1 82 THE BEGINNER IN POULTRY 



.... 



(In another chapter I have shown the difficulties attend- 

 ing the attempt thus to combine beauty and work-a-day 

 qualities.) Yet, since beauty becomes but ugliness with- 

 out the lovely bloom of health, this health must be basic 

 for the fancier. And since the utility quality of egg 

 laying is an absolute necessity to the continuance of her 

 kind, his exhibition female is decidedly lowered in both 

 intrinsic and extrinsic value if she be not a good layer. 

 A mid- West judge recently stated that some exhibition 

 specimens of a heavy laying breed which he had obtained 

 from the breeders of " the best," in the fancier's point 

 of view, were. " simply worthless " as egg producers. 

 This is the result that may be expected to follow surely 

 upon the attempt to create an ideal bird by breeding 

 solely to the beauty standard. 



What is an ideal Wyandotte ? Is it the chalk-plum- 

 aged, short "retuse" specimen, resultant from the effort 

 to fill the demand for an all-white, short-bodied, blocky, 

 bird ideal ? The Wyandotte is the blocky bird par ex- 

 cellence. But it is utter folly to reshape her till she is 

 longer from breast to back than from front to rear, and 

 to ruin her laying capacity while creating a monstrous 

 freak. The ideal bird is never a freak ; there is no de- 

 mand for freaks among the sane who work toward ideals ; 

 even beauty freaks if such can be are barred ! 



Judgment as to quality is a thing of growth. It 

 comes through daily seeing, handling, and comparing 

 the birds. The feathers are so deceptive, that in order 

 to know the condition of the utility chick or fowl, one 

 must. accustom himself to the feel of the body, under 

 the feathers. By handling many birds many times, 

 one acquires, in time, a sure judgment as to condition, 



