OCR Text |
Show SELECT HENS WITH RECORDS Mate Them With Cockerels of Good Laying Strains and Hatch From Them Progress Slow. The hen as we have her today has been developed very rapidly as an egg producer. The Jungle fowl from which our laying hens have been developed probably laid about two dozen eggs a year at most. Perhaps many only raised one brood. Hens of anything like good type and breeding today may average 140 eggs a year. There are, of course, 200-egg hens and a few that have made records much higher. But these high records are by no means common. It is said that a high average for a pullet is 150 eggs a year, for a hen 140. But we must remember that hens, like cows, have their own individuality indi-viduality and it is not easy to find a fioek of high producers. The way to increase the production of eggs Is to select pullets or hens with high records, mate them with cockerels from good laying strains and hatch from them. Even then, the progress must be slow, for there is apt to be a large per cent that will be poor producers. But this Is the only safe way to raise hens that lay a large number of eggs a year. |