Arizona republican., 1922-06-04

a dozen or a dollar and a half to go
against that red balance of the so to
so cents for the extra feed that we
put into the American bred fowls.
Egg production is only one phase
of the poultry business. The other
side is the production of meat.
We have come to a too common ac-
ceptance of the statement so often
heard that the raising of poultry for
the meat does not pay, that it is diff
ficult to even get people to consider
the possibilities of profitable poultry
production excepting as a necessary
adjunct to raising the layers. So adj
verse are we to raising chickens that
there are an ever increasing number
of advocates of the plan of keeping
hens for two or three years
Eggs and Feed Cost
Taking the figures of both the u. S.
poultry experiment station and the
Nineland, New Jersey, station, we
find that the average production of
eggs of Leghorns the first year was
1873 and the second year 124.9. The
feed cost for the first year was S
pounds for each dozen eggs, the sec
ond year the feed cost was 55 pounds
OF feed for each dozen eggs. The pro-
duction of Leghorns for the second
year and the cost of production COM
pares very closely with the produc-
ton of the general purpose breeds
and the feed which they consume for
the first year or pullet year, with this
noteworthy difference that the gem
eral purpose breeds lay more in the
winter season when eggs are higher
in price. There is also another differ
ence and it is this, that the mortality
during the first year is less than II Is
in the second year. One record which
may be presumed to be typical gives
the mortality the first year 10 per
cent and the second year IA per cent
Now lie us ask another question:
Might it not possibly be more profit
able to raise early general purpose
chickens, enough for the laying stock.
disposing of the old stock each sea-
son?
We all know that early hatched
cockerels of the heavier breeds bring
good prices. One Salt River valley
woman who breeds both the Leghorns,
and the heavier breeds told us that
her early hatched Plymouth cockerels
sell for S1.25 when her Leghorn cock
erels Matched a little later but at the
right season for Leghorn pullets
bring not more than SO cents each.
Weight for Age
There is a popular belief that the
cost of raising the heavier chicks is
much greater than that of the Leg
horns. The Storrs station found that
it required 31s pounds of feed to
grow Leghorn cockerels weighing one
pound at eight weeks. and three
pounds of feed and seven weeks to
make Rhode Island Red cockerels
weigh one pound each. Leghorn pull
let's at the end of II weeks weighed
three pounds each and had consumed
l9& pounds of feed Rhode Island
Red pullets We're fed - weeks a total
of 23.I pounds of feed and weighed
four pounds each. There would seem
to be little difference in the cost of
growing the heavier breeds over the
lighter. At $3.50 per hundred for feed
the cost of producing the four pound
chickens would be SO cents. AS fryers,
early hatched, sell for 80 to so cents
a pound, we cannot see where there
should be any loss in growing chick
ems of the heavier breeds.
Some one says: Eggs of the
heavier breeds do not hatch nearly as
well as eggs of the Leghorns" Tests
and number of different varieties at
the Vineland station have proved that
47.9 eggs out of each hundred of the
heavier breeds hatch and 5O2 out of
each hundred Leghorn eggs hatch, or
more out of each hundred in favor
of the Leghorns. Not enough to
quarrel over much.
Now according to these figures,
chickens of the heavier breeds may be
hatched and raised up to laying age
at practically the same cost as for
the Leghorns; at maturity the Leg
horns will weigh 31@ pounds and the
pullets of the heavier breeds to
pounds. During the first year the
Leghorn gains x pound and the
heavier breed gains from / to 9
pounds depending upon the breeds.
The 30 cents or so of extra cost of
feeding is partly compensated for in
the added poultry flesh which is pro-
duced. AT any rate if the old flock
is disposed of in the fall when re-
placed by the pulIets there is a SUBJ
stantial amount that is received for
the old stock. which we figure 1t has
cost nothing for the extra amount OBJ
tanned over. the Leghorn stock.
To summarize. it appears from
these figures which we have obtained
from various sources but all Of them
authentic. that the cost of growing
American chicks to maturity is no
greater than the cost of growing the
lighter breeds: that the cockerels will
bring more; that the pullets of the
heavier breeds will lay more eggs in
winter when eggs are high and that
this extra price received for eggs will
more than compensate for the differ
ence in the cost of feed. and for any