1910 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



805 



BLACK CHICKENS FROM A WHITE FATHER AND 

 PLYMOUTH-ROCK MOTHER; MORE ABOUT IT. 



Dear Friend: — There is nothing new nor wonder- 

 ful about your black pullets. You have simply 

 stumbled upon an old law of heredity, or reversion, 

 that has been familiar to breeders of thoroughbred 

 fowls for fifty years. Darwin says in his " Varia- 

 tion of Animals and Plants under Domestication "' 

 that the progeny of A first cross always reverts to 

 one or the other of the original ancestors." Now, 

 the original ancestors of the Plymouth Rock fowls 

 were a Dominiciue cock and a Black Java hen, so 

 you see that any cross madp with a Plymouth Rock 

 must revert or hark back to the original maternal 

 ancestor, the Black Java hen? But I wouldn't let 

 a little thing like that worry me. You are only 

 fifty years behind the times. Keep on; .you will 

 catch ui) b.v and b.v. 



Ashbourne, Pa., Oct. 22. W. E. Flower. 



I do not feel "worried" a bit, friend F., 

 for you know that "acknowledged ignorance 

 is the beginning of wisdom." But, my 

 dear friend, you have not touched upon my 

 great discovery at all. You have explain- 

 ed, and doubtless correctly, why those 

 chicks were all black; but my "great dis- 

 covery" was in getting a hatch that is all 

 pullets, or nearly all. Another good friend 

 sends the letter below: 



Dear Mr. Root.— I always read with interest the 

 poultry notes which you usually give under "Our 

 Homes." As to the "pullet" theory suggested in 

 the Oct. 15th issue, without knouino any thing 

 about the matter I am skeptical, and inclined to 

 believe that the coincidences therein cited are acci- 

 dental. But my opinion is not worth much. The 

 object of this letter is to induce you, if possible, to 

 pursue the study of the cross-breeds (the Wyan- 

 dottes and Buttercups) a little further, and then 

 see what you have. 



I am inclosing you a short piece from Harper's 

 Weekly for .June, liWS. describing the experiments 

 of Johann Mendel; and it seems to me you have a 

 splendid opportunity to follow his methods of se- 

 lection, and then publish results. 



Versailles, Ky., Oct. 24. J. W. Crenshaw. 



It seems from the clipping mentioned 

 that I have been blundering on to the cel- 

 ebrated law of Mendelism. This paper sug- 

 gests that the first cross will follow the 

 dominant parent. Now, I do not know 

 exactly what "dominant" means in this 

 case; but perhaps I can help things by tell- 

 ing of an incident of yesterday. Before go- 

 ing to Florida we hunted up all the cock- 

 erels that were hatched during the summer. 

 Out of something over 100 chickens raised, 

 there were about 20 cockerels having full- 

 blood Buttercup father; and, strangest 

 and most wonderful of all, there was not a 

 cockerel with a Buttercuji comb after the 

 fashion of the father. I supposed a cross 

 between Buttercups and White Leghorns 

 would, some of them, show the distinctive 

 Buttercup comb. 



Now, in the above the White Leghorn 

 mothers ought to have been what Mendel 

 calls the "dominant parent;" and as the 

 mothers were all females (I did not mean 

 this for a joke) is it any thing strange that 

 a large percentage of the chicks were pul- 

 lets ? and even of the few eggs that pro- 

 duced roosters, not one in twenty had a 

 Buttercup comb nor any thing like it, only 

 a plain single comb like all the full-blooded 

 Leghorn cockerels. 



While I was considering the above, some- 

 body in one of the poultry-journals (I think 

 it was the Petaluma Weekly) said that we 



want just now a strain of fowls that will be 

 all pullets — no males. We have several 

 strains of non-sitters, and why should we 

 not now in like manner have a strain that 

 M'ill give all pullets ? Perhaps we should 

 have to have a male occasionally to keep 

 up the strain. Who is going to be the first 

 to announce all pullets for the egg-farm ".' 

 and perhaps at the same time we can have 

 another strain that will be all males, or at 

 least 90 per cent of them, for broiler estab- 

 lishments. 



BLACK CHICKS FROM WHITE-WYANDOTTE FATHER 

 AND B.ARRED-ROCK MOTHER. 



I just finished reading your "chicken " jjage in 

 Gleanings for Oct. 15. I can give you some more 

 evidence of those black pullets from full-blooded 

 White Wyandotte cockerel and Barred Rock hen. 



We had always kept Barred Rocks till a few years 

 ago, when we decided to change to White Wyan- 

 dottes. We began with one pen of pure-bred, and 

 after the mating-season was over they were allow- 

 ed to run together. This occurred for two different 

 years. 01 course I was astonished when the cross- 

 bred chicks were as black as croir-t. and kept their 

 color. They made very fine-shaped hens and excel 

 lent layers. Of course I prefer any kind of animal 

 or bird of pure blood to a ci-oss, so we finally got to 

 all White Wyandottes and no Barred Rocks, and 

 we are well pleased with the change. 



l^aharpe. 111., Oct. 1". J. S. Campbell. 



Thanks, friend C; but you have omitted 

 the most important part of the matter. 

 Did you have more pullets than roosters? 

 And, by the way, something else may come 

 in right here. Philo, in his book, says an 

 "old male bird," with "30 or 40 lively pul- 

 lets," will give more pullets than males, 

 and vice versa. Has this been sufficiently 

 tested to decide the matter? Where are our 

 experiment stations — those that are making 

 a study of poultry ? 



BUTTERCUPS, ETC. 



Since the editor has so kindly taken up the dis- 

 cussion of Buttercups! shall venture a few remarks 

 which, if not interesting or instructive, may in 

 part be verified by Mr. Root, who recently visited 

 me at Toledo. 



Three years ago we had Rocks and Reds of good 

 strain, but were dissatisfied with our egg-produc- 

 tion. Undoubtedly we had our ideals too liigh. 

 which were augmented by reading poultry litera- 

 ture of enthusiasts who had stock and eggs for .sale. 



To increase the yield we purchased year-old Leg- 

 horn hens of good stock, expecting to have fresh 

 egffs all tlie year. This met with little better suc- 

 cess than before. 



About six months after purchasing the Leghorns 

 I reluctantly bought Buttercups, adding these to 

 the flock, giving all the same care, diet, housing, 

 range, etc., so conditions, whether good or bad, 

 should have been proportionate. I .soon learned 

 that Iliad an exceijtionally good strain of Butter- 

 cups or the reverse of the other breeds. But on in- 

 vestigation 1 found my Rocks. Reds, and Leghorns 

 about the average, some reporting better results, 

 others the same, and still others poorer. 



I keep a few Rocks and Reds for mothers, as But- 

 tercups are not reliable for this branch of the 

 poultry industry. From the standpoint of the poul- 

 tryman I think they can be called absolutely non- 

 sitters: but I have had two hens and a pullet which 

 clucked and seemed Ijroody for three or four days, 

 but during this time they were on the nest but lit- 

 tle. 



I am not making comparisons among other brood 

 than those mentioned, nor claiming that Butler- 

 cups as a whole will excel all other birds as indi- 

 vidu.als; but taking them as a unit they more com- 

 jjletely fulfill my requirements than other breeds, 

 because 1 find them quiet, gentle, and not inclined 

 to wander. On little range they do well. 



The conditions which make other chickens most 



