1909.] 



Egg-laying Competitions. 



109 



two ounces being valued at 10 per cent. less. Extremely 

 small eggs were regarded as unsaleable. 



Feeding. — In feeding no attempt was made to obtain high 

 egg averages by forcing, and only such food was given as 

 an ordinary poultry keeper would be able to obtain. Three 

 meals a day were given in the first seven months, afterwards 

 only two. The morning feed consisted of biscuit meal, 

 cloverine, granulated meat scalded and dried off with sharps, 

 barley meal, and pea and bean meal, supplemented in winter 

 by cabbage, swedes, turnips, and mangolds. In the evening 

 wheat was generally used, and occasionally heavy white oats, 

 and in very cold weather maize. Flint grit and oyster shell 

 were always available. 



Weather. — The weather was not unfavourable during the 

 autumn and winter months, for though the temperature was 

 occasionally low, no snow, except slight showers, fell till the 

 last days of February, when heavy falls occurred for several 

 days. This, apparently, upset the health of the birds, and 

 three died within a week. In April extremely heavy falls 

 occurred, followed by heavy rain in early May. It then 

 became dry, and very little rain fell in June and July, and 

 it was nearly the end of August before a considerable fall 

 came. The hot, dry weather which prevailed caused pre- 

 mature moulting, and few eggs were produced in July and 

 August. The showery weather of late August was continued 

 into September and caused many of the birds to resume 

 laying. 



Broodiness. — This was most pronounced in the La Bresse 

 and Partridge Wyandotte pens. A fair proportion of the 

 White Wyandottes and Buff Rocks did not become broody, 

 but five white Leghorns were broody nine times in all. The 

 great variations in broodiness shown by the White Wyan- 

 dottes and Buff Rocks are regarded as showing that by 

 careful breeding excessive broodiness may be prevented. 



Breeds. — There were eight pens of White Wyandottes, 

 three of Buff Rocks, four of White Leghorns, and one each 

 of La Bresse, Houdans, Barred Rocks, Black W yandottes, 

 and Partridge Wyandottes. 



Results obtained from Individual Pens and Birds. — Only 

 two pens laid 1,000 or more eggs, while two pens laid less 



