EGG LAYING RECORD.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1491, 13 July 1912, Page 14

EGG LAYING RECORD.

BAENTABD FOWL'S 1396 EGGS DUEING EIGHT YEAES. Betty, a diminutive hen, which is iu the possession of Mr. J. A. Minchin, of Henfleld, in West Sussex, is a reproach to poultry experts (says.the "Daily Mail"); They say that a lien will only lay about 600 eggs in a. lifetime, but Betty, says her owner, has laid already more than 1400 eggs, and has not discontinued the practice, although she is more- than, eight years old. In fact, she will reach the mature ago, for one of her kind, of nine years in the autumn. * Betty is quite a small hen. Her colour is a kind of golden brown, with a lark fringe on her neck and back and a lighter of brown on her hreast. She is what is.called by. poultry keepers a "barnyard" fowl, because . she is of no • particular breed. • ..-..- This wonderful hen was hatched late in 1003, and, therefore, it is amazing that her laying record for 1904 shoyi:9 the total of; 2lß.eggg. This is her record of eggs laid during each year:—.- . /, . i'9f1i;:;i. , ."i.'.... , .".."218 1909 170 . 1905 ;....... 20G . 1910.1 131 1906-.; 201 1911 .......; .'. 60 1007-" ...:.... 196 3912 • ■1908 V...:.;,.-.;.... 187 , (until April 22) 27 ..; ,':.. ~' '..". Total ...... 1,398 ; Betty has ; no niotjiorly disposition. She has never evinced'a ;'de'sire to sit or, as poultry-keepers term it, become '.'broody," so. another hen has hatched- her eggs. Through bad luck only ■ one, pullet has been reared successfully from the broods, but tliia bird is beginning to.imitate her mother's laying habits. .' ■• "One thousand four hundred eggs is certainly a record," said Mr. Edward Brown, of. the National Poultry Organisation Society. "Up. till-now I have never heard-of a fowl laying more than- 800 eggs. , '.- .' '•,.. ■~•'. ■ ■ ■ .. ■