BROODINESS IN DOMESTIC FOWL. 



113 



in this flock than in that of 1913-14. Just what this means is uncertain. 

 The longer laying periods may be taken as resultant of the reduced ten- 

 dency toward broodiness, but this is not true for the longer broody periods. 

 The latter may be connected with the slower rate of production. 



The experiments in eliminating broodiness are being continued, but a 

 change in the plan of the experiment, to permit of the fusion of the non- 

 broody line with another line knoAAn as the high-producing line, has been 

 made. The fusion appears at date of this writing to be accomplished. 



Broodiness, in its various sub-characters and in the associated periods 

 of egg production, is decidedly variable as judged by the several coefficients 

 of variation given in Table VIII. Some of the sub-characters are much 

 more variable than others. While some of the characters associated with 

 broodiness are of the same order of variability in the two flocks studied, 

 others are quite unlike, sometimes one and sometimes the other flock 

 being the more variable. The details are best obtained from Table VHI. 



Relation bet^veen Birds of a Low Degree of Broodiness and 

 Absence of Broodiness. 



Some evidence exists that birds that become broody once during the 

 pullet year are not genetically different from those that do not become 

 broody, since the number of broody offspring from each sort of female 

 is approximately the same, as is shoAvn in Table XI. On the other hand, 



Table XI. — A Comparison between the Number of Broody Offspring 

 from Non-broodxj Mothers with the Number from Mothers Broody once, 

 the Sires being the Same for Both Lots of Offspring. 



the daughters of birds broody once are somewhat more broody than the 

 daughters of birds not broody at all, as shown in Table XII, which gives 

 a comparison between 14 broody daughters of non-broody mothers and 

 6 broody daughters of mothers that became broody once, the sires being 

 the same for both lots. It is shown by the per cent production, for both 

 the initial laying period and the subsequent laying periods, that the two 

 sets of birds are about equal in their ability to produce eggs. The daughters 

 whose mothers became broody once were, however, somewhat more 

 broody than the daughters of hens that did not become broody at all, 

 as shown by the length of the initial lajdng period, the number of broody 

 periods per individual, and the length of the broody periods. Though 



