60 



will be infertile or the chick will die in the shell. There are 

 some kinds of food that stimulate the genital organs and pro- 

 mote sexual activity. Raw onions chopped fine and fed in 

 the mash twice a week are excellent during the breeding 

 season. Clover is also a valuable food for fertility. 



Where fertile eggs are wanted the hen must not be pushed 

 too hard for egg production. My own method is to push my 

 pullets the first year. I reserve the best layers to breed from, 

 and do not push them the second year; but let them take 

 things easy. They have made their record and deserve a rest. 

 When the breeding season comes they are in prime condition, 

 and lay large, highly colored eggs which hatch hardy chicks. 



It pays to alternate males where high fertility is desired, 

 allowing three males for two pens, keeping two in active serv- 

 ice and the third shut up to rest. Cocks have their favorites, 

 and where one male runs with a flock some hens are neglected ; 

 but where males are alternated all are likely to be served. 



Many eggs fail to hatch because they are not properly 

 cared for. It takes but little to kill the germ. One reason 

 farmers get such poor results in winter is that they are not 

 careful to gather their eggs several times a day. The opinion 

 is common among them that an egg must be frozen hard 

 enough to crack the shell before it is unfit to put under a hen. 

 Eggs should be gathered when warm and kept in a tempera- 

 ture of from 40 to 60 degrees. In shipping eggs to customers 

 they should be moved in the middle of the day and protected 

 from extremes of temperature as much as possible. 



WHY EGGS ARE NOT FERTILE IN WINTER. 



Also every winter some person of my acquaintance buys an 

 incubator and starts in to raise broilers for the city market. 

 The result is inevitably disappointment. The percentage of 

 fertility is so low and the mortality among the chicks so great, 

 that the books show a loss instead of a profit at the end of the 

 season. The reason why the fertility is so low in winter is 

 purely physiological. "The testicles of birds vary greatly in 

 size according to the season of the year in which they are ob- 

 served. In winter they are very small, with a comparatively 

 insignificant blood supply; but in spring, as the breeding 

 season comes on, they enlarge to five or ten times the weight 

 during winter, the vessels are distended with blood and the 

 height of functional activity is reached." To get fertile eggs 

 in winter, therefore, the house must be warm, or eggs must be 

 imported from the South. 



