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Title: The Corning egg farm book by Corning himself
Author: Corning, Edward, Corning, Gardner
Language: English
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[Illustration: CORNING STRAIN UTILITY COCKEREL
Four Months and Twenty Days Old]
THE CORNING
EGG FARM BOOK
BY CORNING HIMSELF
BEING THE COMPLETE AND AUTHENTIC
STORY OF THE CORNING EGG FARM
FROM ITS INCEPTION TO DATE
TOGETHER WITH FULL DESCRIPTION OF THE
METHOD AND SYSTEM THAT HAVE MADE
THIS THE MOST FAMOUS POULTRY
FARM IN THE WORLD
BOUND BROOK, NEW JERSEY
THE CORNING EGG FARM
PUBLISHERS
1912
COPYRIGHT, 1912, BY
GARDNER CORNING
CONTENTS
PAGE
INTRODUCTORY 13
CHAPTER I
THE BUILDING OF THE CORNING EGG FARM 21
Started with 60 Buff Rock Eggs 22
More Money in Eggs 25
Adopted White Leghorns 25
First Use of Roosting Closets 27
We Count only Livable Chicks 30
Percentage of Cockerels Low 31
The Great Flock System Succeeds 33
Foreigners Visit the Farm 34
Investigated for Germany 35
Selection of Cockerels 36
Pullets Lay in 129 Days 37
Keeping Down Labor Bill 39
Adopted Hot Water Incubators 40
Why Great Farms Fail 41
CHAPTER II
EGG FARMING THE MOST PROFITABLE BRANCH OF POULTRY KEEPING 43
Developing the Great Layer 43
Corning Method in Small Flocks 44
On Large Farms 46
CHAPTER III
WHAT IS A FRESH EGG? AN EGG SHOULD BE SANITARY AS WELL AS FRESH 48
Manure Drainage to Drink 48
Diseased Meat to Eat 49
As the Food, so the Egg 49
A Perfect Egg a Rarity 50
Unlimited Demand for Quality Eggs 50
CHAPTER IV
PREPARATION OF EGGS FOR MARKET 54
CHAPTER V
SELECTION OF THE BREED.--THE STRAIN IS OF UTMOST IMPORTANCE 58
S. C. White Leghorns Outclass All 59
Line Breeding--Not Inbreeding 61
How Corning Farm Produces Unrelated
Cockerels 62
CHAPTER VI
ADVANTAGES OF LARGE FLOCK SYSTEM--REDUCES COST OF HOUSING AND
ECONOMIZES IN TIME AND LABOR 64
Draughts the Stumbling Block 65
2,000 Birds to a House 66
CHAPTER VII
WHAT IS A WINTER LAYER?--THE PROPERLY HATCHED AND REARED PULLET 68
Must Feed Green Food 69
CHAPTER VIII
A GREAT LAYING STRAIN--THE SELECTION OF BREEDERS TO PRODUCE IT 71
Eighteen Months Old 71
Trap Nests a Failure 72
Type Reproduces Type 73
CHAPTER IX
BEST TIME TO HATCH 76
Experiment in Late Hatching 78
CHAPTER X
SUCCULENT GREEN FOOD--SATISFACTORY EGG PRODUCTION IMPOSSIBLE
WITHOUT IT 80
Sprouted Oats Best 82
How They are Grown on the Farm 82
Timothy and Clover Cut Green 84
CHAPTER XI
ANTHRACITE COAL ASHES--A SUBSTITUTE FOR MANY MORE EXPENSIVE
NECESSITIES 86
Better Than Charcoal 87
CHAPTER XII
EGGS FOR BREEDING SHOULD BE LAID BY A REAL YEARLING HEN 89
90,000 Orders for 40,000 Eggs 90
CHAPTER XIII
POLICING THE FARM WITH BLOODHOUNDS, ETC. 92
Shoot First--Investigate Afterward 92
Socrates, the Great Bloodhound 93
CHAPTER XIV
NECESSITY FOR PURE WATER--AN EGG IS CHEMICALLY 80% WATER 96
Automatic Fountains Essential 96
Hot Water in Cold Weather 97
Hens Drink More in Afternoon 97
CHAPTER XV
HARD COAL ASHES, OYSTER SHELL, AND GRIT 99
CHAPTER XVI
BEEF SCRAP AND GREEN BONE SUBSTITUTES FOR NATURE’S ANIMAL FOOD 101
Green Cut Bone Nearest Nature 101
CHAPTER XVII
A TIME FOR EVERYTHING--EVERYTHING ON TIME 103
Fixed Feeding Hours 103
Four Collections of Eggs Daily 105
Mash Fed in Afternoon 105
CHAPTER XVIII
INCUBATION ON THE CORNING EGG FARM 106
Hen Reigns Supreme 106
Livable Chicks--Not Numbers 107
Uniform Temperature Most Important 108
Ventilation and Moisture Next 108
Hot Water Machines Best 110
Corning Incubator Cellar Unequaled 111
Eggs Turned from Third to Eighteenth Day 112
103 Degrees Maintained 112
Cool But Never Cold 113
Cover Glass Doors 114
All Good Chicks Hatch in 20 Days 114
Set Incubators Toward Evening 115
Tested Only on Eighteenth Day 116
Moisture 117
Chicks Handled Only Once 117
Baby Chick Business Cruel 118
CHAPTER XIX
REARING CHICKS IN BROODER HOUSE--THE FOLLOWING TWO YEARS’ RESULTS
DEPEND UPON SUCCESS IN BROODING 121
Corn Not Proper Chick Food 122
Follow Nature’s Teaching 122
A Balanced Food 123
Never Build a Double House 126
Must Drain Chick Runs 127
Concrete Floors Mean Dampness 127
Corning Heated Brooder House 128
Corning Feeds Dry Food Only 129
Three Feeds Daily 129
Green Food Third Day 130
Animal Food Tenth Day 130
Avoid Moving Chicks Often 132
CHAPTER XX
HANDLING BIRDS ON RANGE--THE YOUNGSTERS MUST BE KEPT GROWING ALL
THE TIME 134
A Corning Wrinkle 135
Grain and Mash Once a Day 137
Plenty of Shade 139
Removed to Laying House Middle of September 140
CHAPTER XXI
FEEDING FOR EGGS--WHOLESOME NOURISHMENT--NOT DESTRUCTIVE
STIMULANTS 143
Easy Assimilation 143
Perfect Health or No Eggs 144
Abundant Animal Food 144
The Corning Mash the Secret 145
“Egg Foods” Kill Layers 146
Mustard Increases Egg Laying 147
Mustard Increases Fertility 148
4,000 Layers Fed Mustard 149
Mustard Maintains Health 150
Keep Appetite Keen 150
CHAPTER XXII
BREEDING HENS DURING MOULT--COMING BREEDERS MUST BE KEPT
EXERCISING THROUGH THIS PERIOD 153
Do Not Overfeed 154
CHAPTER XXIII
FEEDING THE BREEDING COCKERELS 156
CHAPTER XXIV
PREPARING SURPLUS COCKERELS FOR MARKET 157
Must Have Green Food 158
CHAPTER XXV
$6.41 PER HEN PER YEAR 159
$6.41 Not Extravagant Claim 160
Corning Farm Makes More Than $6.41 161
CHAPTER XXVI
THE BUILDINGS ON THE CORNING EGG FARM 163
No. 1, Brooder House, Incubator and Sprouted Oats Cellars 164
Building No. 2, Work Shop, etc. 167
Building No. 9, Horse Stable 169
Building No. 10, Wagon Shed 170
Building No. 12, Office Building 170
CHAPTER XXVII
CONSTRUCTION OF LAYING, BREEDING, AND BREEDING COCKEREL HOUSES 171
Nearly Six Feet from Ground 172
Double Floors 173
Canvas Windows 174
Double Doors 176
Draught-Proof Roosting Closets 177
CHAPTER XXVIII
THE COLONY HOUSES--THERE ARE FORTY-ONE ON THE FARM 180
Cotton Duck Windows 181
CHAPTER XXIX
MATERIALS REQUIRED FOR LAYING HOUSES 182
Bill of Material for the Construction of Colony House 183
CHAPTER XXX
THE ORIGINAL THIRTY HENS 184
CHAPTER XXXI
EGG RECORDS 186
How Corning Farm is Able to Get Great Egg Records 187
Highest Percentage of Fertility 188
CHAPTER XXXII
PREVENTION AND TREATMENT OF DISEASES 190
CHAPTER XXXIII
A WORD IN CLOSING 192
Nothing to Hide 193
Illustrations are Photographs 193
The Corning Success 193
Our Advice to Beginners 194
Single Comb White Leghorns Only 194
It’s “Strain” You Want 194
Utility, Not Show Birds 195
Corning Largest Specialty Farm in World 195
Points That Mean Success 196
BUILDINGS ON THE CORNING EGG FARM AND MANY HANDY DEVICES 198
ILLUSTRATIONS
Corning Strain Utility Cockerel _Frontispiece_
FACING
PAGE
1. Lay-Out of Farm 16
2. Interior Sterile Laying House No. 3, in 1910 22
3. Entrance to Farm in 1909 24
4. As You Approach the Farm, 1911 28
5. Office Building 30
6. Breeding Cockerels, Fall of 1909 34
7. Interior Laying House No. 2, in 1910 38
8. Panoramic View of the Farm 46
9. Thirty Dozen Corning Sanitary Fresh Eggs Ready to Ship 54
10. The Strain that Makes the Corning Egg Farm Famous 58
11. Three Sterile Laying Houses Containing 4,500 Pullets 64
12. Interior Laying House No. 1, in 1910 68
13. One of the Breeding Houses just after Mating, 1910 72
14. Sprouted Oats Cellar 78
15. Two-Weeks-Old Chicks in Brooder House Runs 84
16. Yearling Hens in Breeder House before Mating 90
17. “Socrates,” the Great Bloodhound Which Heads the Corning
Kennels 92
18. “Socrates II” and “Diogenes” 94
19. Buster, America’s Greatest Ratter 94
20. Corning Automatic Drinking Fountain 96
21. Part of the Old Incubator Cellar 104
22. Brooder House, Showing Chick Runs 120
23. Old Arrangement of Brooder House 124
24. Chicks Six Weeks Old 128
25. Colony Range Feed and Water Wagon with “Billy” 136
26. Feeding on the Colony Range 140
27. Baskets of Eggs 150
28. Breeding Cockerels, Fall of 1911 156
29. No. 3 Laying House Filled with 1,500 Pullets 158
30. The Workshop on the Corning Egg Farm 162
31. The Celebrated Corning Large-Flock Laying House No. 3 170
32. Laying House Prepared to Receive 1,500 Pullets from Range 172
33. One of the Breeding Houses in 1911 174
34. The Corning Colony House 178
35. Breeding House in 1907--The Original Corning House 182
36. Pullets in Laying House No. 2, Fall of 1911 184
37. Diagrams and Detailed Plans of Buildings, etc. 199
INTRODUCTORY
The Method, and the style of the buildings, evolved and worked out
on The Corning Egg Farm, when put into book form proved so helpful
to so vast a number of poultry keepers, that the sale of this first
literature, which for a time was added to as the months went by,
reached the enormous total of over 140,000 copies in eighteen months.
The writings were the simple, plain statements of facts, and enabled
others who followed them to reach a success which, until this System
was used, may have been dreamed of, but was never realized.
The literature from this Farm has gone out over the entire civilized
World, and the visitors, who arrive in ever increasing numbers from
month to month, come from every quarter of the Globe.
The Corning Egg Farm has been written of in periodicals of every
nature, and in almost every language the World over. For the last
twelve months the requests for further, and more explicit, detailed
information relative to breeding and feeding for eggs, the specialty
from which The Corning Egg Farm has never swerved, have become a
demand. So that, after mature deliberation, it was decided to write the
history of The Corning Egg Farm, from its inception to date, including
the work of the last two years, which has never before been fully
published.
“The Corning Egg Farm Book by Corning Himself” is to-day the only
publication giving facts in regard to the Farm and its unique Method
right up to date.
As the book is read it must be borne in mind that, in breeding to
produce a great layer, at first very marked increases in the number of
eggs during the first ten months of laying may be gained. The general
average number of eggs laid each year, from official reports, is less
than 100 per hen. On The Corning Egg Farm, when the average had reached
143.25 eggs, the next jump, in the following year, was more than had
been expected, and the record of 145.11 eggs for each hen for ten
months, though showing an increase apparently small, in reality was a
very great advance indeed.
From this time on, the gain, although representing a narrower margin of
increase, was in reality a much greater achievement. The trotting horse
may serve as an illustration. When Dexter trotted his famous mile he
clipped off a number of seconds from the previous record, and it seemed
as if it would be a matter of considerable time before his mark would
be lowered. But within a comparatively short time a number of trotters
turned off a mile in two-ten, and from this figure, within a short
period, a large company of famous horses had reached the two-five
mark, but every quarter of a second which reduced this mark meant
greater achievement in breeding than was represented by the reduction
of records from two-sixteen to two-five, and we have not yet seen the
horse which, in single harness, without a running mate, can turn the
mile track in two minutes flat.
The Corning Egg Farm realizes that from this on improvement will be
shown by fractional figures, but these fractions will represent a
greater progress than the figures which have gone before.
Two years ago the unequaled results of The Corning Egg Farm had seemed
unsurpassable, but to-day we are able to look back from higher ground
and see the road over which we have traveled to reach a point very
considerably beyond the unequaled position of two years ago.
It is our hope and aim, year by year, to improve the present position.
The man who believes he has learned all there is to learn is a failure.
The successful man is the one who is sure there is an opportunity to
advance considerably beyond the point he has already attained, and The
Corning Egg Farm believes this to be true, and has constantly worked
with that idea before it.
With an experience back of them of nearly six years the Builders of The
Corning Egg Farm know that this Book furnishes the necessary guide for
success in poultry culture. What has been, and what is being, done
at The Corning Egg Farm is not experimental work. Successful results
follow the Method and System employed as surely as day follows night.
It is no longer necessary for the novice to try out the various plans
proposed to him by the literary poultryman, whose methods are worked
out on a mahogany desk, with pen and ink, or more often, perhaps, by
dictation to a stenographer.
Years of careful thought and study, and the expenditure of much time
and many thousands of dollars in developing the Corning Method have
eliminated all necessity for experimental expenditure. The building
up of an Egg Farm is within the reach of any man who will follow the
Corning plan herein described faithfully and persistently.
The man or woman who determines to pursue some branch of the poultry
industry must first decide what particular branch.
Shall it be to raise poultry for market?
If so, what? Squab Broilers? Soft Roasters? Or Capons?
Perhaps all of these.
Some utility line is the best to start with.
Fresh, sanitary eggs are a necessity and command the highest price in
the market, daily, for spot cash, just as readily as stocks and bonds
command a daily cash value in any financial market. There can be no
better proof of the truth of this than the success of The Corning Egg
Farm.
[Illustration:
PULLET RANGE & COLONY HOUSES
EACH HOUSE 6′ × 10′ BUILT ON SKIDS MOVABLE]
In whatever line a beginner decides to start he needs to go straight
down that line without deviation, taking as his motto, “This one thing
I do.” In the fullness of time, having established a reputation for the
quality of his eggs and birds, the demand for his eggs for hatching
purposes and for his birds as foundation stock for other people, will
naturally come to him, and it is very profitable.
One certain fact should be settled in the understanding of every
beginner, to wit: it is not possible to invest from five hundred to
five thousand dollars in the Poultry Industry and double your money
in the first year, or even to earn 50% on the investment. Neither is
it possible with $300.00 to build a Laying House with a capacity for
five hundred birds, if the house is properly built for warmth and meets
sanitary conditions.
Housing for hens must be free from dampness. Concrete absorbs dampness,
therefore, avoid it.
Any person starting in the poultry industry for profit, and, intending
to follow it for a livelihood should begin in a small way, realizing
that, like any other business venture, it must be built up and grow
from year to year, and that, certainly for the first year, no money can
be drawn out for living expenses.
These statements are made clearly and emphatically because quite the
contrary has been given out as a fact. Such reckless representations,
because untrue, are misleading and injurious to both those engaged in
the poultry industry and also to those who contemplate entering it, and
should be branded as false, and the authors of such statements should
be prohibited from using the United States Mails.
We are not, and make no pretense of being, philanthropists. We have
written this Book primarily with the expectation that it will make
The Corning Egg Farm and the Corning Method of Poultry Culture even
more widely and impressively known to the World, and so benefit us by
increased demand for our stock, eggs, and all other goods we may have
for sale.
Secondly, we know that the Book will benefit others if they will follow
the Corning Method and System herein laid down, and so prove of mutual
advantage to readers and authors as well.
The Single Comb White Leghorn is par excellence _the_ Egg Machine,
provided always first class and the best strain of birds is procured,
and the Corning Strain, without doubt or question, is the very best
strain of Single Comb White Leghorns yet developed anywhere in the
World.
We know this new, large, complete and thoroughly up to date Book will
be the means of bringing us, and our unequaled Strain of Single Comb
White Leghorns, into favor with thousands of people who, as yet, do not
know us, just as the publishing of the small and older booklet put us
into touch with other thousands who are now doing a prosperous business
by the use of this same Corning Strain Single Comb White Leghorns, and
by following the Corning Method now more completely elaborated and
explained in “The Corning Egg Farm Book by Corning Himself.”
EDWARD AND GARDNER CORNING.
The Corning Egg Farm,
Bound Brook, New Jersey.
December, 1911.
The Corning Egg Farm Book
CHAPTER I
The Building of the Corning Egg Farm
Having determined, in 1905, to engage in some business connected with
the feathered tribe, we decided to try out the squab proposition versus
market poultry. After searching over a period of many months, in
various parts of the country, with the idea of finding a place where
the existing buildings might be utilized for our needs, we finally were
obliged to abandon this idea and purchased, early in the year 1906,
twelve and a half acres of land, now known as Sunny Slope Farm. This
property lies about two miles west of Bound Brook, New Jersey, which
town is reached by the Central Railroad of New Jersey, the Baltimore
& Ohio, the Philadelphia & Reading and the Lehigh Valley Railroads,
and the Farm is most accessible, as it is on the trolley line which
connects Bound Brook and Somerville.
In the early Spring of 1906 we began our buildings, erecting a house,
for raising squabs, which would accommodate five hundred pairs of
breeding birds, a hen house of the scratching shed variety, capable
of accommodating some two hundred and fifty hens, and a work-shop with
living apartments for the resident man.
We also sunk a well one hundred and seventeen feet deep, erecting over
it a sixty foot wind-mill tower, which carries an eighteen hundred
gallon tank. From this pipes were laid to convenient parts of the
property.
Three hundred pairs of Homer pigeons were placed in the house built for
that purpose, and we went diligently to work to prove that this was
the quick and easy way to wealth which the ingenious writers of squab
literature proved so conclusively on paper.
On the chicken side of the experiment we seemed to lean (possibly
because of the fact that squabs take one into the slaughter house
business) towards one or more of the market breeds, and, to meet the
needs of this part of the business, we understood that any of the
“Rock” family were best for the purpose.
Started with 60 Buff Rock Eggs
We purchased an incubator with the capacity of sixty eggs, being
fearful of attempting the operation of a larger machine, because, like
a great many novices, we had the feeling that an incubator was a very
dangerous thing, and that anyone without a vast amount of experience
should not attempt to handle it. We placed in this diminutive machine
sixty Buff Rock eggs, and obtained a very fair hatch. With daily
contact our fear of the machine decreased, and we exchanged it for one
with a capacity of one hundred and twenty-five eggs, and this, in turn,
was exchanged for one holding two hundred and fifty eggs.
[Illustration: INTERIOR STERILE LAYING HOUSE NO. 3 IN 1910]
We obtained fairly large flocks of youngsters that season, but, as we
had the usual hallucination that poultry culture was really a miracle,
and required neither work, capital, nor brains, that all you had to do
was to accept the profit and the chickens did it all themselves, we
did not get so very far. The growth of the birds was so slow they did
not reach a profitable weight until the broiler market had dropped the
price to its lowest level. The pullets which we carried through the
winter never produced an egg, for the simple reason that we had never
studied the question out as to how the hen produces an egg. In other
words, our lack of knowledge of the right methods was the reason for
charging up a considerable loss instead of profit so far as the first
season’s work with hens went.
We very early discovered there must have been a considerable amount of
fiction in the writings on the squab industry. One reads that a pair
of pigeons eats nothing like the amount of food which is required for
one hen, and that they never eat more than their exact wants require,
and that when they have young in the nest, this amount is very slightly
increased. We found, however, that they ate in season and out of
season. In fact one recalls, in this connection, and with considerable
amusement, the song, in the light opera “Wang,” of the elephant who ate
all day and the elephant who ate all night.
During our work with pigeons we tried out a number of different
varieties: Homers, Dragoons, Runt Dragoon crosses, Homer Runt crosses,
Maltese Hens, and the various crosses with Runt Dragoons; also
Carneaux. We were led to buy these fancy breeds through the stories of
extreme prices paid for large squabs, and we bred some heavy weights
only to find, from the commission man who made a specialty of these
birds, that it was impossible to pay the price which such birds were
really worth, as trade for this class was extremely limited.
Very early in our experience we realized that the poultry side of our
experiment was very much more to our liking and offered so much greater
and more profitable outlook for our energies that we rang down the
curtain on Squab raising--and turned our attention exclusively to the
Hen.
While our minds were still running in the line of poultry for market
purposes we tried out the Black Orpingtons, the idea being that, on
account of their size, they would make ideal roasting fowls. We found,
however, that they were a very much inbred variety, and it was almost
impossible to hatch the eggs. Out of one hundred eggs, for which we
paid twenty dollars, eight chicks hatched, and these were not of
sufficient vitality to live.
[Illustration: ENTRANCE TO THE FARM IN 1909]
More Money in Eggs
During all this time, however, we were studying the poultry question,
and had arrived at the conclusion that there was more money in eggs,
properly produced and marketed, than in any other branch. One of the
difficulties we met with in our investigations was the fact that so
many different writers had such a variety of ideas on the same subject,
and practically no two of them agreed on any given part of poultry
culture. What seemed to us even more confusing was that, in most cases,
the writer summed up his article by contradicting everything he had
said in the previous chapters. We were finally forced to the conclusion
that the raising of poultry had not yet been reduced to a science,
but was almost entirely made up of guesses. In our investigations,
however, we found in the writings of the late Prof. Gowell, of Maine,
an entirely different condition. He was the first man, so far as our
observations went, who worked on the principle that effect followed
cause, in poultry as in everything else. We studied his bulletins with
great interest, and decided we would endeavor to prove that the same
results gotten by him could be duplicated by others.
Adopted White Leghorns
We had also been studying the condition of the egg market, so far as
New York and vicinity was concerned, and had found that this market
paid a premium for a white shelled egg. This, then, was the determining
factor in the selection of the breed of fowls, and after gathering all
the information we could regarding birds which laid white eggs, we were
satisfied, taking everything into consideration, that for an Egg Farm,
the Single Comb White Leghorn, was the only fowl.
In the Spring of 1907 we collected a breeding pen, from different
sources, of thirty Single Comb White Leghorn yearling hens, and three
strong, vigorous cockerels. We purchased an incubator holding three
hundred and ninety eggs, and three out-door brooders, and built a
number of small Colony Houses to move the birds into as soon as they
were large enough to be transferred from the brooders. The hens chosen
for the initial breeding pen of the Farm were most carefully selected,
for even then we had in mind the result which we intended to reach,
as to the ultimate type of layer on the Farm. We placed the resulting
eggs from this breeding pen in the incubator, using a primitive turning
machine to keep them in proper condition until the requisite number was
acquired to fill the incubator. Our hatch was a very good one, and we
succeeded in raising a fair number of the youngsters hatched.
During the Summer we erected what is now known on the Farm as the No.
1 Laying House. This was built one hundred feet long, by twelve feet
wide, and on the same twenty foot section construction which has
proved to be so successful a plan for poultry houses. The one mistake
in this house was its width, and that has now been remedied by widening
it to the standard, sixteen feet in width, and sixty feet in length
have been added to it.
The youngsters on range grew rapidly. We marketed the cockerels at
between eight and ten weeks of age, and they weighed from one and a
quarter pounds to a pound and three quarters. These were sold “on the
hoof,” as we had decided for the future to do nothing in the slaughter
house line, and to this decision we have strictly adhered, shipping
alive also all culls and birds of any age showing imperfections, the
majority of our stock finding ready market for breeding purposes when
we are ready to dispose of it.
As a correct record of the mortality of our hatching, and the number of
cockerels marketed, had been kept, we found that we should have in the
Colony Houses about two hundred and twenty-five pullets to place in No.
1 House.
In catching up the birds we found that the number figured on was about
right. These two hundred and twenty-five birds went into the House,
October 31st. They were already laying on the Range.
First Use of Roosting Closets
It was a very interesting sight to us to watch these birds at work
in the first house which had ever been successfully built without
partitions, in other words, one large flock with the run of the entire
house. Others had tried it, and had failed. They had had draughts, and
had found the house, therefore, very undesirable. We conceived the idea
of roosting closets, with a partition extending some little distance
beyond the dropping boards, running from the ceiling to the floor, thus
breaking the house up so far as extended circulation of air went, and
at the same time giving the birds the benefit of the larger area.
It was also a matter of great interest to two novices to watch the egg
output in this first house. On the first day of November five eggs were
gathered; on the second, seven; the third saw a drop to four. Of course
these pullets had been giving us more eggs than this on the Range, but
a transfer from one place to another always means a set-back to a layer.
The middle of the month saw the hens producing above seventeen eggs a
day. December was started with an output of forty, and from that the
birds ran into larger numbers daily until the last of December, when,
with the mercury registering well down around zero, they were turning
out one hundred eggs a day. The increase in the egg output continued
steadily, and we found that March was the record month, but the highest
single day was in April, when the pen produced one hundred and seventy
eggs.
[Illustration: AS YOU APPROACH THE CORNING EGG FARM FROM THE PUBLIC
HIGHWAY, IN 1911
Showing 264-Foot Brooder House, Breeding Cockerel House and Office]
We were well satisfied with the result of the Winter’s work with these
pullets, and, although we did not have the knowledge that has since
come to us in feeding for eggs, the output was a most creditable one,
and we found a ready market at a good price.
Early in the Fall we had mapped out our plans for a very decided
increase in plant for the coming season. The excavation for the
Incubator Cellar, sixteen by fifty feet, had been made, and the Brooder
House above it was enclosed without difficulty before weather of any
great severity overtook us. We were blessed with a very late Fall, and
mild weather continued, with only occasional dips, well into December,
1907.
We installed in the Cellar ten incubators, with a capacity of three
hundred and ninety eggs each. The Brooder House, with its arrangement
for Hovers and Nursery pens, was all completed, and the month of March
found us placing eggs in the machines.
In the Fall of 1907 we had enlarged our Breeding House, so that we
were able to place in it some two hundred and fifty breeders. Out of
our original pen of thirty, we had lost two. From different sources we
bought yearling hens, and with our original twenty-eight, made up the
breeding pen.
Of course, as we had planned to endeavor to produce some three thousand
pullets for the Fall of 1908, we were obliged to very materially
supplement the product of our own breeders, with eggs from other
sources, and this we did, buying eggs from different breeders, in
widely separated territories.
As the hatching season advanced we added one more incubator to our
battery of ten, and we placed in these incubators a total of eleven
thousand eight hundred and four eggs, of which two thousand and
ninety-six showed dead germs and clear eggs on the fourteenth day test.
The resulting number of chicks placed in the Brooder House was five
thousand eight hundred and sixty-six for the entire season.
We found that the eggs purchased did not produce anything like the
number of chicks, that is, strong, livable chicks, that did the eggs
coming from our own breeding pen, which proved to us that the method of
feeding and caring for breeding stock, pursued by others, fell very far
short of the results gotten by our own methods.
We Count Only Livable Chicks
The lesson of incubation, which it is so difficult to make people
understand, is not so much a question of how many chicks may be hatched
from a given number of eggs as of how many strong, livable chicks are
brought out. We very early in our hatching experience decided to count
only those chicks, which were strong, and apparently capable of a
steady growth and a sturdy maturity. Thus, the count of the number of
chicks produced, does not really show the number which came out of the
shells.
[Illustration: OFFICE BUILDING]
We were extremely fortunate in handling the youngsters in the Brooder
House, and our mortality was very low, and when the youngsters were
placed in the Colony Houses, which had been built during the early
Spring months, and placed out on the Range in readiness for them, they
were a sturdy, vigorous crowd.
Percentage of Cockerels Low
The number of cockerels was very low, and these, as rapidly as they
developed, were taken away from the pullets and placed in a fattening
pen which had been provided, and as our stock was still an “unknown
quantity” in Poultrydom, we marketed the larger part of them at broiler
size.
The pullets came on finely, and the records show that a large number of
them came into eggs when they were a few days over four months of age.
Through the connivance of an employé we made a heavy loss in the way of
theft, and, when the final round-up of the pullets came, we found we
had one thousand nine hundred and fifty-three.
During the Summer, we had built the No. 2 Laying House, sixteen feet
wide by one hundred and sixty feet long, and in this house the first
fifteen hundred pullets were installed, the balance going into No. 1
Laying House.
A number of visitors had called at the Farm during the Summer of 1908,
and we had listened to the different stories of the ease with which
five thousand laying pullets were produced annually, but at the end of
this season we had much more respect for the number five thousand than
we ever had before, and realized very fully what it meant to produce
that number of females each year.
With the placing of these fifteen hundred pullets in this House of one
hundred and sixty feet in length by sixteen feet wide, without being
divided into separate pens, each hen having the entire run of the House
and no more (that is, she did not leave the house for a yard, but
stayed right in that space and did her work), we accomplished what,
from the standpoint of all authorities on the subject of Poultry, was
an impossible thing to do, and have the hen produce anything. And yet
each hen had only two and one third square feet of floor space, which
included the dropping boards.
The secret of being able to work the hen successfully in such a limited
space per bird is in the length of the house. In reality, every bird
has one hundred and sixty feet by sixteen feet in which to exercise and
roam.
The four hundred and fifty-three pullets which were placed in No. 1
Laying House were given the entire run of this house, of one hundred
feet by twelve feet, and yet the Egg Record for the ten months, in
which these birds never left either house, is rather in favor of the
house containing the fifteen hundred pullets. The average number of
eggs per pullet in these houses, from December 1st, 1908, to September
30th, 1909, was 143.25. Many people who had seen the No. 2 House filled
with the fifteen hundred pullets could hardly believe what they saw.
The Great Flock System Succeeds
The extreme health and great vigor of the birds was evident to anyone
who looked in through the wire doors. Articles were written in numerous
papers stating that the thing was impossible, and that, before many
months, absolute failure would result. But in spite of all the
prophecies the great flock system, in the Corning style House, proved
by its great success, that a decided forward step had been made in
economical management and housing of poultry.
We had gone ahead handling poultry in just the same way that any
business would be handled, plus the scientific study of the anatomy
of the hen, and what it was necessary to breed in order to accomplish
a great success as a producer of large, white, uniform eggs, with the
ability added to that formula, of turning them out in large quantities.
Callers at the Farm brought very forcibly home to us the fact, then
quite unappreciated by us, that the methods employed, and the results
obtained, were very remarkable from the standpoint of anything done
in Poultry Culture up to that time. It was pointed out that in almost
every other case it was not known by the poultryman just where he stood
at any time of the year, let alone being able to tell where he stood
every day of the year. The success of The Corning Egg Farm really has
that feature as its foundation stone.
Before the close of the ten months of laying of the 1953 pullets we had
received a number of overtures to put our methods and results into a
book, and, after a time, such a book was written. The tremendous sale
and success of that book is now a matter of history, and the great
number of people who were helped to better things in poultry, and the
still greater number of novices who were started on the road, were
enabled, through this book, to reach a success which, as many of them
testify, would have been impossible without it. In eighteen months over
one hundred and forty thousand copies of this first book were sold.
Hundreds of people came to the Farm to find out for themselves whether
or not the statements in the book were true, and these people found
everything, down to the smallest detail, just exactly as represented.
Foreigners Visit the Farm
The Visitors’ Register, which is kept at the Farm, shows callers
from almost every nook and corner of the Globe. In Scotland, a short
distance from Glasgow, there is now almost a perfect duplicate of Sunny
Slope Farm. The owner, who has twice crossed the ocean and come to the
Farm, states that if you were blindfolded and taken from Glasgow the
three miles out to his property it would be quite impossible for you to
tell whether you were in New Jersey or Scotland, so absolutely alike
are the buildings in every detail.
[Illustration: BREEDING COCKERELS, FALL OF 1909]
In England, a short distance from Tunbridge, the Corning Laying House
is again found. At this Farm both White and Black Leghorns are carried,
and the owners write that they are meeting with great success in
following the Corning Method.
Investigated for Germany
Germany sent a man who spent twelve months investigating the different
methods of poultry raising and housing, and he visited all the plants
of any note whatever from the Atlantic to the Pacific, including
Canada, down to the Gulf of Mexico. He did not make his mission known,
and it was only after his return to his native country that his
identity was disclosed. His report is of more than passing interest to
The Corning Egg Farm, as it states that the Method and System envolved
on The Corning Egg Farm surpasses anything that has as yet come under
his observation. The investigator is not only conversant with what he
saw in the line of poultry breeding during his twelve months’ sojourn
in America, but he is thoroughly posted in regard to everything in
Europe.
The pullets were hardly placed in the Nos. 1 and 2 Laying Houses, in
the Fall of 1908, before we began to plan for the Spring of 1909. We
had enlarged the Breeding House again, so that we now had housed some
four hundred and seventy-five yearling and two year old hens. These
were made up from our breeding pen of the year before, and as many of
our two hundred and twenty-five pullets as qualified. We bought a few
other yearling hens from different sources, and likewise the necessary
complement of cockerels.
Selection of Cockerels
We gave great care to the selection of the males heading the breeding
pen, every bird having perfect head points, being strong and vigorous,
and as large as we could find him, where we felt sure that no outside
blood had been introduced.
The Brooder House during the Fall, was materially added to, giving
us twenty Hover Pens, three feet wide, and twelve Nursery Pens, each
nearly five feet wide, this giving us a Brooder House 118 feet long by
16 feet wide.
We again this year (1909) supplemented our own breeding pen with
purchases of eggs from different sources.
Pullets Lay in 129 Days
Our hatches this Spring were very successful, and the chicks which went
up into the Brooder House were strong and vigorous. The mortality was
low, and when placed on Range they grew rapidly. The pullets came into
eggs, as they had in the two previous years, within a few days after
they passed the four months’ mile-stone.
We had added some six Colony Houses to our range equipment. The
building originally designed for pigeons we planned to change over into
a Breeding House, for, in the Fall of 1909, we would have a sufficient
number of yearling hens to carry quite a breeding establishment. This
house was about completed in the month of May, when it mysteriously
took fire, and was a complete loss. Fortunately the fire broke out at
about ten o’clock in the morning, and, by the timely assistance of
the boys of the Wilson Military Academy, under the able direction of
the Military Officers of that Academy, we were able to confine it to
this one building in spite of the fact that a high wind was blowing,
which carried the sparks directly on to the other buildings. The water
supply on the Farm proved more than adequate to the necessities of the
occasion, and the loss was entirely covered by insurance.
As we desired to recognize the services of the young men, and at
the suggestion of the Commanding Officer, medals were struck off
commemorative of the fire and of the bravery displayed by these young
men at this time, and were presented to them.
An addition to the Breeding House, extending over the site of the
burned building, was immediately erected, and the small building which
had been used as a fattening pen for cockerels was rebuilt, and became
the breeding pen for the production of unrelated cockerels.
Also during this season the No. 3 Laying House was built, this being an
exact duplicate of the No. 2 House.
Our selection of Breeders for 1910 was of course made from the birds
which had completed their first ten months of pullet laying, in the
houses Nos. 1 and 2. The mortality during these months had been about
7 per cent. With our method of selection only 950 of these birds
qualified to be used as yearling breeders, and these were placed in the
Breeding House which had been prepared for them. We had made a most
careful selection of cockerels, and these we had reared in two Colony
Houses, placed in a large yard, where we were planning to eventually
erect a Cockerel House for the housing of cockerels specially selected
for breeders.
The balance of the birds from Nos. 1 and 2, together with our breeders
of 1909, were sold, and we were able to face the hatching season of
1910 with a very decided step forward towards the realization of the
ideal yearling breeder, which The Corning Egg Farm is working nearer to
each season.
[Illustration: INTERIOR LAYING HOUSE NO. 2 IN 1910]
We placed in the Laying Houses Nos. 2 and 3 about 2750 pullets, and our
respect for the man who could successfully, yearly, produce and raise
to maturity five thousand pullets, increased materially.
Keeping Down Labor Bill
The question of keeping down the labor bill on the Farm has at all
times been a matter of careful study, and the machinery which is in use
is of large capacity, enabling us to turn out whatever may be required
in a very short space of time, and allowing the men to get at other
work. As an illustration; the Clover Cutter on the Farm has a capacity
of 3000 pounds an hour, cut in one-fourth-inch lengths, which enables
us, when we are cutting green food, to turn out the amount required for
the day, fill the tubs, and have it on the way to the Laying Houses, in
less than fifteen minutes.
The question of economy in time in handling the Incubator Cellar had
been a problem, which we finally solved by piping gas into the Cellar
and Brooder House, from the mains which are laid in the road passing
the Farm. Thus we did away with the danger of fire from sixteen
incubator lamps (for we now had in the cellar sixteen machines) and
the twenty Hover lamps, and the time and labor of cleaning and filling
them. We placed a governor on the gas main, so that it was impossible
to increase the pressure at any time of the day or night, and the gas
worked most satisfactorily in incubation and brooding.
The extensions on the Farm planned for 1910 were a Cockerel House, for
the housing of breeding cockerels, and the widening and lengthening of
No. 1 Laying House. These alterations were made in No. 1, so that it
was an exact counterpart of Nos. 2 and 3. We also planned, as soon as
the breeding season was over, and the 1910 breeding pen was shipped to
the various buyers who had purchased these birds for August delivery
(and the entire pen was sold early in 1910), to add another section to
the Breeder House, and to build a few more Colony Houses. Then we built
what we thought would be an adequate Office to handle the business of
the Farm, but which has since proved large enough for only one quarter
of the present requirements. We increased the size of the Egg Packing
Room, and installed a freezer with a capacity of over two thousand
pounds of green bone. This practically covers the enlargements on the
plant for 1910.
Adopted Hot Water Incubators
For three years we had been investigating quietly the so-called Mammoth
Incubators, or in other words, the Coal Heated, Hot Water Incubator,
and before the close of the hatching season of 1911 we had decided
to install two such machines in a cellar 146 feet long by 22 feet
wide--this cellar to be built so as to allow us to extend the present
Brooder House to the same length and width as the cellar.
This cellar has since been constructed, with a Brooder House over it,
so that we now have capacity for the incubation of 15,600 eggs at one
time.
The Hot Water System for heating the air supplying the Hovers has also
been installed, and the Brooder House now has a capacity of some 12,000
youngsters, before it is necessary to move any of them to the Range.
The Breeder House has again been enlarged, and, with the addition, a
year hence, of another Breeding House, which is planned to be 180 feet
long by 16 feet wide, and a larger house for the breeding of unrelated
cockerels, The Corning Egg Farm will have reached the limit planned for
since the inception of the Farm. We shall then have a capacity of 4500
sterile pullets, 3500 yearling hens for breeding purposes, and housing
for 1200 cockerels.
Why Great Farms Fail
One reads of Poultry Farms carrying anywhere from twenty to forty
thousand layers. Experience has taught us that the plant that gets
beyond the size where those financially interested can supervise and
know the condition of the Farm from one end to another daily, falls
down of its own weight, as it is impossible to find men, unless
financially interested, who will look after the endless details, which
spell success or ruin on a large poultry plant.
The planning and designing of all buildings on The Corning Egg Farm was
done by ourselves, and all the construction has been done under our
personal supervision. In the first two years we did not contract even
the labor, employing simply “handy men” who worked with us under our
instructions. Latterly, with the large amount of routine and office
work pressing upon us, we found it to be wise economy to contract the
labor, ourselves supplying the material and supervising the work.
The buildings, with the arrangement of all equipment, are built in
accordance with ideas thought and worked out by ourselves, on lines
which seemed to us common sense, and economical in time and money for
the handling of Poultry.
Until within the last two years we had never seen another poultry farm,
and those we have seen have only strengthened our conviction that no
serious error has been made in laying out The Corning Egg Farm Plant.
CHAPTER II
Egg Farming the Most Profitable Branch of Poultry Keeping
The profits are surer and larger. The reason this is not more widely
known is because, in the past, few people have been able to resist the
temptation of attempting to cover a number of the different branches
of poultry culture. They have tried to get into the “fancy,” and
have dreamed of taking a blue ribbon at Madison Square Garden, or at
some other large Show. Then the broiler branch has engrossed their
attention, and from that they have gone on to soft roasters, and
the other phases of the slaughter house side of poultry for market
purposes, and they have endeavored to cover all the different branches
from which money is made in poultry, while entirely overlooking the
fact that this is an age of specialization, and that the person who
would succeed in any business must make up his mind to follow one
branch of it, and bring that branch up to the highest efficiency.
Developing the Great Layer
From the start the Builders of The Corning Egg Farm, at Bound Brook, N.
J., realized these conditions, and were never led into side issues but
gave their entire thought and attention to the development of a great
layer, realizing that if this was to be accomplished everything except
an egg must be considered a by-product, and disposed of along the line
of least resistance: in short carrying out the Scriptural injunction,
“This one thing I do.” This one thought has been so successfully
adhered to that the development of The Corning Egg Farm in five years
has been remarkable in its production of the greatest laying type of
hen yet produced, the Corning Strain Single Comb White Leghorn, placing
the Farm head and shoulders above any other Egg Farm anywhere in the
Country.
Egg Farming is profitable not only when carried on in a large way, but,
to the suburban dweller, a small number of hens in the back yard is a
profitable investment, and the system, as worked out on The Corning
Egg Farm, succeeds with a few hens, and enables the owner of a small
plot of land to always have sanitary, fresh eggs, to reduce his grocery
bills, and materially increase the pleasure of suburban life.
Corning Method in Small Flocks
Two illustrations of the working out of the Corning Method in a small
way would doubtless be of interest. While it is true that the 16 feet
wide House is the most desirable from all standpoints, the length of
the house may be anything from 20 feet to 200 feet, as the house is of
sectional construction, 20 feet being a section.
In the back yard of a gentleman living in Bound Brook was kept a small
pen of birds, in all eighteen, composed of hens and pullets. These were
a mixture of Barred Rocks and Rhode Island Reds. The pullets were of
early hatch and should have come into eggs at least in the first week
of October. The hens completed the moult much earlier than is generally
expected, and still the owner was without eggs.
Different methods, and nostrums of guaranteed egg producing foods,
were tried, but all without success. After a call at The Corning Egg
Farm, he stated that in one week and three days the first eggs were
found in the nests, and the continuance of the Corning Method of
feeding and working the hens produced eggs steadily through the Winter
months, beginning with the middle of December, and the birds continued
to lay more than an average output until they went into the moult the
following Fall.
A gentleman, who has a small place within a mile of The Corning Egg
Farm, some four years ago purchased hatching eggs from our Breeding
Pen, and the following Fall he also bought a small pen of Breeders. He
aims to produce and carry through the Winter about one hundred pullets,
and for four years now, by adhering strictly to the Corning Method, and
with the Corning Strain Single Comb White Leghorns, he has met with a
success almost phenomenal.
Before he became conversant with the Corning Method (and with the stock
he was then carrying before beginning with the Corning Strain) his
success was represented by zero, but to-day his balance sheets, which
he displays with great pride, are extremely interesting reading.
This gives a very fair illustration of two small flocks of different
size, and of the results obtained.
On Large Farms
Turning now to the story of two egg farms which have been built within
the last two years, one in New Jersey and the other in Pennsylvania, we
find again most interesting and successful conditions.
The Pennsylvania Farm started its first season by the purchase from
us of fifteen hundred hatching eggs. The owner came to our Farm and
asked our assistance in planning his campaign of growth. His hatch from
the fifteen hundred eggs, and he never had run an incubator before,
was some 75 per cent. of all eggs set, and, by following the feeding
methods prescribed, his mortality was very low. He placed in his Laying
House that Fall some five hundred pullets, and in July, 1910, he had
sent us an order for three thousand eggs for the season of 1911.
As he told this story on a visit to The Corning Egg Farm, in the
month of February, 1911, he had done the almost impossible, simply
by following the Method laid down in the literature published by The
Corning Egg Farm, and had made money from the second month that his
pullets had begun to lay. The quality of his eggs was such that he took
over the trade of the largest hotel in a neighboring city, so far as he
was able to supply their wants.
[Illustration: PANORAMIC VIEW OF PART OF THE CORNING EGG FARM,
PHOTOGRAPHED IN OCTOBER, 1910.]
The Jersey Egg Farm referred to is owned and run by a gentleman of
advanced years. His first season’s start was on a very small scale, but
he was most successful in bringing his pullets to the laying point, and
getting a remarkable output of eggs through the Winter months. In his
district he was able to dispose of all his eggs to people who came to
the door and paid the cash for them at prices ten to twenty cents per
dozen above the market. The Corning Egg Farm received from him a very
large order for hatching eggs for the season of 1911, and this Fall he
had an elegant flock of pullets ready to house and turn out an ever
increasing supply of eggs for the coming Winter.
These four illustrations are a few of the many which The Corning Egg
Farm is able to point to as the result of the use of its Method.
CHAPTER III
What is a Fresh Egg?--An Egg Should be Sanitary as Well as Fresh
The answer one generally gets to this query is, an egg so many hours
old, and, as the average grocer prints the card, “just laid.” “Fresh”
and “new laid,” as applied to eggs, mean nothing. Hens improperly fed
lay eggs not only often unpalatable, but that are carriers of disease.
The hen’s productive organs are so constructed that bacteria which she
may take into her crop with impure food are passed into the egg.
Manure Drainage to Drink
An egg being eighty per cent. water, consider the effect on eggs
produced by the farmers’ flocks, where the water supply is mainly pools
in the barn yard, which receive the drainage from the manure piles,
and where the principal food supply is scratched out of manure heaps,
consisting of undigested grain that has already passed through another
animal.
A hen must have a large proportion of animal food to lay well, and to
produce rich, nutritious eggs.
Diseased Meat to Eat
Consider what in many instances this animal food consists of, carcasses
of glandered horses, tuberculous cows, and putrid and maggoty meat. If
a dish of putrid beef were placed on the table before people they would
shrink back in horror, yet they will eat eggs which have been produced
by hens which have been fed on these identical ingredients, apparently
entirely oblivious of the fact that the hen performs no miracle in
the production of an egg, but simply manufactures the egg from the
materials, whatever they may be, which she gathers into her system.
As the Food, so the Egg
The Chief of the Bureau of Chemistry, U. S. Department of Agriculture,
says that while such conditions undoubtedly do exist it cannot be
proven that such eggs are shipped from State to State, and that,
therefore, it does not come under the jurisdiction of the Interstate
Commerce Commission, and cannot be controlled under the National Pure
Food Law.
What is needed, then, is to know that eggs are not only fresh, but
sanitary. The Corning Egg Farm layers are fed the best quality of
grains and meals that can be procured. The animal food is supplied
by fresh, green bone, cut and prepared daily. This bone comes from
inspected cattle only, and the Farm is equipped with a large freezing
plant for the purpose of carrying the bone in a perfectly fresh
condition. The hens are housed and cared for under absolutely sanitary
conditions.
A Perfect Egg a Rarity
The growing interest in Poultry Culture is bringing the Public to a
realization of the fallacy of the old idea that “any egg not rotten
must be a good egg.” Comparatively few people have ever eaten a perfect
egg. With the growth of real egg farms through the country, the time is
approaching when the words “fresh” or “strictly fresh” will no longer
mean anything to the purchaser, and the word “sanitary” will take
their place, and in some way the egg trade will be controlled, and the
grocer, and butcher, and peddlers of eggs, will not be allowed to put
cold storage eggs out as a sanitary article of food.
Some of the New York papers are now beginning to agitate the question
of Sanitary Eggs, notably the _New York Commercial_, which is a leader
in this educational line. The day is coming when the person who is
operating an egg farm that is known to produce the egg of real quality
will have no difficulty in obtaining the price that such an article is
really worth.
Unlimited Demand for Quality Eggs
There is an unlimited demand for an egg which can be depended upon
as to quality. The difficulty that the seller meets with when going
to a hotel or restaurant is the fact that the proprietor has been
fooled many times. As they have put it, “people start well, and for
a time keep up the quantity, and the quality is all right, but when
the stringent time of year comes they fall down as to quantity, and a
little later they have evidently been tempted to keep up the quantity
by gathering eggs from other sources than their own, and then we meet
with the questionable pleasure of having a patron at our tables return
to us an egg just ready to hatch.”
When one seeks private trade for the output of his hennery it is
possible to obtain extreme prices, provided the buyers can be convinced
of the absolutely high quality of what they are purchasing.
In New York, last year, for a few weeks, a man, gotten up as a
veritable “hay-seed” farmer, sold eggs from house to house through the
streets running from 45th to 65th, in large quantities. They were all
marked in red ink with the date on which they were said to be laid.
He did not last very long, and his liberty was curtailed, and for
some time he graced one of the free institutions where iron bars
obstruct the view of the surrounding country. It developed that this
enterprising crook was buying the culls from cold storage houses, and,
in a basement on 43d Street near the North River, he had eight girls
steadily at work marking the alleged dates when these eggs were laid.
The difficulty seems to be that when you reach the question of a
“fresh egg,” everyone, almost, becomes a fakir. The grocers, many of
them, buy case after case of storage eggs, and, when the retail price
reaches sixty-five cents a dozen for so called “fresh eggs,” they are
supplying all buyers with the cold storage product, in quantities
practically unlimited. Their counters are always decorated with baskets
of these “just laid, perfectly fresh eggs.”
Therefore, it becomes necessary for the Egg Farmer to satisfy
customers, beyond peradventure, as to his ability to himself supply
the goods which he contracts to deliver, and after once doing this his
experience will be the same as that of The Corning Egg Farm, not to
be able to keep and properly look after enough hens to turn out half
the eggs he could sell at profitable prices, because the price he asks
does not discourage customers who are willing to pay well for a really
satisfactory article.
The following is the basis on which The Corning Egg Farm makes all its
contracts for table eggs.
SUNNY SLOPE FARM
(THE GREAT CORNING EGG FARM)
PRODUCES
EGGS FOR THE TABLE
“WHICH CANNOT BE SURPASSED”
WHITE,
~THEY ARE~: STERILE,
SANITARY,
FRESH,
~STERILE.~--The hens producing Eggs for the Table are housed by
themselves and their eggs do not contain the life germ, giving a
purity not otherwise obtained.
~SANITARY~,--because of the clean, fresh air housing and best
quality of pure food and water. People are learning the necessity of
investigating the source from which Eggs come more carefully than
milk or water, as it is now known that Eggs can be a greater carrier
of disease than either milk or water.
~FRESH~,--because eggs laid one day are delivered the next.
~OUR METHODS~ and feeding formulas give these eggs a delicious
flavor, peculiarly their own.
~EVERY EGG~ sold by us is produced on Sunny Slope Farm, and is
guaranteed as above stated.
ONCE BOUGHT, ALWAYS SOUGHT
SUNNY SLOPE FARM
BOUND BROOK NEW JERSEY.
CHAPTER IV
Preparation of Eggs for Market
If high prices are to be obtained for eggs they must not only be good,
but have a look of “class,” to the would be purchaser. They must be
spotlessly clean, and, as far as possible, each dozen should present a
uniform appearance.
One is able to know each day the exact price of the class of eggs which
he is selling, for the Egg Market is like the Stock or Bond Market, and
one who is in the Egg business is dealing with a commodity which at all
times is salable at a price. At The Corning Egg Farm we receive daily
the reports from the Exchange, as given in the _New York Commercial_.
These are cut out and placed in a scrap book, so that, from year to
year, we are able to tell exactly what the conditions were on any given
date, and form a very close idea as to what can be expected in regard
to prices. And so we have an absolute basis of prices for contracts.
The nearest quotation to the egg which is produced by The Corning Egg
Farm is what is termed “State Pa. and nearby Hennery, white, fancy,
large.” This we take as a basis and arrange our prices from it daily,
adding the advance which the Corning sanitary table egg brings.
[Illustration: 30 DOZEN CORNING SANITARY FRESH EGGS READY TO SHIP]
It is quite impossible, with the growth of the country and the demand
for better things in all food products, to over-do the production of
Sanitary Eggs.
The following pages show the manner in which the quotations are placed
in our Scrap Book.
[Illustration: New York Commercial]
[Illustration: New York Commercial]
CHAPTER V
The Selection of the Breed--The Strain is of Utmost Importance
To a man engaging in any branch of Poultry Culture the selection of the
proper breed is of grave importance, but to the man who is planning an
Egg Farm it is without doubt of graver importance than where any other
branch of the poultry business is to be carried on.
For many years different localities have believed that there was very
decided merit in the different colored egg shells. The Culture of
Boston was certain that the dark shell contained an egg with a richer
flavor, while New York and vicinity would believe in nothing but the
white shelled egg. It is, however, noted with interest that the Culture
of Boston has discovered that the color of the shell really has nothing
to do with the flavor of the egg, and to-day the rigid adherence to a
premium paid for the dark shelled egg, generally throughout the New
England States, is rapidly passing into history.
[Illustration: THE STRAIN THAT MAKES THE CORNING EGG FARM FAMOUS]
As The Corning Egg Farm was located within a few miles of New York
City the breeds which laid the white shelled egg were the only ones
worthy of consideration, and, in the study of the question, it was
found there was another important matter confronting the egg farmer, as
to the breed which he should keep, whether a setter, or a non-setter.
On an egg farm, where hundreds of layers are to be kept, if any of
the Asiatics, or so called American Breeds, were kept, they would be
a source of considerable added expense, first, in the way of loss of
eggs during their numerous broody periods; second, in the necessary
buildings in which to carry the “broody biddies” until they have become
sensible, and are in a proper frame of mind to be returned to the
Laying House. This might look on its face a small affair, but success
to The Corning Egg Farm has come through watching every corner, and
while sparing no needed expenditure, avoiding unnecessary and foolish
outlay.
So, to the man who would really meet with a large success, all the
breeds which lay the dark shelled egg, because of their setting
propensity, must be eliminated.
All the members of the Mediterranean family are layers of the white
shelled egg, and are what is termed “non-setting.”
S. C. White Leghorns Outclass All
Before deciding we looked the different members of this family over
with considerable care, and we found that the Single Comb White Leghorn
is the fowl that out-classes all the others for the purpose of an
egg farm. It is a bird, where properly bred, of great hardiness and
stamina. It readily adapts itself to all conditions of climate, and,
where the right “strain” is procured, it is never a disappointer as
to the number, size, and the class of eggs which it produces. We,
therefore, decided to adopt the Single Comb White Leghorn, and we have
outlined, in a previous chapter, how we went to work to build up the
unequaled Corning Strain, by the most careful selection, and scientific
mating.
Prof. Gowell, at the Maine Agricultural Station, carried on his
breeding with Barred Plymouth Rocks, and it is interesting to note
that his average for some eight years, taking his star performers,
was 134.27 eggs per hen for twelve months, while at The Corning Egg
Farm the flocks of fifteen hundred pullets averaged per hen, for ten
months laying, 143.25 eggs in 1909, and 145.11 eggs in 1910. Here was
a difference of two months in time, and yet the large flocks, taken as
a whole, not weeding out a few star performers, surpassed the twelve
months’ record of the Barred Plymouth Rocks at the Maine Station by
almost nine eggs in 1909, and ten eggs in 1910. This significant
fact made considerable impression on a number of breeders in the
neighborhood of Boston, with the result that, in the last two years,
The Corning Egg Farm has supplied a large number of hatching eggs and
considerable breeding stock for farms in New England.
As one gentleman from Boston pointed out, even with the difference in
price between the brown and the white egg, he found that he could not
really afford to continue with the breeds laying the brown egg, for the
Leghorn, in numbers, more than made up for the slight difference in
price between the two colors, in the Boston Market. And, as he still
further pointed out, it took less food to supply the Leghorn than it
did any of the larger breeds, and this, of course, was another source
of economy.
It should be remembered that the “Strain” of any breed is most
important. One may purchase White Leghorns where the inbreeding has
been so great that they are not capable of laying eggs in large
numbers, and the percentage of fertility from the hatching standpoint
in such birds will be a most uncertain quantity. Such chicks as may
be hatched will be far from strong, and the mortality will run into
figures which will dishearten anyone.
Line Breeding--Not Inbreeding
In the building up of a great strain of birds it is necessary to “line
breed,” for, if the old theory of introducing new blood to prevent
inbreeding, and the method of introducing the new blood, was, as is
done in so many places even to-day, by introducing males from other
sources, the entire system falls down. Nothing is accomplished and time
is worse than wasted. The possibility of handing down the virtues of
mother to daughter, and of father to son, is eliminated. If all the
qualities of a given “Strain” are to be handed down line breeding must
be adhered to in the strictest sense. Inbreeding, however, must be
avoided, or disaster will follow.
How Corning Farm Produces Unrelated Cockerels
The Method of The Corning Egg Farm is as follows: a pen of carefully
selected yearling hens is set aside in what is known as “the pen for
the production of unrelated cockerels.” A most carefully selected
cockerel to every twelve hens is placed in the pen. Incubators are
run with eggs from this pen only, and the resulting chicks are marked
before being placed in the Brooder House. The cockerels which appear
with this marking are grown to maturity, those coming up to our
standard being selected to head the breeding pens for the following
season. The marked pullets are placed in the Laying Houses with the
other pullets, but are never selected for yearling breeders on our own
Farm. In pens sold to others we always furnish unrelated cockerels.
Having hatched a sufficient number of chicks to produce about four
hundred cockerels, no further eggs are set from this pen, and, at the
end of the season, all the birds comprising this pen are sold.
This Method of line breeding hands down the laying quality which has
been so developed, and which is being increased from season to season
in an unbroken line, but inbreeding is absolutely avoided, and the
vigor of the stock is maintained.
Perhaps, in closing the chapter, nothing could be more apt than a
letter received from a Breeder of Crystal White Orpingtons, in the
neighborhood of one of the large Western Cities. The letter-head, in
large type, states, “Breeder of Crystal White Orpingtons, the Great
Winter Layer.” The contents of the letter is as follows:
“As I am now planning to go into the Egg business, and desire to follow
your method as closely as possible, and, while in this locality there
is not such a marked preference for the white egg over the brown, still
the White Leghorn, of a good strain, doubtless outlays any other breed
known, and the shape of its egg is such that it is superior for table
use, to any laid by the dark shelled family. It, therefore, is my
purpose, as rapidly as possible to work into a large flock of Leghorns,
with Corning stock as a basis.”
It will be noted that the gentleman is a breeder of Crystal White
Orpingtons, and prints in large type on his letter-head, “The Great
Winter Layer,” but that when it comes down to “brass tacks,” from the
standpoint of the hen which will produce an egg for table use, and the
hen that will give you the requisite number to make the dollars, the
Breeder of the Crystal White Orpingtons wants to put in the Corning
Strain of Single Comb White Leghorns.
CHAPTER VI
Advantages of the Large Flock System--Reduces Cost of Housing and
Economizes in Time and Labor
For many years the floor space per hen has been an interesting study
to anyone reading poultry literature, either in books or in magazine
articles.
Some fifteen years ago it was generally considered for a hen to do at
all well she must have at least twenty square feet of floor space.
Later, the number of feet was divided by half, and for some time ten
square feet was considered to be the very least a hen could possibly do
with. Then we come to the four square feet period, and this created a
great deal of controversy. Many writers declared that it was impossible
for any hen, no matter how housed, to do well in such a restricted
space. At times, some visionary writer pictured a flock in one house,
of what was then considered an enormous size. One Professor of poultry
went so far as to state that he had successfully kept some three
hundred hens in one flock, and had obtained most satisfactory results.
This statement, however, was denied by others, and the Professor wrote
an article in which he set forth that, while he had done this, he would
never think of suggesting that the average poultry-keeper attempt it.
In his statement there were some truths that it is well to remember,
namely, that the average poultry-keeper would not give the flock the
care and supervision necessary to keep it in health. In other words,
the poultry-keeper would not attend to the necessary cleanliness, and
disease would break out, and, in the average poultry house, under such
conditions, this would mean the total annihilation of the flock.
[Illustration: THREE STERILE LAYING HOUSES CONTAINING 4500 PULLETS,
WITH A FLOOR SPACE OF 7680 SQUARE FEET]
Draughts the Stumbling Block
As economy of space and labor is one of the main factors in getting
a commercial profit where poultry is operated with, the large flock
system appealed most strongly to The Corning Egg Farm. Long houses,
under one roof, without divisions, had been attempted by others, and
the endeavor to discover the reason for the failures, where this had
been attempted, was a very interesting study. It was found that the
main stumbling block in houses of this type was draughts. To eliminate
the draughts was the problem we then undertook to solve. It was found
that if the houses were built in sections of twenty feet, and the
partitions which divided the house into roosting closets were extended
twelve inches beyond the dropping boards, and were carried from the
floor to the roof, the air currents were broken up, and the difficulty
of draughts was overcome.
Houses, as we believed in constructing them, were expensive, unless
it was possible to carry a very large number of layers successfully
in them. In studying the two hundred and twenty-five pullets as they
worked contentedly in the No. 1 Laying House, which was but twelve feet
wide, we became convinced that it was perfectly possible in a house
sixteen feet wide by one hundred and sixty feet in length to carry
fifteen hundred layers. This, to be sure, allowed the hen only a little
over two square feet of floor space, with the dropping boards included.
But, as we figured it, the hen also had the entire house for floor
space, and, while it is true that fourteen hundred and ninety-nine
sisters were her near neighbors, they all enjoyed the same large space
to roam in. A house, then, of this size, accommodating fifteen hundred
layers, was not an expensive house per bird, and, when you consider
that the construction was such that the up-keep was practically
nothing, it became not only not an expensive house, but really a very
cheap one.
The success of the fifteen hundred layers in one house proved itself at
once, and we never have seen the slightest necessity for altering the
plan of the Laying House, as we first laid it out.
2,000 Birds to a House
The large flock system works economies, then, in housing, in the amount
of labor necessary to care for the birds, and in gathering the eggs.
And there is no doubt but that a house of considerably greater length,
with a flock ranging as high as two thousand birds, could successfully
be handled. In fact, on one farm which has been in existence over
twenty-five years, a Corning Method Laying House of two hundred feet
in length has been in operation now for twelve months, and the owners
write us that it is the most successful house on their entire farm,
and that as rapidly as possible they are rebuilding all their Laying
Houses, and making them of this type.
CHAPTER VII
What is the Winter Layer?--The Properly Hatched and Reared Pullet
Many people have a very erroneous idea with regard to getting Winter
eggs. They seem to think any hen should produce eggs in Winter. The hen
generally moults in the early Fall, and Nature has provided this time
of rest for her. The egg organs cease to produce, for the hen finds she
has all she can do to supply the necessary material for her new dress,
and this is a very serious drain on her system. The natural time,
however, for a pullet to begin to lay is when she reaches maturity,
and, as the pullet hatched in the early Spring, properly cared for,
should come into eggs in the early Fall, the pullet, then, is the
Winter layer.
It must still be remembered that the domesticated fowl of to-day is
a bird of evolution. In its wild state a pullet did not begin to lay
eggs in the Fall, and neither did she lay a large number of eggs at
any time. With the coming of Spring, and an abundance of succulent
green food, and large quantities of animal food in the shape of a
great variety of worms and insects, she laid and hatched her brood.
Therefore, to have successful Winter layers, it is necessary to produce
as nearly as possible the Spring-time conditions.
[Illustration: INTERIOR LAYING HOUSE NO. 1 IN 1910]
Must Feed Green Food
On The Corning Egg Farm, when the pullets are brought up from the Range
into the Laying Houses, the majority of them have already been laying
on the Range, and they are in fit condition to be brought strongly
into eggs. They are fed a large quantity of succulent green food, in
the form which, perhaps, is more delicious to the hen than any other,
that is, Sprouted Oats. The quantity of animal food in their mash is
increased, and, with the vigorous digging for the grain in the deep
litter, the problem of Winter eggs is solved, and from day to day, the
number of eggs coming from the pullet houses, increases very rapidly.
On the other hand, the pullet which has completed its first ten months
of laying is well advanced in the moult, and is becoming a yearling
hen. Those qualifying under the drastic examination for perfect type
are selected for the next year’s Breeders, and are removed to the
Breeding Houses, which have been thoroughly disinfected and put in the
most sanitary condition to receive them. Those not reaching the Corning
Standard are marketed, as we sell culls only to the butcher.
The aim in handling the yearling hen is not to get eggs from her
during the Winter, but to give her a long rest, and to build her up,
and put her in the pink of condition for the coming breeding season,
and it is the aim at The Corning Egg Farm to have as few eggs produced
as possible from the breeding pens until about the first of January,
when an increased amount of animal food is added to the daily ration
for the purpose of bringing the hens into eggs, and within a few days
there is a very rapid increase in the number of eggs from these pens.
It must be remembered that the profit in Winter eggs is made from
pullets, and to be successful in this line the Laying Houses must be
well stocked with them.
Yearling and two year old hens are the proper breeding females. The
Corning Egg Farm Method is one of continuous rotation, as follows:
Incubator to Brooder House.
Brooder House to Range.
Range to Laying House. Those selected as coming up to the Corning
Standard go to the Breeder House.
At the end of the second year the Breeders are all sold for foundation
stock.
This gives an opportunity to the public to procure the very best
Breeders at a most reasonable price.
CHAPTER VIII
A Great Laying Strain--The Selection of Breeders to Produce It
The first requisite is to breed from a mature animal, from a real
yearling hen. The term “yearling hen” is a misnomer, for, when she
is twelve months of age she has not as a rule developed into a true
yearling hen. The female has five months of growth, ten months of
laying, and then she moults, which process varies in duration from
eight to ten weeks.
Eighteen Months Old
When she has completed the moult, her entire anatomy has undergone a
change, and she is a mature animal, about eighteen months of age, a fit
specimen to reproduce her kind, and her off-spring will be strong and
vigorous youngsters.
The great mortality one reads of among chicks can be traced more to
breeding from immature females than to any other cause.
The general method of selecting breeders for a great many years has
been by the use of “trap nests.” Surely the use of a mechanical device
is a poor method to determine what hens are proper for breeding
purposes, and really the trap nest tells you nothing.
In every pen there are daily a number of eggs which are not laid in
the nest at all. To what particular hen does the attendant credit eggs
found in hollows scooped out in corners under the dropping boards?
It is a peculiarity of “Biddy” that where she sees an egg she almost
always decides it is a good and proper place for her to lay another.
Thus, on some days, where trap nests are in use, it may be necessary
to make a great number of guesses as to which hen did not lay in the
traps, but on the floor.
Trap Nests a Failure
There is another reason why trap nests really tell you nothing. Take
two females of a pen whose numbers are one and two. For the first few
weeks No. 1 surpasses her sister No. 2 in the production of eggs. To
this pen, clover has been the green food fed, and of this ingredient
the farm has run short. The shipment has been expected daily but did
not arrive, and, because of that failure, for four or five days no
other green food was provided. Then cabbage was resorted to to take
the place of the clover. The pen having been without green food for a
number of days was fairly greedy for it, and good, crisp cabbage suits
the palate of many hens exactly, and they are very apt to overdo the
matter in eating it. A great layer must be a large eater, and so hen
No. 1 gorged herself on the cabbage. Her digestive organs were upset,
and for a number of weeks she ceased laying, while hen No. 2 continued
to shell out a fair number of eggs. The owner of these birds, when
it came time for the selection of the breeders, expressed his great
disappointment over hen No. 1. She had started so well, and then had
blown up entirely, and so she is passed up, and hen No. 2 is accepted
as a breeder.
[Illustration: ONE OF THE BREEDING HOUSES JUST AFTER MATING 1910]
Now, if the anatomy of these two birds had been studied, it would have
been found at once that hen No. 1 was much better qualified to take a
place in the breeding pen than hen No. 2. The mere fact that the trap
nest record of any female shows a phenomenal number of eggs laid in ten
or twelve months does not necessarily prove that she is a proper animal
to breed from. Post-mortem examinations show in many cases that they
are freaks, and, while they have laid a great number of eggs, there was
much to be desired in regard to the eggs, as to their size, shape, and
color. As a matter of fact it would have been a great mistake to have
bred from such an individual.
Type Reproduces Type
It must be remembered that type produces type, and the only proper way
to select birds for the breeding pen which will produce progeny capable
of great egg production is to thoroughly understand their anatomy. It
is impossible to produce a great performer in any line unless the
animal is of a build capable of the performance. No one would expect to
breed a two-minute trotter from a Shetland Pony.
The hen which is capable of becoming an ideal layer must have a deep
keel, a long body, and, as she faces out, she must have an appearance
of broadness, and must be the shape of a wedge back to the point where
the wings join the body.
The Large Flock System is carried on in the Breeding Pen on The Corning
Egg Farm, and it has been most successful. It has been found that the
small pen does not produce the high fertility continuously which the
Large Flock System does. During the season of 1910, for long periods,
the fertility ran as high as 96%, and as early as the first of March it
was above 90%. In the season of 1911, eggs incubated in the early part
of February, ran above 91%, and during the season there were times when
the fertility reached 97%.
The Breeding Pens are mated up two weeks before eggs are to be used for
incubation, and early hatched cockerels are used to head these Breeding
Pens. It has been found that the mating of cockerels with yearling hens
produces a very decided predominance of pullets, and the youngsters are
strong and vigorous from the start.
The proportion of mating is one to twelve, and the records of The
Corning Egg Farm show that by this method of mating the number of
cockerels produced, through the years that the Farm has been in
operation, has been as low as one-quarter, and as high as one-third.
The males to head the pens are selected with the same care that the
hens are. They are all perfect birds, of large size, and conform as
closely as possible to the standard requirements, without interfering
with the paramount aim of producing a Great Layer.
CHAPTER IX
What is the Best Time to Hatch?
The question which is the title of this chapter is asked over and over
again. You see it propounded to the editor of almost every poultry
paper in the country. And it is a difficult one to answer, because
the various needs of different people are so diversified. April and
May are doubtless the natural hatching seasons for all varieties.
Climatic conditions are then kinder, the food which is necessary for
the production of many eggs, and eggs of the strong hatchable kind, is
supplied by Nature in great abundance, and the young chick coming into
life in these months finds a great variety of natural food of the very
best kind for growth awaiting it. In Spring eggs run strongly fertile,
and in every way Nature seems to lend herself to successful hatching,
and the starting of the young chick properly on its journey.
The man, however, who is operating an egg farm, and has made contracts
for the delivery of a continuous supply of eggs to exacting customers,
cannot well afford to wait until these months to hatch in, for it is
necessary for him to have a large number of pullets reaching maturity
and beginning to lay, before his last year’s pullets reach the
moulting period and stop egg production. To accomplish this it is
necessary to have in his brooder house, by not later than the first
week of March, a goodly number of yellow babies. From that time on he
must keep them coming, so as to have a sufficient number a few weeks
apart to take the place of the yearling hens going into the moult. In
this way he will succeed in keeping up a continuous flow of eggs.
It is true there is a danger in these early hatched pullets. They may
go into what is called the Winter moult, after laying well into the
month of December, but they will not all moult, and before there is a
marked shrinkage the later hatches will be laying strongly.
The moult which occurs with early hatched birds does not last as long
as the moult coming in the regular season. The birds soon return to the
nest, and the house rapidly jumps back to a very large output of eggs
for the coming Spring months. Thus the great increase in numbers helps
to offset the decrease in price, and to equalize the bank account.
It must be remembered, however, that Leghorns hatched up to the 25th of
June make good Winter layers provided they are properly cared for, and
given the food and attention which produces a great growth, and under
such conditions one will find no difficulty in getting them into laying
eggs readily by the time they are five months of age.
An Interesting Experiment in Late Hatching
In the season of 1910 The Corning Egg Farm made a very interesting
experiment, in a large way, so far as late hatching goes. We incubated
two large batches of eggs, the first being set so that the chicks
hatched from the 18th to the 26th of July; the second batch completed
incubation August 15th. The resulting pullets from these two hatches
were some fifty odd over twelve hundred. We carried them on Range until
December 1st, and then placed them in a Laying House by themselves.
They had not begun to lay on Range so far as we were able to discover,
although many of the pullets had the appearance of eggs. Almost from
the start, after they were placed in the Colony Houses, we fed them, in
addition to the regular Range ration, a good supply of Sprouted Oats
each day. This was done for the reason that of course the succulent
green food had passed away, and we consider it of vital importance
that growing birds be given the opportunity to gather a large supply
of succulent green food. The records show that within three days after
the pullets were placed in the Laying House we began to gather from one
to three eggs a day. Before December was over the house was producing
10%; January saw 35% output of eggs, and before February was very far
advanced we were doing better than 60%. There was a time in March when
the House was yielding a 75% output.
[Illustration: SPROUTED OATS CELLAR]
These birds laid strongly all Summer, and we were interested in noting
when they would start to moult. We had seen the statement made a number
of times that late hatched pullets were very late moulters. In our
experience, however, this did not prove to be true, for this pen of
birds moulted at just about the same time, and in the same proportion,
as the earlier hatches did.
We had frequently seen it stated that birds hatched in the very last
week of August, or the first week in September, would produce eggs at
the same time that the June hatched pullets would begin to produce
them. Our experience with June hatches, and we have had four years of
it, disproves this statement absolutely. We find that the June hatched
pullet, properly cared for, comes in quite as rapidly as those hatched
in April and May.
We do not wish to go on record as advocates of July and August
hatching, but we simply wish to show what could be accomplished if a
Breeder met with some misfortune, and was compelled to hatch late or
not at all.
CHAPTER X
Succulent Green Food--Satisfactory Egg Production Impossible Without It
A goodly supply of green food is necessary to all birds, the growing
chicken as well as the yearling hen, for it is a great aid to
digestion, helping to properly assimilate all foods as they are taken
into the crop, and passed through the great grinding mill of a chicken.
There is no possible hope of a full egg supply from any Laying House
where a large quantity of green food is not fed daily. It may be fed
in many forms. Clover or Alfalfa (and we are now speaking first of
the Winter supply of green food) may be procured in a dry state, and
by properly scalding it with hot water it may be made to almost live
again, so far as its freshness and delightful odor go. In many cases
the preparation of Clover or Alfalfa spoils it. The water should be
quite at the boiling point, and it should be poured over, preferably it
should be put on with a sprinkling can. The method at The Corning Egg
Farm is to place whichever we are using of the Clover family in pails,
a given number for each Laying House, and as they stand in rows the hot
water is applied with a sprinkling can. The contents are not allowed
to steep, but as soon as the second wetting of the long row of pails
is reached they are placed on the delivery wagon and at once taken to
their destination. When the contents are emptied from the pails they
will be steaming hot, too hot for the birds to take at first, and you
will find them standing in a ring around the Clover, and from time to
time testing the heat. As soon as it is cool enough they will devour it
with great avidity.
Where Alfalfa is fed some flocks give considerable difficulty at first
as they do not seem to relish it, but after a short time they seem to
acquire the taste, and become very fond of it. It contains a higher
amount of protein than the ordinary Clover which can be bought in the
market, but in purchasing Alfalfa products one should be careful not to
buy a large quantity of dirt, but get what is known as “short cut,” and
have it carefully sifted.
By many people cabbages are considered a most excellent green food
for Winter use, but if they are chopped up and fed to the layers
considerable caution should be used in the feeding. They are very apt
to upset the digestive organs of the birds, and that means a very
decided decrease in the number of eggs. This is equally true of Mangle
beets and other roots which in many cases are used.
Sprouted Oats Best
At The Corning Egg Farm we are strong believers in Sprouted Oats as a
green food, and we now maintain a cement Cellar, with good drainage,
which is used for nothing else. The method of sprouting oats is really
very simple, and does not require the arduous labor which one would
imagine from numerous articles written on the subject.
How They Are Grown on the Farm
We have frames three by six feet in size, built of ordinary boards,
but not matched material. The sides are about four inches high. These
frames are laid on the floor of the Cellar, and each frame is filled
with forty-eight quarts of oats spread evenly over the bottom. We have
a large sprinkler attached to the hose, and the oats are thoroughly wet
as they lie in the trays, and this wetting is repeated every morning.
In a temperature from fifty to sixty degrees we find that the oats have
started to sprout about the third day, and from this on the growth
is very fast. Parts of the oats in the frame will swell two or three
inches in places, above the surrounding mass of oats, and we make it a
practice to place the sprinkler directly on top of this swelling, and
it is found by so doing that the frame in a short time will present a
very even growth.
If the Sprouted Oats are fed when the green tops are from one and a
half to two inches in length the chemical quality of the oat is not
lost, and we really get a double ration when it is fed. If allowed to
go beyond this length, they are then just an ordinary green food.
In many instances we have noticed writers advocating soaking the oats
overnight, and then, for the next few days, to periodically stir them.
And in other cases writers advise, when they are placed in the frames
to turn the oats over. This is a serious mistake, for anyone can
readily see that the tender shoots, which grow most rapidly after the
third day, would be broken off, and where this occurs the oats will rot.
Oats, of course, can be sprouted in sheds, or even out-of-doors, if
they are covered up so that the sun will not dry them out too rapidly.
A frame should be made in such a manner that the water sprayed over
the oats will slowly drain away. There are a number of different
contrivances now being placed on the market for sprouting oats, and we
have no doubt that, on small plants, some of them would prove quite
satisfactory. Where it is desired to sprout oats in a small way, in
the Cellar of one’s house, a rack can be built with run-ways for the
trays to slide on, with a space of two inches between the trays. By
thoroughly sprinkling the top tray the water will run down through from
one tray to another, and, as the growth progresses, the more advanced
ones can be moved up from the bottom of the rack, as they require less
water than those in a less advanced stage.
The oats sprout more quickly if grown and sprinkled in a fairly dark
place, and it must be remembered that too warm a temperature will rot
the mass after the growth has reached its fourth or fifth day.
Timothy and Clover Cut Green
As one enters The Corning Egg Farm, on the left of the drive, there is
about an acre of Timothy and Clover. This acre has been very heavily
fertilized and brought up to a high state of cultivation. The Timothy
and Clover grow so rapidly, and the growth comes in such abundance
almost before the snow is off the ground, that cutting it as we do,
so many rows each morning, it is impossible to cross the entire plot
before that which was first cut has almost grown beyond the succulent
point. To make a change for the hens we cut this in the early Spring,
and pass it through the Clover Cutter, reducing it to quarter inch
lengths, but we find that after the first few days of feeding the hens
show a decided preference for Sprouted Oats, and now we make it a rule
to feed the Timothy and Clover one day and the Sprouted Oats the next.
This works very well, and the “Biddies” seem to enjoy the different
rations on alternate days.
[Illustration: TWO WEEKS OLD CHICKS IN BROODER HOUSE RUNS]
The Colony Range is so cared for and fertilized that the growing
pullet, for the Spring and Summer months, finds an unlimited supply of
succulent green food at her door.
CHAPTER XI
Anthracite Coal Ashes--A Substitute for Many More Expensive Necessities
The feather of a bird is composed almost entirely of phosphorous, and
phosphorous is a great aid to the bird in digesting food. In fact,
there are manufactured “grits” offered on the market, which base their
efficiency on the amount of phosphorous they carry.
Anthracite, or hard, coal ashes, carry a considerable quantity of
phosphorous, and this is the reason chickens in all stages of their
existence are so fond of them. Our attention was first called to this
fact by observing the large number of pullets on the Colony Range,
where some loads of ashes had been used the previous season in mixing
with the fertilizer for the growing of potatoes. It was noticed that
these small heaps of ashes were very soon consumed, and when they
were replenished the pullets were never absent from the piles. The
experiment was then made of placing a small heap at the extreme end of
the chick runs from the Brooder House, and to our surprise we found one
was unable to see the ashes because of the moving mass of yellow which
covered them. It was necessary to replenish these heaps almost daily.
As ashes are perfectly sanitary we decided to cover the entire chick
run with them, which we did, and every few days, through the brooding
season, a fresh coating is necessary, as the youngsters consume so much
of the surface constantly.
Better Than Charcoal
Next, we sifted ashes and filled the hoppers in the Laying Houses with
them. The layers ate them in the same way in which they consumed wheat.
For an experiment we stopped feeding charcoal entirely, and found that
the ashes supplied everything that the charcoal did, with none of the
dangers, for there seems to be no doubt that where hens consume large
quantities of charcoal they are very susceptible to colds.
Large heaps of Anthracite ashes are now kept within a short distance
of every Colony House on the Range, and the use of these ashes has
very materially reduced the quantity of Grit and Shell consumed, thus
representing a considerable economy.
Until the use of Anthracite ashes came in on the Range we placed Grit
in receptacles near each Colony House, and the amount consumed was
really remarkable. As soon as the ashes were placed there the Grit was
deserted, and there practically was no consumption of it at all, and
after a few weeks we ceased to supply it and have not done so now for
years.
Since the use of the sifted ashes in the Laying Houses a soft shelled
egg is almost a curiosity on the Farm.
In the Brooder House runs, beside supplying the phosphorus to the
youngsters for their digestion, and the making of their feathers, it
does away with the fear of contamination of soil, of which so much is
now written, and it presents a surface which dries almost before the
rain storm is over, and there is no possibility of the youngsters being
let out into a muddy run.
CHAPTER XII
Eggs for Breeding Should be Laid by a Real Yearling Hen
Having heard many stories told by Breeders who were sellers of eggs
for hatching, and also the tales by purchasers, we were somewhat loath
to embark in this branch of the Egg Trade. The Breeders told stories
of letters which would “raise your hair” from people who had purchased
from them and met with poor success, and of course, from their point of
view, the only person at fault was the man who sold the eggs.
For the season of 1910 our breeding pen had reached a size which
allowed us, for the first time, to offer eggs to the public, and
we decided to try it out. To everyone we stated that we would not
guarantee fertility, but, as they were getting eggs from exactly the
same pens which were supplying our own incubators, we were able, at all
times, to tell what the customer was receiving. But we went further,
and agreed that anyone claiming a low fertility, if he would send us
the eggs which he claimed to be clear, and prepay the expressage, we
would, if his claim was substantiated, send him another lot of eggs
and pay the expressage both ways.
90,000 Orders for 40,000 Eggs
During the season of 1910 we sold something over 40,000 eggs and
returned money for about 50,000 beyond our ability to supply. The
result was that many people who were disappointed booked orders at very
early dates in 1910 for hatching eggs for the season of 1911.
Our experience was quite the reverse from the stories we had been
told. Of course, in doing a large business, it is not possible to
satisfy everyone, and then, unfortunately, there are some people who
are extremely fond of attempting to get something for nothing, and you
receive statements regarding orders which have been filled, which when
investigated, prove to be somewhat different from what you were at
first led to believe.
The fertility of our eggs was such that it was almost impossible for
anyone to make a complaint, and the hatching season of 1910, both at
the Farm and for our customers, was a most successful one.
For the season of 1911 we were able to increase our breeding facilities
considerably over 1910, but we were even more unable to meet the
demands upon us for hatching eggs, than in the previous season. The
results of this year were quite as satisfactory as for the previous,
and for the season of 1912 the Farm will be in a position to fill more
orders than ever before, as we have been able to make a still greater
increase on the breeding side.
[Illustration: YEARLING HENS IN BREEDER HOUSE BEFORE MATING READY FOR
1912]
Orders for hatching eggs are booked by such a system that people
receive them when we agree to deliver the goods, and the illustration
herewith plainly shows the plan.
$........ SUNNY SLOPE FARM No.
THE GREAT CORNING EGG FARM
BREEDERS OF THE STRAIN OF S. C. WHITE LEGHORNS
~WHICH CANNOT BE SURPASSED~
BOUND BROOK, N. J. 191
Received of........................................
............................................Dollars
FOR.......S. C. W. LEGHORN EGGS FOR HATCHING. THESE
EGGS ARE TO BE SHIPPED BY EXPRESS ON OR ABOUT THE
.................. DAY OF.................... 191..
THE CORNING EGG FARM
BY....................
CHAPTER XIII
Policing the Farm--With Bloodhounds, Searchlights and Rifles
In the Fall of each year, from almost every part of the Country, come
reports of what seems to be organized thieving in the poultry line.
Both large and small farms are generally sufferers. For a number of
years people in the vicinity of the The Corning Egg Farm have met with
losses, and in the year 1910 an organized gang was unearthed, which
had a camp on the adjacent hills, and made nightly raids, then shipped
the birds by crossing the Watchung Mountains and reaching railroad
communication on the other side, sending their stolen feathered plunder
into the New York Market.
Shoot First--Investigate Afterwards
The Corning Egg Farm takes a great many precautions in regard to
efficient policing, and has earned a reputation for straight shooting,
not with a gun carrying bird shot, but with rifles. It is thoroughly
understood for miles around that we shoot first and investigate
afterwards. The farm carries some of the finest Blood Hounds in the
Country, all trained man-trailers, and it is thoroughly understood
that if the rifle fails to stop a thief, and it becomes desirable to
see him, the hounds will take up the trail the next day, and no matter
where he may have gone there will be no difficulty in reaching him.
Should he take train the dogs will tell the fact, and then it will be
only necessary to try each station until the one is reached where he
left the train. Should he leave by means of a horse, when he either
gets into the wagon, or mounts the horse, the hound will take the
scent, and carry it until he again takes to the ground.
[Illustration: “SOCRATES,” THE GREAT BLOODHOUND WHICH HEADS THE CORNING
KENNELS]
Socrates, the Great Bloodhound
The head of the kennel, “Socrates,” No. 127320, (his registered name
is “Ottawa’s Major”) is a direct descendant from Rosemary and Delhi,
the two great dogs of Mr. Burgh, of England, who for years has been
the leading breeder of man-trailing Blood Hounds. Altogether the Farm
to-day is carrying seventeen dogs. Fifteen of them are pure and grade
Blood Hounds; two are Fox Terriers. The Fox Terriers are kept for a
breed of thieves other than the two-legged kind, and rats have no place
on which to rest the soles of their feet.
The dogs, every night, are distributed at different points of the Farm,
and one of the great qualities of the Blood Hound is its marvelous
nose, which works just as well in the dark as in the light, and as
watch dogs, because of this peculiarity, they are most efficient,
giving notice of anyone approaching the Farm long before he could
possibly be detected by a dog of another breed. When they give tongue
there is no doubt in the mind of anyone but that he is approaching a
very dangerous zone.
On the Foreman’s Apartments there is a Tower which connects with his
room, the windows of which command a view of every part of the Farm.
In this Tower there is a searchlight, and at any time of the night, if
the dogs give warning of a possible disturber, any part of the Farm can
be instantly flooded with light. Back of the search light is the high
power rifle.
Throughout the Range there is a trolley system which is used, the
overhead wire being so divided that each dog has a run of one hundred
feet, and the leash attached to the sliding pulley gives him twenty
feet on either side of the wire. This makes a complete circuit of the
Colony Range, so that it is impossible for anyone to cross in among the
Colony Houses without being reached by one of the dogs.
We have been breeding some grade hounds, which make a rather more
ferocious animal than the pure breed, so far as natural disposition
goes. The nose quality, however, is all retained, thus enabling these
grades to become perfect trailers.
[Illustration: SOCRATES II AND DIOGENES
Sons of the Great Socrates]
[Illustration: BUSTER, AMERICA’S GREATEST RATTER]
It is well on any egg farm to establish a reputation for being in a
position to always place a marauder behind the bars, and nothing so
insures protection as the knowledge that on the Farm there are carried
dogs which are capable of trailing a trespasser wherever he may go.
CHAPTER XIV
The Necessity for Pure Water--An Egg is Chemically 80% Water
Eighty per cent. of an egg is water. If a sanitary egg is to be
produced it is most essential that pure water should be accessible to
the hens at all times, and not only should the water be pure, but the
drinking fountains must be of such a nature that they can readily be
kept in a pure state, and that the cups, into which the water flows
from the main fountain, cannot be fouled by the birds.
Automatic Fountains Essential
On The Corning Egg Farm the supply of water is placed before the
birds in automatic fountains, which work on air pressure, and contain
five gallons each. The water feeds down through a pipe into the
cups, the feeding pipe shutting off by the turning of a small cock,
thus permitting the removal of the cup, so that it can be thoroughly
cleansed each day at the time of filling the fountain, by the use of
a small brush, or swab. Once a week a quarter of a teaspoonful of
Potassium Permanganate is put into each fountain, just enough to give
the water a slight coloring. It is a mistake to have the color so deep
that it verges on the purple. This purifies the fountain and acts as a
preventive of colds.
[Illustration: CORNING AUTOMATIC DRINKING FOUNTAIN]
It is a very good practice also to occasionally put a few drops of
Kerosene oil into the bottom of the cup and then allow the water to run
in. The Kerosene will run over the entire surface of the cup and then
rise to the top of the water. As the birds dip their bills to drink a
small amount of the Kerosene is taken up on the bill, and, when the
head is thrown back to swallow it runs into the nostrils.
The drinking fountains are occasionally thoroughly cleansed with a
strong solution of Washing Soda. This, of course, is carefully washed
out of the fountains before they are filled up and placed in the Laying
Houses.
Hot Water in Cold Weather
In the Breeding and Laying Houses during the cold months, hot water
is placed in the fountains. On The Corning Egg Farm a large boiler,
with a hot water attachment, is maintained for this purpose, and water
is taken to the Laying Houses at as close to boiling point as it is
possible to get it there.
Hens Drink More in Afternoon
At first the watering was done early in the morning, but now the
watering hour has been changed to the first hour of the afternoon.
The reason for this is because, by sitting in the Laying Houses
and watching the birds, it was discovered that from one o’clock to
roosting time more water is consumed than at any other hours of
the day. At first it was thought that Biddy, on leaving her roost,
immediately sought the drinking fountain, but we find the first act,
generally speaking, is to endeavor to fill the crop with grain, and she
vigorously starts to work in the litter.
By placing the hot water in the fountains during the hour after noon,
we find that with the closing of the house for the night, the water
retains its temperature to a remarkable degree, and it is not at all
chilling to the birds in the morning of ordinary cold weather. If the
night has been an extremely cold one we make it a practice of going
through the Houses with boiling water, emptying out what may be in the
cups, and refilling them from the hot water can, thus giving any bird
which may desire a large quantity, warm water to drink at this time in
the morning.
The supply of water for all the stock on The Corning Egg Farm comes
from the deep well, already described in the chapter on “Building the
Farm.”
CHAPTER XV
Hard Coal Ashes, Oyster Shell, and Grit
As stated in the chapter on “Anthracite Coal Ashes,” ashes have
entirely taken the place of charcoal on The Corning Egg Farm. They
are fed in hoppers with the Grit and Oyster Shell. These hoppers are
divided into three compartments, and are automatic in feeding down the
ingredients, in small quantities at a time, for Biddy’s use.
It is very essential to supply the hen with the proper grinding
material for operation in her mill, for, from the crop, what she takes
into her system in the way of grain, etc., is passed into the gizzard,
where she places a certain amount of hard, sharp stones, to use as
mill stones, and this great muscular organ then puts the food into the
proper condition for her to assimilate it.
The Grit placed in the hoppers is hard and sharp. Ordinary pebbles are
of no use to Biddy in preparing her food for digestion. There are a
great many different grits on the market sold through Poultry Supply
Houses, and by the manufacturers themselves. Where it is possible to
procure Grit having the essentials as already described, and carrying a
good percentage of lime, it adds very materially to the desirability
of the Grit.
Oyster Shell occupies the third compartment of the hoppers, this
supplying the hen with the lime necessary for her own system and for
the shell of the egg. It should be seen to that the Oyster Shell is
free from dust, and rather coarse as to its size. This represents an
economy because there is so little waste by the fowls when the Shell is
fed to them in this condition. The lack of lime in the system of the
hen is one of the reasons for soft shelled eggs, and the lack of lime
in the ingredients fed to a young chick means soft bones, which shows
most decidedly in leg weaknesses.
Where the hen is supplied with the full quantity of the ingredients
which give her lime, she turns out eggs which you might term “well
shelled” and this adds materially to the appearance of the egg, and,
consequently, helps to give it a better grading.
CHAPTER XVI
Beef Scrap and Green Bone Substitutes for Nature’s Animal Food
Undoubtedly the ideal animal food for the hen, if it were possible to
procure it in sufficient quantities the year round, would be angle
worms, grasshoppers, and other members of the insect family, which the
early Spring supplies in such liberal quantities. It must be remembered
that in these different worms and insects there is a large amount of
phosphorous, which adds very greatly to the ability of the hen to
successfully digest the large quantity of food which is necessary, if
she is to produce a large quantity of eggs.
Green Cut Bone Nearest Nature
The thing, perhaps, nearest in an artificial way to Nature’s animal
food, is green cut bone, and it is certainly relished by the hens, and
a great assistance in producing Winter eggs. The exercise of great
care, however, in the selection of bone is very necessary, for, if salt
bone, or tainted bone, is cut up and fed to the fowls, it will prove
most detrimental, and in many instances will mean the loss of the hen.
For those who do not find it possible to set up the necessary
bone-cutting machinery there are numerous brands of “Beef Scrap” on the
market. This is made from green bone and meat which is then cooked,
ground and pressed, so as to preserve it fresh and sweet. This also
is a most successful way to supply the hens with the necessary amount
of animal food. It is readily mixed into the mash, just as the green
cut bone is, and, where the proper mechanical mixer is used, it is
possible to thoroughly coat the entire meal mixture with the oily
condition coming from the beef scrap, and until one has seen beef scrap
mixed into the mash by such a mixer he has no idea how successful the
operation is in preparing a high grade mash. The beef scrap and also
the fresh cut bone carry a high percentage of phosphorus, and in fact
have about all the ingredients found in animal food secured by the hen
while running on Range.
There are now appearing numerous advertisements of a prepared fish,
to take the place of other animal foods, but The Corning Egg Farm is
unable to give any opinion as to the efficiency of this preparation. It
has been the rule at the Farm, when we have thoroughly tested and found
satisfactory any article of food, not to experiment with the various
substitutes which at all times are so widely advertised.
CHAPTER XVII
A Time for Everything--Everything on Time
In any business, or occupation, that one attempts to carry on
successfully there must be system. Nature teaches system, and the hen,
as a part of Nature, is a very regular performer. She does everything
on time, and at a given time, and if her routine is broken in upon she
is a very much upset individual. The owner who rudely disturbs her
routine suffers in the loss of eggs.
The schedule of work among the fowls on The Corning Egg Farm is without
variation each day. In Summer the houses are always open and need
no attention in the morning, but in Winter the drops are raised in
ordinarily cold weather, as soon as it is light enough to enable the
hens to work in the litter for grain. On very cold mornings the raising
of the drops is deferred until the Sun is up, and when this is done the
drinking cups in the fountains are filled with hot water.
Fixed Feeding Hours
As close to eight o’clock as possible green food is fed to all the
hens, and, if the ground is in a reasonably dry condition, the green
food for the cockerels is scattered outside their pen, and the entire
flock is driven out of the House, where they are soon busy consuming
the green food and whatever grain may have been left on the ground from
their outdoor feeding of the previous day.
For a number of years it was the method at The Corning Egg Farm,
between the hours of nine and ten o’clock, to make a gathering of
eggs. This has now been abandoned for the reason that so many birds
were disturbed on the nests during such an early visit to the House
for gathering, and the first gathering now on the Farm is made at
eleven-thirty.
In the study of feeding, extending over a term of years, it has been
found that a considerable economy in time can be made, with exactly as
advantageous results from the layers, by the following routine. Fresh
water is placed in all the laying and breeding pens at one o’clock,
P.M., and it is boiling water during the Winter months. Directly
following the watering the mash is placed in the troughs, and the grain
ration is scattered through the litter, both in Summer and Winter.
It has been found that the hens work just as hard, and continue to
do so, as they did when the mash and grain fed were given at hours
which practically followed the Sun, that is, earlier in Winter, and
later in Summer. In past years, the oats were fed to the flocks as a
separate ration, at eleven-thirty o’clock. This we have discontinued.
The grain ration is made up of cracked corn, wheat and oats, in varying
proportions according to the season of the year.
[Illustration: PART OF THE OLD INCUBATOR CELLAR
The New Building with the 15,600 Egg Machines was not Sufficiently
Completed for Interior Photograph]
Four Collections of Eggs Daily
At three o’clock another collection of eggs is made, and at five
o’clock eggs are again collected, and at this last collection all the
corners of the litter under the dropping boards are carefully searched
for eggs laid by the wayward Biddy, who prefers her own scooped out
corner to a good nest.
The Houses are closed for the night, according to the condition of the
weather, and at this time still another collection of eggs is made. At
seven-thirty the Houses are again visited, and all birds not roosting
as they should be are removed from the nest boxes or windows and placed
upon the perches.
Mash Fed in Afternoon
During the Summer months, when the birds are on Range, they are fed
their mash and grain ration between the hours of two and three in the
afternoon.
Throughout the year nothing whatever is allowed to interfere with the
Schedule, and, if one would succeed with poultry a rigid adherence to
regularity is most necessary.
CHAPTER XVIII
Incubation on the Corning Egg Farm
We find, in studying Artificial Incubation, it has been in vogue, one
might almost say, for centuries. The Chinese practiced artificial
incubation by the use of hot sand and ovens, for it must be remembered
that the Pekin Duck, which comes from China, is a non-setter.
Therefore, ages ago, the Chinese were driven to the necessity of
artificial incubation in order to maintain their large flocks of ducks.
In studying the art one cannot help wondering that the progress in its
development has been so slow, and the advance, year by year, has been
almost nothing.
Hen Reigns Supreme
The Owners of The Corning Egg Farm were somewhat taken aback one
day by the statement of a young man that he must evolve a theory of
incubation for himself, and carefully carry it out. In incubation one
does not want theory, but the knowledge which comes from long practice
and the most scientific study of the art. After all these years, the
hen, as a hatcher, reigns supreme. There is nothing which approximates
her ability to turn out strong, vigorous chicks, and yet it is
unfortunately necessary to abandon the hen when large numbers of chicks
are to be produced. So Man has struggled in his vain efforts to reach
something which will, at least in a measure, become a competitor of the
hen.
Livable Chicks--Not Numbers
In 1911, the readers of advertisements in the Poultry Magazines were
confronted with the statement that a certain incubator was the only
competitor the hen had. But, it is sad to state, there must have been
some mistake, for this incubator could not live up to the claim in the
advertisement, nor, so far as it is known, is there any incubator which
approximates that claim. Some marvelous hatches are written of, but the
question is not one of marvelous hatches, so far as it means the number
of chicks which manage to come through the strenuous act of exclusion,
but the real question of incubation is as to the number of strong
chicks, capable of living and growing into an animal which will become
a money maker for the man who hatched and raised it.
Many people stand in great awe of an incubator, no matter what its
make, and have the feeling that to hatch a fair number of chicks in a
machine is almost a miracle. The fact is, however, if the purchaser
of any incubator will realize that the manufacturer knows more
about the proper way to run it than Tom Jones, or Bill Smith, who
may be neighbors, and will follow the instructions as given by the
manufacturer, with good fertile eggs, it will be almost a miracle if he
does not get at least a fair hatch.
There are so many different makes of machines it is quite impossible to
write a chapter on incubation which will cover the needs of all phases
of it. The above advice, however, if followed, will certainly be more
apt to bring about successful hatches than anything else that can be
done.
On The Corning Egg Farm the problem of incubation has been most
carefully studied from the inception of the Farm.
Uniform Temperature Most Important
A thermostat and regulator which will absolutely insure an even
temperature in the egg chamber, and a thermostat so sensitive, with an
adjustment of the regulator to such a nicety, that it will insure the
maintaining of an equal temperature in the egg chamber even if there is
a variation of atmosphere in the Cellar of from 10 to 20 degrees, is
perhaps, the first great essential in incubation.
Ventilation and Moisture Next
Ventilation and the retention of moisture undoubtedly come next. The
growing embryo must be fed a large quantity of oxygen, and there must
be a sufficient amount of moisture to prevent a too rapid drying out
of the egg, under the temperature which, if a chick is to result,
must be maintained. So far as moisture goes, it is not a question of
moisture at the time of hatching. If the proper amount of moisture has
been always present during the period of incubation there will be no
difficulty at the time of exclusion.
Where a large amount of incubation is going on, and the ordinary style
of lamp heated machine is being used, oxygen is of necessity constantly
absorbed from the atmosphere, by the fire. While it is quite possible,
nay, even probable, that any of the mammoth machines of the day are far
from what might be desired, still, they do solve the difficulty of a
great number of individual fires sucking the vital oxygen.
Of the mammoth machines now on the market there are two which produce
better chicks than any of the others, so far as we can see. There are
features in the one which we finally decided upon, which, from our
point of view, made it more desirable than the other. We feel, however,
that in the construction of these machines there is much to be desired,
and we suggest to any would-be purchasers to make most thorough and
complete stipulations with any company from whom they purchase, as to
the workmanship and finish of the machine, and also the proper fitting
of one part to another, especially the proper working of doors and egg
trays through all the different periods of incubation. All trays should
be absolutely interchangeable, and there should be a sufficient amount
of play in the runs, so that, with the swelling of the wood from the
moisture, there would never be a possibility of their binding. While
the doors should shut air-tight, their dove-tailed joints should so fit
as to allow their coming away without a particle of stick, or jar, to
the machine.
Hot Water Machines Best
When it had been fully determined by The Corning Egg Farm to put in
Hot Water Heated Incubators, the capacity desired being about sixteen
thousand eggs, it was concluded to divide this capacity between two
machines.
It was also decided to build an entirely new Incubator Cellar, and
the dimensions were 146 feet long by 22 feet wide, 7 feet from the
concrete floor to the bottom of the floor joists, these latter being
12 inches in width, making a full height to the floor of the Brooder
House overhead, 8 feet. The floor joists on the under side of the
floor of the Brooder House are planed and painted white. The Cellar
is constructed of concrete blocks, made rock faced, and showing in
the interior of the Cellar. The two incubators are also painted white
enamel.
So as to eliminate any question of the consumption of oxygen by fire
in the Cellar the heaters are placed with a concrete block partition
between them and the incubators, the hot water pipes passing through
this concrete wall, and connecting with the incubators.
In this separate part of the Cellar, where the heaters for the
incubators stand, are also the two heaters for the Brooding System,
upstairs, and also the large auxiliary heater which cares for the
hot-water system which allows the Brooder House to be carried at an
even temperature, day and night.
In the heater part of the Cellar there are three large windows, and an
entrance is made into this Cellar through a vestibule which is ten by
nine feet. The doors leading into this are large, double, glass doors,
and from the landing just inside there is a staircase leading to the
Brooder House, above. Entrance is made into the Heater Cellar through
another pair of glass doors, five feet wide. The Incubator Cellar
itself is reached directly in the center by a four foot door, also of
glass. The two side alleys between the incubators and the outer walls,
are also reached from the Heater Cellar by narrow, glass doors.
Corning Incubator Cellar Unequaled
It is believed this Cellar, with its plan of equipment, is unequaled,
anywhere, as to the convenience of its general arrangement. Ample light
and ventilation are supplied in the Incubation Cellar proper, by twelve
windows on the north and east sides, the south wall being blank, as the
chick runs from the Brooder House go out on that side.
It is impossible, owing to the necessity of the narrow alleys between
the incubators and the walls, to use the V-shaped window drops, which
have been so successful on the Farm for the prevention of draughts.
The windows work on sash-weights, both top and bottom. A Spring Roller
Shade device, covered with sheer muslin, with a screw eye on the window
sill, is so placed that the cord may be passed through it, holding the
shade rigid. Thus, when the prevailing wind creates a draught, the
window may be opened to any desired width, and the draught prevented by
the shade.
In operating the incubators they are run empty for a sufficient number
of hours to adjust the regulator, and to know they will maintain a
temperature of 103 degrees exactly.
Eggs Turned from Third to Eighteenth Day
After eggs are placed in the incubators the process of turning does
not begin until the third day, after which they are turned regularly
twice a day until the completion of the 18th day, when they are left
undisturbed.
103 Degrees Maintained
The temperature at which the incubators are carried for the first week
is a matter of wide difference of opinion. In many cases 102 degrees
is the maximum temperature for the first seven days, after which 103
is maintained as closely as possible during the remaining period of
incubation. In operating the incubators on The Corning Egg Farm it has
been found (and this is particularly true of early hatches) that,
if the eggs are not brought up to 103 degrees for the first week, a
retarded hatch is the result. A hatch which drags over its time usually
means a lot of weaklings. It is our practice, therefore, to bring the
eggs up to 103 degrees as soon as possible after setting them, and to
continue this temperature as nearly as possible.
Cool But Never Cold
Cooling the eggs is of course practiced on The Corning Egg Farm. For
the first week, five or six minutes will usually be found a sufficient
time, but as the embryo grows the length of time should be increased.
It is quite impossible to give any exact length of period for cooling,
and it must be determined by the feel of the egg to the hand. They
should never reach a point where they can be termed perfectly cold, but
should feel slightly warm as the palm of the hand is laid upon them.
In cooling, the egg tray should be placed on top of an incubator or
table so that the bottom is completely protected, otherwise the eggs
will cool too rapidly. In other words they should lie as they do in the
nest of the hen. According to atmospheric conditions, cooling, during
the latter part of incubation, will sometimes reach from forty to sixty
minutes. It is a practice with us to give the eggs a very long period
of cooling on the 18th day, before they are placed in the incubator for
the last time.
After closing the incubator on the 18th day it is not opened again
until the chicks are removed on the 22d day.
To open the door and reach in to assist some chick out of difficulty
means allowing the moisture to escape, and, while the one individual
which was seen to be in trouble might be rescued, by the lack of
moisture in the egg chamber, many others would be held fast in the
shell.
Cover Glass Doors
When the chicks begin to hatch we make it a practice to throw a cloth
over the glass door, so as to prevent the youngsters crowding toward
the light, and piling up on top of each other, either in the egg trays
or in the nurseries below.
All Good Chicks Hatch in 20 Days
Many people have an erroneous idea in regard to the time required for
hatching. If the temperature has been carried at a correct point during
the entire period the eggs will begin to pip on the afternoon of the
19th day, and the morning of the 20th day should find the youngsters
coming out of the shells like Pop Corn over a hot fire if the eggs have
been of proper strength, but on the morning of the 21st day the hatch
should be completed. Generally speaking, chicks which hatch later than
the 21st day are weak, and while they may come along for a time, when
placed in the Brooder House they generally snuff out, and add to the
list of mortalities.
Set Incubators Toward Evening
It is our belief that there is a best time in the twenty-four hours in
which to set an incubator. As a rule, it requires about eight hours
after the eggs have been placed in the machine for it to come up to
temperature. Therefore, if the eggs go into the chamber late in the
afternoon, and anything goes wrong with the regulator, the eggs cannot
have been in a detrimental temperature for any great length of time
before the operator is making his first morning round. We observe
the temperature in the egg chamber three times a day as a rule, the
first thing in the morning before the eggs are turned; at noon, or a
sufficient number of hours after turning and cooling the eggs, allowing
a sufficient time to elapse for coming up to temperature; and again
late in the afternoon, before the final turning for the day. At these
hours of observation any slight alteration of regulator, to meet
changes noted in the temperature, is, of course made.
The Hot Water, Coal-Heated, Incubator is a great step in advance, and
these machines are now built in sizes from twelve hundred eggs up.
With the old style lamp machine, people who were running a small plant
did not need an Incubator Cellar, but the Insurance Companies would not
allow the placing of an incubator in the cellar of a house without
a special permit, and in many cases would not issue such a permit at
all. The hot water machine will, of course, go into any cellar without
vitiating the insurance, and, what is more, the machine itself is
insurable, just as is any hot water plant in a house.
Tested Only on Eighteenth Day
Until this season, on The Corning Egg Farm, we had made it a rule to
test the eggs on the 14th day. Many operators believe in testing the
eggs from the 5th to the 7th day, again on the 14th, with the final
test on the 18th day. In operating one of the old style machines, with
the large trays, it was expedient to remove the clear eggs and those
with dead germs to facilitate the turning of the eggs in the trays,
but all this arduous labor is done away with in the hot water machine.
The trays hold seventy-five eggs, and are so constructed that one tray
fits on top of another, and then the trays are simply reversed and the
turning is accomplished. This makes it necessary to have a full tray
to prevent the eggs rolling and breaking when they are turned in the
manner described. Testing the eggs is, therefore, deferred until the
18th day.
When one sees the tremendous saving of time which the coal-heated, hot
water machine accomplishes for the operator, it produces a feeling
bordering on mirth in the man who has labored with the old style
machine and big tray, when thousands of eggs were turned by hand twice
a day. Ten thousand eggs in one of the modern machines are handled with
less effort and in less time than three thousand could possibly be
cared for in one of the other styles of incubator.
Moisture
On The Corning Egg Farm moisture is provided in the Cellar by
thoroughly wetting the floor with a hose twice a day, the floor sloping
gently to a drain in one corner. Large earthen-ware vessels, of about
three inches in depth and eighteen inches in diameter, are stood
at different points throughout the Cellar, and are constantly kept
filled with fresh water. This is done, not so much for the purpose of
increasing the humidity of the air, as it is to take up the impurities.
As an illustration, if you stand vessels filled with water in a freshly
painted room, the odor of paint is almost entirely absorbed by the
water.
As even a temperature as possible is carried in the Cellar, and at all
times there is a constant flow of fresh air, but it is so controlled
that it does not produce a draught. It should be remembered that while
a moist cellar is desirable, unless it is well ventilated, it is
utterly unfit for the purpose of incubation.
Chicks Handled Only Once
The chicks, at the end of the 22d day, are counted out of the incubator
into large baskets lined with Canton Flannel, and in these they are
carried upstairs to the Brooder House.
The last act of the chicken, before pipping the shell, is to absorb
into its system the yolk of the egg, which supplies it with a
sufficient amount of nourishment to last at least forty-eight hours.
This supply of nourishment is what really makes possible the tremendous
business carried on in “baby chicks.” But, as The Corning Egg Farm
views it, the Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals should step
in and stop this business. After exclusion is accomplished the chick
is thoroughly exhausted, and for a number of hours, if left to its own
devices, it lies in a deep sleep.
Baby Chick Business Cruel
Consider then the torture that this small animal is put through when it
is taken out of the warm egg chamber, or nursery, as soon as it is dry
enough, packed like a sardine in a box, and then hustled to an express
office, placed on a train, and, by the swaying of the train, kept in
constant motion.
The sellers of day old chicks in many cases guarantee the arrival of
the small “puff ball” alive. Unless the distance is extreme this is not
such a difficult feat. They are alive on arrival, and perhaps continue
to live in apparently fair strength for some days, but somewhere
between the 7th and 10th days the mortality usually runs into such
numbers that the purchaser finds the remaining number of youngsters
has cost him about a dollar apiece. As the season advances many more of
them drop off, one by one, from causes which, to the unsophisticated,
are unknown.
A short time ago a gentleman who has been engaged in the Baby Chick
business for a number of years was making a call at The Corning Egg
Farm, and expressed his regret at having placed an order with a breeder
of White Rocks for eggs at too late a date to insure their delivery
before the first day of May. The breeder, however, had offered him some
day old chicks. Our amusement was considerable when he remarked that he
would not accept a day old chick as a gift if he was expected to pay
the expressage.
The man who expects to procure strong, healthy youngsters would much
better place his money in eggs for hatching, from reliable breeders,
than to make himself a party to the suffering of these helpless mites.
If the humane side of the argument does not appeal to him, certainly
the money expended will.
Correct records, on cards designed by us for the purpose, are kept on
The Corning Egg Farm, showing the results from the incubators. These
are filed, giving the Farm a record which, as the years go by, becomes
invaluable, when planning for a year’s work in incubation.
+-----------------+ +-----------------+
| INCUBATOR NO. | |HOVER NO. |
+-----------------+ +-----------------+
|Set P. M. 191 | | 191 |
+-----------------+ +-----------------+
| Eggs | | Chicks |
| Clear | +-----------------+
| Dead | |on 191 |
| ---- ---- | +-----------------+
| Hatchable | |Moved to |
+-----------------+ | Colony House No.|
| Chicks| +-----------------+
+-----------------+ | |
|Turn P. M.| | |
+-----------------+ | |
|14th day | | |
+-----------------+ | |
|18th day | | |
+-----------------+ | |
|21st day | | |
+-----------------+ +-----------------+
[Illustration: BROODER HOUSE SHOWING CHICK RUNS
Extension of Building Nearing Completion]
CHAPTER XIX
Rearing Chicks in Brooder House--The Following Two Years’ Results
Depend Upon Success in Brooding
The Brooder House is built over the Sprouted Oats Cellar and the
Incubator Cellar. Its total length is 264 feet. 118 feet of this is 16
feet wide, and the balance is 22 feet wide.
Incubation might be termed a mechanical operation, and, as outlined in
the previous chapter, a very fair hatch is usually obtained. But after
all is said and done artificial rearing of young chicks is the most
difficult problem which a poultryman has to solve.
Chicks running with a hen will stand climatic conditions, and in fact
thrive under conditions, which, if they were being handled in a Brooder
House, would mean a tremendous mortality. The hen will feed her brood
on substances which would mean the annihilation of ones’ entire flock
of youngsters, should one attempt it, and, perhaps, the most curious
feature of the feeding part is the fact that one may give the brood,
running with the hen, food Nature never intended a small chick to eat,
and many of the brood will thrive on it, and the mortality will, in
most cases, be confined to the weak ones.
Corn Not Proper Chick Food
In past decades, wet corn meal seemed to be about the standard ration
which the chicks were fed on by the farmer’s wife, and in fact this
practice has not yet entirely gone out. Naturally, it brought about a
large mortality which everyone deplored but could not understand. Corn
in any form was never intended for a chick to eat, but when you place
it before them in the form of meal, and this made into a sloppy mass,
the wonder is, not at the largeness of the mortality, but rather that
any of them live at all.
But the advance in Poultry Culture has brought about feeding of whole
grains, to a large extent. For years the proper feeding of chicks,
even on farms with modern brooding equipment, has been a stumbling
block, causing serious loss, and, in many instances, failure, to those
attempting to raise chickens either in large or small numbers.
Follow Nature’s Teaching
In Poultry Culture, in order to succeed it is essential to study
Nature, to find out how the hen in a wild state cares for her brood,
and then bring the artificial conditions as near to Nature as possible.
In almost every chick food put on the market the main ingredient,
namely corn, was never intended for a young chick to eat. Consider for
a moment, and you will realize that the hen in a wild state could not
possibly feed corn to her young. For the sake of argument, however,
suppose that corn did ripen at a time when it would be possible for the
hen to procure it for her brood, the size of the kernel is so great
that the small chick could not possibly swallow it. Thus Nature plainly
points out that corn, for young chicks, is not the proper food.
A Balanced Food
On The Corning Egg Farm the question of chick food that could properly
be called “chick food” has been a study for years, the problem being
to procure a balanced ration containing, as closely as possible, the
ingredients intended by Nature for a young chick to eat and thrive on.
Many experiments were made with different mixtures, both with chicks
running with natural mothers and with those being reared in the Brooder
House, and it was found that in all cases where corn was fed in the
mixture the results were bad. The youngsters running with the hen did
not show the large mortality which those did in the Brooder House, but
even the broods running with the hen did not do nearly so well where
the corn was fed, as did those not having this ingredient in their food.
The great mortality in young chicks is produced by the upsetting
of their digestive organs. Corn is very heating, and as soon as
the chick’s blood is over-heated its digestive organs fail to work
properly, and what is now known as “White Diarrhœa” almost invariably
develops. It is claimed by some authorities that this difficulty comes
from a germ which is in the egg before incubation. This may be the
case, but it is certainly true that wrong feeding will bring this germ
into active life, and snuff out the existence of the chick.
Another phase, which has been a special study on The Corning Egg Farm
in the brooding of chicks, is an abundant supply of fresh air, not
only in the room itself, but also to have the oxygen fed to the chicks
properly when they are under the hovers. The use of gas for heating the
hovers was found a decided improvement over the lamp, so far as the
freshness of the air went, but, for procuring the purest hot air, to
flow up into the hovers, we are now installing a system of hot water
pipes.
[Illustration: OLD ARRANGEMENT OF BROODER HOUSE
New House not Completed in Time for Photographing]
In a dwelling house, properly constructed, the entire heating apparatus
is a hot air furnace, with a cold air box connected with outdoors
constantly bringing in a fresh supply of pure air to be heated. If it
were possible this would be the ideal way of supplying the heat to
the hover, but of course in a long Brooder House it is impossible to
do this. The nearest approach to this system of heating is a trunk
line of hot water pipes, extending beneath the hover floor, with the
pipes enclosed in a long box, standing some two inches from the floor,
and with orifices of proper size to allow the fresh air to circulate
around the pipes, and then, through the radiating devices, to flow out
underneath the hover, and thus to be diffused over the backs of the
chicks. On The Corning Egg Farm this box is constructed of galvanized
iron, and covered on the top and sides with asbestos board, with an
air space between the asbestos board and the hover floor. Through this
floor comes a thimble which connects with the radiator above. The top
of this radiator is a spiral screw, which works like a piano stool
reversed, and with a tripod device which carries the thread but allows
the hover itself to be removed without changing its position on the
screw. As the chicks grow the hover can be slowly raised away from
them, until it is finally removed entirely, and the chicks learn to do
without it for a considerable time before they are moved to the Colony
Range. The thimble is most thoroughly insulated with asbestos, so that
there is no possibility of the much dreaded heat on the hover floor,
which, when it does exist, tends to dry up the chicks’ legs.
From the hover floor there is an inclined runway down to the main floor
of the Brooder House, which is covered with a fine litter, preferably
short cut wheat straw, to a depth of about two inches.
The inclined runway is hinged to the hover floor and works with a
cord passing through a pulley on the ceiling, enabling the operator
to raise it and retain the chicks directly around the hover. The
trough surrounding the trunk line of hot water pipes is closed by a
partition corresponding to the width of the hover run, which prevents
the heat from flowing by the radiator in each section, and in this way
equalizing the heat in every hover.
Never Build a Double House
The Corning Egg Farm is much opposed to what is known as the Double
Brooder House, which is advocated by many builders of Brooder
House equipments, and, in which, in the majority of cases, the
use of concrete floors is also practiced. The advantages in the
supposed economy of this construction are more than off-set by the
disadvantages. The proper place for the windows of the Brooder House is
on the south front, and likewise the south side of the building is the
proper place for the chick runs. The roof should be a shed roof sloping
to the north, thus carrying all the water to the back and allowing none
of it to drip down into the runs. The north side of the Brooder House
should be absolutely tight, for, from this quarter, comes the great
majority of cold storms, and the tight wall means an economy in fuel.
And every item of expense must be carefully watched on a poultry farm.
In these different respects let us look at the double house. First, it
must run north and south; second, it must have windows on the east and
west, and the chick runs must go the same way; third, it must be built
with a peaked roof, the drippings from storms thus falling directly
into the yards.
Must Drain Chick Runs
In the Corning plan of Brooder House the yards are sloped toward the
south, and, as there is no possibility of dripping from the roof, in a
few moments after a hard storm the slope and the sun combined put the
yards at once into a usable condition, so that the youngsters can be
let out. All day long in this style Brooder House the yellow babies
enjoy the sunshine. In the double constructed Brooder House the yards
are bathed on the east side with sunshine for a short time, and the
west side receives the Sun for a few hours before sunset.
Concrete Floors Mean Dampness
An added menace in this double style of construction is the concrete
floor generally used. It is almost impossible, with the greatest
care and forethought, to produce a piece of concrete which does
not constantly take up and give off moisture, and one thing to be
absolutely avoided in poultry houses, little or big, is dampness.
The dollars saved in the construction of double houses are usually
dollars which would have been made ten times over by the expenditure
necessary to build a proper house.
The chick yards on The Corning Egg Farm are sloping, and are twenty
feet long, and correspond in width with the hover runs inside the
house, which vary from three to four feet in width. The diameter of
the hover varies with the size of the run, from 26 to 30 inches. The
sloping runs of the Brooder yards are covered with Anthracite Coal
ashes, which have been found to entirely eliminate the much talked of
danger of contamination of soil, the surface being constantly renewed
as the ashes are consumed by the chicks.
Each hover is numbered, and directly back, on the north wall of the
Brooder House, is a corresponding number, and a nail, on which is hung
the record card. When the chicks are carried up in baskets from the
Incubator Cellar, they are carefully examined, all weaklings being
excluded, and counted into the hover compartments. Careful selection
and the “survival of the fittest” begin at this point with the stock on
The Corning Egg Farm.
Before speaking of the number of chicks carried in the hover
compartments, it must be understood that running along the north
wall of the Brooder House is a coil of hot water pipes, capable of
maintaining a temperature of 85 degrees, three feet from the floor, and
in zero weather.
Corning Heated Brooder House
The Corning Egg Farm believes absolutely in Brooder Houses heated
beyond what is supplied by the hovers, and this is the reason it is
possible to carry such a large number of youngsters in each hover
compartment. In large hatches, when we have been crowded for room, two
hundred chicks have frequently been carried in one compartment of four
feet in width.
[Illustration: CHICKS SIX WEEKS OLD IN BROODER HOUSE RUNS]
Corning Feeds Dry Food Only
When the chicks are first placed in the hover compartment the inclined
plane is drawn up and they find two drinking cups ready--the style that
feeds itself into a small cup, into which it is not possible for the
youngsters to get. They also find waiting for them their first meal of
Corning Chick Food. For the first twenty-four hours the inclined plane
remains up, and the hovers are visited every two hours. If the amount
of Chick Food has been well cleaned up, another feeding is evenly
distributed over the boards. It must be understood that litter is never
placed on the hover floor, though it is kept two inches deep on the
floor of the pen.
Three Feeds Daily
The following morning the inclined plane is let down, about five
handfuls of Corning Chick Food to every hundred chicks is thrown into
the litter, and a little is scattered just at the top of the inclined
plane to entice the youngsters down. No more food is given until the
noon hour, when, into the litter is thrown two handfuls to every
hundred chicks, and again a small quantity is placed at the top. No
more feeding is done until four o’clock when five handfuls of Corning
Chick Food are again thrown into the litter.
For the first two or three nights, or more if necessary, the chicks are
quietly driven up to the hover, and the inclined plane pulled up after
them, it being let down the first thing in the morning.
Fresh water is supplied in the drinking cups each day, morning, noon,
and night, and, with the night filling, a brush on the plan of those
made for the cleansing of milk bottles, is used to give the cups a
proper cleaning.
On the back of the record cards, hung behind each hover, the mortality
is kept.
The hovers are raised every morning to learn the exact condition of the
entire brood after the night.
Green Food Third Day
On the third day green food is added to the ration, in the form of the
tops of Sprouted Oats. Never feed the rooty mass to the youngsters for
it is almost sure to upset them. The smallest chick has no difficulty
breaking up and getting away with Oat Sprouts from one and a half to
two inches long, and there is nothing they like so well.
Animal Food Tenth Day
The regular ration is continued with judgment, for in feeding it is to
be remembered that judgment must be exercised at all times. After the
tenth day animal food is added to the ration, commencing with a small
handful of The Corning Egg Farm Mash, thrown on top of the litter.
Where beef scraps are used to supply the animal food they may be fed
alone, and this was done at first on The Corning Egg Farm, but for
the last three years we have fed the green bone in the mash mixture.
It, however, must be fed with great care, and the bone used for this
purpose must be most carefully selected, and must be absolutely fresh.
It must be remembered that even one or two ham bones, or corned beef
bones mixed in the ration would mean the loss of a great many chicks.
Shank bones and briskets, when obtainable, are ideal for this purpose,
and during the Brooding season these are selected out and kept for what
is termed the “baby’s mash.” With the introduction on the tenth day of
the Mash, the noon-day feeding of Corning Chick Food is discontinued.
By the time the youngsters are four weeks old the hovers have been
removed entirely, and one finds that the little fellows will lie very
contentedly, spread out on the floor, so long as the temperature in the
Brooder House is kept up to 85° three feet above the floor, as before
indicated.
Avoid Moving Chicks Often
The removal of the chicks from the hover runs into the nurseries,
as formerly practiced on The Corning Egg Farm, has been entirely
discontinued. A chick in many respects resembles a flower; every time
it is moved or transplanted it receives a certain setback. For this
reason the great Brooder House has all been turned into hover runs, and
the chicks make one move from the Brooder House to the Colony House.
A moving generally represents not only a slight setback, but some
mortality through accident and the change itself.
The small chick doors into the outside runs are opened, if the weather
is propitious, about the fifth or sixth day in the early part of the
hatching season, and on the third or fourth day later on. The chicks
are never driven into the yard, any more than they are driven down the
inclined plane, but it is always our method to allow the youngsters
to seek a new field for themselves, and slowly. When they go out into
the yard they are watched, and if there is any inclination to huddle
up against the warm side of the building they are driven back into the
Brooder House.
Another great advantage of the heated Brooder House (and we speak of
this as entirely separate from the heat under the hovers) is that it
allows the chick to seek different degrees of temperature. There is one
temperature under the hover; another temperature outside of the hover,
on the hover floor; still another degree on the main floor of the
Brooder House; and, then, there is the outdoor temperature.
When the chicks are first placed under the hovers, during the first
day, we carry the temperature at 95 degrees, and then slowly decrease
this by raising the hover. Where an adjustable hover is not used this
may be accomplished by turning down the lamp.
CHAPTER XX
Handling Birds on Range--The Youngsters Must Be Kept Growing All the
Time
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.
A Corning Wrinkle
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.
[Illustration: 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.
Grain and Mash Once a Day
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.
Plenty of Shade
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.
Removed to Laying House Middle of September
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.
[Illustration: 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.
CHAPTER XXI
Feeding for Eggs--Wholesome Nourishment--Not Destructive Stimulants
Unless a hen is properly fed she may have been purchased from the
greatest strain of layers that it is possible to imagine, and still you
may have an empty nest so far as eggs go.
The food which the hen takes into her system goes first to supply her
bodily wants, the surplus she turns into eggs, and if properly bred she
will turn that surplus into profit very rapidly.
Easy Assimilation
She must be fed, then, so as to have what is generally termed a
“balanced ration,” which really means a ration supplying all her
different wants.
She must be fed so as to be able to assimilate her food with ease. She
might be fed a ration which she could easily digest, but the ration
might not so assimilate and combine as to be an egg maker.
The greatest factor in assimilation is proper green food, and the hen
should have this in a crisp, succulent state, and plenty of it. The egg
being to such a large extent formed of water, unless she is supplied
with all the drinking water she will take, your labor will go for
naught, and the hen will not be able to lay eggs.
Her grain ration must be of the best, and it should be fed in such a
way that she is forced to work for it.
Perfect Health or No Eggs
If Biddy is to lay, she must be kept in perfect health, and without
exercise that is impossible.
She must live in a house without draughts but in which the air is
always fresh by means of perfect ventilation, and she must have
sunshine.
Her quarters must be kept clean and sweet, and a good supply of coarse
oyster shell, sharp grit, or sifted, hard coal ashes, should be always
accessible in quantities.
Abundant Animal Food
She must have an abundance of animal food, either in form of green
cut bone, or beef scraps, and this should be mixed as we feed it in
The Corning Egg Farm Mash, which is a mixture of different meals in
which the animal food is thoroughly distributed. Of grain, to one
hundred hens, eight quarts of a mixture of wheat, corn and oats, should
be given; in Summer, about two-thirds wheat and one-third cracked
corn, reducing the wheat to a third and increasing the corn to about
two-thirds in cold weather, adding to this mixture at all times two
quarts of oats. That is to say, six quarts of wheat and corn and two
quarts of oats.
The Corning Mash the Secret
The amount of Mash fed in the troughs varies in accordance with the way
the birds clean it up. The point aimed at being to feed in each House
the quantity that the birds will about clean up, by roosting time. The
intention is that their first food in the morning shall be obtained by
their vigorous scratching in the litter. All the grain is fed at one
time, in the afternoon, and is not forked into the litter, as the birds
have worked all day up to this time, it is desired that they fill up
rather easily from feeding time till dark. As they move and scratch
they bury the surplus grain most effectively in the litter, thus saving
considerable labor, which is expended on many poultry farms, by using
the pitch fork to place the grain deep in the straw.
When the pullets are first put into the Laying House, about ten pounds
of Mash is placed in each trough, this being estimated as sufficient
for each one hundred birds. If it is not cleaned up, the amount, the
next day, is decreased, but if entirely consumed the quantity is
increased.
Over and over again it is stated in articles that large quantities of
animal food and rich meals in the mash are very stimulating and wear
the hen out. This is a great mistake. When the hen is being supplied
with the proper ingredients for a large egg production she is not being
stimulated, but rather helped and sustained in the natural way.
“Egg Foods” Kill Layers
On the market, to-day, is found an ever increasing number of
preparations advertised as “egg foods”; “foods” warranted to produce
eggs without fail and in record breaking quantities. An analysis of
almost any of these concoctions discloses the fact that Capsicum, or
in other words red pepper, is the basis of the preparation, or at
least it is the ingredient in the mixture which is counted upon to
produce the advertised results, namely, the certain and great output
of eggs. If fed in sufficient quantities to actually stimulate the egg
organs of the hen it must in a short time kill her, but if it should
not have this effect, it certainly does put her in such a condition
that she is worthless as a layer. It must be constantly borne in mind
that the production of eggs is not a question of stimulation, but is
the putting of the hen into a perfect condition of health, keeping her
in that condition, and supplying her with foods which are egg making
substances, and which nourish her completely, and allow a surplus to be
turned into eggs.
On The Corning Egg Farm, this plan has always been the line along which
we have worked, supplying the hen with the natural ingredients from
which, in a healthy state, she is able to produce the greatest number
of large, sanitary eggs.
Mustard Increases Egg Laying
For the last three years experiments have been carried on with mustard.
It had been accidently noticed that table scraps, containing some
of the leavings of a salad where mustard had been used, and which
had been thrown out to a few barn-yard hens, were greedily devoured.
It was further observed that, after a few days, the egg production
increased. Following this interesting discovery, quite an exhaustive
test was carried on with eighteen hens, running over a period of
twelve months. The Corning Egg Farm followed this experiment with
considerable interest. Six of the hens were fed an ordinary ration;
six of them were given Red Pepper, and the other half dozen were fed
mustard mixed in their food. At the end of the test all the hens were
killed and carefully examined. The organs of the six hens which were
fed an ordinary ration were found to be in fair shape, and those fed
red pepper had enlarged livers. The six hens which were fed the mustard
were found to be in perfect organic condition, and they had been in
good healthy shape all through the entire twelve months. They had
produced a considerable percentage of eggs beyond either of the other
two pens. As a matter of fact the hens fed on the pepper laid fewer
eggs than those fed the ordinary ration.
CORNING EGG FARM BOOK
SEE PAGE 147 ON MUSTARD.
By an error in printing, the paragraph giving the proportions of
mustard was omitted:
If highly concentrated mustard is used, one teaspoonful for every six
hens. If mustard bran is used, three teaspoonfuls for every six hens.
Now, the mustard used in this experiment was highly concentrated
table mustard, and while the cost, where only six hens were being
fed with it, amounted to very little, on a large plant like The
Corning Farm, the question of cost becomes a serious item. Whether to
feed concentrated mustard or a mustard bran was found to be worthy
of careful consideration, because it was impossible to get nearly
as perfect a mixture in the Mash, with a small quantity of highly
concentrated mustard, as with a mustard not so strong but running three
times the amount in bulk. As an illustration of the advisability of
introducing the mustard in form of bran we might say that, by using a
small quantity of one certain meal carrying a very high percentage of
protein, it would be possible to introduce into the Mash the amount of
protein desired, but by using a number of meals, each carrying a small
percentage of protein, a much better Mash results, and every bird is
able to get its due and necessary proportion of the ingredients.
Mustard Increases Fertility
The three pens before mentioned, after being fed as described through
the Winter months, were mated in the month of March, and it was found
that the fertility of the eggs of the mustard fed pen far exceeded that
of either of the other pens, and that the resulting chicks were much
stronger, developed better, and were altogether more desirable than
the chicks produced where the birds had been fed merely the ordinary
ration, and where the attempt had been made to stimulate the egg
production by the use of red pepper.
The exact action of mustard, in the animal or human being, is a
somewhat disputed point, but the Medical Fraternity seems to agree
that it increases the secretion of gastric juices, and very decidedly
promotes good digestion.
A great layer must be a large eater, but she cannot be a large eater
unless she is kept in perfect health, and has the necessary appetite
which only comes when in a strong, robust, vigorous condition.
The Corning Egg Farm has fed mustard in a way that it has never been
fed before; the egg production has increased very materially; the
percentage of fertility has run considerably higher; the germs have
been strong, large, hatchable germs, and the resulting chicks, have
come into existence with a jump and, where they have been properly
handled, have rapidly grown into sturdy youngsters.
4,000 Layers Fed Mustard
We started to feed our breeding pens with mustard in the Mash just
at the time we desired them to come into eggs, and they responded at
once. That is to say, after the Mash containing mustard had been fed
to them for about a week, the egg output increased daily, and not only
did it increase, but the high marks which were reached were steadily
maintained. Four thousand layers have been fed mustard in their Mash
daily, and after months of this feeding the flocks have never been in
better health, and the egg production has never been equaled even on
The Corning Egg Farm.
The Mustard Bran is about twenty-five per cent. of the cost of table
mustard.
Mustard Maintains Health
The experiment with mustard, with the eighteen hens, was carried on
over a term of twelve months. We do not believe, however, that it is
wise to feed mustard to the layers and breeders after June 15th, unless
the early months of Summer should prove to be exceptionally cool. The
mustard nourishes very strongly and puts an immense amount of red
corpuscles into the blood, so that if continued into warm weather the
hen is not in best condition to stand extreme Summer heat.
It is not necessary to gradually decrease the mustard, but it may be
simply cut right out of the Mash without any detrimental effect.
Keep Appetite Keen
The great thing, then, to be remembered, when one is feeding for eggs
is constant watchfulness of the flock, to so feed that the appetite is
always keen, but yet the necessities of the bird fully satisfied; to
be most watchful as to the exercise the bird is forced to take for its
grain ration, and to keep the litter deep. Right in this connection we
may say, a deep litter does not necessarily mean one that is so broken
up and packed together that the grain cannot readily sift through it.
The litter straw should be constantly added to so as to offer a surface
that the grain will readily sift through.
[Illustration]
For the past years, in feeding the layers, The Corning Egg Farm Mash
was prepared on Sundays and fed exactly as on any other day of the
week. With the increase of the work on the Farm it has been a study to
lighten Sunday labor as much as possible.
On investigating the litter around the Mash Boxes there will always
be found a certain amount of Mash that has been scratched out of
the troughs, and to a certain extent neglected. The experiment was
therefore made of omitting the Mash on Sunday, and at once Biddy became
extremely energetic in her efforts to extract from the litter every
particle of Mash which she had wasted through the week. It is quite
possible that by continuing the Mash ration on Sunday a trifle higher
egg average might be maintained throughout the week. When the cost
of feeding is figured in, however, it is found that there is a real
saving in discontinuing the Mash for one day. The plan has now been in
operation for over eight months, and there is no reason, so far as can
be seen, why the old method of preparing the Mash seven days in the
week should be returned to. The economy lies in the fact that Biddy
cleans up what might otherwise be a considerable waste, and in this way
supplies herself with a fair mash ration for the one day.
Of course the green food and the grain ration are fed exactly as on any
other day.
The original experiments in mustard feeding, referred to in this
chapter, were conducted by Messrs. Ralph R. Allen, Editor of _Monthly
Hints on Poultry_, and Mr. A. J. Odam, at Llangammarch Wells Poultry
Farm, Great Britain.
CHAPTER XXII
Breeding Hens During Moult--Coming Breeders Must be Kept Exercising
Through This Period
The hens which are to be breeders and the producers of the hatching
eggs for the coming Spring are selected as early in the Fall as
possible. The quarters into which they are to be moved would have been
most carefully cleansed, and then disinfected with Kerosene and Crude
Carbolic. After this, fresh, clean litter would be put in, and for
these yearling hens we make it a practice to place eight inches of
straw on the floor, for they have well learned the lesson of digging in
the litter and very rapidly knock the straw to pieces.
The tendency of a hen during the moult is to be inactive. In many cases
she feels far from comfortable. The growing of her new dress is a
process which drains her system of an immense amount of vitality, still
she must be made to take a certain amount of exercise, and therefore
the litter must be constantly looked after, and kept in a condition
which will compel her to work persistently for her grain ration.
Do Not Overfeed
The Mash Boxes are most carefully watched, and the moment there is the
slightest inclination not to clean the Mash up thoroughly, the quantity
is cut down.
It would be somewhat easier if all the hens would moult simultaneously,
but this they do not do, and so the needs of the different individuals
during the moulting period have to be looked after.
With the Leghorn, the combs shrink, and almost go down to nothing in
many cases. It is quite impossible, in looking over a large number of
yearling hens at this time in their lives, to believe that the great,
red comb will ever return, and it is a curious fact that, in the
majority of cases, the yearling hen’s comb is never as large as it was
in her pullet year.
As the combs begin to redden and their size increase, the flock becomes
more active, and it is necessary to add to the amount of Mash, and, if
it had been found expedient to reduce the grain ration, this also must
be brought back to the full eight quarts to one hundred hens.
From day to day the Mash consumption increases rapidly, and the nests
begin to receive a good deal of attention, and very shortly the output
from the breeding pens becomes a very decided item in the gathering of
eggs.
By the second week in January, the pen having been handled in the best
possible way, the egg output has reached a point where it will be safe
to mate the pen, and in two weeks after this the eggs should be running
strongly fertile.
CHAPTER XXIII
Feeding the Breeding Cockerels
These birds are fed green food about eight o’clock in the morning. In
good weather it is fed in their large range yard, where the attendant
scatters it in small bunches over a wide area. At 11:30 is fed to every
hundred birds, six quarts of corn, wheat and oats, two-thirds corn,
the wheat and oats making up the other third. This is also distributed
widely over the yard. In this way the cockerels are kept busy hunting
for food, and they are less likely to get into broils with each other
for entertainment.
At 1:30 o’clock they are allowed to return to their House, having been
shut out during the morning hours. The Mash is fed daily at 1:30, and
a sufficient amount is placed in their troughs for them to thoroughly
clean up by roosting time.
Sufficient grain is fed in the litter in the House to make the quantity
for the day’s rations about eight quarts for one hundred birds.
[Illustration: BREEDING COCKERELS FALL OF 1911]
CHAPTER XXIV
Preparing Surplus Cockerels for Market
The growing cockerels, fed in the same way as the pullets up to six
or eight weeks of age, will be, in the majority of cases, in prime
condition to have the finishing touches applied to round them out into
the best possible weight at the age for market.
We, of course, do not go into the various liquid foods which are fed
with a pump, but simply the most inexpensive and rapid way of putting
the birds in a condition to return the most money in the shortest
possible time. Corn, in its different forms, is, perhaps, the most
fattening food which can be fed, and for the cockerels intended for
market, the grain ration consists of nothing but corn, and as much of
it as they will clean up.
If it is possible to give the time to it, the mash, fed three times a
day, will produce the finest quality flesh. A mash made from corn meal,
ground oats, gluten meal, middlings and bran, in equal parts, with
beef scrap, or green cut bone, equal to the total of the meals, and
moistened so that the birds can choke it down in large quantities, will
produce the result better, perhaps, than anything else.
Must Have Green Food
Green food, however, should be given the bird at the most convenient
hour in between the other feedings. If to save time in feeding was
an object, a very good schedule is to feed corn first thing in the
morning, green food at about ten o’clock, and, between two and three,
the exact quantity of mash as described. If mash alone is fed, it is
best to feed each time only what the birds will clean up in from thirty
to forty minutes, the troughs in which it is placed then being removed.
[Illustration: NO. 3 LAYING HOUSE FILLED WITH 1500 PULLETS TWO WEEKS
FROM THE RANGE]
CHAPTER XXV
$6.41 Per Hen Per Year Corning Method and Strain Enabling Others to
Better $6.41
The figures at the head of this chapter have become famous, and,
perhaps, in the way of small things, represent as great a bone of
contention as has been squabbled over for many a year. And yet there
really was nothing so extraordinary in the profit. It represented a
large amount of careful work and study, a keen business administration,
a careful looking after of all the little details, the preserving
of all by-products and selling them at a figure which was actually
under their true value, as was proven in later years by better prices
obtained.
For instance, the fertilizer made on the Farm has been so handled that
its returns to the owners are much greater than when these figures were
given to the public. The Corning Egg Farm was very much criticised in
numerous statements made in the different papers throughout the country
as to the authenticity of these figures, and, to put it in clear
Anglo-Saxon, many writers indulged quite freely in the word so much
used by one of the distinguished Presidents of the United States, and
threw the lie indiscriminately at everything and everybody connected
with The Corning Egg Farm.
After a time the humor of the situation dawned upon those who were
being so adversely criticized. The fact is, the critics were people who
wanted to gauge everything in the World by their own little yard stick.
They did not themselves know how to make $6.41 per hen per year, and,
therefore, they reasoned it out that the man did not exist who could.
One fact entirely overlooked by these profound writers on poultry
subjects was that two dollars of this profit was made by the sale of
the hen at the end of ten months of laying.
In the last few years there have appeared in the advertising columns
of numerous publications, claims by a man selling a book in which he
asserts he made $120.00 per hen, in twelve months, in a back-yard.
Another individual blossomed forth with a statement of ten dollars
and fifty odd cents profit per hen per year, but these statements did
not excite widespread criticism. They were statements of men who were
doing a back-yard business, with from ten to twenty hens, and were,
therefore, simply looked upon as ridiculous and not entitled to serious
consideration.
$6.41 Not Extravagant Claim
But The Corning Egg Farm “$6.41 per hen, per year” was not an
extravagant claim, and the figures showing just exactly how it had been
accomplished were plainly set forth. It was not done with twenty hens
in a back-yard, but on a large, commercial scale, and an extensive
business was in active operation.
The methods were so entirely new, and the results so unprecedented,
that poultry writers and lecturers hastily declared them fantastic,
without the careful investigation to which they were entitled, and
proceeded to wholesale condemnation of the figures, the methods, and
everything else connected with the Farm.
However, later, the majority of our critics have visited The Corning
Egg Farm, and have seen what we have, what we are doing, and satisfied
themselves thoroughly that every statement made was well within the
facts.
It will be noticed that the profit of $6.41 was figured with the
cockerels selling at the live weight price of broilers, and when no
hatching eggs were sold.
Corning Farm Making More Than $6.41
At The Corning Egg Farm, to-day, the hen is making considerably more
than $6.41 per year. A large number of cockerels, which formerly
brought merely the live weight broiler price, are now being reared and
disposed of for breeders. Hatching eggs are sold in large quantities,
but, it must be remembered, before one can reach this point, his
Strain of birds must be brought to a high point of perfection, he must
establish his reputation, and his customers must find his claims are
substantiated. As an illustration, purchasers of hatching eggs from
The Corning Egg Farm, in the season of 1910, came back with orders for
the season of 1911 increased by the multiple of ten, and these same
customers are already booking large orders in September and October,
1911, for the hatching season of 1912.
This chapter is written to emphasize our statement that anyone
possessed of the ordinary qualifications to succeed with poultry, can,
by following The Corning Egg Farm Method, surely build up a large and
profitable business.
[Illustration: THE WORK SHOP ON THE CORNING EGG FARM]
CHAPTER XXVI
The Buildings on the Corning Egg Farm
The Buildings on the The Corning Egg Farm, at the close of the year
1911, were as follows:
No. 1--Brooder House, with Incubator and Sprouted Oats Cellars
underneath.
No. 2--Work Shop, Grain Bins, Egg Packing Room, Refrigerator Room,
and Quarters for the Resident Foreman, all under one roof.
No. 3--Breeding House.
No. 4--Laying House No. 1.
No. 5--Laying House No. 2.
No. 6--Laying House No. 3.
No. 7--Line Breeding House.
No. 8--Breeding Cockerel House.
No. 9--Horse Stable.
No. 10--Wagon Shed.
No. 11--41 Colony Houses Scattered over the Range.
No. 12--Office Building.
To give an idea of the magnitude of The Corning Egg Farm, there are
under roof 18,455 square feet of floor space.
No. 1. Brooder House, Incubator and Sprouted Oats Cellars
This building is 264 feet in length, and consists really of two
buildings. When this structure was first erected it was sixteen feet
wide and fifty feet in length. The Incubator Cellar is entirely of
concrete construction, with a Brooder House one story in height above
it. The floor joists were all beam filled, making the building rat
proof. The second year it became necessary to enlarge the Brooder
House, and an extension was built, sixty-eight feet in length, and set
up on cedar posts, with concrete filled in on top of the sills between
the floor joists, making this part of the building also rat-proof.
After using this Brooder House and Incubator Cellar for three seasons
a still further enlargement became an absolute necessity. Sixteen feet
has been, and still is, the standard width of Laying Houses on The
Corning Egg Farm. It has been found, however, with the Brooder House,
an additional width is desirable in order to give the chicks more roomy
runs when confined by bad weather to the House alone. Mainly for this
reason, the 1911 addition to the Brooder House has been made twenty-two
feet in width. This new building is 146 feet in length. It is joined on
to the old building in such a way that the alley-way merely widens at
the point of connection, thus making one continuous House.
The interior arrangement of a four foot alley-way, the entire length of
the building, along the north wall, greatly facilitates the feeding,
watering, and general care of the chicks, without disturbing them by
passing through the pens.
The raised hover floor starts at the south side of this alley-way, and
is raised about a foot so as to allow the passing underneath of the hot
water trunk line, with its perfect insulation. Attached to this hover
floor, by hinges, is an inclined runway, which is raised or lowered
by a cord running through pulley wheels and fastened by cleats to the
north wall.
The division wires between the pens are of inch mesh, four feet high,
brought down to a ten inch board which is securely fastened to the
floor.
The ventilation is acquired by the use of V-shaped window drops, placed
just under the plate, full detailed drawing of which is given in the
back of this Book. The bottom of the windows, on the south front of
the building, are three feet above the floors, and these windows are
forty-four inches in length and thirty-six inches in width. They are
hung at the top, and are opened and closed by the same sort of device
used in churches for the “Cathedral” window. The holes in the fastening
irons are about two inches apart, allowing the window to be firmly held
open to any degree desired.
There is a slide board at the back of the hover, which is easily
raised, materially assisting in the quick and perfect cleansing of the
hover floor. Hanging above this, and using the slide board as a sill,
is a gate which extends to the height of the wire division, and swings
out, giving the attendant ready access to the hover, drinking cups, etc.
The whole Brooder House is heated by hot water coils, extending along
the entire length of the north wall of the building. These are of two
inch pipe, and in the sixteen feet part of the building there are six,
while in the twenty-two foot extension there are eight pipes.
As stated, the Brooder House is built over the Incubator and Sprouted
Oats Cellars. The Sprouted Oats Cellar is entirely of concrete, and the
floor slopes to one point, where drains carry off the water, allowing
the frames to slowly drain themselves, and preventing the oats from
rotting from an over supply of moisture.
Access is given to the Incubator Cellar by a vestibule in which are
located broad stairways, enabling one to go from the Cellar to the
Brooder House without going outdoors.
The heater room occupies the first 30 feet of this Cellar, and is
divided from the incubator room proper by an eight inch concrete wall.
In this heater room is the large hot water boiler which heats the
Brooder House, above. There are also two automatic heaters, controlling
the trunk line pipes for the heating of the air passing up under the
hovers in the Brooder House. The incubator heaters also stand in this
room, the pipes passing through the division wall, connecting with the
incubators on the other side.
The floor is smooth surface concrete, there being a gentle slope in
the heater room all to one corner, where a drain carries off the water
used in flushing the floor. This same arrangement exists also in the
Incubator Cellar proper, allowing the hose to be used in flooding the
floor twice a day to give the proper amount of moisture for incubation.
The concrete blocks used in the construction of this Cellar are what
is known as rock faced, and the face is on the inside, pointed up in
black. The floor joists overhead are dressed lumber, and are painted
in the following manner: the priming coat is almost pure oil with
just enough lead to give it a whitish tinge; the next coat is dead
white, flat finish, and the third is white enamel of the best stock
obtainable. The incubators are finished in the same way, allowing the
whole Cellar to be literally scrubbed with a brush.
This Cellar has no duplicate, anywhere.
Building No. 2, Work Shop, etc.
The Work Shop proper is twenty by thirty feet, on a concrete
foundation, with a cement floor. The height from the floor to the
rafters is ten feet in the clear. In this room stands a ten horse power
Gasolene Engine, and a large Mixer, the second Mixer designed by The
Corning Egg Farm, which produces a mix in less time, and with less
power, than any other machine to-day on the market. With the necessary
meals and green cut bone, in seven minutes the juices from the bone are
so uniformly distributed throughout the entire mass that it is almost
impossible to believe that no water has been added. The weight of a
mix will average about five hundred pounds. In experiments with beef
scrap in The Corning Egg Farm Mash, in ten minutes’ time the meals
are completely coated with oils which come from good beef scrap when
properly mixed. This Mixer is now being made by Wilson Bros., Easton,
Pa., in different sizes, from hand to horse power, to meet the needs of
large and small plants.
The Bone Cutter is also made by Wilson Bros., and, in our opinion, is
the best Bone Cutter on the market, and we have tried all the different
designs. Wilson Bros. manufacture these cutters in all sizes, from hand
power up to the large one which they first built for The Corning Egg
Farm, and we have graduated in size, during the past years from a hand
power to the Large Cutter now in use.
There is also a large Clover Cutter, which will cut in various lengths
from a quarter of an inch to an inch and a half. The necessary pulleys
and hangers for this machine are placed in the rafters above.
Built into the rear and sides of this room are the various grain bins,
compactly arranged to reduce the labor of handling to a minimum.
In the Work Shop is also a bench, with vices, etc., and cupboards,
built into the walls, where complete kits of tools for carpentry,
plumbing, hot water fitting, etc., are kept, in order that the
mechanical work, so far as repairs and keeping up the efficiency of the
plant go, is done without calling in outside labor.
Back of the Shop, and connecting with it, is the Egg Packing Room,
with its necessary arrangement of shelves, tables, etc., for the work
carried on there.
To the rear of the Egg Packing Room, but having no connection with
it whatever, is the room in which the large Freezer stands, for the
preservation of green bone. The concrete floor in this room is sloped
to a drain so that it may be thoroughly cleansed every day after the
bone is taken out or put into the Freezer. The Freezer itself has a
capacity of 2500 lbs. of bone, but the room, under ordinary conditions
of weather, maintains such a temperature that there is no difficulty in
carrying bone in barrels, standing around the room, which increases our
storing capacity to more than double the quantity.
On the second floor of the Work Shop is a complete and modern apartment
in which the working foreman lives.
Building No. 9, Horse Stable
This is constructed on the general plan of all the buildings on the
Farm, with capacity for four horses, and with necessary room for hay,
etc., in the loft above.
A large shed is built at the rear of the stable, in which bins are
constructed for the carrying of grit and shell, and also for the
storage of packing crates for eggs.
Building No. 10, Wagon Shed
This is conveniently placed to the stable, and is twenty by forty
feet, with four sets of double doors, allowing the placing of vehicles
without interfering with those already inside.
Building No. 12, Office Building
Conveniently arranged in three rooms covering a floor space of nine
hundred and twenty-five square feet, hot water heated, and with
electric lights.
[Illustration: THE CELEBRATED CORNING LARGE FLOCK LAYING HOUSE NO. 3
CARRYING 1500 PULLETS]
CHAPTER XXVII
Construction of Laying, Breeding, and Breeding Cockerel Houses
The Breeding and Laying Houses, on The Corning Egg Farm, are all built
in the manner described in the remainder of this chapter, and are each
160 feet long. The Breeding Cockerel House is 60 feet in length. These
Houses are all fifteen feet, nine inches, in width, the drawing in of
them being three inches for the purpose of making the roof rafters,
which are sixteen feet in length, readily reach out to the end of the
plates, on the slant which they carry. The height of the buildings
from the ground, over all, is twelve feet, two inches at the back and
fourteen feet, two inches in front.
The interior of these buildings is divided into 20 foot sections, by
partitions extending out from the north wall of the buildings, seven
feet, and forming the roosting closets. These partitions run from the
floor clear to the ceiling, breaking the draughts, which but for them,
would make the long Laying Houses utterly impracticable.
The north wall of the Laying House is five feet high in the clear,
the south wall being seven feet. This makes a sufficient height for
walking through the building without stooping, and, as the bottom of
the windows is carried up three feet from the floor, the window itself
going up to the plate under the roof, the Sun reaches every part of the
House of practically sixteen feet wide.
Nearly Six Feet from Ground
The buildings are all set on posts, three feet in the ground and five
feet above. The floor joists are ten inches in width and two inches
thick, and, instead of the usual sill, two by ten planks are spiked at
both ends of these floor joists resting on the posts which support the
building. This construction is much simpler than the ordinary sills,
and is also less expensive.
The posts are eight feet apart and well braced. They are cross tied at
the corners, and about every fifty feet throughout the building; they
are also braced at the ends.
The floor joists are placed three feet apart, and the uprights are
made of two by four joists, placed three feet apart. At the corners of
the House the upright supports are doubled, making the corner posts
equivalent to four by four.
The construction of these buildings without any projections over the
top of the roof has two advantages. First, there is a saving in the
quantity of lumber used and in labor expended; second, all the joints
of the roof and walls are made tighter, and the lapping of the roofing
over the edges of the building and cementing it make all joints
absolutely air and water tight.
[Illustration: LAYING HOUSE PREPARED TO RECEIVE 1500 PULLETS FROM
RANGE]
Double Floors
The floors are all built double. The under floor may be of any kind of
rough boards, and carefully covered over with one ply roofing of any
good quality, the laps, as elsewhere in the building, being carefully
cemented and nailed down with large, flat headed, galvanized nails
made for the purpose. The upper floor should be of a cheap quality
of tongued and grooved boards, well driven up and securely nailed.
Preferably this upper flooring is laid crosswise of the building.
The outside of these buildings is covered with any cheap, rough boards
obtainable. These should be securely nailed over the studding of the
building, and then covered with a good grade of two ply roofing paper.
On the sides and ends of the building the roofing should be put on
upright, but on the roof it is better to lay it lengthwise of the
building and lapped, on the plan of laying shingles, the joints all
being securely cemented and nailed down, and then the joints and nails
painted over with cement, to make sure against any possible leaks.
The inside walls of the building are lined with one ply roofing, with
the joints carefully nailed and cemented, and then both walls and
ceiling are covered with matched flooring. This gives four inches of
dead air space to all the walls of the building, making them cooler in
Summer and warmer in Winter than any other known construction. Owing to
the roof rafters being ten inches in width, the dead air space under
the roof is of course ten inches.
The three outsides of the building, north, east and west, are covered
with roofing down to the ground, there being, of course, no inner
lining below the floor under the House. To the south the House is
entirely open from the floor to the ground. Each House, raised
five feet from the ground and open to the south, gets the sunlight
underneath clear to the back of the building, which eliminates all
dampness, and, being so open prevents rats and other vermin making any
attempt to get into the House.
The window openings are nine feet long by three and a half feet in
width. As the studding is three feet apart this permits the making of
the openings without cutting the studding, and so weakening any of the
supports under the roof. These openings are spaced off so that their
total length comes as near as may be to one-half the length of the
south front of the House.
Canvas Windows
Ventilators, one foot in width and occupying the space between the
window openings, have recently been constructed in these Houses,
which permit the closing of all canvas windows tight at night, when
the weather is very cold, letting the air come in through these
ventilators, at the top, without bringing any draughts down upon the
birds. Detailed plans of these ventilators will be found at the end of
this Book.
[Illustration: ONE OF THE BREEDING HOUSES IN 1911]
The frames of the curtained windows are made of one by four inch
boards, with two center supports dividing the window frame into three
foot sections. These frames are covered with medium weight cotton duck,
from which the dust must be brushed at regular intervals to permit the
air to circulate through them freely.
Outside of the Office, Brooder House, Work Shop, Stable and the
Resident Quarters, no glass is used in any of the buildings, with the
exception of one small pane in the door of each Laying House, through
which a view of the interior may be had.
A hood, extending out eight inches, is built over the windows and
ventilators, the whole length of the buildings. This prevents the rain
from southerly storms beating into the Houses.
The windows are hung on hinges, and open inward from the top, and are
fastened to the ceiling with wooden buttons.
The front of all of the window openings, on the outside, is covered
with one inch mesh wire netting, to prevent the birds from flying out,
and also to prevent sparrows and other birds from flying in to consume
the grain provided for the fowls.
Double Doors
There are double doors at both ends of each House, swinging inward,
the opening being six feet in width. These doors are made of two
thicknesses of matched boards, one side being vertical, and the other
diagonal, with a lining of roofing paper between. These are kept closed
only in cold and stormy weather.
A board, twelve inches wide, is fastened to the floor a little over
three feet back from the door opening. This board runs across the
width of the House for six feet, and at that point a board of the same
width, three feet long, is fastened to it and carried down to the end
wall of the House. This makes a clear space in which the doors can be
swung open without being blocked by the litter, which the hens would
otherwise be sure to bank up against the doors. A vestibule of wire
netting, on sectional frames, is fastened to the ceiling and baseboard,
with wire hooks and eyes. See details shown in drawing, at the back of
the Book.
The second pair of doors, which open outward, are covered with inch
mesh wire down to within three feet of the floor, and are used during
the Summer months and in mild weather in Winter.
A small glass window, about eight by ten, is placed in one of the
solid doors at a convenient height. This enables one to observe the
conditions in the Laying Houses without being obliged to open the door.
At the west end of all the Laying Houses there is a flight of stairs
with a platform at the top, five feet square and with a hand rail
around it, giving easy access to the House through the end from which
the least number of violent storms comes. The east ends of the Laying
Houses do not have steps and platforms.
The dropping boards are placed three feet above the floor in all the
Houses, except in the Cockerel House, where they are thirty inches
from the floor, as we found the growing cockerels needed additional
space overhead to prevent injury to their combs. This leaves abundance
of room in the Laying Houses for the birds to work in the litter, and
is also of sufficient height to allow a man to get under the dropping
boards to search for the eggs which the hens often deposit in the
litter.
This height also gives the Sun an opportunity to reach every nook and
corner of the House at some time during the day.
Draught-Proof Roosting Closets
The partitions dividing the twenty foot sections of the roosting
closets, as previously explained, are seven feet in width, extending
out one foot beyond the dropping boards, which are six feet wide, and
thus giving absolute protection to the hen, sitting on the roost, from
any draughts which may be blowing through the House.
Two sets of roosts are placed in each roosting closet, each consisting
of five perches, of two by two spruce, nine feet, ten inches long,
rounded at the top and nailed to a cross piece of the same material.
The first perch stands nine inches from the back wall; the others are
thirteen inches from center to center. Birds larger than the Leghorns
require more space between perches than here specified. The two sets
of roosts are placed side by side, and are fastened at the back with
a bolt, as shown in the plans. When the dropping boards are being
cleaned, the roosts are raised up and fastened to hooks suspended in
the ceiling. They are supported in front by a piece of joist one foot
high securely nailed to the cross pieces of the roosts.
There are openings under the dropping boards in all the Houses for the
egress and ingress of the fowls, with a runway leading to the ground
underneath. These openings are securely boxed and are covered at top
and bottom to prevent any draughts. The detail of these openings is
shown in the plans at the back of the Book.
The nests are all made of boxes bought from grocers and other dealers
in the neighborhood, and are much cheaper and better than any nests
laid out and built by mechanics. They are put up in three tiers, and
fill up the spaces between the windows, as shown in the detailed
drawing.
The boxes are cut down to twelve by fourteen inches, which makes the
best sized nest.
In the floor of each Laying House there are three hatchways dividing
the length of the building into four equal parts. These hatchways are
for convenience in removing the litter, and greatly facilitate the
operation and reduce the necessary amount of labor, because a wagon can
be backed directly underneath. If the wagon should be too high, shovel
out a runway for the wheels.
[Illustration: THE CORNING COLONY HOUSE]
These hatchways are made of two thicknesses of boards with roofing
between and are rabbited and securely fastened.
The nesting material used is fine excelsior. This is better than straw
or shavings as it does not offer a convenient home for lice, and, if
the nests be thoroughly disinfected with Crude Carbolic and Kerosene,
there is no danger of having any.
CHAPTER XXVIII
The Colony Houses--There are Forty-one on the Farm
These Houses have a floor space 6 × 10 feet, are six feet high in front
and five feet in the rear, with a shed roof. The frame work is built on
three skids. The outside skids are made of 3 × 4 timbers, rounded at
the ends to facilitate the ready sliding of the Houses when it becomes
desirable to move them, and 12 feet in length, making a projection of a
foot at either end beyond the sides of the House. Two by four studding
is used for the center skid. The three skids are securely fastened
together by four pieces of 2 × 4 studding. To this frame is nailed the
floor, of inch, matched boards. The upright studs are made of 2 × 3’s.
In the first Colony Houses we built, 2 × 4’s were used, but it was
found there was an economy in using 2 × 3’s, and, as they answer every
purpose, the frame being absolutely stiff, they were substituted for
the 2 × 4’s, and they have been used ever since.
The frame work is covered by a cheap grade of matched flooring, the
boards running perpendicularly. The roof is covered with cheap, twelve
inch, rough boards, and over this is laid two ply roofing, this being
carried over the front, back and sides three inches, well cemented and
securely nailed down, then all the joints are again cemented, covering
the nails thoroughly.
Cotton Duck Windows
The door, for the use of the attendant, is in the front of the House,
being two feet wide and the full height of the inside of the building.
On either side of the door, hanging by hinges from the plates, are two
windows 45 × 27 inches. These are covered with a medium weight cotton
duck, and open outward. A device which carries a long hook readily
allows them to be fastened so as to practically form an awning, which
materially assists in maintaining a cool condition inside the House
during the Summer. Two doors for the use of the birds are placed
on each side of the main door, and are fitted with slides. On the
inside of the window openings one inch wire mesh is securely nailed,
preventing the birds from flying out, and also keeping night prowlers
from going in. Over the outside of the window frames also inch wire
mesh is nailed. The main reason for this wiring of the outside is to
prevent the birds, as they develop and fly up on top of the Colony
House, from breaking through the canvas.
From the detailed drawings which will be found at the end of the Book,
and the photograph of the Colony House, a very clear idea is given of
its construction.
CHAPTER XXIX
Materials Required for Laying House
Bill of material for the construction of 60 feet, being three sections
of the Corning Laying House.
14 Posts, 8′ long, 4″ top diameter.
Cross Braces at ends, and Corner Braces--5 pieces, 2″ × 6″ × 16′.
Floor Joists and Roof Rafters, 42 pieces--2″ × 10″ × 16′.
Under Floor, 1000′ cheap, wide boards.
Upper Floor, 1200′ #4 flooring.
Inside Ceiling, 2500′ #4 flooring.
Outside Covering and Roof, cheap wide boards, 2400′.
Uprights, 38 pieces, 2″ × 4″ × 12′.
Plates, 10 pieces, 2″ × 4″ × 12′.
Dropping Boards, 450′ #4 flooring.
Dropping Boards supports, 3 pieces, 2″ × 4″ × 20′, and 3 pieces, 2″ ×
4″ × 12′.
Lath, 500 lineal feet 1″ × 2″.
Partitions, 100′ #4 flooring.
Hoods, 60 lineal feet, pine, 1″ × 8″.
Sills, 3 pieces pine, 1″ × 10″ × 10′.
Window Frames, pine, 1″ × 4″; 2 pieces, 10′ and 1 piece 12′ long.
One roll of roofing contains 108 square feet.
For Lining between floors 10 rolls
Lining between walls, sides and ends 9 rolls
--
All of one ply 19 rolls
All outside covering, two ply 25 rolls
Ventilators to be the length between the windows, with width of
opening 12 inches. See detailed drawing at end of Book.
[Illustration: BREEDING HOUSE IN 1907--THE ORIGINAL CORNING HOUSE]
Bill of Material for the Construction of Colony House
Skids, 2 pieces, 3″ × 4″ × 12′, and 1 piece, 2″ × 4″ × 10′.
Braces, 2 pieces, 2″ × 4″ × 10′.
Uprights, 5 pieces, 2″ × 3″ × 12′.
Nailing Pieces, 2 pieces, 2″ × 3″ × 10′.
Rafters, 2 pieces, 2″ × 3″ × 14′.
Plates, 2 pieces, 2″ × 3″ × 10′.
Roof, 60′ of 12 inch cheap boards, 10 feet long.
Floors and Walls, 300 feet #4 flooring.
Window Frames, 2 pieces pine, 1″ × 4″ × 8′.
75′ of 2 ply roofing.
It is impossible to give prices of lumber, as there is a great
variation according to locality. The above list will enable anyone to
work out the full bill of lumber required, and the builder or lumber
dealer will be able to give the prices in a very few moments.
The cost of labor on the Laying Houses is from $1.50 to $1.75
per running foot. This would include every item of labor in the
construction of these Houses down to the smallest detail.
CHAPTER XXX
The Original Thirty Hens
The egg production of the Original Thirty Hens on The Corning Egg Farm
is an interesting story, but, of course, it must be remembered that
this record is of one hundred and fifty-three days, the banner days of
the year for eggs from yearling hens.
The Biddies arrived in different lots, the last days of February, our
record beginning with March first, and ending with July 31st. During
that period they laid 2466 eggs, and at the end of the third month we
lost two of them. The cause of death we were unable to tell, for, at
that time our experience was not of sufficient duration to have made
even a close guess.
The average for the birds, it will be noted, was eighty-five eggs per
hen. Had we been better posted as to feeding methods, doubtless the
hens would have been capable of producing eggs in numbers considerably
greater than the figures show.
[Illustration: PULLETS IN LAYING HOUSE NO. 2, FALL OF 1911]
The record, however, for real yearling hens (and these were real
yearling hens, because when they started to lay with us they were fully
eighteen months of age), was very far from a poor one, and the novice
who succeeds in caring for his breeding stock in such a way that he
does not fall short of this average, may consider that he has done very
well.
CHAPTER XXXI
Egg Records
February 1st, 1908 to June 30th, 1911.
Average Production Average
Dates Number of Eggs Price
of Hens per doz.
Feb. 1, 1908 to Jan. 31, 1909 2,040 338,976 .5066
Feb. 1, 1909 to June 30, 1910 2,811 709,836 .47125
July 1, 1910 to June 30, 1911 4,723 612,000 .4618
AVERAGE FOR FIRST TEN MONTHS OF PULLET LAYING IN FLOCKS OF FIFTEEN
HUNDRED.
1909 143.25
1910 145.11
1911 146.23
On examination of this Egg Record it will be noticed that in the
average number of eggs laid by the pullets, in flocks of fifteen
hundred, there have been three gains, and in analyzing these averages
it must be remembered that these are results obtained, not by the
handling of a few pullets most carefully selected to produce a record,
but of thousands, and the advance of three eggs in the average is
therefore a remarkable gain.
How Corning Farm Is Able To Get Great Egg Records
The salient reasons which make possible such egg records as The Corning
Egg Farm is able to show are:
1st,--Careful selection of breeders by the Corning Method, which is the
only proper Method and has already been described.
2nd,--Pullets raised on free range, feeding to them a strengthening
and upbuilding ration, which constantly supplies new tissues, and is,
therefore, a nutritious and not a forcing food.
3rd,--Housing them in The Corning Laying House, which to-day stands
unequaled, where they are practically outdoors yet protected from
extremes of heat and cold, for if hens are to lay to their capacity
they must be kept always in a perfectly comfortable condition.
4th,--The succulent, green food, which is so necessary to their welfare
if they are to lay strongly, and which must be given to them in large
quantities.
Hens on the ordinary free range, in the general run of seasons, after
July 1st., cannot find succulent green food in sufficient quantities to
enable them to keep up even a fair average of eggs. Receipts of eggs
at all large market centers, begin to fall off at about this date, and
prices correspondingly increase.
Highest Percentage of Fertility
Every observer, viewing the stock of The Corning Egg Farm, is at once
convinced that the scientific Method here employed produces better
birds than any other. The steady increase, from year to year, in the
hatchability of the eggs towards full fertility; the strong, livable
chicks, their rapid growth to maturity; and the voluntary testimony
given by our customers whose ever increasing orders come back to us,
year after year, all conclusively establish the fact that hens bred and
raised by The Corning Method are unequaled anywhere.
For the last two years hatching eggs have been shipped from the
Atlantic to the Pacific, and from the Northern part of Canada to the
Gulf of Mexico, and even across the Atlantic to far away Scotland. From
this widely extended territory comes the unsolicited testimony that The
Corning Strain of Single Comb White Leghorns is unequaled.
At the present time the amount of labor carried on The Corning Egg Farm
is one working foreman and three laborers. The latter are $1.50 a day
men, and, with this force all the work of the farm is accomplished.
The Houses are thoroughly cleaned, as to the dropping boards, drinking
fountain stands, tops of nests, and the inside of nests where required,
every day in the week and three hundred and sixty-five days in the
year.
When the Colony Houses are in use they are cleaned and rebedded every
two or three weeks, as required, during the first part of the Spring.
After the first part of the season is over, say from July 1st., they
are not cleaned as often for the reason that there is very little
dampness, and so long as the Houses remain dry, the cleaning is not
required.
The cost of feed in the last two years has gone up materially, and
it now requires an outlay of about eighteen cents to raise a Leghorn
cockerel to broiler size. The cost of raising a pullet to the laying
point is forty-two and a half cents, which includes cost of incubation.
The pullet, through her first ten months of laying, costs $1.15.
It is somewhat difficult to give a fixed figure as to the cost of
caring for the coming breeder through the time of moult, during the
months when she is producing eggs for hatching, and up to the time when
she is shipped, in August, eleven months in all. Different seasons
and different flocks of birds vary in the amount of food necessary
during these months. Our records show, however, that the output of eggs
through the moulting season from the birds which we are carrying for
hatching eggs has always been enough to show a profit over the feeding
cost. It would be safe to figure that the outlay will be between one
dollar and forty and one dollar and fifty cents. These amounts, as
given, represent the cost of feeding and the cost of labor.
CHAPTER XXXII
Prevention and Treatment of Diseases
Diseases in poultry generally come from neglecting sanitary conditions.
A damp house, filthy drinking fountains, musty and sour foods, or a
general condition of filth, bring diseases, whether the birds are kept
in large or small flocks.
An ailing bird should at once be removed and isolated, and, unless it
shows immediate signs of recovery, the best remedy, and the safest,
is the hatchet. The constant and systematic spraying of the roosting
closets, the drinking trough platforms, underneath the dropping boards,
and in the corners between the sections, with Kerosene Oil and Crude
Carbolic (and it must be remembered that the solution used for spraying
is one-half gallon of Crude Carbolic to five gallons of Kerosene
Oil, when the birds are in the House), will eliminate all danger of
contagion, provided the Houses, in all other respects, are kept in a
proper and cleanly condition.
When the pullets are first put into the House, in the Fall of the year,
it is wise to watch with great care that individuals in the flock do
not develop the “snuffles,” which mean increasing trouble of a more
serious nature if allowed to go without attention.
The washing of the drinking cups of the fountains with Kerosene Oil,
and Potassium Permanganate in the water once a week, will, in most
cases, keep the flock immune from trouble. Spraying is one of the best
cures for colds, as it not only restores the affected bird to health,
but clears up the danger of infection which, otherwise, might result in
spreading disease among the whole flock.
We have never had a “run” of any disease at The Corning Egg Farm. Gapes
and White Diarrhœa--the most dreaded of all young chick diseases--are
unknown on the Farm. This is attributed to the strong vitality and
vigorous condition maintained by fresh air housing, cleanliness,
sanitary regulation, and by giving sweet, wholesome food and plenty of
pure, fresh water.
CHAPTER XXXIII
A Word in Closing
Our business is running The Corning Egg Farm and not writing books, so
that in telling our Story we may have lacked some of the polish of the
experienced author, but every word that we have written is true, and we
shall be very glad to welcome any of our readers at the Farm, and let
them see for themselves just what we have.
The Corning Egg Farm actually does enjoy the supreme position among
the egg farms of the World that we claim for it, and that the great
authorities, after thorough, personal examination, have frankly
admitted.
And we have been far more open in telling you everything that has been
done on the Farm than, for instance, owners of large manufacturing
plants would be.
Methods and problems in the successful and profitable production of
eggs for table and hatching purposes have been worked out on The
Corning Egg Farm, and we are quite willing others should have the
benefit of our very expensively acquired experience.
Nothing to Hide
We have nothing to hide; nothing to keep to ourselves. We started in a
very modest way, and believe that is the preferable way to successfully
build up a paying poultry farm. Those who have an abundance of capital
might be tempted to work out too many self-evolved theories and to
begin on too elaborate and extravagant a basis, whereas, in our
opinion, it is wiser to follow precedent, known successes, and start in
a smaller way and expand.
Illustrations are Photographs
The illustrations in this Book are all from photographs, and the camera
cannot be persuaded to exaggerate or to show buildings where there are
none. The diagrams are drawn of sufficient size, and such measurements
given, that our plant in its entirety, or any part of it, can be
readily reproduced by anyone who cares to do so.
The Corning Success
The success we have made on the Farm gives us a certain feeling
of satisfaction that we are entitled to enjoy, and yet we have
accomplished nothing that cannot be done by any person who will give as
much thought, time and attention to the work as we have.
Our Advice to Beginners
Our advice to the beginner is that he carefully study the Corning
Method as set forth in this Book (and we want to impress upon you again
the fact that the Corning Method is just as adaptable to the town
lot as to the large tract, and in this particular it surpasses other
systems which have had considerable publicity), and then start, either
with a breeding pen, or with an incubator and hatching eggs purchased
from a Breeder whose eggs can be depended upon, and in this connection
Single Comb White Leghorns Only
we want to say that for the production of eggs there is only one breed
of fowls--Single Comb White Leghorns--and that, in considering the
purchase of a breeding pen, or eggs for hatching, experience will
show that it is the height of folly to begrudge the additional price
you must pay in order to get the right kind of Stock. Whether you buy
Corning Strain or not, let us again emphasize the fact that no matter
how famous the Breeder, or how high his prices, if he has not a Strain
that has proved itself a good Strain, you do not want it at any price.
It is
It’s “Strain” You Want
Strain that counts, because it includes every good quality for the
purpose, and the market for the right Strain for breeding and hatching
is a very large and profitable one. The Corning Egg Farm cannot produce
enough birds and eggs to fill its orders, and probably never will,
because we do not believe in increasing the size of the Farm beyond our
ability to be personally in constant touch with every detail connected
with it.
Utility, Not Show Birds
We want to write just a word or two as to the difference between
a Strain for the production of eggs and of Show Birds. It must be
remembered that a great laying Strain cannot be, at the same time,
a Show Bird, at least not under the present requirements of the
Association, because a great egg layer must have size, and must be bred
to produce size, and not inbred to secure fancy Show points, which
produce a bird without constitution, and eggs from birds of the show
class are small, the fertility runs low, and, in many instances, their
hatchability is so poor as to be hardly worth speaking of.
Corning Largest Specialty Farm in World
The Corning Strain Single Comb White Leghorn is an egg machine, a large
bird, of vigorous constitution, and typical Leghorn shape. The Corning
Egg Farm is the largest poultry farm in the World devoted entirely and
exclusively to one single purpose--the developing and breeding of the
great egg machine, Corning Strain Single Comb White Leghorn.
Points That Mean Success
Just to repeat in regular order the points a Breeder must observe if he
is to make a permanent success:
Suitable location for houses and runs.
Properly planned, arranged and constructed houses.
Right breeding stock.
Hatching eggs from a farm that has “made good.”
Care in incubating and brooding.
Proper handling of the pullets and cockerels.
Careful selection of breeders.
Regularity in feeding and attending.
Properly balanced ration.
Clean, sanitary quarters, fresh water, and pure air, all the time.
Constant adherence to one Strain, and that the best Strain.
Be jealous of your reputation, because it is on your reputation that
you build up a demand for breeding stock and eggs for hatching.
Care, and courtesy, and regularity in serving customers.
You will know after reading this Book that on the Farm we have little
idle time on our hands, and yet we are always willing to advise and
help those who are really seriously seeking information, and who are
willing to accept what we may be able to give them, in addition to the
contents of this Book, and in our regular way of furnishing it.
THE AUTHORS.
BUILDINGS ON THE CORNING EGG FARM AND MANY HANDY DEVICES
These plans and drawings are of sufficient size to show quite clearly
the construction of every building on the Farm. Those who care to do so
are entirely welcome to duplicate the entire Plant, or any part of it.
As the dimensions are also given, it is a simple matter to reduce
the size of the buildings to suit a flock of any number, because, as
we have made clear in the Book, the Corning Method and Buildings are
equally suitable for the largest flock, or the few hens and a rooster
kept by the average family.
We do not want to be thought egotistical, but believe we have the most
complete and economically arranged lay-out in the country, but if any
reader thinks he can point out improvements we shall be very glad to
hear of them, and to discuss those that are worth while in some future
edition of the Book.
Of course it is easier to build from an architect’s plans, and we can
furnish working size blue-prints of the principal buildings.
[Illustration: EXTERIOR OF THE CORNING BROODER HOUSE
Total length, 264 feet. The older part, 118 feet long, is 16 feet in
breadth; the new addition of 146 feet is 22 feet wide.]
[Illustration: FLOOR PLAN OF BROODER HOUSE
Equipped with Hovers, giving capacity for 12,000 Chicks at one time.]
[Illustration: CROSS SECTION OF HOVER FLOOR
Showing hot water pipes underneath, and hinged runway, with drawing of
entrance gate from alley to Hover pen.]
[Illustration: BROODER HOUSE WINDOWS AND VENTILATORS
Showing details of construction.]
[Illustration: CROSS SECTION OF BROODER HOUSE AND INCUBATOR CELLAR]
[Illustration: DETAIL OF BEAM FILLING
Where building is over 16 feet in width, floor beams are 2″ x 12″.]
[Illustration: FLOOR PLAN OF INCUBATOR CELLAR
146 feet by 22 feet, with a capacity for 15,600 eggs at a setting, and
space to double the number.]
[Illustration: SPROUTED OATS CELLAR
With capacity for sprouting 100 bushels of oats at a time.]
[Illustration: VESTIBULED ENTRANCE TO INCUBATOR CELLAR
Also giving access by inside stairway to Brooder House.]
[Illustration: WEST END OF BROODER HOUSE
Opening into Sprouted Oats Cellar, and by stairway up to Brooder
House.]
[Illustration: THE CORNING LAYING HOUSE
Which is built in 20 foot sections, and can be extended to any desired
length. Those on The Corning Egg Farm are 160 feet by 16 feet.]
[Illustration: INTERIOR ARRANGEMENT OF LAYING HOUSE
Showing the draught-proof roosting closets, and arrangement of nests,
drinking fountains, etc.]
[Illustration: CROSS SECTION OF LAYING HOUSE
Showing method of raising perches while cleaning dropping board.]
[Illustration: DETAILS OF MASH BOX]
[Illustration: CONSTRUCTION OF LAYING HOUSE RUNWAY
Opening being placed at back of dropping boards. See Cross Section of
House on opposite page.]
[Illustration: DOORS OF LAYING HOUSE
Showing outside half wire door and solid interior door with observation
window.]
[Illustration: DETAIL OF SILL CONSTRUCTION OF LAYING HOUSE]
[Illustration: CORNING VENTILATOR
Showing full details of construction. Used in Laying House.]
[Illustration: GRIT, SHELL AND ASH HOPPER]
[Illustration: CORNING COLONY HOUSE
The Cotton Duck Windows when hooked up forming awnings.]
[Illustration: SIDE ELEVATION]
[Illustration: DETAIL OF WINDOW FRAME]
[Illustration: FLOOR OF COLONY HOUSE
Showing skids, and brace construction. Also Storm Trench.]
[Illustration: PLAN FOR UTILIZING COLONY HOUSE AS A BROODER]
[Illustration: DETAILS OF LAYING HOUSE WINDOW,
Showing Handy Button Fastener.]
[Illustration: BOX FOR MOVING PULLETS FROM RANGE TO LAYING HOUSE.]
[Illustration: BOX FOR CARRYING YOUNGSTERS FROM BROODER HOUSE TO COLONY
HOUSE.]
[Illustration: CATCHING HOOK]
PRESS OF
THE VAIL-BALLOU CO.
BINGHAMTON, N. Y.
Transcriber’s Notes
Inconsistent spelling and hyphenation have been retained.
Depending on the hard- and software used to read this text and on
their settings, not all elements may display as intended.
Page 194: in the source document, the section headers (“Single Comb
White Leghorns Only” and “It’s “Strain” You Want”) are printed in the
middle of the text paragraph.
Changes made:
Illustrations and tables have been moved out of text paragraphs.
Some minor obvious typographical errors and missing punctuation have
been corrected silently. Dimensions have been standardised to m × n.
Page 9, Table of Contents: the entry “Buildings on the Corning Egg
Farm and Many Handy Devices” has been added.
Page 10-13: illustration numbers were added.
Page 147: the addenda slip has been inserted at the end of the page.
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