Keeping birds of different ages apart wasn’t difficult when there were “nice grass fields” available. Photo / 123rf
Kem Ormond takes a look at the world of farming back in the day. In this week’s Pastures Past, she’s found a newspaper article from 1904 on how to raise chickens.
Thinking of rearing some chickens, well, here is some sound advice from a New Zealand Mail supplement back in 1904.
According to “The Farm,” to raise poultry, you needed to avoid the dew and not let your chickens run with older birds.
There was also weather advice, “It is a great mistake to allow a hen to take her chickens far afield when the cold winds are blowing”.
Poultry-keepers were also advised to let go of old theories.
New Zealand Mail, Issue 1692 (Supplement), August 3, 1904
Those who have ground at their disposal for rearing their chickens should keep their birds of different ages apart.
This is not a difficult matter when there are nice grass fields.
There should not be any bottoms to the coops after November is in, and the coops should be moved every day.
They should not be moved first thing in the morning. This is where a great many people make mistakes.
We notice poultry-keepers will often move them in the early morning when the dew is on the grass.
The coops should be moved when the dew is off the grass, in the evening, perhaps, or when the grass is dry; and, supposing it is a wet day, it is better to let the coops stand two days, but if the ground is too wet for the chickens, then a little chaff should be put on the damp ground.
We mention this, although it is but a small matter, but it would be useful to remember that the chickens are a great deal more comfortable if this were done, as it is a great pity not to care well for the chicks once they are out.
Readers would do well to avoid placing the young chickens all together, as those who have not the advantage of a grass field are sometimes apt to put them in a run together, and the little ones are stunted in their growth when they run and roost with older chickens.
It is most remarkable how people will hold on to the old theories.
People will still try to rear the chickens with the old birds, but as a result, they lose their young ones, and those which do come to maturity are much smaller than they otherwise would be.
There are two reasons why this system should be avoided.
First, the little chickens are brought up on the stale ground where the hens always run; and, secondly, the old birds get hold of a good deal of the chickens’ food, and the hens grow too fat and the chickens too thin, and it is a wrong system altogether.
When mongrel cocks are bred from and the chicks reared with the old birds, loss will be the result.
This kind of thing means keeping the poultry. The poultry would never keep themselves out of those lines.
And not only that, but the chickens also want sorting out, and not allowed to run all different ages together, that is to say, one brood three days old and another three months.
This we find at a good many farms with farmers who do not keep up to date, as well as those who keep them in confined runs.
If a person has only a small place, and rears only a few broods of chickens, they do much better than if herded together; but farmers who do not make a speciality of this go on in the same old way as their grandfathers, that is to say, as soon as the birds are hatched they allow the chickens to run with the hens, and all together, instead of sorting out the chickens according to age.
It must be remembered they get much insect food if allowed their liberty.
It is a great mistake to allow a hen to take her chickens far afield when the cold winds are blowing. Thousands of young chickens are lost through this method.
Up to October or November we never think of allowing a hen to run with her chickens at all until they are three weeks old, and even when November sets in no one should allow the chickens to run for a week or ten days, as if so the hen takes them too far, and does not brood them enough, and trails them through the wet, dewy grass in the morning, and the weaker ones die off, and then people say, “Chickens do not seem to do, as we lose so many”
Farmers who have a little orchard or kitchen garden should use this for chicken-rearing.
In a kitchen garden, coop the hens in the path, and let the chickens run over the gardens, and the little chickens will do well and thrive, and will clear off many insects and grubs.
— From “The Farm.”
- Source: Papers Past