THE DAY-OLD CHICK INDUSTRY 



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SELLING DAY-OLD CHICKS 



THE SALE OF DAY-OLD CHICKS IS BECOMING POPULAR IN ENGLAND— AN ENGLISH 

 FARM DEVOTED TO THIS INDUSTRY— A NOVEL ROOM FOR EIGHTY-FOUR SITTING 

 HENS— HOV^^ PAPER BOXES ARE MADE COMFORTABLE FOR SHIPPING THE CHICKS 



FRANKLANE L. SEWELL 



I WO hundred acres of well kept orchard and veg- 

 etable gardens within easy driving distance 

 from the London markets, looked like profit- 

 able gardening to the writer, whose home is in 

 the Michigan fruit belt. 



We passed nearly a half a mile of these 

 productive gardens operated by three brothers 

 whose fine fowls are well known throughout 

 Great Britain, and found ourselves at the pioturesqile old 

 house long ago built by Henry VIII as a "hunting 

 box" for Queen Anne Boleyn. This quaint house was 

 then at the edge of the Windsor forests. Here we found 

 the poultry plant well arranged, partly among the plum and 

 apple trees and partly over the adjoining meadow. We 

 were pleased to find the combination of poultry with fruit 

 growing, and to be told that the finest fruit was gathered 

 from the trees under which the fowls had liberty throughout 

 the season. We asked if the fowls did as well in the open 

 meadow as in the orchard and were told that they succeeded 

 about as well on the open meadow. The birds in the or- 

 chard appeared the brightest and most industrious and we 

 noticed that most of the breeders and laying hens were yard- 



ed there. The extra work of carrying the fruit out of the 

 yards was mentioned as against having the poultry pens 

 among the fruit trees. However, it was quite decided that 

 the improved quality of the fruit, not counting the increased 

 quantity, make up for the extra work. Properly arranged 

 gates might make carting of the fruit quite easy. 



ORPINGTONS, WYANDOTTES, LEGHORNS. MINORCAS AND DUCKS 



The breeds kept were Buff Orpingtons, White and Silver 

 Laced Wyandottes, Black Leghorns, White Leghorns and 

 Black Minorcas; also Aylesbury ducks. These occupied 

 four breeding pens next to the incubator house, twenty yards 

 in the orchards and twenty yards in the meadow. 



Besides these breeding yards there was one large field 

 with a row of fruit trees through the center where 125 laying 

 hens were kept; also about two acres of orchard in which 

 were eight houses occupied by about 222 laying hens, two 

 warm brooding houses with yard attached, and a large cold 

 brooding house of eight sections, in which last house the 

 youngsters were three to four pounds in weight, just about 

 to be changed to the four grassy yards next the brooder 

 house. 



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