Corning Method in Small Flocks
Two illustrations of the working out of the Corning Method in a small way would doubtless be of interest. While it is true that the 16 feet wide House is the most desirable from all standpoints, the length of the house may be anything from 20 feet to 200 feet, as the house is of sectional construction, 20 feet being a section.
In the back yard of a gentleman living in Bound Brook was kept a small pen of birds, in all eighteen, composed of hens and pullets. These were a mixture of Barred Rocks and Rhode Island Reds. The pullets were of early hatch and should have come into eggs at least in the first week of October. The hens completed the moult much earlier than is generally expected, and still the owner was without eggs.
Different methods, and nostrums of guaranteed egg producing foods, were tried, but all without success. After a call at The Corning Egg Farm, he stated that in one week and three days the first eggs were found in the nests, and the continuance of the Corning Method of feeding and working the hens produced eggs steadily through the Winter months, beginning with the middle of December, and the birds continued to lay more than an average output until they went into the moult the following Fall.
A gentleman, who has a small place within a mile of The Corning Egg Farm, some four years ago purchased hatching eggs from our Breeding Pen, and the following Fall he also bought a small pen of Breeders. He aims to produce and carry through the Winter about one hundred pullets, and for four years now, by adhering strictly to the Corning Method, and with the Corning Strain Single Comb White Leghorns, he has met with a success almost phenomenal.
Before he became conversant with the Corning Method (and with the stock he was then carrying before beginning with the Corning Strain) his success was represented by zero, but to-day his balance sheets, which he displays with great pride, are extremely interesting reading.
This gives a very fair illustration of two small flocks of different size, and of the results obtained.