CHAPTER VI. 



Eggs in Fall and Winter. 



Unless a man breeds fancy fowls and has a good market 

 in the spring for eggs for hatching, the gilt-edged profits come 

 from eggs produced in late fall and early winter. There is no 

 commodity that I know anything about where the price fluc- 

 tuates so much in the course of a year as it does on eggs. In 

 the local market eggs range in price from 12 to 15 cents in 

 April and May to 30 to 40 cents around Thanksgiving. In 

 spite of all that has been written and said about eggs in the 

 late fall and early winter, there is always a shortage about this 

 time, and there is likely to be for years to come. 



The reason why it is so difficult to get eggs in late fall or 

 early winter is that it is against Nature. The primary object 

 of a bird in laying eggs is not to please the palate of the epi- 

 cure or add to the profits of the owner, but to reproduce her 

 kind. Now it is a universal law that all creatures in a wild 

 state bring forth their young at that season of the year when 

 food is most abundant. The hen has been domesticated for 

 more than thirty centuries, but back of this is a period of much 

 greater extent when she was wild. 



No artificial breeding or habitat can ever completely eradi- 

 cate aboriginal instincts. The natural time for a hen to lay 

 is in the spring and summer. It is evident, therefore, that in 

 working for eggs in fall and early winter we are working 

 against Nature, and can never hope for that complete success 

 that we may expect when we are working with Nature and 

 Nature is working with us. 



WINTER EGGS COME FROM PULLETS. 

 Eggs in the fall and winter come principally from pullets. 

 At Thanksgiving time, when eggs are at their maximum, the 

 hens have not fully recovered from their moult. They may 

 lay a few eggs, but nothing great. Those who get winter 

 eggs in large quantities are those who follow the advice of 

 this book and plan to have at least two-thirds of their laying 

 stock pullets. But not every pullet is a layer. It is only those 

 that are well grown and have been handled right that are now 

 giving a good account of themselves. The first great rule 



