BREEDING 



11 



of November or December, the latter will continue to develop 

 and probably take on flesh, but will not commence to lay 

 before February or March and will give from 40 to 60 eggs 

 less than the first ones, though they may continue to lay a 

 little longer in summer. 



Undesirable as Layers 

 We give here the result of some interesting experiments : 

 One group of twenty-two Barred Plymouth Rock pul- 

 lets, which were hatched in May and wintered in a cold cotton- 

 front poultry house, each laid an average of 68i eggs. A 

 like number of White Wyandottes which hatched during the 

 same month and wintered under like conditions each laid 

 an average of 76i eggs. 



In another case, six pullets, three Barred Plymouth 

 Rocks and three White Wyandottes, all hatched in May, 



fed in the very same manner as in the first case, but placed 

 in a warm hen house, (both kinds had been slow in growth 

 and had reached their full development during October, 

 November and December) had a record of an average of only 

 15i eggs for each bird. Six other pullets of the same stock 

 similarly treated and fed as the former but which had hatched 

 about the end of June, laid an average of 23 eggs only. 



As a result of these experiments and the conclusions ar- 

 rived at, we with certainty say to all who are interested in 

 poultry keeping, that if they rid their yards of all unhealthy 

 puny-looking and abnormally developed birds which threaten 

 the ruin of poultry raisers, the success in this branch of agri- 

 culture would be enhanced in a few years by one hundred per 

 cent in the production of eggs, while the table would like- 

 wise be furnished with a fowl of far superior quality. 



LINE BREEDING 



A VETERAN POULTRYMAN TELLS HIS FELLOW BREEDERS HOW TO PRODUCE THOUSANDS 

 OF CHICKS AND THREE STRAINS OF BLOOD FROM A SINGLE PAIR— THESE BIRDS WILL 

 IMPROVE IN SHAPE AND COLOR WHILE RETAINING THE VIGOR OF THE ORIGINAL PAIR 



I. K. FELCH 



LINE breeding is very simple when the rules that 

 govern it are strictly followed. The trouble is that 

 we all grow careless and a little carelessness often 

 destroys all our previous work and throws the whole scheme 

 or plan out of order. 



Intense in-breeding often results in a sterile flock. The 

 secret of success, if secret it be, is to breed so as to preserve 

 the line within our own strain and yet have each mating — ■ 



each pair — show a difference in blood 

 know that the chickens of any 

 pair of birds inherit half the 

 blood of each parent. If two 

 of these chicks are mated the 

 proportion of the blood of the 

 sire and dam remains the 

 same, but if the pullets of the 

 second generation are mated 

 to the old cock of the first 

 generation, there is a material 

 change in the third generation 

 as these birds have three- 

 fourths of the blood of the 

 cock and only one-fourth of 

 the blood of the dam. In 

 the accompanying chart, 

 which I originated a num- 

 ber of years ago, the female 

 line is indicated by the dotted 

 lines and the male line by the 

 solid lines. 



You will note that 1, the 

 female, and 2, the male, mated 

 together produce group 3 

 and that pullets from group 

 3 mated to 2, which repre- 

 sents the male of the first gen- 

 eration — produce group 5, or 

 the third generation, to which 

 we have just referred. Now 

 if a cockerel from group 3 is 

 mated to hen 1 we shall get 

 group 4, having three-fourths 

 of the blood of the original 

 hen and only one-fourth of the original male. 



For instance, we all 



3 IS 3i 



FELCH'S BREEDING CHART 



Showing how thousands of chickens and three strains of blood 

 can be produced from a single pair, in the vigor, size and color of the 

 original pair. 



We are now in position to mate again, using birds from 

 group 4 and 5 and the result is that in group 7 we have a 

 flock identically the same in blood as group 3, though they 

 did not come directly from the same birds, 1 and 2. 



By mating birds from 6 and 8 we obtain group 11, hav- 

 ing the same proportion of blood as group 3, unless we wish 

 to adinit that these matings have exhausted the blood of 

 the original pair that founded the strain. 



Arithmetic teaches us that the percentage of blood in 

 groups 3, 7 and 11 is the same, 

 though to a casual observer 

 the chart would seem to lie, as 

 10 and 12 and 4 and 5 appar- 

 ently are not alike, though 

 they are actually, because 

 members from groups 10 and 

 12 mated will produce birds 

 that have half of the blood 

 of the original pair. 



It is an old English rule 

 that when we reach birds 

 with seven-eighths of the 

 blood of a given pair of an- 

 cestors we have exhausted 

 the eighth of foreign blood 

 that was used to invigorate 

 the strain. Under that rule 6 

 and 8 become practically 1 and 

 2, because breeding birds from 

 these two groups will produce 

 group 11, which has the same 

 blood proportion as groups 3 

 and 7. But while the birds 

 in 9 and 13 have recovered 

 the eighth blood lost in 10 

 and 12, because their dams 

 come from their own strain, 

 yet, had 9 and 13 been 

 mated, their progeny wovdd 

 have been the same in blood 

 as groups 3, 7, 11 and 16. In 

 15 and 17 we have a little bet- 

 ter than half of the blood of the 

 male and the female strains we are endeavoring to establish. 



