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has a good appetite and a large crop. Do not wait until your birds 

 are fully matured to select your breeding stock. The selection of 

 the vigorous chicks should begin when a few w.eeks old, and the 

 weak ones should be taken out and placed by themselves and disposed 

 of and never kept for breeding purposes. The causes of loss of vigor 

 can be summed up as follows: 



First. Inbreeding. Poultrymen sometimes have a bird with 

 exceptional fine plumage, and for that reason mate the bird in their 

 breeding pens, regardless of its vigor or its relation to other birds 

 in the same pen. There is a distinction between line-breeding and 

 inbreeding. 



Second. Use of pullets and immature male birds. As a rule, our 

 females lay more eggs as pullets than as hens, yet it has been proven 

 by experiment that the chicks from hens are larger when hatched, 

 and that they mature more quickly and produce stronger and more 

 vigorous specimens than those hatched from pullets. A half grown 

 cockerel should never be used in your breeding yards. 



A type of vigor and an egg producer. 



Third. -Increased egg production. Forcing fowls to lay by con- 

 tinuously feeding heavy, rich foods and the large egg yield tells upon 

 the health of the females and often injures their breeding qualities. 



Fourth. Crowding. Poultrymen make the mistake too often of 

 crowding a great number of birds into small quarters and then expect 

 the best results from their flock. 



Fifth. Lack of exercise. If we expect strong, healthy chicks, the 

 fowls in the breeding yard must be required to exercise by forcing 

 them to scratch for their feed in litter or given free range. 



