PRAIRIE FARMER'S POULTRY BOOK 



The first essential to success with poultry, particularly 

 in winter egg production, is a good poultry house. This is 

 one of the obstacles in the way of a tenant farmer who starts 

 out to increase his income by the poultry route. Chester 

 Winsor solves this problem in a way that is open to almost 

 any tenant farmer. He started with an old shed that was of 

 little value. With a few dollars' worth of second-hand lumber 

 he made it into a very good substitute for a high-priced poultry 

 house. The completed building is about 20 feet deep, with 

 an open -front scratching shed to the south, and windows 

 above where the scratching shed joins the rhain building to 

 let sunlight on to the roosts. The outside of the building 

 was covered with brown building paper and painted with tar 

 paint. The completed house is good for several years, and 

 is as warm and comfortable as any laying hen could ask for. 

 A month or two of winter eggs will pay the entire cost. 



Dirt Floor O. K. 

 The house is large enough for 100 hens, which is about 

 the size of the winter laying flock. It has. a dirt floor, which 

 is as good as any, Chester says, if it is kept dry. A trench 

 around the outside of the house carries away the surface water. 

 The floor is kept well bedded with dry straw. The front of 

 the house is open, covered only with wire netting. "It might 

 be an advantage to have curtains to let down in zero weather," 

 Chester says. "I haven't felt the need of them yet, however. 

 There are no side or rear openings, so there is never any 

 draft, and in the rear, where the fowls roost, it is always warm." 



The Bill of Fare 



Mrs. Winsor uses a prepared dry mash for her laying 

 hens, and a prepared chick feed for the small chickens. The 

 rest of the ration is home-grown feed — skim milk, corn, wheat, 

 with sprouted oats and mangels for green feed. 



"One of the biggest elements of success in the poultry 

 business is a healthy flock." says Mrs. Winsor. "Proper care 

 and feeding, and a poultry house that is free from drafts and 

 vermin, are necessary to good health. I have a neighbor whose 

 poultry crop is almost a failure this year in spite of good care. 

 The trouble is low vitality caused by a siege of roup in the 

 breeding flock last winter. She would have been money ahead 

 if she had sold the whole flock last spring and bought baby 

 chicks or hatching eggs." 



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