CHAPTER V
POULTRY DEVICES
POULTRY HOUSE
A portable house placed on runners is shown in the following cut. It can be easily moved by four men carrying it, or be drawn by hitching a horse to the ends of the runners. A house of this type has many advantages over the stationary house because it can be moved into the field after the grain is cut, into the orchard, and into the different fields where the chickens can get plenty of fresh green food.
Materials:
| Use | Size | No. of pieces |
Length | Board measure |
| Sills (runners) | 4” × 6” | 2 | 12’ | 48’ |
| Joists | 2” × 4” | 3 | 14’ | 28’ |
| Studs and braces | 2” × 3” | 13 | 12’ | 78’ |
| Rafters | 2” × 4” | 3 | 16’ | 32’ |
| —— | ||||
| Total | 186’ | |||
| ⅞” Matched flooring (floor and sides) | 340’ | |||
| ⅞” Sheathing, surfaced one side | 100’ | |||
| Roofing paper, 1 roll. | ||||
| Windows, hardware, etc. | ||||
Directions:
A good location is the first consideration in the building of a poultry house. Select a well drained spot, facing the southeast and large enough to make comfortable quarters for the chickens.
The house is built of any kind of durable and well-seasoned lumber. The kind of material used in making the floor will depend largely on the soil and the money to be spent in the construction of the house. Board floors are often used but they are more susceptible to rats. Cement floors are more easily cleaned and more sanitary, and not so expensive in a locality where plenty of gravel is available. A board floor must be raised several inches from the ground as a protection from rats and to allow for runners to be placed underneath the house.
Roosts are placed on the same level with each other next to the end or back walls and from 6” to 10” above the dropping boards, which are 2½” from the floor. Roosts may be stationary as in the cut, or they may be fastened by hinges to the walls and raised to clean the dropping board.
Roost spacing will depend upon the size of the fowls, but a 10” space to each fowl is usually sufficient. They must be put 15” apart.
Nests made 14” square are built under the dropping boards around the walls of the house as shown in cut. A 4” piece of wood is placed on the side, which drops as a door in front of the nests.
Windows as shown in the cut are more expensive and not as good as a front made of wood extending about 2’ from the bottom. Wire screening, admitting better ventilation and more sunlight, is tacked over the rest of the opening in the front. A curtain may be made of unbleached muslin and fastened on a pole at the top of the open front, which may be lowered as a protection in bad weather.
Make the roof of some water tight material and cover the walls on the inside to protect the fowls from draughts.
Nests.—Comfortable and convenient quarters must be furnished the sitting hen. The location of the nest must be in a quiet, dark place to keep the hen from becoming restless. A box fifteen inches square and twelve inches high, with a narrow strip four to five inches wide at the bottom of the open front of the box, makes a comfortable nest. Barrels or half-barrels or nests made of a piece of sod will also be comfortable quarters for the sitting hen. The nests must be well lined with hay, straw, or excelsior. Both the nests and the hen must be thoroughly dusted with insect powder before the sitting time comes.
Hatching and Rearing.—There are two methods used in the hatching and rearing of chickens—the natural, when the chicks are hatched and reared by a hen, and the artificial, when they are hatched in incubators and brooded in houses indoors or out-of-doors. The natural method will be found to be more satisfactory when dealing with a small number of chickens. A small number of hens, if managed with system and care, will produce a large number of chickens at a very small cost.
Care must be taken in the selection of the eggs to be used for hatching purposes. Select well-formed eggs which are regular in shape and size and which are neither too large nor too small. They should come from healthy hens of one breed and should be smooth and of one color. Eggs must be kept in a dry, cool place and at a temperature of from fifty to sixty degrees Fahrenheit. The fertility of an egg weakens with age; so they must be kept only a few days before they are to be set. The number of eggs to be put under each hen will vary with the season, the size of the hen, and the size of the eggs; but it is usually safe to put about thirteen eggs under a hen of average size.
Egg Tester.—Test the eggs in a dark room on the seventh and fourteenth days for the removal of infertile eggs. This may be done by a very simple home-made tester made of a pasteboard or wooden box, with a hole the size of an egg bored in the front, and an opening in the top through which the smoke is to pass. If a wooden box with a bottom is used, an opening must be made in front, with a door so as to put the lamp in. A box without a bottom may be used and simply set right over the lamp. Either a lamp, candle, or lantern may be used on the inside of the box. Holding the egg in front of the box and letting the light shine through it will show the condition of the egg. An infertile egg will be clear, while a fertile egg has a spider-like center with threads leading out from it. All infertile eggs must be removed.
Poultry is classified as the egg breeds, the meat breeds, the general-purpose breeds, and the ornamental breeds.
The egg breeds are small fowls which mature quickly. They are very active, but not good chickens to be used for setting purposes. They are good layers, and they lay a great many white-shelled eggs, for which there is a great demand on some markets. The age of maturity for this breed is from four and one-half to five months. The Leghorns and the Minorcas are the principal representatives of this breed. The single-combed white Leghorn has been the most popular.
The meat breeds are large fowls with long necks and heavy coats of feathers; and they lay a comparatively small number of brown-shelled eggs. They are slow in movement, with little desire to forage. They make fine mothers, and for this reason they make good fowls to be used for setting. The Brahmas, Cochins, and Langshanks are the principal fowls of this breed.
The general-purpose breeds occupy a medium place between the egg and meat breeds as to size, egg production, and meat production. For these characteristics they are especially recommended to the farmer who wishes both egg and meat fowls. They lay a number of brown-shelled eggs and they make splendid mothers. The Plymouth Rocks, Wyandottes, Orphingtons, and Rhode Island Reds are the best varieties of this breed.
The ornamental breeds are ornamental both in character and purpose, and for this reason they are not practical for use on the farm.
Feeding.—The farmer has often become discouraged by the elaborate rations which are recommended by poultrymen to be used in feeding the chickens. While some of the by-products of industries, such as Linseed Meal and Meat Meal are necessary, most of the feed used in poultry raising may be raised on the farm. It is well to be familiar with the different values of foods fed to the chickens, for they like a change in their rations, and it is necessary that they have it. If the food contains too much fat, the hens will become too fat, which will lessen their usefulness as egg producers; while if the food contains too much protein, some symptoms of indigestion will result. It is hard to determine the right amount of fat and protein to be fed to the chickens, for this varies to suit conditions and the purpose for which it is fed.
Young chicks should be fed a dry or wet feed forty-eight hours after they are hatched. Nature has already provided them with yolk of egg, which must be digested before they are given more food. Their first feed must be fine grit or a drink of sour milk. In two hours after the first feeding they may be given dry oat flakes with an egg which has been boiled for an hour, or a Johnny cake made of ten parts of cornmeal, two parts of wheat middlings, two parts of wheat bran, mixed with skimmed milk and baked. Change this diet after a week to a dry ration—for example, two parts of cracked wheat, two parts of oat flakes, four parts of cracked corn, one part of rice, and one part of millet. Plenty of green food and sour milk should be fed to them. Feed them often, but in small proportions. Let them take plenty of exercise. It is important to keep the hen up and allow the chicks to run out until they are weaned.