I should need 800 or 900 pullets to make our quota good, for
most of the older hens would have to be disposed of in the autumn,--all
but about 200, which would be kept until the following spring to breed
from.
I believe that a three-year-old hen that has shown the egg habit is the
best fowl to breed from, and it is the custom at Four Oaks to reserve
specially good pens for this purpose. The egg habit is unquestionably as
much a matter of heredity as the milk or the fat producing habit, and
should be as carefully cultivated. With this end in view, Sam added
young cockerels to four of his best-producing flocks on January 1, and
by the 15th he was able to start his incubators.
Breeding and feeding for eggs is on the same principle as feeding and
breeding for milk. It is no more natural for a hen to lay eggs for human
consumption than it is for the robin to do so, or for the cow to give
more milk than is sufficient for her calf. Man's necessity has made
demands upon both cow and hen, and man's intelligence has converted
individualists into socialists in both of these races.
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