1913. 
9ft5 
The Henyard. 
THE EGG-LAYING CONTEST. 
Th*' thirty-eighth week of the contest 
ending July 24 shows a loss of 50 eggs 
from the previous week’s production. 
The number laid this week was 1.803. 
But last year in the thirty-eighth week 
only 1,613 eggs were laid, or 330 less 
than this year. 
The highest number laid this week was 
20; Frank Toulmin’s English White 
Leghorns and T. W. Burns’ Silver Wyan- 
dottes laid that number. Six pens of 
White Leghorns laid 28; Itigleside 
Farms Co.’s pen, Toms Poultry Farm’s 
pen. Burton E. Moore’s pen. W. L. Slee- 
gur’s pen ; O. A. Foster’s pen, and P. A. 
Keppel’s pen. Smith Bros.’ pen laid 27, 
and Edward Cam’s pen laid 27. Five 
pens of White Leghorns laid 26. the pen 
of Blue Andalusians laid 25, and the Co¬ 
lumbian Wyandottes laid 25. Last week 
the White Leghorns laid 981; this week 
951, showing that they were responsible 
for their proportion of the week's loss. 
Tom Barron’s pen laid 25, their total 
now is 932; Edward Cam’s pen laid 27, 
their total is 851. W. L. Sleegur’s 
American-bred White Leghorns are third 
now with a total of 779. Edward Cam’s 
White Wyandottes are fourth with a 
score of 757; W. P. Canhy’s White leg¬ 
horns total 737; and Braeside Poultry 
Farm’s White Leghorns 725; Frank 
Toulmin’s White Leghorns, 719; Burton 
E. Moore’s White Leghorns, 717; F. A. 
Jones’ White Leghorns, 713; Ballock & 
Burrows’ White Leghorns, 717; Geo. H. 
Schmitz’s Buff Leghorns, 707; Colonial 
Farm’s S. C. R. I. Reds. 707; Joseph ,T. 
Barclay’s White Leghorns, 704. No 
other pens have reached 700. Of the 13 
records of over 700 eggs, 10 are made by 
White Leghorns. 
This is a pretty fair way of compar¬ 
ing the breeds as to egg production ; but 
in my opinion the ration fed is more fa¬ 
vorable to Leghorns than to the larger 
breeds. It seems to be necessary that all 
should be fed and cared for alike, to 
prevent disputes and charges of favorit¬ 
ism, etc. In the next contest there will 
be some experimental pens entered, with 
which different methods of feeding will 
be tried, as is being done now at the 
contest in Missouri. 
t The next contest at Storrs will begin 
November 1; tin 1 number of birds to each 
entry will be 10, instead of five, as in 
this contest. The entry fee is $25. the 
same as before; which means that a 
breeder who has not time to trap-nest his 
birds can have 10 selected ones trap- 
nested for a year for $2.50 each, and it 
they make a good record he has the bene¬ 
fit of the free advertising. Ten dollars 
is to be paid when the entry is sent in 
and the balance by October 1. If any 
entry is diseased or deemed unsuitable 
for any cause, the birds will be returned 
to the owner together with the entry fee. 
Eleven birds should be sent, one to be 
held in reserve to take the place of any 
that might die; and if more than one 
dies, the owner has the privilege of keep¬ 
ing up the full number in the pen. All 
entries must be sent express prepaid to 
Eagleville, Conn., the nearest express 
station to the College, and ought to ar¬ 
rive by October 27. At the end of the 
contest, fowls will be returned to their 
owners with a certified record of the 
egg production of each individual and 
the amount of food consumed by each 
pen. Entries will be accepted from any 
part of this country, or from any for¬ 
eign country. Bantams and ornamental 
fowls will he excluded. Only those breeds 
that produce marketable eggs will be re¬ 
ceived. All eggs weighing less than 1 
ounces will be considered unmarketable. 
All eggs will he sold at best market 
prices, and proceeds used for operating 
expenses. The financial records will be 
open to the inspection of any owner at 
any time, and published in a bulletin at 
the end of the contest. For further in¬ 
formation address Connecticut Agricul¬ 
tural College. Poultry Department, 
Storrs, Conn. gf.o. a. cosgrove. 
• 
IDEAS vs. JUDGMENT. 
Large Flock Brooding of Chicks. 
Some time ago O. W. Mapes gave his 
system of brooding large flocks of chicks. 
Then another writer in The R. N.-Y. 
seemed to think Mr. Mapes was on the 
wrong track.in the large flock idea. A 
short time ago Mr. Geo. A. Cosgrove de¬ 
scribed another large flock system which 
uses coal for heating under the hover. 
There is also another large flock system 
using oil for fuel. The demand is for a 
system that will brood a large flock to 
save labor. It is very hard to work out 
another man’s ideas unless very carefully 
described. About 20 years ago I was 
following the portable colony house idea 
lor hens. I built a house from a model 
given by Prof. Rice. We used some old 
lumber we had and it happened to be 
heavy oak. We hitched on the team and 
they could not draw it. Neither could 
four horses move it. We were simply 
stuck in the mud.” I have been “stuck 
in th • mud” more than once since then. 
But when one gets in the mud too many 
times he begins to think. I have found 
that the man who furnishes the facts 
does not furnish common sense and good 
judgment. 
f u r the February 17. 1906. issue of The 
iv. N.-Y. I read about a gasoline brooder 
by F. Q. White that would brood 
_00 chicks in one flock. That seemed 
like a big story. We built four of them 
THE RURAL) NEW-YORKER 
and they were a success. In 1907 I’rof. 
Rice brought out the gasoline heated 
brooder house. Since that time we have 
used a number of them, brooding as high 
as 300 chicks in a building. This year 
the price of gasoline was so high that we 
were forced to look for a cheaper way of 
heating the chicks in March weather. 
The coal heater was not suited to our 
building and the oil heaters seemed ex¬ 
pensive as to fuel. Just at this time Mr. 
Mapes wrote the article which was so 
severely criticized as to the large flock 
idea. As we had learned by experience 
that some other man's system is not ours 
we began to study the problem we were 
after—to_ brood 1.200 chicks in one 
flock. We obtained the services of one 
of the best mechanics on ventilation and 
air drafts in this parts of the State. To¬ 
gether we figured and worked on the 
Mapes system to fit it to our conditions. 
Finally we abandoned the main features 
of his system and worked out one suit¬ 
able to use with the equipment we al¬ 
ready had. However, the specifications 
and plans Mr. Mapes sent us. together 
with the several articles he has written 
on the large flock problem were of great 
help to us. If he had not succeeded so 
well we would hardly have dared to fit 
up a building to care for three flocks of 
chicks, having 12200 in each, and heated 
by one fire. Our plan is to brood in 
large flocks with coal heat until they are 
old enough to do with a small amount of 
heat, then move them to the gasoline 
colony houses in the cornfields where hop¬ 
per feeding and free range grow husky 
vigorous layers. In October they are to 
go into the laying house which is built 
for 1,000 Hock units. 
Primarily we were after the cheaper 
heat than gasoline. My partner, who is 
my wife, has full charge of the brooding. 
She says that the gain in labor saved is 
more than the fuel saving, cutting the 
labor down fully two-thirds from that 
required for the gasoline houses. The 
brooder loss is less. The chicks grow 
faster; have more life and vitality and 
they certainly have more floor space per 
chick in which to exercise. It is indeed 
a sight that does one good, to see the 
chicks race back and forth across a 24- 
foot room, five or six hundred of them, 
apparently with no other ’ reason than to 
run a race. 
The Mapes system has many advan¬ 
tages for flocks of 1,000 or less. There 
are many good systems now. Each sys¬ 
tem works best for the man who worked 
it out. In every case it is easy to see 
that it is not the system but “the man 
behind the gun” that goes for success. 
You must have a system and then work 
your system to succeed. It is easy to find 
flaws, but to make any method of keep¬ 
ing poultry work out with success needs 
plenty of common sense and good judg¬ 
ment that the system man does not fur¬ 
nish. H. E. MATTHEWS. 
Trouble With Duckling*. 
Will you tell me what ails my Indian 
Runner ducklings? The ducklings’ legs 
seem to be weak; they will run a little 
way, theu fall over and when they try to 
get up they can only go by flapping their 
wings. Sometimes they will get over it 
in an hour or so and sometimes it will 
be two days before they get well. The 
ducklings are five and seven weeks old. 
I feed them a mash made of bran and 
meal with a little sand. I feed this to 
them three times a day. I mix it with 
water until it is crumbly. Water is 
supplied them in shallow pans. 
L. W. B. 
You are probably making the mistake 
common to most amateurs of over-feed¬ 
ing these ducklings on concentrated 
grain food, too rich in cornmeal. Their 
feed should contain a larger proportion 
of wheat bran—about one-half—with a 
little middlings and cornmeal to which 
about five per cent of beef scrap has 
been added, and the whole mixed with 
finely-cut green food, starting with a lit¬ 
tle and increasing the amount until at 
from three, to four weeks of age the ducks 
are getting one-half of their rations in 
the form of finely-cut clover, green outs, 
tender grass, lettuce, etc. These duck¬ 
lings should have shade, plenty of drink¬ 
ing water into which they can dip their 
heads, some range, and dry coops. 
11. B. D. 
Summer Moulting. 
I have about 300 8. White Leghorn 
hens. They are confined and not allowed 
on the ground: henhouse 12x100, facing 
the south; painted white inside, cement 
floor and kept clean and plenty of fresh 
air. They have laid a lot of eggs this 
Spring, are laying about 80 eggs a day 
now. look healthy, but are moulting this 
month. Some tell me they will moult 
again in the Winter and not amount to 
much for eggs again until next Spring. 
Others tell me that they will be all 
through and nicely feathered out and be 
good layers by November. They are 
one and two years old. Can you tell me 
what the general result is in such cases? 
If they will not amount to much for eggs 
until next Spring I would wish to dis¬ 
pose of them. F. N, H. 
_ Chaffee, N. Y. 
Your hens should be moulting now 
and you need feel no uneasiness upon 
that score. No one can tell when they 
will commence laying again after their 
rest, but hens of their age are apt to 
wait until mid-winter, or even later, be¬ 
fore getting into their stride again, par¬ 
ticularly if they are not pretty well fed 
and cared for during the moulting pe¬ 
riod. Much can be done by proper feed¬ 
ing while they are moulting to shorten 
their resting period, though most hens 
will take more or less of vacation at this 
time; 80 eggs from 300 hens in July is 
not a very good daily record; my own 
have laid well above 50 per cent during 
this month. It has been the custom to 
recommend disposing of two-year-old 
hens after they have passed their second 
laying period, but I think that there is a 
growing tendency to keep them another 
year .if they have been good layers. This 
tendency has been encouraged by the re¬ 
sults of some work at Cornell University 
where tests showed unexpectedly good 
laying upon the part of three-year-olds. I 
should, at any rate, keep over the year¬ 
lings. m. B. D. 
Fleas and Chickenpox. 
1. A number of my henhouses are in¬ 
fested with black fleas. Can you tell me 
how to get rid of them, how they breed 
and what effect they have on poultry? 
2. I am also having trouble with some 
of my poultry developing sores around 
the eyes and comb, covered with a black 
scab which I think is infectious. How is 
this transmitted? What can be done? 
Rhode Island. e. T. p. 
1. There is a bird flea (Pulex avium) 
commonly found upon pigeons and more 
rarely upon fowls, but I do not know 
whether or not the black flea that you 
mention belongs to this species. As the 
fleas belong to the class of parasites that 
do not stay all the time upon the fowls, 
they can be gotten rid of only by thor¬ 
oughly cleaning up the poultry houses 
and destroying them in the cracks and 
crevices where they breed by the appli¬ 
cation of such parasiticides as kerosene, 
carbolized whitewash (four ounces crude 
carbolic acid to the gallon of whitewash), 
etc. 2. The sores about the fowls’ heads 
may be the result of the irritation caused 
by these fleas or other parasites, or they 
may be a symptom of chickenpox, a con¬ 
tagious disease. In either case the af¬ 
fected fowls should be isolated and the 
feeding utensils should be disinfected 
with boiling water while the buildings 
are thoroughly cleaned and treated with 
the carbolized whitewash, as mentioned 
above. If it is desired to treat the af¬ 
fected birds, the sores may be anointed 
with carbolized vaseline in five per cent 
strength. Only thorough work, repeated 
as often as necessary, will rid infected 
houses of undesirable parasites which 
breed rapidly during the hot summer 
months. m. b. d. * 
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„ „ „ FLATS AND FILLERS 
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53 
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