192 



TBE BOOK OF POULTRY 



from being wasted, has done valuable work 

 which has tc be done before he can succeed, and 

 may just as well be done at small expense as 

 at a great loss. We do not advise 

 Purchaie further purchases of eggs at this 



0.°^, more advanced stage, unless there is 



money to spare and room to keep 

 the produce separate ; in fact, not even then. 

 The drawback is that you do not know what the 

 result is worth till months later, and if then it 

 does prove satisfactory, you are still ignorant of 

 the mating and breeding which produced each 

 bird. It is better to purchase actual stock, and 

 so have something definite ; though if any of the 

 chickens already hatched from purchased birds 

 are worth breeding from, as may well be the 

 case, by all means let them be considered as 

 stock, and proper mates procured, spending the 

 more of what can be afforded upon the new 

 purchases. It will depend upon circumstances 

 whether or not these latter are prize exhibition 

 specimens. Much advice is given 

 Exhibition upon this head also, as to the sums 

 of the to be " got back " by prize-win- 



Purchases. \\\\\o towards their cost ; and an ex- 

 perienced exhibitor does often make 

 a profit from exhibiting a specimen, which also 

 keeps his name before the public. But a novice 

 has little skill in caring for birds thus shown, 

 which in his hands will probably lose condition 

 rapidly, or may even die ; and in any case, and 

 if he so far succeeds and does get back a great 

 part of the cost, he has missed his real object, 

 since fowls thus frequently shown have too 

 much taken out of them to produce eggs with 

 strong and fertile germs. If the birds are good 

 enough to win at one or two of the really 

 principal shows, that will do them no harm, and 

 will do useful work in bringing a new breeder's 

 name before the public as owner of good stock, 

 which will help him later on ; but to buy good 

 stock and work its strength out in exhibition 

 before breeding is — we have seen it often — a 

 mistake in the end. 



Yet as good as can be afforded should be 

 obtained by all means, now the start is made. 

 Details of mating belong to other portions of 

 this book, and must be sought in 

 Mating proper place ; but one general point 



of the applies to nearly all cases of 



Stock. <■ double mating." In these, as a 



rule, the cockerel or cock of a 

 cockerel breeding pen, and the pullets or hens of 

 a pullet breeding pen, are desired of the highest 

 possible exhibition excellence ; thus the better 

 that can be afforded, the less uphill work the 

 breeder has to do. So much is mainly a matter 

 of money, and the choice of the exhibition com- 



ponents can be made personally from what is 

 seen. But the mates for these birds cannot be 

 so selected, and are seldom or never seen in the 

 show pen, being such as are bred by, and pro- 

 duce in their turn, such specimens as those to be 

 now mated. The chief difficulty, then, lies in 

 procuring these mates for the exhibition speci- 

 mens, which can only be done from a breeder, 

 and hence the quickest way to produce good 

 chickens is to procure a breeding pen, properly 

 mated, from one breeder's yard. This can never 

 be done except at a good price ; and its success 

 depends upon the character of the vendor, and 

 his honesty in also giving correctly the exact 

 amount of relationship there may be between 

 the male and female elements of the pen. 

 Without this knowledge, the new owner docs 

 not know how far he can safely carry in-breeding, 

 or what dangers he has to guard against. On 

 the whole, on this last account it is better to 

 procure the two components, if results can be 

 waited for, from different yards. The breeder 

 knows then that he can start safely so far as 

 relationship goes ; and although his produce 

 the first year will be uncertain, for reasons 

 explained in the preceding chapter, as soon as 

 he begins to re-mate from the produce things 

 will mend, and his progress will be steady. 



Good stock can rarely be picked up cheaply, 

 but now and then it can, and the novice who 

 has spent a year as advised will be able to judge 

 for himself whenever such a bargain comes 

 before him, in a selling class or otherwise. 

 There are varieties in which second-rate stock 

 will breed better than in others. Thus, Dark 

 Brahma pencilling is so good now, that a pullet 

 may often be picked up in a selling class good 

 enough to breed really good chickens ; while, on 

 the other hand, in Spangled Hamburghs it will 

 be weary and disheartening work unless a first- 

 class specimen can be secured. One caution 



ought to be given, viz. not as a 

 Summer general rule to purchase chickens, 



Exhibitors however apparently good, which 



to be Avoided. ^\^ ^^ j^g very early autumn or 



late summer shows, or from 

 breeders zvlio cliiefly exhibit at such shows. 

 There are people who lay themselves out 

 specially for such exhibitions, as the competi- 

 tion then is small, and winning with a certain 

 quality pretty easy. The birds they exhibit are 

 very pretty looking in most cases, but rarely 

 large and fine, being hatched exceedingly early, 

 when fertility and vigour are not at their best. 

 They very often moult in their first autumn, 

 after laying and breeding early, and are thereby 

 debilitated by next spring, when really wanted 

 for breeding ; and even later hatched chickens 



