FEED COST OF EGG PRODUCTION. 35 



Pens 3 and 5, where a very large proportion of corn meal (about 65 

 per cent) was fed in the mash. The statement is often made that 

 the number of broody hens can be increased by feeding freely on 

 corn and corn meal. This would appear to be verified by the total 

 broodiness in Pens 3 and 5, all breeds considered; but it is not true 

 of the Rhode Island Reds in Pen 3 compared with those jn Pen 1. 

 Broodiness in the hens in their first, compared with their second 

 laying year, averaged about the same for Pens 1 to 6, increasing 

 slightly during the second year in Pens 1, 4, and 6, and decreasing 

 in the other pens. Broodiness decreased very materially in 1915 

 during the third laying year. The percentage of hens of each breed 

 broody before April 1 of their pullet year from the early-maturing 

 pens (Nos. 1 to 3) was practically the same as from the late-maturing 

 pens (Nos. 5 and 6) except in the Buff Orpingtons, where the percentage 

 was twice as great in the early-maturing pens. 



Broodiness is probably largely an individual characteristic, more 

 or less affected by strains, variety, or breed, and by the quantity of 

 corn or corn meal in the ration, but not materially affected by ordi- 

 nary differences in rations. Further observations on this character- 

 istic are being made in the feeding pens and in a pen of Buff Orping- 

 tons in which trap-nest records of the hens are kept. Broody hens 

 are occasionally found among the White Leghorns, as shown in all 

 of the White Leghorn pens in the year 1913-14. Freedom from 

 broodiness accounts for the higher egg production of Leghorns 

 during the spring and summer, compared with the general-purpose 

 breeds. Frequent broodiness is an undesirable trait in hens kept 

 only for egg production, but may be of considerable value in flocks 

 where natural methods of incubation and brooding are used. 



EFFECT OF THE MOLT "ON EGG YIELD. 



Molting materially affects the egg yield, as hens take from 3 to 5 

 months to molt and lay few if any eggs while molting. The period 

 of molting begins usually about the first of August, but apparently 

 varies somewhat with the season. The pullets started to molt 

 earlier in 1914 than in 1913. The period of molting was from 3 to 6 

 weeks longer in the second laying year than in the first, and was still 

 somewhat longer in the third than in the second year, while the 

 accompanying period of nonproduction was materially increased in 

 the third year. The late-maturing pens started to molt later than 

 the early-maturing pens, but took about the same average time to 

 molt. No material effect on the molting was apparent from the 

 various rations used, although the molting period varied slightly in 

 all of the pens. More records of the molting of hens are being kept 

 both in the feeding pens and in breeding pens, where individual 

 records of egg yield of each hen are kept. 



