CHICK BOOK 



takes time; and surely, to the poultryman, time means 

 money. 



If, therefore, any method can be devised whereby the 

 beginner, or the man who wishes to work poultry as a side- 

 line, can be saved the great labor- incident to trap-nesting, 

 breeding, incubating and all the other preliminary steps 

 necessary to get bred-to-lay chicks in large numbers for com- 

 mercial egg-forming, it would certainly seem to fill oile of 

 the greatest needs among the great class of people who wish 

 to take up the- commercial end of poultry. 



So many have been thinking along these lines that within 

 the last few years the day-old chick industry has grown 

 amazingly. The purchase of day-old chicks as a means of 

 starting and renewing stock is gaining in popularity so rapidly 

 that it seems impossible to fill the demand for them. ~ 



It is no idle boast to say that this means of securing a 

 number of thoroughbred chicks all of the same age is so 

 vastly superior to all the worry, expense and labor of main- 

 taining a breeding establishment of one's own, that it is 

 certain to be the method of the future. 



Breeders are fast being 

 called upon to sell actual chicks 

 rather than possibilities in the 

 form of eggs. Purchasers get 

 something definite and the us- 

 ual disappointments and com- 

 plaints, incident to the selling 

 of eggs for hatching, are no 

 more. It must be remembered 

 that a chick will travel, just 

 after bieng hatched, from sixty 

 to seventy-two hours without 

 food or water, and stand the 

 journey many times better 

 than an egg. 



Some years back we began 



trap-nesting to ascertain the 



heavy egg-layers. The labor 



attached to this was so great 



that it seemed a pity to have 



should correspond with the usual way of. rearing brooder 

 chickens. 



When once this method has been tried we believe no one 

 will care to go back to the uncertain way of purchasing eggs 

 for hatching. By the purchase of chicks no risk is run, no 

 expense for incubators is incurred, no trying experience at 

 hatching is necessary. A great part of the work is done for 

 you and any conscientious person blessed with common 

 sense and reasonable judgment can mature between seventy- 

 five and ninety per cent of the chicks bought. The chicks 

 do not suffer any loss of vitality in shipment, and as good 

 a percentage of them can be raised as if they were hatched 

 on- the place. 



When the great probability of the beginner not running 

 the incubator just right is taken into consideration and his 

 chances of .producing chicks not strong in vitality is con- 

 sidered, it is fair to state that he runs far better chances of 

 success in the purchase of day-old chicks from a nearby 

 breeder of experience, than he would by any other method 

 of starting his plant. 



Let the breeder really 

 breed and produce live chicks — 

 not possibilities of chicks. I 

 believe that the day is not far 

 distant when the sale of eggs 

 for hatching will be in a large 

 measure superceded by the 

 . purchase of live chicks. The 

 - up-to-date breeder must ad- 

 just himself to this change if 

 he is to maintain his position 

 in the poultry world. 



Two facts are evident: 

 First, that there is too much 

 wasted energy in commercial 

 poultry farming. Too many 

 men are so situated that they 

 cannot handle all its seven 

 branches to the best advan- 



Aurora Leghorn Farm's Box for shipping Day-old Chicks. This box ^ pponnTniVflllv Spi-otiH 



is made of J inch pine. It is returnable by the Express Company for 15o. ^^Se. economicauy. Becona, 

 done so much work merely to A four compartment, non-returnable box is sometimes made tor a long that commercial poultry farm- 

 . , 1 1 i_ . 1 shipment of a large number of chicks. In these boxes t inch board is , - . . . ._, - . 



secure the few hundred chicks used, except at the ends. The bottom of the box is covered with bran ing IS not receivmg its just 

 we could accommodate our- °' sawdust and burlap is securely tacked over the top. compensation when the pro- 



selves. So we purchased four ducts are wholesaled to corn- 



large 390-egg incubators and began advertising our bred-to mission dealers. Only a private trade in a city of some 

 -lay Leghorn chicks at twelve cents each. The demand be- size, will give the maximum return. Our branch-farm sys- 



came so great that this year we shall hatch between eigh- 

 teen and twenty thousand chicks. 



The chicks are shipped in boxes 14by 24 inches, outside 

 measurement, and five inches high, divided into two com- 

 partments, each compartment holding twenty-five chicks. 

 The top is covered with burlap and the floor of the box with 

 bran or saw-dust. 



The express companies take the chicks at the regular ex- 

 press rates, and we guarantee safe arrival, replacing all dead 

 or injured ones free of charge. We usually ship an extra 

 one or two in each box so as to assure the full number arriving 

 safely. 



The chicks need no care en route other than protection 

 from the weather. When they arrive they should be given 

 a drink and placed in a brooder previously warmed to ninety- 

 five degrees. They should then be fed on bread crumbs and 

 hard-cooked eggs (boiled twenty minutes) chopped fine, and 

 some grit should be supplied. Thereafter their treatment 



tern is netting over $2.50 per hen to the branches. 



The chief merit in the system, however, is that there 

 is less labor and expense per layer, enabling more hens to 

 be kept for the time and money expended. An additional 

 merit is that many a man can undertake the lessened labor 

 of a branch farm as a side line, who would meet with but 

 poor success if he attempted all the arduous and confining 

 duties of an independent plant. All his chicks can be of 

 one age, lessening his brooding season to six weeks instead 

 of running through three or four months. 



We believe that along some such lines the commercial 

 egg farming of the future must seek its maximum returns. 

 The present system supports too many middle-men, places 

 the eggs in the hands of customers in the city when stale, 

 and makes but a small return to the producer. "A dollar 

 a hen" is not sufficient return on the labor and investment 

 necessary to run an egg farm. 



