460 COMMERCIAL POULTRY RAISING 



specimens, as well as breeding them, that brings success in this 

 generation. 



Some breeders are opposed to conditioning, and condemn it 

 as faking. There is a vast difference between the two, however, 

 even though it may be difficult to establish in some cases. The 

 mere fact that you have grown a fowl that conforms to certain 

 requirements, such as weight, shape, the angle at which the tail 

 is carried, length of shank and so on, is by no means as far as 

 it is possible to exert your skill. The other fellow, let us say, 

 has done the same thing, and a little more. He improved on the 

 fowl's ability to keep itself sleek and clean. Maybe he influenced 

 the bird's conduct, by training it to pose and strut about, to 

 exhibit its virtues to the best advantage, and not object to 

 handling. A wild, unruly bird is an abomination, and will try 

 the patience of the most skillful judge. 



Show Conduct. — To properly demonstrate his or her points of 

 superiority, a bird must be docile, accustomed to pose when the 

 judge's stick is placed on its back, and in all ways assume an 

 aristocratic air. These characteristics are seldom born in a speci- 

 men; they are the result of careful training on the part of the 

 exhibitor, and as such they are worthy of consideration. Some- 

 times it requires weeks of careful handling and training before 

 a bird is in perfect show condition. Many a superior bird has 

 failed to be placed because it was impossible for the judge to 

 keep it quiet long enough to form any idea of its correct type. 



In the selection for the show room every section of the bird 

 must receive exacting scrutiny. In some breeds color must be 

 more carefully considered, in others, as, for example, the Mediter- 

 ranean varieties, the head points are of great importance. In 

 the Hamburg breeds, if tail be not full and flowing, its long 

 sickles well curved and carried at the right angle with the back, 

 or if it approaches a squirrel position, the whole Hamburg char- 

 acter is lost or seriously marred. If the sickles are short and the 

 tail pinched, or carried in a trailing low carriage, they fail to 

 attract the necessary attention. 



Like the tail, unless a fowl's shanks are of the right length, 



