Belding banner. (Belding, Mich.) 1889-1918, 1915-11-03
POULTR Y
CONSULTING DEPARTMENT
Cheap Stock Cause of Failure

September and October are with
the average poultryinan the begin
ming of the poultry year. Ii is then
] that account of stock is taken and
books opened for the new poultry
year. The old breeders have been
disposed of or will be within a few
| weeks. The cockerels that will not
be retained for breeders or sale birds
are disposed of and the growing pull
lets counted and taken from the
range from week to week, as they
develop into maturity, to their reg
ular winter quarters. Already on the
well-regulated poultry farms of this
country early Matched pullets are
commencing to lay and are Smelling
out hen fruit, for which their owners
are getting from 32 to 38 cents a
dozen in this zone. 1t is wise for the
beginner then to purchase the future
breeding pen soon, for later on but
few desirable breeding birds will be
on the market, the up-to-date breed
err getting rid of them before late
fall sets in to make room for the new
stock developing. Cockerels and pull
let's, of course, will be on the market
during the fall and early winter, as
In almost every case the leading
breeders have March, April, May and
June matches to supply their own
wants and those of prospective buy
ers, and hence the beginner can al
ways find ready for him breeding
cockereis and pullets at all ages dur
ing the winter. Not so with the older
birds. They should be purchased
now, and the sooner the better. These
old birds are now in full mouIt, or be-
N hn e. ~
and will be in fine condition by the
time the Matching season is on.
Taking all things in consideration
from breeding standpoint, better re-
suits will be obtained from tested
hens than from the younger stock.
1t is true that not so many eggs will
be obtained from hens as from pull
let's, especially in the early winter,
for they have not fully (as a rule) re-
covered from the moult. Bat the eggs
laid will come at time when one
wishes to incubate them, and the
chicks Matched from them will be
strong and healthy if the parent
stock is from vigorous strain and
has been handled properly. These
breeding hens, if from the Simon
pure utility breeder, have made good
egg records, are known performers
and their offspring will also be good
producers. If from the fancier a fine
show strain has been developed, and
the chicks Matched from eggs of
these will produce shape and feather
that will win in the showroom, and
In many cases from the leading breed
ers Of the country, the two have been
utility qualities with
shape and good plumage.
SO the beginner in purchasing has
many choices from which to select his
future stock, and it is just here where
the average beginner falls down, and
here where the greatest good can be
done, where the whole poultry press
of the country will come down fiat
footed and show them that the cheap
stock can not be of lasting benefit to |
them. The whole country in poultry
buying is looking too much at the |
bargain counter, and in almost every
case they are getting just what they |
paid for, value received, but not what |
they need, or perhaps want. In only |
exceptional cases can tested hens be !
sold for less than SO up, or cock birds |
for less than So up. Any good pullet |
mot scrubs that are so often sold on |
the bargain markets) should bring |
from ~ up, and cockerels SIS up. These |
are the lowest prices that the good |
breeders will sell birds of merit at, |
and the beginner will in few years
Sc for himself that to make a living |
those prices must prevail.
No breeder who has trap nests and |
has selected the pullets from their
first years laying that have made
records from 160 to 200 eggs in one
year will sell them for less than SO |
up, and the better the plumage and
shape tackled on the fowls with those
records the more they are worth. 1t
is the same with males. Yet all over
the country today letters are being re-
ceived from beginners asking for So
males, and females at 81 to $3.50, and
of they succeed in getting birds at
that figure, what have they got?
True, in every case they have full val
ue for their money, but mighty poor
foundation on which to start the
poultry business. The So male is fit
to go to the open market for home
and the female purchas-
ed for $3.50 surely has outlived her
if she ever had any
Record.