Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1910-04-13

require but very little time per fowl.
On some of the we'll known egg farms
one man feeds and cares for from
1900 to 5000 hens
The village poultry plant where but
few dozen fowls are kept must neces-
Sarily have larger feed bill than the
farmer and a higher labor expense
per fowl than either farm or COM
mercial poultry plant. For these rea-
sons the villager who hires a man to
take care of his poultry or expects it
to earn wages for his own time is, if
the product is sold at ordinary market
rates, very likely to be disappointed
Now, if the villager takes up fancy
poultry breeding and devotes his time
to the art he has excellent chances of
becoming we'll known as breeder and
making a good profit in the business.
Meanwhile he should have enough love
for his work SO that he will be content
to get back a little more than his
actual money outlay and give his time
for the pleasure of the work and the
hopes of profits later on.
Poultry Farming as a Business.
l presume there will be some who
read this course in poultry keeping
who will be DESTROYS of engaging in
poultry production as a business To
those | would say that after many
years of precariOuS existence poultry
farming is now established as sound
branch of agriculture. Although there
is no greater money to be made from
poultry than from many other branch
es of modern scientific agriculture,
there is something about the business
that has induced large numbers of ig-
nOrant people to invest their savings
in poultry ventures. hopelessly bury
ing their money in extensively equip
ped plants designed by themselves or
others equally ignorant of the business.
AS is generally recognized. the only
sensible plan for one who proposes to
go into poultry keeping as a business
is to begin in small way, either in a
village or on a farm, and keep poultry
for a few years in conjunction with
some other occupation. If he is sue
cessful in this, it will then be time to
consider the keeping of poultry on a
more elaborate scale. A few general re-
marks on commercial poultry farming
will append, however, as a matter Of
general interest.
The branch of poultry keeping that
has proved most universally success
full in a large way is egg farming. The
brOiler farms have almost invariably
! been failures, and the principle is now
| pretty thoroughly recognized that the
| brOiler should be considered as a by
! product Of the egg business. just as
skimmilk is a byproduct of the produc-
! ton Of butter. Half or more of all
chicks Matched will be cockerels and
must be disposed of as broilers. for
with LeghornS and other egg types of
fowls male birds are worthless if al
lowed to mature This large surplus
of broilers from egg farms and from
the general farm of the country is suf-
ficient to meet the demand and to re-
| duce the price to a point which will
permit of little profit to the man who
produces brOilers exclusively.
The idea of the broiler business as
attempted fifteen or twenty years ago
was to produce chickens during the
winter and early spring season by the
use of incubators and breeders and
secure fancy prices at the season of
the year when no young stock was
coming from the general farm This
business, which did not prove success
full then. would be even more imprac
teal now. as our. modern methods of
cold storage have become so efficient
that it is entirely practical to freeze up
a supply of inexpensive summer broil-
ers and to meet the demand the fol-
lowing winter and early spring with
this cheaply produced stock.
Another phase of poultry production
which is successfully prosecuted in
limited localities is the growing Of
roasters.
In this style of poultry flesh pro-
duction heavier breeds of slowly ma
turing fowls are used, and both sexes
are allowed to reach maturity and are
then marketed as fancy stock The
possible profits of the production of
extra fancy market fowls in this man.
ner have been limited. however. by
farm grown cockerels as now engaged
in by poultry packers and by many
farmers as we'll Crate OF milk fed
chickens offer a prime quality of young
poultry flesh, and hence. except for
few markets where roasters from GER
tain communities already have a repu-
tation. it would hardly be advisable to
/ take ND this line of poultry production
A recent development in specialized
poultry work is the public hatchery
This business is usually conducted in
conjunction with large poultry plants.
The shipping of day old chicks long
distances by rail is now quite fad
and has probably been overdone. An
other abuse of the public hatchery is
the selling of chicks from eggs of un-
certain origin. Beginners should not