28 IMPEOVEMENT OF THE FARM EGG. 



standpoint it is very desirable that when a farmer markets a part of 

 his stock he should be able by some accurate method to ascertain the 

 age of the fowls which he sells. Such a plan would tend to decrease 

 the enormous number of pullets and yearling hens which through 

 lack of system are now being disposed of while old hens are often 

 retained. Yearling hens and pullets especially will in the course 

 of the year return to the farmer a greater profit from the eggs which 

 they produce than will the older fowls. Hens can be kept at a good 

 profit until they have passed their second year, but they are not as a 

 rule profitable beyond that age. 



The most common method of marking poultry is to leg-band them. 

 These bands are manufactured from aluminum, wire, and composite 

 metals, and are placed around the leg of the fowl and fastened in 

 numerous ways. This system, w r hile eminently satisfactory, requires 

 more labor and attention than most farmers would care to give. A 

 more practical method is by punching the web of the foot at the time 

 the chick is hatched. The operation is simple and an entire hatch 

 can be toe-marked in a short time. Figure 1 shows a diagram of a 

 system by which 1C different combinations of toe-marking are possible. 

 If only one mark is employed for all chicks hatched in a given year, 

 no farmer would find it necessary to use more than three or four of 

 these marks, but, if it were desired to show ages more closely, or to 

 mark pedigree stock, all the forms indicated might be found useful. 



INSUFFICIENT NUMBER OF NESTS. 



While the conditions thus far discussed surrounding the keeping of 

 poultry on Kansas farms have a great influence upon the number 

 and size of the eggs produced and may also have some influence upon 

 their quality, there are other conditions which have a much more 

 direct influence upon quality and are responsible for the greater part 

 of the deterioration w r hich has occurred by the time the eggs reach the 

 country store. Among these are. insufficient number of nests, dirty 

 nests, irregularity in gathering eggs, allowing the males to run with 

 the flock after the hatching season, poor storing facilities, washing 

 eggs, holding for a definite number of eggs, and careless methods of 

 transportation from the farm to the village. 



It is doubtful if any other one factor contributes more to the aggre- 

 gate number of bad eggs on the farm than the lack of a sufficient num- 

 ber of properly located, clean nests. The average number of nests 

 on the Kansas farms observed is 11 to every 100 hens. This means 

 that nearly 50 per cent of the fowls are compelled to seek nests for 

 themselves. This condition is well shown in Table 7. 



