POULTRY RAISING 29 



CHAPTER XL 



Caring for a free range plant without labor. 



In this chapter, I will tell you how to care for 

 a free range pjant with practically no labor, only 

 gathering your eggs and caring for them. 



First, make a feed hopper, as I have described, 

 to hold a bag of feed. You should have three of these, 

 fill one with wheat screenings, one with oats, one 

 with cracked corn. Also your small hopper with beef 

 scraps and your three-department hopper with grit, 

 oyster shells and charcoal. And if your plant is built 

 on a stream of water and inclosed with a wire netting 

 fence, as I have described, all the work you have to 

 do is to gather your eggs every night and send your 

 man around once a week and fill all your hoppers. He 

 should also put carbolic acid and kerosene, half and 

 half, well mixed, on the roosts once a month during 

 the winter and twice a month during the summer. 

 In September he should clean the houses out thor- 

 oughly and coat them over with new sand. Your hens 

 will go to the creek to drink, and in winter, if ground 

 is covered with snow, let them eat snow and they 

 will lay more eggs. The hole which lets them out of 

 the house should never be closed, day or night, winter 

 or summer. In the winter time your windows would 

 have to* be kept closed and your hens will pay you a 

 fine profit under this system with practically no labor. 

 You will not get a big egg yield during the winter, 

 but you can depend on a profit of one dollar or more 

 from each hen on this no-labor-system. You will be 

 surprised at the results. And for a business man in 

 the city who owns a small place in the country, and 

 wishes to make some money at home while he is away, 

 there is nothing I know of that can pay him so large 

 a profit on his money invested as a poultry plant run 

 on these lines. Of course, in this case you would 

 have to buy your breeders each season and the best 

 way to do this is to sell off half of your stock during 



