480 
THE KUKAb NEW-YORKER 
April 8, 
THAT HEN CONTEST. 
As stated on page 374 Mr. W. J. 
Dougan, of New Jersey, selected 10 
White Wyandotte hens and 10 White 
Leghorn hens for a year’s test. He 
is to feed those hens and care for 
them in any way he likes, sell the eggs 
for food or incubate them as he sees 
fit, and make fair reports of the number 
of eggs laid and the money received for 
them. Regarding the stock selected, 
Mr. Dougan says: 
As I told you before, these arc all old 
Btock, some over three years, others ap¬ 
proaching three. I think them nearly like 
what anyone entering the poultry business 
would be most liable to purchase for a start. 
The first report follows. This covers 
the record of the hens and the food put 
into their hoppers for the first two 
weeks in March. We invite the most 
searching criticism of the experiment 
and everything connected with it. All 
we want is to get at the possibilities of 
a flock of hens : 
Record of Ten Wyandottes. 
REPORT NO. 1. 
I herewith submit report of 10 W lute 
Wyandotte hens with two roosters to cover 
from March 1 to 1.5 inclusive. They have 
consumed or have left in hoppers: 
Lbs. 
16 cracked corn at. 
1.5 wheat screenings at. . 
13 mixed feed, cooked at 
11 beef scraps at. 
9 grit at. 
7 oyster shells at. 
4 bran at .... 
3% oats, per bag, at... 
Total . 
Per 100 
.20 
. 1.55 
.23 
. 1.55 
.20 
. 2.83 
.31 
. .70 
.06 
. .70 
.05 
.06 
. 1.10 
.06 
.1.17 
Laid 51 eggs. Sold G which were too 
light bodied to set. 45 cents per dozen. 
Set 39 and tested out two. 
Record of Ten Leghorns. 
Here is report of 10 White Leghorn hens 
with two roosters, to cover from March 1 
to 15 inclusive. They have consumed : 
Lbs. 
15 cracked corn at. 
13 wheat screenings at.. 
7 beef scraps at. 
6 % mixed cooked feed at 
3 oats, per bag at. 
3 bran at . 
3 grit at . 
3 oyster shells at. 
Total . 
For 100 
.19 
. 1.55 
.20 
. 2.85 
.20 
. 1.55 
.10 
. 1.10 
.05 
.05 
. .70 
.02 
.02 
Laid 47 eggs. Five sold at 4.5 cents per 
dozen, being too light to set. 31 eggs set 
in incubator, three tested out. Some of 
the food is still in hoppers, w. .). dolt;an. 
Some Hen Figures Analyzed. 
I am very glad to see The It. N.-Y. ask 
for criticism on statement of Gori & Son, 
page 381, and trust you will get lots of it. 
When you published figures of Mr. Dougan 
($9 per hen) some time ago, we thought 
you were going some, but Gori & Soil's 
claim was doing much better, and next 
week we expected to read of some one hav¬ 
ing hens laying 220 golden eggs a year and 
selling them by weight at full market value 
of .$20 per ounce. Messrs. Dougan and 
Gori are wasting their time with a few 
hens in the backwoods. Invite them out 
into the limelight. There are lots of cor¬ 
porations with stocks for sale to the public 
who would pay handsome salaries for ac¬ 
countants who could make such tine show¬ 
ings. These gentlemen's statements re¬ 
mind us very much of many of the re¬ 
ligious hobbies of to-day; they contain 
much truth and the error is consequently 
not so easily found. The two little words 
“per hen” is the error in Dougan's and 
Gori's statements—leave them out and the 
net income given by Gori & Son's of $141.07 
for the year is correct, but of this amount 
a large part was earned by the “210 
raised.” These men have increased their 
capital, but in figuring the percentage or 
rather the perhenage of profit, do so on 
the old capital, overlooking the new en¬ 
tirely. The hen's product is the egg, and 
whether you choose to eat, sell or hatch the 
egg is no concern of the hen, and she is en¬ 
titled to credit for nothing more than the 
value of the egg. When you decide to 
hatch her eggs, the first cost of the new 
birds is the price or value of the eggs, and 
all expenses of hatching and feeding from 
that time on is properly chargeable to them, 
and the income to their credit likewise. It 
would have been just as reasonable for 
Messrs. Gori to have carried the figures on 
for five or more years as for the one year 
given, giving the expenses and income of 
the posterity of the original 11% breeders 
and the 105 pullets and their posterity, and 
their posterity’s posterity to the end of say 
five years ; then divide the total net credit 
by five to get the annual profit, and annual 
profit by 11% for the “per hen unit" 
profit. These original 11% hens might 
then retire on their laurels on such a mag¬ 
nificent world’s record. Analyzing Gori's 
statement we find the account of the 11% 
breeders to be as follows: 
Dr. 
Feed, etc.$17.7o 
Interest on value of breeders.90 
Interest on breeders share of plant, 
say .G° 
Cr. 
Eggs . 
Manure, say . 
Eggs used in house... 
$18.70 
$35.75 
1.20 
$36.94 
Net credit of $18.24, or $1.59 per hen 
unit. WM. GIBSON. 
New York. __ 
A HEN MAN COME TO JUDGMENT. 
March 13, 1910, I purchased 12 hens and 
one cock, pure stock, White Wyandottes, 
paying a fairly good price for the pen. 
They were pretty good layers; 130 eggs in 
the remaining 19 days in March and 240 
eggs in the month of April. Using eggs 
from this pen of birds entirely, we had 
three incubator hatchings on the follow¬ 
ing dates: April 18, May 14, and June 8. 
With brooders, we raised from these three 
hatches, in all a total of 150 birds, prac¬ 
tically half of which were pullets. The 
cockerels, when reaching a weight of 4% 
pounds, were sold dressed, at 18 cents a 
pound to private trade in Toledo. I was 
well satisfied with this end of the busi¬ 
ness, but the other end, the egg end, has 
been a failure. , 
The pullets, 65 in number, have had free 
range since they were old enough to run, 
and were housed at night in three separate 
houses, were well fed and grew rapidly. 
The latter part of October I put them in 
what at that time I was pleased to call 
my laying house. (I have since discarded 
the name.) This building is 20 feet long, 
and 16 feet deep, six feet high in front and 
five feet high at the rear; the walls and 
roof are all double boarded with two-inch 
air space between. The floor is heavy 
planking 18 inches above the surface of 
the ground, and is covered with six inches 
of clean dry sandy soil. On top of this is 
six inches ‘of dry, clean corn husk litter 
for scratching material. Large open win¬ 
dows in the front of the building, facing 
the south; these windows are closed at 
night with muslin curtains if it be cold or 
windy, and are open all the day unless it 
be exceptionally raw or windy. Droppings 
boards and roost extend clear across the 
back of the building; the droppings boards 
are at least two and one-halt feet above 
the litter, thus making the entire floor 
available for scratching purposes. Muslin 
curtains are let down in front of roosts 
on real cold nights. Every effort is made 
to keep the birds warm and comfortable, 
and they are comfortable; the air at all 
times in the building is pure and dry and 
the walls are never moist or frosty. Drop¬ 
pings boards are cleaned twjce a week and 
kept dusted, and there is no vermin of 
any kind on the birds or about the build¬ 
ing. So much for the comfort of the birds 
and the sanitary conditions. So far I feel 
that I am nearly all right. Now the ques¬ 
tion is, do I feed them enough and are 
their rations properly balanced 7 
In the morning they are fed four pounds 
of whole oats among the litter; this keeps 
them busy till about nine o'clock, when 
they are fed in hoppers a mash composed 
of four pound* of ground vegetables, beets, 
turnips, carrots, potatoes, cabbage, par¬ 
snips and table scraps in equal parts; 
added to this and thoroughly mixed are 
two pounds of wheat bran and two pounds 
of wheat middlings, a handful of ground 
charcoal and a like amount of “egg tonic.” 
At noon they are fed four pounds of whole 
wheat and one pound of either barley or 
rye. This is thoroughly mixed with two 
pounds of fresh green ground bones, and 
the whole is fed to them in the litter. This 
keeps them busy till about four o’clock 
when they are fed five pounds of either 
whole or cracked corn, this also is fed to 
them in the litter. They are always busy 
and always seemingly ready for their meals 
with healthy appetites. If it be a cold 
day their food is always thoroughly warmed 
before fed to them; warm water is sup¬ 
plied fresh both morning and night and m 
more than sufficient quantities. Grit, shell 
and charcoal are always kept before them 
in hoppers. Two large lattice hoppers are 
always kept filled with dry clover, which 
was cut last Fall, and these are filled as 
fast as they are emptied, which is two 
and three times a week. Whenever the 
weather will permit the birds are given 
access to a run which is about 75 feet long 
and 30 feet wide. Last August this run 
was sown to rye, which grew very rapidly 
and thick; it is now about three inches 
high and gives them an excellent supply 
of fresh green stuff, and they eat plenty of 
it. When the weather does not permit 
them the use of this run they are fed 
sprouted oats, green rye, cabbage and let¬ 
tuce in large quantities. There is their 
daily menu; what is wrong? The reason 
that I have asked you, “Do we feed them 
enough and are these rations properly bal¬ 
anced?” is this. This bunch of husky, 
healthy, cackling, scratching, well built 
and rosy red-combed, seemingly happy and 
well contented pullets do not lay enough 
eggs in one day to make a decent sized 
dish of scrambled eggs. Here is their 
record. Behold! 
First egg laid December 11, 1910, two 
months behind time. Total number of eggs 
laid in December, 6; total in January, 
75; total in February, up till present date, 
February 17, 107. 
Can you or some of your nine-dollar hen 
men tell me what is wrong besides myself 
and the pullets? 
Ohio. R. C. FREEMAN. 
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An Easy Way to Compound 
a Properly Balanced 
Ration. 
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