THE POULTRY YARD. 



The Best Site for a poultry-yard is a dry piece of 

 ground having a southern or southeastern exposure, and 

 being protected by buildings, high, tight fences or 

 evergreen screens at the north and west sides. Failure 

 is pretty certain on level clay soil. Drainage, preferably 

 natural, is indispensable. 



Plant Fruit-Trces in Poultry-Yards.— As soon as 

 the weather opens, set out peach trees in the poultry- 

 yard. They will not rob the hens of any room, and will 

 assist in providing shade after they grow. The hens 

 will also protect the trees to a certain extent, by keeping 

 down insects, weeds and grass, and the manure from 

 the hens will be washed into the soil for the support 

 of the trees. A poultry-yard can just ae well be used 

 for supplying peaches as eggs, and the reason peach trees 

 are suggested is because they grow rapidly. — Farm and 

 Fireside. 



Small Eggs are often the result of overfeeding, es- 

 pecially with corn and other starchy food, when the fowls 

 are not laying. If the birds are overfat, give no more 

 food of a starchy nature. 



Thinning Out the Flocks. — Every male bird not 

 needed for breeding purposes is a damage. The sooner 

 you get rid of these " weeds," like superfluous plants in 

 the garden, the better. Hens will lay as well without 

 as with males, and the eggs will be better and keep better. 

 Males in that case are only useless eaters and destroyers 

 of the peace in the yards. If eggs are desired for hatch- 

 ing, one male to 20 hens is better than two or three. 

 Eggs will usually hatch better and make stronger chicks. 

 Our best hatches and strongest chicks came from a flock 

 consisting of over 40 hens and only one rooster, all of the 

 black langshan breed, and having unlimited range. 

 People as a rule are not discriminating enough in the se- 

 lection of breeding stock. We shonld pick out from 

 among our best hens the best layers and most perfect 

 birds otherwise, and put them apart from the rest, keep- 

 ing the best male with them for a day or so every week, and 

 feeding them reasonably well with a variety of food, but 

 not excessively. Then use their eggs for hatching. This 

 common-sense plan, if generally followed, would soon 

 result in a material improvement. 



Poultry- Manure. — Now clean out the hen-roosts. 

 Put the stuff where it will do the most good. As a top- 

 dressing in the garden, put on after plowing and before 

 harrowing, it is the right thing in the right place. You 

 can use it pretty freely without fear of injuring land or 

 crops, if you only mix it well with the soil. Clean out 

 every corner in the buildings and sheds and let none of 

 the material go to waste. 



Oyster-Shells for Laying Hens. — A series of experi- 

 ments recently made at the Agricultural Experiment Sta- 

 tion, Geneva, N. Y., seems to show that the feeding of 

 oyster-shells during the laying season is to be recom- 

 mended. One pound contains lime enough for the shells 

 of about seven dozen eggs. Fine gravel containing lime- 

 stone will probably as well supply the deficiency of lime 

 existing in most foods, but the use of some sharper grit 



with it may be of advantage. Long or sharp splinters of 

 glass or dry bone should be avoided. The size of the 

 particles of grit had, for hens, better be larger than that 

 of a kernel of wheat and smaller than a kernel of corn. 

 An unlimited supply of pounded glass has been attended 

 with no bad results when the food and other grit available 

 to the fowls contained an abundance of lime, but when 

 the food was deficient in lime, and no other grit was at- 

 tainable, hens ate injuriously large amounts of glass. 



Cost of Raising Chicks. — Under ordinary conditions 

 chicks ought to be hatched, making a fair allowance for 

 value of eggs and food for sitting hens, at a cost of less 

 than five cents apiece. The highest cost per pound gain 

 during any week, while growing chicks to 3,!^ pounds 

 average weight, was less than seven cents, and the 

 cost averaged much less than six cents. At the prices 

 generally obtained, the growth was certainly a profitable 

 one. With chicks having the liberty of the fields it seems 

 reasonable to expect a still cheaper production of meat, 

 and it would appear that a profitable use for some of the 

 skim-milk of the farm would be in the growing of chicks 

 for home use or for market. An unlimited supply of 

 sweet skim-milk can apparently be given to chicks with 

 advantage, but sour milk must be fed with caution. 

 Where sour milk only is available it is best to coagulate 

 thoroughly by moderate heating, and feed only the curd, 

 straining out as much of the whey as possible. — Btdlciin 

 A^. y. Agricultural Ex-periment Staliou. 



What to Feed. — The morning ration for fowls that 

 kept them healthy and in good laying condition through 

 spring and summer has been ; One-third each of oats, 

 wheat-bran and chopped corn, mixed and dampened to 

 mealiness. Since moulting began, a tablespoonful of lin- 

 seed meal is added for every 15 birds, and three or four 

 nails are kept in the drinking-water. Table-scraps are 

 given the middle of the afternoon and the fowls are 

 allowed to forage for themselves in a grassy yard the rest 

 of the day. When cold weather comes they will be given 

 another feed of whole corn before going to roost. Not 

 a case of cholera or overfatness has occurred in this 

 flock, and the egg-production has been surprising.— 

 Tribune. 



Profitable Egg- Production. — There is money in 

 supplying near-by city markets with fresh eggs. If you 

 can guarantee them fresh, you can get several cents more 

 than the market price, and if you can supply choice city 

 customers direct with choice eggs, you will have no fault 

 to find with the poultry business. — Ex. 



Managing Chicks in Brooders. — When they have 

 good appetites, but have leg-weakness, still otherwise ap- 

 pear lively, it denotes rapid growth and is not necessarily 

 fatal. Feed the chicks on clean surfaces or in little troughs; 

 never leave food to ferment. Clean off the brooders and 

 floors daily. Keep dry earth in the corner of the brood- 

 er-house for the chicks to dust in. When you see the 

 chicks busy and scratching it is a sign of thrift. A single 

 night may ruin all. Never let the brooder become cold 

 for an hour. Once the chicks get chilled they never fully 

 recover. — P. IF Jacobs. 



