CHAPTER VI. 



Breeding 



THE BREEDING PEN 



The breeding pen may well be called the heart of 

 the flock. All else centers about it. When the 

 breeding pen is not what it should be everything 

 deteriorates — egg production, size, health, whatever 

 is most desired in a flock — and in a few years the 

 plant is "for sale at a sacrifice." 



The foundation of the breeding pen is vigor. 



Culling 



The selection of breeding stock should begin the 

 day the chicks are hatched. The first chicks out of 

 the shell are usually the most vigorous. The sturdy, 

 bright-eyed babies that crowd round the incubator 

 window waiting for their weaker brothers and sisters 

 to hatch, or peep out from under Mother Biddy's 

 wings before half the eggs are pipped, are the ones 

 to mark as possible future breeders. Put the weak, 

 late hatched, sunken-eyed, pinched looking chicks by 

 themselves where they can have special care and not 

 interfere with the growth of the others, and in nine 

 cases out of ten you will find as they develop that 

 your best chicks are in the first lot. 



Cull again as they feather. The strongest cock- 

 erels always feather out first. The slow feathering 

 ones should be put by themselves and fed for broilers. 



As the pullets approach maturity cull out again 

 those which are largest and strongest for their age. 

 Those which lag behind had better go to market with 



