No. 6. 



DEPARTMENT OF AGKICULTUUE. 



'JSn 



Our next problem is to try to find out how to pick out the high 

 producing birds without the use of trap-nests, or perhaps, if 

 we have trap-nests, when it will pay us best to use them. I should 

 say that the lirst principle in selecting birds for egg production 

 aside from their constitutional vigor would be to begin with their 

 fall records as pullets,- with this principle in mind, that an indi- 

 vidual is likely to show early in life those characters that are likely 

 to dominate it throughout life. We find that when our pullets are 

 put to this test that if they are hatched at the same time early in the 

 spring, say in April or May, and we know their ages so that chickens 

 of the same age can be compared, if with good care they do not lay 

 before they are 8 months old, we are pretty sure that they are not 

 going to be high producing birds if we should keep them for a period 

 of years. Once in a while we find an exception to this rule, but rarely, 

 so that the earliness with which a pullet begins to lay — and by earli- 

 ness I mean their age and not alone the time of the year that they 

 began hatching. 



EARLY EGG PRODUCTION AS AN INDICATION OF PROLIFICACY. THREE 

 CALENDAR YEAR RECORDS OF 169 S. C. WHITE LEGHORNS AT COR- 

 NELL UNIVERSITY. 



Group According to Age 

 First Egg was Laid. 



a 

 o 

 S > 



o ►» 



m 



151-180 



181-210, ... 

 211-240, .... 



151-240, ... 



241-270, ... 

 271-300, ... 

 301-330, ... 

 331-360, ... 



4TG, ... 

 1,100, . 



241-1,110, . 



Total, 



4S5.50 

 407.95 

 367.68 



991.S1 



SS7.65 

 271.74 

 325.00 

 1S9.00 

 308.00 

 S.OO 



Table V. Table giving the egg yield for three years of 169 fowls 

 in groups according to the age at which they laid their first Qgg. 



The age at which pullets lay their first eggs is a very safe guide 

 in making our first selection for high producers. Here is the re- 

 sult of actual trap-nest records of 169 hens. This table is so ar- 

 ranged that we find over here to the left the groups according to 

 age in days when they laid their first egg. The first group laid 

 when they were 151 to 180 days old, and each of the other groups 

 are 30 days older; for example, 181 to 210 days, 211 to 240 days, or 

 just a month older for each group. You can easily remember how 

 one group differs from the other by 30 days. There were 4 in the first 

 group, 71 in the second, 52 in the third group, and so on, and 

 when the three first groups are assembled they averaged to lay when 

 ttey were 151 to 240 days or 8 months old, and include 127 birds 



