there is any tendency to bowel trouble, give them rice water in place
of the drinking water.
Keep brooders and brood coops clean and dry. The grass around the coops
should be kept cut loose, so that the chicks can run about easily.
See that every coop is closed at night, and do not let the chicks out
while the grass is dewy. Don’t give the hens too many chicks to brood
in winter, for if she cannot keep them close to her they will die of
chill.
RAISING EARLY BROILERS
A distinct branch of the poultry business, and one that is extremely
profitable for those who can run it successfully, is raising young
chicks in the winter for early broilers. To commence on a large scale
requires as large capital, but there are hundreds of men and women who
have accommodations on their premises that would enable them to start
in a small way, and by investing the profits from the first year they
could obtain a really good equipment for the business.
Of course, the real starting-point should be a good flock of healthy
hens, all of one breed, preferably Wyandottes or Rocks, for really
the hen who lays the egg has as much to do with the success in
broiler-making as the care one may bestow on the business.
Next in importance is a well-constructed new incubator. Don’t be
tempted to buy a second-hand machine, which has usually been allowed to
stand in a damp cellar or in some outside shed while not in use, for
it will in all probability warp or go to pieces when put in commission
again.
Brooders come third on the list, but are quite as important as the
two foregoing, for there is no use hatching a chick unless it can be
reared, and the heat and ventilation of the artificial mother is more
than half the battle.
The up-to-date broiler plant consists of an incubator-cellar,
a nursery, or brooder-house, as it is usually called, and a
broiler-house. Both the latter are divided into small pens, about two
feet wide and five feet long. In the nursery-house, the top ends of the
pens are inclosed like boxes to the depth of about a foot and a half,
and have hot-water pipes running through them to furnish heat for the
chicks to brood under. A flannel curtain cut into strips falls from the
top of the inclosed part to divide it from the rest of the pen, which
runs down to the outer wall of the house, where a large window lets
in light and sun. The pens should have board floors slightly elevated
above the main floor, to avoid dampness, and the divisions are made
with a foot board about nine inches high, and one inch netting two feet
high above that. The brooder-house is divided in the same way, but the
hot-water pipes only run around the walls of the house, as the birds
don’t need the immediate heat to brood under, after they leave the
nursery, when they are five or six weeks old.
But, until you can afford the proper equipment, one or two incubators
can be run in the cellar of the house or an unused room where there is
no other heat. Individual brooders can be used in place of the nursery
and brooder-house, if you have any light outbuilding to stand them in.
In fact, I like the individual brooders better for the nursery period
than the pipe-house system, because it is only necessary to heat as
many as are needed, and with the pipe system the entire house has to be
heated, even if you are only going to use one section.
Most of the different makes of brooders on the market are made with
two compartments: A chamber with a round hover, which is heated with a
lamp, and an outer compartment for exercise and feeding. The average
price is nine dollars, and the machines are supposed to hold one
hundred chickens, but seventy-five are quite enough; and even that
number should be decreased to fifty the second week, and twenty-five
the fourth week--that is, if the chicks are to be confined entirely
to the brooder. But if it stands in a warm room, where a small outer
inclosure can be made on the floor of the house for a playroom, fifty
chicks can be carried through to the squab-broiler age in one brooder.
Chicks hatched specially for the broiler trade have to be steadily
pushed along; plump, juicy meat being the main object. The first
requisite is warmth. Have the compartment in which the hover is
situated heated up to ninety-eight degrees before the chicks are put in
and keep it so for the first three days and nights. Keep the door in
the outer compartment shut for the same length of time. On the fourth
day it can be opened and the chicks allowed to run into it, but the
room in which the brooder stands should be warm, and the little ones
should be watched toward bedtime, for they are apt to remain in the
outer compartment and become chilled.
Being chilled even for a short time is fatal to young chicks, for if it
does not kill outright, it causes bowel trouble and gives them a bad
setback which will surely delay the day of marketing, if nothing worse.
After they are three weeks old, the door in the outer compartment can
be opened, so that they can run out on to the floor of the room. Let
them have plenty of scratching material. If the weather is fine and
mild, it will do them good to let them have an outside run for an hour
or two in the middle of the day, but don’t be in a hurry to harden them
before they are five weeks old, for it is a risky experiment.
Wyandotte chickens when hatched will weigh two ounces. If all goes well
they should gain two ounces during the first ten days; four ounces for
the third week; another two ounces in the fourth week, and at the end
of the eighth week they should weigh two pounds.
The entire life of a chicken intended for a broiler is so artificial
that few if any of the rules for raising ordinary chicks can be applied
to them. The great aim is to develop them as quickly as possible, for,
to get the best price, a broiler must grow quickly and be plump.
Like all newly-hatched birds, they must have nothing to eat for the
first thirty-six hours. After that commercial chick-feed (which is a
mixture of all sorts of small seeds and cracked grains) should be
their sole diet for ten days.
When there are only small quantities of chicks to feed, and cash is
of more value than time, it will be cheaper to mix the feed at home.
Take one quart each of finely-cracked corn, bran and hulled oats; mix
with the same quantity of golden millet, rape, Kafir-corn and very
sharp, fine gravel, crushed charcoal and finely-chopped clover-hay.
Mix thoroughly, then pass through a fine sieve, to insure there being
no large pieces of the corn or oats for the babies to choke themselves
with. For the three days they are confined to the hover department,
put a small pan filled with the mixture in each corner and, instead of
water, fill a small drinking-fountain with milk which has been scalded
and allowed to cool. Leave it with them for ten or fifteen minutes, at
morning, noon and again at about 3:00 P. M. It must not be allowed to
remain all the time, because the heat from the hover will turn it sour.
After they are allowed access to the outer compartment, mixed grain
should be scattered on the cut hay (or whatever is used to cover the
floor) so that the chicks will have to scratch which compels them to
take enough exercise for healthy growth. The plan is to feed little and
often. The milk can be allowed to stand in the outer compartment, but
the fountain must be thoroughly cleansed and scalded every day.
After the tenth day, the door of the outer compartment can be opened
and the chicks given further liberty, if there is a stove in the
building to warm the atmosphere; but if there is not, don’t let them
out of the brooder until they are four weeks old. In either case
their diet must be slightly changed after the tenth day. Steam some
of the chopped clover-hay--about a quart--and add one pint of coarse
corn-meal, one pint of ground oats and half a small cupful of chopped
liver which has been boiled for five minutes (raw liver is too strong
for such young birds, but it should not be boiled more than the five
minutes). Feed once a day at noon. Put the mash into two or three
dishes, so they can all get a chance to eat at once. Remove any that
is left at the end of ten minutes. If it is not possible to get fresh
liver, use one teaspoonful of beef-meal or any of the commercial meat
preparations which are ground fine. Continue to scatter the dry grains
three times a day.
When they are four weeks old, give mash twice a day about 9:00 A. M.
and 2:00 P. M., increasing the allowance of meat slightly; and if you
have plenty of skim-milk, make cottage cheese and give it to them as an
extra once or twice a week. From the fourth week keep a pan containing
grit and charcoal always before them. After they are six weeks old
increase the quantity of corn-meal in the mash, and correspondingly
decrease the ground oats, until all corn-meal and no oats are being
used. Also, stop steaming the clover and mix it dry with the other
ingredients; then moisten the mash in scalded milk in which suet has
been boiled (one pound of chopped suet to four quarts of milk). Boil
for fifteen minutes. Feed it three times a day--9:00 A. M., 12:00 M.
and 3:00 P. M. The last two weeks before killing, omit all the dry
grain; feed nothing but mash, made as before, only as soft as possible
without being sloppy. Feed four times a day all they will eat in ten
minutes, but on no account leave food before them longer than that,
or they will become satiated. Birds pushed along should be in fine
condition for market when from ten to twelve weeks old.
Our broilers are never given water to drink, but always scalded milk.
Scalded milk invariably checks any tendency toward bowel trouble and is
also a strong factor in making the flesh tender and juicy.
THE POULTRY-YARD IN MID-SEASON
Baby chicks are so pretty, and appeal so strongly to the sentimental
feeling most people have for infant things, that they are invariably
well cared for until they are deposed by new arrivals, or reach the
half-fledged, long-legged period of gawky ugliness. Then they are
almost surely neglected, especially by the amateur, who does not
realise that the intermediate stages are of paramount importance. It is
a waste of time and money to hatch chicks and feed hens heavily in the
winter, if they are allowed to reach a standstill period during growth.
When chicks are eight weeks old, they should be separated from their
mothers, and the families divided; the young pullets being relegated
to colony coops, in an orchard or partly shaded meadow, where they
will have extensive free range; the cockerels being placed in the
semi-confinement of yards, as their ultimate fate is the frying-pan,
which necessitates plump bodies, while free range would only develop
frame and muscle.
Our colony houses are six feet long, three feet wide, thirty-six
inches high in front, and twenty-four inches at the back. They are
made of light scantling; the ends, back and roof being covered with
roofing-paper, and the front, to within eight inches of the ground,
with unbleached muslin, which insures perfect ventilation and prevents
rain beating in upon the birds when they are on the roosts, which are
fixed a foot from the bottom and nine inches from the back of the coop.
Two holes are made, nine inches apart, in the middle of each end of the
coop, and a heavy rope knotted through them, to form handles.
The coops having no flooring, and the whole construction being light,
they are easily moved to fresh ground each week, and so kept clean with
little trouble, an important item when there is a large quantity being
used. Having a large orchard, we placed the coops in rows thirty feet
apart, as two sides of the orchard adjoin woodland, through which a
never-failing spring-stream runs, so the birds have a splendid range.
Twenty birds are placed in each coop. The first week a portable
yard, five feet long, is placed in front of each coop so that the
young chicks cannot wander off and get lost, as they surely would
in strange quarters. During that time a self-feeding hopper and a
drinking-fountain are placed inside of the coop. When the yard is
removed, the individual vessels are dispensed with, large drinking-tubs
and feed-hoppers being stationed midway between every four coops, to
reduce time and labour in caring for the birds.
[Illustration: THE POULTRY YARD]
The large hoppers are nothing more than boxes, five feet long, two feet
wide and six inches deep, over which is placed an A-shaped cover, made
of slats, one inch apart, to prevent the birds getting into the box
and scratching the grain onto the ground, where it will be wasted. For
water, five-gallon kegs are used, with an automatic escape, which keeps
a small pan continually full. Both feed and water are placed under a
rough shelter, to protect them from sun and rain. Using such large
receptacles, it is only necessary to fill them every other day.
Feed consists of a dry mash, composed of ten pounds of wheat bran,
ten pounds of ground oats, one pound of white middlings, one pound of
old-process oil-meal and ten pounds of beef scraps, all well mixed. In
addition to that, they receive at night a feed of wheat and cracked
corn--two parts of the former to one of the latter. About half a pint
is scattered in front of each coop, at about four P. M.
Grit is supplied in large quantities. Being near a stone-crusher,
we buy the screenings by the cart-load and dump it in heaps on the
outskirts of the orchard, where it does not show, but is quite
accessible to the chicks.
On these rations, without any variation, the pullets are kept until
September, when they are transferred to their winter quarters--houses
twelve feet wide, ten feet high in front, sloping to eight feet at
the back. Each house is divided by wire netting into twelve-foot
compartments, in each of which forty birds are kept.
Winter feeding commences as soon as the birds are settled in their
houses, and consists of the same mash as when on range, except that
ten pounds of corn-meal is added, and, instead of the ten pounds of
commercial beef scraps, sixteen pounds of freshly cracked green bone is
used, and, in place of being before them all the time, it is fed once a
day, just what they will eat up clean in fifteen minutes.
Until three years ago, we used to moisten the mash and feed at eight
o’clock in the morning. Now we feed it dry, at 2 P. M.; at night,
wheat, cracked and whole corn, scattered over cut straw, which covers
the floor of the house. The proportions are three pounds of whole
corn, one pound of wheat and two pounds of cracked corn. The birds are
always eager for the whole corn, and, as they run about to pick it up,
the cracked corn and wheat get shaken down into the litter, so they
rarely get any but the whole corn at night, which fills up their crops
and keeps them warm until morning, when the fine grain induces them
to scratch--vigorous exercise, which sets their blood circulating and
keeps them busy until 8 A. M., when the drinking-fountains are filled
up with hot water.
For green food we use Swiss chard, cabbage and rape until frost
destroys the supply, after which we resort to clover hay, chopped
and steamed. It is fed at about 11 A. M., a large panful to each
compartment, and at the same time a pint of wheat and cracked oats is
scattered on the floor. Sharp grit and oyster-shells are always before
them, and in very cold weather the drinking-fountains are filled up
again with hot water at eleven and three o’clock.
If you have no orchard, or other partly shady place for coops, it
will be necessary to erect some sort of shelters for the birds to rest
under during the heat of the day. Any sort of material or shape will
do, so long as protection from the sun is afforded. If free range is
quite impossible (as it often is for suburban poultry-keepers), the
birds must be given as large yards as possible and supplied with lots
of scratching material, over which small grain must be scattered two
or three times a day. Fresh green bone will be better than the beef
scraps. Vegetable food is most imperative under such circumstances. Sow
a large patch of Swiss chard; it is a true cut-and-come-again crop.
Oats and rape are also useful crops for poultry-keepers who can give
their birds free range through the summer.
A word of warning: If you are reduced to cutting grass, or use
lawn-clippings, be careful to have them cut into short lengths of not
more than an inch, otherwise the birds may become crop-bound.
The cockerels which go into the market-pen are fattened and sold as
quickly as possible, except the few we keep for stock, and these are
given large yards and fed in the same manner as pullets on range.
For fattening birds, use ground corn and oats in equal parts, add half
a part of charcoal and moisten with skim-milk. Give plenty of green
food and sharp grit. Feed little and often. All expedition must be used
in the matter of marketing, for every day’s delay after they reach the
desired weight is a dead loss.
Constant culling and marketing is one of the great secrets of success.
Culling must be observed just as rigidly when selecting winter stock.
Discard any faulty birds. There are always some in every flock, even
if the parent birds have been blue-ribbon specimens: Crooked tails
or feet, ear-lobes which are red instead of white, or white instead
of red, according to the variety you may be keeping. Wyandottes,
Orpingtons, Plymouth Rocks, Brahmas or Cochins should all have
bright-red ear-lobes. Leghorns, Minorcas and Andalusians should be pure
white. It is a bright, energetic-looking pullet which makes the best
layer, and it is not profitable to keep any but the best layers, so put
them into small pens and fatten. The young roosters bring good prices
in the fall, and their absence from the farm reduces feed-bills and
prevents crowding in the house, which is always disastrous.
Do not delay, after September first, in getting the pullets into their
winter quarters, for it is most important that they become accustomed
to their new surroundings and reconciled to the change from free range
to semi-inactivity. It often takes five or six weeks for them to become
accustomed to the new conditions, and, unless they have time to adjust
themselves, they won’t start laying until cold weather sets in, which
means that the egg-crop is likely to be unprofitably delayed.
JULY IN THE POULTRY-YARD
It is strange that few people except the real poultry-farmers realise
that July is one of the most important months in the year. The desire
to have eggs in zero weather invariably compels good attention to the
hens during the winter. Baby chicks arouse interest in the spring, but
as the weather gets warmer, eggs are plentiful, and the pretty, fluffy
babies developed into long, lanky creatures, who seem nothing but a
nuisance specially ordained to destroy the garden, so the poor things
are shut up in small quarters and woefully neglected. During the fall
and winter I am repeatedly asked how to make pullets and hens lay, but
I can rarely suggest a remedy, because nine times out of ten it is the
result of blunders made during the preceding summer.
I don’t believe in sacrificing the garden to the chickens, but I do
think they should be properly controlled. A roll of two-inch-mesh
wire netting five feet high costs only about four dollars. At the
price of eggs nowadays a few dozen will pay for it. Posts can be cut
in the wood-lot on most farms, so a yard for a good-sized flock can
easily be made for less than five dollars. The best plan is to run a
division fence down the centre, so the birds can be confined in one
half alternately, for by such means a supply of green food can be kept
growing until frost. The ground should be ploughed, and seeded to rye
or oats, before the wire is put up. If poultry is to be profitable,
the old and young stock must be kept apart, because it is impossible
to feed correctly when they are all together. Young birds need plenty
of nutritious food to push them along quickly, and laying hens must
be put on special rations to bring about early molting, which is the
foundation of a good winter supply of eggs.
About July 5th commence to cut down the feed gradually, until at the
end of two weeks forty hens are having only a pint of oats and a pint
of wheat mixed, night and morning. Scatter it amongst cut straw or
some litter, so they will have to scratch for every grain. The first
of August commence to increase the rations, and keep it up for a week,
so that by the fifteenth they are getting two quarts of mash in the
morning, a quart of meat scraps and a pint of cracked corn at noon and
wheat and oats or barley at night. Give them just about all they will
eat up clean in fifteen minutes. The morning mash should be composed of
two parts ground feed (corn and oats), one part white middlings and one
part oil-meal, mixed with scalding milk or water. The semi-starvation
followed by the heavy feed forces the moulting season and allows plenty
of time to feather out and get into condition before October, when
their rations should be made up of the essentials for egg-production,
which are clover hay, bran, wheat, corn and animal food.
You see, it takes about three months for hens to get rid of their old
feathers and put on a new coat, and if the process is not forced in
some way, they will not commence before August, which would make it
October before they finished. Of course that would be time enough if
it happened to be a warm, late fall, but if cold winter weather sets
in, as it often does in November, hens would not lay before spring, as
moulting leaves them in a more or less debilitated condition.
Lots of people make the mistake of selling off hens as soon as they
cease laying at this season, which means that they are usually parting
with the birds that would make the real winter layers. Hens that lay
through the summer, and do not cease until the fall, will be idle and
unprofitable in the winter. It is the general disregard of the moulting
period which causes so many failures in the winter supply of eggs. The
rule should be to sell off all the hens that have been laying steadily
through the summer and commenced to shed feathers in September. Growing
feathers is a trying ordeal, and the consequence is that when the hen
begins to moult she ceases to lay, for she cannot produce eggs and
feathers at the same time.
Feathers are composed largely of nitrogen and mineral matter. That is
why the food at moulting time has to be so very nutritious. To feed
nothing but corn at such a time is simply waste, as the hen cannot
produce new feathers from such a diet. If she is on free range she
would have a better chance of gathering the necessary material,
but even then, if the feathering process is delayed too long, the
hen becomes exhausted, and is susceptible to cold and all sorts of
diseases. This is the real reason why roup and swelled head are so
prevalent in the fall.
Young birds hatched out in April or thereabouts usually commence to lay
in November, because they have not been subject to the drain upon the
constitution caused by moulting. But chickens that have been hatched in
February or early March are very liable to moult late in the fall, just
when they should be commencing to lay. For this reason it is as well to
market all the first-hatched chickens, and hold over those hatched late
in March or through April, to increase the laying flock.
Cull all young stock down closely. Don’t keep a lot of young cockerels
to eat up the profits during the winter. Even pullets which are at all
backward should be marketed, for they won’t develop after cold weather
sets in, and it does not pay to keep them through for summer layers.
Most of the failures made in the poultry business are due to people not
having the courage to clean out non-productive birds. Just calculate
how many quarts of feed ten growing birds will eat in seven months, and
I think you will be convinced that it is unfair to expect the flock to
support them and still show a profit. The trouble is that people don’t
realise that young stock stand still as soon as cold weather starts,
remaining almost stationary until spring. Another evil of keeping
undeveloped stock is that they occupy house-room and crowd the older
birds.