No. 6. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 293 



in August, lower iu September, lower in October, and reached their 

 lowest point in all instances as low as 5% to 7% production per 

 hen per day. We find that with mixed flocks of old and young 

 Leghorns, as these were, farm Hocks, that we can calculate with a 

 good deal of accuracy about how the curve of production is likely 

 to flow, in any year with any flock under normal conditions. This 

 particular man who had the fowls represented by these dotted lines, 

 had almost all pullets. The other two flocks contained a latger 

 percentage of hens. One can count very readily on the higher per- 

 centage of production in those months with the pullet flock than you 

 can with the older hens. 



We are going to come to a little more detailed study of records 

 of trap-nested hens at the college. Here are the records (Fig. 12) 

 of 38 hens for three years. The solid line representing the first year, 

 the dash and the cross line representing the second year, and the dash 

 and dot line representing the third year of production of the same 

 hens shows how the 38 hens laid each month of the year for three 

 years. One record super-imposed directly over the other, will there- 

 fore show how they vary according to their ages in production. You 

 will notice that the first year their record was 10% or 12% in No- 

 vember, that it was about 20% to 25% in December; that it dropped 

 in January, came up perceptibly in February and up higher in March 

 and still higher in April, and dropped a little in May, but sustained 

 a pretty high egg yield clear through June into July, then began to 

 go down gradually in August and September, and landed a little 

 higher in the following fall than any of the others, so that you can 

 see that in the first year, pullets, if they are hatched early so that 

 they can begin properly to lay early in the fall, will lay much heav- 

 ier percentages of production in October, November, December and 

 January, when prices are high, than tbey will ever do after that; 

 that they will also continue a high production the first year, all the 

 way through, and lay a higher production in the following fall than 

 do the hens in later years if all the birds are taken into con- 

 sideration on which to base flock averages. In the second year they 

 are slower to begin to lay iu the fall. In third year, they are still 

 slower to begin to lay in the fall. They all come up to about the 

 same place, regardless of their age, during April, May and June. 

 They all begin to go down just about the same way during July, 

 August and September, but they quit a little earlier in the fall in 

 the case of the older birds. Do you see the point? The tendency is 

 to shorten up the production in those months of unfavorable laying 

 conditions. 



We have plotted curves of production shown in (Fig. 13) of each 

 of three flocks of fowls, namely: 22 hens, that were hatched May 

 2nd; 21 that were hatched May 20th, and 20 that were hatched May 

 31st, to see how the time of hatching affects the production of the 

 birds, not only the first year but the second and third year. Do you 

 all thoroughly see the point? It is one of the most important fac- 

 tors in the successful commercial handling of birds, to get the pul- 

 lets hatched at the right time of the year. We can hatch pullets too 

 early or we can hatch them too late, depending upon the breed, 

 the season and the location in which we happen to be living. 

 If we hatch our pullets too early, they mature and begin to lay 



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