JANUARY 1, 1914 



23 



feed is used, and growing mash kept before 

 them at all times. Green food is given every 

 day. 



For the best results pullets should be 

 hatched the last of March or the first of 

 April, and kept growing as fast as possible 

 so they will begin laying during October. 



Results for one year : 39 hens averaged 

 171 eggs each for the year. Paid out for 

 feed, etc., $115.29 ; received $277.65— profit. 

 $162.36. This includes eggs and chickens 

 I hat were i^roduced and sold. 



I think there is no combination that could 

 be worked together on a farm to better 

 advantage than bees, poultry, and fruit. 



Hartford, Ct. 



WEEDING OUT THE HENS THAT DO NOT LAY 



The Use of Trap Nests 



BY C. A. KINSEY 



Three years ago I bought two cocks and 

 twenty hens, reputed to be good layers, 

 because, I suppose, they were White Leg- 

 horns. For two years those hens and in- 

 crease did not more than pay for their feed. 

 1 fed them the best I knew how, which was 

 according to the good old days on the farm 

 when I was small, and went out in the 

 morning and threw the hens a pail of grain 

 from the granary, and gathered the eggs at 



night. Once a year or so father traded a 

 rooster with one of the neighbors, and the 

 neighbors all did likewise. I don't believe 

 now that any of those flocks ever paid their 

 keep, barring the fact that there was a good 

 deal of grain scattered around that they 

 could get which otherwise might have been 

 wasted. 



A year ago I got a second-hand incubator, 

 and through the catalog with it I secured a 

 lot of free poultry literature from the man- 

 ufacturers. 



Feb. 1, 1913, I selected 25 Leghorn pul- 

 lets and 8 Barred Rock hens and pullets, 

 and I bought two Leghorn cockerels and a 

 Barred Rock cockerel to mate them with. 

 They commenced to lay during the fore part 

 of February, and laid fairly well during 

 March and April, but not enough to pay for 

 more than their feed. I knew that some 

 were laying better than others; and in order 

 to get their eggs for hatching I made some 

 trap nests, put numbered bands on the 

 pullets, numbered each pullet's eggs, and 

 saved the best layer's eggs for hatching. I 

 ]Hit in the trap nests May 12, and by July 

 12 I had found out several tilings about my 

 hens. Out of the 25 Leghorns there were 

 six that had laid 35 to 40 eggs each. Others 

 laid from 5 to 20 each, and three none at all. 

 They were good lookers; and but for the 

 trap nests no doubt I would still have those 



