With the Leghorn, the combs shrink, and almost go down to nothing in many cases. It is quite impossible, in looking over a large number of yearling hens at this time in their lives, to believe that the great, red comb will ever return, and it is a curious fact that, in the majority of cases, the yearling hen’s comb is never as large as it was in her pullet year. As the combs begin to redden and their size increase, the flock becomes more active, and it is necessary to add to the amount of Mash, and, if it had been found expedient to reduce the grain ration, this also must be brought back to the full eight quarts to one hundred hens. From day to day the Mash consumption increases rapidly, and the nests begin to receive a good deal of attention, and very shortly the output from the breeding pens becomes a very decided item in the gathering of eggs. By the second week in January, the pen having been handled in the best possible way, the egg output has reached a point where it will be safe to mate the pen, and in two weeks after this the eggs should be running strongly fertile. CHAPTER XXIII Feeding the Breeding Cockerels These birds are fed green food about eight o’clock in the morning. In good weather it is fed in their large range yard, where the attendant scatters it in small bunches over a wide area. At 11:30 is fed to every hundred birds, six quarts of corn, wheat and oats, two-thirds corn, the wheat and oats making up the other third. This is also distributed widely over the yard. In this way the cockerels are kept busy hunting for food, and they are less likely to get into broils with each other for entertainment. At 1:30 o’clock they are allowed to return to their House, having been shut out during the morning hours. The Mash is fed daily at 1:30, and a sufficient amount is placed in their troughs for them to thoroughly clean up by roosting time. Sufficient grain is fed in the litter in the House to make the quantity for the day’s rations about eight quarts for one hundred birds. [Illustration: BREEDING COCKERELS FALL OF 1911] CHAPTER XXIV Preparing Surplus Cockerels for Market The growing cockerels, fed in the same way as the pullets up to six or eight weeks of age, will be, in the majority of cases, in prime condition to have the finishing touches applied to round them out into the best possible weight at the age for market. We, of course, do not go into the various liquid foods which are fed with a pump, but simply the most inexpensive and rapid way of putting the birds in a condition to return the most money in the shortest possible time. Corn, in its different forms, is, perhaps, the most fattening food which can be fed, and for the cockerels intended for market, the grain ration consists of nothing but corn, and as much of it as they will clean up.