Lot No. 1 is broken up as soon as weather permits and planted in
oats, corn, Kaffir corn and perhaps a few sunflowers. The oats form
a little strip near the coops and watering places and the Kaffir
corn is on the far side. As soon as corn planting is over the farmer
begins to receive his chickens from the hatchery. The brooders are
now placed in the corn field. The object of the corn is not green
food but for a shade and a grain crop.
The chicks are summered in the corn field and the hens in the wheat
or rye. Whether the latter will head up will depend upon the number
of the flock. It will be best to work the houses across to the far
side and let that portion near the middle fence head up. As the old
grain gets too tough for green food strips of ground should be
broken up and sown in oats. The grain that matures will not be cut,
but the hens will be allowed to thresh it out. The straw may be cut
with mower or scythe for use as nesting material.
Sometime in June or early in July a little rape vetch or cow-peas is
drilled in between the rows of corn as on the far side from the
chicken coops. During July or about the first of August, after all
cockerels have been sold, the gates are opened and the pullets are
allowed to associate with the hens. After this acquaintance ripens
into friendship the hen houses are worked back into the pullet lots.
Surplus hens are sold off or new houses inserted as the case may be
until there is room for the pullets in the houses. Each coop is
worked up alongside a house and after most of the pullets have taken
to the houses the coops are removed. The vacant lot is now broken up
and sown in a mixture of fall green crops.
The flock is kept in the corn field until the corn is ripe. The
Kaffir corn and sunflowers are knocked down where they stand and are
threshed by the hens. As soon as the corn crop is ripe the houses
are run back and the corn cut up or husked and the wheat planted in
the corn field.
The next year the lots are transposed, the young stock being grown
in the lot that had the hens the previous year.
If the ground is inclined to be at all damp when the fields are
broken up the plowing is done in narrow lands so as to form a
succession of ridges, on which are placed the coops or houses. The
directions of these ridges will be determined by the lay of the
land--the object being neither to dam up water or to encourage
washing. The location of the ridges are alternated by seasons, so
that the droppings from the houses are well distributed throughout
the soil.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account