86a EXPERIMENT STATION. [Jan. 



DEPARTMENT OF POULTRY HUSBANDRY. 



J. C. GRAHAM AND H. D. GOODALE. 



Practically all our main projects are long-time experiments 

 which permit only of reports of progress. In breeding for in- 

 creased egg production families that are comparatively homo- 

 genous for high winter egg production, and also for very low 

 winter egg production, were secured during the past season, 

 1915-16. Families having an average winter egg production 

 superior to any yet bred appear probable on the basis of such 

 data for 1916-17 as are at hand at this writing. Similar but 

 less definite results were secured with annual egg production. 

 The work on broodiness has also given families of relatively 

 low amounts of broodiness. One of the males tested for non- 

 broodiness is probably a homozygous recessive, and by mating 

 him the coming season with similar females the desired strain 

 of non-broody Rhode Island Reds should result. Similar but 

 less definite results have been obtained in our work in produc- 

 ing a strain of birds of high hatchability, as evidenced by one 

 family, all the female members of which produced eggs of 

 superior hatching qualities. 



A small portion of our accumulated data was worked over 

 during the past season, arid portions dealing with phases of egg 

 production prepared for publication. An intensive, statistical 

 study of broodiness in a flock of 78 Rhode Island Reds covering 

 a period of two years was made, and the material is being pre- 

 pared for publication. 



The chief new item of interest is the demonstration of a dis- 

 tinct negative correlation between weight at first egg and age 

 at first egg; that is, the birds that mature earliest, on the 

 average, are smaller than those that mature late in life. It 

 would be desirable to know the correlation between weight and 

 egg production directly, but as our birds are hatched weekly 



