Influence of Males on Egg Production 139 



pens. The fertility of the eggs was apparently not 

 materially affected until the twelfth day after 

 removing the roosters. . . . Unfortunately the 

 eggs were only saved fifteen days, and hence 

 it is not shown how long hens must be removed 

 from the male before all the eggs become in- 

 fertile." 



For the greatest production of eggs, males are 

 not required except for the breeding pen. Many 

 poultrymen who have made a specialty of egg 

 production and have won for themselves a repu- 

 tation in this direction, have found by experi- 

 ence that males are of no use in the laying pen, 

 and are often a positive injury when only eggs for 

 food are desired. Tests that have been made at 

 experiment stations to determine the influence of 

 males on egg production, tend to show that the 

 practice of poultrymen in excluding males is most 

 advantageous. The following paragraph is taken 

 from an experiment station bulletin : * 



"A pen of pullets kept without a male pro- 

 duced eggs at about 30 per cent less cost than 

 an exactly similar pen with which a cockerel 

 was kept. ... In each of the two pens with- 

 out male birds some pullets had begun to lay 

 from one to two months earlier than any in the 

 corresponding pens in which male birds were 

 kept." 



* Bulletin No. 57, New York Agricultural Experiment Station. 



