The ranch. [volume] (Seattle, Wash.) 1902-1914, 1907-02-15
Necessity of the Trap Nest.

nest shall find place IN the poultry
raiser's equipment this season is be-
ing considered by great many at this
time, and every bit of information
that may aid in coming to a decision
is welcomed. The Ranch has in pre-
vious issues had considerable to say
regarding the matter, and once the
trap nest was fully described and illus
trated in our columns. We have Sc
cured from the American Poultry Jour-
nal a number of statements made by
different people regarding the utility
and necessity of the trap nest and
give the information below for the
benefit of our readers. 1t had been
our hope to have an illustration of the
trap nest used on the new Inglewood
poultry farm at Los Angeles, CAL, but
up to this writing the cuts have not
arrived. At the Inglewood farm every
hen is being scored for egg laying by
the trap nest system, and the propri-
etors find it an indispensable method
for determining which birds are the
best producers.
1t should be noted that the extracts
that follow are culled from a wide
field, indicating the general use of
Trap ucSIS ny IuS lOduln6 pOuiIiJ
raisers in the east, and we see no rea-
son why the Washington and Oregon
breeders should not follow their ex-
ample. AS Poultry Topics remarks,
There is no getting around the fact
that trap nests are going to be more
and more used as the fancy increases"
The use of trap nests, according to
the Farm Journal will pick out the
drones in the flock. Every poultry
keeper should have trap nests, If for
no other purpose than to find out
which are the working hens.
In the Poultry Keeper, M. K. Boyer
recently said: "The first year that we
used trap nests we discovered that
about one-fourth of our f1ocks were
not worth breeding from. The next
year we secured 20 per cent more
eggs with 25 per cent less hens-we
bred only from the cream" Thus,
you see, it is worth your while to adopt
some form of trap nest and know for
a certainty which hens lay enough
eggs to pay for their keep and which
birds produce your best young stock.
Then, again, the man who can adver-
tise a trap nest record for his pure
bred stock, which will show an aver
age production of more than $50 eggs
per year for each hen, will not be able
to fill his orders at SIS per setting of
eggs.
Let's have the opinions of those who
have had actual experience with the
use of the trap nest. Victor D. Can
aday says: Nothing will contribute
more to any breeders success than
I'm Of hrnn6in0 U0ln6
of his fowls, obtained by the use of
trap nests and pedigree system"
and J. M. Beecher, jr., while admitting
that trap nests and pedigree records
mean work, says the breeder who ex-
poets to improve his flock without
either of these in some form or in
some degree has a long, hard road be-
fore him. Quit guessing and study
your individuals.
Trap nests, according to w. G.
Cory, do not consume near the time
nor require the attention that some
people imagine, and he has found that
they more than pay for themselves by
giving him results which he would not
know how to obtain any other way,
though the cost in time and money
were twice as much. The time when
the rule of thumb and guess was good
enough has passed. What we should
have in these progressive days is ex-
act knowledge of what we are accom-.
plishing A flock of hens which will
produce an average of close to 200
eggs in a year for each individual in
it, which has been built up by trap
nest system, will bring it's owner as
much money as one which would win
in any show in the country. Our peo-
pie are practical fanciers and like to
get tangible results which they can
see in their bank accounts.