In very cold weather they are confined to their houses for
warmth, and are given a stimulating diet to promote winter
laying, not so much for the value of the eggs as to render it
certain that there shall be a considerable number of birds ready
to sit in February, and many more in March. The fowls
chiefly depended upon for this, consist of the earliest pullets
of the previous year, and also the old hens that have been em-
ployed much of the time the preceeding summer in hatching
two or three broods. The prevention of laying by hatching
and rearing, causes birds thus occupied to lay earlier the next
season. By a little management there is no difficulty in pro-
curing plenty of offers to sit from February to June. One
half the sitting stock are two years old, and of the pullets of
the sitting class raised yearly, some are hatched in February
and March, and some in the first week of September, the bet-
ter to secure sitting in various parts of the year. Except in
winter, the sitters should not be fed with a view to encourage
laying, but the aim should be to keep them on as moderate an
allowance as possible, and not have them become poor. Their
specific purpose is incubation, and they should be made to do
as much of this as possible. By uniting broods, when a hen
has hatched one nest full of eggs she may be given another
immediately, and, if managed rightly, she will not be injured
by sitting a double term. Each hen must hatch two broods
per year at least, and some will hatch three. In this way the
stock of 500 sitters will produce 10,000 chickens yearly, or an
average of 20 apiece.
Management of Breeding Stock.— The proper management
266 iPOtJLTkY.
of the breeding stock is a very important part of the scheme,
for there must annually be raised a large supply of pullets of
the right quality. The profits of the establishment depend
largely on the excellence of the fowls, and as they can be mul-
tiplied very fast from a chosen few, no pains should be spared
to secure the very best as a source from which to stock the
whole farm. There is but one way to do this, and that is to
keep individual birds in experimental yards in order to test
their merits, recording the degree of excellence and the pedi-
gree of the best with as much care as would be given to breed-
ing cows or horses.
We will suppose it is designed to produce a strain of Leg-
horns that shall excel in prolificness, laying at an early age,
and in other requisites. Procure a pullet from A and a cock-
erel from B, and put them in yard No. i ; purchase from C and
D one bird from each, for yard No. 2, and so on, always taking
care that no specimens are obtained from any locality where
disease has prevailed. The smaller breeding yards are used as
experimental yards, and to allow each cock a proper number
of mates, two or more half-blood Brahmas pullets (whose eggs
can be distinguished by their color) are added. Give each
Leghorn a name or number, and enter in a book all details
necessary for testing progress in improving the breed, such as
weight, the age at which laying commenced, and the yield of
eggs during the first year, at the expiration of which banish all
but the best hens. The second year set the eggs of the reserved
extra fowls, and keep the chickens produced by each pair sep-
arate from all others.
Page 185
Presented as published in 1883. Historical recipes may not meet modern food-safety standards. Cook from the modern interpretation, not the original instructions.
AI-modernized reading of the original text
In very cold weather they are confined to their houses for warmth, and are given a stimulating diet to promote winter laying, not so much for the value of the eggs as to render it certain that there shall be a considerable number of birds ready to sit in February, and many more in March. The fowls chiefly depended upon for this, consist of the earliest pullets of the previous year, and also the old hens that have been employed much of the time the preceeding summer in hatching two or three broods. The prevention of laying by hatching and rearing, causes birds thus occupied to lay earlier the next season. By a little management there is no difficulty in procuring plenty of offers to sit from February to June. One half the sitting stock are two years old, and of the pullets of the sitting class raised yearly, some are hatched in February and March, and some in the first week of September, the better to secure sitting in various parts of the year. Except in winter, the sitters should not be fed with a view to encourage laying, but the aim should be to keep them on as moderate an allowance as possible, and not have them become poor. Their specific purpose is incubation, and they should be made to do as much of this as possible. By uniting broods, when a hen has hatched one nest full of eggs she may be given another immediately, and, if managed rightly, she will not be injured by sitting a double term. Each hen must hatch two broods per year at least, and some will hatch three. In this way the stock of 500 sitters will produce 10,000 chickens yearly, or an average of 20 apiece.
Management of Breeding Stock.— The proper management
266 iPOtJLTkY.
of the breeding stock is a very important part of the scheme, for there must annually be raised a large supply of pullets of the right quality. The profits of the establishment depend largely on the excellence of the fowls, and as they can be multiplied very fast from a chosen few, no pains should be spared to secure the very best as a source from which to stock the whole farm. There is but one way to do this, and that is to keep individual birds in experimental yards in order to test their merits, recording the degree of excellence and the pedigree of the best with as much care as would be given to breeding cows or horses.
We will suppose it is designed to produce a strain of Leghorns that shall excel in prolificness, laying at an early age, and in other requisites. Procure a pullet from A and a cockerel from B, and put them in yard No. i ; purchase from C and D one bird from each, for yard No. 2, and so on, always taking care that no specimens are obtained from any locality where disease has prevailed. The smaller breeding yards are used as experimental yards, and to allow each cock a proper number of mates, two or more half-blood Brahmas pullets (whose eggs can be distinguished by their color) are added. Give each Leghorn a name or number, and enter in a book all details necessary for testing progress in improving the breed, such as weight, the age at which laying commenced, and the yield of eggs during the first year, at the expiration of which banish all but the best hens. The second year set the eggs of the reserved extra fowls, and keep the chickens produced by each pair separate from all others.