Selection for Egg Production. 
71 
produce light-coloured eggs. With the latter pullets the desired feature may be fixed by mating them with a 
cock the following year bred from the home dark-egg strain. Tiie pullets thus bred will lay dark-coloured 
eggs ; though, again, if a cockerel bred from this system of mating is used the following year reversion will 
most likely follow, and some of his pullets lay light-coloured eggs. 
It is imperative, if the dark-egg strain is to be perpetuated, that stock birds whose pedigree on both cock 
and hen's side for at least two generations should be of dark-egg strains. What dependence could be placed 
upon the stock birds, even if hatched from dark-eggs, unless they were sired by a cock from a dark-egg also? 
A breeder owning, for example, hens which lay light-coloured eggs, can, by using a cock bred from a 
dark-egg strain, change the colour of the eggs laid by the pullets of the second season, but, to fix the desired 
feature of producing brown eggs, and brown eggs only, from future stock, must use the following year a cock 
to mate with them of the home dark-egg strain. An out-cross with these pullets, though the latter were bred 
back and in again to the home blood for three generations, would still produce a percentage of pullets which 
would lay light-coloured eggs, the natural result of the cross being that some of the progeny would resemble 
in this characteristic trait one or other of their ancestors ; so that the breeder who possesses a well-developed 
dark-egg strain would be most unwise to run the risk attached to the using of stock birds which had no 
affinity with the home strain. Though, again, a bird which possessed some of the home blood in its 
composition, iia matter Iimv far removed, would be of great value in recruiting the flagging energies of a 
strain, when too much in-bred by breeding for dark-eggs alone, at the same time retaining in the pullets thus 
bred the ability to produce eggs of an absolutely uniform dark-brown colour. 
Buying and Selling Eggs for Hatching. 
The great number of eggs sold annually for the purpose of hatching is one of the most important factors 
in the distribution of Fancy Poultry. It will be found, however, that some of our most prominent breeders 
firmly decline to sell an egg for this purpose, preferring to build up their reputation on the sale of birds only, 
the main reason for this action being the oft-repeated carelessness or ignprance of the buyer in handling 
valuable eggs. At the same time there are often misdealings and dissatisfaction even in the sale of live 
specimens. The latter may be easily got over, however, by the system of sending " birds on approval," 
which could scarcely be done with eggs from prize stock. The former are present in entirety, and may be 
approved of, or otherwise, immediately on arrival, while the eggs have to undergo three weeks of incubation, 
often under the most unfavourable conditions, before the buyer can be certain of obtaining any results. 01 
course, the fertility or otherwise of the eggs could be discovered after the fifth or sixth day of incubation, but 
no one living could be positively certain of obtaining chickens until they are hatched ; and, again, even when 
hatched, a period of several months at least must elapse before their value could with any certainty be 
determined. 
These are the principal reasons given by those breeders who sell stock birds only, and without doubt 
their objections are perfecdy sound, when it is taken into consideration the many and various causes likely to 
interfere with the successful hatching and rearing of the chickens. In a great number of instances the buyer 
has little or no knowledge of the hatching of eggs or the rearing of chickens, but, being smitten with the 
" hen fever," finally determines to become a Fancier, and writes to all and sundry breeders for their 
quotations for eggs, and being totally unacquainted with the business, either as to the merits of stock or the 
value of eggs, naturally expects much more than he is likely to obtain, and if he buys eggs at four or five 
shillings the setting, it is not to be wondered at. In his ignorance, eggs from one breeder of a variety, at five 
shillings, mnst I}c equally as good as those at a guinea from another, though at times (which we confess 
were rare) eggs purchased at five shillings the setting produced finer stock than those for which eight times 
the amount was paid. The rale will hold good in Poultry dealings, that the higher priced eggs are 
preferable, ivhether one wants to breed birds up to exhibition points of excellence, for practical purposes 
solely, or even a combination of both. 
