264 MY POULTRY DAY BY DAY 
It is said by those who trap-nest that any bird that lays thirty 
eggs or more before the end of the year is good enough to be bred 
from. Obviously then these ten first-cross breeds come well 
within the category. When we consider that the average per 
bird works out at nearly sixty before Christmas, it follows that 
several of the birds must have laid at least seventy eggs. They 
were not trap-nested, but they were kept under strict observation, 
and it is certain that all ten were laying by the 12th November, or 
earlier. The chances are that one of the birds laid approximately 
_sixty eggs (or more) and that two others laid only a few less. The 
others, even those that began to lay as late as 12th November, 
must have laid from forty to fifty-five eggs each. 
I may here remark that my own birds bred at the same time 
did not do anything like so well, although they were all managed 
alike. There was a slight difference in feeding, for my wife gave 
all her household scraps to the noble ten, but any difference in 
this direction, I am convinced, would not account for a single egg. 
Where the lady scored on this occasion was in keeping a small 
flock. My birds were in houses containing 100 head apiece, 
and it was not till January that my volume of eggs was propor- 
tionately anywhere near her November record. A strict com- 
parison cannot be made between my fowls and my wife’s, for the 
simple reason that all her birds were first crosses—W yandotte- 
Faverolles—while mine comprised White Wyandottes, Leghorns, 
Rhode Island Reds, Buff Orpingtons and one first cross—Leghorn- 
Buffs. 
One might argue that if I had taken ten of my best birds and 
treated them exactly as the ten Wyandotte-Faverolles were 
treated the results would have been similar. I do not think so 
for one minute. I admit that they probably would have yielded 
better results in small flocks of ten each, but the disparity was so 
striking that the small-flock theory will not cover the whole of the 
facts. 
I can only conclude then that by mating a White Wyandotte 
cockerel to Salmon Faverolles I happened upon some hidden 
fecundity in one or other (or both) of the breeds. The White 
