Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1915-08-28
not show the highest egg production.
Begin by Selecting Eggs

not show the highest egg production.
Begin by Selecting Eggs
Selection becomes an important
problem for every poultry grower. It
is not a matter of selecting right at
the time the males and females are
put together, or mated up" as it is
called, but the selection should be
made from the time the eggs are
placed into the incubator.
Only choice, even eggs should be
used. Eggs that show a weak germ
on the fourteenth day should be re-
moved from the machine. All chicks
that do not hatch by the twenty-first
day should be destroyed, while all the
crippled and defective ones should be
done away with. 1t may look as if
some of them might be saved, but they
are only an incum brance to the flock
and will not give a high enough aver
age when 1t comes to egg production.
Many poultry establishments have
made the mistake of ha~ching from
all kinds of eggs, keeping all the
chicks that are Matched, and afterward
breeding from them indiscriminately.
If the percentage of weakly chicks
is heavy and the poultry raiser wishes
to convince himself that 1t will not
pay to keep these weaklings, he should
keep the healthy and weakly birds
separately and then give both groups
the same treatment and feed. He will
soon find that the heavier death rate
will be among the weakly chicks and
by far the larger proportion of culls
Will come out of this weak group. He
will find later on, too, that the pullets
that come out of the weak group will
not begin to lay as early as the others,
nor will they make as good an average
egg production throughout the year.
They will also lay a larger percentage
of small eggs that will not bring as
high price in the market.
In some communities any egg is an
egg, without regard to size. but the
choicest markets are now dividing eggs
into No: 1 and No. 2. No. 1 must
weigh 26 ounces or more to the dozen
to meet the requirement
Early Hatching Important
early Matching is important for two
reasons:
The pullets will begin to lay in the
early Fall and lay through the winter
while the pullets that are hatched late
In the season will not begin to lay,
sometimes, until we'll into the winter,
and this will hold the egg production
The second reason is that a pullet
down.
lays small eggs at first, and when
Matched early in the season will Law
an her small eggs and begin to lay
her large eggs when the market is
high. If she does not start to Law un-
I'll January the majority of. eggs will
be small and will not bring as much
on the market. She will not begin to
lay large eggs until after the price has
considerably deprecated.
IL is also contended that the early
Matched pullet will make a better
yearling layer than the late one, be-
cause the late one does not seem to
nave as much size and vitality. The
terms early and late" are relative
and what would be early in one local
lty. would be late in another. For a
climate such as New Jersey the fif-
teenth of March is early enough, while
the 18th of May is beginning a little
late. Perhaps the ideal time would
be from the first to fifteenth of April.
In this latitude, White Leghorns that
are hatched as early as March fif-
teenth are inclined to go through a
light moult of wind and neck feathers,
ana TINS has the effect of stopping
their egg production for the rest of
the year.