The watchman and southron. [volume] (Sumter, S.C.) 1881-1930, 1910-06-11
Practical Poultry Notes.


sufficient heat at first. Then run it
up to 1O2 during the second week and
1913 the third and last weeks of the
hatch. Brooders are best run with a
little less heat than chickens require
Be sure that the broOder is supplied
with a good supply of fresh air You
must spare the water except fer
drinking until they are about feath-
cred if YOU desire best results
The profit lies not SO much in what
you hatch as in what you raise and
take good care of. AS one success
full breeder said to me the other day:
81 am not trying to hatch worlds
of chicks but I am trying to make a
strenuous effort to raise all that hatch
and to raise them as to make them
individuals of merit Another told
me he had hatched about coo chicks
this spring and had but about rs left
to tell the story. You can readily see
which pays the better to hatch 600
and raise GO or hatch 1926 and raise
100.
Rape is one Of the cheapest ard
best things to raise for green stuff for
poultry. 1t is sown in the spring for
summer use, and in the fall for fall
and winter use. 1t takes but a smaN
plot Of it to supply quite a flock OF
chickens right along. To be sure, it
should be wired off so that they can
not eat the life out Of it before 1t gets
up large enough to outgrow them. Or,
as many do, cut it for them at all
times, not allowing the chickens on
it at all.
We so often hear poultrymen and
others boasting of how young some
of their pullets commence to lay. One
man goes so far as to claim that in
few years he will have a strain of
chickens which will lay at four months
Of age. While we are all anxious to
get as many eggs as possible from our
chickens, yet we firmly believe that
the constant pushing Of your stock for
early laying will gradually reduce the
size and vigor of your flock. If car
ed anything for these points in my
stock, I should certainly not push
matters too much on the early laying,
I think those that come to maturity
at about six months or seven and lay
Will lay more eggs during their years
OF usefulness and produce eggs of
stronger vitality than the various lit
tie quick maturing ones.
The old hen was the first incuba-
tor and first brooder Of which we
have any record and when given a
fair chance she is right hard propo-
sition to compete with. But when she
Is allowed to do her incubating on an
old dirty nest which has been all win
ter and spring and which became
alive with teeming millions about the
time she is due to hatch, is it any
wonder that she leaves the nest in
apparent disgust? She never does so,
however, until she is forced to. If
she does stick it out until she matches
part Of her chicks they will do no
good, the hen or the chicks either
The old hen gets the blame neverthe-
less, for the all-around bad Job.
Said an experienced poultryman re-
Gently: The dry-mash, hopper feed
method is the only way l can see it.
feed mine a mixture of ground wheat,
oats and corn about equal parts.
don't feed meat scrap, but 1 do feed
skim milk. 1 buy it of the milk man
| and pay 7 1-2 cents gallon for it and
keep it before my chickens all the
time. 1t takes the place of meat The
whole grain ! do not hopper feed, but
throw it in good litter and let them
dig it out for exercise.
Do you think because they are
your Barred Rocks, White Wyan-
dottes. Rhode Island Reds or Indian
Games, or whatever they may be, that
they are the best to be found? You
may be sadly mistaken. Because ig-
norance is bliss it does not prevent
your neighbor, John Jones' from hav-
ing stock worth three times as much
as yours. Or because you purchased
your stock Of breeder who claimed
ne had Simon Pures, world renown-
ed stock 1t proves nothing, for when
you slit 1t down you will perhaps find
that Simon Pures stock had passed
| through three or four breeders hands
since it left his yards, and to start
with was only some Of his culls he
| let ncighbor have for a song. Prove