EGG PRODUCTION 



541 



Culling for Egg Production. This is one of the best if not the 

 very best basis for culling fowls for future laying purposes. 



This method of picking good past layers and at the same time 

 eliminating the poorer producers has a wonderful commercial 

 advantage in that, if it is intelligently and properly used, it will 

 enable the poultryman to cull his birds during the summer and 

 early fall. It is a well known fact that the egg production of a 

 flock gradually decreases during the summer, starting about the 

 middle of June in the average year. This is due to the fact that 



FIG. 228. A typical culling demonstration. Note the interest and attention given the 

 demonstrator, who is standing in the center, back toward the camera. 



certain hens, generally the low producers, cease to lay. If it 

 were possible, as it is with our present knowledge of external char- 

 acters and their relation to production, to go through a flock of 

 hens every two weeks and cull those which have stopped laying a 

 great saving in feed would be accomplished with no loss of pro- 

 duction. Such a practice means greater efficiency in poultry man- 

 agement and more profit to the poultryman. In fact, it is a neces- 

 sity and duty which every poultryman owes himself and his country 

 to try to eliminate waste. The feeding of hens which are not pro- 



