PROGRESSIVE POULTRY CULTURE 47 



things being equal, the eggs of adult hens hatch better 

 and produce better chicks than the eggs of immature 

 pullets. The practical experience of many poultrymen 

 confirms this conclusion. It is an excellent plan, there- 

 fore, to test the laying quality of the birds during their 

 first laying season, not attempting to use any of these 

 pullets' eggs for hatching, and reserve the best of these 

 birds for breeding the next season. 



2. The parent birds should not have been forced 

 to excessive breeding. Avoid mating a male bird with 

 too many females, and do not push the egg-production 

 of the hens to extremes, especially during cold weather. 

 It is not reasonable to expect a fowl to begin laying in 

 the early fall, continue laying through the winter 

 months and then furnish numerous eggs for successful 

 hatching in the spring. 



3. The breeding stock should take physical exer- 

 cise at least sufficient to keep all the organs of the body 

 in good healthy condition. The blood must be kept in 

 active circulation. Running on ample range or scratch- 

 ing in litter for a portion of their living is advantageous. 



4. The fowls should lay the eggs during the natural 

 breeding season of birds, the springtime of the temperate 

 zone, the usual "nesting time" of wild birds. 



THE FORMATION OF THE EGG. 



'Numerous minute female eggs are clustered closely 

 in the hen's ovary, which is attached to the rear of 

 the diaphragm, slightly to the left of and below the 

 spinal column. Each little globule, which is the begin- 

 ning of an egg, is enclosed within a thin transparent 

 membrane termed an ovisac. The yolk of the egg de- 

 velops anc enlarges until it bursts from the ovisac and 

 drops into the mouth of the oviduct. The yolk carrying 

 the female germ is surrounded by a very thin membrane 

 which is called the yolk-sac. The oviduct, or egg-tube, 

 during breeding time, is about one-half inch in diameter 

 and folds upon itself within the abdominal cavity, so 

 that its actual length is fronivtwenty to thirty inches 

 in adult fowls. It conveys the eggs from the region of 



