The females should not be neglected if you expect them to produce good, healthy young for you. Unless they are properly cared for they cannot feed and care for the babies they hatch. You may also have a great many clear eggs. To avoid this, give good nourishing food all through the molting period and the following spring. The hens you have used this year for breeding should, as soon as through in the breeding room, show signs of molting. They should be placed in a flight as large as possible to give them plenty of room for exercise after being confined to the small breeding cage.

If you are not equipped so that you cannot separate the older hens from this year's females, I would advise that you provide as much perch room as you can, for some of the older hens may take a notion not to molt, but build another nest instead. These should be segregated and fed only plain food, until they begin their molt, as rich food only aggravate sex conditions.

Feed both old and young females the same foods; egg-food, and cracked hemp, greens and fruits. For a change in their diet feed ripe tomato, next day orange, the day a cucumber, which is especially good for any bird during the molt. By this method they have a variety of good, nourishing food that is essential to body building and feather growing. However, do not give the older hens the same amount, as it will make them too fat, but you can give the young ones all they can eat, with cracked rape seed added to their diet. If you keep your birds in a small cage, feed amounts that they will consume in half an hour, in hot weather tomato will sour so if they don't eat it in the time you think they should, remove it.

Always give the hens more canary seed than rape seed. There is always charcoal, grit and oyster shell in small dishes on the floor that is covered with white granite grit. The cuttlebone is fastened on the side of the cage near enough to the floor so that they can all reach it. In looking at your hens they should be nice and plump, as one could wish them to be.