BREEDING RHODE ISLAND REDS FOR EGG PRODUCTION 



FIVE IMPORTANT POINTS TO KEEP IN MIND-TYPE-EXERCISE-FEEDING-HOUSING-HATCHING 



GEO. L. ANDREWS 



IN THE Reds we have at least one breed not spoiled by 

 fanciers sacrificing type to color as they realize that 

 the special feature which has so rapidly brought the 

 breed into popular and lasting favor is their pro- 

 nounced utility qualities. All emphasize shape in exploit- 

 ing their various strains and this breeding to type has per- 

 fected a fancier's fowl of sterling worth. 



In breeding them for egg production we must consider 

 five contributing factors, viz.; breeding, feeding, housing, 

 exercising and hatching. 



Breeding 



Keep the type ever prominent. The long, broad backed, 

 low-keeled hen with well spread legs, is the laying hen; select 

 accordingly, also keeping your eye open for the bird with 

 the bright, sparkling eyes, activity standing out all over her. 

 Ycu will find she is the scratcher, too. Do not breed from 

 birds of low vitality, denoted by a flat, long billed snakey 

 head, undeveloped comb and wattles, pinched back and 

 knock-kneed legs. Select your known best layers, closely 

 conforming to this type, always mating with a male with 

 pronounced constitutional vigor, indicated by active move- 

 ments, upright carriage, well developed head, long broad 

 back,. tail well spread and full feathered, legs sturdy and set 

 well apart with breast broad and full, and whom you know 

 to be from a heavy layer. He should have a lusty crow, be 

 gallant to his mates and should be always aching for a test 

 of his powers with another male. 



Introduce new blood when necessary from a heavy lay- 

 ing strain, preferably of the same blood as your foundation 

 stock. 



Feeding 



Feeding is of the utmost importance and counts for as 

 much as your breeding methods. 



The chick from shell to maturity having no set back 

 through improper feeding will, if bred to type, lay and per- 

 petuate the laying instinct, while the one bred right but fed 

 haphazardly will fail utterly in this respect. 



The keynote to feeding is constant variety. It is gen- 

 erally conceded that a variety of grains is essential, but do 

 not stop there. It has been my experience that variety in 

 green food and protein elements is highly important. I am 

 not an advocate of dry feeding, preferring a moistened mash 

 in conjunction with dry grains, the bulky portion of which 

 I vary with alfalfa and cut clover. I also find cut clover 

 beneficial for the litter occasionally as they eat all the heads 

 md scratch to get them. Cabbage, mangels, turnips and 

 Jccasionally potatoes and carrots all help out the variety. 

 V^ary your protein by feeding scraps, green cut bone, beef 

 aeal, bone meal and milk albumen and your results will be 

 )etter than with scraps, green bone or milk albumen solely. 



Housing 



The essentials of a good house are light, sunshine, fresh 

 ir and roomy quarters, also simplicity and convenience, 

 i'resh air is paramount if you wish to keep up the stamina, 

 without which you will not keep type. Simplicity and con- 

 enience are next as aids to perfect cleanliness. The curtain 

 r open front house best furnishes the former, also assuring 

 ryness. 



Exercise 



Exercising is a prominent factor of success. Teach the 

 birds to scratch from chick-hood to the chopping block and 

 111 time this characteristic will become inherent, until you 

 have a flock without a lazy bone in their makeup and free 

 from the vices of feather pulling, egg eating and day roosting. 



This hen Euby owned by Mr. Geo. L. Andrews, Freeport, L. I., has 

 the record of having won a blue ribbon, a shape and color special and laid 

 200 eggs in one year — Judge Drevenstedt referred to her as "a jewel in 

 color and type." 



Provide a sunny scratch shed for -them with an abundance 

 of clean litter in which to scatter their grain feed, having a 

 tempting head of cabbage just high enough to make them 

 jump for it, occasionally hanging a piece of raw meat simil- 

 arly. Keep a few pieces of meat from the table on hand to 

 carry out with you when collecting the eggs and see them 

 chase one another, when these are thrown to them. 



Hatching 



Though I have placed hatching last I consider it first in 

 importance. Get off as many early birds as you can, as they 

 are most apt to assume correct type, if their ancestors have 

 been properly bred, fed and housed. The early chicks grow 

 faster and more uniformly, maturing younger, hence can be 

 expected to lay (in the case of Reds) before fall cold and 

 rains, continuing through the winter and thus lay a larger 

 number of eggs. If early and heavy layers are bred from 

 continuously you will soon perfect a strain of chronic egg 

 machines. 



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