Oxford Democrat. [volume] (Paris, Me.) 1833-1933, 1911-03-14
The Paying Hen.

HOW TO GIVE A HEN CHANCE TO
SHOW WHAT SHE CAN DO.
A letter recently received says: 81
bought ninety bushels Of corn and near
ly half as much oats for winter feed
Hens hardly half paid for their feed in
January" But is this the time to talk
about il, when the long suspense OF wait
ing for good laying to begin is over with
most of US and our minds are full ct
thoughts of the coming breeding season9
Yes, it is just because of this fact that l
put it in now, in order to influence the
handling of the young birds in the sea
son just at hand. 1t does not tally at ali
well with the million dollar stories oil
profits in poultry raising TO say that the
hens of any sincere worker are not &C
tually paying for their feed-uot even
half paying for their feed. What causes
such discrepancy? Just the facts may
cause it. But there have been added, in
many such cases, extravagances as well
as facts to the rosy stories. There have
often been added to the necessary facts
in the no. pay stories a group of facts
which change the whole outlook, the
whole record from what 1t might have
been.
As a statement of preliminary facts As
they appear to one man OF experience In
raising thousands of chicks and of un-
usual knowledge as TO what the average
successful poultry keeper can do re-
cent pronouncement makes most In
teresting reading. This man says thai
though there are individual hens which
sometimes lay steadily quite through the
year, there is no breed, strain or variety
that does it. "a hen that lays half as
many eggs in a year as there are days l.
the year is an uncommouly good layer
The average hen lays less than one-third
as many eggs year as the year contains
days" Perhaps most OF US know tha'
Uuited States censuses have shown the
average farm hen to lay less even than
the numbers stated above. But few be-
lieve that these are the average figures
of the country, because the town poui-
tryman usually diatances his farmer
neighbor in egg producing averages, and
be has never been counted in the poultry
census.
But you who are just planning to 60
in and see what you can do with system
attic poultry keeping do not expect to
carry the average hen by any means;
you intend, rather, to care for and select
YOUR flock so well that they shall lay
we'll above the average; perhaps you III
your eye even upon the 200 egg hen In
the distance, or possibly the "middle
distance"
You plan this way, l dare say: 81
will hatch all the chickens can, because
there must be a fortune in turning two
cent or three-cent eggs into tifty-cent or
seventy five cent chickens. A chick will
come to laying maturity in five months
if we'll cared for-all the experts say SO
and that will let me hatch from March
till, let's see-well, the last OF June, IN
order TO have the latest ones laying by
the last of November. 1t would be too
great an expense TO buy wire for separat-
ing these different ages, 80 | guess l
must risk letting them all run together,
even il the older ones do trample the
Younger ones and steal their feed. IL
this makes them eight or nine months in
getting to their proper size I'll have TO
stand that. But if | hatch so many l
won't have nearly enough house room,
and lum Der is too high to put up more
houses; there wouldn't be any proht be-
fore next year, and that won't do.
might-yes, can sell the earliest pull
let's in November, when they are ready
to lay freely. l guess neighbor y will
give me as much as 10 cents apiece,
maybe 80 cents If / stand out. With
them out Of the way there will be pretty
near enough room for the late ones, and
il they are crowded bit at first the
cpckerels will soon come to selling size
and be- out of the way"
Wha a? You never knew man to plan
that way? Neither did |. But I've
known scores Of them to plan to get
good money out Of their fowls and DO
just exactly the way / have described.
In fact, | believe the majority OF poultry
raisers finally reach systematic work and
decent profits through this slough OF
senseless ways, just because they have
TO have the object lesson hrst and can
not avail themselves Of other workers
experiences. The very one who wrote
the sggrieved letter about those hens
that only half paid for their feed was
letting those hens support houseful OF
late roosters, while waiting for these TO
get big enough to sell for 80 cents apiece.
1t would be better for the pocket to do
as a number of Leghorn raisers have
done-kill the cockerels as soon as sex
can be told and charge the eggs that
produced them and the little feed they
have eaten in the first weeks to the cost
of the pullets. But Leghorns make very
good broilers, and the compromise way
for all who have markets for broilers is
to sell the Leghorn cockerels at broiler
age, when they will give profit, II ever,
There is NO poultry expert that will tell
YOU of the immense profits from hens
which are supporting each lazy rooster
Even the washerwoman who supports
a lazy husband does not roll in wealth.
Kindly apply tho above to the coming
Matching season and give a decent hen
decent chance. Hatch what you car
handle well. Hatch them early enough,
and don't raise roosters that sell for fifty
cents at eight months old.-C. S. Valen'
k;ra In Trihnna Earmar