DIVISION OF POULTRY 



991 



SESSIONAL PAPER No. 16 



EXPERIMENTAL STATION, INVERMERE, B.C. 



REPORT OF SUPERINTENDENT G. H. PARHAM. 



POULTRY. 



In September two cottoii-frout poultry houses, 14 feet by 16 feet, were built, and 

 also a third house of a ditfereut style, called the utility poultry house. This latter 

 style of house should prove of economical value in this counti-y as it is so arranged that 

 the part used as a winter scratching shed can be removed in the summer and used as- 

 a house for young chickens, i. e., at a time of the year when houses are greatly in 

 demand. The plan of this house is subjoined. 



Twenty-five White Leghorn pullets and the same number of Barred Rock pullets 

 from good laying strains were purchased in August and placed in the two cotton-front 

 houses. The White Leghorns commenced to lay at the end of October, and the Barred 

 Rocks early in November. I'heir egg record for the six months was as follows : — • 



White Legliurii.s- eggs 



Number of birds 



Barred Rock.s eggs 



Xiiiuber of birds 



460 

 23 



389 



2<y 



The birds were fed three times a day on a diet consisting of: First feed, wheat 

 scattered in the litter; second feal, soft food consisting of boiled cabbage mixed with 

 shorts and rolled oats; third feed, wheat in the litter. Each pen had half a beef head 

 chopped up per week, (irit and oyster shell ad lih. 



This record, though by no means phenomenal, was so much better than usually 

 experienced throughout the winter months in this locality that it has created con- 

 siderable interest among ])niiltry k(»epers. Tt also shows that this open-front style of 

 house is quite suitable for this climate. 



The first hatch of 140 eggs was placed in an incubator on March 8. 



A Bronze gobbler and three hens were purchased in February and have since been 

 confined in a group of fir trees surrounded by a wire fence. They commenced to lay 

 early in March. 



16— 64i 



