THE DOLLAR HEN FARM 
This is a good, liberal capitalization. The business can be 
started with much less. Figured interest at 6 per cent. we 
have $225.00 per year. 
The upkeep of the plant will be about 15 per cent. on the 
capital, not counting land. This equals $375, which, added 
to interest, gives an annual overhead expense of $600, which 
is our first item to be set against gross receipts. 
The cost of operation will involve cost of chicks at hatchery, 
purchased feed, seed for ground, and feed for team. 
The price of chicks at the Petaluma hatcheries is from six to 
eight cents each. We expect to raise enough pullets to make 
up for the accidental losses, and to renew bulk of the flock 
each year. The number required will, of course, depend upon 
the loss. This loss will be much less when the chicks are 
obtained from a modern moisture controlled hatchery, than 
from the box type incubator. I think a 33 per cent. loss is a 
liberal estimate, but as I am treading on unproven ground, I 
will make that loss 40 per cent., which is on a par with old 
style methods. To replace 1,000 hens, this will require 3,500 
chicks at a cost of about two hundred and fifty dollars. 
Green pasturage throughout the year will materially cut 
down the cost of feed. The corn consumed out of the hoppers 
will be about one bushel per hen. The beef scrap will also be 
less than with yarded fowls, perhaps twenty-five cents per hen. 
Now. of the corn we will raise on the land, at least ten acres. 
This should yield us five hundred bushels. This leaves fifteen 
hundred bushels of corn to be purchased. At the present high 
rates, this will cost $1,000 which, added to beef scrap cost, 
makes an outside feed cost of $1,500. The seed cost of rye, 
rape, cow-peas, etc., will amount to about $50 per annum. For 
expense of production we have: 
Interest and upkeep of plant........... $ 600.00 
CHICKS: 45.4 news.csseea es Rew SLT ewes 250.00 
Purchased corm « oisiisieces cc ceww caees 1000.00 
Beef scrap and grit............ceeveees 500.00 
SOO eisai rent aS tpacs oavavaiees arepanestescile ve, Sydnee ace Seles 50.00 
MOaM: TEC sides -daisan shharines sada sae 100.00 
$2,500.00 
This figures out the cost of production at a little more than 
a dollar per hen. The income from the place should be about 
as follows: Eleven hundred cockerels sold as squab broilers 
at 40 cents each, $440.00; four hundred and seventy-five old 
hens at 30 cents, $140.00. 
The receipts from egg yield are, of course, impossible of 
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