GETTING A START
We have now discussed quite minutely the good and bad points of the
three main classes of birds. Each class, and each breed has its merits
and demerits. The one who wants to make a start in raising poultry
should choose the breed that appeals to his likes the most, and the
one that he can realize the most success with, under the conditions
that he will have to raise them. There is no best breed, whether it is
chickens, cows, or hogs. They all have their good points, and their
weak ones. It is up to each individual to pick the breed that appeals
to him the most.
Granted that you have pretty near decided the breed that you want to
use, let us see how we can secure our first birds, if we have none as
yet to start with. There are generally three different ways in which
we can secure our foundation stock. The first way is by buying adult
birds and mating them, and raising the resulting chicks. Another way is
by purchasing hatching eggs, either from a neighbor or from a regular
breeder or hatchery. The third way is by buying day-old chicks from
the various hatcheries, and raising these to maturity. Let us consider
each of these methods separately, and thereby inform ourselves on the
advantages and disadvantages of each method.
In selecting adult birds for breeding purposes, and thus relying on
these birds to produce the hatching eggs, a few points are necessary
to bear in mind, if one wants the best results. As these birds are to
be the foundation of your future flock, don’t buy them too hastily,
and also do not try to buy the cheapest birds that you can find on the
market, as you usually get just what you pay for. Therefore, the first
thing to do is to look through poultry papers, farm weeklies, etc., or
to inquire locally from some neighboring breeder, and find out just
what it will cost you for adult females. Having the desired breed in
mind, it would be advisable to post yourself on the qualifications,
and the disqualifications of this particular breed. Standard weight
for the breed is an important consideration in this connection. If the
standard weight for an adult female is five pounds, try to get females
that weigh around six pounds. These qualifications can be found for
every breed in the American Standard of Perfection, a book published by
the American Poultry Association, and found in most libraries. Another
very important factor is the health of the birds. No birds should
be used for breeding purposes that have ever had any of the common
poultry diseases, such as roup, chicken pox, etc., as their resulting
chicks will also have a tendency toward this disease. Select nothing
but healthy, vigorous birds, of standard weight and color, free from
disease, of good body conformation, and not less than one year old.
When pullets, or birds of less than a year old, are used for breeding,
the result is a small egg, which hatches out a small, under-sized
chick.
If you can get in touch with your State College of Agriculture, they
can usually inform you of some reliable breeder who can furnish you
with the kind of birds you want. In selecting the cockerels, or male
birds, one very good way is to buy them from an unrelated flock, and
buy some that are especially strong where the females are weak. For
instance, if the females that you have purchased are a little light in
color, it would be advisable to secure males that are a little darker
in color than the standard calls for. It is never advisable to mate
more than ten females with one male, because if more are mated, the
fertility of the eggs will suffer. Many successful breeders even use
two male birds with a pen of ten females, alternating one male in the
breeding pen every other day. Thus the fertility of the hatching egg is
doubly assured.
A cheaper method of securing the foundation stock is in buying the
hatching eggs, but not quite as satisfactory as the first method.
These eggs are usually sold by the sitting, amounting to fifteen
eggs, or by the hundred. When buying by the sitting, one buys from a
regular breeder, and pays anywhere from $1.50 up to as high as $50 per
sitting. It is not advisable for the beginner to pay either of these
extremes, but to plan to buy eggs not over $5 per setting. Then as you
progress in the business, you can purchase males to mate with your
females to gradually improve your flock. This method necessitates the
use of an incubator, unless you can arrange with some friend who will
loan you the use of his incubator. Of course, if you already have some
mature birds, even of a different breed, you can set these eggs under
these birds, when they become broody in the spring, and secure even a
larger hatch than you can from the use of an incubator. Generally, a
mature bird can set on about fifteen eggs, and hatch every fertile egg
in the sitting. A more detailed discussion on incubation will be given
in the next chapter.
The third way that one can secure a start in the poultry business, is
by buying day-old chicks. This is an industry that has grown by leaps
and bounds in the last few years. The price generally charged for these
day-old chicks is twice as much as is charged for the hatching eggs. A
fair price for 100 day-old chicks is from $15 to $20. Of course, the
quality of these chicks is inferior to the higher priced sittings of
eggs, but if one is not so particular as to type and show purposes,
this method is very satisfactory. The day-old chick business is
founded upon the principle that it is not advisable to feed the chick
for the first forty-eight hours of its life, because just before the
chick emerges from the shell, it absorbs the remainder of the yolk of
the egg, and it is exceedingly dangerous to feed the chick any food
during that period, as the chick will be sure to experience digestive
troubles, if any thing besides water and grit is given to the chicks
for the first two days. Therefore, these chicks are placed in a well
ventilated box and sent by parcel post often as far as a thousand
miles, with no loss in mortality. For one that has no incubator or
mature hens, this offers a very satisfactory method of starting out
in the chicken business. There are commercial hatcheries all over the
country that make a business of purchasing hatching eggs from raisers
of purebred poultry, and hatching these eggs in mammoth incubators,
selling the chicks as soon as hatched, in the manner described.
Thus, the one interested in getting a start in poultry has an option
on either of these three ways. The local circumstances of the purchaser
will largely determine which method will be the best. But which ever
method is used, let me caution you that too much care can not be given
in finding a source that is perfectly honorable in their business
dealings, as there has been in the past a considerable amount of unfair
dealing on the part of some dealers in the poultry business, but I
am glad to say that these people are fast being weeded out, and the
tendency is now for honest, upright dealings in all three branches of
the industry, as the dishonest people have found that their methods
forced them out of the business. Not everybody will be independent of
the incubator, however, so we will next discuss something in regard
to the commercial incubator, also including and comparing the natural
incubation of the egg.