Breeding for Eggs 199 



important detail of poultry breeding, we will de- 

 vote our attention to that subject in the present 

 chapter. 



Trap Nests.— There is probably no detail of 

 poultry breeding so little iinderstood as the trap 

 nest. Most people, and this includes many who 

 deal extensively with poultry, believe that by the 

 use of the trap nest they can find the heavy layers 

 in their flock, select them to breed from, and thus 

 get a steady increase in egg-production. Nothing 

 can be further from the fact. 



We must know much more about a hen than her 

 capacity for laying eggs. A hen in the Maine 

 station laid ninety-eight eggs between November 

 loth and March ist. This was a very high record. 

 She was mated, and laid steadily through the 

 hatching season, but her eggs failed to hatch. 

 Only one puUet lived to grow up. This pullet 

 laid thirty-nine eggs in the winter, less than one 

 half the number her mother had laid. The next 

 year the mother was mated to another male. 

 Again she was able to produce only one pullet 

 worth keeping. Eleven eggs were laid by this 

 pullet, against the ninety-eight by her mother. 

 The pullet was mated, produced one healthy 



