The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1913-08-29
THE HEN IN NEW ENGLAND


 mighty few people really know how | 10 run a hen farm, large or small. It | Is not so long ago that one of the largest hen men in New England told me, in all seriousness and conviction, l that it is not profitable to use incu- oators for matching chicks. He told me also that a net of S1 a year per hen is all that good poultryers can ex- pect to make. He has several hen farms, near one of the best New Eng land markets, and near enough to market thta will absorb all the fresh eggss coming from not over 100 miles, that can be offered. He is an old, or elderly man. and nobody can convince him that he does not know all about the hen business.
 I know another hen man, one who went into the business because he found that he had got to get out and dig in the ground or submit to rest in a bed in the ground dug for him. He has somewhere around 5000 henss and he makes over $3 a year, per hen, net. l know this to be true. because I had a look at his books, and I spent the better part of a day questioning him 1 and figuring his replies. He thinks | he makes more than net of three collars a hen a year, but I found that he was not quite fair to himself in his | accounting methods.
 I am willing to take the word of the | dollar man, but not of the man who | thought his hens were paying him over Ss a year.. so I went out to the hen farm and figured it for myself. Now, | how much is a hen worth? They ought to be worth about S60 each to justify a profit of s a year. A hen that lays eggs for the market is a. one-year proposition, If the hen man runs his business properly PIi1Iets destined to lay eggs fo rthe market should be a1- lowed to lay but one season, and then Ire turned into meat-and she should not te allowed to make the 7cquaint- Snee of the male of her spe .ies. Her eggs should be sterile. If she is to be- come the mother of chicks. she should be allowed to lay eggs for ike market one season. and then mated and a1- lowed to lay for matching; then she should be marketed. But If a hen is worth no more than a dollar, let us say, for convenient figuring, what percentage does she pay if she makes a net of 8 year? She pays 800 per cent, if I am that much Of an accountant. That is a pretty good financial record. What buSiness is there that pays better? Of coUrse, hens will not pay like that unless there Is a business made Of them, and enough of them kept to allow the em- ployment of about three men, with the proprietor to boss things sell the l product, make the plans and keep the | hens good natured. In New England | there are not one-tenth enough hens, | and there are not 1 per cent of the | number there might proitabiy be. It i is very difficult to get freshly laid eggs in any large place in New England, and at some seasons of the year it is practically impossible. The big hotels and the restaurants absorb about all Df the native product, leaving but very few for the housekeeper.
 There are better records of big hen Buccesses in other sections than in New England, but that is because the far uers in other sections are accuStomedj to specializing in a big way. In New England the bulk of the poultry busi- ness is done as side lines. The farmer who keeps 50 or 100 hens does~not con- sider that it costs him anything for labor or plant, and reckons all that he receives over the. cost of commercial feed as net profit His wife, his boys | or girls, take care of the hens, or he feeds them on his way in from milk ina. and attends to their quarters at | odd half-hours. His labor expense would be no smaller if he had no hens ment he builds during the winter, or on rainy days. Really, the ordinary | hen adjunct to the farm is a source of big profits
 But the New Fng1ander might make | a hundred times as much as hens now | yield him. and all easy! There are thousands of acres ideally fitted for the business, and there is an eager market The climate does not hinder, | as witness the success of a man so far 'nStth in Vermont that his hens can easily fly over into Canada, where he | has 1,5o0f layers and breeders, and has made poultry commercially successful flor more than 30 years.
 4 man down in the vicinity of New | port has several small farms which he | devotes to poultry, and has always made a pretty eood income. He is not in faveri ofS1ncubators, and believes in many of the older customs and meth-l ods- He does not make as much per hen as some of the more modern men, but hefhas been making better than s1 l a hen for a good many years.
 4 man in Massachusetts started a l few years ago without a. cent, getting his stock from obliging neigh bors, and his small plant with borrowed money. cS6w he keeps from 1000 to 1.2O0 hens through the winters, and nets s an nualIy from each hen, not reckoning the roaeters and broilers he sells. NWhy do not farmers keep books in Ruch a manner that they can tell just what they nake?O Another Massa- -chusetts man started as modestIy and specialized on Rhode Island Reds Now he sells breeders for $1O0 a piece, and sometimes as much as $3, 500 to $4,000 worth of eggs for matching. Another Massachusetts man started on noth- ing. and now matches 4,000 to 5,000I chicks every spring He is too modest ito say what he makes, or too canny, gbut his home tells the good story. A Maine man figures that he makes $1O6 one season from 50 White s,Wyandottes, Dr more than $2 a hen.
 In Connecticut and Maine they have egg-laying contests. and the hardswork- ing hens lay about 20 eggs a month. This is more than an ordinary product. Good industrious hens will lay about one egg for every two days the year round Good hens, say, not scrubs. And they must be well kept and well treated The high-bred bullet is the most sensitive thing on earth, and she will not lay as many eggs if she is not on terms of intimacy with her owner as she will if she trusts and likes him.