UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION COLLEGE OF AGRICULTURE BENJ '° E WHEELER ' »»»««•* THOMAS FORSYTH HUNT, Dean an d Director BERKELEY h. e. van norman, vice-director and dean University Farm School CIRCULAR No. 186 November, 1917 POULTRY ON THE FARM By J. E. DOUGHERTY The best place to raise more poultry and eggs at least cost is on the farm where the feed, to a large extent, is grown. Poultry will pick up from the fields and around the barns a large amount of feed that would otherwise be wasted and will turn this feed into eggs and poidtry meat. How many fowls a farmer should keep will be governed by the size of his farm and the percentage of the total ration that the farm can supply, as well as his personal attitude toward chickens. A lay- ing fowl will consume approximately 75 pounds of grain and mash per year, nearly all of which can be grown on the farm, as is clearly shown in the following simple, yet well-balanced laying ration designed to meet the present war conditions : Grain Mixture Dry Mash Mixture 15 lbs. whole barley 5 lbs. ground barley 15 lbs. whole milo 5 lbs. wheat bran 5 lbs. wheat shorts 2 lbs. soy bean or linseed meal 3 lbs. meatscrap or fishscrap Vi lb. granulated charcoal in lb. sifted dairy salt Feterita, Egyptian corn, Indian corn, etc. may be substituted for all or a part of the milo in the grain formula and plump oats for the barley. Where sour skim milk or buttermilk can be kept before the fowls in drinking vessels so that they consume from 35 to 40 pounds of milk per 100 fowls per day, investigations conducted at the California Experiment Station indicate that no meatscrap, fish- scrap, soybean meal, linseed meal, etc., need be fed in the mash, as the milk will take the place of other high-protein feeds. 1 Milk is one of the very best animal feeds that can be fed to poultry and both the small and large dairyman may well consider the use of poultry as a most profitable means of utilizing such dairy byproducts as skim milk, buttermilk, whey, etc. i Eeport of the College of Agriculture and the Agricultural Experiment Station of University of California for year ending June 30, 1915, p. 38. A flock of farm fowls should be able to pick up a portion of their feed in the fields and corrals so that the farmer would only have to furnish that portion of the total feed required, which the fowls could not secure for themselves on range. If a ration proportioned simi- larly to the one given above were used, in which 3/5 lb. grain is fed, with 2/5 lb. mash to supply the fowls with a balanced egg-making diet, and if the farm grew all the barley and milo needed, then all the grain plus 5/20 of the mash, or a total of 14/20 or 7/10 of the feed consumed by the fowls, could be grown on the farm. If wheat were raised and the shrunken wheat, wheat screenings and wheat otherwise unsuitable for milling purposes were substituted for the wheat bran and shorts in the mash given above, then 9/10 of all the grain and mash fed to the hens would be grown on the same farm with the chickens. It is evident, then, that on any farm growing the different grains as set forth in the preceding paragraph, the farmer could furnish from the farm 7/10 to 9/10 of the feed needed by his fowls, over and above that "picked up" by the fowls about the fields and corrals. If plenty of milk were available, all the feed required by the fowls could be supplied from the farm. Of course, the wider the range allowed the fowls, and the more seeds, grains, insects, worms, etc., they could harvest for themselves, the less the farmer would have to feed them from the feed bin. Nearly every farm in California keeps upwards of fifty fowls at the least. It is contended by many that such a small number of fowls can be indifferently cared for and still be profitable as they should be able to pick up most of their living about the barns and fields, and although given practically no care, should lay fairly well because of the combined advantages of small numbers and free range conditions. These fowls are kept on the farm primarily with the idea of supplying the family larder and are not looked upon as a money-making part of the farm work — hence the lack of care. They are generally plagued with vermin, have never been bred or culled for egg production, are kept in a dirty, close or draughty and vermin - infested henhouse and not given even half a chance to make good. As a result, they lay almost entirely in the spring alone and not very well then; the larder is therefore supplied for only a brief part of the year. The net profit from fowls handled in such a negligent manner as compared with equal numbers of well-cared-for fowls should bring home to any fair-minded person the dollars-and-cents desirability of expending the time and care required to make the poultry flock produce the kind of returns which well-managed flocks can produce. If it be worth while to breed and handle other livestock on the farm for increased production, why not poultry? Poultry which are as carefully and intelligently looked after as the dairy herd, hogs, or beef cattle are fully as profitable, if not more so when the amount of otherwise wasted feed they pick up on range is considered, per dollar invested as any other kind of livestock on the farm. The following statement will give an idea of the approximate expense and income from a farm flock of 300 hens. Summary of Expense and Income from 300 Hens 5% interest on house for 300 fowls (w $1.00 $ 15.00 5% interest on 300 fowls @ $1.50 22.50 20% depreciation on 300 fowls minus 10% mortality 81.00 5% depreciation on house 15.00 10% mortality loss (30 fowls @ $1.50 each, aver, value for year) 45.00 Cost of % of total feed consumption of 75 lbs. per hen year, assuming fowls will pick % of their feed in fields, @ 2%c lb 438.90 8550 lbs. straw, allowing 30 lbs. per fowl per year, (a) $4 per ton 17.10 850 lbs. grit and shell @ 80c per 100 (fowls allowed % shell and % grit) 6.80 Incidentals (offset by manure) 35.60 Total expense $676.90 Expense per hen $ 2.37 11 doz. eggs per hen from 285 hens (average) @ 36c per doz 1128.60 14,250 lbs. manure, allowing 50 lbs. per fowl, @ $5 ton 35.60 Total income $1164.20 Labor income (profit) $487.30 Labor income per hen $1.70 In Tulare County is an outstanding example of what can be done with poultry on the farm. The Tulare Co-operative Poultry Asso- ciation stands as a monument of what can be accomplished with the hen on the farm where the feed is largely grown, if she be given a fair chance. The members of this association are almost entirety farmers, each with from 20 to 100 or more acres, and poultry is but one of the crops each farmer raises. None of them are primarily poultry raisers, yet they have built up one of the most successful co-operative poultry associations in the state. The secret of their success is that all of them raise poultry with the same care and atten- tion to detail that is given the other stock. They have learned that fowls, like anything else, pay in proportion to the intelligent care given them and that it pays good, substantial dividends to employ that kind of care. In March, 1917, these ranchers delivered to their association from a few to as high as 1495 dozen eggs each, over and above home con- sumption. In July, 1917, 623 dozen eggs was the largest number delivered by any one rancher. Poultry on the farm should be given free range over the fields as far as possible in order that they may be able to pick up as much of their feed as they can. Small yards may be provided, however, to be used during the breeding season for one or more small pens selected early in the spring for use as breeders to produce the spring chicks. It may also be necessary to have medium-sized yards attached to the hen houses so that all the fowls can be penned up for a time when it is desired to keep them out of certain fields or orchard plots, or they may be confined to the henhouses if not kept shut up for more than two or three days at a time. The number and size of yards, if any, will be governed by specific conditions on each farm. A well-designed and constructed henhouse should be built in which the fowls are always fed all of the feed given to them and in which they are made to roost at all times. 2 If fowls are taught to use the henhouse from the very first by shutting them up in it for three to seven days, if necessary, when first put in, no trouble should be experienced with their roosting in the trees and outbuildings. Pro- viding good clean nests in the henhouse and not letting the fowls out on range too early in the morning till they get thoroughly used to laying in these nests, will result in practically all eggs being laid in the henhouse and in very few stolen nests. A dirty henhouse, full of mites and other vermin, will drive hens to the trees to roost and the fence corners to lay. A hen is a creature of habit. Give her a comfortable henhouse and accustom her to use it and she will do so without further bother. Such a henhouse means more fresh-laid eggs to be collected daily, as fewer nests are stolen, and it means fewer stolen chickens because the hens can be locked up at night. In many sections of the state, poultry are being run in orchards. The advantages urged in favor of this practice are (1) that the poultry manure is valuable as a fertilizer for the trees if properly used; (2) that poultry are a welcome source of income during the growing, unproductive period of the young orchard and the poor crop years of the bearing orchard, in addition to increasing the in- come at other times; (3) the trees furnish much needed summer shade to the fowls; (4) both the trees and the fowls can use the same land and two incomes can be secured per acre. There are also a number of disadvantages in running fowls in orchards, and whether the advantages will outweigh the disadvan- tages in any specific case will undoubtedly depend upon the kind of orchard, value of the land, soil conditions and many other factors that cannot be entered into in a brief discussion of this kind. It is simply desired to point out that orchards do offer possibilities for poultry raising and many growers have found it profitable to use their orchards in this way. POULTEY MANUEE The value of livestock as a medium for marketing much of the vegetable products grown on the farm so as to secure the manurial by-product, is becoming more and more keenly appreciated. The general rancher growing alfalfa, grain, etc., who feeds a good share of these products to livestock and then markets this stock, should be able not only to secure his feed at a lower cost than if it were to be purchased from outside sources, with additional handling and trans- portation charges included in the price paid, but the manure from the stock can be returned to the land to replace the fertility removed from it in the form of crops. Poultry produce about 30 pounds of roost manure and perhaps 20 pounds of day droppings per bird per year. Three hundred chickens should produce about 41/2 tons of night droppings and 3 tons of day droppings a year. 2 Plans for a farm poultry laying house will be furnished those contemplating the construction of such a building upon request by the Poultry Division.