ELEMENTS OF A GOOD TRAP NEST 



167 



for the employment of the device, so much as to describe the con- 

 struction and operation of a few simple types of trap nests, 

 home-made appliances which I have found to be mechanically 

 satisfactory. There are reliable makes of trap nests on the 

 market, at such nominal prices that in many cases it does not 

 pay the poultryman to make them himself. 



Primarily, a good trap nest must be certain in action. It 

 must not only imprison the hen that enters, but it must refuse 

 admittance to all others until a record of the first performer has 

 been secured. It should also offer an inviting, quiet, comfort- 

 able retreat for the hen, care being taken that the locking device 

 is not so violent in its action as to engender fright, and that when 

 closed, the interior, especially 

 in summer time, is not suffo- 

 catingly warm. Furthermore, 

 the nest should be accessible, 

 convenient for the attendant 

 to open and remove the hen, 

 and with no intricate parts to 

 dislodge and get out of order, 

 or require unnecessary time in 

 resetting the trigger or door. 



The nest should be of ample 

 size, usually larger than the or- 

 dinary nest, so that when the hen has laid her egg and commences 

 moving about in an effort to rejoin the flock, she is not obliged 

 to trample or stand on the egg and thus run the risk of breaking it. 

 The nest should offer easy means of cleaning its interior and re- 

 plenishing it with nesting material. 



Storrs' Nest. — ^The trap nest employed at the Storrs egg-laying 

 contest, plans of which are shown in Fig. 117, was developed at 

 the Connecticut Agricultural College, and has given entire satis- 

 faction for several years. 



It consists mainly of two movable parts, the trigger and the 

 door, both of which are comparatively easy to make and may be 

 fitted to any box of suitable size. The door is 8}4 inches high, 



{Courtesy Missouri Experiment Station) 



Fig. 116. — Home-made trap nest, simi- 

 lar to the Storrs' nest. 



