DEE HOMEBPOULTRY BOOK 
CHAPTER [ 
HOW TO MAKE A BEGINNING 
HEN a man—or for that matter, a 
woman —is smitten with the poultry 
fever, he usually knows little about 
breeds or methods or “systems.’’ Only one fact 
presents itself — he wants to keep a few hens. 
Too often the beginner makes so little distinction 
between hens in general and those of particular 
breeds, that he accumulates a flock of mongrels. 
Beginning in that way, he may, perhaps, get as many 
eggs in a year as though he had started with a 
flock of pure-bred fowls, but the chances are that he 
will soon tire of poultry keeping. It is impossible 
to work up much enthusiasm over a lot of birds 
which have uniformity neither in color nor size and 
which show in their feathers an intermixture of 
many breeds and varieties. 
IT 
