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 

 toes. Sixteen different toe marks 

 for identification purposes can 

 be kept as shown herewith. 



The chicks may be web 

 punched, or toe marked, imme- 

 diately upon being removed 

 from the nest with the hen or 

 taken from the incubator. Any 

 poultry supply store should be 

 able to supply a toe punch at 

 small cost for the purpose. 

 7- /l\ AW /s. AW Zl\ -y^hen a few females of about 



fl /l\ /l\ /e /\\ /l\ equal quality, which are full sis- 



« / l<>\ /o| \ • /c|o\ /c|o\ jg^g^ ^^g ,^^j^j ^^ Qj^g j^^, ^^^ 



Sixteen Different Toe Marks for Identification „.,_i,;„„ ;„ „ „<.- r i 



Purposes. markmg 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, 



2S2 



