92 . FIRST LESSONS IN POULTRY KEEPING. 



iu the fall when the hens that were pullets in the preceding winter are sixteen to eighteen 

 mouths old. I think it is much the better way to give the old stock a general overhauling 

 before extreme warm weather comes on, and arrange at that time for the most profitable dis- 

 position of each of the several lots into which the flock will be divided. When the general 

 clean up Is to be made in the fall the tendency is to leave in the flock many hens which should 

 be disposed of without delay, the reason the poultryman gives himself for this being that, as 

 the bulk of the lot is to be disposed of at that future time, it makes little difference if the few 

 uuprofitables are allowed to remain in it. Consequently some proportion of the fowls in each 

 pen or flock are non-producers, adding nothing to the income, while consuming their share of 

 the food, occupying room, taking time and attention of the poultryman, and, last but not least, 

 adding to his risks of loss, for the idle unproductive fowl at this season more, perhaps, than 

 at any other, is detrimental to the flock. 



So it seems to me that the numerous beginners, and others young in the business, who are 

 on their own initiative making preparations to cull their hens, now show a much better appre- 

 ciation of the best policy than do those of longer experience who leave this culling until the 

 summer is over. 



As I come in contact, personally and through correspondence, with the experiences of a 

 great many poultry keepers each year, it seems to me that it is still true as it was in the 

 traditional times prior to the improvement of breeds and of methods of poultry culture, that 

 most hens lay well for only a few months in the spring. It seems, also, to be the fact that a 

 great many poultrymen who get fair to good egg yields iu winter and spring get very poor 

 yields after the warm weather comes on. In this fact we may find one reason for their prefer- 

 ence for pullets for laying purposes, and for their failure to reckon summer and fall- as profit- 

 able seasons in egg production. 



Certainly it does not pay to keep hens over if they are idle for a period of five, six, or seven 

 months; but, if we can have our hens giving fair to good egg yields through summer and fall, 

 and have them idle, or nearly so, for but two or three months, that is the better way to manage. 

 The question is : Can it be done, and how? 



Selecting Hens to Keep Over. 



Let me slate first of all that it cannot be done with all hens. In every flock of yearling hens 

 there are some it will not pay to carry over hens that even at this age have outlived their 

 usefulness. The proportion of such hens will depend on the vitality of the stock, on its 

 general condition and performance through the winter, and on how well the poultry keeper 

 has succeeded in adjusting food and care to maintaining the hens in condition for future 

 productiveness. 



If as the poultry keeper reviews his experiences of the past year he recalls any of the follow, 

 ing things as circumstances in the history of his flock of yearling hens, he is warranted in con- 

 sidering that an unusually large proportion of them are not good candidates to keep over: 



1. If they were not thrifty as young chicks. 



2. If at any period of growth they were checked. 



3. If there was at any time during the year any serious sickness epidemic among 



them. V 



4. If they were spasmodic layers. 



5. If after a period of good laying they suddenly fell off and were hard to get laying 



again. 



6. If they are now generally in poor condition. 



A lot of hens may have had all these unfortunate experiences; few flocks entirely escape 

 them, and most poultrymen have to take account of some of them every year. The years when 

 we avoid them all are red letter years in our lives, and the hens produced in those years are 

 likely to be unusually long lived as profitable layers. 



Now, though in proportion as they have escaped the above ills, the yearling hens are more 

 promising candidates for a longer stay in the poultry yard, we must not make the mistake of 

 condemning them on one or two counts, especially if the faults were remedied; but we must 

 note that every unfavorable condition in the life of the hen increases the danger that as she 

 passes her prime she will develop digestive or ovarian troubles, and with this in mind we must 



