. The business hen (a new brood). Poultry. The Business Hen. than the White, and lays a smaller egg, except some families which have been bred for large eggs. The Brown is thought to be hardier than the White, and with us seems to stand confinement better, and on the whole will lay a few more eggs. The Brown Leghorn, however, is more difficult to breed true to color, and makes a poorer carcass when dressed. The ob- jections to Leghorns are the small size of some families, the large comb, which makes them tender in Winter, and to some extent the fact that the hens rarely sit, so that incubators
. The business hen (a new brood). Poultry. The Business Hen. than the White, and lays a smaller egg, except some families which have been bred for large eggs. The Brown is thought to be hardier than the White, and with us seems to stand confinement better, and on the whole will lay a few more eggs. The Brown Leghorn, however, is more difficult to breed true to color, and makes a poorer carcass when dressed. The ob- jections to Leghorns are the small size of some families, the large comb, which makes them tender in Winter, and to some extent the fact that the hens rarely sit, so that incubators must be used. The White Leghorns make good broilers, but are too small to make the size of poultry known as roasters. A prominent breeder of Leghorns, speaking of the profit to be made in young White Leghorn roosters, says: "In eight weeks I can make these birds weigh 3i/^ pounds per pair. They look like a squab and bring $ per pair. They make a more attractive broiler, are meaty and of high quality. It takes the heavier breeds longer to mature; it costs nearly twice as much to house them, and fully double as much to feed ; One argument in favor of Leg- horns, for town lots, is that they occupy less space in houses. A house that will comfortably house 40 Leghorns would be small for 25 Brahmas, or 30 Plymouth Rocks, while eggs are the cfiief consideration for town poultry. As a rule eggs from the Leghorns are more fertile than those from larger breeds. The young Leghorn hen shown at Fig. 1 laid a clutch of eggs and hatched them before she was five months old. AMERICAN BREEDS.—This class includes such breeds as Ply- mouth Rocks, Wyandottes and Rhode Island Reds, produced by crossing older breeds and selecting birds true to a fixed type through a number of years. For example, the Plymouth Rock resulted from cross- ing the Dominique and the Java with the Brahmas. It is also stated that the Pit Games were used to produce this breed. The Wyandotte came from a no
Size: 1591px × 1570px
Photo credit: © Book Worm / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, booksubjectpoultry, bookyear1904
