Four Leading Breeds 31 



habits of the four important breeds. In all tests 

 the average number of days, lost through broodi- 

 ness amounts to fifty or sixty days. At the Dan- 

 vers, Mass., contest during the year, 1917, not a 

 Leghorn went broody, while the heavier breeds 

 lost from fifty-five to sixty days. The report of 

 the Storrs, Conn., contest, where one hundred pens 

 are kept, is, of special interest on this point: 



The average Leghorn lost four days out of the 

 year as against nearly forty days for the average 

 Red, and twenty-seven days for the average Rock 

 or Wyandotte. The combined loss amounted to 

 18,650 days. This means, we might say, 688.5 

 dozens of eggs. It would thus appear that broodi- 

 ness is a rather expensive pastime in which the 

 average American hen is prone to indulge. 



