84 MAINE AGRICUIvTURAL IJXPERIMENT STATION. I906. 



The most impressive feature of the table is the per cent of 

 chicks hatched from the July, August and September eggs. 

 The hens had averaged laying 16.6 eggs each, per month, for 

 the 5 months ending with June. July and August were warm 

 months; the egg yields were lessened, and many of the birds 

 were in partial moult, yet the eggs of July yielded 58 chicks 

 per hundred, and those of August, 54 chicks. From this test 

 there appears no support of the theory, that long continued lay- 

 ing reduces the chick-producing capacities of the eggs. 



Every egg in the experiment was marked as laid, and its 

 behavior in the incubator noted. Perhaps the data secured 

 from the pen of 40 hens, considered collectively, is as valuable 

 as though the histories of each hen's eggs were traced, indi- 

 vidually for the 10 months. 



The Effects of Long and Short Matings upon the 

 Chick-Producing Capacities of Eggs. 



As a matter of convenience for many years past our breeding 

 pens have been made up in November. The expense and diffi- 

 culties of providing roomy pens for the cockerels, separate from 

 the hens, have been the reasons for so doing. It has been easy 

 to see, when the two sexes have been together for several 

 months, that the hens have suffered from the too constant atten- 

 tions of the cockerels. They have given evidence of this by 

 their somewhat worn condition and loss of feathers from backs 

 and necks, as compared with their sisters, in other pens, where 

 there were no cockerels. The egg yields were no less in the 

 mated, than in the unmated pens, and to appearances the eggs 

 were of as good size in one class as the other. 



However that may be, it has been a matter of serious question 

 whether the eggs laid by hens that had been mated so long, 

 with cockerels that had 3 or 4 months' service, were in as good 

 condition for chick yielding as those from freshly mated males 

 and females. 



On the first of last November, 15 pens of pullets were set 

 apart for breeding purposes. The birds were hatched between 

 April 1st and May 14th, and had not been with cockerels since 

 they were 12 weeks old. Nine of the pens were mated Novem- 

 ber 25th by putting 6 cockerels into each pen of 100 pullets. 

 They all ran together and mated at will, until February 24th, 



