58 ' THE BEGINNER IN POULTRY 



and baking purposes by the time they are shipped 

 to the customer, or insultingly offered to a self-respecting 

 hen at home. Then, there is another view of the mat- 

 ter which I think is often overlooked : this is, that a 

 pretty good proportion of the eggs gathered in January 

 and February will have been chilled before they were 

 stored at all. Much is said about the low fertility of 

 eggs, from January to March. In my opinion, this 

 supposed "infertility" is more often due to chilling of 

 the eggs than to any other cause. Many use the word 

 " fertility " very loosely. When an authority states, 

 gravely, that eggs from the same lot showed perhaps 

 75 per cent of fertility in the machine and 85 or 90 

 per cent under the hen, we know that no strict mean- 

 ing can be put on the word " fertile " in this connection. 

 But, be this as it may, there are other causes for poor 

 hatches than real infertility. Eggs laid in these three 

 early months are more than likely to be held longer 

 than at any other period of the year. Thus, age and 

 low temperature, both of which have affected the cold- 

 storage egg at which you may jest when considered as to 

 hatchability, are very likely to be conditions also of the 

 loudly advertised Eggs for Hatching at five to $fjo 

 they say! per sitting. Even though you could be 

 convinced that any eggs are worth that amount of 

 money, if of the best, the pampered hens that lay 

 eggs held at $150 a sitting cannot be made exempt 

 from Nature's laws. If subjected to exposure, their 

 eggs chill, even as the five-cent eggs of the grocer 

 type ; and, if the stock be kept under conditions such 

 that the eggs cannot chill during the extreme season, 

 the balance of Nature pulls down in another direction, 



