After the first year I kept no tabs on the chickens hatched; my desire
was to add each year 600 pullets to my flock, and after the third season
to dispose of as many hens. It doesn't pay to keep hens that are more
than two and a half years old. I have kept from 1200 to 1600 laying hens
for the past six years. I do not know what it costs to feed one or all
of them, but I do know what moneys I have received for eggs, young
cockerels, and old hens, and I am satisfied.
There is a big profit in keeping hens for eggs if the conditions are
right and the industry is followed, in a businesslike way, in connection
with other lines of business; that is, in a factory farm. If one had to
devote his whole time to the care of his plant, and were obliged to buy
almost every morsel of food which the fowls ate, and if his market were
distant and not of the best, I doubt of great success; but with food at
the lowest and product at the highest, you cannot help making good
money. I do not think I have paid for food used for my fowls in any one
year more than $500; grits, shells, meat meal, and oil meal will cover
the list.
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