POULTRT-CRAFT. 9 



the best of unfavorable circumstances. If they see loss coming in one place 

 they make special efforts to offset it by securing extra profit in another. The 

 average profit on eggs, at market prices, is one dollar per year per hen. This 

 is what a skilled poultryman considers a safe figure. One dollar a head is 

 approximately what skill secures from large flocks for eggs alone. The 

 best authority on broilers places the average profit per bird at not over twenty 

 cents. On eggs for hatching, sold at two dollars a sitting, the profit will 

 rarely exceed a dollar a sitting ; often will not reach that figure. A breeder 

 whose trade is in stock birds selling at one to five dollars per head, will aver- 

 age about two dollars per bird. If he has managed his stock right nearly all 

 of this will be profit. It is easily seen that at these figures there is no "big 

 money" in the business. In fact, in market poultry alone one does not find 

 it easy to make a living unless his plant is large and much of the work is done 

 by cheap labor. The profitable combination for a small plant is one which 

 with a stock of thoroughbred poultry averaging for the year three hundred to 

 four hundred hens, yields a profit of $300 to $400 for market eggs ; about 

 $ i oo for eggs for hatching; $150 to $200 for market poultry; and $200 to 

 $300 for breeding stock in all $750 to $1,000. Something like this is what 

 a fairly skillful poultryman without special reputation as a breeder of high 

 class stock may expect from a plant on which he can do all the work, and 

 which, if he constructs the buildings himself, will cost anywhere from $1,000 

 to $1,500 in addition to the cost of the land and the first cost of the stock. It 

 is not safe to figure an income on the basis of the large profits sometimes 

 reported for single flocks, or for a season's work under exceptionally favorable 

 conditions. Nor is it wise for a beginner to count on profits as large as those 

 of the more successful poultryman, which are often much greater than the 

 figures here given. When one begins to see the big prices and big profits 

 coming his way it is time enough to begin estimates with the big figures. 

 Though not to be used as bases of estimates, the prices of high class stock 

 merit attention as showing what is possible when ability to breed good stock, 

 and reputation as a breeder, have been acquired. Prices for eggs range from 

 $3 to $5 per sitting; $5, $10, $15, are quite common prices for fowls for 

 breeding and for the smaller exhibitions. Prices of birds "fit" for the larger 

 shows range from the figures given up to $25, $35, $50, $100. Single birds 

 have been sold as high as $250. Just how much of these various amounts is 

 profit, it is not possible to even approximately average, for this class of 

 breeders never make their accounts public as market poultry men so often do. 

 The expenses of exhibiting and advertising are considerable. Yet the pro- 

 portion of profit to price is greater than when sales are made at small figures, 

 and, generally, the higher the price the greater the proportion of profit. To 

 the limited number who can get these prices, poultry keeping, whether an 

 exclusive business, a side issue, or a recreation, is very profitable. The 

 beginner, while disregarding them in his present calculations, may look 

 forward to them as the rewards of special ability. 



