PULLETS FOR LAYERS. 
PULLETS VS. HENS r AS PROFITABLE 
LAYERS. 
The Pullets Excel Yearling Hens and Greatly 
Excel Three and Four-Year-Old 
Hens—Reliable Data from a 
Reliable Source. 
Age may bring reason to the hen, as it some¬ 
times does in the case of a man; it may bring 
her experience and with experience wisdom, as 
occasionally happens to her owner. But does 
age with its reason and experience with its 
wisdom, assist the hen in the production of eggs? 
That is the question that appeals to the practical 
poultry man. 
Having in view the interests of this class of 
poultry keepers, experiments were inaugurated 
at the Utah Experiment Station to test the 
relative egg-producing capacity of hens at 
different ages. Two pens of three and four year 
olds were placed in “ competition” with two pens 
of pullets. The breed was Rose Comb Brown 
Leghorn in each case, and the strain was the 
same. There were four fowls in each pen. The 
pens were 5 feet by 7 feet, and attached to each 
was an outside yard 5 x 40 feet. 
The following table gives the average results 
of the experiment for the first year, 1896-7: 
Weight of Food Consumed Per Fowl, in 
Pounds and Cost of Same. 
Number of 
Eggs Produced 
and Value. 
Mash. 
Wheat. 
Bones. 
Corn. 
| Oats. 
Barley. 
Lucerne. 
| Cabbage. 
Cost. J 
No. of 
Eggs. 
Value. 
1 
Food Cost 
Per Doz. 
Per Cent 
Profit. 
Cts. 
Cts. 
Cts. 
Old Hens (1).. 10 
22 % 
10 
6 
11 
1 
5 3 
53%! 64 
56 
9.9 
5 
Old Hens (2).. 10 
27 
10 % 
6% 
14 
1 
4% 4 
62 107 
100 
6.9 
61 
57% 85 
61% 158 
78 
8.4 
33 
Pullets (t). 10 
25 
10% 
6 
14 
1 
4% 7 
168 
4 6 
174 
Pullets (2). 10 
27 
ioy 2 
6% 
14 
1 
4% 4 
62 182 
188 
4 1 
203 
b2 170 
178 
4.4 
188 
- 
-- 
It will be seen from the above that the two 
pens of old hens laid an average of 85 eggs per 
fowl during the year, while the two pens of pul¬ 
lets laid 170, or exactly double the number laid 
by the former. The value of the eggs laid by the 
old hens was 78 cents per fowl, and by the latter 
$1.78 per fowl. The cost of the food required 
to produce a dozen eggs was 8.4 cents for the old 
hens and 4.4 cents for the pullets. 
The pullets of 1896-7 were continued as one- 
year-old hens the second year, 1897-8, with 
addition of another fowl of like age, breed, and 
former treatment, to each pen, making five 
fowls in each during the second year. The 
results of their second year’s work are given in 
the following table. 
It is seen that pen 1 laid during the second 
year an average of 150.8 eggs per fowl, against 
158 the first year. Pen 2 laid 114.2 the second 
year against 182 the first. They averaged^the 
first year 170 per fowl and 132.5 the second 
year. As pullets their eggs were worth an 
average of $1.78 per fowl, and as one-j’ear-old 
hens they averaged $1.40, a difference of 38 
cents in favor of the first year’s laying. But 
the profit from the two is another question. 
Deducting the cost of food in each case we find 
that the profit was $1.16 per fowl the first year 
and 76 cents the second year. That makes 
the per cent, profit on food the first year 188 
and 118 the second. 
These figures will afford some basis for discus¬ 
sion of the question, does it pay to keep hens 
two years? Figuring on food cost alone there 
is a very satisfactory profit the second year as 
well as the first; so that it does pay when food 
cost alone is considered. But then there are 
other items of cost—labor, a yet unknown 
quantity, and interest on investment. The 
expense of keeping a pullet is no greater than 
that of a hen, and these figures show that the 
profit was some 50 per cent, greater for the pullet 
than the year-old hen. For ease of calculation 
suppose a man can care for a thousand hens. 
If they are pullets, according to these results, 
they will yield a profit on food of $1,160 per 
year. If they are one-year-old hens the profit 
will be $760. In the one case the man will have 
$1,160 for his labor, interest on investment, etc., 
and $760 in the other case; a difference of $400 
in favor of killing off the hens at the end of the 
first year. As he can care for only a limited 
number of hens it certainly would pay him to 
renew his flock every year, assuming that the 
cost of replacing the hen with a pullet can be 
paid with the money received from the sale of 
the hen. But the life of the great majority of 
the hens of the country is doubtless longer than. 
55 
