The evening times. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1906-1914, 1906-12-22
LARGE FLoCKs TOGETHER.

How many hens can We safely put
together in one house or flock? will
hens lay as we'll when kept in one
large flock, giving proportionate room,
as, for instance, in a large barn or
other building where every bird can
go where 1t likes, as when housed
separately in smaller apartments?'
Many have asked these questions, and
most of those who have tried to ans
wer them have decided in favor of
small flocks kept separately. In order
to test the matter practically and
definitely, 'Mapes, the egg man. Is
now putting up two-story hen barn
.24x36 feet in which 500 hens will be
kept and handled as one flock. Com
menting on this venture, the Rural
New Yorker says editorially: 'Mapes
the hen man has often said that he
thinks he can keep 500 or more hens
in one house. Critics have said: Why
don't you try it and see? Now that
is what Mapes intends to do. The
house has been started. Nj
Mapes will not hesitate to tell the
truth. Last winter he had the cour-
age to report that on some days his
1,400 hens did not lay an egg. The
working out of this experiment, show
ing how hens can stand a crowd, will
be one of the most interesting features
of the coming year. City born and
bred as we were, our first observa-
tons in wholesale poultry keeping
were made on the estate of an uncle
in Germany. The poultry house was
a large, round, three-story stone
tower, hundreds of hens (of the COM
mon barnyard stock, MOSTLY occupy
ing the ground floor as laying room
and the second floor as roosting room,
the loft being occupied by large flocks
of pigeons. This tower stood nearly
in the centre of several-acre yard
tightly enclosed on one side by the
stately mansion, dairy building and
bakery, on another by the cattle
barns, on the third by the horse
stables, shops, hay barns, etc., and on
the fourth by an extra square, with
yard, for the sheep barns and dwell
ings for shepherds. The hens had
free range over the yards and the
fields without, and, of course. good
care generally. The egg yield was
never failing, and the flock was con-
sidered very profitable, especially as
they were kept largely as scaveng-
ers, there being so much waste stuff,
scattered grains, etc., on the farm
of several thousand acres. No farmer
large or small, at that time, how
ever, ever thought of dividing his hens
in small flocks kept separately. All
were kept together in one flock, and
even these "dunghills" just shelled out
the eggs. A few years ago one of our
neighbors, who has now moved out of
town, but is still keeping poultry,
kept from 500 to 600 hens, mostly
Leghorns and Leghorn mixtures, in
one building, a common farm barn
originally intended for the common
farm uses, with horse and cattle
stables, hay NOW, etc. This barn had
been fixed up for the purposes of a
large poultry house. A tight floor had
been put in for the second story,
which latter was used for roosting,
laying and Matching rooms. Grains
and beef scraps were bought from first
hand at wholesale and the whole I'M
dertaking was carried on in an eco.
nomical and business-like manner. In
short, 1t was made this mans chief
business, and he managed to make a
fair living from it, and support him.
self, wife and several children in a
modest way. Personally, from what
we have seen elsewhere, We have not
the least doubt that it is entirely pos.
sible and feasible to keep 500 hens in
one large flock with profit, provided all
other essential conditions of success
in poultry management are supplied.
We are tempted to make the trial our
selves; but in order to have every
chance and every advantage, we would
(and wilD keep nothing else but pure
bred Hamburgs (Silver Spangled in
our case). We believe that with no
other fowl can we get more eggs, and
get them at less coA.. The eggs ar,
SIiioliS II 10 ~ uCs 4SuI III "lhtSAS
in summer, too, an egg is an egg"
The above from Practical Farmer,
has many good points but we think if
we had 1,4OO hens that at any time in
the year did not lay an egg, We should
"sit up and nay attention" till they
ald. In such case there must oe
something radically wrong with the
management somewhere not less than
500 of flock of this size should have
been early Matched pullets. and very
many of these pullets should have be-
gun laying before cold weather set in,
and If not over-crowded, and II prop
erly fed, the layer part of them would
keep laying right through. The year.
olds, too. should be laying some all
the time except possibly in the height
of moulting.
The number, If properly housed and
handled, should have little to do with
the egg production. We visited, the
past summer, in California, one flock
of 1900 laying hens kept on less than
two-thirds of an acre, and they were
laying hens, bright and healthful as a
flock of ten on tena-cre lot. The
size of a flock that can profitably be