I have been reading the auto-biopic, "Egg Farming in California - A Poultry Book," by Charles Weeks. Written in 1922, this book details all the mistakes, and success, Mr Weeks made for himself while pioneerig what we would now call the Permaculture or Confined Range method of chicken rearing.
His observations while often prosaic, are certainly of interest to we chicken raisers of today. Following is an excerpt on his initial housing contructions, detailing where he went wrong...
"We soon began to have our trouble, for the house being so tight and ventilation so badly arranged that the walls gathered moisture and were even covered with frost on cold mornings.
The pullets began to catch cold and then swelled head which turned into roup. We tried dusting them with lime and fumigating with coal tar and every remedy we could hear of, and nothing seemed to do any good.
Father's ardor for the poultry business began to cool quite perceptibly. We pulled them through the winter without much loss and had a fair yield of eggs, but we began to realize that the poultry game was not so easy as we had at first thought.
We did not know at the time that our houses were built entirely too close
(building too tightly, so as to prevent adequate ventilation - David)
and that fresh air is absolutely necessary for poultry, and that hens must not be crowded for best results.
Open Front Poultry Houses were unknown in those days ** and we were making the same mistake that thousands were making - that of housing the poultry too close and in too crowded quarters "
** (This last isnt entirely true. Some cutting edge poultry men of the day, men like M.G Kains and Milo Hastings, had seen the benefits of fresh air houses. But just like the majority of todays poultry keepers, those of that time had yet to recognize the benefit of such housing. - David)
His observations while often prosaic, are certainly of interest to we chicken raisers of today. Following is an excerpt on his initial housing contructions, detailing where he went wrong...
"We soon began to have our trouble, for the house being so tight and ventilation so badly arranged that the walls gathered moisture and were even covered with frost on cold mornings.
The pullets began to catch cold and then swelled head which turned into roup. We tried dusting them with lime and fumigating with coal tar and every remedy we could hear of, and nothing seemed to do any good.
Father's ardor for the poultry business began to cool quite perceptibly. We pulled them through the winter without much loss and had a fair yield of eggs, but we began to realize that the poultry game was not so easy as we had at first thought.
We did not know at the time that our houses were built entirely too close
(building too tightly, so as to prevent adequate ventilation - David)
and that fresh air is absolutely necessary for poultry, and that hens must not be crowded for best results.
Open Front Poultry Houses were unknown in those days ** and we were making the same mistake that thousands were making - that of housing the poultry too close and in too crowded quarters "
** (This last isnt entirely true. Some cutting edge poultry men of the day, men like M.G Kains and Milo Hastings, had seen the benefits of fresh air houses. But just like the majority of todays poultry keepers, those of that time had yet to recognize the benefit of such housing. - David)
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