I WHY I AM BREEDING ANCONAS | 



# By James L. Hendry, Louisville, Ky. i 



fIRST let me say that this article is not that of a professional. There 

 are many^things for me to learn about the breed, but I am not enly 

 wiUing but anxious. I have not the finest birds in the land, they score 

 91| to 94; nor have I won first at "Madison Square," but as I am a 

 hopeful and persevering cuss, there is no telling what may happen. Years 

 ago I had read of AAcOnais and "the dope" seemed good, still you can get 

 good dope on any breed. I had kept different breeds at different times 

 over a period of twenty years all with little or no success. Golden Wyan- 

 dottes, and I love them yet; White Wyandottes, but could never make 

 them go; Buff Orpingtons, and still another disappointment; Rose Comb 

 Reds and it got worse and worse. The only chicken in all that time that 

 showed signs of real success was a splendid cross of pit games, but the 

 business of pit games was hardly fitting a deacon in the Presbyterian 

 church. My fond memory still takes me back to the pit games, and al- 

 though I h^ver saw a cock fight nor a cock with gaffs on, you can take my 

 word for it, there was many a husky scrap in Hendry's shed when he was 

 ready to pen up one cock and release another from the single coops for a 

 days' run with the hens. My mother and wife both said that it was the 

 devil working in me, and perhaps it was, for I liked it. 



So we will let "by-gones be by-gones" and "get down to brass tacks" 

 and Anconas. One bright June day an Adams Express wagon drove up 

 and left a small box addressed to me and marked "Baby Chicks." I could 

 hardly take time to pay the expressage so anxious was I to get a look at 

 those Anconas I had ordered. Quickly cutting the twine I raised the fid; 

 then there happened the finest case of love at first sight that you can 

 imagine. I have seen many beautiful baby chicks, and they are all more 

 or less beautiful, but that box of twenty-five little crickets that looked like 

 a bed of pansies, were the cutest and most beautiful I ever saw. I believe 

 the Anconas get busy before they leave the shell; I know they are busy 

 ever afterward. After much bad luck all superinduced by carelessness I 

 succeeded in raising eight, and when the June hatched pullets began lay- 

 ing in December when, eggs were 40 cents per dozen, I began to feel that 

 at last I had some real chickens. Later I bought ten large beautiful pul- 

 lets and it seems that each day adds some to their busy beauty. When 

 I entered a pen in a show of over 600 birds and won sweepstakes, silver 

 cup on cockerel for best cockerel in the show, all varieties competing; sec- 

 ond best hen in show, all varieties competing; got a pen score of 186|, and 

 had one hen score 94, I began to feel that at last I had found my affinity 



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