Arizona republican., 1908-04-01
THE POULTRY BUSINESS.
Both Sides of 1t as Learned by a
 Tempe Mans Experience

Tempe Mans ENperience.
 To the Editor of The Republican:
 Sir-At the request of the Republi- can, and in the interest of those of small means, I submit the following:
 In the fall of 1901 I landed in Tempe a health seeker and was too i'll during the following winter to think of doing anything. But the following spring I began to gain strength, and in April rented a town lot and moved my tent onto it. l bought two dozen hens and milk cow. This tore a big hole in my last Sl00. l was able to get pasture for my cow close by for five cents per day. and I carried the milk from house to house and soldv it. In this way the COW netted me from 90 cents to $1 per day during the sum- mer; but with the increased cost of feed in winter and lessening of milk, I had to fall back on the hens to sup port me and my family.
 I kept close account of the cost of chicken feed daily count on the eggs and the price per dozen. and was con- vinced by the end of the first year could make a living out of poultry. Further along I will give the number of eggs laid each year and the price 1 received for them. I bought two or three dozen more that fall, and the following spring borrowed money enough to buy a few dozens more and another COW. I also rented two more cows The milk from the four cows averaged about $40 per month the year round.
 The first of January. 1902. I rented
 rk, s,1, gave me room according to my gain ing strength. By the 1st of January, 1904, I had figured out that the cost of keeping a hen a year was about S1.25. and that the average hen lays about s2.50 worth of eggs per year at the market price.
 But there was another serious prob lem coming up. Every year I was los- ing about Is per cent of my hens through sickness and accident, and l had not been very successful so far in raising young stock to take their place. The first spring I bought four settings of thoroughbred eggs, and about the time the first hen was matching I dis covered mites by the millions on all my setting hens. I asked a neighbor what to do for lice, but said nothing about setting hens, and she told me tO grease them. I did as she told me. and not a chick matched from that time on, the grease closing the pores in the eggs and suffocating the chick. I also had set a few settings of my own eggs, and all was a total loss.
 That was rather discouraging for starter. so I gave up matching that spring and bought 40 or 50 little chicks and they all took sick and died off during the summer. Out of all my setting and buying raised five chicks to maturity. I began now to read ev- erything I could find on poultry and ask questions galore. and by the next spring I knew all about it-consider- able more than l do at present. So I set enough hens to bring off 800 youngsters, and. To and behold! when they were about two months old. my trouble began-more sickness. I sep arated, cOlonized, scattered them out, built hospitals. nurseries, and worked every plan any one had ever suggest ed or that I had ever read of. but all to no avail. 1 first began taking one or two day to the graveyard. Then five or six died every day. A little later I was buying a dozen a day, and finally carr'ed them off by the bas- ketful. Along in the summer they had dwindled down to g or 30. and had them in a convalescent pen over across a big canal from my laying hens. When, 70 and behold! 1 went to feed them one morning, and they were all gone but three. I saw a head there, some feathers here, footprints ap preaching and footprints departing. I followed them, and found more chick en heads That was the final blow, and went to breakfast convinced that never would be a successful poultry man, and I was disguested generally with humanity at large.
 1 turned out the three remaining chicks to the tender mercies of fate and vowed never to look on them again. My worry was now over, and, don't you know, within a week or so began to have a kindly feeling for that thief. It was a great relief 10 get them off my mind At first 1 wished they would kill him when he ate them; but when I experienced such q relief, I commuted his sentence to life improsonment. That fall l matched out 40 or 50 as an experiment, and they did splendidly. That gave me an idea that winter and early spring was the time to grow chicks in this coun- try, and so far l have never changed my mind on that point. By the fall of 1905 I cut out the cows altogether and moved my hens and few hogs on 10 q five-acre tract 1 had purchased Cout of my savings) adjoining the town site. I have never tried raising any feed except the first spring on the two-acre tract, believing I could do better b- sticking close to my hens and let the other fellow raise the grain, rather than to divide my time.
 In 1906 I leased five acres more ad- joining my place for five years, and put a poultry fence around 1t, and in 1907 I purchased five more acres ad- joining my place on the back. Now have ten acres devoted exclusively to poultry, and five to hogs and a pat sure for COW and horse. I have at present about 1900 laying hens and zoo or 800 little ones.
 The following shows the number of eggs I got each year and the number of dollars received for them:
 19O2-2,304 eggs: sold for s4S.S5.
 1903-14,643; s269.75.
 l9G4-4O,838; s80000.