CHAPTER IV 



Production and Care of Eggs 



Spring and Summer Eggs. 



Spring and early summer are the natural seasons for 

 egg laying. Even in a wild or natural state this truth holds 

 good. At these seasons the temperature is such that there is 

 no great amount of food needed to keep up the bodily heat, 

 and the necessary elements for egg producing are in great 

 abundance. 



Green stuff is plentiful, animal food is easily picked up 

 in the shape of worms, insects, bugs, etc. ; and numerous 

 elements are detected by the sharp eyes of the hens, either 

 on the bare ground or when brought to light by scratching. 



Any hen that will ever produce eggs will do so at this 

 time of the year, and the efforts of poultrymen for a great 

 many years have been bent to simulate these conditions as 

 mucla as possible, in order to increase production ; for, if the 

 hens produce under these summer conditions, the reasoning 

 seems sound that the nearer the approach to these conditions, 

 at other seasons, the better the yield. 



This reasoning has proved out in actual practice, and 

 production has steadily increased in proportion as these con- 

 ditions have been furnished. 



From the wild jungle fowl laying twenty to thirty eggs 

 annually to the general average for tlje United States of about 

 sixty is quite a step, and the general average for well cared 

 for farm flocks will run from sixty to eighty eggs per hen 

 annually. 



Of course, if the food elements are supplied in abundance, 

 production will be greatly increased, even in spring and 

 summer. 



In the latter part of spring and early summer, broodiness 

 of the hens cuts down the output considerably, unless this 

 matter is watched. 



This condition also spoils a great many eggs, because the 

 eggs are not gathered often enough, except by regular poul- 



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