A Great Laying Strain--The Selection of Breeders to Produce It
The first requisite is to breed from a mature animal, from a real
yearling hen. The term “yearling hen” is a misnomer, for, when she
is twelve months of age she has not as a rule developed into a true
yearling hen. The female has five months of growth, ten months of
laying, and then she moults, which process varies in duration from
eight to ten weeks.
Eighteen Months Old
When she has completed the moult, her entire anatomy has undergone a
change, and she is a mature animal, about eighteen months of age, a fit
specimen to reproduce her kind, and her off-spring will be strong and
vigorous youngsters.
The great mortality one reads of among chicks can be traced more to
breeding from immature females than to any other cause.
The general method of selecting breeders for a great many years has
been by the use of “trap nests.” Surely the use of a mechanical device
is a poor method to determine what hens are proper for breeding
purposes, and really the trap nest tells you nothing.
In every pen there are daily a number of eggs which are not laid in
the nest at all. To what particular hen does the attendant credit eggs
found in hollows scooped out in corners under the dropping boards?
It is a peculiarity of “Biddy” that where she sees an egg she almost
always decides it is a good and proper place for her to lay another.
Thus, on some days, where trap nests are in use, it may be necessary
to make a great number of guesses as to which hen did not lay in the
traps, but on the floor.
Trap Nests a Failure
There is another reason why trap nests really tell you nothing. Take
two females of a pen whose numbers are one and two. For the first few
weeks No. 1 surpasses her sister No. 2 in the production of eggs. To
this pen, clover has been the green food fed, and of this ingredient
the farm has run short. The shipment has been expected daily but did
not arrive, and, because of that failure, for four or five days no
other green food was provided. Then cabbage was resorted to to take
the place of the clover. The pen having been without green food for a
number of days was fairly greedy for it, and good, crisp cabbage suits
the palate of many hens exactly, and they are very apt to overdo the
matter in eating it. A great layer must be a large eater, and so hen
No. 1 gorged herself on the cabbage. Her digestive organs were upset,
and for a number of weeks she ceased laying, while hen No. 2 continued
to shell out a fair number of eggs. The owner of these birds, when
it came time for the selection of the breeders, expressed his great
disappointment over hen No. 1. She had started so well, and then had
blown up entirely, and so she is passed up, and hen No. 2 is accepted
as a breeder.
[Illustration: ONE OF THE BREEDING HOUSES JUST AFTER MATING 1910]
Now, if the anatomy of these two birds had been studied, it would have
been found at once that hen No. 1 was much better qualified to take a
place in the breeding pen than hen No. 2. The mere fact that the trap
nest record of any female shows a phenomenal number of eggs laid in ten
or twelve months does not necessarily prove that she is a proper animal
to breed from. Post-mortem examinations show in many cases that they
are freaks, and, while they have laid a great number of eggs, there was
much to be desired in regard to the eggs, as to their size, shape, and
color. As a matter of fact it would have been a great mistake to have
bred from such an individual.
Type Reproduces Type
It must be remembered that type produces type, and the only proper way
to select birds for the breeding pen which will produce progeny capable
of great egg production is to thoroughly understand their anatomy. It
is impossible to produce a great performer in any line unless the
animal is of a build capable of the performance. No one would expect to
breed a two-minute trotter from a Shetland Pony.
The hen which is capable of becoming an ideal layer must have a deep
keel, a long body, and, as she faces out, she must have an appearance
of broadness, and must be the shape of a wedge back to the point where
the wings join the body.
The Large Flock System is carried on in the Breeding Pen on The Corning
Egg Farm, and it has been most successful. It has been found that the
small pen does not produce the high fertility continuously which the
Large Flock System does. During the season of 1910, for long periods,
the fertility ran as high as 96%, and as early as the first of March it
was above 90%. In the season of 1911, eggs incubated in the early part
of February, ran above 91%, and during the season there were times when
the fertility reached 97%.
The Breeding Pens are mated up two weeks before eggs are to be used for
incubation, and early hatched cockerels are used to head these Breeding
Pens. It has been found that the mating of cockerels with yearling hens
produces a very decided predominance of pullets, and the youngsters are
strong and vigorous from the start.
The proportion of mating is one to twelve, and the records of The
Corning Egg Farm show that by this method of mating the number of
cockerels produced, through the years that the Farm has been in
operation, has been as low as one-quarter, and as high as one-third.
The males to head the pens are selected with the same care that the
hens are. They are all perfect birds, of large size, and conform as
closely as possible to the standard requirements, without interfering
with the paramount aim of producing a Great Layer.