POULTRY RAISING. 



BY JAMES G. HALPIN. 



Bulletin No. 245. 

 INTRODUCTION. 



There has been a constant demand throughout the State, from be- 

 ginners in the poultry business and others, for information relating to 

 poultry raising. This bulletin has been prepared expressly to meet this 

 demand. The aim is to make a presentation of the subject in as prac- 

 tical a manner as possible, dealing only with the most elementary prob- 

 lems. At the present time, however, plans are being developed and ex- 

 periments conducted to investigate the more intricate problems, many 

 of which the individual producer has neither the facilities, time, nor 

 means to solve. During the present year the poultry division has been re- 

 established with new buildings, colony houses, brooders, yards and other 

 equipment, as shown in illustration number one. The poultry house 

 proper consists, at present, of a building 15x84 feet with a 4-foot alley 

 along one side and seven pens each 12 feet wide. Each pen is intended 

 to accommodate from twenty to twenty-five breeding fowls. The build- 

 ing has been so planned and located that further additions, which even 

 now seem desirable, can be easily made. The incubator house 18x36 

 feet has a half basement with capacity for operating from ten to fifteen 

 large machihes. The floor above is intended for instruction, demonstra- 

 tion and experimental purposes. 



SELECTION OF PARENT STOCK. 



HEALTH AND VIGOR ESSENTIAL. 



In order to obtain fall and winter eggs we must have stock produced 

 from the eggs of healthy, vigorous fowls. A fowl which has suffered, 

 or is suffering from disease, should not be allowed to produce offspring. 

 Although, in some cases, chicks from the eggs of unhealthy fowls suc- 

 ceed in getting out of the shell in fairly good form, in the end they 

 almost invariably prove unsatisfactory. It is fortunate that the eggs 

 from diseased fowls are seldom fertile, otherwise there would be more 

 unthrifty birds in existence. The offspring from a "roupy" hen is not 

 29 



