Poultry Farming

Three Phases of the Poultry Industry:

A Typical "Bred to Lay" Business, 1903

A Typical "Bred to Lay" Business

"A Typical 'Bred to Lay' Business" described the work of Charles Bricault, a poultry farmer, breeder, and veterinarian from Andover, Massachusetts.

..."Let me say here that for his purpose no more ideal place than Dr. Bricault’s could be found. One of the pleasantest spots in an unusually attractive town, it is calculated to add materially to the effectiveness of its white feathered population. It is high and dry without being arid. In fact every square foot of it would be available for almost any kind of farming. Not the least of its advantages is its convenience to the cars, leaving no one an excuse for condemning Dr. Bricault’s stock or methods unseen...."

Three Phases of the Poultry Industry:

The Nicholas' Place, 1903

 The Nichols' Place

"The Nicholas' Place" is about a husband and wife in Lawrence, Massachusetts who took up poultry farming.

“…Eleven years ago Mr. Nichols was a carpenter in the city; Mrs. Nichols a mill operative. They knew as much about the poultry business as they had heard, namely, that is was profitable. It seemed to offer the best means of escape from city life, for which they had no love. So they looked it up and went into it, like plenty of others who have since gone out.

They had five hundred dollars between them. [Equivalent to $13,000 in 2013] Part of this went for a six acre plot in a rather out of the way part of southern New Hampshire near the town of No. Salem, the rest they invested in hens. To sustain life until they should begin to realize on their investment, Mrs. Nichols continued to work at her job in the mills, which she drove to and from nine miles over the road….

They chose the broiler and egg business, and eschewed the fancy. They make no pretense at breeding. They take the American hen as they find her, get her eggs, and at the end of two years ‘turn’ her….

The Nichols have succeeded, not because they started with ample capital, with previous knowledge of hens, with greater adaptation for it than for anything else they might have undertaken, or with special opportunities, but because they did not dislike hard up hill work.”

Three Phases of the Poultry Industry:

A Typical Small Breeder, 1903

A Typical Small Breeder

"A Typical Small Breeder" follows John A. Hall of Atkinson, New Hampshire and describes his work breeding White Wyandotte chickens, ducks, geese, Runt pigeons, and Angora cats.

..."Mr. Hall has bred fancy fowl ever since he was 'big enough to carry a dough dish.' He has bred Rocks, Langshans, Cochins, Brahmas; and ribbons and trophies testify as to how he has bred them.

He has never faced the public as an advertiser. He might be regarded as a sort of breeders' breeder. That is to say, it is chiefly other breeders whose acquaintance he has made at the shows that find their way to him to buy. Still he says he has always been able to dispose of all the very good birds he could spare, and sometimes some that he could not spare.

But though he is a fancier first, he has never been so situated that he could afford to disregard the claims of the practical. He owns to having adopted the White Wyandotte for the most practical of reasons, to meet the requirements of his market for dressed poultry...."