;,-J Till'. THAT N'F.ST TEXT BOOK 



plain id sec that any lion that lays lo>s Ilian 100 eggs a year (Iocs not 

 pay I icr board. 



In (Ik- Hock referred lo above there were live hens that not only did 

 not pay their board, but they were in the way of those that were work- 

 ers. 11 would have been more profitable lo have killed them and sold 

 their carcasses than lo waste feed upon them. Here was where the trap 

 lies! proved lo be of groat value. We could not have secured a good 

 hiving strain from those drones, had we set their eggs. Instead we set 

 the eggs laid by our best layers, and do so each year. 



Since we have installed trap nests we get more eggs from 150 liens 

 than we got from 21 Ml hens prior to their use. The trap nests taught us 

 how to sort out the cream of our slock. 



It is very plain that if we, each year, breed from our best layers, mated 

 to male birds hatched from eggs laid by heavy layers, we are building 

 up a strain of great egg producers. I.-, it not so in breeding cattle and 

 horses? Then why not in poultry ? 



Another point of culling is according to color of egg. With a few 

 exceptions, the markets are calling for a brown egg. Such being the 

 case, it is advisable to breed for them. Your flocks are, laying a good 

 brown, a light brown, a white egg. You can improve the color of the 

 egg in future generations by hatching only the brown eggs, but you 

 want to get rid of those hens that are laying white eggs. How can you 

 do it? Only by using the trap nest . AVill it not pay you to cull out all 

 such? Better that your flock should be reduced fifty per cent. in order 

 that you may get the desired color than to send a mixed lot of eggs to 

 market that you will he cut on price on account of the assorted colors. 

 Uniformity of color helps the sale of eggs in market. 



Another, a hen that lays a poorly shaped egg should be culled from 

 the flock. Some hens, no matter how old, will lay a regular pullet 

 sized egg. and we have had others that laid badly shaped ones. AVe 

 even had one hen that laid the entire season a very thin shelled egg, yet 

 she had plenty of lime in her food. Is it not best to cull out all such 

 birds? With the use of the trap nest we can breed for good shape as 

 well as good color of egg. 



Another useless hen, and one which should be gotten rid of. is a hen 

 that will not produce fertile eggs. Careful students of the trap nest 

 have learned that eggs from a certain hen are nearly always fertile, 

 from another about fitly per cent, are fertile, and from others rarely an 

 egg hatches. Will it pay to keep hens that cannot reproduce them- 

 selves ? 



On a large egg farm only a few miles front here, trap nests are used 

 to pick out the laying pullets at a certain age. All pullets that do not 

 layby the first of January are sold. Incubation on this farm starts 

 March 15th, so that the first hatch comes off early in April and ends so 



