White Leghorns at Dartington HallCollection: Commerce
Level: Series
Title: C Poultry
RefNo: C/P
Extent: 10 boxes
Dates: 1918-1996

The Dartington Poultry Department was established in 1926 under the direction of Prof Gustave Heuser of Cornell University. Situated on the north side of Old Parsonage Farm it consisted of two wooden laying houses with runs holding 250 birds each, five wooden brooder houses, a straw house and six other houses to accommodate a hatch of 1,000 White Leghorn chicks. Heuser's aim was the intensive production of eggs by a vertical unit, the first battery hen farm in Britain. In 1927, Heuser was succeeded by Richard Elmhirst who continued to develop Heuser's plans for the Poultry Department, installing a battery brooder, electricity, an electric incubator and artificial lights in the laying house increasing the laying time of the birds to 13 hours a day.

Without antibiotics, high mortality of stock and paralysis of pullets was an important concern. In 1930 there was a disastrous outbreak of disease caused by clostridium butyricum. As a result, Dartington Hall Limited entered into and eventually lost a court case claiming for damages against Thames Milling Company Limited in connection with the supply of pellets as poultry food. In 1933 a new practice was begun allowing the birds to graze, but the constant loss of pullet chicks meant that the stock was not strong enough to meet the demands of intensive egg production. In 1936, Richard Elmhirst resigned as manager of Dartington Hall Poultry Department. He was succeeded by Mable Whittingham who introduced a progney testing scheme to improve the quality of the breeding stock. Mable Whittingham resigned in 1942 and was succeeded by I V Benest, but the Dartington Hall Poultry Department was closed in 1945.