The Selection of Stock Birds. 153 



CHAPTER XIV. 



THE SELECTION OF STOCK BIRDS. 



Importance of Care in Selection — Influence of Parents — Selection for Layers — 

 Selection for Table Fowls— State of Breeding Sto_'k— Buying Birds — Buying 

 Eggs for Sitting - Space for Breeding Stock — Birds not to be ReUted— Evils 

 of In-breeding — Number of Hens to Cock — When to Expect Fertile Eggs — 

 Feeding — Importance of Health and Condition. 



The choosing of birds or animals for breeding is one of the 

 most important matters, that can command the attention of 

 any keeper of live stock, for, in accordance with the care and 

 skill given to it, will be the quality of the produce. Parents 

 impress upon their progeny those characteristics which they 

 themselves possess, in so far as there are no counteracting 

 influences. If these characteristics are good ones, they should 

 be preserved by judicious mating, but if they arc bad ones, 

 then, it must be the object of the breeder, to get rid of them 

 as quickly as possible. And in order to secure this it is 

 necessary to have a clear idea of the influence of each parent, 

 for the influence on either side is different to that on the 

 other. Without this knowledge, there can be no possibility 

 of arriving at a true appreciation of the question. 



We have said that the influence of each parent is different, 

 and, to this we may add, that, as a rule, the characteristics of 

 both can be traced in the offspring. Sometimes, however, 

 qualities are developed which were not found in the parents, 

 nor yet can be regarded as a combination of qualities from 



