No. 4.] EGG PRODUCTION. 79 



lay thirty days later averaged 411 eggs, 40 eggs less in three 

 years' time. Of the other group, the hens that began to lay 

 from 270 to 353 days old, or 18 per cent averaging 307 days 

 old, averaged in three years 328 eggs. I am just going to 

 repeat those three-year totals. Those early to lay, 451 ; those 

 that began to lay of the medium age, 411; and those that 

 didn't begin to lay until the following spring averaged 328, 

 the difference between 451 and 328 making a difference of 

 123 eggs. 



The point is this: if we are going to breed for egg pro- 

 duction, can we afford to let the pullets all run together, 

 never knowing whether they lay in the fall or spring, and 

 just breed from what we have on hand ? Why not catch 

 those pullets that you see laying in l^ovember, December 

 and January and mark them, punching a hole in the web 

 of the foot or tying a rag around the foot; do anything, 

 only mark those pullets so that later when they become two 

 years old you can select from them for breeders. 



Another point in selecting the breeders: in the second or 

 third year, w^hen you get ready to breed from them, watch 

 out and see which pullets or hens molt last. You will see on 

 the lantern slides a pretty good story illustrative of late 

 molting and high production (Fig. 3). That is the most 

 certain indication of high producing that we have ever found. 

 A hen that is a high producer almost invariably molts late 

 in the fall or early winter. The three highest producing 

 birds we have ever been able to raise haven't molted yet 

 (IsTovember) ! The hens that lay but few eggs usually molt 

 early and get on their new suits in the fall, and strut around 

 in their new styles and put on all the airs that lazy aristo- 

 cratic hens are entitled to do. And what have we been 

 doing in the past ? All of us are guilty of it. We have 

 killed the hens that molted late just because they committed 

 the crime of laying too many eggs, and we have let the hens 

 live that molted early because they hadn't anything else to 

 do, and just because we thought that if they molted early 

 they would get on their new plumage and be ready for cold 

 weather and lay best. We find, however, that the best pro- 

 ducing hens molt late, in November and December, and take 



