Today's Chicks (ca. 1950s)

[Music] poultry production in the United States is Big Business one out of every $10 that goes into the farmer's pocket comes from poultry products it's a multi-billion doll business and it brings income to more than 84 % of our farm families every year in the United States alone more than 1 bli200 million chicks are produced to provide for the dinner tables of the nation and nine out of 10 of those baby chicks are hatched in our more than 9,000 commercial hatcheries producing quality chicks is the job of our more than 9,000 Hatchery men many of whom operate under the national poultry Improvement plan this plan is administered by the US Department of Agriculture in cooperation with official state supervisory agencies its aim is to promote Improvement of the breeding and production quality of chickens and to reduce losses from pooran disease the success of the plan depends on the cooperation of Hatchery men men such as Elmer Jordan a typical Hatchery man who's been operating under the national plan for over 10 years working with with Farmers such as Bob Kramer whose flock of New Hampshire provides eggs for Jordan's Hatchery 28 years ago Elmer Jordan started out with one small incubator in his basement today he has over 200,000 egg capacity his eggs come from over 50 special Hatchery flocks such as cramers this morning Jordan is on his way to the Kramer Farm to Cull and test his flock for polum disease as he does at least twice a year for all his Supply flocks Kramers kept his Birds penned up this morning because he knew Jordan was coming out to work his flock but let Jordan tell you the procedure himself at each Farm we change to clean overalls because we know that polum and other poultry diseases can be easily carried from Farm to farm and we use our own portable testing equipment which is carefully cleaned and disinfected after each visit this is the kind of setup we use for the rapid fum test it's a simple folding table with leg restrainers that swings around as we work through from flock selecting to the test and then to leg banding selecting the birds myself gives me a chance to handle every bird in my Hatchery Supply flops those which don't measure up are placed in a crate for the market we like this method of procedure because it's easy on the birds and lets us cover a lot of ground in a sort of assembly line operation to a train pum testing agent the rapid colorum test is fairly simple it takes only a couple of minutes to complete the test for each bird when a bird passes the test we put on an official leg band for identification once in a while we do find a reactor and these are put in a special crate for removal from the farm well that was Jordan's method in some states the tube test is preferred in this test the stylet is exchanged changed for a scalpel and the brachial Wing vein is pierced so that a blood sample can be drawn off into a small tube this is labeled with the bird's leg band number and shipped to the State Testing laboratory one advantage of this type of test is that it is conducted by trained technicians under carefully controlled conditions a measured quantity of blood serum is transferred from the bleeding tubes to sterile testing tubes and mixed with antigen after a period of incubation the samples are carefully read by a trained technician and a report forwarded to the flock owner but to get back to Jordan's method in our own rapid test we of course get the results immediately and the reactors can be removed from the farm without delay while the portable equipment is disinfected I make out an official report a copy for Kramer one for my files and one for the State office this flock selecting and polum testing report is important to me and to Kramer too I have to keep track of 50 flocks complete records on each flock is the only way it can be done efficiently under the national plan all reactors to the P test must be removed from the farm by taking the curs and reactors to the Market in my own truck my flock owners get a free service and I make sure that the birds are off the place before working another flock I clean my truck yes a sound Hatchery program requires constant attention on the part of both flock owner and Hatchery men to help them out State inspectors of the national plan regularly spot check their flocks to make sure they're measuring up to the high standards of the program today accompanied by Jordan the state inspector has come to inspect Kramer's flock under the plan at least 15% of the supply flocks of every Hatchery must be checked by a state inspector it pays to check and recheck Birds because quality chicks can come only from good Supply flocks the inspector handles a few of the birds to determine whether the flock is up to standard here is a good male bird occasionally birds do go out of condition after they have been selected when this happens they are removed from the [Music] Flop as part of his routine check the state inspector runs a few rapid polum tests it's a check on the original testing work work and on possible reinfection of course the inspector and the Hatchery man are careful to clean and disinfect all equipment before moving on to the next Supply flock these periodic inspections and general exchange of information between the Hatchery men the flock owner and the state inspector play an important part in the job of producing quality chicks now you may be surprised to see chicks coming into a hatchery but Jordan buys pedigreed [ __ ] rolls every year from an RO breeder to build up his five key flocks his other Supply flocks are replaced each year with chicks from these key flocks these particular cockrel chicks came from an RO breeder Frank Ellis with whom Jordan's been dealing for years this is Frank Ellis's Ro o breeding Farm Ro o stands for record of performance it means trapped nesting and pedigree breeding under official supervision a hen must lay at least 200 eggs a year to qualify for Roop records of performance are kept kept by trap nesting each hen's production is carefully checked and recorded on a chart copies of these charts are filed in the state Roop supervisor's office every month here the Breeders records of egg production pedigree hatching and sales are carefully checked certain special reports are forwarded to the National plan office in Washington here permanent National records are recorded on Punch Cards the cards are mechanically sorted into family groups and a report showing the qualified Birds by family is sent to each breeder only qualified Roop hens are kept in this single male breeding pen at Frank Ellis's Farm these hands are mated to one Roop male the eggs of each n are identified by number and kept separate in individual baskets during the hatch in the air conditioned cooling room each egg is weighed individually and the weight recorded the eggs must average at least 24 ounces to the Dozen the incubator room is off limits to everyone except Frank and his employees here are ticks from his best families the Roop breeder makes his selections on a family basis all breeding operations are accurately recorded each slot in this cabinet contains numbered Wing bands for the chicks of one Dam these Blue Bloods of the poultry world are individually Wing banded for permanent identification and the wing band number is recorded the accurate sexing of baby chicks has proved of great benefit to the industry it has enabled Hatcher men to supply the exact needs of their customers The sexer Works the cockril to the right and the pullets to the left Frank Ellis keeps the pullets for his future breeding flocks and sells pedigreed cockro to Hatchery men like Elmer Jordan who want to improve their key flock these Roop cockrel purchased by Jordan are now going to Charlie Smith one of Jordan's key flock owners using them to improve Smith's block is part of their deal Jordan's glad to provide them because it means better quality chicks for his customers it is also part of Charlie's regular procedure to replace his flock each year with selected pullets from his own flock the natural sequence of reducing quality chicks runs from the Roop flock to the key flock then to the Hatchery Supply flock and finally to the commercial poultryman Jordan schedule calls for him to set eggs twice a week and he's pretty particular about the eggs he puts in his machines all the eggs from his key flocks are candled for interior and shell quality the national plan calls for 23 o eggs Jordan tries to make maintain a minimum of 24 oz and a maximum of 28 oz to the Dozen on his key flock eggs some of the larger commercial hatcheries have special weighing and Grading machines this is the only way they can keep up with their large production volume every good Hatchery man checks his eggs for color shell texture and shape in addition to weight these are eggs from from Jordan's key flocks they are hatched in a separate machine and each tray is labeled with the name of the flock owner for sure identification modern incubators have simplified the work of Hatcher reman a great deal now they have automatic heat and humidity controls but in the old days as Jordan remembers he had to turn eggs by hand now all he must do is press a button and they turn automatically on schedule Jordans also found that a good Disease Control program in the Hatchery pays off in his operation all his settings are fumigated several times during the incubation period Jordan pulls chicks only once when the hatch is completed these are chicks from one of his key flocks the other hatchers are full of chicks from his regular Supply flocks and they'll be delivered to his commercial customers Jordan pays for his eggs on a hatchability basis and this means more recordkeeping the national hatch ability average is around 70% Jordan's hatches average quite a bit higher this means more profit for his flock owners and more for Jordan as well immediately after every hatch Jordan carefully cleans the equipment and the incubator room first the trays are cleaned with a spinning steel brush then they are stacked and hosed down with live steam Jordan's found that the best results are obtained by mixing a detergent with the water in the boiler this combination of the cleansing agent and live steam does a good job for him quite a few big hatcheries clean their trays with an automatic washing machine that passes the trays through live steam the trays are first scraped and then hung on a moving vertical belt but let's watch Jordan do the cleanup job in cleaning up my incubators my men do a thorough job vacuuming and wiping down when this work is done I usually spray the floors with a portable hand spray this keeps the dust down and disinfects at the same time I know from experience that you have to keep after this sanitation work all the time in order to control disease for the same reason of Sanitation we don't permit visitors in our chick grading room in fact we don't allow visitors anywhere in the Hatchery except in our sales room migrators handle every chick calling those which are not up to standard I guarantee my customers 100% % live delivery and 100 carefully selected healthy chicks in every box and every shipment that leaves my Hatchery carries a livability card which my customers mail back to me when the chicks are 3 weeks old good reports of strong healthy chicks on the farm prove that Elmer Jordan and thousands like him throughout the country are doing their job right yes in hatcheries all over the country Hatchery men Tak part in the National poultry Improvement plan are doing a good job in producing quality ticks the Breeders the flock owners the Hatchery men the supervising agencies all those participating in the National plan are working hard to ensure the production of quality chicks from these supervised hatcheries all over the United States millions of chicks are being sped annually to the Farms of the nation quality chicks to produce Quality Poultry and eggs for the consumer and profit for the producer a national poultry Improvement program Nationwide in its scope and in its benefits means healthier chicks on the Farm These are today's chicks chicks with Vigor that live and grow mature flocks that will produce [Music]