94 FIRST LESSONS IN POULTRY KEEPING. 



Lot 1 {8 to be kept over, aud is to have the regular summer care to be described. 



Lot 2 is to have special care and feeding to bring as many as may be into good condition, then 

 be sorted out again, those which respond quickly to good care being transferred to Lot 1, or 

 given the same care where they are, while those that do not get into condition with reasonable 

 promptitude are to be marketed. 



With regard to these last, and also to hens in Lot 3, if they do not flesh up readily, though 

 apparently healthy, sell them as they are for what they will bring. Don't try to fatten them 

 regardless of time or cost. The probability is that such hens have weak digestion, or some 

 minor disorder that prevents getting them in good flesh, and if the attempt is made to force 

 them pronounced disease may d'evelop and make them a total loss. There is a market for poor 

 fowls, but not for sick ones. 



We will refer again to points in the handling of these lots of fowls after the general state- 

 ment of the method of caring for fowls in summer. 



The Season and the Systems. 



Allusion has been made to the fact that many poultrymen who get fair to good egg yields 

 in winter aud spring do not do so well in summer. There may be other special reasons for 

 this in special cases, but I think the prime reason is to be found in that the hens are kept under 

 conditions that were made for winter, and cannot be properly adapted to summer poultry 

 keeping. 



Ventilation in the Poultry House. 



Many poultry houses are so constructed that they cannot be thoroughly ventilated. Many 

 that might be well ventilated by leaving all doors and windows open day and night are but 

 partly opened in the day time, and almost closed at night. Houses with the roosts next low 

 rear walls, and houses with deep narrow pens give very unsatisfactory conditions on hot 

 sultry nights. In cool summers hens may do fairly well in such bouses, but in hot seasons the 

 lack of air in such quarters is very debilitating. A summer poultry house should be airy day 

 and night; it must be so if the fowls are to do well and keep well in it. The Rhode Island 

 colony poultry farmers block their houses up several inches from the ground in summer, 

 admitting fresh air all around. If thorough ventilation cannot be obtained any other way, 

 male openings in the rear wall of the house near the roof, with a slide or hinged cover that 

 can oe closed when rain or wind would beat in. There is, however, little danger of bad effects 

 from such causes if the opening is protected by the eaves of the house; and there are few times 

 In summer when one need fear lest fowls suffer from drafts through such openings. 



Yards and Range. 



Fowls keep in best condition in summer if they have good grassy range, with both sun and 

 shade as they may want to take them. 



They can, as a rule, be made more productive if confined to yards where the supply of 

 green food does not exceed their actual needs, and fed well on a ration differing but little from 

 that given during cool weather. 



The most productive fowl, however, is not always the most profitable fowl. The item of 

 labor must be considered, and the more yard room fowls are given the less close attention to 

 their wants is necessary. No rule to govern the adjustment of labor to production can be given. 

 It must vary under different circumstances. 



If a man has nothing to do but take care of his fowls, or has ample time to give them all the 

 care required under intensive methods, his best policy is to get the largest possible product 

 from his hens. 



If in the use of intensive methods, he gives time to poultry that otherwise would be 

 devoted to other profitable work, he must decide just what division of his time will pay him 

 best. Such decision requires some experience and some experiment in adjusting methods to 

 circumstances. The essential thing in the early stages of one's work with poultry is to under- 

 stand the need and advantage of striking the right balance in the distribution of time to 

 different kinds of work, and direct one's effort toward the gradual solution of the problem. 



