A CULLING CHART 543 



In the above campaign a record was kept on 7,532 of the birds 

 handled, for a period of seven days before culling and for seven days 

 after culling, with the following result: For 7 days before culling 

 the birds laid a total of 17,565 eggs, or practically 33 per cent, while 

 for the 7 days following the remaining birds laid 17,205 eggs, or a 

 production of 32 per cent on the basis of the original number of 

 birds. This is a drop of less than 1 per cent, while the number of 

 birds culled was 47 per cent, which meant a reduction in feed costs 

 of practically 50 per cent, with no appreciable reduction in income 

 from eggs laid. 



Best Method of Culling. The manner of handling the birds 

 and conducting the culling work is important. If a flock of laying 

 hens are unnecessarily disturbed by catching or handling they will 

 show an immediate drop in egg production. In order to avoid this 

 the best plan is to build a small coop of lath with a trap door on the 

 top and a large entrance door afc one end. This coop should be 

 about four by five feet on the bottom and about eighteen inches 

 high. When ready to handle the birds for the culling work, this 

 coop can be placed outside of house with the side door against or in 

 contact with one of the small exit hen doors of the poultry house. 

 About fifteen or twenty birds should then be allowed to leave the 

 large laying house by means of this small exit door, where they 

 will pass directly into the small catching coop. When enough birds 

 have entered same, both doors can be closed and the birds taken 

 carefully , one at a time, from the top door of the coop and examined. 

 The good birds which are to be allowed to remain in the flock can 

 be dropped in the yard while those which are to be culled should 

 be placed in shipping coops. This culling, if done every two weeks 

 throughout the summer and fall, will not take an excessive amount 

 of time but on the other hand will result in a very great saving in 

 feed with no reduction in the egg yield. Where this practice has 

 been followed it has been possible through the elimination of non- 

 producing birds to maintain an average flock production through- 

 out the summer of from 40 to 50 per cent. 



A Culling Chart. The New Jersey Agricultural Experiment 

 Station has been studying in great detail certain external charac- 

 ters as they may be influenced or related to the amount of egg 

 production. All of the 1000 birds at the Vineland International 

 Egg Laying and Breeding Contest have been examined at frequent 

 intervals to study the progressive changes in body characters. In 

 making this study the following diagram of sections studied and 



