White Orpington Cockerels 



Some Records 



Individual hens have laid in one year 254 eggs, 281 eggs and 282 eggs. The 

 net earnings of such hens would range from $4.00 to $4.50 each at 25 cents per 

 dozen for the eggs, allowing a little more than $1.00 for cost of keeping. 

 Professor M. A. Jaffa, of the University of California, thinks $1.25 "much more 

 correct." 



In the Missouri contest in 1912 the average was 134 eggs per pen repre- 

 senting the standard breeds, and the highest average for a group or pen was 

 1042 eggs from five hens, or over 208 eggs per hen. 



This will serve as a guide a standard that can only be approximated by a 

 flock under the best management. We need not be misled by advertisements. 

 There is a great difference between the phenomenal performance of a few birds, 

 and the twelve months yield of a whole flock. There is no zoo-egg strain doing 

 business in the field. It is a goal worth striving for, and great progress has been 

 made toward it, but it is too high an average. 



At Cornell Station some years ago careful experiments showed a daily pro- 

 duction of eggs from 100 hens of 23.2 eggs and the average yearly production per 

 hen 129.7 eggs. The average cost per dozen eggs, was 9.2 cents for the year, and 

 from December to March 16.3 cents. The average cost of feeding a hen for a 

 year was 99.6 cents, while the annual profit on each hen was $1.31. This has 

 served as a guide, and it is commonly said that you can feed a hen for a dollar a 

 year and reckon your profits at a dollar plus. But the first is uncertain and the 

 last is poor business now, so considerable have been the gams of recent years. 

 The larger returns are to be looked for; they are to be confidently counted on in 

 planning a poultry farm. The breeding of laying strains of hens and the better 

 management now taught makes a solid basis for expecting the larger net returns. 



A single additional egg per week will add a dollar to the hen's credit, and if 

 she has been loafing around the 100 egg mark, the four dozen extra will be a tribute 

 to your management. 



25 



