THE POULTRY PLANT 



uncommon thing for the proprietor to begin work at 4 o'clock 

 in the morning and keep at it until bedtime, 9:30 or 10. In 

 the summer time, after the early chicks are marketed and the 

 coming breeders are sufficiently well grown to need less care and 

 attention, he has more time to himself and a practical man we 

 know usually puts in his leisure hours building brooders and 

 colony coops or renovating, repairing and building houses or 

 yard^. It sounds like a life of all work and no play, doesn't it? 

 Well, it is not as bad as all that, for though the hours are long 

 and the work plenty, there are breathing spells between the 

 working stunts. 



One of the men we have in mind doesn't forget to play a 

 little. He has a fine pleasant home on a nice farm all built and 

 paid for by poultry. His buildings are insured for more than 

 $4,000 and his dwelling and furnishings for as much more. He 

 keeps two horses, two cows, has a fine garden for family use. 

 Owns a piano and mechanical player, also a phonograph with 

 which he drives away care on winter evenings before making 

 the last rounds for the night of the incubators and brooders. 

 He has to "keep pretty close to home" as his work is confining 

 and may need his personal attention at any time, but he makes 

 it a point to take his pleasure at home also. He can't go to 

 town to the theatre and his family, a good sized one, prefers to 

 keep him company at home, so they have music and vaudeville 

 entertainments of their own in the' family circle to vary the 

 monotony of winter evenings "way back in the coimtry." There 

 are many city people who would be glad to change places with 

 this poultry farmer. 



A FEEDING PEN FOR CHICKS 



By the use of such a pen mature fowls or large chickens are prevented 

 from eating special chick food. The slats are sufficiently far apart so that 

 the young chicks can pass in and out of the pen. 



What this man has done through pluck and perseverance 

 others can and will do. He started fifteen years or more ago. 

 Had always been working in the city, first one job and then 

 another with little or no success, an iucreasing family and the 

 usual run of hard luck. When he struck out for the country he 

 bought on the installment plan a good sized back country farm 

 with buildings good enough to live in. When he moved on the 

 place he "had only fifty cents left to his name" and began work- 

 ing out and trading off his own labor for necessaries and for 

 other help and labor on his home place. He started small with 

 poultry and grew and today though pluck, push and persevere, 

 ance is the proprietor of a successful poultry plant and has 

 money in the bank. He says that all he possesses he owes to 

 his hens. No doubt that is true in part but his own honest 

 endeavor, a liking for the business and good healthful outdoor 

 farm work, have all played an important part in his success. 



In this chapter we haven't room for a great variety of 

 house plans and buildihg instructions. The latest edition of the 

 book Poultry Houses ani) Fixtures of the R. P. J. series is 

 devoted exclusively to that purpose. In it will be found com- 

 plete specifications and instructions for building modem de- 

 pendable houses for all poultry purposes. There are incubator 

 houses, brooder houses, buildings for breeders and layers, colony 

 houses and coops and numerous valuable labor saving appli- 

 ances. We particularly recommend for study the Hunter 

 Soratohing-Shed House, the Scratching-Shed Colony House, 

 the Maine Experiment Station Curtain Front House, and the 

 Tolman Fresh-Air House, all of which are fully described and 

 illustrated in Poultry Houses and Fixtures. In this chapter 

 we present a few other good buildings that were not included in 

 the special house book. 



FRESH-AIR POULTRY HOUSES 



Open-House Method is Tried by an Experi- 

 enced, Observant Poultry Student in the 

 State of Washington, Who Reports Results 



A MODIFIED FORM OF FRESH-AIR HOUSE IS DE- 

 SIGNED, USED AND RECOMMENDED FOR TALL- 

 COMBED VARIETIES IN COLD LATITUDES 



H. HEIDENHAIN, WENATCHEE. WASH. 

 (With niustrations by the Author) 



[Editorial Note: — ^Following we present Mr. Heidenhain's 

 article in which he relates his experience with Leghorns in the 

 Tolman type of fresh-air houses and describes the modified 

 form of house he found it advisable to build in the cold latitude 

 of the state of Washington. The Tolman Fresh- Air House is 

 fully described and illustrated in the book Poultry Houses 

 AND Fixtures of the R. P. J. series. The illustrations and 

 descriptive matter are quite complete. It wiE be noticed that 

 Mr. Heidenhain has omitted to describe the construction of 

 the double doors used on his modified type of fresh-air poultry 

 house. The photograph, however, shows plainly the con- 

 struction of these doors. It is generally known that a square 

 poultry house is cheapest in construction, other things being 

 equal — a strong point in favor of Mr. Heidenhain's type of 

 house. Low cost is a strong recommendation for this house 

 as it is for any poultry building where profit earning is the 

 object. — Ed.] 



OUR EXPERIENCE WITH THE TOLMAN FRESH-AIR POULTRY 

 HOUSE 



Last fall when the task was put before us to provide lay- 

 ing houses for about 400 hens, we decided to build first two 

 houses according to Mr. Tolman's Fresh-Air House plan. Mr. 

 Tolman's reasons for the construction of this style of houses 

 seemed to be so sound and the results obtained by him were so 

 excellent that we thought little risk was involved in following 

 his advice, to use the same style of house for Leghorns, although 

 his experience was limited to Brahmas. 



The two houses were finished in September and were at 

 once filled with pullets and cockerels of different varieties, 

 among which the Leghorns took a prominent part. The in- 

 habitants of these two houses were healthy and happy and 

 seemed, at first, to stand the great changes of temperature be- 

 tween day and night which is characteristic of our climate, 

 pretty well. .The pullets began to lay in November and the 

 egg yield was steadily increasing. We got in the former part 

 of December in one of these houses 40 pullets", not^all of which 



53 



