COCKER S MANUAL. 33 



the male. In fowls this rule or trait does not seem to obtain, and 

 may be, perhaps, an indirect evidence that the yolk is vitalized or 

 impregnated after it has become detached from the ovary. 



"If this opinion is well founded, then, the exact number of days 

 which must elapse before preserving eggs for hatching, after the hen 

 lias been placed with her cock, no definite answer can be given, as it 

 is impossible to know the number of eggs in process of formation in 

 ■the egg-passage of a living hen, and in all cases, it will be safe to wait 

 long enough, say two or three weeks, especially so if the eggs are de- 

 signed for sale." 



Again we notice in the Fancier's Gazette, London, the following 

 article upon the subject, which we consider of interest to all breeders : 



"How long after the cock's removal does his productive influences 

 ■continue to affect the hen is a question more easily asked than satis- 

 factorily answered. Our forefathers who bred their old fighting 

 strains with a hundred times more care for the pit than we are wont 

 to do, for the show pen, contended that a hen was never clean, i. e., 

 free from the influence of the cock sl\e first laid to after 

 moulting until she moulted again. There are others who as positively 

 affirm that every hen is clean on becoming broody, whilst not a few 

 assure us that the influence of the cock only extend over the limited 

 space of three or four days. Are they all right or all wrong? I am 

 not so egotistical as to say, but would rather, with your permission, 

 state a few facts which may assist your readers in drawing their own 

 •conclusions. 



"Every experienced breeder will have often observed chickens of 

 •one clutch showing the distinctive points of two cocks when it has 

 happened that two cock birds have been running on the brood walk at 

 one and the same time, or when a cock of one breed has been substi- 

 tuted for another during the laying of the hens. For instance, I have 

 often required a brood cock from the walk for some purpose, say a 

 full-feather plain head, and have' placed with the hens a Tassel or hen 

 ■cock, the result is that the laying hens then produce chickens closely 

 resembling both the plain heads and Tassel, or full-feathered and hen- 

 feathered cock; but the question is, 'ZTt^ze/ /(?«^ is it after the intro- 

 ■duction of a fresh cock before this change of parentage takes place ?' 

 Last autumn a poultry-killing sheep-dog so bit and mutilated a brood 

 cock — one of the handsomest I ever saw, presented to me by one of the 



