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    Chicken Raising Made Easy
    Chicken Raising Made Easy
    Chicken Raising Made Easy
    Ebook218 pages2 hours

    Chicken Raising Made Easy

    By Paul W. Chapman

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    About this ebook

    “Raising Chickens Made Easy” is a classic guide to poultry farming aimed at part-time food producers with gardens or small plots of land. This accessible and beginner-friendly guide will of considerable utility to modern readers with an interest in keeping chickens for pleasure of profit. Contents include: “Chapter I - Home-Flock Possibilities”, “Chapter II - Producing Broilers And Fryers”, “Chapter III - Efficient Egg Production”, “Chapter IV - Houses For Small Flocks”, “Chapter V - Controlling Parasites And Diseases”, “Chapter VI - Incubation And Breeding”, etc. Many vintage books such as this are increasingly scarce and expensive. It is with this in mind that we are republishing this volume now in an affordable, modern, high-quality edition complete with a specially-commissioned new introduction on poultry farming.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherRead Books Ltd.
    Release dateNov 9, 2011
    ISBN9781447493259
    Chicken Raising Made Easy

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      Book preview

      Chicken Raising Made Easy - Paul W. Chapman

      Chapter I

      HOME-FLOCK POSSIBILITIES

      POULTRY is produced everywhere. No food-producing enterprise is more popular; none is expanding so rapidly. For fifty years the American people have been increasing their consumption of poultry and eggs. An analysis of the nation’s agricultural enterprises for half a century reveals a decline in some foods, including wheat and swine; but enormous increases in dairy products, lamb, fruits, and poultry. And, in this list of these preferred foods, poultry stands second, after fruits. Within five decades our population has doubled; during this period the consumption of chickens and eggs has increased five times.

      Even in normal years America’s poultry business is a billion-dollar industry. Nine out of every 10 farm families share this substantial sum. The typical flock is small, 75 per cent including fewer than 100 birds. But these flocks supply meat and eggs for their producers, as well as a small cash income every month in the year.

      Poultry production has increased more than any other important food enterprise to meet wartime demands. Canada, for example, within 4 years increased her exports of eggs to Britain from 1,000,000 to 67,000,000 dozen annually. Merely to meet overseas demands, the United States established more than 100 new egg-drying plants, with an annual capacity of about 400,000,000 pounds of powdered eggs. To supply the 4,000,000,000 pounds of fresh eggs required to keep these plants operating, an unprecedented expansion of our poultry business was required. But the expansion required to provide poultry meat for our civilian population was even greater. Ever-increasing production goals have been established by the U. S. Department of Agriculture. Supplementary appeals for more millions of broilers and fryers have been made frequently by our Federal food administrators.

      Production goals for poultry and eggs have been met. Commercial plants have been increased in size. Virtually every farm family is engaged in poultry production. In addition, perhaps 10,000,000 town and city families are producing their own chickens and eggs. These startling developments have occurred for two reasons: (1) almost everybody likes to eat chickens and eggs; (2) there is no other way to produce so much food with so little effort and expense.

      ADVANTAGES OF POULTRY PRODUCTION

      Raising chickens ranks first in food-producing possibilities for the average family. Compared with other meat-producing enterprises, it has the following advantages: (1) quickest returns, (2) smallest investment, (3) greatest adaptability, (4) lowest maintenance costs, and (5) most complete and appealing contribution to the diet.

      Quickest Return: To produce a beef animal for market requires 2 years; the minimum period for bringing a hog to marketable weight is 6 months. But in 10 or 12 weeks baby chicks will attain the proper weight for broiling or frying. Pullets will begin laying eggs at 5 or 6 months.

      Smallest Investment: One baby chick costs a dime, perhaps 12 cents. Ten times the amount will not buy any other popular meat-supplying creature. Equipment costs for the home flock are also relatively small.

      Greatest Adaptability: The poultry production enterprise may be adapted to any requirements. A family may brood a dozen chicks in a pasteboard box heated with an electric light bulb or keep 3 or 4 hens in an improvised laying house made of scrap material; or the poultry keeper may operate an incubator that will hatch 78,000 chicks at one time, and build brooder and laying houses in keeping with the requirements of so large an enterprise.

      Lowest Maintenance Costs: Costs in labor and feed are relatively low in poultry keeping. Economists tell us that 100 hens may be maintained for the same feed and labor requirements as 1 cow, 7 sheep, or 10 pigs.

      Contribution to Diet: Chickens will supply two appealing and universally popular food products: meat and eggs. In nutritive value, poultry meat compares favorably with beef, lamb, and pork. None of these products supplies more protein, calcium, phosphorus, or iron than chickens. From the standpoint of vitamin content, all are about alike, except that pork holds first rank in providing vitamin B1 and vitamin G. Broilers and fryers provide fewer calories of energy than mature fowls, but all chicken compares favorably with beef. It is not so rich in energy value as lamb and pork. Turkeys, ducks, and geese all supply more calories, pound for pound, than chickens.

      Eggs approach being the perfect food in that they contain all essentials for life. They may be used in the diet as a substitute for milk; they supply every required nutrient except vitamin C. They are one of the better protective foods; they are more completely and easily digested than any other food of comparable nutritive value.

      No foods offer greater possibilities for variety in the diet than poultry and eggs. There are no less than 250 ways to prepare poultry and at least 300 ways to serve eggs.

      ESSENTIALS FOR SUCCESS

      Poultry keeping may involve only the short-time project of producing broilers and fryers for meat, or it may include the year-round project of maintaining a laying flock. Since it is recommended that all home-flock owners buy baby chicks, the first project need not be related to the second. Broiler production is an independent enterprise which may be started and terminated within a period of 10 to 12 weeks. Most families, in establishing a laying flock, will wish to grow their own pullets from day old chicks; hence the second project is normally an outgrowth of the first.

      Regardless of the nature or scope of poultry keeping, there are four essentials for success: (1) good breeding, (2) sound management, (3) careful sanitation, and (4) wise feeding.

      Good Breeding: Often many young chicks will die even with the best of care. Poor chicks, usually, are responsible for such losses. Chicks must be free from disease; they must be bred to live. And the ability to lay eggs is an inherited characteristic. These are reasons why breeding is the first essential for success. It pays to buy only the best chicks available, even if they cost a few more pennies than mediocre stock.

      Sound Management: Management involves care and equipment. There is an old saying in Scotland to the effect that the eye of the master fattens his cattle. This expression—emphasizing personal care and attention—applies aptly to poultry keeping. Equipment need not be expensive, but it must provide comfort, or the enterprise will fail. Planning, too, is a part of management. While not so important to the home-flock owner as to the commercial poultryman, it will affect costs and returns in every flock. For example, it costs no more to maintain a laying flock in the fall and winter than at other seasons, but during these months eggs normally reach peak prices. Therefore, if pullets and hens in the home flock are laying while eggs are relatively high, money is saved in food purchases, or money may be made by selling surplus eggs. Providing meat and eggs at peak prices is the result of planning. And the very fact that abnormally high prices prevail during certain reasons of the year is evidence that the majority of flock owners do not plan.

      Careful Sanitation: Lack of sanitation is the rock upon which many poultry enterprises are wrecked. Every time a chick or hen dies, costs are increased. This is an important cost item, short by the fact that a 15-per cent mortality is representative of thousands sustained by the poultry industry as a whole. Chickens are attacked by parasites; they are susceptible to disease. Yet these menaces to profitable and satisfactory production can be controlled. Prevention, not cure, is the keynote of success. The flock must be kept in a healthy condition. The beginner—and especially the back-yard poultryman—has a distinct advantage over the commercial producer. If the home-flock owner starts with disease-free chicks and clean ground and equipment, there is no reason to fear parasites and diseases.

      Wise Feeding: Poultry feeds must contain all the nutrients for growth and development and all the raw materials from which eggs are manufactured. Since most home flocks are grown and maintained in confinement, all requirements for development and production must be supplied through the feed. From the standpoint of desired results, the best feed is the cheapest. Also, chickens must get all they can be made to eat. The more they eat, the cheaper the gains per pound and the lower the egg costs per dozen. Chickens cannot eat too much. To increase feed consumption, hoppers must be kept before the birds 24 hours a day. Commercial poultrymen place electric lights in laying houses to increase the length of the eating day. After all, high-laying strains of hens perform a colossal task; they lay many times their own weight in eggs each year.

      PRODUCTION COSTS

      Home flocks are maintained to increase food production, not to make profits. Even so, every producer wants to break even—that is, to supply meat and eggs at no greater costs than the same quantities can be purchased in retail markets. This is not difficult; in fact, all who follow the four essentials for success should not only break even, but receive some compensation for their labor.

      The cost items involved in producing broilers and fryers are four: (1) chicks, (2) feed, (3) equipment, and (4) fuel. Chicks and feed are the important items. The cost of the chicks is known at the time the purchase is made. Seven or 8 lb. of feed will be required to bring the chicks to an average weight of 2 or 2 1/2 lb.; 10 or 11 lb. of feed will be needed if a weight of 3 lb. is desired. Feed costs may be determined in advance. Fuel—kerosene for a lamp or electric current for bulbs or heating unit—is a negligible item in most cases. Only a part of the brooder costs can properly be charged to one lot of chicks, or to the chicks that may be produced in one year.

      Commercial broiler producers in Maryland found their average costs over 2 years to be as follows: feed, 51.4 per cent; chicks, 23.9 per cent; labor, 8.2 per cent; general expenses, 6.0 per cent; overhead costs, 5.3 per cent; cost of marketing, 5.2 per cent.

      It is readily apparent that the home flock-owner need not count all these cost items. If only marketing and labor are eliminated, he has a margin of 13.4 per cent over the commercial producer who expects to make a living from the business of growing chicks for sale. Such a margin should insure the financial success of every project which has for its objective the production of broilers and fryers for home use.

      Egg Production: Efficient commercial egg producers expect to make an annual profit of dollor 1.00 to dollor 1.50 per hen. Some make more; others make nothing. Records from poultry farms of New York State kept by Cornell University for 24 years reveal the following averages: number of eggs laid per hen, 119; cost per dozen, 35 cents; selling price, 37 cents; profit, 2 cents per dozen; return per hour for labor after all costs were paid, 44 cents. The New York poultry flocks averaged 604 birds, and were therefore classed as commercial poultry farms. Over this period, the average profit per bird was very small, but the poultry business has increased in efficiency during these years. For example, during the first 4 years, average annual production per bird was only 87 eggs; whereas, during the last 4, New York hens averaged 148 eggs.

      The following summary of Minnesota flocks, typical of the country as a whole, reveals a profit of dollor 1.53 per hen.

      Cora Cook, poultry specialist, writes:

      If you have an average flock of 100 hens, you may expect to get 15,300 eggs a year, valued at dollor 295, and have surplus poultry valued at dollor 125. Your gross income (including the value of poultry and eggs used at home) would amount to dollor 453. Your feed bill for the year would come to dollor 185, and the total expense would be dollor 300. The total expense would include not only feed, but also such other costs as chicks for replacement, fuel, depreciation, and interest. The amount left to pay for your labor and management would be dollor 153, which we call labor income. Also, if your flock performed according to the average, it would need about 5 tons of feed for

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