The Breeding-birds.

Use your best birds. Do not make any that are too closely related. Never breed from a bird that has been sickly or delicate even as a chicken.

Run a cock with eight to twelve hens. With a smaller number of hens there will usually be more cocks among the chickens, especially if the male parent be a cockerel. Pullets are not so good to breed from as tow-to four-year-old hens, more especially if mated with a cockerel. A cock is generally useless after his fifth year. The eggs should be fertile after the birds have been five days together. There is no certain way of foretelling the sex of eggs by their appearance.

If the breeding stock be shut up, as I recommend, great care must be taken to supply everything they want. Early in the season a little hemp-seed will help them, and a little sulphate of iron in damp weather.