Hubbard's poultry secrets. 51 



This I consider my greatest secret. 



MATING THE BLACKS. 



I will now give you my method of mating Blacks, Buffs, and 

 Whites for color. We will take the Blacks first. I find from 

 the letters that come to Foxhurst Farm that there is a very wide 

 difference of opinion among poultrymen in regard to mating 

 Blacks to get the beetle green sheen free from purple barring. 

 A good many letters read something like this, "I have a male 

 bird that has a very high sheen but has purple barring. What 

 will you charge me for a female that has no sheen and is just 

 a dull black in color with no purple barring." Others will say 

 their male has not much sheen and is free from barring, and 

 would like to buy a female that has a very high sheen. Others 

 want the price on a trio or a pen ; females of dull black color 

 with male with very high sheen, saying their reasons for want- 

 ing them mated in this way are to avoid purple barring and the 

 red in hackle of the cockerels raised from that mating. 



I do not like the above method of mating to produce the beau- 

 tiful green plumage free from purple barring and to avoid red 

 in the hackle of the cockerels, for if it is followed, it will force 

 one to double mate to get the beautiful green plumage on both 

 cockerels and pullets. For instance, if a high sheen male is 

 mated to very dull black females, either the cockerels or pul- 

 lets will be off color. If the cockerels get good color from 

 this mating it will be necessary to mate the reverse, to get good 

 colored pullets. 



The purple barring comes more from improper care and 

 feeding than from the mating. I have yet to find any red in 

 hackle from any pure Foxhurst Farm bird that I have ever 

 raised, and there is not a strain of Black Orpingtons in exist- 

 ence that has any higher green sheen than Foxhurst Farm 

 Black Orpingtons. They are noted for this, both in male and 



