70 



SUCCESS WITH POULTRY 



Five Dollars an Hour E/arued tiy Baising 400 Brooder diicks. 



Your request of June 13tli was duly received and found 

 us with some twenty thousand ducklings on iand and two 

 hundred tons of hay ready for the knife. This work supple- 

 mented with strawberries and weeds, leaves us, as you well 

 know, but little time for literary work of any kind, but will 

 try to O'ontribate my mite to the general fund. 



I had a little experience a few years ago, which, I think 

 will illustrate the possibilities of chicken growing on a lim- 

 ited area and may interest and benefit some of your readers. 



During the latter part of March 1 got out a hatch of 

 Light Brahma chicks, four hundred and one in number. I 

 kept them in the .brooder house for a few days, then, being 

 short of room, put them outside in two outdoor brooders, jn- 

 closing them in a little space of six' square rods, inside a 

 wire fence one foot high. I think I have never suffered so 



Brooder Clucks and Brooder. 



small a mortality in all my experience with chicks, losing 

 but three of the whole number and one of those ^killed by a 

 dog. Those chicks commenced growing from the first and in 

 three weeks' time began to hop over the wire, I hastily 

 placed a four-foot wire around the pen intending to move 

 them to different quarters when convenient, but they made 

 such a remarkable growth and seemed so healthy, I thought 

 I would see how long they could be kept growing in Vaat 

 limited space. I attended them myself. The yard was swept 

 every day with scrupulous^ care and the excrements removed. 

 The birds were fed systematically and always kept a little 

 hungry. They never left that yard till they went to market, 

 then weighing from five to six pounds each, dressed, and- 

 there was not a cull in the lot. Their plumage was glossy 

 and fine. The ' birds were gentle and could be taken uj) 

 at will. 



When a little over four months old and about ready for 

 market, I notified Mr. Hunter, then of Farm Poultry, that I 

 had a show for him. He came out the next day and when 

 he saw those chicks he would not believe that they had been 

 grown in that yard, as there appeared to be but little more 

 than standing room for them. He asked my men if I was 

 not hoaxing with him, and he finally acknowledged that they 

 were the finest lot of chicks he ever saw together. 



They were fed four times per day till a month old, after 

 that three times. They were started in with bread crumbs 

 and hard boiled eggs chopped fine. One part egg to five 

 parts crumbs and plenty of grit mixed in. After three days 

 their food was equal quantities of wheat bran and cornmeal 

 with a little fine beef scraps, and I gave them one feed each 

 day of rolled oats and cracked corn. As they grew older 

 they had a bucket of clotted milk each day, boiled potatoes 

 and green grass. Toward the last, one feed of whole corn 

 and over one-half a bushel of finely out cornfodder per day. 



In fact nothing came amiss;' they greedily devoured every- 

 thing I gave them and appeared to have every confidence in 

 ™y judgment. They brought thirty cents per pound in Bos- 

 ton market, aggregating nearly six hundred dollars, thus 

 paying me for all food consumed and nearly five dollars an 

 hour for all time in caring for them and .had they been 

 hatched two weeks earlier they would have brought thirty- 

 five cents per pound. With one exception, this was my most 

 successful experience with chickens. 



JAMES EANKIN, Massachusetts. 



Baising Chicks in Brooders. 



We use both indoor piped sectional and outdoor hot air 

 brooders. To begin with, our chicks are well hatched and 

 some out strong, plump and active. Very early m the sea- 

 son, when 'the weather is still cold and frosty and no grass 

 growing, we use the indoor brooders. Tnese machines are 

 set up, thoroughly warmed and tested before the chicks are 

 put in. The brooder floors are sanded and the house floor 

 covered with chaff or' out straw. During the first few weeks 

 we keep the hovers very warm and if the chicks are too 

 warm they crawl out where it is cooler. At night in particu- 

 lar we are careful to have a good surplus of heat, so that 

 the chicks lie partly outside the hovers, as from midnight to 

 morning the, temperature of the room will lower consiaer- 

 ably, so the chicks will go under the hover and be very com- 

 fortable. Were it not for this surplus of heat when left at 

 night the chicks might be chilled before morning and then 

 bowel trouble would make its appearance and many chicks 

 die. Each room is sixteen by twenty feet and not unusually 

 over four hundred chicks to each brooder. 



The first few days the chicks are fed granulated oat 

 meal only, with clean water (not too cold) for drink, and 

 some good, Siiarp grit before them constantly. The first week 

 we feed four times daily and but little at a meal. We then 

 begin gradually working them on to a diet of cake, varied 

 with cracked wheat. The cake is made of ground oats (hulls 

 sifted out), cornmeal and best coarse wheat bran, about 

 equal parts by bulk, with a very little high grade beef 

 scraps mixed ,in while dry. The mixture is then moistened 

 with some milk or buttermilk salted as for the table, leav- 

 ened with soda, and baked. 



The baking tins should not be quite full, as when the 

 bread is done we turn it upside down on a board so the crust 

 will be softened by the steam. As the chicks grow older the 

 amount of beef scraps is gradually increased. This feeding 

 goes on until the chicks are five to six weeks old, when a 

 warm mash of about the same material as the cake is fed 

 once a day, and whole wheat and cracked corn twice. This 

 mash is moistened with warm water with a little salt 

 dissolved. 



Just as soon as we can get fresh clover or grass at is fed 

 daily, cut in one-eighth-inch lengths. Chard, lettuce, beet 

 tops or any such green stuS is also used. The hard grains 

 are fed in the litter to induce exercise after the chicks are 

 older and strong enough to work it out. 



When the chicks are ten days to two weeks old and the 

 weather is suitable they are let out in yards about fifty by 

 two hundred feet in size, care being taken that they can find 

 their way to the house when stormy. When they. are about 

 eight weeks old the yards are opened and the birds given 

 free range. 



When the chicks show a disposition to roost on top in- 

 stead of inside the brooder, roosts are placed back of tha 

 brooder and the chicks encouraged to occupy them, wheil iil 

 n short time the brooder can be removedi 



