The Yakima herald. [volume] (North Yakima, W.T. [Wash.]) 1889-1914, 1911-12-06
FANC|ERS ARE
! GETTING BUSY
bulhy People Auditing Accounts
and Making Plans for Next
Years Business
& RECORDS ARE WHAT
TELL THE BEST STORY
Woman Whose Flock Averaged
11S Eggs Per Hen Finds the
Figures Satisfactory-Another
Sells Chicks for ST Apiece

Now that the moult Is over, the hens
getting down to business and the pull
lets beginning to lay, the poultry peo-
pie are casting up their accounts for
the year and making plans for the
/ Matching season now only a couple of
! months away. The incubator people
are planning, some of them, a small
experimental hatch early to see how
their eggs test out, and to give them
! line on what they have for sale. 1t
takes an early Matched bird, too, to
win at the fall shows, as was dis
| covered here by some of the exhib-
itors at the state fair
Eggs are High
That only a small proportion OF
the hens are laying now is evident
from the advancing price of eggs
while the price of birds for market
is abnormally cheap. Eggs at this
time last year, however, were selling
for sixty cents, so that perhaps the
increased egg output of the valley
owing to the number of people who
went in for chickens the past year, is
responsible for a five cents worth
better supply. 1t is likely that the
local breeders will do something in
the way Of selling baby chicks this
year as well as eggs. One woman
with choice stock has already re-
tceived an order for twenty-five at a
dollar a chick. Another woman has
trecently imported some Buff Orping-
xtons from the Sound which she ex-
kpects to enter in the winter show
MFRS. Anna Dunn, whose Buff Cochine
4ind Cochin Bantams too, a good
many ribbons at the show last year,
3las moved away. She took her best
vbreeding stock with her, but sold
some of the young bantams to local
people.
Will See ii Out
Despite a rather discouraging year
q o far as Matching was concerned
nd despite the fact that pullets for
yome reason have been slower to lay
his year than last, practically all of
he old poultry people and a good
proportion of the new are still in the
Sgame. There are evidences in the
purchase of stock by new breeders
lin the loading up of the poultry sup
Hply stores with incubators and by
the signs of interest and encourage
Anent given to the promoters of the
dlhicken show, that, while some of the
N ovices will drop out, disguised that
t hey did not make go of it, the
f}rst year the ranks will be recruited
AND the industry progress. When the
fact that so many new people went
il hto the business last year, hasn't
succeeded in materially increasing
tthe supply of winter eggs, it is appar-
clint that it is business with fu-
Hre to it.
Winner Laying
Hone woman who has just totaled, up
fter records for the year, finds that
her hens did themselves proud in the
matter of winter eggs. Her breed
lis Barred Plymouth Rocks. Thirty
hens from Nov. l to March l laid
F0SS eggs. This means thirty-six
eAggs per hen for that period Eggs
slbld from sixty to forty cents during
That time, but taking Al cents as an
Average price, which is not overes-
tlmating it each hen earned during
the winter $1.35. But the best laying
months were march and April, when
A23 and 4O5 eggs were laid respect
lively. From March until Septemb Der,
the size of the flock was only twenty
five, and the average production per
hen for the six months 20 eggs. Dur
ing September and October all but
eight hens had been sold, and the
pullets which We're looked to for the
winter eggs, had not begun laying.
So that the ninety eggs laid in the
last two months by the eight hens
gave an average of 121R eggs per
hen. The total for the year in aver
ages was 11S12. At an average price
of thirty-five cents dozen for the
year, each hen earned $3.50. The
woman does not trap nest her birds,
so could figure only in averages I'M
doubtedly some hens did much bet
ter than others.
Raised Young Stock
Besides what she got for the egg
she received 81 for the birds sold
to the butcher. In the matter OF
feed, her record fails to show the eX-
act cost of feeding the hens for the
year, because she raised about 15C
young birds and didn't keep the feed
of the hens and the young birds sep
arate. She says, though, that if il
cost her $3.50 a hen, which she
doesn't believe it did, she still has
a comfortable margin on the righ
side.
During the same time another wo
man with White Wyandottes die
equally we'll In December from
twenty-five hens she had PSI eggs
in January 297 and in March 1852 II
February there were 1873 laid.
Both fiocks are kept in open from
chicken houses and were treated il
generally similar way, thougl
there was some difference in the ra
uons and the time of feeding