Evening star., 1938-08-07
CHICK SEXEXPERT
GETS $120 A DAY
When He Couldn't Get a Job
Youth Took Up Unusual
OCCUPATION.
By WILLIAM HENRY WRIGHT.

for q days works the earning ca
pacity developed by 26-year-old Ches-
ter Pilch Of Feeding Hills. near here.
In the seven years since he graduated
from high school and walked the
streets a typical jobless youth turned
down by employment managers at
every door in the darkest days of the
depression.
He has made himself New England's
leading specialist in new line-the
sexing OF day-old chicks. His services
are in wide demand by big poultry
raisers all over the area. What is
more. he has built up from his
mothers small flock of Is scrubby
hens his own hatchery with 1000
pure-bred layers and a production
capacity of $4,000 chicks a week from
two 30.000-egg incubators.
To date this year alone he has
sold 250000 chicks and sexed over
100000 of his own and other poultry
men. Recently he purchased a no.
acre farm. The total value of property
he has amassed runs we'll into five
figures. although he started from
scratch in time when the doors OF
opportunity were commonly said to
be shut in the faces of youth.
Lived on Small Farm.
Pilch. who is of Polish parentage.
lived with his family on two acres
nf in,
father was a carpenter and Jack-of-
all-trades who worked desultorily and
raised some fruit and garden truck
on his little farm There had, of
course, been a flock of chickens and
while Pilch was in high school he
had become interested in poultry and
had joined unit of the widespread
All organization committed to en-
couraging boys and girls on the land
During his high school days Pilch
purchased 200 chicks. raised them
and sold them at profit
But when he was graduated in 1881
the farm seemed to hold little oppor-
tunity for him ana he came here to
find a Job. However. jobs were scarce
and he was turned down everywhere
at factory and warehouse After a
disheartening winter he decided to
return to the land and. in the spring
Of 1882, he made the rounds of first
class poultrymen and finally selected
a strain of pure bred Rhode Island
Reds. of which he purchased 500
This was the foundation of mis- present
business
Hitchhiked TO Fortune.
In the fall of 1888 All Club men,
bers were told professor at the State
college was giving a course in a new
subject-the sexing of day-old chicks.
Pilch was one of class of eight to
respond. hitchhiking once a week to
the college for instruction
As is commonly known, an average
batch of eggs when Matched will yield
an equal number of pullets and
cockerels. The former are raised for
egg-laying and the latter are sold off
as broilers. For the egg man the
pullets are the real producers. while
the broilers are often disposed of at
small. if any, profit. Yet for some
weeks of growth the two sexes are
indistinguishable to the outward
eye and. during this time, the cock
erels have to be fed. housed and cared
for, taking up space. time and labor
to no great profit to the egg man.
For full efficiency he must concen-
trate on pullets.
The way to tell the sexes apart
when newly Matched was known to
the Chinese long ago. But the knoWl-
edge was of no special commercial
value to them in their scale OF living
and so it was put to no practical use
More recently the japanese, with a
keener eye to efficiency and subject
to greater pressures in feeding and
housing poultry. acquired the tech
nique from the Chinese. In the early
years of the present decade Japanese
experts came to this country and
opened institutes to do the sexing.
When it became apparent that
American poultrymen. for the sake
of higher efficiency, were going into
sexing, q Prof. Gibbs. then at Massa-
chusetts State College. and formerly
o teacher in Nanking. China, polished
up what knowledge he had cleaned
on the subject and produced text
book and course.
Sexing is done by minute anatom-
zeal examination of teh newly Matched
bird and a high degree of accuracy is
attained only after long experience.
It took Pilch about three years to
master the technique, working with MS
flock until he established reputation
that reached the ears Of big poultry
raisers who hastened to avail them
selves OF his services.
Speed and Accuracy Demanded.
They saw the advantage OF being
able to ship day-old chicks either as
all pullets to egg men or all cockereis
to broiler specialists. Chicks can 60
a dav or two without food or water
after Matching but shipments have to
be made promptly so as to reach des-
tinations without loss. Sexing, there-
fore. has to be done quickly and ac-
curatelv when a hatch running into
thousands comes off the incubator.
Speed and accuracy have given Pilch
his reputa ton. He can sew at top
epeed. ZOO an hour with an accuracy
of 40 per cent or better. This is at
rate Of three seconds to a chick, pick
ing it from tray in front Of him,
holding it under a strong light, sight
ing through An optical lens and plac-
ing the pullets in box on one side
and the cockerels in a box on the
other.
He gets penny for each chick.
This means $l2 an hour in full stride.
He has sexed as high as $4,000 in one
day. at a net Of sl20-not bad earnings
for "jobless" youth who, seven years
ago, was being rebuffed by employ
ment managers. He will get q call
from poultryman. set OH at midnight
for . drive across the State, arrive at
am. put up his stand and sex chicks
for six hours at = stretch 80 that
shipment can be made on q 10 o'clock