Sept. 18, 1916 



Dwarf Eggs 



1003 



VI.— SEASONAL FREQUENCY OF DWARF EGGS COMPARED TO NORMAL 



EGGS 



Dwarf eggs are frequently found by poultrymen during the spring 

 and early summer and somewhat less frequently at other seasons. Dur- 

 ing the eight years that these eggs have been collected at the plant of 

 the Maine Station they have occurred during every one of the 12 months. 

 However, 70.8 per cent of them were laid during the five months from 

 March 1 to July 31. During some years more than 80 per cent were 

 produced during these months. Table XXIII gives the number of 

 dwarf eggs produced each month for each of the eight years. It gives 

 also the percentage of all of the dwarf eggs which were produced during 

 each calendar month and the monthly percentage of the annual egg yield 

 as determined by Pearl and Surface (19) for the years 1899 to 1907. 



Table XXIII. — Number of dwarf eggs recorded each month from February i, iqo8, to 

 February i, iqi6, and the percentage of the total number of dwarf {iqo8-iqi6) and 

 normal (iSgg-igoy) produced during each calendar month 



a Years incomplete. 



6 Calculations in earlier parts of paper were completed before this egg was laid. 



c These should follow August, as they are for the end and not the beginning of the year. 



The more frequent occurrence of dwarf eggs during the spring and sum- 

 mer is seen either in the record for each year or in the sums at the foot of 

 Table XXIII. It must be kept in mind that this is the natural breeding 

 season of the fowl and that the total number of eggs laid during these 

 months is greater than during the other months of the year. Whether or 

 not the number of dwarf eggs in the breeding season is greater than is to be 



