The incubators were filled again on the 26th, and from that hatch we got 552 chicks.  On the 21st of March they were again filled, and on the 13th of April we had 477 more to add to the colony in the brooder-house.  For the last time we started the lamps April 15th, and on the 6th of May we closed the incubating cellar and found that 2109 chicks had been hatched from the 4000 eggs.  The last hatch was the best of all, giving 607.  I don’t think we have ever had as good results since, though to tell the truth I have not attempted to keep an exact count of eggs incubated.  My opinion is that fifty per cent is a very good average hatch, and that one should not expect more.

In September, when the young birds were separated, the census report was 723 pullets and 764 cockerels, showing an infant mortality of 622, or twenty-nine per cent.  The accidents and vicissitudes of early chickenhood are serious matters to the unmothered chick, and they must not be overlooked by the breeder who figures his profits on paper.

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.  I do not wish to induce any man or woman to enter this business on account of the glowing statements which these pages contain.  I am ideally situated.  I am near one of the best markets for fine food; I can sell all the eggs my hens will lay at high prices; food costs the minimum, for it comes from my own farm; I utilize skim-milk, the by-product from another profitable industry, to great advantage; and I had enough money to carry me safely to the time of product.  In other words, I could build my factory before I needed to look to it for revenue.  I do not claim that this is the only way, but I do claim that it is the way for the fore-handed middle-aged man who wishes to change from city to country life without financial loss.  Younger people with less means can accomplish the same results, but they must offset money by time.  The principle of the factory farm will hold as well with the one as with the other.