A compact guide to the farm poultry flock
Biggle Poultry Book by Jacob Biggle is a concise illustrated treatise on the management of farm poultry. This copy was published in Philadelphia by Wilmer Atkinson Co. in 1917 and identifies itself as the tenth edition, ninety-eighth thousand. It brings together the egg, hatching, chicks, laying hens, breeds and other poultry in a small general handbook intended for farm and village keepers.
The introduction distinguishes the book’s practical farm audience from an exclusively exhibition-oriented readership. Biggle presents poultry as one part of a broader household or farm economy, while recognizing that it responds to care and thought. That perspective gives the book a useful place among historical homestead references: it considers the ordinary flock as well as more specialized production.
From the egg to the growing chick
The early chapters begin with the egg itself. An illustrated explanation describes its parts and the changes associated with incubation. The material then moves to eggs for hatching and hatching the eggs, establishing a sequence from selection to the emergence of young stock. Drawings of eggs and testing arrangements accompany the discussion.
Chicks raised with hens and chicks raised with brooders receive separate chapters. This allows readers to compare two systems within the same handbook. The volume includes practical descriptions of equipment, including a folding coop, and relates the housing of young birds to their management. The treatment is compact, but it makes the distinction between natural and artificial rearing clear in the organization of the book.
A chapter on early broilers adds a production purpose to this account of the young bird. Read with the incubation and chick chapters, it shows how the book moves from biological development to the decisions a keeper makes about the use of a flock. The methods and equipment belong to the early twentieth-century poultry setting.
Laying hens, farms and village yards
Hens kept expressly for eggs form another major subject. The book discusses the selection of laying stock and includes an illustration of the laying type. The farmer’s flock and the village hennery then receive separate treatment, recognizing that the space, surroundings and aims of these keepers may differ.
This distinction makes the volume especially interesting to readers studying the history of small-scale food production. It does not assume that every keeper operates a large specialist poultry farm. Instead, poultry appears in relation to a farm or a village property, with the flock treated as one useful part of the larger place.
The book’s period observations about costs and returns should be read as historical context. They show what the author considered persuasive and practical at the time, but they do not establish present-day economics. Its enduring interest lies in the range of management questions it brings together.
Breeds and poultry beyond chickens
A chapter on breeds of chickens is supported by the book’s broader illustrated material. The list of colored plates includes Plymouth Rocks, Wyandottes, Brahmas, Cochins, Orpingtons, Leghorns, Houdans, Rhode Island Reds and other birds. These pictures add value for readers interested in breed history and historical poultry illustration.
The introduction credits Louis P. Graham with paintings made from living birds for the colored prints. Alongside these plates, diagrams identify parts of the chicken and different forms of heads and combs. The combination gives the reader both a vocabulary for describing poultry and visual examples of the breeds being discussed.
Turkeys and guinea fowls, ducks, geese and pigeons extend the scope beyond the hen yard. These chapters make the handbook a general farm-poultry reference rather than a chicken manual alone. Readers can compare the attention given to different kinds of birds and see how they were placed within a diversified farm setting.
Finishing, marketing and historical perspective
Later chapters include fattening and marketing, diseases and enemies, and new systems in poultry farming. These subjects complete the progression from eggs and young birds to the management and sale of mature stock. The health material reflects its publication period and belongs alongside current veterinary knowledge when readers evaluate it.
Farm-history readers, collectors of illustrated husbandry books and people exploring traditional poultry keeping will find an accessible overview here. Its strength is breadth within a compact format: incubation, chick care, laying flocks, breeds, waterfowl and marketing appear in one volume. The tenth-edition details also make this a specific historical version, rather than an unspecified early printing.
The PDF contains 186 digital pages, including the cover, preliminary material and illustrations. Printed numbering therefore does not correspond directly to the digital page positions. The local file preserves the scanned book unchanged.
Book details
- Title: Biggle Poultry Book
- Author: Jacob Biggle
- Publisher: Wilmer Atkinson Co., Philadelphia
- Edition: Tenth edition, ninety-eighth thousand
- Year: 1917
- Language: English
- Format: Illustrated PDF, 186 digital pages, 16,825,167 bytes
