The birds leave the Brooder House for their permanent Summer home on the Colony Range, so far as the pullets in the flock go, at eight to nine weeks of age.
The Colony Houses are prepared for the new tenants by being thoroughly sprayed with a solution of Kerosene and Carbolic Acid, in a proportion of one to five—one Carbolic and five Kerosene. Before spraying, the canvas drops to the windows are let down, and after spraying the House is left twenty-four hours in a perfectly closed condition, before the drops are raised. The floor is then covered with straw litter to the depth of four inches; the five gallon drinking fountain is filled and placed on its stand close to the door; the feed box receives its quantity of mash, and the grain is scattered over the litter.
We practice the filling of from six to eight Colony Houses at a time, and with this coming season of 1912 we shall increase that number to ten.
The Colony Houses are raised about eight inches from the ground, by blocks, and, as it is not advisable for the small birds to get under the House for the first few days, we have sets of boards which fit around the House to prevent their making the mistake of huddling under the House at night, instead of going up into it.
Another preparation, on the outside of the House, is the digging of a ditch, in the shape of a crescent, about two feet back of the House, the ditch tapering out to nothing at the two ends, the dirt being thrown to the side away from the Colony House. All houses face due south. The heavy storms of the Summer come rushing up, as a general thing, from the west and northwest, and this ditch, together with the mound of earth back of it, prevents the rush of wind and rain getting under the Colony House, protecting the large number of chicks, that, on occasion of sudden storm, collect there for shelter. It has been found that this materially reduces the mortality resulting from these heavy Summer showers, accompanied by a strong wind. The ditch also keeps dampness entirely away from the ground under the Colony Houses, which is also a very great advantage.
All being now ready at the Colony Houses, a large wire cage (the one now in use being eight feet long and two and a half feet wide, and eight inches high, with sliding doors at each end, and two soft leather handles to carry it by) is placed at the door opening into the chick runs from the Brooder House, and the youngsters are quietly driven into the cage. When a sufficient number to carry safely has been driven in, the cage is carried out, placed on the wagon and driven to the Range. The birds at this time are from eight to nine weeks old, we having found it is better to have a sufficient amount of brooder room to carry them to this age before placing on Range, as they are then much better feathered, and are less affected by changes of atmosphere.
When the cages reach the Colony House the sliding door is placed directly in front of the small chick door, and both slides pulled up, and the chicks gently coaxed, by patting the box on the top and sides, to leave it for the Colony House. We place in each of these Colony Houses from two hundred and fifty to three hundred birds of this age.
As the cockerels develop they are separated, and those which are perfect in formation, and as to toes, five pointed combs, etc., and give promise of growing into proper Breeders, are placed in the Cockerel House, and given the Range of the large enclosure surrounding this House.
Until well along in the Summer, when the youngsters are first placed in the Colony House, we make it a practice to hang, directly in the center of the House and within about three feet of the floor, a large barn lantern, and with the window drops closed this produces a very considerable amount of heat, and helps materially to give a feeling of comfort and contentment to the birds in their new quarters.
COLONY RANGE FEED AND WATER WAGON WITH “BILLY” IN THE SHAFTS
The afternoon following the day in which chicks are put into the Colony Houses (which means that they have been confined for about twenty-four hours), they are let out, but not until four o’clock, and they find their grain ration scattered close to the door of the House. In fact, it is not scattered until the small chick doors are opened for them to come out, and then it is thrown on the runs, and through the doors, as well as on the ground directly in front. The grain lying in the runways acts in a double way; it entices them out, and as they see it on the ground they eat very little on the runs, but later, after they have cleaned up all on the ground, that lying on the chick runs attracts them on back into the House at night.
The reason for letting the birds out so late in the day for their first outing is that a chicken, late in the day, will never go any great distance from where it has been confined, but works around close to the quarters in which it has spent the previous hours, and naturally returns there for shelter as the Sun goes down. The following morning the chick doors are opened and the birds allowed to roam at will.
From this on the regular routine of Range feeding is followed. The Range Feed Wagon is low geared and broad tired. On the rear of the wagon there is a large, square tank, carrying some two hundred gallons of water. The faucet for drawing the water is placed on the bottom and center of the rear, the tank being placed on the wagon with a slight incline, and is of inch size so as to facilitate the rapid filling of the drinking fountains, which are placed directly underneath it. The front part of the wagon carries the tubs of mash and the grain ration. As the Colony Houses are laid out symmetrically the broad tires of the wagon soon wear smooth roads in front of them, and heavy loads are readily pulled over the Range streets. The Houses are placed from side to side about eighty feet apart. From the front of the Houses on one street to the rear of the House on the next street is about one hundred feet.
The question of shelter on the Range was quite a problem at first, and to meet it in a measure we set out shelters, which were constructed by stretching roofing over frames about twelve feet square, and set up some two and a half feet on stakes driven into the ground.
It had been planned to carry the Colony Range in Timothy and Clover, but we lost the catch, and as the ground had been very heavily fertilized with the litter from the Laying Houses, a very rank and luxuriant growth of all kinds of Flora sprang up, and we found that what seemed to us a piece of very hard luck in losing the catch, was really a blessing in disguise, for this rank growth of Flora, even in its first year, was of sufficient height to give very considerable shelter to the large flocks on the Range, and with the Colony Houses just off the ground, the improvised shelters were practically abandoned by the birds, and so they have been removed.
With the yearly scattering of the increased amount of litter as the Farm enlarged, the growth on the Range is becoming more and more luxuriant, and now the entire Range has a succession of changing Flora from month to month, and with some varieties, almost from week to week. There is a considerable growth of Timothy and Clover, and many other varieties of the grass family, which produce a varied diet of succulent food, and of course the constant change in Flora also supplies a varied diet of seeds which the birds harvest for themselves. Any oats and wheat which have been missed in the litter from the Laying Houses sprout here, and the birds also harvest this crop for themselves. The condition of the Range under this method of handling, as we view it, is absolutely ideal for the growing youngsters.
Fresh water is supplied daily to the Houses, and the grain ration consists of two-thirds wheat, and one-third cracked corn. The amount of grain fed to each Colony House depends upon the cleaning up of it by the tenants of this particular House. The mash box is filled daily with what is now known as the Corning Range Mash, which consists of wheat middlings, bran, ground oats, corn meal, and a sufficient amount of green bone, when mechanically mixed in a machine which has been designed by the Farm for this purpose, to give the mash a slight feeling of moisture, which is derived entirely from the juices of the bone.
There is not so great a proportion of animal food in this Range Mash as in the mash for the layers, and it should be noticed that there is in it no gluten or oil meal. The early hatches particularly are not forced along quite so rapidly, and are less liable to go into a Winter moult than if they get these ingredients, and should they moult it comes at a later date and does not extend over so long a period.
On such a range it is not necessary to have so great a proportion of animal food in the mash, because the floral growth harbors myriads of worms and insects, which supply a large part of the animal food needed.
It is now our plan to allow the early hatched pullets to remain on the Range until the first or second week in September, according to the weather and the way they are laying.
The time has now arrived for taking up the first fifteen hundred pullets.
FEEDING ON THE COLONY RANGE
The Laying House has been previously prepared for their reception, by removing all the old litter, the nest boxes having been scraped and brushed out, and the House then thoroughly swept, and all the corners cleaned out with a scraper, after which, with all the doors and drops closed, it is subjected to a most thorough spraying with Kerosene and Crude Carbolic, in the same proportions given in the earlier part of this chapter. This spraying covers every part of the House, and is done with a force pump, so that the solution is forced into every nook and cranny. The House is then bedded down with about eight inches of fresh straw, the nest boxes made ready with excelsior, and the mash for that day placed in the two mash boxes in each section, under the dropping boards. The grain is scattered in the litter, this being all done before the birds are brought to the house, so as to obviate the necessity of disturbing them more than is absolutely necessary for the first twenty-four hours in their new quarters.
The birds having been left shut up in the Colony Houses, a wire hook is used to catch them, and a man who is accustomed to using it, standing at the door, reaches in and easily catches one pullet after another by the leg, gently pulls her to the door and hands her out to the man in waiting, who drops her quietly into a large box, on the Farm Wagon, with an opening, provided with a slide at the top. These boxes are carried right into the Laying House, when the entire front slides out, thus releasing the birds all at once, and any chance of struggling through a small opening and injuring themselves, is done away with.
The method used in accustoming the birds in the Colony Houses to get on without artificial heat is as follows: for the first three or four nights, depending on the coolness of the weather, all canvas drops are down, and a large, lighted, stable lantern is hung in the House. For the next few nights after the lantern is removed the drops are left closed. Then one drop is propped out an inch or two, and from night to night the opening is increased, until the drop is left up altogether. After that, for a few nights, one drop is left up and the other closed. Next, the second drop is slowly worked up in the manner described, until it reaches the height of the hook. After this they are never lowered again so long as the birds remain on the Range.