Here are two snapshot views in one, of the Sykes Poultry Farm near Elizabeth City where J.D. Sykes Jr., a teller in the First & Citizens National Bank of this city plans to build up to 3,000 layers and 5,000 broilers. He has about 2,000 birds at the present time, after making several large shipments of fryers to the Norfolk markets this spring, getting 55 cents a pound for them. The upper picture shows Mr. and Mrs. J.D. Sykes Sr. and two of the chicken houses. The lower picture shows a fine flock of White Plymouth Rocks. A prize Plymouth Rock rooster should have appear in the picture, but the rascal ran off after one of his harem just as the camera clicked.
Can poultry production on a large scale be made to pay in Elizabeth City section? J.D. Sykes Jr., proprietor of the Sykes Poultry Farm at Elizabeth City says it can. Mr. Sykes submits no exact figures as yet, but his faith in poultry and egg production from his experience with a flock of 2,000 birds is evidenced by the fact that he is planning to increase his flock to 6,000 to 8,000 birds, 4,000 to 5,000 of which are to be layers.
Young Mr. Sykes is an employe of the First & Citizens National Bank and has taken up poultry where his father, J.D. Sykes Sr., had left off after a successful experience of several years. The story of the development of the Sykes Poultry Farm out on Body Road, half a mile from the city, is interesting.
To begin with J.D. Sykes Sr. first became interested in poultry when he lived in the city at the Hinton residence on Ehringhaus Street, then known as the “Sammie Cartwright place” (a 40-acre farm right in the city). Five acres of this land went with the large house occupied by Mr. Sykes.
Mr. Sykes started in the poultry business on a small scale at this place, with a few Black Minorcas and Barred Plymouth Rocks. Claude W. Duke (now of Tampa, Fla.) was pastor of the First Baptist Church here then. Mr. Duke was a poultry fancier and his favorite birds were the Single Comb White Leghorns. He frequently visited Mr. Sykes’ little poultry farm. He liked to talk poultry and so did Mr. Sykes. Mr. Sykes sold his Minorcas and Rocks and bought Leghorns. They proved a great success. But Mr. Sykes found he needed more room, and he purchased the Wm. Henry Harrison farm on Body Road, just a little over half a mile from the city limits, where he has lived for 16 years.
Birds That Lay
The year just before Mr. Sykes moved to his farm he kept a record of egg production from his 152 White Leghorn hens and pullets which shows they laid 17,300 eggs from November 1st to April 30 (six months).
The year 1911 they had increased their number of layers to 700, having hatched off by incubator 1,500 that spring. They shipped the cockerels to market. He says they were getting from 300 to 400 eggs daily then. About this time, just as they were making good in poultry, they lost their little four-year-old son by diphtheria. Shortly after this Mrs. Sykes read in a poultry magazine an article which stated children could catch membranous croup (diphtheria) from chickens that had chicken croup. Mrs. Sykes recalled that among their large flock of hens there were five or six possibly that had the croup. The chickens wee tame and could be picked up by her or her little boy, and while Mrs. Sykes was attending the daily routine of work among the poultry (she kept them closed up in their large poultry house during laying seasons) the little fellow was playing with them and more than likely got hold of one of the sick chickens. That settled the poultry business for her then and they sold practically all of their birds.
John D. Jr. Takes a Hand
But John D. Sykes Jr. was coming along. John D. Jr. went off to the war and all the time he was in the war he thought about the little farm on Body Road. And every time he thought about the farm on Body Road he thought of chickens. When he got back from the war he was ready to go into the chicken business for himself and persuaded his mother to get in with him. In a little better than two years, they have built up a colony of around 2,000 broilers and fryers, all of this Spring’s hatch. These consist of several varieties, including Orpingtons, Rhode Island Reds, Plymouth Rocks, etc. These are large bodied fowls, grown especially for the table, but all the pullets will be saved for layers. Mr. Sykes will also have a large number of White Leghorns for layers. He has made several shipments of broilers and fryers this spring, averaging two pounds each, for which he received 55 cents a pound.
While John Sykes Jr. and his mother are building a sure enough poultry plant, expecting to have thousands of layers as well as thousands of table chickens, J.D. Sykes Sr. is not to be outdone and is doing some things on that farm himself. John Sykes Sr. is going to specialize in truck and fruit. He has already started a cut in strawberries and is planning to put out a large number of fruit trees.
Mr. Sykes has had some fancy offers for his little 50-acre farm next door to the town, but he likes to live on the farm while working in the city. In town Mr. Sykes is manager of the Norfolk & Carolina Telephone & Telegraph Co. and it is significant that he started with the telegraph company as a messenger boy when it was first established many years ago.
From the front page of The Independent, Elizabeth City, N.C., May 12, 1922
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