REPORT OF THE POULTRY MANAGER. 201 



son : when retailed to special customers they occasionally bring as high as 50 cents 

 per dozen. 



And when and where Qggt^ are at their very cheapest there is the British market 

 to be taken into consideration. Speaking of that market a bulletin issued by the 

 Finance Department in relation thereto says " Canadian poultry and eggs which 

 arrived in excellent condition realized the very highest prices in the London market " 

 and again that a leading Canadian dealer who had made a handsome profit out of a 

 shipment of Canadian turkeys expressed himself confident, " that an unlimited, 

 steady and profitable trade can be done in England with Canadian poultry and 

 eggs." The complaints made about some of the shipments were small size of the 

 egg and bad packing. The shipper can easily remedy the latter, but it is only the 

 farmer, who can b}^ breeding the right kind of fowls, put the large egg on the 

 market. 



WHEN AND HOW HE CAN DO IT. 



After the farmer has taken advantage of the high prices of the winter home 

 market, he can on the return of the warm spring weather — if he has the proper 

 breed of fowls — allow them free range outside. After a short season of rest they 

 will begin to lay again and if non-sitters will continue to do so, until the moulting 

 period begins — in the latter part of the month of September — and which will con- 

 tinue for the next two months. But by this time his layers will have well earned 

 their rest. And by the end of September his early hatched pullets ought lo begin 

 to lay. Thus a large number of eggs can be had to put on the best market offering. 

 If he has non-sitters and does not use an incubator and brooder the farmer will 

 have to keep a certain number of one of the sitting breeds to hatch out his chickens. 

 All depends upon intelligent management. And he will require to reserve a certain 

 number of his two-year old hens for breeding purposes. His male bird should be a 

 vigorous yearling cockerel. He should make it a strict rule to allow no male bird 

 among the laying stock. The reason for so doing has been given in report for 1889, 

 p. 107, as follows : — " Take away the male birds from the laying hens. The cock 

 bird is a nuisance in the pen of layers. He not only monopolizes the most of the 

 food, but teaches the hens to break eggs and so learn to eat them. Besides the 

 stimulating diet is too fattening for him and will ruin him as a breeder." The 

 separation of the male bird from the breeding stock during winter, is also insisted 

 upon by a great many of the leading breeders. The experience of five years at the 

 Experimental Farm at Ottawa, when the winter season is long, leads to the same 

 conclusion. But the farmer with one breed and one or two cock birds need have 

 little trouble in keeping the birds apart, if ho thinks it necessary so to do in the case 

 of his breeding stock. 



DIFFEEENT BEEEDS. 



THEIR APPEARANCE AND CHARACTERISTICS — EGGS, THEIR SIZE AND COLOUR — 



MARKET CHICKENS. 



It will be noticed that the foregoing remarks apply particularly to egg pro- 

 duction, but should eggs and poultry be sold by weight throughout the Dominion, 

 a probability of the near future, raj)idly maturing chickens, as well as large 

 eggs will be more profitable for the home market. The following information 

 as to the colour and size of eggs laid by the fowls of the different breeds named, as 

 well as to the weight put on per month by the chickens hatched and reared at the 

 Experimental Farm may be useful. Some of the breeds are represented by cuts. 



