278 HOME LIFE IN FLORIDA. 



it inherits from its ancestors, the Dorking, but it matures 

 eai'lier than the latter ; its flesh is even finer, which is say- 

 ing a great deal, and it is more hardy. Another point of 

 improvement over the Dorking, and a very important one, 

 as all poultry fanciers know, is that Houdan eggs almost 

 invariably hatch, and hatch strong, healthy chicks too. 



The chickens feather very rapidly and early, yet are not 

 weakened by this rapid progress, and are more hardy than 

 any other chicks except the Bramahs. 



They mature very early too, it not unfrequently hap- 

 pening that the young pullet lays her first egg when only 

 five or six months old — and what a time not only she but 

 her whole family make over the happy event ; never was 

 egg so beautiful as this laid so proudly in the nest by the 

 young aspirant. 



And certainly the Houdan eggs are beauties, as eggs go ; 

 so large and heavy and white ; eight to the pound is the 

 rule given for the eggs of this aristocratic family, but, like 

 other aristocrats, they frequently scorn all rules ; not once 

 or twice, but many times in our Northern poultry-yard 

 did we gather Houdan eggs, of wdiich six, five, or even 

 four only, were required to make a pound in weight. 



These giant eggs are fine to eat, but bad to sell by the 

 dozen as ordinary eggs, and very, very bad to set ; they 

 will never hatch, and he who tries it will find it ' ' love's 

 labor lost." 



The Houdan hen lays one hundred and fifty eggs per 

 annum, a larger showing than any other varieties except 

 Leghorns and Hamburgs, and even there the difference is 

 more nominal than real, since the eggs of the two latter 

 are lighter in weight. 



" Them dratted hens ! " we once heard an irate country- 

 woman exclaim, '' they're wearin' my life out with breakin' 

 *em of settin'; soon as I break up one, another is took with 



