The Democratic advocate., 1909-12-31

- nonS was not changed, and here
we may have an official recognition ot
the Iact that Plymouth Rock unde1
i nuIlual conditions reserves a consider
aDie portion of its growth for its sec
o4o season. have never taken reg
ular monthly weights of bird from
Weaning to full maturity, but I have
repeaIedly noted the largely increased
weight OF the birds after passing
tnrougn the second annual molt and
taxing on the winter fat.
early IN the spring of 1908 I culIed
ooWn the pullets of the previous sea-
son match to strictly standard
"eisnl lot. l noted one in particular
Wnlcn could hardly make the weight.
put was so superior in color and tex
ture OF beak and legs that she was
passed. she was very fat, heavy be-
nlnd' laying well, and gave every indi-
caelon OF being well-ripened and ma
lure. She laid well all summer and
carried so much fat that her painting
could be heard above all the others on
not night. I was repeatedly tempt
ed to kill her. because her fineness of
Done and fatness indicated permanet
smallness of frame, but somehow she
was spared. l think she weighed 6
1919. She was not forced into laying
after the molt, but all her flock were
gwen time to grow and get ready for
the next seasons work 1 cannot see
the sense in forcing eggs for the mar
ket, paying 40 cents a dozen, at the
expense of good Matching eggs which
are in demand little later at SIS per
lO0. This hen grew in the winter of
l9O8-l909 and weighed last spring ex-
actly lb,, thus reaching her maximum
weight when about % months old.
On the other hand, the largest and
most precious pullet of the 1907
hatch weighed z lb. at months, and
was then laying. She weighed h.
at months and was still laying, but
was not found to exceed lb. at any
time within her first working season
She was weighed on the same day as
the hen just described and weighed 9
Id. o., as against the h. of the lit
tie hen. Thus the largest-boned pull
let OF the season had gained a pound
after her molt following her first years
work. | am inclined to believe that
this hen can be made to weigh close
to 10 pounds.
The standard allows 11s lib. differ
ence between Plymouth Rock cocker
els and mature cocks, yet am per-
Suaded that most of mine which reach
8 lb. before the breeding season will go
down to lb. during the summer and
the mott and then go up to 10 lb. dur
ing the ensuing winter, and often ex-
ceed that weight.
The plan of nature seems to be to
leave a certain amount of bone and
body growth to be accomplished dur
ing the second annual molt, when the
food is being elaborated by the fowl
in the preparation of its body to with
stand approaching winter instead of
in its organs of production.
A series of experiments, including
weighings at least once month and
compromising enough fowls to estab-
lish reliable averages, would be of
great value to practical men as tend
ing to show the variation in weight
of well-fed hens under normal or full
fed conditions. 1t would be worth
good deal to know just about how
much additional weight could be ex-
pected after any given month in the
season. 1t would throw great light on
the question whether we can afford to
keep hens more than one season for
other than breeding purposes, and it
would help to reconcile many of us to
the long peiord of unproductivenes
which often follows the molt, if we
could know that the hens were in
creasing their final market value by
actually adding framework on which
to carry more flesh and weight.
Another question rises here. May
we not lose this latter growth by neg
lecting the young hens and allowing
them to come into the molt thin and
exhausted from the summers work,
and then grow the new coat on ra-
tion of tough fall grass and hard corn.