CHANGES IN EGG PRODUCTION. 



105 



Other qualifications besides those exhibited in the egg records are 

 required. A hen is a good breeder only if she produces such a number 

 of pullets that they constitute a satisfactory index of her capacity (with 

 a given mate) to transmit her own good lajdng qualities. Small families 

 are undesirable, because they are often an inadequate sample of a bird's 

 real breeding quality. As soon as it appears that a breeder's eggs are 

 not hatching well, she is taken from the breeding pen and her offspring 

 discarded. A few breeders are discarded for other defects, such as low 

 vitality of their progeny. 



•19-20 '20-21 



YEAR 

 Fig. 3. — Mean Production of Female Breeders. 

 (From data given in Table I.) 



Basis of Selection of Breeding Males. 

 The selection of suitable males is quite simple. First, each one 

 comes from a large family and is the strongest, the most vigorous and 

 usually the largest member of the group; second, he comes from a good 

 mother; and third, the most important point of all, his sisters must have 

 made good records. ^ The family which produces the largest proportion 

 of females capable of qualifj^ing as breeders is the first choice for one or 

 more males. Naturally, males will be chosen from several families and 

 always such as stand highest in desired characteristics. 



1 This involves keeping one or more representatives of each family till his sisters' records are 

 available. 



