WITH 4200 HENS 29 



chicks bring you no more than those from the cheaper 

 ones, and the pullet you raise must stand the extra cost 

 of the cockerel you sell. Furthermore, the pullet raised 

 must also stand the extra cost on the chicks that die off. 

 This is the best estimate that can be given you for such 

 a circumstance. 



The entire estimate is based on your raising what would 

 be considered a fair percentage of your chicks. You may 

 do better and it is easily possible to do far worse ; but 

 you ought to do at least as well as this. 



To carry the subject of capital required farther than 

 this we must use a concrete illustration. Let us say, for 

 instance, that you want to start on the basis of living ex- 

 penses of $1,000 to $1,200 a year; that you want to keep 

 enough hens to yield you that much. The safe and con- 

 servative thing to do is to base your estimates on the 

 profits that were to be expected in pre-war times which, 

 you will recall, we set down at from $1.25 to $1.50 per 

 hen. We all hope never to get back to that level, 01 

 course. If we do not, then we will be better off than our 

 illustrated basis; we will have more than our $1,000 to 

 $1,200. Better that than to be disappointed. Let us say 

 also that you are renting or will rent (or lease) the place 

 to be used at the start. Let us say furthermore that you 

 want to get started in March. Here then is what you 

 must provide for : 



You must take possession of the place early in Jan- 

 uary, say January 1st; this gives you time to clean up, 

 put the brooder house in shape, plant the brooder yard 

 (to freshen the ground), and to get some green stuff 

 started. 



