THE NEW POULTRY FARMING

Wanganui Chronicle, Issue 12857, 24 December 1912, Page 6

THE NEW POULTRY FARMING

"Chickens' Elate," "Electric Lit Homes for Hens," "Artificial Dusk for Roosting"—are startling headings in a recent issue of the "Daily Mail," one of whose many activities is the development of the- poultry industry in the Old Country. By providing these luxuries,, it is explained paradoxically, it is possible for a man with only a backyard to go in for poultry farming on a big scale. Hens are kept on the -bungalow > system, .and chickens in flats. A bungalow room 25ft iby 16ft is reckoned quito large enough for one hundred hens. On the wooden floor of this wooden house deep straw is laid, and all the food of the hens is scattered in it, so that they must work hard for their living. How hard they work is shown by the fact that they rapidly induce the straw to chaff, and as they do this fresh straw is added. Hens used in experiments lasting two years have kept at least as healthy as country Ji ens with a parish to roam over, and the egg records have been extraordinary. In the newest bungalows electric light is used, and a device has been introduced by which the light wanes slowly during half an hour. By these means th© birds enjoy long periods of light, and get into the habit of going to roosfc at the same hour, and the effect on their health is said to be wonderful. effect is not less remarkable in the case of chickens. They are kept in low, well-lit flats, spending a week or two on each floor, the numbers in each room being progressively reduced as the ageof the chickens increases. These "intensive bungalow" birds grow considerably faster than ordinary birds, just as French vegetables grown under the intensive system come on much more quickly than those produced under plain methods. The "Daily Mail" says these new methods are being widely adopted, and predicts a great future for English poultry farming, but doubtless critical folk will continue to argue that poultry raising does not pay—except when pursued in Mark Twain's fashion.