The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1912-12-17
UNCLE TOBY'S LECTVRE on
RAISING CHICKENS

CHICKENS.
'Correspondence Home and Farm
My wife has been talking so much
0 chickens OF late that I have
reading up" on the subject un-
t!l l have accumulated some informa-
ton about. n a great deal Of ad-
for. the hen. Every time
l see a hen now I feel k taking
on my hat to her. Somehow or
other my wife has a way Of putting
things like this before me that not
eScites my curiosity. but gives
me a thirst for more information.
We buy our chickens from an old
farmer who tells her that his wife
raises from 1000 to 1900 fowls q
year and sells them FOR $500 or more,
course. things like that always APP
peal to the man who has to help his
wife max a living for the family.
She talked the COW business to me
until l bought a COW, and now I sup
pose the COW business has become a
permanent feature in the family. And
now we have about decided to de-
vote a portion OF " little nve-acre
farm to the chicken business. and il
I'll buy the chickens to start it and
enough e to run it a year, pay for
the cOOpS and other things necessary
to run a chicken ranch, I'm sure she
will make some money out Of It. and
III get chicken and eggs 70 eat oc-
~casionally.
Shortly after We were married my
wife and l went into the poultry bus
mess. 1t has been SO long ago that
one ought to forget things like that.
but we don't. We never forget our
past failures and our other sweet
hearts I said we went into the
chicken business: that means both Of
US. The first thing we did was to
figure it all out on paper. like Colo
mel Sellers did his eye-water propo-
sition which he was going to intro
duce in China. There were 100000
900 people in China; each n had
two eyes, and each eye would need
q bottle Of tho celebrated eye-water.
profit in 1t. I think that We figured
that each hen would raise two
broods Of chickens, Of fifteen in each
brood. That would make thirty. The
balance was only a question OF the
number Of hens we would start In
business with. We built a coop 10S
IL in size. That was the size OF
mothers chicken 0 But mother
only had twenty or twenty-five hens
Somehow We failed to take that into
consideration. One thing we had was
plenty of range; there was no fence
around the coOp at all, and plenty OF
woods and brush nearby. I thought
AAC AAo% L I'LL AAkoA PhoCS "AAN
my wife thought SO. too. She was
more tiexible to my opinions ther
thar she Is now. / think now that
there was too much disparity between
the size Of the coop and h exten'
Of the range. We made the ntceS'
how those hens preferred to seek thu
most outlandish secret places tt
make their own nests. A few, how
ever, had the good sense to appreci
ate what had beer prepared for then
and laid in the coop, and rooste@
there. We bought seventy-five hem
t. start with. 1t was all We were abb
to buy. think would have oougn
1000 if I had had the money. The.
must have all been the same breed
although we bought them from hal
a dozen different persons. and the.
were Of all sorts Of cOlOFS and sizes
At any rate. they all wanted to lay a
the a me time. Then they all wanted
to set at the same time, and three O.
They had no system about them. W
tried setting them in a small DO
Just big enough for one hen. The
would leave the nest. We put then
back and put a V over the box
first boring some holes in 1t SO tn
hen could get plenty Of air: The,
they woui So ssan tha up thew ne' cou uIdn
ScCXIA ~ AiO" SAN
hatch the eggs by standing on them
They we're the co~ntrariest lot Of hen
I ever saw.
one day an old hen came stTuttin
out Of a hazel patch with fourteei
little chicks following her.
Isn't that our hen?" asked III
wife. 1T u.s." she replied before I ha
time TO answer. She knew every on
OF those s~eventy-fve hens by sight.
The next day two more showed u
With good broods following them. W
were delighted. From that day the
kept coming until the place was Gov
red with chickens. My wife and
concluded that after all tho nature
way was the best, and that the hen
knew more about tho hicken bus
ness than we did. OF course. we fe
them. and II took OTIS of feed.
} It was not long until we discovere
{ that some Of the little chicks wer
mixsing. The fourteen that the frs
: old hen brought Off dropped to clever
then to nine; then to seven. sis an
; finally she was scratching aroun
-,& ma lonAlC chicken fO}lOW30