The question which is the title of this chapter is asked over and over again. You see it propounded to the editor of almost every poultry paper in the country. And it is a difficult one to answer, because the various needs of different people are so diversified. April and May are doubtless the natural hatching seasons for all varieties. Climatic conditions are then kinder, the food which is necessary for the production of many eggs, and eggs of the strong hatchable kind, is supplied by Nature in great abundance, and the young chick coming into life in these months finds a great variety of natural food of the very best kind for growth awaiting it. In Spring eggs run strongly fertile, and in every way Nature seems to lend herself to successful hatching, and the starting of the young chick properly on its journey.
The man, however, who is operating an egg farm, and has made contracts for the delivery of a continuous supply of eggs to exacting customers, cannot well afford to wait until these months to hatch in, for it is necessary for him to have a large number of pullets reaching maturity and beginning to lay, before his last year’s pullets reach the moulting period and stop egg production. To accomplish this it is necessary to have in his brooder house, by not later than the first week of March, a goodly number of yellow babies. From that time on he must keep them coming, so as to have a sufficient number a few weeks apart to take the place of the yearling hens going into the moult. In this way he will succeed in keeping up a continuous flow of eggs.
It is true there is a danger in these early hatched pullets. They may go into what is called the Winter moult, after laying well into the month of December, but they will not all moult, and before there is a marked shrinkage the later hatches will be laying strongly.
The moult which occurs with early hatched birds does not last as long as the moult coming in the regular season. The birds soon return to the nest, and the house rapidly jumps back to a very large output of eggs for the coming Spring months. Thus the great increase in numbers helps to offset the decrease in price, and to equalize the bank account.
It must be remembered, however, that Leghorns hatched up to the 25th of June make good Winter layers provided they are properly cared for, and given the food and attention which produces a great growth, and under such conditions one will find no difficulty in getting them into laying eggs readily by the time they are five months of age.
An Interesting Experiment in Late Hatching
In the season of 1910 The Corning Egg Farm made a very interesting experiment, in a large way, so far as late hatching goes. We incubated two large batches of eggs, the first being set so that the chicks hatched from the 18th to the 26th of July; the second batch completed incubation August 15th. The resulting pullets from these two hatches were some fifty odd over twelve hundred. We carried them on Range until December 1st, and then placed them in a Laying House by themselves. They had not begun to lay on Range so far as we were able to discover, although many of the pullets had the appearance of eggs. Almost from the start, after they were placed in the Colony Houses, we fed them, in addition to the regular Range ration, a good supply of Sprouted Oats each day. This was done for the reason that of course the succulent green food had passed away, and we consider it of vital importance that growing birds be given the opportunity to gather a large supply of succulent green food. The records show that within three days after the pullets were placed in the Laying House we began to gather from one to three eggs a day. Before December was over the house was producing 10%; January saw 35% output of eggs, and before February was very far advanced we were doing better than 60%. There was a time in March when the House was yielding a 75% output.
SPROUTED OATS CELLAR
These birds laid strongly all Summer, and we were interested in noting when they would start to moult. We had seen the statement made a number of times that late hatched pullets were very late moulters. In our experience, however, this did not prove to be true, for this pen of birds moulted at just about the same time, and in the same proportion, as the earlier hatches did.