Tuesday, December 31, 2013

Happy New Year, poultry-style!


And thus begins 2014! This Fred Good illustration adorns the cover of the Eastern Edition of the January 1936 issue of Poultry Tribune.1

Here are five facts from the "Do You Know?" section of this 78-year-old issue, which you can use to amaze your fellow revelers at whatever party you're attending tonight.2

  • In determining the price you should pay for a breeding cockerel, you should keep in mind that one male will, in a single season of moderate length, sire about 400 chicks.
  • Not more than 300 growing birds can be kept on an acre of range, if the owner wishes to maintain a sod.
  • Cornell University found that for each unit of man labor employed on the poultry farm, at least 10,000 dozen eggs must be produced in order to make a profit.
  • From 14 to 16 days of egg production are lost each time a hen is broody, even though she is immediately broken up.
  • It costs about $1.65 per year to trap-nest one bird.

If those facts were a bit too boring for a holiday, here's something a bit peppier: Ten Band Names Culled From the 1936 Issue of Poultry Tribune.

  • Big Garden Huckleberries
  • Pay-Day Chicks
  • Raydiant
  • The Buff Minorcas
  • Sex-Link Specialists
  • Spizzerinktum
  • Acme Egg Grader
  • Sardilene
  • Old Toms
  • Ketchum Clincher

First footnotes of 2014
1. This issue was originally delivered by mail to Mrs. George W. Libhart of Hellam, Pennsylvania. According to Ancestry.com, her name was Mamie.
2. And if you do find yourself reading Chicken Facts off your smartphone to the people standing next to you at a New Year's Eve party, PLEASE leave me a comment or send me an email (chrisottopa@gmail.com) about how it went!

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