Mating Rhode Island Reds Chickens
As the whole secret of success in the fancy poultry business is in the manner of mating
for best results, I thought possibly some in-experienced Red fancier would appreciate a
little of my experience and a few suggestions. Mating Reds is not unlike that of any
other standard breed, in that it must be scientific, and not guess or haphazard business.
In other words, when you make a mating you must be in a position to know exactly whether
it is improved or not. This can only be done by testing your females separately, marking
the chicks from each hen, keeping a book-record of each marking, noting from which female
and by what male. After the chicks have developed fully, you go through them all and
ascertain how many you have of each mark, put them together in separate coops or yards,
picture in your mind the markings and mate up of their sire and dam. Study the Standard
for shape and color, and note which individual mating produced the most well-marked
birds. Also note just how the mating resulted, and from this you get a lesson in mating,
which^ if practiced and studied well, will prevent you from buying your winners from
other breeders., You are able to produce them from matings that you know will deliver the
goods, and very likely from matings that you had never thought of producing such results.
I have some females in my yard that have never and never will be exhibited by me, that are
producing show birds hard to beat anywhere. I alone am the only one that knows this.
Should I sell these females they would possibly not give satisfaction. They would raise a
kick because they were not show birds. On the other hand it is a fact that every prize
winner is not a producer of such. But remember, that by following up the correct lines of
inbreeding you will shortly establish a producing strain of like begetting like; but you
cannot get it by buying from Tom, Dick and Harry. You must establish it your self as
suggested above. Now it is a fact that half the results depend on the male, especially
for color. It is utterly impossible to get a Red bird, either male or female, from a buff
or yellow male. Don't make any difference how red the female is. I want the male to be
just as red as he wishes, but I want him clean in under-color, and I want his eye red,
also a strong ear lobe, and low, thick, firmly set comb, whether it has just five points
or not it must be firm and not thin and high like a Leghorn. Don't throw him down because
every tail feather is not black, neither because the black does not extend the full length
of lower side of flight feathers ; but take all of this you can, giving the first-named
markings the preference. He should be as well shaped as you can get, but let color
predominate. Now the female does not have to be so red, neither throw her down because of
a little smut in under-color. Of course we want them all as red as we can get them, and
with clean under-color ; but how many have you noticed ? We certainly cannot get many
from buffs; but we will get more reds from light colored females than from breeding to a
light colored male.
Do not use, however, a female with "cotton" undercolor; take smut every time in
preference. We want the females to have the shape, whether she has just the color or not.
She must be oblong, straight, flat back, not cushioned like a Cochin, nor concaved like a
Leghorn or Rock. Long keel bone; not a round breast like a Wyandotte. Get the proper type
from the Standard picture. Let the shape and type predominate. If she has good type all
over, good strong color, especially deep in under-color, other sections good, and because
her eye is not absolutely red do not throw her down, for there you may throw away many a
coming prize winner. You will afterwards, as stated in the outset, get more of the better
by producing them yourself. But start right and keep right, and you will end right.
POULTRY PICKINGS
Have roosts near the ground. Fowls are often worried in
trying to reach the high perch and may be injured in jumping down. You may not believe it
but the best way to handle a duck or goose is by the neck. Their feet were not made for
handles but to swim with. The best thing to do with an old hen is to make her fat enough
to weigh ten pounds and then sell her. At that weight she ought to bring one dollar.
Young turkeys are more sensitive to damp, cold weather than chickens and hence are more
difficult to raise. They do better if hatched after warm weather sets in. In Chicago
capons bring from 4 to 6 cents more per pound than any other of the best dressed adult
poultry. The demand would take twenty times the present supply. After the hatch comes
off, clean out your incubator most thoroughly. Sponge it out well and then spray it with
a good disinfectant. This is the only way to repeat a good hatch.
POULTRY
FAILURES
The country is full of people who have not made a success of poultry.
Most of them have not lost much for they didn't put much Hi, and it is well they didn't.
If they had put in enough their losses might have been serious. We have before us the
account of a man who, last year, put $1,000 and paid out another thousand, and more, for
expenses. Out of 26,000 eggs he hatched 10,000 chicks and raised only 1,000 of them, or
10 per cent. You may properly call that a failure if you want to. Now what was the matter
with all these people? The matter was that they were not "onto their jobs," as the boys
say. They would just as surely have failed in banking or merchandising under similar
circumstances. The chicken business requires but little capital. So they went at that
instead of banking, though they knew as little about conducting one as the other. There
is a popular idea that just anybody can buy an incubator and raise poultry.
There never was a greater mistake. It takes expert knowledge of the highest order. Nor can
you take up the business and make a fortune in one year. The business must be started in a
small way and grow as your experience grows. Every other business is that way and so is
this. But does poultry ever pay anybody? Certainly it does, and it pays well, too. It
pays people who understand it and put their knowledge into correct practice. Can a farmer
succeed with poultry? He can better than anybody else if he goes at it anything like
right, for he has all the advantages. He grows his own feed. He has plenty of good
picking and range. He has time to begin in a small way and increase his flock as his
experience increases. He has time to study poultry literature. He has time to market his
products. He can keep posted and in touch with his business from every point of view. The
farmer above everyone is the party to succeed with poultry.
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