132 MAINE) AGRICUIvTURAL EJXPBRIMDNT STATION. I906, 



2 each. Each lot of 2 cockerels was allowed in turn a half day's 

 freedom, one lot being shut up, and another lot liberated at noon 

 and night, each day. When not at liberty, each 2 cockerels were 

 in coops, 2^ by 6 feet in size, in company with about half the 

 broody hens of the pen. The coops were light and the birds on 

 the floor were in plain sight of the prisoners at all times. 



The other 6 pens of females were kept separate from the 

 males until February 24th, when they were mated with brothers 

 of the cockerels employed in the 9 pens described above. The 

 cockerels and pullets in the 6 pens were fresh, never having 

 been in service. The 6 cockerels assigned to each pen were 

 divided into lots of 2, and each lot given their liberty, alter- 

 nately, just as they were in the first 9 pens. 



The saving of the eggs for incubation was begun March 2, 

 6 days after regular mating commenced. The eggs were saved 

 from each lot until March 17th, when they were incubated 

 under similar conditions. From the pens where the males and 

 females had run together all winter, 3,240 eggs were incubated 

 and 1,529 chicks hatched out, an average of about one chick 

 from 2^ eggs. From the pens where the males and females 

 had not been together until the breeding season commenced 

 on February 24, 2,160 eggs were incubated, and 1,075 chicks 

 hatched out, — an average of two eggs being required to yield 

 one chick. 



These slight differences in results should not be interpreted 

 as meaning that there are advantages in the short, over the 

 long matings, for so small differences are liable to show in 

 any pens of birds, however treated. Much more marked differ- 

 ences in results would be needed, to indicate that the running 

 together of both sexes, at will, during several months prior 

 to the breeding season, is detrimental to the chick -producing 

 capacities of the eggs. 



While the results of this test may not be convincing, the 

 1,500 birds employed and the large number of eggs incubated, 

 with the satisfactory average yields of a chick from 2 eggs, 

 does furnish data sufficient to remove scruples regarding the 

 fitness of long-mated birds for breeders. 



