92 The Business Hen. 



REGULARITY OF SHIPMENT.— The people who pay high prices 

 want their eggs on time, rain or shine. They usually want the same 

 number per week the year round. One's capacity, therefore, to cater to 

 this trade is somewhat measured by the number of eggs which he can 

 produce during the months of greatest scarcity, namely October, November 

 and December. We find, however, that our customers are very obliging, 

 and stay with us over these periods with a somewhat diminished supply. 

 In order to discourage excessive egg eating during the period of scarcity, 

 we make our prices according to the law of supply and demand. While 

 our prices are not as high perhaps as some are getting, we are quite well 

 pleased with the results, but we are always looking for higher prices. Our 

 scale of prices is 2.5 cents per dozen for April, May, June and July; 

 35 cents for August and September; 40 cents for October and November; 

 45 for December and January; 35 February and March. The customer in 

 every case pays the express charges and returns the empty box. We found 

 that there was less trouble from breakage where the customer who was on 

 the spot was personally responsible for settling with the express company 

 for damage. These prices, therefore, net us about seven to eight cents 

 per dozen by the year more than the highest wholesale market quotation 

 for fancy nearby white eggs. During the Spring months, when most eggs 

 are laid, a large trade in eggs for hatching takes care of most of the surplus. 

 At the end of a hatching season the Summer hotel trade will handle any 

 surplus which we may have at about 23 cents per dozen. Whatever the 

 system of marketing, the problem of regularity of supply throughout the 

 3'ear is the hardest one to meet, and in a measure it remains unsolved. 

 With the best of care one cannot expect to get more than 10 to 15 eggs 

 per day per 100 hens in large numbers during the months of October, 

 November and December and not over 20 or 30 per cent from early-hatched 

 pullets. It is true that individual flocks should do much better than this 

 for a time, but if there are iTlany flocks, some of the others will not be 

 laying as well. Even with the high price to be secured for eggs durini; 

 the late Fall and early Winter months, the net profits will be less than 

 at any other season of the year, but it does not follow that we should 

 only produce eggs during the regular laying season. It will most likely 

 be found that the flocks that have laid the most eggs during the Winter 

 will also produce best during the rest of the year. If hens do not lay 

 during the Winter they are a dead loss, which must be made up out of the 

 Summer profits. Unfortunately when a hen stops laying she doesn't stop 

 eating. A more potent argument still is that one cannot secure a satis- 

 factory market for Spring and Summer eggs only. Many customers pay 

 high prices in Summer simply to hang on to their supply for the Winter. 



