Indiana daily times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1914-1922, 1920-02-04
TOMLINSON
HALL
THREE RULESIN
POULTRY GAME
House Hens Right, Feed Them,
Keep Quarters Clean.

You may read books, journals and all
kinds Of literature on poultry culture,
which will not do you any harm, but after
you have read them all to succeed you
must come back to the three all-important
and cardinal principles, which you must
follow most rigidly to succeed, says Hud-
son.
Above all else-First, house you hen
right; second. feed your hens right;
third, keep their quarters clean.
Show me ten people who will embed
these three injunctions thoroughly IN
their minds, and mixed occasionally with
little common sense, and 1 will show
YOU ten people who will come through
with a fair amount Of success Neglect
either one of the three and failure is
yours s sure as two and two make four.
The word success with the backyard
raiser and farmer is spelled in four let
ters-eggs. Ninety per cent of you who
have a backyard or farm flock, keep them
solely for the eggs they produce.
= L.
Housing your hens right is the most
important thing of all. I don't mean by
this that birds should be kept in a hot
house or heated quarters during the win
ter or n cold storage plant during the
summer Hens can stand lot Of cold In
winter and a lot of heat In the summer,
but they should never be allowed out
side range in the winter or bad, cold
weather.
Your house should be large enough to
accommodate all your layers inside dur
ing the winter period and each hen
working space to do well. The light
weight breeds can do nicely with four
square feet, but the heavy breeds should
have FIVE square feet. For example, II
your house is Sx10, one-story, which
means eighty square feet, this will take
care Of twenty Leghorns or any similar
lightweight breeds, but for Reds, Or
pingtons, Barred Rocks or any other
heavy breed. do not put more than mr.
teen or sixteen in this sized house for the
winter, unless your house should be
two story affair and the birds have full
range of both floors at all times. In that
case you can double the number men
toned.
Always face your house to the south
if possible. and see to It that there are
plenty of windows on the south side, ana
one on the east will not hurt. Your hens
can not do we'll cooped up in dark quar-
ters. They must have light enough to
see to scratch grain, which should be
scattered in deep straw litter, five to
seven inches deep being best
Housing your birds right will save
Won lot of extra work and will also
save YOU considerable feed. II shey are
not housed right so that they are com
Portable. YOU need not look for eggs,
no matter how much feed you may give
them An old saying but a pretty good
/ one: "a comfortable hen is singing
hen. and a singing hen is most usually
/ laying hen"
If all the farmers would take the
same care of their fiocks in winter that
they do with their dairy COWS, they
would get two eggs where they are
getting one, and in many cases not get
ting any. You clean out your cow and
horse stable every morning, then why
not clean off the dropping board of your
I chicken coop just once n week-twice
week is better?
= + f.
have been able to get my best re-
suits by the following system Of feed
ing: have a flock Of seventy four
White Leghorns, in 14x1j, two-story
house. In the morning I give them six
pounds Of clean scratch grain, and scatter
! If I'm deep straw Elitter and let them
afternoon. Then I put into feed hoppers
twelve pounds Of good laying mash. This
feed contains plenty of meat meal and
dry buttermilk. mixed with corn meal,
wheat middlings, bran and ground
barley. Aside from this 7 give them
a little green stuff every day, plenty
Of fresh water, grit, charcoal and oyster
shell This system of feeding brought
down to twenty five birds means two
pounds for scratch feed and four pounds
/ OF laying mash. Now. don't misunder-
stand me- 7 am not saying that this
particular system used by the writer
is positively right, but am merely Civ
ing you the system that I use and the
results that I have obtained. For the
month Of December and up to Jan. %,
this year, the seventy four White Leg
horns have produced an average Of a
little better than forty three eggs
day, and I am not feeding any gg-lay-
ing stimulant of any kind or character,
and my birds have not been outside Of
their coop since November 10
The dropping board is cleaned on
every week and is sprayed with a good
disinfectant at the time Of cleaning. The