—Lancaster Farming, Saturday, February 5, 1972
16
Careful Management Pulled Them Through Locai Marek's Disaster
Wengers of Stevens RDI Convert Floor Pullet House to Cages
The Daniel E Wengers,
Stevens RDI, believe that the
very best care they can give is
what it takes to get along in the
local poultry industry
At 45, Wenger is a veteran
pullet producer who survived the
Marek’s disease disaster in
Southeastern Pennsylvania - an
accomplishment which speaks
for itself to knowledgable area
mdustrymen
Wenger kept on producing
pullets locally at a time when
most local egg producers went
south to areas like Georgia for
their laying flocks
Now, Marek’s has been solved
with a new vaccine and Wenger
has nearly tripled the size of his
flock by converting to an
automated cage system.
In the same building in which
he producedl3,ooo pullets in a
floor operation for the past eight
years, he has just" completed
growing his first 35,000 flock of
Simplicity itself and a minimum of labor are the keys to
Wenger’s manure disposal syste. This covering at the ceiling
of his manure catching area is removed and the manure
pushed by power driven scrapers through the opening into a
waiting wagon.
Wenger chats with Elwood Chronister, right, Windsor RDI.
Chronister is considering converting his 16,000 bird floor
operation to a 40,000 pullet cage operation. In the
background at one end of Wenger’s pullet house is the en
trance to his manure catching area. The automatic scrappers
push the manure through a hole in the roof to a wagon-
caged pullets. The pullets are
moving out this weekend as
replacement stock for the Plain
and Fancy Egg Ranch, Inc,
Elizabethtown RD3, managed by
Claude Hess.
Hess had previously bought
several flocks from Wenger and
liked the quality of birds he got.
It was eggs from the Wenger
flock which took several top
awards for Plan and Fancy at
the Farm Show this year
In showing the flock early this
week, Hess emphasized the
uniform size and appearance of
the birds produced by Wenger, as
well as their thnfy appearance.
He said eggs from these birds
also are uniform and superior in
quality.
One of the keys to Wenger’s
success has been his ability to
keep disease out of his flocks. He
was able to maintain a good
record on disease control even
during the period since 1963 when
'jcyS^V
This is the automatic equipment which event of a power breakdown. Wenger has a
feeds the birds at the Wenger poultry farm. reserve power system which is designed to
A major concern with such a large number > start automatically if power fails. He checks
of birds under automatic feeding, watering, the stand-by system frequently to make
heating and ventilation is what to do in the sure it works.
most Southeastern Pennsylvania
pullet producers were forced by
Marek’s to turn to other oc
cupations.
In keeping his flocks disease
free, Wenger follows a program
of completely washing down and
sanitizing his building after each
flock.
He also takes strict precautions
to keep all birds and animals
away from his pullets. For in
stance, he installs fine wire
around all his vents to make sure
birds can’t enter.
He’s equally concerned about
visitors who might carry disease
into the building and while the
flock is growing visitors aren’t
welcome in the chicken house.
This article was held up, for
instance,until the flock was ready
to move out.
Under the new cage system,
manure is scraped out by a pulley
system through a hole in the floor
to a waiting wagon and hauled
away every two weeks. This
stops the build-up of ammonia.
Hess thinks this is one of the
key reasons for Wenger’s suc
cess. He thinks ammonia is very
harmful to birds.
Looking back to the days when
Mr. and Mrs. Daniel E. Wenger, Stevens space heater, one of several which provide
RDI, are shown this week with their new heat for the building,
cage poultry system. At upper left is a gas
Marek’s was prevalent, Hess
noted that he once bought a flock
that had had 40 per cent mortality
as pullets and had another 40 per
cent mortality before their laying
career was ended. He em
phasized that these birds were
from “a good grower.”
Wenger’s worst set-back in
the past eight years was aboutl2
per cent mortality. But he
usually grew out 98 per cent or
better.
Hess thinks that Marek’s was
probably around before 1963 but
it “really flourished when we
started bringing together these
large concentrations of birds.”
When local buyers “saw it was
critical, they just scattered and
went to other states to buy birds.”
Hess thinks that one reason
Wenger escaped Marek’s
disasters was that his farm is
located among the trees and hills
between the Circle—T Ranch and
the Pennsylvania Turnpike.
Marek’s is primarily air tran
smitted and apparently didn’t
reach the Wenger farm, but
Wenger’s care and management
was also an important factor.
Now that Marek’s - “the only
real problem we had in growing
pullets,” according to Hess - has
been brought under control, Hess
sees a bright future for pullet
production in this area.
It was at the instence of Hess
that Wenger converted his 40 by
400 foot pullet building to a cage
operation last year. Hess helped
Wenger in getting the new
operation going and even agreed
to take a flock at 14 weeks instead
of the usual 20 weeks in order that
Wenger wouldn’t miss much
production time. Wenger
assembled all the equipment and
was ready to go with the in
stallation when the flock was
moved. He converted the
building in eight weeks.
Marek’s isn’t the only disease
that Wenger keeps under control.
“I haven’t spent $2OO for
medication for the last four
flocks,” he stated.
Hess thinks it will be even
easier to control disease with the
cage system. He also noted they
can’t crowd and smother in the
cages which have 23 birds per
cage. In addition, there’s more
uniform size and health, which
Hess thinks results in a more
uniform and high quality egg.
(Continued on Page 17)
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