THE BREEDING OF CHICKENS 173 



breeding flock are the same. This necessitates tlic produc- 

 tion of fertile eggs by all the layers, using eggs for hatching 

 purposes from pullets as well as hens, and furnishing nndes 

 enough to mate with the entire flock. Altogether this is an 

 expensive proposition entailing loss in the market (luality 

 of the eggs, lower hatching power and weaker chicks from 

 the eggs laid by pullets, and more males to feed. 



Under general farm conditions, there is no reason wdiy 

 any distinction between breeders and layers should be made 

 nine months in the year. All should have the free run of the 

 farm. During the breeding season, however, a group of 

 selected hens, should be confined in a chicken-tight, roomy 

 pasture, with the males selected for the season's breeding. 

 Only males out of standard-bred high-laying dams should be 

 used as In-eeders. It must be clearly UTiderstood, however, 

 that only a portion of such males will transmit high produc- 

 tion to any large proportion of their daughters. This will 

 remain true until line breeding with reference to high pro- 

 duction has been carried on for a very much longer time than 

 it has at present. 



If one is so located that there is no danger of males from 

 neighboring farms mixing with the breeding flock, a better 

 practice would be to confine the laying flock and let the 

 breeders range. At the end of the breeding season the males 

 should be confined or sold. They should not be allowed 

 to mingle further with the hens and pullets. 



Community Breeding.— AVhat is likely to be an increasingly 

 important ])hase of poultry ini])rovement work is community 

 breeding. This refers to the miiting u])on a single Ijreed and 

 variety of the majority of fanners in a given community, to 

 the exclusion of other breeds. The advantages of this from 

 the stand])oints of feeding, marketing and general manage- 

 ment are numerous as will ajipear in later sections of this 

 book. 



The Petaluma district of of California, the Little Compton 

 section of ]\hode Island and the Vineland district of New 

 Jersey are famous the country over for particular breeds. 



Effort directed toward liringing about shnilar conditions 

 in other parts of the country is rather recent. Kentucky 



