Gloucester County Democrat. (Woodbury, N.J.) 1878-1932, 1903-09-03
MAKING A LAYING STRAIN.

A Poultry Man Who Thinks 1t CHu
Be Done without the Trap Nest.
Suppose a poultry man wants to es-
tabiish laying strain without using
trap nests.
The first thing he will do will be to
introduce some new blood from the
pens of breeder of established reputa-
ton who has solved the problem of
large egg production. He will send
away for two cockerels to put with his
best hens. He will expect to pay for
them from So to S. apiece, and all that
he will demand of the breeder is that
he will send him sturdy, well grown
birds of typical shape and from an egg
producing strain. He will then mate up
each of these cockerels with twelve or
fifteen of his best yearling hens, with
the purpose of breeding from them in
the spring.
The man is now face to face with his
problem. There are in the two pens, let
us say, some hens that will lay only
fifty eggs a year and others that will
lay $50 Without the trap nest how is
he to tell which hens to breed from and
which not? Easy enough. All he has
to do is to make such a careful study
of the eggs that are laid In each pen
that he can tell at glance which pen
an egg comes from and whether 1t will
do for him to set it or not In other
words, he must watch the eggs instead
of the hens and use in incubation only
those eggs that he is convinced come
from prolific layers. If an egg of q
certain type makes its appearance
about Thanksgiving and Is followed all
through the winter by eggs of the
same type it does not take very gi-
gantic intellect to reach the conclusion
that dt would be a good idea to use
these eggs in incubation.
1t is surprising what difference
there is In eggs of hens of the same
breed kept under the same conditions.
They differ In size, shape, color, mark
ings. smoothness or roughness Of she'll
and in other ways too numerous to
mention. There is the most difference,
of course, among the so called Drown
eggs" but even in white eggs there are
distinctions.
Let me illustrate from the pens with
which am most familiar have four
breeding pens, each containing a male
and twelve females, which designate,
respectively. pens A. B. c and D.
have made such study of the eggs
that l can tell at a glance from what
pen an egg came and whether 1t is APP
pearing with sufficient frequency to
warrant me to use 1t or not
Pen A is made of twelve white Wy
andotte hens mated with sturdy
cockerel 1t would naturally be sup
posed that the eggs would all look
alike, but they do not, at least not to
me. Each egg has its distinct and
characteristic physiognomy. markings
recognize the moment l see them.
There is large brown egg big enough
and symmetrical enough to be placed
on exhibition in the poultry and eggs
department at the Boston show. There
is large white egg, not quite so sym
metrical, with curious blotchings at the
big end, as if the lime Of which the
shell Is composed needed sandpapering
down; an egg which looks like field
spar, it is so smooth and glistening;
pink egg with little white patches on
1t, as If it had been rolled In -four be-
fore it was dry; straw colored egg.
with little polka dots on the shell;
dark brown egg which if looked at in
a strong light will show little black
points like pepper dust on the shell.
And SO might go on. But it is not
necessary. Not one of the twelve hens
In pen A but puts her hall mark on her
eggs.
Then. too, there is another way by
which l keep track Of the eggs. The
hen is a born conservative, a creature
of habit. the slave of system. If she
laid in certain nest yesterday she
means to lay there today, no matter
whether another ben is ahead Of her
or not.-Edgar Warren in American
Poultry Journal.