Keowee courier. [volume] (Pickens Court House, S.C.) 1849-current, 1901-09-04
IMMENSE POULTRY FARM.
Incubators Holding 10000 Eggs Kettles that
Cook One Thousand Gallons.

|
Cook One Thousand Gallons.
A correspondent of the Kansas
City Star, writing from Dallas, Penn,
says:
| This little village has. what is
probably the largest poultry farm in
the world. Tho Meadow Brook
Farm, situated q short half mile from
the railway station, covers eighty
two acres of ground. The building
and yards of this immense plant
cover over thirty-fve acres, and the
amount of floor space under roof
amounts to little more than 49,
600 square feet. 1t is lighted by
electricity, heated by steam and
watcred by a system of pipes, which
are fed by an immense living we'll
on the premises.
The business of the plant consists
of supplying young ducks and chick
ems to summer hotels, clubs, restau-
rants, steamship lines and market
dealers who cater to the best trade
of the big cities. Eggs are also fur
nished in large quantities for the
table and Matching purposes. The
plan of conducting such an immense
business is an interesting one.
The incubator building contains
fifty large incubators, each holding
400 eggs. The total capacity Of tho
incubators in use is 10000 eggs. 1t
takes twenty one days for chicken
TO hatch in these machines and
twenty eight days for q duckling to
come through. If all the machines
discharged their chicks and duck
lings at the same time they could
not be handled to advantage, so to
overcome this difficulty some of the
machines are loaded with eggs each
day, so that some of them discharge
their young broods daily. BY this
system the age of the stock is gradu.
ated, 50 that the number required
for market natures daily, and is
cooped and shipped without being
kept on the premises an hour longer
than is necessary.
When the little chicks come from
the incubators they are herdcd into
pens. They advance from stall to
stall through these pens from day to
day until they are ninety days of
age, when they arc driven into the
coops and sent to market. The
squad that leaves the machines to-
day are supposed to keep each other
company from the incubators to the
frying pan, barring those that are
puny and have to be put back few
days, or those that arc particularly
hardy and can stand to be moved up
a pen or two, consequently there
must be thousands of birds on hand
constantly to enable the proprietor
to fill his daily orders.
The sale of eggs for tho table is
another large source of revenue.
Two thousand hens will lay from
1000 to 1900 eggs a day. These
are gathered, the date stamped upon
them, wrapped nicely in tissue paper,
packed in boxes holding dozen
each, and in from six to twcnty-four
hours all are on the cooks table in
the different Eastern cities.
The killing house, where the poul,
try is dressed for the market, is de-
serving Of especial mention. In the
height of the season the men go to
work at 3 o'clock in the morning
A little tramway travcrscs the entire
plant, and the live birds are brought
to the killing house in cars. 1t has
long picking benches, which extend
the entire length of one side of tho
building. Each operator has a win
dow to afford him plenty of light
There arc scalding watts, feather bins
cooling troughs, dripping racks
packing benches, feather presses
billing desks, ice breakers, platform
and hanging scales, and numerous
othor contrivanccs, so that thousands
of birds can be turned out with speed
that seems incredible.
Everything about the place is con
Quoted on large scale. There is 3
root and vegetable store house
where thousands of bushels Of bccts
carrots, turnips, cabbage, etc, arc
stored away every fall for winter use
This house is built below the level o1
tho ground to protect it's contents
from frost.