Advantages of the Large Flock System--Reduces Cost of Housing and
Economizes in Time and Labor
For many years the floor space per hen has been an interesting study
to anyone reading poultry literature, either in books or in magazine
articles.
Some fifteen years ago it was generally considered for a hen to do at
all well she must have at least twenty square feet of floor space.
Later, the number of feet was divided by half, and for some time ten
square feet was considered to be the very least a hen could possibly do
with. Then we come to the four square feet period, and this created a
great deal of controversy. Many writers declared that it was impossible
for any hen, no matter how housed, to do well in such a restricted
space. At times, some visionary writer pictured a flock in one house,
of what was then considered an enormous size. One Professor of poultry
went so far as to state that he had successfully kept some three
hundred hens in one flock, and had obtained most satisfactory results.
This statement, however, was denied by others, and the Professor wrote
an article in which he set forth that, while he had done this, he would
never think of suggesting that the average poultry-keeper attempt it.
In his statement there were some truths that it is well to remember,
namely, that the average poultry-keeper would not give the flock the
care and supervision necessary to keep it in health. In other words,
the poultry-keeper would not attend to the necessary cleanliness, and
disease would break out, and, in the average poultry house, under such
conditions, this would mean the total annihilation of the flock.
[Illustration: THREE STERILE LAYING HOUSES CONTAINING 4500 PULLETS,
WITH A FLOOR SPACE OF 7680 SQUARE FEET]
Draughts the Stumbling Block
As economy of space and labor is one of the main factors in getting
a commercial profit where poultry is operated with, the large flock
system appealed most strongly to The Corning Egg Farm. Long houses,
under one roof, without divisions, had been attempted by others, and
the endeavor to discover the reason for the failures, where this had
been attempted, was a very interesting study. It was found that the
main stumbling block in houses of this type was draughts. To eliminate
the draughts was the problem we then undertook to solve. It was found
that if the houses were built in sections of twenty feet, and the
partitions which divided the house into roosting closets were extended
twelve inches beyond the dropping boards, and were carried from the
floor to the roof, the air currents were broken up, and the difficulty
of draughts was overcome.
Houses, as we believed in constructing them, were expensive, unless
it was possible to carry a very large number of layers successfully
in them. In studying the two hundred and twenty-five pullets as they
worked contentedly in the No. 1 Laying House, which was but twelve feet
wide, we became convinced that it was perfectly possible in a house
sixteen feet wide by one hundred and sixty feet in length to carry
fifteen hundred layers. This, to be sure, allowed the hen only a little
over two square feet of floor space, with the dropping boards included.
But, as we figured it, the hen also had the entire house for floor
space, and, while it is true that fourteen hundred and ninety-nine
sisters were her near neighbors, they all enjoyed the same large space
to roam in. A house, then, of this size, accommodating fifteen hundred
layers, was not an expensive house per bird, and, when you consider
that the construction was such that the up-keep was practically
nothing, it became not only not an expensive house, but really a very
cheap one.
The success of the fifteen hundred layers in one house proved itself at
once, and we never have seen the slightest necessity for altering the
plan of the Laying House, as we first laid it out.
2,000 Birds to a House
The large flock system works economies, then, in housing, in the amount
of labor necessary to care for the birds, and in gathering the eggs.
And there is no doubt but that a house of considerably greater length,
with a flock ranging as high as two thousand birds, could successfully
be handled. In fact, on one farm which has been in existence over
twenty-five years, a Corning Method Laying House of two hundred feet
in length has been in operation now for twelve months, and the owners
write us that it is the most successful house on their entire farm,
and that as rapidly as possible they are rebuilding all their Laying
Houses, and making them of this type.