PROFITABLE BROILER RAISING, 



This Profitable Branch of the Poultry Industry Discussed In Detail, front the Hen That Lays the Egg to the Profits 



That Go Into the Pockets of the Successful Broiler Raiser— Suitable Breeds for Broilers — Vigor and 



Shape In Breeders— Seasons of Incubation and Prices of Eggs — Seasons of Sales and 



High Prices for Broilers— Period of Growth to Marketable Size-Special 



Foods an Aid to Growth — A Clue to the Profits. 



By A. F. Hunter. 



THERE are several interesting features manifest in dif- 

 ferent 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 a choice marketable fowl product do.es fascinate the 

 beginner is well known to those who have studied conditions 

 in the poultry business, and perhaps the most frequently 

 recurring question coming to the poultry editor's desk re- 

 lates 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 matter 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 condition, and 

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

 and there are broilers and broilers, and there are not a few 

 diflculties in the way of realizing the Klondike 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 emhark in broiler 

 raising gradually outgrow "the broiler stage" and develop 

 into larger things is not surprising. We have in mind 

 such widely known poultrymen as A. G. Duston and Wm. 

 Ellery Bright as examples of broiler (and market poultry) 

 raising having been the stepping stone to the great poultry 

 business they have built up; indeed, not more than six or 

 eight years ago Mr. Duston wrote interesting and helpful 

 articles for the Reliable Poultry Journal upon this subject 

 and his poultry plant was planned and built with the inten- 

 tion of making broiler raising a prominent feature in his 

 poultry work. 



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-pricod market, and 

 a succession 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 

 cockerels to market just as soon as they are of marketable 

 size, considering them simply a by-product of the general 

 poultry work. 



Prices Go Up, Then Down. 



There is very little sale for broiler chicks in October, 

 November 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 in- 

 creases throug'h 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 twelve to twenty cents a pound, 

 and the highest prices range from twenty-five to fifty 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 fine, , "gilt-edged" quality they not only sell quickly, 

 but frequently command a premium above highest market 

 prices'. . 



■These broilers are .in greatest demand in April, 

 with a good demand , in M^rch and May, with a 

 moderate demand from - New Year's to August. In 

 the best, markets, ^hich are those of our greater eastern 

 cities, the prices range from about twenty jpents a pound 

 in January up to fifty cents a pound in April; then gradu- 

 ally fall off to about twenty cents again in August. Not all 

 two-pound chickens, however, are "high-class" broilers and 

 command the highest current prices; to command the high- 

 est prices they must be of "the best" quality, must be plump, 

 full-breasted, yellow-skinned and fine-boned, and the quicker 

 a chicken can be grown to broiler size the better in quality 

 it will be. The better the quality the higher the price and 

 consequently better profit to the grower. If a two-pound 

 broiler costs twelve and a half cents a pound to raise and 

 is of such fine quality that it sells for forty or fifty cents a 

 pound, there is a profit of twenty-seven and a half or 

 thirty-seven and a half cents a pound; if, however, it is 

 "off" in quaJity and sells for ten cents less per pound, there 

 is hut seventeen and a half or twenty-seven and a half cents 

 a pound profit. This one point of poor quality and conse- 

 quently lower price has discouraged (or disgusted) not a 

 few broiler raisers, hence the importance of getting eggs 

 from stock of the much desired fine-boned, plump-breasted 

 yellow-skinned class of fowls, to the end that, if fed right 

 and cared for as they should be, they grow (and grow 

 quickly) into broilers of the very best class. 



That there has been little change in market conditions 

 in the past dozen years is shown by the price-list given in 

 the circular of Messrs. W. H. Rudd, Son & Co. in 1891, which 

 reads as follows: 



Quotations for Broilers. 



January, demand light -.15 to 20c 



February, demand improves 20 to 22c 



March 28 to 35c 



April 35 to 50c 



May 40 to 30c 



June 30 to 25c 



July 25 to 20c 



August, prices fluctuating 16 to 23c 



September 12 to 16o 



Oct., Nov. and Dec, little demand 12 to 15c 



