CHAPTER III. 

 EGGS FOR HATCHING. 



To me eggs are like morals they have no middle ground. If 

 not good, they are bad. Harriet. 



O. W. Holmes is credited with the 

 JiJL observation that a child's education should 

 iflpP^ begin one hundred years before it is born. 

 In this witticism the poet and sage ex- 

 presses his appreciation of the law of 

 heredity, that like begets like, a principle 

 as applicable to the raising of fowls as to the training 

 of children. 



The successful chicken rearer must begin his 

 operations long before the advent of the chickens. 

 Hens that have been stunted by neglect and abuse or 

 debilitated by too frequent intermingling of blood, 

 will not lay eggs containing strong, healthy germs. 

 The breeding birds of both sexes should be of hardy 

 stock, fully matured and in a high state of health. 



Young pullets forced into early laying by stimu- 

 lating food do not make good breeders. Hens that 

 are over two years old, hens that are over fat, or have 

 been weakened by disease, should never be used to 

 furnish eggs for hatching. Pullets that have reached 

 their full size, and well preserved two-year-old hens 

 mated with a vigorous male, make the best breeders. 

 A good plan is to mate hens with a cockerel from eight 



