The mating and breeding of poultry . uch a selection is in the late summer or during thefall, October or November usually being most will be found that birds which at this time of the year arestill laying are the birds which in the main have been thebetter producers of the flock for the entire year. Thisapplies most satisfactorily to hens at t-he end of their first orpullet laying year. Selecting good layers from the untrapped flock.—Indi-cations of good laying ability or of a good yearly egg pro- d u c t i o n arethose thingswhich show thata hen is still lay-ing at this timeof
The mating and breeding of poultry . uch a selection is in the late summer or during thefall, October or November usually being most will be found that birds which at this time of the year arestill laying are the birds which in the main have been thebetter producers of the flock for the entire year. Thisapplies most satisfactorily to hens at t-he end of their first orpullet laying year. Selecting good layers from the untrapped flock.—Indi-cations of good laying ability or of a good yearly egg pro- d u c t i o n arethose thingswhich show thata hen is still lay-ing at this timeof year: First isthe f a i 1 ure tomolt until latein the fall. Hensor pullets whichdo not molt untilthat time are,other thingsbeing equal, stillproducing eggs,and will usttallyprove to havebeen the bestproducersthroughout theentire year. Thecondition of themolt is one of the outstanding characteristics in determiningegg producing ability. With pullets it may be said in thevast majority of cases that those which molt before the first. Fig. 24. Single Comb White Leghorn hen No. hen laid 214 eggs in her pullet year and 654eggs in 4 years. (Photograph from the Bureau of Animal Industry, United StatesAgriculture.) Department of BREEDING FOR INCREASED EGG PRODUCTION 59 of August are the poorest layers and should be culled fromthe flock. Those which begin their molt between the first ofAugust and September 1 should likewise be culled, but areordinarily not as poor layers as those molting before thisperiod. Pullets which begin to molt during the month ofSeptember, other things being equal, should be retained asfairly good layers, while those which do not molt until afterOctober 1 may be considered as the best producers inthe flock. While this distinction is not nearly as clear with hens, atthe same time it applies in a general way, except that hensusually molt earlier than pullets. Comparatively few hensmolt as late in the fall as do the best laying pullets. The second is the
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1920, booksubjectpoultry, bookyear1920
