426 Missouri Agricultural Report. 



EGG PRODUCTION. 



Many things affect egg production. Important as is food, it is 

 only a single factor. Under ideal conditions the healthy, happy 

 hen is a practically perfect egg machine, but the hen is not always 

 healthy and happy, nor are conditions always ideal. Food may not 

 be of the right kind, or given in the proper quantity ; the surround- 

 ings may be unsanitary, or too hot or too cold; too many birds 

 may be crowded into a single building; they may be frightened 

 and disturbed; may lack sunshine and exercise; lice or mites may 

 interfere; the hen may lack constitutional vigor, or may not have 

 the proper conformity to egg laying ; she may not come of a laying 

 breed, or she may come of a laying breed, yet not of the best lay- 

 ing strain. Thus does the problem of heavy egg production largely 

 resolve itself into one of how to keep the laying hen in the highest 

 state of health. 



The happy hen, like the happy man, will do the best work. 

 The lazy, excessively fat or excessively lean hens have all been 

 failures as layers. "A very fat hen will not lay well, and a very 

 poor hen cannot lay well." We must, then, let our aim be the 

 happy medium. 



Every poultryman is interested in knowing how to get the 

 largest number of eggs from a given number of hens in the shortest 

 time and at the least expense — to gather two eggs where only one 

 gathered before, as it were. The average hen on the farm does 

 not produce 100 eggs per year, but she ought to produce a gross 

 of eggs — a dozen dozen — each year. There are a number of cases 

 on record where hens have produced more than 250 eggs per year, 

 but this is a record such as the average poultryman cannot hope 

 to equal. 



For increased egg production we should discard drones and 

 breed producers to producers, mating strong, but not related, in- 

 dividuals of the same variety. Thus may we develop a laying 

 strain, for birds may stamp their capabilities on their progeny. 

 One of the first problems, then, is to determine the layers. This 

 we may do by using trap nests. A trap nest is an arrangement 

 for catching the hen that lays the egg. There are many kinds of 

 trap nests on the market, but the principle of all is the same. 

 When the hen enters the nest to lay an egg the door is closed, and 

 she cannot get out until released. Trap nests require too much 



