STARTING IN THE BUSINESS 



market poultry? < 



Q. 17. With your present knowledge and experience, if 

 about to begin •again, which breed or variety would you select 

 if you were going into fancy poultry? 



Q. 18. What would be your reasons for this choice? 



Q. 19. Which variety would you select if you were going 

 to embark in market poultry raising? 



Q. 20. Your reason for this Selection? 



Q. 21. If you wished to comhine both fancy and market 

 poultry raising, what breed or varieties would you select? 



Q. 22. Your reasons for this choice? 



OLD, TRIED BREEDS PROVE SAFEST 



KEEP IN VIEW THE PRACTICAL WHILE 

 BUILDING UP A TRADE IN PUREBREDS— 

 CROSSES RECOMMENDED FOR STRICTLY 

 MARKET PURPOSES— THE REASON WHY 



I. K. FELCH, Natick, Mass. 



VETERAN JUDGE AND BREEDER OF LIGHT BRAHMAS, WHITE 

 WYANDOTTES. BARRED AND WHITE PLYMOUTH ROCKS 



A. 9. I would never buy any eggs if I could obtain first 

 class fowls at a reasonable price. 



A. 10. First; chicks from eggs shipped any distance will 

 never be as fine as those from the same hen's eggs set at home. 

 Again, there is the habiUty of accident and of trouble with sit- 

 ting hens, so that the investment may be a total loss if eggs are 

 bought. 



Second; when eggs are laid and set at home we do not 

 mind the accident of a poor hatch; we have eggs enough coming 

 to repair the loss. 



Third; what does it amount to in the end; if you pay $100. 

 for a pen of five fowls and raise from them one hundred chickens, 

 it makes the flock cost but one dollar each for blood and you 

 have the pen left. The fact that the flock was from such a pen 

 would enable you to sell them for a dollar more each, than you 

 could a flock raised from eggs bought. 



A. 11. I cannot conscientiously advise a farmer to do 

 such a thing. He had far better buy average specimens of 

 • Brahma hens with a White Leghorn cockerel and raise half- 

 breeds for poultry and eggs than to cross up mongrels with pure- 

 bred males. Such a cross will be the most profitable where eggs 

 and poultry for market purposes are desired. The days of 

 mongrels have long since passed. If he chooses to use these 

 half-breeds let him mate a White Wyandotte male with the 

 females, and the third year breed back the pullets of this mating 

 to White Wyandotte cocks. Buy for the third year good White 

 Wyandotte , males and so secure from this mating a flock of 

 fowls that are practically pure-bred White Wyandottes. 



A. 12. I should choose from among the American breeds 

 the variety I Uked best. My choice would be White Plymouth 

 Rocks from this class and Light Brahmas from the Asiatics. 

 These two breeds will lay the most satisfactory eggs for a family 

 trade. Raise White Plymouth Rocks for early roasters and 

 first class eggs. Brahmas are the best winter layers of all the 

 breeds. Brahmas are good birds to "carry over" and in March 

 the male birds not sold for breeding purposes can be readily sold 

 as heavy roasters. There is no breed that pays to feed the 

 males through winter Uke the Brahmas, for they are soft roasters, 

 if kept in ceUbacy, from the time they are five months old until 

 spring. We often get $3. each for these males as heavy roasters 

 in March. The White Plymouth Rock males killed before they 

 are five months old will pay for raising themselves and the 



pullets up to a laying age, practically giving us the puUets 

 free of cost. 



A. 13. The day is past when one can count on selling 

 every chicken raised for breeding or exhibition if one is to retain 

 his reputation as a first class breeder. He must cabulate on rais- 

 ing at least 40 to 50 per cent of each one hundred chicks to be 

 disposed of as market poultry. For such he should choose a breed 

 that can be raised to perfection by the single mating system sp 

 that he will have the smallest percentage of culls. One breed 

 is all that he should try to handle on a backyard lot or small 

 farm. There is no doubt that all do the best with a variety 

 they like best, but the breed the vast majority buy is the safest 

 for the novice to start with, for thousands of breeders are telling 

 in thejr advertisements of its merits. If one chooses an isolated 

 breed he has to do an immense amount of advertising before 

 he will make his variety popular, even if it has merit. The 

 old tried breeds will prove the safest for him, Brahmas, White 

 Wyandottes or White Leghorns as his taste dictates. 



A. 14. Such persons must keep in view the practical 

 while building up a trade for the pure-breds. The beginner 

 should choose a breed that he has made up his mind to tie to all 

 his Ufe, for no man yet has ever increased his trade beyond the 

 reflex influence last seasons' advertising has on the current year 

 business. He had best buy a trio of good birds and spend his 

 first season in breeding his stock rather than trying to buy a full 

 complement. He will learn the requirements of the business in 

 his first years' labor. He wiU find that the male birds will sell 

 for market poultry for enough to raise his puEets, so that the 

 pullets will cost only the time it takes to care for them. The 

 first year will be the hard year for such a beginner, but the 

 second year the flock will begin to care for him. Take but one 

 breed the first year. Put an ad. in a poultry paper no larger 

 than you can afford to carry as a yearly advertisement. 



A. 15. Such a beginner has no excuse if he does not suc- 

 ceed, provided he secures the right kind of help and puts suffi- 

 cient money into the business to make it pay. As we have said 

 above, on a large plant at least 40 to 50 per cent of the product 

 must be disposed of in the markets as poultry and eggs. He 

 should choose three or four breeds so assorted as to insure the 

 very largest uniform daily production of eggs the year round. 

 My advice would be Light Brahmas, White Plymouth Rocks 

 and White Leghorns, or Light Brahmas, Buff Plymouth Rocks 

 and Buff Leghorns. If I hved near New York market I would 

 choose Buff Orpingtons, Light Brahmas and White Minorcas. 

 I would not keep more than these three varieties and would 

 push them for all they were worth. 



A. 16. It matters not whether a man has little or much 

 means, he is bound by the same rules and breeds. This breeder 

 of moderate means must begin small and grow up from year to 

 year until he becomes a breeder with ample means. 



A. 17. My breeds today: Light Brahmas, Barred and 

 White Plymouth Rocks, and White Wyandottes. 



A. 18. I five in New England where yellow legs and yellow 

 skin has the call, and as half one raises must go to the butcher's 

 block the above breeds pay the best and all are first class egg 

 producers. In New England the breed that is both the best for 

 poultry and for eggs pays better than the breed where the eggs 

 are the prime consideration. 



A. 19. Brahmas, and cross them with White Wyandottes. 



A. 20. They would reach broiling age 4 lbs. to the pair 

 in eight weeks. The females lay dark-shelled eggs and this 

 first cross will give about 200 eggs a year per hen. They will 

 make larger roasters at from six to seven months old, besides 

 they would be in grand shape during the whole seasons' growth. 



A. 21. Brahmas as the best large breed. White or Buff 

 Plymouth Rocks or White Wyandottes. 



A. 22. I think them all prolific layers when bred to an 



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