CHAPTER II 



Housing and Appliances 



Automatic Feeders 



For regular and scientific feeding commend me to the 

 automatic feeders. We read so much in the press and poultry- 

 journals of directions of how and when to feed, and the 

 quantity to feed for so many birds in a flock, that the author 

 is not loath to take exception to these notions as being 

 entirely wrong, and will give his reasons for so doing. 



These reasons will apply equally as well to the small 

 poultryman, keeping a few hens as a side issue, as to the large 

 poultryman who depends on the business for his livelihood. 

 In the first place, we cannot put ourselves in the place of the 

 hens, and judge how much feed they need. If we attempt 

 to do so, we, in effect, say to a certain individual hen that 

 she needs, say two ounces of grain, at a certain feed ; when, 

 if she could speak, she would probably tell us, that on that 

 particular day she needed another half an ounce, without which 

 she could not lay an egg next day. For quantity of feed, "Ask 

 the birds, their judgment is good." 



As stated before, regularity in feeding is essentially nec- 

 essary for success, and with this measured hand feeding a 

 poultryman or his family is tied down to the fowls, or fowls 

 suffer as a consequence at times, when they miss a meal ; the 

 small poultryman is away from home, the good wife out 

 shopping, train or street car is delayed, dusk arrives and the 

 fowls go supperless to roost. This results in a sudden and 

 protracted break in egg yield. 



The same way with the larger poultryman — he cannot be 

 away on business, and fail to reach home without serious 

 consequences. 



With automatic feeders, conditions are entirely different. 

 The fowl's have plenty to eat as long as daylight lasts, if only 

 their caretakers have filled their feeders before leaving home. 

 Feeders furnish exercise as well as feed, and the amount of 

 exercise can be regulated by adjustments on most of the 



