A Woman’s Successful Enterprise 
Poultry Raising for the Fancier and the Market 
By CATHERINE ROBERTSON HAMLIN 
I F there is one occupation that is more eminently 
fitted than another for women it is poultry 
raising. At least that is the opinion of Mrs. 
O. H. Burbridge, one of the most exclusive women 
of Los Angeles’ smart set, who, two years ago started 
what is now the largest and most successful specialty 
poultry farm in the United States. In order to 
demonstrate the fact that even the most fragile of 
her sex can successfully compete with strong men 
in the chicken industry, Mrs. Burbridge turned 
her magnificent grounds—five acres of gardens, 
lawns and shrubbery—in West Adams Street, the 
choicest residence portion of the city, into a model 
chicken ranch, and devoted the greatest part of her 
time to a study of the feathered gentry. During 
the last fifteen months—it took her ninety days to 
get a start—she has cleared five thousand dollars 
and she declares that any woman of average intelli¬ 
gence, with a determination to succeed and possessed 
of the industry necessary in any venture, can win 
out with poultry. She furthermore says that raising 
fowls is a healthy and interesting study and that 
the woman who has once tried it will be exceedingly 
loath to give it up. 
Mrs. Burbridge has certainly done wonders. 
Not content with the mere raising of chickens she 
a year ago started a paper, “The Pacific Fancier,” 
which, although not confined strictly to the feathered 
gentry, is now a leading poultry journal of the 
feathered tribe. The various departments, devoted 
to different animals, are each presided over by an 
editor who is authority on the particular subject 
upon which he writes. Mr. Burbridge, a wealthy 
stock broker, is business manager and has made 
“The Pacific Fancier” a paying venture from the 
first issue. Mrs. Burbridge is editor of the poultry 
department and is also secretary of the Los Angeles 
Poultry Association, and contributes a weekly article 
to one of the leading daily papers. Besides this, 
she is interested in an incubator and brooder factory, 
which is at present operating on a small scale but 
which, to meet the demand, is to be greatly enlarged. 
In addition to her five thousand fowls, buff, white, 
black and jubilee Orpingtons, some of which cost 
one thousand dollars each, and which their owner 
considers worth every penny of the price, Hoot 
Mon, Scottish Chief and King Cole, being the 
favorites, there are large lofts of pigeons—over three 
thousand of them—of all varieties, homers of various 
tints; runts, hen pigeons, so called from their resem¬ 
blance to the domestic biddy, Mondains, Montebans, 
Red Carneaux, etc., the names of which Mrs. 
Burbridge rattles off as glibly as though she were 
speaking of her ordinary acquaintances. Squabs 
bring fancy prices in Los Angeles, where the demand 
always exceeds the supply. 
In chickens, exclusive attention is given to Orping¬ 
tons, of the five shades. Indeed, the handsome 
place on the boulevard is known as “Orpington 
Ranch. ” 
After determining to go into “trade”—and that 
was only when her physician had advised her that 
unless she spent her time out-of-doors she could not 
live long—she tried several breeds of birds, always 
with the result that she “did not like chickens any¬ 
way.” 1 hen Mr. Burbridge saw an Orpington 
pen and bought a setting of eggs for his wife. She 
was not at all pleased with this extravagance, for 
the setting of eggs cost sixty dollars. 
When the downy things came peeping out of the 
shells, however, it was another story. They cap¬ 
tured her fancy completely, and she declared, 
emphatically: “Orpingtons are the chickens for 
9 9 
me. 
At once she cabled Cook of Paisley, England, for 
five trios of Orpingtons and when they arrived she 
entered them in a poultry show and carried off all 
cups and ribbons from local competitors. In 
addition to birds from different parts of England 
and Scotland she obtained blooded chickens from 
joe Partington, who is an improver of the original 
Orpington stock. With an air of great pride, Mrs. 
Burbridge told the writer that the fowls she raises 
take precedence of those from abroad and it will 
be something entirely new to the modish woman if 
the time ever comes when she exhibits her stock and 
fails to capture all prizes offered in those classes in 
which she competes. 
Besides supplying eggs to American fanciers for 
settings, her establishment ships Orpington fowls 
and eggs over nearly all the world, including Austra¬ 
lia, Burmah, India; the Hawaiian Islands, Japan, 
China, the Philippines, Corea, Russia and Norway. 
Last autumn the Burbridges were entertaining 
Colonel G. G. Green, proprietor of the large tourist 
hotel in Pasadena, at dinner in their West Adams 
Street home. He remarked on the delicious quality 
of the chicken served as one of the courses. 
“Mrs. Burbridge insists that we eat fowl when the 
market is not brisk” laughed the master of the house. 
Although the chatelaine replied in kind to the rail¬ 
lery, the shrewd business man caught the suggestion 
