CHAPTER III.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 locallyfrom 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 toas 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 thesechicks 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 startin 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.