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Show i HEN, AFTER THE FIRST YEAR OF LAYING, DOES NOT PAY TO KEEP, SAYS POULTRY MAN I (By C. F. Williams, Editor and Manager Man-ager Northwest Poultry Journal, Salem, Ore.) The editor of the Standard has requested re-quested me to write something that will be of interest to the men and women who have or contemplate having hav-ing chickens in the back yard In other words those who have fowls for household house-hold purposes or as a hobby, only. Years ago, before I knew there was such a paper published as a journal specialized on poultry production, we had chickens for homo use and, though we bad but three or four dozen, we sold eggs at the corner grocery. As I look back now, however, I realize that, duo to a lack of knowledge, we fed many a bird that returned us a very slight percentage of what they actually cost, to say nothing about a profit. This was the fault of the bird yes; but we were to blame too. Jt is "a great deal like having a clerk in a store who is unable to toll the difference dif-ference between the company's money and his own. If the boss is not wise enough to lay a trap for him and ultimately ul-timately prove him to be a thief, the clerk will continue to rob the company com-pany of not only the profit on the goods he sells but actually make the company a loss. The fault lies first with the clerk sure. But the blam .should rest with the boss for the lcs to the store. He is supposed to install such methods in his business routine that will make it almost impossible for an employe to steal from the con-Isn't con-Isn't it strange that we use such clever schemes in other lines of business, busi-ness, yet when we keep a few chick -?ns in our back yard we are lead to believe that one hen is as good as another an-other for laying purposes and let it go at throwing a handful of grain to the fowls morning and night and then we cuss the chickens, if they do not lay. True enough, it is the fault of the pul- lets if they do not lay in a measure' but, as thinking hMmans, we are supposed to give a little study to every business we venture Into and most of us swell out our chests and say to ourselves, our-selves, and many times to our immediate imme-diate family, "I master everything I interest myself in!" Yes we do not! Gives an Illustration. Yesterday a lady inquired for the writer at the show and said she wanted want-ed to know something about the Hogan system of selecting the- pullets that would lay Avell, etc. I asked her to tell me all she knew about her birds what sho fed, how and when; the number of eggs received and the total number of birds she was feeding-,lhat Dught to lay. r know the lady will pardon me for using her case as an illustration for I am not holding her Jp to ridicule as there are thousands ind thousands of others who do not mow as much about chickens. There ,vas a redeeming feature about this iltle lady; she was willing to learn ind did not set herself up as a "know t ali" poultry woman. She had fifty-QvC hens, two, three ind four years old; twenty pullets, latched in March. The hens have not aid since August 7, and the pullets : that day and since then four others ; Jrno added eggs toqthe larder r.bout i I'vojy other day. Isn't that some profil-' profil-' able venture? Now don't say that this i is a direct knock at the chicken busi-; busi-; 1 ness. It is not. It is wrong to bring up an honest illustration and then prescribe a remedy? Let me tell you j folks, papers of all kinds have been ; too ready to tell great stories of how much can be made from fowls instead i of telling how to do it! ' In the first place, it does not pay to ' ; keep a female chicken from laying ; ; purposes after it has passed the first f year of laying. I know there are those ; who claim that two and three-year-old hens lay well they think they are right but they do not trapnest and f consequently know not the exact number of eggs laid by any bird they : guess, and guessing in business wins : little success. It has been proven con-; con-; cluslvely by experiment stations over , the land that the pullet year of a female fe-male is the profitable year. Made a Mistake. The lady, then, made a mistake in retaining any of the hens unless they : had proven themselves to be excep-tlonal excep-tlonal layers during their pullet year and she wanted them for breeders. Let ! me impress this upon readers hatch -; ing eggs from mature hens are worth 40 per cent more than pullet eggs f h.on it comes to bringing forth strong , chicks having the vigor and egg-laying proclivities of their mothers before them. If you breed from a hen vou . should know that she was a good layer lay-er and if such hens only aro mated year after year then you can bet you ' will havo pullets that will lay well. Tho eggs from six good hens would have been plenty for this particular lady in order to keep up to her capacity ca-pacity of fifty or sixty good pullets. Instead she was keeping fifty-five hens from two to four years of age, hens for which sho had a great love but littlo respect! You say you have not the time to trapnest. Neither do I. Twelve months In the year finds Mrs. Williams and myself on the road to a greater or les ser extent On the road in summer with a machine, visiting poultrymen in many sections. We have been on farms having from 10 to 8750 layers. In the fall and winter we visit the state and county fairs and poultrv shows In five different states. Our time is limited when it comes to handling han-dling chickens and yet we have Rhode Island Reds and White Leghorns. True, we have aid at home but the methods followed are laid down to the helper. We have a pen of White Leghorns in the All-Northwest , Egg-Laying contest con-test at Pullman. Wash. Hero there are 1G00 fowls entered for the year. The state poultry instructors and their help trapnest these contest birds and the individual and pen records are made public each month. For November my hen 251 (leg band number) laid 29 eggs in the thirty days and thus won tho honors for that month. My pen laid 109 eggs, the six birds laving as follows: 17. 23, 10, 21. 29, and 21. The last named is an alternate which I sent to take the place of any hen that should become sick or die. The eggs from the first five named constitute the pen record. Hen 251 laid every day except on the IS of November. How to Pick Good Layers. It Is not necessary to trapnest your birds in order to be able to pick good layers. I use the Hogan system entirely. en-tirely. The book "The Call of The Hen" which Is on sale at the show will give any man or woman the principles of selection for eggs in such simple words and illustrations that they can rapidly pick their worthy birds from their own flocks. Any visitor at the show this afternoon, evening or, tomorrow to-morrow will be given a practical demonstration dem-onstration of the method if they ask for the writer. To go into the system sys-tem thoroughly is. of course, out of the question and we have no hesitancy in saying that every person with few or many fowls should have the "Call of The Hen." We do not publish the book so no one can say that we are merely boosting the sales of our own matter The book is sold on a five das guarantee guar-antee basis anyone who is "dissatisfied "dissatis-fied with his purchase may receive his money back from the publishers. It is used as a text book in the American Ameri-can School of Poultry Husbandry which speaks well for its merits. The question of( breed springs up in the minds of those who are thinking ui sucunng unicKeiia ior ineir nome. Visit the show and we will endeavor to point out the good as well as the poor features of all. The judge will be here the balance of the week and will gladly answer all questions. We are interested in seeing the business prosper, pros-per, especially at this time when meat is so scarce and the demand growing greater every month. Chickens offer the quickest route to a larger supply, unless it is the rabbit which many people refuse to eat. Let us get together to-gether and stimulate an interest in greater poultry production. Feed is high but when you learn that the best results will be gained by feeding grain only once a day and a wet mash for the other feed and learn what grains have the proper ingredients to make eggs then you can feed with understanding under-standing and with profit. I feed no wheat and will cut out corn as soon as the cold weather passes. I know successful poultrymen, running 2000 or more birds who have not used wheat or corn since last May! Oh yes, there are substitutes for these when you learn the chemical analysis of the grains. The trouble is avo handle chickens without knowledge. Tho I baseball and football player; the pool nnd billiard player, tho boxer nnd the wrestler all give more study to their particular games a!nd professions than does the man with a few chickens on . , his back lot. It Is amusing to see the eyes of people open wider in the show room as we explain how to tell when a hen Is laying, when she will lay and whether or not sho is a good layer it Is so simple when you know that many a person looks uncomfortable when he thinks, "Hero I've been feeding feed-ing all those drones when they could not have laid an egg if there were fifty Inside." ' Farmers, tho place for you on Saturday Satur-day is in the poultry show for an hour or two. We will mate It a point to give you every bit of Information at our command. |