each family had a flock of chickens of all sizes, shapes and colors from which they got their eggs and occasionally on Suday a chicken dinner with baking powder biscuits. Each spring when the hens became broody, the woman would put a setting of twelve eggs under each hen who would set on the eggs and keep them warm for about three weeks. One by one the little chicks would pick their way out of the shells and a new crop of chickens would be on their way to replace those that were sold, used for food or died. Later incubators were used until the chicks no longer needed the heat. Commercial hatcheries began to fill orders that were delivered by express or mail. Then a way of predetermining sex and was discovered so that those who wanted males for broilers could get ninety percent males, and the same for egg production with females Seneca