What is the Best Time to Hatch?
The question which is the title of this chapter is asked over and over
again. You see it propounded to the editor of almost every poultry
paper in the country. And it is a difficult one to answer, because
the various needs of different people are so diversified. April and
May are doubtless the natural hatching seasons for all varieties.
Climatic conditions are then kinder, the food which is necessary for
the production of many eggs, and eggs of the strong hatchable kind, is
supplied by Nature in great abundance, and the young chick coming into
life in these months finds a great variety of natural food of the very
best kind for growth awaiting it. In Spring eggs run strongly fertile,
and in every way Nature seems to lend herself to successful hatching,
and the starting of the young chick properly on its journey.
The man, however, who is operating an egg farm, and has made contracts
for the delivery of a continuous supply of eggs to exacting customers,
cannot well afford to wait until these months to hatch in, for it is
necessary for him to have a large number of pullets reaching maturity
and beginning to lay, before his last year’s pullets reach the
moulting period and stop egg production. To accomplish this it is
necessary to have in his brooder house, by not later than the first
week of March, a goodly number of yellow babies. From that time on he
must keep them coming, so as to have a sufficient number a few weeks
apart to take the place of the yearling hens going into the moult. In
this way he will succeed in keeping up a continuous flow of eggs.
It is true there is a danger in these early hatched pullets. They may
go into what is called the Winter moult, after laying well into the
month of December, but they will not all moult, and before there is a
marked shrinkage the later hatches will be laying strongly.
The moult which occurs with early hatched birds does not last as long
as the moult coming in the regular season. The birds soon return to the
nest, and the house rapidly jumps back to a very large output of eggs
for the coming Spring months. Thus the great increase in numbers helps
to offset the decrease in price, and to equalize the bank account.
It must be remembered, however, that Leghorns hatched up to the 25th of
June make good Winter layers provided they are properly cared for, and
given the food and attention which produces a great growth, and under
such conditions one will find no difficulty in getting them into laying
eggs readily by the time they are five months of age.
An Interesting Experiment in Late Hatching
In the season of 1910 The Corning Egg Farm made a very interesting
experiment, in a large way, so far as late hatching goes. We incubated
two large batches of eggs, the first being set so that the chicks
hatched from the 18th to the 26th of July; the second batch completed
incubation August 15th. The resulting pullets from these two hatches
were some fifty odd over twelve hundred. We carried them on Range until
December 1st, and then placed them in a Laying House by themselves.
They had not begun to lay on Range so far as we were able to discover,
although many of the pullets had the appearance of eggs. Almost from
the start, after they were placed in the Colony Houses, we fed them, in
addition to the regular Range ration, a good supply of Sprouted Oats
each day. This was done for the reason that of course the succulent
green food had passed away, and we consider it of vital importance
that growing birds be given the opportunity to gather a large supply
of succulent green food. The records show that within three days after
the pullets were placed in the Laying House we began to gather from one
to three eggs a day. Before December was over the house was producing
10%; January saw 35% output of eggs, and before February was very far
advanced we were doing better than 60%. There was a time in March when
the House was yielding a 75% output.
[Illustration: SPROUTED OATS CELLAR]
These birds laid strongly all Summer, and we were interested in noting
when they would start to moult. We had seen the statement made a number
of times that late hatched pullets were very late moulters. In our
experience, however, this did not prove to be true, for this pen of
birds moulted at just about the same time, and in the same proportion,
as the earlier hatches did.
We had frequently seen it stated that birds hatched in the very last
week of August, or the first week in September, would produce eggs at
the same time that the June hatched pullets would begin to produce
them. Our experience with June hatches, and we have had four years of
it, disproves this statement absolutely. We find that the June hatched
pullet, properly cared for, comes in quite as rapidly as those hatched
in April and May.
We do not wish to go on record as advocates of July and August
hatching, but we simply wish to show what could be accomplished if a
Breeder met with some misfortune, and was compelled to hatch late or
not at all.