THE ASIATICS. 



29 



foolish to use a male from this pen in subsequent matings. 

 Another male should be used from pena in which both males 

 and females are strong in color and strictly prime, but 

 females from this pen may make valuable mates for exces- 

 sively dark cockerels that have come from the first four 

 pens, for remember, these are sisters of birds we have in our 

 best pens who lost color, perhaps, from the indisposition of 

 their dams or at some time when the sire was out of condi- 

 tion. Health and vigor are essential to successful breeding, 

 as are shape and markings. A strong, healthy, active hen 

 is the mother of the best chickens, especially when we per- 

 severe in pedigree breeding and the females in the pen are 

 Bisters and so the pen is reduced to a single pair in blood. 

 The best chickens we obtain 

 may have different mothers, 

 owing to the varying physical 

 conditions, but the blood in 

 the chickens in the same. 



All these matings may be 

 called standard, for both 

 males and females scoring 

 from 93 to 96% points are as 

 likely to come from one pen 

 as another, provided we have 

 made careful selection in re- 

 gard to standard shape. The 

 birds are all pedigreed and 

 all of them are reasonably 

 standard in shape and color 

 when mated, or they ripen in- 

 to standard color when they 

 molt. In our matings we aim 

 to allow for the deterioration 

 of age and to protect the off- 

 spring from adverse ancestral 

 influence. The breeder who 

 does not take into account an- 

 cestral influence has not gone 

 beyond the A, B, C of the al- 

 phabet of breeding. 



The matings described are 

 far different than double mat- 

 ings. inasmuch as exhibition 

 males and females will come in a like percentage from each 

 and every pen. Standard color will deteriorate and birds 

 from the first division will probably give us a greater num- 

 ber of light birds than dark, while in the second division 

 we will get probably more specimens that are too dark for 

 show purposes, but not so many that will be of standard 

 color the first year, but as hens they will prove winners, for 

 the dark pullets ripen while breeding into show hens. All 

 pullets that are what we call medium specimens of standard 

 color are reduced in value when they molt into hens. 



There is a great difference in what different persons un- 

 derstand by white. Specimens having dark under-color are 

 always a purer shade of white in surface color, and white 

 under-colored specimens have a creamy white surface color, 



which often during the breeding season becomes sun-burned 

 or straw colored and sometimes has a red shade when they 

 begin to molt. A bluish-white or bluish-grey under-color is 

 the safest to breed from. We all like to breed males whose 

 primaries are pure black with an outside rim of white. A 

 female with pure black and white, the black predominating 

 and the shaft of the feather being black, will prove the best 

 breeder. The fad for wholly black primaries in females will 

 in the end prove of more harm than good, and judges have 

 no right to give such a bird the preference on account of it. 

 Breeders of Light Brahmas should read and commit the 

 standard to memory and then mate strictly according to it, 

 understanding that the standard description applies to a cock 



toCKERU ^ofVUET, 

 Flort FIRST PRE&- 

 EXHIBITI°N PEN. 

 B°ST°M.MASS-l'J'»' 



BREP "^ OWIiED BY 

 JP-KEATIWi 

 VYESTB !? nflSS 



The Male and One of the Females from J. P. Keating's First Prize Pen of Wght Brahmas at Boston, 1903, 



and hen. When we are considering young stock we must 

 make allowance for age and remember that as they grow 

 older their colors will become less pronounced, and we must 

 insist that there be a sufficient reserve color to carry them 

 through. The amateur must not expect to reap success in a 

 single year, but he should give heed to the older breeders 

 and take their advice until he learns by experience. 



The breeder Who took the Light Brahma in his keeping 

 fifty years ago, acknowledging their worth then, is to-day 

 their staunch friend and he tells you with the same enthusi- 

 asm that they are the best fowl on earth when they are 

 allowed to appear in the shape and color that is their birth- 

 right. 



I. K. FELCH. 



