THE DAY-OLD CHICK INDUSTRY 



PREFERRED THE SITTING BREEDS" 



All but the brooding and incubator houses are of portable 

 types. We were told that they liked the "sitting breeds" 

 best for their business, as they had experienced the best 

 success with them in artificial hatching and rearing — found 

 them pasiest to handle, stronger and not too apt to "go off 

 their feed" in cold, bleak weather, and seeming to hatch well 

 at almost any season. This was partly a surprise to us as 

 some of our earlier experience had led us to class the Med- 

 iterraneans among the rfiost fertile breeds. 



We were impressed by the vigor and healthy condition 

 of all the stock and inquiring about the feed were told that 

 they handled them "on the rough-and-ready scale," plenty 

 of good coarse feed — boiled mangles, (large, coarse beets) 

 with middlings mixed in until a good consistency is reached 

 and then add about 10 per cent of beef scrap or meat meal- 

 occasionally barley meal is mixed with the above. The large 

 grassy runs explained much towards the birds' strong con- 

 stitutions. Whole grains, — corn, wheat and oats, — were be- 

 ing fed the large- stock for the evening meal. 



At the incubator house we found fifteen incubators, four- 

 teen of American pattern and one of an English type. The 

 incubator house is single boarded, with windows in the north 

 slope of the roof and these were curtained to keep out the 

 sun. "The room for sitting hens shades it on the south," 

 they explained. It is against the warmth of the sun that 

 they guard their incubator rooms over in England. The cold 

 that they have is not often so severe as to cause trouble with 

 incubation by the best machines. 



MANAGING 84 SITTING HENS IN ONE ROOM 



We have never seen such a handily arranged outfit for 

 managing sitting hens. There were eighty-four nests on the 

 inside of an alley-way and five airy pens for exercising and 



43— SHIPPING DAY-OLD CHICKS 

 Four dozen day-old chicks shipped in stronff paper boxes, one dozen in each box. Air 

 holes are cut with a knife at the center of the upper edg:es (as shown in the illustration) . 

 The four boxes are securely fastened with a cord. 



feeding the hens on the outside of this alley-way, as seen in 

 the photograph. Each hen was banded bn the leg with the 

 number of her nest, so after her time for an outing she could 

 be returned to the proper place. The sides, of the nests were 

 formed by a square sloping frame, which was movable and, 

 rested upon a continuous board bottom, eJctending from end 

 to end of the tier of nests at a height to bring the top of this 

 movable portion level with the bottom of the door. Just 

 inside each door was a six inch wide platform, so that if any 

 old cluck became restless and would not sit, she had some 

 place to dance her jig on 'besides her clutch of eggs. All 

 woodwork was thoroughly whitewashed after each sitting. 



INCUBATORS ARE A NECESSITY 



"Well," we said, after looking this outfit over, "with all 

 this handy arrangement, why do you need incubators?' ' He 

 shook his head and replied, "We are in the day-old chick 

 business — that's why we haVe incubators." They jvant the 

 chicks first of all, early — then they want them in large lots — 

 not late and irregularly when the good old hens take a notion 

 to quit laying and become broody. They keep several hund- 

 red hens to supply fresh eggs. These eggs are mostly order- 

 ed by dealers whom the elder of the three brothers meets 

 when disposing of the vegatables and fruit at Convent Gar- 

 den's Market. The restrictions of this market being entirely 

 for flowers, fruits and vegetables, it does not permit of dis- 

 playing eggs there, but they will meet many grocers who re- 

 quire strictly fresh eggs for their trade, so receive many 

 orders in that way, the eggs being shipped from the farm 

 directly to the shops without being exposed in the market. 



PAPER BOXES FOR SHIPPING THE CHICKS 



. We wanted to know more about how the day-old chicks 

 were shipped, and were shown into the shipping room where 

 the strong paper boxes used by this firm were packed, just as 

 they came from the box factory — flat. A box was quickly 

 put into shape for shipping — "and what do you put into the 

 box to make it soft for comfortable traveling?" Eeaching 

 for a good-sized handful of soft hay which was bent round 

 into a nest-like form inside the box, then for a handful of 

 soft feathers, with a couple of strokes round the opening in 

 the hay lining, it looked very comfortable, "like a sparrow's 

 nest" they explained, and, "it's just comfortable for twelve 

 chicks (the number placed in each box) to turn round in and 

 keep each other warm." The contents of the box is mark- 

 ed on it so no mistake can be made after packing and as 

 many dozen tied together as are ordered by each patron. 

 The sketch will show where the boxes are cut in the middle 

 or upper edges for ventilation. Properly marked for ship- 

 ment, and the little orphans are ready to start for their new 

 home. The porters of the trains seem to take quite an in- 

 terest in the little things and handle them with the greatest 

 of care. Often they can be seen listening at the air holes to 

 hear the peepings of the wee travelers— and I believe they 

 get safer handling in the paste board boxes than when ship- 

 ped in the less fragile appearing wooden cases. 



FIFTY DAY-OLD CHICKS ARRIVE SAFELY IN GERMANY 



This firm has sent day-old chicks to the Isle of Wight, 

 and up into Scotland. Another order that no doubt requir- 

 ed quite as much handling and changing about with as much 

 time as would be required for any shipment of a thousand 

 miles in America, was a lot of fifty-day old chicks that went 

 to a gentleman near Berlin, Germany. We saw a letter from 

 the customer, stating that all had arrived alive. Fifty were 

 sent to Southport (250 miles), with only one dead, and 250 to 

 the Isle of Wight, all arrived safely. 



Just twice as much for day-old chicks is received by 

 this fli'm as for the eggs for hatching, and they had hatched 

 an average the past season of 250 chicks from 360 eggs (with 

 the sitting breeds) and had good sales from January to June, 

 so they were very well satisfied with the ' profits from their 

 season's trade in day-old chicks. 



There seems every reason that our breeders in the United 

 States and Canada should enlarge the profits from their 

 poultry farms by adopting a method of selling day-old chicks. 



The method of gathering the eggs for hatching is worthy 

 of mention. The care and the system of record employed is 

 such that a mistake in breed or number is almost impossi- 

 ble. The eggs from the large flocks of laying hens of 

 course needed no regard as to record of pedigree, only to be 

 sorted as to size and color. 



53 



