1901 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
i5t 
POULTRY OR THE PACIFIC COAST. 
A SioAucJH FOK Fobtune. —We were 
city people who had read chicken notes 
and farm notes, but not Hope Farm 
Notes, giving failures as well as suc¬ 
cesses. We were weary of drawing a 
salary of $80 a month at light employ¬ 
ment in town when we could easily 
make a fortune on a farm raising 
chickens and fruit. We didn't find 
things just as we expected, but we will 
work out the problem to a successful 
finish. I suppose we have an ideal place 
for chickens: dry, gravelly soil, with 
a deposit on the shore line (of Puget 
Sound) of clam shells—in places these 
are three feet deep. Undoubtedly the 
point is an old Indian camp, as we find 
some of their rude cooking utensils bur¬ 
ied in the shells. 
Tejtdeb Plymouth Rocks. —Our first 
mistake was in beginning with Ply¬ 
mouth Rocks. We knew that they were 
a success in the East, but here the 
young chickens are not hardy enough 
to stand our moist climate, and more 
than half of them would die just as they 
i)egan to feather out. The first year 
we cleared just $12 and decided to try 
some other breed. People here praised 
the Wyandottes, and we found them 
somewhat better, but like the Plymouth 
Rocks, great eaters and small layers; 
that year was some gain, but mostly in 
the way of experience. I think our real 
success began when we got some pure 
lloudan cocks. Our chicken book said 
that they were very popular in France 
on account of being hardy in the moist 
climate. The cross on our Wyandottes 
and Leghorns (we had sold all the Ply¬ 
mouth Rocks), proved to be a great suc¬ 
cess, and we had good layers, lost no 
young chickens except as they were 
caught by hawks, skunks, minks and 
rats. We found we had to have vermin- 
proof houses, so the chickens were safe 
at night. In the day the chickens are 
often carried away by minks. They get 
very bold about their stealing; I have 
caught minks running off with pullets 
nearly old enough to lay 
A Brahma Cross. —I have tried some 
of the pure breeds, but as there is no 
demand around us for fancy stock, I 
think I get better layers by using pure¬ 
bred cocks. I now use the Buff Leg¬ 
horns and Dark or Light Brahma cocks, 
the latter for only a month in early 
Spring to insure plenty of sitters. I 
have thought the Leghorn more of a 
Summer layer and some of the Brahma 
blood has, I think, increased our Win¬ 
ter production of eggs. Still, I was 
tempted to think your correspondents 
had overdrawn a little, not intentional¬ 
ly, perhaps, but guessed at results when 
they gave such a large per cent of their 
flocks laying during the Winter. My 
flock did better than our neighbors, but 
during October and November they only 
pay for their feed and clear about $1 a 
week, and 150 hens now (February 10) 
lay about 45 eggs a day, at 25 
cents a dozen. It costs just 35 
cents a day for feed. The best record 
I have made yet was for six months 
beginning April 1, 1900; with 90 hens 
1 cleared $13.40 a month, besides raising 
to laying age 75 pullets, which I suppose 
might be rated at 50 cents apiece, al¬ 
though they would not bring that sold 
by weight. This would make the 
monthly average $6,25 more, or $19.65. 
I find in looking my books over that 35 
hens were set, 15 eggs to a hen, or 525 
eggs to produce 75 pullets. The number 
of roosters sold was 70 at 25 cents a- 
piece, sold when they weighed from two 
to 21^ pounds, but at the price of wheat, 
$1 to $1.25 per 100 pounds, and corn 
$1.40 per 100, the profit, if any, is very 
small on raising chickens for market. 
The Feed Questio.x. —Why don’t we 
raise our own feed, you ask? Some 
time we may, but we took our 40 acres 
about eight years ago in the state of 
nature, heavily timbered; no one but 
those who have seen our timber can 
appreciate what that means. It has 
taken some time and hard work to get 
slashing done, the large trees sawed 
down, and then the land logged off, and 
clover and orchards planted. The hens 
have the run of three acres of orchard, 
and as our climate is very mild there 
is not much time in the Winter* when 
the hens can’t help themselves to all the 
green feed they want, grass, clover and 
turnip tops. Sunflowers do finely here; 
we have raised a few for two years, and 
will try more this year. When we had 
them to feed the hens didn’t stop laying 
during moulting time; however, we shall 
have to depend on buying the bulk of 
our chicken feed for some years. 
The Early Pullets are the most pi’O- 
fitable, so the first hens I put 18 eggs 
under; at the end of four days tested 
out the infertile ones, which are good 
to feed, and that generally left the hen 
15 fertile eggs. By setting two hens 
at the same time I could then give the 
chickens from the two to the best 
mother, and have the other hen laying 
soon. A fair-sized hen can as easily 
care for 25 chickens, or even 30 as a 
small brood, if you provide warm quar¬ 
ters for her at night. We put the hens 
with chickens in one good-sized hen¬ 
house; after being shut in there for 
two days in coop when the chickens are 
first hatched, the hen will generally go 
back of her own accord. If not a little 
attention at night will soon learn them 
to go there. They seemed to keep warm 
nights; if a chicken didn’t find room 
under its own mother it would adopt 
one for the night. Daytimes it made 
the young flocks run together more, and 
if a hawk came around four or five hens 
would warn the little ones to hide while 
they fought the enemy, and generally 
they made such a fuss that Mr. Hawk 
forgot his errand. I made a box out 
of slats so as to keep the hens from lit¬ 
tle chicken’s feed, and still allow the 
small ones to go under. Three times 
a day I would fill their boxes with clean 
feed and the chickens can help them¬ 
selves whenever they are hungry. They 
also soon help themselves to wheat 
which is out for the grown chickens. 
My chicken book said that the little 
ones must be fed every hour. At that 
rate I couldn’t keep any, as the chicken 
business is my knitting work, and I 
believe they do just as well if they are 
not fussed with all the time. See every 
morning that shallow drinking pans are 
clean and give them plenty of whole 
grain to grind. Don’t deal out just 
what thoy shall or can have; give over, 
and they will take the right amount at 
the right time. 
Insects. —I have had a constant fight 
with the little red mites; have sprayed 
the chicken houses with whitewash, 
with kerosene emulsion; painted the 
roosts with kerosene, fumigated with 
sulphur, and with the best I could do 
the mites kept on living. Enough of 
them seemed to pull through to stock 
up as well as ever. For two months I 
have been using concentrated lye, one 
can to three pailfuls of water. That 
goes over the three houses, and it cer¬ 
tainly kills whatever it touches; it is 
the best of anything I have tried yet. 
I use just after cleaning out the drop¬ 
pings, and in the morning, so the houses 
have time to dry before the hens go to 
roost. The flock is just as healthy as 
they were before I used it. Once after 
we had been spraying the orchard with 
Bordeaux Mixture we drove up to the 
chicken houses and gave them a thor¬ 
ough spraying, but I could see at once 
that the flock was made less vigorous, 
and the mites throve as well as ever, 
so it was not tried again. I don't see 
why so many recommend feeding pep¬ 
per in warm mash. Whenever I do so 
I keep losing hens; on opening them 
the liver will be extremely large and 
diseased. As soon as I stop the pepper 
the chickens are free from disease, and 
I will not lose one for months. A good 
safe tonic is chopped onions, i have a 
large chopping bowl in which I put 
cold boiled potatoes and raw onions, 
chop fine, and mix with equal bulk of 
bran and the hens thrive on it. 
Washington. mrs. kii’tie grant. 
0 $3000 STOCK BOOK U 
■ -a FBEE!w 
POSTAGE 
PREPAID 
This Book is 
6H by 9K 
contains I s 8 
LtnCE COLOR. 
EB ENORAVL\G.S 
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over $3000.00. 
It gives a his¬ 
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cription oi 
each breed ol 
Horses, Cattle, 
Sheep, Hogs 
and Poultry. 
It oontains a 
valuable and 
very fin ely 
II lustrated 
V eterinary 
Department. 
BAILED FREE 
if you _ answer 
_ 4 questione: 
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A 
ROOFING 
FOR 
YOUR 
POULTRY 
HOUSES 
should be absolutely air-tight, to protect 
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That is one reason why 
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Roofing is so generally used by poultry 
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