The first nine eggs she received from the flock were used as a setting, from which were hatched and raised seven chicks. From these she selected her chickens, which later took prizes at the tri-state and county fairs. From her first 100 eggs set she hatched 92 chickens. From the next 125 eggs set, 110 chickens were hatched. During the season she raised 170 chickens.
According to her account these results were not obtained without work and some hard luck. For example, a mink visited the flock on the night of the 4th of July and killed twelve of the biggest chickens. Hawks in the neighborhood seemed to have a fondness for her chicks, and carried off their share.
Last September she sent two pens of her chickens to the tri-state fair, where they won first and second prizes. The following month she exhibited them at the county fair, and won first prize, which was $20. She now has a flock of fifty selected pullets and eight cockerels, in addition to her original pen.
In spite of the losses from the mink and all charges, she made a good profit. All the grain fed came from her father’s farm, but was charged at market prices, the total cost of feed amounting to $40. The cost of the original chickens, interest and express, brought the expenses of the season to $59.50. From the sale of settings of eggs, chickens sold, prizes, and value of stock on hand, a total of $430 is credited to her work. When expenses are deducted, there is a total net profit for one year of $370.50.
PLAN No. 724. BUSY BEES WITH BUSY BOYS OR GIRLS MEAN MUCH HONEY
Bee raising by boys or girls received special encouragement during the past year from the Department of Agriculture and the state agricultural colleges because the honey produced aided materially in relieving the sugar shortage. Plenty of cane sugar is now in sight, but the young people seem to have no intention of ceasing in their efforts to produce honey. They and their families have acquired a taste for the delicacy, and hot biscuits minus honey don’t taste the same any more. Then, too, there is a ready sale at a good price for all the surplus honey one can produce.
The parents co-operated with the young people in the study of modern methods and plans for bee raising. Comb-honey only had been produced heretofore, as little had been known of extracted honey or how to manage colonies producing it. The parents were willing to secure modern equipment for the children, and to move the bees from old crooked combs in poor boxes and hives to modern 10-frame hives. When the colonies began to produce well, the children united in the purchase of a complete extracting outfit.
With honey selling 20 to 30 cents a pound in some markets, keeping bees is a business by which boys or girls can make fair incomes without the expenditure of much work or time.
Two of the largest producers in Lyon County were boys of 17. One boy with seven colonies produced over 500 pounds in the 1918 season. The other, with fifteen colonies, took from his hives 858 pounds. With an initial investment of $15, one of the smallest boys in the club, working in the country at extracting time, found 100 pounds in his contest hive and sixty pounds in the other. A third member cleared $40 from the season’s work, besides supplying the family table.