The RURAL NEW-YORKER 
821 
■A - - 
The Henyard 
Loafers and Working Hens 
A report from the Ohio Agricultural 
College indicates that the average pro- 
duction of eggs by Ohio hens is falling 
off. It is stated that the average pro¬ 
duction was at least 10 eggs less in 1919 
than it was 10 years before. We do not 
know how it could be possible to get such 
figures from the ordinary census report, 
but the agricultural college evidently be¬ 
lieves that the statement is true. They 
explain the matter by saying that farmers 
and poultrymen have been making the 
wrong selection of breeding stock. They 
seem to have taken the birds that molted 
early, with fine yellow shanks and good- 
looking plumage. The hens that have 
had white or pale shanks or beaks and 
eye rings were rather shabby lookiug 
after their laying campaign, and were 
generally sold. This was just the reverse 
of what ought to have been done. The 
fine-hiking hens which retained their yel¬ 
low color after their working campaign 
were loafers. The shabby hens that laid 
themselves white were the workers, and 
their daughters should have been the birds 
to keep on the farm. It seems that a 
heavy-laying bird gets rid of her color, 
while the loafer retains good looks in 
plumage and color of the legs. That may 
or may not be the reason why Ohio hens 
have gone back on the State, but it is 
good doctrine as applied to laying hens. 
Red Hens and Broodiness 
The excellent record of the R. I. R. 
pullets at the egg-laying contest has cre¬ 
ated great interest in that breed. Per¬ 
haps no class of poultry has made a more 
vigorous growth in public estimation as 
egg producers during the past few years 
than the Reds. It was not generally 
known 10 years ago that they could ever 
excel in egg production. There is a gen¬ 
eral belief among most people that the 
Red hens are peculiarly susceptible to 
broodiness. The general opinion about a 
R. I. Red is that she will sit on a door¬ 
knob or a china egg longer and more per¬ 
sistently than any other known breed. 
That being so, many of our readers are 
asking how it is possible to obtain large 
flock records from' the Reds in view of 
their persistent sitting. We have sent 
the question to a number of our Red 
breeders. The following note from Henry 
P. Walker, of Massachusetts, is particu¬ 
larly interesting, since his pullets led the 
procession at Vineland last year and are 
now head of the field in the Bergen 
County. N. ,7., contest. 
“It has been my experience that broodi¬ 
ness in R. I. Reds is a more or less in¬ 
dividual characteristic. Among my birds 
I have some that have never been broody, 
while other have been broody as many 
as six or seven times in one year. This 
is not entirely a matter of breeding, as 
full sisters vary very much in broodiness, 
or let us say rather that my strain has 
not been bred long enough to have sisters 
inherit the same characteristics from their 
ancestors. It has been pretty well shown 
that broodiness can be bred out of any 
strain of birds if the necessary selection 
is, followed for a sufficient length of time. 
I am following this course myself with 
some success. Of my 20 birds at Vine- 
land two were broody once each and three 
were broody twice. For breaking up 
broody hens I know of no better way than 
putting them in a broody coop made with 
a slat bottom. This coop may be fastened 
to the wall or hung from the roof. The 
time required to break up a certain hen 
will depend on the hen herself and on 
how quickly she was caught and put in 
the coop. One night in the coop is often 
enough if the bird was caught when she 
began to show the first symptoms.” 
Difficulty with Hatching 
I had a setting of eggs under hen come 
off recently, and I had to help nearly 
every chick out. When I chipped the 
shell off they bled heavily, and were hard¬ 
ly able to chirp. They are fair, but 
don’t seem to have the pep they should, 
and do nor eat as my others did, and 
their bowels do not seem to move. I no¬ 
tice they mostly all have a little dark 
spot under, the vent, which I never no¬ 
ticed on chick that I did not have to help 
out. Tan you suggest anything? 
White Plains, N. Y. m. c. n. 
Without seeing the chicks while they 
were hatching out, it would be impossible 
to tell with any certainty the cause of 
the above, condition. It looks as though 
the hen. in her uneasiness, restless ami 
moving in the nest, had broken the shells 
before the chicks were fully due to hatch. 
Or it may be that there has not been suf¬ 
ficient moisture, everything kept too dry 
during the incubation. Hens may come 
off the nest and stay off long enough for 
the eggs to get too cold. This does not 
kill the chick, but it delays the hatch. 
Also eggs lose part of their vitality by 
being kept too long before they are put 
under the hen. even when they are well 
eared for and turned every day. I have 
hatched thousands of chicks with hens, 
and occasionally had the same thing hap¬ 
pen, but not to so great an extent. 
I have had a hen. excited by the sight 
of blood, start to eat her chicks. Fortu¬ 
nately 1 saw her when she had killed only 
three or four, and saved the rest of them 
by putting them under another hen. A 
good 1 mother hen does not come off the 
nest after the chicks begin to pip the 
shell, but goes without food or drink, in 
her devotion to the duties of motherhood, 
until the chicks are all hatched out and 
dried off, and they begin to come out from 
under her to look for food themselves. 
I have had hens go three days without 
food or drink, when hatching, and have 
held corn in my hand to feed them and 
given them drink while still on the nest 
with their chicks. But chicks will hatch 
well under almost any conditions if there 
is sufficient vitality in the parent stock. 
GEORGE A. COSGROVE. 
Trouble with Ducklings 
Will you tell me what is the trouble 
with my ducks? They hatched well, get¬ 
ting 20 ducks from 22 eggs. When they 
were a week old they began to die, losing 
eight in one day. They eat well and ap¬ 
pear well until a short time before they 
die. Before they die they throw their 
heads over their hacks. At first I fed 
them hard-boiled eggs chopped up fine, 
with a small amount of sand in it. Then 
I ted them equal parts of cornmeal. mid¬ 
dlings, bran, rolled oats and sand. When 
they began to die I changed this ration to 
equal parts bread crumbs, rolled oats and 
hard-boiled egg, with a little sand in it. 
I mixed this ration up sometimes with 
water and sometimes with sour milk. I 
tried to keep sour milk before them all ! 
the time. They do not have access to 
water, only to drink. They are mothered 
by a hen. and have a board floor in the 
coop. 1 hey are allowed to run on grass 
when it is dry. x. F. 
Vermont. 
I see nothing the matter with the feed 
except possibly the boiled eggs. All the 
largest poultry raisers feed ducks the 
cornmeal. middlings, bran, rolled oats and 
sand, with good beef scrap. The only dif¬ 
ference is a slight variation in the pro¬ 
portions. I doubt if the eggs are good for 
ducklings, as they have no crop and the 
food passes directly to the gizzard; con¬ 
sequently it should be in a soft state. It 
might be well to use water instead of the 
sour milk; also substitute sweet milk for 
the sour. I believe sour milk is consid¬ 
ered bad for them. They should also have 
some green stuff chopped fine and mixed 
with the feed if for any reason they are 
unable to be on the grass for several days. 
Be very careful that they do not get wet, 
either in drinking or during a storm. 
They would act as you have described if 
they had been wet and were having 
cramps. A severe wetting is almost sure 
lo be fatal. They might also have cramps 
from indigestion, caused by overfeeding, 
(dive them what food they will clean up 
with a relish, but when they begin to lose, 
interest in their meal they have probably 
had enough. It is well to feed about five 
times a day at first, gradually increasing 
the amount of food and lessening the 
number of meals as they seem to bo well 
started. Be sure the board floor in the 
coop is kept clean and covered with dry 
bedding. marif. iietts. 
Shipping Baby Chicks in Trucks 
We have not had any experience in 
sending baby chicks by auto truck farther 
than i 1 /* miles to station. We usually 
take them in a touring car. We did send 
one lot a year ago last March to the sta¬ 
tion in regular chick boxes set on the 
floor of a ton truck. We laid horse- 
blankets under them and over the top, and 
they went direct on the train, only 12 
miles away, and the receiver reported 
that they acted very weak when they ar¬ 
rived. The chicks were hatched from hie 
eggs, hatch was poor in number, and there 
was a large number of crippled chicks 
that were not shipped, so I cannot say it 
was *thr* method of transportation. We 
certainly believe that they should be car¬ 
ried in a truck with extra good springs 
or in touring cars. C. A. CORNELL. 
New Jersey. 
A smali, boy was taken to see the new 
baby, whom he eyed very critically. 
‘‘Why, he’s got no hair, father,” was his 
first remark. The fact was admitted. 
“And be’e got no teeth, father,” was the 
next comment. The circumstances could 
not be denied. “1 tell you what, father.” 
was the final observation, “you’ve been 
swindled ; he’s an old one.”— New York 
Globe. 
L"i * 
HILLPOT 
Special Low Prices 
to introduce to you our Superior Quality 
WHITE LEGHORNS 
$9.00 per lOO - ®| ?1 {“ |g 
$42.50 for 500 $85.00 for 1 OOO 
Pen 2, White Leghorns Pen 1, White Leghorns 
$15.00 per ICO $20.00 per 100 
$7.50 for 50; $4.25 for 25 I $10.00 for 50: $5 50 for 25 
CHICKS 
^/.Duior ou; tor zt> | 
QUALITY 
are a wonderful buy at these figures: 
SOO 1000 
$65.00 $120.00 
70.00 130.00 
80.00 150.00 
25 
50 
100 
• ]$3.75 
$7.00 
$14.00 
... 4.25 
7.50 
15.00 
] 4.50 
8.50 
16.00 
| 6.75 
12.50 
25.00 
Black Leghorns.... 
Brown Leghorns... 
Barred Rocks. 
Rhode Island Reds . 
White Rocks. 
White Wyandottcs. 
Black Minorcas. 
Buff Rocks. 
Hatching Dates, June 15, 22, 29, July 6 
WE’LL DELIVER YOUR ORDER PROMPTLY 
by parcel post prepaid right to your door. Send us check or money 
order —cannot ship C. O. I), Safe arrival of full count guaranteed 
anywhere within 1200 miles. 
W. F. HILLPOT, Box 1, Frenchtown, N. J. 
KERR’S BABY CHICKS 9c A U N ° 
Large and successful hatches enable us to give vou clucks of the 
established KERR QUALITY at the lowest prices ever offered. 
COME TO HEADQUARTERS 
TWO MILLION FOR 1921 
There arc thousands of poultrymen who owe their success to KERR 
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25 Chicks 50 ( hick. 100 Chick. 500 Chicks 1000 ( hick, 
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Thousands Ready for Shipment Every Tuesday, Wednesday & Thursday 
25 Chicks 50 Chick. 100 Chick, 500 Chicks 1000 Chick. 
Black Leghorns. $3.75 $7.00 $13.00 $60.00 $110.00 
Barred Rocks. 4.25 7.50 15.00 70.00 130 00 
^i: l Red, ocks .4.75 8.50 17.00 80.00 150.00 
PARCEL POST PREPAID. SAFE DELIVERY GUARANTEED 
TERMSI CASH WITH ORDER 
If any chicks are dead upon arrival wo will refund your money or replace them free of charge 
Write for Illustrated Circular 
THE KERR CHICKERIES, Inc. 
“Largest Eastern Producer” 
Box O, Frenchtown, N. J. Box O, Springfield, Mass. 
8 to 10-Weeks-01d 
PULLETS 
We have 15,000 now on the range ready 
for shipmc this month and next. We 
have had good luck with them and we be¬ 
lieve them to be the healthiest and most 
vigorous large flock of young pullets in 
the East today. They are all on new Land 
and in new buildings and are being 
raised on unlimited range. 
These pullets were hatched from ourchoic- 
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the cream of our best egg breed blood. 
Every shipment is guaranteed to he 100% 
satisfactory at the time of sale. Write and 
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IVrite for our catalog and price list 
LORD FARMS 
METHUEN MASS. 
George Phillips’ White Leghorn Chicks 
reduced to $18 per 100, June lo, by Farce! Post, 
safe delivery guaranteed; shipments every Wed¬ 
nesday morning; send $1; balance C. O. D. 
Clicks are all from my pedigreed stock. My 
pen si ill leads in the New York Contest, well 
ahead of the leaders in tlie Westwood, N. J., 
contest. 
GEORGE PHILLIPS, R 25, Seymour, Conn, 
Rnhv PhirLc S.C. W. L.,9c; Barred Rocks, lie, 
Dally tdlllks and Reds, 12c t mixed, 8e each. Safe 
delivery guaranteed. Order from this ad. or write for 
pamphlet. J. X. X A C E, M e Alistervllle, Pernio. 
The Farmer His 
Own Builder 
By II. Armstrong Roberts 
A practical and 
bandy book of all 
kinds of building 
information from 
concrete to carpen¬ 
try. Price $1.50. 
For sale by 
THE 
RURAL NEW-YORKER 
333 W. 30th St.. N. Y. 
35,000 For Immediate Delivery 
Weeks <»f June 8, 15, 22, 29 
White Leghorns. $95.00 
Brown Leghorns—Barred Rocks. . 
Rhode Island Reds. . 
While Wyandottcs.... . 
Anconas. . 
P<*r 500 
Per 100 
Per GO 
Per 26 
$48.50 
$10.00 
$5.00 
$3.00 
13.00 
6.50 
3.50 
14.00 
7.00 
3.75 
17.00 
8.50 
5.00 
20.00 
10.00 
5.50 
Parcel Post Prepaid—Safe Delivery Guaranteed 
it any dead on arrival, will be replaced free of charge or amount refunded. 
Terms cash wiih order. Send post office or express money order or certified check. 
ROSEMONT POULTRY FARM AND HATCHERY, Drawer 4, Rosemont, Hunterdon Co., New Jersey 
When you zvrite advertisers mention The R. N.-Y. and you’ll get a 
quick reply and a “square deal.” See guarantee editorial page. 
