4N THE THAI' XEST TEXT HOOK 



As the chicks grow they should be carefully observed and unprom- 

 ising' specimens destroyed. 



A chick that once gets a serious set-back will never lay well or be fit 

 to head a breeding' pen . 



When our pullets begin to lay we will notice a great difference in 

 them, unless we have been extremely fortunate in our choice of stock 

 and our previous culling. 



They should, by this time, have become perfectly at home in their 

 laying houses, — quite an important matter. It is assumed that they 

 are reasonably free from vermin and are being fed as well as the owner 

 knows how. Under these conditions some mity begin to lay regularly 

 and freely, some may lay irregularly, while others may not lay. If a 

 good supply of Ideal trap nests are furnished, the majority of the pul- 

 lets will probably begin to lay in them. (I say probably because no 

 human mind can foretell surely what a flock of pullets will, or will not 

 do. Were I governed solely by my own experience and the experiences 

 of a large number of Ideal users I should omit the word probably .) 

 Some of the pullets may not use the nests and these should be regarded 

 with suspicion from the start. 



There are exceptions to nearly all rules, but my experience has been 

 that when the installation of nests was correct and adequate those pullets 

 that failed to use them have turned out badly as a rule. We should not, 

 at this time, judge too hastily. Some of those pullets that are slow to 

 begin laying, or lay irregularly at first, may make our very best layers. 

 While I think that the most common mistake is to hold unprofitable 

 stock too long, I will caution against condemning a bird too quickly. 



A case in point is that reported by a correspondent of mine, a well- 

 known breeder, who thought that he had made such a mistake. This 

 gentleman is away a good deal and employs a man. Last fall he had 

 some pullets that did not begin to lay as soon as he thought that they 

 ought and he sold them. The person who bought them had no other 

 birds and kept a record of these. They averaged 216 eggs each in a 

 little less than eleven months. The gentleman who sold the birds has a 

 little more faith in what is called early maturity than I, and I think that 

 lie condemned them too soon. Their good record in other hands did 

 not, I think, prove that they would have done as well had he kept 

 them. A change of environment will make peculiar changes, some 

 times, and they cannot always be accounted for. 



In our haste we are apt to confound sexual maturity with bodily ma- 

 turity. I am not yet prepared to believe that the precocious layer will 

 make the best layer, or a good breeder of good layers. 



The limiting of the protilalile la\ ing-lit'e of a hen to two years natur- 

 ally accompanies a belief in forced sexual maturity. If we propose to 

 get a foundation stock of breeding birds that will lay a large number of 



