1914. 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
T«1 
The Henyard. 
Building Up a Poultry Business. 
I aim to make ray poultry the big end 
of my business, leading in egg produetion 
and taking in the raising of broilers, 
roasters and possibly baby chicks as side 
issues. I would prefer to sell a superior 
class of eggs to a private retail trade. 
I expect to handle also vegetables and 
fruit of the same class, but as side is¬ 
sues, fruit consisting of apples, pears, 
peaches and berries. I desire to work on 
a system by which I can house, feed, 
raise my stock and dispose of my pro¬ 
ducts which will return me a reasonable 
profit. Shall I continue my present style 
of laying bouse? (See diagram.) What 
method shall I adopt as to feeds and 
feeding? Give formulas for laying mash 
and scratch food. Ilow can I best raise 
my stock, i. e., incubation, feeding, free 
range or confinement? How old can I 
keep my hens for profit? How shall I 
mate for my breeding stock? Can I 
with profit use the trap-nest? Should I 
expect better results by trap-nesting my 
breeders and line-breeding or from time 
to time introduce different blood? As 
the matter of breed is more or less a per¬ 
sonal taste, or liking, I have decided on 
the It. I. Reds, with an idea of breeding 
them a trifle heavier. c. c. L. 
Experience will doubtless lead you to 
modify your plans as your business de¬ 
velops, though these seem good for the 
start. Your type of laying house is an 
excellent one, and need not be changed 
unless in building others you see op¬ 
portunity for improvements. There are 
various successful methods of feeding, 
though the one which has come to be 
adopted by the majority of poultrymon, 
known as the dry mash method, may be 
considered the standard. This consists 
in keeping a mixture of dry ground 
grains constantly before the fowls in open 
hoppers, and feeding mixed whole grains 
in the litter, morning and night. There 
are many good formulas for the dry 
mash; the following being used at the 
Cornell (N. Y.) Station: (50 pounds corn- 
meal; GO pounds wheat middlings; 30 
pounds wheat bran; 10 pounds Alfalfa 
meal; 10 pounds oil meal; 50 pounds 
beef scrap; one pound salt. For the 
whole grain mixture, they use GO pounds 
corn ; GO pounds wheat; 30 pounds oats; 
and 30 pounds buckwheat; omitting the 
buckwheat in the Summer. Incubators 
are a necessity when large numbers of 
chicks are to be hatched, and the greater 
the amount of range the chicks can have 
the better. Individual colony houses for 
the chicks scattered through the orchard 
would be my preference, though a long 
hot-water heated brooder house would 
save labor, and probably some expense. 
Young chicks should have both mash and 
cracked grains as well as meat scrap and 
sour milk, if the latter is available. For 
grains I know of nothing better than the 
“one, two, three mixture,” viz., one part 
pinhead oatmeal, two parts finely cracked 
corn, and three parts cracked wheat. For 
the mash (Cornell formula), three parts 
each cornmeal, wheat middlings, wheat 
bran and beef scrap, to which one part 
of bone meal is added. This is fed dry in 
shallow trays and open hoppers, and is 
also given as a moist mash from one 
to three times daily according to their 
age. Three times daily at from one to 
two weeks of age; twice daily from two 
to four weeks, and once daily after four 
weeks. The same mash is always avail¬ 
able, in dry form, to the chicks. 
No one can say how long you can keep 
your fowls at a profit. It has gener¬ 
ally been thought that hens should be 
disposed of after their second year of 
laying, and this has been the general 
practice among poultrymun; there is a 
tendency now, however, to question the 
economy of replacing two-year-old hens 
aud some poultrymen are making the ex¬ 
periment of keeping their stock for three 
years. In mating breeders you should 
select for size, vigor and prolificacy, 
using males from your best layers. To 
ascertain which these are you may trap- 
nest, though it is very doubtful if you 
will find it practicable to do this. The 
early-laying pullets may be placed by 
themselves, however, and of these, those 
that continue laying longest in the fall 
may safely be considered the best layers. 
If the best of these are kept through a 
second Winter without forcing for egg 
production they will make a superior 
breeding pen in the Spring. Early lay¬ 
ing, early rising, late molting, late re¬ 
tiring. heavy euting, bright-looking, busy 
hens which lay the color out of their 
shanks may be considered 
ers, and the most 
the best lay- 
vigorous, active, and 
most nearly true to the desired type of 
these should go into the breeding pen. 
However you select your breeders, 
whether by trap-nest or otherwise, en¬ 
deavor to improve your own flock and do 
not throw away all the gain that you 
may have made by introducing “new 
blood” every few years. As you suggest, 
it would be impossible to answer your 
questions in full within limits less than 
a book would afford, but these few hints 
may be of value to you. Finally, get 
in touch with your experiment station 
and learn all that they can teach you. 
M. B. D. 
Gas-heated Incubators. 
of 
feeding 
C. It. I. 
feed of 
A Talk About Capons. 
What is a good method of 
capons? I have a flock of 20 S. 
Rods. Is it proper to keep a 
grain, two parts corn, two parts wheat, 
and one part oats before them all the 
time? They will be marketed when a 
year old. H. c. 
Greenwich, Conn. 
Would like to know if it is profitable 
to caponize Leghorn cockerels? Will they 
grow large enough to bring a top price, 
What is your opinion of running an 
incubator with artificial gas? Will the 
incubator receive as much oxygen by 
using gas as it does with an oil lamp, 
or is there any difference? As far as 
being safe, I think one is as safe as the 
other, but my landlord doesn't take the 
same view, therefore I am compelled to 
run my incubator with gas, if I run it at 
all. I have 450 eggs in the incubator 
now, and I do not wish to discontinue 
running it. I have tested out for the 
first time, and I have lost but 40 out of 
the 450 effjrs. c. s. D. 
New York. 
Next to electricity, gas is the best 
source of heat for incubators, and prac¬ 
tically all the exact incubators used in 
laboratories are so heated. When used 
for hen or duck eggs care should be taken 
that there are no gas leaks, and that all 
gases from the flame are carried to a 
chimney or led out doors. With a ‘‘hot 
air” incubator especial care should be 
used to see that the air system is air¬ 
tight; in hot water machines there is less 
chance of fumes entering the egg cham¬ 
ber. Thei-e is going to be enough oxygen 
in any event. The danger is from un¬ 
burned gas and partly burned gas poison¬ 
ing the eggs, and this danger is greater 
than with oil. On the other hand, the 
heat is much more constant, especially 
if a gas thermostat or heat regulator is 
used. These can be purchased from deal¬ 
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A xymir dealer, or we. mill send post¬ 
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X. ' ' ■ 
I 
THEY LOOK HOSTILE, BUT THEY MAKE CHEAP MEAT. 
and how long docs it take to get their 
growth with proper care? a. t. l. 
New York. 
The demand for capons in the large 
markets comes from after the holiday 
season until May. The heavier birds are 
worth the most per pound; thus when 
six to eight-pound capons are quoted 
at 28 cents per pound, 10-pouml capons 
would be worth 30 to 32 cents per pound. 
These are representative wholesale prices 
in the height of the season. To be grown 
most profitably they should be of a natural¬ 
ly large variety. Experienced growers use 
the American or Asiatic breeds or crosses 
of them. While young and growing fast 
they should have plenty of range to de¬ 
velop their size as well as to enable 
them to gather much of their own food. 
During this period they are voracious 
and grow very fast. They are 
sold when about eight to 
old. It should be the aim of 
to get them just as large 
by this age. In fact at 
of age well-grown capons should 
they ever would be. On 
where grass range is 
ers in laboratory supplies, hut some little 
ingenuity would have to be used in fit¬ 
ting them to an ordinary incubator. Once 
working, however, they will hold the tem¬ 
perature within 0.1 deg. Fhr. regardless 
of the gas pressure. If the best grade 
of tube is used gas is far safer, from the 
fire risk standpoint, than oil. 
First City 
ting on with 
Second ditto: 
bought three 
10 
the 
as 
10 
feeders 
usually 
months 
grower 
possible 
months 
be as large as 
general farms, 
available, very good results are obtained 
by feeding only whole corn from the time 
they are caponized until they are sent to 
market. Under confinement, and it is 
doubtful if capons can be raised profitable 
for the open market under such condi¬ 
tions, they should be given a moist mash 
once a day of equal parts of cornmeal, 
wheat middlings aud ground oats with 
ten per cent, of meat scraps. Twice a 
day they may be given a grain feed of 
equal parts of corn and oats. Skiiu-milk 
is an excellent food for them and can 
be given in the mash and also in the 
thick sour form alone. Capons fatten 
very easily, and many growers make no 
change in the feeding for finishing them 
off. They may, however, be penned up 
and given the mash as described twice a 
day and one feed of whole corn at night. 
In feeding any kind of poultry or stock 
for fattening care should be taken that 
only as much food he given each time 
as they will consume in a short time, in 
this case 10 minutes. The feeding 
troughs should be capacious enough so | 
that all the fowls can get at the food at 
the same time, otherwise the larger and 
stronger will get the lion’s share. 
Capons are plnekod in a special man¬ 
ner for the large markets, and if one is 
to dispose of some in such a place one 
should become familiar with the special 
preparation. The smaller breeds are a 
failure as a commercial proposition in 
capon production, although they can be 
caponized and will make very desirable 
six-pound capons in six or seven months. 
For home use some people do this with 
Leghorns and other of this class of 
breeds. I believe this may be a very 
advisable habit where only Leghorns are 
kept and where nice roasting chickens 
are desired. By caponizing they remain 
as tender as broilers and keep on grow¬ 
ing up to roasting size. A. L. C. 
Man : “How are you got- 
your poultry venture?” 
“I’ve been swindled. I 
incubators of different 
makes, and not one of them has laid an 
egg yet!”—Woman’s Journal. 
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