January  13,  1923 
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Name. 
HICAGO  FORT  WORTH  KANSAS  CITY 
PORTLAND,  ORE.  ST.  PAUL 
I 
I 
I  Address. 
I 
Raising  Broilers  in  Veranda 
I  have  a  veranda  that  I  am  going  to 
use  for  raising  baby  chicks.  Size,  10  ft. 
front,  9  ft.  deep,  facing  south  ;  closed  on 
three  sides ;  front  open  to  3  ft.  from 
floor.  Front  is  protected  by  mosquito 
wire.  I  want  to  buy  a  hover.  I  want 
to  raise  early  broilers,  1%  to  2^  lbs., 
Barred  Plymouth  Rocks.  How  many  do 
you  think  1  could  safely  raise  in  such  a 
space?  Should  I  close  front  with  glass, 
or  would  cheesecloth  do,  laid  upon  wire 
screen  ?  When  should  I  start  for  early 
broilers?  What  is  the  best  weight  for 
early  broilers?  Should  I  start  with  an 
incubator  or  buy  baby  chicks?  To  save 
pullets,  at  what  age  can  you  tell,  if  breed 
is  Barred  Plymouth  Rock?  Could  an  oil 
heater  be  used  as  a  hover?  When  buying 
hover,  what  size  capacity  should  one  buy 
for  above  amount  of  baby  chicks?  Con¬ 
sider  that  I  am  one  w’ho  knows  how  to 
run  incubator,  raise  baby  chicks  and 
chickens,  proper  feeding,  etc.,  but  have 
never  yet  tried  early  broiler  trade.  d. 
New  Jersey. 
No  doubt  baby  chicks  could  be  raised 
beneath  a  veranda,  but  I  should  consider 
it  a  very  poor  place  for  them.  If  the 
floor  of  this  veranda  is  but  3  ft.  from  the 
ground  and  the  veranda  is  9  ft.  deep,  it 
will  be  a  dark,  and  very  likely  unwhole¬ 
some,  place,  as  convenient  for  the  rats 
that  wish  to  eat  the  chicks  as  it  will  be 
inconvenient  for  the  caretaker.  An  oil¬ 
burning  brooder  stove  could  be  used  in 
such  a  place,  and  from  300  to  500  chicks 
cared  for  beneath  the  hover.  This  would, 
of  course,  endanger  the  building  to  which 
the  veranda  is  attached  in  case  of  fire. 
On  the  v  hole,  I  should  consider  such  a 
place  a  very  poor  makeshift  for  a  prop¬ 
erly  built  brooder  house,  adapted  not  only 
to  the  welfare  of  the  chicks  but  the  con¬ 
venience  of  the  caretaker. 
Broilers  are  sold  as  squab  broilers  at 
from  %  to  1  lb.  weight  each,  as  medium 
broilers  at  from  1  to  1  x/£>  lbs.,  and  as  large 
broilers  at  2  lbs.  weight.  Squab  broilers 
have  but  a  limited  city  market,  while 
large  ones  may  be  sold  anywhere.  Prices 
for  broilers  drop  rapidly  after  the  Spring 
months.  A  2-lb.  broiler  of  one  of  the 
larger  breeds,  like  the  R.  I.  Reds,  should 
be  raised  in  from  eight  to  10  weeks.  The 
earlier  they  can  be  brought  to  broiler  size 
and  gotten  on  the  market  the  better.  If 
one  has  a  breeding  flock  and  facilities  for 
hatching,  it  is  cheaper  to  hatch  than  to 
buy  chicks.  M.  B.  D. 
Buying  Poultry  for  Fattening 
I  am  interested  in  selling  fattening 
poultry  to  dealers.  Does  it  pay  to  buy 
live  chickens  on  the  Newark  or  New 
York  market,  crate  or  yard  fattening,  and 
resell  alive  to  dealers  in  town  here?  I 
would  like  to  start  with  one  or  two 
crates.  J.  V. 
Paterson,  N.  J. 
We  have  not  been  able  to  get  any  exact 
figures  on  this  business.  The  New  Jersey 
College  hopes  to  try  the  experiment  next 
year,  and  thus  obtain  actual  facts.  In  a 
way  the  business  would  compare  with 
that  of  the  farmers  who  buy  cattle  and 
hogs  as  “feeders”  to  sell  later  as  fat  cat¬ 
tle.  If  you  can  buy  the  stock  right  in 
the  big  markets  there  ought  to  be  some 
profit  in  the  trade.  Some  years  ago  we 
boughc  several  hundred  hens  and  pullets 
in  the  New  \ork  market  and  kept  them 
for  egg  production.  The  older  hens  did 
not  pay.  They  did  not  start  laying  early 
enough.  Many  of  them  had  bad  colds 
and  other  diseases.  The  pullets  ran  all 
the  way  from  60  to  190  eggs  in  one  year. 
So  it  will  be  very  largely  a  matter  of 
selecting  the  stock.  You  must  be  able 
to  know  a  goo!  fattening  bird  when  you 
see  one.  The  only  way  that  we  see  for 
you  to  learn  definitely  about  this  is  to  buy 
a  few  crates  of  chickens  and  fatten  them. 
Keep  a  careful  account  of  what  they  cost, 
the  cost  of  feed  and  the  price  you  receive. 
You  will  have  to  allow  for  about  15  per 
cent  loss  by  death,  and  for  your  labor. 
It  will  depend  largely  on  good  judgment 
in  selecting  and  feeding,  but  there  ought 
to  be  a  fair  margin  of  profit. 
Electric  Heat  for  Incubator  and  Brooder 
Can  you  give  me  any  advice  on  elec¬ 
trifying  my  incubator  and  brooder?  Have 
thought  of  hot  plate,  but  find  it  too  ex¬ 
pensive  to  run.  How  about  incandescent 
lights  in  same?  A.  E.  M. 
New  Britain,  Conn. 
Electric  heat  for  brooders  has  been 
found  too  expensive  to  be  practical  here 
ir.  the  East,  except  in  special  cases  for 
small  lots  of  chicks  where  a  saving  of 
labor  and  freedom  from  fire  risk  are  im¬ 
portant  factors.  Probably  the  incan¬ 
descent  lamps  would  be  your  best  method, 
and  easiest  of  installation  for  a  few 
chicks.  The  number  and  size  of  the 
lamps  depends,  of  course,  on  the  number 
of  chicks  to  be  brooded,  time  of  year,  etc. 
In  California,  where  electricity  is  sold 
for  less  than  2  cents  per  kilowatt  hour, 
electric  brooders  are  used  practically  on 
a  lai’ge  scale.  The  heating  system  for 
these  brooders  is  composed  of  wooden 
rods  around  which  is  wound  spirally 
coiled  high  resistance  wire  which  is  con¬ 
nected  to  th>'  electric  current.  _  Electric 
brooders  require  special  ventilation,  with¬ 
out  which  very  unsatisfactory  results  may 
follow  their  use.  For  the  purpose  of  ven¬ 
tilation  a  false  floor  about  the  size  of  the 
brooder  is  raised  2  in.  above  the  floor  of 
the  brooder  house,  and  one  or  more  2-in. 
pipes  are  set  in  this  floor  in  such  a  way 
that  fresh  air  is  conducted  from  the  air 
space  under  the  floor  up  through  these 
cubes  and  deposited  in  the  brooder  cham¬ 
ber  above  the  heads  of  the  chicks.  The 
heat  in  the  brooder  chamber  keeps  the 
air  in  these  tubes  warmer  than  the  air 
under  the  false  floor.  This  causes  the  air 
to  circulate  and  fresh  air  is  supplied  con¬ 
stantly.  c.  S.  GREEXE. 
Drainage  of  Henhouse;  Egg  Prices 
1.  Our  henhouse  faces  south,  and  the 
ground  slopes  southward,  causing  all  the 
rainwater  that  runs  off  the  roof,  also  sur¬ 
plus  water  from  the  higher  ground  behind 
the  house,  to  run  under  the  back  and 
across  the  dirt  floor  in  its  effort  to  fol¬ 
low  the  slope.  This  condition  makes  it 
very  unhealthy  for  the  fowls,  and  also 
causes  the  lower  edges  of  the  building  to 
decay.  Can  you  suggest  a  durable  and 
inexpensive  way  to  remedy  this  condi¬ 
tion?  2.  When  care  is  taken  to  deliver 
eggs  uniform  in  size  and  strictly  fresh 
and  clean,  about  how  much  more  per 
dozen  should  be  asked  over  price  of  eggs 
of  which  no  extra  care  is  taken?  3.  At 
what  age  do  pullets  (Plymouth  Rocks 
and  Rhode  Island  Reds)  usually  begin 
laying?  e.  m.  w. 
Easton,  Md. 
1.  I  think  that  you  will  be  able  to  rem¬ 
edy  this  trouble  by  digging  a  ditch  a  foot 
or  two  in  depth  on  the  upper  side  of  the 
poultry-house  and  at  each  end,  carrying 
the  ends  to  a  level  below  that  of  the 
front  of  the  building.  That  is,  encircle 
the  ends  and  rear  of  the  building  with  a 
drainage  ditch  and  fiill  it  with  large  field 
stones.  The  ditch  should  be  close  to  the 
foundation  wall  of  the  poultry-house  and 
should  intercept  water  coming  from  a 
higher  level.  An  eaves  trough  at  the 
rear  would  also  help. 
2.  No  rule  can  be  given  as  to  price  of 
eggs.  Whatever  the  trade  will  stand. 
3.  The  large  breeds  should  begin  lay¬ 
ing  at  six  months  of  age,  or  a  little  later. 
They  are  about  a  month  behind  the 
smaller  breeds  in  approaching  maturity. 
M.  B.  D. 
Damp  Litter;  Sex  of  Geese 
1.  What  makes  the  most  satisfactorv 
poultry  litter?  My  litter  gets  damp  so 
unreasonably  quick.  2.  I  have  quite  a 
number  of  young  geese  and  wish  to  save 
about  all  of  the  females  for  breeders,  but 
how  can  I  distinguish  the  sexes?  I  wish 
to  dispose  of  the  young  ganders. 
Portsmouth,  N.  H.  n.  w.  f. 
1.  Any  litter  will  become  damp,  but,  if 
this  occurs  too  rapidly,  it  is  an  evidence 
of  too  little  ventilation  in  the  poultry- 
house.  The  air  is  not  changed  suffi¬ 
ciently  often  to  keep  it  from  becoming 
saturated  with  moisture  from  the  bodies 
of  the  fowls,  and  depositing  this  upon 
walls  and  litter  when  the  weather  is  cold. 
More  open  windows  in  front  is  the  rem¬ 
edy.  Straw  of  any  kind,  cut  corn  stover 
and  coarse  hay  make  good  litter.  What¬ 
ever  sort  of  that  stuff  is  available  is  gen¬ 
erally  used. 
2.  It  is  difficult  to  distinguish  the  sexes 
in  young  geese  by  one  unaccustomed  to 
handling  them,  but  the  males  may  be  de¬ 
termined  by  making  pressure  with  the 
fingers  about  the  vent  and  exposing  the 
organs  within.  m.  b.  d. 
Artificial  Lights  for  Molting  Fowls 
This  is  my  first  year  for  using  artificial 
light,  which  I  started  November  1.  I 
have  375  March-hatched  pullets  which 
have  been  laying  heavily,  and  about  175 
of  them  have  gone  into  a  light  molt, 
which  I  have  separated  from  the  flock  and 
have  in  a  separate  pen.  Would  it  be 
profitable  for  me  to  continue  the  lights  on 
the  molters  to  give  them  the  benefit  of  a 
longer  day  to  consume  larger  quantities 
of  food,  or  would  you  discontinue  the 
light  on  them?  w.  G.  S. 
Bryn  Athyn.  Pa. 
I  would  advise  continuing  the  lights  on 
the  pullets  which  are  molting  so  as  to 
give  them  the  benefit  of  a  longer  day, 
especially  at  this  time  of  year  when  the 
days  are  the  shortest.  They  will  come 
back  into  laying  condition  quicker  and 
with  less  detrimental  effects  from  molting. 
I  also  think  it  is  a  mistake  to  move  one 
part  of  your  flock  to  a  separate  pen,  as 
changing  them  around  from  one  house  to 
another  usually  retards  egg  production. 
C.  S.  GREF.XE. 
Indian  Runners  as  Egg  Producers 
What  is  your  opinion  on  raising  Indian 
Runner  ducks  as  egg  producers  and  gen¬ 
eral  utility  fowl?  Have  been  informed 
that  in  egg  production  they  outclass  the 
Leghorn  hen  or  any  other  breed. 
Saugerties,  N.  Y.  m.  l.  b. 
We  have  no  information  that  would  war¬ 
rant  the  statement  that  Indian  Runner 
ducks  would  outclass  the  Leghorn  hen  as 
a  producer  of  eggs.  Their  season  of  egg 
production  is  much  shorter  and  they  will 
not  begin  to  compare  with  the  modem 
Leghorn  hen  as  a  producer  economically 
of  eggs. 
