SOME OPEN SECRETS 135 
_ When fanciers sell eggs for table use after the 
breeding season is over, they sometimes plunge them 
into boiling water, smear them with grease or prick 
a tiny hole in one end so as to prevent the buyers 
taking advantage of the low price to set the eggs. 
All these methods damage the product and the seller’s 
reputation. The only safe way to make sure of the 
infertility of the eggs sold is to remove the male 
from the pen in which the hens are confined. In- 
fertile eggs are always best for the table — some 
people who sell eggs to a high-class clientelle ad- 
vertise the fact that they market infertile eggs only. 
If milk is fed to chickens, it should always be 
sweet or always sour. It is the alternating of sweet 
and sour milk which causes trouble. Milk is a 
splendid food for growing stock and may be used 
to advantage when clabbered. 
In order to get a preponderance of pullets, a cock 
considerable older than the hens should be used 
and the breeding pen consist of twenty or more 
birds. Probably there will be some decrease in fer- 
tility, but the object aimed at will be gained in most 
instances. The amateur hatching his chicks late in 
the Spring is more likely to get a large number of 
pullets than the man who hatches extra early chicks. 
