Evening star., 1915-02-28
Early Spring Poultry Ailments.
Poultry Yard Notes.

| poultry breeder lays the foundation
| for a flock of heavy laying pullets for
| next fall and winter. The thoughtful
poultry breeder Is the one who keeps
record of the number of eggs laid by
| each of his hens: who selects for breed
! ing purposes only those hens that are
known by these records to have beer
heavy layers in their pullet year. and
| who mates such hens with cockerels
which, in turn, are the offspring OF
hens that as pullets were extra heavy
| layers. Such matings cannot fail tc
! produce preponderance Of fowls in
which the tendency to heavy egg pro-
duction is intensified.
For fail and winter egg production
the laying of plenty of eggs at the
season of the year when twenty four
demand-hatching operations should be
Weil under way at this time. Chicks
matched during the months of March
and April produce the pu1lets that will
pc next fall and winters heavy layers
Properly brooded and fed, never forced
and never permitted to suffer setbacks
by reason of irregular feeding, over
croWding and the like, such puIlets
should lay their first eggs in Septem-
Der and October and should continue
One often reads of puIlets that laid
before they were six months old and
once in awhile stories appear in print
OF phenomenal pullets that began lay
| ing at four and a half or five months
do the fact that writer's on poultry
topics play up" the stories about
them is sufficient proof of their un-
usualness. The pullet that begins to
lay at six months old is good enough
| Tor the average poultry man, whether
he is breeding for show purposes or
for utility.
Pu1lets Matched in March and April,
if properly brought to maturity, should
settled down to business by September
or October. If the mott is delayed the
pullets may not begin to lay until No
vember, but il the beginning of the
laying period is deferred any later than
this there is something the matter with
the fowls, either in their breeding or
in the manner in which they have been
handled from the brooder to the lay
ing houses.
A practical poultry breeder of many
years. experience once said that "any-
body could succeed in Matching plenty
Of chicks, but it took a wise man to
raise them That the statement is alb
oOiuNcAy lEuo "lAA Dc dllSslcu ny every
one who has ever tried to operate an
incubator and to brood the chicks aft
er they were Matched. Provided the
eggs are fertile and come from healthy,
vigorous stock. comparatively little
trouble will be experienced in Matching
the chicks. After they are Matched and
placed in the brooder, however, the
real trouble begins. The chucks must
not be too warm and they must not be
allowed to become chilled. The brooder
temperature must be kept steady at
just the proper degree of heat night
and day. The chicks must not be over
crowded In the brooder, and this is,
perhaps, the commonest mistake
among poultrymen. They must be fed
enough of the proper kind of feed to
keep them growing steadily, full of
vigor and pep" but they must never
be overfed; one extreme Is about as
bad as the other. The man who, after
he has successfully brought off an in
cubator full of eggs, rears rs per cent
Gus maturity is the man who may
claim to be a successful poultryman.
Figures show that, taking the coun-
try over, more than half of the chicks
hatched each year die before they are
month old.
None of the widely advertised "sys-
TENS for raising poultry equals plain,
old-fashioned common sense. Study the
needs of the fowls in the flock; watch
their likes and dislikes in regard to
feeds, etc; see that their quarters are
kept clean, well ventilated. dry and
| from from vermin; furnish them with
plenty of a well balanced ration to