CHAPTER XX 

 When and How to Start in the Poultry Business 



Now comes the important part to the one who is going 

 to start in the business, when to start, and how. Now, 

 in either case, you should start in the fall, if you wish to 

 start on a large scale, for your buildings should be put 

 up in the fall, even if you start by buying your eggs and 

 raising your own breeders. This is by far the cheapest 

 way to start if you have not much capital. Get your in- 

 cubator house ready in the fall, providing you have not 

 a house cellar, which will answer for your first year. 



You can get your brooders all right in the spring if 

 you only raise breeders, but cannot start so early as where 

 you have a brooder-house. But the Cyphers Self- 

 Regulating Brooders can be used out of doors very early 

 in the spring any time after March i, as a rule. Pullets 

 hatched midde of March should lay in August under my 

 system of feeding, and keep right at it from then on. I 

 can sell you all the eggs you want from either single- 

 combed White Leghorns or White Wyandottes, pro- 

 duced under my system of feeding, at $6 per one hun- 

 dred in any quantity on short notice — eggs that will run 

 90 per cent, fertile right in January. Now, to the one 

 who is well fixed, financially, I advise him to start in the 

 fall. I advise putting up your laying-houses during 

 July and August, and buy your pullets as early as possi- 

 ble during the fall. October and November are usually 

 the two months when you can buy cheaper than at any 

 other time of the year. 



You should have no trouble to buy all the pullets and 

 yearling hens you want of single-combed White Leg- 

 horns during these two months at $1 each. This is a 

 very satisfactory way to start, but not so cheap as buy- 

 ing the eggs and raising your own stock. 



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