Profitable poultry keeping

Introduction

I esteem it a privilege and a pleasure to introduce this excellent hand-book to all who are practically interested in keeping poultry. I would say to the veriest tyro, provided he had a modicum of common sense : " Here, take this book of Stephen Beale's, study it carefully in whatever it is applicable to your needs, and follow it. You will find it a safe guide, and you will almost surely come out well with your poultry the first year." Any old poultry-keeper may study it with profit, and if he finds some few passages to criticise, and opinions advanced with which he does not agree, let him consider that no two parts of the country are subject to the same conditions of soil, climate and surroundings.

English current literature is far richer than ours in the results of experience in poultry matters, and the systems in vogue there and in France among the most successful poultry raisers are very much superior to general practice in this country, so that Mr. Beale's obvious familiarity with the best practice in those countries, in connection with his own large experience, is a very great advantage to the book.

The author shows himself upon every page to be a practical man, fertile in expedients, gifted with rare common sense, with a knowledge of his subject in matters of useful and essential detail, and one can readily pardon a little verboseness of style and occasional repetitions. It is a business book, and as such it should be regarded. It was not written for fanciers, though no poultry book (and these are, gener-

4 Introduction.

ally, primarily fanciers' books) gives better instruction in regard to the successful rearing of fancy poultry. Yet, giving well-bred poultry of all kinds their true value, it is replete with instruction how to make the most money, or at least the most profit, by their use.

The public is familiar with the advantages derived from the employment of thorough-bred and pure-bred males in the breeding of all other kinds of domestic animals. We all know how that, with sheep and swine especially, grades and cross breeds of the first generation are much more profitable to rear for their useful qualities than full bloods are, for the reason that in such a first cross those high qualities which have become fixed by a long course of breeding and selection assert themselves with peculiar force. It seems as if poultry raisers had been peculiarly negligent of or blind to this natural law, and had neglected to practise that which in the rearing of other kinds of farm stock they consider of vital importance.

The chapter on " Cross-bred Poultry" puts this subject in a very clear light, but hardly dwells sufficiently, to my notion, on the fact that where it is difficult to obtain pure-bred poultry of different breeds, such as one desires to cross, grades may be reared in two or three years by crossing a pure male bird of the wished-for breed upon, first, a good flock of common females, the next year (changing the male) upon the pullets of the first year, and so on. By the time the second or third cross is made the grade birds will possess almost fully the useful qualities of the breed from which the cross is taken, and the hens may be used just as if they were pure in crossing with a cock of a different breed for market poultry or for layers, as Mr. Beale directs.

Introduction. 5

Poultry keeping for profit is the laudable ambition of the great majority of poultry keepers, and poultry are really kept to the profit of their owners, in the great majority of cases. Little account is made of them, and no account is kept of their expenses or of the income derived from them, and yet it is the settled conviction of the frugal housewife, who looks more or less after the poultry, and of the farmer, who sees how large a part of the store bill is settled by eggs, and who brings home from market or from the shipper who buys his dressed poultry at Christmas-time a satisfactory roll of banknotes, that poultry is really a paying farm crop.

Then, too, when a regular debit and credit account is kept with the poultry, and a fair allowance is made for labor and interest, the profit always shows up to be something enormous — often one hundred per cent, or even more.

If there really is so much profit in poultry keeping, is it not strange that when undertaken on a large scale it is always a losing business ? Few people consider that farm-yard fowls of all kinds, ducks and geese included, get a great part of their living, and in some parts of the year the whole of if, from what would otherwise be lost or wasted, and from insects, snails and worms, which are a positive harm to growing crops. Hence the conclusion is a just one that poultry, if well managed, are really most profitable as an adjunct to other farm and garden operations, especially as but little time is generally devoted to their care which would be more usefully employed.

This amount of, so to speak, wasted food is limited, and when fowls or other poultry arc multiplied upon a single farm or circumscribed area, their care soon becomes sufficient to

6 Introduction.

require the entire attention of one or more persons. Thus the point is soon reached when it will be easy to see there is no hundred per cent, profit in the business.

Parallel cases are numerous. Twenty or thirty hives of bees may use all the bee-pasturage within the radius of the usual flight of the honey-gatherers, and, where this is the fact, the addition of a dozen hives would result in more labor to the bee-keeper and in the harvesting of a good deal less honey.

Thus it is every poultry keeper's province to study carefully his own resources and make the most of them ; and while Mr. Beale has carefully avoided advising the keeping of poultry on a large scale, and in fact discourages it, the person desirous of making the experiment will find the book replete with sound views and practical hints in regard to its successful accomplishment.

Mr. Beale can hardly be as familiar as I am with the wretched manner in which a great part of our poultry is sent to market, and the shocking condition in which it arrives. New York receives thousands of tons of poultry which must be closed out in wholesale lots at ruinously low prices, and which is then sold at a small advance at retail, to secure a quick sale and prevent total loss. If a reform could be instituted by which the common farmers of the interior and Western States would properly fatten, pluck, dress, and ship their poultry, somewhat after the system advised in this book, it would add almost inconceivably to the profits of poultry keeping to these people as well as to the general wealth of the country. I sincerely hope that this may be one of the results

of its publication.

MASON C. WELD.

Closter, N. J., March, 1884.

Contents

PAGE

Introduction .......•♦• 3

Chapter I. General Considerations

The Poultry Mania — Cochins Thirty Years ago — Poultry Keeping often a Hob>>y — Recent increase of interest in Pcultry Keeping — Karmers and Poultry — Farms in France —Consumption of Eggs— Trices of Eggs — Value of Fresh Eggs— Poultry in Paris .••••• 11

Chapter II. Who Should Keep Poultry?

Who may Keep Poultry — Value of Eggs for Children and Invalids — Who (should not Keep Poultry — Pleasure in Pursuit — Suburban Resident's — Size of Runs — Cot* agers and Poultry Keeping — Does Poultry Keeping Pay ? 13

Chapter III. Laying Out The Poultry-yard

Gradual Commencement best — Selection of Ground — Separate Houses — Aspect of Houses— Walls of Houses — Dividing the Yard — Plans— A Chicken Yard ......•©.. 25

Chapter IV. Poultry Houses

Importance of Houses — Cost — Elaborate Hou-es not Needed — Good Houses Required — Size of Houses and Runs— Adapting exist'ng Buildings — Che:. p Houses — Sheds — Houses in Gardens . . .30

8 Contents.

ciiapter v.

THE ERECTION OF POULTRY HOUSES.

PAGE

Material to be Used— Tenant's Fixtures — Too Large Houses Objectionable — Foundation— Saving of Timber — Frame- Work — Windows and Doors — Ventilation — Floors — Artificial Heating 37

Chapter VI. The Fittings And Runs

Perches — Nest Boxes — Sheds — Unfenced Runs— Space to be Given —

Fencing . . . 48

, CHAPTER VII.

MORE ABOUT HOUSES AND RUNS.

Effect of Confinement— Houses on Wheels— The Best Plan for Farms — Use of Fruit Trees in Runs — Kinds of Trees to Plant — Fruit Bushes — Other Aids 56

Chapter VIII. Chicken-houses

Early Chickens — Position of Chicken House — The Attendant's House — Gravel and Grass Run — The House — Floor — Provision against Rats — Size of House 63

Chapter IX. The Kind Of Fowls To Keep

Choice of Breeds — Errors in Selection — Cross and pure bred Fowls — Breeds to bo cho'.Jn — Confinement or liberty - Hardy Breeds — Non-sitting Breeds — Table Fowls — Sitters and Mothers — General utility Fowls . 69

Chapter X. The Breeds Of Poultry

Andalusians — Aseels — Bantams — Brahmas — Cochins — Dominiques — Dorkings — Frencn — Game — Hamburghs — Langshans — Leghorns — Malays — Minorcas — Plymouth Rocks — Polish— Scotch Greys — Spanish — Silkies 79

Chapter XI. Cross-bred Poultry

Farm-yard Mongrels — First Cross only to be Used — Value of Cross-breeding — Pure-bred Fowls to be the Fuundation — Sale of Eggs and Chickens — Methods of Cross-breeding — Some Crosses — Improving present

Contents.

CHAPTER XIL

DUCKS.

PAGE

Ducks very profitable— Water needed for Breeders— Not to be kept with Hens— Duck Farms— Housing— The Wild Duck— The Aylesbury— The Rouen— The Pekin— The Cayuga— The Muscovy— Ornamental Varieties— Keeping in Small Runs— Forcing— Breeding— Hatching— Reaiing — Feeding— Preparing Rice ...... 133

Chapter XIII. Geese And Turkeys

Geese in England— Bene6t to Crops— Breeds— Weights attained— Management — Turkeys — Said to be delicate — Bieeds — Management — Fattening 147

Chapter XIV. The Selection Of Stock Birds

Importance of Care in Selection — Influence of Parents— Selection for Layers —Selection for Table Fowls— State of Breeding Stock— Buying Birds —Buying Eggs for Sitting— Space for Breeding Stock—Birds not to be Related— Evils of In-breeding— Number of Hens to Cock — When to expect Fertile Eggs — Feeding — Importance of Health and Condition . 153

Chapter XV. Hatching

Shall Hens sit themselves ?— Selection of Place for Sitting— Hatching T> oxes — Making the Nests— Food and Water— Setting the "Hen — Feeding— Airing the Eggs — Kind of Food for Hens — Dust Bath — Testing the Eggs — Period of Incubation — Management duiing Hatching —Helping the Chicks I 64

Chapter XVI. Artificial Incubation

A. Practical Success - Past Attempts — Difficulties — Later Attempts — The Turning Point — Rouillier's Machine — Prejudice Against the Hydro- Incuhator — The Incubator Trials— How Superior to Previous Machines

— Drawback to Hydro-Incubator— Voitellier's nydro — Owen's Tabular

— Arnold's E^'g Oven — Self Heating Incubators — Hearson's — New Centennial— The "Perfect Hatcher ,, — The Thermostatic — The Novelty — j3rooders, etc. ....•*•••-• *™ io Contents.

Chapter XVII. Rearing— Natural And Artificial

PACE

Size of Eggs — Supposed Ways of Testing Sex and Fertility of Eggs — Formation of Egg — The Young Chicks — First Day after Hatching — Food — Coops — Influence of Early Management — Coddling Injurious — First Three or Four Days — Second Stage — Tbe Run — Food — Meat Diet — Green Food — System in Feeding — Co'd Mothers — Troubles with Hens — Artificial Mothers— Management — Outdoor Rearers — Heat — Overcrowding— Teaching Chicks to Eat— Turkeys as Rearers — water* 193

Chapter XVIII. Food And Feeding

Food the Fuel of all Life— Effect of Bad Food— Effect of Over-feeding— Food fcr Fowls in Confinement not to be s-ame as when at Liberty — What is Needed in Food — Qualities of the Grains — Barley — Oats — Wheat — Maize — Buckwheat — Pulse — Rice — Bone-meal— Water • 211

Chapter XIX. Early Eggs And Chickens

Early E/g^ and Chickens bring High Prices — How to Secure them — Pullets

to be Ust'd— Hens to be Mated Early — Good Housing and Feeding . 220

Chapter XX. Tiie Preparation Of Table Fowls

Superiority of French System — Breeds of Fowls Suitable for Fattening — Methods — Duration of Process — Food — Fattening and Cramming Machines — Cramming by Hand — Killing Fowls — Dressing in France — Shaping-boards — Advantage of Dressing — Caponising . , ■ 224

Chapter XXI. The Diseases Of Poultry

General Treatment of Disease — Causes — Apoplexy — Bronchitis — Bumble Foot — Catarrh — Consumption — Cramp — Cropbound — Diarrhoea — Diphtheria — Egg Organs — Feather Eating — Gapes — Roup— Cholera . 236

Chapter XXII. Points Of Managkment

Importance of Details — Keeping an Account — Rotation of Crops — Poultry Manure — The Dust-bath — The Pieservation of E gs — Packing Eggs — Sending Eggs to Market 245

PROFITABLE POULTRY KEEPING.