SUCCESSFUL POULTRY KEr^riiNij 



Chicken body dry picked, prime. 03 J @ 04^ 



Green or musty 02 @ 04 



Dry but quilly @ 03J 



Dry picked, quilly and damp.. 01 @ 02 



Scalded... -..01 @ 



White Chicken body, dry picked. 18 @ 19 



Chicken and Turkey body, mixed. @ 04J 



Turkey Body, dry and choice @ 06i 



Green and Uttle damp__ 01 @ 



White Turkey body, dry, prime 60 @ 70 



Tail, choice and clear... ,. @ 40 



Tail, mixed with skirt feathers 20 @ 25 



Wing, from first two joints... @ 19 



Wing, tail and pointers @ 17 



Wing and tail clear @ 25 



Wing and pointers @ 13 



Pointers - @ 07 



In picking turkeys, says the Shippers Guide, save all the 

 feathers that grow on the tail of the turkey; also those on the two 

 joints of the wing next the body. The pointed one-sided quiUs 

 that grow on the outside or tip of the wing sell at a low price, 

 and should be kept separate from the others. It would be best 

 to keep each . kind separate. Lay quill feathers straight, in as 



A BOX OF DRESSED POULTRY OPENED TO SHOW 

 - METHOD OF PACKING 



light boxes as possible; do not stuff them into bags, as it breaks 

 them. Body feathers should be shipped in sacks. Before 

 packing weigh your boxes with the covers, and mark the weight 

 in plain figures on the side of the box. 



Chicken body feathers should be forked over to allow the 

 animal heat to get out of the feathers; they should be well dried 

 out before shipping as the dampness mats them together, and 

 they sometimes arrive heated and mouldy. Be sure and have 

 no quiU feathers mixed in with the body feathers. They can be 

 shipped in sacks. Dry picked feathers command best prices. 

 White chicken body feathers, dry picked, command big prices, 

 but must be kept dry and clean. Feathers should be spread 

 out on a floor to dry for if shipped at once they may become 

 musty. Burlap bags are commonly used for shipping. 



PROFITS IN COLD STORAGE 



Whenever the supply of poultry in any market exceeds the 

 demand, the suiplus is put into cold storage where it is kept 

 until prices are high again, often being left in the coolers seven 

 or eight months. In addition, hundreds of thousands of dollars 

 are invested each summer in poultry to be put in refrigerators 

 until next winter. Rather than sell stock at low prices, the 

 poultiyman often will find it profitable to place the birds in 



storage warehouses until the demand is strong. The warehouses 

 will take small consignments as well as large ones, and the rates 

 are extremely low. One-fourth of a cent per pound is charged 

 for the first sixty days or less, and thereafter an eighth of a cent 

 a pound per month. All poultry put in storage must be packed 

 in boxes. The ordinary rate for cold storage of eggs is 40 cents 

 per thirty dozen case for the season from March 15th, to January 

 1st, on eggs stored prior to June 1st. On eggs stored on or after 

 June 1st the rate is 10 cents per case for the first month and 

 five cents a case for each month additional. The storage ware- 

 house will advance from 70 to 80 per cent of the market value 

 of the goods stored. It is estimated that 1,800,000,000 eggs 

 or one-tenth of all the eggs laid in the United States are placed 

 in cold storage every year. 



The regular storage season for poultry is from September 

 30th to May 1st, and for this period a special rate of one-fourth 

 to one-third of a cent a pound per month is made by most of the 

 warehouses. A dozen broilers can be kept in the coolers from 

 October to May for only 2 cents apiece. All poultry remaining 

 in the coolers more than two or three weeks is frozen immedi- 

 ately upon arrival and is kept as hard as a rock. The tempera- 

 ture is kept at from 28 to 30 degrees, but the initial freezing is 

 done with the thermometer at 12 to 15 degrees. 



FATTENING POULTRY FOR MARKET 



Fattening poultry by machinery has become an important 

 industry in the last few years. Thirty-eight "feeding stations" 

 with a capacity of from 3,000 to 10,000 birds each are in opera- 

 tion in the middle west, and many machines are in use in eastern 

 states. The machine consists of a four-gallon receptacle mount- 

 ed on a tripod and ^o arranged that when the operator pushes 

 a treadle a quantity of semi-liquid ground food is forced through 

 a rubber tube into the crop of the chicken, the operator hold- 

 ing the tube down to the bird's throat. The birds are kept in 

 small coops arid their crops are crammed full twice a day for 

 two weeks. As a rule, they are kept in the crate three weeks, 

 but fed from troughs the first week. Some fatteners do not 

 use the machine at all. 



Crate-fed chickens are always in great demand at high 

 prices. The crates in most common use are made of lathed 

 or turned strips in tiers. A thin chicken weighing four pounds 

 will by cramming be made six or more pounds in two or three 

 weeks. If it was worth 12 cents when thin, it is worth 20 cents 

 when crate-fed, per pound. The ordinary cost of putting from 

 two to three pounds on the weight of a chicken has been found 

 to be about 15 cents, and the average increased selling price 

 from 75 cents to a dollar. This accounts for the enormous 

 growth of the poultry fattening business. 



At the Canadian Experiment Station 365 chickens fed in 

 crates gained an average of 2.35 pounds each, and the average 

 cost of food consumed was 5.27 cents per pound of increase in 

 the hve weight. This low cost of increased weight was secured 

 when ground grain cost $1 . 20 a hundred pounds and skim milk 

 15 cents a hundred pounds. The foods used were ground oats 

 mixed with sour milk, slcim milk, or buttermilk, and this was 

 given in troughs in front of the crates, no machine being used. 



PRICES TO BE OBTAINED 



One dollar for a broiler, $2.50 for a roaster or capon, $3.50 

 for a dressed turkey, $2.00 for a goose, $1.00 for a duckling — 

 these are not exceptional prices for good stock. The value of 

 market poultry has increased steadily since 1901 and will con- 

 tinue to remain high. The consumption of poultry has in- 

 creased enormously. 



With a private trade of high class, excellent prices are ob- 

 tained the year around — ^from 5 to 10 cents or even more per 



162 



