One Thousand Ways to Make a Living; or, An Encyclopædia of Plans to Make Money

by Harold Morse Dunphy

Procuring Stock

The best way for the city poultry keeper to procure hens is to purchase them in the fall. An effort should be made to obtain pullets rather than older hens, and the pullets selected should be well matured, so that they will begin to lay before the cold weather sets in. Evidences of the maturity of pullets are the development and red color of the comb and a size and growth which are good for the breed or variety. Hens will lay little or no eggs during the fall and early winter, while they are molting. Well-matured pullets, however, should lay fairly well during this period, so that an immediate return is realized from the investment. The purchasing of pullets in the fall is preferable in most cases to purchasing day-old chicks or to hatching chicks in the spring. Usually there is little space available for the raising of chicks, and, moreover, many city dwellers have had no experience in raising them. Under these conditions the results are apt to be very poor. Hatching and rearing chicks also necessitates broody hens for this purpose, or else investing money in artificial apparatus such as incubators and brooders. Such an investment is often too great to prove profitable with the average small flock. If chicks are raised, they must be fed throughout the summer and no return will be obtained until the pullets begin to lay in the fall, except that the males can be eaten or sold.

Fig. 3.—A shed in the heart of the city utilized for a poultry house. While a larger opening in the front would admit more light and make a more suitable hen house, the fowls kept here have done very well. The wire netting used for the yard was purchased very cheaply at an auction. The grass and sacks shown on the top of the run are used to furnish shade.

When pullets are to be purchased, it is well if possible to go to some farmer or poultryman who may be known to the prospective purchaser. In some cases it may pay to make arrangements with the farmer to raise the desired number of pullets at an agreed price. Where the householder does not have an opportunity to go into the country for his pullets, he can often pick them out among the live poultry shipped into the city to be marketed. The advice of some one who knows poultry should be sought in making such a purchase, to make sure that pullets or young hens are obtained, and that the stock is healthy. Often the local poultry associations are glad to help the prospective poultry keeper to get stock by putting him in communication with some of its members having stock for sale. Sometimes the local board of trade or chamber of commerce is glad to help to bring together the prospective purchaser and the poultry raiser.

Housing

The flock should be comfortably but not expensively housed. A house which provides a floor space of 3 or 4 square feet per bird is ample for the purpose, and fowls are often successfully kept with an allowance no greater then 2¹⁄₂ to 3 square feet. Houses must be dry and free from draft, but must allow ventilation. Often there is an unused shed or small building on the place which can easily be converted into a chicken house (see [fig. 3]). The front of the poultry house should be faced toward the south, if possible, so that the sun will shine into it. Perfectly satisfactory houses can be made cheaply from piano boxes or other packing cases. Two piano boxes with the backs removed can be nailed together and a door cut in the end. These boxes should be covered with a roofing paper in order to keep the house dry and to make it wind-proof. A portion of the door should be left open or covered with a piece of muslin, so as to allow ventilation. (See [figs. 4] and [5].) Similar houses can be constructed of packing cases at a relatively small cost. A small amount of 2 by 4 or 2 by 3 lumber can be purchased for framing. The box boards can be applied for siding or sheathing and then covered with roofing paper. Where there is a board fence it is sometimes possible to take advantage of this by building the poultry house in the corner of the fence and making the fence itself, with the cracks covered by strips or battened, serve as the back and one side of the house.

Fig. 4.—Poultry houses, each of which is made out of two piano boxes. The two boxes are placed back to back, 3 feet apart, the back and top of each removed, a frame for roof and floor added, and the part between the two boxes built in with the boards removed from the boxes. The whole is covered with roofing paper. With piano boxes at $2.50 each, such a house can be easily and quickly constructed for $12. It will accommodate 12 hens comfortably.

A cheap house 8 by 8 feet square can be made of 2 by 4 inch pieces and 12-inch boards. Plans for such a house are given in [figure 6]. The 2 by 4 pieces are used for sills, plates, corner posts, and three rafters. No studding is required except that necessary to frame the door and window space. The boards are run up and down and add sufficient stiffness to the house. They are used also for the roof and covered with roofing paper. The back and sides of the house also can be covered with roofing paper, or the cracks can be covered with wooden battens or strips 1¹⁄₂ to 3 inches wide. In the front of the house there should be left a window or opening which can be closed, when desired, by a muslin screen or curtain which serves as a protection against bad weather but allows ventilation. In the side a door should be provided which will allow entrance. A shed or single-slope roof is best because easiest to build. A height of 6 feet in front and 4 feet in the rear is ample. If desired, the house may be built higher, so that it is more convenient to work in; the increase in cost will be slight. The ventilator in the rear is not needed in the northern part of the country, but is desirable in the South where summers are very warm.