In selecting adult birds for breeding purposes, and thus relying on these birds to produce the hatching eggs, a few points are necessary to bear in mind, if one wants the best results. As these birds are to be the foundation of your future flock, don’t buy them too hastily, and also do not try to buy the cheapest birds that you can find on the market, as you usually get just what you pay for. Therefore, the first thing to do is to look through poultry papers, farm weeklies, etc., or to inquire locally from some neighboring breeder, and find out just what it will cost you for adult females. Having the desired breed in mind, it would be advisable to post yourself on the qualifications, and the disqualifications of this particular breed. Standard weight for the breed is an important consideration in this connection. If the standard weight for an adult female is five pounds, try to get females that weigh around six pounds. These qualifications can be found for every breed in the American Standard of Perfection, a book published by the American Poultry Association, and found in most libraries. Another very important factor is the health of the birds. No birds should be used for breeding purposes that have ever had any of the common poultry diseases, such as roup, chicken pox, etc., as their resulting chicks will also have a tendency toward this disease. Select nothing but healthy, vigorous birds, of standard weight and color, free from disease, of good body conformation, and not less than one year old. When pullets, or birds of less than a year old, are used for breeding, the result is a small egg, which hatches out a small, under-sized chick. If you can get in touch with your State College of Agriculture, they can usually inform you of some reliable breeder who can furnish you with the kind of birds you want. In selecting the cockerels, or male birds, one very good way is to buy them from an unrelated flock, and buy some that are especially strong where the females are weak. For instance, if the females that you have purchased are a little light in color, it would be advisable to secure males that are a little darker in color than the standard calls for. It is never advisable to mate more than ten females with one male, because if more are mated, the fertility of the eggs will suffer. Many successful breeders even use two male birds with a pen of ten females, alternating one male in the breeding pen every other day. Thus the fertility of the hatching egg is doubly assured.