BREEDING FOR EGG PRODUCTION.* 



G. M. GowELL. 



On November ist, 1898, tests were undertaken for the purpose 

 of procuring data relative to the Qgg production of hens ; and 

 also, by selection and breeding, to improve the quality and 

 increase the number of eggs produced. It was decided to study 

 individuals as well as flocks, and to do this with exactness, the 

 everyday performance of every bird should be known. 



As a means of securing the needed information 52 trap nests, 

 of our devising and construction, were placed in the 13 pens of 

 the breeding house. The nests were described in the report of 

 this Station for 1898. The pens were 10 by 16 feet in size, and 

 four of these nests were placed in each one ; 20 pullets and 2 

 cockerels were placed in each pen on November ist, and daily 

 egg records kept with each individual bird during the 12 months 

 following; with some of the largest yielders, the records were 

 continued into succeeding years. 



When the data from the first year's testing were secured, the 

 birds that had yielded 200 or more eggs of good shape, size and 

 color, were selected for ''foundation stock," upon which, with 

 the additions made to them in succeeding years of birds of similar 

 quality, the breeding operations were to be based. It is known 

 that the laws of inheritance and transmission are as true with 

 birds as with cattle, sheep and horses, and when we consider the 

 wonderful changes that have been made in the form, feather and 

 egg production of hens since their domestication commenced, 

 there is ample room for assuming that a higher average egg pro- 

 duction than the present can be secured, by breeding only from 

 those birds that are themselves great producers. 



The purpose of this work should not be misunderstood. We 

 are not trying to produce stock that shall average to yield 200 

 eggs per year. If, by furnishing the male birds which we are 

 raising to poultrymen and farmers, the average egg yields of 



* This is a continuation of work be^un in 189S, tlie results of wliicli were reported 

 In Bulletin 64, 1S99, and Bulletin 79, 190-2. 



