Procuring Stock
The best way for the city poultry keeper to procure hens is to purchase them in the fall. An effort should be made to obtain pullets rather than older hens, and the pullets selected should be well matured, so that they will begin to lay before the cold weather sets in. Evidences of the maturity of pullets are the development and red color of the comb and a size and growth which are good for the breed or variety. Hens will lay little or no eggs during the fall and early winter, while they are molting. Well-matured pullets, however, should lay fairly well during this period, so that an immediate return is realized from the investment. The purchasing of pullets in the fall is preferable in most cases to purchasing day-old chicks or to hatching chicks in the spring. Usually there is little space available for the raising of chicks, and, moreover, many city dwellers have had no experience in raising them. Under these conditions the results are apt to be very poor. Hatching and rearing chicks also necessitates broody hens for this purpose, or else investing money in artificial apparatus such as incubators and brooders. Such an investment is often too great to prove profitable with the average small flock. If chicks are raised, they must be fed throughout the summer and no return will be obtained until the pullets begin to lay in the fall, except that the males can be eaten or sold.
Fig. 3.—A shed in the heart of the city utilized for a poultry house. While a larger opening in the front would admit more light and make a more suitable hen house, the fowls kept here have done very well. The wire netting used for the yard was purchased very cheaply at an auction. The grass and sacks shown on the top of the run are used to furnish shade.
When pullets are to be purchased, it is well if possible to go to some farmer or poultryman who may be known to the prospective purchaser. In some cases it may pay to make arrangements with the farmer to raise the desired number of pullets at an agreed price. Where the householder does not have an opportunity to go into the country for his pullets, he can often pick them out among the live poultry shipped into the city to be marketed. The advice of some one who knows poultry should be sought in making such a purchase, to make sure that pullets or young hens are obtained, and that the stock is healthy. Often the local poultry associations are glad to help the prospective poultry keeper to get stock by putting him in communication with some of its members having stock for sale. Sometimes the local board of trade or chamber of commerce is glad to help to bring together the prospective purchaser and the poultry raiser.