Clarke courier. [volume] (Berryville, Va.) 1869-1997, 1908-02-12

You will soon mate up your pens
for breeding. and there are certain
particulars you must bear I'm mind to
bring success.
When you have culled out all over
three years old and those with gross
defects. then take The Standard OF
Perfection" into the pen and select
from the remainder those that are
nearest TO the standard type.
IL your fowls look like three cents
when you apply this criterion. II is
time TO buy new birds. You can't
breed something out OF nothing.
STUDY YOUR BIRDS.-Indeed. the
successful chicken hustler Is always
studying his birds. The poultryman
who doesn't study ben nature and
thinks he has such i surplus of gray
matter that he can throw breeding
pen together like boy pitching quoits
had better go away back and sit
down." for IL he's up front be got In
on some other fellows stock or climbed
the fence
Study your birds now. The people
who wait till they hear the whistle
blow before they start for the train
generally miss the last platform and
make fools OF themselves.
There's no such thing as luck in
shaking chickens up like dice. You
may get blank.
When the sOlons OF the poultry world
who sell hens for a thousand dollars
apiece and cockerels for Eve hundred
and who have thousands OF benton
birds 10 select from must sit down for
day 70 study out a single mating. IS
that not n lesson for those who mate
their pens with breakneck speed?
II birds are mated now you may be
surprised at unforeseen changes you
VIII make. You will thus catch the
drones, the hens that viii not frater-
nize with the male. and eliminate from
the pen the hen that continually DULLES
the rest.
BY this early removal OF the birds TO
a pen by themselves they may receive
that special care and feeding which are
necessary for them TO have to insure
a good output OF fertile eggs, for II
Is fact that hens for breeding must
have different treatment from those
which are simply fed for market eggs.
This Is often overlooked until the first
test OF the incubator shows great tn
fertility. A great many poultrymen do
their showing at the wrong end OF the
hen wagon.
The hens that are pushed at the be-
ginning OF winter are up against the
wall when Matching time comes.
The doctrine that you should sepa-
rate the male bird from the females
until breeding time to promote his
productive powers is a big fake. Do
this II you wish TO ruin the head OF the
pen.
BAD DISQUALIFICATIONS. Re
1ect birds with the following defects:
WY tails, crooked backs and breast
bones. side sprigs. Top combed males.
squirrel tails. diminutive tails. white
raced cockerels except Black Spanish.
derormed beaks, purple barring. brassi-
ness. white lobes in Wyandottes ana
Cochins, pinched tails, feathered shanks
on clean legged varieties, clean shanks
on feather legged breeds. swinging
crops and drop wings.
You need not wait three weeks TO
discover II the eggs are fertile. Test
them with strong light at the end of
five days.
II the eggs are all infertile. replace
the male bird with another. II part OF
the eggs are infertile, you either have
TOO many hens or certain OF the mem
Ders or the harem do not stand in we'll
With Mohammed. II reconciliation
cannot be made quickly. remove the
offending sQuaws.