Poultry Notes

Horowhenua Chronicle, 23 August 1911, Page 4

Poultry Notes

- — ♦ - ■ - PROFITS FOR SMALL PLANTS. (American Poultry Advocate.) When it comes to the matter of profits there arc probably few 'businesses which .show such wide raiiigo of figures a.s that of keeping a smiall flock of hens. «n\'i seventy-five or under. On one side are tih'e discouraging reports of farmers who keep a few mongrel birds and of Ihose who, in total ignorance of poultry-raising, have tried it out as a get-rich-quick .scheme, while, the other extreme in profits is told in detail by backers of various systems. liii most poultry literature great stress is laid on the question of breed, housing hatching, feed, cleanliness.etc.. as the cihief points governing successful hen-raising from a financial standpoint, but alter visiting dozens of little plants the write! is more and more impressed that I here are other considerations as important, if not more so, than the 'above-named details. 'Ihe fiist consideration is that of location. A situation in a town or near city seems to be the mast suitable and disposing of a. few eggs or birds a weeK at goo:l prices. A widow, residing at Mosindale. has kept some thirty to fort- hens for several years past. On account of the district being thickly settled few of her .neighbours can keep hens, and as a result there are customers at her door ready to buy eggs as soon as they are laid, at prices ranging from ' forty to seventy-five cents n dozen. ' Were the widow down, say. where nearly everybody keeps hens, her prices wonld be one-half, and the small quantity she would have for sale would probably compel "swapping" for groceries at the village store." Another advantage a town location Iras over an out of the way place is that many transient customers may be gotten, and their interest in your stock aroused bv daily passing by. A .site on fl ca'r 'me is aba helpful in that respect. Everything considered, it would seem, then, that a small phint located at some distance from a i'lirsized community could not show titoe profits that ones of which the w-itl-ow s is typical, breed, feed, honsin<>and other details being the .same. Of coiiioc, for the sake of the returns from a small number of birds, it would not pay anyone to .move from a poor neighbourhood for this ourppse to an apparently better one, but it should be of some consolation to ti'iose who have worked hard and skillfully with their flock, to think that while thev are not getting Ills or 20s a year from each bird It is not entirely the fault of their inothods or management. The next consideration is that of stock, or perhaps, more stnictlv spenkin.v similarity of stock. Witili a flock of mixed .breeds' sales are of necessity limited to two sources eatin.se eggs and fowl for the table". A Hock of most anv one bree/I doubles Uiese chances for sales by add in oeg,gs for .hatching and live birds for" breeding As table egers are usually at rock bottom prices, dnrino" the hatching season, it is business, for this reason alone" to keep one breed.

Tnoidently it costs m, more to keen fifty Wyandpttes than fiftv birds of n dozen ITreed.s and crosses'. Ibe third, and penhaps most important point, is that of business methods used (if any). Tire following little story shows oxactlv what is possible by using a little everyday business sense with ones birds, and also what results from lack of it.

One spring, a few years ago, two neighbours sent to a Rook specialist and each nurchased some vounostock. IJotih- , men had a fair under" standing or poutlry raising and both raised flocks of highly creditable birds. hen one man's exertions stopped; his surplus eggs were traded at the village grocery store at n price always a little below the shop price. The other, when sprint came advertised a little and disposed of his output for WiTee months at 7s Ma sitting. When fall came the nick of ws stock were entered at surround,ng shows and fairs with he result that all his surplus stock as disposed of at two to three dollarc ahead. Obviously, there was a big difference in profits between the ventures of the two neighbours, although to this day the fh-st inn, can't see tlie reason why. In th s macular case feeding, care housing etc.. wove almost identical the lactor oi profit resulting from' one

There .ire plenty of owners of Sood pens of birds w.ho have never much more than paid for their feed riiese conservatives nine times out oi ten, a, e men who have never advertised, and it would certainlv be an agreeable surprise to some of Mieim to see the number of orders a «ew nicely written and wiselv placed essary to wait until you have five hundred birds or more before a littte advertising campaign is started. It local customers are scarce, « flock «"«« «'nrrait work in tdvat line. One neighbour of the writer's acoiKuntance with only one pen of ten oirds sold his entire egg output for three months last spring as the result of one little Is 6d advt HKs eggs went at 7s 6d a sitting, although others nearly with equaMv eood birds sold thews for Is a dozen". Obvious y, •* testimony on the profit question wonld differ from some or Ins mend's.

ft goes without saying that the place to advertise poultry is in poultry papers. The question as to mhich one is porlmps on a. par .with the question, "Wheat is the best breed to keep. , ' However, where a few small ads. are being placed, a paper whioh has a largo local circulation would perhaps prove more satisfactory than one whose circulation was bunched in some distant section of the country. With larger ads., dealing with Larger enterprises, this •difference would not be onouflh to count.

An avalanche of orders should not be expected the day following the oublieation of a small ad., for the .period! of getting returns often runs •nto months, depending largely on the season and weather in different .localities. Of course, an extensive knowledge of placing small ads to advantage is not gained in ,a minute, a 11 , fact is also t ' r " e tlla * ,m any small breeders never attain it, which adWs another reason for that great difference of opinion wihiich exists on the profit question.