Fig. 8 — Dressed car- 

 cass of a Meat Cross 

 female and male re- 

 spectively. 



eggs was obtained. Approximately 

 20 per cent of the hens had a hatch- 

 ability of 90-100 per cent and about 

 50 per cent showed a hatchability 

 of 80-100 per cent. 



Egg production has varied consid- 

 erably, and many birds were culled 

 early in the trapnest period be- 

 cause of unsatisfactory characters in 

 egg quality, size, body conformation, 

 or crooked toes. However, 18 birds 

 laid 200 or more eggs during the 

 year, the highest number being 237 

 eggs. There was very little broodi- 

 ness present. 



The body weights at eight weeks 

 were approximateW the same as those 

 of average New Hampshire chicks, 

 but the mature body weights were 

 somewhat less. Although consider- 

 able progress has been made in de- 

 veloping these birds, much work re- 

 mains to be done, especially in pro- 

 ducing greater uniformity in color, 

 and in eliminating disqualifications. 



C. W. Hess 



Poultry Individuals Vary Tre- 

 mendously in Their Consumption 

 and Utilization of Feed. Because 

 the cost of feed represents from 50 

 to 60 per cent of the operating ex- 

 pense of a poultry business, studies 

 of ways and means of reducing feed 



costs without loss in production of 

 meat and eggs would appear to be 

 highly important. 



One phase of this problem is to de- 

 termine the inheritance of feed utili- 

 zation efficiency. A start has been 

 made on this problem using laying 

 hens and mature males. Some New 

 Hampshire birds were confined in 

 individual cages, and bi-weekly body 

 weights and individual feed con- 

 sumption data were recorded. Eggs 

 were collected and weighed daily. 

 From these males and females 10 

 groups of chicks were hatched, each 

 group having a common size; then 

 feed consumption and body weight 

 were recorded for all individuals of 

 each group, which later on will be 

 used as breeders to obtain more in- 

 formation on the inheritance of feed 

 utilization efficiency. 



The most interesting result of this 

 new study is that individual males 

 and females vary greatly in their 

 apparent efficiency of feed utilization. 

 For example, hen No. 27 consumed 

 34.16 per cent more feed than did 

 hen No. 6, while hen No. 6 made a 

 greater gain and produced a slightly 

 greater weight of eggs. If it can be 

 proved that the qualities present in 

 hen No. 6 are inherited it would re- 

 veal the possibility of increasing the 



21 



