Poultry-Raisers. Write for Your Paper.
Chicken Chat.
Somebody says that "Plymouth Rock pullets are not always early layers, for they often grow for ten or twelve months before laying, though some lay as early as six months after hatching."
Well that's news to us, and we have kept Plymouth Rocks quite a while, too. We have had Rock pullets commence laying at six months, and once we had a few that didn't do a thing toward earning their own living till they were almost eight months old; but seven months is nearer the average, and that is what we count on when selecting the pullets that are to be kept for winter layers. The pullets that are hatched from the first of March up to the first of May, commence laying all along from the middle of September to the first of December. Pullets that we want to commence laying in February, are selected from those hatched in July. It would really be very gratifying to me if the people who know no more about the Plymouth Rocks than they do about the fate of Charlie Ross, would keep their twaddle out of print.
One of my correspondents is very anxious to know if the Langshans are the "coming fowls." Hardly. Fanciers who have tried them pronounce them the "best birds that were ever imported from China," which is pretty high praise, but all the same they are not popular with farmers. They will never hold the place that the Plymouth Rocks hold. Since you wish to buy fowls of the breeds for which there will be the greatest demand next season, I should advise you get Plymouth Rocks and Wyandottes. These, in addition to the Light Brahmas and Brown Leghorns that you already have, will give you the four breeds that are the most popular, and if you have good stock, and let people know that you have eggs to sell for hatching, you will probably have orders for all the eggs that you will care to sell.
Another correspondent wants to know the meaning of the word "strain," as applied to fowls, and I don't wonder that he asks the question, for the word is used "promiscuous like" by every tyro in poultry breeding.
When any poultry-raiser has bred fowls of any breed long enough to fix his notion of what constitutes a standard fowl of that breed upon them permanently, he may claim a "strain." For instance: Smith believes that the Light Brahmas should have very short legs, and he breeds for short legs until they are permanently fixed, and everybody who knows anything about Light Brahmas knows one of Smith's short-legged Brahmas at sight; then, but not before, Smith may claim a strain of his own, and it is proper for others to speak of "Smith's strain" of Light Brahmas. But Johnson, who buys of Smith, or of some one who has Light Brahmas of Smith's strain, this year, should not next year talk about "my own strain" of Light Brahmas. It takes years of steady, judicious breeding after a certain type to establish what may truthfully be called a strain, and it can only be done by breeders of rare skill and long experience in mating fowls for breeding.