148 COMMON SENSE 
lay next winter, I confess I was taken quite aback at this new ob- 
stacle. Indeed, so serious was the pL oe that I almost gave 
up all hope of success that season. 
It was an awkward recicaent to be sure. What could be 
done? ae 
I saw at once 'that all hope of intelligent crossing and breeding 
from these hens was at an end, so far ‘as early chickens this season 
were concerned. I, therefore, decided to rearrange some of my 
yards, and make up one almost entirely of laying hens, and in 
this I put several of my best ‘cocks, I know that this is not an 
advisable system, but I could not very well ‘do otherwise. To 
have more than one cock in a coop is very unwise. They prevent 
each other from paying attention to the hens and this causes many 
of the eggs to prove unfertile. But I could not very well hetp it, 
and so I had to arrange as best I could. 
The neglect to provide for my breeding stock was my first great 
blunder, and the one that did more than anything else to retard 
my progress. It was a mere oversight; I knew better, but I did 
not realize the necessities of the case. 
The laying: liens, placed in one of the large houses with glass 
shed, etc., soon supplied us with eggs for setting, and as we always 
had hens ready to set, we soon had our early broods under way. 
Of course they would be a mixed lot, but as they were all good, 
we had considerable hope of fair results. 
So far as our sixty breeding ‘hens were concerned, there was 
nothing for it but to give up one of the warmest houses to them, 
and keep them in that. So I picked out the most ‘convenient 
house, distributed the hens amongst the other houses, and transferred 
all my breeders to their new house. ‘They were left there without any 
cock until they began to Jay: again freely,-which was not till late in 
February. Meantime I put up small glass covered sheds against 
the breeding coops, made everything still more snug and warm, 
and, in short, made the small-coops as much’ proof against the 
weather as the large ones. I then gradually transferred the hens 
back to them, and although I did not raise my earliest chickens 
t 
