Poultry House and Yard, Los Gatos, California 



The pullets and hens will lay better if there are no males with them, and if this is 

 the case it is waste of room, labor and feed to run male birds with layers of table eggs. 



Selecting Layers 



The problem of success is not fully solved until we know how to get together 

 a flock of working hens. It is something worth knowing and is claimed as a 

 "secret" that may be, and is, sold. It would be worth nothing to many; to 

 others it would be worth its cost chiefly after long practice in studying and noting 

 "points" the signs and marks in the hen's make-up, but the best evidence of 

 what a hen will do as an egg layer is what she does, and the careful grower will 

 find this out. He will do it as a matter of economy; he will want to cut out 

 drones. He may do it by close watch or he may require the trap nest. This 

 device requires attention and costs something to install and so is not in wide use,, 

 but it is in use by many successful growers. It is important to know how many 

 unprofitable hens one is feeding, but some think we should begin to build up a 

 laying flock among the pullets rather than at the trap nest. Observe the young 

 stock in the fall. Select the precocious pullets, the ones that lay earliest. Build 

 up a working flock by choosing birds that have the function of egg production 

 strongly developed and that give evidence of this by early laying. 



The Maine Experiment Station selected certain April hatched pullets in 

 August and September, and a flock or pen that began with twenty-nine and was 

 reduced to twenty-five by four dying within the year, averaged 180 eggs for the 

 year ending August 3oth. The smallest layer produced 137 eggs, eighteen laid 

 over 1 60 each and eight over 200 each. The result was a high average, one that 

 any poultry man would be proud to attain. How was the selection made? The 

 Report Farmers' Bulletin 357, says: "They were not selected because of form 

 or type as indicating egg production, but they were either just picked up as they 

 were found on the nests, or taken because their combs were red, or because they 

 tagged the attendant around and prated in the everyday hen language about the work 

 they were soon going to do. 11 



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