California Agriculturist and Live Stock Journal. 



21 



m\t f oultvn ^\ml 



PRACTICAL POULTRY KEEPING 



'E find the following verj' practical 



article in the Russian River Flag. 



It is just such information as our 



readers will appreciate. 



Flag: — At your request I give 

 some of my experience with poultry, to- 

 gether with hints and items which may 

 be of interest and possible benefit to a 

 portion of your readers, as now-a-days 

 nearly every fa.uily that has the room 

 keeps more or less fowls, if only to sup- 

 ply their table with undoubtedly (resh 

 eggs and occasionally a broiled or a roast 

 chicken. 



LEGHOEN FOWLS. 



It is now well established that pure 

 Leghorn fowls far exceed any other va- 

 riety in laying qualities. They are har- 

 dy, easy to raise, mature early, and when 

 well cared for will lay at six mouths of 

 age. I have frequently had March- 

 hatched Leghorn pullets commence lay- 

 ing in August, ami continue more or less 

 regularly all through the following Win- 

 ter. I have, first and last, bred twenty 

 diflerent varieties of fowls, and my ex- 

 perience proves the White Leghorn, in 

 comparison to others, to mature earlier, 

 lay earlier, produce more eggs, consume 

 less food, and ,ire the most beautiful and 

 profitable of all fowls. They lay a large 

 white egg, and are docile and easily re- 

 strained — seldom or never want to set. 



TO INCKEASE EGG PRODUCTION, 



And keep hens of any breed in good lay- 

 ing condition, they require careful and 

 constant attention. My manner of feed- 

 ing to ensure the greatest amount of eggs 

 is about as follows: At daybreak in win- 

 ter, and five o'clock in summer, I give 

 warm scalded ground food, either bran, 

 shorts, cracked corn, ground wheat, or 

 barley, and grain at night, a change oc- 

 casionally being necessary. In this food 

 once in ten days I mix -a teaspoon ful of 

 sulphur to a dozen fowls — and two or 

 three times a week the same proportion 

 of cayenne pepper. Jleat is supplied 

 twice a week, and if there is no grass 

 that the fowls can get I feed turnip tops, 

 cabbage, or onions, cut up, every day ; 

 give them pounded oyster shells, and 

 ground bone or bone meal, which is pre- 

 pared especially for poultry. I expe- 

 rienced some trouble at first in getting 

 the latter article on this coast, but now 

 receive it from the mills in large quanti- 

 ties. It costs five or six cents a pound, 

 and is not only the most convenient to 

 use, but is the best article known to 

 stimulate hens to lay and encourage 

 growth in chicks. One spoonful a day 

 to a dozen or fifteen hens, mixed in their 

 morcing feed, or one-third the amount 

 to the same number of growing chicks. 

 I consider this the most profitable feed I 

 give. 



Hens will lay and lay well at certain 

 seasons ot the year without the above 

 extra care. But with it good laying 

 breeds will lay the year around with the 

 exception of a few days' rest, say five 

 to nine, at the end of each litter of 20 to 

 30 eggs. I have had Leghorn hens pro- 

 duce 250 eggs in a year, with extra care, 

 while common stock with common care 

 will not lay more than 75 to 100. I never 

 keep hens for laying to more than IS or 

 20 mouths of age, or to their second 

 moult, but good stock birds three to five 

 years; the.se, however, I never feed pep- 

 per or other stimulating food. 



TO PKEVENT VEKMIN 



If sulpher is fed as before directed 



and coal oil oceasionlly applied to the 

 perches, houses kept white washed out- 

 side and in, vermin will not trouble the 

 fowls. When a hen is placed to set, 

 sprinkle a spoonful of sulphur or car- 

 bolic powder in the nest, and again at 

 the end of ton days, and also dust some 

 under the wings and feathers. With 

 this treatment my hens never suffer 

 from insects. 



SEASON TO RAISE CHICKS. 



Young chicks cannot be raised to 

 any advantage in the dryer parts of 

 California, from June to October, but 

 at all other seasons they do well if prop- 

 erly cared for. My mode of caring 

 for them is as follows, and I lose very 

 few: My breeding fowls, to commence 

 with, are healthy and vigorous from 

 having fresh blood introduced as often 

 as necessary. 



THE CHICKS WHEN HATCHED 



.\re left undisturbed for twenty-four 

 hours, then removed to a comfortable 

 coop with the hen mother, and fed a 

 hard-boiled egg, chopped fine, with 

 about the same weight of white bread; 

 after the second day, white bread and 

 baked corn-cake crumbled fine. After 

 the first week corn-cake ahrne, and after 

 the second week, scalded meal and bran 

 or shorts, and the last thing at night, 

 cracked corn with the fine part sifted 

 out, or a few grains of wheat. Pure 

 fresh water is kept before them all the 

 time. 



With this manner of feeding my 

 young chicks never have the diarrhea 

 (i. e., excrement adhering to the fluff), 

 but when fed at first with wet or soft 

 food, this is apt to be the case; they get 

 dumpy, wings droop and finally die. 

 Milk, either sour or sweet, is most ex- 

 cellent for chicks, as well as grown 

 fowls. When insects are scarce I give 

 them meat two or three times a week; 

 this is not a necessity, but it makes them 

 grow faster and larger. 



GREEN FOOD 



Must be had in order to have them do 

 well, so I endeavor to raise them during 

 the grass season, which supplies all they 

 need. There are other items in regard 

 to the setting of hens; diseases peculiar 

 to this coast, and their treatment, etc., 

 which I would be glad to give if a suflB- 

 cieut desire is indicated by your many 

 readers, but as this article is already too 

 long, I must omit further reference to 

 them here. 



rOULTRV PAYS. 



There is no question in my mind but 

 poultry can be made to pay better than 

 any other live stock on the Pacific coast, 

 in proportion to the cnpital invested. 

 Prices of eggs and poultry are always 

 high compared with the Kiisteru market; 

 the demand is unlimited and will always 

 exceed the supply, as may be seen by the 

 European markets, where prices are con- 

 stautlv increasing. Eggs in London and 

 Paris" are at lea»t fifty per cent higher 

 than twenty years ago. In order to pay, 

 fowls must have constiiut attention, and 

 can never be allowed to sufl'er from a 

 day's neglect, which may take several 

 days' close care -to recover; now blood 

 should be mingled yearly, to ensure 

 health, size and stamina; if kept for eggs 

 the progeny of common hens crossed 

 with Leghorn 



The "editor of the Flag adds the follow- 

 ing : 



Mr. Stone's hen-houses are located in 

 different parts of a T-acre lot, 50 fowls 

 being the maximum allowed to each 

 house. The setting houses are (urnished 

 with portable boxes containing two nesta 

 each; this arrangement prevents the 

 hens from quarreling over their nests, 

 and at the same lime enables each one 

 to find her own without difficulty. These 

 setting boxes are thoroughly ventilated, 

 but protected from the weather. After 

 hatching, the hens and chickens are re- 

 moved to Toomy coops with wooden 

 floors, covered with several inches of dry 

 earth. These are located and conven- 

 iently arranged in a one-acre lot, where 

 they are free from any annoyance from 

 other fowls, until they are able to take 

 care of themselves, when they are re- 

 moved to the larger lot. Near the time 

 for hatching the Brahma eggs are moist- 

 ened daily in warm water for the purpose 

 hf softening the shell and membrane in- 

 side, so that the chicks can easily force 

 their way through. The feed used is 

 ground barley, wheat, cracked corn and 

 chopped vegetables. Cracklings as a 

 substitute for meat are procured from the 

 lard factories in San Francisco. 



Mr. Stone has had fifteen years' expe- 

 rience in the business in different locali- 

 ties, both in the Atlantic States and on 

 this coast. He considers the White Leg- 

 horn the most profitable variety for pro- 

 ducing eggs, while the Brahma is pre- 

 fered for the table, being of much quick- 

 er growth, and attaining a much larger 

 size; he finds no difficulty in disposing 

 of all the eggs at $2 per dozen, and the 

 fowls at §2 each. Mr. Stone paid for 

 Brahmas at the rate of $17 per trio, 

 and for Leghorns at the rate of $15 per 

 trio. 



has to be studied and practiced to be 

 made profitable, and it will then be 

 found to be one of the best for the 

 amount of investment and labor. The 

 profit is first in having the very best food 

 in eggs and meat that can be for the 

 family use; and next in raising what is 

 always ready sale at good prices the year 

 roand, bringing in a continuous stream 

 of money. The little boys and girls 

 can be well and profitably employed in. 

 this work, and it all tells in summing 

 up the family work and earnings. Let 

 our jieople have more fowls and fewer 

 foul chicken houses. 



It is a well known fact that a hawk 

 will always light on some conspicuous 

 place close to the poultry yard, from 

 which to swoop down on his victims. 

 Taking advantage of this, erect a pole 

 with a flat surface at the top just largo 

 enough to hold a strong steel trap. Fas- 

 ten this trap with a chain to a staple in 

 the pole and await results. No bait will 

 be needed, for the hawk will be quite 

 certain to light on the trap and be 

 canght. A gentleman who has tried 

 this method has succeeded in killing all 

 the hawks in his neighborhood, and now 

 can raise poultry u-ithout loss, except by 

 accident. 



cocks, will increase the 



quaUty of eggs at least fifty per cent; 

 and this without auy extra expense of 

 keeping. Common fowls crossed with 

 light Bnihraas make a splendid market 

 o? table bird, the size being increased 

 nearly one-half; of course they consume 

 more than a smaller breed, but they al- 

 ways bring the largest price. 



C. P. Stons. 

 Healdsburg, Dec. 19, 1876. 



Raising Fowls. 



The following article, which we clip 

 from the Tenn. Rural Him, is exactly 

 suited to California, and is just as good 

 as though ice wrote it. Now is the time 

 to begin to think about s.me business 

 that will pay, when crops— not the 

 chickens', but the grain crops— may be 

 short: 



"It may be safely asserted that the 

 people of America, with all their advan- 

 tages of climate and variety of soil, 

 have never learned to raise one fowl 

 where France produces one hundred. 

 There are more fowls consumed in that 

 country than any other in the world ac- 

 cording to population. There, raising 

 poultry is a regular business, and they 

 make it pay. The two great staples in 

 that country may be said to be fotel aud 

 grape, anA that "they live by and upon 

 these two. We possess facilities for the 

 production of both of these in richest 

 abundance, and the inquiry is simply 

 our people are not willing to raise fowls, 

 becftuse two many of ihem feel and 

 think it too small a business to be en- 

 gaged in. Each family raises some; very 

 few families raise enough for their own 

 family use; aud it is a very rare thing 

 to find one where enough is raised to 

 make it profitable as a business. In or- 

 der to conduct poultry raising profitably 

 it is important to have the best varieties 

 for this section, with arrangements for 

 keeping in separate yards, scattered 

 about the farm, so as not to engender 

 disease by too many in a flock, and all 

 their quarters kept in order, and plenty 

 of good, pure water, with choice suita- 

 ble food. In raising fowls very great 

 care must be had not to crowd too many 

 togethir, cleansing and fumigating the 

 establishment. 



The whole economy of this industry 



Eofis TOR Hatching.— An English ag- 

 ricultural paper says that eggs intended 

 for setting should" be stored with th 

 large end down, because the air bnbb. 

 does not spread so much as when the 

 small end is down — this spreading of 

 the air bubble being known to affect the 

 freshness and vitality of the egg. 



A comparison of the weight and co-' 

 of a passenger train on the eastern, stand 

 ard gauge, and on the Boston, Keveiti 

 Beach, and Lynn Railroad, narrow gauge 

 respectivly, has been made. These two 

 roads ran' nearly side by side and the 

 carrying capacity of the two trains is 

 practically the same. The heavy Pull- 

 man car is a disadvantage to the East- 

 em Koad, gives capacity for 230 passen- 

 gers, weigh 138 tons, and cost $63,000; 

 one locomotive and six passenger cars ou 

 the Revere Beach and Lyan Boad give 

 capaeitv for 272 passengers, weigh 5:t 

 tons, and cost $18,000. 



. m 



Grapes for Hogs. — It will uke more 

 pounds of grapes to make a pound of 

 pork than it will of corn, but grapes will 

 fatten hogs faster than corn, and they are 

 much belter than barley or corn to feed 

 young pigs when weaning them from 

 "the milk of their mothers. lndee<l, they 

 are the best substitute for milk to feed 

 young pigs on we have ever found. 

 Those who have grapes and pigs will sell 

 their grapes much better by turning their 

 pigs into the vineyard than by picking 

 and freighting the grapes to market at 

 the present price.— /Record- fiiion. 

 m 



Califobnia is the Spain and Portugal 

 and France of .^^raerica. and may one day 

 rival those countries in the production 

 of raisins and »-ine. The samples sent 

 East last year, to Chicago, New York, 

 etc., exceeded expectation, and were 

 ▼iewed very favorably by connoisseurs. 

 In New York a box was placed side by 

 side with a box of imported fruit, and 

 lost nothing by the comparison — was 

 even pronounced fresher, of better flavor 

 and finer bloom, and Shylock himself 

 could not have found fault with the 

 weight.— - 4ni. droctr. 



Salabibs must be made large enough 

 to support th dignity ( ?) of our govern- 

 ment officials in the style of European 

 princes and nobles, though the people 

 starve. 



