PART II. PRODUCTION 



CHAPTER IV 

 THE POULTRY KEEPER'S PROBLEMS 



The poultry keeper, as distinguished from the breeder and 

 fancier, is the producer of poultry and eggs for table purposes, 

 either for home use or for market. Theoretically the poultry keeper 

 should be a breeder, if not a fancier ; but as a matter of fact the 

 proportion who merit that description is insignificant. Broadly 

 considered, the function of the plain poultry keeper is to take the 

 ordinary stocks of poultry as they run, and produce from them the 

 poultry products that the country uses. 



Common tasks of the poultry keeper are easy. In his routine 

 work he finds few things in themselves difficult. The troubles of 

 those who find poultry keeping an unending series of puzzling 

 problems are mostly due to efforts to get certain results with 

 factors which cannot give them, or by the use of unnecessarily 

 complicated methods. 



Hard problems in poultry culture. The complex problems — 

 those which involve a number of comparatively simple matters 

 difficult to adjust to the end desired — are relatively hard. A few 

 examples will show the difference between common (or simple) 

 and complex problems. 



The housing of an ordinary small flock is a simple problem. 

 Equally satisfactory results might be obtained in any of a dozen 

 different types of houses. The arrangement of the houses for a 

 large stock of fowls on a certain piece of land is a complex prob- 

 lem. The arrangement must be adapted to the lay of the land 

 and also to methods of feeding and management. Differences in 

 houses, also, which are immaterial when small numbers are kept 

 may have to be considered when many buildings are used. The 

 feeding of a flock of hens in laying condition is a simple matter ; 



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