CHAPTER VII. 



THE SEX ELEMENT IN EGG PRODUCTION. 



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

 tion that confronts the poultryman. If he can answer the ques- 

 tion correctly he is in a position to proceed intelligently and sys- 

 tematically with egg production. Jf he cannot answer it, or has 

 never even thought of it, he is in no condition 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 an egg, or who 

 has taken an egg out of a nest blood stained from some internal 

 hemorrhage, must realize that the passage 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 prop- 

 agate 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 reproduc- 

 tion 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 we ever knew, that it is the presence 

 -of this instinct that makes egg production possible. 



