feed, with the emphasis on clean. It is the biggest mistake to take 

 clean feed and throw it into filth for the pullet to eat. 



This eight foot square pen is the little world of these fifty pullets 

 until they are ten or twelve weeks old, when they fill the two perches 

 and must again have more room and are divided into two pens, making 

 twenty-five to the pen. On the outisde of this pen is a feed trough 

 under the projecting roof which extends over three feet and keeps out 

 the rain from blowing too much into the open front. The pullets eat 

 from this trough by sticking their heads through an opening. Thus 

 they cannot get into the feed with their feet and must take it in the 

 cleanest way possible. They also have a feed hopper upon the side of 

 the wall that holds a sack full of dry mill feed in one compartment and 

 a sack of. mixed grains in the other. The platform to this hopper is 

 eighteen inches from the floor, so they must jump up to feed. They 

 must also jump up to the perches above the dropping board, and this 

 continual jumping up and down gives them exercise as well as enter- 

 tainment. The water bucket sets on the outside with the feed trough, 

 so that no doors need be opened in feeding and watering. 



The dry mash is composed of four parts ground wheat, one part 

 ground corn, one part ground oats with hull sifted out, (when not too 

 high) one part beef cracklings, half part soy bean meal, half part 

 linseed meal, half part charcoal. Many would say that this is too rich 

 for young growing pullets, but where they have a mixture of grains in 

 the compartment of the hopper adjoining they will eat only enough of 

 this dry mash to balance their ration. The feed trough on the outside 

 is filled twice daily with fresh, crisp green feed. This can be alfalfa, 

 kale, green barley, beets, cabbage, chard or rape, and the greater the 

 variety the better. Be sure they have this green feed 365 days in the 

 year, including the fourth of a day. Don't under any circumstances 

 attempt to keep hens without plenty of green feed. To have that in 

 California means that you must irrigate. And you must have your 

 poultry ranch located where water is cheap or you can never succeed. 

 If you have no water for irrigation, and plenty of it, sell out and I will 

 tell you where you can get as good land as lays out of doors with all 

 the cheap water that is needed for irrigation. Too many fail for want 

 of the right location. For goodness sake, do not attempt to raise 

 poultry on a dry, poor, barren place, for it cannot be done. I know, 

 for I tried it early. You must have plenty of water or the time using it 

 will not pay for the results. There is plenty of good cheap water near 

 good markets if you will find the right locality. 



This little eight foot square pen with open front forms the little 

 world for these growing pullets and here they stay during their first 

 laying year. They have everything before them to eat all the time and 

 all the fresh air and sunshine and a deep sandy ground floor to roll and 

 dust in, and are absolutely better off than any hen that ever roamed 

 the wide world outside. They eat, drink and grow, and when they 

 arrive at the laying age it is simply a sociological principle; their mind 

 is on their business eat, drink and lay; that's their daily routine. 

 They have no other amusement and can specialize. They eat to digest, 

 and digest to lay, and as their parents were heavy eaters before them 

 and made eggs out of their food, they have that tendency and have it 



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