CHAPTER XXIV 



Breeding for Layers 



There is no question but what it pays to use a good 

 trap-nest and breed up your stock for layers. A few of 

 your best flocks could be used for this purpose. Pul- 

 lets would give you the best test for this, for after a 

 month or two you would know which ones were laying 

 the best, and at the end of the first year you could take 

 all with a big egg record and keep them over, especially 

 for your own breeders. In this way you could soon build 

 yourself up a wonderful strain of layers that, if cared 

 for and fed on my system of free range, you would soon 

 have flocks averaging you two hundred or more eggs a 

 year. It is not possible in any other way, in my opinion, 

 and this is the only sure way of breeding high-class show 

 birds. Those that win the blue in the hottest competition, 

 and it would not take so much extra time as you would 

 think, for you could release your hens on every round 

 you make. Ijy breeding from the yearling hens that gave 

 you the big egg yield as pullets, you would not have to 

 trap-nest your hens the second year. In this way you 

 could easily develop a wonderful strain of layers, which 

 would more than repay you for time spent. In fact, a 

 big plant could well afford to hire an extra man for this 

 purpose alone — that is, on a three thousand laying plant 

 it would pay to hire a good man to do nothing but take 

 care of your eggs and trap your hens. In this way I am 

 positive you could soon have nothing but two-hundred- 

 egg hens. 



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