1899 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
683 
INDOOR CHICKEN COOPS. 
The Madam is quite an enthusiast (in 
a small way) about fine, well-bred 
chickens, and has a flock of Plymouth 
Rocks that, scored from the egg type of 
hens, are hard to excel. But the trouble 
has been with the chicks; they would 
die in considerable numbers when small, 
and lice were very troublesome. All 
sorts of remedies were tried; movable 
coops provided, so that they could be 
on fresh turf daily, but it was all much 
the same. Three years ago a hen stole 
her nest overhead in the big cow barn, 
and after hatching, she was left there 
with her brood for three weeks or more. 
There was plenty of orts, straw, and the 
like on the floor, and as the floor was 
tight, with no place for the chicks to 
tumble through, the hen was fed there, 
and kicked straw with her chicks the 
rest of the time. Not a chick died, the 
diseases were not heard of, the louse 
was unheeded, and their growth was re¬ 
markable. At length the brood was 
given liberty, and they all came to full 
growth. Since then the chickens have 
had this floor over the cows each Spring, 
and with good results. This year sev¬ 
eral hens were set the same morning, 
and in due time one hen was given the 
combined broods. She had a great time 
adopting them, but made a great success 
of it, and when the chicks were 26 days 
old, they were given the liberty of the 
yard and lawn, and not one was missing 
from the original number. Is 'it a fact 
that the diseases of chicks are largely 
due to outdoor contact with the ground? 
The Madam says no more outdoor coop¬ 
ing for her birds. Is she right? j. g. 
latter. To sum it up, the nitrogenous 
fowls gave more than four times as 
much net profit as the others. 
In regard to the effect of the different 
rations upon the hatching of the eggs, 
the per cent of infertile eggs was more 
than twice as great from the carbon¬ 
aceous fowls, while the fertile eggs did 
not hatch so well as those from the ni¬ 
trogenous lot. It was observed, too, 
that the nitrogenous eggs hatched from 
six to 12 hours quicker than the car¬ 
bonaceous eggs under the same condi¬ 
tions. The chicks were, also, stronger 
and more vigorous. The eggs from the 
carbonaceous fowls were found to be 
smaller than those from the other lot, 
after the experiment had progressed for 
some time. Both lots remained healthy 
and vigorous. The same experiment 
was duplicated the following year, using 
White Leghorn pullets and hens, with 
practically the same results. 
Comparative tests of fowls kept in 
floored and unfloored pens, showed the 
best results from the latter. This is sur¬ 
prising in view of the fact that the 
ground was a damp clay. The only ex¬ 
planation is that the unfloored were 
warmer than the floored houses. It is 
recommended, however, that if floors be 
not used, the houses be filled in and 
made dry underfoot. 
In the tests to show the effect of age 
upon, egg production, White and Brown 
Leghorn hens three and four years old 
were used to compare with pullets of the 
same breeds. The pullets did not quite 
equal the hens in egg production, but 
they gained 143 pounds in weight, while 
the old hens gained 84 pounds. 
• POUL TR Y EX PER I MEN TS. 
Bulletin No. 60, from the West Vir¬ 
ginia Experiment Station (Morgan¬ 
town), details, under this head, the re¬ 
sults of two years’ work with poultry. 
The principal topics discussed are: 1. 
The effect of nitrogenous and carbon¬ 
aceous rations when fed to laying hens. 
2. Floored vs. unfloored houses for poul¬ 
try. 3. The effect of the age of fowls 
upon egg production. 
In regard to the first, an experiment 
was planned in order to study the effect 
of those two classes of food upon the 
health of the fowls, the cost of the ra¬ 
tion, the egg yield, the fertility and vi¬ 
tality of the eggs, and the strength, vigor 
and size of the resulting chickens. Three 
breeds were selected—White Leghorns, 
Light Brahmas and Rhode Island Reds. 
Each breed was divided into two similar 
lots, which were placed under exactly 
identical conditions except the food sup¬ 
plied to them. Both lots of fowls were 
fed each morning a ration of ground 
feed, mixed either witu boiled potatoes 
or steamed clover hay. The grain mix¬ 
ture for the nitrogenous lot consisted of 
brown middlings, oil meal, ground oats 
and corn meal, in varying proportions. 
The carbonaceous lot received corn meal 
chiefly. At noon, the nitrogenous fowls 
received a ration of ground fresh meat 
and bone, which was fed daily at the 
rate of from five to eight pounds per 100 
fowls. At night, both lots of fowls were 
fed all the whole grain they would eat 
clean, consisting of corn, oats and wheat 
screenings, the corn predominating for 
the carbonaceous lot. 
Farm Ice Cream.— Our friend, Fre Pat¬ 
ton, of Jewett, Ohio, is one of the farmers 
who find it more profitable to sell cream 
frozen than in any other shape. This is 
what he says in his circular: 
“Cornstarch and its numerous imita¬ 
tions, sold under various names, will make 
cream that will stand up all day without 
ice, which is the stiff cream sold by many. 
Our cream is unadulterated in every way, 
using only the products of our farm, ex¬ 
cept sugar and flavoring extracts, in the 
entire process of manufacturing. We do 
not cook cream except for chocolate, and 
then scald only sufficient to dissolve the 
chocolate. Our cream, properly packed 
each day, will keep 10 days without chang¬ 
ing flavor, and possibly longer.’' 
Poultry Notes.— Most writers, if they 
ever have a success in raising a crop or 
in any other line, keep that forever at the 
front, and avoid telling of their failures. 
This has been a very hard year to secure 
good hatches of chicks from the eggs of 
almost any breed; but our professional 
breeders are not telling that side of the 
story, for publication. In talking with 
one breeder, he stated that he had had 
hard luck this year, that only a small per 
cent of the eggs were fertile. He had se¬ 
cured 200 chicks from 1,400 eggs. He used 
both incubator and hens. My own experi¬ 
ence gave me about one-flfth as many 
chicks as eggs. April 1, I had 23 hens, 12 
Silver Wyandottes and 11 mongrels. To 
August 1, I had 104 dozen eggs; these aver¬ 
aged 16 cents per dozen, and their feed 
had cost me $6.75. I have 24 R. C. Black 
Minorca chicks, seven S. Wyandottes, seven 
Anconas, 10 B. P. Rocks, and nine half- 
breed Wyandottes. I have talked with 
several breeders, and they have assured 
me that I had succeeded quite as well as 
they. I am too busy to make much of 
poultry, but aim to give a variety of food 
and plenty of fresh water to drink, and 
let them do the rest. j. m. s. 
Broome Co., N. Y. 
Save the Skim-Milk. 
Tables are given for each of seven 30- Farmers are beginning to 
day periods, showing the amount and realize that practically all 
kind of food consumed by the different of the fertilizing value of 
pens, also the weights of the fowls in milk is in the skim-milk, 
the different pens at the beginning and and none of it in the 
end of the experiment. The weights cream. To keep the skim- 
were very nearly the same at the begin- milk at home,use a Safety 
ning, but a surprising thing is that, Hand Separator. This 
while the nitrogenous fowls gained in skim-milk is worth 22 
weight 354 pounds, the cartnnaceous lot cents a 100 pounds for 
gained only 34 pounds. The former feed. Better save it. This plan saves 
gained in weight more than 10 times as all the fertility on the farm. You can’t 
much as the latter. The nitrogenous lot afford to sell your fertility. Catalogue 
also laid nearly twice as many eggs as No. 25 free. 
the corn-fed lot. It cost about 10 per The Sharpies Co., P. M. SHARPLES. 
cent more to feed the former than the & Washington Sts., Westchester,^, 
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Western Offices: 
Randolph &. Canal Sts. 
CHICAGO. 
General Offices: 
74 CORTLANDT STREET, 
NEW YORK. 
Branch Offices: 
1102 Arch Street, 
PHILADELPHIA. 
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Make More Butter. 
Increase each cow’s profits 
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