EGG PRODUCTION 



295 



NOTE. The principal irregularities affecting egg production, considered in the 

 order in which they usually occur in the management of pullets, are as follows : 



(a) The change from summer to winter quarters. Under usual conditions 

 it is necessary that such a change should be made. While the ideal way is to 

 start pullets as chicks in the quarters that they are to occupy as layers, the fact 

 that the old stock, or that part of it which is to be renewed, must usually be 

 carried until about the time when the pullets are coming to maturity makes it 

 impossible to do this except in a small percentage of cases. The practical ques- 

 tion confronting the poultry keeper at this stage is whether it will be more 

 profitable for him to keep hens that are likely to lay until November, keeping 

 the pullets out in coops that are perhaps overcrowded, or to dispose of the hens 

 (losing the profit on their eggs) and give the pullets every advantage. The pre- 

 vailing tendency is to keep old hens as long as they lay, or, at any rate, as long 

 as possible and still leave time to renovate the houses and get the pullets in 

 before winter. While this is the common practice, it accounts for a great deal 

 of the poor laying of well-developed pullets in early winter, and experienced 

 poultrymen are generally agreed that the pullets ought to be not only in winter 

 quarters but settled there and beginning to lay when winter sets in. In the 

 latitude of New York this means that pullets so developed as to be likely to 

 lay by November should be in winter quarters by the first of October. If the 

 winter houses have large yards attached, pullets taken to them from a good 

 range may not be much affected by the change. If the yards are small and the 

 pullets are thus taken suddenly from a free life to cramped quarters, a serious 

 check to laying may be the result. Pullets so advanced that they are likely to 

 lay early in October or in September should be put into winter quarters still 

 earlier. Though it cannot be positively asserted, it is probable that after the 

 frame of the bird is grown (though not filled out) it is better to put it into 

 winter quarters than to postpone the change until egg production is (supposed 

 to be) about to begin. The advantages of range for a longer period may be 

 more than offset by the disadvantages of a general disturbance of life at that 

 stage. Apart from effects of changes of quarters, the season is very trying to 

 birds with any predisposition to roupy troubles. The nights are growing chill ; 

 cold rains are frequent; the weather is sometimes raw and disagreeable for 

 days at a time. 



(b) Change of diet. If the birds, when oh range, have secured much food 

 by foraging, in the winter quarters they must be supplied with things to fill 

 out the ration. It not infrequently happens that weeks elapse before the poultry 

 keeper is giving them a full ration. He is not prepared, or has not time to 

 properly attend to them. Change of diet and inadequate food, with other 

 changes, may easily have more serious effects on laying than are plainly 

 discernible at the time. 



(c) Change of ventilation in the house. Most of the coops used for growing 

 stock are well ventilated. Many of the houses used for adult stock are not. 

 Birds inured to bad ventilation may not be seriously affected by it, but few 

 birds will stand a sudden change from well-ventilated to poorly ventilated 



