THE VALUE OF LIMITED TRAPNESTING IN POULTRY 



BREEDING 



By F. 'A. Hays, 

 Research Professor of Poultry Husbandry 



Trapnesting is an expensive operation on the poultry breeding farm. While 

 there are no specific records on costs, it has been estimated that daily trapnesting 

 adds about one dollar a year to the cost of keeping a hen. There is no question, 

 however, but that trapnesting and record keeping are to a great extent responsible 

 for the remarkable progress made in breeding poultry for egg production during 

 the last twenty-five years. 



Selective breeding for inherited physiological characters that affect egg pro- 

 duction has been made possible through the trapnest. In other words, high egg 

 production is dependent on a complex of inherited physiological characters. 

 Limited trapnesting will enable the breeder to discover valuable breeding birds 

 with respect to some of these characters but will neglect other important char- 

 acters. To the breeder it is important that he follow a practice that will give him 

 the most complete information to guide his breeding operations. 



Some most important information obtainable from trapnest records may be 

 briefly considered. This includes age at sexual maturity, intensity of laying, 

 winter pause, egg size and character, broodiness, spring intensity, summer in- 

 tensity, spring and summer pauses, fall intensity, and persistency. In birds used 

 for breeding, complete records may be secured on fertility, early and late embry- 

 onic deaths, and hatchability together with information on the character of 

 chicks produced. 



PREVIOUS WORK 



Several attempts were made at the beginning of the present century to estimate 

 annual egg production by using limited periods ot records. Later, at the Fourth 

 World's Poultry Congress, Voitellier (1930) reported some specific observations 

 on 50 hens representing 10 different breeds in the National Egg Laying Competi- 

 tion at Versailles, France. The birds selected represented different types of pro- 

 ducers, from 70-80 eggs up to more than 200 eggs in 48 weeks. He applied three 

 short -time tests: One day each week, two days each week, and every fourth week 

 out of the 48. All of these measures proved fairly satisfactory for high producing 

 hens. For the group of hens as a whole, the methods ranked in efificiency: 1 week, 

 2 days a week, and 1 day a week. 



Dudley (1931) reported an investigation of two types of limited trapnesting, 

 including 748 White Leghorns and White Wyandottes in English egg-laying 

 contests. The birds were rather mediocre producers, and the measures used were 

 four consecutive days in the middle of each lunar month and one day each week 

 for 48 weeks. He gives the following averages: 



Average Average 48-Day Production 



48-\\'eek 



Production 4 Consecutive One Day 

 Days Monthly \\'eekly 



National Institute Leghorns-.. 168 24.4 24.0 



Harper Adams Leghorns ..- 183 26.2 26.5 



Harper Adams Wyandottes 186 26.5 20.5 



