SUCCESSFUL POULTRY KEEPING 



The breast bone test is considered the best. In Leadenhall you 

 will hear the poultryman say "its breast bone is as soft as glue.'' 



During the summer the young stock is being sold principally 

 to the butcher in the nearby town and he is giving quite as 

 much or more than could be obtained by sending them to London. 



We were surprised at the thin walls of the incubator houses, 

 but were assured that the modern American type of incubators 

 used were giving satisfactory results in these simple structures. 



The 300 feet long brooder house was furnished with sec- 

 tional brooders. These were fairly satisfactory, but a change 

 in the piping was in prospect to make the circulation more 

 perfect. After using the CQptinuous house system a sentiment 

 was expressed in favor of the separate outdoor brooder plan 

 with brooders placed under cover of a small house in the early 

 season when the weather is bleak or the ground apt to be slushy 

 — then the small house would be ready for the well-grown 

 chicks after they no longer require its protection, and it can be 

 removed and used for younger broods. The chicks were kept 

 in this long brooder house until some of them were old enough 

 to market. They will do better now since the hay fields are 

 swept of their product, and the young stock can occupy a greater 

 part of the movable houses — can range over new ground, fill- 

 ing up on insects and tender gi'ass, for the frequent rains keep 

 the hay fields green here. 



We noticed in the long brooder house an American made 

 bucket spray pump which we were told was used for spraying 

 the houses and small coops with coal oil. A box for destroying 

 gapes was shown us in which the fowls sat upon slats above the 

 fumes of carbolic acid heated to steam by two lamps. The 

 upper story of the box could be made quite tight or opened at 

 the side and the birds were watched through a couple of glass- 

 lights at the sides to see that all was going well. It was claimed 

 to be effective in destroying the gapes. We would want to ex- 

 periment with this fumigator cautiously, however, at first. 



THE CAPONIZING TABLE OR EASEL 



We illustrate the style of caponizing table used on this 

 place. It is really an "easel." It holds the bird on the opera- 

 ting board in the mcst convenient position of any we have seen, 

 and the operator's claim for it is that in this position the intes- 

 tines of the bird fall away so that the parts worked upon are 

 easily exposed when operating. 



The wings are held together above the bird's back by a 

 bent iron, irod or hook, and the legs placed together through a 

 loop in a strap -^ seen in the illustration, and both the iron rod 

 and strap each iikve a separate weight sufficient to hold the bird 

 securely without bruising it. This easel has somewhat the ap- 

 pearance of the table used at the South Shore Roaster Plant 

 described in the Reliable Poultry Journal, its chief difference 

 being in the more upright tilt, which this expert operator claims 

 he has found to facilitate his work. 



The illustration to the left shows quite plainly the position 

 in which the bird is placed on the "easel." The feathers have 

 just been plucked from the side of the bird through which the 

 operator intended to work. The second photograph with the 

 operator just starting to work, shows the convenience with 

 which the work is done — a box or a table at the right of the 

 operator holding the few simple instruments used (which were 

 of American make). The bowl was used to hold water with 

 carbolic acid added to it. In this carbolized water the instru- 

 ments were frequently washed and the knife dipped before each 

 ncision was made. The time spent upon caponizing was con- 

 dered a very small item compared to the labor of making and 

 keeping up fences. The young males, handled as capons are 

 quiet and require- less feed to bring them to the marketable size. 

 The capons do not fight and worry each other and no fences 



being required to separate them from the pullets, they bring a 

 good profit with the smallest amount of outlay. 



The young bird on the caponizing easel is one of the crosses 

 from the White Old English Game Cock and a White Wyan- 

 dotte female; the reversion resulting in this case showed some 

 red plumage on the shoulders of the wings. 



THE FEEDS USED 



The principal foods we found at this place were, for soft 

 feeds, barley meal and middlings with 12 per cent of meat meal 

 or blood and bone, with some small grit mixed in. This was 

 being fed to the growing stock,, and in the evening, wheat and 

 dari to the younger chicks and considerable maize to the older 

 chickens. Maize (corn) was being also fed freely as an evening 

 feed to the old stock at the time of oiir visit, as they explained — 

 "We are glad to get them into good flesh, or even quite fat be- 

 fore molting — after they commence to drop their feathers well 

 we wiU hold up on the fattening foods and feed a better diet 

 for laying condition. This would consist mostly of good sound 

 oats." 



CAPONIZING-HOW TO DO IT 



FULL AND EXPLICIT DIRECTIONS FOR CAPONIZING 



Every poultry raiser has each year a large number of sur- 

 plus cockerels. These he finds it hard to dispose of at a profit. 

 In the market he can seldom get for them (in their natural state) 

 more than one-half or two-thirds of what he can readily obtain 

 for pullets and hens. It is a fact, however, that when properly 

 caponized and brought to a marketable size, he can obtain for 

 these same cockerels, now developed into capons, twice as much 

 as he can get for his pullets and hens. 



A Chicago commission merchant, with whom the writer 

 had a talk in June, reported capons selling at twelve to eighteen 

 cents per pound in that city during the season, and the demand 

 strong. He was then handling capons bought from Illinois, 

 Ohio and Indiana that weighed ten, eleven and twelve pounds. 

 They were killed when from ten months to a year old. 



DIRECTIONS FOR CAPONIZING 



From twenty-four to thirty hours before performing the 

 operation, select such cockerels as you intend to caponize (these 

 should be from two to four months ol'd), confining them in a 

 clean and airy coop or room without either food or water. The 

 best time to confine them is at early morning, 

 as their long fast will then end about noon of 

 the following day, at which time the operation 

 is best performed. Should the day be cloudy 

 or wet do not caponize them, but let the opera- 

 tion go until you have a bright and fair day. 

 It is necessary that you have all the light pos- 

 sible in the matter. If it be a cloudy day and 

 you decide not to caponize, the birds may be 

 given a little water and food if necessary, but ' 

 it is much better to avoid this if possible, as it 

 Fig. 1— Cord for '® '^^'^ desirable to have their intestines quite 

 Holding Fowl empty, thus allowing their testicles to be more 

 readily seen, besides giving the operator much 

 more room in which to perform his work. Lay the bird on the 

 operating table (this table is fully described elsewhere in this 

 article) on its left side. Wrap the cord (Fig. 1) twice around 

 the birds legs, above the knees. In making one wrap only, 

 there is danger of the birds kicking themselves out of the loop. 



154 



