Jasper County Democrat, Volume 14, Number 79, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 13 January 1912 — TRAP NEST IS A MONEY MAKER [ARTICLE]

TRAP NEST IS A MONEY MAKER

Keeps Records of Hens and Helps Eliminate "Star Boarders” ~■ Conserves Valuable Breeders. s ; The conversion of a flock that barely pays for the feed it eats into one which will lift the mortgage from the home farm is largely a matter of elimination of the “star boarder,” and the conservation of the 200-egg-a-year hens. Those who have made special study of this subject are firm believers in the trap 1 nest. To discover the best egg producers one must use the trap nest, or some method of keeping a record of eggs laid by individual hens. The trap nest is about the best thing that has been discovered in the poultry business.

There will be but slow Improvement in breeding without an egg record for each hen in the flock. The objection to the trap nest is that it requires too much labor for the farmer., That is true in the majority of cases. Not many farmers can give the necessary time. It is here that the state or experiment station should and can be a great aid. There should be a breeding station or several in every state, where the farmers and poultry raisers ll could secure at a fair price cockerels of good egg-laying pedigree to mate with their flocks,. It would not take so very long to furnish those farmers who had improvement of their flocks in view with a male bird whose an-, cestry for two generations had an egg record of 150 eggs a year or more. It is the hen of vigor that lays; without constitutional vitality she will not lay. That is undoubtedly true. A hen may have egg-laying capacity, but without vigor she will not produce eggs. On the other hand, the hen may have vigor without egg-laying capacity. She may have constitutional vitality and lay less than 20 eggs a year. The point is that by selecting vigor alone will not make rapid progress in breeding up a strain of heavy layers. Although vigor is one of the main things, we must select both vigor and egg capacity. The trap nest enables us to do this. The hen that lays 200 eggs a year has good vitality, so that a good egg record is an indication of high vitality. It is possible that the 200-egg hen will not produce chicks of good vigor. It is also possible that her eggs may not be fertile. This is also possible in the poor layer. It is also possible that heavy laying may injure her breeding qualities. That is a debatable point, but the fact remains that the hen that lays 150 eggs or more a year has good vitality, and it is such hens that one must depend upon to Increase egg production and make poultry keeping more profitable.

A high egg record indicates constitutional vitality and stamina. The trap nest, therefore, selects for vigor as well as egg-laying capacity. If each state would take hold of this in a practical way, without doubt in a few years it would add millions of dollars to the profits of poultry keepers, and at the same time help solve the nation’s food supply.