Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1886-02-05
Poultry Accounts.

With each week we are receiving accounts
from various sources showing the profits of
the poultry business. A careful reading of
these will enable any one to see that the
claims we have publicly made are more than
realized by individuals keeping accurate &C.
counts These claims have been severely
criticised by some writer's, but the fact still
remains that any one who will commence at
the bottom of the ladder, and attend to the
details of the business, can realize more than
we have claimed. Because of the importance
of little things we have urged the necessity
of keeping an itemized account. Wherever
this has been kept the ratio of profit has been
greatest. In successful poultry growing,
where few cents worth of grain wasted each
day tells the story of profit or loss it be-
comes an important matter to study the econ
Omy of feeding
We must seek to know the minimum guam
tity of food that will maintain productive
ness and sustain the health of the fowl. Too
often the opposite is reached, and we feed the
hens all they will eat There is a golden
mean. Starved fowls cannot lay, for the food
given is consumed in sustaining the demands
of the body. New tissues are constantly
forming, and only when the demand for these
is supplied can the production of eggs be car
ried forward successfully.
An egg represents so much concentrated
food-wheat, oats, barley, corn, meat, vege-
tables and ground bone-transformed, in the
wonderful mechanism of the hen into yolk,
albumen and shell. There must be the very
best condition of health in order to secure
these eggs regularly therefore it will not do
to starve our hens. Neither can we afford to
overfeed. When a certain condition has been
reached an excess of food will only serve to
add surplus fat, and an overfat hen cannot
produce well-formed eggs with any degree of
rppularit Tbaga facts In
observing breeder or feeder. Being so, they
furnish ample proof of the necessity for some
simple system of account by which we may
determine the amount and variety of food
necessary to keep the hens in the best posi-
BILE condition. With the saving of the excess
of food there comes additional profit, for an
increase of eggs will surely follow an APP
proach to right conditions.
This account should be simple and plain, SO
that the exact amount of food used each day
can be determined, and the results closely
watched. The hens should be examined on
the roost, and their condition noted-whether
too poor to lay or over-fat. Because of the
importance of these details many who en-
bark in the business fail to realize a profit,
and soon fall out by the way, complaining
that they have been misled by others. Every
man or woman engaged in this business should
know whether there is profit or not, and that
huOhlthBt thn Ohly CUulb luTOuRu bOu6 byb-
tenn of accounts by which the actual cost of
producing each pound of meat and egg can
be accurately determined.
The majority of foeks confined are to day
overfat, though this will have special refer
ence to the larger breeds. Suppose that q
pen of II be selected with which to expert
ment their condition noted and the weight
of each kind of grain fed for the month; also
the number of eggs received daily. In this
way we can determine the quantity necessary
for the entire flock. 1t is not the quantity Of
food consumed that tells the story of good
health and productveness but the amount
taken mp, thoroughly digested and assimilat
ed. The greater the activity of the flock the
better the health and the larger the number
of eggs With the prices realized in 1885 fo
eggs and poultry, any one who will study
economy in feeding and attend to the chick
can realize net profit of 81 per head TO
each hen kept
There is no question about this. We hsv
the evidence at hand from 80 many source
that the claim is not extravagant in the least
The majority of these parties are keeping bu
one variety, and by their system of accounts
which We have examined, have clearly dem
onstrated the fact that there is great profit il
practical poultry keeping. -Mdine Farmer
A net profit of 81 for each hen, as elaine,
above, has no doubt been realized by fey
individuals, but any one who goes into tn
hen business expecting such profit as mat
ter of course will pretty certainly DO disap
pointed. One hundred eggs year is prob
ably fully an average, and the average pric
falls below 20 cents OF the two nearly a
are agreed that eggs are more profitable tina
chickens yet we have seen accounts tina
professed to show a net profit from eggs an
chickens Of three or four dollars for eac
hen. Il is to shade down these extravagau
claims, not to discourage the poultry bushes
which If skillfully managed is fairly profit
ahle-that these oomments are added.