Vol. LXI. No. 2715 
NEW YORK, FEBRUARY 8, 1902 
$1 PER YEAR 
" THE CHICKEN BUSINESS 
HELPFUL HINTS ABOUT THE AMERICAN HEN. 
Ten Years Experience with Fowls. 
Moving from a Pennsylvania railroad town to a 
forsaken Virginia plantation, I took up the raising 
of chickens for pleasure, as I have ever had a love 
for all feathered creatures. My first year’s experience 
was anything but encouraging. I bought 10 common 
pullets and a purebred Plymouth Rock cockerel, and 
hatched 150 chicks. Gapes was very bad on this old 
infected soil, but by the careful use of horsehair loops 
we were able to get most of the little red worms out 
of the chicks’ throats. In some cases there would be 
several of these hideous pests to be taken out at a 
time. When the chicks were a few weeks old a mink 
and some rats killed over 30. We caught both. In 
September when they were about five months old, 
some of my colored neighbors (who also had a love 
foi chicken meat) relieved me of 50 one dark night. 
We did not catch them. That Fall 
we bought a small farm 10 miles 
from Washington, D. C. It was a 
cold Winter, with the temperature 
'way below zero for days at a time. I 
used an old smokehouse for my 
fowls; it was warm but had no light. 
With extra care and all the skim- 
milk from two cows I had plenty of 
eggs to sell when they were 50 cents 
a dozen, and few of my neighbors 
had any at that time. 
I have had different breeds; Barred 
P. Rocks, White P. Rocks, Buff 
Cochins and Brahmas, but for eggs 1 
like the Plymouth Rock and Leghorn 
cross best. I have always had trou¬ 
ble with the larger breeds getting too 
fat. I have raised every year from 
50 to 200, and never had a little chick 
die, except by accident, and of the 
half dozen old hens that have died 
four were found dead under the roost 
after eating a hearty supper and go¬ 
ing to bed well, and two died of old 
age. Since leaving Virginia I have 
lived in New Jersey. Here I have built 
a good henhouse, except for the mis¬ 
take of putting too much glass in the 
roof, which makes it too hot in Sum¬ 
mer and too cold in Winter. The 
glass should be on the south side, 
and not much of it. I feed as regu¬ 
larly as I eat my own meals. In the 
morning equal measures bran and cornmeal, and all 
the scraps from the table; at noon mixed grain, corn, 
oats and wheat, and at night the same, except in cold 
weather, when they get whole corn, and warm water 
three times a day. In pleasant weather they have 
their liberty two or three hours each day. 
I can imagine how irksome it would be for those 
who do not like hens to give them the proper care. 
1 do not consider it work, but a pleasure, just the 
same as one who loves flowers or fancywork. It is 
interesting to me to watch them. They are like peo¬ 
ple; some of them have a sad disposition, others 
comical, and others a decided temper. They are the 
ones that fill the egg basket. In our little town I 
often pass yard after yard of half-starved chickens. 
Much of the little food that is fed to them is lost, 
they certainly cannot lay, and are scarcely fit to eat, 
When we really become civilized we shall be kind to 
our dumb animals. We should never forget how help¬ 
less they are, having no language by which to express 
their feelings or needs, and how absolutely dependent 
on us they are. Statement for 1901 for 25 hens: 
Dr. Cr. 
800 lbs. corn .$10.44 252 doz. eggs, average 
300 lbs. wheat . 4.30 price, 23c.$57.96 
200 lbs. oats . 2.25 18 broilers, 45c. 8.10 
250 lbs. bran . 2.87 12 hens . 7.20 
300 lbs. cornmeal . 3.64 - 
- Total .$73.26 
Total .$23.40 Profit .$49.86 
I have always been proud of my hens and their egg 
record, but since reading Mrs. Smith’s article in The 
R. N.-Y., page 819, I feel less inclined to boast of 
them. The picture, Fig. 33, shows a familiar but 
scarcely profitable little pet—a dainty little bantam 
over five years old. She does not lay, but at times 
crows furiously. She is as tame as a kitten, and is 
never so much at ease as when nestling in a friendly 
hand. s. v. f. 
The Feed and Exercise Question. 
I keep 500 hens, and intend increasing to 2,000 or 
3,000, and so am interested in the account given by 
L. J. W., and of course Mr. Mapes as well. I have ex- 
A HANDFUL OF BANTAM HEN. Fig. 33. 
perimented with hens a great many years, and am of 
the opinion that it is quite immaterial how a hen is 
led so long as she has a good liberal ration consisting 
of mixed grains, clover and a certain amount of meat, 
milk or cut bone. In fact, most poultrymen agree 
with this, but each one seems to have a way of his 
own of dealing it out to them which, I think, makes 
but little difference. This is what the readers of The 
R. N.-Y. would like to know: Do any of these men, 
and especially Mr. Underwood, who gets so many 
eggs, feed anything in the way of powders, condi¬ 
ments, charcoal, soda, copperas, sulphur, salts, ginger 
or any such thing? Do they parch corn for them, etc.? 
If they feed any such stuff we would like to know 
just what it is, and just how much they feed. 1 
think no flock of hens can be crowded haru fcr eggs 
and keep in a healthy condition on feed alone. I 
think they must have more or less of something in 
the way of medicine, and isn’t it possible that this 
is the reason why some men get a good many eggs 
while others get a few or none at all, and yet seem in 
a general way to be feeding about the same? Doesn’t 
keeping the hens healthy by feeding something of 
this kind make the difference? 
Here is another thing worthy of note: You notice 
Mr. Underwood has no place for his hens to scratch. 
Also, L. J. W. says when he had 1,100 hens one Win¬ 
ter they had very little opportunity for scratching, 
and yet did the best of any lot he has had since. A 
man near me has 90 hens doing better than Mr. Un¬ 
derwood’s, and they have no place for scratching, and 
he keeps them in a very ordinary house with but little 
room. I have plenty of room for my hens to scratch, 
keep the floor covered with dry litter, keep the houses 
well cleaned, scatter whole grain and make them 
work for it, besides doing my best otherwise, and 
still my hens are only doing fairly well, and hardly 
that in first-class houses. Would this go to prove that 
we can overdo the scratching business? When the 
weather is fine and hens are not kept in houses much 
they do very little scratching, and yet lay the best 
they ever do. c. n. r. 
Canton, Pa. 
R. N.-Y.—At the Utah Experiment 
Station the Leghorns that were not 
obliged to exercise did as well as 
those that were obliged to scratch. 
We have not settled this point. 
NURSERY FOR BABY PIGEONS. 
While looking up home employ¬ 
ment for the women folks why not 
try raising squabs for market? I be¬ 
lieve I have not seen it mentioned as 
one of the possible means of earning 
pin money, and judging from my ex¬ 
perience, I think they would be as 
well paid for the labor carihg for 
them as anything they can do on the 
the farm. 1 have been breeding 
squabs for market about 15 years, 
keeping several hundred breeders 
the greater part of the time, and find 
them fully as profitable as poultry, 
and at tne same time they require 
rather less care, and, I think, as a 
rule, they are less liable to loss from 
disease. There are few farms on 
which there is not some portion of a 
building or loft which would answer 
for a few pairs of breeders, as they 
are not very particular as to their 
dwelling. The principle require¬ 
ments are that it shall be reasonably 
warm and dry. Any old building that has a good roof 
may be lined with building paper to keep it warm at 
a slight cost. 
A room about 15 feet square, with an outside fly 
about 15x20 feet, covered with wire netting, will do 
nicely for about 50 pairs of breeders. When sparrows 
are troublesome it will pay to use netting fine enough 
to keep them out, as you will soon save enough feed 
to offset the increased cost. There should be two nest 
boxes, not less than eight or 10 inches square, pro¬ 
vided for each pair of breeders. These may be of any 
style and put up in any way as best suits the con¬ 
venience of the attendant, as the birds are easily 
suited as to their furnishings. Empty boxes can 
usually be obtained from the grocers that will an¬ 
swer the purpose and be much cheaper than making 
them. If you can select boxes 18 to 24 inches long 
and eight to 12 inches deep, each box will make a 
home for one pair of birds. By putting a partition 
in they may have a nest at either end, and a board 
about five inches wide should be nailed across the 
