2,000 Birds to a House
The large flock system works economies, then, in housing, in the amount of labor necessary to care for the birds, and in gathering the eggs. And there is no doubt but that a house of considerably greater length, with a flock ranging as high as two thousand birds, could successfully be handled. In fact, on one farm which has been in existence over twenty-five years, a Corning Method Laying House of two hundred feet in length has been in operation now for twelve months, and the owners write us that it is the most successful house on their entire farm, and that as rapidly as possible they are rebuilding all their Laying Houses, and making them of this type.
CHAPTER VII
What is the Winter Layer?—The Properly Hatched and Reared Pullet
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. The natural time, however, for a pullet to begin to lay is when she reaches maturity, and, as the pullet hatched in the early Spring, properly cared for, should come into eggs in the early Fall, the pullet, then, is the Winter layer.
It must still be remembered that the domesticated fowl of to-day is a bird of evolution. In its wild state a pullet did not begin to lay eggs in the Fall, and neither did she lay a large number of eggs at any time. With the coming of Spring, and an abundance of succulent green food, and large quantities of animal food in the shape of a great variety of worms and insects, she laid and hatched her brood. Therefore, to have successful Winter layers, it is necessary to produce as nearly as possible the Spring-time conditions.
INTERIOR LAYING HOUSE NO. 1 IN 1910