HISTORY OF ANCONAS 
33 
sells eggs to private customers, and 
to stores in paper cartons at a prem¬ 
ium, furnishing only the high-class 
trade. He hatches a thousand and a 
half chicks, and is continually extend¬ 
ing his business. 
T. H. Holmes, Route 1, Box 371B, 
Arcadia, California, has a 2500 hen 
ranch devoted to Anconas and Leg¬ 
horns. He has had wide experience 
in poultry culture, and keeps careful 
account of every detail. In a com¬ 
parative test of 75 each Anconas and 
Leghorns, which were hatched and 
brooded together, and at all times given 
exactly the same conditions and care, 
during August the Anconas laid 1096 
eggs, and the Leghorns 922. Then 25 
birds were taken from each flock, and 
in September the Anconas beat the 
Leghorns 96 eggs. In October the An¬ 
conas beat the Leghorns 88 eggs, and 
so on month after month. The Ancona 
eggs also weighed more per dozen than 
the Leghorn eggs. 
Mr. Holmes writes: “I also found 
that the Anconas consumed from 8% 
to 10% less feed than the Leghorns. 
The Anconas were much less inclin¬ 
ed to become broody, or go into the 
fall molt (quite prevalent in Southern 
California.) 
“One of my customers has a flock 
of Ancona pullets which showed no 
signs of molt, while his Leghorn pul¬ 
lets molted so completely they stop¬ 
ped laying entirely. His Ancona pul¬ 
lets showed no sign of chicken pox, 
while the disease knocked out his Leg¬ 
horn pullets. 
“1 am convinced that Anconas are 
the most profitable for a commercial 
ranch.” 
J. A. Baker, proprietor of Baker’s 
Ancona Farm, Route 3, Elyria, Ohio, 
is in the Ancona business on a large 
scale. Previous to 1910 he had not 
seen an Ancona. From two settings 
of Ancona eggs he raised to maturity 
eleven pullets. He had no idea then 
of ever going into the poultry business. 
He kept an exact account of his little 
flock, and they paid such a wonderful 
profit he got the chicken fever, and 
has every year extended his business 
until now he has under his control on 
his home and branch plants, eleven 
hundred breeders. His central plant 
has brooding capacity of one thousand 
chicks, and ten thousand hatching ca¬ 
pacity every 21 days; also 4,800 hatch¬ 
ing capacity at one branch. His ship¬ 
ping house is 20x24, two stories, which 
will be enlarged 300 per cent this sea¬ 
son. He had three orders for baby 
chicks last spring totaling 10,000; two 
were repeat orders, so Anconas made 
good with other breeds they kept. 
Melville Farm, Route 3, Riverside, 
Cal., Clifford M. Walker, proprietor, 
raises Single Comb Anconas on a com¬ 
mercial scale. They have been estab¬ 
lished seven years, and have no other 
business. They carry over a thousand 
head, and are gradually increasing 
each year. Chicks are hatched and 
brooded by electricity. Five acres of 
green alfalfa are constanly available, 
as crops are rotated with that in view. 
A few acres of bearing walnut orchard 
provides abundant shade. The pro¬ 
duct of three cows is fed to the An¬ 
conas. The exhibition end is not over¬ 
looked, and many a bird on this farm 
has won the blue ribbon. 
