ARTIFICIAL BROODING 



H. A. Nourse — I have tried various other methods advised, 



but find the above about as easy, cheap, and as successful as any. 



Q. 12. Do you use incubators and brooders and why? 



C. S. Green — ^Yes; because we cannot find time to raise 



chickens with hens. 



G. A. McFetridge — I use them because the/ are far supe- 

 rior to hens for hatching. 



U. R. Fishel — I use incubators and brooders, for the reason 

 that the hens cannot be depended upon. The machines, are al- 

 ways ready and never leave the nest. If the brooders were as 

 nearly perfect as the incubators we would not lose so many 

 chicks. If every one would place in the brooders just about 

 one-third the number of chicks the manufacturers claim the 

 brooders will hold they would have greater success. 



H. A. Nourse — I use incubators and brooders for market 

 poultry because I have found it impracticable to hatch and rear 

 large numbers with hens, if not indeed impossible in the early 

 season. 



Q. 13. Are artificially hatched and raised birds as good as 

 those reared by the "natural method?" 



C. S. Green — ^Yes. The fact of their being artificially 

 hatched and raised will not detract from their worth one cent. 

 Crowding one hundred chicks into a brooder where forty be- 

 long is the cause for the delusion that artificially hatched and 

 raised chicks are inferior to those reared by the natural method. 

 G. A. McFetridge — Either chicks or ducks hatched and 

 reared artificially grow faster and are free from head lice. 



U. R. Fishel — Better. — I have reared larger, stronger birds 

 by artificial means than the hen can rear. 



H. A. Nourse — I can discern no difference, provided the 

 same conditions of range, food, and exercise are secured for 

 the growing chicks. 



Q. 14. How do they differ, if at all? 

 C. S. Green — ^We can see no difference, except that the 

 brooder chicks are free from lice, and are raised with much less 

 mortality than those with heris. 



H. A. Nourse — ^When those artificially hatched are confined 

 in small yards they do not, as a rule, make as good stock birds, 

 but rather better broilers. 



Q. 15. Have you any particular method of brooding and 

 what are its advantages? 



C. S. Green — ^Yes. We use individual brooders which have 

 both top and bottom heat. Each brooder is set in a colony 

 house six feet square and contains about fifty chicks. The col- 

 ony houses are placed about one hundred feet apart. This 

 makes it possible to give the growing birds free range without 

 intense crowding. They have a chance to get all the green 

 food they require, and it saves the cost and bother of fences, 

 thus reducing the labor to a minimum as nearly as possible. 

 G. A. McFetridge — My method of brooding is with a pipe 

 system in a brooder house. I run the heat so that the return 

 pipes near the stove register 100 to 110 F. with bulb in the 

 returning water. This I find is the right heat. 



U. R. Fishel— We take our chicks from the machine and 

 place them in the brooder, which is placed in a small yard. 

 As the chicks grow they are moved to larger yards. After they 

 are feathered they are taken from the brooders and placed in 

 colony coops, with window sash and glass placed in front of 

 same. These coops are made of pine boxes which we get of the 

 dry goods stores. From these boxes they are moved to colony 

 coops made of piano boxes and placed at different points on the 

 farm, allowing the chickens free range. 



H. A. Nourse — I use and prefer individual indoor brooders 

 for young chicks, and the overhead pipe system after two weeks. 

 I believe that the chicks make a better start in the separate 

 brooders because of better ventilation and slightly warmed 

 floor, while the older ones seem to do better on a cool floor with 

 the heat above. 



Q. 16. How do you keep your runs and yards clean and 

 avoid so-called "poisoning of the ground" by fowls using the 

 same rims year after year? 



C. S. Green — ^We give all fowls and chicks free range, occa- 

 sionaly plowing the ground around the buildings. 



G. A. McFetridge — Either plow or dig the ground and sow 

 to wheat or rye, or scrape off the top and add new soil or sand. 

 U. R. Fishel — Each yard for the old fowls contains one acre 

 in grass, while the young birds are placed at different points 

 on the one hundred and twenty acres of the farm, so there is 

 no poisoning of the ground. The grass absorbs all such matter, 

 as do the growing crops. 



H. A. Nourse — The soil here at Fisher's Island Farm is 

 very sandy and is thoroughly purified by heavy rains which 

 we have in the fall and spring and which carry all foul matter 

 into the earth. 



Q. 17. How do you house and yard fowls and why? 

 C. S. Green — The fowls are housed in winter, in houses 

 about fifteen feet wide, nine feet high in front and five feet 

 high in back, with a single pitch roof, and it faces the south. 

 It is divided into pens fifteen feet square, each pen containing 

 about fifty laying hens. Every forty-five feet there is a solid 

 partition to prevent draughts. The sides of the roof are stuffed 

 with straw four inches thick, which keeps the house free from 

 dampness. The front of each pen contains two window sashes, 

 each sash containing twelve lights of 9 by 12 inch glass. This 

 gives plenty of light without so much glass as to make the house 

 exceedingly cold at night. We use cement floors because they 

 are rat proof and will last indefinitely. They cost very little 

 more than board floor when properjy laid. 



G. A. McFetridge — I yard pullets as soon as I can detect 

 the sex, but prefer to give free range if possible. 



U. R. Fishel — We use the colony plan, as it is the safest. 

 No epidemic can go through your flock with the colony plan in use. 

 H. A. Nourse — In summer we use the colony plan only, 

 with yards for each small house, and in winter both the long 

 house and colony plan, with the odds in favor of the long houses, 

 they being easier to care for, and fully as successful. 



Q. 18. If you were to start over again with poultry how 

 would you begin? 



C. S. Green — I would buy eggs for hatching of the breed 

 I liked best. I would also get the best eggs I could find of that 

 breed, and set the eggs under hens the first year. The next 

 year I would buy a first-class incubator, and four first-class 

 brooders and "drive on." With this equipment and good 

 houses, success would be practically assured. 



G. A. McFetridge — ^The best and surest way to start, in the 

 poultry business, especially with limited capital, is to buy the 

 eggs and work your way up. If sufficient funds are in hand 

 buy stock. 



U. R. Fishel — ^If breeding fancy poultry I would rather have 

 three strictly high-class birds than a field full of ordinary ones. 

 I would buy the best I could buy and would surely buy of a 

 specialty breeder. I would then each season go back to the same 

 breeder and get either eggs or new breeders, thereby getting the 

 same line of blood and the good results of the breeder's matings 

 and experience. 



H. A. Nourse — I would begin slowly and build both plant 

 and business along the lines indicated by prevailing conditions 

 as the profitable ones. 



Q. 19. What is the cost of keeping the hen a year? 

 C. S. Green — Ninety cents. 



G. A. McFetridge — The cost of food for one year is about $1 . 

 U. R. Fishel — I can feed and care for a hen a year at an 

 average of $1 per hen, that is, in large numbers, say from five 

 hundred to three thousand. 



Q. 20. AVhat is the amount of net profit that may be 

 reasonably expected per hen per year? 



73 



