THE BROILER BUSINESS. 



Broiler Raising Seldom Proves Profitable as an Exclusive 



Business, but May Be a Source of Considerable Income 



as a Part of the General Business of Poultry Keeping. 



' By H. A. Nourse. 



There are two kinds of broilers. The smaller are known 

 as "squab" broilers and are very small chicks, weighing 

 from one-half to three-fourths of a pound each. The de- 

 mand for these is not very great as yet so that their pro- 

 duction forms but a small part of the broiler business. 

 The average broiler weighs from a pound to two pounds 

 and sells for from twenty-five cents to one dollar according 

 to the season of -the year and the purchaser. The early 

 spring broiler is sold for the highest price; fifty, sixty and 

 ocjcasionally seventy-five cents per pound is received for 

 especially nice specimens in the latter part of April and fore 

 part of May. During June the price falls rapidly and at 

 the end of July the price in the open market frequently 

 falls to twelve or fifteen cents a pound for very nice broilers. 



It is apparent that if the chicks can be successfully 

 hatched, reared and marketed in the time of highest prices, 

 the profit is considerable and successful broiler raisers who 

 have the stock ready when the price is up, make the short 

 .season a very profitable one. In years past this fact has 

 induced many people to go into the broiler business who knew 

 practically nothing of the work and who invested their 

 money freely and lost the greater part of it. Many large 

 plants have been built with the' intention of hatching, 

 rearing and marketing these little chickens twelve months 

 in the year and while a few of therii have been. successful, 

 ,,the majority of them have not. In fact, very few plants 

 which have to depend upon the production and sale of broil- 

 ers for their entire revenue have existed long and those few 

 have, as a rule, enjoyed the advantage' of an exception- 



