The Dollar Hen Part 8

Suppose a large tract of land adjacent to railroad facilities has been found. The land in the original survey should be divided into long, relatively narrow strips, lying at right angles to the slope of the land. The farmstead should occupy the highest end of the strip. For a twenty-five acre or one-man poultry farm these strips should be about forty rods in width. The object of this survey is to permit the water being run by gravity to the entire farm.

The first thing is the farmstead, including such orchard and garden as are desired. This stretches across the entire front end of the place. The remainder of the strip is fenced in with chicken fence.

The farm is also divided into two narrow fields by a fence down the center of the strip. This fence, at frequent intervals, has removable panels.

The year's season we will begin late in the fall. All layers are in field No. 1 pasturing on rape, top turnips or other fall crops. In lot No. 2 is growing wheat or rye. As the green feed gets short in the first lot the hens are let into lot No. 2. Sometime in March the houses that have been brought up close to the gaps are drawn through into the wheat field. The feed hoppers are also gradually moved and the hens find themselves confined in lot No. 2 without any serious disturbance.

Lot No. 1 is broken up as soon as weather permits and planted in oats, corn, Kaffir corn and perhaps a few sunflowers. The oats form a little strip near the coops and watering places and the Kaffir corn is on the far side. As soon as corn planting is over the farmer begins to receive his chickens from the hatchery. The brooders are now placed in the corn field. The object of the corn is not green food but for a shade and a grain crop.

The chicks are summered in the corn field and the hens in the wheat or rye. Whether the latter will head up will depend upon the number of the flock. It will be best to work the houses across to the far side and let that portion near the middle fence head up. As the old grain gets too tough for green food strips of ground should be broken up and sown in oats. The grain that matures will not be cut, but the hens will be allowed to thresh it out. The straw may be cut with mower or scythe for use as nesting material.

Sometime in June or early in July a little rape vetch or cow-peas is drilled in between the rows of corn as on the far side from the chicken coops. During July or about the first of August, after all c.o.c.kerels have been sold, the gates are opened and the pullets are allowed to a.s.sociate with the hens. After this acquaintance ripens into friendship the hen houses are worked back into the pullet lots.

Surplus hens are sold off or new houses inserted as the case may be until there is room for the pullets in the houses. Each coop is worked up alongside a house and after most of the pullets have taken to the houses the coops are removed. The vacant lot is now broken up and sown in a mixture of fall green crops.

The flock is kept in the corn field until the corn is ripe. The Kaffir corn and sunflowers are knocked down where they stand and are threshed by the hens. As soon as the corn crop is ripe the houses are run back and the corn cut up or husked and the wheat planted in the corn field.

The next year the lots are transposed, the young stock being grown in the lot that had the hens the previous year.

If the ground is inclined to be at all damp when the fields are broken up the plowing is done in narrow lands so as to form a succession of ridges, on which are placed the coops or houses. The directions of these ridges will be determined by the lay of the land--the object being neither to dam up water or to encourage washing. The location of the ridges are alternated by seasons, so that the droppings from the houses are well distributed throughout the soil.

This system with the particular crops found that do best in the locality, give us an ideal method of poultry husbandry. We have kept hens and young stock supplied with green food the year round; we have utilized every particle of manure without one bit of labor. We have a rotation of crops. We have the benefits to the ground of several green crops turned under. We have raised one grain crop per year on most of the ground. We have no labor in feeding and watering except the keeping of the grain, beef and grit hoppers filled, and the water system in order.

The number of fowls that may be kept per acre will be determined by the richness of the soil. The chief object of the entire scheme is to provide abundant green pasture at all times and to allow the production of a reasonable amount of grain. With one hundred hens per acre on the entire tract, and with houses containing eighty hens each, it will be necessary to set the houses ninety-five feet apart.

This will give the flock a tract of 95 by 330 feet in which to pasture.

The above estimate with a little land allowed for house, garden, orchard and a little cow and team pasture, will permit the keeping of two thousand hens on a twenty-five acre farm. In regions where grain is to be raised most farmers would want more land. They may also wish to own a few extra cows, hogs, etc., or to alternate the entire poultry operations with some crop that will, on such highly fertilized land, give a good cash profit. Forty acres is a good size for such uses.

The cost of land when purchased in large tracts in Virginia is very small, but the cost of clearing is often much more than that of the land. Twenty-five to fifty dollars an acre should secure such a tract of land and put it in shape for poultry farming.

The cost of the farm home, etc., will, of course vary altogether with the taste of the occupant. If they are constructed by a central company, from five hundred to a thousand dollars should cover the amount.

The cost of poultry buildings and equipment used on the farm will depend largely on the efficiency of the labor of construction. If constructed in large numbers by a central company, the cost would be reduced, but the company would expect to make a profit on their work.

A plot laid out for two thousand hens will require in material: 250 rods of fence with 6-ft. netting which should cost about fifty cents a rod. My estimate of this fence put up would be $150. If the neighboring field contained no other poultry, a portion of this fence might be done away with, although its protection against dogs and strangers may be worth while. Of course, if poultry fields of different owners lay adjoining, the fence must be used, but the cost will be reduced one-half.

The next most expensive piece of equipment will be a line of about eighty rods of 3/4 in. gas pipe and about fifty elbows and twenty-five galvanized iron pans. The cost of installation will depend largely on how deep it is necessary to go to get below the frost line. One hundred and seventy-five dollars should cover cost of material and by the use of a plow the line ought to be put in for twenty-five dollars.

The source of water, and the cost of getting a head, will necessarily vary with the location. The installation of a wind mill and tank to hold supply for several days, or of a small gasoline engine, would cost in the neighborhood of one hundred dollars, but it is a luxury that may be dispensed with if the well is not too deep.

The houses for the hens, of which there are twenty-five, are constructed in accordance with some of the plans previously discussed. The cost should be about twenty-five cents per hen.

At least twice as many brooders as colony coops will be needed as there are hen houses, but of the lamps and hovers not over twenty-five will be required, as the chicks soon outgrow the need of this aid.

This makes a list of equipment required for the keeping of two thousand layers and their replenishing:

25 acres of farm land, at $50 per acre $1250.00 250 rods of fence 150.00 One farmstead 1000.00 One team, plow and farm implements 300.00 One watering system 300.00 25 hen houses, at $20 500.00 50 colony coops, at $2.50 150.00 25 lamps and hovers, at $5 125.00 -------- $3775.00

[Transcriber's note: "50 colony coops, at $2.50" is $125.00, not $150. The total should therefore be $3750 rather than $3775. This was, presumably, a printing error, because the correct total is used in the further calculations below.]

This is a good, liberal capitalization. The business can be started with much less. Figured interest at 6 per cent. we have $225.00 per year.

The upkeep of the plant will be about 15 per cent. on the capital, not counting land. This equals $375, which, added to interest, gives an annual overhead expense of $600, which is our first item to be set against gross receipts.

The cost of operation will involve cost of chicks at hatchery, purchased feed, seed for ground, and feed for team.

The price of chicks at the Petaluma hatcheries is from six to eight cents each. We expect to raise enough pullets to make up for the accidental losses, and to renew bulk of the flock each year. The number required will, of course, depend upon the loss. This loss will be much less when the chicks are obtained from a modern moisture controlled hatchery, than from the box type incubator. I think a 33 per cent. loss is a liberal estimate, but as I am treading on unproven ground, I will make that loss 40 per cent., which is on a par with old style methods. To replace 1,000 hens, this will require 3,500 chicks at a cost of about two hundred and fifty dollars.

Green pasturage throughout the year will materially cut down the cost of feed. The corn consumed out of the hoppers will be about one bushel per hen. The beef sc.r.a.p will also be less than with yarded fowls, perhaps twenty-five cents per hen. Now, of the corn we will raise on the land, at least ten acres. This should yield us five hundred bushels. This leaves fifteen hundred bushels of corn to be purchased. At the present high rates, this will cost $1,000 which, added to beef sc.r.a.p cost, makes an outside feed cost of $1,500. The seed cost of rye, rape, cow-peas, etc., will amount to about $50 per annum. For expense of production we have:

Interest and upkeep of plant $600.00 Chicks 250.00 Purchased corn 1000.00 Beef sc.r.a.p and grit 500.00 Seed 50.00 Team feed 100.00 --------- $2,500.00

This figures out the cost of production at a little more than a dollar per hen. The income from the place should be about as follows: Eleven hundred c.o.c.kerels sold as squab broilers at 40 cents each, $440.00; four hundred and seventy-five old hens at 30 cents, $140.00.

The receipts from egg yield are, of course, impossible of very accurate calculation, for it is here that the personal element that determines success or failure enters. The Arkansas per-hen-day figures (see last chapter), multiplied by the average quotation for extras in the New York market, will be as fair as any, and certainly cannot be considered a high estimate, as it is only 113 eggs per hen per year.

Price per doz Income for Eggs per Extras month from hen day in New York 2000 layers --------------------------------------------- January .32 $ .30 $494.00 February .30 .29 404.00 March .62 .22 700.00 April .38 .19 350.00 May .44 .19 429.00 June .42 .18 377.00 July .34 .21 367.00 August .38 .22 429.00 September .21 .25 262.00 October .22 .28 316.00 November .18 .33 267.00 December .15 .32 246.00 --------- Total $4,641.00

The total income as figured will be $5,221. From this subtract the cost of production, and we have still nearly $3,000, which is to be combined item of wages and profit. We have entered no labor bill because this is to be a one-man farm, and with the a.s.sistance of the public hatchery and co-operative marketing a.s.sociation, which will send a wagon right to a man's door to gather the eggs, it is entirely feasible for one man to attend to two thousand hens. In the rush spring season other members of the family will have to turn out and help, or a man may be hired to attend the plowing and rougher work.

This is a good handsome income, and yet the above price of the man's labor--it is only about one dollar per hen, which has always been the estimated profit of successful poultry keeping. As a matter of fact, this profit is seldom reached under the old system of poultry keeping, not because the above gross income cannot be reached, but because the expenses are greater. Under the present methods, with the exception of the rearing of the young chicks, one man can easily take care of three thousand hens. Indeed, practically the only work in their care is cultivating the ground and hauling around and dumping into hoppers, about two loads of feed per week.

But, young chicks must be reared, and this is more laborious. For this reason I advise going into some other industry on a part of the land, which will not require attention in the young chick season.

One of the best things for this purpose is the cultivation of cane fruits as blackberries, raspberries and dewberries. The work of caring for these can be made to fall wholly without the young chick season. Peaches and grapes for a slower profit can be added, but spraying and cultivation of these is more liable to take spring labor. All these fruits have the advantage of doing well in the same kind of soil recommended for chickens. Young chickens may be grown around such berry crops and removed to permanent quarters before the berries ripen. Strawberries would be a very poor crop because their labor falls in the chick season.

Another plan, and perhaps a better one, is to have about three fields, and rotate in such a manner that a marketable crop may be always kept growing in the third field. Any crop may be selected, the chief labor of which falls between July and the following March.

Late cabbage and potatoes, or celery, will do if the ground is suitable for these crops. Kale and spinach are staple fall crops.

Fall lettuce could also be grown. If the market is glutted on such crops, they can be fed out at home. Whenever a field is vacant, have some crop growing on it, if only for purposes of green manuring.

Never let sandy ground lie fallow.

A modification of the above plans suited to heavier ground, is to seed down the entire farm to gra.s.s. It is then divided into three fields and provided with three sets of colony houses. Coops are entirely dispensed with, and cheap indoor brooders are used in the permanent houses. The pullets stay in these same houses in the same field until the moulting season of the third year, or until they are two and a half years old. One field will always be vacant during the fall and winter season which time may be utilized for fresh seeding.

The difficulty of maintaining a sod will necessitate somewhat heavier soil than by the previous plan. The houses should be moved around occasionally, as the gra.s.s kills out in the locality. This plan is a lazy man's way, taking the least labor of any method of poultry keeping known. It is adapted to the cheaper ground in the region farthest from market. On the Atlantic seaboard, the more enterprising man will use the third field for rotation, and sell some of the fertility of the western grain in the form of a truck crop.

Five Acre Poultry Farms.

Can a living for a family be made from a five acre poultry farm?

Yes; by individual effort, where the marketing opportunities are good; by corporate or co-operate effort, any place where the fundamental conditions are right.

This type of poultry farm is well suited for development near our large cities, where the cry of "back to the land" has filled with new hope the discouraged dweller in flat and tenement. No greater chance for humanitarian work, and at the same time no greater business opportunity, is open to-day than that of the promotion of colonies of small poultry and truck farms where the parent colony not only sells the land, but helps the settler to establish himself in the business and to successfully market the product. The natural location for such projects is in the sandy soils of New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland and Virginia.

We have already discussed the twenty-five acre farm, representing the largest probable unit for such an enterprise. We will now discuss the five acre farm which represents the smallest probable unit.

On the five-acre farm a considerable difference of methods will be necessary. In the first place, it is to be a horseless farm. All hauling and plowing must be attended to by the central company, or the same results could be obtained by a team owned in common by a small group, say of six farmers, each of whom is to use the team one day of the week.

A single isolated farmer in a community of farms or market gardeners, could hire a team by the day as he needed it. I do not recommend this scheme, however, but would suggest that the single individual get a larger plot of ground, at least ten acres, and a team of his own. In the co-operative community the five-acre teamless farm is entirely feasible.

The tract should be surveyed about twice as long as wide, which, for five acres, makes it 20 by 40 rods, or 330 by 660 feet. Measure off a strip one hundred feet back from the road. Fence the remainder of the tract. Now run a part.i.tion fence down the center until we have come to within twelve rods of the back side. Here run a cross fence.

This gives us three yards of about one and one-half acres each. The gates are arranged so that one pa.s.ses through the three yards in a single trip.