Poultry farm

“ The raising of poultry and live stock on a large scale is a separate occupation, usually followed in a scientific manner and it is not of that industry that we need to speak, but rather of the benefit to every farmer and to the dwellers in small communities, of raising at least a part of the animal food used by the family.
Every farm has some bits of unoccupied land that can be fenced off for poultry. The gleanings from the fields will supply their food, and they will furnish meat and eggs for the family throughout the year, with enough left to sell to provide other comforts. ”

“ 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. ”

“ It has now been taught all over the country, by lecturers under the county council technical instruction committees, that poultry pay best of any branch upon a farm. It has become generally known that, provided they can be run over the farm by using detached houses, and not huddled together, a dozen hens per acre can be kept upon a holding without interfering with any other stock; indeed, the curious fact is observed that horses and cattle prefer to graze over grass that might be thought soiled by the fowls. ”

“ Successful poultry keeping probably requires more careful selection of a farm than any other agricultural industry. There should be light soil with good air and water drainage and an area of sufficient size to permit shifting the poultry on different areas as a means of preventing disease infection and as a means of securing vigor in the birds. ”

“ Interior of a compartment in commercial poultry house, United States Government farm, Beltsville, Maryland. (Photograph from Bureau of Animal Industry)
Common type of intensive poultry farm. The ordinary special poultry farm is a run-down farm upon which have been erected the buildings necessary for the accommodation of from four or five hundred to two or three thousand fowls kept in comparatively small yards. The buildings are nearly always neat and substantial, the fences strong and durable. ”

“ All the grain is fed at one time, in the afternoon, and is not forked into the litter, as the birds have worked all day up to this time, it is desired that they fill up rather easily from feeding time till dark. As they move and scratch they bury the surplus grain most effectively in the litter, thus saving considerable labor, which is expended on many poultry farms, by using the pitch fork to place the grain deep in the straw. ”

“ Young stock in cornfield on a fancier's farm
While farmers usually care more for horses, cattle, sheep, and hogs, many [Pg 122] become interested in poultry, and if they are natural fanciers and good business men, it often happens that the growing of fancy poultry becomes one of the most important industries on the farm. ”

“ I wish to call the farmer's attention to the fact that poultry keeping as an adjunct to general farming, especially to general farming in the Mississippi Valley, is quite a different proposition from poultry production as a regular business. Poultry keeping as a part of farm life and farm enterprise is a thing well worth while in any section of the United States, whereas poultry keeping, a separate occupation, requires special location and special conditions to make it profitable. ”

“ Every modern method for the improvement of breeds and rearing of stock is in operation, on a scale scarcely ever attempted before, and with results that interest even experts. There is also an extensive poultry farm, squabbery, dairy, cannery, a slaughtering house and packing department, a mill for the grinding of meals, feeds, and flour, extensive silos, and all other equipment of the most up-to-date establishments. Every by-product is also utilized in a most intelligent and systematic manner. ”

“ At Fairview Farm Mr. Blanchard combines fruit growing with poultry keeping, a combination which it would be difficult to better for double profits, and a combination which should be better understood by poultry growers. The advantages of combining fruit and poultry growing are many, not the least of the advantages being furnishing the shade which Prof. Rice tells us is so essential in summer. ”

“ In the East, poultry fattening on the general farm is not dissimilar from the practices in the Central West, but we find a larger use of cramming machines, caponizing, and the growing of chickens for meat as an industry independent of keeping hens for egg production. ”

“ All of the successful men questioned advised that the keeping of poultry should be begun in a small way in order that experience can be gained without the risk of losing the initial investment, or that the intending operator should gain practical knowledge of the business by working on a poultry farm for a year. ”

“ The land for the most part is rocky, wooded and hilly. The climate and nature of the soil are against the economical production of poultry, but the grain can be profitably fed, and as the markets are the best in the country, commercial poultry farming has gained quite a foothold. If a man is already located in this section and wishes to go into the poultry business I would by all means say, "Go ahead," but I would not advise an outsider looking for a location to come here, for the next section has several advantages. ”

“ Maize is the best crop to grow on unbroken land, and to plant it he will have to hoe patches here and there all over the ground, keeping them as well as he can in line, make them raised somewhat like little hillocks, and plant three or four grains in each, this crop will loosen the ground for the plough. And while it is growing he may as well build his fowl house. Poultry will do no harm to the corn once it is well above ground, and by the time he has other crops in he must have a closer fence to keep out other animals than fowls, if his farm is to be for general stock. ”

“ Many women on farms become interested in fancy poultry, and some become very skillful breeders and exhibitors. A farmer-fancier's poultry plant is usually a combination of extensive and intensive methods. Some buildings with small compartments must be provided, but all except the choicest birds can be managed just like the ordinary fowls on a farm [Pg 123] where arrangements are made with a view to giving them the full advantage of the good conditions which the place affords. ”

“ The best market in the country—New York City—is within easy shipping distance.
The type of poultry farming here to be recommended, like that of Section 6, is one in which imported grain is fed. The fertility of this grain, going back on the light soil, is used to grow the green food required by the hens, and, in addition, may be used in a rotation system for growing truck. It will not pay to grow any quantity of grain. Section 7, because of its advantages over Section 6 in climate and the availability of large tracts of suitable land, is a much better location for the poultry community. ”

“ On general farms, where the birds live on food that may otherwise be wasted, poultry are a source of considerable profit. The opinion of the Scottish Commission was that [Pg 21] "Australia possesses natural conditions of almost unequalled value for the profitable keeping of poultry. In climate, soil, shelter, and in natural food she has the essential attributes to success." Poultry-farming is carried on together with wheat or dairying or pig farming, but in many places the raising of poultry is carried on as a single line. ”

“ It will be noted that the egg production per hen is very low in the Southern States. This may seem at variance with my previous statements. The poor poultry keeping of the South is a fault of the industrial conditions, not of the climate. Chickens on the Southern farm simply live around the premises as do rats or English sparrows. No grain is grown; there are no feed lots to run to, no measures are taken to keep down vermin, and no protection is provided from wind and rain. ”

“ Good fowls are very profitable in the keeping of intelligent breeders. It is stated, by those most competent to express the opinion, that four acres of land, devoted to the rearing of the best varieties of poultry, will, at ordinary prices, be quite as productive as a farm of one hundred and fifty acres cultivated in the usual way. The eggs of the common and cheaper kinds which might be used for incubators and nurses, would pay—or could be made to pay, if properly preserved, and sold at the right time—all expenses of feed, etc. ”

“ Each farm will have a speciality, and it will also include live-stock and equipment for other branches of farming. For instance, the dairy farm will also have swine and poultry, and the beef farm will carry sheep, a few dairy cows, and poultry. ”

“ Poultry are the better for high feeding from the very shell, and on this account it is advisable to give them the heaviest corn. Even young chickens may be put for feeding as soon as the hen has ceased to regard them. When chickens are wanted for domestic purposes, they should be left at liberty in the farm-yard, and if they have plenty of [175] food they will be soon fit for the table, and rich and juicy in flavour. ”

“ Most of the land was in hay, which we hired cut and sold, and we raised some corn. I knew nothing about farming, and was so interested in chickens that I had little time to study; however, I got the Cornell bulletins on alfalfa and started an acre according to their suggestions. This has been successful and is fine feed for poultry.
The second spring we hired a man by the month. One man can take care of twelve hundred hens and the horse, carry coal, and drive for us some of the time. The regular farm work we hire done by the day. ”

“ In no country is the management of our best poultry-yards excelled. These should serve as a model for the rest; to bring up the wholesale results to their true national importance, all we require is an extension of the taste for poultry-farming amongst those who earn their living on the land.’
The real new-laid eggs of home produce are comparatively few. Their excellence is best appreciated by obtaining them at country farmhouses. The small farmers who do not take nor send their eggs to open market sell them to country shopkeepers, or barter them for other commodities. ”

“ But there appears to be every probability of the disease proving only of a temporary nature, and that the production of poultry will be as easy, simple, and remunerative as of old; for, as may easily be understood, poultry farming is bound to be of vast importance in a hot country. Every traveller recalls what a staple food a so-called chicken is in the West Indies; while in the vast plains of India almost every native cottage has its fowls to meet the demand of an enormous consumption. ”

“ But the advance in Poultry Culture has brought about feeding of whole grains, to a large extent. For years the proper feeding of chicks, even on farms with modern brooding equipment, has been a stumbling block, causing serious loss, and, in many instances, failure, to those attempting to raise chickens either in large or small numbers. ”

“ She stood up carefully and took a long look at her family. “I couldn’t have hatched out a better brood myself,” she said. “It is a queer thing for tables to take to hatching Chickens, but if that is the way it is to be [Pg 45] done on this farm, it will save me a great deal of time and be a good thing for my legs. It is lucky that this Man came here. The Farmer who left would never have thought of making a table sit on eggs and hatch them.”
[Pg 46]
THE MAN BUILDS A POULTRY-HOUSE It would be wrong to say that all the poultry on the farm really liked the Man. ”

“ Nor must another item be omitted—health; for if you wish to be fortunate in your farming, you must look after things yourself, and that will necessitate constant exercise in the open air. We think that we have given full particulars for the management of the cow and pig.
In the next chapter we will relate our experience of the poultry-yard.
CHAPTER VII. OUR POULTRY. We commenced stocking our poultry-yard in July, by purchasing twenty-eight chickens and twenty ducks, for which we paid $16 58 in the market. ”

“ The establishments which supply it furnish eggs for hatching, or stock birds, or newly hatched chickens, which are now hatched in incubators and sold by thousands when only one day old, at which age they travel without needing food. Some of such establishments are quite large. One in Yorkshire occupies 43 acres solely devoted to this business.
Poultry-farming has reached its fullest development in the United States, owing no doubt to the apparently inexhaustible market; butcher’s meat being far less eaten than in England, and poultry and eggs to a large extent replacing it as national food. ”

“ I am quite sure that a poultry-yard may be made very profitable to any one who will bestow a little trouble on it. Great care must be taken with the young chickens at night; the hen should be securely cooped with them: for want of this precaution we in one night lost eight, when they were a few days old, being, as we supposed, carried off by the cats. ”