Evening Republican, Volume 59, Number 73, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 28 March 1917 — Space For a Flock. [ARTICLE]

Space For a Flock.

While it is possible to get along with 25 square feet per bird, a larger space affording more green and insect food is very desirable. For one thing, the ordinary poultry keeper wishes to perpetuate his flock, and the raising of young chickens requires as much land as the keeping of mature hens. After she is two years old, the best laying days of the average hen are over and it usually pays to get rid of her. This means that half the flock must be renewed each year. Since as many cockerels as pullets will be hatched and a certain percentage are certain to die, itiscustomary to hatch each year a few more cnickens than there are hens in the flock. Additional range, with the advantage of a large supply of insect feed for the birds, may sometimes be obtained where a vegetable garden is maintained. At different times in the growing season there are areas in the garden which are either idle ox occupied only by crops that the bens will not touch. The birds, confined to these with the aid of a portabe fence, benefit (without injury to the vegetables. —