Everyman’s Poultry Plant 
WHAT ANY PERSON CAN DO WITH TWENTY HENS ON A 
SMALL LOT, BY SPENDING FIFTY MINUTES A DAY IN 
CARING FOR THEM—BREEDS, HOUSING, AND THE PROPER FOOD 
E ven in these days of 
scientific poultry rais¬ 
ing with reams of chicken 
literature on every hand, there 
are some people who labor under 
the delusion that a few hens can 
be made profitable if they are 
penned up in a neglected corner 
of the back yard and fed on scraps 
from the table. 
Feed them any old thing and 
they ought to lay, is the idea of the beginner poultryman who fails 
to realize that chickens to be good egg producers must have strict 
attention paid to the quantity and quality of their food, as well 
as to the comfort of the quar¬ 
ters in which they live. 
For the average family in 
the average town, a flock of 
twenty fowls will be found 
a paying investment if the 
proper care is taken of them. 
The facts and figures follow¬ 
ing are the result of several 
years’ successful chicken rais¬ 
ing on a small scale, and un¬ 
der conditions that are un¬ 
favorable rather than other¬ 
wise, for the lot on which my 
chicken house is situated is 
quite small, so that there is 
scarcely as much room as is 
usually considered necessary. 
-All of the fowls in the flock 
are Plymouth Rocks, which 
for general use, that is for the 
table as well as to lay eggs, 
are as good as if not better 
than any other kind. Rhode 
Island Reds are considered 
more desirable by some peo¬ 
ple, while others prefer Wyan- 
dottes or English Orpingtons, 
but as an all-around utility 
fowl the Plymouth Rock can 
always be relied upon. The 
“egg-machine” varieties, as 
Leghorns and chickens of the 
.Mediterranean class are called, 
are not practical, as they are 
too small for table use, .and in 
the twenty hen proposition this is one of the important points to 
be considered. 
A small plant of this sort can be started in several ways: with 
a setting of eggs, with day-old chicks, or with young fowls of 
five or six months. In the last two cases the trouble and uncer¬ 
tainty attendant on hatching the chicks are done away with en¬ 
tirely, and while the pullets will cost about one dollar apiece and 
the day-old chicks only a few cents, the difference in the price is 
counterbalanced by the fact that the pullets will begin to bring in 
returns immediately, while the chicks must be fed for several 
months at least before they even begin to pay for themselves. 
As chicks need no food for forty-eight hours after they are 
hatched it is quite possible to ship them for considerable distances, 
so that this industry is beginning to assume large proportions, 
and there are many poultrymen who make a business of incubat¬ 
ing and selling the day-old cl icks in various quantities. 
The space allotted to this twenty hen flock and enclosed by wire 
netting is 40 x 24 feet, which includes that occupied by the house. 
The latter is 8 feet long, 4 feet wide, with a height of 4^4 feet 
front and 3^2 feet in the rear. Opinions differ as to the relative 
merits of canvas or board fronts, the size of windows, ventila¬ 
tion, etc. I have found that ventilation without draft, sufficient light 
and all of the sunshine that it is possible to have, are the important 
requirements of a chicken house regardless of size or materials. 
The house should by all 
means face south or south¬ 
east, in order to get the prop¬ 
er exposure, and it should be 
so arranged that the entire 
front, or most of it at least, 
can be left open, exposing the 
interior to the direct rays of 
the sun. The front of my 
house is of boards attached by 
hinges at the top, so that it 
can be kept at any angle. 
During the day it is turned up 
as far as possible, while the 
width of the opening at night 
depends on the temperature 
and weather. This hinged 
front, when closed down, 
comes only within eighteen 
inches of the ground, the re¬ 
maining space being filled 
with a stationary board which 
serves as a further protection 
from drafts and forms a more 
or less effective barricade 
against rats and other four- 
footed depredators. In the 
back of the house is a small 
window with glass panes for 
furnishing light on dark and 
rainy days. 
Of course for larger houses 
fronts of canvas instead of 
board are much better on ac¬ 
count of the difference in 
weight and also because they 
are less expensive, and except in parts of the country subject to 
extremely low temperature the canvas-covered openings are thor¬ 
oughly satisfactory. 
Absolute cleanliness in house as well as in the food is one of the 
important rules for the successful chicken raiser, and unless 
fowls are kept clean and comfortable they will not be good layers. 
The dropping boards of course must be cleaned regularly. If 
there is a cement floor the hose can be used to good advantage on 
the boards as well as the floor, and the entire house should be 
whitewashed several times a year. In addition I use kerosene on 
Plenty of exercise out-of-doors is essential to the welfare of chickens, and 
they should be given a wide range if possible 
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