PROFITABLE EGG FARMING. 
We use indoor brooders early in the season 
while yet cold, but later, when mild, use out¬ 
door brooders. As soon as the chicks are strong 
enough and weather suitable, they should be 
got out doors on the grass, in a little yard at 
first, but when old enough, they should have 
free range all summer and until snow comes in 
fall. When chicks are about eight weeks old, 
we begin feeding once a day a mash of ground 
grain in which we mix a very little high-grade 
beef scrap, gradually increasing the quantity 
of meat. 
Always keep fresh water in shade where the 
chicks can help themselves to it all day. 
We believe in the colony house plan for both 
chicks and old fowls, and free range for breeding 
stock so far as possible. We have colony 
houses for chicks near our corn fields and one 
near a half-acre blackberry patch, and find the 
shade and protection afforded by these crops 
very valuable to our growing chicks, and the 
crops and soil are also benefited by the foraging 
birds. 
One line of our breeding birds have houses in 
a small wooded valley through which flows a 
brook, making a typical place for the birds to 
roam at will. From stock kept in such a 
manner, you will not fail to get strongly fertile 
eggs and chickens of sturdy frame and robust 
constitution. 
The cull pullets and hens can be confined in 
large yards planted with fruit trees of any kind, 
or blackberry bushes, of which we find “Sny¬ 
der” the best all-round variety. We annu¬ 
ally gather good crops of blackberries and tree 
fruits from our poultry yards, while the trees 
and bushes make the yards seem more like 
free range and the confined fowls do much better 
than in the ordinary small, bare yard. 
Most of our colony houses for layers as well 
as the breeding houses are 16 ft. wide by 40 ft. 
long and 7\ ft. from bottom of sill (6 x 6) to 
top of plate (4 x 4). We set the sills about 30 
inches above the ground on a stone wall, cedar 
posts, or gas pipe; if on the latter we nail boards 
inside the sill extending to the ground, with 
windows in south side. Wall double with 
dead air space. Lower floor of single matched 
lumber or laid double with plain lumber and 
Neponset black sheathing paper between. 
Overhead on the plates are laid 2x6 joists 
notched two inches on lower side and spiked to 
side of each 2x4 rafter. On these joists is laid 
a floor of cheap lumber with wide cracks between 
each board. Over this the third-pitch shingle 
roof without paper under shingles. In each 
gable cut a door as large as will swing under 
roof. 
On this loft floor put about twelve inches 
loose straw. In very cold weather, when house 
is tightly closed, the vapor thrown off by the 
fowls will ascend through the cracks in loft 
floor and be absorbed in the straw above instead 
of being condensed on walls and roof in the 
form of frost, thus keeping the house warm and 
dry. On mild days we open the door in each 
gable over the straw and let the air draw 
through and dry out the loft and straw without 
any draught on the birds below. The straw loft 
also keeps the natural heat of the birds confined 
below, which makes the house warm and com¬ 
fortable. In hot weather these gable doors 
are left open day and night, and the draught 
through the loft,- together with ventilation from 
open doors and windows below, keeps the house 
cool. The basement, being light, is not infested 
by rats or other vermin, and is greatly enjoyed 
by the birds during summer as a resting and 
wallowing place in stormy weather, also when 
very warm. 
Our winter food for layers and breeders is 
about as follows: First comes water, slightly 
warmed in coldest weather, next a very light 
ration of whole mixed grains, wheat, corn, oats 
and buckwheat about equal parts, scattered in 
a heavy litter of straw on the floor. After this 
the birds are given mangel wurzel beets cut in 
halves and placed on the floor. They are thus 
kept busy all the morning scratching for grain, 
running to the water pan, picking at the man¬ 
gels and are getting very hungry, as the food has 
been scant and slow to get. About eleven 
o’clock we feed a warm mash in the troughs— 
all they will clean up in a very short time. 
Our mash is ground oats and wheat bran, 
about equal parts bv measure, to which is added 
corn meal, hominy feed or both, and sometimes 
wheat or buckwheat middlings. To this we 
add about half an ounce per hen of good meat 
meal or beef scraps, and one fourth as much 
old-process oil meal, and mix all thoroughly 
while dry. To this we sometimes add boiled 
and mashed potatoes, turnips or other vege¬ 
tables. Clover cut into f in. lengths, about 
two quarts to each 100 hens, is put in pails and 
boiling water turned on, then pails covered 
and the clover allowed to steam a half hour. 
The steamed clover or boiled vegetables are 
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