167 



It has been found very satisfactory to use a one-half-inch mesh hard- 

 ware cloth for the bottom of either the wall or the drop-board nests. 

 The wire should extend under the nest part only. This makes a self- 

 cleaning sanitary nest in which mites and lice can be easily fought. 

 One nesl should be provided for every four or five hens. 



Illustration showing working of trap nest. Hen is seen entering ; one is ready to be 

 taken out ; three nests are occupied and one open. 



It is not recommended that trap nests be used by the general 

 farmer or poultryman, except in special instances. Trap nests, how- 

 ever, are indispensable for investigational and instructional purposes, 

 and for persons who desire to sell pedigreed stock and eggs for hatch- 

 ing. The labor involved in collecting the eggs many times a day, 

 keeping the records of each hen, hatching with pedigree-trays, toe- 

 marking and leg-banding the chickens, requires more exacting work 

 and close attention to detail than most poultrymen at the present time 

 would care to undertake, even though the reward may be great in 

 the building up of a strain of heavy producers. For the poultryman 

 or farmer who does not care to sell pedigreed stock but who desires 

 to increase the laying capacity of his fowls by breeding from the 

 most productive, the plan is suggested of trap-nesting the choicest 

 pullets each year. From these, select the most productive pullets to 

 be used as breeders the following year, that is, when they are two 

 years old from the shell. It has been found that pullets usually show 

 early in life their .egg-laying capacity. The pullets of the same age 

 and variety, given similar care, that lay the largest number of eggs 

 during the first six months of laying, will, in most instances, be the 

 most prolific individuals in the flock. This method will do away with 

 the necessity of trap-nesting the entire year, and will permit the 

 record-making to be done during six months, October, November, De- 

 cember, January, February and March, when the time can best be 

 spared on a general or poultry farm. 



The traps may be used also to excellent advantage for a short 

 time in the fall and winter in selecting, for breeding pens, prolific 

 hens from among the mature stock which the year before, when pullets 

 were trap-nested. This selection is made on the principle that only 

 the most productive hens are likely to lay late in the fall and early 

 winter. 



*This nest was invented by R. C. Lawry, formerly an assistant in 

 the Poultry Department at Cornell I'liiversity, but at the present time 

 is manager of the Yesterlaid Egg Farm at Pacific, Mo. 



