Belding banner. (Belding, Mich.) 1889-1918, 1917-10-24
THE BELDING BANNER

Of work to be performed in a relative
ly small space.
He reasoned that since chickens will
thrive indoors If kept under proper
conditions they would thrive upstairs.
In order TO accommodate the attend
ant, chicken quarters have to be
made eight or 10 feet high but If the
man be replaced by mechanism this
space will be unnecessary since the
tenant is little more than 10 inches
high. Figuring floor heights Of IL
inches for little chicks and 20 inches
for hens, with 20 per cent of space for
aisles, ETC., he estimates that build
ing covering an acre of ground and
so feet in height would provide ac-
commodations for 100000 hens or e.
100000 chicks. Allowing land rem
tai charge of one cent a chick and
assuring that four crops of broilers
could be produced in year, an acre
of land would yield rental of $4,000
a year, he says, and from this he
argues that the chicken plant should
be located within a city, thus allow
ing for daily deliveries of the product
without recourse to railroad shipment
and putting the plant in position to
fight the middleman to excellent ad-
vantage. Moreover, he reasons, chick
en- feed is cheaper in the freight yards
of an Eastern city than on an East
ern farm, for all poultrymen in the
East depend principally on grain from
the West and the cost of transporta-
ton from the city to their farms has
to be added to the freight charges to
the city.
With great centralized poultry
plant such as is described an enor-
nous increase in capacity compared
TO exterior radiating surface is pos
sible and about the only limit to the
size of the plant is the demands of the
tributary market. Economical tenn
perature control is also possible for
the plant can be heated in winter and
cooled In summer at minimum of
expense per unit of output. The same
concentration in space makes feasible
the use of air blowers for ventilation
and gives per control of air exchange,
air distribution and humidity. Thus
it will be seen that such plant gives
the poultryman virtual control of the
climate in his plant and climate is the
prime essential on which depends the
production of chickens and eggs at
seasons when they command a maxi
mum price; it is also vital in the
rearing of young chicks.
The difficulty of getting daylight to
chicks as a result of superimposing
many floor levels of chickens one
above the other was met by substitut-
ing artificial light. He has found
that there is practically no difference
between chickens grown entirely un-
der electric light and chickens grown
in the sunlight. The cost of the light
averages about half cent per broil-
er grown but this is insignificant
compared with the fuel economy re-
sulting from the compactness of the
building. Two extra eggs in Deem
Der, he says, would pay for the cost
Of light for laying hen.
December, he declares, is the most
unfavorable month in which to get
eggs or to rear young chickens. This
is due to the chickens instructive
habit of retiring and getting up with
the sun. 1t means that in December
the chicks must sleeb about 10 hours
out of "a, whereas the supply of food
in their digestive system will last on
ly six or eight hours, so that for
part of the night they are on a star
walton basis. The use of artificial
light gives complete control of the
cycle of work and sleep and of eating
and fasting. He is succeeding by al
lowing his chicks six-hour periods of
darkness thus making two Chicken
days" out Of each ordinary day. With
the complete command of the daily
and seasonal changes possible in the
plant, it can be profitably operated
throughout every hour of the 800 days
in the year.
Soil outdoors is always damp, and
dampness is the greatest enemy of
the health of the chickens because it
is favorable to the growth Of disease
germs or bacteria. One tremendous
advantage Of a centralized plant for
the intensive production of poultry
and eggs is that it eliminates damp
ness and soil contamination. With
no surface exposed except smooth
steel and with circulating and fire.
quently cleaned and sterilized litter,
more sanitary environment for
chickens is provided than any out
door poultry farm could possibly
have. 1t is admitted that insuch a
system as that described the steriliz-
ing influence of the sunlight cannot
be utilized but the same effect can be
secured, it is declared, by cheaper and
better methods.
| Ooooiiys POtAt ybiCi oNaeS~A ASSo ~
litter il. order to induce exercise
among their fowls but the work Of
mixing and scattering the feed in this
way is irksome and feeding the fowls
in this manner is unsatisfactory for
the reason that the larger and strong
er ones rush in and gobble the best
of the feed while the smaller and
weaker ones fail to get enough of
either food or exercise. In the Gen.
tralized chicken plant the feed may be
thoroughly mixed with litter by
mean of machinery and distributed
whenever desired by means of me-
chanical conveyor. By building the
floors with slight slant the chicks
in scratching gradually work the lit
ter across the floor area to a grating
at the opposite edge where it falls in
to cutters provided for that purpose.
The circulating litter carries away
all filth; the floors are virtually self
cleaning. From the cutters the litter
IS gathered by mechanical carriers
and blown through heated chamber