Bismarck weekly tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1884-1943, 1891-04-03
POULTRY FARMING.
Another Expert Has "vicws'' on How to
Start Right.

In poultry farming us in other farm
ing signal success through the
combination of a ..business head" in
vested capital, and Il fair run of some
thing which, if we do not call it luck,
means nearly the same thing. 1t is bet
ter to expect only Il moderate income
and fair returns on ones capital than to
dream Of keeping five thousand hens
and gathering in five thousand eggs
every day.
How much money is absolutely nec&s-
sary in making IL start is a difficult ques-
ton to answer, for fifty dollars in some
hands and i'll sOlne neighborhoods is
worth two hundred in other cases, and
pluck which bears the hardships of be-
| ginning, patience which does not give
up the struggle when encouragement
comes, as it inevitably will come some
day, and CHEEKY hope which sees reward
ahead are all to be counted in us capital.
"Beginning without capital" is an ex-
preston often heard, but there really is
no such thing, for if one depends at first
on other work, and spends only pin
money on poultry. his living expenses
all the time should justly be reckoned as
invested capital.
We know one girl whose friends said
that she had begun poultry farming on
an investment of S35, but the truth was
that although she spent only that modest
sum on a trio of fine chickens, some
COMMON hens and a rough little house,
her maintenance in the family house I'M
til her flock had increased to large pro-
portions, and the rent Of the farm over
which her chickens had free range, cor
responded to Il capital of $500. And
that is one of the best points about
raising chickens; can be breaking
ground for Il profitable crop of them
Will" earning a living in some other
way. ~rultivating Strawberries OF choice
vegetables. The farmers thrifty daugh-
ter, or the schoolmistress who wants out
door work, may buy a few eggs and a
"broody" hen to cover them. and three
years afterward sell hundreds of dollars
worth Of thoroughbred stock, but she
should remember that her opportunity
was capital to her.
When one must, in the beginning, hire
or buy land and build all kinds of
houses, he should look at the matter in
a businesslike way, and count on getting
simply a reasonable per cent. on his in
vestment. How many hens must |
keep in order to support a family of six
p%erSons::' WAS 4 question asked recently
by Il reader, us if it We're IL settled fact
that Il hen could support a given number
OF persons or fractions thereof. Seven
thousand hens might-probably would
bankrupt Il farmer, while with two hun
dred he could earn his living. One dol
lar Il year is supposed to be the average
profit from an average hen. If the hen
is young, smart and pure bred she
! SHOULD bring her owner more money
than that.
AS a general average there are one
third as many eggs each day MS there are
hens if III focks of over twenty. Of
course there are fewer eggs in early win
ter and more in early spring. Hens kept
in groups Of six or seven lay far better,
OIL many days every hen furnishing her
''reison for being" So that if one had
300 hens in tocks of fifty one probably
would have 100 eggs a day. If kept in
focks of fifteen there would often be
200. AS a rule that increase repays one
for the cost of extra buildings. Twenty
five ''biddies" make a good, manageable
family.
Before one can see clearly how much
money he will need he must decide upon
the path he is going to follow: whether
he will raise pure stock or market poul-
try, or turn his attention to new laid
eggs Probably he will branch off in
some way he did not expect, but a well
considered plan will keep him from wan
derinS about bewildered whether to sell
his eggs ut fifty cents a dozen or keep
them to hatch into chickens worth fifty
cents Il pound.-American Ayriculturist.