Vol. LXVII. No. 3033. NEW YORK, MARCH 14, 1908. weekly, $i.oo per year. 
ONE MAN’S POULTRY JOB. 
With Everything To Do With. 
THE MODEL PLANT.—After a 
lecture that I delivered to a poultry 
club, the question was asked: “Plow 
many roaster chickens can one man 
raise, and raise his own eggs?” My 
reply was that with everything to do 
with, one can can raise from 5.000 to 
7,000 chickens up to roaster size, ac¬ 
cording to the success lie has, and take 
care of 400 hens, which ought to give 
him the necessary eggs and some to 
spare. I am now asked how this can be 
done, and in reply would say that I hope 
that all who read this article will not 
forget or overlook the italics, everything 
to do with, which means that there is 
no building to do and nothing to make 
excepting the general repairs, and that 
one has all of the labor-saving devices 
of a modern up-to-date plant. There 
should be one or two henhouses of suffi¬ 
cient size to hold the 400 liens, and so 
arranged with a walk on the back 
that one can step into each pen easily. 
Running water is a labor saver in all 
except freezing weather. The dropping 
boards should be handy to clean, and 
the nests should be reached from the 
walk. Mixed grains can be bought all 
ready to feed, and also cut clover, 
scraps, grit, oyster shells and charcoal. 
INCUBATORS AND BROODERS. 
—The incubators should have a capacity 
of about .3,000 eggs, and be fitted with 
electric lights of about one candle 
power close to the thermometer, so that 
the mercury can be seen at a glance and 
read correctly; three dry batteries will 
furnish current enough for any number 
of machines, one light at a time, and the 
kerosene barrel should be elevated either 
inside or out and a pipe laid to a con¬ 
venient place for filling the lamps with 
a good-sized faucet, so that a lamp can 
be filled almost instantly. There should 
be two brooder houses, each from 75 to 
100 feet long, plastered overhead at 
least, with a heater of sufficient size, 
and pipes with plenty of radiation and 
a regulator that will accurately regu¬ 
late the heat to any degree required, and 
each pen must be supplied with run¬ 
ning water. These houses have a walk 
on the north side or back (the houses 
facing south) with a low partition be¬ 
tween the walk and the pens, to be 
stepped over, or else there must be 
gates to swing both ways. Then there 
is a feed board 12x24 inches, with a lath 
tacked around the 'edge, so laid that cer¬ 
tain feeds can be thrown on to it from 
‘■he walk. The bottom of the coal bin 
should be on an incline, and so arranged 
that the coal is always right handy to 
that heater. The bottom of the whole 
brooder house should be cemented, walk 
and all. Each house should have 10 or 
12 pens, with the pipes running through 
them all next to the walk. These two 
houses will accommodate from 2,500 to 
3,000 little chicks, and one ought to 
raise from 1,800 to 2,500, up to an age 
THE BROODER HOUSE—NURSERY FOR ROASTERS. Fig. 99. 
THE COLONY HOUSES IN SNOW TIME. Fig. loo. 
AS THE ROASTERS PUT ON SIZE. Fig. 101. 
when they can go out to the colony 
houses, and this should be done three 
times during the season, from August 
1 to May 1. According to the above 
figures this will make from 5,400 to 
7,500 to be carried to tbe colony houses, 
and the mortality is very small after 
this stage is reached, if the foxes, hawks, 
etc., are not too persistent. 
COLONY HOUSES.—The colony 
houses should be about 6x8 feet, which 
will accommodate 50 chicks from the 
brooder to the market, and should have 
a feed hopper near the door that will 
hold a bag of grain, a small box for 
scraps, and another for grit and shells 
and a water vessel. They should be so 
arranged in rows if possible, so that a 
horse will learn to go from one to an¬ 
other readily, and there must be enough 
of them to hold the first two crops from 
the brooders, somewhere from 70 to 
100 according to the number of chicks 
raised. The brooders will hold the third 
crop until the first crop is sold, and then 
these colony houses may be used again. 
There should he a water pressure sup¬ 
ply of some sort for the above water¬ 
ing systems, and also to fill a barrel 
with which to water the colony chicks. 
Of course there must be a horse and 
farm wagon, and this makes the equip¬ 
ment complete. 
THE YEAR’S WORK.—Allowing 
that we have saved a few cases of July 
eggs we will now lay out the work for 
a year, beginning August 1. Get up in 
the morning at six o’clock, feed the 
horse and the hens and turn the eggs 
in the incubators before breakfast is 
ready. Feeding the hens is done by tak¬ 
ing sufficient grain in a bag on your 
shoulder and going through one house 
of six pens and back through another 
of the same size, and scattering said 
grain in the litter; then take another 
bag with a dry mash and go through 
again, and put the necessary amount in 
boxes provided for the purpose; time 
for both trips 25 minutes; then turn the 
eggs, which will take from two to three 
minutes to each machine. Eight 
machines will be sufficient at the most, 
and they will not all be running all of 
the time. The eggs will have to be 
tested twice to each hatch, time one 
hour, and another hour will carry out a 
hatch of chickens and reset the machine, 
which takes two hours to each machine 
setting, every three weeks. Clean out 
the horse stall and curry the horse, 
when breakfast should be ready. The 
water should be placed in the farm 
wagon and a hose led to it from the 
water system ancf allowed to fill while 
some of the above chores were being 
done, so that after breakfast, say from 
7.45 to eight o’clock, you harness into 
the farm wagon, and after putting on 
what grain, scraps, grit and shells you 
will need, you start for the colony 
houses, which have got your 400 pullets 
and several cockerels for the coming 
season, and the barrel being fitted with 
a two-inch molasses faucet it does not 
