lil'il.] Size ok Ecki in 1!ei.aiuon to Avei!a<ik PiionrcTios. 



r,3 



SIZE OF EGG IN RELATION TO 

 AVERAGE PRODUCTION. 



Edwakd Brown, F.li.S. 



CuMj.^LAiNTS have been made during recent years of the 

 increasing number of home eggs below the recognised standard 

 in size and weight which are placed upon the market. The 

 ddvent of the commercial poultry farmer, whose main object is 

 table egg production, and the increased practice of pedigree 

 breeding for high fecundity may largely account for this 

 decrease in the size of eggs, although farm eggs have also 

 undergone a decrease, but in lesser degree. It is the general 

 practice to use medium-sized or large eggs for table purposes, 

 iind to reserve the smaller ones for cooking or manufacturing 

 purposes. Before the War large quantities of eggs were 

 imported into this country, but these were mainly full sized, 

 the " smalls " being retained for home consumption. The 

 import trade has not yet regained its former dimensions, and 

 home produceis are not, therefore, faced with foreign com- 

 petition to the same extent as formerly. It may be anticipated, 

 however, that former conditions will gradually reassert them- 

 selves, and with the increased number of full-sized eggs which 

 will find their way on the market, poultry keepers wuU be 

 obliged to give closer attention to the question of the production 

 of eggs of reasonable size. 



Pullets of all breeds usually produce smaller eggs than do 

 older birds, especially at the beginning of the laying period. 

 This tendency is increased the earlier they commence to lay. 

 Among the distinctive breeds there are great differences in 

 the size of egg produced. The Minorca hen and Wyandotte 

 hen are relatively about the same weight, yet the egg of the 

 former is consistently larger than that of the latter. A similar 

 difference is observed in the case of the smaller bodied types 

 such as the Campine and Hamburgh; although both breeds 

 are of the same ancestry, Campine eggs are larger than those 

 of the Plam burgh. Many other instances could be given. A 

 further point of impoitance is that the egg produced by 

 improved races of poultry as the result of selection and better 

 feeding is larger than that from the original stocks. The 

 constant tendency to reversion can only be counteracted by 

 careful breeding with a view to maintaining size of egg. 



