POULTRY BREEDING. 257 



and at the same time to turn all the eggs waiting incubation 

 at one operation instead of having to handle each of them sepa- 

 rately. The table has been found to he very satisfactory in 

 .actual practice. The dimensions of the table in use here arc- 

 given in the following table. 



TABLE OE MEASUREMENTS OE EGG DISTRIBUTING TABLE- 



.Length of egg containing portion 8 ft. 1 inch 



Breadth of egg containing portion 3 ' \y\ 



Height of table top above floor 3 ' 2 



Thickness of whole egg containing portion. ... j\ 



Depth of each tray (inside) 2f ' 



Length of covers 3 ' 11^ 



Breadth of covers 1 10^ 



Capacity 2200 eggs and 200 "mother" hens. 



Pedigree Incubator Baskets. 



It is necessary in pedigree poultry breeding work that the 

 eggs from a given hen should be kept together, at least during 

 the last days of incubation, and in such way that the chickens 

 which hatch from these eggs cannot be separated and mixed 

 "With others after hatching. This end is usually attained by the 

 use either of so-called pedigree trays which may be substituted 

 for the ordinary egg trays of the incubator, or of small wire 

 baskets placed on the ordinary egg trays of the machine. The 

 objection to the use of the so-called pedigree trays made by the 

 incubator manufacturers is that they allow but few different 

 pedigrees to be carried in the same incubator at the same time. 

 It is difficult with these trays to incubate economically. The 

 wire basket scheme has in consequence been adopted in the 

 "breeding work here. 



The baskets which are used and which have been found to 

 "be very convenient are illustrated in Figure 8. 



These baskets are made of 3-8" mesh galvanized wire and 

 nave the following dimensions: Length 73-4"; breadth 5 1-4": 

 depth 2 3-4". This size makes it possible to put 12 of the 

 baskets in each tray of a No. 3 Cyphers Incubator (360 egg 

 size) which is the incubator used at the Station. Furthermore 

 the size of the baskets is so calculated that a tray may be drawn 

 out and put back into the machine without having the baskets 



