11 



Sixth. Care of eggs for hatching. Eggs for hatching are some- 

 times kept in places that are too cool or else in places that are too 

 hot, and the eggs are partially incubated before they are set. We 

 should provide nice clean nests, gather the eggs daily, keep them in 

 a temperature of from forty to sixty degrees and not hold them more 

 than two weeks before being set. 



Seventh. Improper incubation. Some buy a cheap incubator, 

 which cannot be regulated with any degree of satisfaction, which 

 lacks both ventilation and moisture, which is first too hot and then 

 too cool, the germ is weakened so that it cannot free itself from the 

 shell, and those chicks which are hatched are poor, sickly, scrawny 

 things which die in less than two weeks after hatching, and those 

 which do live are low in constitutional vigor. 



Eighth. Unsanitary quarters. We allow the poultry house to 

 become filled with filth, lice and mites, which suck all the lifeblood 

 from the fowls, and we then expect to raise strong chickens under 

 such conditions and amid such surroundings. 



Ninth. Inferior breeding stock. You cannot afford to attempt 

 to raise chickens from a lot of drones, from birds that are not true to 

 type, from weak, sickly poultry, or from birds that have ever been 

 sick with any disease, and then expect to be successful in the poultry 

 business. These things can all be avoided, and you should strive to 

 eliminate them. 



SELECTING THE PARENT STOCK. 



The hatchability of the eggs depend largely upon the parent 

 stock. Study your birds during the winter months and pick out the 

 birds that went to laying promptly when 

 through the molt. You will get your 

 largest, strongest, most vigorous and best 

 chicks from hens. A pullet that you 

 thought most of as a pullet may develop 

 some weakness or go badly off in color 

 after she molts, and if you had bred from 

 her as a pullet her chicks would have 

 perhaps shown the same weakness to a 

 greater or less degree. If she comes out 

 of the molt with a good color, is strong 

 and vigorous as a hen, and laid a goodly 



number of eggs as a pullet, then this bird a f b 7ed%SuUr e y in 



is most valuable to you as a breeder, and 



you have accomplished a step in the general upbuilding of the strength 

 and vigor of your whole flock. Male birds should never be used if 

 under one year old. 



RAISING THE PARENT STOCK. 



We tried an experiment with two settings of eggs. One from a 

 farm flock, where the farmer was using hens as breeders; hens which 

 had been fed a ration to produce bone and muscle instead of fat; 

 hens which had been raised and kept in open air houses and given 

 abundant exercise ; hens which had been bred for strength and vigor 

 as well as for feathers. The other setting was from a breeder whom 

 we knew was confining his birds in close, cramped quarters ; his birds 



