POULTRY FOR PROFIT 13 



If there is one rule that is of vital importance to the 

 beginner, it is "Go slow." Better raise twenty-five 

 chicks to a fine, sturdy maturity than have a hundred 

 runts to get rid of. It is quality that counts, not 

 quantity. 



To care for the fifty chicks you have ordered you 

 should have three hens. In warm weather a hen 

 can care for twenty-five chicks, though she is quite 

 likely to trample on some of them; but in March, 

 when you should be raising these chicks, from fifteen 

 to twenty are all a good-sized hen can cover. 



There are two ways of providing mothers for a 

 brood of incubator chicks. If you have a sufficient 

 number of hens of your own, the best plan is to set 

 as many as four three weeks before you expect your 

 chicks. Four hens will not hatch more than thirty 

 chicks, unless you are remarkably fortunate, and the 

 four can easily care for the fifty you buy and the 

 thirty they hatch. If you raise thirty vigorous 

 pullets from this lot, you may not need to order 

 more. If you have not hen mothers, but must buy 

 broodies, get them at least a week before your chicks 

 are to arrive and keep them quiet upon china eggs 

 till your chicks are ready. If two or three chicks 

 are slipped under a hen at night, she will think she 

 has hatched them and take the rest of the brood 

 without objection. 



The cockerels should be separated from the pullets 

 as soon as they show their sex and fattened for broil- 

 ers. Get them off to market as soon as they weigh 

 two pounds. The earlier your broilers go to market, 

 the better price will they bring. This is especially 

 true of Leghorns, which make excellent broilers but 

 are poor fryers. 



2. — Buying Breeding Stock. — For the back- 

 lotter who can keep only a few fowls, and the 



