IS BROODINESS OPPOSED TO PROFITABLE EGO PRODUCTION? 57 



mischief, but will chiefly concern herself in attempts to get into the house 

 or yard. 



She can be fed and watered without trouble and two or three days 

 will suffice to cause her to forget her desire to sit and and laying is like- 

 ly to be resumed in a short time. Another good way is to place the hen 

 in a pen or yard with a lively male. 



All of this may seem like lots of trouble, but it is simple and easy in 

 actual practice. 



The hen is easily identified by her leg-band number wherever she is 

 found and the record sheet contains a note other condition. 



The number of times that a hen becomes broody in a year is not a 

 safe criterion by which to judge of the extent of her broody tendencies. 

 The effect of broodiness upon her egg-record is the true test. One of 

 the best layers that I ever had was broody and broken seven times in 

 one year. She gave a good egg yield every month in the year in spite 

 of her broodiness. Some hens evidently become disheartened and de- 

 spondent under the influence of a hopeless desire to sit and refuse to lav 

 for months, although they may not be broody enough to stick to a nest 

 in the face of opposition. Such birds are unprofitable and should be 

 weeded out, or allowed to hatch some eggs. 



IS BROODINESS OPPOSED TO PROFITABLE EGG 

 PRODUCTION? 



If we eliminate from our minds all sentiment, current tradition, and 

 the contrary opinions of poultry raisers whose observations of the 

 habits of hens have been confined to a general consideration of flocks as 

 they appear as a whole, or at best a few individual specimens at special 

 times, if we can dispense with all this we will be likely to admit that 

 broodiness is, to a greater or less extent, opposed to profitable egg' pro- 

 duction, and that all successful attempts to lessen its effects, or to 

 breed it out, will improve the laying qualities of our strains. 



The more pronounced the brooding instinct becomes, in a normally 

 developed hen, the smaller will be the egg yield. Many hens are good 

 sitters and "mothers" and also good layers, but in such birds the 

 brooding instinct is not fully developed. They occupy the middle po- 

 sition between the ultra-natural hen, with her two or three -'litters" a 

 year, and the highest type of our artificial hen that makes egg produc- 

 tion her principal occupation and has little time or desire to incubate. 

 Those who regard the behavior of one hen that they own, or have owned, 

 as being a fair sample by which to judge of hens in general, or some par- 

 ticular breed in general, often hold a very different opinion from this. 

 There are also others who desire us to believe that the hens that they 

 are exploiting possess every attribute, in a superlative degree, that any 



