4 MASS. EXPERIMENT STATION BULLETIN 2>11 



cent of their daughters failed to go broody, and 63.41 percent behaved 

 like the mothers with respect to the number of broody periods. As breed- 

 ers, the group 3 dams are inferior to the two previous groups. 



Group 4 dams were kept for only one laying year and did not exhibit 

 the broody instinct. They produced 89.29 percent non-broody daughters, 

 7.14 percent broody once, 2.23 percent broody twice, and 1.34 percent 

 broody three or more times. 



Group 5 dams were tested for two full laying years and did not exhibit 

 the broody instinct. Such dams should be more nearly correctly classified 

 than were group 4 dams, which were kept for only one laying year. The 

 group 5 dams produced 92.81 percent non-broody daughters and the 

 majority of their broody daughters had but one broody period. They 

 may therefore be considered the most desirable group of breeders thus 

 far considered. 



Group 6 dams were trapnested for three laying years and did not 

 exhibit broody behavior. The daughters of these hens were 9L12 percent 

 non-broody, the degree of broodiness being essentially the same as for 

 the daughters of group 5 dams. The data on groups 5 and 6 appear to 

 indicate that the phenotype of hens with respect to broodiness can be 

 determined with a high degree of accuracy from trapnest records over 

 two years or more. 



Table 1. — Degrees of Broodiness in Daughters of Different 

 Types of Dams. 



'Dam groups were made up as follows: 



1 . Broody once in first laying year. 



2. Broody twice in first laying year. 



3. Broody three or more times in first laying yc 



4. Not broody in first laying year. 



5. Not broody in first two laying years. 



6. Not broody in first thrve laying years. 



7. Broodiness deferred to second laying year. 



8. Broodiness deferred to third laying year. 

 '"Of the 210 dams, 108 had broody daughters and 



2 had no broody (huigliters. 



