VOL. LIII. No. 2317. 
NEW YORK, JUNE 23. 1894. 
$1.00 PER YEAR. 
“HENS BY THE ACRE” ROUNDED UP. 
What the Hens Have Done. 
EGG RKCOIJnS AND LEDGER ACCOUNTS. 
No Longer an Experiment. 
After passing through two winters, the hens have 
settled the fact that a flock of 40 hens can be kept in 
a small, comfortable building out in the fields, and 
given free range through the day just as well as to 
have them bothering around the house or barn to the 
annoyance of the farmer’s family and to the detri¬ 
ment of the garden and flower beds. They have also 
settled the fact that, if the feed is scattered simul¬ 
taneously in all the houses, any number of flocks can 
be thus kept in houses eight or ten rods distant from 
each other, and each hen will go to her own house to 
eat, to lay her eggs, and to roost. 
I started two years ago with the proposition that, 
after a flock of hens was once housed, they would 
ordinarily need attention four times a day: In the 
morning, for giving the morning meal of soft feed 
and opening the door; about 4 p- m. for an evening 
feed of grain; just 
before dark for gath¬ 
ering the eggs, and 
after dark to close 
the door. I proposed 
to reduce the number 
of visits to two by 
scattering the even¬ 
ing feed of grain on 
the floors by means 
of an electric feed 
box and closing the 
doors after dark by 
the same method. 
This proposition is 
no longer an experi¬ 
ment, hut has been 
in daily operation 
successfully for a year 
and a half. I am now 
able to go a step 
further and say that 
the number of visits 
can he reduced to 
one, except in severe 
freezing weather, 
when the eggs are 
likely to freeze dur¬ 
ing the night. 
“How can you man¬ 
age that ? ” said the 
Deacon, to whom I 
happened to mention the fact a few days ago. 
“The only reason why the eggs can not he left in 
the nest over night and gathered next morning when 
I go to open the doors and give them their feed is on 
account of broody hens sitting on the nest over night 
and spoiling the eggs.” 
How Some Eggs are Spoiled. 
“ You don’t pretend to say that a hen can spoil an 
egg in one night, do you ? ” 
“ Most certainly I do. A fertile egg that has been 
under a broody hen for 24 hours, or, say, from one 
morning to the next, is not in perfect condition either 
for eating or for packing. The germ of life will be 
partially developed, and decomposition will set in at 
once. The man to whom I sold my eggs last season, 
sent me back a few eggs with the request to examine 
them carefully and let him know what was the matter 
with them. The only difference I could see between 
them and an egg just laid, was that the whites were a 
trifle thinner, and I so reported. He, however, has a 
powerful reflecting lamp in the tester, and said that 
he frequently found an egg that had a slightly smoky 
appearance that, to his experienced eye, was not just 
right. I knew that every egg was gathered regularly 
each day at about 5 v. m., and was puzzled to know 
what caused the trouble. After racking my brains 
for several days, I happened to think that sometimes 
an egg was laid at night after the eggs were gathered, 
and if a broody hen happened to occupy that nest, she 
would cover the egg till next night, or about 24 hours. 
That was easily tested, so I set a dozen eggs under a 
hen for 24 hours, marked them and sent them down 
with the request to examine carefully with his strong 
light and report. He soon reported that every egg 
had that same smoky appearance, as he called it.” 
“ What did you do about it ?” 
“ Come over to No. 13 where Jesse keeps his flock 
and see for yourself. I have been experimenting with 
automatic nests for nearly a year. My first attempt 
allowed only one hen to occupy the nest at once, but 
the eggs were jolted too much by the hens entering 
or leaving the nest. The next attempt overcame this 
difficulty, and is a success for sotting two or more 
hens side by side in the same room. I have kept 60 at 
work in three rooms all the spring (20 in each room), 
and have hatched over a thousand chicks from them. 
For ordinary laying purposes, however, they require 
too long a box, and occupy too much floor space. This 
last nest, however, suits me for laying purposes, and 
I am putting them in all my new houses.” 
As the Deacon pulled out the little pasteboard bot¬ 
tomed drawers beneath the fine nests in the house, he 
counted 28 nice eggs, all white and clean, which Jes¬ 
se’s 40 hens had laid that day. 
“ Isn’t that nice ? ” said he. 
“ Why! the eggs are just as safe in those little 
drawers over night as they would be in your basket. 
It is impossible for a hen to get the heat of her body 
upon the eggs or to eat them. I believe the trouble 
with most of the eggs that reach market in a spoiled 
condition is caused by the germ being partially de¬ 
veloped before the egg reaches the farmer’s basket.’ 
What the Hens Have Done. 
“Jesse’s flock is looking well. How is he making 
out ? ” 
“ There is his record on the door. The hens were 
hatched in .lane, and up to .lune I we found that he 
had sold $62 88 worth of eggs and roosters, and count¬ 
ing his 40 pullets at .'iO cents each, makes a total of 
$82,88. He has spent $30.20 for feed, and paid 50 cents 
for one pullet to replace one that died, leaving a bal¬ 
ance of $52.18. Me started just a year ago by borrow¬ 
ing 10 sitting hens which he returned as soon as the 
chicks were old enough to wean. That makes a clear 
profit of over $5 per hen in a year, which is very good, 
considering the extremely low prices for eggs of the 
past few months.” 
The Deacon figured on the door a while, and re¬ 
ported that from .lanuary 1 to June 1 they had laid 
2942 eggs. “ Have you any flocks that are doing as 
well ? ” said he. 
“ I have record cards in houses: 1, 8, 9 and 10. 
We will go and see. No. 1 is beginning on its second 
year.” We found that they have laid for the same 
five months 2,417 in 1893, and 2,312 in 1894. 
“That is not as good as Jesse has done,” said the 
Deacon; “but I notice that they did nearly as well 
the second year as they did the first.” 
“We have taken a 
number of them out 
to set this year, or 
they would have done 
equally as well as last 
year. They laid 1,233 
eggs during March 
and April this year, 
and only 1,172 during 
the same two months 
last year as pullets.” 
The flocks in Nos. 
8, 9, and 10 are pul¬ 
lets a few weeks older 
than .lesso’s, and we 
found that they have 
laid for the same five 
months 3,118, 3,021 
and 2,926 respective¬ 
ly, an average of 
3,022. 
“Youtold me when 
you first conceived 
the idea of feeding 
hens by electricity, 
that you believed you 
could mak e this rough 
pasture land pay $100 
a year per acre above 
cost of feed by stock¬ 
ing it with hens and 
get $1 an hour for the 
labor of caring for them. Do actual results come up 
to your expectations in this respect ? ” 
“This is a hard year for a test on account of the 
unusually low prices that have prevailed. I started 
the year with 600 hens, and am keeping strict account 
with them of all sales and feed. I went to the city a 
few days before January 1 to find a market for the 
eggs. The first man whom I approached offered me 
50 per cent in advance on the highest quotations if I 
would guarantee each egg not more than 48 hours old, 
and I came home and looked no further. Up to .Tune 
1 I have received for eggs $531 96, and feed has cost 
$230. In addition to that, I have hatched 1,000 chick¬ 
ens, the most of which have lived, and I still have 60 
hens sitting. The young chickens must be worth at 
least $100, which gives about $100 profit thus far. It 
looks as if they would stand the test even at the low 
prices now prevailing. It requires no more skill to 
feed and care for the old hens tuan to care for a dairy 
of cows. Raising young chickens is where the skill is 
required. My 14-year-old son has often taken the old 
buckboard wagon with $1 30 worth of feed in the 
morning and fed them before school time. They re- 
Crimson Clover. From a Photograph taken in the Field. (See Editorial Page.) Fig. 103. 
