7ht RURAL. NEW-YORKER 
1359 
Poultry Breeding Problems 
Breeding for Eggs and for Plumage 
As most of our people know, experi¬ 
ments are being made in breeding poultry 
to preserve or increase the egg yield. The 
egg-laying contests have developed strains 
or families of birds which are really noted 
for egg production. We know of several 
of these poultry strains brought to notice 
through the contests, particularly several 
strains of Rhode Island Reds. The 
breeders of these birds knew that their 
flocks were superior layers, but they did 
not know how good they were until they 
entered a pen of the pullets at one of the 
contest*. . The superior record made 
by these pullets called attention to the 
flock, and it was found that these breeders 
through a system of selection of their 
own had succeeded in developing birds of 
very high quality. 
Some years ago Tite Rkrat, New- 
Yorker started what was called a “fav¬ 
orite hen” contest. Thirty different hens 
of various breeds were entered by 30 
women, each bird being taken from a 
farm flock selected as the best specimens 
in that flock. As was to be expected, 
these hens varied greatly in their egg- 
laying capacity. At least three of them 
were so superior that a study of the 
flocks from which they came showed that 
the owners had really developed a very 
superior strain without perhaps knowing 
exactly how they did it. After some years 
of work at these poultry contests at least 
some of the breeders seem to have learned 
how to breed for superior laying quality 
very much as the cattle men have learned 
how to breed superior cows. The prob¬ 
lem has not been solved by any means, 
but we are coming closer and closer to 
it each year, and we shall probably learn 
that a superior laying hen is a product 
of breeding and also of selection. 
Unquestionably the pullets from parents 
with trap-nested records behind them 
have a better chance to develop into 
superior layers, but we know from our 
own experience that sisters will vary 
greatly in their capacity, and that selec¬ 
tion for shape and vitality must also be 
made. We started to speak of this after 
reading the account of an experiment in 
breeding ostriches in South Africa. 
While the American hen is bred to pro¬ 
duce a large number of eggs the mission 
of the African oetricli is to produce 
feathers or plumes, these being pulled out 
when fully grown so that a new crop may 
be grown. Thus it is an advantage to 
increase, if possible, the number of 
plumes, and efforts have been made to 
breed along this line. It seems that the 
average ostrich produces about 36 plumes 
on each wing, the average of a number 
of birds being slightly above that num¬ 
ber. It appears that on one African 
farm two birds were found with 42 
plumes to the wing, or six more than the 
average. With the present price of 
ostrich plumes this addition of a dozen 
to a bird would mean a considerable in¬ 
crease of income. Therefore these birds 
were used in a breeding experiment to 
see if their offspring would also show the 
increased number of plumes. It was 
found that they did, for when a bird with 
42 plumes was mated with birds showing 
an average of 30 the resulting chicks 
showed an average of over 39. This bulle¬ 
tin gives a very interesting discussion of 
the ostrich and its anatomy. Breeding for 
an increase of plumage is, of course, a 
very different matter from that of breed¬ 
ing to increase the number of eggs, but 
the point is that all over the world the 
breeders are at work in their effort to 
increase the efficiency of farm animals by 
selection and development. 
Progeny of Young Roosters 
Has a young rooster the tendency to 
produce more male than female birds with 
hens two or three years old, than a roost¬ 
er that would be the same age as the 
hens? J. R. 
New Hampshire. 
There is probably nothing in the no¬ 
tion that the progeny of young roosters 
mated with old hens will show a prepon¬ 
derance of males. Many attempts have 
been made by breeders to control the sex 
of the future offspring, und many the¬ 
ories liuve been from time to time pre¬ 
sented, and to some extent accepted. The 
belief of those most competent to judge, 
however, is that the matter of sex of the 
offspring is beyond the control of the 
breeder, following natural laws which he 
cannot change. M. B. D. 
Selecting Cockerels 
I have 150 cockerels to select my breed¬ 
ers from. Is there any rule I could go by 
to get the best? w. H. K. 
New York. 
Cockerels kept for breeders should, in 
the lirst place, be the progeny of the best 
laying hens of the flock, as prolificacy is 
believed to be transmitted through the 
male side. The next point in selection 
should be for size, vigor and trueness to 
type of the variety kept. If the mothers 
of the individual birds are not known, or 
their egg records have not been kept, the 
only thing to do is to select according to 
the next considerations mentioned. Early 
hatched cockerels w ill be best, not- only 
because they are apt to be most vigorous, 
but because they will have attaiued to a 
greater age when needed. Birds showing 
well-developed combs, with masculine 
heads, well set up and of good carriage, 
snappy and vigorous in action, of good 
size for their age, and with no marked 
defects visible, will naturally be chosen 
as representing the best physical speci¬ 
mens of the flock. It will he well to select 
a considerable number more than will he 
finally needed and then to gradually cull 
this number down by removing the least 
desirable as their characteristics become 
more and more marked. Those finally 
remaining will be the choice of the flock. 
M. B. D. 
Mating for Egg Yield 
I have a flock of White Leghorns, 
yearlings and two-year-olds, and one year¬ 
ling rooster, the latter only because I 
like to look at him. Would he be desir¬ 
able for a breeding pen rooster, or would 
a young cockerel be better? I intend 
picking two of the yearlings and a mate 
early next Spring. I have many cock¬ 
erels and pullets from nearby poultry 
farms of my own hatching to pick from, 
hut the 28 old hens have laid nearly 4,700 
eggs since Nov. 30, and 10 of them will 
have to furnish the chicks for next Spring 
and I will naturally want the best rooster 
for them. Which one would you advise? 
Rhode Island. F. 8 . w. 
As productivity is believed to be trans¬ 
mitted through the male side of the mat¬ 
ing, it is important to use a cock or cock¬ 
erel from a high producing hen to head 
the breeding flock. In addition to this, 
the male should be of the utmost vigor 
and a good specimen of the breed to which 
he belongs. Whether you should use the 
male bird which you now have depends 
more upon his meeting these requirements 
than upon his age. I should prefer a 
two-year-old cock from a dam known to 
be a high producer to a cockerel of un¬ 
known origin, though the general practice 
is to mate cockerels, or yearlings, to older 
fowls. You should be able to pick 10 
liens from your present flock that would 
make a fine breeding pen next year, when 
mated with a cock or cockerel whose 
maternal ancestors possessed a high egg- 
laying record. m. b. n. 
Crowded Chicks 
What is the cause of chicks crowding at 
night? Brooder house is 30 ft. long. 16 
ft. deep, S ft high in front, 6 ft. back; 
concrete floor; no tar paper between to 
prevent dampness. Is it dampness that 
causes this? The first few nights chicks 
behaved fairly well, going under the coal¬ 
burning brooder stoves, as I had a fence 
around stove, that is 1-in. mesh wire cov¬ 
ered with burlap. After taking this away 
in order to give chicks more room they 
crowded badly, something I never before 
experienced. A. 
New Jersey. 
The chief cause of overcrowding in 
brooders is lack of sufficient warmth, 
though if disturbed and frightened at 
night chicks may huddle even though 
warm enough to be comfortable. I sus¬ 
pect that your trouble comes from not 
having sufficient heat near the floor, 
which, being of concrete, is naturally 
cold. I would suggest that you cover it 
with plenty of litter and use a fence that 
will keep the chicks near enough the stove 
to insure their being comfortable and that 
you see to it that the fire in the stove 
does not become so low before morning 
that heat enough is not generated. Care 
should he taken, too. that nothing dis¬ 
turbs the chicks at night and frightens 
them into huddling together; having once 
commenced to crowd together and heap up 
in corners, it is difficult to break them 
of the habit so provocative of serious 
losses. M. B. D. 
Pullets Change Color 
Two of my two-months-old pullets have 
iu the past few days developed a strange 
condition that I cannot understand. Their 
legs have turned dark green and body has 
completely turned a dark reddish pink. 
They are lively and eat and act as usual. 
I have examined them carefully, but can¬ 
not find anything wrong with their bodies, 
etc. I treated one with salts in past 20 
hours, and body is getting a little lighter 
in color again. I have separated them 
from others. All the pullets are fed on 
mash, some grain and greens. Could you 
tell me what this is and what remedy to 
use, if any? v. a. k. 
New York. 
If this had occurred to any of my pul¬ 
lets I should look about among my friends 
who are inclined to practical jokes to see 
if I could find any dye stains upon their 
fingers, or, failing in that, should inquire 
what children in the neighborhood had 
been presented with a new box of paints. 
It may be, of course, that a combination 
of green legs and pink bodies are the nat¬ 
ural result of some disease or peculiar 
combination of foods, but, if so, the con¬ 
dition has never come under my observa¬ 
tion and I have never seen any mention 
of it in literature. I have seen some bril¬ 
liantly colored members of an otherwise 
white flock, but, with these, the owner 
made no secret of the fact that their 
bright plumage was the result of skillful 
work with household dyes. Fowls are 
subject to jaundice, which sometimes dis¬ 
colors the skin, and the excess of bile also 
sometimes penetrates to the other internal 
organs in the vicinity of the bile pas¬ 
sages, turning them a green color. Some 
variation of this is the only explanation I 
can really offer for the condition you have 
found. Your treatment with salts is good 
and as likely to bring about a return to 
normal conditions as anything that I 
know of. M. B. D. 
Home-raised Grain for Poultry 
My poultry plant here in Massachusetts 
consists of about one acre of land, and of 
course offers no opportunities for raising 
poultry feed, except that I raise about 
three tons of mangels per year for green 
feed. I have, however, a farm in Ver¬ 
mont which has been sadly neglected for 
25 years, and I made arrangements last 
year with a man to plow up five acres at 
a time and fit the land for seeding down 
on shares, sowing about one-fourth of the 
land to Spring wheat as a nurse crop and 
three-fourths to oats. It worked out very 
satisfactorily last year, and I have made 
similar arrangements for this year. 
J. FRANK DUBOIS. 
“My friend, can't I interest you in tne 
uplift?” “Not a particle. I’m an elevator 
man taking a day off.”—Kansas City 
Journal. 
^ PORTLAND 
ATLAS 
< CEMENT t 
j. -TRADE MAPS' t 
KCTWT. 94 IBS. 
... r,c’0*l 
ATLAS 
Why Fertilize Your Barnyard? 
S AVE the full manure-strength for use on your 
producing soil. Don’t let it leak away unused. 
Build a concrete manure pit and make one load of 
manure do the work of 1 >2 to 2 loads as usually stored. 
Concrete manure pits of Atlas Portland Cement are 
easy and inexpensive to build. They can be roofed 
over as protection against sun and rain, and screened 
against flies. And they save the most valuable part 
of your fertilizer—the liquid manure. 
Our bo< k, “ Concrete on the Farm,” tells you how to 
build this or any other type of farm construction in 
cement. Write our nearest office for your copy. 
THE ATLAS PORTLAND CEMENT COMPANY 
NEW YORK Boston Philadelphia Savannah Dayton Minneapolis 
Des Moines 
SL Louis CHICAGO 
The Atlas Portland Cement Company 
(address the Atlas Office nearest you) 
Please send me a copy of“Concrete On The Farm" 
without cost or obligation. 
Name.... 
AJilrnsa 
