FEED COST OF EGG PRODUCTION. 35 
Pens 3 and 5, where a very large proportion of corn meal (about 65 
per cent) was fed in the mash. The statement is often made that 
the number of broody hens can be increased by feeding freely on 
corn and corn meal. This would appear to be verified by the total 
broodiness in Pens 3 and 5, all breeds considered; but it is not true 
of the Rhode Island Reds in Pen 3 compared with those in Pen 1. 
Broodiness in the hens in their first, compared with their second 
laying year, averaged about the same for Pens 1 to 6, increasing 
slightly during the second year in Pens 1, 4, and 6, and decreasing 
in the other pens. Broodiness decreased very materially in 1915 
during the third laying year. The percentage of hens of each breed 
broody before April 1 of their pullet year from the early-maturing 
pens (Nos. 1 to 3) was practically the same as from the late-maturing 
pens (Nos. 5 and 6) except in the Buff Orpingtons, where the percentage 
was twice as great in the early-maturing pens. 
Broodiness is probably largely an individual characteristic, more 
or less affected by strains, variety, or breed, and by the quantity of 
corn or corn meal in the ration, but not materially affected by ordi- 
nary differences in rations. Further observations on this character- 
istic are being made in the feeding pens and in a pen of Buff Orping- 
tons in which trap-nest records of the hens are kept. Broody hens 
are occasionally found among the White Leghorns, as shown in all 
of the White Leghorn pens in the year 1913-14. Freedom from 
broodiness accounts for the higher egg production of Leghorns 
during the spring and summer, compared with the general-purpose 
breeds. Frequent broodiness is an undesirable trait in hens kept 
only for egg production, but may be of considerable value in flocks 
where natural methods of incubation and brooding are used. 
EFFECT OF THE MOLT ON EGG YIELD. 
Molting materially affects the egg yield, as hens take from 3 to 5 
months to molt and lay few if any eggs while molting. The period 
of molting begins usually about the first of August, but apparently 
varies somewhat with the season. The pullets started to molt 
earlier in 1914 than in 1913. The period of molting was from 3 to 6 
weeks longer in the second laying year than in the first, and was still 
somewhat longer in the third than in the second year, while the 
accompanying period of nonproduction was materially increased in 
the third year. The late-maturing pens started to molt later than 
the early-maturing pens, but took about the same average time to 
molt. No material effect on the molting was apparent from the 
various rations used, although the molting period varied slightly in 
all of the pens. More records of the molting of hens are being kept 
both in the feeding pens and in breeding pens, where individual 
records of egg yield of each hen are kept. 
