162 POULTRT-CRAFT. 



Large breeders of exhibition and stock birds try to have stock ready to sell for 

 exhibition at any and all times, from the earliest fair to the latest poultry 

 show. A few hatch practically the year round. It is always better to be a 

 little in advance of the season, than to run the chance of a set-back which will 

 put operations so far behind that the loss cannot be recovered that season. 



228. Care of Breeding Stock. Many breeders try to discourage their 

 breeding hens from laying in the winter ; not merely that they may lay more 

 eggs when eggs for hatching are wanted, but because they wish to have them 

 in tip-top physical condition during the breeding season. They are not always 

 entirely successful in this, but by keeping them a little fat, generally keep egg 

 production below the point where it begins to tell on vitality. Those who use 

 the same hens for laying and breeding should, if the hens lay early in the 

 winter, give them a few weeks rest just before the breeding season. (If only 

 the best hens are used for breeding, this need not cause a break in the total 

 yield of eggs. Sometimes the rest will come about naturally; the hens after 

 some weeks or months of laying going broody. They may then be allowed 

 to hatch a brood of chicks (to be reared by another hen or in a brooder) or, 

 if chicks are not wanted * at that season may be allowed to sit for a while on 

 nest eggs. In either case they should be well fed. 



If the breeding stock can be given range, well and good. If that cannot be, 

 it will be found that with exercise, green food, and meat furnished as needed, 

 as good chicks can be obtained from fowls in confinement as from fowls at 

 liberty by far the larger number of good fowls are from yarded stock, f 

 The stock should not, however, be crowded; considerably more space per 

 hen should be allowed than is generally given laying hens. 



The food need not be different from that of the laying stock, except that if 

 the layers are given stimulants of any kind, it is better to leave them out of the 

 food for the breeders. A very gallant male is sometimes so solicitous that the 

 hens shall get all the food they can eat, that he neglects to eat himself. When 

 this is the case the male must have extra food to keep him in condition. A tame 

 bird may be fed from the hand when the others are fed ; a shy bird should be 

 removed from the pen in the evening, fed by lantern light, and given a good 

 feed again next morning before being returned to the pen. If at any time a 

 bird in the breeding pen seems dull, though not downright sick, it should be 

 removed until in good condition. The males need such attention most. 



*NoTK. Early chicks hatched in this way generally come in very acceptably for 

 market or for the table. They need not be from the breeding stock, and can be eaten 

 and out of the way before the later better chicks are crowded by them. 



t NOTE. There is a great deal of nonsense talked and written about free range and 

 unlimited range. The truth is, our American improved varieties of domestic fowls are 

 pre-eminently domestic in their habits, and confine themselves to quite narrow limits 

 unless literally starved into extending them. A man can take as much exercise in a 

 garden plot as on a ten thousand acre ranch. 



