12 POULTRY FOR PROFIT 



fresh air, exercise, and that utterly indefinable 

 something called "mothering." When you have 

 learned something of her methods, you are ready to 

 make a beginning with good stock. 



There are three ways of beginning with poultry: 



1. — Buying Baby Chicks. — This is the cheapest 

 and usually the safest way to begin. Baby chicks 

 may be had from reliable breeders for from ten to 

 twenty cents apiece. One hundred Leghorns from 

 bred-to-lay stock may be bought for twelve or fifteen 

 dollars, but don't buy Leghorns if you are limited to 

 a town lot, and do not, under any circumstances, buy 

 more than you have hens to hover. Artificial brood- 

 ers should be purchased only when you know you are 

 going to make a success of your venture, and the 

 fireless brooders, which can be made from soap and 

 starch boxes, are not very satisfactory in the hands 

 of a novice. 



In planning to order chicks, you must consider 

 not only how many chicks you can provide comfort- 

 able quarters for, but how many grown fowls you 

 can house without overcrowding them. Leghorns 

 require less room after they are grown than hens of 

 the heavy breeds. If you have a house and yard of 

 suitable size for fifty Leghorn hens, it should not 

 be expected to house more than forty Rocks. Poul- 

 trymen usually consider it necessary to hatch three 

 chicks for every pullet they wish to have at maturity. 

 You will therefore need to order 150 Leghorn or 120 

 Rock or Red chicks if you wish to fill a house of this 

 size. 



Unless you have had some experience with incu- 

 bator chicks it will be safer not to order more than 

 fifty the first time. If you succeed with these, you 

 can buy more later. If you do not raise a good per- 

 centage of them, you will be glad you have no more. 



