92 THE HOME-POULTRY BOOK 
night comes it is an easy matter to decide which 
hens have laid during the day. If a male bird is 
placed in the second pen, the hens which lay and 
pass into that pen may confidently be used as breed- 
ers. Of course, some hens will go onto the nest but 
not lay, so that this test is not quite as accurate 
as that imposed by a regulation trap nest. 
The average amateur, however, will hardly take 
the trouble to trap-nest his birds. A simpler plan 
is to select and mark the pullets which lay first in 
the Fall and use them to breed from. Experiments 
have shown that the pullets which begin laying earli- 
est also make the heaviest layers, as a general rule. 
These pullets may well be kept until the second year 
and then mated with a well-developed cockerel. 
Poor flocks may be improved by securing a male 
bird from a breeder who is known to have a good 
laying strain. Yet, it is not wise to continually 
introduce new blood. If the first cock bought for 
improving the flock proves satisfactory and another 
is needed later, it is well to secure it from the same 
source. Males from eggs laid by heavy-laying hens 
are to be sought. They transmit the trait to the 
pullets they sire. 
Old hens should not be kept with pullets as a 
