WHICH COCKEREL IS THE BEST BREEDER?

Te Aroha News, Volume XLI, Issue 6603, 23 May 1925, Page 8

WHICH COCKEREL IS THE BEST BREEDER?

Over ancl over again does one hear this question asked when young fanciers come together. Which is the best cockerel to use in the breeding pen—the one who is so gallant that he constantly calls the hens and allows them to eat up all the food, or the bird that is a good feeder and always sees, that he gets a fair share of the food? The reply is that the good feeder is always the best breeder. Why ? Because being a good feeder he keeps in good condition, and therefore is able to strongly fertilize the eggs. The over-gallant bird may be, is nice to look at, but as a matter of fact he is always in a more or less half-starved condition. In that state of health he will not, and in fact cannot produce strong progeny. It is true you can remove him from the pen and feed him by himself, but that is troublesome. Nature never intended that a male should be so gallant that he would starve himself. Even if fed by himself he is still the wrong bird to use as a breeder, inasmuch as his excessive courtesy and amiability in allowing the hens to gobble up all the food indicate a weak spot in him —a spot which is not to be found in the “hard doer” of a sire. No one has yet heard of the hens calling on the bird to “pull in” and get his share of the food. They eat the lot and look round~for more as a usual thing, and “his nibs” can go hungry for all they care about him, as long as they get their fill. A well known breeder says: “I prefer the bird that will fill himself up and attend to the hens. The bird that loses all his time calling up the hens and requires to. be put out for feeding is no good to me. I would soon have his head off. He is not worth the trouble when you can find his equal, or better, in quite good feeders, and also get stronger and better chicks.