BROILERS 



PROFITABLE BROILER RAISING 



SUITABLE BREEDS FOR BROILERS— VIGOR AND SHAPE IN BREEDERS— SEASONS OF 

 INCUBATION AND PRICES OF EGGS— PERIOD OF GROWTH TO MARKETABLE SIZE 

 -SPECIAL FOOD AN AID TO GROWTH— CLUE TO PROFITS -CAREFUL WORK NEEDED 



A. F. HUNTER 



Mr. Hunter made an exhausti've study of this branch of poultry 

 culture, collecting his facts from successful poultrymen in the section of 

 the United States luhere broiler raising is conducted on the largest 

 scale. Since the raising of broilers in profitable numbers, ijoould be 

 impossible nuithout incubators and brooders or brooder houses, u 

 •TMork on Artificial Incubating and Brooding luould not be complete 

 nuithout a chapter demoted to the subject of broilers. — Editor. 



IHERE are several interesting features manifest in 

 different lines of poultry work, and not the least 

 of them is the fascination of broiler raising for 

 the beginners. That the promised profits of 

 turning eggs into choice marketable fowls does 

 greatly fascinate the beginner is well known to 

 those who have studied conditions in the poul- 

 try business, and perhaps the miost frequently recurring ques- 

 tion coming to the poultry editor's desk relates to one point or 

 another of broiler -raising. Nor is this surprising when we 

 consider that the changing of an egg into a chick is but a mat- 

 ter of three weeks' time, and the growth of the baby chick to 

 a marketable broiler is but a matter of eight to twelve weeks' 

 time. Somebody says: "An egg costs two or three cents, and 

 in three months we can turn it into a two-pound broiler which 

 will sell for a dollar." That certainly looks an easy way to make 

 money. And it would be if every egg produced a chick and 

 every chick grew to broiler size and good, marketable condi- 

 tion, and sold for fifty cents a poimd; but, there are eggs and 

 eggs, and there are broilers and broilers, and there are not a 

 few difficulties in the way of realizing the profits which look so 

 tempting. That there is a good profit in broiler raising there is 

 ample evidence in the sections where market poultry is made a 

 business, and where men have continued the raising of broilers 

 and soft-roasters for ten, fifteen, twenty or more years. That 

 many who embark in broiler raising gradually outgrow "the 

 broiler stage" and develop into larger things is not surprising. 



We have in mind several widely known poultrymen as examples 

 of broiler (and market poultry) raising having been the 

 stepping stone to the great poultry business they have built 

 up. 



There are great poultry farms where broiler raising is a. 

 considerable part, or even the chief part, of the work, and where 

 incubators are kept running practically the year around. On 

 others the broiler work is simply one feature of the general 

 poultry work; the intention being to have a good crop of broilers- 

 to meet the high-priced market, and a succeeding crop of soft 

 roasting chickens to meet the high-priced market for roasters, 

 and a general "market poultry and eggs" business for all the 

 year. There is still another class of broiler raisers, those who 

 turn off their young cdckerels to market just as soon as they are 

 of marketable size, considering them simply a by-product of 

 the general poultry work. The rapid fall in prices of broilers, 

 from the top market in April is partly due to the great quantity 

 of surplus chicks marketed by the latter class, although some of 

 it can doubtless be charged to the poor quality of many of the 

 broilers thus thrown upon the market. 



PRICES THEN CO DOWN 



There is very little sale for broiler chicks in October, No- 

 vember and December, at least in the general market; some sale 

 there is, to private trade, and in such case very little attention 

 is paid to market quotations, the prices being simply between 

 the grower and his customer. In January there is a light call 

 for broiler chicks, which steadily increases through February 

 and March and culminates in April, then gradually decreases, 

 through May, June and July, and by August the lowest prices, 

 are again reached. These lowest prices range from 12 to 20 

 cents a pound, and the highest prices range from 25 to 50 

 cents a pound, the sale price depending upon the quality of 

 the product and the demand in the market. The chickens must 

 be "gilt-edged" to command the highest figures, and if of extra. 



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