POULTRY SECRETS REVEALED. 15 



enough for forty or perhaps fifty chicks can be built at trifling cost, 

 or purchased, ready to put together, for a few dollars. I use the 

 Buckeye colony houses because they last for years and cost less than 

 I could build them. While allowing a good out door run they keep 

 the little chicks warm, dry and comfortable, and when they are large 

 enough to look out for themselves these buildings make admirable 

 roosting houses. 



With the colony system a large number of chicks may be cared 

 for without much labor. They may be hopper fed and watered from a 

 barrel so will need but little attention. The farmer, therefore, can 

 raise hundreds while the town breeder raises dozens. 



Commercial breeding, so called, is merely specializing. Generally 

 this runs into "egg farms," with "broilers on the side." There are 

 many of these great "farms" in the vicinity of New York, Philadelphia 

 and Boston; and on the Pacific Coast, in California, there are others 

 equally great. 



These big commercial plants are money makers — sometimes. 

 When managed on broad lines, by men who are big enough for big 

 things, they pay well. The secret of success with twenty thousand 

 hens is the secret of success in any other big enterprise. The ability 

 to place, organize and conduct such an extensive business is unusual, 

 demanding, as it does, qualities that only the few possess. 



Fancy breeding, as the word suggests, is the breeding of orna- 

 mental or toy birds. There are enough buyers to make this branch 

 of the business fairly profitable. Indeed there are bantam breeders 

 who make a great deal of money every year. And there is a fair 

 demand at all times for the Polish in all its varieties, together with 

 the Frizzles, Silkies, Sultans and other "odds and ends." 



The secret of success with these bizarre birds is to breed to the 

 Standard — and advertise. 



