The Selection of the Breed--The Strain is of Utmost Importance
To a man engaging in any branch of Poultry Culture the selection of the
proper breed is of grave importance, but to the man who is planning an
Egg Farm it is without doubt of graver importance than where any other
branch of the poultry business is to be carried on.
For many years different localities have believed that there was very
decided merit in the different colored egg shells. The Culture of
Boston was certain that the dark shell contained an egg with a richer
flavor, while New York and vicinity would believe in nothing but the
white shelled egg. It is, however, noted with interest that the Culture
of Boston has discovered that the color of the shell really has nothing
to do with the flavor of the egg, and to-day the rigid adherence to a
premium paid for the dark shelled egg, generally throughout the New
England States, is rapidly passing into history.
[Illustration: THE STRAIN THAT MAKES THE CORNING EGG FARM FAMOUS]
As The Corning Egg Farm was located within a few miles of New York
City the breeds which laid the white shelled egg were the only ones
worthy of consideration, and, in the study of the question, it was
found there was another important matter confronting the egg farmer, as
to the breed which he should keep, whether a setter, or a non-setter.
On an egg farm, where hundreds of layers are to be kept, if any of
the Asiatics, or so called American Breeds, were kept, they would be
a source of considerable added expense, first, in the way of loss of
eggs during their numerous broody periods; second, in the necessary
buildings in which to carry the “broody biddies” until they have become
sensible, and are in a proper frame of mind to be returned to the
Laying House. This might look on its face a small affair, but success
to The Corning Egg Farm has come through watching every corner, and
while sparing no needed expenditure, avoiding unnecessary and foolish
outlay.
So, to the man who would really meet with a large success, all the
breeds which lay the dark shelled egg, because of their setting
propensity, must be eliminated.
All the members of the Mediterranean family are layers of the white
shelled egg, and are what is termed “non-setting.”
S. C. White Leghorns Outclass All
Before deciding we looked the different members of this family over
with considerable care, and we found that the Single Comb White Leghorn
is the fowl that out-classes all the others for the purpose of an
egg farm. It is a bird, where properly bred, of great hardiness and
stamina. It readily adapts itself to all conditions of climate, and,
where the right “strain” is procured, it is never a disappointer as
to the number, size, and the class of eggs which it produces. We,
therefore, decided to adopt the Single Comb White Leghorn, and we have
outlined, in a previous chapter, how we went to work to build up the
unequaled Corning Strain, by the most careful selection, and scientific
mating.
Prof. Gowell, at the Maine Agricultural Station, carried on his
breeding with Barred Plymouth Rocks, and it is interesting to note
that his average for some eight years, taking his star performers,
was 134.27 eggs per hen for twelve months, while at The Corning Egg
Farm the flocks of fifteen hundred pullets averaged per hen, for ten
months laying, 143.25 eggs in 1909, and 145.11 eggs in 1910. Here was
a difference of two months in time, and yet the large flocks, taken as
a whole, not weeding out a few star performers, surpassed the twelve
months’ record of the Barred Plymouth Rocks at the Maine Station by
almost nine eggs in 1909, and ten eggs in 1910. This significant
fact made considerable impression on a number of breeders in the
neighborhood of Boston, with the result that, in the last two years,
The Corning Egg Farm has supplied a large number of hatching eggs and
considerable breeding stock for farms in New England.
As one gentleman from Boston pointed out, even with the difference in
price between the brown and the white egg, he found that he could not
really afford to continue with the breeds laying the brown egg, for the
Leghorn, in numbers, more than made up for the slight difference in
price between the two colors, in the Boston Market. And, as he still
further pointed out, it took less food to supply the Leghorn than it
did any of the larger breeds, and this, of course, was another source
of economy.
It should be remembered that the “Strain” of any breed is most
important. One may purchase White Leghorns where the inbreeding has
been so great that they are not capable of laying eggs in large
numbers, and the percentage of fertility from the hatching standpoint
in such birds will be a most uncertain quantity. Such chicks as may
be hatched will be far from strong, and the mortality will run into
figures which will dishearten anyone.
Line Breeding--Not Inbreeding
In the building up of a great strain of birds it is necessary to “line
breed,” for, if the old theory of introducing new blood to prevent
inbreeding, and the method of introducing the new blood, was, as is
done in so many places even to-day, by introducing males from other
sources, the entire system falls down. Nothing is accomplished and time
is worse than wasted. The possibility of handing down the virtues of
mother to daughter, and of father to son, is eliminated. If all the
qualities of a given “Strain” are to be handed down line breeding must
be adhered to in the strictest sense. Inbreeding, however, must be
avoided, or disaster will follow.
How Corning Farm Produces Unrelated Cockerels
The Method of The Corning Egg Farm is as follows: a pen of carefully
selected yearling hens is set aside in what is known as “the pen for
the production of unrelated cockerels.” A most carefully selected
cockerel to every twelve hens is placed in the pen. Incubators are
run with eggs from this pen only, and the resulting chicks are marked
before being placed in the Brooder House. The cockerels which appear
with this marking are grown to maturity, those coming up to our
standard being selected to head the breeding pens for the following
season. The marked pullets are placed in the Laying Houses with the
other pullets, but are never selected for yearling breeders on our own
Farm. In pens sold to others we always furnish unrelated cockerels.
Having hatched a sufficient number of chicks to produce about four
hundred cockerels, no further eggs are set from this pen, and, at the
end of the season, all the birds comprising this pen are sold.
This Method of line breeding hands down the laying quality which has
been so developed, and which is being increased from season to season
in an unbroken line, but inbreeding is absolutely avoided, and the
vigor of the stock is maintained.
Perhaps, in closing the chapter, nothing could be more apt than a
letter received from a Breeder of Crystal White Orpingtons, in the
neighborhood of one of the large Western Cities. The letter-head, in
large type, states, “Breeder of Crystal White Orpingtons, the Great
Winter Layer.” The contents of the letter is as follows:
“As I am now planning to go into the Egg business, and desire to follow
your method as closely as possible, and, while in this locality there
is not such a marked preference for the white egg over the brown, still
the White Leghorn, of a good strain, doubtless outlays any other breed
known, and the shape of its egg is such that it is superior for table
use, to any laid by the dark shelled family. It, therefore, is my
purpose, as rapidly as possible to work into a large flock of Leghorns,
with Corning stock as a basis.”
It will be noted that the gentleman is a breeder of Crystal White
Orpingtons, and prints in large type on his letter-head, “The Great
Winter Layer,” but that when it comes down to “brass tacks,” from the
standpoint of the hen which will produce an egg for table use, and the
hen that will give you the requisite number to make the dollars, the
Breeder of the Crystal White Orpingtons wants to put in the Corning
Strain of Single Comb White Leghorns.