getting a goodly number of eggs, but that her record was low- 

 ered because she had kept over half a dozen hens which had 



r laid well the year before. She said that she knew better, but 

 could not resist the temptation. I mention this case because 

 it is so typical. More egg records are wrecked by keeping old 

 hens in the flock than in any other way ! There is always a 

 temptation when a hen has laid well to keep her the second 

 year. This temptation must be resisted if one is in quest of a 

 big egg record. The fact that a hen has laid well for one year 

 since coming to maturity incapacitates her from ever laying so 

 well again. She has drained her system, and requires recup- 

 eration before she can lay even moderately. You may set it 

 down as an axiom that it is the pullets that give the big rec- 

 ords. If you have in your flock some hens that you desire to 

 keep a second year as a reward for past services, or for breed- 

 ers and mothers, put them in a pen by themselves and do not 



. look for more than a moderate egg production from them. It 

 is the pullets that lay, and the early-hatched pullets at that. 

 Get out your chickens in March, April or May, according to 

 the breed, if you want winter layers. 



WEED OUT THE NON-LAYERS. 



Reports from the Maine Experimental Station where trap 

 nests are used and individual records kept, show that among 

 hens of the same breed and kept under the same conditions 

 there is a great difference in egg production. One Barred 

 Plymouth Rock laid 251 eggs in one year, while another in the 

 same flock laid but eight. A White Wyandotte pullet laid 219 

 eggs, while another of the same breed laid absolutely none. 

 These figures are most significant, showing as they do the 

 ' absolute necessity of weeding out the non-producers. Sup- 

 pose you have two hens in a pen, and one lays 200 eggs a year 

 and the other none. The average for the two is 100 eggs 

 apiece. In other words, the non-layer has reduced the pen 

 record one-half. It costs a dollar a year to feed a hen, and this 

 money is thrown away if the hen does not lay. The one abso- 

 lutely sure way of identifying the layers and non-layers is by 

 the use of the trap nest ; but this takes time, and many do not 

 feel that it pays. Still without the use of the trap nest, by 

 keeping one's eyes and ears open, one can pick out the layers 

 with sufficient accuracy for all practical purposes, as I shall 

 show before I get through. 



