Democratic Sentinel, Volume 15, Number 44, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 20 November 1891 — THE POULTRY-YARD. [ARTICLE]

THE POULTRY-YARD.

Why Ejrss Spoil.! Eggs spoil of Ineffectual attempt to hatch. Whenever a fertilized egg is raised to a temperature of 92 degrees the hatching process begins, and when the , temperature falls much below this point the process ceases. After three or four alterations of this kind the embryo chick dies, and the rotting process begins. Now it is evident that if the eggs were not fertilized the hatching would not begin, neither would the rotting, and hence there would be an absence of rotten eggs. The remedy, therefore, is to prevent fertilization of the eggs, and this can be secured by the destruction of the rooster. Every rooster not intended especially for breeding should be killed or sold to the huckster as soon as big enough to eat. Not over one rooster should he kept on any farm, and that one cooped and mated with not to exceed ten hens, and the eggs from those hens should be kept or sold expressly for hatching. The other hens should be kept especially for eirgs for market or table use, and no rooster should ever be allowed among them. On the ordinary farms about onetenth of the fowls are roosters, which Is about nine times as many as there can be any possible use for. Unfertilized eggs are much sweeter and better for table use, and will keep from two to four times as long as fertilized ones. Hens not kept with roosters will lay louger and set less than others. It is safe to say that in the United States alone there are 20,000,000 roosters, and that 19,000,000 of them are a positive and expensive nuisance, except for the table at the right time. If these roosters were killed and their places supplied with hens, and each hen laid 200 eggs per year, the aggregate would he 3,800,000,000 worth 1 cent eafch $38,000,000, every cent of which would beclear net profit to the farmer.—Stock and Home.