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Show Hatch Chickens Now Poultryman Makes his Greatest Profit Pro-fit from Birds Hatched Before Be-fore the First of May The poultryman makes his greatest great-est profit from the chickens which are hatched before May 1. The ! early hatched cockrels are sold as broilers when the broiler market is at its best. The flood of late hatched hatch-ed broilers brings prices down and congests the market. The greater returns received from early hatched broilers go far toward defraying the cost of raising the pullets. These pullets In turn begin laying when eggs are bringing the highest prices and when there is the greatest shortage short-age of strictly fresh eggs. Still more important, the early hatched chickens grow more rapidly than those hatched late in the season and are much less likely to become sick. The late hatched chickens are always the first to catch cold and spread disease throughout the flock. Chickens hatched late in the year will not mature before cold weather and usually will not lay until well into the winter, or even toward the spring. This means that they will have to be fed and carried over for several months at a constant expense, ex-pense, with no return, and this at a time when feed Is at its highest. The early hatched pullets can be developed to a large extent on the range, and a saving in grain feed is possible In this way. 'The highest producing pullets are those which begin laying early. To get into the 200 egg class a pullet muBt lay 60 or more eggs before March 1. In order to do this, pullets must be hatched before Many 1, bo that they will begin laying by the first of November. In the section of the country north of the Ohio river riv-er it is advisable to begin hatching not later than March 1 and to continue con-tinue hatching at intervals through March and April, so that pullets of different ages will be coming on, and the broilers will not all be ready for the market at the same time. The American breeds (Plymouth Rocks, Wyandottes, Rhode Island Reds, etc.) should be hatched earlier than the Mediterranean breedB, such as the Leghorns, Minorcas, etc, because be-cause they take about one month longer to mature. Pullets of the American breeds will begin laying at about 7 months of age and those of the Mediterranean breeds at about 6 months. It is often difficult to get enough broody hens to set the eggs early. This may be partly overcome by setting sett-ing the earliest eggs in an Incubator and putting those eggs under hens a few days before they are ready to hatch. A hen usually can brood from one and one-half to two times as many chickens as she will hatch, so that additional chickens hatched in the incubators can also be given to hens which are hatching eggs at the same time. Early hatching will produce more eggs in the fall and winter, while a larger proportion of hens will get broody early In the spring, thus completing com-pleting the necessary circle for early fall egg-production. Early hatched chickens are by far the most profitable in every way. |