Best Egg Producers 19 



The Parcel Post, is one method of selling eggs to private families 

 that the modern poultryman has at his command. Just a few lines 

 in a city paper will bring the enquiries, and the charges are so light 

 in the first zone that it will be profitable to both contracting parties. 



If you hatch your own chicks it is necessary to hatch them so that 

 when the pullets molt their last feathers and commence to lay, they 

 will stay on the job and not lay off about two or three months in the 

 best paying part of the season. 



The first chicks should be hatched to come out in the middle of 

 February; the second lot should be on hand with the new moon in 

 March; the third lot with the April new moon. Always catch the 

 moon from the new to within five days of being full. Where there is 

 plenty of shade chicks can be hatched up to June; then the male 

 should be removed from the breeding pens and the hens given their 

 liberty. After the molt, start up the breeding yards again and get 

 one good hatch of chicks out in October. These chicks will help out 

 the following summer when the other hens commence to lag, as they 

 will molt a little earlier than the others but will not take so long. 

 As they are young, they can even be put through a forced molt and 

 have them back in sixty days. 



The eggs must be kept coming in and this can only be done by 

 having chicks follow each other in rotation. March chicks are always 

 considered best but that is not an absolute fact, though they are good, 

 but we can't have all in one month, nor is it advisable to do so. 



Leghorns can be matured in from five to six months and they will 

 then lay a fair sized egg and keep laying; but if matured before that 

 age they are not reliable layers, but more in the nature of freaks. I 

 have seen them lay at four months of age but no satisfaction is 

 obtained by such early maturity. 



Minorcas are la little longer coming through, and 1 think that is 

 one reason that they are not more popular on egg ranches. Minorcas 

 must be fed a good, substantial ration right from the start and if they 

 lay at seven months they are all right. From then on you will collect 

 the big white egg that will bring in the best prices and the Minorca 

 hen in her second year is a better layer than during the first year. 

 This is a good ofifset to the late maturity. To get the best out of 

 Minorcas they should be hatched in February, March and April, not 

 later, and kept growing from the start. By keeping them through 

 the molt and feeding well, they can be gotten back to work in sixty 

 days and the second season's eggs will be larger and the hens will 

 lay more of them than the first year. 



With Leghorns it is advisable to cull out all the weakest, smallest 

 hens every year and replace with chicks; to do this one must hatch 

 double the quantity needed as one half will be cockerels. With 

 Minorcas, if the flock is not to be increased, it is not necessary to 



