Evening Republican, Volume 20, Number 286, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 29 November 1916 — POULTRY [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

POULTRY

OVERCROWDING POULTRY FLOCK Disease, Parasites and Nonproductive ness Chief Resulting Evils As the observing poultryman grows in years and experience he convinced more and more that V<■ there is one mistake made, by poultry raißers that causes more loss and grief than any other, It is overcrowding. The flock that is overcrowded is subjected at once to nearly all the* profit killing ills that~*oulU*-Js_hfiir_ to, while on thff other hand plenty ol room is the best and cheapest remedy for troubles caused by crowding. * Perhaps the greatest evil resulting from overcrowding is' the tendency towards disease of all kinds, especially infectious ailments. This is to be expected, not only because the close proximity of the birds aids disease to spread readily from one to another, but also because of the impossibility of maintaining sanitary conditions, whether the birds are indoors or out, or whether the season is summer or winter. Some poultrymen have the mistaken idea that because their birds are in an open pen out of doors a little crowding will do no harm. Ventilation is important, but so are some other factors. The worst evil In close yarding is that the ground becomes foul so quickly. Being forced to stand, scratch or pick up feed in their own filth is a sure means of bringing trouble and plenty of it. There are poultry raisers who think ZiaA crowding in the house In wintmr will do no harm, Just so the birds arw warm. In fact, some few persons believe that some crowding in the winter is a good thipfc because it insures warmth, through the birds huddling tngpthpr. This is as Bad or worse than “crowding 1 out of doom. Another of the evils of close yard <ng is that this means idle birds. Such a bird is not a good producer and, worse than that idleness encourages , „1 1> worst of vices and habits with which the poultryman has to contend. Chief among these are egg eating aud feather picking. Bo.h habits are exceedingly difficult to eradicate, once ihey break out. The best way to discourage these habits and break them is to keep the birds busy scratching for their feed and be sure that they have the proper variety of food. Should these measures fail of a cure the habit is an incurable one and offender had better be disposed of. A third evil from overcrowding especially in warm weather, is the favorable conditions It affords to parasites of all kinds. Unless a constant warfare on/hese pests is kept up, the crowded poultry bouse or yard, Including the birds, will soon be found to be literally alive with lice anl mites. The parasite problem is a comparatively simple one In flocks that have plenty of room, due to a large extent to the fact that there is plenty of opportunity for these birds to dust themselves, and expect possibly at night, they are away from all places that Harbor the pests. There are precautions that the poultryman may take to overcome or avoid tre evils of crowded quarters, such ai spading up the yards frequently, providing plenty of clean scratching litter, fumigating the house frequently and keeping scrupulously clean. But the better plan Is to cut down the size of the flock to the proper capacity of the quarters. A hundred hens tu an overcrowded house or pen will not lay as many eggs as will 50 hens that have enough room. Yet the 100 birds will eat twice as much as the 50, cause twice as much work and probably more than twice as much worry. There are in ay poultry raisers who have from fifty one hundred or more birds who would make more clear profit with 10 birds and do it with only a fraction of the work, but they have the mistaken jded that numbers is the thing that counts. They take a certain pride in being able to say they have a flock of 100 hens, when many of them would be better off by far if they only had 15 or two dozen. *