PLAN OF PROCEEDING. 39 



combs rather larger than the medium of their breed, but 

 not too large, very fresh and red-looking faces, and a neat, 

 alert, intelligent expression. A faded, dispirited look in a 

 bird is a sure sign of a poor layer. 



Directly these hens stop laying in the autumn, and 

 before they have lost condition by moulting, they should, 

 unless they have proved very satisfactory, be either killed or 

 sold off, and replaced by pullets hatched in March or April, 

 which will have moulted early. These again, still supposing 

 proper food and good housing, will begin producing eggs 

 by November at furthest, and continue, more or less, till 

 the February or March following. They may then either 

 be disposed of and replaced as before, or, as they will not 

 stop laying long, be retained till the autumn, when all but 

 very excellent layers must be got rid of; such are worth 

 keeping for another year. But if fowls be kept for eggs, it 

 is essential to success that every autumn the older stock be 

 thus replenished with pullets hatched early in the spring.* 

 By no other means can eggs at this season be relied upon, 

 and the poultry-keeper must remember that it is the winter 

 determines whether he shall gain or lose ; in summer, if 

 only kept moderately clean, hens will pay for themselves 

 treated almost anyhow. 



When chickens are to be reared there is a wider choice, 

 embracing breeds that lay the coveted brown egg. Of these 

 may be mentioned Plymouth Rocks, Brahmas, Langshans, 

 Wyandottes, and others ; but the qualities of various breeds 

 are more fully dealt with in our later chapters. 



We prefer pure breeds, or first crosses ; but the cost of a 

 pure stock will stand in the way with many, and has to be 

 taken into consideration. Pure stock has now become so 



* Exhibitors now hatch so very early in the year that it may be well fo 

 say we mean from the middle of March to the end of April. The very 

 early pullets often lay in late summer and then moult. 



