PROFITABLE EGG FARMING. 
troduced into that peaceable community we 
opine there would be a different story to tell! 
It will be a surprise to many readers that these 
twelve hundred birds find their way back into the 
twenty-two compartments at night, after run¬ 
ning together outside all day. It is not to be 
supposed that they all get back to the compart¬ 
ment which they left in the morning. All the 
compartments are alike, and when the birds are 
coming in to go to roost the attendant goes 
through and closes the slide doors (leading out¬ 
doors) of such compartments as are full, and the 
birds then go on to others that are not full. It 
occurred to us that the swinging doors and gates 
between the compartments could be left open at 
roosting time, and the birds finding the roosts of 
one pen full, would go on to another; this is prac¬ 
tically the plan adopted on one large poultry 
farm of which we have knowledge. 
Another point which should not be over¬ 
looked. The birds are put into these pens in 
the autumn, upon the approach of cold weather, 
and are not allowed out again until spring; they 
thus have four to five months of confinement in 
the house, they know no other home and know 
nothing of the delights of ranging. Under 
these conditions, being naturally home-loving, 
they return to their quarters without trouble or 
bother. 
Entrance doors to house are at either end and 
through the office in the center, which means a 
considerable walk to reach intermediate pens 
half way between the office and either end. With 
no yards in front of the house, it would have 
been an easy matter to put a “ Dutch door ” in 
the front of each pen (the upper part of it being 
the hinged window), and that would give direct 
access to every pen. A small building at the 
west end of this long house (but separated from 
it by a few feet space) is the cook house, and 
here all the “ mash ” and cooked food is pre¬ 
pared. 
A high road runs through the farm east and 
west along the hillside; all the farm buildings, 
including the dwelling house and the long poul¬ 
try house, are south of this road, and the greater 
part of the farm also. Across this road and 
rising up the hillside to the north, is an apple 
orchard of about twelve acres, in which the 
brooder houses are placed, and here, 2,500 head 
of half grown youngsters were ranging at will. A 
better place for chickens could not be found in 
ten counties. The strong clay land is well 
stocked with clover and other grasses, the apple 
trees furnish abundance of shade and the open 
spaces between them give access to sunshine if 
it is desired, while the southern slope of the 
ground gives sunshine and perfect drainage, 
making it ideally healthful. 
Individual Brooder Houses Described. 
Here were set three rows of “ individual ” 
brooder houses, the rows being sixty feet apart 
and the houses being fifty apart in the rows. 
The houses are six feet square, five feet high 
in front and three feet high in the back—have a 
small window and door (also a small trap door) 
in front, and covered, roof and walls, with Nepon- 
set Red Rope Roofing, and painted. The 
brooder is a common pattern of indoor brooder, 
the lamp slides into the center of lamp chamber 
on a cleated board. The little chicks are put 
into these brooder houses directly from the in¬ 
cubators. They are given the run of inside of 
house for a day or two, and then let out, on pleas¬ 
ant days, into small, temporary yards which 
are erected in front of each house. After a week 
or so, when the chicks have got well onto their 
feet, the } r ard fences are taken down and put 
over to other houses, and these lots given full 
range. When the chicks have got large enough 
so that they no longer need the warmth of the 
brooder, it is removed to storage room in the 
packing house loft, and the youngsters con¬ 
tinue their life in the brooder house without a 
brooder, that being their home until they go 
into permanent quarters. 
There are several things about these orchard 
brooder houses that could be bettered. As it is 
now with three rows of houses only sixty feet 
apart, only one-third or less of the orchard is 
utilized. It is well known that chicks range 
more widely as they get older; we would pro¬ 
mote that ranging by distributing the houses all 
over the orchard, setting the rows (say) 150 feet 
apart and the houses (say) 100 feet apart in the 
rows. This would make more steps for the at¬ 
tendant, it is true, and seemingly unnecessary 
steps while the chicks are small; but—we are not 
thinking of the attendant, we are thinking of 
greater benefit to the growing chicks from that 
wider and fresher range. It is not wise to econo¬ 
mize on the attendant’s steps if the ultimate re¬ 
sult is (even a slight) falling short of the very 
best development of the chicks! Another thing 
we would do differently would be to have a good 
outdoor brooder that could be used for another 
family of youngsters after being taken out of the 
76 
