No. 615] 



EGG PRODUCTION 



Number 49 laid at an exceptionally high rate. On the 

 other hand No. 4797 laid at a rather low rate for a bird 

 that produced eggs continually throughout the winter. 

 Although she began laying several days earlier in the 

 year than No. 49, she produced 24 eggs less, due to her 

 slow but steady rate of production. An entirely different 

 type of rate is shown by No. 5080. This bird is a true 

 mediocre producer in so far as may be judged from her 

 record. She laid her first egg at a fairly early date and 

 fairly early in the season but her rate of production was 

 very low. The eggs, too, were produced at haphazard in- 

 tervals. Her record is to be compared with that of No. 

 4568 (Fig. 4), which laid the same number of eggs but all 

 in the last part of February. Records similar to those of 

 No. 5080 are shown by Nos. 274 and 280 (Fig. 12), both 

 Barred Plymouth Eocks in one of the contest pens at the 

 Essex County Agricultural School. Another type of 

 rate is shown by No. 4815 (also Fig. 12), which exhibits 

 also a well-defined winter cycle. This bird matured early, 

 began laying early in the season, and laid well for about 

 six weeks. Then she stopped entirely and did not lay 

 at all again until late in February. 



While rate may be considered independently of the 

 rhythm, i. c, rhythm may be ignored; rhythm can not be 

 considered apart from rate. A hen may lay twelve eggs 

 in a month and the rate be described as such or as 40 per 

 cent, without paying any attention to the sequence in 

 which the eggs appear, but if the rhythm be considered, 

 attention must be paid to the sequence between eggs. 

 Thus, two blank days may repeatedly alternate with one 

 blank day between eggs, producing a regular rhythm, or 

 the twelve eggs may be laid in groups of two, three, or 

 more eggs on successive days and then a considerable 

 period of blank days intervene, the rhythm in this in- 

 stance being irregular. A certain degree of regularity 

 of rhythm is closely associated with high rate of produc- 

 tion, though some birds of relatively low rate lay in a 

 regular rhythm (Fig. 11). Most low-record birds, how- 



