The theocrat. [volume] (Zion City [i.e. Zion], Ill.) 1914-1949, 1917-02-10
Poultry Talks
By O. L. T1NDALL
WINTER EGGS

The chief part of the poultry business is
eggs. If man is successful in getting eggs,
getting them at the right time, and getting
enough of them, the thing is a success. This
is the easiest and simplest way of handling
! the business.
Some depend on eggs, some make bust
ness of selling baby chicks, some depend
on broilers and roasters, some run large ma
chimes and do commercial hatching-hatch
for other parties at so much an egg, some go
into the fancy line-breed for the show and
sell fancy stock both of eggs and birds. We
hear of their getting hundreds Of dollars for
single bird I saw one at the Coliseum
Poultry Show that sold for $800.O0-a very
ordinary looking hen.
The new beginner, no doubt, had better
begin with the egg business and learn how to
make success of that. Almost any one can
gather eggs and sell them, when he might
| fail in trying to hatch and raise chickens and
sell them successfully. The fancy stock bust
ness needs an expert and he must advertise
and be something of a promoter.
It requires some care and study to make
the egg business pay. The ordinary farm
hen, when left to herself as they generally
are, don't pay for her feed. They will only
lay from rs to 80 eggs year. Careful test
ing has shown that such hens only barely pay
for the cost of feed.
The aim of poultry men has been, of late,
to increase the number of eggs that a hen
will lay during a year. How is it done?
Great progress has been made on this line
They now have the 300 egg hen and some bet
ter. This is done by careful and scientific
breeding. Blood tells in chickendom as we'll
as in humanity Well born, we may say, is
the first consideration. "Like produces
like" This is law of nature and of God.
| We do not believe in evolution in the sense
that by breeding you can get a chicken from
a toad, or frog, or any other species. No
man has ever been able to cross the bounds
or line that God sets. From chicken, you
can get chicken, but not a turkey, or a
goose. You can do wonderful things, though,
| by the right kind of breeding. You can i'm
prove your stock, and bring it up from the
barn yard scrub tosthe thing of beauty and
| joy forever, and make it great success in
stead of a failure. There are mich COWS and
cows that make only beef-the dairy cow
and the beef breed. There are the draft
horses, the thoroughbred and the trotter. You
cannot take an old plow horse of 400
pounds, and by training, make "two min
ute roadster. No, you must start differently,
and get the right kind of 'blood." It is the
same with the chicken.
Some hens will not lay an egg in the whole
year. This was found to be true in expert
ments, where a thousand hens have been
tested for year, and every hens record was
kept daily. Others laid so, 60, 70, and so on
up to 28O and more. The poor layers are dis
carded, for their chickens will most likely
be poor layers. You see advertisements in
the journals for eggs and chickens from 200
egg hens. The really prosperous poultry man
will follow this plan, until he has hens and
f1ocks that will pay for their feed and have a
good bank account.
Many women make hundreds of dollars
| hens.
| know party in our own city, who told
me he sold $444.00 worth of eggs and chick
ems this last year-1916-besides the eggs
they ate, from a little over 100 hens. The
feed cost $4,000 making his profit $1,000
All of the feed had to be bought at high
prices. Some years he has done better than
that.
would say then, as the Master taught,
first make the tree good" Make your flock
good, if you want eggs. To do this most sue
find by actual test just what his hens will do.
Keep record of every hen, Gull out the
scrubs and non-layers, and breed only from
the good layers. This requires good deal
OF time and expense, more, perhaps than the
ordinary man has to spare. It will pay,
most likely if the man is fixed for it.
The next best thing, for the man who
wants good layers, is to buy some eggs, even
if they cost you $1.25 dozen, and even more,
or buy few baby chicks to get start in
fine strain.
A man can soon have large flock from a
half dozen hens. Keep them and their chick
ems separate and build up a flock of pure
breds. You can keep your common hens also.
A good way to improve your flock is to buy
a good rooster, or two, and put with your
common hens. The improvement will be very