Cl6—Lancaster Farming, Saturday, May 10,1980
Acres of
BYPATKAUFFMAN
RICHLAND - “As in
flation gets worse, our
business gets better.
Business is very good right
now," Fred Wright said. He
was referring to the family
owned and run Willow Hill
Poultry Hatchery here.
“People buy poultry when
times get tough. They can’t
afford vacations and must
find their recreation at
home. So they turn to hob
bies like raising fancy
poultry. I guess they feel
they’ll at least have
something they can eat,” he
continued. And if his
barometer of economics is
working, the economy is in
trouble. For according to
Fred, business is up 59
percent this year over last,
and last year it was up 50
percent over the year before.
The total increase over 2
years ago is 100-125 per cent.
Currently they are hatching
137,000 eggs per batch.
Fred and his wife Marge
have been raising the
poultry on their farm for
about 13 years. What began
as a hobby has mushroomed
into a business that keeps
them running long days and
short nights. While Fred was
raised on a farm. Marge was
not, and in fact she was an
English teacher. Currently
though. Marge finds her
days filled with egg
collecting and account work
handling the 25-30 orders she
receives per day.
During his college days,
Fred worked dressing
poultry and managing a
hatchery m Maine Armed
with a B.A. degree in
History, he worked away
from home for a period of
tune. The present operation
has grown from a hobby
Fred resumed working
with incubating eggs. And
since then business has
grown through ads in
national back-to-earth
magazines and lately, word
of mouth.
Visitors to the farm are
confronted with acres of
geese. The birds are housed
in large lots each complete
with its own pond. Shelter in
winter and when nesting
consists of low open sheds.
The Wnghts have the art
of raising these birds down
to a science. Marge says,
“We used to have a problem
with the goose eggs being too
tough to crack. We were
losing too many goslings that
couldn’t peck their way out.
We consulted Owen Keene at
Penn State and he helped
develop a ration that con
trolled the calcium intake of
the birds.
The feed very carefully
balances trace minerals and
vitamins. For instance, it
increases the niacin for the
birds 19 percent. Obtaining a
feed company to mu the
feed was another hurdle the
Wrights encountered Here
again, Keene came to the
rescue by formulating a
ration that achieved the
proper balance by using a
combination of standard
premnes While the feed did
not change the fertility or
quality of the eggs’ ulterior,
it took care of the shell
problem and thus greatly
increased hatchabihty
Wnght explained that the
amount of calcium given to a
caged layer would be far too
great for a bird which is
grazing In addition, while
geese greet visitors
to Willow Hill Hatchery
-<js*
One of the management techniques Fred relies on is the use of existing
buildings for as many of the farm projects as possible.
chickens and other non
waterfowl lay nearly year
round, waterfowl (geese)
are seasonal layers, and
therefore the excess calcium
is stored by their bodies and
creates the tough eggs.
The Wrights try to limit
the geese to a spring laying
period. During the fall and
winter the birds are fed shell
corn in addition to their
grazing. About 3 weeks prior
to the desired laying period,
the special formula is fed.
They explamed that if the
birds lay in the fall, the
number of eggs layed m
spring drops. And spring,
they noted, is the time of
peak demand for the
goslings. Sometimes the
geese don’t perform ac
cording to schedule. Marge
notes file goose who sat on
her nest through fair
weather and foul, neck deep
m snow.
While the scene at feeding
and collecting times can
resemble noisy chaos, it is
part of a well organized
system. Each bird bears a
leg-band which is color
coded for the year she was
placed. Most peak in
production at 3 years, and
the birds are culled when
they reach their fifth year.
The Wnghts keep 600 hens
for production at all tunes,
and ganders are placed with
the heavier birds at the ratio
of 1 gander to every 5 hens.
(Turn to Page C 24)
Peafowl are a relatively new addition to the farm. Here 8 year-old Jeff poses
with some of the birds.
V-" *■ ''
Jeff and Carrie, 5, stand near the sign which
greets visitors to the farm.
■«#>»»» Aik<M*
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