by Milo Hastings, Edited by Robert Plamondon.
250 pages. ISBN 0972177019.
Robert Plamondon says: The Dollar Hen changed my life. It set me on the road to successful free-range egg farming, and helped me understand all aspects of the poultry industry. Not bad for a book written in 1909! Milo Hastings was a remarkable man. He was a poultry scientist, the author of a classic work of science fiction (City of Endless Night, 1919), an early health-food advocate, and the author of one of the first books on the danger of high blood pressure.
The Dollar Hen describes the overriding concerns of being in the egg business. His method of free-range egg farming extracts a maximum amount of synergy between soil, crops, hens, farmer, climate, and invested capital. His goal is to make the farmer money — enough money to pay off the mortgage, put the kids through school, and retire. His methods are simple, and the equipment he recommends is even more so. For example, his preferred watering system is a brook. More than any other poultry writer, he emphasizes the value of a farmer’s time and deplores wasting it on unnecessary chores.
How can such an old book still be relevant? Because fundamentals never change. The Dollar Hen gives us an overview of relevant business and farming considerations. Hastings describes how a poultry cooperative ought to work (foreshadowing the rules of later co-ops). He points out the important factors in farming and management. He even has a chapter on scientific research and it usefulness and pitfalls when interpreted (or misinterpreted) and applied to the farm.
Fundamentals never change. Also, certain fallacies never die. In Hastings’ day, most of the books and magazines being published were aimed at gentleman farmers, poultry hobbyists, and city-dwellers who dreamed of country life — in short, people rich enough to lose a pile of money on their farm or people who didn’t have a farm at all. Such publications, in their happy romanticism and impracticality, were the downfall of many people who tried to put their recommendations into practice. People who wanted to roll up their sleeves and make a real go of egg farming needed sensible, hard-headed advice, or they’d lose all their savings on impractical farming ventures and probably have to move back to the city. Well, guess what? Nothing has changed!
In The Dollar Hen, Hastings guides you through the poultry industry and points out what makes sense and what doesn’t. Even though many of his examples are no longer directly relevant, the habits of thought that he instills in the reader are as relevant now as they ever were. In short, Hastings was a philosopher. But a practical philosopher. Did I mention that he invented the modern forced-draft incubator, or that he wrote a book about the dangers of high blood pressure before anyone else? Well, he did.
Milo M. Hastings
In spite of his deserved reputation as a visionary, he had his feet on the ground. As the title of The Dollar Hen suggests, the book is about making money, not spending it. People are often reluctant to make a real business out of their hobby farms, but I think it’s the best thing you can do. I learned a long time ago that any farm projects of mine that don’t pay their way are soon abandoned, but ones with significant cash profits are never allowed to die. Profitable farm businesses, however small, give you a reason not to move into town!
Every time I pick up The Dollar Hen, I learn something new. Sometimes I take an idea Hastings presents and put it into practice on my farm, with a modern twist. For example, in one place he describes “fireless brooders” that are essentially insulated boxes that use the chicks’ own body heat to keep them warm, and how the most successful use of these that he knew of was as a transitional brooder. You’d brood the chicks conventionally for a while, and then, when they needed less heat, you’d put them in range houses on pasture with a “fireless brooder.” I tried this, using modern materials (chiefly aluminized bubble insulation). It works great!
I’ve edited the book for clarity and added footnotes where further comment seemed necessary, but mostly I tried to stay out of Hastings’ way.
by Milo Hastings, Edited by Robert Plamondon.
250 pages. ISBN 0972177019.
Robert Plamondon says: The Dollar Hen changed my life. It set me on the road to successful free-range egg farming, and helped me understand all aspects of the poultry industry. Not bad for a book written in 1909! Milo Hastings was a remarkable man. He was a poultry scientist, the author of a classic work of science fiction (City of Endless Night, 1919), an early health-food advocate, and the author of one of the first books on the danger of high blood pressure.
The Dollar Hen describes the overriding concerns of being in the egg business. His method of free-range egg farming extracts a maximum amount of synergy between soil, crops, hens, farmer, climate, and invested capital. His goal is to make the farmer money — enough money to pay off the mortgage, put the kids through school, and retire. His methods are simple, and the equipment he recommends is even more so. For example, his preferred watering system is a brook. More than any other poultry writer, he emphasizes the value of a farmer’s time and deplores wasting it on unnecessary chores.
How can such an old book still be relevant? Because fundamentals never change. The Dollar Hen gives us an overview of relevant business and farming considerations. Hastings describes how a poultry cooperative ought to work (foreshadowing the rules of later co-ops). He points out the important factors in farming and management. He even has a chapter on scientific research and it usefulness and pitfalls when interpreted (or misinterpreted) and applied to the farm.
Fundamentals never change. Also, certain fallacies never die. In Hastings’ day, most of the books and magazines being published were aimed at gentleman farmers, poultry hobbyists, and city-dwellers who dreamed of country life — in short, people rich enough to lose a pile of money on their farm or people who didn’t have a farm at all. Such publications, in their happy romanticism and impracticality, were the downfall of many people who tried to put their recommendations into practice. People who wanted to roll up their sleeves and make a real go of egg farming needed sensible, hard-headed advice, or they’d lose all their savings on impractical farming ventures and probably have to move back to the city. Well, guess what? Nothing has changed!
In The Dollar Hen, Hastings guides you through the poultry industry and points out what makes sense and what doesn’t. Even though many of his examples are no longer directly relevant, the habits of thought that he instills in the reader are as relevant now as they ever were. In short, Hastings was a philosopher. But a practical philosopher. Did I mention that he invented the modern forced-draft incubator, or that he wrote a book about the dangers of high blood pressure before anyone else? Well, he did.
Milo M. Hastings
In spite of his deserved reputation as a visionary, he had his feet on the ground. As the title of The Dollar Hen suggests, the book is about making money, not spending it. People are often reluctant to make a real business out of their hobby farms, but I think it’s the best thing you can do. I learned a long time ago that any farm projects of mine that don’t pay their way are soon abandoned, but ones with significant cash profits are never allowed to die. Profitable farm businesses, however small, give you a reason not to move into town!
Every time I pick up The Dollar Hen, I learn something new. Sometimes I take an idea Hastings presents and put it into practice on my farm, with a modern twist. For example, in one place he describes “fireless brooders” that are essentially insulated boxes that use the chicks’ own body heat to keep them warm, and how the most successful use of these that he knew of was as a transitional brooder. You’d brood the chicks conventionally for a while, and then, when they needed less heat, you’d put them in range houses on pasture with a “fireless brooder.” I tried this, using modern materials (chiefly aluminized bubble insulation). It works great!
I’ve edited the book for clarity and added footnotes where further comment seemed necessary, but mostly I tried to stay out of Hastings’ way.
Are you still wasting money on the wrong kinds of poultry feed? Your poultry depend on you to make sound decisions about their health, but the feed industry and poultry nutrition are mysterious subjects. Let Feeding Poultry be your guide!
Pioneering poultry scientist G. F. Heuser of Cornell University wrote Feeding Poultry at just the right time: after poultry nutrition was thoroughly understood, but before small farm flocks were replaced by factory farms. It may not be the newest book available, but it’s the only one with a whole chapter devoted to free range and green feed, that’s focused on traditional poultrykeeping, and written for the intelligent layman rather than graduate students.
Feeding Poultry is the ideal reference for small farmers and serious hobbyists like you, covering chickens, turkeys, ducks, geese, gamebirds, and pigeons.
As you read this book, you will see opportunities open up before you. You’ll learn the uses and quality standards of different ingredients, the value of free range and green feed, how poultry rations are formulated, how to use natural sources for all nutrients, the many different feeding strategies, and much more.
Other books on poultry nutrition cost twice as much for far less material. Even if you never mix your own ration, your superior understanding will give you more options, make you a better shopper, save you money, and allow you to keep healthier, more productive poultry.
You Will Learn:
How to mix your own feed rations.
The value and limitations of range as a source of nutrition.
The use of whole grains.
The use of farm surplus, table scraps, and other feed that would otherwise
go to waste.
What nutrients different breeds of poultry need at different ages.
Getting vitamins and minerals from natural feedstuffs rather than supplements and premixes.
Where feed ingredients come from, the different quality grades, and how
they are manufactured.
Where to get the necessary nutrients in a cost-effective way.
How to spot nutritional problems.
Where to go for more reading. Each chapter has a comprehensive bibliography.
Modern, Yet Aware of Traditional Farm Practices
This book dates from 1955, which was after all the major nutrients were discovered (vitamin B-12 being the last one) and also after soybeans had begun to be used in a big way. Coccidiostats, hormones, and antibiotics were also in use, but they were new enough that they are treated in the text as optional extras. The discussion about them is fascinating, even if you don’t like using these additives.
On the other hand, 1955 was still the period of small family farms, and the text is written with small producers in mind. This is not a dry treatise aimed only at professional feedmeisters, but gives every consideration to the use of range, cheap local grains, locally available byproducts, and on-farm feed mixing.
Similarly, Feeding Poultry lists the actual ingredients you should use to get balanced vitamins and minerals, rather than simply saying that you should add a vitamin/mineral premix. So you can learn all about practical vitamin and mineral sources from this book. This is no longer usual.
This book is part of the Norton Creek Classics series; books from our
past with an important part to play in our future.
Table of Contents
1. The Feeding Problem
2. Objects and Principles in Feeding Poultry
3. Composition of Plants, Animals, and Rations
4. Measuring the Value of Feeds
5. Poultry Feeds–Cereals, Seeds, and Other Mash Constituents
6. Poultry Feeds–Animal Protein Supplements
7. Poultry Feeds–Vegetable Protein Supplements
8. Poultry Feeds–Green Feeds and Vegetable Products
9. Factors in Making a Poultry Ration
10. Feeding Systems and Practices
11. Health Feeding
12. Feeding and Management of Young Chickens
13. Feeding and Management for Egg Production
14. Feeding and Management of Breeders
15. Fattening or Finishing of Poultry
16. Feeding Turkeys
17. Feeding Waterfowl
18. Feeding Other species of Birds
19. Economics of Feeding
Appendix
Index
We’ve written, edited, and republished our favorite chicken books. Our theme? Practical knowledge and techniques used by old-time farmers.
Our first foray into the chicken-book field was Success With Baby Chicks. Robert Plamondon wrote this book after realizing that people like you are having heartbreaking failures with baby chicks; problems we learned how to deal with by trial and error and extensive reading. Like us, you can have success every time! The book has received warm praise from farmers who tell us that it has made a big difference with their chick rearing and many favorable reviews on Amazon.com.
Our most popular poultry book isFresh-Air Poultry Housesby Dr. Prince T. Woods. Keep your chickens healthy year-round! This book is the bible of the open-front poultry movement, an idea so old it’s new again. Most chicken coops are inadequately ventilated, making them dark, dank and smelly. Chickens, like miners’ canaries, are tough in most ways, but have weak lungs. They can take a lot of cold, but get sick if the air quality is poor! This 1924 book is a great classic, well worth reading.
We have also reissued five additional poultry classics:
It is impossible to praise these books too highly.
The Dollar Henhad more influence on us than any other chicken book. It set us on the path to successful and profitable free-range egg farming. Written 100 years ago by Milo Hastings, a pioneering poultry scientist, science-fiction author, and health-food advocate, it covers how the poultry industry of the day actually worked, and what successful farmers actually did, rather than the trendier money-losing techniques advocated by the poultry press of the day. While quite old, it has many practical concepts and techniques that are still useful today.
Genetics of the Fowltaught us a great deal about poultry breeding—enough that we are often mistaken for experts. At the very least, it gave us a healthy respect for the difficulties of poultry breeding, while making us far better at choosing appropriate commercial lines.
Feeding Poultry is the best book we’ve found on practical poultry nutrition—accessible enough to be read by the practical farmer, but detailed enough to be used by professionals at universities and major poultry companies.
All these books recognize the value of folks with small operations; they were written before factory-farming took hold.
by Prince T. Woods, M.D. Norton Creek Press. 190 pages. ISBN 097217706X.
Open-Front Chicken Coops Are Healthier, Summer and Winter
To stay healthy, your chickens need plenty of ventilation–probably more than they’re getting today. This was discovered over 100 years ago, but has been largely forgotten. Today’s small-flock chicken coops tends to be dank, dark, and smelly. Chickens, like miners’ canaries, are easily harmed by poor air quality. Wet litter breeds disease. Darkness forces chickens, like parrots, to be artificially inactive. “Dank, dark, and smelly” is a deadly combination!
An open-front coop during a Canadian winter. Note the snow on the ground!
Closed chicken houses are so harmful that knocking out a wall can cause an immediate improvement, even in winter (there’s an interesting case study of this in Chapter 2). Chickens, after all, have a thick coat of feathers to keep them warm, but are vulnerable to poor air quality and pathogens in the litter; and their unwillingness to eat in the dark means they can starve in the midst of plenty.
And in summer! Poor air circulation and a thick coat of feathers is hard on the chickens. It can easily kill them. Chickens are far more vulnerable to heat than cold.
Fresh-Air Poultry Houses was written by Dr. Prince T. Woods, a noted poultry health expert. Dr. Woods describes not only his own poultry houses, but those of many of his clients, giving the book a breadth of experience that makes it a unique resource. This 1924 book is old-fashioned and a little eccentric, but in a good way.
A fresh-air poultry house during a New England winter.
The Fresh-Air Revolution
The principles Woods describes in his book achieved total victory at the time. Open-front poultry houses were not only the dominant type, they were the only type for many years (until the industry moved to the use of gigantic fans at the ends of poultry houses to provide even more ventilation than open-front housing!).
The principles of open-front housing were even taken to extremes in some parts of the country, with surprisingly good results. In California, chicken houses were so open that they didn’t have walls at all! Just a roof. This method was used as far north as Oregon in the Fifties, and worked at least as well as conventional houses. The improved air quality made up for the increased wind chill.
While the large producers have consistently embraced the benefits of fresh air, small-flock owners gradually reverted to the kind of under-ventilated chicken coops that was common in the Nineteenth century. The need to keep baby chicks warm trains all of us to be obsess over providing warmth and exclude drafts, and it’s hard to do the opposite when the chicks are older. Even during the heyday of open-front housing, there was a saying that “the best chicks come out of the sorriest houses,” meaning that even experienced farmers couldn’t resist shutting up their houses too tightly, and that only a drafty, dilapidated house could prevent this from doing harm.
Things are even worse now, since most people have never even heard of the benefits of fresh air for poultry. We’re proud to be able to
bring the Fresh-Air Revolution into the Twenty-First Century.
Is This Stuff For Real?
Is the fresh-air concept for real? Does it work? Read the sample chapter. It’ll convince you.
by F. B. Hutt Norton Creek Press, 590 pages. ISBN 0972177035.
Genetics of the Fowl has been the constant companion of chicken breeders since it was first published in 1949. Chapters include the genetics of plumage, egg production, body size, disease resistance, and much more. The readable style of the book is a refreshing change from modern tomes written for an audience of researchers. Genetics of the Fowl makes fascinating and thought-provoking reading even for people who are not serious poultry breeders. For serious breeders, it’s indispensable.
Greatly prized but long out of print, used copies of the original 1949 printing routinely sell for over $100. (Wise breeders know that this book gives them an advantage!) But our suggested list price is less than half of this.
This book has been brought back by Norton Creek Press as part of its Norton Creek Classics line.
The late F. B. Hutt was Professor of Animal Genetics at Cornell University.
What’s So Great About this Book?
Hutt was quite a writer. In addition to discussing the nuts and bolts of how the individual genes work, such as the mechanism of rose comb vs. pea comb vs. walnut comb, he describes breeding strategy very clearly, and the various barriers to success.
Because genes for plumage and such are straightforward and the techniques for getting what your want are clearly explained, no show breeder should be without this book.
The last chapter, “Breeding in Practice,” describes all sorts of breeding strategies and discusses why certain things worked easily while others failed miserably, with plenty of examples. It really lays out the options open to breeders and the strengths and weaknesses of each. Anyone doing serious breeding will find this chapter alone to be worth the price of the book.
But Hutt’s use of examples and his focus on turning genetic knowledge into successful breeding practice pervades the book. Hutt wanted results, not just understanding, and he’s good at getting both of them across to the reader. By the time you reach the end of the book you’ve been exposed to hundreds of examples of the breeding art. Forget about the lists of genes that you can get on the Internet; out of context, they’re meaningless. This book breathes meaning into chicken breeding.
One example of Hutt’s practical approach was when he discovered that his data was all messed up because he was using two brooder houses. One brooder house was off by itself, and grew nice healthy chicks. The other was right next to a henhouse, and the chicks came down with whatever the hens had. Rather than build a second isolated brooder house and make the problem go away, Hutt decided to use the “bad” brooder house in a series of experiments that proved that it was possible to breed for disease resistance! (Like all great breeders, Hutt could turn accidents into success, which I’ve always admired.)
People have often asked me if a book first published in 1949 can really be fully relevant today, and let me tell you, this book is a treasure trove. When the same people ask me specific genetic questions, the answers are always there.
Professionals love this this book. I’ve sold a number of copies of Genetics of the Fowl to poultry scientists, people who keep completely up to date on the field. They find Hutt to be fascinating and practical, just as you will.
But the book can’t help you until you have a a copy. Buy it today!
Table of Contents
1. Domestic Birds
2. Cytology
3. Variations in the Skeleton
4. Structural Variations in the Skin
5. Variations in the Plumage
6. Variations in the Color of the Skin
7. Variations in the Color of the Plumage
8. Lethal Genes and Misc. Characters
9. Variations in Body Size
10. Egg Production
11. Variations in Eggs
12. Genetic Resistance to Disease
13. Genetic Aspects of Reproduction
14. Linkage
15. Genetics in Practice
Our first foray into the chicken-book field was 
