Edward Corning

“ To a man engaging in any branch of Poultry Culture the selection of the proper breed is of grave importance, but to the man who is planning an Egg Farm it is without doubt of graver importance than where any other branch of the poultry business is to be carried on. ”

“ It is our hope and aim, year by year, to improve the present position. The man who believes he has learned all there is to learn is a failure. The successful man is the one who is sure there is an opportunity to advance considerably beyond the point he has already attained, and The Corning Egg Farm believes this to be true, and has constantly worked with that idea before it.
With an experience back of them of nearly six years the Builders of The Corning Egg Farm know that this Book furnishes the necessary guide for success in poultry culture. ”

“ One is able to know each day the exact price of the class of eggs which he is selling, for the Egg Market is like the Stock or Bond Market, and one who is in the Egg business is dealing with a commodity which at all times is salable at a price. ”

“ One reads of Poultry Farms carrying anywhere from twenty to forty thousand layers. Experience has taught us that the plant that gets beyond the size where those financially interested can supervise and know the condition of the Farm from one end to another daily, falls down of its own weight, as it is impossible to find men, unless financially interested, [42] who will look after the endless details, which spell success or ruin on a large poultry plant. ”

“ The Corning Egg Farm actually does enjoy the supreme position among the egg farms of the World that we claim for it, and that the great authorities, after thorough, personal examination, have frankly admitted. ”

“ We started in a very modest way, and believe that is the preferable way to successfully build up a paying poultry farm. Those who have an abundance of capital might be tempted to work out too many self-evolved theories and to begin on too elaborate and extravagant a basis, whereas, in our opinion, it is wiser to follow precedent, known successes, and start in a smaller way and expand. ”

“ As one gentleman from Boston pointed out, even with the difference in price between the brown and the white egg, he found that he could not really afford to continue with the breeds laying the brown egg, for the Leghorn, in numbers, more than made up for the slight difference in price between the two colors, in the Boston Market. And, as he still further pointed out, it took less food to supply the Leghorn than it did any of the larger breeds, and this, of course, was another source of economy.
It should be remembered that the “Strain” of any breed is most important. ”

“ The hen which is capable of becoming an ideal layer must have a deep keel, a long body, and, as she faces out, she must have an appearance of broadness, and must be the shape of a wedge back to the point where the wings join the body. ”

“ Egg Farming is profitable not only when carried on in a large way, but, to the suburban dweller, a small number of hens in the back yard is a profitable investment, and the system, as worked out on The Corning Egg Farm, succeeds with a few hens, and enables the owner of a small plot of land to always have sanitary, fresh eggs, to reduce his grocery bills, and materially increase the pleasure of suburban life. ”

“ It is no longer necessary for the novice to try out the various plans proposed to him by the literary poultryman, whose methods are worked out on a mahogany desk, with pen and ink, or more often, perhaps, by dictation to a stenographer.
Years of careful thought and study, and the expenditure of much time and many thousands of dollars in developing the Corning Method have eliminated all necessity for experimental expenditure. The building up of an Egg Farm is within the reach of any man who will follow the Corning plan herein described faithfully and persistently. ”

“ The difficulty that the seller meets with when going to a hotel or [51] restaurant is the fact that the proprietor has been fooled many times. As they have put it, “people start well, and for a time keep up the quantity, and the quality is all right, but when the stringent time of year comes they fall down as to quantity, and a little later they have evidently been tempted to keep up the quantity by gathering eggs from other sources than their own, and then we meet with the questionable pleasure of having a patron at our tables return to us an egg just ready to hatch.” ”

“ Then the broiler branch has engrossed their attention, and from that they have gone on to soft roasters, and the other phases of the slaughter house side of poultry for market purposes, and they have endeavored to cover all the different branches from which money is made in poultry, while entirely overlooking the fact that this is an age of specialization, and that the person who would succeed in any business must make up his mind to follow one branch of it, and bring that branch up to the highest efficiency. ”

“ With the yearly scattering of the increased amount of litter as the Farm enlarged, the growth on the Range is becoming more and more luxuriant, and now the entire Range has a succession of changing Flora from month to month, and with some varieties, almost from week to week. There is a considerable growth of Timothy and Clover, and many other varieties of the grass family, which produce a varied diet of succulent food, and of course the constant change in Flora also supplies a varied diet of seeds which the birds harvest for themselves. ”

“ The dogs, every night, are distributed at different points of the Farm, and one of the great qualities of the Blood Hound is its marvelous nose, which works just as well in the dark as in the light, and as watch dogs, because of this peculiarity, they are most efficient, [94] giving notice of anyone approaching the Farm long before he could possibly be detected by a dog of another breed. When they give tongue there is no doubt in the mind of anyone but that he is approaching a very dangerous zone. ”

“ Hens improperly fed lay eggs not only often unpalatable, but that are carriers of disease. The hen’s productive organs are so constructed that bacteria which she may take into her crop with impure food are passed into the egg. ”

“ The removal of the chicks from the hover runs into the nurseries, as formerly practiced on The Corning Egg Farm, has been entirely discontinued. A chick in many respects resembles a flower; every time it is moved or transplanted it receives a certain setback. For this reason the great Brooder House has all been turned into hover runs, and the chicks make one move from the Brooder House to the Colony House. A moving generally represents not only a slight setback, but some mortality through accident and the change itself. ”

“ The question of keeping down the labor bill on the Farm has at all times been a matter of careful study, and the machinery which is in use is of large capacity, enabling us to turn out whatever may be required in a very short space of time, and allowing the men to get at other work. As an illustration; the Clover Cutter on the Farm has a capacity of 3000 pounds an hour, cut in one-fourth-inch lengths, which enables us, when we are cutting green food, to turn out the amount required for the day, fill the tubs, and have it on the way to the Laying Houses, in less than fifteen minutes. ”

“ The youngsters running with the hen did not show the large mortality which those did in the Brooder House, but even the broods running with the hen did not do nearly so well where the corn was fed, as did those not having this ingredient in their food.
The great mortality in young chicks is produced by the upsetting of their digestive organs. Corn is [124] very heating, and as soon as the chick’s blood is over-heated its digestive organs fail to work properly, and what is now known as “White Diarrhœa” almost invariably develops. ”

“ Single Comb White Leghorns Only we want to say that for the production of eggs there is only one breed of fowls—Single Comb White Leghorns—and that, in considering the purchase of a breeding pen, or eggs for hatching, experience will show that it is the height of folly to begrudge the additional price you must pay in order to get the right kind of Stock. Whether you buy Corning Strain or not, let us again emphasize the fact that no matter how famous the Breeder, or how high his prices, if he has not a Strain that has proved itself a good Strain, you do not want it at any price. ”

“ As The Corning Egg Farm was located within a few miles of New York City the breeds which laid the white shelled egg were the only ones worthy of consideration, and, in the study of the question, it was found there was another important matter confronting the egg farmer, as to the breed which he should keep, whether a setter, or a non-setter. On an egg farm, where hundreds of layers are to be kept, if any of the Asiatics, or so called American Breeds, were kept, they would be a source of considerable added expense, first, in the way of loss of eggs during their numerous broody periods ”

“ In Poultry Culture, in order to succeed it is essential to study Nature, to find out how the hen in a wild state cares for her brood, and then bring the artificial conditions as near to Nature as possible. In almost every chick food put on the market the main ingredient, namely corn, was never intended for a [123] young chick to eat. Consider for a moment, and you will realize that the hen in a wild state could not possibly feed corn to her young. ”

“ Any person starting in the poultry industry for profit, and, intending to follow it for a livelihood should begin in a small way, realizing that, like any other business venture, it must be built up and grow from year to year, and that, certainly for the first year, no money can be drawn out for living expenses. ”

“ The great mortality one reads of among chicks can be traced more to breeding from immature females than to any other cause.
The general method of selecting breeders for a great many years has been by the use of “trap nests.” Surely the use of a mechanical device is a poor method [72] to determine what hens are proper for breeding purposes, and really the trap nest tells you nothing.
In every pen there are daily a number of eggs which are not laid in the nest at all. To what particular hen does the attendant credit eggs found in hollows scooped out in corners under the dropping boards? ”

“ Nature teaches system, and the hen, as a part of Nature, is a very regular performer. She does everything on time, and at a given time, and if her routine is broken in upon she is a very much upset individual. The owner who rudely disturbs her routine suffers in the loss of eggs.
The schedule of work among the fowls on The Corning Egg Farm is without variation each day. In Summer the houses are always open and need no attention in the morning, but in Winter the drops are raised in ordinarily cold weather, as soon as it is light enough to enable the hens to work in the litter for grain. ”

“ SANITARY,—because of the clean, fresh air housing and best quality of pure food and water. People are learning the necessity of investigating the source from which Eggs come more carefully than milk or water, as it is now known that Eggs can be a greater carrier of disease than either milk or water. ”

“ In Spring eggs run strongly fertile, and in every way Nature seems to lend herself to successful hatching, and the starting of the young chick properly on its journey.
The man, however, who is operating an egg farm, and has made contracts for the delivery of a continuous supply of eggs to exacting customers, cannot well afford to wait until these months to hatch in, for it is necessary for him to have a large number of pullets reaching maturity and beginning to lay, [77] before his last year’s pullets reach the moulting period and stop egg production. ”

“ Many people have a very erroneous idea with regard to getting Winter eggs. They seem to think any hen should produce eggs in Winter. The hen generally moults in the early Fall, and Nature has provided this time of rest for her. The egg organs cease to produce, for the hen finds she has all she can do to supply the necessary material for her new dress, and this is a very serious drain on her system. ”

“ An egg being eighty per cent. water, consider the effect on eggs produced by the farmers’ flocks, where the water supply is mainly pools in the barn yard, which receive the drainage from the manure piles, and where the principal food supply is scratched out of manure heaps, consisting of undigested grain that has already passed through another animal.
A hen must have a large proportion of animal food to lay well, and to produce rich, nutritious eggs. ”

“ But, it is sad to state, there must have been some mistake, for this incubator could not live up to the claim in the advertisement, nor, so far as it is known, is there any incubator which approximates that claim. Some marvelous hatches are written of, but the question is not one of marvelous hatches, so far as it means the number of chicks which manage to come through the strenuous act of exclusion, but the real question of incubation is as to the number of strong chicks, capable of living and growing into an animal which will become a money maker for the man who hatched and raised it. ”

“ The small chick doors into the outside runs are opened, if the weather is propitious, about the fifth or sixth day in the early part of the hatching season, and on the third or fourth day later on. The chicks are never driven into the yard, any more than they are driven down the inclined plane, but it is always our method to allow the youngsters to seek a new field for themselves, and slowly. When they go out into the yard they are watched, and if there is any inclination to huddle up against the warm side of the building they are driven back into the Brooder House. ”

“ If a sanitary egg is to be produced it is most essential that pure water should be accessible to the hens at all times, and not only should the water be pure, but the drinking fountains must be of such a nature that they can readily be kept in a pure state, and that the cups, into which the water flows from the main fountain, cannot be fouled by the birds. ”