The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-05-14
MODERN METHODS AND BIG
 BUSINESS IN POULTRY CULTURE
Labor Saving Systems Solve
 Problem of Profits With
 Hens on Large Scale.
Matching and Handling of Tens of Thousands of Birds Made Easy,
By R. G. SMITH
Author and Practical Poultrymsn.


 The small flock is profitable. Tens of l millions of small floeks of hens all over the world sufficient evidence that they are paying propositions. The question now is. can the big flock be made proportionately profitable?
 The farmers flock of 50 has ceased to be thought of as a necessary nuisance. It is recognized as one of the small but very reliable sources of income. Yet the aver age farmer is not fully convinced of the possibility of big business with the little hen He is interested but skeptical. He is ready to be shown but is conservative It is well to remember at this point that immense progress has been made in meth ods of poultry culture during the last few years. What was altogether impossi- ble, even at the opening of the present century, has become easy of achievement now because of these improved systems. Improved processes of incubation prove that the poultry industry is moving for ward at an amazing pace in it's methods of operation-like every other occupation from making pins to carrying on a gigantic steel works.
 The difficulty of getting the eggs matched in sufficient numbers has made large operations practically impossible until quite recently. The miracle working machine has come to the front here as everywhere, and the work is made easy. By the use of modern incubatng ma chimes thousands of chicks can now be matched al once where a few years ago only hundreds could be matched. C,1, I,-o, ,l... capacities from 12O0 to 20, 100. The manipu- lation of them is exceedingly simple HuI water heat is used. A little coal fire at one end of the long incubator heats the water for the matching of the tens of thousands of eggs at one setting. In the process of matching the eggs must be turned every day. The machin- cry has been so ingeniously adjusted that 10000 eggs can be turned in 90 seconds. Such device saves an enormous amount of labor over the handturning method. One man can in this way take care of the matching of a vast number of eggs.
 Fifteen eggs are as many as a large hen could cover, even in warm weather. It is plain, therefore, that a giant matching machine with capacity of 10000, is equal to more than $50 hens all sitting at one time. This is one of the reasons why the poultry industry is taking rank with the dairy business, fruit culture, or even with general farming, as possible source of large profits. On one poultry farm | saw an incubator cellar with a total out put capacity of 4S,0oo baby chicks every three weeks.
 BROODING SYSTEM
 Matching is not the only trick to be turned. Suppose the chicks by tens of thousands are out of the shells-what then?
 A matched chicks taken out of a 6000-ca- pa city incubator. How can such a horde of fluffy, tender things be cared for?
 The care of the young chicks has been as serious problem as the getting of them. The brooder stove makes this task comparatively easy.
 These stoves are modern invention. They are built in different sizes and with capacities ranging from 300 to 1500 each. Such are the listed capacities of the stoves. Anyone will readily recognize, however that there is large risk is mass ing as many as 1500 chicks in one flock. It will be much safer and wiser for all except those who are expert in such work, to handle a much smaller num- Der. As skill is developed the flocks may be enlarged.
 This colony brooder system bears the same relation to the raising of the chicks up to 10 weeks old that the great in- cubating process bears to the matching of the chicks. With these two modern inn provements in poultry culture it is plain that the possibilities of the business are multiplied tenfod over what they were a few years ago.
 Suppose we take a hrooder house 14x 2S feet as unit of operation It may be divided into two rooms IA feet square. In one of these rooms brooder col ony stove is placed in the center. Seven or eight hundred newly matched chicks may easily be cared for here until three or four weeks old, when they may be given the run of both rooms. This is the most critical period In the young chicks life. Get the little tender things through the fourth week in capital con- dition and you have them practically out of the danger zone
 Modern breeding on a big scale. there fore is the second great step toward possibilities for big business in poultry culture. A third is:
 THE LARGE LAYING FLOCK
 A quarter of a century ago the highest authorities allowed only 15 fowls in flock. The average floor space allotted to each laying hen was not to be less than 10 square feet. These conditions were in sisted upon as essential.
 Steadily, however, experiments pro- ceeded, the 1ocks were enlarged, and the average floor space for each fowl was reduced At the present time laying hens are kept in flocls of from 100 to 1900 On the largest poultry farms where the aim is mostly for the production of market eggs, the number usually runs from 2o0 to 500 in each laying pen.
 This large flock principle has been found to work well in the hands of skilled poul- trymen. The danger from disease is much greater where many birds are massed together. But the man who knows the and the right kind of balanced ration ming great risks. The la bor- saving factor here is immense
 For example, I visited one big plant where 800 layers are kept in each laying house. One man was attending to the feeding of seven of these ffocks or total of 350o fowls. Had they been divided into pens of l5 fowls each, according to the old method, he would have had 233 pens to visit at each feeding
 Thus it may be seen that the wages of several men are saved by this discovery of the large laying flock, principle. Be- sides, the space required for each fowl on the average is not more than one-third of what would be required under the old system of from P to l5 hens in pen, It is true, smaller percentage of eggs will be produced under the extensive method of operation than by the inten- sive system But the loss sustained in this way will be small in compa rison with the gain in the saving of labor and space. MARKETS AND HIGH PRICES The great cities are constantly increas- H. AL >s. A.