CHAPTER VII. 



The Sex Element in Egg Production. 



Why do hens lay at all? This is the most momentous 

 question that confronts the poultryman. If he can answer 

 the question correctly he is in a position to proceed intelli- 

 gently and systematically with egg production. If he cannot 

 answer it, or has never even thought of it, he is in no condi- 

 tion to get a large and uniform egg yield. He may make a 

 hit occasionally, but there will be years when eggs will be 

 few and far between. 



It is evident to the most casual observer that hens do 

 not lay for their own amusement for the fun it gives them. 

 Anyone who has ever watched a hen straining to discharge 

 the egg, or who has taken an egg out of a nest blood-stained 

 from some internal hemorrhage, must realize that the pas- 

 sage of an egg by a hen is not for her altogether an agreeable 

 operation. Doubtless there is a sense of relief when the egg 

 is expelled but so there is when a man has had an ulcerated 

 tooth extracted. Nor do hens lay to add to the profits of their 

 owner. It is a common complaint, and one in which there is 

 a good deal of truth, that hens lay only when eggs are cheap 

 and shut down when they are dear! No, hens do not lay for 

 fun or to add to the bank account of their owner; they lay 

 for an altogether different purpose. 



Implanted in the core and center of every living thing 

 is the desire to reproduce its kind. It seems to be the design 

 of Nature that the species shall be perpetuated at any cost. 

 "Multiply and replenish the earth" is a command addressed 

 to plants, animals and birds as well as to man. So imperious 

 is this instinct of reproduction, so irresistible, that some of 

 the lower orders propagate at the cost of their own lives. 



The hen lays to gratify the imperious instinct of reproduc- 

 tion. In her wild state the hen lays from six to ten eggs a 

 year. She lays them in some secluded nook in the jungle, 

 that she may rear her little brood. If it were not for this 

 instinct of reproduction the hen would never lay. We have 

 taken this instinct of reproduction, stimulated it so that the 

 domestic fowl now lays from ten to twentyfold as many eggs 

 as her aboriginal ancestress; but have largely forgotten, if 



