680 EXPERIMENTAL FARMS 



4 GEORGE V., A. 1914 



EXPERIMENTAL FARM, AGASSIZ, B.C. 



At the present time we are keeping three breeds, Single Comb White Leghorns, 

 Barred Plymouth Rocks and Single Comb Rhode Island Reds. The flock consists 

 chiefly of the first two breeds. 



As is probably the experience of almost everyone starting in the poultry business, 

 we have found that the first year is rather expensive in buying all the equipment and 

 getting houses and yards in proper shape. 



When properly handled, the poultry business should be a profitable one, but unless 

 attention is paid to every detail and the most returns collected from every source, 

 the expenditure will out-balance the income. 



During the season we raised some four hundred and fifty chicks in an enclosure 

 containing plenty of shade and grass and sufficient run for the number of birds 

 •confined. However, these chicks did not do nearly as well as the portion of the xi« 

 which were allowed to run about the yards and that were not confined until they h 

 arrived at the destructive age. 



In order thoroughly to test out some incubators, chicks were hatched in June, 

 but these proved decidedly unprofitable, which is quite a current idea, and this only 

 adds one more item to the list of evidence that it does not pay to hatch late chicken-. 



The trap-nesting work, with sixteen Barred Plymouth Rocks for three hundred 

 and sixty-five days, gave us some varied figures; the highest producing hen gave two 

 hundred and thirty-one eggs, and the lowest seventy-one. The average of the sixteen 

 hens was one hundred and fifty-six and one-half eggs each, and of the fifteen 

 (dropping out the hen which only laid seventy-one eggs) was one hundred and 

 eighty-two. These chickens were housed in a Tolman house and allowed free access 

 to a good-sized grass plot. 



During the season we had a small cellar dug, at spare moments, and before hatch- 

 ing time this spring we had a cement wall built around it and covered over for an 

 incubator cellar, but the conditions were not conducive to the best results. Last 

 season in this cellar we tested out, under these conditions, three incubators of small 

 size, but the relative standing of the machines has been reversed this season under 

 better conditions, so do not wish to make any report on the makes of incubators at 

 present. We have this season purchased, in addition to the three mentioned, a 

 Cyphers No. 3 four-hundred-egg machine. We will run these to their full capacity 

 as long as the hatching season lasts in order to have a good supply of poultry to 

 select from the coming fall, and in order to do more detailed and accurate work. At 

 the time of writing, the machines tested out are showing eggs of not very strong 

 fertility. Of the three houses which we have tested for two winters, the Tolman 

 house has probably given us the best all-round satisfaction. The Gilbert house (plan 

 supplied by Mr. A. G. Gilbert) is well adapted to this country, but it is not deep 

 enough. The Woods open-front house, although deep enough to keep the fowls well 

 away from the draft, is not so handy to work about, and does not warrant the extra 

 expense in building it. 



A large house has been built for laying purposes, one which contains four pens 

 IS by 20 feet, with the feed room in the centre. This is built somewhat after the 

 style of the Gilbert house, only larger and, under the conditions which we have in 

 this district, is probably more satisfactory. We are indebted to Mr. A. G. Gilbert, 

 of the Central Experimental Farm, for his ideas regarding the construction of this 

 house. 



Our poultry department for this season has not received the attention which is 

 due such an important industry in this province, but the work has been reorganized 

 and, during the coming year, we will be in a position, financially and otherwise, to 

 leport a considerable advance in this line of work. 



