CHAPTER XII 
HOW TO GET EGGS 
go too far back one may mention the fowl’s parents and 
grandparents. In egg-laying heredity plays a big part. If 
the grandparent and the mother on the female side were good stout 
birds with plenty of stamina, and an egg record of 200 per annum 
or over, they will adequately form the foundation of a grand new 
stock of egg-layers. It is not always wise to breed from a hen with 
a phenomenal egg record, because it has been proved that some 
of those very exceptional layers have, in their very effort to 
reproduce so many of their kind, overtaxed their strength and 
depleted their vitality. 
But on the male side one may with more safety breed from a 
cockerel whose mother had laid 250 to 280 in her pullet year. It is 
a known fact that the male bird inherits and transmits the factors 
which make up a deep egg-laying strain. The inheritance of 
fecundity finds its best expression in the male bird. If, for instance, 
a breeder mates a hen of great laying capacity with a cockerel 
whose parents were moderate egg-producers the chances are that 
the progeny will take after the male and also be moderate egg- 
layers. But if one reverses the process one gets a very different 
result. If a hen of moderate egg-laying capacity be mated with a 
cockerel whose parents hold a high record the chances are that the 
progeny will also take a high place in egg-production. 
The old saying that the male bird is half the pen is little more 
than half the truth. The fact is, as modern experiments testify, 
the male bird is more nearly seven-eighths of the pen. The hen 
is a factor, of course, but not a predominating one. The male 
bird imposes his personality and his constitution on practically 
all the flock. 
99 
E=. are the product of many anterior influences. Not to 
