Shenandoah herald. [volume] (Woodstock, Va.) 1865-1974, 1889-04-19
FAEN and HOUSEHOLD
THE COST OF EGGS.

vi Anto hoAl 49,
Farmer of recent date has an IN
terestiDg article. It says TINS is
a subject that has been vaguely
treated great many times ana IL
has been ESTIMATED" that a hen
would eat so much and would pro-
duce so many dozen in a year, I'M
til the guess of one writer mas
been taken as a reliable estimate !
by another, and accepted as an
actual experiment by some one
else, until finally 1t has assumed all
the force of an actual fact that has
been demonstrated somewhere by
some one. l have undertaken TO
run down some of these reports,
bat have never been able to get to
the fountain head, and finally l
concluded to keep an exact &C.
count.
l had only Brown Leghorns,
and the food they ate was kept
account OF at market prices, and
every day for one year the number
Of eggs gathered was put down IN
a book kept for that purpose. This
flock had the run of a piece oil
woods and a ploughed field, besides
unlimited range OF pastures and
meadows. They were fed every
day in the year, and the cost OF
keeping them was nearly seventy
five cents each. Part of the time
that year corn was &c cents per
bushel, and wheat was about Stu
That year those hens layed l'9s
eggs each, or practically fifteen
dozen apiece, which would have
brought an average OF nearly 10
cents dozen had they been sofa
in market, which they were not
Roughly speaking each hen pro
duced fifteen dozen eggs at a cost
of 8 cents per dozen.
As it happened that we did not
raise a SINGLE chick that year, 1t
was qnite easy to get at the exact
results. Their feed was measured
bu,, a bushel or two of corn, wheat,
oats, etc, at a time, and the ele-
ment of doubt was very nearly
eliminated. / believe the cost OF
keeping the flock was too large, as
there we're times during the sum-
mer when they might probably
have been fed less without de-
creasing the production Of eggs
There is one thing to be noticed In
this connection-na mely, that 1t Is
common theory that hen can he
kept a year on the price Of a ouShel
of corn. The year l kept this ac-
count, corn huctuated in yalue
from 60 cents IN the spring and
summer TO 80 cents in the fall, and
probably 80 cents would not be tar
from the avera ge price. With
corn at % cents, oats 20 cents, and
wheat 80 cents, am certain l can
keep hen for 90 cents year, and
keep her well. AS a rule, quart
OF grain is enough for ten hens IN
O day, and on this amount mine are
doing we'll now. This would be
365 quarts for a hen in one year.
If VIII eat, corn, and oats are used
in the proportion Of One-third OF
each, the cost would not be far
from "a cents for each hen. To
this must be added a tiiae for the
milk, cabbage, etc, that they are
ted. If the hens have an unlimited
range, they will not require so
much food, and the cost Will be re-
duced to the j0.cent limit, or be-
low.
1t is not an extra hen that will
produce over ten dozen of eggs in
year, aud with the care they
ought to have, if best results are
wished for, twelve dozen might be
expected. Taking ten dozen as
the average for hens fed regularly
the year through, and the cost Of
eggs as five cents per dozen at
the outside, at these figures the
farmer gets whatever OF profit
there might have been in selling
his grain at the market price.
Three OF four years ago about
ten poultry-breeders offered a
series Of premiums in the State Of
Ohio for the pen of ten hens that
would produce the largest number
OF eggs at the least cost during the
months of April, May, June and
July. Forly.six contestants en-
tere 1 the competition, and 1t so
happened that | was chosen to
award the prizes. This was a
chance to get at a comparative
exhibit OF the cost of eggs that had
never before offered, and for my
own benefit / tabulated the re.
turns.
The result was that the average
for the AGO hens, in widely-separat.
ed sections, was almost exactly Y
eggs each in the four months, and
the cost of feed was only . cents
per dozen. have reason to be-
lieve that the reports were in the
main correct as to the grain fed,
but nearly all of them mentioned
feeding cut grass, milk, table
scraps, &c, on which DO value was
placed. 1t was noticed that those
who lived IN town reported higher
cost than those in the country, and
nsnallv the more the cost of keen.