 would do this except in the case of a valuable bird. By filing off the end 
 of the beak we can prevent most of the trouble. 
 
 Leg weakness may be caused by rheumatism, a heavy male or roosts 
 that are too high. Rheumatism is often caused by low damp quarters or 
 by keeping the bird in a low coop on the ground. 
 
 A good hospital for a sick hen is at the bottom of a flour barrel in 
 a nest of straw. 
 
 Soft-shelled eggs are mostly caused by a lack of lime. Crushed oyster 
 shells or bone should be kept before the hens. Soft shells are also due to 
 troubles in the reproductive organs, fright or shock or to the presence of 
 too many males. 
 
CHAPTER XVIII. 
 The Purebred Business Hen. 
 
 F. Q. White, who lias met with much success as a breeder, gives the 
 following good advice : 
 
 One of the questions continually asked by those thinking about trying 
 to make poultry profitable is: "Would I not be just as successful with 
 common fowls as with purebred or fancy stock? If not, why?" There are 
 several reasons why it pays to keep purebred hens. First, your flock is 
 uniform, and you can give the feed and care that your variety needs. 
 With common mixed flocks you are feeding some hens fat ; while others 
 may not get what they need. Your chickens are much evener if all 
 one kind, and if you are selling for broilers to a fancy trade, you would 
 see a difference between a crate of nice purebred Wyandottes or Plymouth 
 Rocks and a crate of red, white, blue and speckled scrubs. It might easily 
 make a difference of two or three cents a pound. Now pick up the market 
 quotations and note the prices on "fancy selected white" and the next 
 grade, which means plain "fresh eggs." There you find a difference again 
 of two or three cents a dozen. Does it cost any more to raise these fancy 
 broilers or fancy eggs? Not a cent more after you get started. Of course 
 it costs more to get a start in any purebred stock than in mongrels. Care- 
 ful breeders have been at work for years developing these different 
 breeds, each for a specific purpose, and it stands to reason that they will 
 fulfill that purpose better than those with only hit or miss or no breeding. 
 
 We sometimes hear of some woman who is making money from com- 
 mon hens, but this only proves she understands her business and would 
 make more if she had a good strain of purebred. It is a well-known fact 
 that eggs of different breeds do not hatch alike, and some are much more 
 difficult to hatch than others. One should take all these things into con- 
 sideration and study the markets and their own likings, for anyone will 
 make a much greater success with a breed he likes. After you have made 
 your selection do not buy a male and try to grade up scrubs, and do not 
 pay $25 for a show trio of fancy birds. First, get either a few settings 
 or a hundred or more eggs of the breed you want from some breeder 
 you can rely on tn treat you fairly; then study your strain; find out its 
 weak points, and buy males to correct those faults. This is when you want 
 to buy a Standard and find what that breed should look like to win prizes. 
 You will soon be proud of your flock and you will want to show all 
 your friends your birds. If your hens are inclined t- be too -hort-backed 
 you should buy a male with the opposite tendency. If they are weak in 
 
112 The Business Hen. 
 
 any point get a male strong in that point to breed them to. But do not 
 sacrifice vigor and health to fancy or fads ; leave that to the showman. 
 Don't try to keep more than one breed ; you won't know all there is to know 
 about that in 20 years. It is more profitable to be known as a good breeder 
 of White Leghorns, Wyandottes or Plymouth Rocks than it is to be able 
 to advertise one hundred different varieties of poultry for sale. 
 
 There is plenty of money in poultry if managed in a business-like 
 manner. A dairyman would not keep Holstein cows for a fancy butter 
 trade, nor would he expect to get rich from selling Jersey milk, although 
 there are good butter cows and good milkers in both breeds. So a 
 poultryman should keep the breed that is adapted to his business ; the 
 heavy breeds for market poultry and the lighter more active breeds 
 for eggs. You will have hens in any breed that do not pay their board, 
 and these must be weeded out and got rid of by the "ax process." It is a 
 nice business to pick them out, and many a fine hen has been sacrificed 
 because she was in such a ragged and generally dilapidated condition, 
 due to her persistent laying. One trouble with scrubs is the lack of type 
 and the extreme difficulty of culling out the unprofitable birds. We 
 have all seen where good breeds that have been bred for years true to 
 type were crossed. The result was a reversion and any old thing. Get 
 purebred stock; keep it pure; strive to improve your strain constantly, 
 and you will have a greater pride in your flock and give them better 
 care, which after all is the secret of success in the poultry business. 
 Who ever heard of a poultry man with some tine purebred hens allowing 
 them to roost on the rail fence or over the pigpen? Take care of the 
 hens and they will take care of you. 
 
 "PEDIGREE" HENS. — The "trap nests" mentioned on page 14 are 
 not popular with most poultrymen, as they require much time and close 
 attention. There is no doubt, however, that they can pick out the drones 
 if they are operated carefully. At the Maine Experiment Station over 
 1,000 hens were tested. Out of this large number 35 hens were found that 
 gave from 200 to 251 eggs in a year. There were several that laid only 
 36 to 60 eggs and three never laid at all. These hens were all selected 
 because they looked like layers in shape and size, but the trap nests showed 
 that the eye cannot be relied upon entirely. It has also been found that 
 hens vary in their laying habits, some laying regularly month after month, 
 while others lay well for a time and then take a vacation. These variations 
 will be shown even when all are selected close to a "type." 
 
CHAPTER XIX. 
 Who Should Keep Hens ? 
 
 We have seen how the egg is formed, how it is hatched, how the little 
 chick is cared for and how the hen is handled so as to make her a busi- 
 ness proposition in feathers. Now, who should keep the Business Hen? 
 Evidently a man should have "hen in the heart" if he expects Biddy to 
 fill his pocket. From what we have studied we can readily see how much 
 of the business side of the hen's work depends upon her partner man. 
 Take a horse that will trot a mile in 2:10. Probably 30 seconds of that 
 record is due to the man who trained and cared for the horse. Left to 
 himself, with his natural gait, the horse could not trot under 2:40. The 
 cow that produces an enormous weight of milk or butter is developed 
 far beyond her natural flow by man's skill in handling and feeding. Just 
 the same with the hen. There are records of flocks that average 160 
 eggs per year. Handled without skill or comfort such flocks would not 
 average 60 eggs. That is why we said at the beginning that a man to suc- 
 ceed with the Business Hen must be "half hen' himself. While some will 
 succeed better than others no one should think of investing money in the 
 poultry business unless he is willing to put his heart into it and study the 
 habits of the hens. There is money in the poultry business for those who 
 do this. 
 
 HENS VS. COWS. — To show how the hen ranks as a financier, Geo. 
 A. Cosgrove makes the following estimate. We do not disparage the 
 value of good cows, but we cannot all be dairymen, and there is a larger 
 surplus of milk than of fresh eggs : 
 
 "A neighbor (as we call them in the country, though he lives four 
 miles away) keeps cows, I do not know how many, but he told me boast- 
 ingly that his creamery check last month was $86 and his bill for grain $60. 
 That leaves $26 — a dollar a day — for profit, if he didn't have to feed any 
 hay. Taking out the cost of hay for his 12 or 15 cows it would not leave 
 a great deal for his month's work. Another farmer who keeps 30 cows, 
 has a splendid farm, is a powerful man in the prime of life, and a worker, 
 says that with the grain bill and hired help there is not a dollar in the 
 cow business. He makes his own butter and sells it to private customers in 
 a village six miles away. Hoard's Dairyman tells of two men who took 
 a 'cow census.' In Pennsylvania 25 farmers who were patrons of a cream- 
 ery averaged a net profit of $15.06 per year for each cow, while 25 more 
 made a profit of 66 cents per cow. In Indiana the best six out of fifty 
 averaged $21 per cow per year. It is fair to assume that these best cows 
 
114 The Business Hen. 
 
 were worth $45 to $(50 each. Consequently it appears that it takes a good 
 cow to pay an annual profit equal to one-third her market value. 
 
 "Now I rise to say that if there is anywhere in these United States 
 any old dunghill, scaly-legged, blear-eyed, frosted-combed, roach-backed, 
 crooked-breasted, twisted-toed apology for a hen, that with relative good 
 care won't pay an annual profit on her market value of more than 33 per 
 cent then she ought to be exhibited at the St. Louis Exhibition as the 
 biggest curiosity in the show. I have kept fowls off and on for 40 years, 
 in city and village back yards, and for the last 10 years on a farm, and I 
 know there has never been a year when they did not pay me from 200 to 
 300 per cent on their market value." 
 
 PAID FOR A FARM. — Mr. Cosgrove knows what he is talking about, 
 for the Wyandotte hen has paid for his home. He left the city at 57 
 years of age and invested all his savings in a run-down farm in a Con- 
 necticut hill town. There were 80 acres in the farm, with only 17 cleared, 
 and barely two acres plowed. So poor was its reputation as a money 
 earner that the farm sold for less than the cost of the buildings. It 
 should be added that Mr. Cosgrove is in poor health, and has been un- 
 able to do a hard day's work in 10 years. He has been obliged to buy all 
 his grain and figure close in every Way. Yet, in spite of all these serious 
 drawbacks the Wyandotte hens have paid for the farm twice over, and 
 provided a good living. Mr. Cosgrove represents one class of men who 
 should keep hens. No other stock could have come within the range of his 
 powers and paid for his farm. He loved a hen, studied her needs and pro- 
 vided for them so well that his 400 hens give a gross income of over $3 
 each, besides giving meat and eggs for the family and fertilizer for the 
 garden and fruit. 
 
 Mr. Cosgrove prefers Wyandottes for several good reasons. They are 
 dignified without being dull. It takes a young and lively man to keep track 
 of Leghorns. The Wyandottes will stay quietly inside a four-foot fence. 
 They are thickly feathered, and do not require such warm housing as the 
 more nervous breeds. Their combs are small — in fact head and comb can 
 easily be put under the wing at night. Mr. Cosgrove says that if he 
 were breeding Leghorns he would clip off their combs in the Fall about as 
 Game cocks are trimmed. The wound would soon heal and the bird would 
 suffer less from the cold. Mr. Cosgrove's experience shows what a man 
 can do by selecting a breed or family with a definite performance in 
 view. During the fearful Winter of 1904 his Wyandottes in their small 
 and simple houses laid so well that they earned $20 a week clear of ex- 
 penses. Of course, people heard of this and rightly thought that the 
 character of the hens was largely responsible for it. As they could not 
 hire Mr. Cosgrove to come and manage their poultry they were glad to pay 
 a good price for part of his skill and care. Every hen on his farm and 
 
Who Should Keep Hois* 115 
 
 every egg that they lay will carry part of his skill in the shape of "pedi- 
 gree," which we may call condensed performance. It always happens that 
 when a careful man develops a flock of poultry so that they can earn more 
 than the average, others are willing to pay extra for the stock. This repu- 
 tation helps the sale of everything else that is grown on the farm. 
 
 BREEDING BUSINESS HENS.— The experience of C. H. Wyckoff, 
 who became famous as a White Leghorn breeder, makes this point strong- 
 er. He started as a dairyman on a poor farm. There were 18 hens on the 
 farm, which did little besides scratching up the garden. Mrs. Wyckoff 
 had these hens put in a house with a yard and kept an account of eggs and 
 food. They paid a profit of 75 cents a hen, and this gave Mr. Wyckoff an 
 idea of what 500 good hens would do. He became satisfied that White 
 Leghorns would pay him better, and so he got good specimens and began 
 to study them and their needs. His case was quite different from that of 
 Mr. Cosgrove. While the latter was an elderly man in poor health, Mr. 
 Wyckoff was a young man, strong and vigorous, and with great capacity for 
 work. While Mr. Cosgrove could raise no grain, Mr. Wyckoff could grow a 
 large part of what was needed on his farm. I refer to this to show that the 
 Business Hen suits all, the young, the old, the strong and the weak, pro- 
 vided they "love the hen." Six years after the 18 hens were put on record 
 Mr. Wyckoff had 600 hens, which gave him a yearly income of $2,140, with 
 a net profit of $1,070 after charging labor at $30 a month and interest on. 
 investment. 
 
 Mr. Wyckoff kept his hens in long yards or parks, growing plum or 
 other fruit trees therein. This gave a double crop and left the farm free 
 for a rotation of grain, hay and potatoes — the hens furnishing a good share 
 of the manure required. Mr. Cosgrove also keeps his hens in yards, but 
 makes no effort to cultivate the remainder of the farm. Mr. Wyckoff 
 became a poultry expert. His careful study of the hen made him in time 
 one of the most capable judges of Leghorns in the country. He never 
 intended to go into the business of selling eggs for hatching; in fact he 
 was quite annoyed when, after the story of his success was printed in The 
 R. N.-Y., people wanted to buy eggs and stock. The hens were paying well 
 at providing eggs for eating purposes, but this very fact gave them an 
 added value as breeders, and Mr. Wyckoff found that his hens had made 
 him famous. Even the best of the young roosters, which were formerly 
 sold as broilers, were easily sold at a dollar or more for breeders. This 
 is always the experience of those who develop a good strain of poultry. 
 
 THE ENTIRE FARM.— Thus far we have discussed the plan thought 
 best by many of yarding the hens on a small part of the farm and leaving 
 the rest of the land idle or to be devoted to crop growing. The reverse 
 of this plan is followed by O. W. Mapes, who tells us elsewhere about one 
 day's work. Mr. Mapes has a pasture farm, rocky and in places quite thin. 
 
116 The Business Hen. 
 
 His object is to save the expense of fencing and the "waiting on the 
 hens" that is necessary when they are yarded. We get a good idea of his 
 methods from his story. As between this plan and those followed by 
 Mr. Cosgrove and Mr. Wyckoff there are arguments on both sides. 
 Mapes saves the cost of fences, and in Summer the hens pick up nearly 
 40 per cent of their ration. One man, in Summer, can care for three times 
 as many hens on this colony plan as he can when all are yarded. The 
 great advantage of the yarding plan comes in Winter. It is a hard 
 cold job to travel through deep snow to feed the hens in colony houses. 
 The yard plan, with hens crowded together, is much better for the pro- 
 duction of Winter eggs, which bring the highest price. It is not always 
 true that the egg which brings the highest price per dozen is the most 
 profitable egg, for it may cost too much to produce it. There is good profit 
 in the Summer egg, even at a low price. The colony plan does not give as 
 good a chance for selecting and breeding the best stock for breeders. In 
 order to do that properly we must have some form of yard where the 
 breeders can be kept by themselves. Mr. Mapes has been very success- 
 ful with his hens, and his experience adds to the proof that a man who has 
 "hen in his heart" can make poultry pay under any circumstances, tor 
 example, Mr. Hayward, of New Hampshire, makes his hens pay under 
 conditions which most people would at first thought say are impossible. 
 A brief outline of Mr. Hayward's plan is given on page 57 with a 
 picture of one of his little houses. His 9,000 hens are kept in these little 
 coops from the day they arrive as pullets till they are sold the next year 
 as hens. The pullets are all bought from farmers, and are of no special 
 breed. It is a hen-feeding farm, and the hens give an average profit of 
 nearly one dollar each in spite of their close confinement. We cannot 
 advise any such system for the average farmer, but it shows again how a 
 careful man can take some breed of poultry and adapt it to any reasonable 
 condition. 
 
 WITH A GARDEN.— Mr. Hartman tells us on page 73 how his hens 
 provide Winter work on a truck farm. The experience of Alfred Johnson, 
 of New Jersey, shows another side of poultry keeping. Mr. Johnson was 
 a jeweler by trade. His eyes gave out, and instead of trying to find 
 another job in town he bought 18 acres of land not far from Paterson, N. 
 J., running in debt for the place. He studied his farm, and finally decided 
 to make hens and strawberries his chief crops, with such other vegetables 
 and fruits as would go with them. After 12 years work he sold in one 
 year from his 18 acres $4,137.62 worth of produce. The 400 hens con- 
 tributed nearly $800 worth of this in eggs, and also provided a good share 
 of the fertilizer for the fruit. Of course, these hens were housed and fed 
 with great care. They were kept clean and healthy. They are, of course, 
 yarded since it would be impossible to give poultry a free run on a small 
 
IV ho Should Keep Hens? 117 
 
 fruit farm. After a time such yards become so foul that even plowing 
 and growing pasture crops will not relieve them. The upper surface is 
 scraped off and carried out to be used as manure, and fresh sand is brought 
 back to take its place. Plum and pear trees are grown in the yards, giving 
 considerable fruit. Mr. Johnson makes the most of the hen manure by- 
 mixing it with chemicals. It is kept hard and dry by dusting plaster under 
 the perches. Twice a week the manure is removed and carried to a dry 
 shed. In the Spring the hard chunks are spread out on a cement floor and 
 pounded fine with a maul or heavy spade. It is then sifted, the coarse 
 pieces being crushed again. Mr. Johnson mixes 400 pounds of sifted hen 
 manure, 200 pounds dissolved bone black, 100 pounds muriate of potash 
 and 150 pounds of plaster, and has a fertilizer which gives good results on 
 his heavy and naturally rich soil. He uses large quantities of stable 
 manure in addition, and this should be remembered by those who mix 
 chemicals with hen manure. For most garden and fruit crops it would 
 be necessary to use 200 pounds of nitrate of soda with the other chemicals. 
 Mr. Johnson selected the Leghorn type of hen for his foundation stock 
 because they are the best for laying large white eggs, which his market 
 demands. He kept at first both Whites and Browns. The latter laid more 
 eggs than the Whites, but the eggs were small. As an experiment Mr. 
 Johnson began crossing the two breeds, and obtained chicks of all sorts of 
 colors. Some of these cross-bred chicks were coal black, and as he liked 
 their appearance Mr. Johnson saved the pullets and bred them to a pure 
 Black Minorca rooster. As a result he has developed a strain of large 
 black birds which are excellent layers. He has used a Black Minorca 
 rooster most years and a Brown Leghorn twice without greatly changing 
 the type of his hens. One flock of 270 hens averaged 1G0 eggs per year. 
 Mr. Johnson had no desire to breed purebred poultry. He was simply- 
 after the hen that would lay the most eggs in Winter, for he has little time 
 to give them in Summer. As is the case with all who develop a good 
 flock, these black hens made such a reputation in the market that people 
 wanted eggs for hatching. The pullets and even the young roosters are 
 in demand for breeding stock. Strange to say, Mr. Johnson makes little 
 use of incubators. These black hens will "sit," but they are poor nurses, 
 and the little chicks are raised in brooders. The hens are marked with 
 a toe punch which makes a hole on the web of the foot. One mark is 
 made for each year of the hen's age. Two-year-old hens are used for 
 breeders — about fifteen being put in a pen with a lively young cockerel. 
 Mr. Johnson plans to use always purebred males. The three-year-old 
 hens are fattened and sold, for Mr. Johnson thinks a hen yields like a 
 strawberry plant. The best production is in the first year, but it is usually 
 wise to fit up the hen and the berry field so as to run it another year. 
 I have known a number of people to start out with the idea of imi- 
 
118 The Business tint. 
 
 tating Mr. Johnson's success. Most of them failed, and the. reasons for 
 their failure were quite evident to all but themselves. They underesti- 
 mated their job, called it too easy and thought that success would follow- 
 without great exertion on their part. Some of them visited Mr. Johnson 
 and saw how quietly and easily he went about his work. They copied his 
 feeding methods and his plans for care, but they could not see that while 
 their work was mechanical a thousand invisible forces were pulling with 
 Mr. Johnson — things which he had gained in 20 hard years of experience. 
 A man to succeed with poultry must have the patience of a sitting hen. In 
 spite of all he can read or observe, or all the advice others can give 
 him, the little chicks will die in the brooders. Many people grow dis- 
 couraged at this loss, and quit the business. Then in the Fall, when the 
 pullets are getting ready for laying, the expense for feeding is enormous 
 and there is no income. It seems well-nigh impossible to fill up these 
 greedy birds and the beginner who counts the cost without seeing the end 
 is apt to grow frightened and slacken up on the feeding to save cost. 
 He could not do a worse thing, for this will hold them back for weeks, 
 and lose the value of Winter eggs. So the hen man needs a trunk full 
 of patience and a bushel of faith, and we would not make the poultry 
 business seem "too easy" to the beginner. Mr. Johnson has succeeded. 
 The hens helped to pay for his home. They have given him a competence 
 and now, since the death of his wife, carry him each year on a three- 
 months' excursion to various parts of the world. 
 
 POULTRY FOR WOMEN.— I have heard a man tell how he ran away 
 from a small New England farm when a boy because it seemed impossible to 
 make it provide a simple living. He. went back 20 years later expecting 
 to find the place grown up to brush — abandoned. To his surprise he 
 found the little farm prospering — neat and clean, with new buildings and 
 conveniences in the house that he never heard of as a boy. As he ex- 
 pressed it, this had been brought about by "a hen and an old maid". 
 A woman driven out of other employment had invested her savings in the 
 farm. She had taken up poultry culture, and by good management and 
 hard work had made the farm pay dividends which the former owners 
 never thought possible. My friend's combination of "hen and old maid" 
 has great possibilities, though married women and young girls are by 
 no means barred. There are many cases where women have met with 
 great success with poultry, though as a rule the business is harder for 
 them than for men. They do such work as hatching, brooding and caring 
 for the chicks better than men. We all know how as a last resort young 
 stock that does not thrive with ordinary treatment is turned over to 
 mother's care. The rougher work of cleaning houses, killing and dressing 
 poultry, etc., is hard for a woman, and it is doubtful if she should 
 attempt poultry keeping on a large scale without a stout boy or man to 
 
Who Should Keep Hens? 119 
 
 help her. On a farm where there are willing helpers, mother and the 
 girls will often make a great success with the farm poultry. There are 
 plenty of eases where such women have started with a poor (lock of 
 culls, and by wise selection and breeding developed a line class of poultry 
 that paid better than any other stock on the farm. Women can and will 
 try many things for the comfort of stock which men would not think 
 of. There has been considerable discussion as to whether it pays to 
 provide artificial heat for Kens. We may give here the experience of 
 Zimmer Bros, who live in Cayuga Co., New York, a cold" section. 
 
 "We have one poultry house, 30xG0, which is divided into 12 pens 
 and has an alley through the center of the house. We use a hot water 
 heater and pipe system for heating it at a cost of $100 for the heating 
 system. Last Winter we used one ton of coal to keep this building 
 at a temperature of 35 to 40. We let the fire out when a thaw was 
 on, and only ran it when the thermometer came to the freezing point 
 inside the building, which was about half the time. This building is used 
 for a brooder house during the Spring months, and this is when we get 
 full value from our heating system by using the hot water pipes for 
 brooders. We have another house, 20x50, divided into six pens with a 
 stove in one end, and the smoke pipe running the whole length of house. 
 One ton of coal has run this stove during the past cold Winter, keeping 
 the inside temperature above freezing. Both these houses are lined, 
 which makes the coal bill small, but when we build again we shall not 
 line the house, because the lining is of no use except during two or 
 three cold months, and the interest on the cost of lining will buy enough 
 coal to keep the house from freezing, and we have severe Winters in 
 this section." 
 
 The farm women can often do much to interest the boys in good 
 poultry. Really a good flock of hens is better for a farmer's boy than a 
 colt or calf. The hens will keep him busy, give money returns quicker 
 and furnish more novelty. Where a woman can interest the boys and get 
 them to help her care for the hens we have one of the best combinations 
 that can be made on a farm. 
 
CHAPTER XX. 
 Odds and Ends. 
 
 How much cut bone should be f t.-* 1 ? 
 
 It depends upon what you feed with it. With corn alone or for most of 
 the ration one ounce per hen each day will be safe. Less if meat or linseed 
 is used in the mash. 
 
 Iluvv long should hens be kept for layers? 
 
 Depends upon the hen. Sonic Inns will lay profitably at four years 
 old, Others arc of little use after the second season. The majority jf 
 poultrymen sell ordinary hens when :." .. years old. 
 
 Will hens continue to lay when no male bird is kept with them? 
 
 VeSJ better than when a crowd of surplus roosters arc kept. .'e would 
 
 keep no rooster except with the breeding hens. 
 
 Will infertile eggs Keep longer than fertile ones' 
 
 Yes, in warm weather or in places where the eggs are heated. In cool 
 weather there is httle difference. 
 
 How long after the male is placed with the hens will the eggs become 
 
 fertile? 
 
 Cases are on record where eggs laid 10 hours after the male was intro- 
 duced hatched healthy chicks. The surest results are obtained after six or 
 seven Aa\ s. 
 
 How long after the male is taken away will the eggs remain fertile? 
 
 In some cases eggs laid two weeks after the male was removed have 
 hatched. We must remember that hens vary greatly in this respect. 
 Some rarely, if ever, lay eggs that will hatch, while others lay a largo 
 proportion of hatchable eggs. After a hen has been laying for a long tim& 
 the eggs are less likely to be fertile than earlier in the season. The male 
 pays greater attention to some hens than to others. This is one reason 
 why the system of douhle males (page 27) pays. 
 
 How can we prevent fertile eggs from hatching and not injure them 
 for sale? 
 
 Shake or jar the egg. Hold it in the right hand and strike at the other 
 hand so as to shock the egg without breaking the shell. This breaks up 
 the delicate membranes inside the egg and destroys its life. 
 
 Does a Leghorn hen ever become broody? 
 
 Yes, but few will sit through the period of incubation. They are s& 
 nervous that a little handling will break them of the desire. Few pure 
 1 eghorns are safe mothers. 
 
Odds and Ends. 121 
 
 HEN PASTURE. -Where there is land enough it pays to have parti- 
 tions in the chicken yard so as to give pasture for the hens. A crop of 
 Crimson clover in the Spring will provide 60 per cent of the hen's food 
 while it lasts. Rape is excellent for hen feed, and a patch of it may be 
 ready when the clover is done. Another small patch of oats may follow 
 this, and the place where the Crimson clover grew may be sown to cow 
 peas. After the oats are done this patch may be seeded to Crimson clover 
 and turnips, thus keeping up a succession of green food. 
 
 DOUBLE CHICKEN YARDS.— Our henhouses are built so that they 
 open into two large yards. The family garden is alternated back and forth 
 between them. This year the hens run in what was last year's garden ; 
 next year they will be put where the garden is now. This plan is a good 
 one where there is space enough for a large yard. The droppings of the 
 hens are utilized and the soil is cleaned up and purified by cropping. On 
 most of the garden soil it is possible to follow the last crop with Crimson 
 clover or rye, which make good Spring pasture for the hens. These 
 chicken yards are long and narrow. We find that it pays to go in with 
 a horse and small plow frequently and turn the soil over. This gives the 
 hens an abundance of worms and helps fit the ground for next year's 
 garden. 
 
 CATCHING HENS. — The two devices shown herewith are useful 
 to save chasing a hen and running her down. The upper one is like a 
 small-sized shepherd's crook — a 
 
 wooden handle with a bent wire =^ «===== 
 
 attached. This wire can be reached 
 out to catch the hen by the leg 
 and hold her. The other is a 
 good-sized fisherman's hand net 
 with a long handle. With a little 
 practice it becomes easy to catch the hen in this net. 
 
 POULTRY AS INSECTICIDES.— Poultry eat large quantities of 
 insects when permitted free range. They are particularly fond of earth- 
 worms, grasshoppers and the like. We have never known hens to eat 
 Squash bugs, or Potato beetles, though' there are reports from good authori- 
 ties that they have done so. We once kept a large flock of hens and 
 chicks in a potato field, after the plants were about six inches high. They 
 certainly ate many of the egg clusters of the Potato beetle, but, so far 
 as we could see, none of the hatched insects. We have kept chickens in 
 a cornfield with very good results. A well-known method of fighting the 
 Asparagus beetle and the Onion maggot is to scatter coops with hens and 
 young chickens over the field. In an orchard poultry consume many injuri- 
 ous insects, and greatly help the trees. Ducks are perhaps the best insect- 
 killers of all domestic poultry. It is reported on good authority that 
 
122 The Business Hen. 
 
 they will eat Potato beetles, Army worms and even chinch bugs. In 
 tobacco and cntton fields overrun with grass geese have been used to 
 help weed the crop. They will eat a fair share of the grass and leave the 
 cotton and tobacco. 
 
 TRAINING AN EGG EATER. — A man sees an empty orange crate 
 in the village store, and says to the grocer: "Give me that, will you? It's 
 just what I want for a couple of hen's nests." He takes it home and nails 
 it up in the henhouse, putting two inches or so of straw in the bottom. 
 The hens like that nest and lay six or eight eggs in it ; the next hen that 
 jumps down into the nest is a heavy one, and her toe smashes an egg. As 
 she turns to cuddle the eggs under her she sees the most delicious morsel 
 that a hen has ever tasted, plunges her beak into it and greedily sucks it 
 up ; then eats the shell and begins to scratch to get the last particle of it, 
 throwing the eggs against the side of the box and perhaps breaking 
 another, which is also eaten. Next day she goes to scratching again in 
 the nest, remembering what a treat she found there, and breaks another 
 egg, and now your confirmed egg eater is formed. The remedy, in the 
 case of that hen, is to cut off her head. But prevention is much better; 
 have no nest that a hen has to jump dozen into. Fill all nests to within four 
 inches of top, so the hens can step from the edge into the nest, and the 
 liability of having egg eaters in the flock will be very much lessened. 
 
 POULTRY PESTS.— Hawks capture many chicks. A good marksman 
 can kill a few and hang them on poles about the yards. A southern 
 remedy is to mix strychnine in molasses and rub a little on the top of 
 each small chicken. The hawk is supposed to poison himself while eating 
 the chick! Guinea hens alarm the neighborhood when hawks are near. 
 The best remedy is to keep the little chicks in covered runs until they 
 are large enough to run for shelter. It is well to have low-growing shrubs 
 about where the chicks can hide. Cats have caused us great damage, 
 which we have mostly avoided by keeping the little birds in covered yards. 
 If pigs run in the field with the chicks they must be carefully watched. If 
 a pig once gets a taste of chicken he will chase the birds constantly. Rats 
 and larger wild animals, like minks, are sworn enemies of little chicks. 
 They can only be kept out of the brooders by making them rat-proof, lifted 
 above the ground with no chance for the rat to climb. Cement floors and 
 stone foundations are particularly useful in poultry houses, because the 
 rats cannot work into them. In some cases rats congregate in the barn in 
 great numbers, and cats and traps are powerless to keep them down. In 
 such cases poisons are used. A cake made of cornmeal and bran, with 
 a quantity of white arsenic mixed in, is baked much the same as a biscuit, 
 and crumbs of it are scattered about the building. It usually does the 
 business, but the hens must be shut up and the cats and other domestic 
 animals kept away from the barn while this poison is about. 
 
Odds and Ends. 123 
 
 POULTRY MANURE.— Some people have extravagant ideas about the 
 value of hen manure, calling it worth as much as Peruvian guano. It has 
 no such value, as a little thought will show. The manure which forms 
 the guano comes from birds that live mostly on fish and meat. The bodies 
 of dead birds are also mixed with it. The hen lives mostly on grain or 
 food that other farm stock eat, and we can easily see there can be no fer- 
 tilizing value to the manure except what comes from the food. An average 
 sample of hen manure without too much litter or sand in it is worth about 
 four times as much as an equal weight of cow manure. This is because 
 the excrement from the kidneys is passed with the solids, while with 
 other farm animals it is separated and largely lost. Hen manure contains 
 a large proportion of nitrogen, and, if used alone, gives best satisfaction on 
 crops that make most of their growth above ground, like corn, cabbage or 
 vegetables. Where there is but a small quantity it can be kept in barrels, 
 spread in the Spring and worked into the garden soil. On large poultry 
 farms it is often successfully used for mixing with chemicals to make a fer- 
 tilizer. Plaster or acid phosphate alone or mixed with sawdust is sprinkled 
 under the perches so as to keep the manure dry and free from fermentation. 
 As often as need be it is raked off the platform and stored in a dry 
 shed. In the Spring it will be found in dry hard lumps, which are crushed 
 as fine as possible, usually by beating them on a hard floor with heavy 
 shovels. The following mixture gives good results for many crops : 1,000 
 pounds sifted hen manure, 500 pounds acid phosphate, 200 pounds muriate 
 of potash and 300 pounds of fine ground bone. Do not use lime under the 
 roosts nor mix it with the manure long before it is put into the soil, for 
 the lime starts a chemical action which sets free the ammonia. The plaster 
 or the acid phosphate may be used under the roosts, because they stop 
 this escape of ammonia. Hen manure and wood ashes may be put to- 
 gether in the soil, but should not be mixed and left above ground. The 
 custom followed by many farmers of putting a handful of pure hen 
 manure in and around each hill of corn is a good one, for such manure is 
 especially useful for corn. 
 
 PRESERVING EGGS. — It is often desirable to carry eggs through 
 several months or a year. Most hens persist in laying most of their eggs 
 through Spring and early Summer. In late Summer and Winter eggs 
 are scarce and high in price. If one can take eggs worth 15 cents a dozen 
 and hold them so that they will be fresh and good when the price is 
 40 cents he has a good business proposition. In the large cities this is 
 done by putting the eggs in cold storage, but this is impossible on the 
 farm. Formerly such eggs were kept fairly well in lime water, but this 
 gave a brittle shell and many of the eggs were "musty." The most 
 practical way of preserving eggs is to keep them dipped in a solution of 
 water glass or silicate of soda. T 1 1 i s water glass can be boughj ;it mp$1 
 
124 The Business Hen, 
 
 drug stores or from large manufacturers. To use it the solution is placed 
 in a wooden or stoneware vessel, and nine times the quantity of fresh 
 pure water poured in. The eggs are placed in the liquid when gathered, 
 as fresh as possible, only allowing them to cool off. Put in as many eggs 
 as the solution will cover. Cover with a lid to retard evaporation and keep 
 out dust. Store in a cool cellar until wanted for use. The eggs should 
 keep perfectly at least one year. The eggs must be sound and fresh when 
 placed in the solution — it will not restore stale or spoiled specimens. One 
 pound of water glass properly diluted will cover about 14 dozens of eggs. 
 We have used the same solution two years in succession with good re- 
 sults, but it is probably best to start each season with a fresh supply. 
 The only change to be noted in eggs preserved one year in a 10-per-cent 
 solution is that the white or albumen is rather more watery than in per- 
 fectly fresh eggs. They closely resemble new-laid eggs in appearance 
 and quality after being rinsed and dried off. They are useful for all 
 culinary purposes except boiling in the shell, as they are likely to crack if 
 heated too suddenly and the interior does not look quite as inviting when 
 opened. Repeated trials have since convinced us that these eggs keep 
 well for two weeks after coming out of the solution if stored in a cool 
 place, and are even better for some purposes, as the white becomes less 
 watery. This does not warrant offering water-glassed eggs as fresh, how- 
 ever. They are preserved eggs, and should be so called if offered for sale. 
 As a household economy for the storage of eggs when cheap and plenti- 
 ful the water-glass process is to be heartily commended. With a stock of 
 well-preserved eggs packed in April and May available for family use 
 during the succeeding cold months the farmer or poultry keeper is at 
 liberty to sell his Winter product as laid. This method is for home con- 
 sumption and not for eggs to be sold as "fresh." 
 
 A FAMILY FLOCK.— H. H. Boardman, of Connecticut, says: "Fur 
 about 30 years I have kept small flocks of Black Spanish, Brahmas, White 
 and Brown Leghorns, Plymouth Rocks, and White Wyandottes. For value 
 I would reverse the order of above list. The Plymouth Rocks are fine 
 fowls. As Winter layers they are only excelled by White Wyandottes, 
 and that but slightly. But they have some defects. They are too large. I 
 had a yearling cockerel weighing 11^4 pounds ; a couple of two-year-old 
 hens 10 pounds each. My friend the butcher prefers those of six to eight 
 pounds. They sell better, he says. Their single combs in extremely cold 
 weather often becomes frostbitten, which stops their laying. Finally, they 
 are the only breed with me that have been troubled with rheumatism, 
 where the others under like conditions have not been at all affected. The 
 White Wyandottes, while not perfect, seem to combine more good qualities 
 than any breed I have tried. Averaging five to eight pounds, they seem 
 to be about the right weight for the table. For laying, however, best 
 
Odds and Ends. 125 
 
 results come from pullets — 65 to 70 per cent for December, January and 
 February. Two-year-old hens, on account of late moulting and early cold 
 weather, dropped this past Winter to 10 or 15 per cent, which is much 
 smaller than previous years, so it would seem to be more profitable to keep 
 more pullets and fewer old hens. Another difficulty I find in propagating; 
 chickens that get out of the shell are hardy and healthy, but percentage 
 is small, 25 to 50 per cent. Eggs from pullets seem to hatch much better 
 than from two-year-old hens. Perhaps the redundancy of eggs during the 
 Winter months causes weakness and thus impairs reproductive qualities of 
 the eggs. This year breeding from pullets gave 65 chicks from 12 sittings; 
 last year breeding from two-year-old hens, 25 chicks from nine sittings. 
 There has been much complaint about poor hatching of Wyandotte eggs. 
 
 "In feeding chicks after first few days, I give cracked corn and wheat 
 early in the morning, mash of middlings and cracked corn about nine 
 o'clock, wetted with skim-milk; corn and wheat again at noon; more mash 
 about three; more corn and wheat just before sundown. Fresh water, a 
 little fresh meat, grass or green food go without saying. Others may 
 have a better system, but I find chicks thrive on this, and seldom lose one 
 unless by accident. 
 
 "I have two houses for hens with about one-eighth acre yard to each. 
 No. 1 house, 7 x 12, walls of matched boards, ceiling and walls lathed and 
 plastered, one window facing south and one west. No. 2 house, 9 x 16. 
 walls of matched boards, unlined, four windows facing south, that side 
 being practically all glass; cost to build about two-thirds that of No. 1. 
 Both houses are without floors, the earth bottom being covered with litter 
 and location dry. Winter of 1902-3 10 two-year-old hens in No. 1 house 
 laid in December, January and February 441 eggs, 44.01 per hen. Same 
 months of 1903-4 18 two-year-old hens in No. 1 house laid 160 eggs, 8.99 
 per hen. This great disparity may be attributed to late moulting, early 
 cold weather, and too many hens in narrow quarters. Other conditions 
 were substantially the same. Tn house No. 2, in December, January and 
 February, 1902-3, 19 May pullets laid 1,030 eggs, 54.2 per hen. Same 
 months of 1903-4 13 May pullets laid 651 eggs, 50.1 per pullet. Two of 
 the coldest days of Winter, January 4 and 5, when the temperature dropped 
 to 33 degrees below zero here, the 13 pullets laid 19 eggs. When the 
 temperature was 20 degrees or above the doors of both houses remained 
 open during the day, and hens came outside most of the day when the 
 ground was bare. Warm mash was composed of wheat middlings, cracked 
 corn, ground beef scraps, ground oyster shells, moistened with skim-milk 
 and hot water in the morning. Add once or twice a week a little powdered 
 charcoal and cut bone. At noon give a little of the mash with remnants 
 from the table; at night whole corn, wheat and oats; cabbage and cut 
 clover occasionally." 
 
INDEX 
 
 PAGE. 
 
 Bantam Breeding 96 
 
 Barns for Hens r>n 
 
 Breeds, American 6 
 
 Asiatics 8 
 
 Business 5 
 
 ( Crossing 18 
 
 Mediterranean 5 
 
 Breeders, Care of 15 
 
 Breeding to Type 81, 82 
 
 Broilers, Coop of 85 
 
 "Squab" 4? 
 
 Brooder, Homemade 36 
 
 Houses 38 
 
 Brooders, Clean 39 
 
 Chicken Bread 43 
 
 Coops 41 
 
 Yards, Double 121 
 
 Chick, Baby, Care of 40 
 
 Chicks, Helping Ont of Shell 34 
 
 How Mapes Feeds 44 
 
 Cholera 10b 
 
 Cockerels, Keep Separate 46 
 
 Cold Storage 87 
 
 Colony Plan 68, 69, 70. 71, 72 
 
 Crate for Live Poultry 8ft 
 
 Disease Prevention 98 
 
 Diseases, Hereditary 08 
 
 Drinking Fountain 68 
 
 Ducks 06, 97 
 
 Egg Eater, Training 122 
 
 How Made 18 
 
 Packages 00 
 
 Parts of 10 
 
 Parents of 13 
 
 Sex Of 2.X 
 
 Shipment, Regular 91 
 
 Time Required to Produce.. 26 
 
 What is? 18 
 
 Eggs, Fancy Market for 88 
 
 Forms of u::. 24. 25 
 
 From Table Scraps 77 
 
 Incubator Testing 30 
 
 Preserving 1 23 
 
 Uniform for Hatching 28 
 
 Feeding, Correct 98 
 
 Devices 67 
 
 Various Methods of 
 
 60. 61, 62, 63 
 
 Fence, Wire 1 00 
 
 Flock. Family 124 
 
 Scrub. Improving 11 
 
 Floor Materials 55 
 
 Food Stuffs, Analysis of !">!> 
 
 Foods, Muscle-making Needed. . . 65 
 
 Gapes 104 
 
 Guinea Fowl 93 
 
 Den, Broody 29 
 
 Broody, Breaking Up 32 
 
 Catching 121 
 
 ( 'osgrove's 114 
 
 Dust Box 55 
 
 PAGE. 
 
 Hen House, Warming 53 
 
 for Hatching 30 
 
 House Interiors 51, 52 
 
 House, Did, Repairing 12 
 
 House, Sanitary 99 
 
 House, Essentials For 40 
 
 Johnson's 117 
 
 Non-Sitters 5 
 
 Dn Truck Farm 116 
 
 Pasture 121 
 
 Pedigree 112 
 
 Scrub 10 
 
 Should Lay Young 45 
 
 Sitting, How Cosgrove Han- 
 dles' 30 
 
 Vs. Cows 113 
 
 YVyekoff's 115 
 
 Young, Care of 45 
 
 Incubation, What Is 20 
 
 incubators, Handling 32 
 
 Intluenza 00 
 
 Kerosene Emulsion 107 
 
 Layer, Selecting 13 
 
 Leghorns, Brown 6 
 
 White 6 
 
 Lice lor. 
 
 Lime and Sulphur Wash 108 
 
 Mangels as Feed 43 
 
 Market Gardener's Hens. .. 73, 74, 75 
 
 Marketing Poultry Products. ... 83 
 
 Meat Shop. Jewish 84 
 
 Minorcas, Black 6 
 
 Moulting. Hastening 109 
 
 Nests, Trap 14 
 
 Pedigree 13 
 
 Pigeons and Squabs 94 
 
 Plymouth Rock, Origin of 6 
 
 Special Features of 7 
 
 Poultry as Insect Killers 121 
 
 For Women 118 
 
 Killing SO 
 
 Manure 123 
 
 Pests 122 
 
 Purebred, Advantage of. . . . Ill 
 
 Ration, Balanced 58 
 
 Maintenance 66 
 
 Rhode Island Red 6 
 
 Roost, Swinging 50 
 
 Roosts, Best Form of 50 
 
 Roosters, How Many for Flock. . 27 
 
 Roup 101 
 
 Scaly I^g 104 
 
 Scratching Shed Arrangement... 53 
 
 Selection. C. II. Wyckoff on 13 
 
 Shell and Grit Box 50 
 
 Surgical Treatment 105 
 
 Tonics 10S 
 
 Turkeys, Care of 95 
 
 Wyandotte, White, Value of. ... 8 
 
 Yards, Treatment of 101 
 
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 
 
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