CHAPTER XXVI 

 PEDIGREE RECORDS 



Toe marking and leg banding for the purpose of identifying the 



pedigrees of birds Growing opportunity for breeders who will 



accurately and honestly pedigree-breed. 



Perhaps no book on breeds and breeding is quite complete unless 

 it details methods for pedigreeing the progeny of matings. At least 

 the importance of such pedigreeing should be emphasized. 



There is scarcely a breeder and seller of purebred fowls but what 

 has been impressed with the tendency of beginners to mate so many 

 females in their pens that they are unable to identify the individuals 

 from which they are breeding, with the result that recollections of the 

 parentage of any particular cockerel or pullet is more or less clouded 

 and confused. 



Breeding should be carried on along definite lines. Of course, ever 

 since poultry has been bred, not merely raised, breeders have had con- 

 siderable information concerning the heredity of their birds. As a rule, 

 this information has been kept in simple form, such as toe marks in the 



web of the foot between the 

 /K y|\ g /K A\ toes. Sixteen different toe marks 



7 ' X 7 ' X /ol \ /l \ for identification purposes can 



2 /]\ /1\ /o /1X /1X ke kept as shown herewith. 



/N /K /K /K ^^ e cn i c k s ma y be web 



3 /IX / 1\ //- /o\\ /IX punched, or toe marked, imme- 



A. /K yK /K diately upon being removed 



/l\ /\\ * ' /o\\ /o\\ f rom the nest with the hen or 



<> A\ A\ n /K A\ taken from the incubator. Any 



1 Jr 1 p uitry suppiy st re shouid be 



6 Xl\ /N '* /1X XIX able to su PP ] y a toe punch at 



A A /K A sma11 cost for the P ur P se. 



7 - /l\ /o\\ fs - /o\\ /o\\ When a few females of about 



/K /K /6 A\ A\ e( l ua l quality, which are full sis- 



/Io\ /ol\ ' /o|o\ /o|o\ ters are mated to Qne ma]e> toe 



Sixteen Different Toe^Marks for Identification marking is a satisfactory means 



of identifying the birds from 



the pen; but when a number of pens are mated, and females of 

 different qualities and diverse breeding are mated in each pen, it 

 becomes necessary to employ trapnests, that the full parentage of 

 each egg may be identified with certainty, and then band each chick. 

 Each hen in the matings should carry a numbered leg band. The 

 band number of the hen that lays an egg should be marked with pencil 

 on the egg when it is taken from the trapnest and the hen released. 



252 



