Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 293, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 16 December 1918 — TIPS FOR THE POULTRY GROWER [ARTICLE]

TIPS FOR THE POULTRY GROWER

Do not kill the laying hen. Separate the good layers from the poor ones and send the poor layers to market. Progress In all breeding is based on selection. Apply selection to your poultry. Keep the best and breed from them and watch the improvements. Keep the hustlers—those that are on the range early and go to roost with full crops. 4 ■ The good layer is active. She is a hustler for worms and bugs. She has a bright red comb and a bright eye. The plumage of the good layer is usually much more broken up .than the plumage of the poor The higtf-egg-yleld hens are usually late to ftyoult. They may also have pale oi* faded shanks and beaks. The pelvic bones, or lay-bones, of the laying hen are far enough apart so that three fingers can be placed between them. These two bones can be felt, one or each side of the vent, somewhere above the vent. The good layer has thin, pliable pelvic bones. - There should not be less than three or four fingers distance from the pelvic bones to the point of breast bone. There should also be good distance from the ribs on one side around to the ribs on the other side. In other words, the abdomen should be large and roomy, indicating that the hen has a.large capacity for the assimilation of food and for the production of eggs. The skin of the abdomen should be loose enough to suggest an udder that has been milked out . The inferior laying hen of the meat type has thick, beefy pelvic bones, with hard lumps at the ends. Such hens are not heavy layers. Sell them. They usually weigh heavy. Sell hens that have arched, hard lay-bones, especially if the distance between the lay-bones and breast bone Is not great , ; Sell any hen that seems to lack vitality. , ? ' Market any hen that has a decidedly crooked breast bone, scaley legs, long toe nails, or Is “broken down” behind. Hens of the light breeds may be profitably kept for three seasons; those of the 'heavy breeds, for two seasons. Do not sell early hatched pullets as broilers. Keep them and they will be your winter layers. They will also prove vastly superior as breeding birds to those later hatched pullets that are not mature enough to lay until spring.