Mountain Home maverick. [volume] (Mountain Home, Idaho) 1906-1911, 1908-04-02
Setting Ready Tor Matching.

This is the season of year when
poultr ymcn ali over the country are
beginning to mate up their flocks,
preparatory to beginning the spring
wor k. 1t is Of vital Importance
that your birds are properly mated,
9th erwise the results of Eyour sea-
son. work may be disappointing to
you. 1t matters not what strain or
breed of birds you may have, they
must be properly mated in order to
bring the desired results. You
must have the proper number of
hens to each cock and they must be
properly fed and taken care of be-
tween now and the beginning of
the Matching season in order to pro-
.duce good hatchable eggs.
Experience extending over per-
iod of a great many years has
taught us that it is never best TO
mate over ten or twelve hens to a
cock erel; and you must be sure
that the cock is bird full of vital
ity and the hens must not be over
fed so that they will be too fat,
while at the same time they must
be ted the proper foods to bring
them in,o a good laying condition.
The proper way to mate birds is
to put cockcrels and old hens to-
gether and cocks and pullets should
be mated; this gives by far the best
results in chicks matches, for they
will be stronger and will stand
far better chance of being raised to
a marketable size.
One thing of vital Importance to
yourif you would be successful this
season, is that you start with thor
oughbred stock, if you have not had
blooded stock before. 1t matters
not so much the breed you may Sc
lect, but they should be the best
you can obta n.
1t is far better to have few
ones than a large flock of mongrels,
for YOUR future success depends en-
tirely upon the start you make this
year. If you want general pur-
pose fowl select one of the many
varieties of Wyandottes or Ply
mouth Rocks while if you desire a
bird that will produce the great
est number of eggs the Leghorns
are the breed for you.
If you are breeding fowls for
utility purposes only, select those
birds that have the highest record
as egg producers to put in your
pen; if you want fowls for breeding
or show purposes only, you should
pick out birds that are especially
strong in points. This will make
it necessary for you to use great
care in their selection and we re-
commend that if show points are
the objects sought that you get hens
that are strong in those points
where your cock may be weak, al
so get cock whose strong point:
are those in which the hen is lack
ing. After getting your birds prop
crly mated, TIE next importan
thing to be looked after is the feed
They should be fed on some goo q
liberal ration, having liberal sup
ply of green foods. Cabbages, tur
nips, beets or clover, cut ant
steamed, make excellent green 1000
while beef scraps, ground bone ant
blood meal are good, as they suppl,
the elements that are necessary t
make a guod balanced ration.
We trust that the few point
that we have mentioned Will en-
able some of our readers 10 &c
ready for hate hing this season
chicks, and articles will appear II
the pages of this paper at the prop
er time, telling you how to hanol
them so as 10 be successful IN ra1s
ing a large per cent OF the CHICK
Matched.