16 The Business Hen. 



flock. For the heavier breeds 15 hens are enough, while we have known 

 cases where one male to 50 Leghorn hens gave a large per cent of fertile 

 eggs. For the smaller breeds we prefer an average of 25 hens. In some 

 cases two males are used alternately in a small flock. One will run with 

 the hens for four or five days, while the other is kept in a small cage. 

 Then the caged bird will be set free and his rival put in the cage. This 

 double system is more likely to insure fertile eggs, but of course the two 

 males must be alike in type. Some successful poultrymen pay little 

 attention to selecting breeders, but take eggs from large flocks where 

 several males are kept together. Such men say that proper feeding will 

 make any hen lay, but unless hens are quite different from all other animals 

 their character is largely made by inherited qualities. 



We give considerable space to this matter, because it is the foundation 

 of improvement in the flock of poultry. The proper selection and mating 

 of the parents of the &gg may mean a difference of 50 per cent in 

 hatchable eggs and raisable chicks. In some farm flocks little attention 

 is paid to improvement by selection — the plea being that it takes too much 

 time to bother with such things, though a child might easily be interested 

 in it. Even in such cases it will pay to have a certain type in mind, and 

 cull out for eating purposes the birds that fall short of this standard. 

 We may undo most of our work of breeding by selection if we do not 

 bring in "new blood" from time to time. Some good flocks are ruined 

 by what is known as "inbreeding" — that is, breeding brothers and sisters 

 or closely related members of the same family. We can obtain "new 

 blood" by buying a good male bird from some breeder, or several sittings 

 of eggs. 



From the chicks hatched from these eggs we should be able to pick 

 two or more good males to head our breeding pens ; above all things, be 

 sure to select strong and vigorous stock. When we buy such eggs or 

 birds we buy a share of the skill and patience which other breeders have 

 spent in selecting. We may thus buy for a 'dollar results which would 

 cost us five years of personal study and work. 



CROSSING THE BREEDS.— Mr. P. H. Jacobs says that it is the 

 common belief among many that to mate individuals of different breeds 

 is to insure greater vigor and hardiness, as well as avoid inbreeding. Such 

 a system among poultrymen is termed "crossing." Before crossing for 

 "vigor" it would be well first to ascertain whether the flock is lacking in 

 that respect, and, if so, the safer method would be to discard the individuals 

 and replace them with others of the same breeds. All breeds are the 

 result of careful and judicious crossing, and any attempt to improve a 

 flock of purebred fowls by crossing is to incur the risk of destroying all 

 the desirable characteristics obtained only after years of patient industry 

 and skillful selection. 



