284 



Milk Chickens. 



[JULY, 



The demand for these small birds is not very large, though 

 it is greater than the supply, and is chiefly restricted to the 

 wealthy classes. The limit of consumption has, however, 

 not been reached, though it cannot be expected that the 

 trade will ever attain large dimensions, for, regarded merely 

 as an article of food, these milk chickens are very costly. The 

 same, however, may be said of Bordeaux pigeons, larks, &c, 

 which maintain their position on all markets. Of late the 

 price of milk chickens has fallen somewhat owing to the 

 cheaper supplies from Hamburg. At one time wholesale 

 rates were from is. 6d. to 2s. 6d, each, but is. 2d. to is. lod. 

 is now the range, with a few exceptional specimens selling 

 for 2S. Paris prices are higher than in London, probably 

 owing to the fact that Hamburg petits poussins cost more to 

 send there, and are not quite the size of French birds. Still, 

 at the figures named, the margin of profit is considerable. 



The production of milk chickens is not an industry to be 

 undertaken by itself, partly because, being a season trade, it 

 would occupy less than half the year, and also because the cost 

 of production is much less where this branch is only part of 

 the operations. Attempts have been made by means of large 

 plants to turn out poulets de lait on a wholesale scale. One 

 of these has been described by Madame Van Schelle in her 

 paper read at the Second National Poultry Conference, held at 

 Reading in 1907,* but the establishment described was not 

 continued, as it does not appear to have been a financial 

 success. Difficulties arise when operations are intensive, and 

 the heavy establishment expenses involved mean a great in- 

 crease in the cost. Hence, so far as experience is available, 

 there is no encouragement for taking up the work on a large 

 scale. My observations in France, Belgium, Germany, and 

 America have shown that the breeding and rearing of milk 

 chickens can be made profitable if it forms part only of the 

 work of the holding, but that if it is carried on by itself the 

 results are likely to be very doubtful. At Haeltert, the place 

 described by Madame Van Schelle, the chicks were reared 

 artificially on shelf brooders, heated by pipes, a system which 

 has yet to prove its practicability. Birds, however, were 

 grown in two months to a weight of 2 J lb. 



* Official Report of the Second National Poultry Conference, 1907, pp. 200-208. 



