R. I. RED EGG FARMS 



All of these growing chicks on the Almy plant are reared 

 in large stone fenced fields some considerable distance from 

 the farm buildings, and all food and water must be carted 

 to them on the feed wagon. As before stated, to avoid 

 crowding of the chicks or gathering at any fixed point, the 

 chick growing fields are not entered at the same point each 

 feeding time. As the chicks do not know at which side of 

 the field the food supply is likely to put in an appearance, 

 they are disposed to remain close by the feeding troughs 

 rather than miss an opportunity to get the first chance at 

 the food. Being well fed all of the, time, they do not crowd 

 much at feeding time. 



There is practically no mortality from sickness on this 

 plant, and the chief losses are from rats, hawks and other 

 vermin. Losses from this cause are not as great as would 

 naturally be supposed, as the country is chiefly rolling open 

 shore land comparatively free from thick woods or timber. 



Hatcbing the Chickens 



Old-fashioned methods prevail in hatching and rearing 

 chickens in this section. Hatching is done exclusively by 

 hens.- There are not more than four or five incubators in 

 the whole district and these are used chiefly for finishing off 

 the hatches, that is, the eggs are taken at pipping time and 

 placed in the machine and allowed to hatch there, to prevent 

 the hens from trampling the chicks. When the chicks are 

 dry they are returned to the hen and she is allowed to brood 

 them. We did not see but one brooder in a trip of nearly 

 twenty miles through this thickly populated poultry growing 

 section. Mr. Almy is the only man we know of who operates 

 incubators and he uses three of these only for the purpose of 

 completing the hatch as tenders to sitting hens. 



The hens are set in a building formerly used as a district 

 school house and in a stone building at the rear of the barn. 

 The nests are arranged around the sides of the building, four 

 hens usually being set at one time. Upwards from 3000 

 chicks are so hatched each season, the hatching being done 

 only in the spring months, March, April and May. Mr. 

 Almy told us that last spring he set about 6000 eggs under 

 hens, that during the season he had put out in the fields about 

 3000 good chicks, and at the time of our visit there were 

 some 2600 half-grown birds occupying the chicken fields, 

 and prior to our visit a very considerable number of young 

 cockerels had been sold for broilers, fryers and small roasters. 

 For raising chickens on so large a scale this is a remarkably 

 good showing, and the mortality or loss from hawks and 

 other, vermin must have been very slight. 



As evidence of the vigor of his flock and the hatchability 

 of the eggs, Mr. Almy cited a case of having hatched from 

 432 fertile eggs, placed under hens, 408 strong, vigorous 

 chickens. He said that he had repeatedly shipped sittings 

 of 15 eggs each into Colorado and the west and had reports 

 of 12 to 14 chickens from the sitting, and that eggs shipped 

 into Alaska had given 7 and 8 chicks to the sitting of 15 

 eggs. He usually places 15 eggs under a hen and does not 

 consider the hatch a good one unless he gets 10 or 12 chickens. 

 Usually the hens are set in groups of four and from four to 

 eight hens are let off of the nests at one time, though some- 

 times all of the hens sitting on one side of the building are 

 allowed off at the same time. They are allowed to leave the 

 nests once a day to feed, water and dust themselves. When 

 the chicks are hatched about 25 are allotted to each hen 

 mother. 



All chicks are raised in small colony brood coops or 

 houses having a floor space about 2J feet square. These 

 houses ire practically all of the type shown in the illustra- 

 tion, the front being closed by a 6-light window sash. Early 

 in the season the hen mother is placed in this coop inside 

 of a cracker box having a slatted opening at one side, large 



85 



enough for the hen to get her head out of and to admit of 

 the chicks leaving and entering the box freely. This cracker 

 box coop IS illustrated herewith. 



The hen is usually kept confined in this cracker box 

 located m a small brood coop for from two to three weeks, 

 the chicks being allowed the freedom of the balance of the 

 floor space in the brood coop or colony house. After the 

 chicks are a few days old they are allowed to run out of doors 

 when weather permits. Food and water are placed within 

 reach of the hen mother just outside of the slatted opening 

 of the cracker box, but where she cannot get at them to up- 

 set or scratch it about. The cracker box coop is used only 

 early in the season when the weather is cold. Mr. Almy 

 -told us that the mother hens seem to thrive well in this close 

 confinement, and that in spite of the lack of exercise they 

 keep in good condition and frequently begin laying in two 

 to three weeks after they first receive their brood. 



When the chicks are about three weeks old, according 

 to size and weather conditions, the cracker box coop is taken 

 out of the brood coop, and as soon as the chicks are ready to 



The Rhode Island Cracker Box Coop for 

 broody hens is used in the small colony brood 

 houses or coops. It is entirely closed except i 

 small slatted openings in one end to permit hen 

 to feed and give chicks free runway m and out. 

 Used for early Hocks at Red Feather FarAi. 



be weaned the mother hens are removed to the laying house. 

 The chickens occupy these colony brood coops until they are 

 ready to go to larger colony roosting coops or to the laying 

 houses. In the warm summer season the cracker box coop 

 is not used, the hen and chickens being confined in the colony 

 brood coop with the window sash front allowed to remain ' 

 open just far enough to admit of the chicks running in and 

 out freely without giving the mother hen an opportunity 

 to escape. As will be noted in the illustration, these chicken 

 colony coops are arranged in rows a short distance apart, 

 so that the field of them has an appearance of a tiny village 

 with parallel streets or avenues. 



As evidence of the' low death rate of chicks cared for 

 under these conditions, Mr. Almy told us of the experience 

 of one of his neighbors, a Captain Seabury, a retired mariner, 

 who put out 840 chicks in one field and took in 808 of them 

 when sufficiently grown to occupy the laying houses. 



A little more than half of the laying stock each year is 

 replaced with home-grown pullets. Very few fowls older 

 than yearlings are retained, except a few exceptionally good 

 two-year-olds for breeding purposes; this means active cull- 

 ing in the late summer before the birds begin to molt heavily. 

 All of these culled fowls are sold at the door and such hens 

 sell for from 10 to 14 cents per pound alive. 



Alongside of each of the colony laying houses is a slatted 

 box or berry crate into which broody hens are put as soon 

 as they are discovered on the nest at night. A few days 

 confinement in this box serves to soon cure them of the 

 broody habit. For the most part they get no food while so 

 confined, but occasionally at feeding time may receive a 

 small handful of grain if they have been confined some time. 



Egg Yield and Froflts 



We were unable to get exact figures as to the egg yield 



