August, 1913 



THii: CIAUDEN AND FIELD. 



from, provided you know her sire was 

 from a good seore bird, and that you 

 still have him. If you lind all the pul- 

 lets from one sire lagging behind the 

 others, mark him for soup, you may 

 be cloing liim an iiijustiee, but the 

 ehanecs are not. At l>est he is not 

 what you want. If you find good and 

 bad amongst the pullets from one bird 

 hang on to him and his stock (this 

 season's) till you find a better. Fin-' 

 ally, if you find all the pullets froiu 

 one male doing well, hang on to him 

 lighter. Breed from him up to his 

 limit. He may not be the dominant 

 male, but at the worst he will be 

 equal to the previous bird. At least 

 he will be in the same class. The 

 second step is to test e\ery cockerel 

 you have which w'as bred from a good 

 score hen, by mating him with one 

 or more females either of good, mix- 

 ed, or poor laying capacity. The 

 poorer the layer the better the test 

 of her mate. Keep all these cock- 

 erels, but the females can be passed 

 out in the ordinary way, and when 

 stock from these matings comes into 

 lay, test every bird and in tifhe for 

 next year's you should know whether 

 you have the right kind of males or 

 not. This should be good business, 

 for if this theory holds good, the man 

 who can, in time to come, put out a 

 line of pure dominant males, that is, 

 males which will get heavy laying 

 pullets every time, and with any bird 

 of wha'tever individual capacity, is go- 

 ing to make a lot of money. A point 

 which breeders will not overlook is 

 that this theory explains, as none 

 other that we know of does, the 

 hitherto inexplicable variation of 

 competition scores and other experi- 

 mental work. 



— Boiled Down. — 



We should be loath to overstate 

 this theory. Boiled down. Dr. Pearl 

 claims that certain males will invari- 

 ably beget good stock, however 

 mated; that certain males will invari- 

 ably throw mixed stock, and that cer- 

 tain males will invariably throw po'-.r 

 stock. Further, he believes that t1 e 

 class two birds will follow the Men- 

 delian laws of inheritance, and that, 

 therefore, it is possible to breed or 

 "segregate" a family or male line in 

 which the character egg production 

 will be dominant. He claims that his 

 experimental work demonstrates the 

 soundness of his theory. Certain 

 points should be remembered. Hi? 

 figures may be wrong, his conclusions 

 may apply only to the breeds he has 

 worked with, he may not have used a 

 sufficiently large number of birds to 



exclude experimental error, his as- 

 sumption that winter laying is a true 

 index of total laying, on which basis 

 lie has worked, may be wront':, and 

 llnally his results may lie a curious 

 agglomeration of coincidences. We 

 believe that none of these olijections 

 will prove to be sound. On the other 

 hand, it must not be for a moment 

 lliouKlit that tliis or any other theory 

 of l)reeding will over-ride tiie ordinary 

 necessities of successful poultry- 

 keeping. No amount of dominance 

 in the sire will make up for neglect 

 of the ordinary rules of rearing and 

 maintenance of the stock. No im- 

 possibilities are claimed. We hope 

 to go more fully into this subject next 

 month. 



■ ♦ — 



Moving Eggs in Incubator. 



When placing eggs in an incuba- 

 tor many people make 'the mistake 

 of filling, or packing, the drawer 

 as full as ever it will hold, writes 

 a correspondent. As the tempera- 

 ture is naturally som.ewhat lower 

 — ^in many cases it is a great deal 

 lower— in the corners ' than in the 

 centre of the drawer, the packing 

 of eggs into the corners residts in 

 their receiving less heat, and con- 

 sequently if takes longer for the 

 germ to develop. If these eggs 

 were left in the corners the dam- 

 age done would not be so great 

 except to those particular eggs, 

 but when they are moved, during 

 the process of turning, into the 

 centre of the drawer, and the eggs 

 thus displaced from the central po 

 sition are relegated to the corners, 

 harm mav be done, to many oi 

 the eggs so moved, if there is any 

 considerable variation, for it may 

 mean that for twelve or twenty- 

 four hours, or possibly much more, 

 these "eggs are snbjected to a heal 

 of 104 deg., and then are placed in 

 a position where the temperature 

 only registers 100 degrees, or per 

 haps less. This is not at all bene- 

 ficial to the development of the 

 germs, and is the cause of many 

 of them, perishing after a few days' 

 incubation. It is better to put 

 only 85 eggs into a loo-egg ma- 

 chine than to cram in 105. One 

 may, if they, are fertile, hatch per- 

 haps more chicks from, the lessei 

 number of eggs. 



Another thing often done is to 

 piut cold eggs into a drawer con- 

 taining eggs — sometimes in an ad 

 vanced state of incubation — in or- 

 der to fill up a vacant space. This 

 is a mistake ; co:d eggs o tght not 



to be introduced into a drawci 

 containing warm ones in any stage 

 of incubation, after the third day 

 of working. The germ contained 

 in the egg commences to grow and 

 develop, as soon as the egg be- 

 comes subjected to the requisite 

 degree of heat, and the sudden ad- 

 dition of eggs fifty or sixty degrees 

 lower in temperature, cannot help 

 but have an effect the reverse ol 

 beneficial on the delicate germ, lie- 

 sides, the cold eggs reduce the 

 temperature of the whole drawei 

 very considerably, and the parti- 

 ct'.ilar degree of heat to which the 

 machine is adjusted is not complete- 

 ly. regained, until the fresh eggs are 

 warmed quite thro|igh, a matter 

 of some hours. 



If it is necessary to place fresh 

 eggs into a drawer t.o fill "^t up, 

 they should first be warmed to 

 within a degree or two of the 

 temperature at which the machine 

 is working, and by placing them in 

 the drying box, close to the, holes 

 by which the heat is admitted to 

 it from the tank, and covering 

 them with thick flannel, the desired 

 warmth may be easily obtained. 



It is advisable not to turn the 

 eggs again after the^^ have been 

 turned on the morning of the 

 twentieth day, for the reason that 

 if they are left unmoved for the 

 last twenty-four hours or so, the 

 majority^ of the eggs chip on the 

 upward side, and the chick has 

 little difficulty in freeing itself 

 from the shell. If the eggs are 

 turned within a few hours of the 

 chicks beginning to break the shell, 

 the head of the chick is turned 

 downward, and should it chip 

 when in that position it is apt to 

 be smothered, and when the eggs 

 are again turned over, and the 

 dead chick is discovered, the oper- 

 ator remarks ; " Hullo ! here's an- 

 other one dead in the shell." 



KALGOORLIE • HOTEL, 



HINDLEY STREET. 



CHARLES HONES. Proprietor 

 (Late of Theatre Royal Hotel). 



Good accommodation for Country 

 visitors. Tariff. 25/- per week ; 4/6 

 per day. 



1/6 pef nigki. Meals 1/- 



