12 



consisted largely of pullets; they had been inbred and raised mostly 

 for exhibition purposes ; they were not properly cared for ; they were 

 low in vitality; had not had sufficient exercise, pure air, or green 

 food. Both settings of eggs hatched at the same time and were put 

 in the same kind of coops, were fed the same kind of feed, both run 

 with hens and kept side by side. We never had a single case of 

 bowel trouble or lost a single chick from the setting hatched from 

 the hens from the farm flock, and the chicks outgrew the others 

 almost two to one. The chicks from the pullets and hens which had 

 not been properly bred or kept died like flies, had white diarrhea,, 

 and we had to flght to save any of them, and those which did live 

 were runty and weakly. If you want your eggs to hatch when placed 

 under a hen or in an incubator and the chicks to come out "like corn 

 popping," you must give the parent stock the proper care, and see 

 that they have been properly raised. 



TRAP-NEST THE BREEDING STOCK. 



If a farmer has one hundred hens, he should build him a sepa- 

 rate breeding pen, large enough to hold ten or twelve birds. He 

 should cull his flock and put the very best ten females and the very 

 best male bird he has on the farm in his pen. In this way he is 

 breeding from the best on the farm and setting eggs from these birds 

 and not breeding promiscuously from anything and everything, the 

 good and bad as well. In this breeding pen he should have four or 

 five trap nests. These trap nests will reveal wonders. He wsill find 

 there are hens among the ten which lay practically every day. He 

 will discover other hens which lay only once or twice a week, and 

 still others which are simply deadbeats or boarders on his hands, 

 and others which lay poorly-shaped eggs with defective shell^ others 

 which lay infertile eggs, others whose chicks do not get o^of the 

 shell, others whose chicks are weak and sickly, others whick-iiertilize 

 .each egg and the chicks develop into strong, healthy youngsters. 

 With trap nests and by hatching chicks from the best laying hens, 

 and hens which transmit their vigor, beauty and good qualities to 

 their offspring, he can soon build up a good strain of beautiful, 

 vigorous fowls which fill the egg basket and yield a handsome profit 

 each year. 



BREEDING FROM WINTER LAYERS. 



If you haven't time to trap-nest a sm'all pen of your birds, as sug- 

 gested above, then breed from the pullets which begin laying first 

 and from those which lay during the winter months. If you follow 

 this plan year after year, you can soon build up a laying strain without 

 the use of the trap nest, as it is the pullet which shows a born tend- 

 ency to lay, lays first, and lays in cold winter months that will prove 

 your best producer as a rule. 



HOW TO CONTROL THE SEX. 



It is impossible to tell the sex of an egg before it is hatched, and 

 it is impossible to absolutely control the sex. However, if you mate 

 a strong, active cockerel with hens that are two to five years old, 

 using about 25 or 35 hens with one male bird, you will hatch from 75 



