A Living from the Land

by William Budington Duryee

In addition to the standard rations the growing stock and laying birds should have access at all times to grit, shell and charcoal, kept in suitable containers. These may be obtained of the local dealer.

Sanitation.—When growing stock and laying hens are kept under modern intensive conditions the observance of the rules of sanitation is essential. Failure to observe them is likely to result in loss of production, serious sickness of the flock and the nullifying of all other constructive factors.

Dropping boards beneath the roosts must be cleaned frequently and regularly to prevent accumulation of filth. If the dropping boards are constructed of matched lumber with the boards running in the direction in which they are to be scraped it will facilitate the cleaning process.

Before the birds are placed in winter quarters the laying house should be thoroughly cleaned of all litter and debris. The interior may then be thoroughly sprayed with a disinfectant composed of some good coal tar preparation, and this repeated in the spring. The surface will need to be painted with a good disinfectant, of which there are a number of commercial preparations on the market. A close watch should be made for vermin in the house and on the birds, and if lice or similar parasites are discovered, immediate action should be taken to destroy both the adults and the eggs, since these parasites will debilitate the flock and prevent their development and may seriously check their ability to lay.

Management of Artificial Lights.—The electric lights mentioned in the previous chapter should be turned on about four-thirty in the morning and kept on until daylight or used for an hour in the late evening. When lights are used there should be plenty of food and water available to enable the birds to take advantage of the additional feeding period. The scratch grain should be increased by 2 pounds daily for each hundred birds when lights are used. Many poultrymen find it advantageous to have a low wattage light burning all night so that hungry individuals may get a meal and return to the perches at all times. Three to five kilowatt hours per month for each hundred birds represents the average current consumption where lights are used.

Practical Suggestions for Efficient Management.—A number of successful poultrymen were recently asked to state the requisites for success in the poultry industry, with particular reference to what is known as the one-man poultry flock. Such a flock is of adequate size to take practically the full time of one person in its operation. As the result of the development of standardized feeding practices, improved equipment and better methods of management, the maximum number of birds that can be successfully managed by one person has greatly increased in recent years. Likewise, the problems of proper feeding, adequate disease control and successful selling have increased as the size of the unit has grown and as greater intensiveness is practiced.

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. Valuable knowledge can also be gained by attending short courses in poultry husbandry that are being offered at most agricultural colleges with a very moderate expenditure of funds.

One of these successful men writes as follows: “We are working with a man now who was let out of a position recently but who has some savings and who desires to go into the poultry business. He has purchased six acres of ground, has built a bungalow on it and has the foundations in for three laying houses of 500 birds’ capacity each. He will have ample range for a two-yards system for each laying house, and, in addition, will have two ranges to alternate yearly for growing his young stock. His program calls for putting out about 2,400 chicks yearly from which he should have at least 1,000 pullets, which he will house in two of the laying houses. The following year he will carry over about 500 of these birds and can fill up with 1,000 pullets. This is to be a one-man plant with possibly some assistance in the spring.

“I feel that 1,500 birds is the minimum required from which one man can make a living, and five acres devoted to poultry, properly laid out, is sufficient area for this purpose. If more land is available, so much the better. These are minimum requirements, as I see it, and with regular feed deliveries directly to the poultry house, running water and other labor-saving devices, there is no reason why one man cannot successfully take care of this number of birds, particularly where a man is starting on new ground where there have never been any chickens and therefore less chance of disease. We advise buying baby chicks rather than partly grown or mature stock. If he follows a definite economic and sanitary program right from the start, there is no reason why his plant should not carry on profitably, indefinitely.”

This practical man says further: “It is our experience that the majority of the people going into the poultry business go in ‘blind.’ Their chicken houses are put up irrespective of range facilities and then after two or three years when they begin to run into trouble they find their mistakes. I would suggest that you point out to prospective poultrymen the advisability of first, buying land and developing their own poultry plant rather than trying to make over someone else’s plant; second, buying in a location where buying and selling facilities have been developed; third, getting in touch with a reliable local poultryman for guidance in laying out his plant and following only one advisor. By hooking up with only one poultryman he is presented with one way of doing things which this poultryman has found successful in his own business.”