PRAIRIE FARMER'S POULTRY BOOK 



equipment. It is easily possible for a farm woman to sell 1,000 

 or more baby chicks in her immediate neighborhood without 

 much expense. That sort of a business must be built up from 

 a smaller beginning. The commercial baby chick business 

 cannot be undertaken as a sideline to farming, but should 

 be regarded as a highly specialized industry by itself. 



Selling Early Fries 



During the late spring and early summer months, young 

 fries command high prices as a rule, especially if they are fat 

 and plump. Mrs. Heap reports receiving 49 cents per pound 

 for ten-week-old fries which averaged two pounds apiece. 

 Others kept until they weighed five pounds apiece late in the 

 fall were sold for 19 cents per pound or 95 cents each. The 

 early chickens thus brought three cents apiece more and 

 required less than half the feed and work. 



"We sell most of our cockerels about July 1 as broilers," 

 writes Mrs. Finkbeiner. "They then weigh two pounds each 

 and command the highest prices of the year. To get them to 

 that age we feed sour milk, cracked corn, oatmeal and bran." 



Mrs. Wm. Klein of Putnam county. 111., sold early fries the 

 latter part of May that weighed two pounds and a quarter. 

 Later when the price dropped below 35 cents, she quit selling, 

 caponized the cockerels and sold the capons late in' the fall for 

 a fancy price. "There is practically no extra work in this 

 plan," she writes, "and it is a very profitable marketing plan." 



The early fry requires early hatching, and feeding for rapid 

 gains, and if large numbers are produced a special market. 



Selling Dressed Poultry 



Some poultry raisers have gone a step further and elimi- 

 nated the butcher by selling dressed poultry. "I believe that 

 this is the best way to make extra money from poultry," says 

 Mrs. B. C. Lawhead of Champaign county. 111. "I make a 

 profit of about 10 cents per pound on the average, for dressing 

 the chickens. Before Thanksgiving, ducks were 22 cents alive 

 and 30 cents dressed, geese 18 cents alive and 33 cents dressed. 

 I cleared over $1 per goose and 35 cents per duck by dressing." 



The experience of Mrs. Louis Bernhard of Effingham 

 county. 111., is similar. "Two weeks before Christmas we 

 dressed 82 turkeys, averaging 15 pounds, for which we received 

 49 cents net after shipping to New York. We would have 



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