Jan. 15, 1912 



it is rather expensive keeping chickens down 

 here for six months witliout getting any 

 eggs. Of course, there were some roosters 

 to sell when big enough, and lie sold about 

 20 and used some; but the i>0 that were re- 

 turned full grown cost me something like 

 50 cts. each for their "board and lodging" 

 while I was north, aside from the eggs they 

 laid. He said we would both be out of i)ock- 

 et the way it turned out, and I think he 

 was right. 



Right ill sight out of the window where I 

 am running my typewriter, just across the 

 road from my five acres is another five acres. 

 It was purchased just about a year ago by a 

 gentleman from the North to go into the 

 poull ry business. He planned his buildings, 

 including an incubator cellar, had the trees 

 all cleared off, and bought and started his 

 incubator just before I left in the spring. 

 When we got back in November we found 

 on the vacant lot, instead of the poultry- 

 houses, etc., a big white board sign reading 

 as follows: 



For sale on easy terms, these lots, 



52 by i:M feet. 

 Apply to 



When I met him and inquired why the 

 change in program, he replied something as 

 follows: 



" Mr. Root, you know as well as I do that 

 there is no money in chickens in this local- 

 ity. The feed costs ever so much more, and 

 the prices are not as good as in the North; 

 and any extra amount would glut the mar- 

 ket." 



I said, " How about eggs at 40 cts. a doz- 

 en?" 



"Oh, yes! you can do very well with eggs; 

 but I planned to raise broilers and roasters 

 that sell in the North for 80 or 40 cts. a 

 pound." 



You see he failed to take into account the 

 cost of feeding grain for months before he 

 would be getting any returns. No wonder 

 he decided on going into the real-estate busi- 

 ness and selling his five acres cut up into 

 little lots. Various reasons were given by 

 different ones as to why hens didn't lay as 

 usual; and Mr. Abbott declares his hens this 

 year (at least some of them) have moulted 

 hvicr. After I got iny hens to laying I took 

 seven dozen eggs into the store, and- the 

 clerk asked me how many hens I had. I 

 told him about eighty, fie replied: 



" Mr. Root, I have a hundred hens, and [ 

 haven't had seven dozen eggs hi three 

 months/' 



My seven dozen were laid in three days. 

 When he asked if I could tell him what the 

 trouble was I told him I feared one trouble 

 was he was not around with them enough to 

 get acquainted with them. When I first got 

 ours home we got only three or four eggs a 

 day, and one day only two. They just stay- 

 ed in the house and acted listless, and it was 

 a full month or more before I could get 

 them to come right up to me and be friendly. 



GETTING ACQUAINTKD WITH THK CHICKENS. 



1 told the young clerk in the store thai 

 the main reason why he had not seven doz- 

 en eggs in three months from his hundred 

 hens was i)robably because he did not get 

 accjuainted with them. When I first got 

 my ninety hens home I got very few eggs — 

 one day barely two. They would run when 

 I came near them as if tliey had no other 

 idea in their heads than that T had just 

 come out to chase one of them down for din- 

 ner; and, by the way, this is something that 

 should never be done in a well-kei)t poultry- 

 yard. Even if company does come unex- 

 pectedly, if "chicken dinners " is what you 

 "keep hens" for, don't try for eggs at \he 

 same time. Well, I commenced at once 

 getting into the good graces of the "bid- 

 dies." Where we keep grain all the time 

 before them in the suspended metal tubs, as 

 I have explained, it isn't so easy to get them 

 tame; but I tried to bring them some tidbit 

 they liked, every little while, and I careful- 

 ly avoided coming on to them with a rush 

 so as to frighten them, always talking to 

 them when I came near; and now when I 

 go out mornings to let them out I say, " Hel- 

 lo, chucks!" before I am fairly in sight, and 

 the Buttercup rooster always res]ionds with 

 a peculiar note to reassure any of the timid 

 flighty Leghorn matrons. It took me fully 

 six weeks to get them to running toward me 

 when they saw me coming, and to run about 

 and scratch and sing as a laying hen always 

 does. Eggs are now 40 cts. a dozen; and 9 

 eggs, or 30 cts., pays for the grain for the 

 whole flock, including the six Runner ducks, 

 so you see all the eggs 1 get over 9 is profit; 

 or, if it suits you better, my pay for the 

 time taken in "getting acquainted." 



Yesterday I got 33 hens' eggs and 4 duck 

 eggs; and, by the way, I want to tell you I 

 am getting four eggs from four ducks right 

 along, although my neighbors who have the 

 same ducks they got of me are not getting 

 any such results at all. The old duck that 

 laid 100 eggs a year ago without a break 

 commenced Nov. 23, and bids fair so far 

 (Dec. 27) to do the same thing again. Oh! 

 I must not forget to tell you that one of my 

 young ducks lays an egg as white as any 

 hen's egg; and if she is fed on grain I think 

 few of you would be able to tell them by the 

 taste from hens' eggs. At i)resent my six 

 ducks spend most of their time in the drain- 

 age brook or canal, and they come so near 

 getting their feed out of thewatorand along 

 the margin that I gi\ e them only a little 

 corn at night to make them come home, 

 and another corn feed in the morning before 

 they start out on their all-day raid. They 

 are in such a hurry to be let out (so fond 

 are they of the water) that they hardly stop 

 for the corn in the morning. They usually 

 have their four eggs laid by daylight, and wel- 

 come me uproariously when I come to raise 

 the trap-door that lets them down into the 

 creek. Once more let me .say, it is gettinfj 

 acquainted with lS>e ducks that enables me 

 to get eggs when nobody else h:is '^u\\ or 

 only very few. 



